NASEER ARURI
http://www.tari.org
Author of the books “Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine” and “The Obstruction of Peace,” Aruri is president of the Trans-Arab Research Institute and chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
He said today:
“In his press conference last night, President Bush used a ‘master key’ approach to most questions, reiterating the same passionate statements expressing his world view no matter what real concerns these questions raised. Thus, the standard answer — to questions about the Vietnam analogy, weapons of mass destruction, the mounting toll of casualties, U.S. ability to assure security, Bush’s willingness to accept responsibility — was a panacea he called freedom, which he repeated dozens of times.
Instead of offering a policy, which can be scrutinized, re-examined, modified, he offered a messianic vision. His mission is to ‘change the world,’ so that other less fortunate people, particularly the ‘uncivilized,’ would enjoy the freedoms that we have been blessed with by the Almighty; and he, as president, has been endowed with that mission, which also mandated fighting terrorism everywhere, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in Madrid and Jerusalem.
Such words seem to be taken right out of Ariel Sharon’s script, who expects Bush today to give a carte blanche for a permanent occupation in Palestine…. Bush’s strategy is based on using the rubric of democracy and reform as an instrument of control as well as an impediment to obstruct a political settlement of the Palestine-Israel conflict based on the global consensus — ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Conditioning a political settlement on Palestinian reforms, by the U.S. and Israel, has already assured a continuation of the diplomatic paralysis.”
[Referrer]