Abbas, Clinton, Hamas, Goldstone, and the US Jewish Lobby

Abbas, Clinton, Hamas, Goldstone, and the US Jewish Lobby

Here We Go Again

by Elliott R. Morss

Have we heard this before? The American administration making a statement in support of Israel. And things were going to be different under Obama!

The most noticeable and immediate effect of the latest statement was the resignation of Abbas in frustration and disgust. And this leaves the world with having to deal with Palestine only via Hamas….

How did we get here? A little history is in order.

At the end of WWII, the West created the Israeli state in the middle of the Arab world – if Jewish people were to have their own state, they wanted to be close to Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism (and other religions).

And in creating the Jewish state, the West said it wanted to insure its security – OK, fine, you create the Jewish state in the middle of the Arab world; it is the least you can do.

But then, the US goes further – it enables Israel to build/obtain nuclear weapons and proclaims that Israel will be its “policeman” in the middle of the Arab world. Just pause for a minute and think about this – the US (and others) create a Jewish state, equip it (or more precisely allow it to obtain nuclear weapons), and then the US tells the Arabs that Israel will be its policeman in the Middle East. Can you imagine this did not go down to well with the Arabs? Can you imagine it might cause Arabs to hate the US and develop radical terrorist groups?

So then, what did Israel do? Did it take its role and become a moderate and reasonable defender of peace in the Middle East?

It did not. In 1967, Israel seized lands of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. These actions were condemned by UN Security Council Resolutions 248, 251, 252, 256, and 258. These resolutions also called on Israel to return the lands they had seized. These lands have never been returned.

In 1970, Israel invaded Lebanon. This invasion was condemned by the UN Security Council in Resolutions 265, 267, 270, 271, 280, 285, 316, 317, and 332. These resolutions also called for Israel to leave Lebanon.

In 1982, Israel again invaded Lebanon. This invasion was condemned by UN Security Council Resolutions 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519, and 520. It was at this time that Hezbollah was formed. It was formed and supported by Arab neighbors of Israel to prevent Israel from seizing more land. For those interested, you can read the resolutions at http://www.un.org/documents/sc/res/1982/scres82.htm. More recently, Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006.

There were provocations for some of these aggressive acts. But Israel has been condemned by the UN Security Council for aggressive acts 29 times, far more than any other country. And that number would be much higher if the US had not vetoed many other resolutions condemning Israel. Think of it this way: there were 29 times that the US agreed with other Security Council members that Israeli’s actions should be condemned.

The US got UN approval to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait after his invasion, and rightfully so. But not Israel for its incursions.

So we now get to the Clinton comment in support of further Israeli settlement construction – she said an Israeli offer to restrain — but not halt — construction represents “positive movement forward” toward resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiation. That blew the lid off. Virtually every other country in the world supports a complete cessation of settlement building as a precondition for renewed dialogue on a two-state settlement.

And then the Goldstone report is issued accusing both Palestinian militants and Israeli Defense Forces of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity – http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf. The report documents more war crimes by Israeli forces. Why? Because Israel refused to cooperate with the study. But more importantly because there were more Israeli war crimes. Throughout the Israeli/Palestinian war, the “body count” has always exceeded 4 Palestinian deaths for every Israeli killed – tanks are more effective killing machines than suicide bombers. What has been Obama’s reaction to the report? He has called it “one-sided,” “deeply flawed,” and “unfair.”

So why is all this happening? Why does the US continue to pursue actions overly favorable to Israel and thereby endangering US Security? The answer is the US Jewish lobby. For documentation, I urge you to read the report done by John Meirsheimer, a “chaired professor” at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, a professor at Harvard University. The report, “The Jewish Lobby” published 2006 in the London Review of Books remains the definitive piece on the Lobby – http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-lobby.

While many people have already read the Meirsheimer-Walt piece, there is another article written by two ex-CIA agents that I find even more compelling. They document how the Lobby was able to work effectively within the US security apparatus to achieve its goals – http://www.paolobarnard.info/docs/Art.1%20CounterPunch%20sulle%20Lobbies%20israeliane.pdf.

Life goes on but some things never change.

Writer’s Note: War is hell. Horrible things happen. In the Middle East, there are many to blame: Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Israelis to mention just a few. But the nearly unqualified support the US provides to Israel has made a bad situation worse.