Let us briefly consider just what’s being proposed here. Israel has been asked (asked!) to freeze illegal settlement construction in the West Bank for a lousy three months in the interests of the so-called peace process.
This brief hiatus is purely cosmetic. Jewish settlements in this occupied territory have been steadily and deliberately eradicating taking over East Jerusalem and the West Bank for over 40 years. The whole full-bore settlement construction programme makes open nonsense of partition now, as well as the putative “peace process”, by “eating the pizza”. But Israel has refused even a short-term freeze. And the US, egg all over its face, is being reduced to bribing the Israelis with a mind-boggling package of incentives – $3 BILLION in military hardware, equivalent to Israel’s annual automatic US package – just for three months of a partial freeze on construction, after which construction will continue unabated.
Israel’s refusal to freeze settlements even temporarily should surprise no one: the enigma is rather that anyone still finds that refusal confusing. Israel’s strategy for annexing the West Bank is recorded in Israeli government maps and settlement Master Plans dating back decades. For reasons too complicated to summarise here, deep divisions in Israeli society and politics make changing that policy effectively impossible at this late hour, as it is entrenched in Israeli doctrine, politics, policy and practice at levels so deep that the State’s very survival is implicated in it. The entire Israeli government, from the Agriculture Ministry to the World Zionist Organisation, is fully involved in and committed to building the West Bank settlements. But no one in the White House seems to have told President Obama this. He has already been deeply humiliated in world eyes when he insisted that Israel freeze settlement construction and Israel (predictably) gave him the diplomatic finger. Ever since that debacle, he has looked like a tin man in Middle East politics. Many wondered – first when, then whether – the US might find some spine with Israel over a situation so obviously damaging to the country’s image and interests. But Obama’s language about the settlements lately has been mealy stuff about “unhelpful” and “both sides”. As billions of tax dollars sink into the Afghan morass and US soldiers are shot down in ditches, the US superpower can’t get Israel to do diddly to help out and isn’t willing even to try. On the contrary, the US is committed to helping Israel do the opposite of what it urgently needs and what its own rhetoric asks for.
Normally, of course, the US would just strong-arm the Palestinians. But the Palestinian Authority is down to its last thong of dignity and even this is ready to snap. It can’t participate in a peace process that’s so openly idiotic. Politically, and despite the partial economic benefits that appointed Prime Minister Fayyad has brought to a narrow sector of Palestinian society in the West Bank, the PA is on the brink of implosion. Looking too much like a stringed puppet dancing in an empty diplomatic theatre, “negotiating” for a territory vanishing day by day, Mr. Abbas confronts a level of shame that even hard-core PA cronies have to consider soberly. For years, he has cultivated the image of a much-abused Palestinian patriot on the brink of resignation, enduring endless insults from Israel and the US only to do his best by the Palestinian people. But that always dubious story is crumbling to reveal a sordid truth: whatever its individual members’ intentions, the PA is effectively a cluster of native clients sucking up funds and graces from enemy patrons who are happy to pay a self-serving indigenous elite to keep the native masses quiet. This classic colonial deal can be sustained only as long as the Palestinian people as a whole are not smacked in the face with it.
But why does the US care about sustaining this farce? To understand the outlandish military deal now being offered, we have to recognise the whole Middle East “peace process” as a survival pact. The US needs the PA to help keep alive the whole fake story about the PA – Oslo’s “Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority”, supposedly “interim” to full Palestinian independence but actually “interim” to Israel’s final victory – to achieve what it needs to do in Afghanistan. Israel still needs the PA, too, because otherwise Israel will be identified for what it is: an Apartheid state. The Ramallah-PA elite relies on the coloniser’s needs -- indirect rule of the natives – for its very existence. So everyone needs the game a little longer and, if all goes right, it will work out for all of them. The US and Israel assume that when Israel’s eastern border (marked by the Wall plus the Jordan Valley) is finally consolidated, the PA will serve as the “self-government authority” – language straight out of the South African Bantustans, not incidentally – that will keep the natives quiet in assigned “reserves” which may or may not be called a state. The Ramallah PA hopes to land on its feet: a native elite that can enrich itself on sweetheart deals with Israel that it will cultivate by ensuring “security”. Counting on this pact, Israel need contemplate no true change to settlement policy because, token protests aside, the PA will take whatever it can get. No one in the US government really cares where Israel decides to put its borders, so the US government will not insist on any change either. The only concern is keeping up appearances. The short-sightedness of this plan is obvious and sad: it can’t but culminate in Palestinian revolt, Israeli violence, security dilemmas throughout the region and periodic regional upheavals. But then, colonists always assume that colonialism will win out somehow.
Even sadder is that the US actually has immense power in this situation and need do very little to deploy it. All it has to do to alter the entire power balance in the Middle East – in the interest of its own desperate situation in Afghanistan and its credibility as a world power – is sit back and abstain in the UN, leaving Israel to face the monumental international opprobrium that is brewing around its multitudinous human rights violations and sins against international security. Instead, the US is now doing the opposite: promising openly to protect Israel from any such blame, however legitimate, and handing over twenty – TWENTY – F35 stealth attack jets, the latest in US military stealth equipment, as well as unnamed satellite intelligence capacity and other cutting-edge technology. And for what? A 3-month token freeze that will end with Israel bouncing back to exactly the same strategy as before, putting the US back in the same impossible situation by February 2011.
Of course, it’s unlikely that the US is really doing this. Probably the deal was in the works anyway – maybe to capacitate Israel to strike Iran, in reality or as a threat – and some pro-Israel fanatic in the White House thought it might make slightly better sense to the world if cast as a sweetener to Israel regarding the always-fictive “peace process”. The opposite is true: attaching this colossal military transfer to a 3-month diplomatic nod from Israel makes the US look like a giant on its knees to a local mafia thug, handing over the family jewels (in both senses?) to cover the next short-term protection-racket instalment. It announces to the world that the US has no foreign policy leverage whatever and is reduced to giving away its best goods for the slightest temporary cooperation by a rude ally that claims openly to control its foreign policy. It also announces to the world that we are ready to destabilise the entire planet to plead for the most immaterial of Israel’s diplomatic graces. It indicates an infatuation with Israel so craven as to betray the foundations of our country’s essential interests – to remain a credible power in world affairs. (And let’s not even go into how deeply it abuses and insults the millions of desperate jobless Americans for whom $3 billion in mortgage assistance, education and job training could make all the difference – and whose children are being killed or maimed in Afghanistan as this disgusting deal goes forward to make their lot worse.)
I don’t usually speak like this, but this is a matter for US patriots. I don’t mean tea-party dolts, I mean liberal principled citizens people who – even grown cynical after decades of disappointments and disillusionments – still in their hearts really care about the US and what we always believed it was founded to become. And I include people who don’t much care one way or the other about the Middle East. For, although it will indeed be ruinous for the Middle East, and catastrophic for US relations with the Middle East, this crisis isn’t only about the Middle East. We cannot possibly hand over vast first-strike armaments at the tune of $3 billion on the utterly shaming rationale of coaxing an arrogant local power into a minor diplomatic gesture with a dinky 90-day limit. Doing so would mark the end of the US as any kind of sensible player in the world.
Virginia Tilley is a professor of political science and international relations and author of The One-State Solution. She lives in Cape Town and can be reached at vtilley@mweb.co.za. Thanks to John Haines for circulating her piece first.
I’ve seen different accounts of the offer, none of them official. But the one which makes sense is that the aid package is contingent on reaching an agreement (the outlines which would be negotiated during the three months) and would be voided if there is no agreement. I’m not saying the agreement would be good, or that the PA can legitimately negotiate for all Palestinians, or won’t come under enormous pressure to sell out — all that will happen. But I don’t the huge package is only for a freeze. If so things are worse than I thought.
I tend to think that Israel needs sticks more than carrots to move it towards two states, but this isn’t Obama’s view, or feasible at the moment.
I agree it’s nowhere clear yet what this offer includes. Via AP/Washington Post today:
JERUSALEM — Israel’s national security adviser says the U.S. has made a written commitment not to pressure Israel to stop West Bank construction again if it accepts an incentives package aimed at reviving Mideast peace talks.
Uzi Arad spoke on Israel’s Channel 2 TV Saturday afternoon. It is the first time the Israelis have confirmed a written commitment was made.
Arad also said “payment agreements need to be worked out” regarding the sale of F-35 stealth fighters to Israel as part of the package.
It had been unclear before if Israel would be paying for the jets.
Under the deal, Israel would stop settlement construction for 90 days in the West Bank, but not in east Jerusalem.
Hillary originally offer the F-35s for free during her 7 hour marathon talk with Mr N (additional to the previous “contracted” F-35s). Since then, Obama’s consultants probably thought maybe they should make Israel pay a nominal fee in light of the Tea Party influence in Congress. This is also in the context of the new Zionist Republican “fast shooter” pushing the bill to disconnect Israel dole from “foreign aid” mantle. Wonder what a “nominal” fee will look like? link to bruneinews.net
Cost of the F-35 program is now projected at 380 billion, with some delay due to US Marine requirements for short-take off. Wonder what one of the joint developers, Turkey, thinks about Israel getting the jets since Israel was not part of the multi-national development team. And Britain for one, may be cutting back on how many of the super-expenisve jets it will buy. Also wonder what the $$ contract price is for the first squadron of jets Israel is getting, and will we “loan” them the contract price? link to newsdaily.com
Interesting. Starting to look like ‘generous’ Israeli peace offers in the past – nothing in writing, and spun to Israel’s advantage after being rejected by Arafat: ‘We offered them everything they want, but, as you see, the Palestinians don’t want peace etc.’ Was/is that the plan? What’s not in the offer is more land/settlements, which is what the Israelis want. Not just the ultra-right. And it’s not entirely clear whether Netanyahu’s coalition cabinet will actually accept this offer, no matter how generously it addresses Israel’s security needs. Land before peace. What if they reject the watered down, written offer?
It’s as though the arms deal was both planned and unrelated to the colonies, but both Israel and the US merely waited for the right moment and the right pretext for the “sale” of these aircraft.
Whether that’s the case or not, ultimately it doesn’t matter. Obama has managed to delay the inevitable for another three months. Good for him. What will he do afterward? The three month freeze isn’t going to erase the last 43 years of colonial expansion and construction in the occupied West Bank.
And when the three months are over, both Israel and the US will need some kind of event or development to distract the Palestinians and others in the region from the deplorable reality.
yes indeedy, Avi –
August 2010, PressTV
** nothing new here. According to Ronen Bergman, when Israel was a major arms merchant to Iran, Israel routinely and by plan sold to Iran inferior or defective weaponry, at inflated prices, and used the proceeds to develop superior weapons for Israel. I guess that’s the way of the world. I’m still living in my 12-year-old’s naive world, in which the US behaved honestly and expected and received honest treatment in return.
Indeed. The Saudis receive a severely downgraded radar targeting and tracking package, while Israel receives the most advanced in the U.S. arsenal.
Further, the Saudis ruling clan pay through the nose, while Israel pays a “nominal” fee.
** nothing new here …
Ya think Saudi Arabia’s gonna throw a hissy-fit over that? They might just make grumbling noises, but the sale will go through.
Think again. They don’t care. So long as the Royalty get to keep their nifty toys and all the power that goes along with it, they’ll be HAPPY to buy anything from the US.
“So long as the Royalty get to keep their nifty toys and all the power that goes along with it”
What I am uncertain about is how long the Royalty with the power will keep it. I can imagine that a lot of RSAF officers feel pretty pissed off about having to get second-rate systems. At what level of pissed-off-ness do they decide to replace the current power structure in SA?
You didn’t mention the bit about Israel wanting it “in writing”. The humiliation was quite painful to watch.
Strategically, by imposing such humiliation on the US, Israel has made a major blunder. I think its called biting the hand that feeds you.
Well at least we now have a fairly conclusive answer to the question of whether the tail wags the dog, or does the dog wag the tail.
cnn: U.S. says it’s prepared to put commitments to Israel in writing
virginia tilley speaks for me.
James Zogby spoke to Commonwealth Club of California recently. He said that George Mitchell was taking the hard line in the Israel-Palestine negotiations, but had no support for that position.
Subtext, unspoken (Zogby was hugely deferential to Israeli interests): Hillary Clinton froze Mitchell out of the process.
Mitchell must love to be humiliated. It’s been going on since the new peace process started. Quite a come-down from his days solving the Irish Troubles.
Thanks for the link. I forgot all about Mitchell.
Interesting post at Ikhras.com on Zogby’s recent Viewpoints interview.
“Hillary Clinton froze Mitchell out of the process” Hmmm
‘The US has no foreign policy leverage whatever and is reduced to giving away its best goods for the slightest temporary cooperation by a rude ally that claims openly to control its foreign policy.’
The adjective ‘rude’ definitely rings true, as the obnoxious Israeli PM ostentatiously lords it over us — but ‘ally’? Such false-friend saboteurs are more commonly called ‘enemies.’
With One Term Obama the Drone Messiah now revealed to be our first invertebrate president, his sordid handmaid the Secretary of State employs her unrivaled experience in doing dirty deals with other people’s money, dating from Whitewater days.
‘Foreign policy nadir’ it is, as the rubber-stamp Senate meekly skips town for vacation. ‘Parliament of whores,’ P.J. O’Rourke labeled these preening moral midgets decades ago.
A nation that would prostitute itself this way to a Middle Eastern minnow brings us face to face with our real image in the mirror: as self-hating Americans, too cowardly to stand up to being swindled, sassed and suckered by a determined predator.
To paraphrase ol’ James Carville, ‘It’s the feudalism, stupid!‘
Beautiful. Patriots speak up, indeed. Not only to Israelis want to see it in writing, I DO! (And all of it!) Darn!
But it can hardly be a bribe to achieve a “just and lasting peace” or even (such) a division of the land, because unless the terms are dictated by Obama, he cannot compel wither side to agree to anything the other would propose.
I think it can be regarded as a CRY FOR HELP from Obama to AMERICAN PATRIOTS, and we’d better answer him loud and clear.
Use: WHITEHOUSE.GOV and 1-800-234-1111.
If you hear a knock at the door just after hanging up, I don’t know you.
what a sentence!
Wonder if thongs show up in body scans? If you opt for pat down, is a thong reason for suspicion?
Jane “Israel first” Hamsher was on C Span this morning suggesting that US adopt Israeli methods of inspecting air passengers. (blissfully mindless that Israel runs 12 flights/day; US launches thousands. Scale, dear Jane Hamster, scale. Not to mention cause-and-effect relationships: Israel is paranoid because it engages in pissing people off as a state doctrine. )
Yeah, right, US needs to be more like Israel: more paranoid, more racist, more spying, more assassinations.
ugh
Our first chief of Homeland Security is really pushing the Israeli methods of inspecting air passengers–he was doing it on CSPAN a day or so ago.
Of course the best people to run the Israeli methods would be those with experience in it, so another fat “security” contract goes to Israel, and Israel gets even greater control over U.S. airports.
But you can feel safe. Once the Israelis are running the show, no terrorists will ever get through.
ICTS International was in charge of security at all the 911 airports, at Schipol (underpants bomber), at Charles de Gaulle (shoe bomber) and had a hand in London Transport security, along with Verint Systems(Israeli).
They have a great track record.
A few days ago on the radio program Here and Now Robin Young was basically promoting the Israeli airport security methods. Never even got close to just why these intensive screening methods are needed. The why of these security needs. Root causes
link to hereandnow.org
———————————————————————
Also suggessted
Robin Young you should have Flynt Leverett on your program to discuss some of the core reasons for the anger and hatred being directed at the U.S. that is if you dare approach the core reasons instead of dancing around them
“AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: ON THE ROAD TO FAILURE”
From 1992 to 2003, Mr. Leverett served as Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a CIA Senior Analyst. Mr. Leverett’s articles and Op Eds on Iran, other Middle East issues, and global energy affairs have been published in numerous media outlets. We talk with Mr. Leverett about American grand strategy in the Middle East and his judgment that we are on the road to failure in this critical region.
———————————————–
Or Former head of the CIA Bin Laden Unit Micheal Scheuer. Ask these two experts why there is so much hatred towards the U.S. Not the hooey about they hate use because of our freedoms. They hate us because of our support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine, our military bases on their holy lands, our support for violent regimes. They could give a rats a– about what we do on our own stolen lands
Put this up over at her site
“I was amazed by Robin Young’s choice of guest. Rafi Ran former head of Israel’s airport security.
When will folks lightbulbs go off and get it. One of the huge reasons for more airport security being necessary in the U.s. is due to our unbridled support for Israel no matter what they do.
How many times do we have to hear former CIA Bin Laden Unit Micheal Scheuer, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Queen Noor, Former President Jimmy Carter, even more recently Bill Clinton came out and said that “50% of the reason for terrorism would be eliminated if the I/P issue were dealt with” more honestly.
Instead we have to take on Israeli security methods to protect our nation because of our financial and political support of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. When will we look at the root causes of this terrorism.
Flynt Leverett has an amazing interview about this (our unbridled support for Israel and the price we pay) over at Race for Iran
“AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: ON THE ROAD TO FAILURE” “
thanks for this. Jane “Israel first” Hamsher is really demonstrating why she seldom criticizes Israeli crimes. Have criticized her for not even being willing to mention that some on the left (obviously not her) are pissed off with the Obama administration for continuing to roll over to Israel and the I lobby. Jane is so incapable of taking criticism that she and the high control moderator/editor of My FDL booted me after Phillip Weiss shed some light on this issue. They not only booted me they deleted all of the post that I have put up over the last several years there that at times had hundreds of comments, links, conversations about the I/P issue, the push for a military strike on Iran, Peggy and Art Gish’s work, Jane’s last time on Washington Journal and her unwillingness to even whisper about the I/P conflict and much more.
Jane Hamsher is truly the female equivalent of Rahm Emmanuel. Demands that people bow to her every stance, otherwise attacks and throws hissy fits. Firedoglake has since basically closed the doors to any in depth discussions on the I/P issue. C Tuttle and Ed Teller will periodically still post a bit about the topic. And then get one or two comments. Rayne and Jane have basically closed the doors to this critical issue over at Firedoglake
link to mondoweiss.net
Went to listen. The video with Hamsher not available right now. Will be interesting to hear what she claims the reasons are for the lefts unhappiness with the Obama administration. I criticized her before for not even mentioning the I/P issue when she was on Washington Journal discussing progressives dissatissfactions. Bet she failed to even whisper about it again.
Why is Jane Hamsher used as the spokesperson for the left? Katrina, Glenn Greenwald, Arianna much more well rounded that Hamsher. She must be selling herself hard.
Amazing analysis by Virginia Tilley, the best I’ve seen so far.
BTW, doesn’t this deal violate the US’ commitments under NATO?
For all intents and purposes, Israel is already a de facto member of NATO.
Well, Turkey IS a de jure NATO member and has been quite vocal about excluding any benefit to Israel from the newly proposed NATO missile shield. According to Turkey’s view, the shield will extend from its eastern border through the West. It will be interesting to watch how the USA gets around Turkey’s objection. Turkey has also refused to sign on to any NATO missile defense shield that specifically targets any named country, meaning Iran of course.
See link to english.aljazeera.net
Here’s a pretty good discussion of the US strategy with NATO:
link to progressiveradionetwork.com
Probably, but so what? Treaties and alliances mean nothing to the U.S. The U.S. violated its committments to NATO in 1973 when it stripped equipment from European bases to rush it to Israel. Let the Warsaw Pact march to the Atlantic, as long as Israel is safe!
Why is President Barack Obama on his knees before the treacherous Israeli PM? The Israel Lobby? Partly? But nothing else, such as the fear that one defeat, just one defeat is all it’ll take for the Empire’s entire package of deception to fall apart? How might standing up and saying no to the fascist Zionist entity lead to a defeat that could jeopardize elite plans for world domination? Just that once our government admits that its unqualified support of the settler-state has been a mistake, the elite’s worst fear might come into play – tjat the public suddenly wakes up and people start asking “What’s the reason, again, that we’ve been wasting so many lives and resources on that tiny, insignificant nation?” And once the American people start questioning the whys & wherefores in regards to U.S. support for the settler-state, the same conversation will be taking place, re: Afghanistan and Iraq, with emphasis upon what might have been accomplished for the common good, had the trillions spent on perpetual wars been directed, instead, to homeland needs, such as health care, education, rebuilding our infrastructure etc etc? Is there any other reason that on vital issues such as war and peace our government never ever admits it’s wrong – until maybe 40-80 years later, as in “Oh, by the way, the sinking of the Maine was due to a boiler room explosion, not Spanish terrorism as earlier thought & taught” – and by then hardly anyone’s around whe even remembers, let alone cares about the particular incident and the war that followed? It’s enough to make one want to shout “Impeach President Barack Hussein Obama”, in addition, that is, to shouting “BDS, BDS, BDS!”
“the trillions spent on perpetual wars been directed, instead, to homeland needs, such as health care, education, rebuilding our infrastructure etc etc?”
What are you? Some sort of commie, or some sort of anti-Semite? Or both?
Great great comment from Ms. Tilley. You see outrage all over now about this proposed “deal” such as with Mr. Perry at the Foreign Policy website mentioned here earlier.
(To link to it again for whoever missed it):
link to mideast.foreignpolicy.com
Would note however that I read somewhere that Obama might be a bit peeved with Clinton over offering so much and this rings true. While I had always thought that Mrs. Clinton had been the victim of low-ball politics painting her early on as some “do-anything to get ahead” person I changed my view entirely watching her run against Obama. Thus seems entirely credible to me now that she would give away anything this country has for the least blip of something she could paint on herself as an accomplishment.
In any event this and reading Ms. Tilley’s comment about this being a matter for patriots reminded me of a J-Post article that appeared just yesterday: Apparently some 39 American congress-people just signed a letter to Obama urging him to release Jonathan Pollard. Said Barney Frank: “My own hope is that if the president were to do this it would contribute to the political climate within the democracy of Israel to enhance the peace process.
All Dems. Story notes that no Republicans signed on to the letter out of feeling that same would offend the Republican base, to its credit.
Story appears here: link to jpost.com
‘offend the Republican base’?
I don’t think so. If they did actually reach out to the Repubs.
Democrats running over one another to please Israel. Repubs say: Hey, we don’t need to do anything. We’re just gonna sit back and watch you scramble to get back into our Master’s good graces.
Where is the US demand that Israel puts in writing its precise intentions regarding the settlements, Palestinian territorial sovereignty, the extension of civil and human rights to all Palestinians, the lifting of the Gaza seige?
Only, and only then, is the little bully state entitled to ask for, not demand, US intentions regarding any deals.
The only silver lining to the abject humiliation of the US by the tinpot emperors of Israel is that the American public will for once and for all see the little mafia state in its true light, and will conclude that no more draining of US taxpayer’s coffers for a war-obsessed racist state should ever be contemplated again.
So far I don’t see the Average Americans I know caring at all about giving away the farm to Israel for a 3 month partial settlement pause. They spend more time being upset that some people want to reinstate taxes on the filthy rich–after, all what then will happen to their American Dream future (as soon as they get a job)?
Israel: the Land of the Settlers – it’s even making Likud sick this morning.
Obama and Clinton even groveling before the fascist Israeli settlers that make even Likudniks hurl? – how low can they go?
// This has become ‘the land of the settlers.’”
“They think we’re working for them,” another senior Likud person added. “They are rude, bloated with a sense of ownership. They are using us. They are wielding terror against the government.” //
//Meanwhile, Netanyahu closeted himself with his advisers in the Prime Minister’s Bureau and watched as the MKs and ministers gave in, one after the other, to the settlers’ threats. “All we can do is bemoan our bitter fate,” one Netanyahu confidant said. “Never before have we seen such insane pressure. It’s simply intolerable.//
link to haaretz.com
neither the settlers NOR Netanyahu et al NOR the American Congress could manage this without the support of rank-and-file American Jews of all stripes, for whom love of Israel and monetary support for numerous Jewish institutions such as UJF are a matter of Jewish identity.
I heard this first hand at a meeting of J Street participants: “What if Israel says to us diaspora Jews, ‘You have no say in Israeli affairs. You are not Israeli.’ How would that make you feel?”
Irishmen and Poles and Italians and Hispanics have emotional and cultural ties to their native countries; in a nation of immigrants, those loyalties must be understood and have been a source of American strength. Do those emotional ties and loyalties amount to an element of identity so essential to one’s psyche that one is reduced to what amounts to an abusive relationship: the battered, emotionally bonded member MUST remain in the relationship, preferring the pain of abuse to the pain of establishing a different identity disentangled from the abuser.
“All we can do is bemoan our bitter fate.”
Who bemoans the bitter fate of, ie. the children in an abusive relationship, and the American people in an equally abusive bond to the zionist state?
America created this Frankenstein and the flagrant rape of the American taxpayers that Virginia is describing is only the begining. The PA’s quasi-total collaboration with the bad guys has the Palestinian people fighting a losing battle; they’ve had Israel, the US, their own leaders, the Europeans and other Arabs working against them from the start.
Great post!
“The short-sightedness of this plan is obvious and sad: it can’t but culminate in Palestinian revolt, Israeli violence, security dilemmas throughout the region and periodic regional upheavals. But then, colonists always assume that colonialism will win out somehow.”
Goes back to what Mearsheimer said recently
“Mearsheimer “the two state solution is effectively dead” “We are headed towards a greater Israel . And that greater Israel is going to be an apartheid state”
link to mondoweiss.net
—————————————————————————
“Even sadder is that the US actually has immense power in this situation and need do very little to deploy it. All it has to do to alter the entire power balance in the Middle East – in the interest of its own desperate situation in Afghanistan and its credibility as a world power – is sit back and abstain in the UN, leaving Israel to face the monumental international opprobrium that is brewing around its multitudinous human rights violations and sins against international security.”
Flynt Leverett makes very similar points
From 1992 to 2003, Mr. Leverett served as Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a CIA Senior Analyst. Mr. Leverett’s articles and Op Eds on Iran, other Middle East issues, and global energy affairs have been published in numerous media outlets. We talk with Mr. Leverett about American grand strategy in the Middle East and his judgment that we are on the road to failure in this critical region.
“http://www.raceforiran.com/american-grand-strategy-in-the-middle-east-on-the-road-to-failure
Listen to this interview. Leverett makes very similar points
link to yale.edu
Netanyahu and the I lobby say “jump” Obama and Clinton respond “how high”
I really think that one of the reasons the israeli politicians are so unabashedly giving the middle finger to our president is because he’s African-American and those Ashkenazim are racist rotters to the core.
It’s simply beneath them to take orders/requests from a man/woman with dark skin.
I’ve often wondered about the perception of Pres. Obama by the average Jewish person.
When I was growing up (many, many years ago) I often visited the homes of my Jewish schoolboy friends and recall hearing the word “schvartz” occasionally spoken – always disdainfully.
While it is obvious that the progressive Jews who post here would never hold discriminatory views, what is the attitude of the average non-progressive Jew today?
I am reminded of the video clip furnished by Max Blumenthal where young American Jews in Israel repeatedly referred to Pres. Obama as “that nigger” – is this the exception or the rule?
And yet I seem to recall that Jews were prominent activists in the American Civil Rights movements.
To their very great credit.
But they were clearly progressives and my post was concerned about the attitudes of American Jews who are not clearly progressive.
“The US needs the PA to help keep alive the whole fake story about the PA … to achieve what it needs to do in Afghanistan.”
What, pray tell, does the US need to do in Afghanistan? Here we go again, another Mondoweiss liberal imperialist telling an appreciative audience that Israel is a thorn in the side of (illegitimate) US (imperial) interests. Perhaps if the US never invaded Afghanistan under bogus pretenses we wouldn’t have to bribe Israel. Is that the conclusion of Virginia Tilley? How about pulling US troops out of Afghanistan now, would that help, or does this foreign policy “realist” support US actions in Afghanistan?
I continue to be amazed by how many are motivated to disassociate US Middle East policy from the reality of empire.
Keith you just seriously misread what Tilley is saying. You were distracted by to achieve what it needs to do in AfghanistanThe rest of her essay places this in context. Don’t be more radical than thou, the only way Palestinians will accomplish justice is in alliances with “the Mondoweiss liberal imperialists”. I agree that W&M could fit that description, but they should be encouraged not insults.
SYVANEN- I only pulled out that one quote to make a point. I could have pulled out many more, but what would be the point? The thrust of her argument, which seems to find great favor with some Mondoweissers, is that Israel has humiliated the US which will damage US imperial credibility, hinder our efforts in Afghanistan, etc. This is the point of view of a liberal imperialist, not the principled view of a human rights advocate. I find the argument that we should oppose Israeli actions so as “to remain a credible power in world affairs,” utterly unconvincing. Apparently many Mondoweissers find this sort of argument very persuasive. Once again, I oppose US Middle East policy because it is morally wrong and unjust, not because it presents a problem for the liberal elements of the foreign policy establishment. I think it would be a huge mistake to abandon the moral high ground for the realpolitik of power politics.
The impasse over Israel’s refusal to stop building homes in the West Bank is nohting but a convenient subterfuge for President Obama to give Israel these stealth bombers. Now, after the pariah state uses them to nuke Iran, our President will say, “Look, Israel’s an independent nation, I want to assure the American people that your government had nothing to do with this latest nuking.” Like he thinks the world will believe him?
Anybody noticed the Stuxnet piece in NYT?
link to nytimes.com
Great. So all it needs is for some script kiddie to tweak it to attack any Siemens controller / other plant types and a large part of the world’s industrial plant control is fscked. There is no antivirus software for this stuff.
As long as Israel is threatened with distruction by enemies (and their proxies) like Iran, there is nothing wrong in such kind of deals. Rather, it is the military superiority of Israel that appears to be the only way to create deterrence against declared hostile states and groups, and thus prevent future wars that Israel’s enemies would be too happy to provoke at the first opportunity.
In addition, Israel has already done its part in the attempt to revive the negotiations, freezing most of the activities in the colonies of the West Bank (excluding Jerusalem, which Israel considers its indivisible capital.) The Palestinians, with their categorical demands, show that they are not ready (nor able) to find solutions acceptable also to the Israeli counterpart.
It’s a real chance that the Palestinian economy works much better than the dysfunctional Palestinian politics, which seems unable to leave behind the heavy and toxic burden of Arafat. Perhaps, in the footsteps of the new and far more pragmatic generations of the Palestinian economy will also follow those of Palestinian politics, badly needed for a decisive change of course.
Thankyou for reminding us every cliche in the book. I don’t suppose you have any of those alien concepts, facts, to back up this boilerplate list of Israeli denialism: it’s all their fault – we keep attacking them and taking their land, but they just won’t agree to it. Israel has indeed ‘done its part’ – it has deliberately made a peace settlement impossible.
“As long as Israel is threatened with distruction by enemies (and their proxies) like Iran, there is nothing wrong in such kind of deals”
The we should wait for such an outcome before making such deals, seeing as Israel had NEVER been threatened with distruction by Iran.
NEVER.
“Rather, it is the military superiority of Israel that appears to be the only way to create deterrence against declared hostile states and groups”‘
False. It hasn’t stopped Hebollah taking Israel on and beating them twice.
What these weapons do however, it create a sense fo militry invioncilibyt in Israel (becasue they can massacre civlians), rther than exploring peaceful options.
“In addition, Israel has already done its part in the attempt to revive the negotiations”
False. Israel continues to build and expand settlements, which is the ultimate deal beraker, along with refusing to even discuss East Jerusalem.
The The Palestinians demands are consistent with the dozens of UN Resolutons Israel has violated, not to mention the Geneva Conventions.
“It’s a real chance that the Palestinian economy works much better than the dysfunctional Palestinian politics, which seems unable to leave behind the heavy and toxic burden of Arafat”
As Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli foreign minuster during Camp david stated, Arafat was the father of the Peace Process and was the first Palestinian leader to recognize Israel.
Toxic indeed by Zionist mentality.
Well it’s semi-official: I see the J-Post is reporting that Netanyahu *has* asked Obama to release Pollard as part of the freeze deal:
link to jpost.com
Great, then Israel will have an even happier Thanksgiving Day (while everyday Americans eat dog good)! p://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/11/20/israel-has-much-to-be-thankful-for-this-thanksgiving/
They just can’t stop adding conditions can they? First they added the condition that the deal must be in writing. Now that is done, they want Pollard released, then what? The keys to Fort Knox? A free nuclear powered aircraft carrier? A free boomer? At some point a line will be crossed.
Maybe there is madness to Obama’s method after all.
“seeing as Israel had NEVER been threatened with distruction by Iran.
NEVER.”
So read the English version of the president’s website:
link to president.ir
But we know the tune, it’s a translation problem (the Iranian doesn’t know how to traslate properly from Persian the phrase پاک کردن صفحات از تاریخ)
“It hasn’t stopped Hebollah taking Israel on and beating them twice.”
Of course. That’s why Hezbollah thought twice before joining the fight during the battle in Gaza as required by their brethren of Hamas – and wisely decided to keep very very calm ….
“Israel continues to build and expand settlements, which is the ultimate deal beraker, along with refusing to even discuss East Jerusalem.”
There was no significant costruction in the settlements for 10 months. The PA refused to revive the talks, claiming the excuse of Jerusalem. It was finally convinced only when the temporary freeze was about to end and only by prior consultation with the Arab League (children need the mother, we know). This is called a political tactic aimed at extracting the maximum with the minimum effort, relying on others (USA, Arab League, international pressure, pseudo-humanitarian flotillas, BDS). So you get even less than before. Pathetic.
“Arafat was the father of the Peace Process and was the first Palestinian leader to recognize Israel”
The words are nothing but a lip service as long as policies remain stuck in the same old ineffective destructive practices.