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Only force, not spirit, will prevail By Yossi Sarid Tags: Dalai Lama, United States  On his way to Israel last week, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney stopped in Saudi Arabia, where he was given a royal welcome and a medal representing the kingdom's highest decoration. This is the way they treat a man whom King Abdullah wishes to honor, because the Saudis love Cheney. He loves them too and has done a lot of business with them, and will do more in the future. A Saudi medal. That's what the president and his deputy's battle for world democracy looks like, and that's what their war on terror looks like. Saudi Arabia, the administration's favorite and loyal ally, is a medieval enclave that stones adulterous women and cuts off thieves' hands. Cheney, himself an advocate of interrogation by torture, has a keen interest in the Wahhabi version of "law and order." When he smells oil - suddenly petrodollars do have a smell - the administration shuts its eyes as in a swoon and no longer cares that Saudi Arabia is the main financier of the terrorists' natural habitats. No wonder then that the State Department's annual Human Rights Report is read today like a joke book. Advertisement The Tibetans don't find it funny at all. China too is now an administration favorite, albeit somewhat problematic, so it is permitted to continue its brutal oppression of Tibet. The America keeping mum over Riyadh's crimes will be silent over Beijing's crimes as well. In about five months President George W. Bush will come to the Olympic Games' opening ceremony and probably also receive some decoration at the festive event. I met the Dalai Lama twice as a minister, to the chagrin of the Foreign Ministry, which always mistakes the shadow of a Chinese threat for a real one. It would not be proper, I thought, to have this special man visit us without meeting an Israeli official. Had the Palestinians followed my lead, he said, and fought for their independence nonviolently, they would have had their state already. I thought he was right. Now I fear we may have been wrong; perhaps I too was seduced by his winning naivete. The Dalai Lama has been conducting his unarmed struggle for 50 years - who hasn't been captivated by him, who hasn't praised him? But still no achievement is in sight. Tibet's autonomy is as far off as ever. Neither the Chinese nor Israelis are bound by his nobility. Didn't Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres deport Mubarak Awad, an American-Palestinian who opened a nonviolence center in East Jerusalem some 20 years ago? Hands with no blood on them are especially dangerous - watch out: moderation! Those moderates - there's nothing to do but talk to them, compromise. The crowns are now turning into thorns. His followers are beginning to ask where he is actually leading them. The day the glow of the Dalai Lama's leadership is dimmed will be the day nonviolent resistance ends. Only the spillers of blood will have any hope in the new world of Bush, Cheney and their cohorts. There will be no more struggles that are "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit." Only those of arms, and force, and blood, and fire will prevail. Bookmark to del.icio.us   My land, my country Israeli Arabs mark 32nd Land Day in demonstrations across the country. One voice on Israel It's hard to find differences in U.S. candidates' promises on peace process.   1.   No naivete 12:24  |  Jean-Paul Doguet 30/03/08   2.   U want to turn the Tibet into an Arab - Israeli conflict??? 14:31  |  Sharif Hafez 30/03/08   3.   what exactly 15:00  |  cool 30/03/08   4.   reply to cool 15:48  |  Jean-Paul Doguet 30/03/08   5.   release Mao,zedong! 16:13  |  Di 30/03/08   6.   To Sharif Hafez 16:16  |  Cynical 30/03/08   7.   Spiritual Path of Gandhi,Thoreau 22:07  |  drdanielito 30/03/08   8.   Cheney can`t bear rifles in Jeddah 23:20  |  Fortuna Benmayor 30/03/08

Today Online 'PM passed 20 messages to Assad, but he disappointed us' Responses: 77 Bush: Peace deal by 2009 likely if road map fulfilled Responses: 164 Dutch Jewish group: Anti-Islam film is 'counterproductive' Responses: 180 Editorial: Israel must help Bush, Rice's belated peace effort succeed Responses: 43 More Headlines 00:00 Bush 'optimistic' on 2009 Mideast peace deal 22:17 Israeli Arab leader on Land Day: We'll fight Israel's 'rising fascism' 00:01 Study: 60% of Israel's poor are ultra-Orthodox and Arabs 02:42 U.S. Jewish donors conference to address Israeli philanthropy 21:55 Vatican: Islam surpasses Roman Catholicism as world's largest religion 23:56 Barak to bereaved parents: Labor to quit gov't sooner than anticipated 22:33 Genealogy Web site attempts to map out entire Jewish people 01:29 Police: Bnei Brak has by far the highest rate of sexual offenses 20:16 Netanyahu: No substitute for Israeli control in West Bank 21:42 Gaza protesters demand that Egypt release Hamas militants 21:20 CIA chief: Al-Qaida recruiting 'Western'-looking fighters 00:39 Motor racing body mum as president accused in Nazi role-playing sex scandal 23:17 Dutch Jewish group: Anti-Islam film is 'counterproductive' Previous Editions Select Day 30 mar 28 mar 27 mar 26 mar 25 mar 24 mar 23 mar 21 mar 20 mar 19 mar 18 mar 17 mar

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