The US and the Middle East

TNI

August 2006

Palestine: Israel's Olmert Comes to Washington 26 May 2006
Phyllis Bennis
President Bush capped Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to Washington with a cautious endorsement of his government’s plan to annex large swathes of Palestinian territory. Bennis analyses the implications of the visit, and looks at the role of Isral in the US-Iran crisis.
Phyllis Bennis Admit you were wrong and help the UN The Guardian, 13 May 2004
Praful Bidwai There May be Other Dirty Hands Besides Sharon's, The Hindu, 19 April 2004
After Bush's embrace of Sharon's unilateral plans that exclude any participation by Palestinians ("Second Balfour Declaration"), it is difficult to believe that the action that followed it - Israel's assassination of Abdul Aziz Rantisi - was not approved by the Bush administration, says Bidwai.
Phyllis Bennis Rouge States Embrace: The Bush - Sharon Conference Institute for Policy Studies, 15 April 2004
As a quid quo pro for Israel pulling out of most of Gaza, Bush has embraced Sharon's unilateral plan to annex six major West Bank settlement blocs and reject the internationally recognized Palestinian right of return. This, argues Bennis, represents a major defeat for Palestinian human rights and international law. Furthermore, Israeli-US negotiations have become the substitute for Israeli-Palestinian talks, with the US free to concede Palestinian land and rights as the British did in the colonial era.
Phyllis Bennis The Assssination of Sheik Yassin and Israel's Push for US Support of Annexation of Settlements Institute for Policy Studies, 29 March 2004
Bennis argues that the assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin marks a serious escalation in Israeli occupation tactics, "While Israel had (in earlier assassination attempts) already crossed the "red line" that once defined some limits in aggressive acts, its message in the Yassin murder was that there are no limits, that Israel's military attacks face no restrictions." Counting accurately on Washington's unwillingness to challenge its aggression, Bennis argues, that the assassination also ushers in a new Israeli campaign to win official US support for wide-spread annexation of major West Bank settlements as part of Tel Aviv's "unilateral withdrawal from Gaza" plan.
Achin Vanaik The Tragedy of Palestine The Hindu, 18 June 2003
The US-sponsored 'roadmap' is simply a repackaging of the old Oslo process, itself meant to create a Palestine permanently subordinate to Israel, and if the Palestinians refuse to accept the terms of surrender then they themselves will be blamed for the continued Israeli occupation.
Achin Vanaik Roadmap to Injustice The Telegraph, 8 May 2003
Phyllis Bennis Bush Mispronounces Middle East Peace End of Occupation (website), 8 July 2002
Phyllis Bennis George Junior in Wonderland TNI Website, 23 April 2002
Speech Phyllis Bennis, 's speech March on Washington, 20 April 2002
Phyllis Bennis Before and After: US Foreign Policy in 2001 To be published in Spanish in CIP-FUHEM's Yearbook 2002
Saul Landau Seeds of Peace or Pessimism? Radio Progreso Weekly, 18 April 2002
Mariano Aguirre An Attack Against Politics and Democracy El correo digital, 12 September 2001
Praful Bidwai Israel's Palestine War. Bush Doctrine in Action India-syndicate.com, 7 December 2001
Achin Vanaik Fortress America The Hindu, 26 September 2001
Saul Landau The Day After TNI Website, 14 September 2001
Hilary Wainwright People to People TNI Website, 18 September 2001
Phyllis Bennis Can the World Step in Where Bush Steps Back? Die Tageszeitung, 6 September 2001
Phyllis Bennis The Newest New World Order Papeles, No. 75, Autumn 2001
Phyllis Bennis and Khaled Mansour Praise God and Pass the Ammunition: The Changing Nature of Israel's US Backers Middle East Report, Fall 1999
Phyllis Bennis, The US Bears Guilt The Baltimore Sun, 11 April 1999
Phyllis Bennis US Strategic Reach in the Middle East InFocus, Vol. 1, No. 17, November 1997
Phyllis Bennis Washington's "New Initiantive" that Isn't Third World Resurgence, 15 September 1997
Phyllis Bennis US-Israel Policy InFocus, Vol. 1, No. 9, November 1996