This ran originally in Ha'aretz/Hebrew, penned by Nirit Ben-Ari. This translation ran Feb. 1 in WW4 Report: "Haiti and the Jews: Forgotten History." The money:
But it seems the Israeli involvement in the nation was not always so positive. On Dec. 27, 1982, the US newspaper Christian Science Monitor reported that since 1968 Israel had sold weapons to two Haitian dictators-Francois Duvalier, who became president in 1957; and his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, who succeeded him in 1971. The two, known as "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc," controlled and terrorized the country with a private army. On March 27, 1983, the New York Times reported that Israel was among the few countries that had agreed to sell weapons to Baby Doc, and provided him with the long-term payment arrangement that he requested.
Paul Farmer, who would serve as President Bill Clinton's deputy UN representative to Haiti, previously reported that Gen. Prosper Avril, the head of the military junta that took power in Haiti in 1988, received temporary asylum in Israel in 1990. Avril was the head of Baby Doc's notorious "Presidential Guard," and a US court ruled that he was responsible for "scandalous human rights violations." He would later serve prison time in Haiti for his crimes.
In 1990, four years after Baby Doc was ousted from power, the popular priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti-in the first democratic elections the nation had seen. But in 1991 he was deposed in a military coup. Britain's The Independent newspaper reported Oct. 14, 1991 that about 2,000 Uzi and Galil machine-guns from Israel were sent to Haiti in the weeks prior to the coup-with diplomats claiming the weapons went to military units especially loyal to the coup-plotters.
According to an Aug. 1, 2005 report in Jane's Intelligence Review, weapons of Israeli origin were being smuggled through Florida and ending up with armed gangs in Port-au-Prince in this period-some in collaboration with the junta, and some opposed.
The Israeli Defense Ministry did not issue any reaction by publication time.
Now, as Israeli doctors and nurses work around the clock at the hospital that was established in Haiti, one can only hope that Israel's contribution to the suffering nation will now focus on saving lives, and not on weapons shipments.
We should applaud when people save lives. Israel did a great job in Haiti and we can’t let our feelings about the I/P issue get in the way encouraging help to the Haitians who are suffering.
BSDNOW, the entire Israeli team is already back home, leaving the rest of the world to deal with the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Haiti. They were the first ones to pull out. No more applause for them.
Fair enough I just think that we should support helping the Haitians whether it’s from Israel, Iran or anywhere else.
Israel is a small country, with limited resources they can’t stay there as long as the United States, France, or Britain. They saved lives, I just don’t understand what the point of denying that, or trying to belittle their efforts.
Now, as Israeli doctors and nurses work around the clock at the hospital that was established in Haiti, one can only hope that Israel’s contribution to the suffering nation will now focus on saving lives, and not on weapons shipments.
I am surprised you didn’t leave this paragraph out Phil.
It wasn’t a “key” paragraph.
I’m saddened that an element of Phil’s present effort is to make Israeli involvement in any effort into persona non grata. Its a buy-in to the BDS approach, but also a buy-in to the rightest Zionist theme of “they are all against us”. (In the case of BDS as chosen form of dissent, it becomes true.)
Israel’s history when deeply isolated of providing military and other aid to the worst of brutal dictatorships is a blot on its history, ironically borne of its isolation and therefore lack of any latitude to pursue alternative relationships. It didn’t need to pursue them with anything resembling enthusiasm though.
Liberals seek something different, not isolation and not appeasement, reform.
Still towing the hasbara line–main lining Israel as victim, eh Dick Witty? How many hits of ziocain have you had already this morning? Poor little isolated
Israel, what else could it have done?
I’m saddened that some people might think white supremacists adopting a highway stretch to keep it clean for free are just engaging in PR. After all, it’s a good thing to keep the highway clean, right? Doing good is doing good. Give credit where credit is due instead of trying to turn any white supremacist involvement and effort into persona non grata.
link to minx.cc
Citizen,
I, for one, would like to commend your organization on its wonderful efforts in protecting the environment
Why thank you, Einsteinsays, just so we are on the same page. All for the public good, nicht wahr?
thats an 88 good buddy
RE: “I just don’t understand what the point of denying that, or trying to belittle their efforts…” yonira
SEE: “Does Gilbert Bigio make Israel look good?”, By Paul Woodward, War in Context, January 25, 2010
(EXCERPT) When Amos Radian, Israel’s Dominican Republic-based ambassador to the nations of the eastern Caribbean, spoke to the Jerusalem Post last week, he was unequivocal in expressing appreciation towards the Bigio family.
Gilbert Bigio, a Syrian Jew and honorary consul for Israel in Haiti also happens to be among the wealthiest men in that impoverished nation. The day before Israel’s relief team was due to arrive in Haiti, Ambassador Radian spoke to Reuven Shalom Bigio, son of the business magnate.
“Tomorrow the Israel Air Force is coming with two jets and 250 people and I have no place to put them,” Radian told Bigio. The response was swift as the Israelis were provided with Bigio-owned land to set up a field hospital. Radian said that the assistance provided “made us look so good”….
….In 2004, the Miami Herald reported on Haiti’s tiny and wealthy Jewish community and spoke to its de facto leader. Bigio saw no reason why the huge disparity between his own wealth and the poverty of those around him should breed in them any resentment. “Bigio, 68, lives in a big, beautiful house in Petionville, one of the few upscale neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. Behind the well-guarded house is a luxurious swimming pool and a gazebo for outdoor parties….”
…Cite Soleil, a seaside shantytown of more than 300,000 people residing in homes made of cinder blocks with tin roofs, has been described as poorer than India’s infamous slums of Calcutta. It is also the home of the Bigio business empire.
“Our purpose is to improve the quality of life of the communities we reach,” the GB Group says in its mission statement. A Haiti Information Project report from Cite Soleil published in January 2008 suggests otherwise. While the surrounding residents of Cite Soleil are forced to literally eat dirt to stave off hunger, Bigio is a billionaire whose family supported the first coup against Aristide and reportedly helped to back the movement that forced his second ouster in 2004…
…The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US government blocked all of the Bigio family’s holdings in US banks following the brutal military coup against Aristide in 1991. Since Aristide’s second ousting in 2004, the financial wealth of the Bigio family along with those of other well off Haitian clans such as the Mevs, Brandts, Acras and Madsens have nearly doubled according to a confidential source at a private accounting firm….
ENTIRETY – link to warincontext.org
The point isn’t the act of saving lives, but the intentions and motivations behind them.
You already said this in the original thread covering Israel’s PR adventure in Haiti.
Israel is a State. States do not have morals, they have interests.
So what if Israel ‘saves’ lives? It does so within a political framework. That should be obvious, by contrasting it’s treatment of Haitians during this PR effort, versus it’s relationship w/ the Palestinians.
There are other examples of course. Others have mentioned Israel’s involvement in arming Central American regimes during the 80s. Brutal military juntas.
You, BSD, simply want to stress a superficial point about the PR effort. You want to take away the inherent political context to these actions.
Stop saying ‘we’ – you are a Zionist troll.
No one here is bashing the Haitians.
This was a point also made by Kant, that morality lies in the intention to do good, not the consequence of good done.
Israel also supplied weapons to Idi Amin when it was no longer the “thing to do”.
The ugly Israeli” in the guise of the arms dealer (mostly former intelligence and military officials), who promotes weapons sales on behalf of Israeli military industries, with the backing of the defense establishment, have given Israel a bad name world-wide. Israelis have been involved in civil wars (in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast) and in aiding dictatorial regimes such as in Equatorial Guinea and the two Congo republics.
Just so you know, Citizen, the “Ugly American” was the hero of the book of the same name. The “ugly American” an engineering contractor, was counterpoised to the “pretty Americans” from the military and State Department, who had no interest in helping the people of the book’s unnamed Asian country.
The “pretty Americans engaged in enviorment destroying and useless large-scale irrigation projects, and the “ugly American” developed an irrigation pump which could be attached to a bicycle drive, needing no electrical power.
Everyone gets that wrong. Why join them?
Back in the 80s, Israel was supplying the Tamil Tigers and East Timor with weapons to fight each other. Neither side, of course, knew at the time that Israel was selling weapons to the Other side.
For decades now Israel has been arming dictators, gangs and war lords in Africa. More recently, Israel has been arming the Darfur rebels with shipments being sent to France and then from France to The Sudan.
Yes, Israel also has a history of selling arms to every tyrant in Latin America, and Israeli arms turned up in Iraq when we were fighting it; as well, Israel has supplied China. Masters Of War. 4th biggest arms sellers in the world. Not bad for a tiny patch of land–mostly due to the tight partnership with the #1 arms seller, the USA.
link to thefreelibrary.com
Operation Seashell, Israel’s weapons sales to Khomeini and Iran during Iraq-Iran war, “puts the later Iran-contra scandal to shame.”
~Ronen Bergman, The Secret War with Iran , p. 43.
BSDNOW January 31, 2010 at 10:28 pm
We should applaud when people save lives. Israel did a great job in Haiti and we can’t let our feelings about the I/P issue get in the way encouraging help to the Haitians who are suffering.
Oscar January 31, 2010 at 10:50 pm
BSDNOW, the entire Israeli team is already back home, leaving the rest of the world to deal with the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Haiti. They were the first ones to pull out. No more applause for them.
yonira January 31, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Israel is a small country, with limited resources [but the 4th biggest miltary in the world] they can’t stay there as long as the United States, France, or Britain. They saved lives, I just don’t understand what the point of denying that, or trying to belittle their efforts.
Now, as Israeli doctors and nurses work around the clock at the hospital that was established in Haiti, one can only hope that Israel’s contribution to the suffering nation will now focus on saving lives, and not on weapons shipments.
I am surprised you didn’t leave this paragraph out Phil.
Perhaps because Phil wasn’t even thinking as he cut-and-pasted. Because the famed and celebrated Israeli field hospital is no longer there, and the Haitiens are having to make do with only 15,000 US troops
Still, he managed to glorify, a bit more, the piddling little Israeli contribution that has already been glorified enough
And since the fall of the Duvalier regime, it has really been opened up. The neoliberal regime, one of its principal demands is the lowering of tariff barriers, so that rice grown in Arkansas and Texas and Louisiana can be dumped on the country, which has effectively destroyed the rice farmers of the Artibonite Valley, leaving Haiti now required to import almost 80 percent of its food. So foreign aid has essentially destroyed Haitian food self-sufficiency.
Hey look guys, it’s the resident, Judaism=Zionism slash wait-I’m-’kidding’-I’m-not-really-a-Jew, Jew!
Welcome back clown-shoes.
Hey look guys, it’s the mondoweiss parrot, that is threatened at the thought of a non-Jew who actually supports the Jewish Nationalist initiative in the middle east. It’s someone who fears and bashes ad hominem at the postings of someone who is clearly more intelligent and informed and whose posts expose this parrot’s doctrine for what they are racist, violent and oppressive all wrapped up in a pc neo progressive shell
Yes. I am threatened by a guy (who calls me racist) who pretended to be Jewish. A guy who made easily refutable arguments such as ‘Judaism=Zionism’.
Someone, who couldn’t even (while in-character ) bullshit his way through a simple question such as ‘Who is a Jew?’
But keep telling yourself I’m ‘threatened’ by you, clown-shoes.
Some, classics:
mondoweiss.net/2010/01/take-me-back-to-my-homeland-even-as-a-rose.html#comment-139415
mondoweiss.net/2010/01/jews-in-recovery-or-why-liberal-american-jews-might-help-to-imagine-a-binational-future.html#comment-140156
mondoweiss.net/2010/01/13626.html#comment-140249
mondoweiss.net/2010/01/the-meritocracy-and-jewish-kinship-networks.html
Words of wisdom, from the threatening non-Jew pretending to be Jewish, truth-teller, Einstein:
again, i am not Jewish, i am who i said i am.
the fact that you choose to call me Jewish and accuse me of being one, is proof positive that you are in fact a racist.
it’s very important that you frame me as a Jew then you can continue your, rather poor, line of arguement that i am a “hasbara” spreader and parrot back the other acceptable covers for your anti Jewish sentiment
zionism is judaism. it is the essence of the 2500 year old religion. that is a fact. a fact overlooked by anyone who wants to call themself a Jew but doesn’t want to really “be” one
also, just because i argued on what the definition of who is a Jew doesn’t mean that I am Jewish myself. I am not. Your multitude of quotes does not prove that I am. for again, I am not.
I can argue with you about who is an “African-American” as well, it wouldn’t necessarily make me one. You still may consider me one. But I am not, I am FULLY American, my skin color happens to be dark and my hair kinky, but I argue I do not need a qualifier before my “American” as my family can be traced back to America way longer then most of you Caucasian Americans
anyway, i don’t see the point in arguing this point. it is hardly worthwhile. you should actually address the ISSUES, i brought up, because my arguements have exposed the lies and misinformation you try so hard to convince yourself and others of…
but you are not capable of free thought you are the real “troll”
Oh, great, Einsteinsays, Zionism is Judiasm just like Nazism is Germanic. Nice to know.
thats your arguement Citizen? you are not ashamed yet?
you call me a liar without proof! For some weird reason you need me to be Jewish. whatever…
but no i dont believe nazism is germanic…how did you even arrive at that conclusion. was it just because a Nazi analogy hadn’t been mentioned in 3 posts?
i would liken it to Judaism without Zionism is like Christians without Jesus.
does that help you understand better? let me know and I will start posting FACTS to back up the above assertion…something you have never done in any post (i.e. i pwn u troll)
You came to this blog last month or so, challenging Shumel’s ‘Jewishness’.
You made ridiculously hateful statements, devoid of logic.
You kept repeating how a Jew is not really a Jew if they are non/anti-Zionist.
You didn’t provide any proof of course. Instead, you spouted religious babble.
You’re employing circular reasoning.
No one here finds you sane, let alone ‘threatening’. But keep living inside your own little world, clown-shoes.
Haha. Why is it important? There are plenty of Jewish Zionists here commenting.
You haven’t even contributed an argument. The first things you wrote on this blog were the typical ‘Judaism = Zionism’ meme.
Well, of course, it’s tactically useful for Zionists to equate the two. But any reasonable person should know better.
There is only one reason why ZioTrolls equate Judaism and Zionism. That is because it is a form of emotional blackmail.
It has to have some usefulness. If both are the same, it doesn’t magically change anything about the history of the conflict. It doesn’t suddenly legitimize ethnic cleansing or racism or colonialism.
So the obvious aim, of making them the same thing is so Zionists can smear people w/ the antisemitism card. It’s a social taboo.
Other than that, I don’t see what else you’ve contributed here. You’re like every other ZioTroll on the Net.
Actually, the burden of proof is on you to explain in detail why Zionism and Judaism is the same.
You can’t though. All you can do is repeat the line over and over. Great argument. I’m very threatened!
here we go: the following are from Jewish prayers and for themost part recited up to several times A DAY!!
“if I forget thee Jerusalem, I forget my right arm, let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if i dont raise you at the height of my hapiness”
“gather us up from the four corners of the earth and return us to zion”
“rebuild Jerusalem”
“return your presence to Jerusalem”
etc etc etc etc certainly lots of zionistic rhetoric..(especially cause there is no specification whether East or West Jerusalem)
the prevelance of the theme of Jews returning to their land is in EVERY ASPECT of Jewish daily life….now prove to me there is Judaism WITHOUT Zionism.
If Jews can’t be Jews without living in Jerusalem, then there were no Jews for the last 2000 years.
Not to mention the inconvenient fact that the “Jerusalem” created by Ariel Sharon extends far, far beyond the borders of the biblical city. The Jews living in “Jerusalem’s” suburbs aren’t living in the ancient city (may Poseidon level it) at all.
” Your multitude of quotes does not prove that I am. for again, I am not”
I don’t think it was intended to do that, Einstein, but it does an excellent job at showing you up for an idiot, with some really weird religious issues.
the above was said by Kim Ives of Haiti Liberte
lets not forget that Duvalier was a liberator. He was a populist leader who opposed the 1950 military coup. He championed the plight of the afro-carribean poor rural majority against the racist and corrupt ruling elite.
He promoted Haitian sovereignty which as we see from kim’s comment has been stripped completely by the occupying forces of Weiss’ own government.
yet Weiss defends the US supported Haitian coup.
Seems like Mondoweiss’ers would have supported Duvalier and his movement back then. i guess everyone on this site can pick and choose when they want to be progressive, as long as the end result is the condemnation of Israel, it is all good
Hypocrites!
Where did Phil express his support for the coup? Threatened minds want to know.
he is voicing his support against Duvalier or rather he supports the israeli journalists condemnation of Israel for helping to arm Duvalier. Duvalier was opposed to the American sponsered coup.
I make simple for you in mondoweiss talk
Duvalier supporters = palestinians
Coup supporters = ZIO- colonialists
Now Cliffy, understand?
That’s definitely not a stretch. Bravo, clown-shoes. Your logic is so very threatening.
how is that a stretch.
it is a fact that this excert was posted because Weiss found it interesting, the excert is condemning Israel’s involvement in selling arms to Duvalier.
Duvalier opposed the US occupation and control.
Duvalier represented the oppressed people, the rural afro-carribeans (people here on this blog would obviously compare those people to the quintessential victims “the palestinians”)
here, however, Weiss exposes his ignorance (and that of the Israeli journalist who wrote the piece) as to him it is more important to condemn Israel, then defend human rights and the populist struggle. this is a theme on this website…MondoWeiss’ message is not so much give palestinian rights as it is destroy the evil Zionist regime
Phil never accepted the US coup. In fact, he hasn’t articulated his views on Haiti in full w/ respect to Duvalier.
Phil has cited the Israeli reporter’s work here to further undermine the PR extravaganza behind Israel’s Haiti relief operation.
It’s not that difficult to understand. Israel is a State, and will pursue it’s interests like most States do.
Since this is an Israel-Palestine blog, it’s natural for Phil to talk about what Israel is doing. So referencing Israel’s past actions is important, in the context of the recent PR effort. It puts some important context into the picture.
It’s not that difficult to understand, clown-shoes. You’ve just been sniffing the ZioCocaine too long.
exactly, Cliff, so re-examine your point
Phil never accepted the US coup – EXACTLY he (like Duvalier) is for Haitian independence and sovereignty
Phil has cited the Israeli reporter’s work here to further undermine the PR extravaganza behind Israel’s Haiti relief operation- HOW? if Duvalier was for Haitians and Israel supported Duvalier, then how would this undermine their PR in their relief efforts?
Israel’s support for Duvalier regime should also be seen as a POSITIVE like their relief efforts in the wake of the quake. Since Duvalier was a populist leader who rejected US and foreign occupation and exploitation of Haiti, Israel sold him weapons.
So, are you saying Phil shows us this in order to commend Israel in its efforts…. makes sense given the nature of this blog…i think your on to something Clifford..
now all i have to do to be clever is think of some name as clever as clown shoes…how about “false tooth”?
The point was that the Haitian regimes that Israel sold arms to, carried out “scandalous” human rights violations.
This piece of information is juxtaposed to the recent PR effort to undermine the claim that Israel went to Haiti purely out of goodwill.
Israel’s involvement in Central America follows the same format. They supported harsh brutal regimes that committed lots of atrocities.
Here, let me quote it again for you:
Hamas carries out scandalous human rights violations but Gaza Freedom Marchers support them, Mondoweissers support them.
Quoting the position of the Christian Science Monitor declaring Papa Doc to be “terrorizing” haitians is symantics…why do you think the people of Haiti named him PAPA DOC. because of the medical attention he secured for the country’s poor. he was a folk hero. and here you are condemning him as a terrorist. he was a freedom fighter and Israel helped him defeat the US push to regain control in Haiti.
Can’t you see how hypocritical you are being?
I’m not being hypocritical, because Mondoweiss readers do not support Hamas. The GFM did not support Hamas.
Hamas is the government in Gaza, so the GFM had to work w/ them.
And Efrain Rios Montt is held in high regard by many people in Guatemala. In some cases, even by sectors of the population whom he targeted.
That doesn’t mean he wasn’t a war criminal and monster.
Is your argument, that people liked Duvalier hence he didn’t commit human rights abuses?
When did he get that nickname? When did he go on his human rights abuses spree?
The point of Phil’s article is simple. This guy carried out gross human rights violations and yet Israel supported him.
Same thing happened in Guatemala so there is context behind this kind of support from Israel.
You’re just trying to derail the thread.
Enough tikkun olam:
Haiti Must Not be Rebuilt
link to theoccidentalobserver.net
I always argued that this is path taken by Israelis with Gaza.
Environmental equilibrium will mean maybe 50000 souls, supported at subsistence level in Gaza, (less is Gazans were to donate it’s water to Israel) and the rest of population? – well lets just mother nature take it’s course.
Eva, i love reading your posts, you are so intentionally misinformed, and you are the biggest jew hater on this site.
Here Israelis reveal their hypocrisy once again.
While discrimination against Ethiopian Jews is widespread in Israel, they suddenly give two bits about Haitians half way across the world.
I guess now Haitians in Israel will get to enjoy Israeli hospitality when they board a bus and find that no one wants to sit next to them.
Ethiopians can wear “I’m A Haitian” tshirts to get service in stores.
“here we go: the following are from Jewish prayers and for themost part recited up to several times A DAY!!”
Now there is proof positive! Einstein, are you an anti-Semite? If not, stop trying to quote-mine prayers. If you are not Jewish, how on earth do you know, first of all, how many of the world’s remaining Jews say these prayers, and what those prayers mean to them.
Obviously, the great majority of the world’s Jews want nothing whatsoever to do with Zionism, beyond putting quarters in the blue box.
Gee Einstein, why don’t you ask the Zionist-Supporters here who are Jewish why they are not in Israel right this minute.
And you know what? You might as well give all this shit up, pal. It won’t get you anything, and any Jew can see through it to the bigotry and muddled thinking behind it.
actually I don’t want to answer. NEVER…
Addressing comments from Mooser-
“are you an anti-Semite? If not, stop trying to quote-mine prayers” – I know you are supposed to be the “bee’s knees” on these forums, but this sentence could have been written by a five year old. it makes no sense. however, i will take a stab at what i think you meant. How does my quoting thine prayers make me an anti-semite? in fact, it shows my tolerance and understanding. However, you do admit that these are, in fact, quotes from Jewish prayers, we agree?!?
“If you are not Jewish, how on earth do you know” – upset that i know more about “your” religion than you?!? it’s called google and wiki and a million other resources that the internet opened up. However, you do admit that these are, in fact, quotes from Jewish prayers, we agree?!?
“how many of the world’s remaining Jews say these prayers, and what those prayers mean to them.” – are you suggesting that these prayers which have comprised the Jewish tradition and defined Jews for millenia, are no longer important to Jews? Then what makes one a “Jew”?
Jewish tradition and prayer is not important to you so doesn’t that mke you elitist, arrogant and not to mention racist for you to consider yourself a “Jew” based not on your beliefs but by virtue of your genetic disposition. furthermore, you are marginilizing and trying to delegitimize those “remaining jews” for whom these traditions and beliefs form the core of their Jewish identity. unlike your birthright, to these jews their identity is derived from their belief in the traditional Jewish religion. Some of these people may have converted to Judaism, does that make them LESS of a Jew then you who are a “pure-breed”? seems a bit racist to me
“the great majority of the world’s Jews want nothing whatsoever to do with Zionism” – i dont think that is the case at all, look at the facts, if it were only a small minority of Jews that supported Zionism, like you suggest, i doubt that zionists would have been successful in establishing the modern state of israel. please explain your assertion
“It won’t get you anything, and any Jew can see through it to the bigotry and muddled thinking behind it. ” – Jews like you? or real Jews?
I hate racist and jews
Pingback: Haiti & Israel – The Forgotten History «
When I get some time later today, I’ll upload some scans from It’s No Secret: Israel’s Military Involvement in Central America.
Just some more context, in case Israel sends in another PR team to aide the Natives.
Specifically, Guatemala.
Anyone here recall Efrain Rios Montt? The born-again psycho former dictator of Guatemala?
I’ll get to that later.
i tell you i agree with you there cliff, but maybe you should be as active protesting and bashing your own government which pressures its little stepchild into selling arms to, among others, the shah in Iran (remember Iran Contra?!? those weapons were shipped from Israel.)
dont blame israel for supporting america’s neo-imperialism. you can’t play both sides. israel is a victim of america’s neo-imperialism, when the US tells Israel to jump they say “How High?” they work for their 3 Billion…
I have though. I actually debated some jack-ass who tried to tell me that Islamic fundamentalism was unique. He has in the past referred to Arabs and Muslims as barbarians and savages.
So I went at length into the Central American counterinsurgency wars. The Sante Fe report. The Reagan Doctrine. Jeanne Kirkpatricks’s essay in Commentary about why supporting a government like the Shah is relatively ‘better’ than blah blah blah.
I was going to go into detail about the symbiotic relationship between Christian fundamentalists and ‘multinational corporate greed’ as evidenced in Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil.
One of the glaringly obvious examples was Rios Montt, the born-again Christian dictator of Guatemala. During his brief reign, thousands of indigenous Mayans was specifically targeted and massacred in what became known as the Mayan genocide or Mayan Holocaust (physical and cultural destruction of Mayan society).
The Christian Right funded these military juntas. W/ respect to Rios Montt, they provided him w/ PR support and counter-activism (against the peace movement) and funded his ‘pacification centers’ (model villages). These were essentially, concentration camps where the survivors of the massacres were taken to.
Naturally, the Christian fundies were given something in return. In many of these camps, they had the authority to ‘re-educate’ the surviving Mayans.
It’s a very well-documented piece of history that I doubt many Americans know about.
Suicide bombing is easy to understand, emotionally, intellectually, etc.
However, the way in which a Christian fundamentalist psycho can legitimately channel their political aspirations is much more complex and requires more patience (relatively, in and of itself it requires nothing, just READ!).
But idiots like to bash Muslims and Arabs because it’s just too easy in our society.
This blog is about Israel/Palestine.
If you don’t like that focus, then go elsewhere. It’s that simple.
Oh and of course, I’m not implying that Israel supported brutal military juntas in Central America arbitrarily.
But the actual reasons are no better too.
The point to make is that Israel’s supporters present Israel like a human being. W/ ‘feelings’.
Israel is a State.
And as you said, it’s ‘earning’ that money from the US.
I agree. These are complex power structures. Israel is not a ‘light unto the nations’ – it’s a State. A political entity. States have interests and they pursue them.
That does not make what they do any less or more moral though and their are real consequences to these actions.
With respect to Guatemala – I’ll get into that later.
It’s No Secret: Israel’s Military Involvement in Central America, written by Milton H. Jamail and Margo Gutierrez. Published in 1986.
I’ll focus on Guatemala only.
Part One
Brief synopsis on their methodology:
Israel in Guatemala
Part Two
Israeli Weapons in Guatemala
Continued
There’s a lot more.
I might just scan the rest and link them here. I’ll also link some stuff about the Rios Montt regime, which Israel supported.
I’ll just do it in one post later w/ links, so it’s not spam.