America has "no better friend" than Israel, Vice President Joe Biden recently declaimed, even as the Israelis kicked him in the teeth with the announcement of 1,600 new settler homes in East Jerusalem. Israel's U.S. ambassador called the flap "a crisis of historic proportions ... the worst crisis since 1975," when President Ford attempted to "reassess" the relationship because of Israeli foot-dragging on the same issues as today: borders, sovereignty and refugees. The Israeli ambassador's subsequent assertion that he did not actually use the word "crisis" lacked, to put it mildly, believability.
Dealing with a Netanyahu government, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright recalled, is "like negotiating in hell." It is now Obama's turn to navigate that hell. The issue at hand is a new and old: the new aspect is the new housing on Arab land; the old aspect dates from the birth of Israel in 1948, when 75 percent of Palestine's Arabs were driven out of their homes and into exile.
In the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israelis seized new territory: the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Although Israelis cheered the occupations as a sign of Israeli permanence -- "redeeming Israel's narrow hips," as Yitzhak Rabin put it -- they were actually self-defeating. Having expended so much energy kicking the Palestinian Arabs into exile in 1948, the Israelis turned around and reoccupied the very populations that they had taken such pains to expel.
"We've been given a good dowry, but it comes with a bride we don't like," Prime Minister Levi Eshkol joked after the 1967 war. But the joke faded as the bride remained. Sinai was given back, but Israel clung to the other territories and pushed in settlers in an effort to dilute the Palestinian presence. American aid has certainly facilitated the settlements; with U.S. taxpayers picking up 20 percent of the Israeli defense budget every year, the Israelis can pour more resources into settlers. Military areas and roads, nature preserves, the 2002 security barrier -- which brazenly helped itself to 12 percent of the Palestinian Authority's land -- and, finally, Jewish housing projects in the occupied territories suggested themselves as a way to create wholly new "facts on the ground." The Palestinians could be displaced by a permanent IDF presence and settlers. Unfavorable demographics -- "we will beat then with the womb," Arafat always boasted -- would be staved off by inflowing waves of Jewish immigrants and their families.
Nowadays, the pressure for settlements comes from the right-wing religious parties in Israel, which are a key member of Netanyahu's coalition. Settlements provide free land, soft loans, welfare payments and space to raise the big families. For Netanyahu, Orthodox settler fertility is convenient, because it permits him to budget for "natural growth" in the settlements, and keep expanding them.
Israel remains dependent on U.S. foreign aid ($3 billion per annum), yet pushes ahead with an illegal housing program that sours America's relations with the Muslim world and makes any peace settlement, let alone a final one, impossible.
The 844,000 refugees of Truman's day have grown to 4 million today, and they remain crammed into the very areas that Netanyahu is parceling into Jewish settlements. Every administration since Truman has wrestled with this problem, and vowed to bring the Israelis to heel. Eisenhower protested Israel's "merciless severity." Kennedy pressed a plan to compensate or resettle the Palestinians, but then dropped the plan when warned that it would cause "a violent eruption both domestically and in our relations with Israel." LBJ looked on impassively as the Israelis seized the occupied territories that they are now busily settling. With Israel briefly on the ropes in 1973, Nixon and Kissinger had a golden opportunity to force the Israelis out of their occupied territories and to trade the U.S. airlift -- bigger than the Berlin airlift of 1948-49 -- for tangible results, but Kissinger demurred, foolishly assuming that Israeli gratitude after the war would result in big concessions. It didn't. "They can't do this to us, Henry, they can't do this to us again," Nixon wailed in the face of Israeli stonewalling, but they did.
Can Obama finally get tough, and trade U.S. foreign aid and security for Israeli fair-dealing on this question? Probably not: the administration has its hands full with health care, stimulus, Iraq and the surge in Afghanistan, and is unlikely to pick a bruising fight with an Israel lobby that influences the very members of Congress Obama needs for his other initiatives. It's worth remembering how the 1975 crisis recently adduced by Israel's ambivalent ambassador subsided. Ford got tough, and Congress went limp, bowing under a barrage from AIPAC and warning Ford not to reassess. He didn't. Still, there is cause for hope. The Obama administration is just angry enough to press Netanyahu hard and force him into real talks with the Palestinians that will deal conclusively with borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of the Palestinian refugees.
Geoffrey Wawro is the General Olinto Mark Barsanti Professor of Military History at the University of North Texas, and the author of Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East (Penguin Press, April 2010.)
"The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive.
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin,
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad."
Yes....Israel is supposed to feel bad that all the maniacs who have wanted to deny its existance haven't killed them yet.
"And I know that when I visit with AIPAC, I am among friends. Good friends. Friends who share my strong commitment to make sure that the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, tomorrow and forever.
One of the many things that I admire about AIPAC is that you fight for this common cause from the bottom up. The lifeblood of AIPAC is here in this room — grass-roots activists of all ages, from all parts of the country, who come to Washington year after year to make your voices heard. Nothing reflects the face of AIPAC more than the 1,200 students who have traveled here to make it clear to the world that the bond between Israel and the United States is rooted in more than our shared national interests — it's rooted in the shared values and shared stories of our people. And as president, I will work with you to ensure that this bond is strengthened.
I first became familiar with the story of Israel when I was 11 years old. I learned of the long journey and steady determination of the Jewish people to preserve their identity through faith, family and culture. Year after year, century after century, Jews carried on their traditions, and their dream of a homeland, in the face of impossible odds."
“What’s shocking – and I would say to me completely immoral – is that 90% of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution. Every day people are maimed, wounded, and are killed by these ordnance.”
As close to a million refugees return to their homes, 100,000 unexploded cluster bombs – most of them dropped by the Israelis in the closing hours of the war – lie in wait for them and their children. Kids often pick up such ordnance because of its resemblance to toys. Such is the sickening legacy of the Israeli aggression, which will continue to deal death long after "peace" is declared.
The Israelis, for their part, defend their use of cluster bombs. Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin philosophized that, while war is "regrettable," dropping the widely condemned ordnance on civilian targets in Lebanon was perfectly legal:
"Israel does not break any international laws in the type of armaments it uses. Their use conforms with international standards."
Eisin, you’ll note, didn’t even attempt a moral defense of the IDF’s murderously cruel tactics: the Israelis long ago ceded the moral high ground and retreated behind a veritable Wall of Separation, beyond good and evil.
During the war on Lebanon, Israeli commentators argued that the war on Lebanon was fought by Israel on behalf of the US to destroy the military power of Hezbollah perceived by Washington as a tool of Iranian influence in the region.
Again, last week, several US newspapers reported that the key objective of the recent Israeli foreign minister's visit to Washington was to urge the Bush administration to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel, according to the US media, sought to line up the Jewish lobby to help convince US President George W. Bush to abandon diplomacy and adopt the military option against Iran.
Trying to understand
For years, Arab analysts have been trying to understand US-Israeli relations and the role of the Jewish lobby in the making of US foreign policy towards the Middle East. Many have charged that Jewish lobbying groups, such as the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), control and dictate US policy towards the Arab world
your article needs to appear in the MSM US media . . .more Americans need to be educated on what israel and the aipac have done and are doing
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ussliberty.html
Friends don’t murder Americans as they did Rachel Corrie, crushed to death trying to protect the home of a Palestinian family by an IDF driven bulldozer. Tristan Anderson is another American victim of Israeli contempt for the lives of others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie
"5 dancing Israelis", mossad agents, were cheering & dancing while filming as the WTC collapsed on 9-11. After arrest they were allowed to escape to Israel without the FBI finding out the whole story of their actions or the meaning of all the evidence that was allowed to vanish with them; many believe they had at least prior knowledge of that day. Another US whitewash of an Israeli false-flag op designed to "get us into their fight". Michael Chertoff, an ardent Israeli supporter was instrumental in their release.
Israel is not a friend to the US & their actions are more those of an enemy & arrogant abuser than "friend".
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/fiveisraelis.html?q=fiveisraelis.html
http://wirednewyork.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-6987.html
They are not the victims they like all Americans to think they are. They are fully capable of attacking it's neighbors and they have a strong, wealthy, lobby, to support their cause. Our politicians have to stop pandering to the Israeli's, and perhaps look for a better cause within our country.
What does the US get in return? During the cold war the US was facing Communist hegemony on three fronts, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and had to invest vast sums and fight wars to counter the Soviets on two of those fronts, but no American soldier was lost in the ME (other then through acts of Arab terrorism). It was Israel that paid the price for keeping the Soviets out, the Six Day war, the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War were all proxy wars.
Today US military aid to Israel is earmarked for spending IN THE US, supporting US industries and creating jobs for Americans and Israel’s foreign currency reserves are invested in US government bonds, in other words, at this time Israelis are financing America’s debts. Americans don't support Israel because of the strength of any lobby; rather because both countries have shared values. Israel has earned American support the hard way and is in fact America's best friend. People who still speak about US economic pressure on Israel are completely disconnected from reality.
IMO Congress wouldn't dare.
Inaccurate and unsourced.
Let's take a look at one so called fact: "the U.S. airlift -- bigger than the Berlin airlift of 1948-49 "
The Berlin airlift totaled 2.3 million tons from over 250,000 aircraft sorties into Berlin
http://www.spiritoffreedom.org/airlift.html
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1758.html
While the resupply of Israel at the end of the 73 war was:
"American resupply included 815 total sorties bringing Israel 56 combat aircraft and 27,900 tons of munitions and supplies. "
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_ykwar_course.php
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/yom_kippur.htm
It took me all of 5 minutes to do the research, so I have to wonder why the author used such an exaggeration, and how much more of the article is similarly suspect in regard to the alleged facts presented.
As much as Hufpo bloggers want to blame Israeli "settlements" for the lack of peace, it just isn't so.
There was not a single "settlement" when the arab world declared its illegal war of aggression on the sovereign state of Israel.
Had they NOT declared that illegal war, there would be NO settlements.
The arabs nations still to this day with the exceptions of Jordan and Egypt, refuse to acknowledge or abide by UN 181 and recognize the existence of Israel. The palestinians still refuse to alter their "charter" which calls for the extermination of Israel and all its people.
Israelis listen to palestinian state media call for the killing of Jews en masse. Rockets from Gaza still come down on Israeli schoolchildren, despite the complete withdrawal from Gaza.
It isn't Israeli intransigence, it's Islamic imperialism that is the root of the problem.
Israel accepted the two state solution in 1948, and ever since, it has been the arabs that have refused to abide by that UN resolution.
And regarding your point about he Arab nations today - since 2002 they have ALL endorsed the Arab Peace Initiative which guarantees recognition of Israel and peaceful normalized relations with every Arab country provided the Israelis agree to a just two-state solution with the Palestinians. The proposal has been acknowledged as a huge breakthrough by everyone from Obama (who said the Israelis would be fools not to accept it), through to Ban Ki-moon and the heads of virtually every European state. However Israel has shown zero interest since it would require them to give up their precious settlements and their dream of a "greater Israel" built on even more of the Palestinian's lands.
All based on arab promises to take effect ONLY after Israel complies with all their demands. ( Which included Israel's forced acceptance of any arab who claimed to be a "refugee" as well as the Isralis complete withdrawal for all of Jerusalem)
In the mean time, they run state media showing Jews drinking children's blood and their clerics call for genocide.
The arabs said a fat "NO" to Obama who asked for some small confidence building measures.
Exactly what would the penalties be for the arabs if they reneged?
And, the arabs have been in a state of war with Israel since 1948. The 1967 "war" was a result of Egypt violating the terms of the 1956 ceasefire.