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The Price Of Israel
(Charley Reese, December 18, 2002)
. . . the total cost of U.S. support for Israel since 1973 is $1.6 trillion, or twice the cost of the Vietnam War. . . . This is relevant because the Israelis have just demanded from the U.S. taxpayers another $4 billion to cover the cost of their oppression of the Palestinians as well as an $8 billion loan guarantee. . . . He points out that the United States has already guaranteed $10 billion in commercial loans to Israel and $600 billion in housing loans, and he expects the U.S. Treasury will end up paying for all of these. . . . It is the only foreign country that gets its aid in a lump sum and then invests it in U.S. bonds so that taxpayers not only make an annual gift to Israel but also have to pay Israel interest on that gift. . . . The fact is that the Israeli government and its powerful lobby have taken advantage of the good-heartedness of the American people. . . . It's America's policy of absolute support for Israel and Israel's cruel treatment of the Palestinians that are a big part of our problem with terrorism. We stand convicted in the eyes of the Muslim world of practicing a double standard by condoning Israel's human-rights violations and protecting it from international sanctions. That, too, is a terrible price the American people can no longer afford to pay.

posted by LoZo 10:13 AM

 

A World Wide Intifada? Why?
(William Cook, CounterPunch, December 7, 2002)
Most Americans know nothing about the way in which Israel was created. They do not know that Britain turned Palestine over to the UN for resolution because it could not continue its governance in light of the rising tensions that existed between Zionists and Palestinians. . . . Americans receive most of their information regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from corporate controlled, politically manipulated mainstream media. Few have the opportunity to scrutinize the reality of the history that has resulted in the tensions that exist in the mid-east. Few know that Palestinians are, in all legitimate ways, the indigenous population of the area; that the land now occupied by the Israelis was owned by the Palestinians; that in 1870, 98% of the population was Arab and only 2% Jewish; that in 1940, Palestinians accounted for 69% of the population even as Jews thronged to the area from Europe in an attempt to escape the Nazis . . . On May 4, 2002, the New York Times reported that "It is safe to say that the infrastructure of life itself and of any future Palestinian state � roads, schools, electricity pylons, water pipes, telephone lines � has been devastated." The most recent estimate of the infrastructure damage alone by the UN and the World Bank comes to over 361 million dollars. The totality of Sharon's destruction can never be known because Sharon refused to admit the United Nations to inspect the carnage . . . The United States, led by a "reborn" Christian, supported by a fundamentalist Attorney General and by fundamentalist denominations like Pat Robertson's, rally behind support of Israel because they believe that their God has determined that the Jews must be resident in "Judea" if they are to be converted to the one true faith, Christianity. They willingly accept the necessity of Sharon's slaughter of the Palestinians to accomplish that goal. . . . Beyond America's image as overseer of Israel and protector of her right to exist, is the image created by America as the protector of transnational corporations. This image coupled with the presence of America's military creates a negative image of the US as the perpetrator of Third World exploitation, the destroyer of forests, minerals, metal resources, land, and people. And the people of these poor nations must live with the environmental disasters, soil erosion, pollution, poisonings from toxic waste, and industrial accidents. With only 5% of the world's population America emits 1.5 billion tons per year of carbon dioxide, a quarter of the world's total. . . . In addition, the United States military presence in a hundred and fifty nations, ostensibly for the protection of US interests, results in huge areas owned and/or controlled by a foreign power. As the US pours millions of dollars into the economy of these countries, the benefits are seen by the local population as going to the local power elite, as is evident most recently in the case of Saudi Arabia. . . . As a result of America's monetary support since its founding in 1947, Israel has prospered militarily and economically at a rate far greater and faster than any other nation anywhere. The US has poured more than 3 billion a year into the Israeli military since 1947, an amount that since 1995 equals more than 8 trillion dollars. Considering that this investment ensures the continuation of the military-industrial complex in the US, since Israel is required, by the agreement that provides this support, to buy three quarters of its equipment and technology from US firms, it is crystal clear why the corporate elite desire to maintain Israel's dominance in the mid-east. . . . Unless the US and the west recognize the inherent and explosive consequences generated by their indifference to the plight of those exploited, unless sincere attempts are made to realign the disparity between the haves and the have-nots, unless the arrogance of the elite changes to empathy for the deprived, the vicious and insidious behaviors of the fanatics, the desperate, and the powerful will explode throughout America.

posted by LoZo 12:22 PM

 

British academic boycott of Israel gathers pace
(Andy Beckett and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, December 12, 2002)
British academics have delivered a series of snubs to their Israeli counterparts since the idea of a boycott first gained ground in the spring. . . . Colin Blakemore, an Oxford University professor of physiology, who supports a boycott, said: "I do not know of any British academic who has been to a conference in Israel in the last six months." . . . initially rejected by the respected British journal Political Geography. He said it was returned to him unopened with a note stating that Political Geography could not accept a submission from Israel. . . . Mr Yiftachel said that, after months of negotiation, the article is to be published but only after he agreed to make substantial revisions, including making a comparison between his homeland and apartheid South Africa.

posted by LoZo 10:47 AM