Recognition of Palestine Is a Repeat of the West’s Oslo ‘Peace’ Fraud. Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook | Global Research

he reluctant recognition of Palestinian statehood by Britain, France, Australia, Canada this week is a con – it is the same switch and bait that has been blocking the creation of a Palestinian state for three decades now.

Imagine that these four leading western countries had recognised Palestine not in late 2025, when Palestine is in the final stages of being eradicated, but in the late 1990s, during a period of supposed Palestinian state-building.

That was when the Oslo accords were signed with western backing. The Palestinian Authority was established under Yasser Arafat with the apparent aim that Israel would gradually withdraw from the territories it still occupies in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and begin ruling an emergent Palestinian state.

At Israel’s insistence, let us note, the Oslo accords carefully avoided any mention of the ultimate destination of this process. Nonetheless, the message from western politicians and media was the same: this was heading towards a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.

Looking back, it is evident why that did not happen when it still looked feasible.

The Israeli leader of the time, Yitzhak Rabin, told the Israeli parliament that his vision was not of a state but of “an entity which is less than a state”: a glorified Palestinian local authority utterly dependent on its bigger neighbour, Israel, for its security and economic survival.

After Rabin was assassinated by a far-right Israeli gunman, his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, was propelled into power by a majority of the Israeli public on a mandate to stop the Oslo process in its tracks.

He repeatedly reneged on commitments to withdraw Israeli soldiers and Jewish settler-militias from the occupied West Bank. In fact, in this period of supposed “peace-making”, Israel colonised Palestinian land at the fastest rate ever.

In 2001, during his time in opposition, Netanyahu was secretly caught on camera, explaining how he achieved this reversal.

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Poisoned toothpaste and exploding phones: Israel linked to 2,700 assassination operations in 70 years

National Post

Poisoned toothpaste that takes a month to end its target’s life. Armed drones. Exploding cell phones. Spare tires with remote-control bombs. Assassinating enemy scientists and discovering the secret lovers of Islamic holy men.

A new book chronicles these techniques and asserts that Israel has carried out at least 2,700 assassination operations in its 70 years of existence. While many failed, they add up to far more than any other Western country, the book says.

Ronen Bergman, the intelligence correspondent for Yediot Aharonot newspaper, persuaded many agents of Mossad, Shin Bet and the military to tell their stories, some using their real names. The result is the first comprehensive look at Israel’s use of state-sponsored killings.

Based on 1,000 interviews and thousands of documents, and running more than 600 pages, “Rise and Kill First” makes the case that Israel has used assassination in the place of war, killing half a dozen Iranian nuclear scientists, for instance, rather than launching a military attack. It also strongly suggests that Israel used radiation poisoning to kill Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, an act its officials have consistently denied.

Bergman writes that Arafat’s death in 2004 fit a pattern and had advocates. But he steps back from flatly asserting what happened, saying that Israeli military censorship prevents him from revealing what – or if – he knows.

The book’s title comes from the ancient Jewish Talmud admonition, “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” Bergman says a huge percentage of the people he interviewed cited that passage as justification for their work. So does an opinion by the military’s lawyer declaring such operations to be legitimate acts of war.

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Yasser Arafat 'Was Murdered With Polonium'

Comment: The Israeli MOSSAD has its sticky fingers all over this one ...

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 Mr Arafat, who was Palestinian leader for more than a decade, died in 2004

Sky News 

Forensic tests on former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's corpse have revealed he was poisoned to death with radioactive polonium, his wife has claimed.

Suha Arafat said the results of the tests in Switzerland revealed "a real crime", adding: "It is scientifically proved that he didn't die a natural death and we have scientific proof that this man was killed."

A team of experts have been examining samples taken from Mr Arafat's body since his grave was opened in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The exhumation last November came eight years after his death at a military hospital in France.
Doctors said he died from a massive stroke but were unable to find the origin of his illness.

French prosecutors opened a murder investigation in August 2012, after traces of polonium-210 - the same radioactive substance that killed Russian spy Alexander Litvinkenko in 2006 - were reportedly found on some of Mr Arafat's belongings.

Professor David Barclay, a British forensic scientist who has seen the results of the Swiss tests, said the findings were a "smoking gun" for those who suspect he was murdered.

"In my opinion, it is absolutely certain that the cause of his illness was polonium poisoning," he said. "The levels present in him are sufficient to have caused death."

Professor Barclay said a miniscule dose of the deadly isotope may have been slipped into Mr Arafat's drink, food, eye drops or toothpaste.

The substance must have been made in a nuclear reactor, he claimed.

See also: Murderous Israeli Cabinet: "We will choose the right way and the right time to kill Arafat"