Pussycat

A Good Article

By Uri Avnery

"CAN A pantheress turn into a pussycat? Impossible, a zoologist would say. But last week, we saw it happen with our own eyes.

Condoleezza Rice came here to teach Ehud Olmert, once and for all, who is boss. The President of the United States wants to make order in the Middle East, and the government of Israel has to fall into line. Otherwise…

Two days later, nothing of the threat remained. Olmert refused again. And what happened? Nothing happened. The fearful pantheress slunk home, her tail between her legs.

Muammar al-Gaddafi, a unique combination of dictator and comedian, complimented the
"dark-skinned African woman", and disclosed that he likes her. She has but to raise her little finger, he said, and all the security chiefs in the Arab world, who are the real rulers of their countries, come running. But even Gaddafi did not argue that she had Israel on the run.

JULIUS CAESAR, as is well known, reported to the Roman Senate "I came. I saw. I conquered." Condoleezza could report to the US Senate: "I came. I saw. I capitulated." Who to? To a failing Israeli prime minister, whose popularity rating is approaching zero and who practically nobody expects to survive to the end of the year......

The united Arab world breathed new life into King Abdullah's peace plan, which offers Israel of recognition, peace and normalization with the entire Arab world, in return for its withdrawal to the borders of June 4, 1967. The plan pays lip service to a "just solution" of the refugee problem (and how could it avoid that?) but states unequivocally that any solution depends on Israeli agreement.....

All the Arab rulers who depend on the US are crying out that they cannot pledge their support as demanded, so long as the pus is still streaming from the occupation tumor. How can the King of Saudi Arabia and the President of Egypt rally their masses for a war against Iran, when they and their subjects are exposed on Aljazeera, morning, noon and evening, to the horrifying sight of the Israeli army attack dog sinking its teeth in the flesh of an old Palestinian woman and locking its jaws?.....

The two professors, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, won this round. In this clash between the national interests of the United States and the Government of Israel and its America fans, the Israeli side won......

Israel's largest mass circulation daily splashed a
sensational headline across its front page: "Olmert: Within Five Years We Can
Achieve Peace!" What? Five years? In 1993 we signed the Oslo accord, which foresaw the final peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian people within five years. Since then, 13 years have passed, and even negotiations on this have not yet started.

It seems that the "five years" belong to the same world of illusions as Condoleezza's "political horizon": as you go forward, it recedes."