BY NORM DIXON
Speculation is mounting over where Washington will select to be the next target in its bogus "war on terrorism". However, the question may have already been answered: it's Palestine.
In the wake of three suicide bombing attacks in Israel on December 1-2 that killed 28 people, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government launched fierce air strikes against Palestinian Authority (PA) targets in the West Bank and Gaza.
Using verbiage taken straight from US President George Bush's "war of terrorism" speeches, Sharon blamed the attacks — which were claimed by the Islamist Hamas organisation — on PA President Yasser Arafat.
"Just as the United States acts in its battle against world terror, under the brave leadership of President Bush, just as it acts with all its strength, so shall we", Sharon declared.
Former Israeli PM, now a government spokesperson, Benjamin Netanyahu, even went so far as to equate Arafat with Osama bin Laden.
Israel's military response was given the green light by Bush when he met with Sharon at short notice on December 3. The previously planned press conference that was to follow the meeting was cancelled so as to avoid Bush having to comment on Israel's response to the suicide bombings.
Later on December 3, White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer declared that "obviously [Israel] has the right to defend itself. The president understands that very clearly". He refused to call for "restraint" from Israel.
On December 4, Washington froze the assets of a US-based charity and two Palestinian-controlled financial companies, claiming that they were fronts for Hamas. The action mirrors Washington's crackdown of charities and companies said to be linked to bin Laden's al Qaeda.
According to the December 5 British Guardian, these measures were already planned for later in the month but the implementation was brought forward. The paper also reported that Avi Dichter, head of Israel's security police, Shin Bet, visited Washington on November 28 to urge that the US target Hamas in its "war on terrorism".
Despite the denials of the banned organisations, and without having presented any proof that they were linked to Hamas, Bush announced that, "Hamas has obtained much of the money that it pays for murder abroad right here in the United States".
On December 4, US Attorney-General John Ashcroft claimed that the banned charity had "links" with al Qaeda.
As well as its vendetta against Iraq, the wing of the US government grouped around assistant secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz (known as the Wolfowitz cabal) — which is particularly supportive of Sharon's right-wing Likud party — argues that Washington must align completely with Israel's goal of crushing the Palestinian national liberation movement.
This entails extending the US "war on terrorism" to the crushing of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements in Palestine, the Lebanese Hezbollah and, inevitably, taking or threatening military strikes against Syria, Iran and Lebanon — countries whose governments support those movements.
In mid-September, the Project for a New American Century sent President Bush a letter proposing that unless Syria and Iran agree to drop all support for Hezbollah, "the administration should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these known state sponsors of terrorism".
In the December issue of the American Enterprise Institute's American Enterprise Online, Michael Ledeen (who holds the AEI's "Freedom Chair") goes further and advocates that the US wage a "revolutionary war" to overthrow Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority as well as the Syrian, Iranian and Iraqi governments.
On December 2, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked on NBC Meet the Press whether he thought Arafat was a terrorist. He replied: "If one looks historically, he has been involved in terrorist activities. We all know that. That's his background. We also know that he is not a particularly strong leader. And I don't know that he has good control over the Palestinian situation."
From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
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