{"id":152923,"date":"2015-05-20T18:36:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T18:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=152923"},"modified":"2015-05-20T19:12:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T19:12:11","slug":"opinion-is-israel-americas-friend-or-americas-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/opinion-is-israel-americas-friend-or-americas-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Is Israel America’s Friend? Or America’s Enemy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has selected as his Minister of Justice a woman who has expressed hatred against all Palestinians<\/span><\/a>, and he has appointed as his negotiator with the Palestians a man who said, and who has always followed though with,\u00a0\u201cWe are all against a Palestinian state, there is no question about it.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

These policies are direct rejections of the U.S.-overseen 1978\u00a0Camp David Accords,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and of consistent U.S. policy since. The Camp David Accords were so bad for the Palestinians that the signatory on their behalf, Egypt\u2019s leader Anwar Sadat, was despised by virtually all Muslims and was assassinated for having done this. But Egypt abided by the Accords, while Israel for decades since has been constantly hemming and hawing about when they will some day fulfill their obligations under them; and, now, we finally have been given the answer: It\u2019s never. They signed an agreement that was so bad for Palestinians it was rejected by them and by the U.N.<\/span><\/a>, but now it\u2019s finally clear: <\/span>to Israel, it\u2019s not bad enough to Palestinians.<\/i>\u00a0So: Israel insists upon continued (and now upon never-ending) military occupation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Netanyahu has proven by actions, not mere words, that Israel is America\u2019s enemy, refusing to do even what Israel had signed an American-sponsored accord in 1978 promising to do \u2013 and, now, at last, installing a government that is deeply committed to never complying with it<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2011, someone posted to facebook an article,\u00a0“List of Politicians with Israeli Dual Citizenship,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and gave no links to sources but merely his own untrustworthy allegations, that the following U.S. Government officials<\/i> possess dual U.S. and Israeli citizenships:<\/span><\/p>\n

Elliott Abrams, Kenneth Adelman, Stuart Bernstein, Brad Blakeman, Lincoln Bloomfield, Samuel Bodman, John Bolton, Joshua Bolten, Nancy Brinker, Michael Chertoff, Bonnie Cohen, Eliot Cohen, Ruth Davis, Douglas Feith, Ari Fleischer, Lawrence Franklin, David Frum, Christopher Gersten, Joseph Gildenhorn, Adam Goldman, Steve Goldsmith, Marc Grossman, Richard Haass, Henry Kissinger, Daniel Kurtzer, Frank Lavin, Jay Lefkowitz, I. Lewis \u201cScooter\u201d Libby, Edward Luttwak, Ken Melman, Michael Mukasey, Richard Perle, Robert Satloff, James Schlesinger, Mel Sembler, Martin Silverstein, Cliff Sobel, Mark Weinberger, Ron Weiser, Paul Wolfowitz, David Wurmser, Dov Zakheim, Robert Zoellick.<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsequently, other (and some\u00a0even lengthier<\/span><\/a>) lists with equally undisclosed souces, were published.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such lists circulate mainly in right-wing circles, like Joseph R. McCarthy\u2019s lists of \u201ccommunists in the State Department\u201d did in the 1950s. Yet most of the names on these alleged dual-citizenship lists are themselves right-wing and far-right, not left-of-center.<\/span><\/p>\n

The very idea of dual-citizenship, especially for a government official, is repugnant in any real democracy. Certainly, there ought to be a requirement for all individuals who are employed by the U.S. Government or by any U.S. Government contractor, to publicly renounce any other citizenship before being hired. That\u2019s just basic.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, in any case, now that we know that Israel is an outright enemy of the United States, the public should be demanding the U.S. President and Congress to side with the Palestinians against Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Countries throughout history have changed from allies to enemies and back again. Nothing is permanent in history. Israel is now an enemy, and apparently has been for a long time, and should be treated as such. They\u2019ve been given more than enough time to cease being an apartheid State like South Africa used to be. Whereas South Africa evolved to a democracy, Israel remains racist. Unless the United States wishes to return to the era of Reagan and before \u2013 the era of accepting racism as State policy in an allied country \u2013 the U.S. has no moral choice but to switch to supporting, openly, the Palestinians. The Palestinians have every right to reject, and rebel against, Israel\u2019s racism<\/span><\/a>. Israel\u2019s clear determination to continue the military occupation over them gives the Palestinians the right to do what they must to establish their own state, even to take over all of Israel if that\u2019s the only option that the military occupiers offer as an alternative to permanent military occupation and oppression.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if it were the case that this would not be the best thing for Jews who live in Israel, the U.S. is obliged only for the welfare and decency of Americans. We are not responsible for the welfare or decency of the people of any other country. This doesn\u2019t mean that we can\u2019t be concerned about that; we\u2019re concerned about a lot of things that aren\u2019t our basic national obligations to be concerned about. But Israel is now clearly an enemy country, and should be treated as such.<\/span><\/p>\n

There should be such consequences for any<\/i> country that has lied to the United States for so long a time, and finally shown that they intend to remain permanently non-compliant with a U.S. treaty or U.S.-sponsored treaty. That\u2019s like a declaration of war against the U.S. It\u2019s a declaration by means of action, not by means of mere words. Israel\u2019s mere words, to the United States, are now clearly shown to have been lies, for decades. Actions are what matter. Actions are what show authentic intentions. Israel\u2019s authentic intentions are now clear \u2013 and extremely hostile.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel has decared itself an enemy not only of the Palestinians, but of the Americans. If there are any dual-citizenship U.S. Government officials, they should be fired, even if they cannot be prosecuted. And, if any of those dual-citizenships are with Israel, then they\u2019ve been foreign agents all long and are now agents of an enemy nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or, is the United States instead itself occupied by Israel? Let\u2019s hope that that\u2019s not the case. We\u2019ll soon know if it is, and has been.<\/span><\/p>\n

———-<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0of \u00a0Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse Israel\u2019s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has selected as his Minister of Justice a woman who has expressed hatred against all Palestinians, and he has appointed as his negotiator with the Palestians a man who said, and who has always followed though with,\u00a0\u201cWe are all against a Palestinian state, there is no question about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":152925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[529,535,67,655,976,847,49,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-152923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-fascism","10":"tag-global-news","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-nazism","13":"tag-netanyahu","14":"tag-palestinians","15":"tag-usa-news","16":"tag-warfare","17":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}