Leaving So Soon?

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:33:12 GMT       |      PressTV

By Kian Mokhtari Given the CIA's long line of total cock-ups in its reports leading up to the Iraq War, we can all be excused should we choose to take the agency's latest crystal ball predictions with a pinch of salt. The Central Intelligence Agency now says it has serious doubts about Israel's survival beyond 2030. The people in the Middle East have always had their doubts about the viability of a state made up of European refugees formed on Palestinian land. But polite Arab society has always chosen 'subtle' gestures over words in the past to get its point across! Arab etiquette obviously has a lot to answer for. The CIA report predicts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israelis who would move to the US in the next fifteen years. It adds "There is over 500,000 Israelis with American passports and more than 300,000 living in the area of just California," with those who do not have American or Western passports, having already applied for them. Over in California, unknown to the CIA, a resistance movement is already being formed but there are some minor disagreements in its leadership over the name for the movement. Should it be called the People's Front for Liberation of California or the Front of the People for the Liberation of California? But seriously, population studies demonstrate beyond any doubt that if Israel does not settle for a two-state solution soon, the disparity in the growing Arab population and shrinking Jewish population will see to the entity called Israel whether the Jews likes it or not. Using the examples of the unexpected quick fall of the apartheid government in South Africa and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the CIA suggests the end to the dream of a Jewish homeland is about to happen. The CIA study is likely to go down like a lead balloon in Tel-Aviv, coming hot on the heels of an award winning book by Jewish history professor Shlomo Sand's, "When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?" The book calls into question the modern day Jews' genetic lineage and argues that the mythical perception of the Jews as an ancient people is in fact little more than racism revisited. There have been many factors at work against the long-term survival of a Jewish state in the Middle East ever since its conception just over sixty years ago. But the most prominent obstacle to the success of Israel has been a long line of extremist, militaristic zealots in its leadership. Israel's behavior in its treatment of the native Palestinian population, its attacks against Egypt, Jordan and Syria, its invasion of Lebanon and atrocities committed against civilian Arab populations can not be perceived as particularly endearing it to the locals throughout its existence. Demographics has been given particular attention and prominence in the CIA forecast, one cannot help but wonder whether it has been used to paint over all the other factors that may indeed make their presence felt in the CIA's predicted final demise of Israel. Oh, and there's another thing: at a time when many people worldwide have serious doubts about the United States' own survival, wouldn't CIA resources be better spent in concentrating on matters closer to home?