Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Scowcroft on Gaza Disengagement: "Terrible news" -
Bush "wrapped around the little finger" of Israel's PM Ariel Sharon

Former National Security Adviser to Ford and George H.W. Bush and mentor to Condoleeza Rice, Brent Scowcroft talks of his last meeting with Rice:

"We were having dinner just when Sharon said he was going to pull out of Gaza," at the end of 2003. "She said, 'At least there's some good news,' and I said, 'That's terrible news.' She said, 'What do you mean?' And I said that for Sharon this is not the first move, this is the last move. He's getting out of Gaza because he can't sustain eight thousand settlers with half his Army protecting them. Then, when he's out, he will have an Israel that he can control and a Palestinian state atomized enough that it can't be a problem." Scowcroft added, "We had a terrible fight on that."

Unlike the current Bush Administration, which is unambiguously pro-Israel, Scowcroft, James Baker, and others associated with the elder George Bush believe that Israel's settlement policies arouse Arab anger.... article

Even more shockingly, Republican elder statesman, Gen Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to Bush's father, accused Bush Jr. of being "wrapped around the little finger" of Israel's PM Ariel Sharon.

Scowcroft has finally said aloud what no one in official Washington or the media dared to utter. His accusation helps explain much about the Bush AdministrationÍs foreign policies and why they seem so often to damage rather than promote US interests. article

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Abbas and the Lame Duck

The long campaign for the elimination of [Palestinian President] Mahmoud Abbas is entering its final phase.

Much to the regret of Sharon & Co., Abbas cannot be "eliminated" the usual way, as were Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and many other Palestinian leaders. In the case of Abbas, it is not even allowed to use the word "elimination" - an official term of the Israeli army, taken straight from the Mafia lexicon. more

Children living under occupation - how do they cope?

"I want to tell the world that we are living in hard conditions under Israeli occupation... the schools are closed and pupils had to stay at home. We can't study and if we want to, the explosions that are often heard, the bombing, the noise of tanks prevent us to do so." more