Even as they routinely cozy up with nations that honor the Arab League boycott of Israel, Republicans like to proclaim that there is "no bigger friend of Israel" than Republicans.
The Arab League boycott of Israel represents the clearest expression of the overall culture of rejectionism against non-Arab national rights from Africa to Iran in general, and the ongoing state of belligerence against a Jewish Israel (with or without an emergent independent Palestine) in particular.
The White House defense of United Arab Emirates, its passionate defense of the DPW's acquisition of P&O and its operation of US port terminals, the role of former Republican Presidential candidate
Bob Dole as DPW lobbyist, exposes something of the cynical nature of Republican values in particular, and the limits of conservative ethics in general. Namely, nothing is of higher value in the order of priorities than a lucrative deal.
John Kerry said, "This boycott not only violates at least the spirit of U.S. law, it is inconsistent with everything we believe in as Americans."
The contrast between liberal and conservative priorities were on display for anyone to see yesterday in the nation's Capitol when DPW's chief operations officer Ted Bilkey
testified before the Senate:
Under questioning from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Bilkey acknowledged that the Dubai government respects the boycott. He maintained, however, that his company has nothing to do with the boycott.
Not only is Bilkey lying, his assertion is flatly absurd, as it conflicts with every relevant fact surrounding the corporate structure of his company, as reported in
Tuesday's Jerusalem Post:
[Dubai Ports World] is entirely owned by the Government of Dubai via a holding company called the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCZC), which consists of the Dubai Port Authority, the Dubai Customs Department and the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area.
"Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced," Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department's Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the Post in a telephone interview.
"If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be a problem," he said.
If the Bush administration is so hot for Dubai Ports World to assume port terminal operations formerly run by P&O, and if they are at all sincere in their routine claims as the biggest friend of Israel, then a golden opportunity to confront on its own terms the culture of rejectionism manifest in the Arab League boycott of Israel, and to advance a dynamic of mutuality so necessary to the overall peace process between the nations of the Middle East, is theirs to lose. All for the love of a lousy buck.
