More on Israel, The Middle East, Power and Responsibility

While a few people have asked me why I've spent so much energy in posts on the Israel-Lebanon-Hezbollah battle since it's not directly about the United States, I respectfully disagree. The carnage a trois in Lebanon very much IS about the U.S. in a number of different ways. For example:

• The U.S. funds Israel more than most other countries put together; a huge amount of that aid is in the form of military equipment which made the tiny land of Israel possess the third or fourth largest, best equpped military in the entire world. This fact does NOT go unnoticed in the world, especially the Muslim world. Much of the hardware used to devastate Lebanon was American-made and American supplied.
• There is indication from a number of different sources that Bush and Israel were playing war games behind the scenes, before the advent of the July commencement of open combat by Israel against Hezbollah to see if such a war could be extended to Iran and Syria.
• Related to the last point, a number of right wingnuts, including Newt Gingrich, have specifically endorsed a conflagration between the U.S. and Iran and/or Syria because the GOP could use World War III to its advantage; Glenn Beck and others have joined the "war to end all wars" rhetoric.
• Political leaders in the U.S. from both parties rushed to defend Israel and make it sound like an us against them war even though poll after poll showed Americans wanting to remain neutral and take NO action in the Israel-Lebanon war.
• Bush Administration policies have widened the divide between Muslims and the Western world. Example: Anyone who sends even a few dollars to Arab or Muslim charities runs the risk of being picked up on funding terrorism charges (which is not a danger if people fund extremist Zionist organizations in and around Israel).
• Whenever the rest of the world through the United Nations attempts to sanction Israel for its egregious behavior, the United States ALWAYS steps in to stop such action. This happens time after time after time.

While a lot of time and energy gets spent on discussing how many Arab nations do not want to allow Israel to exist (and much of that is true), what is missing from such is that Israel increasingly advocates actions and efforts that seem to imply Israel does not want its Arab/Muslim neighbors to exist. This is what is discussed in the letter from 18 writers published in the Nation that I referenced last week. Examples:

• Israel is usually the aggressor in any violence except the smaller phenomenon of suicide bombers
• Israel does not respect borders; example: when they decided to build that dividing wall between Palestinian land and Israeli, they seemed to go out of their way to usurp Palestinian property to build it and often cut off Palestinian farmers and tradesmen from their own property
• Israel has often wiped out the infrastructure of their neighbors, including power plants, hospitals, schools, bridges, etc. knowing that these people are too poor - and that Israel usually controls to some degree their ability to rebuild or move beyond their limited geographical areas

Israel MUST be held accountable. Just as all Arab/Muslim nations must respect Israel's right to exist (and many now do), Israel must respect Arab/Muslim nations' right to exist.