How to Fix the U.S.-Israel Relationship
Raymond
2006), which will appear opposite the editorial page in the "Week in
Review" section.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMERICA AND ISRAEL: A Troubling Alliance
Freedom for All... Including Palestinians
As we celebrate the independence of the United States and the freedom
of the American people, we pay respect to the right of all peoples to
self-determination. Yet as we celebrate, others needlessly suffer under
an illegal occupation, with no end in sight. Here at home, the Bush
Administration has sung its own praises about democratizing the Arab
world while hypocritically implementing a policy intended to bring down
the duly elected government of the Palestinian people.
We are engaged in an effort to compress the lives of four million
people under the weight of our sanctions and an Israeli blockade. This
is a recipe for a Third Intifada. That would be in no one's interest.
"Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their
political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we are doing
to the Palestinians?"
- Pat Buchanan, June 5, 2006
How is it that we have become so divorced from our founding principles?
How is it that our alliance with Israel has led us so far astray?
A Military-Industrial-Intelligence Complex
As President Eisenhower said just before leaving office:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist."
- President Dwight Eisenhower, Farewell Address to the Nation, January
17, 1961
Today, the U.S.-Israel alliance is based on the enormous aid program to
Israel, which feeds its military-industrial and intelligence complex.
And the American military-industrial complex is now dependent on the
lucrative sale of weapons and materiel, which are used in the continued
occupation of Palestinian land. Our intelligence communities are deeply
intertwined, making it difficult for a truly American policy to be
adopted by the President and the Congress.
Strategies Gone Awry
In the last ten years, strategic consultations between Israel and the
U.S. have deepened, despite proven espionage against America by
officers and supporters of the Israel lobby.
Under the influence of well-positioned neoconservatives and the Israel
lobby, we chose to go to war in Iraq and engage in what has proved to
be an almost senseless war and occupation, now being overwhelmed by
sectarian strife.
As Colonel Harry J. Shaw wrote in Foreign Policy magazine several years
ago:
"Exaggerated claims of Israel's capabilities and willingness to act as
a strategic surrogate for America in the Middle East are not merely
harmless rhetoric employed to justify U.S. military and economic aid to
Israel. These claims confuse and distort the differences in the two
countries' interests, responsibilities, and capabilities and hamper
America's efforts to protect its interests when Israeli actions
threaten them...
"Both Israel and the United States will benefit from quietly discarding
the strategic partnership myth and grounding their relationship in
greater realism. Others have suggested that the United States clarify
its commitment to Israel's survival in treaty form. But in order to do
so, the boundaries of the state of Israel would need to be agreed upon
-- a task sure to be difficult."
- Colonel Harry J. Shaw, Former chief of the military assistance branch
of the Office of Management and Budget under four Presidents
Because of the one-sided nature of the unwritten alliance and our
preoccupation with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel has been
given a free hand to deal with the Palestinian insurgency.
Israel's military and targeted assassination approach to dealing with
that insurgency has led to the growth of terrorist organizations, some
with worldwide connections, that have complicated the U.S. ability to
prosecute the war on terror.
By clinging to the land and water resources of the West Bank, Israel
undermines the very reasons for the strategic alliance.
Israel's prime minister has said the Israelis must modify their dreams
for a "Greater Israel," but his withdrawal plan falls far short of
creating an independent Palestinian state. Failing that, the
Palestinian insurgency will continue.
How to Fix the U.S.-Israel Relationship
The unwritten alliance between the United States and Israel must be
drastically modified. Israel's best security lies in establishing
internationally-recognized borders with both Palestine and Syria as
soon as possible. This should be our aim and the goal of any alliance.
The two-state solution everyone knows is necessary can only happen if
the Palestinians have the West Bank, with agreed-upon boundaries, and
East Jerusalem as its capital. The Israeli army must withdraw, not
remain in occupation.
We need help from everyone to reach this goal. The Arab League is ready
to assist in the negotiations in both Iraq and Palestine. Clearly a
military solution is not working.
Congress should hold a series of hearings on the alliance and the "road
to peace" in the Middle East with witnesses from all interested
parties, not just from Israel and its supporters. Congress should
recognize that its unmonitored aid to Israel is one of the causes for
the continuation of this dismal conflict.
There is a second issue. For thirty years we have had a "Don't Ask,
Don't Tell" policy regarding Israel's nuclear weapons. And now,
Israel and its supporters are urging us to take "strong action" against
Iran. For the sake of maintaining any alliance with America, Israel
must join in a new effort to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction
around the world, not just in the Middle East.
Now is the time for the Bush administration to take the big step that
J. Robert Oppenheimer urged of President Truman and Congress: Place all
nuclear material-handling facilities around the world under a truly
effective international inspection agency. All weapons grade material
would be reduced to fuel rods for use in power stations in the next
decade. The U.S. has been doing this both with its own and Russia's
surplus weapons materials.
Israel could then turn her megatons of bombs into megawatts of
electricity, and save billions of dollars in oil imports.
"What I'd like to see is an open debate on this issue...I'd like to see
the mainstream media...ask questions about the influence of AIPAC on
Congress, ask all sorts of questions about the aid that we give Israel
and whether it's justified, ask questions about whether supporting
Israeli policy towards the Palestinians is indeed consistent with
American values."
- Professor John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago on the Diane Rehm
Show, June 21, 2006
What is the CNI Foundation?
The Council for the National Interest Foundation (CNI Foundation) is a
501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization with thousands of American
supporters across the country that works to promote a rational and
even-handed Middle East policy that is in the long-term interest of
America, Israel and the Arab states.
The CNI Foundation was founded by Congressmen Paul Findley (R-IL) and
Paul "Pete" McCloskey (R-CA) in 1989. Its current chairman is
Ambassador Robert Keeley.
"What is the Council for the National Interest? It is an anti-virus to
the Israel lobby."
- President Eugene Bird
Frank Arthur
Sat Jul 1, 2006 11:06 AM BST
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb tore through a market in a poor Shi'ite
district of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 62 people and wounding 114 in the
bloodiest attack in Iraq for three months, police and Interior Ministry
sources said.
It came a day after Osama bin Laden urged al Qaeda followers to avenge the
killing by U.S. troops of their leader in Iraq.
"Raymond" <Bluer...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1151746782.4...@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
docremington
> Below is the final text for this Sunday's ad (July 2nd,
> 2006), which will appear opposite the editorial page in the "Week in
> Review" section.
> Freedom for All... Including Palestinians
>
But they are free, that is why they do, what they do, don't they?
> As we celebrate the independence of the United States and the freedom
> of the American people,
Hallelujah.
> we pay respect to the right of all peoples to
> self-determination.
Through standing in the way of the kurdish state and condoning, albeit
indirectly, palisimian moves to sabotage a jewish state.
> Yet as we celebrate, others needlessly suffer under
> an illegal occupation, with no end in sight.
Like Kosovo, cut out for albanian muslims, thanks to Clinton-NATO?
> Here at home, the Bush
> Administration has sung its own praises about democratizing the Arab
> world while hypocritically implementing a policy intended to bring down
> the duly elected government of the Palestinian people.
Well, I guess, they were pretty embarassed by the hamas election, all
the democracy lecturing notwithstanding.
> We are engaged in an effort to compress the lives of four million
> people under the weight of our sanctions and an Israeli blockade.
A.) Some $21m., more than twice the annual food budget of the zambian
refugee camps, went just for paying february salaries of 135,000
employees of the palistan bureaucracy. Zambians would love such
sanctions, no doubt about that at all.
B.) As to the "blockade", it is a natural reaction to misbehaving
palisimians. I am surpised anyone can find that unnatural.
> This
> is a recipe for a Third Intifada. That would be in no one's interest.
Provided, Washington did not encourage it, albeit indirectly, in the
first place.
> "Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their
> political leaders.
A palisimian behavioral pattern.
> Is that not a fair description of what we are doing
> to the Palestinians?"
If it were so, the palisimian game would be over.
AnonMoos
As long as the U.S. government perceives the Palestinian government as
unwilling to take the slightest steps to restrain terror, U.S. middle-east
policy is unlikely to start moving in the direction in which you desire --
and pulling out the old stale standardized boilerplate cookie-cutter jargon
"anti-Imperialist" pseudo-leftist rhetoric for the 347,967th time won't
accomplish anything in particular other than to make you feel smugly
self-righteous...
--
المتبرجة خير
من الإرهابي
المنتحر
Murderers are not martyrs! http://symbolictruth.fateback.com/