The
horrific Israeli assault on Gaza has
exposed the extent to which Israeli pressure has infiltrated and corrupted American
institutions. Eventually America will pay an enormous price for this. The
presidency, the congress, our commitment to international law, even simple
regulatory agencies have all been corrupted. It is an orgy of lies unmatched
since the lead up to the invasion of Iraq.
Obama
repeats Netanyahu’s stock phrase that, “Israel has a right to defend itself”—support
that ensures continued Israeli aggression and war crimes. The US Senate approves S.Res. 498 –blaming
Palestinians for the violence and demanding the dissolution of
the Palestinian national-unity government—even though the lack of a unity
government had previously been used by Israel and the US as an excuse NOT to
negotiate with Palestinians. The killing goes on.
On July 22nd the FAA banned US airlines
from flying into Israel because a Hamas rocket had landed nearby. After railing
all week about the dire existential
danger posed to the entire state of Israel by Hamas rockets Netanyahu insisted that the airport was perfectly safe!
This enormously hypocritical reversal completely undermines Netanyahu’s
rationale for the Gaza operation. No one notices.
In the UN Human Rights Council, America cast a
lone vote NOT to even investigate the horrors that are on TV every day. Meanwhile,
almost every news channel has allowed Israeli military officials to give long,
uninterrupted opportunities to repeat their official lies and talking points ad
nauseam. Pundits nod complacently.
I call all
this corruption because it is based on a series of blatant Israeli lies. Here
are some truths.
1.
Israel provoked this
war. In the Israeli operation following the kidnapping and
murder of three Israeli teenagers in mid-June, Israel’s military killed five to
ten Palestinians and arrested about 600 more, including nearly all of Hamas’ West
Bank leaders. On 6 July, an Israeli strike killed seven Hamas militants in Gaza.
That’s when Hamas responded.
2.
It’s not about the
Israeli teens. To this day, Israel has not shown
any evidence that Hamas was involved in the killing of the three teens—reports
on the 25th of July showed there is evidence that Israel knows Hamas wasn’t involved.
3.
This isn’t
about stopping rocket fire or aggression by Hamas. In 2013, ZERO Israeli
civilians had been killed by rockets from Gaza. 36 Palestinians were killed by
Israel in the same period.
4.
It’s not about
protecting Israeli civilians. Since the fighting began, only two Israeli
civilians have been killed as opposed to 53 IDF troops (a 4% civilian casualty
rate). Some 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 5000 wounded (UN
estimates show an 80% civilian casualty rate).
5.
Hamas isn’t using human
shields.
Despite repeated Israeli claims, no independent reporter on the ground has
actually seen evidence that Hamas is using civilians as human shields.
6.
Israel isn’t trying to
minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. Israeli warnings of imminent attack are
irrelevant—Israeli policy has left Gazans nowhere to go. During the Jewish
Warsaw Ghetto uprising in WWII, the Jewish resistance fought for weeks through
crowded neighborhoods. No one has blamed the resulting civilian casualties on
them. Like the people of Gaza today,
they simply had no choice.
7.
Disproportionate
response and collective punishment are war crimes—even if there is provocation.
The
carnage in Gaza today is a deliberate Israeli strategy— a strategy that is
corrupting the US as surely as it has corrupted Israel. That strategy is to kill civilians and maximize
damage in the hope that the surviving civilians will blame their plight on
Hamas. As one historian puts it with regard to the 2008 Israeli attack on Gaza,
“The ultimate goal was to inflict such pain on the Gazans that they would turn
against the regime which had brought down this mayhem on their heads, driving
it from power.” That is the only explanation for the horrific casualties and
damage Israel has inflicted in Gaza.
But even if you approve of this strategy (which clearly
involves war crimes), it has clearly failed. Even moderate Palestinians on the
West Bank are rallying behind Hamas. What we see are simply Palestinians trying
to defend their land from Israelis
intent on stealing it. That is the history
of Israel in a nutshell.
So even if you have watched the mayhem in Gaza and still
side with Israel, at least don’t delude yourself that Israel is “winning.” It
is simply soaking itself in blood and shame and guaranteeing that the future of
Israel will be more of the same.
Finally, the
current catastrophe has served as an ongoing, 24/7, 20+ day infomercial
exposing how America has been corrupted by narrow, vicious, Israeli political interests.
A future generation of Americans will pay the price. Extremists are being
created every second. We have Israel to thank for that. Some ally.