The master of spin is whirling like a dervish yet again folks. There have been many press conferences, CNN always has breaking news and, to top it all off, Dubya is drawling out drivel. The winds blowing in from the Eastern seaboard are the White House public relations machine kicked into overdrive. You see, one of the United States’ dearest friends is behaving badly and Washington isn’t wearing it well.
It seems President Dubya feels as though Israel is overstepping their bounds. Apparently indiscriminately killing civilians on the grounds that they are terrorists is a game Israel isn’t allowed to play. They have politely asked them to stop and are even sending Colin Powell to ask in person, even though he is going to neighbouring nations like Morocco first-I guess there’s no rush.
All of this begs the question: if P. Dubya wants to stop the violence how is he going to do it?
Limiting or possibly eliminating the supply of American-made weapons, military vehicles, and aircraft would be a start. Honestly, where do you think all those helicopter gunships are made? But there is a problem with this kind of action, or any other action that could be construed as being anti-Israel. There are a lot of public interest groups and lobby groups in the United States with a lot of power that are staunch supporters of the state of Israel. Furthermore, these groups are well-organized, well-funded, and well
postioned-both politically and geographically.
So you see, there is a democratic Catch-22 with a hapless, dopey-looking Texan stuck smack dab in the middle.
On one hand, the American governmentcannot spend much longer on the sidelines lest it risk losing the support of Arab nations in its current ideological war on terror. On the other hand, they cannot come out against Israel or risk reprimand back home and the possibility they may fail to be re-elected.
Hopefully no one is so naive as to think the actions of the White House over the next few weeks are inconsequential. With the Arab world fiercely divided between the war on terror and the war in Israel, action must be taken and it must be decisive and quick.
It was easy enough to declare war on terror (that invisible menace)when a nation was screaming for vengeance. This situation is as much of a no-brainer. These next few weeks will be a true test of Dubya’s allegiances, his tact, and his true poise under pressure.