Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(May 2004)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Real estate for sale—lifetime mortgage
required:
Perhaps my first task should be to give you an
interpretation of how I viewed the situation that I knew
as the Palestine policing problem, and how I, (as a young
British soldier, who spent nearly two years there during
the 1946/1948 time frame), saw what I perceived to be
the future of the proposed Israeli and Palestinian States.
 From
the time that I arrived in Palestine I gained the opinion
that the Israeli "takeaway" program had started
long before the British Government were finally coerced
by American and British Jewish influence to pull British
troops out of Palestine in order for the Jewish people
to broaden the "lebensraum" of the planned new
state of Israel by future virtual land grabs.
I was certain, even at that time, that plans were afoot
for the eventual takeover by the Jewish people of the
whole of Palestine, stretching from the northern cities
of Haifa/Safed to the southern city of Gaza which borders
on the Sinai desert.
The first "major" takeaway was the annexing
of the Golan Heights, (which was captured from Syria),
and most of the West Bank (which was captured from Jordan),
during the 1967 Middle East war.
This was followed by a takeover of most of the coastal
strip and the adjacent fertile valleys.
The post 1967 era building of settlements upon Arab land
in the West Bank area was the most audacious move made
yet by Israel to expand the new Jewish State.
Since that time, some 50 years ago, American money and
weaponry has poured into the State of Israel on the pretext
of establishing a Jewish State which would act as a buffer
between the potential warring factions of Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, with the idea one would assume
of protecting American oil interests in the Middle East.
Now we come to the present day. President Bush recently
met with Aerial Sharon at the White House - can one assume
that dollars were traded for a promise that Israel would
provide a sop to world opinion by reducing some of the
settlements built on Arab land in Gaza and the West Bank?
Did I hear objections from the American Administration
that the reduction in number of settlements was far too
miniscule and did not meet even a small fraction of the
proposed return to pre-1967 Palestinian borders?
No - very much to the contrary, President Bush praised
Sharon for the action he was about to take, which included
the unilateral Israeli decision to change the West Bank
borders in order to retain the Israeli real estate which
had been built upon Arab land.
President Bush expressed support for the Israeli plan
to retain six major settlement blocs, (small cities),
in the West Bank.
Did I hear of a plan to stop the encroachment upon Arab
land by extending the West Bank "Segregation Wall"?
The answer is no to all these questions. What I did hear,
was that Sharon proposed keeping six major settlements
in the West Bank area by changing the West Bank borders
to the advantage of Israel.
The European Union reacted angrily to the proposal and
questioned the legality of the unilateral border changes
being introduced by Sharon, as it was a contravention
of International law which would set dangerous precedents.
 President
Bush apparently agreed that a Palestinian State was a
political necessity, but ruled out allowing Palestinian
refugees to return to Israel after the creation of such
a State. !!!
A few days after Sharon returned to Israel, on Saturday
the seventeenth of April 2004 an Israel helicopter gunship
fired rockets at a car killing the Hamas leader Abdel
Aziz Rantissi. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon congratulated
the Israeli army on the killing of the Hamas leader. The
United States - (Israel’s staunchest ally) - refrained
from condemning the violent attack. Condoleezza Rice stated
that the United States had no advanced warning, or knowledge,
of Israeli operations aimed at killing Mr. Rantissi.
Today the eighteen of April 2004, tens of thousands
of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza condemning
the attack and vowing revenge.
My comment: It is inevitable that the Palestinians will
extract revenge on the Israeli people for the recent killing
of the Hamas leader. Surely the time has come for both
sides to act with restraint, and in the name of humanity
stop the constant reprisal killings.
I would suggest that two paragraphs entitled: The Israeli
situation #1 and The Israeli situation #2, located in
the April
2002 edition of the newsletter on www.huddersfield1.co.uk
would make good prior reading, as they still appear to
have a degree of relevance to the Palestinian/Israeli
situation, as it is even to this very day.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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