Article: From Sgt. Pepper's to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's 'Plan'

"Why this fear? How did we get here? Forty years ago to this day, June 8, 1967, the change occurred, the floodgates opened and money poured into Israel as never before. When President Johnson heard about the U.S.S. Liberty being attacked by Israel he ordered the rescue fighter planes to return to the deck. The rescue mission was aborted and the survivors have said they heard LBJ's voice tell Admiral Giess, 'Get those planes back on deck. I don't care if the ship sinks, I will not embarrass Israel.'

"LBJ also threatened to court martial anyone who reported what had happened. Johnson accepted Israel's false claim of � ��"mistaken identity� �� and he knew it was a lie. That is when the change began and Israel learned they could get away with murdering U.S.A. soldiers." [5]

In June 2005, the whistle blower of Israel's WMD program, Mordechai Vanunu told me:

"When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to '69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them. Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year.

"In the 1970s, Israel built many fortresses and spent lots of money on equipment, but nothing on the people I saw, who were oppressed and under occupation. I got really mad and upset every time I thought about how much money they wasted, but I kept my mouth shut and kept it all to myself. After a year, I finished my training and was assigned to train more soldiers. For me it was all futility and waste; I saw these children become soldiers and thought, What a complete waste. When the Yom Kippur War broke out, I was home on leave. I returned the next day to my station near Ramallah. Soldiers with less than a month of training got called to go with me to the Jordan Valley. There weren't enough trained troops, and we were lucky we didn't see any fighting and got to return to base after three days. After a few months, we all went to Syria and the Golan Heights. When Kissinger coordinated the cease-fire, the Israeli army destroyed the area before leaving there..." [6]

Fast forward to 2009: Vanunu awaits another High Court date seeking the right to leave the Jewish State while Prime Minister Fayyad is winning international support seeking a Security Council resolution to replace Resolutions 242 and 338.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six Day War. The preamble refers to the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security."

242 requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and required the withdrawal of Israel armed forces from the territories occupied in the then 'recent' conflict.

On October 22, 1973, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 338 called for a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War in accordance with a joint proposal by the United States and the Soviet Union for a bilateral cease fire to take effect within 12 hours.

It also called upon the parties concerned to immediately implement Security Council Resolution 242 and insisted that negotiations between the parties concerned would be aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.

Fayyad's 2009 Plan is garnering positive responses from the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Sweden. Harretz reported that, "Fayyad added that he presented the proposal to the U.S. administration and did not receive any signal of opposition in response." [7]

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a mediator between Israel and Syria during Ehud Olmert's term as prime minister, has resumed the role of intermediary between the two countries. He said that his government can be an "honest broker" in such talks but Netanyahu responded with reluctance over Turkish mediation due to the ongoing tension between Ankara and Jerusalem, about which Patrick Seale reported on Oct 16, 2009:

"Turkey's sudden cancellation this week of a major air force exercise with Israel was a salutary wake-up call. Evidently, Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan found it necessary to cancel the drill because of the widespread hostility to Israel among Turkey's population. He has had to take Turkish public opinion into account. Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu spelled out the reasons in diplomatic terms: 'We hope that the situation in Gaza will improve...and that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations...'

"To offend the Turks is no small matter. Israel cannot afford to ignore the warning or sweep it under the carpet. Turkey has for many years been Israel's main regional strategic partner -- indeed its only one since the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Losing Turkey could turn out to be the worst setback Israel has suffered for a very long time.

"Turkey's army is the largest in the region; so is its industrial base. Its GDP, at over $1,000bn (in 2008) dwarfs that of the oil producers, whether Arab or Iranian, and is four times larger than Israel's own. In recent years, Turkey has greatly improved its relations with Iran and with neighboring Arab states -- Syria in particular -- and is emerging as the wise 'big brother' of the greater Middle East. It has offered to mediate local conflicts and is attempting to spread stability and security all around it." [8]

For what it's worth, the Fayyad Plan and Turkey, make peace in the Holy Land no longer seem to be just a pipe dream.

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