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Howdy Partner! Has Israel been Bush Whacked?

by Djelloul (Del) Marbrook

"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the state of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent."

-President Bush, Jan. 7, 2008

This space has never lost an opportunity to criticize President Bush, but he has now started his last year in office by taking the most important forward step in foreign policy in decades, and it should be well noted. He has told Israel, the sacred cow of American politics, to get off its intransigence, return the land it took from the Arabs in 1967 and accept a viable Palestinian state, emphasis on viable.

The President's critics may argue that in the waning months of his administration this was a less than courageous stand to take, but I would argue that that there is no way to detract from its courage. Not one major seeker after the presidency has had the guts to confront this long-festering issue, so beholden are American politicians to the Israel lobby. Let's see if tomorrow the deaf talking heads on the Sunday "news" shows have the chutzpah to examine this presidential landmark.

Our toleration of Israeli belligerence and land-grabbing has poisoned our relations with the Muslim world and has been contrary to our best interests. We have refused to craft a policy that both supports Israel, as indeed we should, and yet refuses to support her imperialist tendencies, which are not shared by a majority of her own population.

We have adhered to this folly because our evangelical apocalyptos regard Israel as an instrument of the end time, not because they have any love of Jews, but because Israel is as useful to their fundamentalist view as the Jews were useful to the Nazis as scapegoats. Jews who deceive themselves about this do Israel no favors, and they certainly do the United States no favors.

The President's comments have earned no kudos in the Arab press, but sensible Arabs will mark their importance. The candidates running for office are hoping they can get away with ignoring them. A sensible electorate would insist they face up to this ongoing foreign policy nightmare, from which the President has now given us some hope of awakening.

Whatever else history may say about George W. Bush, it must say he has now stood up against a squalid record of political cowardice and self-destructiveness. Let's hope his successor has the stamina and wisdom to stay the course he has set.

Djelloul (Del) Marbrook was the editor of six daily newspapers and held editorial posts on several major metropolitan dailies. He is the winner of the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize of Kent State University whose press will publish his book, Far From Algiers, next fall. For more information www.djelloulmarbrook.com or www.myspace.com/delmarbrook.

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