It is a well-known axiom in Washington politics that you never go against the Israeli lobby.
Whether you agree with the politics of the State of Israel or its politicians, it is the political thing to just go along and bear it.
Israel has occupied parts of Palestine for the past 50 years and subjected those Arab inhabitants who were not driven out when the State of Israel was carved out by the superpowers in 1948 and its governments have since subjected them to second-class citizenship inside their own native land.
Still, when politicians like current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu come to this county, they make sure to remind us that it is the only democracy in the Middle East and is therefore entitled to U.S. protection and generous economic support.
When the United Nations (actually Great Britain, the United States and Russia), decided to establish the Jewish homeland following the persecution of that people in Europe, it did so in the hope that they would get along with their Arab neighbors.But things had changed in the 2,000 or so years that Jesus walked the earth, and many more thousands since Abraham sowed his seed in that land. Things had changed. The refugees were thrown in the middle of an Arab demographic that populated their former kingdom.
It has been war ever since.
After years of trying to broker a peace between the Jews and their Arab neighbors, the world thought a basis for peace had been established when both sides accepted the two-state solution as the foundation for peace. Two states – Israel and the state of the Palestinians – would live peacefully side by side.
That was the solution agreed upon in 1974, and then as late as 2014 when the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel and the United States agreed on a two-state solution as the outline for negotiations.
Or so everyone thought. For decades, American blood and treasure have been spent on the assumption that we had a deal. But the recent behavior by Israeli Prime Minister indicates that we have been played for fools. There will not be a two-state solution in the Middle East while he is Prime Minster, Netanyahu told his followers prior to the election which gave him another six-year term.
And he race-baited the far right wing of Israeli politics urging them to vote because "the Arabs are coming out in droves."
Now we have reports that Israel has been spying on the the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States. President Barack Obama refused to confirm the reports in today's press conference with the president of Afghanistan.
So what happened to the time-worn shibboleth of the "special relationship" we had with the Jews?
It's not like we've been misers with that state.
On April 2014, Jeremy M. Sharp, a Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs with The Congressional Research Service, wrote that Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.
As of then, the United States has provided Israel $121 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance.
In addition, U.S. assistance earmarked for Israel is generally delivered in the first 30 days of the fiscal year, while most other recipients normally receive aid in installments, and Israel (as is also the case with Egypt) is permitted to use cash flow financing for its U.S. arms purchases.
In addition to receiving U.S. State Department-administered foreign assistance, Israel also receives funds from annual defense appropriations bills for rocket and missile defense programs. Israel pursues some of those programs jointly with the United States.
In 2007, the Bush Administration and the Israeli government agreed to a 10-year, $30 billion military aid package for the period from FY2009 to FY2018.
During his March 2013 visit to Israel, President Obama pledged that the United States would continue to provide Israel with multi-year commitments of military aid subject to the approval of Congress.
The FY2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 113-76) provides the President’s full $3.1billion request in FMF for Israel.
In addition, it provides another $504 million in funding for research, development, and production of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system ($235 million) and of the joint U.S.-Israel missile defense systems David’s Sling ($149.7 million), the Arrow improvement program (or Arrow II, $44.3 million), and Arrow III ($74.7 million).
For FY2015, the Obama Administration requested (and got) $3.1 billion in FMF to Israel and $10 million in Migration and Refugee Assistance. The Missile Defense Agency’s FY2015 request for joint U.S.- Israeli programs is $96.8 million. The Administration also is requesting $175.9 million for Iron Dome.
For full report, see fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf
So when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu comes to address the U.S. Congress to speak out against this country's negotiations on nuclear capabilities with Iran at the invitation of the Republicans, when House Republicans interfere with negotiations by writing to the rulers of Iran saying it will be up to them to approve a deal even though it's not required, and when House Speaker John Boehner accepts the invitation to address the Kenesset to speak out against the U.S. negotiations being carried out by the administration, it's time to "reassess" our relationship with that country.
If they don't respect our leaders or our institutions, if they thumb their noses at our political system, if they say they were lying to us when they said they accepted the two-state solution to end the conflict in the Middle East to keep the money from the U.S. taxpayer flowing into their coffers, and still continue to choke the Palestinian culture and grab their land by approving new settlements, who needs them?
The Muslim atomic bomb is nothing to fear. Pakistan has had one for years and has never used it
against its Hindu neighbor India.
In 1965, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto announced: “ If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass and leaves for a thousand years, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. The Christians have the bomb, the Jews have the bomb and now the Hindus have the bomb. Why not the Muslims too have the bomb?"
At the moment, only Israel has an atomic bomb in the Middle East.Why should they be the only ones? It seems like possessing a nuclear device makes a people take a sober look at the consequences of its use. After all, the only country to have ever used a nuclear bomb against a civilian population has been the United States.
Isn't that the philosophy used by Republicans to justify the passage of bills approving the carrying of concealed weapons; that when he thinks the other guy may have one, criminals will think twice about using theirs?
Thumbing their nose at their benefactor and biting the hand that feeds you is not the politics of a friend. Neither is lying to us and rubbing our president's nose in the dirt.
12 comments:
If the U.S. Doesn't follow Israel 's policy then the devil is going to catch you.
Is this news? Everyone is playing the USA for a fool! Look at Mexico? They get millions to billions from us to line corrupted officials pockets and for what? So, they don't have to abide by a water treaty and use what they want? That's what happens when you have lame elected officials like Lucio, Hinojosa, Congress and President!
The anti-Israel and anti-antisemitism of this piece is very noticeable. I share neither of those sentiments.
Don't you know that according to the Republican Party "the State of Israel" is the unofficial 51st state of the "United States of America".
They receive $4 BILLION just in "military aid" EVERY FREAKING YEAR. When did they start paying taxes in the the USA.
The Christian Coalition support the Israelis because they believe that when the world ends, the Jews will come to their senses and convert to Christianity.
I am not anti-Israel or anti-antisemitic; I am "pro USA" only.
STOP ALL FOREIGN AID
Here is Netanyahu bragging how he "CONTROLS AMERICA".
America is becoming like Scotland, wealthy men an women are buying thousands of hectares to conserve and use later for projects. Israelis do the same. The 1% elite of the 28 states of NATO are doing the same. BRICS does the same. Both empires destroy lives in any way they can. For example in the valley the top politics use DHS to cover up their footprints. With that said innocent lives are killed, and prosecuted by all governments. In reality democracy is as cruel as a dictatorship the only difference is that in a democractic society the political circles cover each other up, and it becomes difficult to find the culprit because they all work together to reach a goal even if they ruin innocent lives. Another example of American policy is that it targets children indiscriminately just like Israel not by war but by numbers.
Oh no! We Americans are screwed.
Pat Robertson has spoken.
I am an Israelite living in Brownsville. If I find a penny on the side walk, I'll pick it up .
Unfortunately, Montoya has written on a topic with which he has no first-hand experience.
Take it from me, one who has lived for six years in the Middle East, there is only one regime that even comes close to being a reliable ally in the region, and that is Israel.
For Montoya's information, there has never been a Palestinian state. Before there was an Israeli state, the Ottoman Empire controlled the area; however, throughout the entire scope of history, there have been three Jewish entities which would legitimately qualify as nations.
Arabs and Muslims are so distrustful of one another that perhaps the only thing they can agree on is the persecution of non-Muslim religious minorities. By contrast, Israel is a functioning democracy, providing a participatory society for its citizens, even including those citizens who are Muslims and Arabs in the country's political process. Montoya probably doesn't even know that here is an Arab and Muslim presence in the Israeli Knesset (parliament).
In a time of growing anti-Semitism in the Western world - and in the U.S. much of it is brought on by Muslim students on university campuses - it is regrettable that this blog has mistakenly lent its support to sentiment that is not only anti-Semitic but also is clearly not in the best interests of the USA.
Unfortunately, Montoya has written on a topic with which he has no first-hand experience.
Take it from me, one who has lived for six years in the Middle East, there is only one regime that even comes close to being a reliable ally in the region, and that is Israel.
For Montoya's information, there has never been a Palestinian state. Before there was an Israeli state, the Ottoman Empire controlled the area; however, throughout the entire scope of history, there have been three Jewish entities which would legitimately qualify as nations.
Arabs and Muslims are so distrustful of one another that perhaps the only thing they can agree on is the persecution of non-Muslim religious minorities. By contrast, Israel is a functioning democracy, providing a participatory society for its citizens, even including those citizens who are Muslims and Arabs in the country's political process. Montoya probably doesn't even know that here is an Arab and Muslim presence in the Israeli Knesset (parliament).
In a time of growing anti-Semitism in the Western world - and in the U.S. much of it is brought on by Muslim students on university campuses - it is regrettable that this blog has mistakenly lent its support to sentiment that is not only anti-Semitic but also is clearly not in the best interests of the USA.
"...there is only one regime that even comes close to being a reliable ally in the region, and that is Israel."
Seriously? Why don't you read this Newsweek article, Israel Won't Stop Spying on the U.S.
Does the name Jonathan Pollard ring a bell?
This is not about supporting anti-Semitism; it is about "being stabbed in the back" by those who receive "BILLIONS of US TAXPAYER DOLLARS". The only reason Netanyahu won the election was because of his desperate last-minute use of the race card implying the ARABS were voting en masse by the busload.
Bibi is a very intelligent person when he sleeps.
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