The Independent’s Patrick Cockburn explains that the power of Israel is declining but Washington is seemingly powerless to control its wild friend: Israel itself is getting politically and militarily weaker. The high point of Israel’s influence in the Middle East was after the peace agreement with Egypt in 1979 which freed it to invade Lebanon…
Showing all posts tagged United States
America shows its card and Israel likes the deck
The supposedly anticipated meeting between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu was a nice piece of theatre. Everybody said nice things about the other and the prospect of peace was on the cards. As if. What we’re left with in the liberal Zionist community in the US are campaigns like this:
New York Times discovers how colonies are formed
Welcome, New York Times, to the reality of US groups funding illegal settlements in the West Bank. Better late than never: Twice a year, American evangelicals show up at a winery in this Jewish settlement in the hills of ancient Samaria to play a direct role in biblical prophecy, picking grapes and pruning vines. Believing…
Nothing to see here, Gaza blockade continues
Israel’s supposed easing of the siege on Gaza is simply an attempt to get Washington off its back. The Strip remains essentially sealed. Palestinian legislative council member Dr Mustafa Barghouti is right: I think the blockade is illegal, it’s against international law, it’s an act of collective punishment, and it should be removed immediately and…
Just what is Washington getting from Israel?
Thaddeus Russell, The Daily Beast: The history of Israel and its relationship with the U.S. is infinitely complex, but there’s one damning fact that’s ignored as often as The Question: There was not a single act of Arab terrorism against Americans before 1968, when the U.S. became the chief supplier of military equipment and economic…
Israel needs a new salesman and damn fast
Straight from the mouth of the Zionist lobby to the Israeli Prime Minister; get your message right cos America ain’t buying your soiled product: The Israel Project (TIP), an American Hasbara outfit, commissioned Republican political consultant Frank Luntz to examine the effectiveness of Israel’s public diplomacy in the US on the Flotilla debacle. TIP gave…
Gillard reassures America and Israel of her backing
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has no original ideas of her own. Business as usual, “centrist” foreign policy dressed up as realism and pragmatism: The Prime Minister said she had no plan for big changes in foreign affairs. “Sitting here now it’s not my intention to change any of the fundamentals of our foreign policy,”…
Blumenthal on “fear” in America, used and abused by Murdoch
Jewish American film-maker Max Blumenthal recently premiered on US TV a documentary on the use of fear in the Tea Party movement, ably funded and backed by the Republican party and Fox News: Max Blumenthal goes inside the Tea Party from Ram Bam on Vimeo.
Petraeus dying to be seen as pro-Israel
Oh dear: Last March General David Petraeus, then head of Central Command, sought to undercut his own testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that was critical of Israel by intriguing with a rightwing… writer to put out a different story, in emails obtained by Mondoweiss. The emails show Petraeus encouraging Max Boot of Commentary to…
America doesn’t believe in real democracy, by the way
Note this story in today’s Washington Post: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed alarm Saturday about what she called a growing crackdown on citizens groups around the world and announced a fund to help them fight back. In what aides called her most important speech in a four-day swing through former Soviet-bloc countries, Clinton…