{Jalaluddin Hussain is a veteran editor of New Trend who lives in Montreal. He has been writing MONTREAL PERSPECTIVES for ten years and has many readers. His commentary on the most dangerous pro-Israeli initiative which has been brought forth by the Saudi Crown Prince makes important reading.}

Montreal Perspectives By Jalaluddin S. Hussain

Abdullah's "initiative", a grand betrayal!

Daily, The Gazette, Montreal of February 27, 2002, has a banner headline:"Peace hopes fueled: Israelis, U.S. encouraged by Saudi Mideast initiative." In fact it is no initiative. It is truly a betrayal of the Palestinian cause. If Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has proposed "establishment of peace and diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and other Arab States in return for withdrawal from the territories it seized in the 1967 Six Day War, including the West Bank Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. In the absence the details of the proposal and the fact that both the super-terrorists, Ariel Sharon and George Bush have shown interest, it can be safely assumed that whatever the proposal it has much less to offer than what has already been offered based on the several United Nations' Security Council resolutions. In fact this farce of a proposal tantamount to showing insensitivity and ridiculing the martyrdom of hundreds of Palestinians, children, women and men all, who have already been killed in the two Intifadas, during the last more than 10 years.

Most probably the Abdullah proposal aims at getting recognition of the terrorist state of Israel by all the Arab states and keeping intact the thousands of settlements of American, Canadian and Russian Zionists, in the heart of the Occupied Palestine. It is ironical that while the American- proclaimed terrorist, Osama bin Laden, who really wanted the Americans out of Saudi Arabia and genuine freedom for the Palestinians, was "smoked out" by the American military in Afghanistan mountains, the Crown Prince Abdullah was spoken of highly and praised by President Bush!

Fahd Plan revisited – minus "right of return" plus "settlements"!

What is being trumpeted as Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah‘s " initiative" is nothing new. Although the details of his initiatives have yet not been made public, one thing is clear: if the two super-terrorists, George Bush and Ariel Sharon are supportive of it, then surely there is something in the "initiative" against the Palestinians. Had the initiative been viable or worth considering the Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular, long ago would have agreed it to, when it was first presented in the form of Fahd Plan. Even twenty years ago the offer stipulated, "full withdrawal from the occupied territories, in accord with UN resolutions, including Jerusalem and full normalization of relations". The plan also envisaged dismantling of Israeli settlements (at that time there were only small percentage of settlements compared to the proliferation of settlements today), guarantees of freedom of worship, affirmation of Palestinian refugee's right to return and compensation for those who do not go back and to top it all and independent Palestinian State, following a brief UN-monitored transition period. Compared to Fahd Plan, which ultimately met its death at Morocco Arab League Summit, Abdullah's initiative has not much chance to be even considered by the forthcoming meeting of the Arab League. While massacre of the Palestinians continue in the Occupied Territories it is difficult not to understand why the Arab position has hardened. Simply put, Abdullah plan is meant to gain more time so that all of the Palestinian territories, which hitherto belonged to the Palestinian Authority under the chairmanship of Yasser Arafat, is reoccupied by the Zionist Sharon government with the active connivance of the American government!

Israel – a colonial settler state of the twenty-first century!

Although, written about 35 years ago, Maxime Rodinson's book, "Israel – A Colonial –Settler State", can still be considered as one of the most authentic and thoroughly documented study of Zionist colonization and the process by which the State of Israel was formed. How correct is Maxime to conclude that, "the creation of the State of Israel on Palestinian soil, is the great European American movement of expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, whose aim was to settle new inhabitants among other peoples or to dominate them economically and politically". Again, Maxime correctly diagnosed that, war against Zionism was the only way out of situation created by Israel.

Hidden Agendas – a powerful new book of facts unknown

John Pilger's paperback edition of "Hidden Agendas" is a powerful new book, about which the Independent newspaper of U.K. commented: " A moral interpretation of world affairs in a cynical age". The back-cover comments also provide a concise analysis of the 610-page text, in the following words:

" By unraveling the hidden histories of contemporary events, Pilger allows us to read between the lines… Tenaciously researched and written with passion and wit, "Hidden Agendas" will change the way you see the world".

In the ten chapters of the book, with topics like The Terrorists, Arming the World, The Roots of War, the Media Age and Return to Viet Nam, the political awareness of the readers is raised to the maximum and they start appreciating and understanding the hidden agendas of the contemporary imperialist entities like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Sentences like the following can only be read in "Hidden Agendas" and not in op-ed articles of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Vancouver Sun, The Montreal Gazette or the Ottawa Citizen:

- National survey in the U.S.A. show that the federal government must protect the most vulnerable in society, especially the poor and elderly by guaranteeing minimum living standards and providing social benefits, including support for the disabled, unemployment insurance medical and child care.

- Introductory quotations in "The Terrorist" chapter (page 19) are Al Capone, the American Mafia gangster saying: "I use very big money. I use guns too…" and Al Haig, the former American Secretary of State, saying: " You just give me the word and I will turn that fucking little island (British colony of Diego Garcia) into a parking lot (for American bombers)."

- Shortly before the American attack on Iraq in1991, the right wing Cambridge academic John Casey announced that the Western powers could now do what they like in the Third World. (Page 39).

- In the first year of the U.K. Labour administration the government staged one of the biggest ever jamborees at Farnborough. Some 300 U.K. arms company mounted exhibitions under the auspices of Ministry of Defence. The British government invited buyers from more than ninety countries, including those on the Amnesty International's Torture List, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

- Multinational corporations are not the equivalent of independent sovereign states as some of the their opponents believe, They are shock troops of the imperial powers the United States, Japan and Europe and their web of clubs, notably the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). These exist to ‘open up' countries to ‘competitivemness a current euphemism for downright plunder.

- The Osama bin Laden obsession!

A recent report in daily The Gazette of Montreal talks about a secret tape, which was made of a 90-minute interview, which took place between Mary Mardal, a security screening officer with Canada's spy agency (Canadian Security Intelligence Service – CSIS) and Fathi Mohammad Aowad, who immigrated as a refugee in 1991. This tape was made at a Toronto area immigration office by Aowads' legal counsel, Harry Kopyto. Some of the questions asked and taped secretly during that interviews are:

- Do you have any idea where bin Laden would be right now? (After asking this question the CSIS agent hinted at the prospect of millions of dollars of award.).

- (Paraphrase of response): How can a construction worker know the whereabouts of bin Laden when he did not leave Canada during the last 11 years?

- Legal counsel's justification for turning over to the news agencies was to let the public know " the assumptions government agencies make when they have to deal with immigrants of Muslim or Arab origin.

This writer can believe this news item particularly because more than 5 years ago (much before the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks on Pentagon and the WTC), when he was advised by one of the CSIS operatives to not to write for the New Trend, which was a hate magazine but instead continue writing for Nightshift, the McGill University's continuing education students newspaper, which incidentally this writer also edits). It is true that democracy and freedom of expression have their limits!

Ottawa Citizen is a pro-Israel daily, which comes out of the Canadian capital city and is owned by Israel Asper, the Zionist owner of CanWest Global media conglomerate. Its February 25, 2002, editorial is reproduced below, without comments:

"Some time this week a United Nations committee is expected to give the green light to holding a review conference on last year's global meeting on racism.

Review conference? The reviews are already in: the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa, last September was ridiculous. Anti-Israel rhetoric flared; nations with tradition of tolerance were attacked. Africa wanted reparations for slavery.

Had the Durban conference been about racism, reviewing it might be useful. But it was forum for intolerance and idiocy. Let it die."
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2002-04-06 Sat 08:08ct