Farhang Jahanpour writes in a guest column for Informed Comment:
According to the U.S. media, after eight hours of pleading with Netanyahu to extend the freeze on illegal building work in the occupied territories for merely 90 days, the Secretary of State gave an undertaking
Not to request further extensions of the freeze (what happens if an agreement is not reached during that period?)
To shield Israel against hostile resolutions in the United Nations (nothing new there)
To prevent the discussion of the UN report on Israeli war crimes in Gaza as set out by a distinguished Jewish judge, or the attacks on the aid flotilla (that says a lot for the US respect for the United Nations and the rule of law)
And to top it all, give Israel $3 billion worth of advanced F-35 jets, in addition to billions already given on a regular basis. These would supplement the 20 F-35s Israel already plans to buy for $2.75 billion drawn from annual grants it gets from Washington (does it mean that President Obama has given Israel a free hand to attack Iran with its new toys?).
Meanwhile, the commitment to the Palestinians: To force Israel to implement UN resolutions and get out of the occupied territories; to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes; to declare East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state; to free nearly 8,000 Palestinian prisoners; to lift the siege of Gaza; to call on Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and give up her arsenal of illegal nuclear weapons; and finally to stop the US subsidy to Israel and to support UN resolutions to force Israel and threaten to attack her if she does not do any of the above (not a chance in hell). If that is how the US Administration decides to get tough with Israel and act as an honest broker, then God help the Palestinians!
It is possible to force an unfair settlement on the Palestinians at the moment of their weakness, but such a deal would not last and the festering wound would continue to poison the entire Middle East. It is time for the US Administration to put US interests first, support a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and thus win the respect and admiration of the international community.
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* Dr Farhang Jahanpour is a former professor and dean of the Faculty of Languages at the University of Isfahan, Iran, and a former Senior Fulbright Research Scholar at Harvard. He is Associate Fellow at the Faculty of Oriental Studies and tutor in Middle Eastern Studies at the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford
“It is time for the US Administration to put US interests first, support a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and thus win the respect and admiration of the international community.”
Yup, and that will happen when pigs sprout wings and take to flying holding patterns over downtown Jerusalem. Oh yeah.
Would that mean that Eric Cantor might have to retract his “pledge of allegiance” to Israel?
Or when Americans wake up to the fact that neither of the two parties can be trusted to look after AMerican interests. We do have democracy don’t we? Or have we already exported too much democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and rest of the world, and thus have none left at home?
Somehow, the concepts of “Israel”, “peace negotiations”, “USA” and “honest broker” just can’t seem to blend together, no matter how much diplomatic, monetary, political or military sauce(s) one applies to the mix.
So, could we, at last, dispense with the kabuki theater and acknowledge the obvious?
Dear Professors Cole and Jahanpour
As my old Physics teacher taught me “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”
Mr Putin understands the concept of balance of power and needs Lebanon as a site for his radar to defend his future naval base at Tartus.
link to haaretz.com
No mention of the required SAM batteries.
The most guilty ones are the USA citizens that remain silent upon Israel’s occupation and desecration of our country.
The declarations of most all of our politicians that, “the US bond with Israel is unbreakable,” is enough to determine that peace and the peace process are a sham that have no relation to peace. Impartial parties with no vested interest would be the best ones to mediate any agreement.
The disdain for Palestinians shown by the Israeli government is astounding and crippling. President Obama does nothing to lesson to overt disdain of the Israeli government to Palestinians.
Had not heard about this agreement
“To prevent the discussion of the UN report on Israeli war crimes in Gaza as set out by a distinguished Jewish judge, or the attacks on the aid flotilla (that says a lot for the US respect for the United Nations and the rule of law)”
We know the I lobby (Berman, Ros Lehtinen, Burton, Ackerman) basically put the lid on the Goldstone Report.
And now Clinton kicks Goldstone and the report in the cajones again.
US Congress condemns UN Goldstone Report, 344 to 36; full text & voting breakdown
link to blog.unwatch.org
– NAYS 36 —
Baird
Baldwin
Blumenauer
Boustany
Capps
Carson (IN)
Clarke
Clay
Davis (KY)
Dingell
Doggett
Edwards (MD) Ellison
Filner
Grijalva
Hinchey
Johnson, E. B.
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kucinich
Lee (CA)
Lynch
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern Miller, George
Moran (VA)
Olver
Pastor (AZ)
Paul
Price (NC)
Rahall
Snyder
Stark
Waters
Watt
Woolsey
How many times do we have to hear Former President Jimmy Carter, Former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit Micheal Scheuer, Queen Noor, and so many more that our unbridled support of Israel no matter what they do has and is undermining US National Security. Hell they even reported this fact in the 9/11 commission. Bill Clinton even came out recently and said it
link to google.com
“”It will take about half the impetus in the whole world — not just the region, the whole world — for terror away,” he told an audience of Egyptian businessmen from the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. “It would have more impact by far than anything else that could be done.”
The founding of Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinians more than six decade ago has long been a rallying cry among Arabs and Muslims in the region and more recently is a regular recruiting tool for organizations like al-Qaida.
Clinton presided over the breakthrough Oslo Accords in 1993 that led to direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians over the principle of land for peace as well as a last ditch effort to negotiate a final agreement in 2000 before violence derailed negotiations.
He said both sides knew the outlines of any final agreement and said it was similar to the one he hammered out with Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak in 2000.”
Clinton is publicly lining up with Former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden’s unit Micheal Shuerer who has been saying this for years now. He has been on C-span’s Washington Journal repeating “they don’t hate us for our freedoms, they hate us for our foreign policy”
Micheal Scheuer on Bill Maher
link to youtube.com
Scheuer “What Bin Laden basically said is America is fighting a war that does not exist. We’re fighting because our leaders tell us that the Muslims hate freedom , and hate liberty, and hate women in the work place, and that’s got nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with what we do in the Islamic world. What our policies are and what our impact is there. That is what Bin Laden was referring to. That is what my book says”
Bill Maher is stunned by what Micheal Scheuer has to say about Israel
link to c-spanvideo.org
Micheal Scheuer
link to antiwar.com
“AIPAC is a perfectly legal organization, and the wealth of its members is channeled into reliable campaign contributions for any candidate from either party who will put Israel’s interests above America’s. From McCain to Obama, from Pelosi to Giuliani, from Hillary Clinton to Vice President Cheney, AIPAC pumps money to any and every American politician who is willing to adopt an Israel-first policy.”
Former head of the Cia’s Bin Laden unit Micheal Scheuer on Tavis Smiley’s program
link to pbs.org
What Scheuer keeps repeating lines up with former Cia analyst Ray McGovern has said about the conflict
Helping Israel Die
Taboo Thwarts Candor on Israel / Iran by Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern
Former CIA analyst Kathleen and Bill Christion have been saying very similar things
link to counterpunch.org
“Nobody Should Preach to Us Ethics, Nobody!”
Israel, a Light unto Nations?
By Kathleen Christison
Former CIA political analyst
In the never-ending propaganda show designed to depict Israel as a moral nation victimized by immoral terrorists and anti-Semites, CNN recently ran a film clip of the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin declaiming, as only he could, “Nobody should preach to us ethics, nobody!”
And, of course, few do.
link to cjpip.org
Former CIA Analysts
What’s Really Happening in Israel/Palestine
A presentation by
Kathleen & Bill Christison
link to counterpunch.org
link to antiwar.com
How many times do we have to hear the same thing?