Bush Making Final Prepartions For Attack On Iraq
by DEBKAfile
16 June 2002
"The Middle East statement/ communiqué/ address US President George W. Bush has promised this week has put the region on high suspense. Most of its prominent leaders have crossed the Atlantic to make sure of a word in the presidents ear in good time. The Palestinians have registered their basic demand for a Palestinian state in two years, even though their sponsor, Saudi foreign minister Saud al Faisal, who was the last White House visitor from the region, was more modest, demanding only a Palestinian homeland.
In the view of DEBKAfile s political sources, the principal goal of the
Bush statement will not be solving the Palestinian issue, but generating the
best possible circumstances for the coming US offensive against Iraq.
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, during his visit last April to the presidential
ranch in Crawford, Texas, set out the oil kingdoms price for backing the
American offensive: Washington must show the Arab world a more balanced
approach on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.
This proposition kindled hopes in sections of the Bush administration, principally
secretary of state Colin Powell, that Riyadh was not a lost case. Making Israel
pay the price does not appear extortionate in those circles and might even win
the Europeans round to at least token participation in the campaign against
Saddam Hussein.
At the same time, none of the parties is under any illusion that this trade-off
can be anything but short lived, if not illusory. They are going through the
motions in order to get the strike against Iraq moving. Even if Bush promises
to force Israel to accept a Palestinian state within six months and evacuate
every last settlement in three, they all know that Yasser Arafat will never
turn away from terrorism to the end of his days, especially the suicide variety
which he proudly regards as the apex of his achievement in the Muslim context.
All the parties are equally aware that for the US president a terrorist is a
terrorist and not to be tolerated.
Therefore, the White House team will attempt the impossible, to draft a statement
that suffices to win Saudi Arabia and Egypt round to supporting Americas
war on Iraq a doubtful prospect - as well satisfying Europe which
is just as dubious. The European Union as a bloc has finally decided that it
does not like George Bush. This does not stop Eurocrats saying all the things
Washington wants to hear, while at the same time sabotaging its policies.
On Saturday, June 15, for example, Europe added to its black list of terrorist
organizations the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an arm of Arafats Fatah, the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian, whose leader is held in Jericho
for ordering the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister, and the Palestine
Liberation Front. Hardly 24 hours went by before Europe announced the resumption
of its $15 million subsidy to the Palestinian Authority with more to
come, after Israel failed to convince their representatives of Arafats
direct implication in Palestinian terrorism. The flow of funds was interrupted
when Washington protested Europes overt funding of the Palestinian suicide
campaign against Israeli civilians.
Once again, the European taxpayer will be financing Arafats suicide brigades.
Israel is unlikely to be better satisfied than the Arabs and the Europeans.
Prime minister Ariel Sharon would prefer no statement at all, but whatever Bush
says, he will present it as a feat of his governments diplomacy.
The US President will most probably set his sights on the lowest common denominator
for Arab- European-Israeli-Palestinian consensus in order to propel the Middle
East into a new era. He will not be the first US leader to aim for this goal
and fail. Saddam Hussein, Bashar Assad, Yasser Arafat and Hasan Nasrallah will
unleash the flames of terror and violence to make sure he does, however forthcoming
he may be.
Five years ago, President Clinton made the grand gesture of appearing before
the Palestinian National Council in the Gaza Strip and emotionally announcing
US support for an independent Palestine. This solemn occasion, termed at the
time as the greatest Palestinian political achievement, has long been drowned
out by wave upon wave of terror and suicide killings that Arafat orchestrated
in the interim. The Palestinian leader cares nothing for US presidential utterances;
nothing can turn him away from the path of violence and bloodshed as long as
he is convinced that this is the only way to vanquish and obliterate Israel."