|
Cut Israel Off
By Charley Reese
11/16/07 "Antiwar"
-- - It is long past time for American politicians to quit
carrying water for the state of Israel and its powerful U.S.
lobby. Congress' craven obedience to the lobby is a disgrace.
America's strategic interests in the Middle East lie with the
Arab countries. Israel is a strategic and economic liability.
The U.S. government's slavish support of Israel brands us as a
hypocrite and is responsible for most of the hostility toward
the U.S.
Americans have been brainwashed into believing that it's the
Arabs, and the Palestinians in particular, who don't want peace.
That is a big lie. The Palestinians made an enormous concession
when they agreed to settle for a state on 18 percent of
Palestine. Saudi Arabia proposed several years ago a peace plan
in which all of the Arab countries would recognize Israel in
exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories.
The Israelis rejected it out of hand, just as they reject Arab
efforts to have the Middle East a nuclear-free zone.
Israel's goal is and always has been to take all of Palestine
and to get rid of the Palestinians. The Israelis employed ethnic
cleansing in 1948 and again in 1967 to make hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians refugees. For 40 years, the Israelis
have refused to give back the Palestinian and Syrian lands they
seized in war. They have blatantly violated international law by
building settlements on occupied land, and by violating the
airspace of other sovereign countries.
Palestinians are the victims, not the villains, in this case.
The Israelis make their lives miserable in the hope they will
give up and leave. At the same time, the Israelis, in cahoots
with the American government, maintain a charade of proposed
peace talks. They of course never come to fruition. The Israeli
government is not about to allow the Palestinians to have a
viable state. If they give the Palestinians anything, it will be
a patchwork of enclaves completely surrounded and controlled by
Israel. Having created 700,000 Palestinian refugees, the
Israelis have from the beginning refused to allow them to return
to their homes, farms and businesses, all of which Israel
confiscated on the specious grounds that they were "abandoned
property."
Without U.S. aid, which now is conservatively estimated to total
$108 billion (think of the infrastructure and schools that
amount could build in the U.S.), and without the U.S. wielding
its veto every time the United Nations tries to act, none of
this would be possible.
It is not just the Muslim world that hates our pro-Israel
foreign policy, for sound reasons that it is unjust and cruel.
Europeans and others around the world are contemptuous of
America's slavelike obedience to a small foreign power. It has
gotten to the point that to be seen as an ally of the United
States is viewed negatively.
The Arab and Muslim people, with the exception of al-Qaeda,
don't hate America or Americans. It is the pro-Israel foreign
policy and, of course, our invasions of two Muslim countries
that they hate. Virtually all of the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim
propaganda generated in this country has its source in the
Israeli lobby and in Israel itself.
Thanks to the unconstitutional largess of the cowardly Congress,
Israel is a rich country and one of the world's leading military
powers. It doesn't need American aid. It is time to quit dancing
to the tune of a lobby with dual loyalties and to pursue
America's interests.
Americans are being betrayed by their own politicians, and it's
time to treat those scoundrels with the contempt they deserve.
Click on "comments" below to read or post comments
Comment Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We encourage engaging, diverse
and meaningful commentary. Do not include
personal information such as names, addresses,
phone numbers and emails. Comments falling
outside our guidelines – those including
personal attacks and profanity – are not
permitted.
See our complete
Comment Policy
and
use this link to notify us if you have concerns
about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and remove any
inappropriate postings.
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
