U.S. inspired Middle East conference won't bring peace to troubled region

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The crushing military defeat of Iraq did not bring U.S. imperialism and its allies the "peace" and "stability" they had hoped for in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein remains in power in Baghdad, and the Palestine "problem" continues to disrupt George Bush's "New World Order."

At the beginning of August, Bush and Gorbachev declared they would jointly convene a Middle East "peace" conference in October of this year. In late June, Syria's President Hafez Assad finally agreed to Secretary of State James Baker's proposal to attend such a conference, where face-to-face talks with Israel would take place. Israel's ruling cabinet voted to back Baker's proposal on Aug. 4.

As we go to press, with the recent crisis in the Soviet Union, it is not certain that the conference will occur. What is clear, however, is that Bush and Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir are pressing very hard to isolate the recognized Palestinian leadership, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), from playing any significant role in the meeting or other talks.

The reactionary Arab rulers are backing imperialism's plans with new treachery. Preparations are being made to recognize the state of Israel, just as Egypt's President Anwar Sadat did in 1978 (as part of the infamous "Camp David Agreement" brokered by U.S. President James Carter).

Israel's conditions

Yasir Arafat, leader of the PLO, says "Camp David II" is in the making. Why exclude the PLO, Arafat complains, if that isn't the aim?

Shamir says Israel will only participate in an October peace conference that meets its conditions. The main condition is that Israel must approve the Palestinian delegates who attend. Israel says explicitly that no Palestinian from East Jerusalem can be present. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war.

Shamir further adds that the West Bank and Gaza, also taken in 1967, will not be returned. There will be no land for peace trade. Israel will continue to build new settlements on "their" land despite United Nations resolutions calling the West Bank and Gaza "occupied territories."

Washington is seeking to find a way around this Palestinian-delegate issue. Like Israel, Washington is opposed to the PLO being at the conference. It seeks a Palestinian-Jordanian delegation. It also agrees with Israel that Palestinians have no right to an independent state.

Arafat and most Palestinians respond that it is a violation of self-determination for the Israelis or Washington to dictate their delegation. The Unified Command of the Palestinian Uprising (the intifada) in the West Bank says the U.S.-initiated peace conference is part of a Zionist plot. The Islamic Jihad is also strongly against making concessions to imperialism.

Despite the strong opposition among Palestinians to a U.S.-brokered "peace" conference that excludes the PLO, the Palestinian movement for self-determination is in a weak position.

Most Palestinians backed President Saddam Hussein in Iraq's war with Washington and its allies. Iraq's defeat not only allowed Washington to put U. S military forces in the Arab East in a way it had never been able to do before. It also allowed the traitor Arab leaders to openly back Washington and seek to isolate the PLO and the Palestinian movement as a whole. Palestinians are being brutalized in Kuwait, and denied jobs by the Saudis and other reactionary Arab regimes.

Many Arab governments are now ready to talk to Israel one on one at a peace conference. They are for a toothless Palestine on the West Bank. Historic Palestine is now seen as an impossible dream. Assad is clearly willing to make a deal with Shamir if Israel returns the occupied Golan Heights and provides a figleaf for the Palestine issue.

Camp David Agreement

Arafat's concern about another Camp David betrayal is very real. It was after the defeat of the Arab governments in 1973 that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took up Washington's peace proposals. Sadat's decision to recognize Israel was part of a strategy of moving toward imperialism politically and economically and away from its longtime supporter, the Soviet Union.

Israel's only concession to Sadat's criminal action was to withdraw from the Sinai. Israel agreed to some kind of autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza later, after five years of discussions. This, of course, never occurred. Israel nevertheless got what it wanted. It got the most populated Arab state to recognize it, and time to build up its permanent settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

The payoff for Egypt's rulers' betrayal of the Palestinians is large-scale economic handouts from Washington. Egypt became a strong supporter of Bush's war against Iraq. And it is pushing the other Arab governments and rulers to follow its example.

The people of Egypt have gained nothing from this rotten deal. President Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by members of a group opposed to his policies. But the pro-imperialist policies remain intact.

Although Palestinians and most Arab governments repudiated Egypt at the time, a shift away from Moscow toward Washington also began in a number of Arab countries even before the anti-Iraqi alliance was consummated last year.

The PLO and Palestinians became more isolated. While the intifada inside Israel put the Palestinian issue more up front in the eyes of the world, the defeat of Iraq and the consolidation of a pro-Syrian regime in Lebanon further weakened the Palestinian people. diplomacy to the Middle East took place in the spring and summer. The U.S. peace conference is designed to drive another nail into the Palestinian coffin.

PLO still has center court Yet it won't be that easy. While the Palestinian leadership is in a weakened position, it still holds the main court. The traitor Arab regimes, Washington, and Tel Aviv all know that without the Palestinians at what the British magazine The Economist calls "James Baker's tea party" there can be no credible gathering.

Arafat understands this very well, which is why he is pressing for a chair at the table—at least for someone he picks. The PLO is eager for the meeting to take place.

Back in 1988 at the PLO's last Palestine National Council (PNC) meeting, the organization voted for the first time to accept Israel's right to exist within its pre-1967 boundaries (provided the Palestinians got their own state in the West Bank and Gaza). It made that historic concession to set up a "dialogue" with Washington, hoping the U.S. government would pressure Israel to trade land for peace. Just as it does now, Israel said "no."

The PNC meets again in September. Bush and Baker hope the PNC will make another concession on the composition of a Palestinian delegation to attend the October peace conference. Arafat has stated he will not back down from the PLO's demand to appoint its own peace negotiators. Nor will he drop the demand that Israel withdraw from the territories seized in 1967 and the creation there of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.

What to expect?

Until the Palestinian people are granted self-determination, that is, control of their homeland that Israel has occupied since 1948, there can be no peace in the Middle East.

Washington has failed to turn its military defeat of Saddam Hussein into a major political victory. Its allies in the Arab East are dictators, not bourgeois democrats. Israel remains Washington's only dependable friend. Yet it won't play ball the way Bush wants them to.

Israel refuses to make any significant concessions to the Palestinians or the Arab traitor regimes. This brings forward more anti-U.S. hatred among the Arab peoples, who point to the hypocrisy and doublestandard of U.S. policy of demanding enforcement of United Nations' resolutions against Iraq but not Israel.

The Palestinian people will not surrender or commit political suicide. The only viable solution is the creation of a democratic, secular Palestine on the land now called Israel. This will require a social revolution inside Israel and the entire Arab East.