June 20, 2003 - Nothing has changed in America’s subservient role to Zionist State of Israel.  In today's Associated Press story (below), we learn that Colin Powell has laid the blame on the victim - the Palestinian people who continue to resist Israel’s theft and occupation of their land, Israel’s theft of their resources, oppression of their people, assassination of their leaders and erasing of their culture.

Ariel Sharon & Colin Powell, Reuters Photo

Most nations recognize that one must possess a power base to negotiate with those who deal with them only from a position of power.  Hamas, however out-gunned, represents the only real power wielded by the Palestinian people.  The images of Palestinian people burned on the mind of the world are those of little boys throwing rocks at tanks and people fighting back with the only weapons they have - their own bodies strapped with explosives.  Now we are told by the U.S. government they are the "enemies of peace" because they do what they can to defend themselves, their families, their homes, water, orchards and land.  It appears that Ariel Sharon knew what he was talking about when he told Peres in front of the Knesset, "Don’t worry about Washington. We control Washington."  Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to give away billions of our tax dollars to the State of Israel.  

The "Roadmap to Peace" was concocted by the Neconservative friends of Sharon who share a place at the table in the Oval Office in Washington D.C. - a place given to a foreign government by this treasonous regime.  The "Roadmap to Peace" charts a one-way road into the concentration camps of Palestine, traveled by the Israeli Army in tanks and flown over by Apache helicopter gunships made in America. It leads to further destruction of Palestine and the continuing genocide of the Palestinian people. Anyone who gives a fair reading of the last 50 years of the Israeli-Palestinian war cannot escape the difference between the occupied and the occupier, the robber and the robbed, the killer and the dead, the war criminal and the victim of war crimes.

Those who resist occupation are renamed "terrorists" and "enemies of peace" by Bush and Sharon. Those who plunder, steal and systematically kill off a people are renamed "victims" and "friends of peace". The Bush regime began it’s "Road Map" propaganda, expressing a commitment to establishing a Palestinian State. But the "Palestinian State" it had in mind is surely not based upon self-determination of it’s indigenous people. The article below shows the real position taken by the United States government toward it’s client-state, Israel and the Israeli-American victim - Palestine.

Last week, thousands of American Jews celebrated "The Birth of Israel" at the World Trade Center in Boston.  Palestinian Americans conducted a Pro-Palestinian rally across the street from the World Trade Center with a permit won with difficulty.  Zionists lined up across from the Palestinian protest, screaming amplified epithets and threats at the Palestinian Americans who had a list of speakers who were trying to explain the Palestinian position.  A group of Orthodox Jewish Rabbis, indigenous to Palestine, traveled over 4 hours to Boston to speak for the Palestinian people.  When I spoke with these Rabbis, they explained, "For thousands of years, we were lived peaceably with the Palestinian people.  When the Europeans came in 1948, they destroyed our homes, stole our land and killed our people too."  Whatever propaganda continues to flow from the centers of the American corporate media, the people of the world know in their hearts that what is happening to the Palestinian people is not the way they, themselves want to be treated.  The people of the world know that under the same circumstances, they would do as the Palestinian people have courageously and sacrificially done for 50 years - "Resist by whatever means necessary". George W. Bush and Colin Powell can blame the victim through the Israeli-friendly U.S. media, but they cannot change 50 years of history.  They can commit whatever atrocities their consciences can bear, but they will never change the facts or break the spirit of the Palestinian people. - Les Blough

© Copyright 2003 by AxisofLogic.com

Dick Locher set off a furor among American Zionists with this piece of political satire in the Chicago Tribune on 5/29/03. Camera, one of Israel's defenders in Boston called it "anti-semitic".

Powell Calls Hamas 'Enemy of Peace', by Karin Laub, AP, June 20, 2003

Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Friday the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) must strip the group of its terror network and negotiating a truce — as the Palestinian prime minister has been doing — is not sufficient.

As Powell addressed a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), an Israeli motorist was killed and three people were wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack in the West Bank. Since a Mideast peace summit two weeks ago, 27 Israelis and 40 Palestinians have been killed. Four of the Palestinians were killed carrying out attacks on Israelis.

Powell said the violence was all the more reason to implement the U.S.-backed peace plan launched at the summit. "The pace and urgency of our work needs to be maintained in order to capitalize quickly and decisively on this moment that history has given to us," he said.

Powell spoke after discussions with Sharon and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. He then began meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has been trying to negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas.

Powell said he was "anxious to speak to Prime Minister Abbas about efforts they are making to bring violence under control, to end violence, not just through the means of having a cease-fire, but going beyond that ... to end violence and the capacity for violence."

Abbas has said he will not launch a crackdown for fear of triggering a civil war.

After meeting with Powell, he demanded Israel take immediate steps to ease restrictions on Palestinians and "change itself from an enemy into a partner."

Abbas also said Israel should release thousands of Palestinian detainees, lift travel restrictions, end settlement building and stop demolishing Palestinian houses.

"The logic of confrontation cannot match the logic of peace," Abbas said.

Powell said he and Abbas spoke mainly about security arrangements. Powell said he again stressed that Palestinian attacks must end. "Violence and terror is not the way to build a state," he said.

Powell did not say how far he wants the Palestinians to go in a crackdown on militants including Hamas, whom he singled out as an "enemy of peace." The Islamic militant group has killed hundreds of Israelis in recent years and has been trying to scuttle peace efforts, including the latest, the so-called "road map" to Palestinian statehood by 2005.

"We must make sure that all international pressure possible is brought to bear on these organizations, so that they know they will not succeed, they will not prevail, they will be dealt with," Powell said, referring to the Palestinian militias.

Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi responded angrily, calling Powell a "big liar."

"This is a statement that reflects and proves that he is a little slave to the Zionists and to his master Sharon, that he is the real enemy of peace and justice in the world," he said.

Sharon said no progress will be made on the road map as long as attacks continue. He said Palestinians must realize that a decisive war on terrorism "is the way to make way and move ahead in a sincere and genuine process."

However, the two leaders appeared to differ on how much time the Palestinian security forces should be given to get organized. Powell urged both sides to show patience, while Sharon suggested that once the Palestinians have accepted security responsibility in areas from which Israel withdraws, they will be held accountable for any attacks launched from there.

Israel and the Palestinians are also at odds over Israel's targeted killings of wanted Palestinians and the scope of Israel's withdrawal from parts of the Gaza Strip (news - web sites). Both issues were discussed, without result, at a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials and U.S. monitors late Thursday.

Palestinians say that in order to persuade militant groups, particularly Hamas, to accept a truce, they need an Israeli guarantee that targeted killings will be halted.

Sharon refuses to give such a blanket promise, saying he reserves the right to go after "ticking bombs," a term generally understood to refer to an assailant about to carry out an attack. However, Sharon's aides have said this also applies to those planning attacks. In trying to kill Rantisi in a missile strike last week, Israel referred to him as a ticking bomb. Rantisi, who was wounded, is a Hamas spokesman and has insisted he has no ties to the military wing.

Powell suggested Friday that a broad definition of a ticking bomb is unacceptable.

"When one goes beyond that and expands those kinds of activities (targeted killings) to individuals or situations where it might not be a ticking bomb, then ... the consequences of such actions and how they play into our broader efforts for peace must be taken into consideration, and that is the position that we have discussed with the Israelis on many occasions," he said.

Powell said agreement has not yet been reached on the terms of an Israeli withdrawal from large parts of Gaza but that there was some progress. In first stage of the road map, Israel is to withdraw gradually to positions held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000.

One issue in the security talks is control over the main north-south road in Gaza. Israel insists that roadblocks it erected after the outbreak of fighting remain in place. The Palestinians insist the barriers, meant to protect Jewish settlers from attack by Palestinian militants, be removed so Gaza residents can see an actual improvement in their daily lives.

The checkpoints have caused great hardship in the past 33 months. Palestinian motorists are often unable to get from one end of Gaza to the other, meaning they can't reach schools and jobs. Before September 2000, Israeli and Palestinian security forces jointly patrolled the road.

Powell said Israel has begun carrying out one obligation under the peace plan — the dismantling of West Bank settlement outposts. "We have begun to execute the road map," Powell said, adding he would talk to Israeli leaders about taking additional steps.

In the first stage of the road map, Israel must remove dozens of outposts. In recent days, it has dismantled 11, including an inhabited one, Mitzpeh Yitzhar. At that outpost, hundreds of setters brawled with about 1,000 Israeli troops. Thirty people were hurt and more than a dozen arrested.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said Abbas would ask Powell to pressure Israel on the two main issues. "The problem we are facing is that there is no clear Israeli commitment to stop all acts of violence and assassinations against Palestinians," Shaath said. "We want him to pressure the Israeli government to bring this commitment."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20030620/ap_on_re_mi_ea/powell