BLEAK PROSPECTS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE

by Eric D. Butler
Prime Minister Bob Hawke has been contemplating on what peace will bring after the conclusion of the war with Iraq. Well he might. As a number of distinguished anti-Zionist Jews have stressed ever since the State of Israel was established in a wave of terror, genuine peace and stability in the Middle East had no prospect of developing while Israel made the extraordinary demand that wherever Jews live, their first loyalty is to the Zionist State of Israel.

The warnings of anti-Zionist Jews like Dr. Alfred Lilienthal have tragically been confirmed by events. With former Zionist terrorist leader Prime Minister Shamir of Israel (once on the British wanted list) now bolstering his hard line attitude concerning Palestine and other occupied territories, by bringing into his Cabinet former army general Ze' evi, who has advocated the "voluntary transfer" of all Palestinians out of Israel and the occupied territories, and demanding that the United States and its allies must not only continue the Gulf War until Iraq's armed forces are totally destroyed, but must carve off a part of Iraq to be a buffer zone policed with U.N. troops, it is already certain that prospects for Middle East peace and stability are extremely bleak.

In his first major speech since the start of the Gulf War, on February 3rd, Shamir bluntly said that Israel would not participate in an international conference on a comprehensive Middle East settlement. Irrespective of what one thinks of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and its internal conflicts, it clearly represents the overwhelming majority of the Palestinians, a people who over the years have become progressively more desperate as they have witnessed how time and time again Zionist Israel has blatantly ignored U.N. resolutions that it should hand back lands occupied outside the areas originally specified by the U.N.

As Dr. Alfred Lilienthal has warned over the years, the brutal treatment of the Palestinians, who are not, as a whole, violent people, must inevitably result eventually in growing acts of terror - which no civilised person can condone. But having observed how the Zionist State was established, first by terrorist activities against the British and the Palestinians, it is not surprising that militant and radical Palestinians believe that the terror path is the only way in which they may get some justice. Even the famous Israeli General Dayan's own daughter, the writer, declared that if she had been born a Palestinian, she would have become a commando.

Violence and terror regretfully begets violence and terror and as pointed out in his chilling book, By Way of Deception, the former Mossad official Ostrovsky, the terror initiated and maintained by Zionist Israel has helped to poison the whole of the Middle East.

Irrespective of how the Gulf War finishes, unless the West can find the courage to face the Palestinian and Zionist issue, and provide some genuine leadership, the Middle East situation will be worse than it was before both Moscow and Washington misled Saddam Hussein concerning Kuwait. It can be predicted with complete certainty that in the absence of constructive policies, Saddam Hussein, in spite of his brutal record, either alive or dead, will continue to haunt the Western world, until one of the most basic issues in the Middle East, the Zionist State of Israel and the Palestinian question, are dealt with. Shamir of Israel has made it clear where he and his colleagues stand.

BRIEF COMMENTS

While we are prepared to respect the views of those misguided people who believed they could halt the present Middle East conflict by camping in the desert, it is reprehensible that some of them should be advocating any action, such as a shipping strike, which would endanger Australian servicemen and women serving in the Middle East. Australian forces are deserving of every possible support from the Australian people. There were aspects of the Vietnam War with which we disagreed, urging the adoption of the principle that if war is to be fought as a matter of national policy, then every effort should be made to win, and not fight with one's hands tied behind one's back, as now admitted by President Bush. But the treatment of Australia's Vietnam troops as if they were some type of criminals, was a national disgrace. We notice that Albert Langer, a prominent anti-Vietnam campaigner, has convinced himself that the Gulf War is "just". But he still continues to smear Vietnam veterans.

Speaking at the recent Sydney forum on post Cold War U.S.-Australia relations, Dr. Amos Jordan, a member of President Bush's Intelligence Oversight Board, said he expected the ground war in the Gulf to begin before the end of this month and the war to be over by the end of April. Dr. Jordan said there must be a "United Nations peace with the full backing of the international community". Presumably such a "peace" will be supported by the Soviet Union, Communist China and a strange assortment of other totalitarian states from Africa and elsewhere. In the meantime President Gorbachev is having the greatest difficulty maintaining peace in an Empire in which there is a growing demand for nationalism and self-rule.

As pointed out by Lord Keeton in his classic work, The Passing Of Parliament, one of the most misleading of liberal dogmas was that the more people casting a political vote, the more democracy. There is not one iota of evidence to support this thesis. It is now clear that unless something unexpected happens, the De Klerk Government in South Africa is determined to capitulate to the powerful international forces, which have long planned to bring South Africa, and its vast natural wealth, inside the scope of the New International Economic Order. The suggestions that millions of blacks, divided on historically tribal lines, if granted a political vote, are going to have any real say about what happens in "liberated" South Africa, is so absurd that it is astonishing that otherwise intelligence people can believe this. Consider what has happened to the once thriving African State known as Rhodesia, where Comrade Mugabe continues to impose his disastrous policies! Now he is proposing to nationalise all the land. The end result is predictable - Zimbabwe will finish up like other African States, poverty stricken and needing international aid. Significantly, that prominent supporter of The New International Order, Fabian Socialist Prime Minister Hawke, was one of the first to commend the De Klerk Government on its surrender policy, even suggesting that the South Africans might now be allowed to play international sport again.

THE WOOL DEBACLE

The 1991 Agricultural Outlook Conference in Canberra saw the Australian Wool Corporation come under heavy criticism from growers over the condition of the marketing arm of the wool industry. The chaos is now so bad that the Minister, John Kerin, has agreed to the suspension of wool sales for three weeks. The reason for the suspension is that the A.W.C. is 'broke' - it has reached the limit of its capacity to borrow: $3 billion. The huge stockpile stands at 4.8 million bales, and it appears that the minimum reserve price scheme is in danger of being scrapped. Farmers are paying a wool tax of 25% of their income in order to meet the interest bill, now in the order of $400 million per year. While the Federal Government guarantees the A.W.C. debt, the money is owed mainly to foreign banking groups.

Rebel woolgrowers from the Wool Marketing Reform Group took the A.W.C. to task at the Conference, their spokesman, Lynne Johnston, of W.A., saying: "We now have an industry taxing itself at higher and higher rates (the wool levy) to pay interest on money borrowed to pay itself a high price (the minimum reserve price) so it can hoard the wool and prevent the user from using. We borrow money to endeavour to force buyers to pay a price of which the growers receive only a fraction."

GET BIG, OR GET OUT
Mrs. Johnston also challenged the A.W.C. to provide figures to show how the growers could remain viable under the A.W.C. proposals to save the industry. A.W.C. Chairman, Hugh Beggs, was unable to do so. In fact, at the close of the Conference, Mr. Kerin admitted that some farmers might not make it. An industry expert, Dr. Brian Fisher, warned that farmers face intense "adjustment" pressure over the next five years. This is the language used by the Fabians to say that some farmers must go.

At the height of the last great rural crisis in 1986, Dr. Henry Schapper, W.A. rural economist, insisted that it was impossible to abolish the cost price squeeze, and that "adjustment" of farmer numbers was inevitable. That is, he was acknowledging that finance was the weapon used to destroy agriculture.

Irrespective of the merits of the reserve price scheme for wool, the present chaos is partly the result of a socialised wool marketing system. The system was rejected by two grower referendums, as Mrs. Johnston points out, noting that when growers voted, the only alternative to the M.R.P. was the compulsory acquisition of the wool clip. Woolgrowers have completely lost control of their industry. As one farmer representative pointed out, the industry is now in the hands of socialist politicians, and their bureaucratic advisers, without a single horny-handed son of the soil among them!

CREDITS TO THE SOVIETS

U.N. BILL NOT RIGHT ON YOUNG RIGHTS

from The Sunday Herald (Melbourne), February 3rd
"As a young family man I am grateful to Rev. Fr. Laurie Cusack who pointed out (The Sunday Herald, January 27th) glaring deficiencies in the U.N's. Convention on children's rights which the Australian Government has become a signatory to. "Rev. Fr. Cusack is correct when he notes that Section 15 of the Convention could take away my legal right as a parent to forbid my children from associating with, or being in the company of, sexual deviates. "The Australian Government, if it persists, could well have it said of itself - that those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first send mad." (Brian Harris, Glenroy, Vic.)

Our Comment: Two letters in the very same issue of the above source both verify that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by Australia (probably by Gareth Evans, Foreign Minister). One letter from Graeme Orr, Convenor, Human Rights Committee, United Nations Association of Australia in Victoria, says that this Convention was "signed at the United Nations by the Australian Government recently". The other letter, from Moira Rayner, Commissioner for Equal Opportunity refers to, "Australia's signing and ratification of the Convention in 1990..." Both officials ridicule the 'ill-informed hysteria' that has been surrounding the ratification of the Convention, of course.

ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE

from Port Lincoln Times, January 17th
"It is interesting to ponder the plight of our farmers and the philosophy of a government that allows self destruction of such. "This once great nation that inspired the world with its clever, hard working, self sufficient inhabitants is now all but a bankrupt slothful nation on the verge of internal collapse. "The Australian ran an article of late claiming that two-fifths to a half of all farmers would be bankrupt by the end of June 1991. At a time when we should be promoting Australian, as the T.V. adverts direct, we note the following:
"1. 45,000 tonnes of locally grown potatoes buried as we import them from Canada (which subsidises its farmers).
2. Our orchardists bulldozed thousands of mature trees whilst we import fruit from Brazil (protected again by its Government).
3. Nut growers go broke whilst we import such from California (they're subsidised too, by the U.S.A. Government).
4. Our wheat crop is almost worthless from the effort involved in sowing and reaping.
5. While millions of sheep are being destroyed we import more than $1 million of sheep meat, $17 million of lamb leather, $6 million of bovine meat and $1.5 million of poultry meat.
6. We import canned fruit, vegetables, juice, nuts, mushrooms and $5 million of onions.

"All this when our farmers are being unsponsored, unsubsidised and kicked in the groin. "One of the reasons is due to foreign treaty obligations to Third World countries and others due to our commitment to the New International Economic Order and General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (G.A.T.T.). "If we are to survive as a nation, it is imperative to return to a policy which promotes national economic self sufficiency and save traditional industries in agriculture and manufacturing. "If the farming community dies what hope has Australia?" (Dr. David Squirrell, Port Pine, S.A.)