-REQUIRES A CONSTANT STRUGGLE."
-- George Orwell, 1946
This particular... 'special relationship' is not and will never be over....?
Granted... we have rarely seen before such blatant criticism of the Israeli/Jewish Lobby in USA....but the bestiality of the ZIONAZIS has rarely been paralleled either...until today.....? NO, it has happened before....on and on and on....in 1982 Israel pounded Beirut with the equivalent of 10 to 15 times what all allied forces have used in carpet bombing of Germany.... during the second world war....but today are different times... with more open source mediums.... for all. http://tinyurl.com/8c5bem
The equivalent political overkill to bludgeon the American political establishment into total submission..... Blah Blah Blah Blah.....
After six decades of trying, Israel has been unable to turn Palestinians into vassals and subservient slaves -- but it has succeeded in transforming an otherwise impressive American political governance system into a herd of castrated cattle who cower before the threats that Israel’s Washington-based henchmen and hit men hold over them. http://tinyurl.com/98yex8
Gaza will get its ceasefire soon, but will Washington ever find relief from the choking stranglehold of Israel’s political thugs?
These Congressional votes in the past few days were not an unusual event, sadly, but rather a routine reaffirmation of the chokehold that Israel enjoys over the elected representatives of an otherwise healthy democracy. For example, two years ago, when Israel attacked Lebanon with similar ferocity, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 410-8 to support the Israeli onslaught and to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah for "unprovoked and reprehensible armed attacks against Israel."
Two years before that, in 2004, the House voted 407-9 to support President Bush’s position that it was "unrealistic" for Israel to return completely to its pre-June 1967 borders.
On no other foreign policy issue does the U.S. Congress collectively stick its head in its back pocket, turn off its power of independent judgment, and disregard the impact of its decisions on how the United States is perceived around the world. Nowhere else in the world does the U.S. Congress vote according to the interests of a foreign country, rather than according to the U.S. national interest. This kind of blind, whole-hearted plunge into a maelstrom of pro-Israeli fanaticism and zealotry reflects precisely how strong the pro-Israeli lobby is in the United States, and how weak are the voices of reason, balance and justice as drivers of American foreign policy.
This is the distorted reality that Obama will inherit in a week’s time, and what an ugly thing it is. It captures the worst of all worlds all rolled into one -- the vicious, hysterical force of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States that buys and terrorizes politicians as easily as buying bags of peanuts at a circus; the anemic, mindless and spineless Arab governments who stand naked before Israel and the United States, and shameless before their own people; and the American political establishment that behaves on this issue, with a handful of brave and decent exceptions, in a most un-American manner in the face of the omniscient pro-Israeli forces that decide if they live or die politically.
None of this is surprising or new. It only amazes me that Americans expect us to take them seriously and not to laugh -- or throw up -- when they preach to us about promoting democracy.....
- Israel "and" America....is a covert paradigm...used by the power behind the power in USA to steamroll US politics into complete submission to the Wyoming boys....the so-called ISRAEL's influential lobby....is a myth propagated by this occult power behind the power....because it is a very handy and a "cheap" way ...of controlling both houses of congress ...without ever disclosing any of the rogue intelligence and covert...extra-judicial operations...and all policies....in USA and the world for that matter... and the so-called Israeli lobby, with all of its spectacular ramifications worldwide is completely and utterly subservient to this power behind the power in USA, they are just a front and a cover...for the real power behind all powers in USA, and its criminal enterprise, the newfound Siamese twins of CIA2/MOSSAD, and the White House Murder Machinations INC, which is globalized in nature since 1994/95....This particular... 'special relationship' is not and will never be over....?
Take TWO....: Blah Blah Blah Blah
The role played by Israel as the catalyst for war in the Middle East was dramatically underscored the other day, when David Sanger of the New York Times reported Israel had requested access to "bunker-buster" bombs developed by the US, and also clearance for flying over Iraqi airspace to get at Iran. Both requests were denied.
Tensions within the "special relationship" have been escalating ever since. The first public eruption occurred over the UN Gaza resolution, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the world how he had yanked the President of the United States "off the podium" and demanded the US abstain from the Security Council vote. The United States isn't exactly calling Olmert a liar, but, then again, in the course of denying it, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack went out of his way to issue a stinging rebuke. Olmert's comments, he averred, "are wholly inaccurate as to describing the situation, just 100-percent, totally, completely not true." He tartly advised the Israeli government to correct the record.
Is the US-Israel "special relationship" fraying around the edges? After all, this is hardly the sort of talk one hears between the two: Mr. and Mrs. Perfect Couple are usually careful to conduct their occasional spats behind closed doors. That this repartee is being exchanged on the international stage is extraordinary behavior indeed. It suggests a fundamental shift in US policy, in part dictated by objective circumstances, and propelled, as well, by increased Israeli assertiveness, which has widened the fault-lines that have always existed between Washington and Tel Aviv.
Over at the Center for American Progress blog, Matt Yglesias disapproves of Olmert's boorishness: "It seems both telling and unseemly that Olmert is going around bragging about this." Unseemliness has never stopped the Israelis from pressing their demands, but Yglesias is right: it is telling. It tells us who is used to giving orders, and who is accustomed to obedience.
Yet those power relations, in force throughout the first and much of the second Bush term, started undergoing a radical shift in the latter days of the Bush era. After the neoconservatives had left the administration, in disgrace, the divergence of US and Israeli interests began to come out in the open: most of these were little noted, such as the end of the visa arrangements between the US and Israel that had given Israelis practically unlimited rights to travel and stay in the US. Another and not so subtle signal: the arrest of two top officials of AIPAC, Israel's powerful lobbying organization, The duo were accused of stealing classified information, via Larry Franklin, a veteran of Douglas Feith's shadowy "Office of Special Plans," and a neoconservative of the Ledeen school. Franklin pled guilty to charges of espionage, and was given a 12 year sentence, a hefty fine – and a chance to work off some or all of that time by testifying at the trial of the two ringleaders, Steve Rosen (formerly AIPAC's chief lobbyist) and Keith Weissman (their Iran expert), whose arrest was prefigured by two FBI raids on AIPAC's Washington headquarters.
On the public stage, all has been hunky-dory for the US and Israel, and yet when it comes to the murky CIA2/MOSSAD.... world of spycraft, the US has lately been on the disinformation slippery slope for the gullible....again....because the power behind the power is still the same...and they do use covert tactics too...with Israel..... Look, for example, at the case of Ben Ami Kadish. Here's a guy close to eighty and barely able to get to meetings of the Jewish War Veterans anymore, being hauled into court and accused of being part of the same Israeli spy ring that recruited Jonathan Pollard. Pollard, by the way, is a hero in Israel, and I believe there is some sort of monument dedicated to him, or perhaps it's only a street named after him: in any case, the campaign to release him from jail continues: this is a demand that every Israeli government always makes, so far to no avail.....LOL.... James Jesus ANGELTON must be turning and churning in his grave....
You'll notice, however, that Bush did pardon – posthumously – another revered Israeli hero, one Charles Winters, an American citizen, who was convicted in 1948 of violating the Neutrality Act by shipping weapons from the US to Palestine, where the Irgun and Haganah forces were battling both the British and the Arabs.
That, however, is hardly enough to appease Tel Aviv. Iran is the issue that has divided the US and Israel, and the gulf is only going to widen: that's because the objective interests of the US and Israel are increasingly in conflict. That was the post-cold war trend, one that was ultimately exacerbated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Initially, of course, the idea was that "We are all Israelis now," as Marty Peretz exulted. This coziness did not and could not have lasted, because the US relationship with the Muslim world, and specifically with the Arab countries of the Middle East, from that moment on took center stage. In effect, the Israelis were upstaged: we vowed to defeat and destroy al-Qaeda, but couldn't do it without significant Arab support. In taking the battle to bin Laden, we elevated the importance of our Arab and Muslim allies, to Israel's detriment.
While on the surface the US appears to be in lockstep with Israel, their divergent paths are increasingly apparent. The breakdown between the Bush White House and the Israelis has been magnified by the uncertainty augured by the incoming administration, where the outcome of a power struggle between Likudniks and realists is uncertain.
The Gaza offensive has caught the US off-guard, and brought simmering US-Israeli tensions to a boil. What Gaza signals is a new turn for the Israelis, a clean break, if you will, with their status as an American puppet in the Middle East. They are clearly going off on their own, intent on waging a war of unmitigated aggression against all their neighbors. Their expansionist tendencies have lately taken on pretty grandiose dimensions, as Seymour Hersh reported in his exposé of their activities in Kurdistan. That this little adventure was leaked to Hersh by sources in and around the US intelligence community and government circles was doubtless another contributing factor to the growing US-Israeli split.
Events are rapidly reaching a dramatic climax, and Gaza is just the start. Even as Israel makes the case that it represents the West, and deserves our support, it becomes less Western, and more like a typical Middle Eastern despotism garbed in the somewhat soiled raiment of "democracy." The banning of the Arab parties, and the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, a racist and a theocrat, as a leading Israeli politician, augur ill for the future of Israel as a liberal democracy. As the Israelis hurl themselves into a furious campaign to push outward and establish the old dream of a "Greater Israel," the claim that they are the region's only democracy becomes an ever more hollow boast...
--Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt were pretty close, politically
and personally. They led the fight against fascism in the early 1940s,
and although they had their disagreements they got on very well. They
were both blunt in expressing their views, but there was no doubt who
was the more powerful : Roosevelt called the shots, although Churchill
had a lot of influence on him. But it would have been unthinkable for
Churchill to have behaved in the way that the present (though not for
long) prime minister of Israel did with the present (though not for
long) president of the United States.
Prime minister Olmert of Israel, who has been forced to stand down
because of allegations of corruption, telephoned President Bush to make
the latter alter his orders to his Secretary of State to support a mild
resolution in the UN Security Council that called for a ceasefire in
Gaza. The barely believable transcript of Olmert's boasting of his
success is on public record. He said:
"I [Olmert] spoke with him [Bush]; I told him: You can't vote for
this proposal. He said: listen, I don't know, I didn't see, don't know
what it says. I told him: I know, and you can't vote for it! He then
instructed the secretary of state, and she did not vote for it."
There is no other head of government in the entire world who could say
such words to the president of the United States. And will Olmert's
successor be able to speak with Bush's successor in the same way and
with a similar result?
We know the name of the next US president, but we don't know who the
next Israeli prime minister will be. It looks as if it might be a choice
between two steel-minded sadists, Tzipi Livni or Binyamin Netanyahu,
both dedicated haters of Palestine, Palestinians and Arabs in general.
So what might they be able to say to President Obama? Will they be able
to pick up the phone and call him to suggest forcefully that he alter
the voting intention of the United States of America in the UN Security
Council? And what would he do, if they did?
Given the commitment to Israel of Mr Obama and his Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, as was obvious in their groveling speeches last year to
the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, there is no guarantee
that they will, either of them, ever utter a word in criticism of Israel.
There is one thing certain: the US Congress is going to continue its
unconditional support for Israel, no matter what war crimes are
committed by its disgusting thugs-in-uniform. The Reps need the money,
after all, which they get through political action committees which are
generously funded by American Jews. And they are scared to political
death by the threat that pro-Israel agencies will destroy them
politically if they dare say a word against Israel.
There are very few Representatives of the people of America who would
dare challenge Israel, or who might possibly criticize Israel, or who
have the courage to condemn atrocities committed by Israel.
***
The worst of all the barbarians who are killing children and their
mothers and fathers in Gaza are the Israeli pilots who mercilessly bomb
houses occupied by terrified families. And they are staunchly supported
by the House of Representatives of the United States of America.
These pilots, these vile little war-gamers of the skies, these
latter-day examples of what Tom Wolfe called "The Right Stuff", can zoom
over towns full of traumatized children and happily heave and hurl their
bombs and rockets to kill yet more Palestinian kids without the remotest
chance of being shot down. How heroic; how truly gladiatorial. How
contemptible. They are blood brothers with the pilots of the Nazis'
Stuka ground attack aircraft of yesteryear, with their terrifying
sirens, who bombed columns of fleeing refugees all round Europe.
But the US House of Representatives rushed to praise Israel, and endorse
its invasion and its merciless air strikes, and committed America to a
motion "Recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from
Gaza, reaffirming the United States' strong support for Israel, and
supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."
***
Not many Americans know anything about the hideous barbarity in Gaza,
because US cable networks and newspapers rarely carry pictures of
disfigured blood-splashed children who have been killed, maimed or
orphaned by the Israelis. But here in Europe we have access to some TV
channels and newspapers that are very different from the pliant pro-Zion
patsies of the major news outlets across the Atlantic.
And if US television channels carried pictures like the ones we see,
there would be such outbursts of horror and indignation that even the US
Congress might be forced to condemn the Israeli fascists for their
barbarity. But the all-powerful Israel lobby makes sure that little of
the sort will appear.
Who runs America?
The only honorable members of the House, voting against unconditional
support for Israeli killing of Palestinian children, were Democrats
Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Maxine Waters (California), Gwen Moore
(Wisconsin), and Nick Rahall (West Virginia), along with Texas
Republican Ron Paul. And Mr Kucinich put the whole case for their vote
when he said
"In Gaza, the United Nations gave the Israeli army the coordinates
of a UN school, and the school was then hit by Israeli tank fire,
killing about 40. The UN put flags on emergency vehicles, coordinating
the movements of those vehicles with the Israeli military, and the
vehicles came under attack, killing emergency workers. The Israeli army
evacuated 100 Palestinians to shelter, and then bombed the shelter,
killing 30 people."
Blunt stuff – but it cut no ice with the 390 members of the House who
voted for Israel to continue its killing.
The Israelis have killed over a thousand Palestinians, and the UN
reports that at least 500 of these deaths were civilians, and that half
of these were women and children. One million of Gaza's 1.5 million
people have no electricity, and about 750,000 are without water. They
are existing in conditions of appalling squalor and fear, with
US-supplied helicopter gunships and F-16s striking at will, and tanks
and artillery destroying their houses and killing their children.
Yet the House votes for Israel. And the President of the United States
of America jumps to obey the Israeli prime minister. But will there be
any change under Obama and Clinton?
A year ago Hillary Clinton told the American Israeli Committee that "we
stand with Israel because of our shared values and our shared belief in
the dignity of men and women and the right to live without fear or
oppression."
Last June Barack Obama told the American Israeli Committee "Now is the
time to be vigilant in facing down every foe, just as we move forward in
seeking a future of peace for the children of Israel, and for all
children. Now is the time to stand by Israel . . ."
Will they continue to support Israel, the country that has laid waste a
land and murdered over 200 women and children?
If they do, the question must be asked: Who runs America?
Let’s start with two facts:
GENEVA (HK) - A UN human rights expert on Thursday said Israeli military
operations in the Gaza Strip during its recent offensive there raised "the
specter of systematic war crimes" and needed to be investigated.
The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Territories,
Richard Falk, said he had little doubt about the "unavoidably inhuman
character of a large scale military operation of the sort that Israel has
initiated... against an essentially defenseless population."
Falk told journalists that Israeli military operations in the densely
populated territory among a population weakened by an 18 month blockade
"raises the specter of systematic war crimes."
"Unlawful targets have been selected" during the fighting, he alleged.
"The evidence of breaking of fundamental rules of international humanitarian
law is so compelling," he added, backing calls for an independent,
international investigation, all the way to the ICC in the Hague...
Falk, a legal expert, insisted that the Palestinian population of the Gaza
Strip was effectively trapped in a war zone and prevented from fleeing, even
if they were ill, wounded, or children.
The 47-member UN Human Rights Council voted by a large majority on January
12 to set up a probe into "grave" human rights violations by Israeli forces
against Palestinians.
More than 1,440 Palestinians, nearly a third of them children, were
reportedly killed and 5,900 wounded in the 22-day Israeli offensive launched
with the declared aim of stopping rocket attacks on southern Israel by
Palestinian militants.
Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed in Israel during the
same period. Israel has accused Palestinian Hamas militants of using
civilian locations as cover during fighting.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reiterated Wednesday his demand for a full
explanation of "outrageous" Israeli attacks on UN facilities in the Gaza
Strip including a school used as a refuge for civilians.
The UN chief noted that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had promised to
provide results of the Israeli inquiry "on an urgent basis" and said he
would then decide on "appropriate follow-up action."
1. The United States of America is a rogue state built on and maintained by terror...;
2. Barack Obama can/will do absolutely nothing to change or challenge the realities behind fact #1, because he is a mere stooge, catapulted by the real power behind the power in the terrorist USA, heavily populated by the Neo-Zionists, gladly fronting for the obscure powers in DC, completely subservient to this power behind the power in USA, fronting for the Siamese twins CIA2/MOSSAD, and its infamous White House Murder Inc, headquartered in Damascus for the Levant's subsidiary....and headed by Asef Shawkat, the criminal murderer of SYRIA circa 1994....2002-2005...08.....!
In the name of providing context, let’s look back to the “good war” (a phrase in which -- as Studs Terkel said -- the noun and adjective don’t match) for an example of time-honored US terror tactics: In World War II’s Pacific theater -- cheered on by the likes of Time magazine, which explained that “properly kindled, Japanese cities will burn like autumn leaves” -- US General Curtis LeMay’s Twenty-first Bomber Command, laid siege on the poorer areas of Japan’s large cities. On the night of March 9-10, 1945, the target was Tokyo, where tightly packed wooden buildings took the brunt of 1,665 tons of incendiaries. LeMay later recalled that a few explosives had been mixed in with the incendiaries to demoralize firefighters (96 fire engines burned to ashes and 88 firemen died). The attack area was 87.4 percent residential. By May 1945, 75 percent of the bombs being dropped on Japan were incendiaries and LeMay’s campaign took an estimated 672,000 lives.
In a confidential memo of June 1945, Brigadier General Bonner Fellers, an aide to General MacArthur, called the raids “one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings on non-combatants in all history.” Secretary of War Henry Stimson declared it was “appalling that there had been no protest over the air strikes we were conducting against Japan which led to such extraordinarily heavy loss of life.” Stimson added that he “did not want to have the United States get the reputation for outdoing Hitler in atrocities.” After the “good war,” LeMay admitted, “I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal. Fortunately, we were on the winning side.”
The men that devised and carried out this heinous attack are widely considered to be part of this country’s “greatest generation” yet, by any sane definition, what I just described is terrorism . . . far worse than anything allegedly perpetrated by official US enemies.
Well then, here goes: Whether we -- or Lord Obama -- choose to admit it or not, the vaunted “American way of life” was built on a nearly exterminated indigenous population, the African slave trade, and all those killed in places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East, etc. It was built on stolen land using stolen oil. Our way of life was built on terror and it is maintained by CIA2/MOSSAD/MI6 and OSP terror, e.g., cops, prisons, unprecedented extra-judicial political assassinations on an industrial scale, military, and the psychological oppression of propaganda by the media at large worldwide, bought and paid for by FDDC, and local stooges in every corner of the globe, and by Stratfor.... which is a callous disinformation arm of CIA, Texas funded and Texas based....spewing garbage so-called Intel studies for the gullible...
The exalted Pope of Hope is merely shilling old Kool-Aid in shiny new recyclable bottles. Until we act, we remain accomplices to this global and domestic heinous crimes....and to come back to today's ongoing war in GAZA.....which is a sideshow, and one more diversionary tactic by both the USA and Israel.... as usual :
...The record is fairly clear. You can find it on the Israeli website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Israel broke the ceasefire by going into the Gaza and killing six or seven Palestinian militants. At that point—and now I’m quoting the official Israeli website—Hamas retaliated or, in retaliation for the Israeli attack, then launched the missiles.
Now, as to the reason why, the record is fairly clear as well. According to Ha’aretz, Defense Minister Barak began plans for this invasion before the ceasefire even began. In fact, according to yesterday’s Ha’aretz, the plans for the invasion began in March. And the main reasons for the invasion, I think, are twofold. Number one; to enhance what Israel calls its deterrence capacity, which in layman’s language basically means Israel’s capacity to terrorize the region into submission. After their defeat in July 2006 in Lebanon, they felt it important to transmit the message that Israel is still a fighting force, still capable of terrorizing those who dare defy its word.
And the second main reason for the attack is because Hamas was signaling that it wanted a diplomatic settlement of the conflict along the June 1967 border. That is to say, Hamas was signaling they had joined the international consensus, they had joined most of the international community, overwhelmingly the international community, in seeking a diplomatic settlement. And at that point, Israel was faced with what Israelis call a Palestinian peace offensive. And in order to defeat the peace offensive, they sought to dismantle Hamas.
...As was documented in the April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair by the writer David Rose, basing himself on internal US documents, it was the United States in cahoots with the Palestinian Authority and Israel which were attempting a putsch on Hamas, and Hamas preempted the putsch. That, too, is no longer debatable or no longer .... controversial...
--
1. Harm to Lebanese and Palestinian civilians
A large part of U.S. military aid to Israel goes to purchase tanks,
helicopter gunships, machine guns, and bullets that are used against
Palestinian civilians. Our tax dollars have been used to destroy homes;
uproot trees and crops; seize land from its lawful owners; close all access
to food, medicine, and the outside world for small towns in the West Bank
and Gaza; staff checkpoints that cut off ambulances and other civilian
traffic; and carry out assassinations that kill children in addition to
summarily executing political leaders. When Palestinian doctors remove
bullets from the bodies of Palestinian children, the bullets are typically
stamped. Made in the U.S.A.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article158792.html#article158792
Israel has used its U.S.-financed arsenal against unarmed Palestinian
civilians, including children. Amnesty International reports that in 2002
alone, ?At least 1,000 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army, most of
them unlawfully. They included some 150 children and at least 35 individuals
killed in targeted assassinations. Certain abuses committed by the Israeli
army constituted war crimes.?[including] unlawful killings, obstruction of
medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel, extensive and wanton
destruction of property, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment, unlawful
confinement and the use of "`human shields."
The IDF continued to demolish houses and destroy agricultural land and
industrial installations throughout the Gaza Strip?.The IDF routinely used
F-16 fighter jets, helicopter gunships, and tanks to bomb and shell
Palestinian residential areas in response to gunfire or mortar attacks by
Palestinians or in reprisal for suicide bombings and other attacks...
2. Harm to Israelis
In addition to the devastation it visits on Palestinians, the occupation
threatens the democratic values Israel seeks to uphold. Massive military aid
promotes militarism, which has led to a reliance on military, rather than
diplomatic means to work for a solution to this ongoing conflict. More and
more Israelis question the moral decay that accompanies the criminal actions
of the military and the dehumanization of the Palestinian people. A peace
rally at the height of Israel's reoccupation of the main towns of the West
Bank in April 2002 drew 15,000 protestors in Tel Aviv. Currently nearly
1,200 Israeli army reservists refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories
because the occupation corrupts Israeli society and endangers, rather than
enhances, the security of Israelis. Israeli activists support the suspension
of U.S. military aid to Israel; in the words of feminist activist Rela
Mazali, ?[T]he U.S. foots most of the bills run up by this siege and makes
some of the most lethal weapons used to maintain it. We hope you will tell
your government to stop arming the conflict.
3. Harm to the U.S. and its citizens
Israel is required to use 75% of its military aid from the U.S. to buy arms
and equipment such as Caterpillar bulldozers made in the U.S. It funnels
this money to more than 1,000 U.S. arms suppliers, which in turn lobby for
U.S. policies that benefit them at the expense of peace in the Middle East.
As a result, the diversion of our tax dollars not only reduces funding for
education and social programs but militarizes our public policy overall.
U.S. military aid to Israel sets the U.S. in opposition to many Arab and
European nations who recognize the horrors of the occupation. This makes
U.S. citizens less safe because we are more hated. And the massive flow of
arms into Israel is made even more dangerous by arms sales of lesser quality
to other Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
While all this business fills the coffers of arms merchants, it makes the
Middle East ever more unstable. Furthermore, when our government arms
proponents of massive human rights abuses, we become complicit in their
crimes and hated by their victims. U.S. support of Israel's occupation of
Palestinian lands and its abuse of human rights undermines any moral
authority to criticize human rights abuses in other countries. And it shreds
the U.S. of any credibility in acting to promote peace in the region.
4. Violations of U.S. and international law
U.S. law prohibits the president from furnishing military aid to any country
which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of
internationally recognized human rights.? 22 U.S.C. ? 2304(a). The U.S.
Department of State reported in March 2003 that, ?Israel's overall human
rights record in the occupied territories remained poor and worsened in
several areas as it continued to commit serious human rights abuses?.Israeli
security units used excessive force during Palestinian demonstrations, while
on patrol, pursuing suspects, and enforcing checkpoints and curfews, which
resulted in many deaths.? Targeting civilians, as Israel has done, is a war
crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The fact that Palestinian groups
have done the same makes it no less criminal. For more information on these
human rights violations visit www.btselem.org, and
web.amnesty.org/report2003/2md-index-eng
5. Aid is excessive and disproportionate
More U.S. aid goes to Israel than any other country, even though Israel's
per capita income is as high as many European countries. In fiscal year 2003
Israel received a foreign military financing grant of $3.1 billion and a
$600 million grant for economic security in addition to $11 billion in
commercial loan guarantees. This total aid package of nearly $15 billion
makes Israel by far the largest single recipient of U.S. aid. U.S. aid is a
function of politics. According to a Time/CNN poll, released April 12, 2002,
60% of Americans favor cutting aid to Israel if Israel does not immediately
withdraw its troops from Palestinian areas. Further, U.S. aid to other
countries is often tied to various conditions, depending on what the U.S.
wants the aid recipient to do. We are asking that aid to Israel be treated
in the same manner.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article158865.html#article158865
Pouring arms into an area of the world already plagued by violence can only
increase death and destruction and render the U.S. a questionable broker for
peace at best. In these hard economic days, that money can be put to use in
the U.S. or it could be used to build a stable Palestinian society, out of
the devastation that exists there now. The Israeli economy has been in a
downward spiral for years, and foreign investment has long been directly
related to the level of violence in the region. Using military aid as a
lever to end the occupation will be a boon to the security and hopes for the
future for both Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_17.shtml
Key Facts
a.. Total direct aid to Israel, 1948-2003
$89.9 billion (uncorrected for inflation)
b.. Since 1976 Israel has been the largest annual recipient of US aid. It
is the largest cumulative recipient since World War II.
c.. Direct U.S. aid for each Israeli citizen in 2001 (per capita annual
income of Israel = $16,710) -- over $500
d.. Direct U.S. Aid for each Ethiopian citizen in 2001 (per capita annual
income of Ethiopia = $100) -- about $.45
e.. REGULAR US GRANT AID in FY 2003
$2.76 billion military aid grant
$2.1 billion economic support funds
$600 million refugee resettlement grant
f.. COMMERCIAL LOAN GUARANTEES IN FY 2003
$2 billion
g.. BUSH ADMINISTRATION SUPPLEMENTAL REQUEST FOR FY 2003
Military aid grant $1 billion
Commercial loan guarantees $9 billion
Arrow missile development $60 million
h.. TOTAL AID FOR FY 2003 $14.82 billion
i.. Percentage of U.S. foreign aid that goes to Israel -- 30%
j.. Israel's population as a percentage of world population -- .01%
k.. Section 116 of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) states, "No assistance
may be provided under this part to the government of any country which
engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally
recognized human rights." 22 U.S.C. 2304(a)
l.. Section 4 of the Arms Export Control Act prohibits selling military
equipment to countries that use them for non-self-defense purposes.
m.. The U.S. State Department determined in February 2001 that Israel has
committed each of the acts that the law defines as "gross violations of
internationally recognized human rights, including torture or cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without
charges and trial, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and
clandestine detention of those persons, and other flagrant denials of the
right to life, liberty, or the security of person." It described Israeli
army use of live ammunition against Palestinians when soldiers were not in
impending danger as "excessive use of force."
SOURCES: Clyde R. Mark, ?Israel: U.S. Foreign Assistance, Congressional
Research Service, updated April 1, 2003; Clyde R. Mark, Middle East: U.S.
Foreign Assistance, FY 2001, FY 2002, FY 2003 Congressional Research
Service, March 28, 2002
http://www.wrmea.com/html/usaidtoisrael0001.htm
US Aid: The Lifeblood of Occupation
Israel has maintained an illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
(Palestinian territories) for 35 years, entrenching an apartheid regime that
looks remarkably like the former South African regime.
Palestinians into small, noncontiguous bantustans, imposing closures and
curfews to control where they go and when, while maintaining control over
the natural resources, exploiting Palestinian labor, and prohibiting
indigenous economic development.
The Israeli military (IDF)-the third or forth most powerful army in the
world-routinely uses tanks, Apache helicopter gunships, and F-16 fighter
jets (all subsidized by the U.S.) against a population that has no military
and none of the protective institutions of a modern state.
All of this, Israel tells its citizens and the international community, is
for "Israeli security." The reality, not surprisingly, is that these
policies have resulted in a drastic increase in attacks on Israel. These
attacks are then used as a pretext for further Israeli incursions into
Palestinian areas and more violations of Palestinian human rights which
makes Israeli civilians more secure; all of which further entrenches
Israelÿs colonial apartheid regime. Most Americans do not realize the extent
to which this is all funded by U.S. aid, nor do they understand the specific
economic relationship the U.S. has with Israel and how that differs from
other countries.
The aid pipeline
There are at least three ways in which aid to Israel is different from that
of any other country. First, since 1982, U.S. aid to Israel has been
transferred in one lump sum at the beginning of each fiscal year, which
immediately begins to collect interest in U.S. banks. Aid that goes to other
countries is disbursed throughout the year in quarterly installments.
Second, Israel is not required to account for specific purchases. Most
countries receive aid for very specific purposes and must account for how it
is spent. Israel is allowed to place US aid into its general fund,
effectively eliminating any distinctions between types of aid. Therefore,
U.S. tax-payers are helping to fund an illegal occupation, the expansion of
colonial-settlement projects, and gross human rights violations against the
Palestinian civilian population.
A third difference is the sheer amount of aid the U.S. gives to Israel,
unparalleled in the history of U.S. foreign policy. Israel usually receives
roughly one third of the entire foreign aid budget, despite the fact that
Israel comprises less than .001 of the worldÿs population and already has
one of the world's higher per capita incomes. In other words, Israel, a
country of approximately 6 million people, is currently receiving more U.S.
aid than all of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined when you
take out Egypt and Colombia.
This year, the U.S. Congress approved $2.76 billion in its annual aid
package for Israel. The total amount of direct U.S. aid to Israel has been
constant, at around $3 billion (usually 60% military and 40% economic) per
year for the last quarter century. A new plan was recently implemented to
phase out all economic aid and provide corresponding increases in military
aid by 2008. This year Israel is receiving $2.04 billion in military aid and
$720 million in economic aid there is only military aid.
In addition to nearly $3 billion in direct aid, Israel usually gets another
$3 billion or so in indirect aid: military support from the defense budget,
forgiven loans, and special grants. While some of the indirect aid is
difficult to measure precisely, it is safe to say that Israelÿs total aid
(direct and indirect) amounts to at least five billion dollars annually.
On top of all of this aid, a team from Israel's finance ministry is slated
to meet with U.S. government officials this month about an additional $800
million aid package which the Clinton administration promised Israel (and
the Bush administration later froze) as compensation for the costs of its
withdrawal from Lebanon. The U.S. also managed to find another $28 million
in the 2001 Pentagon budget to give Israel to purchase "counter terrorism
equipment."
According to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), from
1949-2001 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $94,966,300,000. The direct
and indirect aid from this year should put the total U.S. aid to Israel
since 1949 at over one hundred billion dollars. What is not widely known,
however, is that most of this aid violates American laws. The Arms Export
Control Act stipulates that US-supplied weapons be used only for "legitimate
self-defense."
Moreover, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military assistance to
any country "which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of
internationally recognized human rights." The Proxmire amendment bans
military assistance to any government that refuses to sign the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities,
which Israel refuses to do. To understand why the U.S. spends this much
money funding the brutal repression of a colonized people, it is necessary
to examine the benefits for weapons manufacturers and, particularly, the
role that Israel plays in the expansion and maintenance of U.S. imperialism.
A very special relationship
In the fall of 1993, when many were supporting what they hoped would become
a viable peace process, 78 senators wrote to former President Bill Clinton
insisting that aid to Israel remain at current levels. Their reasons were
the "massive procurement of sophisticated arms by Arab states." Yet the
letter neglected to mention that 80 percent of those arms to Arab countries
came from the U.S. itself.
Stephen Zunes has argued that the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA),
which promotes these massive arms shipments, is even more influential in
determining U.S. policy towards Israel than the notorious AIPAC (American
Israel Public Affairs Committee) lobby. AIA has given two times more money
to campaigns than all of the pro-Israel groups combined. Zunes asserts that
the general thrust of U.S. policy would be pretty much the same even if
AIPAC didn't exist: "We didn't need a pro-Indonesia lobby to support
Indonesia in its savage repression of East Timor all these years."
The "special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel must be understood
within the overall American imperialist project and the quest for global
hegemony, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For example, 99% of
all U.S. aid to Israel came after 1967, despite the fact that Israel was
relatively more vulnerable in earlier years (from 1948-1967). Not
coincidentally, it was in 1967 that Israel won the Six Day War against
several Arab countries, establishing itself as a regional superpower. Also,
in the late 1960s and particularly in the early 1970s (this was around the
time of the Nixon Doctrine), the U.S. was looking to establish "spheres of
influence"-regional superpowers in each significant area of the world to
help the U.S. police them.
The primary U.S. interest in the Middle East is, and has always been, to
maintain control of the oil in the region, primarily because this is the
source of energy that supplies the industrial economies of Europe and Japan.
The U.S. goal has been to insure that there is no indigenous threat to their
domination of these energy resources. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
U.S. made the strategic decision to ally itself with Israel and Iran, which
were referred to as "our two eyes in the middle east" and the "guardians of
the gulf." It was at this point that aid increased drastically, from $24
million in 1967 (before the war), to $634 million in 1971, to a staggering
$2.6 billion in 1974, where it has remained relatively consistent ever
since.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-KJCMWcoms&eurl=http://www.voltairenet.org/article158865.html&feature=player_embedded
Israel was to be a military stronghold, a client state, and a proxy army,
protecting U.S. interests in the Middle East and throughout the world.
Subsidized by the CIA, Israel served U.S. interests well beyond the
immediate region, setting up dependable client regimes (usually
military-based dictatorships) to control local societies. Noam Chomsky has
documented this extensively: Israel was the main force that established the
Mobutu dictatorship in Zaire, for example. They also supported Idi Amin in
Uganda, early on, as well as Haile Selasse in Ethopia, and Emperor Bokassa
in the Central African Republic.
Israel became especially useful when the U.S. came under popular human
rights pressure in the 1970s to stop supporting death squads and
dictatorships in Latin America. The U.S. began to use Israel as a surrogate
to continue its support. Chomsky documents how Israel established close
relations with the neo-Nazi and military regimes of Argentina and Chile.
Israel also supported genocidal attacks on the indigenous population of
Guatemala, and sent arms to El Salvador and Honduras to support the contras.
This was all a secondary role, however.
The primary role for Israel was to be the Sparta of the Middle East. During
the Cold War, the U.S. especially needed Israel as a proxy army because
direct intervention in the region was too dangerous, as the Soviets were
allied with neighboring states. Over the last thirty years, the U.S. has
pursued a two-track approach to dominating the region and its resources: It
has turned Israel into a military outpost (now probably the most militarized
society in the world) that is economically dependent on the U.S. while
propping up corrupt Arab dictatorships such as those in Egypt, Jordan and
Saudi Arabia. These regimes are afraid of their own people and, thus, are
very insecure. Therefore, they are inclined to collaborate with the U.S. at
any cost....
Prospects for activism
Since the end of the Cold War, the nuclear threat associated with direct
intervention in the Middle East has disappeared and the U.S. has started a
gradual and direct militarization of the region. This began with the Gulf
War-putting U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia (the primary source of oil),
among other places-and has continued through the current 'war on terrorism.'
Although U.S. aid has not decreased yet, there have been other observable
shifts. The first obvious one is the mainstream media reporting on the
conflict. Although there is still, of course, an anti-Palestinian bias, the
coverage has shifted significantly in comparison to ten years ago. This has
been noticeable in both journalistic accounts of Israeli human rights abuses
and the publication of pro-Palestinian op-eds in major papers such as the
Washington Post and the Boston Globe.
There are also some stirrings in the U.S. Congress. Representative John
Conyers (D-MI) requested that President Bush investigate whether Israel's
use of American F-16s is violating the Arms Export Control Act. Further,
Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) recently complained about giving aid without
conditions: "There are no strings on the money. There is no requirement that
the bloodshed abate before the funding is released." Other elected represent
atives are slowly starting to open up to the issue as well, but there is a
long way to go on Capitol Hill.
The most important development, however, has been the rising tide of concern
and activism around the Palestinian issue in the US left. The desperate
plight of the Palestinians is gaining increasing prominence in the movement
against Bush's "war on terrorism," and it is gradually entering into the
movement against corporate globalization.
For years the Palestinian cause was marginalized by the left in America.
Since this intifada broke out 17 months ago, that began to shift
significantly and has moved even further since September 11. With the new
"anti-war" movement, there has come a deeper understanding of U.S. policy in
the Middle East and how the question of Palestine fits into progressive
organizing.
In Durban, South Africa last September, at the UN Global Conference Against
Racism, one of the most pressing issues on the global agenda was the
Palestinian struggle against Israel's racist policies. 30,000 people from
South Africa and around the world demonstrated against Zionism, branding it
as a form of apartheid no different than the system that blacks suffered
through in South Africa. Shortly after, the U.S. and Israel stormed out of
the conference.
In Europe and America, a range of organizations have risen in opposition to
Israeli apartheid and in support of Palestinian human rights and
self-determination. Just over the last year or two, organizations such as
Students for Justice in Palestine, based at the University of California at
Berkeley, have begun organizing a divestment campaign, modeled after the
campaign that helped bring down South African apartheid. SUSTAIN (Stop U.S.
Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now!) chapters in a number of cities have focused
their efforts on stopping U.S. aid to Israel, which is the lifeblood of
Israeli occupation and continued abuses of Palestinian rights.
Many Jewish organizations have emerged as well, such as Not in My Name,
which counters the popular media assertion that all Jewish people blindly
support the policies of the state of Israel. Jews Against the Occupation is
another organization, which has taken a stand not only against the
occupation, but also in support of the right of Palestinian refugees to
return. These movements, and particularly their newfound connection with the
larger anti-war, anti-imperialist, and anti-corporate globalization
movements, are where the possibilities lie to advance the Palestinian
struggle.
The hope for Palestine is in the internationalization of the struggle. The
building of a massive, international movement against Israeli apartheid
seems to be the most effective and promising form of resistance at this
time. The demands must be that Israel comply with international law and
implement the relevant UN resolutions. Specifically, it must recognize that
all Palestinian refugees have the right to return, immediately end the
occupation, and give all citizens of Israel equal treatment under the law.
We must demand that all U.S. aid to Israel be stopped until Israel complies
with these demands. Only when the Palestinians are afforded their rights
under international law, and are respected as human beings, can a genuine
process of conflict resolution and healing begin. For all the hype over
peace camps and dialogue initiatives, until the structural inequalities are
dealt with, there will be no justice for Palestinians and, thus, no peace
for Israel.
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