Stranger things have happened (but not very often)
Well it had to happen eventually!
The American president and the truth are not exactly good friends, in fact sometimes they're not even on speaking terms. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear Dubya at his press conference with Ariel Sharon yesterday saying the following on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories:
"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949."
Telling the bald truth is still a bit of a stretch for Bush so he couched his words in euphemism. "Existing major Israeli population centers" doesn't refer to Tel Aviv or Haifa but rather to large illegal settlements built on occupied land. But in spite of this double-speak, Bush's words contain a kernel of truth - that America supports Israel's drive to annex Palestinian land by building settlements.
For decades US administrations have played a double game when it comes to the future of the West Bank and Gaza. Rhetorically the US has supported the international consensus that settlements are a barrier to peace since they make full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories impossible. By refusing to publicly support Israeli settlements the US has avoided further Arab and European criticism for its pro-Israel stance.
Yet at the same time America has bankrolled Israeli settlements to the tune of billions of dollars. Wthout this support Israel would be unable to build subsudised housing, as well as pay for the protection of the settlements and the network of Jewish only roads which connect them. Israel may be a rich country (and incidentally, how did it get so rich?) but it is also a small country. Such a massive investment would never have been possible without billions dollars of help from the world's largest economy.
For decades American support for Israeli settlers has been the love that dare not speak its name. Fearing international outcry, the US has not been willing to be seen in public with iths mistress. Instead it lavishes money on her. But those long years of deception and hypocrisy are coming to an end.
It won't be long before the American government declares its love for the settlements. Yesterday's coy peck on the cheek was just the first of many public displays of affection. Maybe one day there'll be a presidential visit to Ma'ale Adumin. Stranger things have happened.
It's ironic that the president to finally acknowledge America's true pro-settlement stance should be Bush Junior. After all, the current president's father is the only past inhabitant of the White House who made any effort to stop the settlement drive, to back up US words with US deeds.
In 1991 he asked for a settlement freeze in return for a huge injection of American cash to help Israel to absorb a million Soviet Jews. His request was refused and Israel ended up getting the money. This is the only example I'm aware of when US opposition to the settlement drive went beyond the rhetorical.
Every other president since Johnson has maintained the fiction that the US is anti-settlement while paying for these self same settlements. I don't usually have anything good to say about Bush but, after he cast off this veil of deception, I say "well done".