Giraldi on Zuckerman

 "Well, Mort Zuckerman is certainly entitled to his own opinion and I suppose he can use the magazine he owns to spread Israeli hasbara, but the notion that Israel is some kind of strategic asset for the United States is nonsense, a complete fabrication. Most recently, Chas Freeman has pointed out that Israel is useless for the projection of American power. The US has numerous bases in Arab countries but is not allowed to use any military base in Israel. Washington’s own carrier groups and other forces in place all over the Middle East, including the Red Sea, have capabilities that far exceed those of the Israel Defense Forces. Israel has never been a strategic asset or any asset at all, always a liability. Even the stockpiles of US equipment in Israel are a typical bit of bonus support for Tel Aviv from Congress, placed there for the Israelis to use “in emergencies” while making it appear that they are for American forces. The supplies are, in fact, regularly looted by the Israelis, leaving largely unusable or picked over equipment for US forces if it should ever be needed."  Giraldi

http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/05/26/the-strategic-ally-myth/

Comments

[BillWade]

While on vacation in Thailand I happened to witness a disturbing one-way confrontation between a male Israeli back-packer and a female Thai trinket seller. It wasn't pretty. Thais do love to bargain but it is always done in a friendly give and take manner, the Israeli was lucky some Thai guys weren't lurking in the shadows. I managed to diffuse the situation with some kind words to the Thai and the Israeli stormed off. I did get a good bargain for something I had no use for but I did get to see some happiness so that made it worth it. I then did some informal polling of Thais that I met later and while they had nothing but praise for older Israelis they just could not bear to deal with the younger ones. It's really too bad.

[BillWade]

I have no idea if this is true/reliable or not but things could get very interesting tomorrow if it's true, Turkish military to protect the Free Gaza flotilla:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=ar%7Cen&u=http://islammemo.cc/akhbar/Africa-we-Europe/2010/05/26/100800.html&rurl=translate.google.com">http://islammemo.cc/akhbar/Africa-we-Europe/2010/05/26/100800.html&rurl=translate.google.com">http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=ar%7Cen&u=http://islammemo.cc/akhbar/Africa-we-Europe/2010/05/26/100800.html&rurl=translate.google.com

[Jackie]

I don't think Israel realizes they aren't universally loved in the USA. And why would they, they only listen to their strongest supporters here. In my family of six, five of us have a very negative view of Israel. The only positive one read Exodus at a young age.

[J]

Those like the writer in the Forward article who are pushing us into another unnecessary war, this time with Iran, IMO are nothing but a bunch of pond-scum maggots. They're kids won't die, they won't put their sorry rears on the line because they'll throw other people's children under their Iran war bus. Too bad we can't push their sorry warmongering keesters out the back end of a 130 low level over ground zero. If the Forward writer is sooo concerned about Israel, let him move there and let his kids die in his created unnecessary Iran war and leave our American kids out of his created unnecessary wars! Arghhh
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MJ Rosenberg: The Coming Iran War

It's happening again.

The same forces -- with a few new additions and minus a few smart defectors -- who pushed the United States into a needless and deadly war with Iraq are now organizing for the next war.

This time the target is Iran, which, just like Iraq, is said to be on the verge of creating weapons of mass destruction.

Also, just like Iraq, its president is a supposed madman determined to destroy Israel.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/the-coming-iran-war_b_593434.html

........ Even some of the more progressive voices are falling for this false choice largely because the lobby -- although clearly struggling as J Street moves into clear ascendancy among young and middle-aged Jews -- still manages to intimidate.

The other day, an Op-Ed appeared in the Jewish newspaper, Forward, by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Reform Jewish movement in America and a progressive, that read like something out of 2002.

Yoffie's piece is a cris de couer, urging all Jews to support a hard line on Iran. "Now is the time," he writes, "to pressure our government to move more emphatically to counter the Iranian threat.

Yoffie's piece is significant on two counts. The first is that he does not push the ridiculous line that a nuclear Iran would happily commit suicide in order to destroy Israel. The rabbi clearly knows enough about international relations and human behavior to understand that there are limits to what nations will do to make a political point and that national suicide is not one of them.

No, his description of the threat to Israel is both more subtle and more honest.

He writes, "Even if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons and never use them, the danger to Israel would still be intolerable. Israel cannot live in the shadow of a nuclear Iran. In the minds of its own citizens and of the world community, Israel would cease to be a safe place to live.".........
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I could care less if Israel was a safe place to live or not, that is not our American problem!!!

[Castellio]

Well, J, America has made Israel's safety not only its problem, but it's highest priority, no matter what Israel has done or may do to others. Them's the facts.

Now what?

[J]

Castellio,

The same thing is coming to the shore of America that came to the shores of Russia and other euro-zones.....growing resentment of things Israeli. The anti-Zionist Rabbis of the Neturei Karta have been warning about this for years only to be ignored by the American Jewish population at large. The 'current' Zionist State of Israel is according to the anti-Zionist Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis,'presumptuous' (a.k.a. a slap in the face) before Heaven. Those who continue to support such Zionism which according to the anti-Zionist Rabbis -- Zionism and everything Zionist (i.e. Zionist State of Israel) is/are an anathema to everything the Creator stands for,by their supporting Zionism are slapping Heaven's face.

AND as the old country expression goes 'Katie bar the door and hang on to your shorts cause a manure storm is headed down the pasture'.

It's time that our U.S. 'cut bait' as far as the Zionist State of Israel goes, and let Heaven's hand create the State of Israel. The Zionists have really screwed things up, and they have really screwed their Zionist State. Their screw-up is nor our American problem!

[Castellio]

J, I've been thinking about your post.

You know, the people of America deserve better government. Not no government, better government. But how to get it?

Control has been taken away in a very conscious and thorough kind of way. It'll have to be grass roots, no?

[Acharn]

pl:
"I don't really have a problem with Israeli self-interest. That is the game of nations. The difficulty is that the Israel First folks think that this should not matter to us. pl"

I don't have any problem with it either. My problem is with the folks (including almost all of Congress) who think America should support Israel's interests even when that is contrary to U.S. interests. And label as an anti-semite anyone who points the fact out.

[J]

Castellio,

Israel has amassed one of the best crafted Propaganda Operations of all time -- use (turn around) U.S. aid dollars to 'buy' U.S. support. It is amazing how Israel turns all those hard earned American taxpayer dollars against the American taxpayers with their American bought Hasbara campaign. A money laundering operation that would make both Josef Goebbels and Al Capone smile.

Israel has amassed stolen funds from the U.S. (Madoff stolen Billions), stolen wealth and funds from the former Soviet Union/Russia and other former Soviet Republics to where Israel can stand financially on its own. Why is America and American taxpayers being used to support Israel's economy, why? Because Israel has used American aid dollars to buy off American Politicians, and when they can't be bought off they switch to blackmail or even worse.

[J]

Acharn,

I have to say to you what I said to the Colonel earlier regarding "I don't really have a problem with Israeli self-interest. That is the game of nations. "

I have to respectfully disagree with your notion 'I don't really have a problem with Israeli self-interest. That is the game of nations. . I do have a problem when they do it at U.S. expense that results in the deaths of U.S. Military and Intelligence personnel (USS Liberty, Beirut Barracks Bombing, Israeli spy Pollard espionage that resulted in deaths of personnel working for the U.S. inside the former Soviet Union). I do have a problem with the Israelis. A game of nations is not what Israel is doing, what Israel is doing is called back-stabbing. And I do have a problem with that as well. If it wasn't for our U.S., the Zionist State of Israel would have been reintegrated back into the Mideast topography years ago.

[bt]

Slowly but surely, the appeal of the Israelis to Americans is dwindling.

They are not an asset to the US, as the original post points out. The 'only democracy in the region' is another prized talking point.

My mother used to go on about the 'brave Israels', the unspoken assumption was that the Arabs were somehow not worth talking about. Lately she has changed her mind - Americans have developed a fine nose for 'quagmires'.

Someday the Israelis will need to settle up with their neighbors, of they will face perpetual warfare. Or come to terms with the fact that the creation of an ethnic-religious 'home-state' has not much usefulness in the modern world.