THE GAME...

The game in the Gaza withdrawal, the game in the new PM of Israel and the game in Congress' attempt to starve out Hamas in Palestine is this...

Ariel Sharon realized some time ago that Israel could not continue economically or militarily in the conflict without doing one of two things -- either wiping the Palestinians out entirely or settling on some final peace plan. Sharon felt that "negotiating" with Palestine with overseers from the international community or even the United States would not give Israel "total control" of the outcome of a settlement so that was not an acceptable plan.

So...

His successor's plan, as was Sharon's new plan before he got his just reward, is for Israel to "draw its own borders" as opposed to negotiating with Palestine on borders. Sharon never intended to "negotiate" anything with Palestine because he wouldn't get all the territory or control of resources he wanted that way. Israel's claim to the right to do this has always been "they have no partner in Palestine to negotiate with" -- first Afarat, then the PLO itself, now Hamas. Their second claim was always "the violence."

Israel's game has always been to reach a point where it could get away with declaring its own borders and terms. They provoke violence to aid this while continuously stalling, stalling, stalling in the face of even slight progress. Now the Hamas election has actually helped Israel's leaders to claim again that they and they alone must be the "deciders" on what the settlement will be, and the Palestinians will just have to accept it because that is the "only" way to end it. They now are planning on the creation of "total desperation" among the Palestinians, coupled with the "weariness" of the whole conflict among the internationals to allow them to assume control of the process.

Our AIPAC Congress is helping them by passing a resolution that cuts all aid to Palestine. The Palestine bill in Congress even says that no money will given in aid for any "social structures -- infrastructure, governmental development, funds for domestic policing, educational funding, health services -- nothing. The only aid the Congress allowed is $100 million for food.

The Palestine bill also upholds Israel's right to withhold the money it owes Palestine on taxes they collect for Palestine. In addition, it "forbids' anyone from either doing business, or continuing to do business, with any private or government Palestine business or entity. For example, this means I could not buy dolls made by Palestine women to sell or even for my personal use or enjoyment. This means that no one can sell anything to the Palestine government or to any private business. As a private citizen, I could not sell items such as buttons or material to Palestine women so they can make dolls to sell. No country like Russia could sell vehicles -- even Police jeeps to the Palestine Police. In other words, the entire country is dead in the water in the Congressional Palestine bill.

The entire goal of Israel and the US Congress in all of this is to reduce Palestine to total chaos, destroy every facet of their already fragile society, dismantle anything Hamas has done in the way of social services and prevent any type of organized government from emerging so that Israel can "assume control" and act independently to "settle" a final status of who gets what in Palestine in their favor.

As far as I am concerned the Palestine bill is the final proof that we are aiding and abetting -- no, make that directly participating -- in the slow motion genocide of another country. Plain and simple -- I have never seen anything like it. I would never in a million years have believed that this once-compassionate country would do something so obviously Nazi-like. This is more than the "sanctions" we have put on other countries restricting items they can and cannot trade. This is total collective punishment of an entire population.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is now traveling the world, making veiled threats to countries that are considering giving aid to Palestine. So far, the Arab countries have told her to "stick it," and are sending some aid to Palestine. The final proof of AIPAC control of our foreign policy in the Middle East is simply to compare what Congress says about "human rights" in other countries to what we are actually doing to the "human rights" of not only the Iraqis but, just as important, to innocent Palestinian men, women and children.

We should ask -- who does this benefit? This doesn't benefit America in any way. In fact, in harms us, both in the Middle East and world-wide. So why are we doing this? The answer can only be that the US Congress is totally corrupted by special interests and has not even a speck of ethics or morality left.

Average Americans do not realize what we are doing in Palestine because they don't read details of bills coming out of Congress. There are those who try to say that people who are so focused on this particular issue do so only because they hate Jews or Israel. Wrong. People who know what is actually going on are "focused" on this issue because it is THE most blatant example in history of our government officially and publicly actively abusing "human rights."

People focused on this issue realize that our Congress is morally sick. It's time Americans woke up and realized what our role in the Palestinian genocidal game shows about us -- what it means, not only to us but to the world.

RENFRO
C/O MIUWS-11@ADELPHIA.NET