A free world needs no more U.S.-appeasers

American President George W. Bush was indignant last week at being compared to Adolph Hitler by Germany's Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin. The German publication Schwae-bisches Tagblatt reported the Justice Minister as saying, "Bush wants to divert attention from his domestic problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler used."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that the president was "very angered" by Daeubler-Gmelin's comments, while Condoleezza Rice, Bush's National Security Adviser, spoke of a poisoned atmosphere between the U.S. and Germany.

U.S. Senator Jesse Helm of North Carolina, and the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that the U.S. should consider moving its forces out of Germany, especially since Germany has failed to "join a constructive dialogue on Iraq".

At the same time, another president was suffering not only insult but also assault. President Yasser Arafat was once again under siege in his Ramallah compound, surrounded by razor wire and Israeli tanks.

While IDF bulldozers demolished all Palestinian National Authority buildings except the Palestinian leader's private offices and living accommodation, snipers fired shots into the room where the Palestinian President held office.

All of this was done under the pretext of searching for "terrorists" whereas, in fact, it was an act of pure revenge on the part of the Israelis for the recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv's Allenby Street.

This desire to hurt and humiliate even extended to the Palestinian National Authority's clerks and secretaries, who were forcibly evacuated prior to the buildings being felled. They were treated as criminals; made to kneel while blindfolded, and taken into Israeli custody to join the ranks of the Palestinian disappeared.

According to the spokesman for the Palestinian President, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Arafat had been fired upon, the structure of his office had been rendered unstable due to the destruction of the walkway, and he was in grave personal danger. Abu Rudeineh called for the immediate intervention of the international community, and, in particular, the U.S. He asserted that there were no terrorists hiding in the compound.

The main difference between the two deeply offended presidents is that one is the strutting omnipotent leader of the superpower, while the other has been subjected to a U.S./Israel campaign of vilification and character assassination until he has been sidelined and divested of control over his own people.

In the case of George W. Bush, the person who made the offensive remarks, Daeubler-Gmelin, was quick to say that she had not linked the U.S. President with Hitler, and added that there was no tape recording made of her remarks.

This lucky omission gave Chancellor Schroeder the opportunity to give his Minister of Justice the benefit of the doubt, and he quickly wrote a letter to George W Bush apologising for any offence, which might have been taken.

Arafat, on the other hand, received no such apologies from the Israeli leadership and no assistance from the rest of the world. The U.S. did manage a feeble condemnation of the Israeli action, only proffered because America doesn't want to be seen to be involved in regime-changes right now, given its apparent determination to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein.

The Palestinian President will not receive any such apology. In this post-9/11 New World Order only the leaderships of Israel and its mentor the U.S. receive grovelling missives.

As Donald Rumsfeld said after Iraq agreed to allow weapons inspectors back into its country unconditionally: "the rules have changed since 9/11". For the sake of accuracy, he should have said: America was attacked and now there are no rules. Rules, diplomatic norms and international law have become irrelevant in the face of American power and ambition. If you don't like it, then tough.

Do you remember when Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister, Tony Blair dared to say what she thought of the Palestinian suicide bombers? In the company of Queen Rania of Jordan, Mrs. Blair spontaneously told reporters: "As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up you are never going to make progress."

Naturally, Tony Blair's wife wasn't allowed to express her own opinion, even though she is a prominent barrister and human rights campaigner. After complaints from the Israeli Embassy in London and pressure from the British government, Mrs. Blair apologised for expressing her true sentiments.

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, is yet another mover and shaker who had to make a U-turn after he said: "Aren't the Israelis and the Palestinians both terrorising each other? The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers; that's all they have. The Israelis... they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists?"

CNN was quick to distance itself from Turner's statement and went as far as to send out hundreds of thousands of emails to subscribers of their web-site saying that Turner had nothing whatsoever to do with the editorial policy of CNN. These were followed up by Eason Jordan, CNN's CEO, dashing over to Israel, amid threats of the network being taken off-air, and pandering to the Israeli leadership.

CNN devoted a web-site to Israeli victims only, while producing a series on the families of such victims. Turner, who is the vice-chairman of AOL Time-Warner, soon caved in, retracted his initial comments and offered an apology. CNN lost credibility with both Israelis and Arabs over the fiasco.

The world's subservience to what is sometimes unflatteringly called the United States of Israel is becoming glaringly obvious with no attempt to hide blatant double standards. When Americans are killed, there are memorials built, multiple minutes of silence, and the U.S. gives itself a licence to send its troops anywhere it likes to carry out any orders it feels appropriate.

When Afghans are bombed in retaliation, there are no apologies, only justification and excuses from the U.S. administration.

When Israelis are killed, the scenes of carnage are shown for hours on American and British networks. The U.S. President extends his condolences to the families and Palestinian "terror" is condemned. However, Palestinians can be killed, maimed and jailed with impunity; their homes bulldozed, their orchards levelled and their livelihoods jeopardised by curfews and checkpoints.

While Iraq is condemned for ignoring some 16 UN resolutions, the U.S. and the UN stay silent about Israel's rejection of over 60 such resolutions as well as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral dismantling of the Oslo Accords.

Dennis Ross went so far as to call the resolutions against Israel "advisory" while those against Iraq "mandatory". Ross, who is often wheeled out on talk shows as a neutral Middle-East expert, is, in fact, allied to AIPAC, the most influential pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., and is obviously not averse to bending the truth.

There is no proof that Iraq does have weapons of mass destruction and every certainty that Israel does, and yet Iraq is not allowed to possess such weapons, while international atomic energy inspectors are denied access to Israel's nuclear complex at Dimona. The excuse given is that Israel is the region's only democracy.

As the British writer and activist Tariq Ali said on CNN, the only country thus far to have actually used nuclear weapons has been a democratic one, alluding, of course, to America's bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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