The macabre story of the ‘Monkey’s Paw’, written by Willaim Wyman Jacobs, was apparently inspired by the Chinese saying “Beware of what you wish for, in case you might get it”.
It tells of a family - father, mother and a 20-year old son - who came by the monkey’s paw through a friend. The friend was frightened of the paw which gave three wishes to the person who owned it. The wishes were always granted with a result completely harmful to the wisher because of the curse an Indian fakir had placed on the paw. The friend tried to burn the paw which was salvaged by the father of the family.
The new owner of the paw, the father, was fairly modest and his first wish, at the prodding of his wife, was just for 200 sterling pounds to pay off his remaining mortgage. He received that money the next day when his son was killed in a factory accident which saw the young man mangled horribly by the machine he was tending. The money was compensation from the company.
The wife then made the second wish for his son to come home alive, and the son did, but in the form he was after he was killed by the factory machine. The story ended with the dilemma of the man who wanted to make the 3rd and final wish to make the gruesome monster knocking at his door disappear, but wondering what horrible repercussions would ensue from that wish.
The story fits the dilemma of the USA in its pro-Israeli Middle East outlook. Its first wish was for the political neutralisation of Yasser Arafat, the head of the secular Fatah and acknowledged leader of the Palestinian coalition of resistance groups known as the PLO, whom the US saw as a stubborn obstacle to the Palestinians living in peace with Israel (or, more truthfully, for a Palestine subordinated to Israel). The wish came true when Yasser Arafat died of an unknown illness, with many suspecting the Israelis poisoned him in the same manner as they had Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, in Amman in 1997.
The symptoms were exactly similar. In an earlier posting on the questions surruonding Yasser Arafat's Death I said:
"For example, it has been a proven fact that Israel had poisoned Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, in Amman in 1997. In exchanged for captured Israeli spies in Jordan, the Jordanian King forced Israeli PM Netanyahu to provide the antidote, thus saving Khaled. Because of this notorious case, there continues to be strong belief, though not backed by evidence, that Arafat was poisoned by the secret agents of his arch enemy, Ariel Sharon."
With the disappearance of the formidable personality of Arafat, the curse of the monkey's paw saw the Palestinian people turning more and more to the extremist Islamist Hamas who has vowed to destroy Israel.
The US second wish was for a democracy in Palestinian, with the implicit hope that such an institution may see a more compliant US-sponsored Palestinian Authority (which replaces the earlier PLO) succumb more and more to Israeli demands and atrocious land grabbing.
The wish for democracy was granted with the fair conduct of the parliamentary election in Palestine. However, the monkey paw's curse on the US witnessed the Palestinian people voting for Hamas as their preferred representatives. I had blogged earlier in HAMAS to form New Palestinian Government, on some factors which saw the Palestinians’ change of political affiliation from the previously popular & secular Fatah to the Islamist Hamas.
Now the USA has threatened to cancel aid to the Palestinians because it is not pleased with the democratic outcome that has turned out to be a nightmare for its pro-Israeli foreign position.
Leaving aside the hypocritical and biased nature of America’s foreign policy, where ‘democracy’ means pro-USA governments (or one compliant to the requirements of an Israeli government), let’s mull for a while over the US option for its remaining 3rd wish. And what frightening outcome the Indian fakir’s curse would bring about?
Some political observers suggested that Israel and their US friends in the Bush Administration (and as most of us know, US foreign policy in the Middle East is controlled by Israel) would like to isolate the incoming Hamas government through the cutting off of US financial aid, thus forcing the impoverished new Palestinian Authority to moderate its policies towards Israel or better still, make the Palestinian people become disillusioned with a Hamas government, thus driving them back to the US preferred Fatah.
That seems to be its likely 3rd wish, but Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a top member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has already provided an indication of the curse of the 3rd wish. He warned that cutting off US aid to the Hamas-run government could push the Palestinians closer to Iran and create further chaos in the Middle East.
Iran helping Hamas! Now, that's the ultimate in curses for both the US and Israel.
Next - the Israeli wishes ........
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