A Tragedy Unfolding For America:
An Indifferent Friend Named Israel
By Ershad Abubacker
18 October, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Israel is labeled as the most important ally of the United States of America in the Middle East. On many occasions the United States has gone too far to support its strategic ally and to whitewash its crimes against humanity vis-à-vis Palestinians. But the cost America has to bear for supporting Israel and the reprimand this generates will eventually lead to the Israel to become a strategic liability to America than a loyal ally.
Israel makes its case in the United States with the presence of very strong pressure groups popularly known as ‘the Lobby,’ AIPAC being the most prominent and influential among them. These pro-Israeli lobbies are a coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro‐Israeli direction. Though the number of American Jews who wholeheartedly support the pro Israeli lobby in very minimal, they are highly successful in influencing the sources of power, both in the Congress and the Executive branch to define the US foreign policies in Israel’s favour. Apart from seeking to influence politicians and opinion formers, they also undertake ground level campaigns in universities and try to the influence the academia. Furthermore, they manipulate the media and act as a watchdog to make sure that the media gives an objective picture of the Middle East conflict that favor Israel.
Israel is now a moral responsibility to America that no president including Barak Obama can easily shred off. This is mostly due to the handiwork of the highly influential pro-Israeli lobbies that ensures continued support for Israel under any circumstances. The US tax payers have to essentially bear the burden of bankrolling the Israeli government for any act of violence propelled by the aggressive whims and fancies of domination by their insane leaders. A special report by Washington Report on Middle East Affairs puts the cost to American tax payers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at $3 Trillion measured in 2002 dollars1. This does not include the cost of the Iraq war, which was conducted at the behest of Israeli agents in the Bush administration, and the thousands of American lives lost in Iraq.
No friend comes costlier to the United States than Israel. Israel is the largest total recipient of direct economic and military assistance from the United States since World War II. The US has exercised its veto nearly 40 times in the UN Security Council, but more devastating than that is, it provides billions of US tax dollars of aid to Israel, a lot of it as military aid and a major chunk of it in the most lethal possible form. Interestingly the per capita income of Israel ($37,000) is now at par with the UK. Nevertheless, Israel is the still largest recipient of US foreign assistance, accounting for well over a fifth of it.
Annual US government transfers run at well over $500 per Israeli, not counting the costs of tax breaks for private donations and loans that aren't available to any other foreign country. The total aid by US to Israel since 1949 comes to over $140 billion making Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, the fourth most powerful military in the world in possession of largest fleet of F-16 fighter planes outside the US. With these facts beside him, the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas W. Freeman, Jr., asserts that it is a big lie to call Israel as a Strategic Asset for the United States.2
Over the last 20 years, the US has been slowly phasing out economic aid to Israel and gradually replacing it with increased military aid.3 Beginning in 2007, the U.S. has been increasing military aid by $150 million each year. By the financial year 2013, US will be sending Israel $3.15 billion a year (or an average of $8.6 million a day) and will continue to provide military aid at that level through 2018. If this unfathomable support is going to continue Israel will outgrow United States and become a strategic burden for the US, both in economic and political terms.
Israel might have been a strategic ally during the Cold War but the growing impact of AIPAC and the changing Middle East equation point to having Israel remaining on the sideline for any future interventions in Middle East as this would further estrange the Arab allies of the region.
Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah are a direct threat to America, unless and until the United States directly intervenes against them. Any act of violence from the Palestinians is not directed against the Israel or the West. It is the result of Israel’s prolonged campaign of vandalism and colonization in the occupied Palestinian territories. But the public relations campaign by AIPAC and other pro-Israeli lobbies in the United States has been highly successful in depicting this as a threat to Israel and creating an impression that any threat to Israel is, but natural, a threat to America too.
In making America believe that the enemies of Israel are the enemies of America, Israel has effectively coerced the United States into a whirlpool of turmoil and thereby ensuring the continued support for the Israeli state. By going by this argument, if Israel and the United States are strategic allies due to the threat of a common enemy, it means that Israel and its policies towards Palestinians must be the root cause of any act of terrorism against the United States happening in any part of the world, and not the other way around. In reality Israel is not the only reason for anti Americanism around the world. But the US fed impunity and unconditional freehand that Israel enjoys in the Middle East region is the stumbling stone in the victory of America in the war on terror. This would also hinder any American effort to genuinely address the issue of terrorism and in turn help the growing terrorisms recruits around the world.
Though there are many disagreements between the United States and the regimes in Iran or Syria, the United States would not be nearly as worried about the same if not for the presence of Israel in the Middle East. Furthermore, having an alley in Israel makes it harder for the United States to diplomatically deal with any of these states. The presence of a nuclear Israel in the neighborhood will fuel the desire for these nations to possess nuclear weapons, and any threat from an Israeli-stimulated United States on the contrary, would naturally intensify this desire. All the more Israel cannot directly participate in any fight in the region as this would rally a great amount of Arab opposition for the US.
This apart, Israel has refused to heed to the American plea for settlement freeze in West Bank time and again. No ally has complicated modern American diplomacy more consistently and gravely than Israel. The Israel has also been accused of selling sensitive US military technology and classified materials to potential US rival like China4 and Russia5. The US-Israel relations had taken a setback in 2004-05 over the Israeli arms sales to China. Further, the Israeli attack on USS Liberty killing 34 and injuring 170 Americans6 and crushing 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie to death7 in Gaza are not quite characteristic of a faithful ally. In short, the capacity of Israel as the most important ally of the United States in the Middle East is over estimated, and conversely weakens the American position and hinders any credible peace process in the region.
Indeed, the mere existence of the Lobby suggests that unconditional support for Israel is not in the American national interest. If it was, one would not need an organized special interest group to bring it about. But because Israel is a strategic and moral liability, it takes relentless political pressure to keep US support intact.
The power politics may be able to conceal the real damage that the tie up with Israel is causing to the US economy and the public opinion against it. But the question is for how long? The United States needs to rethink on its strategy of supporting Israel at any cost before that gets as a moral obsession, then a potential liability and eventually an imminent threat.
References:
1) Thomas R. Stauffe. The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Special Report, June 2003, p 20-23.
2) Chas W. Freeman, Jr. The Big Lie: That Israel Is a Strategic Asset For the United States. WRMEA, Sept/Oct 2010, p 14-15.
3) Jeremy M. Sharp U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel. Congressional Research Service, Feb 2009, p 2.
4) Duncan L. Clarke. Israel’s Unauthorized Arms Transfers. Foreign Policy, No. 99 (Summer 1995), p 94.
5) Eric Margolis. Jonathan Pollard Was No Jewish Patriot. The Toronto Sun, Jan. 14, 1999
6) NSA History Report. William D. Gerhard, Henry W. Millington, National Security Agency. Attack on a SIGINT Collector, the USS Liberty, 1981, p 29, 28 & 52.
7) Israeli Army Bulldozer Kills American Protesting in Gaza New York Times, March 17, 2003.
Ershad Abubacker is a Research Analyst based in Chennai. He can be reached at [email protected]
