Democratic Palestine : 40 (ص 28)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 40 (ص 28)
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The Gulf crisis provides a condu-
cive atmosphere for enhancing joint
US-Israeli military planning in the con-
text of the two states’ strategic
alliance. The most recent product of
this alliance was the August 9th testing
of the US-financed, Israeli-developed
Arrow missile, in the aftermath of the
visit to Israel by Colin Powell, chair-
man of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In the midst of the current anti-
Iraqi hysteria, it is not to be forgotten
that Israel remains the foremost milit-
ary power in the region and the sole
possessor of a nuclear weapons arse-
nal. One cannot rule out a new Israeli
aggression, which would reaffirm
Israel’s value as the US’s strategic
asset in the region.
US calculations
The US has judged that the time
is ripe to reassert its global leadership,
and gain broader acceptance of its
using military facilities in both Europe
and the Middle East as staging posts
for intervention. The UN _ Security
Council’s imposition of sanctions
against Iraq marked the first major
issue on which Eastern and Western
Europe have united; only Cuba and
Yemen abstained. Bolstered by such
international consensus, the US pro-
ceeded to translate the sanctions into a
total economic blockade of Iraq with
Britain and Australia joining in the
patrols to enforce the blockade. Again
the doulbe standard being applied to
Iraq is apparent, since the US and Bri-
tain resisted imposing sanctions against
apartheid South Africa for decades,
and never dreamed of such drastic
measures to enforce them.
UN Secretary-General de Cuellar
declared the blockade illegal in the
absence of a new UN resolution allow-
ing for such action, and Europe
appeared divided on the issue of how
to enforce the sanctions against Iraq.
But these hesitations proved insuffi-
cient to influence the US to ease its
confrontational course. On the con-
trary, While continuously consulting
with its European allies and the Soviet
Union, the US’s main political activity
has been bullying other states to toe
the line. The most obvious case is the
US bullying Jordan into cutting all
trade with Iraq, even. though Jordan’s
crisis-ridden economy is highly depen-
dent on such trade. As well, King Hus-
sein is perhaps the US’s only possible
go-between if it wanted to head off the
confrontation with Iraq. On August
25th, the UN Security Council adopted
resolution 665, authorizing whatever
28
Can he strangle Iraq?
steps are necessary to stop and search
all ships travelling to and from Iraq;
again only Yemen and Cuba abstained.
With this resolution, the US, Britain
and others have a green light to imple-
ment the blockade with military force,
thus possibly igniting a war.
The US strategy seems to be
based on the possibility of isolating
Iraq physically and economically to the
point of strangulation, hoping this
would lead to an internal collapse
which would then result in toppling
Saddam Hussein. Bush has issued a
secret directive to the CIA _ on
destabilizing Iraq, but is at the same
time pursuing a course of provoking
direct military confrontation. So far,
however, the Iraqis seem determined
not to respond militarily to US provo-
cations, such as US planes locking their
weapons systems onto Iraqi planes and
the August 20th firing on two Iraqi tan-
kers. If the strangulation policy does
not work, it is obvious that the US is
ready for an all-out conflict with a pre-
prepared plan for blanket bombing of
Iraqi economic and military installa-
tions. According to a report by the US
television network ABC, the Bush
Administration is not ruling out the
use of nuclear weapons against Iraq.
Divide and rule
Especially with the decision to call
up reservists, the American troops,
whose numbers may reach a quarter of
a million, appear to be digging in for a
long stay. In its crusade to exert direct
control over Arab oil, the US has
obtained official invitations to establish
a military presence in Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates - two
countries that were loath to openly
approve this before; the US already
enjoyed such rights in Bahrain. Having
preempted the prospects of an Arab
solution by sending troops before the
Arab League met, the US has suc-
ceeded in dividing the official Arab
ranks, with some states sending troops
to Saudi Arabia under US leadership.
In fact, the pro-US Arab regimes only
used the summit to give an Arab cover
to the US intervention. Chairing the
meeting, Egyptian President Mubarak
refused to entertain several reasonable
proposals, including one forwarded: by
PLO Chairman Arafat, for finding an
Arab political solution to the crisis.
Playing on its long-standing alliance
with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco,
etc. on the one hand, and the intensity
of inter-Arab contradictions on the
other, the Bush Administration has
broken up the former bloc of anti-
imperialist states. It 1s also working to
reverse Iran’s anti-US stance and draw
Turkey more closely into US military
strategy in the Middle East, beyond
NATO?’s traditional sphere of involve-
ment.
Obviously, the greater political
clout which the US expects to gain in
this realignment will be reasserted to
resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict to US-
Zionist interests. The Palestinians will
be the greatest losers in this scenario.
With the US previously having sus-
pended its dialogue with the PLO,
Saudi Arabia and Egypt are now advis-
ing Western Europe to drop the PLO
as well, punishing the Palestinian
people because their representative did
not side with US imperialism and the
oil kingdoms in this crisis. These same
oil kingdoms have cut all financial aid
to the PLO and occupied Palestine.
As seen from the Middle East
On the other hand, the US inter-
vention has unleashed an overwhelm-
ing mass sentiment not witnessed in
the area for over a decade. There have
been huge demonstrations in a number
of Arab countries, condemning the US
military build-up and the compliance
of some Arab states with the US plans.
Having dealt with the main issue
at hand - blatant US intervention in
pursuit of hegemonic goals, let us view
the current crisis in the Arab context.
Iraq claims Kuwait as part of its
territory, and indeed the existence of
various tiny emirates, posing as mod-
ern states, is the result of colonialism’s
divide-and-rule policy. In the Gulf,
Britain originated this pattern, and the
US later moved in to maintain the
status quo, keeping the oil in the
Democratic Palestine, July-August 1990 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 40
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