Seneviratne, Hussain and Israel
By K Godage August 23 , 2006
Palestine women protesting at a rally
Formerly of the SL Foreign Service
I have read with interest the debate between GS an IH and wish to recall certain facts relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict re which GS accuses IH of having an "obsessive interest".
The British government hand in glove with international Jewry and backed by the other colonial powers and the US, planted the alien Zionist entity of Israel in the heart of the Middle East. Zionist terror gangs, the Godfathers of today’s terrorists, led by Menahim Begin and Yitzak Shamir (both of whom became Prime Ministers of Israel) unleashed wave after wave of terror massacring Palestinians village by village, driving them out of their lands and later colonizing these areas with Jews from various parts of Europe and Russia. This was done with the active support of the US and the West.
In 1948 there had been only a few hundred Semitic people in the neighbourhood of Nablus. From 135 AD to 1948 there was no such thing as a Jewish state or national home. Yet without a political framework of a state or a territorial basis of a home the Jewish Diaspora scattered in many countries preserved their identity – a remarkable and astonishing feat. The belief that they were the ‘Chosen people of God’ perhaps lent itself to a national mission which gave itself the spirit to maintain itself.
Israel, a country made up of people of various ethnicities waged many expansionist wars beginning with the so called war of Independence between 1947 and 1949; the war against Egypt in 1956; the war against the Arab states in 1967, with the active assistance of Britain and the US. Ethnic cleansing and mass executions followed the creation of Israel. Between 1949 and 1956 the Israeli security forces are reported to have killed over 4000 Arabs, most of them unarmed. It is also on record that the Israeli armed forces killed hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war both in 1956 and 1967. In 1967 Israel expelled over 250,000 Palestinians from the newly conquered West Bank and drove out 80,000 Syrians from the Golan Heights. Is it not ironical that they who had suffered horrific atrocities a the hands of the Nazis were now visiting similar atrocities on the people of Palestine in particular. The famous historian Arnold Toynbee had strong words to describe the actions of the Israelis. The most recent horrific crime committed in Lebanon, when Israel for her security destroyed southern Lebanon and murdered thousands and has got away without the condemnation of the International community is a sad commentary on our world of double standards.
The explanation is the "unmatched power of the Israeli lobby in the US" states two of the foremost political commentators in the US, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their report on the Israeli Lobby. They refer to the power of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Jewish Americans have set up an impressive array or organizations to influence American foreign policy The US has since 1982 alone vetoed no less than 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel. It also blocks all attempts to put Israel’s Nuclear arsenal under IAEA supervision.
The Israeli Lobby in the US in actual fact decides and controls US policy towards the ME and Israel. Mearsheimer and Walt state that the Lobby pursues two broad strategies. First it wields significant influence in Washington, pressuring both the Congress an the executive branch. They state "what ever the individual lawmaker or policymaker’ own views be, the lobby tries to make supporting Israel the ‘smart choice’ The second it strives to ensure that public discourse portrays Israel in a positive light by repeating about its founding and by promoting in policy debates. The goal is to prevent critical comment from getting a fair hearing in the political arena. Controlling the debate is essential to guaranteeing US support, because a candid discussion of US-Israel relations might lead Americans to favour a different policy". They further state that a key pillar of the lobby’s effectiveness is its influence in Congress, where Israel is virtually immune from criticism.
Another source of the Lobby’s power is the use of pro-Israel congressional staffers. They indeed do have a more than significant say in the work of Congress.
The America- Israel Public Affairs Committee or the AIPAC extends huge financial support to Congressional candidates and it is well known that money is critical to US elections. They, the Jews of the US close ranks coast to coast to defeat candidates who do not support Israel.
The bottom line according to Mearsheim and Walt is that "the AIPAC, a De-facto agent of a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress one of the three main branches of the government". The AIPAC also wield great influence on the Executive branch namely the Presidency. Although they make up fewer that 3% of the population, they make large donations to candidates of both political parties. The Washington Post once estimated that Democratic Presidential candidates’ depend on Jewish supporters to supply 60 % of the money needed for the campaign!
It is without doubt, as Latheef Farook has stated in his eminently readable book, "War on Terrorism—-the untold story", which is a ‘must read’ for any one interested in the subject, it is American support for Israel and "the long years of western conspiracies and ongoing crimes and injustices visited on the Muslims that has driven them to take up arms to restore their rights and dignity".
In conclusion I wish to conclude with a quote from David Ben-Gurion himself; he once told Nahum Goldmann, the President of the World Jewish Congress at the time "If I were an Arab I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural; we have taken their country `85. We come from Israel but two thousand years ago and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was it their fault? They only see one thing, we have come here and stolen their country; why should they accept that?"
If the US and Israel wish to end terrorism which has spread to Britain and Europe and across the Atlantic then Israel should withdraw to its 1967 boundaries and the US could help by inviting the settlers of the previous ten years who have appropriated Arab land with state support, to resettle in the US. The US would be rid of Islamic terrorism which could most easily lead to the next world war which would envelop the entire Muslim world and undoubtedly see the use of weapons of mass destruction. It is unlikely that Israel will survive the Armageddon.
(Source: The Island- 08/23/2006) |
