[R-G] US-Israel relationship misconceptions

[Anthony Fenton]

US-Israel relationship misconceptions
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Justin Podur
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=128942

After one of the public lectures I gave in Islamabad earlier this  
month at the Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue,  
where I and Professor Robert Jensen of the University of Texas  
discussed the economic, ecological, and cultural 'crises of the  
empire’, an audience member came up to me and said: "Basically the  
conflict is between Muslims and Jews." At another panel we were on,  
about Globalization and Democracy, PML-Q Senator Mushahid Hussein said  
that "US even-handedness stops with Israel." At yet another public  
lecture, a questioner asked, why does the US, a champion of peace,  
support Israel’s violence against the Palestinians?

These statements all reveal serious - and dangerous - misconceptions  
about the real relationship between the US and Israel.

First, the notion of a Muslim-Jewish conflict is historically  
inaccurate: the historical relationship between Muslims, Jews, and  
Christians was always much more complex, and included co-operation,  
exchange, and mutual learning as well as fighting, crusades, and  
inquisitions. Boundaries hardened in recent centuries, due to  
colonialism and imperialism and reactions to these.

Second, the US is no champion of peace and is not even-handed on any  
issue - Israel is no exception in this sense. To take some examples  
where the victims are from the non-Muslim world: The US destroyed  
Vietnam, killing 2-4 million people. It sponsored Indonesia’s  
genocidal massacres of the East Timorese. It sponsored the destruction  
of Central American countries by dictatorships in the 1980s, in which  
hundreds of thousands died. It was not even-handed with Nicaragua when  
it ignored the World Court ruling, nor with Venezuela or Cuba or  
Haiti: it supports violent reactionaries and wealthy parties in all  
these places. There is no question about where US even-handedness  
ends, because it has nowhere to begin.

But the biggest problem with these misconceptions is not their  
inaccuracy, but the strategic implication. Behind these statements is  
the idea that US foreign policy is orchestrated by a pro-Israel lobby.  
It is certainly true that Israel has a well-organized, well-funded  
infrastructure to lobby Congress and to build popular support for  
Israel in the media and on campuses. But the key problem is that this  
infrastructure cannot be countered by equivalent lobbying by Muslim  
countries. Why can’t they do the same thing? Muslim countries have  
plenty of money. Do they merely lack organizational or communication  
skill?

In fact the lobby is only part of the story, and it is the success of  
the lobby that needs to be understood. To say that the US supports  
Israel because of the lobby is to beg the question. Furthermore, the  
idea that US policy is orchestrated by a small group of Jews is  
basically an anti-Semitic fantasy, worthy of medieval Europe during  
the Inquisition, but unworthy for decent and serious people.

The actual reasons the US supports Israel are much deeper. First,  
there is complete economic, intelligence, and military integration of  
the countries. The military industry is a key component of both  
countries’ economies, and their industries are integrated. Free trade  
agreements exist between US allies (Canada, Australia, etc.) and Israel.

Second, Israel is a 'strategic asset’ in ways that other countries in  
the region cannot be. While the US has exercised control by sponsoring  
military dictatorships, these are always at risk of being overthrown  
by revolt, as occurred in Iran in 1979 and could occur in Saudi Arabia  
or Egypt. When the US tries to exercise control by promoting  
democracy, on the other hand, the results may not be to their liking,  
as occurred in Palestine and could occur in Iraq. Israel, however, is  
dependent for its existence on US diplomatic, economic, and military  
support - there is no tension between the rulers and the ruled on this  
question, the way there would be in other countries.

Third, and perhaps most important, Israel is seen as part of the west.  
In a global order still structured by a kind of colonialism and  
racism, this is an impossible factor to ignore. For all the struggles  
for dignity, economic development, and freedom for the formerly  
colonized world, the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the indigenous  
peoples of the Americas are not viewed as equals by the west.  
Individual westerners need not subscribe to this view of the world,  
and many do not, but it still tells. Just as the west still pays more  
attention to the 60,000 Americans who died in Vietnam than the 2-4  
million Vietnamese, or the 19 American soldiers who died in Somalia’s  
'Black Hawk Down’ incident than the 7-10,000 Somalis who died, Israeli  
lives are seen as worth more than Palestinian or Lebanese lives.

Simply put, this means that the US will never be 'even-handed’ on  
Israel because Israel is part of the west and the Muslim countries are  
not. There is no way to counter the baleful acts of Israel by  
convincing the empire to be fair. The only way is to stop  
collaborating with the empire itself, by opposing US policy and  
rejecting military and economic collaborations with it. Every appeal  
made to the empire strengthens it - and Israel too. The Muslim world  
would do better to stop appealing to the US and start building its own  
world, in partnership with others that have been harmed by the empire  
and want a better world, in Africa, the rest of Asia, and South  
America, and anti-empire westerners, including Jews.

The writer was a fellow of the Iqbal International Institute for  
Research and Dialogue at the International Islamic University- 
Islamabad from June 24-July 17, where he taught a course on critical  
thinking. He is based in Toronto and his blog is www.killingtrain.com.