The Sunday Talks

Usually the Sunday TV talk shows dwell on tangential issues but on 4/26/09 they cut to the core. Jordan's King Abdullah II told David Gregory on NBC's Meet the Press that by connecting the dots we can see that all our major foreign policy problems lead back to the Israeli occupations. Until this core issue is solved there will always be instability in the region. Gregory exclaimed in surprise that most Americans believe the core issue is terrorism and al Qaeda. (Of course that's what most Americans believe since that's what the Israel Lobby-dominated media feed them.)

Abdullah pointed out that al Qaeda extremists are able to recruit and expand their numbers primarily because of the Israeli occupation and plight of the Palestinians. (Of course there will always be a few power-hungry radicals, but their power depends on their ability to recruit adherents. Timothy McVeigh, for instance, would have been much harder to isolate and capture if he had been able to recruit an army of followers. We did not need to launch an all-out military offensive to bring him to justice.)

Asked about Iran, Abdullah again said "connect the dots." It all leads to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and occupation of Jerusalem. He noted that 57 nations (one-third of the UN) do not recognize Israel for this reason. If this core issue were resolved, Iran would no longer be a problem. He of course opposes an Israeli attack on Iran.

Meanwhile on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Iranian President Ahmadinejad again said that whatever the Palestinians decide in the way of a peace agreement with Israel "is fine with us." Iran would accept a two-state solution that was supported by the Palestinian people. (So all the scare tactics the Israel Lobby uses to push us to war with Iran are lies. Iran and the rest of the 57 nations which do not recognize Israel would do so if Israel would abide by UN Security Council resolutions and end the illegal occupations. The Israel Lobby prefers war with 57 nations.)

War Crimes

A February 2008 UN report concluded that Palestinian terrorism is the inevitable result of Israeli occupation, colonialism and apartheid conditions. This is why, as pointed out by professor George Bisharat (New York Times 4/4/09), many countries do not regard violence against foreign military occupation as terrorism and thus consider Hamas a resistance group.

Although Israelis pulled out of Gaza in 2005, Gaza is still de facto occupied since all land, air, and sea access is blocked, and the Israeli military murders Gazans at will ("targeted assassinations.") Furthermore, Israel has perpetuated a starvation blockade rendering Gaza "a big concentration camp," as accurately described by Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace. (New York Times 1/9/2008) This amounts to collective punishment, a war crime expressively forbidden by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Israel's recent mass slaughter of helpless Gaza inmates is another war crime. With 1.5 million people crammed into a tiny area, Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. This makes it easy for Israel to falsely claim that militants "hide" amongst the population. Gaza's high density did not stop the Israeli military from using heavy tank and artillery fire, mortars, rockets, etc., to pulverize heavily populated areas. Civilians were buried alive under rubble as entire neighborhoods were flattened. In addition innocent women and children were shot dead, and ambulances were fired on or forced to turn back as the wounded bled to death. The Israelis left behind their graffiti: "Death to Arabs." (Wall Street Journal 1/28/09). The press was of course denied access so that the Israelis could hide their war crimes.

When the Israelis destroyed a UN compound filled with tons of food and medicine, they said Hamas militants were firing from that compound. Yet the UN officers deny this and state that Israeli liaison offers who had been in constant contact with them had never made such a claim. Indeed, an Israeli army representative privately admitted that the Hamas militants were several hundred yards away from the UN compound. (New York Times 1/16/09). The Israelis also used white phosphorus which is illegal to use in populated areas since it causes horrific deep burns and is very hard to extinguish. Another war crime.

The UN special rapporteur Richard Falk reported that the Israelis killed 1434 Palestinians in Gaza during the recent offensive, of which 960 were civilians and 121 children. (Bisharat, New York Times 4/4/09) On the other hand, the Israeli government stated that during this same period 9 Israeli soldiers were killed, of which four were killed by "friendly" fire from Israeli troops. (The Boston Globe 3/20/09) Now Israel has elected a prime minister who thinks Israel did not kill enough people.

America: Stop Copying Israel

Because the powerful Israel Lobby dictates unconditional US support for Israel, we have long been targeted by terrorists. After 9/11, Israel Lobby neocons managed to bring about our adoption of Israeli policies such as preemptive wars and invasions, occupations, targeted assassinations, aerial bombings and missile attacks with deaths of civilians, detention of prisoners without habeas corpus, and torture.

Israel has a long history of torture. Amnesty International stated in November 1998 that "there is general acceptance by the international community that Israel has legalised the use of torture." (See Robert Fisk: The Great War for Civilisation) Israel apologist Alan Dershowitz, who of course says he is opposed to torture, nevertheless argues for legalizing it. (See his op-ed "Democrats and Waterboarding" The Wall Street Journal 11/7/07.)

The abuse, torture, and deaths at Abu Ghraib Prison resulted in increased anti-American hatred world-wide. By morphing into Israel we have swelled the ranks of terrorists. Let's hope President Obama reverses this process and restores America values. So far he has made it clear: no torture.

Reneging

Nations' reneging on deals is not a good basis for world peace. For instance, North Korea was supposed to receive heavy fuel oil in exchange for disabling its nuclear reactor, as discussed in an editorial in The Boston Globe 3/16/09. This fuel has not been delivered. Libya is also complaining that it has not received the weapons and civilian nuclear cooperation it was promised in return for ending its nuclear weapons program (editorial The New York Times (3/15/09).

Meanwhile in Iraq, there has been recent fighting between members of the Sunni Awakening groups and Iraqi/US troops. These Awakening groups are angry because the Iraqi government had promised to enlist one fifth of the 94,000 Awakening members into the Iraqi police, security forces, etc, but only 5,000 have been hired (The New York Times 3/29/09).

Indeed, the recent Gaza slaughter followed the same pattern. President Jimmy Carter explained the origins of the situation in a recent interview on PBS with Charlie Rose. From July 2007 until June 2008, one Israeli had been killed by a Hamas rocket, whereas an average of 49 Palestinians per month were being killed by the Israeli military. On June 19, a ceasefire was started under the conditions that by day 13 Israel would have lifted the starvation blockade on Gaza (food, fuel, medicines, water) by 30% and then up to 100%. Rockets were then stopped 99% by Hamas but Israel only increased food to 20% and then on November 4 the Israeli military attacked Gaza killing six people. The ceasefire of course broke down.