PAKISTAN Special

BY: URI AVNERY

Lately we are flooded with friends. The Great of the Earth, past and present, come here to flatter us, to fawn on us, to grovel at our feet.

"God, save me from my friends, my enemies, I can deal with myself!" says an old prayer.

They disgust me.

Let's take for example the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem . Her pandering was free of any criticism and she reached new heights of obsequiousness in her speech to the Knesset. I was invited to attend. I relinquished the privilege.

I shall also pass the pleasure when I am invited to the session with the hyper-active Nicholas Sarkozy, who will try to break the flattery record of his German rival.  Before that we were visited by John McCain's mentor, the evangelical pastor John Hagee, the one who described the Catholic Church as a monster. Oozing sanctimonious flattery from every pore, he forbade us, in the name of (his) God, to give up even one inch of the Holy Land and commanded us to fight to the last drop of (our) blood.

However, not one of them has come close to George Bush. Approaching the end of the most disastrous presidency in the annals of the Republic, he really forced a lighted match into the hand of our government, encouraging it to ignite the barrel of gunpowder between our feet.

But the list of present-day leaders who participate in the pandering competition pales in comparison with the long parade of Has-Beens who lay siege to our gates.  A world-wide swarm of Has-Beens is flying from place to place like bees, all for one and one for all. This week they alighted in Jerusalem, on the invitation of Has-Been No. 1: Shimon Peres, a politician who in all the 84 years of his life has never won an election, and who was finally handed, out of sheer compassion, the largely meaningless title of President of Israel.

The common denominator of this group is that their prestige at home is close to nil, while their standing abroad is sky-high. Their mutual adoration compensates them for the lack of respect in their own countries. One of the senior members of this club is Tony Blair, who has been pushed from power in his own country but is not content to enjoy his pension and raise roses. As a consolation prize he has been granted the pleasure of playing around with our conflict. Every few weeks he convenes a press conference to present the good tidings of his phenomenal success in ameliorating the lot of the Palestinians, while the actual situation in the occupied territories goes from bad to worse. Our security establishment treats him like a bore who has to be thrown a crumb from time to time to keep him happy.

In the conference that took place this week there were also some good people, but the scene was stolen by the Has-Beens, from the retired war criminal Henry Kissinger to the dethroned peace hero Mikhail Gorbachev (whom I still consider a hero for preventing bloodshed during the collapse of the Soviet empire.) Pity to see him in this company.

All the participants in this orgy heaped mountains of fawning adulation on Israel . Not one of them had a word of criticism. No occupation. No settlements. No Gaza blockade. No daily killings. Just a wonderful, peace-loving state that the bad, bad terrorists want to throw into the sea.

Not one of the guests stood up to warn us against going on with the present policy. Not one of them stood up to proclaim the truth: that the continuation of this policy may lead our state to disaster. He who has friends like these has no need for enemies. A person who sees his friend playing Russian roulette and offers him bullets - is he a real friend? One who sees his friend standing on the brink of an abyss and tells him "go ahead" - is he a friend?

Among the fraternity of flatterers, the ones that attracted the most attention were the Jewish billionaires from America (who also paid for the extravaganza). Several of them were summoned to police headquarters immediately on arrival to give evidence on the affair that is rocking Israel now - the corruption investigation of Ehud Olmert. A smell of corruption has accompanied Olmert right from his beginnings in politics, 45 years ago. But this time, the smell is overpowering. The police has made it known that the American-Jewish billionaire Moshe Morris Talansky has been supplying him with cash-filled envelopes for years.

Where have we seen this before? Of course, in American movies and TV-series. Somebody opens a suitcase stuffed with bundles of banknotes. The donor invariably belongs to the Mafia, and the recipient is generally a corrupt politician. Can it be that Olmert has never seen these films - he of all people, who started his career with demagogic speeches denouncing "Organized Crime"?

But it is not Olmert who interests me in this affair so much as Talansky.  He belongs to a species of "Israel-loving" billionaires, most of them resident in the US, but also in Canada and Switzerland, Austria and Australia and other places. They are all Israeli patriots. They are all philanthropists. All contribute millions to Israeli politicians. And almost all of them support our extreme Right.

What makes them run? What induces these billionaires to do what they are doing?

A research in depth discovers that a great many of them made their money in dark corners. Some are gambling barons, casino-owners with all the inevitable connections with violence, crime and exploitation. One at least made his fortunes from brothels. Another was involved in a scandal involving old people's homes. Yet another is a scion of a family who made their money bootlegging during prohibition days. Some are arms merchants of the most despicable kind, selling weapons to the political gangs which sow death and destruction in Africa .

But money, as is well known, does not smell. Most of the multi-millionaires of this kind feel that they are not receiving the honor due to them. Their co-billionaires, high society people, treat them with disdain. A person reaching this position is not satisfied with money alone. He craves honor. Such honor can be bought in Israel , on the cheap.

Israel is selling honor of all kinds, no questions asked. For a suitable donation, even a gambling-hell owner will be received by the Prime Minister, dine with the President, put his name on a university building. (Once I wrote a light-hearted piece about the Third Temple , may God build it soon, Amen: the Rosenstein Holy of Holiest, the Rosenzweig altar, the Rosenberg cherubim, etc.)

Just after the Six-day War, during the great days of our generals, a new fashion spread among the best Jewish billionaires: to keep an Israeli general, in order to present him to friends as a pet. Some generals found no fault in this. It was owed to them, after all. One billionaire kept Ezer Weizman, the Air Force hero (who had to resign from the presidency when it came out). Two billionaires adopted Ariel Sharon and set him up in the largest farm in the country. Shimon Peres was no general (and not even a soldier), but at least three billionaires took him under their golden wings. No billionaire ever lost money by keeping an Israeli general, supporting an Israeli politician or making a generous donation to an Israeli cause. Ego is ego, patriotism is patriotism, but business is business. That's where the corruption set in. A person who donates millions to a politician in Israel (or, for that matter, the US, or Italy or any other place on the globe) knows full well that he will get it back with interest. When the politician becomes a minister, or Prime Minister, or President, the supporter has hit the jackpot.

In politics there is no innocent donation. One way or another, the donor will reap his reward - many times over. That's true in the US, that's true in Italy, that's true in Israel , too. If the donor declares to the police that he has no business interests in Israel , all it means is that they must dig deeper. The Olmert affair confirms anew what we have known for a long time: the fuel Israeli politics runs on is not just money, but money from abroad. To win primaries and campaign in elections, a candidate needs millions, and these almost always come from foreign donors. Foreign billionaires financed Olmert in the party primaries, and they financed him in the general elections, in which he was assured of becoming Prime Minister. After being elected, he started Lebanon War II, with all its death and destruction. It can be said: American Jewish billionaires killed the soldiers and civilians, Israeli and Lebanese, who lost their lives in the war.

In his speech to the Jerusalem conference, Shimon Peres lauded Israeli chutzpa. What we need is more chutzpa, he said. That sounded fetching and naughty, but was pure poppycock. I want to speak about another chutzpa. Not metaphorical, but real. Simple chutzpa. The chutzpa of billionaires in New York and Geneva and all the other places who interfere in our elections and determine the fate of our nation. The chutzpa of donating for a war in which not their sons, but ours, are killed. The chutzpa of sending billions for the establishment of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, and especially in Jerusalem , which are put there for the express purpose of preventing peace and imposing on us a permanent war, a war that threatens our future - not theirs.

Let's be clear: I am not criticizing well-meaning donors, who feel a moral need to contribute to a hospital wing or a university building in Israel . I appreciate people who send a few hundred dollars to a political cause close to their heart. I object to foreign billionaires who aspire to dictate the direction of our state. Perhaps in other countries, too, politicians receive donations from foreign sources. But it is generally a marginal phenomenon. Here it is a major factor. That is one of the ill effects of the definition of Israel as a "Jewish State". Because of this, these donors do not look like what they are - impertinent foreigners who interfere in our lives and corrupt our state - but like "warmhearted Jews" who support a state that belongs to them as well.

Gideon Levy has recently written an article in which he begged them to "leave us alone". Being a less refined person than he, I shall say this in a ruder way: Go home and take your money with you. We are not for sale. Stop trying to manage our life (and death)!

BY:SORAYA SEPAHPOUR ULRICH

There is nothing more dangerous than a resourceful idiot ….Scott Adams

Is Mr. Bush the idiot who attempts to be resourceful at the expense of world citizenry?

The Bush White House with its democratic war doctrine has threatened world peace and by using coercion and threat of war is bent on depriving Iran of civilian nuclear technology, even though Iran has not violated the NPT. Yet, in a move that defies all logic, Mr. Bush has offered Saudi Arabia nuclear technology. Given the Kingdom's past attempts to gain access to nuclear weapons and its record on human rights violations, either his sanity is questionable or his motives.

According to documents released from the British National Archives under the 30 year rule (dated December 12, 1973 and marked 'UK Eyes Alpha'), it was revealed that after the 1973 war, "[that] British intelligence believed the United States was ready to take military action" that is, invade, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, "to prevent further disruption to oil supplies" and "to secure control of their oil fields".  The jittery Saudis, cognizant of a possible future invasion, offered to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq's Osirak-reactor which was destructed by Israel in 1981. As late as 1985 Iraqi and Saudi military and nuclear experts were co-operating closely, the extent of which cooperation included sending Saudi nuclear scientists to Baghdad for months of training.

Between 1985 and 1990, up to the time Saddam invaded Kuwait , payments were made on condition that some of the bombs be transferred to the Saudi arsenal. Muhammad Khilewi, the second-in-command of the Saudi mission to the United Nations Khilewi brought with him more than 10,000 documents he obtained from the Saudi Arabian Embassy. The cache included transcripts of a secret desert meeting between Saudi and Iraqi military teams a year before the invasion of Kuwait . The transcripts depict the Saudis funding the nuclear program and handing over specialized equipment that Iraq could not have obtained elsewhere.

The defector's documents also showed that Riyadh had paid for Pakistan's bomb project and signed a pact that if Saudi Arabia were attacked with nuclear weapons, Pakistan would respond against the aggressor with its own nuclear arsenal. What Khilewi did not know was that the Fahd-Saddam nuclear project was also a closely held secret in Washington . According to a former high-ranking American diplomat, the CIA was fully apprised. The funding stopped only at the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991. The fact that the CIA was aware of this, could explain why Khilewi was not granted federal protection when he abandoned his UN post and became an opponent in late June 1994.

Given that Saudi Arabia is a pariah state like Israel and attempted to obtain a nuclear bomb, much like Israel , perhaps the logic lies in their penchant for democracy that makes it acceptable for Bush to give them nuclear technology. Israel , a democracy for Jews only, violates the rights of Muslims and Christians, the latest such incident being orthodox Jews setting fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in an act of violence against Christian missionaries. Saudi Arabia has no tolerance for any religion other than Islam. In that women have no rights and political dissent is punishable in Saudi Arabia, should not stand in the way of this ally having a nuke; especially since their backdoor friendship with Israel is invaluable.

Aside from the glamorous Plaza hotel in N.Y., co-owned by Israel 's Elad Group and the Saudi-based Kingdom Holding Co., the neoconservative's propaganda machine certainly makes the Saudis a trustworthy partner – in some corners. In early September 2005, Bin Talal bought 5.46% of voting shares in News Corp. This made the Fifth richest man on the Forbes World's Richest People, the fourth largest voting shareholder in News Corp., the parent of Fox News. News Corp. is the world's leading newspaper publisher in English. Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal boasted in Dubai his ability to change the news content that viewers around the world see on television. No doubt with their nukes, they will be able to change a great deal more! The pertinent question is, what has been changed thus far for this White House to give nukes to an oppressive regime, known to have pursued nuclear bombs, and with a history of terrorism, be it training the Taliban or allegedly, or to have a tendency to send over terrorists, the 15 or the 19 hijackers on 9/11 and spread Wahhabism?

In 2004, after the illegal invasion of Iraq , a foundation was created and controlled by a consortium in which the key players were the Carlyle Group and the Albright Group. The purpose of the consortium was to secretly transfer some $57billion Iraqi debt owed to the government of Kuwait after the invasion. Under this deal, $2billion would be given to the consortium with half of it going to Carlyle. This was not an easy task as the time the world was willing to forgive Iraq's debt for reconstruction and the consortium had offered to use its 'influence' to 'maximize Kuwait 's debt collection (Nation). Carlyle's benefits were endless.

During the 2006 war, while Israel bombed Lebanon, Carlyle profited greatly – as did the Saudis, the U.S. , and of course, Israeli. The systematic destruction [of the Middle East 's only democracy] translated into significant opportunity for the Carlyle Group and with the 'crisis, they announced a $1.3 billion fund for investment in the region. They were not alone. The rush was on. The big investment banks -- Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers – all increased their presence in the region. Israel, the perpetrator as the benefactor, received an increase of USD 500 million additional in aid package from the U.S. in September of the same year (Ynet news).

And was it not wondrous indeed that John Bolton was able to hold off the United Nations Security Council for 33 days and nights before a cease-fire could finally be declared?

Perhaps for more importantly for the Bush administration and Israeli hardliners, the Saudi rulers are fulfilling their ultimate desire – the destruction if Islam. These fanatic Wahhabis are destroying the birth place of Mohammad and all traces of it, and replacing it with parking lots. The same oil-rich orthodoxy that pumped money into the Taliban as they prepared to destroy the Bamiyan buddhas in 2000 is now destroying Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, which date back to the lifetime of the Prophet Mohammad1,400 years ago. This is the highest cooperation possible from an ally, well deserving of nukes.

While the Saudis are being rewarded for their cooperation, they must remember that prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Shah was an ally who cooperated with the United States and Israel . His oppressive regime was given nuclear technology too. Today, in spite of its peaceful use, the civilian technology is being used to declare war on Iran . The Saudis who are fond of $5 million diamond covered Mercedes while the Palestinians are being incarcerated and starved, should be mindful their friendship will not be for long. After all, they are sitting on top of the world's biggest oil reserve; and Mr. Bush is not the idiot we think he is.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an Iranian-American studying at the University of Southern California , Los Angeles . She is a member of World Association of International Studies society, Stanford. Her research focus is U.S. foreign policy and the influence of lobby groups. She is a peace activist, essayist, radio commentator and public speaker.