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Let's End The Israeli Tie-that-binds A New Declaration Of Independence by alamarmeen: 12:05pm On Jan 02, 2018 |
Now that 2017 has ended with a
whimper it is possible to look
forward to what the new year might
bring. Nuclear armed North Korea is
the potential flash point for a new
war, but unless leader Kim Jong-un is
actually intent on personal and
national suicide, it is unlikely that
Pyongyang will take the steps
necessary to escalate and trigger such
an event. Far more dangerous is the
Trump White House, which seems to
confuse acting tough with acting
smart. Every time Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson mentions negotiating
he is contradicted by Nikki Haley or
the president saying that diplomacy
has played out, but the reality is that
the incineration of the Korean
peninsula and the deaths of
hundreds of thousands or even
millions, which such a war would
inevitably produce, might just be a
bridge too far even for the generals
and assorted psychopaths that appear
to be running the show. Which
means that at a certain point the
diplomats, perhaps in an
arrangement brokered by Russia or
China, will have to take over. Let us
hope so anyway.
And the United States has also shot
itself in the foot regarding Russia, an
adversary with which Donald Trump
once upon a time wanted to improve
relations. But that was all before a
politically driven Russiagate
happened, turning Moscow into the
enemy of choice once again, as it
once was during the Cold War. In
any event dealmaker Trump did not
appreciate that you can’t improve
relations when you threaten a vital
interest of those you are wanting to
improve relations with. The United
States and its allies persist in running
military exercises right on Russia’s
borders under the false assumption
that President Vladimir Putin heads
an expansionist power. The recent
decision to sell offensive weapons to
Ukraine is a move that serves no
American interest whatsoever while
at the same time threatening
Moscow’s vital interests since
Ukraine sits right on its doorstep. It is
a bad move that guarantees that
relations with Russia will continue to
be in the deep freeze for the
foreseeable future.
Note that all the major problems that
America is experiencing versus the
rest of the world are pretty much
self-inflicted. In my view, looking
beyond Russia and North Korea,
America’s principal foreign policy
problems continue to be centered on
the Middle East and all originate in
the deliberate instability generated
by Israel, currently joined in an
unholy alliance by its former enemy
Saudi Arabia. The Tel Aviv (excuse
me, Jerusalem) to Riyadh axis is
current working hard to bring a new
war to the Middle East as part of
their plan to have the United States
military destroy Iran as a major
regional power.
One might reasonably observe that
the United States has no vital interest
in what either Israel or Saudi Arabia
does, but it does have some minor
interests in the region, which include
not allowing the area to become a
breeding ground for transnational
terrorist groups and safeguarding the
movement of energy products so
there will be no surge in prices that
would hurt the energy dependent
U.S. economy. That’s about it, and
the interests neither include nor
justify starting World War III.
The problem with Israel is that it and
its powerful billion-dollar domestic
lobby have their hooks so deeply
embedded in the American political
system as well as in the national
media that the Jewish state is
virtually bullet-proof. Most recently,
we have learned that Facebook has
been deleting critical accounts at
the request of the Israeli government.
Meanwhile, that same government
has been working hard to make any
consideration of Palestine or the
Palestinians disappear, recently
successfully demanding that the
National Basketball Association
remove a website reference to
Palestine, which Israel’s sports
minister described as an “imaginary
state.” NBA Commissioner Adam
Silver apparently agreed. Even
recent blockbuster revelations that
Israel rather than Russia had been
corrupting Team Trump produced a
few Israelgate stories before
disappearing completely down the
memory hole.
Israel has consistently been able to
make whoever is in the White House
dance to its tune without suffering
any serious consequences. With
Donald Trump, one might even argue
that it has been able to so condition
the president that he goes around
looking for things to do to please
Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel has
not even yet asked for. The moving
the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is one
such gift, something that pleases
Israel so much that it is going to
name a train station after the
president, but which gives nothing
but grief to the United States and to
American citizens and businesses
abroad.
Of course, one might argue that
Trump had help in coming to his
decision. He is surrounded by
Orthodox Jews as well as Christian
Zionists like Mike Pence and Nikki
Haley, all of whom appear to put
Israel first, not exactly a good
formula for “Making America Great
Again.” The Jewish advisers also have
financial and business ties to Israel,
suggesting that Robert Mueller might
look towards the Middle East if he
actually wants to find foreign
government interference in U.S.
politics.
To cite only one recent example of
how the constant pressure to please
Israel and minimize its
transgressions works in practice, the
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David
Friedman apparently got into a
pissing match with the State
Department over its policy to refer to
the Palestinian land that Israel has
illegally stolen and settled as
“occupied.” Friedman, a passionate
supporter of the fanatical settlers
who have done much of the
occupying, would prefer a different
adjective, possibly “improved” or
“returned-to-original-owners.”
And Friedman might well be
regarded as little more than a Zionist
crank by comparison with Michael
Makovsky, who heads the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs
(JINSA). Makovsky is much exercised
over Iran’s alleged ambitions and
wants to counter them by
redrawing most of the borders in the
Middle East. He intones
“Maintaining Syria, Iraq, Lebanon
and Yemen in their existing forms is
unnatural and serves Iran’s
interests.” Makovsky would like to
break all those countries up into
their component tribal, ethnic and
religious parts, starting with
separating the Kurdish region from
Iraq and breaking Syria into three
separate states. He does not mention
that he is not original in this thinking
as it reflects the Israeli Yinon Plan of
the 1980s and the American neocon
“Clean Break” proposal that was
written by geniuses like Richard
Perle, Doug Feith and David Wurmser
and presented to Netanyahu in 1996.
Makovsky also does not mention that
if there is a country in the Middle
East that has artificial borders and
strong sectarian divisions in the area
that it rules over it is Israel, but, of
course use of the word “border”
would be somewhat inaccurate as an
expansionistic Israel has no declared
borders at all.
And the media is fully complicit in
playing Israel’s tune. A recent
attempt to link Hezbollah to drug
trafficking into the U.S., implicating
by proxy Iran, would appear to be a
completely fabricated story. I can go
on and on about why America on
moral grounds should not be
supporting an apartheid regime
loaded with racist thugs racist thugs
from top to bottom, headed by a
completely cynical regime that sends
its “soldiers” into Palestinian areas to
shoot people without legs and
children, but it would only inflame
the hasbarists that seem to gather like
vultures anytime anyone writes or
says anything negative about the
“only democracy in the Middle East”
and “America’s greatest and best
ally.”
When all else fails, the Israel-firsters
resort to name calling. On Sunday,
the Washington Post featured a full-
page ad condemning New Zealand
pop singer Lorde, whose crime was
that she had decided to cancel a
performance in Israel on political
grounds. The ad, placed by
“America’s Rabbi” Shmuley Boteach,
absurdly called Lorde a bigot and
“Jew-hater” while ludicrously linking
her to the killing of civilians in Syria
by virtue of the fact that she is willing
to perform in Russia. Indeed, anyone
who objects to Israel’s policies or to
the strenuous efforts made by Jewish
individuals or groups to promote the
same is automatically dubbed “an
anti-Semite.” Ditto for Americans
who object to taxpayer money being
used to put up and support the
heavily politicized holocaust
museums that seem to be popping up
like mushrooms all across America.
Those who protest are labeled
“holocaust deniers.”
For those American Jews and
Christian Zios who persist in their
deep affection for Israel and choose
to look the other way even as it
tortures, kills, removes human organs
and steals, I seriously ask for
examples of Israel actually doing
anything good for the United States
and for the American people. What
benefit does it provide in return for
its constant interference in the U.S.
political system and economy that
nets it the many billions of dollars
handed to it by the U.S. Treasury,
billions more allowed as “charitable
contributions,” and still billions more
given in the form of coproduction
projects and trade concessions?
What is the return for Washington
trashing its own good name by
protecting Israel in international fora
like the United Nations, as has been
occurring in spades since Nikki Haley
appeared on the scene? When has
Israel ever apologized or made
amends for its virtually incessant
spying on the U.S. and its thefts of
American technology? And what
about the attack on the USS Liberty
fifty years ago which killed 34
Americans? The dwindling number
of crew members are still waiting for
an official inquiry that would make
clear what Israel did on that day in
June.
And finally, what would be the net
gain for the U.S. if it gets prodded
into a war with Iran in which it
could quite plausibly lose an aircraft
carrier or two while making
traveling Americans prime targets
for a new wave of terror attacks? The
sad part is that it might be too late
already. The Israeli media is
reporting that the Trump and
Netanyahu have signed a secret
agreement to actively target and go
after Iran over its alleged military
programs. A war in which Americans
will fight and die, not Israelis, is
certainly being planned behind the
scenes.
What I am arguing is that unlike the
situations with Russia and North
Korea, where the United States has
gotten itself maneuvered into a
corner where there are actual
interests at stake, there is absolutely
no national interest that compels
Washington to do anything for Israel.
The U.S. should pull the plug on the
phony “special relationship” with
Netanyahu and his nest of vipers.
Let’s make a New Year’s resolution to
work hard to accomplish just that.
Let’s boycott businesses and sport
franchises whose owners are
particularly fond of Israel’s
settlements to send the message that
there are consequences. Let’s talk
about Israel, to be sure, but without
the self-imposed censorship in the
media and not through the mouths of
the numerous gatekeepers that head
so-called peace organizations, nor
through the bought and paid
congress-critters. Nor from the White
House, which is rapidly becoming
little more than a reliable echo
chamber for Israeli interests. Let’s
tell it like it is. If Americans are
exposed to the hard truths about
Israel it is hard to imagine that they
will want to associate with it in any
capacity. Cut the tie that binds and do
it now.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive
Director of the Council for the
National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax
deductible educational foundation
that seeks a more interests-based U.S.
foreign policy in the Middle East.
Website is
www.councilforthenationalinterest.org,
address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville
VA 20134 and its email is
inform@cnionline.org .t |
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