Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Sharon and Bush furiously oppose new Israeli and Palestinian Peace Plan What can happen when people of goodwill, representing the views of the majority of their populations get together without a lot of political baggage?  Quite possibly the basis for a permanent peace in the Middle East.   Israel is in an uproar over a secret peace plan, negotiated by former ministers of both Israel and Palestine, who had been active in previous peace negotiations.   The plan, which reports say has the backing of Tony Blair, has provoked a furious reaction among right wing Israelis.   The gist of the plan is that Israel would incorporate about half the current settler population into the new state of Israel through border adjustments, that control of Jerusalem would be shared, and that the Palestinians would give up the right of return, with the exception of a token number of Palestinians (about 20,000) who would be permitted to settle in Israel.   Further, the draft recognizes Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, legally enshrining the Jewish character of the state.   Finally, the Palestinian state would be demilitarized, and security at borders would be provided by an international, non-Israeli force.   Why does the prospect of peace strike such terror into the hearts of Bush and Sharon?  Because they would lose their political raison d'etre.    Both men govern based on a world view that has them fighting terrorism at all costs.  If the terrorism should fade away, what would they be left with—broken countries, broken economies, broken lives.  So they cannot afford to admit that their might be another way.   It is not likely immediately that those who have drafted this accord have the political power to bring it about.  But it squarely puts on the table an alternative to Sharon and Bush’s cry that murder is the only path.   In Europe, it will likely gain huge popular support, and it may gain widespread support in the occupied territories and among the Arab league as well.   Then what?  Do the U.S. and Israel continue to circle the wagons in a last grand gesture of defiance against the world?   Lets have peace now! 1:22:30 PM   comment []    Jackals feasting at the Trough Our political language has been weakened and watered down so much that few of us can describe what is happening to our society anymore.   If I could create a 19th century drawing of the ravishing and dismemberment  of the lady Columbia by jackals and hyenas that would not do justice to what is actually happening.   The current state of the republic can be compared to a prostrate woman being ravished by hyenas.  As each jackal comes in to rip its pound of flesh, the woman writhes and turns, but no matter what she does, she cannot escape from her attackers by herself.    Only when a power stronger than the jackals kicks the dogs out of the way, kills some of them for effect, and banishes them back to their evil lairs can the lady Columbia be rescued, comforted, and regain her life and liberty.   These images sprang to mind reading the Washington Post story about the 285 men and women who were responsible for raising most of the $49.5 million in campaign money Bush reported collecting this quarter.    You see, each of these jackals is getting their pound of flesh in return for their paltry cash.  Not a single person becomes one of Bush’s Rangers or Pioneers (responsible for raising $200,000 or $100,000 respectively), without getting that money back many times over in transfer payments from the government.   Every one of these jackals has business with the government to their benefit, and they are not shy about talking about it.  For example, All told, there are at least 37 Rangers and Pioneers from the finance industry, which has been vocal in its support for the Bush administration's economic program, particularly the tax cuts. Asked what the Bush administration has done for investment banking and the securities industry generally, James Spellman, spokesman for the Securities Industry Association, mentioned, "first and most important, the tax reduction in dividend income and capital gains" These cuts, he said, have "generated more interest in equity investments." The Post story continues Pioneer Dirk Van Dongen of the National Association of Wholesalers-Distributors, routinely advise the White House on business and tax matters. Bush's Pioneers include many prominent Washington figures, such as Bush strategist and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, as well as lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Wayne Berman and Lanny Griffith. Former senators Rudy Boschwitz, Alfonse M. D'Amato and John C. Danforth are on the list, as is former representative Tillie Fowler. The power and energy industries, which the Bush administration has supported repeatedly with both legislative and regulatory initiatives over the objections of environmental groups, have produced at least 14 Rangers and Pioneers. The work of these jackals is the rape of the people of the United States.  First they attack the very concept that government can exist for a common good, claiming there is no such thing as a common good.  Then they take money, either in direct subsidies, like payments for obsolete energy industries such as oil or coal, or through massive transfer payments, as in the repeal of dividend taxes mentioned above by the financiers.  The result is a government by the jackals, for the jackals, and of the jackals. What will Bush do with this money and power?  Another Post story reports on plans by the Bush administration to build “the most elaborate national campaign structure ever built.”  So now we get to the problem of how to drive off a pack of jackals feasting on a prostate body.  You certainly can’t do it like Kerrey and Gephardt and the Democratic national committee, wringing hands, saying “oh my, how terrible these jackals are.”  You need guns, guts, and anger, plus an army. This army to rescue America, or to “take our country back” as Howard Dean puts it, will have to evolve out of something the Pioneers and Rangers can’t understand.  That is, from the genuine collective action of people who care about each other.  The jackals use command and control, orders; they are used to corporate hierarchies where countless business decisions are made at the whim of the CEO.  These people have the same outlook as medieval lords—that their power is granted by divine right and cannot be challenged except by traitors.  Well, we are the traitors then, the same as our ancestors who fought the British and were hanged as traitors to the King. The struggle next year against Bush is not simply another election—if we are successful, it will represent a revolution, a turning point, “the great revulsion” against the jackals, as Paul Krugman says.  Let’s start in a small way, by calling the Pioneers and Rangers the jackals and hyenas they are. 12:02:10 AM   comment []

© Copyright 2003 Toby Sackton. Last update: 11/17/2003; 12:25:57 PM.