ISRAELI-AMERICAN PARTNERSHIP IN THE ATTACK ON THE PALESTINIANS
Israeli-American partnership in the attack on the Palestinians
by Nabil Al-Sahli
After the Palestinian people in Gaza had withstood 51 says against the Israeli killing machine and imposed the resistance conditions on the ceasefire, a number of questions were raised regarding the level of partnership and cooperation between Israel and America in the attack. To answer these questions, observers will notice that there were a number of positions expressed by the Obama administration regarding the massacres committed by the Israeli army in Gaza that confirm the extent of the partnership between the US and Israel in the aggression.
From the first day of the attack on the besieged Gaza Strip up to the day of the ceasefire, the American media did not stop defending the Israeli position, which remains that the attack on Gaza was self-defence. On top of this, the American media carried out a process of systematic disinformation, highlighting the fear among Israelis caused by the Palestinians’ response to the military assault; the same media did not mention the Palestinians victims including the elderly, women and children who died under Israel’s bombardment. Moreover, the US administration did not stop supplying the Israelis with advanced weaponry and deadly missiles throughout the operation.
According to the facts published by Israeli media outlets during “Operation Protective Edge”, observers have noted that the Obama administration is Israel’s partner in the killing of the children of Gaza and destroying the infrastructure, including UNRWA schools and health centres. This is regarded as direct American participation in killing Palestinian civilians. It is important to point out that the Israelis were supplied with American weaponry from US military stores already in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In addition to military support, Israeli media outlets also reported that the Obama administration has, since the first day of the Israeli aggression, transferred millions of dollars in order to strengthen the Iron Dome missile defence system and enable it to repel the Palestinian resistance groups’ rockets. In addition, America’s financial support kept the Israeli economy strong and able to maintain the attack on Gaza. The US approach of supporting Israel on the economic, political and military levels is not a recent development, as Washington’s veto cancelled many draft UN resolutions that would have condemned Israel’s acts and policies against the Palestinian people, as well as the military and financial support which has been ongoing for decades.
“US-backed Zionism as a form of racism”
It is known that the US-Israeli partnership in the aggression against the Palestinians people is nothing new. Since 1948, successive US administrations have responded to strategies based on developing the alliance with Israel and enhancing it politically, economically, culturally and diplomatically. This American support for Israel became apparent during the Intifada and before, with US pressure on the UN to cancel the resolution describing “Zionism as a form of racism”.
In addition to this, American aid has resolved many Israeli economic crises, or at least limited their impact, not to mention its importance in modernising the Israeli military and supplying it with advanced technology. The estimated value of American aid provided to Israel between 1948 and 2014 is about $119 billion, 60 per cent of which was military aid and 40 per cent economic. By 2015, the total value of American aid to Israel is estimated to reach about $122 billion.
It is interesting that before 1967 US aid to Israel was limited, but the Zionist state’s expansion in Arab territories in 1967 changed its strategic importance for America in the Middle East. This year was considered a historical shift between the phase of Israel playing an important role in the context of US interests, and the phase when it played the main role in achieving US interests in the Middle East. Consequently, the amount of military aid increased, reaching its climax in 1974 with a record amount of US military aid to Israel.
This was intended to compensate Israel for its losses in the October 1973 war against Egypt and Syria. US aid to Israel increased with the rise in American dependence on its role in the Middle East. Between 1975 and 1982, US aid to Israel totalled $17,804 billion, 66.3 per cent of which was military aid; this reached another record high in 1979.
The reason for this steep rise in military aid was America’s determined attempts to compensate for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Sinai Peninsula and to pay for the establishment of military bases, airports and radar systems to monitor the Arab countries surrounding Israel after the Camp David Accords were signed with Egypt. US aid increased over the following years despite additional costs linked to America’s own military involvement in the Middle East and the collapse of the Soviet Union, with an average of $3 billion a year going to Israel.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the United States provided additional economic aid to assist Israel in absorbing Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union states to occupied Palestine; their numbers are estimated at over 1.2 million by early 2014. America also provided emergency military aid under the pretext of compensating Israel for its so-called damages during the second Gulf War.
The Obama administration has never, even for a moment, hesitated to provide political, financial, military, diplomatic and media support to Israel, which has been made very clear during its attack on the Gaza Strip and its people, harming both humans and infrastructure. It is clear that US-Israel cooperation and partnership is alive and well, to the detriment of the Palestinians. (T/MEMO/NAS/P3)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
Translated from Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, 2 September, 2014
Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/13912-american-partnership-in-the-attack-on-the-palestinians
