Posted By Mark Perry
Monday, November 15, 2010 - 12:22 PM
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A legendary story from our early history has it that Thomas Jefferson so hated John Jay that he ordered Pierre L'Enfant -- the civil engineer who designed our capital city -- to excise any reference to Jay (including "J Street") from his plans. The story is apocryphal, but the history behind it isn't. For Jefferson, Jay was an arch appeaser: his 1795 treaty with Britain provided concessions to a nation we had defeated in our revolution. Jefferson wasn't the only one who hated the treaty. While Jay's agreement was ratified by the Congress, he was burned in effigy by New York and Philadelphia mobs and the treaty so stained his reputation that he was never considered for the presidency. Jefferson didn't make the same mistake. When the Pasha of Barbary demanded ransom for U.S. ships he had seized, Jefferson sent a U.S. naval squadron to punish him. The resulting victory is now celebrated with a half-verse in the Marine Corps hymn (which celebrates the triumph on "the shores of Tripoli") and a knock-out political slogan that energized a nation: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
If only Jefferson could see us now. This weekend, the Obama administration promised to turn over $3 billion in stealth fighters to Israel (supplementing the 20 F-35s it will buy with the $2.75 billion in "grants" it gets from Washington) and veto any U.N. resolution that questions Israel's legitimacy -- all in exchange for Israel's pledge to extend a ten-month partial settlement moratorium for another 90 days. This is a bad idea. And it's dangerous. There are differences, of course, between the events of the last 24 hours and the crisis that Jefferson faced in 1804. Then, we protested that we were "paying tribute," now we are "providing incentives." Then too, Israel is not making any "demands," they are simply (in Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's words) "insisting." Oh -- and let's not forget -- the pirates of Barbary were America's "enemy." That's a lot different than now; Israel is our "friend."
This administration's decision would be shocking were it not so predictable. Back on October 20, State Department spokesman Andrew Shapiro reassured the press that a $60 billion U.S. arms transfer to Saudi Arabia would go forward because "Israel does not object..." Shapiro's statement passed with nary an eye blink in L'Enfant's city, where Israel's approval is apparently required for America to do anything in the Middle East. But Shapiro's tone-deafness is hardly limited to dime-a-dozen spokespersons. In the wake of General Petreaus' controversial March testimony that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "foments anti-American sentiment" (stop the presses), Hillary Clinton went out of her way to reassure Israelis that "we are committed to Israel's security," a soothing word-for-word mantra repeated by Barack Obama (July 6), Joe Biden (November 7) and any old American official behind a microphone (P.J. Crowley, August 4). The administration doesn't get it: the question is not whether we are committed to Israel's security, but whether they're committed to ours.
The tone-deafness evidenced by Andrew Shapiro is now an all-consuming part of public policy, extending to every part of the American government -- and beyond. When Elena Kagan testified during her confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, she cited Israel jurist Aharon Barak as her model, because he was the "John Marshall of the State of Israel." Kagan might well be a brilliant justice, but I would have thought she would cite Marshall as her model. Reminded that Barak was a judicial activist (and therefore not necessarily acceptable for some committee members), Kagan gave a ready explanation: "Israel means a lot to me," she explained. Enough said. When David Petreaus was criticized by Israel advocates for his March testimony, he backtracked, asking neo-conservative Max Boot (in an email he carelessly sent to a blogger) whether it would help "if folks know that I hosted Elie Wiesel and his wife at our quarters last Sun night?" Petreaus is our nation's most influential military officer since Eisenhower. Guess what? He's afraid of Israel's lobby. And when Angela Merkel addressed the U.S. Congress in November of 2009, she didn't talk about American security, but Israeli security. "Security for the state of Israel is, for me, non-negotiable," she said. "Whoever threatens Israel also threatens us." Even senior aides to the otherwise pro-Israel Congress were puzzled. "Maybe she thought she was talking to the Knesset," one of them said. Finally, Republican Eric Cantor recently told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the new Republican majority would serve as "a check on the administration" in any dispute with Israel -- a statement so astonishing that one pro-Israel journalist viewed it as not only unprecedented, but "extraordinary."
None of this has been lost on the administration, which is apparently intent on proving to Cantor (and the new Republican majority) that it's as committed to Israel as they are. Or more. On October 25, Dennis Ross, the White House point person on the Middle East, told a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that not only is America committed "to Israel's security", but that the U.S. commitment "has also been demonstrated in our work to defeat efforts in international organizations to single out or delegitimize Israel." This is new, but undoubtedly welcome to Israel's supporters: the U.S. will not only defend Israel, it will silence its critics. The Ross pledge was ostensibly made to bar a U.N. move for Palestinian statehood which, under the agreement, would be vetoed by the U.S. But the administration's new promise has far reaching consequences. It pledges U.S. opposition to Israeli compliance with international agreements on nuclear weapons (explicitly mentioned by Ross), the criticisms issued by Judge Goldstone in his report of Operation Cast Lead against Gaza, and any U.N action condemning Israel for its May boarding of a ship on which 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, an American citizen, was killed. That investigation, which the U.S. insisted be "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent," is now (at America's urging) in the hands of an investigation run by the Israelis.
The Ross message to AIPAC was repeated by Vice President Biden during a meeting of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans, just two weeks later. The Biden speech included the administration's mantra -- "we are absolutely, unequivocally committed to Israel's security" -- and then focused on the administration's new effort to fight any questioning of Israel's actions, extending to the international community the view now required of every American -- that Israel not only be defended, but viewed as above criticism. Biden bragged about his role in defending Israeli actions during the flotilla episode in his New Orleans speech. "That's why, at the direction of President Obama...I spent hour after hour in the aftermath of the flotilla incident, trying to put it in its proper focus and ensure that Israel had its right to conduct its own independent investigation." Breathtaking: people weren't opposed to Israel's right to "conduct its own independent investigation" (who cares?), they simply believed that any Israeli inquiry would be a Moscow show trial in reverse: instead of being automatically condemned, the accused would be automatically acquitted. The message to American citizens is clear: if a Muslim kills you it's because he's a terrorist, if an Israeli kills you, it's because you're a terrorist.
The Obama Administration's newest promise to Israel is abject, embarrassing and gutless. Our country -- our president -- is rewarding a foreign leader who openly boasts that America "is something that can easily be moved," who urges a waiting game with the U.S. because he knows that Israel's friends in the Congress will defy a president who opposes him, who tells his cabinet that he will outfox Barack Obama. We are paying Israel to do something that is in their own interests -- and very much not in ours. That's extortion. The Obama Administration has this dangerously wrong. F-35s? This is not a defensive weapon. The jet is the most advanced air system in the world, with a round-trip capability that puts Tehran in range of Tel Aviv. The message, intended or not, will be heard by Iran: we're not interested in allowing Israel to defend itself, we're interested in having it attack others. The administration has not made Israel stronger, they've made America more vulnerable. We are purposely escalating the regional sprint to acquire weapons that will eventually, and inevitably, kill American soldiers. We have lost our way. It is not Israel's legitimacy that needs defending, but ours.
This is not the first time this has happened. During his second administration, George Washington faced a similar test and finally, if reluctantly, agreed to pay ransom to the Barbary extortionists. He had little choice: the U.S. had no navy and little international leverage. Then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson opposed paying of the tribute, but acceded to Washington decision. It was a terrible mistake: in 1795, the U.S. paid $1 million in cash and turned over valuable naval stores to keep the peace in North Africa. It didn't work. The Pashas of Barbary demanded more. George Washington, the father of our country, was a very great man. But in this one case he was wrong; and Thomas Jefferson was right: "Paying tribute," he said, "will merely invite more demands."
Mark Perry is a military and political analyst and author of eight books, including Partners In Command, George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace, and the recently released Talking To Terrorists.
AFP/Getty images
EXPLORE:MIDDLE EAST, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, ISRAEL/PALESTINE, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY 
The pledge of allegiance should be reworded from "under god" to "under Israel"
The tail is mightier then the dog!
this should be sent to all and every American patriot.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Talmudic States of America, and to the tyranny for which it stands, one nation under Israel, divided, with food and entertainment for all.
to allah you jew hater
Poor Mark Perry; he just hates democracy, especially American democracy. He yearns for a world in which egg heads like him get to make all the foreign policy decisions based on their superior knowledge, their superior intellect and their superior morality. How terrible it must be for him that politicians, who actually have to get elected by winning more votes than their opponents, get to craft American foreign policy, not effete members of the intellectual set like Mark Perry.
In case he hasn't noticed, every recent poll on the subject shows that Israel is more popular amongst Americans than at any time in history. These same polls show that the Palestinian Authority has a popularity level of around ten percent, which puts the Palestinians in about the same neighborhood when it comes to popularity as the Iranians. Given how Americans despise the PA one can't help but wonder what the popularity of Hamas would be amongst Americans if that was asked in a poll question.
Americans support a two-state solution and they want the United States to be fair to both parties, but unlike Mr. Perry and his fellow members of the out of touch intelligentsia, Americans correctly blame Palestinians for lack of progress in the Middle East not the Israelis.
The bottom line is that Americans keep electing congressmen and senators who staunchly support Israel and view the Palestinians with suspicion. The President has to return to the same voters in two years who just made Eric Cantor House Majority Leader and ask for their vote. Angering America's most important ally in the Middle East has been proven over and over again to be a poor position from which to ask American voters to support you; President Obama understands this. He also understands that providing Israel with F-35s won't cost him one vote but may win him many. The problem for Mr. Perry is that while he might not see Israel as America's most important ally in the Middle East, millions of Jewish Americans do, and so do tens of millions of Christian Americans. Is this fact okay with Mr. Perry or does he only support democracy for the Palestinians while hating it for Americans?
Mr. Perry may have given it his best shot with his little blog post, but his problem is simple; the American people have heard his argument and decided that he's wrong. He and his fellow travelers have lost the argument. They have proven pathetically unable to elect candidates who agree with them; the reason for this is simple-very few Americans do agree with them.
No wonder they hate the fact that when it comes to American foreign policy in the Middle East, the people decide through their elected representatives not the embittered outcasts like Mark Perry and friends.
SUPPORTING OUR STANCHEST ALLEY UNTILL *HE* RETURNS
WELL WIGWAM, I DEFINATELY AGREE WITH YOU.
WELL I DO'NT KNOW IF YOUR ISREALI OR NOT, BUT THEIR'S SO MANY OF US AMERICAN'S WHOM SUPPORT ISREAL THROUGH OUR DEMOCRATIC VOTE'S BUT ALSO THROUGH OUR CHRISTIAN HEART BECASUE WE KNOW:
JESUS CHRIST WO'NT RETURN TO EARTH WIHTOUT THE EXISTANCE OF ISREAL. WE NEED THE JEW TO BE IN ISREAL SO THEY CAN CONVERT TO CHRISTIAN WHEN *HE* RETURNS TO BRING ABOTU THE RAPTURE.
WELL I JUST WANT TO THANK ALL THE JEW'S WHOM ARE LIVEING IN ISREAL BECASUE SOME DAY YOU WILL INSURE THAT ME AND MY CHRISTIAN BROTHER'S GET INTO HEAVAN.
WELL ANY WAYS, I AM SO HAPPY THAT ALL THE HUNDERD'S OF ANTI-ISREAL CANDEDATE'S WEAR DEFEATED AT THE POLL'S LAST MONTH IN AMERICA.
WIGWAG's 'Mark Perry Hates Democracy'
For WIGWAG:
Wherever did you get the idea that Israel is an ally of the U.S.? There exists no alliance treaty in place between America and Israel. Israel is not only not our ally, it isn't even our friend. However, I can understand that fact being lost on you since instead of reasoned rebuttal to that which you disagree, you simply digress to insult and smear. I guess you've picked up on that tactic through exposure to the constant screeds gurgitated by the neocons and AIPAC. And BTW, you might be surprised as to how many real people (as opposed to bought politicians) in this country have become completely fed-up with Bibi and his Likud Zionists and by extension, Israel itself.
The polls also show that Israel has the highest negative it has ever had in the US as well. This is a *very* important point. There are always going to be a fair number of Zionists who are reflexively supportive of Israel no matter what they do. In the US (probably around the world) these are right wing Christians like Hagee and his ilk. What should be alarming for you WIGWAG and all other supporters of Israel is that, to a larger extent than ever before, the American Public is on to Israel. There is a greater and greater understanding in the US that Israel is a bully that is persecuting the Palestinians and is doing so ultimately at the expense of the US. This has been understood for a long long time on the extreme left and right in the US. This is creeping slowly (too slowly in my opinion) into the middle. You now have an increasing number on the mainstream left that are also viewing our support for Israel as misguided. And those numbers are going up and doing so faster than the support for Israel is going up.
The more who know, the more this will grow. As the number of people who use the web as their primary source of information continues to get grow this will eventually grow to a critical mass. Time is not on your side.
The American People Have NOT Heard His Argument
Question: Which country's mass media does a better job of telling both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel or the United States?
Answer: The Israeli press. The American press presents a very narrow viewpoint which can be summarized as: Israel always right; Muslims always wrong.
The Israeli press publishes columnists who regularly give the Palestinian point of view. There is no similar columnist in the United States.
Censorship regularly occurs in the American media with regard to Israel and the Jews. A four part series on Fox News (of all places!) quoted a member of the U.S. security establishment saying, "there are tie-in between Israel and 9/11, but that information is classified. The story quickly disappeared into a black hole; the Fox web page which formerly contained the transcript, now says "this story no longer exists."
When the president of Iran said, "the regime occupying Jerusalem will vanish from the pages of time," the American press alleged that he said, "We will wipe Israel off the map."
(See MEMRI's translation for confirmation of this.)
Such fabricated propaganda regularly appears in the American press in support of Israel and which demonizes Israel's enemies. Therefore, it is no surprise that, fed a steady diet of lies, poll results will favor Israel.
"In case he hasn't noticed, every recent poll on the subject shows that Israel is more popular amongst Americans than at any time in history."
Really?
U.S. support for Israel is decreasing, new poll shows
http://tinyurl.com/32rr2gp
Leigh O'Neill, the Arab American Institute's Director of Government Relations, has AAI poll that begins to tell a different story. Conducted in the middle of March the poll showed that, while Americans do hold more favorable view of Israel than the Palestinians, a majority also believed that "it’s time for the U.S. to 'get tough' with Israel 'to stop building settlements.'” There was also an overwhelming belief, (81% - 15%) that the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a negative impact on U.S. interests." Paints a different picture, doesn't it?
And of course even that poll was before the flotilla. Didi Remez posted the leaked results of a Frank Luntz poll taken following the flotilla attack which showed:
1. 56% of Americans agree with the claim that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza;
2. 43% of Americans agree with the claim that people in Gaza are starving;
3. [Only] 34% of Americans support the Israeli operation against the Flotilla;
4. [Only] 20% of Americans “felt support” for Israel following announcement of easing of Gaza closure.
So, in February 63% of Americans felt their sympathies were with Israel, and by June only 20% of Americans felt support for Israel - and this was after they eased the Gaza blockade to ostensibly improve their international image. I'd say it's been a rough few months for Israeli hasbara.
Thanks for reminding us of the way things used to be WIGWAG!
I find it absurd to think Israel will eventually use these weapons on American soldiers. I can understand being a pessimist, but Israel would have no obligation or reasoning to attack us? (if there is one...please explain)
And if you think about our failed negotiations with Iran, this trade off almost seems genius. Now, we dont have to deal with Iran. Instead, Israel does (with a little bit of our muscle). Iran is threatening to wipe Israel off the map, and if these WMD are made, is a legitimate threat. That being said, even the muppet UN would support a destabilizing attack on Iran from Israel in this circumstance.
I know many people have very strong hatred for Israel's being, but before you people speak emotionally, think about the cost-benefit of supporting a friend like Israel. Please, Im so tired of every blogger/columnist blaming our support for Israel on lobbyist. It is a very high strategic interest to support Israel. And yes, I'm sure domestic moneies are the icing to the cake, but we cant forget how important it is to work multilaterally. It would be terrible to cold-cock the only nation in which supports our interests and values in the Middle East.
So many times I find people complaining about the close-minded foreign policy GW Bush held and demonstrated, but then turn around and claim we must cut off our strongest ally in the middle east. Its double speak, and I find it ignorant.
To support the two state solution is to support a terrorist agenda. Yes, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist groups all use tactics, in which their end game is not peace with Israel, but a complete demolition of the Israeli state. Palestine, Iran, Syria all support these groups, and hold strong to the same values. Palestine does not want peace with Israel, they want NO Israel. Doing so would defy basic human rights (right to passage, right to live, right to resources). And further more, to support Palestine is also to defy human rights (again, as what happened on the West Bank). Giving in to another terrorist and/or Palestinian threat would never solve this conflict, it will only require even more demands, until the terrorist agenda is achieved.
In return, the only way peace can be achieved is to NOT give into to terrorist/Palestinian demands. Ive typed much, but would be willing to explain in detail how.
Sure Israel would attack us - using their nukes - and making it look like an Iranian terrorist attack on one (or more) of our cities - and they would likely get away with it. Israel has only one interest: Israel. The US is only means to provide them with money, weapons and protection. Should the American public ever wise up, Israel may very likely attack us in stealth. They have the means, they have the capability and they could easily have the wherewithal. But I expect that barring some completely unforeseen scenario, the US will continue to kowtow to our Israel masters and do their bidding.
german people were hitlers lapdogs. you can thank hitler.
An alliance with Israel is a legal impossibility
Until she defines her borders, an alliance between Israel and the United States is a legal impossibility. It isn't even possible to have an honest discussion about peace between Israel and the PA without her first defining what is and is not Israel. Why she chooses not to do define her territorial boundaries, something EVERY other sovreign nation historically has done, I leave for others to decide.
The American government is perfectly content with letting nearly a third of America's population fall into poverty, yet it has no problem at all giving billions of dollars to foreign countries just so that they'll stop breaking international law for THREE MONTHS.
Truly, it is remarkable. Where are they even getting the money for this?! Doesn't America owe several trillion dollars to various nations? How do they have billion-dollar jets (not to mention the $3 billion/year they already give Israel) to just throw around?
Thoughful and honest critique of Israeli and American foreign policy. Let's have some more truth-telling!
I think this tragic capitulation is a reflection of the piraling of the US into irrelevancy and Israel smells blood in the water.
I recall from biology that anytime the host to a parasite is weakened, the parasite’s metabolism increased, hastening the demise of its host and destroying itself in the process. We are now witnessing this phenomenon with Israel and US.
to neonazi
I wouldn't define a "parasite" as a country that ranks #2 for listings on NASDAQ, more tech startups per capita than any other country (per David Brooks, but look at everything from ICQ to Amdocs to Better Place, and you see it's true), and a net exporter of military hardware. And if you happen to be referring not to Israelis, but to Jews, I can see how you'd be upset with the people that contributed more fighting men per capita (at 1+ million) to destroying Nazi Germany than any other nation.
You forget that the US was so eager to appease the Arab League that it promised Israel military aid in return for its vacating of Sinai after 1973. That aid is not an obligation - it's mostly a subsidy to US defense contractors, who have reason to fear Israel exporting fighters with more advanced avionics and targeting systems than the US can develop domestically. When its planes cost more than $100M retail a piece, it's Lockheed Martin that is more parasite than host.
And explain how Israel is "destroying itself" by weathering the recession with virtually no hit to employment.
I know, I'm just humoring your mirror-image propaganda. If you want to talk parasites, explain what the US and EU's aid money to Ramallah has earned them, aside from a fountain of Arab hate literature, bus bombings, and enablement for the UNRWA's welfare cases. Take that aid into account, along with the fact that PA-run towns like Jenin have their sewage canalized and treated by Israel, and Gaza receives its electricity largely from Israel, and you've got a great description of what a real "parasite" does.
Although this is an astute, necessary, and (coming from Foreign Policy's website) ground-breaking review of American submission to Israel, I dare to ask: How can you be presenting this as a new thing?
The US has been rewarding Israel's bad behavior with both appalling diplomatic cover (see records of UNGA, UNSC, Durban racism conferences, anything to do with Gaza crimes) and billions of taxpayer dollars for weapons, at the expense of its own interest, for decades.
Decades!
Just because the latest manifestation now falls in the category of an obvious bribe does not make it any more unique or troubling. What's missing here is the placement of the latest episode in the historical continuum of bad 'policy', if it can be called that.
More Biased Drivel from Mark Perry
What about the "gift" the U.S. and NATO just gave to Turkey in exchange for them allowing defensive radar systems on Turkish territory. We had to "pay tribute" by agreeing not to specifically target their pals Iran and Syria and give Turkey (Erdogan and his the Islamic leaning party) control of our defensive system designed to protect Europe and the U.S. Is that in our national interest?
In case you and your anti-Israel followers haven't figured it out yet, Iran and their terrorist allies are the biggest security threat to the United States. Israel is not just the only democracy in the middle east but the only military counterbalance to Iran. If Israel goes away the entire middle east (and the oil) fall under the control of Iran. If Iran (and their allies) get nuclear weapons, God help us all.
You consider Israel to be the only democracy in the middle east? What about Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan (as democratic as England given the similarity of the political form) … Not all the folks here don’t drink that kool aid.
If you seek light, seek the source of light and not a reflection. If you seek a reflection, seek not me.
Not all the folks here drink that kool aid.
To Reflection: since when is Jordan democratic?
The Quraysh clan was installed by Britain, which confiscated over half of the Jewish National Home ratified by the League of Nations. King Abdullah won't allow most Arabs that identify themselves as "Palestinians" to receive Jordanian passports, or hold public office. That's not a democracy, considering that Arabs identifying as "Palestinians" are over 80% of Jordan's population. The ratio of Jews to Arabs in the West Bank is higher than the ratio of "Jordanians" (Chechens, Cherkesh, northern Bedouin tribes) to "Palestinians." Maybe King Abdullah knows something we don't - maybe the self-described Palestinians have too much mixed Qipchaq Turkic, Persian, Greek, and Frankish blood to legitimately claim Bedouin Arab descent. But "Jordanian" identity is a wholly modern artifact as well.
As for Turkey, what do you call it when a horde of Mongols (pardon my French, "Seljuk," "Ottoman," etc.) occupy Kurdistan and Western Armenian, and deny their victims any self-rule? Is that democracy? Remember a few years back, when Kurds were arrested for speaking their own language?
Gaza is democratic, but doesn't accept the state system represented by the UN, since Hamas' charter calls for Israel's destruction. It's also illegal (per Hamas) to be anything but a Muslim there. In PA-controlled areas, while the government was not democratically elected, death sentences are a group sport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mM1SPk_5OM#t=4m13s . I don't think the State Department endorses democracy without rule by law, or in lieu of human rights (like due process, vs. being stomped to death by a mob extrajudicially).
Israel is, on the other hand, a place where Arabs, Ethiopians and Israelites (Jews and Samaritans) can all hold public office, study at universities, and hold jobs. There are even a few Israeli Arab IDF officers. It's not a crime to be a Muslim or Christian there, either. You may be upset that Israel is also the homeland and sanctuary for the autochthanous ethnic groups that gave Judea and Samaria its names, but if Thais get to run Thailand and Poles Poland, then what's fair is fair.
Perry is biased and has been paid to oppose Israel
Before you get excited that Perry provides some sort of "scholarship", it is easy to find out that Perry is nothing more than a paid opponent of one of the USA's friends and allies.
If you visit wikipedia you can see he served as an advisor to the PLO and is a frequent commentator on Al Jazeera. Who knows what other interests he is trying to pursue. So who is the Benedict Arnold here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Perry_(author)
It is disappointing that Foreign Policy would publish this sort of this anti-Israel vitriol masking as informed opinion.
A lesson learnt a long time ago; yet, liars still think someone listens to them or even care to talk to them. A golden rule is to always expect the opposite of what is being said.
Cheers Everyone.
As you have allowed others to be treated, so shall you exist
There is a bit of “karma” within the monotheistic religions. See Mathew 18:18. But unlike other concepts of karma, monotheistic karma is based on what you have allowed to happen. It could be that you allowed others to have their land taken, their rights ignored, and their right to bring charges against war crimes blocked. These and others have been done by the US Government in supporting the squatter state. So how do you address this?
We see the results: joblessness, high fuel costs, porno scanners at the airports, worse if you do not allow your wife and children to be scanned. Continue along these lines if you want, or stand up for justice for the Palestineans and anyone else unjustly treated.
If you seek light, seek the source of light and not a reflection. If you seek a reflection, seek not me.
In your role as PLO advisor, did you advise Arafat to deny that the Temple of Solomon ever existed (contradicting both the historical record and the Qur'an)?
Did you recommend that the PLO squander its post-Oslo autonomy over Area A towns by murdering 2,000 Israeli civilians (and destroying the local economy in the process) in the second Intifada?
Exactly which "advice" did you dispense?
Like any pol in Ramallah would, you've blown past the issue at hand, which is the US asking Israel to help keep the West Bank judenrein (Jew-free) by creating hurdles to Jewish residence there. Whether these Jews are rebuilding the homes where their families lived before being ethnically cleansed by the local Arabs (viz. Hebron in 1929, Gush Etzion, etc.), or have helped employ local Arabs (who now risk arrest by Mahmoud Abbas' PA for so much as buying a liter of Israeli bottled water), your focus is instead on complaining that the US takes Israel's interests into concern whatsoever.
A historical perspective on what we call "settlements" is missing from the media, across the political spectrum. Let's make a few things clear: the only Arabs living on Israel's modern-day borders at the time of the Mohammedan conquest were the Banu Lakhm and Banu Judham tribes; all others came as occupiers. Jewish residence in Israel continued through history, in spite of the Arabs' expropriation of land (via shari'a inheritance laws that favored false witness by Muslims over Jewish landowners), crippling kharaj and jizya taxes, the Fatimid civil war, Turcoman occupation, and even the Crusades. The Cairo Geniza and other documents point to majority Jewish residence up to the Crusades in Haifa, Tiberias, Hebron, Eilat, and elsewhere, with Samaritans holding their own in Shechem ("Nablus"). Even when the Mamluks (not an ethnic group - just mercenaries) and Ottoman Turks re-enacted the Greek Byzantine prohibition on Jewish residence in Jerusalem, Jews fought to maintain their existence in Peki'in and other towns. You must acknowledge that Arabs are occupiers. If you don't like the facts, go burn down the libraries preserving the Geniza, and destroy every copy of Muqaddasi - Arafat would have done it himself if he could.
Secondly, the Turco-Arab effendis ruling Arab-majority cities in the British Mandate of Palestine sold plenty of land to Jews - including Arafat's Hussayni clan. Try to locate and burn the land deeds.
Thirdly, even B'Tselem, which pretends that use of land by Bedouins for nomadic grazing constitutes ownership (which must aggravate the effendis' descendants), concedes that in many cases, Arab tenants in the Shomron ("West Bank" is a modern concept) lack registered title and/or deed to the land under the government(s) that previously administered said territory (namely, the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, and Transjordan/Jordan), all of whom have no outstanding land claims in the region. And the Jordan Valley was largely uninhabited before Jews brought their invention of drip irrigation to the arid region. Perhaps you can forge Ottoman land deeds for all of the Arab families that immigrated to the British Mandate in the 1920s-1940s in search of work?
So Mr. Perry, what is the real problem here, in your opinion? That the US tries to create incentives for Israel to trade its land for promises from the Ramallah fiefdom, or that Jews dare continue to live in land occupied by Arabs?
I am sorry to say, but this article proves that Americans were born yesterday. A US friend of mine once said that history to an American is a big gap between ancient Rome and WWII. Agree with poster above -since Mark Perry was an adviser to a Holocaust denier like Arafat (and his successor) then it's no surprise what else he denies. For the anti-Israel comments, come on we get it already, this is a nice new excuse for you to continue hatred of Jews. Read a history book for grown-ups sometime, most of you have never been to ME or understand who came from where. I see a pattern, FP hired Perry, Meirsheimer, Walt, what's the matter, was David Irving too busy to write a tirade against Jews in your magazine?
I read that liberals tend to have lots of "novelty seeking" dopamine receptor genes -nothing more novel than PLO vision of history. You of course are entitled to your doctrinaire beliefs, but get the facts right -the Middle East did not begin in 1948, so sorry, try again. Israel is already paying $100m per F-35 on its original order, more than other countries, so this is a fair discount. Or would you have them defenseless altogether?
I salute the bravery, Mark Perry has world-class chutzpah. This courageous piece of writing is a refreshing antidote to the daily ration of AIPAC and COPOMAJO Kool-Aid.
What's good for Israel is seldom good for the USA; Mr. Perry helps to substantiate that argument, with concrete examples of American submission to the selfish demands of foreign theocrats.
I have always believed that US aid to the Jewish State violates the Establishment Clause. Apparently, establishing a Jewish theocracy outside the borders of our union of states is Constitutionally permissible. The Founders would be perplexed at this.
President. Obama recently offered the Israelis 20 free F-35's, our UN vote (and veto), an agreement that IDF soldiers will be garrisoned in the Jordan valley (at US expense) in any future Palestinian State and that this is a final freeze request and one more thing, East Jerusalem will not be affected by any freeze. The Israelis get all that, for a lousy 90-day partial moratorium on building and still this fabulous proposal is meeting resistance in Israel.
Incredible!
This is all ludicrous, in light of the fact that Hamas and the hapless Arab refugees in Gaza are not part of the negotiations; there's no seat at the table for these destitute and desperate people. Deprived of a ballot, their only perceived alternative is the bullet....a mortar round.... or a home-built rocket. This is a recipe for eternal holy war.
Holy Wars Suck.
State religion does not equal "theocracy"
In a confessional state like Costa Rica, you must be Catholic to hold public office. Thailand has moved in recent years to amend its constitution, so that 2,500-year old Buddhism is made state religion, although it is not a political religion (unlike the ummah concept and dar al-Harb/dar al-Sulh/dar al-Islam in Mohammedanism). I haven't heard a peep from you or anyone else about there being a problem with this. And in case you don't have books where you live, neither the chief rabbinate, nor G-d, is the supreme ruler of Israel. But anyway, to borrow your philosophically flexible definition of "theocracy," Costa Rica is more theocratic than Israel. I hope you didn't spend too much for that Humanities diploma.
To New_York_Loner: look who's kept hapless
Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkGnarA87v0 and explain to me: why is it that neither the PA, nor Hamas, dismantle the refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank? Is it because the UNRWA gives the local Arabs cradle-to-grave living and housing stipends, so that no one has to work? Is it maybe because the Arab League agrees that creating 'reverse Potemkin villages' of squalor is a vital PR tool? Could it be because the UNRWA's staffers are assured lifelong employment so long as the con the world into the fiction of "permanent refugee" status?
This is all a bit too much like Sierra Leone, where so many aid dollars poured in as to afford the average wounded citizen multiple prosthetic devices, but they still take off their artificial limbs for the camera, to beg for more. 738,576 tons of humanitarian aid were transferred into the Gaza Strip in 2009, with the UN providing $200 million in aid to Gaza in that same period. By contrast, Haiti has received only 5% of that amount from the UN. I guess it's not about who is in need, or even fixing the problem, but who can be blamed in perpetuity for everything, right Loner?
So, according to you, the Arab refugees in Gaza, the Arab League and the UN are all gaming the system; like welfare moms and deadbeat dads and their enablers.
According to an article appearing in The Israeli daily, Ynet, (by Tani Goldstein, published on 10.17.07): "More than 60% of Gaza residents live below poverty line Average wage in Gaza Strip totals NIS 1,680 ($416) a month. Palestinian families spend some 47.2% on food. 63% of Gaza residents and 45% of West Bank residents live on less than NIS 10 ($2.48) a day. Poverty rate in Gaza higher than in Rwanda"
Aufder576, it sounds like your allegation is totally irresponsible and mean-spirited.
The article that you quoted from also states: "Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000 prices in the territories have risen by 24.7%." Read in concert with serious academic works like "The Million Person Gap: The Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza," the disruption caused by the second Intifada on its own perpetrators' livelihoods is shown to be a causal factor that effected a great deal of poverty and inflation in Gaza and the West Bank. As the IMF and World Bank stated in their March 2007 report, "West Bank and Gaza: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN 2006—A FIRST ASSESSMENT," Gaza's unemployment rate spiked from 19% to 34% in 2001 - just after the second Intifada started.
Now my "allegation" is empirically substantiated.
I don't doubt that the UNRWA busies itself with more than just installing Islamic Jihad rocket makers as headmasters at its school in Rafah, or publishing textbooks with masked gunmen. But in the long run, the UN's actual help to the local Arabs has been only slightly more useful as the UN-run Goma refugee camps were for the Tutsi murdered there. What is the use of having permanent refugee camps? Isn't it a lot like how housing projects in the US, UK, and France became "filing cabinets for the poor?"
Before the second Intifada, it used to be that PA border guards would play shesh besh with Israeli Magav guards, and Israelis shopped in Gaza's produce stalls. Afterwards, West Bank Arab entrepreneurs would mutter to Magav guards under their breath, at the Allenby Bridge crossing, that Arafat had destroyed their economy. They apparently were right.
I don't know you, Aufder, but I suspect that you are one of those people who is so convinced of his righteousness, so filled with smug certitude, that no amount of argumentation will change your entrenched views.
Israel's air-land-sea blockade on Gaza is responsible for the scarcity of consumer goods and the high black market prices for ordinary, household items. As before, you blame the victims, not the perpetrators. The Nazis perfected that technique; the Israelis learned well.
It is easy to argue from your position, since the MSM , AIPAC, COPOMAJO, the US State Dept., and the Israeli foreign office all provide you Israel-firsters with your regular talking points, complete with pro-Israel bias, selected half-truths, deliberate distortions, sanitizing euphemisms and tactical obfuscation.
For American patriots, like myself, things are not so easy; we have to dig to reveal the real reasons behind the good reasons.
We American patriots must endure vicious personal attacks in which we are routinely called "anti-Semites", "Arab lovers", "Jew-haters"," terrorist sympathizers", "bigots", "Nazis" and even "un-American".
I invite ingrates like Aufder to leave the US, or wherever he's from and make Aliyah to the Jewish homeland. If he is not a Jew, Aufder can convert to Judaism and join the IDF...the Israelis love those types, calling them "lone soldiers"...they make perfect espionage agents for their adopted country, once their IDF service has been completed.
Aufder, you would make a great Israeli agent; if you aren't already.You could infiltrate and destroy from within, like a good little "lone soldier"....your contempt for this country and love for Israel is that obvious. Please, make Aliyah already.
And before you ask, yes, I served in the US Army and I still honor the oath that I swore so long ago. What have you done, Aufder, except shill for Israel?
21st-century "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"
It sounds like you, Perry, Mearsheimer, and Walt were all cut from the same cloth. You didn't like the argument or the facts, so you claim that an elaborate Jewish conspiracy provides me with talking points. I present you with evidence that the second Intifada trashed the economies of PA- and Hamas-run areas, and you start thumping your chest, drape yourself with the flag, and telling me that the US political spectrum doesn't leave enough room for the both of us. What's next, "the Jew ate my homework?" Were you surprised to see your own statistics working against you? In general, when the only ammo you have left is to compare your interlocutor to Hitler, you've got to admit, it's time to retreat.
For the record, I served in the US intel. community, but that apparently gave me more time to read big-boy books than you got in the Army. It would be great to have someone as passionate as you ask yourself: "What would make me change my mind about this?" Why is the US entitled to a trade embargo on Cuba in perpetuity when the Soviet missiles are long gone, while Israel is somehow not entitled to a blockade of a democratically-elected Hamas terrorist enclave that actively targets kindergartens for rocket attacks? The US killed possibly 6,000 civilians in Fallujah, and yet Israel is the country that gets dragged before tribunals, and effete slime like Elvis Costello refuse to perform there. How do you explain that? Are Christian-on-Muslim or Muslim-on-Muslim murders more trivial infractions? It's completely racist, and has been since the Greeks wrote the gospels, and Bishop Marcion ushered in Jewish replacement theology. You are the perpetrator of a millennial conspiracy - not me.
Go ahead and be an American patriot, but since you don't have a dog in the fight, consider who you're shilling for. If you're concerned about your tax dollars at work, explain what the ROI is on funding "Palestine." If you question the ROI on arming Israel in return for imposing a racist ban on new Jewish residence in Judea and Samaria, explain how buying new weapons for the Lebanese Armed Forces is better for the US' regional security interests. If you want to talk about trade relations and their impact to the private sector, or the net benefit to US consumers, look at the flash drives, Centrino microchips, online chat apps, cell phones, and security software you may have lying around in your room, and tell me that Israel is not worth the effort.
In a March 31, 1977 interview published in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein had this to say:
"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."
You are shilling for a veritable Mariel boatlift of Caliphate-seeking tyrants who could care less about national self-determination - their main concern is that Jews cannot exercise their own self-determination. Manifest Destiny for the 22-country strong Arab nation, and ethnic cleansing for the Jews. Just like Manifest Destiny for the Anglos and Germans, and ethnic cleansing for the Native Americans, and the Chinese Exclusion Act for those who don't look like us. Your American patriotism contributes nothing to US security or the economy.
The US has a habit of midwifing nasty problems by abandoning its allies, like Nixon going to the PRC and the US disowning the ROC on Taiwan. Now, any American who wants to regain their offshored job has to be willing to work for little more than a bowl of rice, and the PRC has nuclear warheads aimed at US. The US continues to follow that pattern by funding the PA, seeking a diplomatic solution to the apocalyptic regime in Iran, and seeking ties with Syria, all while trying to cobble together artificial nations in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a US taxpayer, that's the price tag that I'm most worried about.
Aufder's Phony Analogies, Ad Hominem and Pontifications.
Aufder wrote, "It sounds like you, Perry, Mearsheimer, and Walt were all cut from the same cloth." Thank you, sir, I am flattered by that compliment.
Aufder presented a series of false analogies. Aufder tried to equate the US-Cuba relationship with the Israel-Gaza relationship. That's obviously absurd.
Then there was the "tribunal" phony analogy: Aufder tried to equate US and Coalition actions in Fallujah, Iraq with IDF actions in Gaza and IDF actions in their murderous raid on the aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Is Aufder calling for a tribunal to investigate US-Coalition actions in the battle for Fallujah, to balance the Goldstone Report and the UN condemnation of the IDF raid on the Gaza aid? Again, another absurd comparison.
Aufder stooped to name-calling and ad hominem, describing Elvis Costello as, "effete slime". Playground bully tactics, with a homophobic ring to it.
Aufder wrote, "I served in the US intel. community." He got to read "big-boy books", while a soldier of my low value did not. Is that an appeal to elitism?
I wonder how much "intel" this Aufder guy may have passed on to his Israeli buddies; another Jonathon Pollard? His demonstrated allegiance is to a nation outside our union of American states; guys like that tend to rationalize treason. You know, the old "the ends justify the means" canard.
Aufder claims, "The US has a habit of midwifing nasty problems by abandoning its allies..." I don't buy that. If this shill for Israel is suggesting that the USA may soon abandon its closest ally, the Jewish State, I must point out the fact that Israel is not a genuine ally.
Israel is not a member of NATO.
Israeli armed forces have never joined US forces on any battlefield anywhere, ever...with one perfidious exception. That was on June 8, 1967, when a deliberate and prolonged Israeli air and sea attack on the USS Liberty took place.
The attack on the USS Liberty was never a case of mistaken identity, as claimed. This was the brutal revenge of a nation governed by traumatized Holocaust survivors. Thirty-four US sailors died in the withering and merciless Israeli attack, 174 more were injured. For reasons that remain baffling, LBJ forgave the Israelis immediately, one the shortest and most superficial US Naval Inquiries of its kind ensued. Aufder's buddies in the Jewish State, our "allies", got away with murder.
They continue to get away with murder today. Thanks to Israeli apologists like Aufder 576.
Let's hope Aufder is on the Israeli payroll, if he's doing this because of a passionate concern for the well-being and advancement of Zionism in Palestine, the guy missed his calling. He is professional grade. Hey, we all gotta do what we gotta do.
Hey, my brother has to write a paper for his Rhetoric class. I'll ask him to drop you a line.
Abbreviated responses: see Turkey's demand that a NATO defense shield not be aimed at Iran; read Foxbats over Dimona for the comms between the USS Liberty and a Soviet guided-missile destroyer trailing it; neither Levi Eshkol nor David Ben-Gurion were "traumatized Holocaust survivors."
I answered your question, but you haven't answered any of mine.
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