Palestinians hail George H.W. Bush as ‘the only US president to stand up to Israel’

PA leader Abbas sends condolence letter to president George W. Bush, whose late father pushed for major Israeli-Palestinian peace conference

ed note–if true, and at this point there is little reason to doubt that for the most part it probably is, what can we say except–

WOW…

In the first case, one reacts with amazement over the fact that GHWB was not the ‘only US president to stand up to Israel’.

–JFK did it and was rewarded with a bullet to the head…

–Nixon did it and was rewarded with Watergate…

–Ford did it and was rewarded with the disgrace of electoral defeat…

–Dittoes with Carter…

–Clinton did it and was rewarded with Impeachment…

More important than the historical inaccuracy of all of this however is the fact that even though GHWB did indeed ‘push back’ against Israel in terms of the settlements, that his bigger claim to fame is his personal involvement in the destruction of Iraq, opening the door for what has now been an almost 30 year war against that country, resulting not only in millions of people losing their lives, but as well which has served as the ‘gateway’ for the next dominoes viz the destruction of Libya, Syria, Yemen, and all the rest of the turmoil in the Middle East that has now turned it into a cauldron of human misery and suffering.

And besides what GHWB did to the other Arabs in the region as a result of Desert Storm, the other side of the coin is that by his actions, Israel has been strengthened both in terms of military hardware, political protection/support, and of course, a more sympathetic view of the Jewish state in America. Indeed, every time a Palestinian takes a bullet or a family has a bomb dropped on their home, much of the momentum for doing so is the result of the increased political position that Israel now enjoys as a result of America lighting the fires presently burning up the Middle East under the presidency of GHWB. 

But–at least as it involves those elements within the Palestinian community cited in this news piece–none of that matters…

Rather, what counts is the fact that GHWB ‘stood up’ against the settlements, which in fact he did not really do, only changed American posture by  ‘delaying’ the 10 billion in loans that eventually wound up in Israel’s coffers anyway.

All of this serves as a very important lesson viz better understanding what is taking place in the here and now. With such a myopic view of things, is it any wonder then how/why the Palestinians allow themselves to get so exorcised over issues such as Joo-roo-salem and other surface-level gestures which Trump has put into motion in the interests of staving off what will be the mother of all genocides once Israel has the ‘right’ government in power that has no fear whatsoever of world opprobrium or condemnation, when they are so quick to turn a blind eye to what GHWB put into motion viz Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc, but yet remember him respectfully as being ‘the only president’ to ever stand up to Israel?

Times of Israel

Palestinian leaders on Saturday expressed their condolences over the death of former US president George H.W. Bush, whose backing of the 1991 Madrid Conference helped lay the groundwork for the landmark Oslo peace accords.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Executive Committee who was spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid conference, said Bush was the only Israeli leader willing to stand up to Israel.

‘He was the only US President with the guts to stand up to Israel and link $10b loan guarantees to cessation of settlement activities,’ she wrote on her Twitter account.

Ashrawi, who was part of a delegation to meet with Bush at the White House in 1992, was referencing the Bush administration’s withholding of loan guarantees Israel was seeking at the time as a way of pressuring prime minister Yitzhak Shamir to take part in the conference.

Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died Friday at age 94.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter of condolences to Bush’s son, 43rd president George W. Bush, ‘offering his sincere sympathy and condolences over the death of his father,’ according to the official Wafa news agency.

Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO and top peace peace negotiator, also expressed his condolences over Bush’s death.

‘We extend our sympathies to you and his family and to the American people,’ he wrote on Twitter.

As president, Bush held direct talks with the PLO — which was then considered a terror organization by the US — after predecessor Ronald Reagan authorized the US to hold negotiations in his final days in office following Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat renouncement of terrorism and recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

During the Gulf War, which saw a US-led coalition expel Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces from neighboring Kuwait, PLO leader Yasser Arafat notoriously expressed support for Iraq, though this did not affect Bush’s efforts to push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

In a sharp shift from the Reagan administration, Bush was sharply critical at times of Israel’s use of force to put down the First Initifada, and had an often testy relationship with Israel’s Shamir and the US Jewish community.

Along with the Soviet Union, the US under Bush was a sponsor of the 1991 Madrid Conference, which though initially opposed by Shamir would help pave the way for the signing of the Oslo Accords two years later under the premiership of Yitzhak Rabin.

Those accords, which were finalized during the presidency of Bill Clinton, led to the creation of the self-governing Palestinian Authority and established the framework for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Bush’s backing of the Madrid conference was also noted in a condolence statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hailed the late US president’s ‘efforts to achieve peace’ between Israel and the Palestinians.