It's Israel's Fault
by Charley Reese
King Features Syndicate (July 19 2006)
I was about to write a column condemning Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza and the even more heinous failure of the European Union and the United States to condemn Israel's war crime. Oh, yes, collective punishment against innocent civilians is a war crime, and it is an Israeli specialty.
However, Hezbollah struck across the Israeli border with Lebanon, kidnapped two more Israeli soldiers, and killed eight. Now Israel is inflicting collective punishment on Lebanon. You can be sure the US and the EU will fail to condemn that, too.
One Israeli writer has already noted the obvious - that Israel's over-the-top attacks on Gaza have nothing to do with trying to get one soldier freed from his kidnappers, who are apparently a small group of militants. Destroying bridges and a power plant, which means no clean water or sewage for 700,000 people, is just a dress rehearsal for Israel's long-term plan to drive the Palestinians out of Palestine.
We've already become a target of terrorism, as I predicted we would, because of our complicity in Israel's war crimes. Don't you think it's time for us to declare our independence from Israel and its powerful lobby? Don't you think it's time to get Israel's hand out of the US Treasury, from which it collects as a gift $3 billion every year? Don't you think it's time to stop protecting Israel in the United Nations, where we veto every resolution that condemns Israel's bad behavior?
The Middle East was once of great strategic value to the British Empire. It was the land bridge that allowed the British to get to the crown of the empire, India. Later on, the Suez Canal reinforced its strategic importance to the British. But the dear old empire is kaput. The sun once never set on the British Empire, and now it never rises on it.
Furthermore, the airplane has zeroed out any strategic importance for the Middle East. None of the countries in the Middle East is of any strategic importance to us, and one, Israel, is a strategic, political and financial liability. We should simply get out.
What about the oil? Well, it's concentrated mainly around the Persian Gulf, and the wonderful thing about oil, from our standpoint, is that it is worthless unless it's sold to an industrial nation that needs it. No matter who controls the countries where the oil is located, they will sell it to us. We may be Satan to the Iranians, but they will gladly sell oil to us, as did Saddam Hussein. Furthermore, the Middle East oil producers cannot themselves control the price of oil. And never fear that they will take it off the market. If they did, their economies would collapse, because other than almonds, dates, sheep and sand, those countries have nothing to offer the world without oil.
Even during the so-called oil embargo in the 1970s, the flow of oil into the United States never diminished one drop. I know. I checked the records. The lines at the gas stations were caused by the US government, which decided to ration gasoline and proved incompetent to do so.
As long as we act like the bribed bodyguard of Israel, that little country will continue to bully the Palestinians and its neighbors. It is a rogue nation. It has done nothing but fight wars and take other people's lands since its very beginning.
If we cut Israel's apron strings, however, some more sensible Israelis, who realize they cannot continue to exist indefinitely surrounded by hostile neighbors, might come to power. That's Israel's only hope for long-term survival.
In the meantime, we need to dump the Bush administration and all the bought and paid for blowhards in Congress and elect some people who have America's interests, and only America's interests, as their top priority.
Otherwise, learn to live with terrorism and terrorists.
Copyright (c) 2006 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20060719/index.php
Bill Totten http://www.ashisuto.co.jp/english/index.html
King Features Syndicate (July 19 2006)
I was about to write a column condemning Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza and the even more heinous failure of the European Union and the United States to condemn Israel's war crime. Oh, yes, collective punishment against innocent civilians is a war crime, and it is an Israeli specialty.
However, Hezbollah struck across the Israeli border with Lebanon, kidnapped two more Israeli soldiers, and killed eight. Now Israel is inflicting collective punishment on Lebanon. You can be sure the US and the EU will fail to condemn that, too.
One Israeli writer has already noted the obvious - that Israel's over-the-top attacks on Gaza have nothing to do with trying to get one soldier freed from his kidnappers, who are apparently a small group of militants. Destroying bridges and a power plant, which means no clean water or sewage for 700,000 people, is just a dress rehearsal for Israel's long-term plan to drive the Palestinians out of Palestine.
We've already become a target of terrorism, as I predicted we would, because of our complicity in Israel's war crimes. Don't you think it's time for us to declare our independence from Israel and its powerful lobby? Don't you think it's time to get Israel's hand out of the US Treasury, from which it collects as a gift $3 billion every year? Don't you think it's time to stop protecting Israel in the United Nations, where we veto every resolution that condemns Israel's bad behavior?
The Middle East was once of great strategic value to the British Empire. It was the land bridge that allowed the British to get to the crown of the empire, India. Later on, the Suez Canal reinforced its strategic importance to the British. But the dear old empire is kaput. The sun once never set on the British Empire, and now it never rises on it.
Furthermore, the airplane has zeroed out any strategic importance for the Middle East. None of the countries in the Middle East is of any strategic importance to us, and one, Israel, is a strategic, political and financial liability. We should simply get out.
What about the oil? Well, it's concentrated mainly around the Persian Gulf, and the wonderful thing about oil, from our standpoint, is that it is worthless unless it's sold to an industrial nation that needs it. No matter who controls the countries where the oil is located, they will sell it to us. We may be Satan to the Iranians, but they will gladly sell oil to us, as did Saddam Hussein. Furthermore, the Middle East oil producers cannot themselves control the price of oil. And never fear that they will take it off the market. If they did, their economies would collapse, because other than almonds, dates, sheep and sand, those countries have nothing to offer the world without oil.
Even during the so-called oil embargo in the 1970s, the flow of oil into the United States never diminished one drop. I know. I checked the records. The lines at the gas stations were caused by the US government, which decided to ration gasoline and proved incompetent to do so.
As long as we act like the bribed bodyguard of Israel, that little country will continue to bully the Palestinians and its neighbors. It is a rogue nation. It has done nothing but fight wars and take other people's lands since its very beginning.
If we cut Israel's apron strings, however, some more sensible Israelis, who realize they cannot continue to exist indefinitely surrounded by hostile neighbors, might come to power. That's Israel's only hope for long-term survival.
In the meantime, we need to dump the Bush administration and all the bought and paid for blowhards in Congress and elect some people who have America's interests, and only America's interests, as their top priority.
Otherwise, learn to live with terrorism and terrorists.
Copyright (c) 2006 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20060719/index.php
Bill Totten http://www.ashisuto.co.jp/english/index.html
posted by Bill Totten at
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