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March, 2009
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What A Friend We Have In Israel
By Karen Nakamura
A prominent issue in the recent presidential campaign was whether the United States would continue to be a "friend of Israel." Israel supporters demanded Obama's allegiance so intensely he was practically required to grovel before them. The reason pro-Israel supporters are targeting this paper is because we don't fall in step with total, unquestioning support for Israel.
However, what's never asked is whether Israel is America's friend in return. While the United States has poured treasure and reputation into Israel to its own detriment, Israel has not returned that friendship when it counts. And, from all indications, the new Israeli government has no such intention unless we pledge to be their exclusive Best Friend Forever (BFF) in the Middle East, give them what they demand and act as their bullyboy.
Besides having a long history of spying on our most precious secrets and refusing to abide by the Atomic Energy Commission, this is more than evident in the utter disrespect Israel showed the US during the last days of the Bush Administration.
On November 4, the Friday before the Tuesday presidential election, when all eyes were on Washington, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) broke the fragile ceasefire with Hamas by crossing into Gaza and murdering seven Hamas leaders. Instead of watching election results with the rest of the world, the Israelis chose that moment to sneak under the radar and instigate a possible world war, ...which it expected its BFF to sponsor and help pay for. The attack was an utter provocation especially considering that according to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, plans to invade Gaza had been in the works for over a year. Many feel one reason Israel had blockaded Gaza since the Hamas election victory was to weaken the residents so they didn't have the strength to defend themselves.
Equally as disrespectful and devious was the IDF's devastating aggression into Gaza undertaken Christmas week, traditionally the time of year when America turns off the television, US newsrooms go on vacation and the interns come in. The Bush Administration stood aside and let it happen while the rest of the world cringed in horror.
Over the past decades, both Israeli and American neo-conservatives have pushed the invasion and bombing of countries with impunity. Ali Abunimah said on Grit-TV Feb 19 that America's support of Israel's "settler-colonial project" is the last remnant of a long history of European/American hegemony in the area.
Israel, with American backing, has shown a propensity to war time and again. There's the 1967 war, the occupation of and numerous military incursions into Lebanon and Palestine, the bombing of Syrian sites and threatening Iran. It has also stolen land from its neighbors: Syria and the Golan Heights, the whole of Palestine and parts of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. The United States has an equally abysmal record with its invasions of Iraq, Panama and covert ops in Nicaragua, Honduras, Ukraine and Georgia.
Before Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, Dick Cheney commented that in regards to Lebanon, the Bush Initiative (Bringing Democracy to the Middle East) was "preparing the battlefield." In terms of military intelligence that statement had sinister implications.
On Feb. 7, 2009 Lebanon's Daily Star reported a secret Israeli government database shows that in violation of the Bush administration's road map to peace in the Middle East, Israel's settlement construction in the West Bank has been extensive. Then in mid-February, Defense Minister Ehud Barak agreed to construct yet another settlement. It completes a ring around Jerusalem that excludes Palestinians. The paper stated: "Many now question how devoted Israeli leaders really are to the idea of achieving peace."
Approximately 290,000 Jews live in the West Bank region of Palestine. The data revealed, in more than 30 settlements, "construction of roads, schools, synagogues and even police stations was carried out on private land belonging to Palestinian residents." The majority of settlers oppose a two-state solution "as they lay claim to the whole land." At the same time they refuse to live in a one-man-one-vote one-state multi-cultural society. The Final Solution must be, according to this element, a Greater Israel composed of only Jews! The Palestinians must leave or they will be dealt with! A similar body politic took place in South Africa and Germany. In the meantime, the removal of settlements is paramount to lasting peace in the Middle East.
According to Wikipedia, the Palestinian Authority (PA) developed from the Oslo Accords signed September 13, 1993. The Accords called for Palestinian self-rule in five years along with an immediate halt to and gradual removal of Israeli settlements in those areas. "Yasser Arafat-as Chairman of the PLO and its official representative-signed two letters renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel. In return, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on behalf of Israel, officially recognized the PLO."
Then the Greater Israel faction shot Rabin to death. When Yasser Arafat begged for help to stabilize the newly formed PA government, Israel instead gave Hamas funding to set up its food and health programs. Not only did this serve to weaken the Palestinian Authority it caused division among the Palestinians.
Peace Now's Settlement Watch discovered construction of settlements increased almost 60 percent in 2008. Freezing of all settlement construction is the cornerstone of the road map to peace. After the mission, Mitchell formulated the "settlement-terrorism equation" in 2001 that demanded an immediate stop to terror from the Palestinian side and halting of all settlement activity, including construction for natural growth from the Israeli side.
Former PM Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush reacted to the Mitchell agenda by implementing the infamous "Separation Wall" that "left most of the settlements on the outside, and then by evacuating settlers from Gaza. Israel was allowed to keep on building within the settlements enclosed by the fence." That's even though the Wall was build within Palestine. This could hardly be considered within the spirit of the agreement.
At the Annapolis peace negotiations in 2007, the Kadima government again pledged to freeze all construction to make a two-state solution possible. November of 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared he was cutting off funding for illegal outposts, thus admitting the state had financed unrecognized settlements in Palestine.
Israel's Foreign Ministry website states: "Israel's actions relating to the use and allocation of land under its administration are all taken with strict regard to the rules and norms of international law - Israel does not requisition private land for the establishment of settlements." Despite that statement, the Construction and Housing Ministry has been responsible for financing roads, schools and police stations in new settlements.
A write-in asked at one website during the recent Gaza massacre a question being heard with increasing frequency.
"How do we know Hamas actually fired the first shot? Do we have photos of someone who is clearly affiliated with Hamas doing it? How do we know Israel didn't fake it by sending someone in and firing rockets across into Israel? It's not like it would be the first time someone attacked their own country and given their close association with the US government it seems even more likely this could have been the case. Considering the Bush administration used that tactic, albeit on a more large-scale level."
Just who is our friend in the Middle East and who's pulling a fast one?
