Can Zinni Succeed? [Archives:2002/12/Focus]

COMMON SENSE
Hassan Al-Haifi
After close to 15 years of trying alone, most informed observers are not convinced that the United States alone is capable of producing any meaningful, just and lasting peace in the Holy Land. Moreover, in any persistent dispute between any two parties, for which outside help is called for to bring the disputing parties together, one would expect that any mediation effort would include the participation of an arbitration tribunal made of at least three members. The antagonists would choose two arbitrators themselves, and a neutral third arbitrator, who is familiar about the matter in dispute, would be selected by the latter. Yet, the United States continues to insist that it is the only one that has jurisdiction over any matter in this region, including its oil, rulers and the land stolen from its indigenous people by foreign aliens, with the help of American arms and money! The result is a continuos bloodbath inspired by a continuous urge by what I believe is an evil Zionist cancer that seeks to swell throughout the area, spreading havoc in the region and seeking to satisfy its bloodthirsty craves by distorting the demographic realities of the region.
This observer has no doubts about the ability of the US in getting a settlement of the Middle East conflict, if it really and objectively sought this end. However, after all these years of “trying”, it seems to me that the American mediation effort is proving to be an effort to postpone a finale to the conflict. The aim of this stalling effort seems to be more in response to Zionists hopes of completing as much of their designs in the Holy Land as possible than an effort to uproot the real causes of the conflict. In fact, these efforts at mediation may be a part of the Zionists designs themselves, with the mediator knowing or not knowing accordingly.
The monopoly in the interference in Middle East affairs, enjoyed by the United States, has shown over the last 10 days of incessant violence and cold blooded murder, unleashed by one of the most powerful military machines of the modern world a pet project of the United States itself is that the United States, to say the least, is very slow in alleviating the exacerbation of the situation. Moreover, the reluctance of the United States to call a spade a spade does not lend credence to its claim that it wishes to arrive to a just settlement of the problem. Moreover, the US is reluctant to get its Zionist ally, to respect the international community’s desire for a peaceful climax to the suffering of the indigenous population of Palestine seems somewhat ludicrous.
The argument that any other party that might be involved will be “biased” against Israel is not convincing. This is especially so when considering that the United States has yet to prove that its unfair division of sentiment and sympathy does not indicate that the United States can play the even handed role of a mediator.
Whatever the case, it seems clear that General Zinni is in for a tough challenge to American foreign policy. Can Zinni engineer the settlement that will help to enhance the American image among the population of the region? There are many here that have gotten fed up with the American closed – eye attitude to the mood of the general population in the area. Hedging on the power and influence of Zionist finances and political leverage at home, and on the callous inclinations of the rulers of the Arab World, is not a rational basis for foreign policy.

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