US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warns that Israel is becoming diplomatically isolated and urges the Israeli leadership to “restart negotiations with the Palestinians and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey.” While acknowledging Tel Aviv’s regional military superiority, Panetta says it’s not enough to maintain a military edge “if you’re isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena.”
It seems the Obama administration now fears its slavish support for the unruly Jewish state is becoming embarrassing and is basically asking Israel to pull its socks up. Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to say the US wants Israel to maintain a credible facade vis-a-vis its support for a two-state solution and its “friendly” ties with Cairo and Ankara—both US allies.
US government officials, congressmen and media instinctively promote Israel as the Middle East’s only true democracy, a victimized state that fends off a barrage of existential threats that must be protected by US taxpayers at all costs; so much so that many ordinary Americans believe Palestinians who are little better than terrorists are occupying Israeli land rather than the other way around.
Americans are so indoctrinated and so removed from the truth—when movie distributors shun pro-Palestinian films, Arab English-language networks like Al Jazeera are banned from their screens—that their reality is skewed. Most have no idea how many billions of their tax dollars are going to prop up an occupying state, a warmongering state, a racist state that has little regard for human life apart from that of its own citizens.
This drip-drip of pro-Israel indoctrination has been perfected for decades until it has become part of the American psyche. Americans can identify with Israelis because in many cases they look like them, dress like them and speak fluent English with an American accent. They view Israel as a country of immigrants just like their own while buying into the Hollywood stereotype of Arabs as religious extremists, cutthroats and thieves. Politicians, even those with pro-Palestinian sympathies or Arab origins live in fear of the wrath of the lobby should they dare to express their true feelings.
The fact that Congress has frozen $200 million in aid from an impoverished people, just because they’re taking the UN route to statehood out of sheer frustration at the stalled peace process, hasn’t resonated with American people who mostly believe their great nation illuminates the planet with the light of humanitarianism, democratic principles and justice. Like the Israelis who go out of their way to demonize the Palestinians to salvage their own conscious, Americans blind their eyes to atrocities committed by their military in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the untold numbers of Pakistani civilians killed by terrorist-hunting drone airplanes.
There is currently a fierce debate within the US over the extrajudicial assassination of US citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen, a man allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda and who was on President Barack Obama’s hit list. Obama may be celebrating but some of his fellow Americans are outraged, not because this alleged terrorist has been taken out in the way Osama Bin Laden was without due legal process but because he happened to hold a US passport. In short, like the Israelis, the only lives they hold precious are those of their own nationals.
Particularly telling was Netanyahu’s recent address to the UN General Assembly when he said the body should pass a resolution supporting the release of the Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas, Gilad Shalit, rather than pondering the Palestinian Authority’s statehood bid, which received hearty applause from American sycophants in the chamber. In other words, the freedom of one Israeli soldier, a man who carries a gun and is trained to kill, is worth more than the self-determination of Palestinian men, women and children—and the liberty of 8,000 Palestinians, some as young as twelve, detained in Israeli prisons.
In essence, Israel is America’s mini-me. Israel may pursue land-grabbing, expansionist policies under the pretext of maintaining its security but America that has extended its military footprint and consolidated its spheres of interest worldwide is no different.
There is hardly a ray of light separating the US and Israel which is why I’m unable to fathom why Arab states continue to tolerate US bases on their soil. Such bases not only infringe their sovereignty they are a source of people’s humiliation and anger as we witness in Iraq where demonstrators demand a US pullout in the knowledge that Obama is plying heavy pressure to the Iraqi government to “request” American troops to stay on.
Personally, I can’t help cringing when I see the red carpet Arabs put out for the likes of Hillary Clinton and other US officials even when they arrive wagging their fingers in disapproval. Arabs could wield considerable economic, diplomatic and even military clout like Turkey is doing, which would enable the Arab nation to stand strongly on the world’s stage in defense of Arab causes and rid itself of any foreign presence. Instead, they prefer to keep up the pretence that the US is their friend so as not to rock the boat. Unless they face up to the hard fact that Israel and America are an indivisible one—that is until the American people eventually wake up—a viable Palestinian state will never exist other than on paper.
Jamal Abdul Nasser who committed his presidential career to a strong, unified and independent Arab world must be turning in his grave to see how toothless his fellow lions have become!
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Yes, Israel is America’s mini-me
US Congress freezes aid to impoverished Palestinians for taking the UN route to statehood
Posted on October 5, 2011 by Linda S. Heard
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warns that Israel is becoming diplomatically isolated and urges the Israeli leadership to “restart negotiations with the Palestinians and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey.” While acknowledging Tel Aviv’s regional military superiority, Panetta says it’s not enough to maintain a military edge “if you’re isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena.”
It seems the Obama administration now fears its slavish support for the unruly Jewish state is becoming embarrassing and is basically asking Israel to pull its socks up. Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to say the US wants Israel to maintain a credible facade vis-a-vis its support for a two-state solution and its “friendly” ties with Cairo and Ankara—both US allies.
US government officials, congressmen and media instinctively promote Israel as the Middle East’s only true democracy, a victimized state that fends off a barrage of existential threats that must be protected by US taxpayers at all costs; so much so that many ordinary Americans believe Palestinians who are little better than terrorists are occupying Israeli land rather than the other way around.
Americans are so indoctrinated and so removed from the truth—when movie distributors shun pro-Palestinian films, Arab English-language networks like Al Jazeera are banned from their screens—that their reality is skewed. Most have no idea how many billions of their tax dollars are going to prop up an occupying state, a warmongering state, a racist state that has little regard for human life apart from that of its own citizens.
This drip-drip of pro-Israel indoctrination has been perfected for decades until it has become part of the American psyche. Americans can identify with Israelis because in many cases they look like them, dress like them and speak fluent English with an American accent. They view Israel as a country of immigrants just like their own while buying into the Hollywood stereotype of Arabs as religious extremists, cutthroats and thieves. Politicians, even those with pro-Palestinian sympathies or Arab origins live in fear of the wrath of the lobby should they dare to express their true feelings.
The fact that Congress has frozen $200 million in aid from an impoverished people, just because they’re taking the UN route to statehood out of sheer frustration at the stalled peace process, hasn’t resonated with American people who mostly believe their great nation illuminates the planet with the light of humanitarianism, democratic principles and justice. Like the Israelis who go out of their way to demonize the Palestinians to salvage their own conscious, Americans blind their eyes to atrocities committed by their military in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the untold numbers of Pakistani civilians killed by terrorist-hunting drone airplanes.
There is currently a fierce debate within the US over the extrajudicial assassination of US citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen, a man allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda and who was on President Barack Obama’s hit list. Obama may be celebrating but some of his fellow Americans are outraged, not because this alleged terrorist has been taken out in the way Osama Bin Laden was without due legal process but because he happened to hold a US passport. In short, like the Israelis, the only lives they hold precious are those of their own nationals.
Particularly telling was Netanyahu’s recent address to the UN General Assembly when he said the body should pass a resolution supporting the release of the Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas, Gilad Shalit, rather than pondering the Palestinian Authority’s statehood bid, which received hearty applause from American sycophants in the chamber. In other words, the freedom of one Israeli soldier, a man who carries a gun and is trained to kill, is worth more than the self-determination of Palestinian men, women and children—and the liberty of 8,000 Palestinians, some as young as twelve, detained in Israeli prisons.
In essence, Israel is America’s mini-me. Israel may pursue land-grabbing, expansionist policies under the pretext of maintaining its security but America that has extended its military footprint and consolidated its spheres of interest worldwide is no different.
There is hardly a ray of light separating the US and Israel which is why I’m unable to fathom why Arab states continue to tolerate US bases on their soil. Such bases not only infringe their sovereignty they are a source of people’s humiliation and anger as we witness in Iraq where demonstrators demand a US pullout in the knowledge that Obama is plying heavy pressure to the Iraqi government to “request” American troops to stay on.
Personally, I can’t help cringing when I see the red carpet Arabs put out for the likes of Hillary Clinton and other US officials even when they arrive wagging their fingers in disapproval. Arabs could wield considerable economic, diplomatic and even military clout like Turkey is doing, which would enable the Arab nation to stand strongly on the world’s stage in defense of Arab causes and rid itself of any foreign presence. Instead, they prefer to keep up the pretence that the US is their friend so as not to rock the boat. Unless they face up to the hard fact that Israel and America are an indivisible one—that is until the American people eventually wake up—a viable Palestinian state will never exist other than on paper.
Jamal Abdul Nasser who committed his presidential career to a strong, unified and independent Arab world must be turning in his grave to see how toothless his fellow lions have become!
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.