But the charade goes on. The Sunday talk shows and the editorial pages are freighted with earnest punditry about Sharon's historic shift. To find equivalent drivel one has to go back to the New York Times' respectful editorials of the mid-1930s about Hitler's constructive vision of the future of Europe.
Hold the following truths to be self-evident. Members of the U.S. Congress live in mortal terror of AIPAC and the larger pro-Israel lobby. These members know vividly the fate of those who defied the lobby and aroused its enmity, most recently Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. The lobby would like to see Palestinians removed to Jordan or some small space elsewhere in the world, such as the space between runways at Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
For its part Israel knows that at its present rate of onslaught, it's only a matter of a few short years before it will have seized every useful acre of the occupied territories. It's all over, and to pretend otherwise is to partake in a ritual long since purged of everything, save bad faith on the part of Israel and the United States.
the incendiary Alexander Cockburn at Working For Change 05.28.03
