Aletho News

Israel, the United States and International Lies​

By Robert Fantina | IIPRC | December 22, 2014

Israel and the United States are forever talking about Israel’s ‘vulnerability’, proclaiming it as the U.S.’s ‘best friend’ in the Middle East, the only democracy there, and the one with the most moral army in the world. To paraphrase William Shakespeare, ‘Methinks they do protest too much’.

Let us look at these points in a little detail, to see how quickly they unravel.

• Thanks solely to the U.S., Israel has the fourth most powerful military organization in the world. With nothing in return but campaign contributions to so-called representatives, the U.S. gives $3 billion to Israel every year. One might think that U.S. cities, say, for example, Detroit, which earlier this year was struggling to find $1 billion to stay afloat, and which receives no money from the federal government, might be a better place to spend all that money. With that military organization, Israel periodically bombs its mortal enemy, Palestine, which has no army, navy or air force.

• It is probably true that Israel is the U.S.’s major ally in the Middle East, although prior to the bloody and violent establishment of the country, the U.S. had no real enemies there. And it can be argued that, if the U.S. were to even the playing field in the Middle East, reducing aid to Israel and increasing it (from nothing) to Palestine and other countries in the region, it might be looked upon a bit more favorably. The U.S. then might have more than one ally in the region. Additionally, if the U.S. were to stop protecting Israel from the international consequences of its abominable human rights abuses, the reputation of the U.S. might improve, not only in that part of the world, but around the globe.

• Elections do not a democracy make. Arabs living in Israel have fewer rights than Israelis, and this lack of equal rights is institutionalized. Africans living there are also not afforded the same rights as Israelis. A foundational precept of democracy is the equality of the people living in that country, each with the same power to enact laws and live by those laws. There is equality in the rights of all citizens, and in their privileges. This does not exist in Israel. For example, until a court ruled it illegal in September, Africans seeking asylum in Israel could be detained for months without charge. In October, Israelis demonstrated against this court decision, using flags that resemble those used by ISIS, with one demonstrator claiming that the court’s decision is ‘more dangerous to Israel than ISIS’. The protestors want no African non-Jews present in Israel. This demonstration took place in an African refugee neighborhood, where protesters took to the streets and damaged African-owned businesses.

Much of Israeli’s land is mandated by law to be owned and occupied only by Israelis; Arabs need not apply. There are separate schools for Arab and Israeli children, with the conditions and educational quality of the schools for Israelis being far superior.

• To say that Israel’s army has any morality at all is a joke, but, unfortunately, no one is laughing, due to the death and suffering that army causes and has caused for generations. Consider the following:

• Since 2000, while 133 Israeli children have died due to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, at least 2,060 Palestinian children have been killed. Catherine Cook, author of Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel’s Detention of Palestinian Children, said this about those children: “The majority of these [Palestinian] children were killed and injured while going about normal daily activities, such as going to school, playing, shopping, or simply being in their homes. Sixty-four percent of children killed during the first six months of 2003 died as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks, or from indiscriminate fire from Israeli soldiers.”

• During Israel’s brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip in July and August of this year, when over 500 children were killed, a video was widely circulated showing an event that was also witnessed by several journalists. During a lull in the fighting, four Palestinian children ventured out to play on a beach. Israeli soldiers shot each one to death.

• In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers routinely break into Palestinian homes at all hours of the day or night, ransack them and arrest without charge any males in the home. They routinely shoot and kill children and adults, often in reprisal for throwing stones at their tanks, and standby and do nothing as Israeli settlers harass and kill Palestinian adults and children.

Additionally, many U.S. cities, for some inexplicable reason, have received training from the Israeli military. This might explain why so many innocent, unarmed citizens die at the hands of U.S. police officers.

Today, Israel continues to violate the terms of the cease-fire agreement that ended its most recent brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Palestine has maintained its part of the bargain. Israeli terrorists, also known as IDF soldiers, continue to shoot Palestinian fishermen and sink their boats, in blatant violation of international law and the recently-signed peace agreement. Israel refuses to allow farmers in Gaza to transport their crops to the West Bank for sale, again, one of the things Israel agreed to allow as part of the cease fire.

According to international law, an occupied nation (Palestine) has the right to resist the occupying force (Israel). So any resistance efforts by Palestine are legal. The occupying force is required by international law to protect the citizens of the occupied nation. Israel kills innocent men, women and children indiscriminately. The occupied nation, according to international law, must not disrupt commerce, yet by its complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel has destroyed the Palestinian economy. International law states that education and normal pursuits must not be disrupted any more than is absolutely necessary to keep peace, yet due to the checkpoints established by Israel in the West Bank, the simple tasks of going to school, work or the local store take hours, if they are allowed at all.

The occupying force is also forbidden from moving its own citizens onto the occupied territory. Israel has moved over 500,000 settlers onto occupied land.

And ultimately, occupation is to be a short-term, temporary measure. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has continued for decades.

The brutality of the Israelis would not be possible without the complete and total financial support of the United States. That nation, which cares nothing for human rights, as demonstrated by the racism, poverty and other injustices that are so prevalent within its own borders, legislates as powerful lobbies demand, not for the good of the citizens. Israeli lobbies funnel substantial funds to most elected officials for their election and re-election campaigns, and not wanting to jeopardize that funding, these officials will countenance any degree of horrific violations of international law, and will be blind to blatant human rights abuses. The U.S. then uses its veto power in the United Nations to prevent any real progress towards peace and justice for Palestine.

Israel and the United States, along with a few other countries, are out of step with what the rest of the world sees and is increasingly addressing. The U.S. was one of the last nations to oppose apartheid in South Africa, and will be one of the last to oppose the apartheid Israeli regime. But with world opinion now clearly moving in Palestine’s direction, the U.S. will not be able to thwart the Palestinian right to self-determination and freedom forever. The world will move ahead without the U.S.​

December 23, 2014 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | Human rights, Palestine, United States, Zionism