by Yoram Ettinger
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry is preoccupied with the attempt to establish a Palestinian
state, as a means to advance peace and American interests. However,
Congress -- which is charged by the constitution with supervising the
administration -- has yet to conduct hearings on the impact of the
proposed Palestinian state upon vital U.S. interests. Congress cannot
relinquish its constitutional responsibility to probe, independently,
the critical implications of a Palestinian state upon the U.S. economy,
core values, and homeland and national security, as well as upon the
stability of pro-U.S. Arab regimes in particular, and the Middle East in
general.
Independent
congressional scrutiny of this Palestinian state-driven policy is doubly
essential against the backdrop of the systematic U.S. Middle East
policy failures since 1947.
The U.S. administration track record
In 1948, the U.S. State
Department opposed the establishment of a Jewish state. Assuming that
Israel would be an ally of the Communist Bloc, and expecting Israel to
be devastated by the invading Arab armies, the administration imposed a
regional military embargo, while the British supplied arms to Jordan,
Iraq and Egypt.
During the 1950s, the
U.S. administration courted the Egyptian dictator, President Gamal Abdel
Nasser, in an attempt to remove him from Soviet influence, offering
financial aid and pressuring Israel to "end the occupation of the
Negev," internationalize Western Jerusalem and evacuate the whole of
Sinai. Instead, Nasser intensified his pro-USSR policy, subversion of
pro-U.S. Arab regimes and support of Palestinian terrorism.
During the 1970s and
1980s, until the invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. administration supported
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein through an intelligence-sharing
agreement, the transfer of sensitive dual-use U.S. technologies and
approval of five billion dollar loan guarantees.
In 1977, the
administration, initially, opposed the Begin-Sadat peace initiative,
lobbied for an international conference, and finally jumped on the peace
bandwagon.
In 1979, the
administration abandoned the Shah of Iran, facilitating the rise of
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which transformed Iran from a top ally of
the U.S. to its sworn enemy.
From 1993 to 2000, the
administration embraced Arafat as the harbinger of peace and democracy,
elevating him to Most Frequent Visitor status in the White House.
In 2005 and 2006, the
administration encouraged the uprooting of Jewish communities from Gaza
and the participation of Hamas in the Palestinian election, deluding
itself that both would advance the cause of moderation, stability and
peace.
In 2009, the
administration turned its back on pro-U.S. Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, facilitating the rise to power of the anti-U.S.,
transnational-terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. In 2011, the administration
participated in the toppling of Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi's
regime of terror, intensifying chaos in Libya, which has become an
exporter of military systems to Muslim terrorist organizations. In 2013,
the administration handed Russia an unexpected Syrian bonus. In 2014,
the administration has managed to instill panic in Saudi Arabia and
other Arab states, which are concerned about the U.S. potentially
transforming Tehran from a controllable tactical -- to an uncontrollable
strategic -- threat.
Mahmoud Abbas' track record
The background of
Palestinian Authority President and Palestine Liberation Organization
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas -- ostensibly a moderate compared with Hamas --
sheds light on the likely nature of the proposed Palestinian state.
Abbas speaks fluent
Russian as a result of his KGB training and his studies at Moscow's
Patrice Lumumba University, where he wrote a Holocaust-denying doctoral
thesis. He was the architect of PLO ties with the USSR and other
ruthless communist regimes. In 1972, he oversaw the logistics of the
Munich massacre of eleven Israeli athletes. In the late 1950s, 1966 and
1970, he fled Egypt, Syria and Jordan because of subversion. During the
1970s and 1980s he participated in the Palestinian plundering of
southern Lebanon and the attempts to topple the central regime in
Beirut, which triggered the 1976 Syrian invasion of Lebanon and a series
of civil wars, causing some 200,000 fatalities and hundreds of
thousands of refugees. In 1990, Abbas collaborated with Saddam's
invasion of Kuwait, despite Kuwait's unique hospitality to 300,000
PLO-affiliated Palestinians. In 1993, he established the Palestinian
Authority hate education system -- a most effective production line of
terrorists.
The impact on the Middle East
During the October 1994
signing of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, top Jordanian military
commanders urged their Israeli counterparts to refrain from establishing
a Palestinian state, "lest it destroy the [pro-U.S.] Hashemite regime."
Coupled with a terror-dominated Iraq, it would initiate a domino
scenario, sweeping Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other oil-producing Arab
regimes, causing havoc to the supply and price of oil and devastating
the U.S. economy.
Abbas' PLO was an early
ally of Khomeini. Moreover, following his 2005 replacement of Arafat,
Abbas' first visits were to Tehran and Damascus. A Palestinian state --
whether controlled by the PLO or (most probably) Hamas -- would provide
Iran, as well as Russia, China and North Korea, improved access to the
eastern flank of the Mediterranean, at the expense of the U.S.
In 1994, the
Palestinian Authority was established by PLO graduates of terrorist
bases in the Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Tunisia,
generating a robust tailwind to global Islamic terrorism. It has become a
major terror academy, exporting terrorists to Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin
America, Africa and Europe. Thus, the Palestinian Authority has
sustained the legacy of Abbas' PLO, which has been the role model of
international and Islamic terrorism, training worldwide terrorists in
Jordan (1968-1970) and Lebanon (1970-1982). The PLO introduced
commercial aircraft hijacking, carried out the 1973 murder of the U.S.
ambassador to Sudan, and participated in the 1983 murder of 300 U.S.
Marines in Lebanon.
A Palestinian state
would reward a regime which is referred to by much of its population as
"modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah," and has driven Christians away from
Bethlehem. It would add another anti-U.S. vote at the U.N.
Both Hamas and the PLO
follow in the footsteps of Palestinian leaders, who collaborated with
Nazi Germany, the Communist Bloc, Khomeini, Saddam and bin Laden, and
currently with Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and other rogue
regimes.
Hence, the proposal to
establish a Palestinian state proves that policymakers are determined to
learn from history by repeating -- rather than avoiding -- past
dramatic blunders.
Thorough congressional supervision could spare the U.S. a blow to its economic and national security interests.
Yoram Ettinger
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=6969
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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