Connecting the Dots: US, Israel and the Sudan Why Lifting US Sanctions on the Sudan Has Long Proven Elusive? (3)
Kiev/ Ukraine in Arabic/Without underestimating the presumed overlapping of some U.S. and Israeli agendas, for energy resources control and the balkanization of East Africa and the Arab World, and as already been elucidated during the course of this article, Israel remains the main architect behind the fighting and instability in both Darfur and earlier in South Sudan; assisting, training, financing, and arming of the militias and forces opposed to the Sudanese consecutive governments since 1950s.
In his revealing document for regional conquest and dominance titled "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s" published in the 1982,Oded Yinon the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs' senior advisor , clearly outlines the strategic objective of ensuring Israeli superiority through the balkanization of the Middle Eastern and Arab states into smaller and weaker states. It is in this context, as has been detailed, that Israel has been deeply involved in Sudan, as has been demonstrated earlier.
Perhaps the ugliest manifestation and ramification of the power of the Israeli lobby, in manipulating the US Congress in favor of the sinister Israeli strategy towards the Sudan, has been particularly evident in the past couple of years.
In an apparent dichotomy, the CIA-based professional annual report of the State Department to the US Congress, though inundated with complimentary language about on Sudan’s cooperation with U.S. authorities in fighting terrorism, climaxing in classifying Sudan as strong partner in the war against terror, fails to merit or intercede in the very logical outcome of removal of Sudan from the list of the countries sponsoring terrorism, let alone, lifting of the sanctions.
That shows to what extent Sudan has fallen prey and increasingly victimized by the conflicting agendas in the dynamics of foreign-policy making in the US, Whereby members of the U.S. Congress’ unconditional support for Israel right or wrong, may drive policy in a direction that is not in America’s own best interests and, more to the point, endangers or harms those interests in other cases.
Such bizarre dichotomy tends to increasingly stigmatize US foreign policy with hypocrisy and duality. Just for the sake of argument, and only one month before the US unexpectedly extends Sudan's sanctions for one more year; namely on October 7, 2016, and under a feeble guise that it has undergone significant reforms over the past few years, President Obama issued an executive order terminating the 20 years old Myanmar sanctions program.
Paradoxically enough, US lifts sanctions against Myanmar, at a time the political situation in south-east Asian state, is unreservedly moving from bad to worse; at a time the government in Myanmar is involved up to its neck- since the year 2012- in what is internationally and regionally termed today as egregious and heart-breaking campaign of ethnic cleansing , genocide and cold-blooded killing against both the Rohingya Muslim and Kachin Christians minorities, killing hundreds and forcing many others to flee for their lives across the borders to Bangladesh. It’s yet another case of the conspiracy of silence.
The wind blows where it wishes, the apparent repugnance and despair which characterize the latest articles on Sudan by Dr. Eric Reeves, the self-styled Sudan researcher and analyst, who dedicated all his energy and intellect for two decades, to pen inflammatory articles with the sole aim of vilification the international image of the Government of Sudan, that anger is increasingly caused by the fact that, and unlike the three former Presidential campaigns in the US, this year’s election campaign was devoid of any mention of Darfur.
In fact, Darfur advocacy groups made a series of futile attempts, trying to stereotype, clone or reproduce the euphoric Darfuri momentum of 2008, when anti-Khartoum excelled in exaggerating and hoax the profile of Darfur in a such a way, that made it incumbent and pressing upon the three Presidential candidates by then, Obama, Clinton and McCain, to unprecedentedly feature publicly together to sign an already phrased joint statement, in which they pledged themselves in advance, to pursue a prompt action for Darfur and against the government of the Sudan once get elected.
In one of such desperate attempts, Vote for Darfur for instance; the bipartisan campaign which is by far, one of the tentacles of Save Darfur Coalition, urged both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, to include Sudan and Darfur as priorities in their foreign policy plans.
The above campaign prepared a ready-made petition or a letter, addressed to both the presidential candidates, infested as usual with the cliché of the very old false and based-less accusations against the government of Sudan. They absurdly ignored the fact that Darfur issue was no longer a glamorous election campaigning issue. They were fully inundated in delusion that it was still possible to swap voting for the candidates according to his/her position on the Darfur issue.
Expectedly, if talking to a brick wall, the campaign has made little or no dividends at all, at the end of the day; you cannot fool all the people all the time. The direct echo of that disappointment still marks Mr. Reeves’ Sudan lamentation articles, bemoaning how during the entire course of the election campaign of 2016, there has been neither mention of Darfur, nor significant statements about Sudan policy.
Arguably, that the above melodrama brings to attention two important assumptions, this article has been arduously trying to tackle and validate:
Firstly, in the way the Bush Administration touted and sold the Iraq war to the American people and the world at large, typically enough, Darfur saga was professionally hoaxed and exaggerated in order to legitimate eventually( the long awaited ) American military intervention in the Sudan. In fact Darfur’s fiction was copy/paste script and scenario of the way in which intelligence materials were overegged to warrant the sinister war on Iraq.
Arguably Darfur Darfur issue has been crammed or squashed like sardines into US internal policy, to further the Israeli strategy in the first place. In retrospect, the US might have truly shot itself on the foot, The US has a whole lot to lose, and little to gain from sanctioning Sudan; The US had sacrifice in Sudan, an extraordinary economic potential and mouth-watering of untapped riches, in unwarranted miscalculation, offering them in a golden plate, for the direct benefit and advantage of the US immediate and rapacious geo-political rivals and competitors; namely China and Russia.
As nature abhors vacuum, and as it is evident today elsewhere in Africa, the US unilateral economic vacuum in Sudanو had to be naturally filled by US’s competing geo-political rivals. At the same time Sudanese government guided by its own conquests of its Look East policy, chose not to leave the whole egg in one basket; becoming China’s gateway into Africa, today Sudan and China are full-fledged strategic partners. Likewise, and in the footsteps of China, Russia is expanding its business with Sudan; this month for instance, Mr. Sergey Donskoy, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection expressed Moscow’s desire to boost the commercial exchange with Sudan to reach $ 20 billion in the coming six years.
Secondly, Vote for Darfur campaigners have ostensibly ignored the fact that ' match stick does not burn twice.' More important however, they were narrow-sighted enough to acquiesce and live with the fact that naturally and since 2008's election campaign, much water should have necessarily passed under the bridge; in the US, Sudan, and elsewhere regionally and internationally;
In the Sudan; the overwhelming political success of the national dialogue conference in Sudan has ushered and paved the way wide for a genuine democratic and peaceful alternation of political power. On the other hand, thanks to sincere domestic and regional efforts, Darfur today has considerably restored its social fabric, security and stability, especially after rebel war-mongers were sweepingly touted on the ground and dislodged away from their remnant trenches.
In fact, in recognition of the above fact, some African countries Like South Africa and Burkina Faso have already withdrawn their forces, as part and parcel or in anticipation of the results of the ongoing tripartite consultation for the smooth exit of UNAMID forces from Darfur, for the virtual disappearance of the underlying causes that warranted or prompted their presence in the past.
Regionally, Sudan is gradually regaining its known regional role and prominence; Sudan today in the heart of the “Decisive Storm Operation” for reinstatement of the legitimacy in Yemen, in the regional consultations on reconciliation in South Sudan and Libya, and not the least, the experience has proved that Sudan is insurmountable regional partner, in any earnest international efforts for combating both terrorism or human trafficking.
In the US itself and despite the giant impact of pro-Israel lobby groups today in the US politics, as earlier reviewed, recent years have shown that, Washington’s pro-Israel policies are becoming increasingly unpopular. In fact exactly like Europe, both the popular demonstrations and the opinion poll results seem to indicate that support for Israel is growing weaker amongst the next generation of American leaders; young Americans are twice more likely to support Palestinian rights than Israeli occupation.
Two decades ago, nobody was talking about boycotting Israel. Today, the BDS movement is gaining popularity on college campuses worldwide including Europe and the US. Two decades ago, Israel enjoyed solid bipartisan support in America. Today, that support is fraying in a non-negligible section of the Democratic Party. In fact in the latest election campaign, Senator Bernie Sanders loyalists exhibited rabid anti-Israel sentiment comes as no surprise; during his own campaign trail, their self-determined ‘hero’ expressed on numerous occasions his own negative opinions towards the Jewish state, when he blamed Israel for 60 years of “hatred and conflict that exists in the Middle East”.
Likewise on international level, and with Russia and China currently vindicating their clout on the international scene, the US has proven to be literally unable - any longer – to dictate undisputed, the international theatre of events. In fact many political analysts increasingly attribute and refer to this very fact, inter alia, to justify how the timely slogan of Trump’s election campaign; ‘make America great again’ ostensibly stolen the show and eventually turned the tables on the world expectations paving the way for Trump’s baffling and shocking victory.
Embassy of Sudan in Ukraine, Kiev