At a recent Democratic fundraiser organized by the Israel lobby in the United States, President Joseph R. Biden shared some details of the conversations he has had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu about protecting civilians in Gaza. Justifying Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Netanyahu told Biden: “You carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died”. Netanyahu is “a good friend, but I think he has to change, and… This (extremist coalition) government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move,” Biden told the attendees at the campaign fundraiser in Washington hosted by former AIPAC board chair Lee Rosenberg. Last month, Biden used the word “indiscriminate” to describe Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, according to a report in the Times of Israel.
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| President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu |
The Israel Lobby:
American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), also known as the Israel lobby, is considered the most powerful lobby in Washington D.C. The lobby has showered its friendly politicians with money from Jewish donors. It has also ensured the defeat of those politicians who dared to speak out against Israeli policies in the Middle East. As one former Democratic senator, Ernest Hollings, put it on leaving office, ‘you can’t have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here.’ Or as Ariel Sharon once told an American audience, ‘when people ask me how they can help Israel, I tell them: “Help AIPAC.”’
President Jimmy Carter who helped broker peace between Israel and Egypt knows the Israel lobby well. He told Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" many years ago: "I think it’s accurate to say that not a single member of Congress with whom I’m familiar would possibly speak out and call for Israel to withdraw to their legal boundaries or to publicize the plight of the Palestinians or even to call publicly and repeatedly for good faith peace talks..... And I would say that if any member of Congress did speak out, as I’ve just described, they would probably not be back in the Congress the next term ".
Biden-Netanyahu Conversations:
President Biden recalled how during one of their many conversations since October 7, Netanyahu sought to justify the deaths of civilians in Gaza by recalling how many died in the US response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, according to the Times of Israel.
“You carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died,” Biden quoted Netanyahu as having said. “They not only want to have retribution — which they should — for what Hamas did, but against all Palestinians… They don’t want anything to (do) with the Palestinians,” Biden said, reiterating the US stance that Hamas does not represent all Palestinians and that not all of Gaza should suffer because of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
It should be noted that the reason Netanyahu sounds American is because he was raised and educated in the United States. He is essentially an American who was born in Tel Aviv, raised in Philadelphia, and then returned to Israel after finishing higher education at MIT and Harvard.
The US and Israel:
While acknowledging the US role in killing large number of civilians during WW II, Biden pointed out to Netanyahu that the conventions and laws agreed to by the international community after the war were designed to stop the kind of excesses Netanyahu mentioned, such as the carpet bombing of Germany and the dropping of the atomic bombs on civilian populations in Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War II to see to it that it didn’t happen again,'” Biden said he told Netanyahu. Biden also advised Netanyahu not to repeat the mistakes the US made in response to the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001. “Don’t make the same mistakes we made [after] 9/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan [after] 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did,” Biden said.
While Biden's response makes sense, it is hard not to see the parallels between the United States and Israel. Both of them are settler colonial societies built on genocide of the native populations and their replacement by Europeans. This process was endorsed by top British politicians like Winston Churchill.
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11 comments:
What a tale of woe! Did you see this?
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israels-muddled-strategy-gaza
Israel can live with fraying European ties and growing criticism from Arab states, but losing American support would be an altogether different matter. The Israelis I spoke with were uniformly glowing about Biden—a “mensch,” in one interviewee’s words, and, in another’s, “the biggest friend of Israel since Harry Truman,” who was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel. On top of the more than $3 billion Israel receives from the United States in military aid every year, Congress and the White House are now considering a package that would provide a $14 billion supplement. Israel also depends on the United States for munitions, which it needs in Gaza and would need far more of in a war in Lebanon. The United States also regularly provides cover for Israel at the United Nations—for instance, vetoing a recent Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Ahmad: "What a tale of woe! Did you see this?"
Yes, I did.
Biden is a self-proclaimed Zionist. Even if he wasn’t one, he would still do exactly what he is doing now, thanks to the stranglehold of the AIPAC in Washington DC.
Please read the following in my blog post:
American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), also known as the Israel lobby, is considered the most powerful lobby in Washington D.C. The lobby has showered its friendly politicians with money from Jewish donors. It has also ensured the defeat of those politicians who dared to speak out against Israeli policies in the Middle East. As one former Democratic senator, Ernest Hollings, put it on leaving office, ‘you can’t have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here.’ Or as Ariel Sharon once told an American audience, ‘when people ask me how they can help Israel, I tell them: “Help AIPAC.”’
President Jimmy Carter who helped broker peace between Israel and Egypt knows the Israel lobby well. He told Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" many years ago: "I think it’s accurate to say that not a single member of Congress with whom I’m familiar would possibly speak out and call for Israel to withdraw to their legal boundaries or to publicize the plight of the Palestinians or even to call publicly and repeatedly for good faith peace talks..... And I would say that if any member of Congress did speak out, as I’ve just described, they would probably not be back in the Congress the next term ".
What a horrifying reality. Plus, Netanyahu bonded with Congress to bypass Obama.
Are they our 51state? No, take that back. They have more power than all 50 states.
They call the shots on matters big or small as they pertain to their self interest.
It sucks!
Ahmad: "What a horrifying reality. Plus, Netanyahu bonded with Congress to bypass Obama"
You’re right.
Biden knows how Netanyahu did an end-run around Obama and went directly to Congress on the Iran nuclear deal.
Kenneth Roth
@KenRoth
Israeli officials are worried that a South African lawsuit could lead the International Court of Justice to find that the Israeli government is committing genocide. The solution: stop killing and starving Palestinian civilians.
https://x.com/KenRoth/status/1741825733226357212?s=20
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The International Court of Justice has great influence in shaping international law. Its recognition of South Africa's claim may cement the perception that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, says Dr. Shelly Aviv Yeini, an expert on international law
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-01/ty-article/.premium/state-officials-fear-hauge-could-charge-israel-with-genocide-in-gaza/0000018c-c1a9-d3e0-abac-d9a9acd80000
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” Samuel P. Huntington
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Ah, so you want India to become a superpower – like America?
by Roger Marshall
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/ah-so-you-want-india-to-become-a-superpower-like-america-3018901
In the agricultural sector, most US farms would be out of business but for cheap migrant labour from Central America, mainly Mexico -- the same Mexico whose lands were expropriated but whose people are still being shut out at the border.
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There are many Indians, politicians and ordinary citizens alike, who would like to see India become a superpower, much along the lines of the United States. Is this in keeping with the ethos of the Indian character? And to what end? To answer these questions, we need to understand what it is in the American character that enabled the US to grow from a 300,000 square-mile territory comprised of 13 original colonies bordering the Atlantic Ocean to a gigantic country covering some 3.5 million square-miles, extending out to the Pacific Ocean.
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/ah-so-you-want-india-to-become-a-superpower-like-america-3018901
Though the phrase ‘manifest destiny’ was coined in 1845 by Democrat John O’Sullivan, the ideology behind the phrase was operative even back in the 1620s, when the first European settlers, the Puritans from England fleeing religious persecution, set foot in North America. Manifest destiny refers to the divine right to “tame and cultivate” the new country by displacing the “uncivilised,” non-Christian peoples who did not take full advantage of the land God had granted them..
This ideology served to justify the violent displacement of native peoples and military takeover of their lands. When the US purchased the territory of Louisiana (over 800,000 square-miles) from France in 1803, it essentially bought Native American tribal land which France neither owned nor controlled, if only to prevent Spain, Britain and Russia from colonising the area. This area is what is now known as Middle America, populated almost entirely by the ancestors of white immigrants from northern Europe
That race has been a huge factor in America’s attainment of superpower status can be seen by examining legislation pertaining to immigration and trade over the last 200 years. While unrestricted immigration from Western Europe has always been allowed, it has been less so for Southern and Eastern Europeans but definitely not for Asians, unless they were slaves and indentured labourers. Even though it was cheap Chinese labour that built the American railroads in the 1870s, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 drove most of the Chinese out of America. American labour unions believed that Chinese coolies were responsible for declining wages and lowered standards of living.
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/ah-so-you-want-india-to-become-a-superpower-like-america-3018901
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Absent a moral or ethical compass, we suppose that any nation singularly focused on enriching itself can become a superpower. To quote John O’Sullivan, “Yes, more, more, more! . . . till our national destiny is fulfilled and. . the whole boundless continent is ours”.
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/ah-so-you-want-india-to-become-a-superpower-like-america-3018901
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
Interestingly, if you read the ICC statement, the crimes that Israel is found to be committing fit perfectly with the legal definition of genocide.
Here's what the ICC says: "Notwithstanding any military goals they may have, the means Israel chose to achieve them in Gaza – namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population – are criminal."
They also write that "Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival."
Here's the legal definition of genocide from the Genocide Convention (https://un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention):
"Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The ICC, by saying that Israel is "intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population" as well as writing that Israel has "intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival", implies that first of all, intent is there (notice the "intentionally") and secondly that the points a, b and c of the definition are met. Bear in mind that you only need to meet one point for it to be considered genocide as it's "any of the following acts".
Inescapable conclusion: it absolutely is a genocide.
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1792548403588858153
Exterminate All the Brutes - The Chris Hedges Report
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/exterminate-all-the-brutes
When those who are occupied refuse to submit, when they continue to resist, we drop all pretense of our “civilizing” mission and unleash, as in Gaza, an orgy of slaughter and destruction. We become drunk on violence. This violence makes us insane. We kill with reckless ferocity. We become the beasts we accuse the oppressed of being. We expose the lie of our vaunted moral superiority. We expose the fundamental truth about Western civilization — we are the most ruthless and efficient killers on the planet. This alone is why we dominate the “wretched of the earth.” It has nothing to do with democracy or freedom or liberty. These are rights we never intend to grant to the oppressed.
“Honor, justice, compassion and freedom are ideas that have no converts,” Joseph Conrad, who wrote “Heart of Darkness,” reminds us. “There are only people, without knowing, understanding or feelings, who intoxicate themselves with words, repeat words, shout them out, imagining they believe them without believing in anything else but profit, personal advantage and their own satisfaction.”
Genocide lies at the core of Western imperialism. It is not unique to Israel. It is not unique to the Nazis. It is the building block of Western domination. The humanitarian interventionists who insist we should bomb and occupy other nations because we embody goodness — although they promote military intervention only when it is perceived to be in our national interest — are useful idiots of the war machine and global imperialists. They live in an Alice-in-Wonderland fairytale where the rivers of blood we spawn make the world a happier and better place. They are the smiley faces of genocide. You can watch them on your screens. You can listen to them spout their pseudo-morality in the White House and in Congress. They are always
Rep. Thomas Massie: Israel Lobbyists, the Cowards in Congress, and Living off the Grid
https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-thomas-massie
(Congressman Thomas) Massie:"I've Republicans...say: that's wrong what AIPAC is doing to you...let me talk to my AIPAC person"
"What does that mean, an AIPAC person?"
"It's like a babysitter"
"Every member has...this?"
"IDK how it works on the Dem side...that's how it works for Republicans"
https://x.com/halalflow/status/1799197320564904180
Meet the Kentucky Republican Who Beat AIPAC
So many Democrats are afraid to stand up to the powerful pro-Israel group. But a Republican congressman has done so, and he just scored a big primary win.
It is well understood that the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee is targeting progressive Democratic members of the US House who have dared to object to the government’s support of Israel’s assault on Gaza, including the continued provision of US military aid, for defeat in 2024 primaries. What is not as well known is that AIPAC has also poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into attacking a Republican incumbent.
His name is Thomas Massie. He’s a 53-year-old former local official from northern Kentucky who since 2013 has represented one of the most overwhelmingly Republican districts in the country. Massie proudly declares himself to be a “true conservative” and celebrates the fact that he enjoys “the most conservative lifetime rating of any Kentucky congressman” from groups such as the National Taxpayers Union and Gun Owners of America. Most recently, the congressman joined Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene in a failed attempt to oust Speaker Mike Johnson. But on matters of war and peace, he often sides with progressives, positioning himself as a libertarian-leaning Republican who opposes US military interventionism and military aid packages for foreign countries, including Israel. That stance has drawn sharp criticism from neoconservatives in general, who worry about the return of the sort of old-school Republican isolationism that reflexively opposed military interventions and foreign aid packages, and in particular from AIPAC, which has objected to his many votes against aid to Israel, as well as his rejection of resolutions backing Netanyahu’s government.
Leading up to the Kentucky GOP primary on May 21, the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on attack ads against the incumbent. One such ad announced, “Israel, the Holy Land, [is] under attack by Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Congressman Tom Massie.”
Massie responded by calling out the attack ads, arguing that the “AIPAC superPAC just bought $300,000 of ads against me because I am often the lone Republican for freedom of speech, against foreign aid, and opposed to wars in the Middle East.” And Republican primary voters rallied to his defense, giving the incumbent three-quarters of the vote in the contest against his two rivals, including a former contender for the state’s Republican gubernatorial nomination.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kentucky-republican-beat-aipac/
Massie said the results were a message for AIPAC, declaring on election day, “AIPAC, your smear campaign on this American has backfired.” He also said the result was a signal to his party’s leadership in Washington. “I don’t vote for wars, and I don’t vote for foreign aid,” Massie said. “That puts me apart from most of my colleagues in Washington, D.C., but hopefully my colleagues will see that you can get 75 percent of the vote back home if you just represent those things in the Republican Party.”
Massie often breaks with his party leadership, especially when it comes to foreign policy. His willingness to do so has, especially in recent months, put him in the company of some of the House’s most progressive members. Last month, for instance, he joined 13 Democratic Representatives, including AIPAC targets such as Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri, in refusing to support an overly broad statement supporting Israel in its increasingly charged conflict with Iran—a statement that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried as an example of the GOP’s “cynical effort to further inflame tensions, destroy a path to peace in the region, and further divide the American people.” Just last week, when the House voted to rebuke President Biden decision to withhold some military assistance from Israel, as part of an effort to discourage a deadly assault on the Gazan city of Rafah, Massie joined the majority of House Democrats in opposing the resolution.
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Massie’s stances, for years, have drawn the scorn of AIPAC and neoconservative groups. They recognize that he upends the claim that opposition to pro-Israel policies comes from “the extreme left.” While polls show that liberal Democrats are more inclined than conservative Republicans to question blank-check support of Israel, there have always been libertarian-leaning Republicans, such as Massie and his longtime ally Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who object to military interventions, military aid packages, and a combative foreign policy.
Were Massie to run for and win the Kentucky US Senate seat held by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who is widely expected to retire at the end of his current term, that could significantly expand the reach of the GOP’s anti-interventionist caucus. This clearly concerns AIPAC, which has ramped up its criticism of Massie in recent months, with an eye not just to the fact that he is seeking reelection this year but also to the prospect that he might run in 2026 for the McConnell seat. In fact, United Democracy Project spokesman Patrick Dorton tried to downplay claims that they were making a major play in Massie’s primary fight, saying in mid-May, “We ran ads last November on Massie. We are running ads now. And we can be expected to continue to shine a spotlight on Massie’s bad record on Israel.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kentucky-republican-beat-aipac/
The pre-primary ad blitz against Massie complained that “Republicans are trying to help Israel, but one Republican is standing in the way. Fifteen times in April, Massie was the only Republican voting with anti-Israel radicals.” Claiming that Massie’s votes are “helpful for Iran, harmful to Israel,” the ad finished by announcing, “Everyone who cares about the Holy Land needs to know, Tom Massie is hostile to Israel.”
Massie, an MIT graduate who obtained 24 patents while heading a successful tech company, rejects that charge. Instead, the representative says he is maintaining a consistent stance regarding misguided foreign policy choices. But that hasn’t stopped Dorton from telling NBC News, “Massie has an atrocious anti-Israel record.… we want every single voter in Kentucky to know that he’s out of step with their views on Israel.”
Massie’s big primary win suggests that the strategy isn’t working in Kentucky, and that it might also fail in primaries where Democrats are being targeted. Despite the attacks from AIPAC, said Massie, voters are prepared to choose representatives who object to getting mixed up in foreign conflicts “regardless of who is in the White House”—and, it seems, regardless of political party.
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