The United States has proven that it cannot play the part of an honest broker of peace in the Middle East. The last vestiges of a just and honorable policy expected from the US administration have all but evaporated. On Monday, 55 protesting Palestinians were murdered by the Israelis in cold blood, and the US quickly blocked the adoption of a United Nations Security Council statement that would have called for an independent probe into the violence and the massacre.
By opening the newly relocated US embassy in the divided city of Jerusalem, and thus adding weight to Israel’s illegal occupation of that city, President Donald Trump has removed layers and layers of smooth talk about reaching a consensual agreement between Palestinian and Israeli factions and has awarded a plum to the land-hungry Israelis.
The plan for the transfer from Tel Aviv was engineered by a growing faction of Zionists among Mr. Trump’s inner circle, with son-in-law Jared Kushner leading the charge accompanied by his wife Ivanka. The move is calculated to deprive Palestinians of all legitimacy over their lands and what better way to do it than to deny them their rightful ownership of their piece of Jerusalem, the third holiest city for Muslims everywhere.
For decades, talk of bringing about peace to the region by the United States has been followed by actions that would regretfully prove otherwise. From documented events of Israeli troops callously firing at peaceful demonstrators with US supplied tanks, killing and maiming scores of people, and US supplied helicopters firing missiles at a Palestinian family gathering at a beach, the US has not surprisingly been generous with its veto of such Israeli practices in the UN. Actions such as these leave no one to expect any credibility in the present foreign policies of the United States.
Israel has long learned to play the game craftily. It started by portraying itself as a victim as it began its journey in a strange land and slowly began pushing out the lawful residents, albeit with massive support from Western nations who were burdened with the collective guilt of the first holocaust during World War II, and who were goaded to make amends for past deeds by defying all democratic norms and siding with this monster. It did not matter that their victims - the Palestinians - had had nothing to do with events of the past. It was simply an expedient solution.
The Arabs have tried to battle and even reason with this growing menace within their midst to no avail. Realizing the growing arsenal of nuclear weapons in the Israeli armory, and given Israel’s aggressive land-grabbing policies, a resolution was initiated by Egypt to declare the region nuclear weapon free and called on Israel to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
But the monster was not having any of that. It did not want any part of its nuclear weaponry program under any sort of international monitoring. Instead it began an earnest campaign of lobbying and arm-twisting to ensure that the resolution did not see the light of day. Predictably enough, with the Zionist lobby working overtime, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference voted down the resolution that called for international supervision of Israel’s nuclear facilities.
Unquestionably, the single largest collection of human rights violations by any country in the region is being carried out by Israel and in broad daylight and yet the United States of America fails to rebuke its golden child.
The war on Iraq was never about the attacks on the World Trade Center or Saddam. It was to safeguard the interests of Israel and to ensure that Israel remains the dominant military force in the region. And to pursue their policies of killing and expansion, protected by US vetoes against any sanctions. The Israeli lobbyists had long argued for a strike against Iraq. And what Israel demands, the US is only too eager to provide. That explains the muted silence when the Israelis carry out their brand of terrorism. And with implicit US consent.
The Zionist machine engineered sending American soldiers to their deaths and costing the US billions of dollars for a war that never should have been. And by factionalizing Arab countries gradually and sowing the seeds of distrust between them, the situation today for the Israelis and their Zionist hosts in the US government has become much easier, allowing them to proceed with their vision of Pan-Israel, a vision that encompasses lands beyond what remains of Palestine. Such a Machiavellian design remains unchecked as long as Uncle Sam has the Israeli back covered.
At every annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that is held in the US, president after president tells the gathered AIPAC delegates: “By defending the freedom and prosperity and security of Israel, we are also serving the cause of America.”
By the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Trump has indeed served a cause, but it is that of the Israelis, who are now freed to kill with more impunity.
The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena