Who cares about “Palestine”? No one

By Ted Belman
(enlarged Feb 20th)

So what about the Roadmap?

When the Roadmap was first talked about in 2002, I made an effort to understand where it was coming from and wrote A Unifying Theory. After the Iraq War started in the Spring of ’04, I updated my thoughts and wrote Perfecting the Unifying Theory. I urge you to read both of these articles.

In both of these articles I linked the Roadmap to the Iraq War. I also linked it to the creation of a new ME as envisioned by Bush. Now, four years later, Iraq is a quagmire, the ME has changed for the worse and no one has proceeded down the Roadmap.

Other than going through the motions and uttering the odd restraining order, Bush hasn’t forced Israel to do anything. Rice on her recent trip kept preferencing her demands on Abbas with the phrase “If you want a two-state solution…” or words to that effect. This reminded me of the key speech Bush made in June ’02 when he also conditioned the creation of Palestine on a number of things, key among them was turning way from terror. The demands included; recognize Israel, accept all previous agreements and forswear violence. She could have just demanded that the Agreements be accepted because they require the other two. Instead by putting emphasize on the other two, she is putting into question the two state solution.

In many of my articles I have suggested that there is no way that the US will force Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria or for that matter let it. Another disengagement would bring even more chaos to the region then the withdrawal from Gaza. Withdrawal is what the left in Israel wants, it is not what Bush wants.

According to a Report from JCPA, the Mecca Accords deal a death blow to the peace process and the plans of the EU and the US.

Hamas’ objective upon its entry into the PLO is to take control of the Palestinian national movement, which brings with it exclusive representation of the Palestinian people together with control of the PLO’s financial institutions and its international status. Afterwards, it is but a short distance (and Hamas leaders declare this openly) to an ideological reform which will expunge any sign of recognizing Israel

Hamas, as an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood, have their own vision of the New Middle East and it doesn’t include Israel. We must keep in mind that this deal was brokered by Saudi Arabia. The question is, was it with or without US approval? After all its stated intent was to separate Hamas from Iran. Hmmm.

Bush is now focused on Iran and its growing influence and efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. He needs Israel to be strong and secure to help him meet all contingencies. It is for this reason he has prevented Israel from talking to Syria with a view to withdrawing from the Golan. He also needs Israel to deal with Hezbollah should the Siniori government be nearing collapse. And he must keep Israel in Judea and Samaria to protect Jordan. Who cares about a “Palestinian” state? No one.

The bigger picture is even more reassuring to a degree. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been allies of the US since they were created. They both helped to drive Russia out of Afghanistan and together they created al Qaeda. Maintaining a presence in Afghanistan is in all their interests because it borders Iran and Russia. Similarly they backed Chechniya’s war against Russia. The US has brought former Muslim states of the USSR, namely Kasakhstan and Uzbekistan into the western orbit and has done likewise with Georgia and Azerbaijan. All of these Muslim states have great oil reserves, so far untapped. The last realignment just being completed is the breakup of Yugoslavia thereby reducing Serbia in size and effectively removing it from the Russian orbit. In doing so it will be complicit in the severance of Muslim Kosovo and its incorporation into greater Albania. The US has a great capacity to tolerate Muslim terrorists and demonization, not to mention Wahabbi schools and mosques all over the world, in the service of diminishing Russia. The invasion of the Balkans by NATO also had to do with extending NATO’s suzerainty to the Black Sea. It also has to do with establishing an oil transport corridor from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean which is controlled by the US and NATO. It is no surprise than that UNIFIL is now in Lebanon. Although its current Mandate is limited, that can be changed simply by Siniori asking for help. Obviously the enemy of the west is Syria and Russia.

Is it any wonder than that Russia is supplying nuclear technology to Iran and arms to both Syria and Iran.

The US support for the PLO and the PA must be seen as part of a US policy of using Islamic terrorists to destabilize countries they want destabilized or conquered,e.g. Afghanistan, Chechniya, Yugoslavia, the list goes on. The necessary conclusion is that the US wants to keep Israel under its thumb.

Of major importance to US plans is the building of an oil pipeline from Baku (Azerbaijan) via Tbilisi (Georgia) to Ceyhan (Turkey), terminating at the Ceyhan Mediterranean Sea port in Turkey. This is now exporting and is known as the BTC pipeline. It will carry oil from Kasakhstan and Uzbekestan to the Mediterranean.

It is obvious that Saudi Arabia and the US are working in concert to bring the Muslim states formerly part of the USSR into their orbit. Thus Bush stands by Saudi Arabia when he pronounces ad nauseum “Islam is a religion of peace”. The UK is also part of this alliance. It was in the ME before the US was and was already in bed with the House of Saud before the US joined them.

It is not lost on me that there is a sizable number of restless Azeries in Iran, which lies to the south. Similarly there are over 10 million Kurds in Turkey and about two million in Iran. Look for an independent Kurdistan to be created and included in the alliance. Israel already has a strong military relation with the Kurds also.

Finally the US is working to reconcile Pakistan with India, its new found friend, by resolving the Kashmir conflict. India used to be non-aligned but friendly to the USSR. India is now a friend of Israel and the US. Much of this oil will go from Eilat to India thereby bringing India into the alliance.

Strangely the bombing of Lebanon by Israel is connected to this pipeline. The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, July 26, 2006, sets it out,

Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World’s largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more than a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?

Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC) oil pipeline, which links the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli sponsored bombings of Lebanon.

One day before the Israeli air strikes, the main partners and shareholders of the BTC pipeline project, including several heads of State and oil company executives were in attendance at the port of Ceyhan. They were then rushed off for an inauguration reception in Istanbul, hosted by Turkey’s President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in the plush surroundings of the Çýraðan Palace.

Also in attendance was British Petroleum’s (BP) CEO, Lord Browne together with senior government officials from Britain, the US and Israel. BP leads the BTC pipeline consortium. Other major Western shareholders include Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, France’s Total and Italy’s ENI. (see Annex)

Israel’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was present at the venue together with a delegation of top Israeli oil officials.

The BTC pipeline totally bypasses the territory of the Russian Federation. It transits through the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia, both of which have become US “protectorates”, firmly integrated into a military alliance with the US and NATO. Moreover, both Azerbaijan and Georgia have longstanding military cooperation agreements with Israel.

Israel has a stake in the Azeri oil fields, from which it imports some twenty percent of its oil. The opening of the pipeline will substantially enhance Israeli oil imports from the Caspian sea basin.

But there is another dimension which directly relates to the war on Lebanon. Whereas Russia has been weakened, Israel is slated to play a major strategic role in “protecting” the Eastern Mediterranean transport and pipeline corridors out of Ceyhan.

Militarization of the Eastern Mediterranean

The bombing of Lebanon is part of a carefully planned and coordinated military road map. The extension of the war into Syria and Iran has already been contemplated by US and Israeli military planners. This broader military agenda is intimately related to strategic oil and oil pipelines. It is supported by the Western oil giants which control the pipeline corridors. In the context of the war on Lebanon, it seeks Israeli territorial control over the East Mediterranean coastline. (This obviously didn’t happen.)

In this context, the BTC pipeline dominated by British Petroleum, has dramatically changed the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean, which is now linked , through an energy corridor, to the Caspian sea basin:

“[The BTC pipeline] considerably changes the status of the region’s countries and cements a new pro-West alliance. Having taken the pipeline to the Mediterranean, Washington has practically set up a new bloc with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Israel, ” (Komerzant, Moscow, 14 July 2006)

Israel is now part of the Anglo-American military axis, which serves the interests of the Western oil giants in the Middle East and Central Asia.

While the official reports state that the BTC pipeline will “channel oil to Western markets”, what is rarely acknowledged is that part of the oil from the Caspian sea would be directly channeled towards Israel. In this regard, an underwater Israeli-Turkish pipeline project has been envisaged which would link Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon and from there through Israel’s main pipeline system, to the Red Sea.

The objective of Israel is not only to acquire Caspian sea oil for its own consumption needs but also to play a key role in re-exporting Caspian Sea oil back to the Asian markets through the Red Sea port of Eilat. The strategic implications of this re-routing of Caspian Sea oil are far reaching. [..]

Don’t miss the rest of this fascinating article.

So there you have it. Who cares about Palestine? No One.