Neocons are relaunching in Europe as well as here (with the Emergency Committee for Israel). Pulse reports on a new group launching in Paris and London, called Friends of Israel Initiative, which says that it "aims to create a network linking private and public figures who agree with the idea of an Israel fully anchored in the West." The group is apparently led by Dore Gold, the former Israeli ambassador who is close to Netanyahu, and includes former U.S. ambassador John Bolton. And the former prime minister of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar.
Tom Mills reports:
Friends of Israel is quite open about its extremist agenda. Last month The Times – a News Corporation subsidiary – published an article by José María Aznar outlining his reasons for promoting the organisation. In the article Israel is portrayed not as a violent rogue state but as an outpost of Western civilisation and an indispensable strategic asset:
"Israel is our first line of defence in a turbulent region that is constantly at risk of descending into chaos; a region vital to our energy security owing to our overdependence on Middle Eastern oil; a region that forms the front line in the fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down."
What exactly is “chaos?” The 1973-74 Oil Embargo didn’t last long. What is “extremism?” Isn’t the following an extremist statement? “If Israel goes down, we all go down.”
How so?
>> In the article Israel is portrayed not as a violent rogue state but as an outpost of Western civilisation …
Western civilization has a lot to be embarrassed about!
>> and an indispensable strategic asset: “Israel is our first line of defence in a turbulent region that is constantly at risk of descending into chaos; a region vital to our energy security owing to our overdependence on Middle Eastern oil; …
Except that, as I’ve read elsewhere, it’s never, ever about oil.
>> … a region that forms the front line in the fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down.”
Need to ratchet up the fear-mongering a bit there. I’m not getting the full sense of “terrrrrrrrrr” I feel I should be.
The assumption of the ECI is that Israel is a normal western country. The irony is that the ECI was formed as a reaction to the ways Israel is not such a country. If one assumes one is normal according to Western civilization’s standards, isn’t that precisely why that one should be held to Western civilization’s high standards? Should there be double standards? What other Western nation acts like Israel in creed and deed? How is it that Israel depends on the UN for its initial legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the world, yet now disses the UN as irrelevant, as an organization to be ignored?
Food for thought:
link to haaretz.com
Special pleading works both ways?
It’s the new neocon shop in Paris & London that ferments chaos, not the other way around. Israel is not technically even an ally of ours–Israel has refused an offer to be an actual ally, although you’d never know it the constant way American politicos and MSM talking heads refer to Israel as not only our ally, but our staunchest ally.
link to sabbah.biz
You should know, if you don’t already, that a member of this group, The Friends of Israel Initiative, is David Trimble, who is now an observer on the Israeli Committee investigating the attack on the Mavi Marmara. He’s described as a nobel peace laureate: this is true in that he, a Northern Irish British loyalist, along with a member on the Republican side in Northern Ireland, were jointly awarded this prize when it was finally agreed that negotiations would replace the fighting. Suffice it to say, I would not call him an impartial observer.
Furthermore, He joined the Friends of Israel Initiative the day after the flotilla attack