The Price of American Cowardice



AIPAC's Power, or America's Cowardice?

Charley Reese - AntiWar.com September 13, 2004

It was 1996, and Bill Clinton was president. To give the rascal his due, he was

laboring mightily to make the Middle East peace process work. That same year,

three American neoconservatives produced a policy paper for the newly elected

Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The neocons were Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser. Their policy

paper recommended to Netanyahu that he abandon the peace process, reject "land

for peace" and strengthen Israel's defenses in order to confront Syria and Iraq.

The document said, "This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power

in Iraq - an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right." It also

recommended that Israel use pretexts for preemptive attacks.

Now, if all of this sounds familiar - and it should - that's because Perle,

Feith and Wurmser joined other neocons in the Bush administration. Perle was

especially vocal in pushing the war on Iraq. They had two pretexts: the attack

of Sept. 11, even though Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with it, and the

mythical weapons of mass destruction.

Netanyahu, by the way, did abandon the peace process. And, at a cost of $200

billion and nearly 1,000 American lives, Israel did achieve its "strategic

objective in its own right" - removing Saddam from power. Unless Perle and his

buddies were paid for their advice, it didn't cost Israel one shekel or one life.

Furthermore, if you stretch your memory, you will recall that until Iraq blew up

in its face, the Bush administration was laying the groundwork to attack Syria,

the other country Perle and his crowd named as a target for Israel. It has

already imposed sanctions on Syria despite the fact that, according to our own

intelligence people, Syria had been cooperating with the war on terror. The

other target of the Israelis - excuse me, the Bush administration - is Iran.

If you want more details on these neocons, I recommend Secrets and Lies, by

Dilip Hiro, a distinguished Middle East scholar, and James Bamford's A Pretext

for War.

When President Bush first started talking about terrorism, he use to say

"terrorists with global reach" to distinguish between al-Qaeda and strictly

local outfits with local agendas. That did not suit the Israelis and their

American supporters. They wanted Israel's enemies to be our enemies, and so the

distinction was soon dropped, and Israel's enemies were added to the official

list of terrorist organizations.

The problem is that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are Palestinian organizations

fighting for independence. True, they have used terrorist tactics, just as the

Jewish organizations - the Stern Gang and the Irgun - did when they were

fighting the British occupation of Palestine. But their target is the Israeli

occupation, not us.

Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization that has also used terrorist tactics,

including attacks against Americans in Lebanon, when it figured we were helping

the Israelis in their occupation of Lebanon. But there again, its quarrel is

with Israel.

I have long since given up the hope that Americans would wake up and resent the

manipulation of their government by a foreign country. The Israeli lobby has

been so successful in labeling any criticism of Israel, no matter how justified,

as anti-Semitic that most Americans prefer to stick their heads in the sand. For

sure, American politicians and much of the media seem to be terrified by the

Israeli lobby, which says more about their cowardice than it does about the

power of the lobby itself.

So, suit yourself. Go ahead and spend American blood and treasure for the

benefit of Israel.

Just remember, the United States has one, and only one, legitimate interest in

the Middle East, and that is buying oil that everybody who has it wants to sell.

It doesn't matter whether we buy it from a dictator (we bought plenty from

Saddam) or from a democratic government. It doesn't matter to us if the country

that sells us oil likes or hates Israel.

This whole mess, including the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks, is a

result of the American government's involvement with Israel. It's a dangerous

and unhealthy state of affairs that will not be cured until Americans find the

courage to have an open and honest debate about our foreign policy in the Middle

East.

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