Why Do I Love Thee, Israel?
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” How does the State of Israel merit such blind devotion by the US government? Is it unrequited love? Or something else? A question we may never be able to answer, but worth a try.
“The United States unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, and I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel…Israel has a right to defend itself and its people… My Administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.” [Statement issued by President Biden after the October 7 attack by Hamas]
On October 17, Biden made the usual presidential pilgrimage to the lion’s den (Israel) in case Israeli officialdom didn’t get the memo about the “solid and unwavering” support U.S. political elites traditionally serve up to the Israelis. Probably because he “forgot” he’s been glad-handing the state of Israel for over fifty years, he rushed to the phone on October 7 to reaffirm the U.S. Hallelujah Chorus to the whims of Israel.
After all his full-throated kudos, Biden timidly expressed (sotto voce) a feeble concern about Palestinian civilian casualties. But a swaggering head of state like Netanyahu wasn’t brooking any interference from one of his vassals— “As a sovereign state fighting for its existence and future, we will make our decisions by ourselves.” Until it comes to paying the bill. Perhaps Netanyahu suffers from the same delusions as Biden. What about the $14 billion taxpayer dollars the US has earmarked for Israel which the Senate has already approved with nary a progressive democratic peep of dissent. Or more shameful yet, Biden’s use of an obscure bill, The Arms Export Control Act (AECA), which allowed him to bypass congressional scrutiny to hand over $250 million in weapons sales to Israel (at least 30% of it going to fatten the wallets of the US defense industry).
Like always, Netanyahu knew exactly who and what he was dealing with among US political leaders. Greedy officials eying their pay day from the Israel lobbies. With that knowledge, Netanyahu knew he was immune from penalties even criticism from any sector of the U.S. government. Not from Joe Biden who collected $4 million from pro-Israel lobbies to win the 2020 presidential race. (Trump got less than $1 million).
Not to be outdone in the race to burnish Israel’s image as an inseparable BFF of the United States and flaunt her bona fides as Israel’s highest ranking kept woman, Biden’s ventriloquist dummy, Kamala Harries cackled this inanity —“I pledge to you the Biden-Harris administration will sustain our unbreakable commitment to Israel’s security, including the unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation pioneered during the Obama-Biden administration and the guarantee that Israel will always maintain its qualitative military edge.
Hard to believe but it gets worser and worser. As Israel threatened to invade Rafah, Gaza city that is the last refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians, Adm Kirby uttered these shocking words: “We are going to continue to support Israel… They have a right to defend themselves against Hamas. And we’re going to continue to make sure they have the tools and the capabilities to do that (the part he didn’t say out loud — even if it means thousands more dead children]
As the murderous rhetoric of the Biden administration climbed to new decibel levels and the civilian death toll reached stratospheric heights, the Senate passed a $95 billion aid package including $10 billion in offensive military assistance for Israel. The bill also authorized the State Department to supply more weapons and money to Israel withoutwaiting for Congressional buy in. The bill’s fate in the House is uncertain. There are enough representatives who need Israel to come up with the big bucks before election day to predict another big win for Israel.
A few clips from the historical record underscore what slavish devotion to Israel’s delusions of grandeur have cost the U.S. On June 6,1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, a sovereign state, one of the first stops along their rampage around the Arab world. An invasion tacitly approved by none other than the U.S. and made possible by U.S. military support. Three months later September 9-16, 1982, two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila, were attacked killing between 2,000—3500 civilians. Guess whose fingerprints were all over the operation? The IDF (Israeli army) provided security and looked on while the massacre was in full swing. The US contribution to the massacre was as much or even more egregious than Israel’s.
Beyond supplying lethal weapon systems, U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig gave a green light for the attack. Ronald Reagan, President at the time, like all president both before and after him, did the usual presidential knee bend. His reward for such blind devotion: an attack on a U.S. marine barracks killing U.S. 241 marines. In a national address the night of the bombing Reagan vowed “[we] must stay there until the situation is under control.” Four months later he delivered the usual bluster — “If we’re to be secure in our homes and in the world, we must stand together against those who threaten us.” Three days later he ordered the marines out of Lebanon.
But if we set the historical time clock fifteen years before, an even greater atrocity occurred. On June 8, 1967, the Vietnam was in full swing with 500,000 U.S. soldiers deployed. 5,000 miles away off the coast of Egypt, an American intelligence (spy) ship, the Liberty, sailed in international waters. Those who lived to tell about it remember bright blue skies, visibility 25+ miles impossible not to see the giant American flag and the ship’s identifying number. The calm was suddenly and brutally disrupted as gunfire, missiles and napalm rained down from the skies on the deck. The sudden attack was as fierce as it was unexpected. Nine men died after the initial twenty-two-minute shelling. As suddenly as the planes appeared, they disappeared leaving the hapless crew to the mercy of three torpedo boats firing five torpedoes into the ship. When the horror finally ended, 34 men of the 294-man crew had been murdered their bodies ripped to shreds by the rockets, cannons, machine guns, 1,000-pound bombs and napalm hurled at them from, you guessed it, Israeli fighter planes, and torpedo boats.
By the time the world knew who “done it,” the giant cover-up was already in full gallop. When the Liberty didn’t sink as had been expected, Israel was forced to apologize for their “grievous error.” President Johnson who had known all along what the Israelis were planning accepted their apology, no questions asked. He absolved the Israelis despite a mountain of evidence as all American presidents do when trying to put a happy face on yet another one of Israel’s rampages. One has only to look at the Biden administration to see a presidential grovel in action. Like Biden’s Johnson’s perfidy was on steroids. As two U.S. fighter jets took off to repel the Israeli attack and save lives, President Johnson ordered them to stop — “I don’t care how many Americans are being killed. I don’t want to embarrass one of our allies. I want that Goddamn ship going to the bottom. No help. Recall the wings.” [Verbatim transcript of LBJ’s speaking to the captain of one of the aircraft carriers]
Later an official court of inquiry headed by none other than Admiral John McCain, father of the late senator and presidential nominee delivered the final betrayal to 34 dead sailors: “The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a full-scale war in 1967. Years later when there was an attempt to reopen the Liberty investigation and Israel’s involvement in it, the attempt was derailed by none other than sonny, the late Senator John McCain.
Could it by any stretch of the imagination have been an accident? Not according to Captain Ward Boston, the lawyer for the court of inquiry. It took him 34 years but in 2004 he finally spilled the beans: “It was our [he and Admiral Kidd presiding over the court] shared belief, based on documentary evidence and testimony…that the Israeli attack …could not possibly have been an accident.”
It was Admiral Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations in 1967, who, in 1983, put his finger on the problem that has haunted the American people since Israel’s founding in 1948: “I’ve never seen a President… stand up to Israel…if the American people understood what a grip these people have on our government, they would rise up in arms.”
It’s not just a few U.S. presidents. As Admiral Moorer pointed out it’s all of them who support the villainy of the Israel government. In 1999, Captain McGonagle who had been the captain of the Liberty was near death and anxious to clear his conscience wrote then President Clinton — “I think it’s about time that the state of Israel and the United States government provide the crew members of the Liberty and the rest of the American people the facts of what happened, and why . . . the Liberty was attacked. Clinton never responded.
Is it just the money that compels U.S. leaders to bow to Israel’s increasingly unhinged actions? Kowtowing to Israel is the one activity that has bipartisan support. As Ralph Nader opined —The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when [Israel] knocks on their door.” [we changed corporations to Israel and it still fits]
But as Solzhenitsyn reminds us “keeping silent about evil” risks a people or a nation losing its soul —“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand-fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. [Fancy that: Not a little child leading us, but a Russian]
You will find the full story of the Liberty Here and Here
