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Coalition for Peace with Justice
Letter to Chapel Hill News [to CPWJ Letters page] [ to CPWJ home page] March 9, 2003Dear Editor: Contrary to David Silfen's disrespectful and sarcastic Letter to the Editor of March 9, there have been a number of reports in the press regarding a grand plan to reconfigure (i.e. liberate and democratize) the whole Middle East after Iraq has suffered "shock and awe." The Israel/Palestine question could then be settled once and for all with a massive "transfer" of Palestinians to the Jordanian desert. The basic premise of the plan is that the road to Jerusalem passes through Baghdad. Suffice it to mention detailed articles by Meron Benveniste and Akiva Eldar in Jerusalem's Ha'aretz, Ben Lynfield in the Christian Science Monitor, John Donnely and Anthony Shedid in the Boston Globe, Joe Kline in Time Magazine, an interview of Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska by Robert Novak, and an analysis by Bill and Kathleen Christison (ex-CIA agents). We know now that this grandiose plan was incubated in a 6-page report entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" and issued by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (Jerusalem, Washington) by a study group headed by Richard Perle which included James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg (President of IASPS), Jonathan Thorop, David Wurmser and Meyraw Wurmser. This plan became the framework for a series of follow-up reports and strategies. Compounding the Perle report is the fact that President Bush recently rebuffed the European Union and embarrassed Prime Minister Tony Blair by freezing his Middle East plan during the current crisis over Iraq. Meanwhile Israeli occupation forces continue brutal assaults in the West Bank and Gaza. According to the Sunday, March 9, New York Times lead article by Steven R. Weisman, "Elliott Abrams, a passionate advocate of Israel, has recently taken over the Middle East portfolio on the National Security Staff. Three aides under him who were identified with the pro-peace-plan have recently resigned, leading to speculation in the administration that their departure had cemented Mr. Bush's basic pro-Israel position." With friends like Perle and Abrams, their allies in the Pentagon, and with Sharon's heavy input into U.S. Middle East policy, how can this country be perceived as true liberators of the people of Iraq, fair mediators of the long-festering Israel/Palestine conflict, and promulgators of democracy in the Middle East? Sincerely, The Coalition for Peace with Justice Submitted by Mary-Lou Leiser Smith, Coordinator |
