

The United States, Israel and the Arabs

Please, not again


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Matt Andersson


Risk of war? There is already a war. Please, not again? Perhaps "Please, when will it ever end?"

The "war" you fear is already fully under way. It is America's synthetic "GWOT" or its contrived "Global War on Terror." Iran is completely surrounded on land, sea and air with extensive US military and para-military assets, and it is poised for direct attack. Since 2003, the US has spent over $1 Trillion on this Middle East prosecution, with more to come. The US will never leave the Middle East (and Israel will never leave the US).

Why? The Caspian of course; the $200 Billion per year cash opium/heroin trade, and Russian hegemony via the Caucasus. But it is also a cultural and religious war, with Iran, Arabs and Muslims daily portrayed by the western press as barbaric, oppressive, terroristic and "black."

The node of this particular war rests largely in Israel, for Israeli interests (energy, territory and cultural/religious suppression). Indeed, for the Palestinians, they are in the middle of a war.

Below is an excerpt from a recent on-site report that calls into question especially, the plight of Palestinian women (and their children):

“Gaza families recall horror two years after Israel's assault,”
by Rami Almeghari writing from occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 27 December 2010:

“Ahmad Mansour remembered how he, along with the rest of Gaza's 1.5 million people, experienced Israel's largest ever attack on the coastal enclave in four decades, which began two years ago today. Between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, Israel used its formidable military arsenal -- tanks, helicopters, fighter jets, pilotless drones, gunboats and ground troops -- to wage all out war against a territory whose destitute population is made up largely of refugees. More than 1,400 people were killed, including almost four hundred children, and thousands more were wounded.”

“Mansour's 12-year-old daughter Rawan had vivid memories of sitting in the family's kitchen during a lull in the attack. "We lit a candle, and hid it on one of the kitchen shelves so the Israeli army would not realize there were people in the apartment. Rawan said that often when she hears the frequent explosions that shatter Gaza, "we think the Israelis are coming again."

The families of Lyd are also in a daily war zone:

“More than 100 Palestinian protesters and their supporters blocked a main street in the city of Lyd on 28 December 2010, demonstrating against the recent demolition of Palestinian homes and what residents say is a rise in racism and police brutality.” On 13 December, officials with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), the government agency that manages and leases state land, entered the Palestinian section of the segregated city flanked by bulldozers and hundreds of municipal, riot squad and border police forces. The bulldozers then demolished seven homes all belonging to the Abu Eid family in Lyd. The demolition, which took several hours, subsequently displaced 67 members of the entire family, including dozens of children, during one of the worst rainstorms of the season. Dozens of other Palestinian homes have been demolished over the years in Lyd, which is a few miles east of Tel Aviv inside the state of Israel."

A photo is attached to the story, with the caption “Palestinian women from Lyd sit on top of the rubble of their home after it was destroyed by Israel, December 2010. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills).

As for any boldness you might expect from Mr. Obama, he is already bought and paid for, and he doesn't work for peace. He works, as all US presidents do, for War, Inc., and does what he's told to do.

As for the Arab countries, they have oil (the US military burns 395,000 barrels a day). When they don't, they will cease to be accommodated by the US.

As for the Iranian president, he is quite possibly the best friend the extreme right in the US and Israel could ever hope to have. Indeed, one might wonder who he may actually work for. He is a textbook provocateur, and Israel-US, his brother in arms.

Regards and Happy New year.


Vivazapata said: "Also, Lebanon and Syria are in a de facto state of war with Israel. What could be more salubrious for Israeli acceptance of benign Arab intentions toward them than for Lebanon and Syria to renounce their state of war and begin pressing Hezballah to do the same?"

Don't be ridiculous, Vivazapata, the whole point of the Arab Initiative is to end that state of war and normalize relations between the Arab world and Israel in exchange for an end of occupation. Israel wants to have its cake and eat it too. Sorry pal, if Israel wants peace with Syria (and thus, with Hizbollah), it has to give back the Golan to its rightful owners. Syria has stated so countless times. One thing won't come without the other.

The Arab Peace Initiative has been endorse by ALL Arab states, including Syria and Lebanon. If Israel keeps rejecting it, it is only because it is not interested in Peace, but just in endless peace negotiations that provide cover to keep stealing land. Israel has chosen real state over peace. That will be its undoing.


@ vivazapata

Good question, but an easy one to answer. If Israel withdrew from the West Bank tomorrow it would create a power vaccuum which would immediately be filled by freedom-loving Syrian troops,( who, incidentally, massacred Palestinians in their thousands in the Lebanon in the 70s).
Bashir el Hasad's thugs would then be just a few kilometres from Tel-Aviv.
Collective suicide? No thank you.


To Blando
As a Christian who has been Coptic church in Egypt many time in the past, I am very sad about this Alexandria inciden. However, this got nothing to do with Israel`s behavior against Palestinians.
Please do not change the subject. Stick to Palestine-Israel Peace solution (i.e. pre 1967 border line, give land back to Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Palestine!).


From Wiki: The Arab Israeli Six Day War:

"In May 1967 began massing his troops in the Sinai Peninsula on Israel's border (May 16), expelled the UNEF force from Gaza and Sinai (May 19) and took up positions at Sharm el-Sheikh, overlooking the Straits of Tiran.[18][19] Israel reiterated declarations made in 1957 that any closure of the Straits would be considered an act of war, or justification for war.[20][21] Nasser declared the Straits closed to Israeli shipping on May 22–23. On May 30, Jordan and Egypt signed a defense pact. The following day, at Jordan's invitation, the Iraqi army began deploying troops and armored units in Jordan.[22] They were later reinforced by an Egyptian contingent. On June 1, Israel formed a National Unity Government by widening its cabinet, and on June 4 the decision was made to go to war. The next morning, Israel launched Operation Focus, a large-scale surprise air strike that was the opening of the Six-Day War."

Should Israel have waited for the hammer to fall? Was Israel to blame for civilian deaths in this war? Why should Israel withdraw to indefensible borders when THE SAME ENEMIES encompass them and plot their destruction? Would you take your foot off the throat of a mad dog that was attacking you?

The Israelis will not lay down and die for the blood lust of Hamas and Hezballah. And woe to Syria, Lebanon and Iran on the day the next war begins.


crwilliams wrote:

"In a region where swathes of land are transferred at the wink of an eye (or the point of a gun), why not compel Israel to transfer a sizeable chunk of land so that Gaza and the southern West Bank are contiguous? And I don't mean something a few hundred metres wide (like the corridor to West Berlin was, post 1945). Then make Gaza City the Palestinian capital, as well as its Mediterranean port"

You might also have said, 'with a cherry on top'. You have not offered a serious solution, nor even the elements of discussion. That is not intended to detract from your notion, as it is of no value in its entirety.

The Israel haters on here are copious in the excretion of 'ideas' for the dismemberment of Israel. Why doesn't just ONE of them explain how the extremist Palestinians will be 'persuaded' to stop their campaign of annihilation against the Jewish state? Israel has the power and inclination to honor whatever agreements they make vis-a-vis the Palestinians. But the militant Palestinians will stop at nothing to obviate all efforts at peace.

The anti-semitic ravers here are, as always, ignorant or obdurate in regard to the realities of the situation in the Middle East. Why not get a little education and abandon the hate-mongering? The world is desperate for understanding.


The Iranians ALREADY have nuclear bombs (its simple, Khan & Co have been their neighbours for quite some time). Ahmadinejads visit to Southern Lebenon was proof enough. They actually want the Israelis to make a first strike and in return 'will cut off the hand of the oppressors' The Hizbollah who are 10 minutes away in missile time will lob these missiles for them.As Nasrallah said, they prefer the hereafter and no gold worshippers of this world can win against them.

c r williams

@ Reluctant Polutter's diatribe at 10:03 GMT Dec 30 2010

Re: 'Your conclusion somehow doesn't follow the premise. It looks like Intifada 3 will be about twenty-something hours. If it happens at all, that is.'

You may well be right, if it takes Jewish Zionists twenty-something hours to see reason, and the daylight that the rest of the world can so easily see.

My initial conclusion recognised that impossibility. I'm happy to amend my forecast for the duration of Intifada 3 to be 'as long as it takes', rather than forever.

To Zionists, they are probably one-in-the-same. That's why the Israeli Defence Force is so frightened of stone-throwing kids. It might just happen, for the whole world to see (again), and to judge the Jewish genocide (again).

Not the WW2 genocide, that only lives in the history books. The real genocide that has been going on in Palestine since the '80s and before. Might doesn't beget right, as the International Court of Justice will re-affirm (again).

c r williams



The Youth of Gaza have gone out of the publishing business, see here http://www.sharek.ps/index.php and will shortly resort to a tested method of publication. Intifada 1 was two years and Intifada 2 was twenty-something days.

Intifada 3 could well be ... forever.


All Palestinians want justice peace.





To: Reluctant Polutter
still Jerusalem shall be international sanction. Then peace will come.

omar Ibrahim



Only way to solve this problem is Israel to accept 1967 UN resolution (or even before 1947) and Jerusalem to be International sanction.
U.S. shall not support zionism Israel any longer as they have violated international law and human rights. Israel has everything now and Palestine got nothing. We must stop Israel`s Apartheid toward Palestinian and non-Jews. Neighbouring countries are about give up on Palestin peace as Israel`s minetary power is so strong due to Sugar daddy American support. In order to reach justice and provide human dignity, U.S. need to stop supporting Israel.


khansahib says:

"If a state plays the role of a rogue state, as Israel is, and the UNO and international community does practically nothing to save the innocent citizens of a neighbouring state, then is not it logical that the non-state actors of the neighbouring state should have all those weapons that are needed to give a befitting reply?"

No, it is not logical. Giving weapons to the Palestinians will only increase their misery. Israel cannot be dislodged with weapons of war. Israel is not a rogue state. It is a state, instituted by the UN, recognized by many nations, fighting for its life, against cynical, fanatical and implacable foes.

Logic requires that Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia (which continue to remain in a state of war with Israel)renounce their state of war with Israel. Logic requires that all states offer homes to any Palestinians that want to emigrate. Logic requires that those listening to the lie being told that Israel is intransigent, look at the fact that the charter of Hamas and Hezballah (google them).

Israel cannot negotiate to create a state of peace in the Middle East. To suggest otherwise is illogical, because to negotiate, there must be a willing counterparty. There is none.

The slender thread of Israeli territory and its small population is beset by enemies seeking its to end its existence. To suggest otherwise is illogical because it would be to ignore the repeated wars launched against Israel over sixty years, the scores of thousands of missiles aimed at Israel today and the rhetoric of genocide daily broadcast against the people of Israel.

Peace cannot be imposed. To suggest otherwise is illogical, because who can make someone accept terms that are intolerable?

Palestine has never been an independent state, and never will be. To suggest otherwise is illogical because Palestinians have chosen war over peaceful coexistence.

Israel cannot withdraw from the West Bank. To suggest otherwise is illogical, because it is abundantly clear they would be woefully weakening their strategic position and leaving an implacable foe behind.

The rulers of Arab states prefer to use their Palestinian 'brothers' as a cause to divert the attention of their own peoples from the corruption, poverty and oppression they impose. It is illogical to suppose the Arab despots will seek to mollify or solve the situation, because they worship power above all else.

In the final analysis, logic will not dictate the unfolding of events in the Middle East. Not even the US can indefinitely compel the unwilling to make peace. The best we can hope for is to maintain the status quo and hope for hearts to change.

But make no mistake. Israel cannot withdraw any further.

c r williams

@ anaryl
Re: 'Peace in the Middle East, specifically Palestine, is not possible.'

Has humanity learned nothing from history? Alexander untied the Gordon Knot. Nothing is impossible.

Why should Obama pursue peace? Why can't he just do ... nothing?

Maps will be redrawn, and peace will arrive ... on the wings of a dove.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Nuovi Pensieri

It is not the United States' place to decide how the peace process in the Middle East works, but rather up to the states and acting parties involved. It's not Obama's place to force anyone's hand in the peace process, nor can the United States legislate sovereign nations into submission.

This article smacks of neoimperialism. The United States is not the world's police and brute force is not an option. However, there are concrete things to be done.

1) The Palestinian people must be given a state. They should absolutely go to the UN with their cause because the international community is the only one with the clout to actually do it.
2) The international community, and especially the US, must cease playing favorites with Israel. If they violate international law by attacking civilians or expanding into territories that are not theirs, they must face real and true punishment that any other state would.
3) European nations must step up and exert more influence in the area. The fact that their interests are perhaps more affected by a potential war since it is closer aside, they played a huge role in how the region became destabilized in the first place. They must take responsibility.

Brute force would be an abject failure, and completely impractical since the US is already fighting two wars in two very straining countries. We don't even have enough troops to fight those, much less to put a forceful foot down in another part of the Middle East.


Why would President Obama succeed in Middle East while all former Presidents failed? Give me one reason, please!


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