Bush hails Israelis as ‘chosen people’ but ignores Palestinians on
‘catastrophe’ day
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Friday, 16 May 2008
President George Bush lavished anniversary praise on Israel yesterday, as
Palestinians
commemorated the "****ba" or "catastrophe" when 700,000 were forced from or
fled their homes 60
years ago.
In a special address to the Israeli Knesset, Mr Bush declared that the US
was proud to be the
"closest ally and best friend in the world" of a nation that was a
"homeland for the chosen
people" and had "worked tirelessly for peace and... fought valiantly for
freedom."
And in a speech that linked together Hamas, Hizbollah and al-Qa'ida, the
President likened
those – including "good and decent" people – who urged negotiations with
"terrorists and
radicals", with sup****ters of appeasing the Nazis before the Second World
War.
On Iran, Mr Bush said that permitting "the world's leading sponsor of
terror" to possess "the
world's deadliest weapon" would be "an unforgiveable betrayal of future
generations".
Mr Bush's speech was notable for only one reference to Palestinian
aspirations for a state. He
did not allude to the current negotiations between the Israeli Prime
Minister, Ehud Olmert, and
the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, on the outlines of two-state
solution that he himself
helped to kick-start at the Annapolis conference last year.
Instead, his only mention was in a passage envisaging Israel's 120th
anniversary – 60 years
hence – in which Palestinians would have "the homeland they have long
dreamed of and deserved –
a democratic state that is governed by law." By that time, he prophesied,
the Middle East would
consist of "free and independent societies", and Hamas, Hizbollah and
al-Qa'ida would have been
defeated "as Muslims across the region recognise the emptiness of the
terrorists' vision and
the injustice of their cause".
Nor did Mr Bush make even an oblique reference to the fact that he was
delivering his speech on
the day that Palestinians annually commemorate the "****ba" in the 1948 war
that left a
victorious Israel in control of 78 per cent of mandatory Palestine.
As sirens sounded and thousands of black balloons were released across the
West Bank, several
thousand Palestinians gathered in Ramallah's main Manara Square to hear a
taped address by Mr
Abbas urging reconciliation and an end to Israeli settlement building in
the West Bank to
facilitate negotiations on a future state. "Sixty years have passed," he
said. "It's time to
end the ****ba for the Palestinian people."
But a ****ba day message from Hamas, which controls Gaza, called on
Palestinians to continue
"resistance" and urged the Palestinian President to "abandon the illusion
of negotiations."
At least one Palestinian youth was injured in Gaza after several dozen
teenagers broke away at
the end of a Hamas-organised protest near the northern Erez crossing. As
youths threw stones,
Israeli forces fired live rounds and tear gas.
Three Arab Knesset members were led away before the President's speech by
security guards after
unfurling a banner saying "We shall overcome."
Mr Bush repeated the symbolic oath traditionally uttered by Israeli
soldiers at Masada, the
fortress where 960 Jews in the first century rebellion against Roman rule
committed suicide
rather than surrender, and which he had visited yesterday: "Masada shall
never fall again". He
added to a standing ovation: "And America will be at your side."
But his speech did not mention the occupation of Palestinian territory
since the 1967 war or
restate US and international stances critical of Israel – such as demands
for settlement
outposts to be removed or for expansion of settlements to be halted. Nor
did he mention that
those calling for some engagement with Hamas include some former Israeli
military and
intelligence figures.
Mr Olmert told parliamentarians that he was confident that a peace
agreement would "be approved
in the Knesset by a large majority and... sup****ted by the vast majority
of the Israeli public".
* Reuters news agency renewed its demand yesterday for a prompt
explanation of why the Israeli
military in Gaza fired on one of its cameramen, Fadel Shana, who was
killed a month ago today.
http://www.independent.co.uk
|
