The Annapolis covenant which was signed less than a week ago finds itself at the crossroads already with one of two possible outcomes to choose from. The first outcome is the optimistic one and the second is the pessimistic one. The Arabs who want to be left alone to develop their economies and their societies have brought into the process a great deal of magnanimity and optimism. On the other side, there is the Israeli Zionist lobby which started to sabotage the covenant even as it was being signed.
This trend became apparent when upon the urging of Israel, the United States withdrew the draft resolution that sought support for the agreement only hours after the US had asked the Security Counsel of the UN to endorse it. And it is this silly and self-defeating hesitation on the part of the United States which demonstrates the determination and the power of the Israeli Zionist lobby to paralyze the ability of the Americans to govern themselves as an independent nation and thus disrupt the Annapolis process.
Luckily, the United States of America is not the only big power in this endeavor. There are the other members of the Quartet, mainly Europe, Russia and the UN. And so, while it is the view of the Zionist lobby that America is a tool in their hands and a means to an end, the countries of Russia and most of Europe see themselves as having contributed to a World Civilization that started in North Africa and the Middle East thousands of years ago.
Those countries feel a certain kinship with the peoples of the region and an obligation towards their wellbeing which may well transcend, even neutralize the servile responses that America will display again and again every time Israel will command her to do something silly and self defeating.
It is therefore not surprising to see the symbols of that history boil up to the surface when we look at the forces that move the present events in this part of the World. I shall restrict my discussion to what has come to be known as the Fertile Crescent, a stretch of land that comprises Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt.
Palestine is the concern of the Annapolis process, Egypt is the place where the quest for peace in the Middle began in earnest 30 years ago, and Iraq of Mesopotamia is the dark cloud that has forced the United States of America to finally realize that Pax Americana was a failed idea which must be replaced by something else, something like the Annapolis process.
The force that has powered the Egyptian Civilization for thousands of years has been optimism. Flanked by protective deserts on both sides of the Nile, the Egyptians felt secure in their homeland and they developed a love of life so powerful, they imagined the good life to continue unabated after death. To this day, no matter what disaster befalls them, the Egyptians quickly rebound, wear anew their optimistic nature and pursue their usual zest for life. Peace being the most important ingredient for fashioning an enjoyable life and for maintaining it, the Egyptians have adopted an eternal quest for peace.
Mesopotamia, on the other hand, has been the favorite route or destination of every trader, invader or intruder who lived or who came near to that part of the world and who coveted someone else’s possession. It has been a place where the inhabitants suffered at the hands of everyone and so they developed a sense of pessimism unparalleled in the ancient and modern worlds. To this day, the Iraqis adhere to that sense of pessimism when it comes to their personal lot and to their national situation. To them, the calamity they live at present under American occupation is part and parcel of this condition.
As to the influence that the ancient World has had on Europe, there has been several attempts to define the roots of Western Civilization but the one that stood the test of time was the fact that Western Civilization stands on two pillars. They are: one, the optimism of Egypt as represented by the immortality of the soul which then became the bedrock of Christian doctrine. And two, the pessimism of Mesopotamia as represented by the Code of Hammurabi, a document that aims at controlling the dark side of human nature by relying on a system of laws.
Thus, the forces that will power the Annapolis process from now on will be: First, the generosity of the Arabs who feel satisfied with their lot, their kismet as it is often referred to. Second, the hunger of the Israelis for what belongs to someone else given that they have a difficult time putting together one Jewish state when the Arabs have twenty two of them. Third, the opportunism of the Jewish and non-Jewish Zionists who will fish in dirty waters and try to monetize every event that promises to swell their bank accounts. Fourth, the Europeans who will be motivated on the one hand by the optimism inherent in the Egyptian efforts and on the other hand by the pessimism that flows out of the current situation in Iraq. Fifth, the hesitation of the Americans as the nation convulses trying to free itself from the Zionist yoke and to give itself the look if not the substance of a self-respecting great power.
At this stage of the game, America still remains the most important player in that saga. For this reason, we must understand what forces within it make the country act the way it does, and nothing tells this story better than what got America involved in Iraq some years back. Here, in brief, is that sad story.
It has been established that those in America who started the war against Iraq knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in that country when they launched the offensive in 2003. It has also been established that they were planning to invade Iraq since they were out of power a dozen years before that.
This raises two serious questions. How did these people convince the intelligence agencies in several countries of the lie that such weapons existed? How were they certain that the American public will buy the lie long enough to take the war to the point of no return before someone asks the relevant questions?
To answer these questions, we observe that the people who planned the war in the early Nineteen Nineties were comrades in what has come to be known as the neo-conservative or neocon movement. We also observe that the people who deceived the intelligence agencies in several countries were agents of the Israeli government. And we observe that the people who deceived the American public were neocon warriors strategically placed in the media, in the think tanks and in high public places.
This is how it all went: Agents of the Israeli government used a well known technique of disinformation to pull the scam. They started the rumors and fed the same false information to a handful of European agencies about uranium being purchased by Iraq in Niger. This trick established several sources for the same information. When other agencies checked the rumors, they found that several sources had the same information and concluded that it must be correct.
Given the high degree of coordination that was necessary to pull a feat of this nature, we must ask if Israel and the neocons belonged to one and the same organization. The answer is that they have always been one and the same organization. If so, then the war in Iraq and the numerous excuses which were given to justify it were part of an elaborate conspiracy that goes back to the early Nineteen Nineties if not before. This leads to the question: what was the conspiracy about?
We can answer this question by studying the excuses that were given to justify the war. When the excuse about the existence of weapons of mass destruction proved to be bogus, there came the one about the need to democratize the Middle East. It was said that democracy is a good thing because it operates in a transparent manner. Transparency places the public in a position to evaluate the choices that are available and to pick what is suitable. Called the rule of law, this is what America sought to shove down the throat of the Iraqis, homeland of Hammurabi the first lawmaler in history.
The trouble is that nobody but the Americans believe they still adhere to the rule of law at home or internationally. A cursory look at what is going on in that country leads to the conclusion that America is owned and operated by special interest groups, the most powerful being the Israeli-Zionist-Neocon group whose not-so-hidden agenda is world domination by any means, legal or illegal.
The only safe conclusion to draw from the above is that the fate of the Annapolis process depends on the outcome of the struggle now raging in America to free the country from the grip of the Israeli-Zionist lobby. If America wins the process will move forward to completion; if America looses the process will die.
To this the Egyptians would say there is hope. The Iraqis would say not in this life. The Europeans would say we have to give it a try. The Russians would say let the World see how trivial America really is. The United Nations would ask what else is there to do? The Americans would say never underestimate the genius of America to rebound after a setback. Stay tuned, folks.