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Bush's support for Sharon, left, drew fire even at home
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WASHINGTON,
May 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Inspired by their
British counterparts, former U.S. diplomats and government officials are
to send a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush criticizing his
outright support for Israel’s controversial polices and expressing
belief his administration is heading toward great danger.
"Your
unqualified support of [Israeli Premier Ariel] Sharon's extra-judicial
assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military
measures in occupied territories and now your endorsement of Sharon's
unilateral plan are costing our country its credibility, prestige and
friends," reads the letter, published in full by the Financial
Times.
The
diplomats, some of whom belong to the American Educational Trust (AET),
plan to release the text at a press conference in Washington later
Tuesday, May 4, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Early
responses are staggering," the AET said in a brief statement
Monday, May 3, adding "signatories are united by their belief that
the U.S. government is heading toward great danger."
"Our
hope is that both political parties will take heed and listen to the
voices of experienced diplomats," it said.
On
Monday, April 26, British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced a
withering and unprecedented criticism from the most senior former
officials in the Foreign Office for toeing the U.S. line in the Middle
East and occupied Iraq.
Departing
from the usual measured language of diplomacy, 52 British diplomats put
their names to a letter rebuking Blair for the acquiescence to Bush's
backing of Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon’s controversial disengagement
plan.
More
Signatories
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Killgore said Bush’s unwavering support for Sharon "seems to torpedo the idea of a separate Palestinian state."
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The
Financial Times said the letter had been drafted by Andrew Killgore,
a former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, and Richard Curtiss, former chief
inspector of the U.S. Information Agency.
It
added that the missive was to have been sent to the White House on April
30, but was held back to allow more former envoys to sign it.
The
letter was circulated among the former U.S. diplomats and officials
after Bush's April 14 endorsement of Sharon's controversial plan for an
Israeli withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, while tightening the grip
on the occupied West Bank.
Ignoring
international resolutions and established policies for over half a
century, Bush had said Palestinian refugees could not return to their
homes in what is now Israel.
Killgore
told the BBC: "We thought American diplomats were as unhappy as
British diplomats were over what the President did."
He
underlined that Bush should not "take away the right of the
Palestinians to return, or give Sharon the right to take settlement
blocks in the West Bank which will hardly leave the Palestinians any
contiguous territory," reported the BBC News Online Tuesday.
"It
seems to torpedo the idea of a separate Palestinian state," said
the veteran American diplomat.
Killgore
told the British broadcaster that the letter was mainly about policy
towards Israel and the Palestinians, but it touched on Iraq too.
"If
anything Iraq is worse".
Greg
Thielmann, a former State Department analyst who signed the letter, saw
eye to eye on the repercussions of Bush’s actions on Washington’s
foreign policies.
"We
are going to have the worst of all possible worlds," he told the
BBC.
"We
have probably done irretrievable damage in the eyes of the Arab
world," Thielmann told the BBC's Today program.
"And
yet we will not accomplish what seemed to be at least one positive part
of the plan, which was the giving up on illegal settlements in the Gaza
Strip."
