Israel death grip on America. Why?
I read this comment on the NYT, but it really struck me.
"My head is spinning. It is amazing how far down the rabbit hole American foreign policy has traveled when it comes to Israel. Can one imagine having an American-Italian Political Action Committee where once a year every political leader converges in our nation's capital to pander to Italy? To commit to "always siding with Italy"? To promising American troops to be placed in harms way for the machinations of ITALY? We must shake the irrevocable hold that this nation Israel (with an outsize financial and political influence) has on our foreign policy."
So, we have as many Italian Americans as we have Jews, so how come Israel has a death grip on America's foreign policy? I mean how come we have politicians from both parties supporting Israel?
What are the reasons? Discuss.
i concur.
zionism is alive and well in nyc! its okay to put palestinians (esp the christian palestinians who they never mention!!! only the muslims) in ghettoes in the west bank.,... who ever said that teaching history so it doesnt repeat itself was horribly wrong
Comparing Israel to Italy is moronic, whether one is pro-, anti-Israeli, or apathetic. Troll better please.
Why don't you answer the real question.
And short, I never realized that before, but come to think of it, many Palestinians are Christians as well.
UFO, I can't tell, but sure as hope that you are right.
If you think not, then just look at Saddam....thirty years ago, he was our fucking guy, then he stepped out of line without getting support from Russia or China. Next thing you know, he's on TV in his underwear with a flashlight in his mouth. Even China doesn't openly challenge us, despite smugly muttering "paper tiger" whenever they have the opportunity to behind everyone's back.
The US is firmly in control at this point, and will throw support to the UN / various democratic regimenes over time because (1) we don't want the job and (2) y'all need to start figuring out how to do things on your own. It's fucking tiresome to run a global empire. Grow up.
The real question in my mind is what is Isreal's long-term game plan? Once America goes bankrupt and is no longer a world power who will stand up for it? The new global powers (Brazil, India and China) have no connections to Isreal and have no guilt complex over "you know what". As far as I can see Israel needs to start planning for this and make new friends or become self relient. Otherwise they are going to be in a real dilemma.
We have huge economic interests in the middle east and one ally there. Don't you think they're important regional influence for us? Also, the Mossad is a top notch intelligence agency and possibly does some dirty work for us.
Short answer is that we're allies for a reason.
Isn't it because the biggest lobbyist group in U.S is the Jews lobbyist group..How have we benefited by giving Israel billions of dollars? We have gotten nothing in return..Anyone making the argument that U.S has a huge interest in the middle east is B.S.. U.S backing Israel has done more harm too us than good..
Listen to TheKid1. He speaks the truth.
I'm not a fan of the one-sided Israeli politics, but to say that the US doesn't have an interest in the middle east is retarded. We consume more oil than any other country, and most the oil on the planet is under those middle eastern countries. Having a well armed ally smack in the middle of those countries is clearly in our interest. It may be that we could get by with less support to Israel, considering our relationships with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. but to say that we just don't have an interest at all is redonkulous.
We have no need for economic relations with the Middle East... We get most of our oil from elsewhere and we control most of the natural gas. So, what's the problem people. Launch 10 nukes in the heart of the Middle East...problems solved. We end terrorism, prospects for war, and most importantly, we can steal their resources.
Alright, I am probably going to get shat on for saying this, but here what I really want to do:
Put a some sort of dome over the middle east, no one is allowed to come in or go out. There is a oil pipeline flowing out of there, and we trade food and other items in return for the oil. But the relationship should be strictly be trading, and no human interactions.
What a wonderful world?
Realistically, we're talking about a region of the world that until the earlier part of this century was lagging pretty badly on the development timeline...then trillions of dollars of oil money were poured into the region and everyone lost their damn mind. Don't worry, when the oil's gone, the world's largest repository of mineral wealth is that region, so we'll have headaches for ages to come. After 911, we really almost did shut the region down instead of trying to democratize them...but long term, it's better this way.
I still think someone smudged a N and confused it with a Q on the DOD MENA invasion hitlist. Iran vs Iraq. But that's just me.
You know what, I think I agree with the above analysis. What about the fact that they sell high tech weapons to the Chinese? What about the fact that they are constantly spying on us? You know what I hate the most, when Americans serve in the Israeli military. Anyone who serves in a foreign military should be stripped of US Citizenship and be banned from entering the United States.
I really respect Z. Brzezinski as someone who knows foreign policy. God knows where oil will go if Israel decides to attack Iran and it will destroy our economy. Brzezinski said it best, if Israel decides to launch an attack on Iran, we should shoot down their planes.
Realize also that (1) this president expressly put his foot down despite the screams of bloody-murder-antisemite and (2) Israel is an international nexus point. If, for example, we struck an agreement with China that we build a base in exchange for some outdated stealth technology, Israel is one of the conduits. Take the Moonies as an example of this bait and switch: no one could fathom why Bush courted them, but it turns out that Sung-moon was his backchannel conduit into negotiations with N. Korea....the voters never knew and the average person who's not digging through CRS reports still doesn't know.
If they really were a problem, they'd be cut off: look at the AIPAC operatives that were rooted out of the CIA's pipeline a few years ago: because Israel is an ally, we basically just deported them, but more importantly they were (1) rooted out and (2) used as bargaining chips. The negotiating doesn't stop, even with allies the US's DOS is very good at economizing on every relationship. If there's one department that's run with ruthless efficiency at this point, it's Hillary's.
Sorry for the long posts, this used to be an interest to me years ago.
The core problem of ME is Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfold the matter a bit and you see the AU (mostly Sunnis) and the Shiites (Iran and Syria). Unfold more and you see the hands of virtually every power in the world. This is really a mess as I see.
Now, with the withdrawn of her army from Iraq, it seems that US is going to shrink from this mess. But this will create power vacuum and ME is going to be more messy afterwards (just look at what is happening). AU (i.e. effectively, Saudi) is jumping into this opportunity, trying to expand its influence. And you also see the return of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Of course the Shiites want a larger piece of cake and Turkey is also jumping the gun. The only loser seems to be Israel.
What I believe is that none of the major powers wants ME to be truly messy in the coming years because of the ongoing crisis, maybe with the exception of Russia as her revenue comes mainly from weapon exportation and selling crude oil. The only way to avoid a total mess, IMO, is to achieve a new equilibrium. The Shiites have the strongest hand here, considering that Iran is a local power and it has considerable influence to post-US Iraq, needless to say that Assad is effectively a pawn of Iran. Saudi may be the wealthiest country in ME but it does not have much military experience, comparing to Iran AND Syria.
And that's the reason that I believe that EU and US are going to hit Syria in the near future. I.E., to re-balance the power. As long as none of the local power can gain a decisive upper hand, ME is going to be safe and the major powers still have the strings in check. Russia probably will lay down its opposition of this attack (actually Russia told Assad that she has no obligation to protect Syria a couple of days ago), as long as its interests in Syria are largely untouched. France will be the major player in sacking Syria as it wants to strengthen its tie with Northern Africa. And GCC demanded for intervention in Syria a few weeks ago.
Thus there is no way for Assad to escape from this massacre, unless of course, that he is willing to step down and be exiled (following the example of the ex-President of Yemen).
A bit of thought about this attack and the aftermath: The time of the attack: probably before mid-April as Sarkozy is desperately trying to win the election despite the fact that Holland wins every poll. But if Assad is willing to leave, another story then.
The aftermath: Iran's influence over Syria will be broken, but Saudi won't win a decisive victory, despite that Syria consists mostly of Sunnis. What I'm thinking is that Syria's next president is going to be Sunni and pro-Saudi, but the National Congress will be controlled by other factions, say the pro-Western factions.
There was this huge sign, in Queens when your about to get on to Queensbridge and it said "Obama is anti-Israel" with him shaking hands with the current leader of Palestine.
I like to play war damnit!
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