Doc's Talk: Between Allies, U.S.-Israel Alliance

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Between Allies, U.S.-Israel Alliance

Nurit Greenger

Many ill informed Americans, some ignorant, and those who have unveiled anti-Semitic sentiments accuse their government for playing favoritism with the State of Israel, subsidizing its ill and uncivil behavior with its Arab enemies. They go as far as blaming the United State's for having its foreign policy controlled by some imaginable Jewish lobby. Well, Americans should wake up, and rather fast, as their country's superiority edge is fast diminishing, with Mr. Obama putting the very last nails to this, now misnomer' coffin.

The United State is about to lose the next step of the international political puzzle, as the positions of the puzzle piece-nations change side.

One can call another party an ally when the ally is acting as a real ally. Apparently the US has missed the point of who is an ally and who is not. Therefore, it has been pummeling and bashing, humiliating and undermining the State of Israel in its pursue to coerce Israel to make peace with the Arabs (aka "Palestinians"). The Arabs, on the other hand, have positioned themselves as Israel's archenemy but played a very cleverly orchestrated game and won the battle with their conniving technique. To get the US and EU support, more likely, the endless financial support, the billions of dollars pouring into their coffers from the West, the Arabs have been playing the card of pretence for many year claiming to be the victim and that they want peace. They convinced the West they are their ally, which they are not.

You cannot buy an allies with money which the USA has been doing for year.

Since its establishment, 63 years ago, the State of Israel has been the Unites States genuine, almost unconditional ally. In facts many times it has been stated that Israel is little America in the Middle East. On the other hand, the US has many strings and tags attached to its alliance and "friendship" with the Jewish State.

The current American president acts as if he is on an obsessive messianic mission going after the Jewish State of Israel, that these past 63 years has been the only Democracy in the region and the United State ONLY ally in the fickle Middle East. In this alliance, the US tied Israel's hands with "you know what, you owe me" kind of coercive policy while appearing to have a policy that favors, with less strings attached, the Arab states.

The United States has acted for years as if the State of Israel simply cannot function without its help, while totally ignoring Israel's developments and how it has been forging towards economic independence.

This week, the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies has come up with a study report that Israel has a bad deal with the United States and US aid to Israel is not worth its real cost to Israel. In other words, the alliance with and the "subsidies" Israel receives from the USA are not worth having. (Referencing, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141692).

The report strongly indicates to Israel to create alliances with other, less restrictive allies.

Here are some suggestive anecdotes to which the Unites State should pay close attention.

The Israeli government awareness of the cost to be friends with the US has been coming for quite a while and measures to undo the strings have been slowly developing. Yet, at least from Israel's side, the process has been and will be elegant and quiet.

Strings attached to grants and other so called benefits and credit facilities are slowly becoming NO, thank you package in Israel alliance with the USA.

But more worrisome to the US is that many of its specialized goods are gradually of poorer quality and vastly more expensive than comparable one from other origins, also ones manufactured in Israel. This due to the overly exceeding US regulations, red tape, paperwork as well as transportation costs considerations. Tearing the dollar down to make US products more appealing is one way to do things, but the catch is, as usual, is in the small print.

In the Israeli local market place one can purchase excellent quality electronic components made in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and India, at a fraction of the cost of US made similar products. These products also bear lower transport and mailing cost from the ones originating from the US.

Economic policy compels the US to sell most advanced equipments and goods to the Far East, at very appealing prices. In turn, most of those folks copy, resell, or otherwise trade them so, most countries and private folks, this includes Israelis, buy them from the Far East, at a significantly lower rate, rather than purchase them directly from the US and. The point is that there are still very good products made in the USA but the list is slowly growing of the ones that will be considered as 'silly enough to buy direct'.

Touching on politics that the US has been missing the point,

LEBANON, a country run by Hezbollah, Iran proxy terror organization. Hezbollah is now part of the Lebanese coalition government. This week this weak coalition government collapsed when Hezbollah resigned from it because the UN is accusing it of murdering former PM Rafik Hariri, in 2005, a blame Hezbollah already put on Israel.

Lebanon is considered a friend of the West, that includes the USA, all have been heavily funding this country. The US is in no position to field sufficient forces to maintain control over Iran's proxies in Lebanon. Should Hezbollah-Iran-Syria alliance decide to take Lebanon over, Iran would have secured a Western Mediterranean beach front. Right now it maybe a gambit, ahead of the Nuclear Meeting, scheduled to take place on 4-7th July 2010 in Ankara, Turkey, (http://www.nurer.org/)

It is only a matter of when, not if, that the Moslem Brotherhood will take control of Egypt, another US ally, that is heavily maintained with endless funding and its military needs. At that time the Suez Canal, Mediterranean ports and Red Sea ports would be nicely iced in the Islamic flags' colors.

Even Tunisia, on the south beaches of the Mediterranean is now batting its stability as its embattled 74-year-old President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali struggles to maintain his leadership stability, and keep the fundamentalists that threaten other countries our of his country.

My advice to the US, to maintain its "superiority" in the region, better stay put about Israel's controlling Obama's "Soetorists" in Gaza-El-Arish area; stay put and out of Israel in general.

Will Obama smart up in his obsession with Israel? Who knows.

With the West openly supporting southern Sudanese independence, a new war is about to begin its consequences will not be limited to Sudan.

Not to forget that the US is having to make endless military and other efforts in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Venezuela, Brazil, and this list is growing.

In conclusion, the USA needs to do some soul searching. That means understanding that the one solution to war promoted by most Western politicians—spreading Western values and ways of governance—is no solution at all.

As for bashing an ally– the State of Israel - for far too long and way too harshly, eventually this ally will say, enough is enough and will find the path to part and seek others, more accommodating, allies.

* This article uses points of thought given to the writer by Shmuel HaLevi in Israel.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: You make the u.s. Seem as though they are rep. agents and a parent company toward isreal but that is God's chosen land that whose arm isreal is looking for its not a political matter; 9:07 AM
Anonymous said...: Be mindful of the covenant; 9:42 AM

The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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