Stalled Mid East Talks

The Middle East peace talks have stalled, yet again. The Obama administration has blatantly accepted its failure in continuing the peace efforts it started twenty months back. It does not surprise since it was only a matter of time that another deadlock to the peace efforts came into place.

The Israeli government is hell bent on colonizing the shrinking patches of land left to the Palestinians, paying no heed to the international calls, and uses its military brute force to contain any resistance.

The US has been unable to counter it, either willingly or unwillingly. Will the US be able to crack the nut and restart a fresh series of talks? Will it be able to drag both parties to agree on common ground? The answers to such questions remain skeptical.
The Obama administration’s inability to contain the Israeli demographic clock - that had been waiting to start ticking - is yet another glimpse of ingrained bias in US politics, which remains the prime factor in discontinuing the peace process. The unwarranted political support towards Israel and US media that tends to be more pro-Israeli than pro-Arab makes it highly unlikely that US will ever be seen as an even-handed peace broker. Moreover, the plights of the 1.3 million Palestinians who are left in a virtual prison in the Gaza strip have been ignored in every aspect making matters even worse. Their refusal to negotiate with a democratically elected Palestinian government (Hamas - which was elected in the 2006 elections prompted by the US but later rejected it when it did not like the results) makes the peace efforts look half-hearted and half dealt. Though it is not hard to estimate the difficulty of the task Obama has in hand, one feels the US is trying to merely tackle the issue for the moment. Whether they succeed in developing yet another temporary solution or a lasting one remains to be seen. However, the current motives do not predict any changes in the Middle East peace process.

*********************************************************************************

The above blog appeared in Khaleej Times Letters to the Editor on 18th Dec, 2010

Leak-gate an Eye-opener

The latest documentation dump by Wikileaks representing the massive sampling of the daily traffic between the US State Department and some 270 embassies and consulates, truly serve as an eye-opener for a common man deluded by the mainstram events around the globe. It is true that many of the revealed secrets do not reveal BIG secrets.

Many of these might already be lingering in the back of our minds; however they shed palpable light on the nature of the US foreign policy and its imperial intrigue. It should be not be surpriseing that the US State Department has turned into a vast net of spies, collection information not only on personnel but also important miliatry locations. This turns to depict how the US seeks to safegaurd its influence in other countries.

It may make the world dislike the US a little bit more. Authentic evidence substantiating the cover aims of the US administration have been disclosed and laid bare for the common man to contemplate and ponder.

The US, ostensibly fumed over the exposure of these ominous leaks and weighing up the inherent damage, has issued statements opposing the act of illegally obtaining the cables and publishing them with no regard to the threat it would pose to it's international relations and operations.

Though, in principle, the very act of stealing secrets and confidential documents is wrong, the US has been involved in criminal activities in Iraq and Afghanistan on a massive scale. It thus becomes equally essential for organisations (such as Wikileaks) to present to the world a clear and vivid understanding of these operations.

It is also shameful that the mainstream media did not bring these to forefront. The US administration has already initiated the recovery program and this time around it is making efforts to ascertain the halting and derailing of any such 'leaks' in the future.

The US foreign policy, which is in the limelight for the past few days' courtesy Wikileaks, will not deter much in wake othese events. The administration and policies are intrinsically well entrenched to be shaken off easily.

**********************************************************************************

The above post also features in Khaleej Times 'Open Space' on 3rd Dec, 2010