Terror and Blackmail By Chris Meyer WASHINGTON (PINA) - "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Herman Goering Ariel Sharon is a superb student of Goering's tactics. Sharon even added a few improvements of his own. Antagonize your opponent until he begins to resist; then loudly proclaim the resistance as an attack and tenaciously hide the fact that you attacked first. Sharon's brutal occupation of the Al Aqsa Mosque started the 2nd Intifada and got him elected Prime Minister. More recently, the well-timed bombing assassination of a Hamas leader in Gaza left 9 children dead and undercut a strong Palestinian cease-fire initiative. Sharon could never allow a cease-fire since his regime depends heavily on a devastating cycle of violence to keep the Israeli people galvanized behind him. Either you're with Sharon, or you're against Israel. These, and many other well-orchestrated acts of Israeli terror, have served Sharon well, but what about the Israeli people? How is the Israeli man in the street doing? Chris McGreal, writing in Jerusalem for the Guardian, reports: "The Intifada has helped to give Israel its worst recession for 25 years. Foreign investment and tourism have collapsed. The shekel loses value by the month. Unemployment has risen to 10% and shops suffer from people's reluctance to wander through malls, which may attract suicide bombers. Three years ago the economy was growing at the rate of 6%: now it is contracting. The government's attempt to contain the damage with deep budget cuts, tax increases and a pay freeze has provoked a public sector strike which has left the streets of Israel's main cities strewn with rubbish but done little to reverse the economic downturn." United States' citizens should take note of Israel's plight as President Bush seeks to involve the US in a similar endless cycle of violence against the victims of US imperial aggression (i.e. the Bush war on terrorism). What is Sharon's solution to Israel's growing bankruptcy? Same as always, hit the US taxpayer for a bailout. Sharon is seeking 10 billion dollars from Bush to cover the devastating effect Sharon's genocidal war has had on Israel's economy. That's roughly $1500 for every Israeli man, woman and child, though individual citizens will never see much of it by the time it filters through the black box of the Israeli Government. How could Sharon have the audacity to demand $10,000,000,000 on top of the outrageous billions in foreign 'aid' that Israel already receives from the US each year? Blackmail, pure and simple. Sharon knows that Bush is desperate to attack Iraq but is afraid that Israel will be the loose cannon that starts World War III. Sharon, like so many other US 'allies', knows that he can name his price for promising to toe the line. Bush just has to add some meaningless conditions to the transaction so that US taxpayers won't know they are being ripped off. This ugly scenario suggests several interesting questions for the reader to contemplate: How long will the US taxpayer continue to take this abuse and blindly fund the endless Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people and George Bush's wars of conquest? When will US citizens realize that George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon are committing despicable war crimes by murdering defenseless men, women and children in the thinly veiled pursuit of economic and political gains? Who will US citizens turn to for a bailout when Bush and the Congress are finally forced to admit that they have bankrupted the United States Government? The UK? Russia? One day will George Bush stride boldly into the UN with Trident submarines in his holsters and demand payment from the world community for US 'peacekeeping' services?