“Like Mubarak, George Papandreou combines servility to his imperial mentors with arrogance and brutality to his Greek subjects. As the Egyptians demonstrated it will take the Greek people more than marches and occasional strikes to bring down an entrenched client of the empire. But it can be done as was exemplified in Cairo!”
By James Petras / My Catbird Seat
Greek P.M. George Papandreou
In the midst of the Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East, at a time when even the European (EU) has publically condemned Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its illegal land seizures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou promised a visiting delegation of American Jewish leaders, that he would do everything possible to undermine EU opposition and promote Israeli economic, diplomatic and political interests in Europe.
US Zionists, recently returned from a visit to Athens described Papandreou as by far the most amenable (‘servile’) European leader they have met in recent memory. Papandreou’s slavish submission to Israeli interests includes his promise, to a delegation of U.S. zionist notables, to use his influence to pressure the new Egyptian military junta to continue to uphold the Mubarak agreements with Israel (European Jewish Press 2/11/11). These include the continued blockade of Gaza and support of Israel’s military assaults on Lebanon, Syria and Palestinians. In other words Papandreou is openly supportive of Egypt’s past collaboration with Israeli clandestine assassinations and kidnapping of Arab militants.
Papandreou demonstrates a greater interest in promoting Israel’s exports to the European market, than the country he ostensibly represents. He promised a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations “to integrate Israel into the European market” (European Jewish Press 2/11/11) while he shrinks the Greeks economy by 10% between 2009-11 and doubles unemployment from 8% to 16%. Papandreou’s gross servility to Israel and the American Zionist power structure is manifested in his cordial reception and recent agreements with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and his foreign minister, the notorious Zionist-fascist Avigdor Lieberman – the same Lieberman who advocates wholesale expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank. No Greek Prime Minister, since the Zionist state was founded, has exhibited such a bizarre display of active collaboration with Israel’s colonial claims in the Middle East. No European leader has so eagerly anticipated and implemented the demands of American Zionist organizations with such zeal.
What is most striking about Papandreou’s servility to Israeli and American Zionist interests, is that it takes place when most of the rest of the world, from Europe, Turkey, Lebanon, Latin America, to North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia) and the vast majority of Arabs are moving toward isolating Israel. In other words, Papandreou is embracing a pro-Israel policy which is alienating Europe, isolating Greece from over a hundred million Arabs and undermining Greek agricultural (citrus) exports to the EU market.
Papandreou’s perverse and highly prejudicial foreign policy is matched by his extraordinary adherence and enforcement of the debt payment policies dictated by the IMF and the bankers of the EU and the US. His behavior is particularly shameless at a time when the next Irish government is threatening to declare a debt default if payments are not reduced. In his eagerness to ingratiate himself with the overseas bankers, Papandreou has systematically extracted billions of euros via a 20% reduction in wages, salaries and pensions and transferred it to the coffers of the banks. In the process Papandreou’s policies have doubled the unemployment rate, shrank the economy and undermined any future growth for the next decade. Papandreou rejected the Argentine formula, which in the face of a similar crises in 2001-02 , defaulted rather than deepen poverty. Under President Kirchner, Argentina renegotiated its debt, shaving bond payments by 75% and imposing a moratorium. As a result, Argentina recovered from the crises and maintained a growth rate of 7% for over a decade while reducing unemployment from 22% to less than 6%.
If Papandreou acts as a submissive messenger boy for Israel and its Zionist fifth column in America, he features prominently as the eager and aggressive “bill collector” for the overseas banks. He will go down in historical infamy as a willing accomplice of Israeli war crimes, an upholder of its unequal treaties with Egypt in his foreign policy and the enforcer of financial predators who impoverish millions of Greeks at home.
Having decimated the Greek economy via transfers of billions abroad and undermined economic relations with the Arab countries, Papandreou offers to sell Greece’s most lucrative transport, ports energy and communication companies to Chinese, Israeli and Wall Street investors and speculators. It is ironic that George Papandreou the son of former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou should reverse each and every one of his father’s policies, especially with regard to the Middle East.
In 1981 after Andreas Papandreou was elected he invited me to Athens to discuss policies and programs of his future government. The first thing he told me was the importance of supporting the Palestinian struggle and how he had a successful meeting with Yasser Arafat, who regaled him with a prized pistol, which he displayed to me. A year later when I returned to Greece to direct and develop a research center, he invited me for a swim. We were accompanied by a dozen underwater security guards, patrolling offshore, against a potential assassination plot by Mossad, according to the prime minister, in reprisal for his solidarity with the Palestinians in Lebanon.
A few days later over 50,000 Greeks led by Culture Minister Melina Mercuri marched in solidarity with the Palestinians and in repudiation of Israel’s role in the bloody massacre of 2000 women and children in Sabra and Shatila. The contrast of the two generations of Papandreou’s could not be more stark; while Andreas saw Greece as a bridge between Europe and the Arab East, George sees Greece acting as a pimp for Israeli business interests in Europe and as a lobbyist for its dominance in the Middle East. The Zionists have lost an old client in Mubarek and gained a new one in Papendreou.
Like Mubarak, George Papandreou combines servility to his imperial mentors with arrogance and brutality to his Greek subjects. As the Egyptians demonstrated it will take the Greek people more than marches and occasional strikes to bring down an entrenched client of the empire. But it can be done as was exemplified in Cairo!
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles. His latest book is War Crimes in Gaza and the Zionist Fifth Column in America (Atlanta:Clarity Pres 2010)
More from James Petras
JAMES PETRAS : American Zionism against the Egyptian Pro-Democracy Movement
JAMES PETRAS : EGYPT — SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ,THE CIA AND MOSSAD
More from James Petras
JAMES PETRAS : American Zionism against the Egyptian Pro-Democracy Movement
JAMES PETRAS : EGYPT — SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ,THE CIA AND MOSSAD
The Irish show the way….
Sinn Fein: Break the Power of the Bankers, Throw off the Bank Debt
February 20th, 2011
Inspectors from the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank were in Greece last week to check that ancient nation’s compliance with the conditionalities attached to the $145 billion emergency loan that was agreed to last year. The inspectors said Greece needs to privatize, or sell off, $68 billion in state assets and speed up reforms to “keep its recovery on track.” Greece’s government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis said that the bankers’ comments were unacceptable and amounted to interference into Greek domestic affairs. He said that, while Greece is in need, it also has its limits. He said the Greek government only takes orders from the people of Greece and that no state land would be sold. Greece already approved a 2011 budget with new austerity measures that include cuts in health and defense spending, along with pension freezes and higher taxes.
There have been major demonstrations in Greece against these savage austerity measures.
Reflecting on the order by IMF/EU officials to the Greek government to sell off billions of euros in state assets, Irish TD Martin Ferris, Sinn Fein spokesman for Marine and Natural Resources, warned that the orders to Greece are a forewarning of what is to come for Ireland if the bailout is adhered to. Ferris said, “What is happening in Greece is what will happen here unless the IMF/EU bailout is rejected. Wages and public services have been slashed and now the social democratic government is being told to sell off the state to privateers.
“The Memorandum of Understanding, which [EU Commissioner for Economics] Olli Rehn has said is binding on the Irish state, outlines a timetable to examine the sell-off of state companies. Fianna Fail, Labour and Fine Gael are all committed to adhering to the IMF/EU bailout. The only choice here is to reject the bank bailout and reclaim our sovereignty from the clutches of the EU and the IMF and to throw off the massive and unsustainable bank debt.”
It is the winning formula which they have devised.
Remember John Perkins, Economic Hit Man? He described the system a few years ago.
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/08/economic-hitmen-by-john-perkins/
The only working defense against this kind of takeover is to say “NO,” loudly, firmly, frequently, and deliberately!
His grandmother was a Polish Jew but as a professor, you’d know that. Have you been to Greece lately?
There is an old saying: many loved the betrayal, none the traitor!
One approach is trade in return for aid – the import of useless, harmful or uncompetitive garbage paid for with the “rescue package” or whatever the loan is called. The dismantling of protective measures and the cheap sale of public assets is a second approach. Bankrupting businesses that are promising targets (e.g. by cutting off orders suddenly) is a third. Compromised “leaders” within the target country are essential to inflict this kind of modern colonialism.
It is as if Alan Greenspan had never admitted being wrong about the free market. The Elgin Marbles remain in the British Museum.
I thought Greeks were politically savvy? It seems not. :Leaving this Zionist gangster in power has seen the country decimated, but it was already decimated when the previous socialist PM – Simitis (now that’s a dead giveaway) pushed to get Greece into the euro and made corrupt deals with his kindred in Goldman-Sachs to hide the level of Greek debt.
The Greek people will have to act and act fast. Say NO and bring these traitors to justice.
I think the opposition in Samaras is in on it too and just gives token opposition, much like the rest of the western world.
Greece has been economically whacked and needs some revenge.