Not surprisingly, the decision was taken to eject the rightful owners of certain land and a plan was made for developing 2,500 of the approved 6,500 housing units.

No chorus of Arab or international denunciations has influenced Netanyahu at all. Nor was he deterred by the possibility of future violence if Israel went ahead with the project.

According to Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups, more than one-third of occupied East Jerusalem has been annexed by Israelis since 1967 and more than 39,000 housing units have been built for them and not even one for the Palestinians.

As usual, the Arabs protested. They denounced, criticized and implored their friends and foes alike. They achieved nothing. They went to the U.N. Security Council for help, hoping for some kind of respite; all they got was a slap in the face by the United States when U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson cast the veto blocking the resolution that called on Israeli to "refrain from actions or measures, including settlement activities which alter the facts on the ground, pre-empting the final status negotiations and having negative implications for the Mid East peace process.

This was the third anti-Arab U.S. veto in as many years. The veto itself is a green light for Israel to continue its activities in the occupied lands. It is still more proof, if anyone needs it, that the United States can never be an honest broker in the Middle East peace process. Its double standards and partisan attitude towards Israel have already damaged, and will continue to damage, the peace process.

The well known cartoonist Mahmood Kahil in the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat clearly depicted the gullibility of the Arabs. He showed a meek Arafat sitting next to Clinton who was supposedly arguing with Netanyahu to put a stop to the settlements. What poor Arafat did not see was that the phone line was unplugged.

Such is the sorry state of the Arabs.

Now that the "only super power" in the world has forsaken them, they are calling for an emergency session of the General Assembly.

What good will an emergency session do them? The U.S. will use its power to force countries which receive U.S. aid either to abstain or vote against it. The Arabs will then have to be content with a watered-down resolution. They have been urged to be ready for all eventualities and to forge some concerted joint action to combat the joint U.S.-Israeli actions. 

This, the Arabs hope, will be through an international body that will document Israel's illegal actions. They know that these resolutions have no effect whatsoever because they are not binding. Many people in Europe are now asking who rules the United States. Is it the powerful Jewish lobby that has managed to penetrate all facets of American life? Is it these Zionist groups who have made the U.S. impotent?

What is happening in America? Who is wagging whose tail? The Zionist groups in the United States state openly that their allegiance to Israel comes before that to the U.S. They have forced successive United States presidents to be subservient to the Israeli interests. In fact they have made wimps of them; they must be commended for this. However, the American people should be pitied that their interests in the world are being sacrificed to Israel and its unreasonable desires.

The actions by the Netanyahu government and American acquiescence in them is not a victory for Israel. It is a defeat for the United Nations and for the world itself. The U.S. has always prevented the international community from taking the slightest step against Israel. Thus the Middle East's only "democracy" violates human rights, steals land and water, oppresses people and yet is the object of American support.