US President Bush Junior has called for a change in the leadership of Palestinians. Without naming Arafat, Bush has given the option to Palestinians to either continue with the present leadership or creation of Palestinian state. This is a clear and blatant statement of support from US Admn. for the genocidal policies being carried on by Israeli authorities. Bush has gone further to announce what the Palestinians must do to win his pleasure and also the time frame in which all these expected things must be done. With regard to Israel, Bush confined himself to platitudes without suggesting any time table to act. This was more for appearance of being ‘even-handed’.

This blatant interference in the affairs of Palestinian people, arrogation of the right to pick leaders of Palestinians not by Palestinians but by US Admn., should be viewed in the background of continued military offensive by Israeli authorities against the Palestinians. Israeli authorities are attacking one Palestinian city after another, carrying out genocide of Palestinians in the camps, preventing Palestinians from crossing over to Israel for their jobs, launching military attack on the offices of Palestinian authority, blockading the office of Arafat and killing the leaders of Palestinians. All this is being done by Israel in the name of fighting ‘terrorism’ and its real objective is to crush the national aspirations of the Palestinian people.

Through these series of attacks Israel has effectively buried the Oslo peace accords. The areas whose control at least partially was handed over to the Palestinian Authority have been brought back under direct Israeli control.  In fact Israel and US Admn. are going back on Oslo accords which they had imposed on Palestinian leadership.

The present stance of USA and its protégé Israel is the arrogant display of power diplomacy. In a way it has been always so with Israel, sustained by the main western imperialist power first by Britain and then USA. Israel is a vital cog in their strategic wheel to control the oil producing rich region of West Asia. However, they are also assisted by the Kings and Amirs ruling most of this region with the support of western imperialist democracies. That is the region where US army stands guard to prevent any expression of the democratic aspirations of the people of this region. US Army is stationed there to prevent the Arabs from claiming for themselves the natural resource i.e. oil abundant in their region. True to its nature, capitalist west believes that democracy can wait but not the flow of oil so important to their industrial machinery. After all these kingdoms are the ultimate saviour of imperialist ‘democracy’ as was avidly demonstrated by the WTO conference being taken to Doha to escape the wrath of protesters in the wild west.

Oslo peace accords in 1993 came into existence after the US led Gulf War in which US Admn. had promised the Arab states to solve Palestine problem in exchange of their support to US aggression against Iraq. It signified the end of bipolar imperialist world, with sole superpower USA dictating its will to the different regions and the countries in the world. Gone were the days of struggle against racist Zionism, and in came the ‘realism’ that it was futile to antagonize the US rulers. On their part US imperialist rulers also acknowledged that so long as the Palestinian problem simmers, they will be sitting on a volcano in the mideast.

Oslo accords provided for the creation of Palestinian state by September 2000 in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 war i.e. Gaza and West Bank. The questions related to status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlement in the West Bank and right of Palestinian refugees to return to the homeland were to be discussed and resolved. In the meantime Israel retained control over Jewish settlements and through it over large areas of West Bank. Oslo accords were only a declaration of intent and left many areas unresolved. The accords did not meet the national aspirations of the Palestinians. Due to his reason we had held that these accords imposed by US imperialism did not meet the national aspirations of Palestinians and will not solve the Palestinian problem.

But Israel and its protector, US imperialism, had no intention to even implement what they had agreed to. The creation of Jewish settlement continued. The deadline for creation of Palestinian state had come and gone. Israel and its protector, the US Admn., wanted to retain control over Jerusalem and parts of West Bank. In fact what they wanted was not a full-fledged state for Palestinians but a sort of half-state, a protectorate of US and Israel which made Palestinians willing accomplices in the US designs in the region. They want to set a puppet administration in the occupied territories. They want to solve the ‘problem’ of Palestinian resistance by making Palestinians fight Palestinians.  But foremost, US and Israel did not want to honour the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. It is worth mentioning that UN declaration on rights of refugees guarantees them right to return to their homeland. It is this right which they did not and do not want to honour.

In the closing days of his presidency, Clinton tried his best to hammer out an agreement by pressuring the Palestinian leadership to forgo this right. Palestinian leader Arafat was closeted with Israeli Prime Minister for a fortnight, disconnected with the outside world. But the US president failed to extract the compromise from Palestinian leadership on the right of refugees to return. The talks collapsed and so did the US interest in solving the Palestinian problem.

US Admn. gave a go ahead to Israel to mount an offensive against the Palestinians to browbeat the Palestinian leadership to sign on the dotted lines. In Israel the ‘hardliner’ Ariel Sharon came to power and in the US, republican George Bush became President. Bush refused to nominate any interlocutor for Middle-East thus giving Israel authorities the go-ahead in their offensive. Sharon, executioner of Sabra and Chatila, lamented his failure to have Arafat killed in Beirut in early 80s. They have found Arafat not pliable enough to do their bidding. Hence they are demanding a change in leadership of Palestinians.

With the declaration of US led “global war against terrorism” after September 11 attacks, Israel’s offensive against Palestinians became more blatant and flagrant. Arafat’s office was besieged and he was not allowed to go even to attend the meeting of Arab League. Genocide was carried on in a Palestinian camp. So obstinate are the Israeli authorities backed by USA that they refused even the UN team right to investigate the charges of genocide. They label the leaders of Palestinians and functionaries of Palestinian authorities as “terrorists.” US backed and financed war of Israel against Palestinians exposes the real character of their “global war against terrorism” that they are the biggest terrorists in the world, out to terrorize the whole nations and peoples.

Israeli authorities and US admn. take the excuse of suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians as an excuse to carry out their offensive actions. These suicide actions are a product of long denial of the rights legitimately theirs and a reaction to terroristic campaign being carried out by Israeli authorities. These actions show the despondency and helplessness of the situation faced by Palestinians.

The most important part of  the situation obtaining in the Middle-East is the struggle being carried on by the Palestinians. They have refused to be intimidated by the superior force of the US backed Israeli Govt. The large-scale participation of the Palestinian people in the resistance movement described as intifada shows that biggest power on earth cannot subdue the people’s struggles. Despite suffering severe losses they are carrying on their struggle.

Israeli aggression against Palestinians has caused widespread echo in the world. People in the Arab countries are furious at the violence unleashed by Israeli Govt. and the pro-US attitude of their Govts. This forced the Arab Govts. to take initiative. Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia presented a peace plan envisaging creation of Palestinian state on the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza in exchange for full diplomatic and economic relation between Israel and its Arab neighbours. This plan, which met with approval of Palestinian Authority and Arab Govts., has been cold-shouldered by Israel though US Admn. has not rejected it. But the continued Israeli military offensive in Palestinian territories and the US support to them is making all such initiatives look far-fetched.

Bush’s call for change of leadership has brought the fissures in the US led coalition into open. European Govts. have not been happy with US policy towards Middle-East particularly Palestine. They have been voicing concern at the Israeli violence against Palestinian civilian population. Now even the most trusted of US allies in Europe, Britain, has expressed opposition to demand for change in Palestinian leadership. Prime Minister of UK, Tony Blair, said that they would deal with whosoever is the leader chosen by Palestinians. It is clear that US led war against terrorism is isolating US Admn. even from its closest allies.

It is clear that Israeli military adventure in Palestine will not succeed in subduing the Palestinian resistance nor crush their legitimate national struggle. Palestinian are displaying indomitable courage, there is vast reservoir of support among Arab countries which is being galvanized and there is a growing support movement even in the western imperialist countries.