The Road Map is not a compromise between Palestinians and Jews, but between Jews and Jews, none of whom lives in the Middle East, namely, between Jewish liberals of New York and Jewish neo-cons of Washington. Both groups are devoted to preservation and prosperity of the Jewish State, but they disagree on strategy: while neo-cons such as Perle would exterminate and evaporate its enemies a la Joshua bin Nun, Tom Friedman and other liberals think the goyim could be safely jailed in security of Gaza strip guarded by NATO soldiers. Now, these two groups reached a compromise for following reasons. The active stage of the American conquest of Iraq is over, but the US army bleeds in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before replacing American soldiers in the conquered lands by French, Indian and other conscripts, in order to free them for the next stage, the assault on Iran, it needs to show the world that the war was not just an ugly imperial enterprise done in the interests of the Zionists. Whence the Road Map was ushered in
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The two Jewish schools of the US are wonderful in providing drama. Though the real difference between the twain is tiny, they obscure it by boisterous philippics. Like seasoned shopkeeper bemoans ill luck that forces him to part with a treasured item at a rock-bottom price, and encourages an innocent buyer to enter the deal, the hard-core Zionists bewailed 'the Auschwitz borders' of the Road Map. Some friends of Palestine, mainly the believers in two-states' solution saw the distrait Jews and took the bait. They hastily concluded that the Road Map is good and fair for Palestinians.
'The Zionists are hysterically frightened of this unflinching Texan cowboy', - wrote Jack Graham, the lawyer, 'He will show us the independence of the American mindset! Peace is nigh!' Always ready to jump the gun, Ali Abunimah proclaimed (in a piece called Who's afraid of the Road Map? ) "Israel's supporters are in full panic by even the appearance of minimal fairness and reciprocity contained in the plan'.
Alas, nobody was afraid of the Road Map. Abunimah et al repeated the error of the youthful bride of prince de Bauffremont, a notorious sodomite in a delightful if risque story by Marquis de Sade. The Prince was to be married to the chaste and innocent girl, whose mother was well aware of her future son-in-law preferences.
- My daughter, she said, reject the first proposition of your husband. Tell him firmly, any other way but that one! (Ma fille, mefiez-vous des premieres propositions que vous fera votre mari, et dites-lui fermement : Non, monsieur, ce n'est point par la qu'une honnete femme se prend, partout ailleurs autant qu'il vous plaira, mais pour la, non certainement...)
However, the Prince has decided to kick the anal habit and to approach his young bride in the conventional fashion. He was quite astonished and pleasantly so, when the lady rejected his initial advance and steered him towards the valleys he preferred anyway, tells us the Marquis in the story aptly entitled L'EPOUX COMPLAISANT.
Probably the President Bush was equally surprised by the unexpected support of the Road Map coming from supporters of Palestinian cause. They were supposed to reject it out of hand for it was indeed the plan fit for Marquis de Sade. Like the young bride, they were conditioned to approve whatever is disproved by the unwelcome partner, and thus fell into the trap. The two-staters among them are so hell-bent for action like public school boys on their first cross-Channel trip, that they are ripe for any trap.
Indeed, the Road Map would be awful if it ever worked, and the conditions imposed by Sharon's government made it pathetic. It was aptly described and justly condemned by our colleagues Jeff Blankfort , Ran HaCohen and Kathleen Christison in Counterpunch, by Edward Said, Uri Avnery and Jennifer Loewenstein and others. The 14 conditions of Israeli government nixed whatever positive element the Road Map may contain. At best, the process would produce a few fenced reservations for natives called 'Palestinian State'.
Does this mean that we, the advocates of humanity, should fight the Road Map, as some friends suggest? Well, like Don Quixote, we could of course charge forth and fight windmills. But another risque joke tells of a man in an advanced stage of venereal disease whose physician informs him that his member has to be cut off. In panic and despair, he rushes from one specialist to the next, until the most eminent of them all reassures him that no surgery is needed: his diseased member has already fallen off.
In other words, there is no reason to fight this fictitious peace plan, for it will naturally disappear the way of Jaring, Zinni, Saudi and other Plans all by itself. Sharon's missile attacks on defenceless Gaza, the farcical 'dismantling' of settlements before the final decision to beef them up prove that Israeli leaders had no slightest intention to honour even its modest framework. Ahmed Bouzid, this fine analyst of Philadelphia, correctly sums it up: 'Anyone who has followed this conflict and has a minimum sense of history can only view the latest declarations from the Israeli government as nothing more than a stalling tactic. '
Indeed, why should Zionists accept the plan, or any peace plan? They are 'King-of-the-Mountain'; the only other regional power of importance, Iraq, was reduced by brave Jessica Lynch and her fellows-in-arms; while Teheran waits for its turn. It is rumoured that General Garner gave up his position in Baghdad for he was promised the vice-regency of France when it will be taken over. President Bush again looks a willing plaything responding to Zionist remote control.
There is no slightest chance for any solution in Palestine, but the solution of equality, of unified citizenship and full integration of all dwellers of Palestine. The two-states' supporters fool nobody but themselves. To make matters worse, there is no chance for this solution until some degree of equality will come into the American discourse. Why, indeed, the media discusses this non-existent Road Map? It is further evidence of the malady called the misbalance of discourse. The recent acts of terror in Gaza and Jerusalem served a reminder to doubters. While death of innocent civilians in Gaza was hardly mentioned in what American papers had described as 'violence', it was stressed next day when 'violence' visited West Jerusalem. This anomaly joined other numerous anomalies, from unbelievably high 80 per cent of all American foreign aid going to Israel, to the disproportionate space media devotes to Jewish issues from the holocaust to Cabala. Altogether it amounts to a unique phenomenon.
We grieve over the Palestinian tragedy, but we should also regret the American tragedy, for these sturdy people, once renowned for their free speech and rugged individualism, would probably lose out to geese in a contest for independent thinking. Just recently the Americans were extremely angry at President Clinton. It was not because he had an extramarital affair, the Americans said, but for lying. We can forgive everything but a lie. Not only the newspapers attacked him for his rather innocent lie, but the Congress tried to impeach him for this reason.
Twenty years ago, President Nixon was practically skinned and lynched for the same offence: he lied, called the media, he lied, repeated the Americans, and he had to resign. But now, President Bush lied - and his lie was not a small and sordid thing, but the huge lie of Iraqi WMD. Well, who cares, says nonchalant Wolfowitz, and Tom Friedman repeats, yes, who gives a damn indeed, is not "the real story we should be concerned with. " Amen, said the Americans, we've already forgotten he ever mentioned WMD. It appears the American Jews decide not only who is an antisemite (one who calls for equality of a Jew and non-Jew) but who is a liar, too.
I do not fret over American moral principles, but their total unquestioning submission to manipulation, their readiness to sincerely repeat whatever they are told, amounts to demonic possession. Like in Haitian lore, they were turned into a Zombie by a sinister Warlock, the Masters of Discourse. Our few wonderful friends in the US look more and more like Soviet dissidents of old, with one major difference. The dissidents had full support of the West, while the American dissidents of the present day stand alone.
Now, we all tend to play the game, and even Cassandra found it difficult to grieve the introduction of the wooden horse into the walls of Troy when everybody else rejoiced at the Danaian splendid gift. But in America, conformism exceeds all bounds of reason. What is worse, this imbalance does not want to stay overseas but it is spilling over into Europe. The American totalitarian media lords are buying into European communications. The billionaire Haim Saban, an Israeli-American Jew, is buying KirchMedia, Germany's largest TV broadcaster. He is also the largest single contributor to the US political parties, and a great supporter of Israel - to such an extent that University of California denied him security clearance . One can imagine what sort of programs his TV will broadcast. This attempt to hijack the mindset of Europe should be checked, and the spoiled goods of America - from genetically engineered meat to soap operas to 'news' - stopped from entering Europe.
France is the key bulwark of the dam that stems the American tide. If President Jacques Chirac had not stuck to his principled position, Germany's Erhard Schroeder and Russia's Vladimir Putin would not dared raise objections to the American attack on defenceless Iraq. You may be proud of your leaders, and give them your support. France needs unity, and no issue unites opponents of the Empire like the issue of Palestine. Let it be the bond of unity between native and adoptive French people.
France is the shining star in the constellation of Europe. Let this wonderful country of small winding roads, vineyards and farms, great cathedrals and parish churches, but also of modern industry and communications, of friendly and thoughtful people, be its guiding star as well. France is important to Eastern Europe, for the EU membership should bring its people respite from their present pro-American and pro-Zionist Soros-trained leadership. France is important for Russia, its traditional ally, so the Russians would shake off the vestiges of the CIA-installed Yeltsin's regime.
France is important for the Middle East, but she is even more important to the US. This country can't stand up alone against the Empire, nor should we push for confrontation. Let France set an example for the good Americans to emulate, like it did in the early days of the Republic. The more privileged Americans realise this. In a small Champenois village I ran across a frequent visitor, a Mr Cohen of the New York Times. Weekdays he stays in Manhattan, eats freedom fries with gefilte fish, and calls to punish treacherous France, but on weekends he flies here to enjoy a taste of true civilisation. At heart, he knows: the American Empire under its Texan executives and Jewish media barons is an extremely uncomfortable affair even for its adepts; almost as uncomfortable as the Middle Eastern Jewish state.
For after all, in civilised France Marquis de Sade was sent to a psychiatric asylum, and was not asked to draw up Road Maps.
