Everything You Always
Wanted To Know About the
This collection of
observations was compiled to help Jews and Arabs understand why the
A truly objective analysis of this subject, without the
baggage Jews and Arabs have been fed via their national leaderships, reveals
that the
We need to devise a solution
based on the actual cause for the continuation of the conflict, and not accept
solutions presented via the mainstream media.
The hatred between the two peoples doesnt come from the hearts of Middle Eastern Arabs and Jews; it is created and stoked from abroad. Arabs and Jews must see through the propaganda and understand that this conflict is being created for them. Every time it looks like it is coming to an end, foreigners breathe new life into it by insisting that they have a new peace initiative which they claim will bring peace. It never does.
The FEs intervention in the
affairs of the
.
Chapter One
The core and essence of
the
For more than 75 years, western diplomats have been coming up with peace initiatives to solve the Arab Israeli conflict. Yet they always fail. Why?
What keeps the
This is completely opposite to
the way most Jews and Arabs have been conditioned to look at the
situation. Jews focus on the damage
Arab/Palestinians cause, and believe that damage to be the cause of the
conflict, when it is really only a result of it. They view the conflict and its
origins from the bottom up. Arabs/Palestinians concentrate on the damage
To understand what really
causes the
To get a more accurate picture of what lies behind the continued existence of the conflict, lets acknowledge these five factors which serve to perpetuate rather than solve the problem:
1)
The vested interests of the Foreign Elite (FE):
There is a third entity in the conflict in addition to the Israelis and the
Arabs: the foreigners (in order of importance, the
2)
Control of
3)
Weapons sales: If there was a worldwide ban on
arms sales to the
4)
The mainstream media: If the mainstream media in
the West stopped reporting on the search for peace in the
5)
Corrupt national leadership of both sides: It isnt peace between Arabs and Jews that
interests the FE, but rather the continuation of the conflict. The way they do
that is by corrupting/controlling the national leaders of both sides. The
reason why legitimate, popular leaders are not at the helms of countries in the
Unless these five basic factors are understood, the true causes that extend the conflict will never be understood. Instead, each side will go on blaming the other seeking to take the high moral ground and convince their own people and those from abroad that they are right, and the other side is wrong. This will lead only to more death and destruction.
The technique is called divide and rule, and it has been a favorite of the FE for decades.
Why
Is There A
Let's deconstruct the conflict and look at all its parameters:
1) The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is how the pro-Arab camp refers to it. It claims Israel is oppressing the Palestinians and that, as a result, the entire Middle East remains unstable, and will continue to be unstable unless the Palestinians have their own state.
2) The Arab-Israeli
conflict is how
These conclusions are fed to the Arab and Israelis peoples so as to enable them each to take the high moral ground and focus their hatred on each other. And this in turn directs their attention away from their number one enemy: the foreigners.
By having the Arabs believe Israel is at fault for oppressing the Palestinians, while having Israelis believe the conflict exists because the Arabs fail to recognize the Jewish state or seek its destruction (i.e. support terrorism) the foreign interests succeed in hiding the bigger picture: what the foreigners are doing when it comes to controlling the Arab nations only natural resource, and how they are selling massive amount of weapons to the oil-producing regimes.
To keep up this fraud, the
foreign elements must control the national leaders of both peoples, and ensure
that the mainstream media dont stray too far from the cover stories:
Creating either a viable
Palestinian state or peace between Arabs and Jews is not the goal of the
foreigners. Whether stated publicly or not, their intention is to extend the
Taking
the high moral ground in the
The only way the foreigners can sustain the conflict is to have each side blame the other for its continuation. In this way neither side can discover the real causes, which are the oil and arms deals made between the rich oil states and the foreign powers. One aspect of the conflict serves as convenient camouflage for the other.
To keep this fraud in place, the
moral argument is employed to have the world focus on the morality of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In this way, everyone is forced to take a side.
The pro-Arab side claims
Thus any public discussion is
structured in such a way that the peoples in the region and those abroad are
forced to believe one sides claim or the other. The pro-Israel version is that the Arabs want
to destroy
In spite of all the vested foreign interests at work in the region, namely oil and arms, the entire discussion of the conflict centers on one of these two positions: either you are pro-Israel or pro-Arab.
This moralizing is the way the foreigners
control the debate so that the actual causes are never allowed to surface.
The Palestinians must learn they will never achieve anything through violence, says one group. The Palestinians deserve their own state, declares another
Yet with all this morality
flying around, nobody ever points a finger at the foreign countries or accuses
them of acting immorally by selling arms to
Instead, people around the globe are told what to believe regarding the reason for the continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as if their opinions and feelings are actually relevant to what is happening on the ground.
This long-distance exercise in
morality is what the media focus on when nothing much is happening in the
region, to point out how important peace in the
Why
the
Everyone in the world is morally
bound up with the Arab Israeli conflict. Yet can it be possible that the entire
conflict is based on the lack of morality of one side or the other? Can all
that has happened in the region over the past half century be the result of one
people not behaving nicely toward the other? What other regional conflicts are
defined in this way? What other regional conflicts continue for more than a
half a century, look like they are finally being solved, and then come roaring
back in the way the
Lets think for a moment, and ask: Do regional wars and conflicts continue for seven decades because one side isnt acting nicely toward the other? Is the conflicts existence merely due to the actions of each or both sides the 5 million Jews and the 4 million Arabs who simply dont like each other?
Can that really be the answer?
That is certainly the way the mainstream press and the academic world present it. Oil and arms sales are never part of the explanation. How could so many newspapers and TV stations miss out on this side of the regions affairs and focus solely on new peace initiatives?
One could argue, with justification, that the Israelis are not acting nicely toward the Palestinians that they oppress them, restrict their movements, blow up their houses, etc. But that alone still doesnt account for the continuation of the conflict. The Israelis are right when they argue that the Palestinian Authority is corrupt and the Palestinian leadership hasnt done enough to crack down on terrorism, but that too doesnt explain why this 75-year-old conflict is still with us.
And while it may even be true
that the Arabs dont recognize
So why has this conflict been going on for nearly a century?
Not only does the
What is special about the
One unique thing about the
Think of the annual budgets for
all the organizations whose sole purpose is to do
The
The pro-Israel camp has its lobbies, organizations, think tanks, magazines, support groups, Internet user groups, etc. which put out one simple message: The Arabs are wrong; were right. We are more morally upstanding than them. The pro-Arab camp has its lobbies, organizations, think tanks, magazines, support groups, and Internet user groups which put out one simple message: The Israelis are wrong; were right. We are more morally upstanding than them.
Both sides are basically saying the same thing to the other side: youre morally deficient, youre not acting nicely, and it is because of you that we dont have a solution.
What is incredible is that each side is right, and for the most part, each sides argument is valid. Each side does do terrible things to the other, and both are morally deficient. Yet that still doesnt account for the continued existence of the conflict.
Consider. The Arabs say: The media in
The media are responsible for
promoting this morality aspect. If a politician in the
Thousands of kilometers away, in
This is important because, before
we can look for a solution to the
Why should we support the establishment of a Palestinian state as a way to bring peace to the region if the lack of such a state is not the reason for the conflict? While it may be desirable to the Arabs to have a viable Palestinian state, and while the Palestinians certainly deserve their own national territory, we must ask ourselves: Does the conflict exist just because the Palestinians dont have their own state?
Perhaps all those on the pro-Arab side should think about what would happen if a Palestinian state is created, yet doesnt lead to prosperity and stability? The mere existence of a Palestinian state will not solve the regional conflict. Thus perhaps the absence of a Palestinian state is not the reason why peace does not exist today.
If the foreigners were truly
interested in peace, and believed the creation of a Palestinian state would
serve that goal, they would have forced
Compared to other regional
conflicts caused by wrongs committed by one side on the other, the continued
existence of the
Why does this problem never get solved?
Chapter Two
While
It is foolish to blame
So by blaming Sharon or the Likud party, the Arabs are
playing right into the hands of the foreigners. The foreigners want all
Arabs to focus their anger at
If Arabs want to know who their number one enemy is, they
have to go right back to the beginning, when the foreigners first started to
colonize the
If the role of the foreigners in the
Before making that decision, all Arabs, and especially the
Palestinians, should remember that from 1948-1967, Israel was responsible for
huge rises in the standard of living of the Israeli Arabs, just as it was with the West Bankers and Gazans from
1967-1992. Despite all the wrongs
The foreigners with all of their aid, peace plans,
initiatives, road maps and UN refugee agencies were never able to do that.
For 50 years the Palestinian refugee problem remained unsolved because the
foreign powers did not want it solved. Certainly
So who is the true friend of the Arabs of Palestine, and who portrays themselves as such but keep the tragedy going, year in, year out? With which religion do Arabs have more in common, Judaism or Christianity? Who is better equipped to help the Palestinians develop their economy, Israelis or the foreigners?
To solve the conflict, both Arabs and Jews must realize that they are not each others number one enemy, and that a third element is the reason the regional conflict continues. If we want to solve this seemingly never-ending human tragedy we must first understand where it comes from, and why it is still here. Then we can prescribe a remedy.
To get that ball rolling, the
Arabs must see that
The foreigners never get tough
with
When Arabs accept the argument
that we hate
Jews and Arabs must realize that
despite what foreign leaders say in public, the last thing they desire is peace
in the
The Arabs are not a threat
to the State of
For the entire history of the Arab-Israeli conflict the
Israeli public has been told two lies: that the Arabs in general and the
Palestinians in particular are a threat to the continued existence of the
Jewish state, and that the reason there is no peace in the region is because
the Arabs dont recognize
Why would any country call its own existence into question by insisting that its neighbors acknowledge that it exists?
What it really means is that if an Arab country does
acknowledge
The claim that the Arabs threaten
To dispel the notion that the Arabs are a threat to
So why should Israelis be afraid of Arab nations?
The only reason why Arab dictators are feared by the Israeli public is because the worlds media present these dictators as radicals and disturbers of regional peace when in fact their nations are helpless, powerless, poor and weak.
Why should Israel fear that Arab dictators like Saddam
Hussein could destroy or seriously harm the Jewish state when we know that all
the weapons and military technology Iraq
has acquired is from companies in the US, Britain, France, and Germany? If
Israelis were to fear for their security, they should point a finger at these
countries and accuse them of trying to destroy
But that isnt what the Israeli national leadership tells
its citizenry. It tells them Arabs want to destroy
Another falsehood presented by
And while the Palestinian Authority definitely promoted terrorism right from the start of the Oslo Accords, the terrorism never came anywhere near destroying the Jewish state.
Since the early 1980s,
Why do Israeli national leaders try to scare the Israeli
public into thinking the Arabs are a much bigger threat than they really are?
One of the enigmas about the Oslo Accords is why the Israeli
government agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to maintain armed security
forces, and why
As for the reasons why the second intifada broke out,
the mainstream press told us Arafat was pissed because at
That it could have been arranged (and thus didnt have to
happen) never enters into the debate. Nobody asks whether Arafat thought he
could really win a war against
Presto. The
Like most things that happen between Israelis and Arabs, anything the Israelis do will be held up by the Arab side as proof that Israel isnt serious about peace (i.e. they are morally flawed), and by the same token, anything the Palestinians/Arabs do is held up by Israel as proof that you see, the Arabs are not serious about peace (i.e. they are morally deficient). This is the basic configuration of the conflict. Each side blames the other while the real culprits remain in the shadows.
Back in the early 1990s the only way to keep the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict alive was to re-energize Arafat arm his
henchmen, and provide the PLO with a base of operations close to
Therefore it really makes no sense for Israelis to continue
to blame the Palestinians for the conflict not being solved, as neither Arafat
nor anyone else in the Palestinian Authority has any real political or economic
power. They arent pulling any of the worlds strings, so why concentrate on
whether Arafat does or does not really want to put an end to terrorism?
Whatever Arafat or any other Palestinian leader does or doesnt do will not
have any impact on whether the conflict remains alive. The Palestinians/Arabs
dont have the power required to keep the
The continued attempt to brainwash the Israeli public into
thinking that the Arabs are a threat to
Instead of rational explanations for why
The public was told that the American plan envisioned a
Palestinian state being created by 2005 (18 months from then) without any media
source presenting the alternative view that such a plan was unreasonable and
unlikely to take place. Instead of presenting the public with quality
information and analyses, the media served the foreign interests and the
The need to corrupt
Israelis dont hate
Arabs/Palestinians any more than Arab peoples hate Israelis. It is the national
leaders of both sides who tell their people to hate their neighbors. If
tomorrow both peoples woke up and found their national leaders had all suffered
heart attacks and died, peaceful relations would prevail.
In exchange for doing their part in keeping the Israeli public
focused on not trusting the Arabs, Israeli national leaders like Sharon and
Peres are kept in power, given enormous clout and reverence abroad and, if need
be, plenty of money to get re-elected (after every Israeli election the winning
candidate always faces a financial scandal, yet the investigations are always
dropped by the Attorney General for lack of evidence). The two aging leaders,
Sharon and Peres, keep Israeli society fixated on the Left versus Right
argument as to how
If you are a leftist in
This exercise in creating erroneous public perceptions allows the
Israeli public to focus on two simple ideologies. What this does is keep them
ignorant of all other facets of the Arab-Israeli conflict including how the foreigners interfere and corrupt both sides leaders.
The reason why the Israeli public has such a low opinion of
If you are a foreigner you dont use money to corrupt Israeli
leaders; you merely promise them that you will help them stay in power. Thus
corrupt Israeli leaders such as
Israeli statesmen may present an image to their own people and
their own party of always being concerned about
Israeli national leaders like
In short, they are useful puppets and help keep the
Chapter Three
Looking at the
It is ironic that in the entire history of the
Unlike Israelis, Arab intellectuals arent swayed by the propaganda of their own leaders. They know their leaders serve foreign interests.
So if Arab intellectuals complain of exploitation and colonialism at the hands of the foreigners, this isnt because of some wild conspiracy theory that all Arabs have about foreigners but because it is the truth. Israelis would do themselves a favor if they stopped thinking their governmental system is so much more advanced than the primitive Arab culture, and realized that their perception of the history of the conflict is not accurate.
So if one is to dive into the history of the Arab world leaving the Arab-Israeli conflict aside for the moment it would be helpful to understand the Arab perception of reality. That reality is based on one simple principle: legitimate Arabs leaders are never allowed to develop or surface because unless an Arab leader does what the foreigners want them to do, they will find themselves the victim of a coup concocted by foreign elements. Or the Arab leader will be branded a radical Arab dictator and thus a threat to regional security.
For instance, Gamal Abdel Nasser was loved by his own people and the entire Arab world for standing up to the foreigners. While not democratically elected, he was not considered at all radical or a threat to regional stability as the western nations made him out to be.
How do the foreigners corrupt Arab national leaders?
There have been about 35 coups and coup attempts in the
Any independent review of modern
Says Middle East scholar,
Dr. Mohammed Daud Mirak : Most of the time, the elite controlling the
governments of Muslim states view their survival as being parallel to the
interests of the elite in the United States and her allies, and view the
continuation of their hold on power in their submission to the will of the
United States. (Essay
In Richard Beckers October 2002 article: The Battle For Iraqi Oil: US Corporate Skullduggery Since WW1, we learn about the real history of the foreigners involvement in the Arab Middle East:
In February 1919, Sir Arthur Hirtzel, a top British
colonial official, warned his associates: It should be borne in mind that the
Standard Oil Company is very anxious to take over
Becker continues: In
1927, major oil exploration got underway. Huge deposits were discovered in
Baker explains that
during the same period the al-Saud family, with
Says researcher Dr. John
Coleman: The mission of the great names of British Middle East intelligence,
T.E.Lawrence, E.G. Browne, Arnold Toynbee, St. John Philby and Bertram Russell
was to keep the Middle East backward so that its natural resources, oil, could
continue to be looted.
Rami Khouri, a syndicated columnist for The Daily Star
in
We Middle Easterners (Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Israelis,
Kurds, and others) have a long track record of both arranging others national
configurations and having our own rearranged by others. The modern
Khouri contends there is nothing inherently wrong with being rearranged; peoples, societies and states do it all the time, to themselves and to others.
However, our experience in the Arab world indicates that if
the people being reconfigured have a say in the process, and their new national
map corresponds to their identities and aspirations, the resulting reconfigured
region may prove satisfying to both its citizens and state within the global
context. The British and the French did not do this around 1920, and left
behind a mess of fragile, often violent, states. That episode resulted in
unsatisfactory, intemperate Arab statehood in many cases a terrible modern legacy of security states
and tensions that finally exploded into political terror in the 1990s and
beyond. (Essay,
Why the foreign elite
corrupts Arab leaders
If one really wants to understand how the Arabs view the west, they should read A Brutal Friendship; The West and the Arab Elite (St. Martins Press, New York, 1997) by the well-known Arab journalist, Said Aburish.
Aburish claims there are no legitimate regimes in the Arab Middle East. The House of Saud, King Hussein of Jordan, Presidents Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, Hafez al-Assad, Yasser Arafat and the remaining minor Arab heads of state run various types of dictatorships. He claims they depend on phony claims of legitimacy while representing small special interest groups minorities whose members owe their allegiance to them rather than to the state.
The result is religious, tribal, army-based or hybrid ruling
cliques and leaders who have one thing in common: they are opposed to the
desire of the majority of the Arab people to develop legitimate governments. By
affording dictatorships unqualified recognition, the foreign powers support the
individual leaders, army groups, sects, clans and families who run the
Aburish believes that it isnt Islam the West is battling, but the notion of popular political movements that represent a threat to the Wests interests. The bad image the West creates for them isnt meant to explain them; it is meant to justify declaring war on them.
He explains: The ruling
groups in the
On the subject of what
the oil states did with their newfound wealth, Aburish explains: The surplus
from oil was linked to the world capital market controlled by US, British and
French banks. Placing the surpluses in Western banks ensured the continued use
of money to fuel Western economies. There was no attempt to use the surpluses
to develop the
Regardless of how the
mainstream media ignore the role oil plays in the conflict, the fact is if the
As to where this policy
of the British (and later the Americans) originated, we neednt look further
than a series of meetings held in
1) Separating the Muslim lands in the East from
those in the West, thus making their unification more difficult.
2) Planting a new enemy for the Muslims on their
lands. This would focus their attention on the new enemy, and in turn weaken
their ability to resist Western aggression.
3) Establishing an
advanced base for the colonialists at the head of them Britain to protect their
interests, implement their plans and ensure the outflow of natural resources
from the region, as well as the import of their goods and products into the
markets of the region.
The goal of the
colonialist powers
then and now
is to keep the Arab peoples backwards by not enabling them to elect popular
leaders, and to control the vast mineral wealth that the Arabs were fortune
enough to possess.
While the control of oil
may be the ultimate goal of the foreigners, the way to maintain their control
is to inflame the
How
Alternative views of the Arab-Israeli conflict are rare. We are
taught to believe that Jews and Arabs hate each other, and no other view of the
conflict is given. Blame for the conflict is usually fixed on one side or the
other based on a moral claim that one side is
not acting nicely toward the other.
It is in this context that a book first published in 1938 is
critical to our understanding of why the
Although little is known about the author, William Ziffs
book, The Rape of Palestine, (Argus Books, US) is the first attempt to
offer an alternative view of the origins of the conflict. The book documents
the difference between the overall pro-Jewish sentiments of the British
political elite, who saw a strong Jewish presence in Palestine as being good
for the empire, and the group of high level anti-Jewish British officials who
believed that the Jews would become so powerful (if Britain let them) that they
would no longer have to accede to British demands.
The latter group was entirely right. A strong Jewish presence in
Ziffs book documents how the British created the opposition to
Zionism, and proves that until these so-called radical Arab leaders came into
the picture, most Arab residents of
The Moslem religious leader, the Mufti, was openly friendly.
Throughout
The Arab National Movement was hated by the huge Levantine
population, who continued to regard themselves simply as Ottoman subjects, and
looked to the strong, influential Zionist Organization for sympathy and
assistance.
Hussein of the
Ziff writes:
With conscious design, the Administration fostered hostility
between Arabs and Jews. It directly advised the amazed Arabs of Palestine and
Matters came to a head in 1920, when Feisal staged a revolt
against the French in
Ziff believed that the stage was set, charging that the riots of
April 1920 were perfectly timed. He reveals how Arab agitators ran through the
Moslem crowds gathered for the Nebi Moussa festival in
He says that such planned riots occurred again in April 1921 in
The point isnt that the British government was pro-Arab, or
anti-Jewish. The point is that much of the violence and strife was contrived and didnt occur as a natural result of Jews and Arabs hating
each other, as the mainstream media have told us for decades.
While many students of the Arab-Israeli conflict have heard of the
Mufti of Jerusalem, most don't know how the Mufti became the Mufti. Ziff
writes:
Implicated in the disturbances was a political adventurer named
Haj Amin al Husseini. Haj Amin was sentenced by a British court to 15 years
hard labor. Conveniently allowed to escape by the police, he was a fugitive in
Regarding the Arab pogroms of 1929, Alif Beh, an Arab
newspaper in Damascus, wrote: the uprising was the result of British intrigue...
the English were looking for an excuse to reject the demands of the Jewish
Agency to participate in the administration of the country, and encouraged the
Arabs to teach the Jews a lesson.
Regarding Arab views toward Jewish immigration, Ziff quotes Count
Carlos Sforza in his book, Europe and Europeans: Syrians of all
classes, who had been watching
This desire is written in the clamorous petition sent to the
French in 1935 by the inhabitants of
Sensing that some crude agenda was toying with their collective
destiny, in May 1930 the Jerusalem-based Arab newspaper Al Iqdam
wrote: We are led by a group of men who bargain us away, buying and selling us
like cattle. The Arab people have not yet said their last word on the
Arab-Jewish question. When this word has been said, it will not be one of
hatred, but one of peace and brotherhood, as is suitable for two people who
live in one country.
During a seminar of leading Moslems and Christians of Nazareth in
March 1934, a statement given to the press read: On behalf of the majority of
the property owners and consumers, we declare that we would welcome Jewish
immigration, and trust the enlightened Jews with their financial commercial
associations.
Ziff is suggesting that the opposition to Jewish immigration to
The Arab newspaper Falastin claimed in an editorial that,
despite British allegations of an unreachable enmity between Jews and Arabs,
we cannot recall a single instance since the British occupation here when they
made the slightest effort to bring the Arabs and Jews together. Pre-war Jewish
residents lived here peacefully with Arabs for hundreds of years. To this day
these Jews, in addition to the Arabs, maintain that if it were not for the British
policy of divide and rule, the Arabs and Jews would again live in
On
Pamphlets were distributed in Arab villages throughout
Dr. Gustavo Gutierrez, former president of
Contrary to what history books tell us, there was Arab opposition
to British rule and a genuine desire to live in peace
with the Jews even as late as 1937.
Describing the Arab predicament, which has not changed in the six
decades since he wrote his book, Ziff states: The Arabs are compelled to free
themselves from the present despotic and feudal regimes under which all the
Arab peoples suffer. In Arab countries, despite the paper constitutions which
exist in several of them, there is little in the way of liberty. Poverty and
ignorance are endemic.
What is important about Ziffs book is that it was written close
to when the events were taking place. It is the first revisionist account of
the role the British played in the
If nothing more, Ziffs book should encourage the Israeli
government to establish a body to rename all the streets in the country that
are named after British Mandate personalities. The British government was the
reason why it took
Instead, the British government created phony Arab radicals like
Haj Amin to stoke the conflict. The British government was also to blame for
corrupting Arab leaders and conspiring to keep all Arabs poor and their
economies undeveloped.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Chapter
Four
The function of the mainstream media in the
By design or not, the mainstream media are an organic part of the
The role of the media is to deceive the public into thinking
the conflict continues because both sides hate each other. The media convey
messages that the public can easily absorb, such as: the Palestinians are
stateless, and the lack of a Palestinian state is the reason why the
The official version is relayed via the media, and it goes something like this: In addition to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which if left unsolved causes regional instability Arab countries have a problem establishing democracies, and thus are plagued by dictators who cause the regions instability.
While some Arabs may believe the immense media coverage is
good, as they believe
Instead, the foreigners create a new road map and then
talk for six months or a year about whether it is good or not. Both sides
complain, and then before you know it, six months have gone by and there arent
any more meetings or delegations, because the entire process is stalled.
Fingers are then pointed at either Arab terrorism or Israeli intransigence, and
the circle of blame goes around and around before it is time to initiate a new
round of
The role of the media is merely to highlight the fact that
every time the
This approach of talking about peace but never actually arriving at peace is the hallmark of those in charge of the new peace initiatives. They arent necessarily interested in peace, but in wasting time. The media play a key role in this deceit, as long as they fail to ask the tough questions and dig a little deeper.
Much of the control the foreigners have over the Jews and Arabs is exercised via manipulation of the publics perceptions. Break that stranglehold and the true interests of the foreigners will be exposed. If we want to solve the problems in the region, we need to understand the harmful role of the international media.
The media arent just standing on the sidelines observing events, as the experts like to tell us. Instead, the media are organically linked to the conflict and are directed by elements outside the region. The media present images and perceptions that reinforce the two sides negative view of each other.
Major international media outlets keep the
The mere presence of the
media essentially creates the
Whether all this is done by design or not, the end result is the
same.
Strip the major western media outlets of their credibility by
calling their objectivity and independence into question, and the power of the
foreigners over the
Radical
Ever wonder why, on a per-capita basis, there seem to be
more radical dictators in the
It is important to note that the source of public
information about the
The way the mainstream media tell the story, these radical
Arab leaders are angry at
And yet, while some
Arab dictators are considered evil and immoral because they dont allow
democracy in their country, neither do the rulers of
dictator is never applied to them.
The truth
is, the more democratic the Saudis become, the less cooperative they will be
with us. So why should we want that? Asks F. Gregory Gause, a specialist on
Throughout the past 100 years in the
If the mainstream media didnt tell their readers and
viewers that these Arab leaders were a threat, they wouldnt be perceived as
one. By the same token, if the media didnt write stories highlighting the
instability of the
What the media fail to tell us is that these dictatorships rule
over tiny economies with no industrial or technological know-how, and thus
whatever weapons they have were procured from western countries including their weapons of mass destruction. The way the media tell the story, the
western leaders know full well that the dictators are evil, yet they approve
the sales of conventional and non-conventional weapons. Later, when it comes
out in the press that these deals took place, the western leaders say, you
evil dictator, you are not being morally upstanding and acting in a peaceful
manner with your neighbors. I pledge to depose you.
Thus a new war is conducted in order to disarm a regime that was
supported and armed by the very countries that take part in the deposing
exercise. All of this is, according to the media, because zealous western
leaders took the high moral ground and proclaimed: Enough is enough, we must
have democracy and freedom in the
The mainstream media never question government officials when they
claim they didnt realize Saddam Hussein was such a bad guy. Or when the CIA
says, we supported Osama Bin Laden in the early 1980s to fight the Russians in
No mainstream media ever
call high government officials liars when these weak excuses are offered. Never
is the public presented with the fact that the arming of the dictator was the
intended policy. Instead, we are told it was due to human error.
So what can we learn from all this?
That only those Arab leaders who dont play ball with the
foreigners are branded as radical and threats to regional security. The
leaders of all the oil-rich states are no more democratic than those in
Says
If we want to solve the
How do the foreigners get away with such deceit?
Because what is presented in the media about the
Whether arms sales to the region further peace is never
addressed.
The soap opera the
mainstream media presents every day as
Ever notice how the mainstream media treat
The mainstream media never question the objectivity and credibility of government spokespersons. Thus there is never any honest skepticism as to whether a statement is really true or merely prepared text.
The mainstream media also present the national leaders as basically patriotic, just trying to do a good job, trying to the right thing, trying to do whats best for their own country. We are led to believe that in the end, all they are interested in is regional peace and stability, or in getting themselves enshrined in the history books.
Their motivation is always simple, honest, noble and
patriotic, and these regional leaders are always presented as independent
agents. The media dont reveal any other influence on their decision-making
process. When so-called analysts are
interviewed, they all seem to know exactly why
The media coverage and analyses of
For instance, we are told that because Ariel Sharon didnt
finish off Arafat in 1982 in
The mainstream media and their
Once elected, the media presents the story of the national leader as being only about character no matter how many flaws the guy may have. He is never thrown out of office because of these shortcomings, and is always given the benefit of the doubt in any scandal.
For instance, no matter how many scandals were exposed implicating the current Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, or the previous one, Ehud Barak, neither faced any serious attempt to force them to resign, and eventually the scandals died out. The media never probed further.
The mainstream media inform us that countries wage war
because national leaders dont like one another. For example, back in the first
Gulf War, senior President Bush was mad at Saddam Hussein. The public is asked
to believe that the whole story is that Bush was pissed off at him because
Hussein didnt do what Bush asked him to do, which was to get out of
In the second Gulf War, President Bush said to the American people, this guy is a bully, a dictator, not a nice human being, and I am going to do the moral thing and depose him. The media allowed this image to be presented unchallenged, and thus that is how history was recorded.
For the mainstream media, international diplomacy is run according to the principle of positive chemistries and chance meetings. War is the result of two leaders not getting along. Peace treaties arent signed because one sides leader was stubborn.
If
the mainstream media are responsible for transmitting these superficial
analyses, then they are part of the effort by foreign interests to keep the
Instead of highlighting the absurdities and contradictions in the national leaders policies and actions, the mainstream media say things like, Even as President Bush invests his considerable personal prestige and the power of his office in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking... This presents the foreigners as always seeking peace, and never anything else.
In
The New York Times in June 2003, our perception of reality is shaped for
us when we read analyses such as this about the Aqaba summit: Now he has three
major projects on his plate: Rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, and acting as
midwife to the new state of Palestine he envisions in his road map to peace.
Time and time again on this trip, Bush made clear his view that ridding the
Nowhere in that analyses is doubt expressed as to whether other considerations moved the president, or how exactly removing a regional dictator opens doors to peace or how exactly America will turn Iraq into a model democracy. There is no discussion as to why the Oslo Accords failed, or why it will be any different this time.
The fact that the American president could be lying is never presented as an option. Instead of an accurate portrayal of reality, the public is fed soap operas when it comes to why national leaders do what they do, and what really influences their decisions.
Here is an example of what Israeli citizens are fed in their mainstream media.
Long-time Haaretz op-ed writer Avi Shavit told
the Israeli public on
Shavit writes: "However, Rabin was not Kissinger's only
pupil. He had another Israeli pupil, studious and energetic, who is now
Somehow Shavit thinks Kissinger's ethnic roots play a role
in his secret dealings with Israeli leaders like Rabin and Sharon. We are told
that
Shavit continues: "That's the reason why
According to senior political analyst and leading op-ed writer for Haaretz, what is really happening is that Sharon is getting educated in international diplomacy and as the aging chubby Israeli Premier gets older- he is finally starting to grasp what the 85 year old Kissinger has been telling him all along- that the best way to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict is to take the "pessimist-pragmatic" approach. Sharon isn't doing what he is doing because he "hates Arabs" or because he is a "right wing hawk", which is what the rest of Shavit's newspaper has been telling the Israeli public for the past 30 years- but because he is "taking lessons in international diplomacy from his mentor, Henry Kissinger".
Why
It is for that reason
that
So why isnt the press giving us the whole picture?
For
more than 50 years the foreigners have been coming to this region to work out
a peace agreement, but they always wind up failing. Yet when leaders from the
. These bilateral talks never start out in secret. They always start out with photographs and everyone smiling and shaking hands. And then they shut the doors. The Oslo Accords were negotiated in secret for eight months before they were revealed publicly. This enabled the true aims of the Accords to be hidden from the public.
Why do they do it this way? Because they dont want you to know.
Then they come to the regional parlays, smile some more, take a few more pictures, but they never tell you what they really said to each other. Instead, the spokespersons hand out written statements about constructive engagements and confidence-building measures or the need to jumpstart the peace process, and then the journalists write as if that is what was really said. Somehow nobody points out that weve seen all this new peace initiative before.
Either there is a massive conspiracy by the worlds media and the leaders of western countries to keep everyone from knowing the truth, or the journalists and reporters are very bad at what they do and arent interested in getting the whole story.
Either way, the mainstream media
have failed in their role as the fourth estate and the final protector of a
nations freedom. The only reason why the foreigners can continue their deceit
is because the media pander to them rather than treating their actions and
statements in a critical manner. The lack of aggressive reporting is one of the
reasons why the
And while the reporters are busy parroting what the
spokespersons for the national politicians tell them, they are missing the real
important stuff the arms deals, the
pressure to keep oil prices low and oil priced in dollars, etc. No wonder few
people are aware of these aspects of the
The control of the regions oil supplies and the sale of
weapons by western nations to
As the famous Canadian media commentator Marshal McLuhan put it: The message is the media.
In the
If Jews and Arabs want
to live in peace with each other, they must expunge the mainstream media from
their regional conflict instead of trying to convince the press corps that
were right and theyre wrong.
Chapter Five
The function of Oil,
Weapons, and the US Dollar in the
There is a view in the mainstream media that assumes the
only concern the western nations have in the
Because peace is not good business for them. What is
important is maintaining the supremacy of the US dollar in world markets,
recycling petrodollars to earn profits from the oil industry, and the sale of
military products to the oil-rich Arab regimes. The unwritten agreement that
the
While CNN never discusses this issue, it is imperative for
the strength of the US dollar that oil is priced only in
If oil was priced in
other currencies, most countries would have little need to stockpile dollars,
and thus all the currency the
In a brilliant essay on
this subject entitled A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the
Unspoken Truth, economist William Clark wrote in January 2003:
The Federal Reserves
greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch from a dollar standard to a euro
standard.
Says researcher/writer
David Lindorff: When it comes to oil, a dictator is friendly to the
The goal of the foreigners is to keep the oil flowing to
western economies at a relatively low price so as not to harm the profits the
elite oil companies earn from refining and marketing petroleum products, and
ensuring that this oil remains priced in US dollars. To do that, foreigners
have to prop up undemocratic and corrupt regimes (i.e.,
Says foreign policy
analyst Michael Renner: "In the end,
The other unwritten
law is that a certain amount of the oil revenues earned by the oil-rich states
must be spent on the purchase of weapons. In 2002, Arab governments in the
Instead of using this
wealth for building an economic infrastructure throughout the region, it is
wasted on arms. The rest of the oil revenues (after basic government
expenditures are met) are deposited in western banks as the private property of
the corrupted Arab leaders. This benefits both the leaders and the large
western banking interests. This process is called recycling petrodollars. As
much of that wealth winds up in banks controlled by the foreign elite, this is
another way that foreigners profit from the continued tension in the
Another activity of the foreigners is to sell massive amounts of military hardware and technology to Arab dictators like Saddam Hussein and then, years later, when the dictator doesnt do what the foreigners want, the dictator becomes a threat to regional stability and an expensive (to the public, not to the arms industry) military invasion is suddenly required to contain him. When the smoke clears, nobody points a finger at the foreigners, accusing them of arming the dictator in the first place.
As no Arab country has a military industry, all weapons in
the region are imported. If the western nations were truly interested in
bringing peace to the
Somehow, this contradiction is never exposed.
This is where the Palestinian-Israeli conflict serves its purpose. Keeping the conflict alive means a never-ending moral crusade can be carried out by both Arabs and Jews, each blaming the other for keeping the conflict festering, each pointing fingers at the other side rather than at the foreigners.
Is it merely a coincidence that
there is vast oil reserves in the
As long as the Arabs and Jews are blaming each other, the foreigners role will go unnoticed, along with their profits.
What function does
The foreigners need a local, regional conflict presented in
moral terms so that the peoples of the region will not pay attention to their
real interests in the
Now, if you want to create and sustain a conflict, you need
two sides.
Despite what Israelis and American Jews may believe,
As for why the US provides military aid to Israel, Middle East scholar,
Professor Stephen Zunes of the University of San Francisco, claims: this aid
is little more than an American subsidy to U.S. arms manufacturers,
considering that the majority of it must be used to buy weapons from the U.S.
Moreover, arms to
Explaining the function of the aid
In the fall of 1993, when many had high hopes for peace, 78 senators wrote
to former president Bill Clinton insisting that aid to
Zunes admits this is a complex issue, and says he does not want to sound
conspiratorial, but asked us to imagine what Palestinian industriousness,
Israeli technology, and Arabian oil money would do to transform the
Another
Keeping Israelis focused on the
idea that the Arabs want to destroy
Regardless of whether such a
policy is the result of a pre-conceived plan or it just turned out that way,
it is one of the major sources of fuel for the
Chapter Six
An economic solution to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict
If the foreigners plan
is to keep the
As they and not
how can the Palestinians are helped?
Lets be honest. No
political solution to the conflict will succeed if it doesnt result in a
better socio-economic life for the Palestinians. The Oslo Accords neglected
economics, and thus failed. If peace is
going to take hold, economics has to take precedence over politics, not
vice-versa. Economic prosperity has to be created before political stability
can prevail.
Starting with the
assumption that the lack of a Palestinian state is the reason the conflict
continues keeps the real problems from being addressed. The fact is, Arabs can
live under Israeli rule, and have, to their great benefit. The million-strong
Israeli Arab population is a prime example. And even a peaceful yet indirect
relationship with
Thus it should not be
automatically assumed that the best solution for the Palestinians is a
Palestinian state. Even if on believes this should be the goal, however, the
goal will never be realized unless the economic infrastructure is built first,
and that will take time
a decade or two at least. The State of Israel could not have been declared in
the late 1940s if the economic and industrial infrastructure hadnt been
created over the previous 25 years. For some reason, those who advocate the
establishment of a Palestinian state never bother to deal with the question of
where the meat on the states bones will come from. Without it, a newly-created
Palestinian political entity wont last long, because the radicals from the Left or from
the religious camps
will have the power to challenge the legitimacy of the ruling regime due to its
inability to create prosperity.
Independent states dont come on silver
platters. Unless the Palestinians can first build the infrastructure for an
independent entity, they will have no true independence, period. No amount of
rhetoric can replace the need for economic development.
What should be done?
While the idea of
Palestinians expressing their political aspirations via
Lets all admit that
100% of
By the same token, those
Israeli Arabs who do not want to identify with
None of this implies
that West Bankers or Israeli Arabs must move to
The only problem is
that
If the foreigners only
stopped interfering with the region by corrupting Arab and Israeli national
leaders, this would happen, and the Arab-Israeli conflict would be solved.
What must come
next?
Having solved the issue
of citizenship in the manner suggested above, West Bank Arabs would then need a
better socio-economic infrastructure: roads, schools, community centers,
hospitals, factories, telecommunications facilities, etc. All of this will take
10-20 years, if not longer. It took the Jews that long, and they began with a
lot more going for them than the Palestinian population currently has. Lets
not be nave in thinking that the Palestinians today can do in a shorter time
what the Jews did in the early part of the last century. The Palestinians have
suffered enough from deluded thinking; now is the time to start thinking about
what can realistically be achieved to better their lives.
I suggest that they be allowed and encouraged
to start building that infrastructure, and leave the issue of statehood and the
right of return aside for now. Only when that step is complete will the time
be ripe to discuss whether an independent Palestinian state or an autonomous
entity affiliated with
While many
pro-Palestinian voices will say, no, a Palestinian state has to be created for
economic development to occur, they are ignorant of the current economic
conditions on the ground. Until these voices that support the Palestinians stop
blaming Israel and point a finger or two at the low quality of Palestinian
political leadership when it comes to social and economic development, the
standard of living in the West Bank and Gaza will not improve. That leadership
failed dismally when it had the chance, from 1993 to 2000, to improve the lives
of the Palestinians. Whether a new leadership would do any better is not the
issue. What is important is that all Palestinians realize they have been
shortchanged by their own leaders.
Palestinian Inc.
A new commercial, economic entity should be
created to raise capital from private and public sources, to make buy, sell, or
whatever helps build infrastructure for the
While this may be
wishful thinking, as most people reading this will say that nothing can be done
in the
The underlying goal of Palestinians Inc. would
be to offer shares to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, wherever they may live.
To become a common shareholder you must only share the organizations basic
principles and vision, which is to help the Palestinian people prosper.
Membership in this new commercial/economic entity would be reserved exclusively
for Israeli Arabs, West Bank and Gaza Arabs, East Bank Palestinians, and
Palestinians from everywhere else in the world. And in order to ensure that
this new corporation remains free of the pneumonia which conflict with
What type of investments
and assets are we talking about? Perhaps a Palestinian cellular license awarded
at low cost with the promise to raise capital in order to build a proper
cellular infrastructure in the region. Perhaps a private radio or TV channel
created by a wealthy Palestinian in
It may be that
Palestinians from
Under this arrangement,
But it is essential that
such an entity remain free of the corruption that is so endemic among other
Arab states; otherwise, nothing will change for the Palestinians. The solution
I have proposed will never work as long this economic entity remains under the
control of the current dictatorship in the
Another important aspect
of this solution is that the Israeli Arabs would be the natural vanguard, as
they have ties to
For the Israeli Arabs,
all this new economic activity will be welcome, considering how educated they
are and how few white-color jobs there are for them in
Why this approach could
work
The founders of
The concept is the same
here. The Israeli Arabs are being asked to take the West Bankers by the hand
and create an economic institution that promotes trade, commerce and deal
making between the Israeli Arab sector, the
Can you imagine how things would change if
people were making money and jobs were plentiful, with brand new infrastructure
projects popping up everywhere? Why should it matter if the Palestinians have a
state or not, if they see their lives are improving?
What makes anyone think
the existing Palestinian ruling class is capable of creating an independent and
prosperous Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace with
While many will say but
the Palestinians would never accept that, my response is so what? Some may
not. Many may defy Hamas and Arafats screeching and apply to own a piece of
this new economic institution, because whoever has a share in it could be
richer in the future. I have faith in the magic formula that says higher
standards of living diminish the attraction of radical rhetoric.
The Palestinians need to realize why they are
living the way they are, and who is responsible for their ongoing tragedy. For
the past four decades they have blindly followed Arafat and his henchmen, yet
they have received nothing in return nothing but poverty and death. Its time
they lent their support to other entities, entities that will be in a position
to offer them and their children a better life. If supporters of the
Palestinians outside the
Chapter Seven
Together, Jews and Arabs can solve the
If Jews and Arabs understood why there are still embroiled in this century-old conflict who created the conflict in the first place, and who wants to keep it festering then the power the Foreign Elite (FE) would dissipate.
Once both peoples realize the game that is being played with
their lives (i.e. divide and rule), the foreigners will no longer find
advantage in corrupting the regions leaders. Arabs and Jews need to realize
they are not each others number one enemy, and that they have more in common
with each other than they do with the foreigners. The primary goal should be to
get the foreigners fingers out of the
If both sides to this conflict are serious about ending the tragedy, they must begin by realizing who gains the most from the ongoing instability.
All the Arab oil revenues that should have gone toward
economic and social development have been used instead to enrich foreign
weapons manufacturers. Instead of receiving the maximum benefit from the sale
of their natural resources, OPEC has kept prices at a minimum because this is
what the foreigners want. Instead of being invested in job-producing projects
throughout the
For the foreigners, exploiting the Arabs and keeping the
region in turmoil is very profitable.
So the next time foreigners appear with yet another roadmap that will supposedly guide the region toward peace, perhaps we should first ask ourselves how they can be so committed to finding a peaceful solution while continuing to sell weapons to undemocratic regimes in the region.
Both peoples have the power to keep the foreigners from interfering. The way to do it is by negating the influence of the mainstream media the instrument that the foreigners use to weasel their way into the conflict in the first place. The foreigners exploit the media, which report on every minute detail of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. If they didnt keep the conflict in the public eye, it would soon be forgotten, and would eventually end.
Of course, that isnt
the foreigners plan; they need to have a never-ending conflict so that
nobody will look at their other deals in the region. To this end,
Both sides to the conflict have to realize that the foreigners are able to extend the conflict by keeping the media focused on the morality issues. Instead of the media presenting plans to rehabilitate refugees, reduce arms sales to the region, and develop local industries to move the petrochemical industry upstream, all the reporting serves to focus blame on one side or the other.
Everyone interested in
solving the
While foreign
intervention is the chief cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the main
reason why it continues to exist, not all foreign elements are enemies
of the Arab and Jewish peoples. Some foreigners have very constructive roles to
play.
Take United States
Congressman Ron Paul, for example. If he were in charge of
He offers hope when he
states:
The tired assertion
that
supported and funded the
hated Shah of Iran to prevent the nationalization of Iranian oil, and its false
today when we back an unelected military dictator in
We should stop the
endless game of playing faction against faction, and recognize that buying
allies doesnt work. We should curtail the heavy militarization of the area by
ending our disastrous foreign aid payments. We should stop propping up
dictators and putting band-aids on festering problems. We should understand
that our political and military involvement in the region creates far more
problems than it solves. All Americans will benefit both in terms of their
safety and their pocketbooks if we pursue a coherent, neutral foreign policy of
non-interventionism, free trade, and self-determination in the
Unfortunately, the
history of American involvement in the region does not reflect the principles
held by Paul.
Economic prosperity and
stability will never come to the
When the foreigners come
to the region, the mainstream media dont tell us what their goals really are.
Instead, we are presented with images of the
Despite the fact that
the Oslo Accords failed completely in creating a Palestinian state, the
No peace and more
conflict. This never-ending soap opera is getting old. So why should we believe
that by having President Bush smile at Arab dictators and strongmen in Aqaba,
peace will prevail?
** Jews and Arabs deserve to
live their lives free from the intervention of foreign elements. This research
study was written to enable both sides of the conflict to come to this same
conclusion, and to realize that they are not destined to hate each other and to
be embroiled in this tragic conflict for perpetuity.
The observations and
proposals contained in this study dont blame either the Arabs or the Jews for
the continuation of the conflict. Foreign elements created and perpetuate it.
Arabs and Jews need to understand this fundamental truth before they can free
themselves from those who come bearing peace plans that in fact offer no hope
of a peaceful future for their children.
If you believe that the
contents of this study is important- please translate it into your language and
post it on websites so that others can read it. It has no name attacked to it
for a reason as it isn't meant to be identified with any one person or their
viewpoint.