The US Shameful War Against Palestine

By Dr Salim Nazzal

One of my friends drew my attention some years ago that the real war in the middle east is between the US, which is the center of capitalism, and materialism, and Palestine being the center of spiritualism. According to my friend, the war is between the values of spiritualism and the values of materialism, and this he thinks, which made this conflict the longest in history.

I must admit I didn't think of the conflict in this way. When we usually debate the question behind the blind US support of the apartheid state of Israel. We usually think of the Jewish lobby in the Us known as the Aipac, and its great influence on the Us Mideast policy. And we also think of the US need to Israel as a base that can defend the US interests in the middle east.

Others who prefer to dig deeper on the ideological and historical levels, interrupts it by the similarity of both countries based on genocide and the disposition of the natives of both countries, where Israel is seen as a modern copy of what the European did in the (new world).

The reality which must be stated clearly is that American war against Palestine is a declared war that all the branches of US government are involved in, the Congress in its legislators, which always in favor of the occupation. The American military, which supports Israel with the high tech to ensure its superiority over the whole region. The diplomacy is engaged in a campaign of public relations, and the US veto at the UN always ready to block any resolution against the occupation, and to deprive Palestinians of their rights to be free. And the American money to provide Israel of what it needs to confiscate Palestinian homes, and to oppress them.

So, when we look deeply about the whole picture, we cannot conceal the surprise of how much the US is ready to go that far to fight on all levels, to the extent that it sacrifices its own national interest, to fight the self-determination of Palestine, which, is a tiny country, its area in the west bank and Gaza, is bit more than 6000 kilometer square!

Back to the soviet era the main bulk of the political analysis interrupts the US position by the cold war between the Soviet Union, and the Us. And that Israel is a cheap and assured military base for the US in the Mediterranean.

Even this analysis, is not totally convincing. The reason is that Turkey is much more powerful than Israel, and a member in the Nato; in addition that most Arab gulf states were on friendly terms with the US. And this has been demonstrated in the war on Iraq. The American bases were in Arab countries, and the American attack was from Arab countries, and Israel was purposely set aside, so its presence would not damage the alliance against Iraq. So Israel at least (in what can be seen) had no part in the whole thing. And the same thing is, now repeated in the allied bombing the Isis where Israel has no direct part in the whole thing.

Nevertheless, after the end of the cold war, the thought was that some change must happen since the Us need for Israel has become minimized.

Then right after the disintegration of the Soviet block and the end of the cold war, comes in 2001 the terror attack on the US in a period, when there was much publicity about Islam as the new enemy for the west. Israel, which had a history of attacking American goals in Egypt to destroy the Arab American relationship, (The Avon affair in Egypt), found in it a treasure from the sky. This was obvious in every single word the Israeli leaders uttered. When Netanyahu was asked what he thinks about it, his first words were (good). The (good) in the Israeli political investment, is that Israel got a new role to play in the so-called war against terror. In other words, Israel assigned itself the role of the (civilized) to fight the terror, and the Us welcomed this role.

However the fact which must not be ignored that the Us historically stood against almost all national movements which fought for self-determination, and not Palestine only. Even Nelson Mandela was listed as a terrorist in the Us.

But its war against the freedom of Palestine is the ugliest deed the Us does in the modern times.

And its declared war against the little Palestine is the most shameful thing a superpower does.

This however will not stop Palestinians who stood bravely for more than 7 decades to demand their right for freedom. The military power has its limitation after all . One day, it may not be far, the Palestinian blood will win over both the American and the Israeli sword.

So back to our friend view, whether the war is between materialism, and spiritualism, or between justice and injustice, it is a struggle for freedom and for peace which apart from position of the US and Israel and Micronesia ,is gaining a huge support worldwide.

Dr. Salim Nazzal, a Palestinian-Norwegian historian on the Middle East, He has written extensively on social and political issues in the region.

http://www.countercurrents.org/nazzal281214.htm