Friday, January 09, 2009

Pro-Israel London Rally In Cease-Fire Game

Jewish organisations, fed up with pro-Hamas, pseudo-liberal media bias are planning a pro-Israel rally in London on Sunday, as political leaders continue to jump on the Gaza bandwagon, keen to be seen as players in the cease-fire game. With a wave of anti-Semitic violence and anti-Israel demonstrations in London, Jewish organisations have had enough.

Politicians are strutting around with an eye on photos and headlines, in an effort to boost their popularity and politically correct credentials.

The Orange Party has lost count of the number of political leaders quick to throw in their two penneth using the common theme of "ending the humanitarian suffering of Palestinians" to try to give themselves a popularity boost. But the gap between PR rhetoric and realistic solutions is huge.

Earlier this week, the Orange Party drew attention to the deafening silence from the useless US middle east 'peace' envoy Tony Blair. Sure as eggs is eggs, Blair popped up the following day with meaningless drivel, which captured some headlines but showed him up as a complete waste of space. 

Here, both Brown and foreign secretary Miliband are not averse to the occasional political posturing and the UK government occasionally pops its head above the parapet. But, as a major arms exporter to Israel, the government prefers to keep its head down and export licences for arms sales under wraps. 

With peacemaking comes power and prestige. Now the field is crowded with players including Turkey, Russia, numerous European leaders, the UN Secretary General, Qatar, Egypt and in the background, the US.

Both French president Sarkozy and Egyptian president Mubarak, stand to gain from the media attention. Israel is happy to go along with the cease-fire farce if it helps soften a hostile pro-Arab media, particularly in Europe.

A realistic, lasting and stable cease-fire requires a huge and costly effort to make sure it works, otherwise the violence will start up again and escalate. 

Egypt hasn't stopped Hamas from getting weapons, smuggling them into Gaza and lobbing them at Israel. Europe and France in particular have failed to implement a UN Security Council Resolution which ended the 2006 Lebanon war. 

Fine speeches and an international force have not prevented Palestine's Hizbullah from rebuilding and increasing its arsenal of rockets with its sights on northen Israel. 

European monitors at the Egyptian/Gaza Rafah crossing fled at the first sight of Hamas gunmen. Europeans are good at giving advice but few have the political will to enforce Israeli security when agreements are violated.

The key to ending the conflict rests with the US, where Bush along with Germany's Chancellor Merkel stand out, pinning the blame squarely on Iran-backed Hamas.

The US is the only power that can give credibility to a stable and serious cease-fire agreement. But the US abstention in the UN security vote shows the realism of the US and UK position. The US and UK are over-stretched and over there in Iraq and Afghanistan and cannot afford to divert troops to UN peace-keeping and monitoring forces. 

Meanwhile both the BBC and the Iranian president's favourite broadcaster, Channel 4, continue to play down the attacks on Israel, the wave of anti-Semitic violence escalating in Europe and the pro-Israel street protests, preferring instead to lay the 'humanitarian' charge.

Jewish organisations say they "cannot remain passive to the latest anti-Semitic incidents and anti-Israel demonstrations which have been taking place in the UK" and are due to stage a mass rally of solidarity in Trafalgar Square on Sunday.

What some still fail to realise is that Israel's action have been at least a year in the planning and training. Faced with continued Iran-backed Hamas rocket attacks and total failure to prevent Hamas smuggling in more through the Egyptian tunnel network, Israel will not give up, until its military objectives have been met. 

The stability of any cease-fire will depend on Israel's current military achievements. Any premature end will simply serve as the starting point for the next round in the Iran-backed Hamas avowed intent to wipe out the state of Israel. 

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