[Peace-discuss] The Hands of Esau

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

Avnery's suggestion that Olmert's speech indicated that it is "Olmert 
who decides policy, while Bush humbly accepts the Israeli diktat" has to 
be read with his comment below, that "not a word of what they said at 
the press conference had any connection with the truth."  Olmert is an 
“impostor” -- his 2006 war against Lebanon, e.g., waited on US approval 
(which the IDF had sought for years) and support.

Olmert, the client, wants to get the best deal he can because the Bush 
admin seems to want to outdo Clinton's last year in their own.  Each 
sought a compliant Palestinian jailer for the Palestinians.  But, where 
Clinton had to deal with the reluctant quisling Arafat, Bush has the 
more-dependent Abbas (and the US and Israel have purged Hamas' 
embarrassingly democratic resistance).  Thus Bush used language in the 
ME about a two-state solution that has not been heard from an American 
president -- that Israel was running an "occupation," that compensation 
must be paid, and (an explicit knock against the Clinton plan) that the 
Palestinian state could not be "Swiss cheese" -- there would be a 
"contiguous" Palestinian state (which was not part of Clinton's 
"generous offer"). No wonder "the hands of Esau are working feverishly."

Is the Bush administration at all serious?  (It doesn't matter too much 
what Bush himself thinks, or even if he was drunk at dinner with the 
Israeli cabinet, as Avnery implies.)  Avnery doesn't think so, but now 
that Cheney's influence seems to be on the wane -- in spite of frenzied 
attempts to to recoup it -- what Bush says formally is more important 
than what he says informally.  The US permanent government (what Avnery 
calls "the US intelligence community") seems to be reasserting its role, 
and they know that the continuing agony of the Palestinians is an 
irritant in a Middle East that Washington insists on controlling. 
(Having just read Tim Weiner's shocking if not unsympathetic account of 
the CIA, Legacy of Ashes, I'm reminded of what scum the permanent 
government is made up of.)  Having effectively won their war in Iraq, 
they want to continue their pacification project.  In a desert, "they 
make a desert, and call it peace."

It may not be coincidence that "ultra-rightist Minister Avigdor 
Liberman" resigned from the cabinet after Bush left. --CGE

========================
Morton K. Brussel wrote:

Relative to the discussion on the meaning of Bush's visit to Israel
and the West Bank, here's the view of the Israeli Uri Avnery.

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1200227323/

The Hands of Esau

12/01/08


WHICH OF the two men is the leader of the greatest power on earth and
which is the boss of a small client state?

A visitor from another planet, attending the press conference in
Jerusalem, would find it hard not to answer: Olmert is the president
of the great power, Bush is his vassal.

Olmert is taller. He talked endlessly, while Bush listened patiently.
While Olmert anointed Bush with flattery that would have made a
Byzantine emperor blush, it was quite clear that it is Olmert who
decides policy, while Bush humbly accepts the Israeli diktat. And
Bush's flattery of Olmert exceeded even Olmert's flattery of Bush.

Both, we learned, are "courageous". Both are "determined". Both have
a "vision". The word "vision", once reserved for prophets, starred in
every second sentence. (Bush could not know that in Israel, "vision"
has long become a jocular appellation for highfaluting speeches,
usually in combination with the word "Zionism".)

The President and the Prime Minister have something else in common:
not a word of what they said at the press conference had any
connection with the truth.

ONE OF the most moving dramas in the Bible tells about our old blind
forefather, Isaac, who wanted to bless his eldest son, Esau, a
reddish and hairy hunter. But the second son, the homebody (or rather
tent-body) Jacob, exploited the absence of his brother and went to
his father in order to steal the blessing. He wore Esau's clothes and
covered his arms with hairy goat skins. The ruse nearly failed, when
the father felt the arms of Jacob and his suspicion was aroused.

That's when he uttered the famous words: "The voice is Jacob's voice,
but the hands are the hands of Esau." (Genesis, 27: 22).

Yet Jacob, the impostor, did receive the blessing and became the
father of the nation which was named after him (he was also called
Israel). It seems that Ehud Olmert is a true successor: there is no
connection between his voice and his hands.

Anyone who listens to him - not just at the press conference, but
also on every other occasion - hears words of peace and reason: The
Palestinians must have a state of their own. The "vision" must be
realized while Bush is president, because Israel has never had and
never will have a truer friend. The settlement outposts must be
removed, as promised by us again and again. The settlements must be
frozen. Etc. etc.

That is the voice of Jacob. But the hands, well, they are the hands
of Esau.

BEFORE ANNAPOLIS, during Annapolis and after Annapolis, nothing at
all was done to promote the Two-State Solution. The negotiations were
about to begin - any moment now - a year ago, and now they are again
about to begin - any moment now. Yes, the "core issues" - borders,
Jerusalem, refugees - will be addressed. Sure. Any moment now.

But in the meantime, the hands of Esau are working feverishly. All
over the occupied territories, the settlements are being enlarged.
The existing outposts remain untouched, new ones spring up from time
to time. Around them, a well choreographed dance has evolved, a kind
of formal ballet executed by the settlers and the army. The settlers
set up a new outpost, the army removes it, the settlers return and
set it up again, the army dismantles, and so forth.

In the meantime the outpost gets bigger and bigger. The government
connects it to the electricity and water systems and builds a road.
And the army, of course, protects it day and night. We cannot leave
good Jews at the mercy of the evil Palestinian terrorists, can we?

Bush knows all this and still continues to blabber that "the illegal
outposts must be removed". And so it continues: the voice is Jacob's
voice, the hands are the hands of Esau.

BUT ONE cannot fool all of the people all of the time, to quote
another American President who was slightly more intelligent than the
present incumbent.

And so, after Olmert and Bush repeated the mantra about removing the
outposts and freezing the settlements, one of the journalists popped
an innocent question: How does this fit together with the
announcement about the building of a huge new housing project at Har
Homa?

If anyone thought that this would embarrass Olmert, he was sadly
mistaken. Olmert just cannot be embarrassed. He simply answered that
this promise does not apply to Jerusalem, nor to the "Jewish
population centers" beyond the Green Line.

"Jerusalem" - since the time of Levy Eshkol - is not only the Old
City and the Holy Basin. It is the huge tract of land annexed to
Israel after the Six-Day War, from the approaches to Bethlehem to the
outskirts of Ramallah. This area includes the hill that was once
forested and called Jebel Abu-Ghneim, now the site of the big and
ugly Har Homa settlement. And the "population centers" are the big
settlement blocs in the occupied Palestinian territories, which
President Bush so generously presented to Ariel Sharon.

This means that almost all the extensive building activities that are
now going on beyond the Green Line are not covered by the Israeli
undertaking to freeze the settlements. And while Olmert publicly
announced this, President Bush was standing at his side, smiling
foolishly and painting on another layer of compliments.

The following day, Bush visited Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and told
the shocked Palestinians that the innumerable Israeli roadblocks in
the West Bank, which turn the life of the Palestinians into hell, are
necessary for the protection of Israel and must remain where they are
- until after the establishment of the hoped-for democratic
Palestinian state.

Condoleezza Rice was quick to remind him in private that this was not
very wise, since he was about to visit half a dozen Arab countries.
So Bush hastened to call another press conference in Jerusalem,
talking about the "core issues": there would be a "contiguous"
Palestinian state, but the 1949 borders (the Green Line) would not be
restored. He would not speak about Jerusalem. Also, the refugee
problem would be settled by an international fund - meaning that none
at all would be allowed to return.

Altogether, much less than Bill Clinton's 2000 "parameters", and less
than most Israelis are already prepared to accept. It amounts to 110%
support for the official Israeli government line.

After that, Bush had dinner with Israeli cabinet ministers. He
cordially shook the hand of Minister Rafael Eitan, the former
spymaster who controlled the Israeli spy in Washington, Jonathan
Pollard, whom Bush refuses to pardon. (Eitan would be arrested the
moment he set foot on American soil.) He spoke cordially with the
ultra-rightist Minister Avigdor Liberman, urging him to support
Olmert. Throughout the dinner, he talked and talked, until Condi sent
him a discreet note suggesting that he shut up. Bush, in high
spirits, read the note out loud.

I HAVE mentioned more than once the British World War II poster which
was pasted up on the walls in Palestine: "Is this trip really
necessary?"

That is again the question now: Is this trip of Bush's really necessary?

The answer is: Of course. Necessary for Bush. Necessary for Olmert.
Necessary for Abbas, too.

For Bush, because he is a lame duck, in the last year of his term,
and therefore almost paralyzed. In the United States he is rapidly
becoming irrelevant. His touted Middle East tour has been drowned out
by the primary elections mayhem, which produces a new drama almost
every day. While Hillary wrestles with Obama and the glib Bill
competes with an impressive black grandma, who cares where the worst
president in American history is traipsing around?

Olmert is well aware of the situation. When he declares that the last
year of the term of his noble friend must be used, what he really
means to say is: he cannot exert any pressure on us, he cannot even
"nudge" us, as he promises. There is no need to remove even one
single outpost for him. So let us squeeze the last drop of juice out
of his presidency, before he is thrown onto the trash pile of history.

But Olmert needs the presence of Bush at his side, because his
position is not much more secure than Bush's. Bush is bankrupt in a
big way, after starting one of the most pointless and unsuccessful
wars in US history. That is true for Olmert in a small way. He is
bankrupt too, and he also started a pointless, failed war.

In two weeks time, the Winograd Commission will publish its final
report on Lebanon War II, and everyone expects it to come down on
Olmert like a 16 ton weight. He may survive, if only because there is
now no credible substitute. But he needs all the help he can get -
and what better help than the "Leader of the Free World" gazing at
him with liquid eyes?

It's the old story about the lame and the blind.

THIS WAS NOT Bush's last presidential visit to Israel. He has already
promised to return on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the
state, which falls this year (in accordance with the Hebrew calendar)
on May 8. What else can a president do in his last months in office,
except star in ceremonies with kings, presidents and prime ministers?

Perhaps he had intended to finish with a big bang, a historic climax
that would overshadow even his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq,
such as a grand attack on Iran. But it seems that the US intelligence
community, in a patriotic act that makes up for some of its earlier
sins, has prevented this by publishing its sensational report.

True, this week something happened that put on a warning light. Some
small Iranian boats were reported to have made a provocative gesture
against the powerful American warships in the Strait of Hormuz.

That takes us right back to 1964 and to what has become known as the
"Gulf of Tonkin incident". President Lyndon Johnson announced that
Vietnamese vessels had attacked American warships. That was a lie,
but it was enough for Congress to empower the president to widen the
war that killed millions of people (and buried Johnson's career).

But this time the red light went out quickly. The US Congress is not
what it was, it seems that the Americans have no stomach for another
war, the historical parallel was too obvious. Bush has been left
without an option for war. He has been left with nothing.

Apart from Olmert's flattery, of course.



Uri Avnery's Column
Sorry to get back to you so late: What I had in mind was Hedges' opinion
> that Bush's
> 
> …day is past. There is open revolt. Opinion polls show that
> two-thirds of Palestinians, and three-fourths of Israelis, do not
> believe Bush can affect events in the Palestinian territories.
> 
> The agenda of the Bush White House is exposed as irrelevant, myopic
> and counterproductive. Most Arab countries are in open defiance of 
> Washington and are actively reaching out to Iran.
> 
> Hedges says that Bush, now near the end of his term, is broadly 
> discredited, hated, and now only a disregarded cipher, even if still
>  able to wreak havoc. But I agree that, looking at who is likely to 
> succeed his ilk in government, there is little cause for optimism. 
> Still, if he and his policies truly are discredited, that can be a 
> positive sign.
> 
> Incidentally, the comments to Hedges' piece are a reason for optimism
> in that most of them see what's going on (even if they are a choir of
> like opinion.)
> 
> 
> On Jan 15, 2008, at 9:27 AM, John W. wrote:
> 
>> At 01:38 PM 1/14/2008, Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>> 
>>> Is Chris Hedges an optimist, a realist?  The article below should
>>> be read together with the comments that follow at Common Dreams:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/14/6354/
>> 
>> 
>> I read the article but not the comments.  I'm curious, Mort, what
>> you think an "optimist" is in this context.  Chris Hedges is
>> certainly correct in asserting that most of the world hates
>> America, and that the Bush II legacy will be one of incompetence
>> and shame and dishonor.  But somehow I find almost as little reason
>> for optimism in that as do the deceased whom Hedges mentions in the
>> final paragraph.
>> 
>> John Wason
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> / Published on Monday, January 14, 2008 by // _TruthDig.com_ 
>>> <http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080113_the_end_of_the_road_for_george_w_bush/>_
>>>  _/*T**he End of the Road for George W. Bush
>>> 
>>> by Chris Hedges
>>> 
>>> *The Gilbert and Sullivan charade of statesmanship played out by
>>>  George W. Bush and his enabler, Condoleezza Rice, as they wander
>>> the Middle East is a fitting end to seven years of misrule.
>>> Despots stripped of power are transformed from monsters into
>>> buffoons. And this is the metamorphosis that is eating away at
>>> the Bush presidency.
>>> 
>>> _ Bush stood in Jerusalem 
>>> <http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/732692,010908bush.article%20>_,
>>>  uncomfortable and palpably bored. He mouthed platitudes about a
>>> peace settlement that mocked the humanitarian crisis he aided and
>>> abetted in Gaza, the rapacious land grab by Israel in the West
>>> Bank and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The diminished George
>>> Bush, increasingly irrelevant at home and abroad, is fading into
>>>  insignificance. A year from now one half expects to see him
>>> stand up at the next president’s inauguration and screech “I’m
>>> melting! I’m melting!” as he sinks into a puddle of slime. He
>>> will return, I expect, to his ranch, where he will be able to
>>> spend the rest of his life doing the only task for which he has
>>> shown any aptitude-cutting down brush with a chain saw.
>>> 
>>> He may yet rise again to torment us with an attack on Iran, 
>>> condemning more innocents to slaughter. He and his cigar-smoking
>>> soul mate Ehud Olmert would like to go out with one more flash of
>>> mayhem and violence. But even this will not ultimately save him.
>>> Bush will soon be reduced to the cipher he once was, left to
>>> spend the rest of his life trying to salvage a legacy of shame
>>> and deceit. In a just world he would be put on trial, if not by
>>> the International Criminal Court of Justice then by the U.S.
>>> Congress. He would be forced to face up to his lies and wars of
>>> aggression. But the moral rot that infects the nation has seeped
>>> into the bowels of the legislative as well as the executive
>>> branch.
>>> 
>>> World leaders, including those whom Bush desperately wants to 
>>> intimidate, now dismiss him. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
>>>  Khamenei said a few days ago that relations with the United
>>> States are of “no benefit to the Iranian nation. The day such
>>> relations are of benefit, I will be the first one to approve of
>>> that.”
>>> 
>>> Bush will have flown from Israel to Palestine to Kuwait to
>>> Bahrain to the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia to Egypt in
>>> search of a legacy, one that he hopes will lift up his name in
>>> history. But, isolated and deluded, he has yet to grasp that he
>>> and the United States are reviled and detested for our violence,
>>> arrogance and greed. The bands played on the tarmac. He was
>>> toasted at state dinners. But even our allies, including Kuwait
>>> and Egypt, know Bush is a danger to himself and others.
>>> 
>>> He publicly displayed his inability to connect rhetoric with
>>> reality. He promised peace and cooperation, a new era, a
>>> Palestinian homeland. He promised solutions that will arise from
>>> negotiations that do not exist. Negotiations, in his eyes, are
>>> always about to begin. They were about to begin a year ago. They
>>> were about to begin with Annapolis. They are about to begin now.
>>> The messy issues between the Israelis and Palestinians that he
>>> and his administration have never attempted to address-the
>>> borders, the expanding Jewish settlements and outposts, the
>>> plight of Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem-will all be
>>> seamlessly solved … one day. But the brutal reality of the 
>>> Israeli occupation barrels forward. The Jewish settlements and 
>>> outposts continue to be expanded. The crisis in Gaza, with the
>>> cuts in fuel and electricity, the deadly army incursions and
>>> airstrikes, has turned the world’s largest walled prison into a
>>> swamp of human misery. And huge new settlements, like _Har Homa_
>>>  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Har_Homa%20>__, continue to rise
>>> up on Palestinian soil.
>>> 
>>> When Bush _met with the Palestinian leader _ 
>>> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7180354.stm%20>__Mahmoud
>>>  Abbas in Ramallah he blithely defended the patchwork of Israeli
>>>  roadblocks that have turned the West Bank into a series of
>>> ringed Palestinian ghettos. The roadblocks, he told Abbas, are
>>> necessary for Israeli security. He announced that the 1949 Green
>>> Line, the borders established by the United Nations, would never
>>> be restored. There would be no discussion, he said, of the status
>>> of Jerusalem. And the plight of Palestinian refugees would be
>>> solved by setting up an international fund, meaning, of course,
>>> that none would ever return. In short, he offered an unequivocal
>>> endorsement of right-wing Israeli policy with not a murmur of
>>> dissent. And the Palestinians can either have it rammed down
>>> their throat or rot. Bush will be back, he has promised, in May
>>> to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish
>>> state. Olmert, no doubt, will again be fulsome in his praise,
>>> which is probably what Bush’s trip to the Middle East is, at its
>>> core, really about. Bush desperately wants someone to pretend 
>>> with him that he is an agent for peace and statesmanship. Olmert,
>>> who knows the callow American leader will give him everything he
>>> desires, is happy to oblige.
>>> 
>>> But as Bush basks in the glow of his own fantasy, the suffering
>>> in Gaza, one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, along
>>> with the savage occupation of Iraq, continues to fuel widespread
>>> anger and rage. Bush has spent his time in office bolstering the
>>> Middle East’s most despotic regimes, including that of Gen.
>>> _Hosni Mubarak in Egypt_
>>> <http://www.antiwar.com/ips/mekay.php?articleid=9042%20>__. He 
>>> approved a $20-billion arms package for these states. He has
>>> backed efforts to crush mainstream Islamic groups that have
>>> electoral legitimacy and popular support. He has stood by as
>>> these regimes have stifled democratic dissent, and he has, with
>>> Israeli encouragement, isolated governments, even friendly
>>> governments, in the Middle East that raised feeble protests. But
>>> his day is past. There is open revolt. Opinion polls show that
>>> two-thirds of Palestinians, and three-fourths of Israelis, do not
>>> believe Bush can affect events in the Palestinian territories.
>>> 
>>> The agenda of the Bush White House is exposed as irrelevant,
>>> myopic and counterproductive. Most Arab countries are in open
>>> defiance of Washington and are actively reaching out to Iran.
>>> 
>>> “As long as they [Iran] have no nuclear program … why should we 
>>> isolate Iran? Why punish Iran now?” Arab League Secretary-General
>>>  _Abu Moussa told The Washington Post_ 
>>> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/06/AR2008010601574.html%20>__.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed 
>>> ElBaradei, is in Iran for talks. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 
>>> attended December’s Gulf Cooperation Council summit. The Iranian
>>>  president attended the just-completed /hajj/ 
>>> <http://www.religioustolerance.org/isla1.htm>// _ _ 
>>> <http://www.religioustolerance.org/isla1.htm>__in Mecca at the 
>>> invitation of the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah. Tehran is
>>> exploring the resumption of diplomatic ties with Egypt, cut since
>>> the 1979 revolution, and has offered to cooperate with Cairo in
>>> the production of nuclear energy. And the Syrian and Lebanese
>>> governments have ignored Washington’s warnings to sever ties with
>>> Hezbollah and Hamas.
>>> 
>>> It is the end of the road for George Bush. The world takes less
>>> and less notice of him. He strutted and swaggered across the
>>> stage. He bellowed and raged. He plundered and murdered. And now
>>> he wants to be anointed as a peacemaker. His presidency, like his
>>> life, has been a tragic waste. But he at least has a life. There
>>> are tens of thousands of mute graves in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and
>>> Afghanistan that stand as stark testaments to his true legacy. If
>>> he wants to redeem his time in office he should kneel before one
>>> and ask for forgiveness.
>>> 
>>> /Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was
>>> for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York
>>> Times, is the author of “// _American Fascists: The Christian
>>> Right and the War on America._ 
>>> <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743284437?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim>__“/
>>> 
> 
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