Of course, this has been true for decades, encompassing everything from the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, its illegal development of a nuclear arsenal, its decades of relentless espionage in the United States, its atrocities in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, its state-terror, collateral-damaging "targeted assassinations" around the world, its heinous apartheid wall, the open, often genocidal racism of many of its political and government leaders, its mass cluster-bombing at the end of its latest military aggression in Lebanon, its horrific civilian slaughter in its latest full-scale assault on Gaza, and the subsequent strangulation of Gaza, a war crime of collective punishment that resembles nothing so much as the Nazi ghettoization of Jews in Warsaw.
So in a very real sense, the current situation is nothing new at all. But it is also true that this atrocity-producing dynamic has become ever more frenzied since the launching of the bi-partisan, world-wide, multi-generational "War on Terror." There is no longer even any pretense of any red lines that Israel might cross that would lead to even the slightest diminution of American support. In any case, as Glenn Greenwald (among others) points out, the two nations now share fully and openly the same policies of torture, lawlessness, state terror (including assassination), military aggression, war profiteering and extremist, demonizing rhetoric aimed at keeping their populations roiled with fear, anger and confusion.
(In fact, the Americans kill far more innocent civilians in predominantly Muslim lands each year than the Israelis — who, if only in this, might feel justifiably wronged in being singled out for international condemnation when their mentors and paymasters in Washington commit the same depredations on a much larger scale.)
It’s true that part of the American elite’s indulgence of Israel stems from the political clout of the "Jewish Lobby." And this influence, which traditionally weighed most heavily on the Democratic Party, has now been joined by the even more zealous — not to say maniacal and mindless — support for Israel from America’s religious Right, which has almost entirely subsumed the Republican Party.
But I believe there is an even deeper root to this "special relationship" — and that’s the process of "ethnic cleansing" and violent land-grabbing which is absolutely foundational to both nations. What the Americans did long ago — drive the natives from the land by force, steal their territory and plant a new state there, reserved for the benefit of the "right" sort of people — the Israelis are now trying to do in the Middle East.
This shared ethos is probably another reason why Israel continues its subjugation of the Palestinians with such relentless fervor — because they know it can work. If you press the natives hard enough, for long enough, if you have the steel to "do whatever it takes" to crush their resistance — as the Americans did with the Indians — then you too might win out in the end. It can be done, because it has been done in history (and not just by the Americans, of course); it’s a risky business, but for the Israeli elites, as for their American role models, the game is worth the candle.
At any rate, the latest incident will only embolden the Israelis to further atrocities, with the backing — and often the weapons — of the United States. Where this process will end is almost too harrowing to contemplate. I honestly believe that if the Israelis decided to "liquidate the ghetto" in Gaza, as was done in Warsaw, then you would see the American elite contorting themselves — and the truth — this way and that in order to justify the carnage.
And why not? An elite which has instigated the murder of more than a million people in Iraq — in a ghastly operation hailed as "an extraordinary achievement" by the progressive peace laureate now in charge of the American war machine — would certainly not blanch at a little liquidation by their protégés.
This article originally appeared on the blog Empire Burlesque.
These crises are stirred up to distract us. Both sides work together to coordinate the confrontation. Reporting the details of the confrontation is important, of course, but pay even closer attention to what laws are changing and how debt is being restructured. Wish Israeli\’s and Palestinians would wake up from this programming that they are \”supposed\” to be enemies and re-imagine they can think for themselves resist the gas-lighting strategies imposed upon them by their own leadership that is attempting to re-structure law and debt to legally rob them and their future generations blind. Hope they wake up and huddle together and agree upon some fair and resilient guiding principles to organize their societies to co-exist in a secular way, respecting divergent races, cultures and genders, sexual orientation equally and peacefully with a just court system that imposes criminal penalties for murder, violence, arson, robbery, sex crimes and other forms of theft, and civil penalties for other general harms. Work together people! You deserve better! When you organize yourselves and create peace from within and are reliant on your principles, your leadership will more easily recognize their flaws – leadership will feel compelled to evolve or be slowly replaced through democratic elections by the people.
Of course the rule under the Taliban was reactionary. Reactionary Islamic fundamentalists brought much suffering to the people of Afghanistan. This has been pointed out repeatedly in articles on the World Can’t Wait site, including articles authored by myself.
But this is not why U.S. imperialism invaded Afghanistan. U.S. leaders could care less how the Taliban treated women and suppressed the Afghan population. In fact the U.S. government, through the Pakistani intelligence service (the ISI), initially supported the Taliban because they believed it could unite Afghanistan so that it could be better exploited by the imperialists. A Taliban delegation even visited Texas when Bush was the Texas governor to hold discussion on financing an oil and gas pipeline through Afghanistan. U.S. oil companies hosted this delegation. You will not find one word at that time from Bush raising any criticism of the visit or of the Taliban rule.
The suppression of women and other Afghans was only raised by U.S. leaders when they had decided to invade Afghanistan.
The reason that World Can’t Wait has been revealing the crimes of the Israeli government is because these crimes are facilitated by their U.S. Godfather. Israel is a military outpost of U.S. imperialism and the U.S. is the protector of Israel. No crime committed by Israel has come under attack by the U.S. government because Israel serves U.S. interests. World Can’t Wait has been exposing and will continue to expose and criticize the crimes of the U.S. government. Its support of Israel is one such crime. We will also point out the hypocrisy of our government in places like Afghanistan where today the U.S. still supports feudal forces that suppress not only women, but the vast majority of the Afghanistan population
However one feels about Isreals occupation of the West Bank, there is no question that residents in the West Bank fare far better than citizens of Afganistan during years of brutal and repressive taliban rule
Will this organization ever be willing to condemn throwing acid in the faces of young girls or denying girls an edication. or do all thing islamic beyond criticism?