A complete political perversion of diplomacy is upon us that further illustrates the underlying illogic that cements US-Israel relations.
Flickr/creative commons
Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, conspired to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address both houses of Congress on March 3, just two weeks before the Israeli leader stands for re-election.
An invitation of this magnitude never goes, shouldn’t go, to a foreign leader hoping to make his bona fides for an upcoming election at home by addressing our Congress, in this case, allowing Netanyahu to undermine US leadership in nuclear disarmament talks with Iran, something Israel has objected to. Rightwing Israelis don’t want any talks about any subject between America and Iran which they view as threats to Israel’s security. And, Netanyahu at least doesn’t see the perversity of taking America’s chief podium to criticize a country where he is a guest.
House Speaker Boehner is knowingly usurping important presidential prerogatives and weakening the presidency (whomever that may be, now and the future) because foreign relations decisions (and invitations) are the exclusive purview of the executive branch, not the legislative branch, of our government. This makes Boehner (who you will remember is third in line for the presidency should anything happen to the current president and vice-president) particularly unsuited to serve our country. Boehner gives us so many self-repudiating examples of his sheer stupidity it’s hard to keep up, I know.
Jewish organizations and politicians and activists in this country have weighed in on Netanyahu’s planned address to Congress, some lobbying for a postponement to March 17, after Israeli elections, others mounting petitions to cancel it. Both President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have refused to meet with Netanyahu during his US visit. Netanyahu’s opposing candidates back home in Israel have questioned even the legality of Netanyahu’s American address this close to the election, which is not guaranteed to go his way. A boycott by some or all members of Congress is being planned. No doubt plans are underway for March 3 street protests and other campaigns objecting to this ugly expression of the congenital dysfunction of US-Israel relations.
We have to understand history to fully comprehend how we’ve arrived at this awful point.
Once Israel and the US (and England) were able to finesse this blatant land grab based on questionable ancient principles of imminent domain and general guilt-tripping after World War II, the only hope, the only hope, for success in this region would have been the emergence of a western state that was totally dedicated to fostering regional and world peace, including the integration and uplifting of the existing population in Palestine. We all know that never happened. Instead, the superiority complex of early and current zionists has done nothing but challenge, irritate, and disappear anyone in the way of their complete domination of the region. With America and Britain’s blessing, Israel conquered Palestine, and the massacres and ethnic cleansing persist to this day.
We can’t fail to mention here that christian fundamentalists in and out of political power blindly call for the supremacy of Israel at all costs to preserve the landing strip for Jesus’s return to earth. This zealotry, on a par with zionist zealotry, undergirds America’s unquestioned love of Israel and support for its actions, no matter how heinous. The reality of the here and now and what’s best for the future are superseded by the politicization and prioritizing of these highly personal religious beliefs on the part of our elected leaders.
As we have written before, the jewish people worldwide, including Israel, and the American people, must take a step back and consider the roots of the Israel disaster and the hatred of Americans throughout Middle East it has engendered.
Yesterday, L. Michael Hager at Truthout, offered a thoughtful review of Alison Weir‘s new book, Against Our Better Judgment: The hidden history of how the US was used to create Israel (CreateSpace Publishing), shedding more light on just how deep this US-Israeli conspiracy to defraud the world goes. The full review and the book are both worth a full read, as is Ms. Weir’s website, If America Knew.
Zionist organizations established in the 1930s and ’40s lobbied President Harry Truman to recognize the state of Israel despite strong objections by Middle East experts. Loy Henderson of the State Department warned that the UN partition plan would “guarantee that the Palestine problem would be permanent and still more complicated in the future.” Both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA echoed that view. (Hager on Weir, Truthout)
Did you know that Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter, two US Supreme Court Justices at the time of the formation of modern Israel after World War II, were secret zionist supporters who led the manipulation of American and British lawmakers to support their efforts? As activists and members of the public there can be no end to our excavation of US-Israel relations because they have upended and are upending half the world, presenting one of the greatest obstacles to world peace.
Today, the US funds the Israeli military with over $3 billion aimed at oppressing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It is your tax dollars that support this aggression and the deaths of thousands. That’s on you. What are you going to do about it?
As citizens of our war-torn world we must reckon with how and why the world has been hurt by Israel’s actions and the continued culpability of America in destabilizing the region through its unwavering, and chronically unquestioning, support of Israel’s 60-year reign of terror.
When will we break this insane and self-destructive love affair with Israel, and stand up for the rights of Palestinians? Seek out websites and read books like Weir’s to educate yourself. Talk to your friends and families about this pressing issue. Join or otherwise support organizations who are working each day to accomplish this goal. Get the blood off your hands.
Related:
Israel’s Messy Package, Part 1 and Part 2
Professor Walt Helps Explain America’s Bankrupt Israeli Policy
