"The Israelisation of America"

[Flying_Pig]

The US's unqualified backing of Israel goes back a long way, but, writes Ahdaf Soueif*, 9/11 was the neo-cons' chance to take it one step further: full identification
<snip>
Once again it's funny mirrors time. The world watches the events taking place in Palestine, and Western media see one process taking place while the Arabs generally see another.

Interpreting these events is largely a matter of how you view the relationship between the USA and Israel. A few weeks ago I heard a well-known British columnist say he was sick of being told that the Palestinian/Israeli conflict was the 'litmus test' for how people can expect the American Imperium to influence the world. Yet "Freedom for Palestine" was the demand on millions of the banners in the anti-war demonstrations that swept the world last February.

America's support for Israel dates to the beginning of the Zionist project in the late 19th century and grew stronger throughout the 20th. From 1949 to the present, for every dollar the US spent on an African, it spent $250.65 on an Israeli, and for every dollar it spent on someone from the Western Hemisphere outside the US, it spent $214 on an Israeli. As Israel grows stronger the support becomes more solid. According to Stephen Zunes, chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Programme at San Francisco University, "99 per cent of all US aid to Israel took place after the 1967 War."

In the United Nations the US has used its veto against 34 resolutions related to the Arab/Israeli conflict.

US support for Israel has involved turning a blind eye not only to Israeli flouting of international law, but to Israeli anti- American activities such as: spying (Jonathan Jay Pollard 1985 and David Tenenbaum 1997), selling arms to China (1990 onwards), espionage against American companies (cited in the Wall Street Journal, 1992) and attacks on the dignity and the lives of American subjects as in the bombing of the USS Liberty in 1967, the beating by Israeli police of David Muirhead who was working on an American- financed project to restore the main street in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in 1997, the turning back of a US Congressional delegation from the Allenby Bridge in August 2002 and, in April, the Israeli army's shooting of peace activist Brian Avery in Jenin and its killing of Rachel Corrie in Rafah. <snip>

Much, much, more: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/655/op41.htm

[papau]

1. Doesn't this belong at FreeRepublic or some other hate site?

The events quoted did indeed occurr - but the interpretation has more than a little spin - and quite frankly is not worth the time to refute one more time - given that each event has been "spun" differently/refuted in other DU posts.

Indeed the question should be asked - how does this type of post get anyone closer to peace?

[mike_c]

2. how does the usual Likudnik circle jerk in I/P get anyone closer...

...to peace?

[Flying_Pig]

3. I think it is very insulting (of course, this is what you intended)

to state that this post belongs at FR. It was/is not my intention to start a flame fest with this post, but simply to give voice to other viewpoints out there on the subject of I/P issues.

Having said that, I don't necessarily support all that the writer of this piece has stated, but some of what he has said has value, and certainly more than some of the PNAC/Likud inspired propaganda coming from the other side.

[Jackie97]

4. What might help, just to start off with....

Is if terms like the "Israelisation of America" weren't used.