[News] Rice's Visit Nothing But Lip Service

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Rice's repetitive visit
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1111

(Ramallah) Rashid Hilal
Thursday, 30 November 2006

Today's meeting between President Abbas and US Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice did not "move forward with humanitarian issues," as 
she preferred to say.

The eastern West Bank city of Jericho hosted a meeting of repetition. 
There was nothing to talk about as the US "plan" has just not worked 
out. Destroying Palestinian democracy by imposing a blockade until 
the people discard the elected Hamas party has not had the desired 
effect. There is no new government that the US or Israel might find 
more pliable.

The suffering of the Palestinians is not alleviated, the US has not 
lifted the political and economic blockade that is destroying 
society. The unity government formation has reached a dead end and 
the West Bank is under closure and attack, divided from within by 
barriers, settlements, and "closed military zones." The Israelis are 
running wild with impunity and the US vetoed the latest UN resolution 
condemning them for the massacre in Beit Hanoun.

Above all, the assassinations remain. The arrest campaigns are on the 
rise, as are the daily raids of towns and villages. But the American 
concern is not for the 10,500 political prisoners in Israeli jails. 
It is for the one Israeli soldier captured while invading the 
southern Gaza Strip on 25 June 2006.

The only achievement that the US Secretary of State and President 
Abbas could talk about was the 'cease-fire' which is a misnomer as it 
does not include the West Bank where daily attacks continue, with 
Israeli forces killing two Palestinians on its first day.

Palestinian Legislative Council deputy and Chairman of the Political 
Committee in the PLC, Abdullah Abdullah, said Thursday that the 
Palestinians spoke to Rice on a number of topics, including calling 
for the 'cease-fire' to include the West Bank, lifting the blockade 
and completing the prisoner exchange deal. "These issues," Abdullah 
told PNN, "will pave the way for reviving the peace process."

The PLC Political Committee Chair said that the Americans, now more 
than ever, are aware of the fact that the occupation of Palestine is 
at the root of regional problems. But despite their words, the US 
administration is not making any moves to lift the blockade against 
Palestine or to stop funding the Israelis. And during the US 
President's visit to Jordan, he did not discuss Palestine, but rather 
Iraq, a country he occupies but can no longer go.


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