Pulitzer Prize Winner: A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - FROM ISRAEL

ritehook · 07-01-08, 12:45 PM

[This was posted on the WWW last July 4 by Mr Hedges. It deserves a reprieve. I'll have to go back for the second page, as i never learned (!!) how to copy two separate pages!]

A Declaration of Independence From Israel

Posted on Jul 2, 2007

AP Photo/Hatem Moussa
Armed Palestinian women burn Israeli and U.S. flags during a protest against Israel’s operations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

By Chris Hedges

Israel, without the United States, would probably not exist. The country came perilously close to extinction during the October 1973 war when Egypt, trained and backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the Suez and the Syrians poured in over the Golan Heights. Huge American military transport planes came to the rescue. They began landing every half-hour to refit the battered Israeli army, which had lost most of its heavy armor. By the time the war was over, the United States had given Israel $2.2 billion in emergency military aid.

The intervention, which enraged the Arab world, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that for a time wreaked havoc on Western economies. This was perhaps the most dramatic example of the sustained life-support system the United States has provided to the Jewish state.

Israel was born at midnight May 14, 1948. The U.S. recognized the new state 11 minutes later. The two countries have been locked in a deadly embrace ever since.

Washington, at the beginning of the relationship, was able to be a moderating influence. An incensed President Eisenhower demanded and got Israel’s withdrawal after the Israelis occupied Gaza in 1956. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes bombed the USS Liberty. The ship, flying the U.S. flag and stationed 15 miles off the Israeli coast, was intercepting tactical and strategic communications from both sides. The Israeli strikes killed 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 171. The deliberate attack froze, for a while, Washington’s enthusiasm for Israel. But ruptures like this one proved to be only bumps, soon smoothed out by an increasingly sophisticated and well-financed Israel lobby that set out to merge Israeli and American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Israel has reaped tremendous rewards from this alliance. It has been given more than $140 billion in U.S. direct economic and military assistance. It receives about $3 billion in direct assistance annually, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. foreign aid budget. Although most American foreign aid packages stipulate that related military purchases have to be made in the United States, Israel is allowed to use about 25 percent of the money to subsidize its own growing and profitable defense industry. It is exempt, unlike other nations, from accounting for how it spends the aid money. And funds are routinely siphoned off to build new Jewish settlements, bolster the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories and construct the security barrier, which costs an estimated $1 million a mile.

The barrier weaves its way through the West Bank, creating isolated pockets of impoverished Palestinians in ringed ghettos. By the time the barrier is finished it will probably in effect seize up to 40 percent of Palestinian land. This is the largest land grab by Israel since the 1967 war. And although the United States officially opposes settlement expansion and the barrier, it also funds them.

The U.S. has provided Israel with nearly $3 billion to develop weapons systems and given Israel access to some of the most sophisticated items in its own military arsenal, including Blackhawk attack helicopters and F-16 fighter jets. The United States also gives Israel access to intelligence it denies to its NATO allies. And when Israel refused to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the United States stood by without a word of protest as the Israelis built the region’s first nuclear weapons program.

U.S. foreign policy, especially under the current Bush administration, has become little more than an extension of Israeli foreign policy. The United States since 1982 has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members. It refuses to enforce the Security Council resolutions it claims to support. These resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.

There is now volcanic anger and revulsion by Arabs at this blatant favoritism. Few in the Middle East see any distinction between Israeli and American policies, nor should they. And when the Islamic radicals speak of U.S. support of Israel as a prime reason for their hatred of the United States, we should listen. The consequences of this one-sided relationship are being played out in the disastrous war in Iraq, growing tension with Iran, and the humanitarian and political crisis in Gaza. It is being played out in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is gearing up for another war with Israel, one most Middle East analysts say is inevitable. The U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is unraveling. And it is doing so because of this special relationship. The eruption of a regional conflict would usher in a nightmare of catastrophic proportions.

There were many in the American foreign policy establishment and State Department who saw this situation coming. The decision to throw our lot in with Israel in the Middle East was not initially a popular one with an array of foreign policy experts, including President Harry Truman’s secretary of state, Gen. George Marshall. They warned there would be a backlash. They knew the cost the United States would pay in the oil-rich region for this decision, which they feared would be one of the greatest strategic blunders of the postwar era. And they were right. The decision has jeopardized American and Israeli security and created the kindling for a regional conflagration.

The alliance, which makes no sense in geopolitical terms, does makes sense when seen through the lens of domestic politics. The Israel lobby has become a potent force in the American political system. No major candidate, Democrat or Republican, dares to challenge it. The lobby successfully purged the State Department of Arab experts who challenged the notion that Israeli and American interests were identical. Backers of Israel have doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to support U.S. political candidates deemed favorable to Israel. They have brutally punished those who strayed, including the first President Bush, who they said was not vigorous enough in his defense of Israeli interests. This was a lesson the next Bush White House did not forget. George W. Bush did not want to be a one-term president like his father.

Israel advocated removing Saddam Hussein from power and currently advocates striking Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Direct Israeli involvement in American military operations in the Middle East is impossible. It would reignite a war between Arab states and Israel. The United States, which during the Cold War avoided direct military involvement in the region, now does the direct bidding of Israel while Israel watches from the sidelines. During the 1991 Gulf War, Israel was a spectator, just as it is in the war with Iraq.

President Bush, facing dwindling support for the war in Iraq, publicly holds Israel up as a model for what he would like Iraq to become. Imagine how this idea plays out on the Arab street, which views Israel as the Algerians viewed the French colonizers during the war of liberation.

“In Israel,” Bush said recently, “terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it’s not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that’s a good indicator of success that we’re looking for in Iraq.”

Americans are increasingly isolated and reviled in the world. They remain blissfully ignorant of their own culpability for this isolation. U.S. “spin” paints the rest of the world as unreasonable, but Israel, Americans are assured, will always be on our side.

Israel is reaping economic as well as political rewards from its lock-down apartheid state. In the “gated community” market it has begun to sell systems and techniques that allow the nation to cope with terrorism. Israel, in 2006, exported $3.4 billion in defense products—well over a billion dollars more than it received in American military aid. Israel has grown into the fourth largest arms dealer in the world. Most of this growth has come in the so-called homeland security sector.

ritehook · 07-01-08, 12:51 PM

[Last page of Hedges' blockbuster on A Declaration of Independence from Israel]

“The key products and services,” as Naomi Klein wrote in The Nation, “are hi-tech fences, unmanned drones, biometric IDs, video and audio surveillance gear, air passenger profiling and prisoner interrogation systems—precisely the tools and technologies Israel has used to lock in the occupied territories. And that is why the chaos in Gaza and the rest of the region doesn’t threaten the bottom line in Tel Aviv, and may actually boost it. Israel has learned to turn endless war into a brand asset, pitching its uprooting, occupation and containment of the Palestinian people as a half-century head start in the ‘global war on terror.’ ”

The United States, at least officially, does not support the occupation and calls for a viable Palestinian state. It is a global player, with interests that stretch well beyond the boundaries of the Middle East, and the equation that Israel’s enemies are our enemies is not that simple.

“Terrorism is not a single adversary,” John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote in The London Review of Books, “but a tactic employed by a wide array of political groups. The terrorist organizations that threaten Israel do not threaten the United States, except when it intervenes against them (as in Lebanon in 1982). Moreover, Palestinian terrorism is not random violence directed against Israel or ‘the West’; it is largely a response to Israel’s prolonged campaign to colonize the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More important, saying that Israel and the US are united by a shared terrorist threat has the causal relationship backwards: the US has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely allied with Israel, not the other way around.”

Middle Eastern policy is shaped in the United States by those with very close ties to the Israel lobby. Those who attempt to counter the virulent Israeli position, such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, are ruthlessly slapped down. This alliance was true also during the Clinton administration, with its array of Israel-first Middle East experts, including special Middle East coordinator Dennis Ross and Martin Indyk, the former deputy director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, one of the most powerful Israel lobbying groups in Washington. But at least people like Indyk and Ross are sane, willing to consider a Palestinian state, however unviable, as long as it is palatable to Israel. The Bush administration turned to the far-right wing of the Israel lobby, those who have not a shred of compassion for the Palestinians or a word of criticism for Israel. These new Middle East experts include Elliott Abrams, John Bolton, Douglas Feith, the disgraced I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and David Wurmser.

Washington was once willing to stay Israel’s hand. It intervened to thwart some of its most extreme violations of human rights. This administration, however, has signed on for every disastrous Israeli blunder, from building the security barrier in the West Bank, to sealing off Gaza and triggering a humanitarian crisis, to the ruinous invasion and saturation bombing of Lebanon.

The few tepid attempts by the Bush White House to criticize Israeli actions have all ended in hasty and humiliating retreats in the face of Israeli pressure. When the Israel Defense Forces in April 2002 reoccupied the West Bank, President Bush called on then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to “halt the incursions and begin withdrawal.” It never happened. After a week of heavy pressure from the Israel lobby and Israel’s allies in Congress, meaning just about everyone in Congress, the president gave up, calling Sharon “a man of peace.” It was a humiliating moment for the United States, a clear sign of who pulled the strings.

There were several reasons for the war in Iraq. The desire for American control of oil, the belief that Washington could build puppet states in the region, and a real, if misplaced, fear of Saddam Hussein played a part in the current disaster. But it was also strongly shaped by the notion that what is good for Israel is good for the United States. Israel wanted Iraq neutralized. Israeli intelligence, in the lead-up to the war, gave faulty information to the U.S. about Iraq’s alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. And when Baghdad was taken in April 2003, the Israeli government immediately began to push for an attack on Syria. The lust for this attack has waned, in no small part because the Americans don’t have enough troops to hang on in Iraq, much less launch a new occupation.

Israel is currently lobbying the United States to launch aerial strikes on Iran, despite the debacle in Lebanon. Israel’s iron determination to forcibly prevent a nuclear Iran makes it probable that before the end of the Bush administration an attack on Iran will take place. The efforts to halt nuclear development through diplomatic means have failed. It does not matter that Iran poses no threat to the United States. It does not matter that it does not even pose a threat to Israel, which has several hundred nuclear weapons in its arsenal. It matters only that Israel demands total military domination of the Middle East.

The alliance between Israel and the United States has culminated after 50 years in direct U.S. military involvement in the Middle East. This involvement, which is not furthering American interests, is unleashing a geopolitical nightmare. American soldiers and Marines are dying in droves in a useless war. The impotence of the United States in the face of Israeli pressure is complete. The White House and the Congress have become, for perhaps the first time, a direct extension of Israeli interests. There is no longer any debate within the United States. This is evidenced by the obsequious nods to Israel by all the current presidential candidates with the exception of Dennis Kucinich. The political cost for those who challenge Israel is too high.

This means there will be no peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It means the incidents of Islamic terrorism against the U.S. and Israel will grow. It means that American power and prestige are on a steep, irreversible decline. And I fear it also means the ultimate end of the Jewish experiment in the Middle East.

The weakening of the United States, economically and militarily, is giving rise to new centers of power. The U.S. economy, mismanaged and drained by the Iraq war, is increasingly dependent on Chinese trade imports and on Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. China holds dollar reserves worth $825 billion. If Beijing decides to abandon the U.S. bond market, even in part, it would cause a free fall by the dollar. It would lead to the collapse of the $7-trillion U.S. real estate market. There would be a wave of U.S. bank failures and huge unemployment. The growing dependence on China has been accompanied by aggressive work by the Chinese to build alliances with many of the world’s major exporters of oil, such as Iran, Nigeria, Sudan and Venezuela. The Chinese are preparing for the looming worldwide clash over dwindling resources.

The future is ominous. Not only do Israel’s foreign policy objectives not coincide with American interests, they actively hurt them. The growing belligerence in the Middle East, the calls for an attack against Iran, the collapse of the imperial project in Iraq have all given an opening, where there was none before, to America’s rivals. It is not in Israel’s interests to ignite a regional conflict. It is not in ours. But those who have their hands on the wheel seem determined, in the name of freedom and democracy, to keep the American ship of state headed at breakneck speed into the cliffs before us.

ritehook · 07-04-08, 01:18 PM

Burrrrrrrrrppp!

Becasue it's The Fourth, and the piece deserves to be perused by one more pair of eyes, one more brain, or even half a brain.

And in memory of the great-tasting but disgustingly made hot dogs I consumed in my life.

Once you get past 40, and start "watching" your health, you give up foul fake food like franks. Because, in part, you heard somewhere how they're made and what the ingredients are.
u c
Ya don't eat 'em anymore. Except maybe one or two on The Fourth.

Unless you're under 30. Then you can eat anything. The fouler the better.

This Fourth, the under-30s can eat all the dogs they want. All the crappy adulterated American beer they want.

With the dogs, first roll them in dirt to give 'em seasoning.

Then take a pee on them, to add a touch of the sour - better than sourkraut.

Then kick 'em around the yard, and try to find a yak to take a sh1t on 'em, just for full flavoring and to bring out the best of the various intestines, beef penises, vulvas and whatever else makes up that tasty bit of meat.

Then --- down the ol' hatch. And watch the fireworks

ShamsWoof10 · 07-04-08, 01:58 PM

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO EVERYONE.......... INCLUDING BONES!!!

I would have to disagree with what this guy has to say in the sense that the U.S. is NOT Isreal's slave as I once thought and many still do...

I am amoung those that believe that we are moving towards a global state meaning that the world will be like the U.S. Ohio will be Canada, Indiana will be Mexico, Texas will be China and so on.... The countries of the world will be as the states are in the U.S.... There are state laws but they are all under one rule of the Federal Government or the U.N. in this case.... The CAPITAL is Wash. D.C. and there must be a capital for this global state... Well what is it..?

One of WWII's purposes was to establish Isreal and prepare it (Jeruselem) as the capital of this coming global state... Well some Arabs are in the way and this place needs to be prepped so we need slaves to get these damn arabs out of the way... The "Jews" were perfect canadates and the U.S. has been the PRIMARY DRIVING FORCE in the 20th century to establishing this global state....

IN SHORT WHAT I AM SAYING IS THE U.S. IS NOT ISREAL'S B*TCH.... THEY AND ISREAL ARE THE ELITES B*TCH AND THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CLAIMING INDEPENDENCE FROM THE ELITE!!!!

ritehook · 07-17-08, 12:40 PM

What you say is actually echoed by Israeli "ultra-nationalists."

They believe the US (or the US-based global corporations) are in the forefront of a "New World Order."

They see the destruction of the American border in our southwest as parrellel to the globalist wish to tear down Isreal's borders.

They belive there leaders have sold them out to the NWO --- much as American "nationalists" have re the US.

There are some things they can point to validate their complaint. For one, the two Jewish professors who wrote "The Israeli Lobby" are both paladins of the Council on Foreign Relations, the best-known of the globalist think tanks.

The theory has some traction, but I think it is too oversstated, and not put in context. The evidence is quite clear that US pols are very fearful of The Lobby, and because of that act against the best interests of the US.

In that region they also will sometimes act against the best interests of global hegemons, but choices always hve to be made.

Count on it that they do not, ever, act in the best interests of the core American people. That beleagured group, which still thinks it rules the roost, is heading for the chopping block.

ritehook · 07-17-08, 12:48 PM

Here's an anti-NWO argument from the site maintained by a fervent Israeli nationalist, a Prof Narrett:

http://israelendtimes.com/blog/2007/07/11/the-west%e2%80%99s-ruling-cadres-are-not-stupid

israelendtimes.com is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, israelendtimes.com has it all. We hope you find what you are searching for!

Narrett believes that Israel is being sold out by its leaders, who according to him are acting in the serivice of the globalists.

Sound familiar?

Actually, I see it as an internal war, with globalist Jews (like George Soros) conflicting with nationalist Jews, like the good professor here.

Regardless, tho, of what he states, there is far more genuine nationalist sentiment in Israel than we've seen in America for almost a hunded years.

donjuan · 07-17-08, 12:50 PM

One of WWII's purposes was to establish Isreal [sic]

Where do you people come from?

ritehook · 07-17-08, 12:53 PM

I think I screwed up the link re the article from the Israeli nationalist on the NWO.

This should be it.

http://israelendtimes.com/blog/2007/07/11/the-west%e2%80%99s-ruling-cadres-are-not-stupid.htm

israelendtimes.com is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, israelendtimes.com has it all. We hope you find what you are searching for!

ritehook · 07-17-08, 01:07 PM

Originally posted by donjuan

Where do you people come from?

Sham said it, I didn't.

And don't agree.

Britain, the US, Germany, Russia, Japan had much more important fish to fry than to establish Israel.

And since the NWO is reputed to be strongly against any kind of nationalism, in fact any kind of particularism save the prestige conferred by an obsscene amount of megabucks, why would they be interested in establishing a state where there is always a raging, god-insired nationaism?

Some elements of the anti-NWO folk spin too many webs for my simple tastes.

Tho there is some documentary evidence tht when England and Germany stalemated on the Western Front in WWI, around 1916, the Brit govt got its Zionists to work with US Zionists to enter the war on Britian's side, in exchange for GB issuing the Balfour Declaration (establishing a "National Home" for Jews, in Brit-ruled Palestine).

Colonel House was a close confidant of President Wilson (the worst one before Bush). He worked with Supreme Ct justice Brandeis to sway the weak mind of Woodrow.

And the president who campaigned in '16 on the slogan "He kept us out of war" then conspired to get the US into the war. Done by sending the ammo-laden ship Lusitania into the war zone, heading to England,when it was sunk by the German navy.

Tho that was not the only reason the US entered WWI