Infact Egypt fought a war in Yemen with SA over the future of Yemen. One of the many reasons that Egyptian forces were smacked really hard by Israel during the 67 war was the quagmire that Egypt was involved in in Yemen.
Does that sound like a cohesive Arab position to you?? If the Arab states have such unity why would they constantly bicker and fight with each other.
Let us take another example. Syria, the so called champion of Palestinian rights, is to a large part responsible for defeating the the progressive Lebanese/Palestinian alliance in Lebanon. They smacked them hard in 1975. Then Syria helped evict Arafat from Tripoli. then Syria sponsored deep divisions within the PLO to promote its own interests.
Does that sound like unity to you?
Naji
----- Original Message ----- From: "virgil tibbs" <sheik_of_encino at yahoo.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 10:35 AM Subject: Re: Tom the Exterminator on the Middle East
> Sincere question about duck rows:
>
> Proposition 1: Palestinians are denied a fundamental
> right to self determination (unproblematic)
>
> Proposition 2: There is no cohesive Arab voice
> (pararphrased from one of your previous posts)
>
> Now, given the truth of 1, why is 2 also true?
>
> eric
>
> --- Naji Dahi <n.dahi12 at gte.net> wrote:
> > Nathan,
> >
> > Money is the mother's milk of american poltics. It
> > has been said many, many
> > time. Money, however, is not the only factor. you
> > need a cohesive idea of
> > what you are lobbying for. AIPAC has its ducks in a
> > row, so to speak. To say
> > that there is nothing to gain by discussing AIPAC is
> > astounding. If you do
> > not know how Israel is able to sustain and maintain
> > american support for so
> > long, then how are "we" going to change that immoral
> > and unethical support
> > that denys Palestinians self determination. I have
> > reflected on the sources
> > of US support to Israel many times. The postuales
> > that most of the people on
> > this list believe in has big holes in it. You guys
> > suggest that Israel gets
> > its support only because the Empire allow that to
> > happen. That does not hold
> > water. There are multiple instances of the client
> > dragging the Empire by the
> > nose. The most recent one is of Bush telling Sharon
> > to end the offensive and
> > getting rebuffed since the offensive continues. What
> > does that tell you??
> >
> > The idea that Israel is a strategic asset for the US
> > does not hold water
> > either.
> >
> > 1. Israel is supposed to be buffer against Arab
> > radicalism, but where is
> > that radicalism??? Did not the Arab states just
> > offer Israel peace in
> > exchange for implementing UN 242. Moreover, Israel
> > itself is being
> > radicalized and Jewish fundamentalism is on the
> > rise.
> > 2. Israel is a base for the US to control access to
> > oil. Again this failed
> > the test. when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the US stationed
> > troop on SA and kept
> > Israel on the sidelines for the entire conflict.
> > What kind of help to the US
> > was that?
> > 3. Israel has spied on/in the US. you have the
> > celebrated case of Johnathan
> > pollard and you have the most recent case of the
> > Israeli "art students." If
> > the Empire was really in control of its policy
> > towards Israel, would you
> > really think that the Empire would be that tolerant
> > of Israel's spying??
> >
> >
> > Naji
> >
> > > Fine- but then the whole ominous Israeli lobby
> > argument boils down to the
> > > idea that pro-Israeli forces have been better
> > organizers than their
> > > counterparts, which I have no dispute over. They
> > have built alliances
> > with
> > > numerically larger groups like fundamentalists and
> > avoided infighting.
> > >
> > > Which is usually true of any issue which wins in
> > Congress, so by
> > definition,
> > > a pro-Israeli policy indicates smart organizing by
> > its advocates.
> > >
> > > At the end of the day, if the "Israeli lobby"
> > boils down to saying that
> > they
> > > are good organizers, I don't know what is gained
> > by even discussing its
> > > existence.
> > >
> > > -- Nathan Newman
> > >
> >
>
>
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