Netanyahu Wants More Wars

In March, Israeli warplanes bombed some trucks in Sudan, and a Sudanese spokesman said that more than 100 people were killed in the process: "a genocide, committed by US forces." Asked why he thought it was committed by the US, the spokesman replied, "we don't differentiate between the U.S. and Israel. They are all one." (The New York Times 3/27/09) And therein lies our problem.

In its refusal to negotiate a fair peace with the Palestinians, Israel has made enemies world-wide and we bear the consequences, as on 9/11. The Obama administration hopes to change that. As The New York Times editorialized on 5/12/09, "We have seen how former President George W. Bush's delay in engaging seriously on Israeli/Palestinian peace efforts sabotaged United States interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran by giving Al Qaeda and other extremists a rallying point for anti-Americanism."

Unfortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to procrastinate forever on Palestinian statehood as he expands Israeli settlements and pushes for war with Iran, claiming that removing Iran will lead to Israeli/Palestinian peace. We've heard that one before. This is just what we were told regarding Iraq, i.e., that "the road to Jerusalem leads through Baghdad." As Yogi Berra said, this is deja vu all over again.

On ABC-TV's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"(5/10/09), National Security Advisor James Jones made the key point that Israel could blunt the Iranian threat by working toward a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian crisis. (The Wall Street Journal 5/12/09) Whereas the Obama administration calls for a two-state solution; whereas Pope Benedict XVI calls for a two-state solution (The New York Times 5/14/09); whereas the UN Security Council unanimously supports a two-state solution and backs the Arab Peace Plan which calls for Israel to end the occupation in return for Arab recognition (The Boston Globe 5/12/09); and whereas Iranian President Ahmadinejad has said that Iran would accept peace with Israel and a two-state solution if endorsed by the Palestinian people (ABC-TV's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" 5/10/09); nevertheless Netanyahu says no. Netanyahu wants more wars.

Netanyahu's Plan

Rather than bringing about genuine peace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to emphasize Palestinian "institution building." This would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

In September 2000, Palestinian President Yassir Arafat warned both Israeli Prime Minister Barak and the Clinton White House against allowing Ariel Sharon to campaign around the Islamic holy sites in Arab East Jerusalem since everyone knew this would trigger violence. Arafat's pleas were ignored though, and Sharon and 1000 Israeli police marched around Haram al-Sharif for half an hour thus triggering the second intifada. This was clearly a purposeful provocative act, and the resulting bloodshed was eventually followed by Israeli bombing of Palestinian police stations, Palestinian security annexes, Palestinian police check points, etc. As Robert Fisk questions in his book The Great War for Civilisation, how could Arafat be expected to make arrests if the Israelis destroyed all his police stations? So much for institution building.

Similarly in 2006, the Israelis targeted Lebanese civilian infrastructure, bombing airports, water and sewage treatment plants, ports, electrical facilities, roads, bridges, etc. (See Mearsheimer and Walt The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.) 16,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.

Likewise in Gaza, Israel blasted hospitals, schools, factories, sewage plants, police stations, the central prison, institutions such as the parliament and main ministries, not to mention thousands of homes. (See George Bisharat "Israel on Trial" The New York Times 4/4/09) Now to make matters worse, the Israeli blockade does not permit re-building materials, such as cement, to enter Gaza.

It's clear that Netanyahu has put forth this fake plan of institution building as a typical stalling device so that Israel can proceed with the hidden goal of ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile the Israelis continue to demolish Palestinian homes in Israeli-occupied Arab East Jerusalem, and Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank continue to expand.

The Jewish State

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is demanding that Israel be recognized as a Jewish State, but what does that mean? Does it mean a Jew-only state which would require accelerated ethnic cleansing of non-Jews? This would certainly please Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who campaigned with such anti-Arab demagoguery. Does it mean an apartheid state such as exists in the Israeli-occupied West Bank with its Jew-only cities connected by Jew-only roads? Does it mean a state in which only Jews have rights?

This is reminiscent of George Orwell's Animal Farm in which the animals' 7th Commandment "All Animals Are Equal" was later amended to "All Animals Are Equal But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others." At the book's end, the farm creatures gaze in the farmhouse windows, looking from pig to man and from man to pig, and they found it was impossible to say which was which. This is true in Israel where the pig-headed gluttonous avaricious rulers have stolen Palestinian land, resources, and rights.

It is interesting that those who so strongly push the priorities of the Jewish State are the ones who so strongly oppose all Islamic states. And yet before Israel's 1967 war of occupation, secular socialism was widespread in the Arab world. Political Islam gained in favor and power following, and as a reaction to, the illegal Zionist expansion.

The Israel Lobby opposes Islamic states by falsely claiming that Islam is an intrinsically violent religion. However, Philip Jenkins points out that "The Bible contains far more verses praising or urging bloodshed than does the Koran, and biblical violence is often far more extreme, and marked by more indiscriminate savagery." (The Boston Sunday Globe 3/8/09) This is of course the Old Testament.

For instance, Moses instructs his followers that when they reach Canaan they should annihilate those who live there: "thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canannites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee." Deuteronomy 20:16-17. So, as also carried out by Napoleon the pig, the 10 commandments were amended.
"Thou Shalt Not Kill" was changed to "Thou shalt Not Kill Except For Those Whose Land You Plan To Steal----Then Commit Genocide."

Religious Genocide

In 1917 British Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour declared that Britain supported the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine. At that time there were 56,000 Jews and 600,000 Arabs living in Palestine. (See Avi Shlaim's book The Iron Wall page 7). The Balfour Declaration emphasized, "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."

However Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion had other ideas. By 1947 Jews only owned 5.8% of the land in Palestine. Greedy for more, Ben-Gurion established an ethnic cleansing cabal, known as the Consultancy, which devised a "Plan Dalet" in March 1948 to systematically eliminate the Palestinian Arabs through terrorism, mass murder, and expulsion. (See Ilan Pappe's book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.) They were highly successful, killing thousands and creating 800,000 Arab refugees in the first six months alone.

The recent Israeli slaughter of thousands in Lebanon and Gaza is simply a continuation of this genocide. Indeed 80% of Gaza's 1.5 million residents are Palestinian refugees whose families were forced from their homes or fled due to Jewish terror in 1948. (See "Israel Is Committing War Crimes" by Professor George Bisharat Wall Street Journal 1/10-11/09.)

This religious genocide traces back to Biblical times. According to the Old Testament, the ancient Jews believed their God wanted them to commit mass murder in order to steal land. For instance, regarding the Jews' conquest of Jericho, (Joshua 6:21) "And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox,and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword."

Similarly, the Lord tells Saul "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.' (Samuel I 15:3)

And David sings to the daughter of Babylon "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Psalms 137:9) Certainly in Gaza we recently saw lots of dead little ones in addition to all others including animals.

It turns out the rabbis played a major role in encouraging this slaughter. As reported in The New York Times 3/22/09, the military's chief rabbi Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, a West Bank settler, told the soldiers not to show mercy to the civilians, preaching that "humanistic' values should be subordinated to the law of the Torah. Gaza was portrayed as a re-enactment of Biblical conquest, slaying non-Jews without mercy at the behest of God. Religious genocide.