Israel and the Empire: Interview with Jeff Halper

[MariMayans]

So this is the missing piece. If you read the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) website, the main pro-Israel lobby in the US, there's one piece called 'Strategic Cooperation.' The United States and Israel have a formal treaty, a formal alliance, which gives Israel access to almost all of American military technology.

When AIPAC sells Israel to Congress, it doesn't go to Congressmen and ask them to support Israel because it is Judea Christian, or because it is the 'only democracy in the Middle East,' which it also does. It sells it on this basis: 'You are a member of Congress and it is your responsibility to support Israel, because this is how many industries in your state have business links to Israel, this is how many military research people are sitting in universities in your district, this is how many jobs in your district are dependent on the military and the defence industry,' and they translate it down to the extent to which your district is dependent on Israel. Therefore, if you are voting against Israel, you are voting against the goose that lays the golden egg.

In most of the districts in the United States, members of Congress have a great dependence on the military. More than half of industrial employment in California is in one way or another connected to defence. Israel is right there, right in the middle of it all. And that is part of its strength.

And then we (the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, for example) come to a member of Congress, we talk about human rights, about occupation, about Palestinians, and he says: 'Look I know, I read the papers, I'm not dumb, but that is not the basis on which I vote. The basis on which I vote is what is good for my constituents.'

So in terms of activism, when you are thinking of an international campaign, an important part of it must be to expose Israel's links to the defence industry, the arms industry, Israel's support of terrible regimes and their violations of human rights, and what that is doing to the world.






http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/module.php?mod=book&op=print&id=806

[drdon326]

1. Anthropologist , huh??

This guy is almost as funny as Resistance's GEOLOGY student.

[MariMayans]

2. so what is he wrong about?

There is little humor to be found in any of this. He is quite serious.

[drdon326]

3. To quote an old friend from DU past...

"this is the stupidest thread ive ever seen......

and i feel stupider for reading it."

yeah the STERIOTYPICAL jewish aipac talks about MONEY while

mr."Warm and Fuzzy" talks "about human rights, about occupation, about Palestinians".

Let me retract my previous statement.........

This guy IS as funny as Resistance's GEOLOGY student.

[MariMayans]

4. read slower

and turn down the victimism level a tad.

He is downplaying AIPAC as a consideration for congress actions over the more concrete negative economic impact of kicking out that leg of our military-industrial welfare state.

There is also much more in the article than that snippet.

[Aidoneus]

6. so what is he wrong about?

It doesn't seem like you've read it.. you're making less sense than usual, either way. Just when I thought I was finally getting used to your staccato vitriol after all these years, you again raise incoherent ravings to a higher art form. Would at least a couple complete sentences strung together making a clear point be too much to ask? In the 2yrs I've been reading your posts it has consistantly proven to be so, though I'm still holding out hope..

One of the main points of his argument is rather than the AIPAC lobbyist, the main draw is perhaps that the 'right people' are profiting a great deal from the "special relationship", and whatever unsavory facts to the contrary there are don't really mean shit by comparison (going along with the obvious fact that money trumpts everything 110% of the time). That's just me, though, I actually read the piece, what do I know..

[Forkboy]

8. to quote yourself Don

"It's DU's oldest prefession...attack the messenger and not the message."

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Darranar]

10. You attacked the message?

Where?

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[drdon326]

12. Ouch....that hurts.

.

[Forkboy]

13. I note you didn't answer Darrenar

yet you could respond to me.

[drdon326]

14. I like you.

lol

[Darranar]

15. Can you answer my question?

Where, exactly, did you attack the message?

[Forkboy]

16. I note that again you wont answer Darranar

but will keep responding to me.

Why is that Don?

[drdon326]

17. Its more fun......

talking to you, forkboy.

[Forkboy]

18. more like you can't answer

which is totally obvious.

[Darranar]

19. Why?

Because I ask you to back up a post of yours, and you can't do it?

If you can answer my question, please do.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Darranar]

21. I guess you and I have different definitions of attacking a message...

spouting junk that attacks the messenger with insinuations of anti-semitism while completely ignoring the points made doesn't count in my view.

And if you STILL think I'm lying about what I heard, continue thinking so. It isn't worth the effort to convince you - if you could ever be convinced.

[drdon326]

22. I would never think that.

eom

[Darranar]

23. If you AREN'T being sarcastic...

I want to know why you've been asking me about it after I already made clear that I have no intention to say anything more.

[drdon326]

24. Simple...

I want to know who this great man is.

do you know his name even??

[Darranar]

25. You want me to find a few Muslim imams who stand up against violence?

I don't remember his name, and I won't give you any more information for the reasons I outlined on the other thread. If you're curious, do a Google search yourself and find out what you can about these people.

Please drop this issue, drdon.

[drdon326]

26. As you wish.

don

[Equinox]

28. Thanks, drdon, for proving one of the article's main points.

Bravo, indeed!

[Gimel]

5. And Jonathan Pollard sits in jail

for what???


a formal treaty, a formal alliance, which gives Israel access to almost all of American military technology.

[The Magistrate]

7. Mr. Pollard, Ma'am

Does not seem to have dealt in technologies, but in techniques of spionage operations. That is not something one can expect a pass on, if caught. Perhaps if some U.S. operative had been unfortunate enough to be caught in Israel, a swap in the old Cold War style might have been arranged.

[Equinox]

27. Excellent article!