Israel should be sensitive to the fact that its actions directly affect U.S. strategic interests in the Arab and Muslim worlds, and it must be as sensitive to U.S. strategic concerns as the United States is to those of Israel.
and
...Israel should show enough discretion to reflect the fact that it is a tertiary U.S. strategic interest in a complex and demanding world.
A quick read here and well worth it. I am confident we have folks deeply entrenched in both extreme camps. Does this reflect the pragmatic middle ground?
Comments
I think that a lot of the above comments, while they hold merit, miss the point.
Israel is starting to become a strategic liability in some sense. A lot of what it does undermines its own security and that of the US. Societies tend to do so when they feel a heightened sense of threat. Which, when you consider Israel has a country developping nukes, pledging to destroy it, is surronded by groups that are linked to Iran, and in recent history had someone try to kill all the jews he could, is not surprising.
At the same time, it is not the be all and end all of conflict we find ourselves in. First, the conflict is overblown. Many Muslim rulers have killed far more muslims in a single year than Israel has in its entire existence. Many muslims have less opputunity, dignity, and freedom afforded them by there own rulers than the Palistineans. Turkey, the country that sent the convoy, has committed a mass genocide in recent history.
Second, if Israel behaved a lot more responsibly, there would still be many recriminations against the West by takfiris (al-qaeda and its cohorts). Its very easy for them to find something to claim they are a victim about. Everyone loves to think of themselves as a victim, which obscures what is actually going on.
What is actually going on is that the takfiris feel a threat and encroachement in their values and way of life from more materialistic and open value systems through globalization and the presence of westerns in holy soil. Israel adds fuel to the fire, but it is not the primary driver.
A quick reading of history will show that there is no such thing as a permanent ally and that ones enemies are rarely those that one expected a decade or two prior.
Whilst I acknowledge that I approach the issue from a pro-Palestinian viewpoint I also believe that justice for the Jewish people is best served by "the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for the Jewish people" as per the Balfour declaration. To that end it is in the interests of the United States and the rest of the international community to enable a peaceful settlement by which Israel will be, and will feel, secure.
In my view such a settlement is extremely unlikely without a just settlement for the Palestinian people, for without this there will always exist an understandable sense of injustice and of resentment that we have created misery for one people out of our desire to be just to another.
Further, it will serve to strengthen the future of international relations if we ensure that any settlement is both just and based solidly in international law.
The current policy of the United States is not, by any objective measure, even handed. It does not serve either the US or Israel well to continue to give cover in the UNSC and to fund Israel's actions that would not be tolerated if they were committed by any other country, including other close allies.
This policy is not that of an ally but of a patron; it does not encourage, and appears to me to discourage, Israel to develop normal relations with other countries or to behave justly towards the Palestinians.
There is a widespread resentment in the wider Muslim world of the way that Israel behaves and the support that the US gives her, this has two major consequences: firstly it gives cover for the anti-Semitism of those in power in Iran and the Wahhabis and their fellow travellers, secondly it impacts directly on the ability of the US to achieve its foreign policy goals across a wide swathe of the globe.
In conclusion, it would be far better for both Israel and the United states if the former was treated like any other ally, if military aid was limited protecting Israel from attack not enabling her to be offensive and if non military aid was delivered to both Israelis and Palestinians in equitable manner.
Terrorism: there is no way that the East and the West will agree on definition of terrorism. However, it is possible that we can all agree on one thing, attacking any civilian in his or her comfort zone to disrupt such comfort is the essence of terrorism. As to Muslims everywhere especially in Asia and North Africa, it is a political business underlined by corrupt ideology that is created by decades of oppression and occupation by the West. I have been reading these days the REACTIONS in the Middle East to the Israel attack on people taking medicine and supplies to Gaza, even people who never were political are angry at the idea of Israel starving and humiliating more than a million and half people that live in condition is not even acceptable to rats. A lot of Westerners are insulated from the images of hungry and sick Palestinians (humans)who live in destroyed houses and lack enough food and supplies. Seeing such images on Arabic and Muslim TV stations is creating a very angry reactions. the Palestinian Israeli question is the corner stone of the corrupt Islamic Ideology that is growing rapidly in the Middle East and the Muslim world like Pakistan. I was by chance looking at Daniel Pipes writing about Islam and Muslims, it is scary in its similarity to what Al Qaeda people will write. I was also looking Netanyahu's speeches thorough the years, I was surprised how his speeches are similar to radical Islamic leaders. so creating a Palestinian state that live in freedom and dignity is the first big step in defeating the Islamic corrupt Ideology in the Muslim World and thus defeating a big source of Muslim terrorism against United States and the Security Council members.
the Islamic militant threats to all nations is a result of Western corruption that starts with blindly supporting Israel under any and all circumstances. Supporting corrupt Muslim Governments that have no legitimacy like in Egypt. there is cause and effect to almost everything so let's really look at the cause of terrorism and how to defeat it by using our brains not our guns as Israel military governments believe
indeed Israel is a liability for the Jews everywhere, including Israel. Progressively Israel is becoming more and more religious and ruled by fanatics, just like Iran, Taliban, Pakistan, etc. the whole image and history of educated, intellectual and artistic Jewish communities are replaced by extreme fanatics like the settlers and right wing racists like Lieberman. Israel is helping rejection of Jews even hate grow larger every where. Israel is more and more becoming an ugly oppressor, just reminding us of the ugly days of South Africa. Israel always been and is a war machine that cannot see anything but through a gun. Oppressing few millions people and systematically depriving them of every human dignity possible is the enemy of Israel, it is self destructive, abuse is being re digested by the Israeli society and reflected in the backward motion of Israel. I agree with Congressman Frank Barney "as a Jew, I am ashamed"
"Israel is an ally and not a vassal state and if it falls to the scimitar Americas fate is not far behind."
Holy shit, our fate is in danger! Are the muslim hordes to invade from Canada or our soft underbelly on the Mexican border?
Every muslim that has performed a terrorist attack on our soil so far was here legally (Atta and his 18 friends, Faisal Shahzad ..). If we want to get serious about terrorist attacks in America, we should restrict certain types of immigrants... But that's not going to happen.
I'm a little surprised that, in this context, no one has mentioned Mossad Chief Meir Dagan's recent statement. According to Haaretz, 1 June 2010:
<i>Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said on Tuesday that Israel is progressively becoming a burden on the United States.
"Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden," said Dagan, speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.</i>
Full article at http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mossad-chief-israel-gradu…
Good article, but wasn't too impressed by this:
"This does not mean taking a single action that undercuts Israeli security, but it does mean realizing that Israel should show enough discretion to reflect the fact that it is a tertiary U.S. strategic interest in a complex and demanding world."
... and so we're back at square one: more talk, no action, or at least none that 'undercuts Israeli security', however that's interpreted.
The reality is that after a three hundred and fifty year hiatus the Muslim world is once again on the march. Israel is not the cause of this recrudescence of Islamic fervor; it is merely an obstacle in its path. Although the US has great influence over Israel, that nation is an independent actor whose interests largely coincide with those of the United States. Foremost among such interests is avoidance of being destroyed by a rapidly increasing and effective pan-islamic movement of which the terror attacks are one facet.
Or do the authors believe that absent Israel the Muslim countries would be our dear allies and 9/11 would never have happened?
It will serve American interests to support and sometimes to scold Israel. It will never be in Americas interest to make Israel an afterthought or a tertiary consideration in the Middle East. Israel is an ally and not a vassal state and if it falls to the scimitar Americas fate is not far behind.