Israel Lets the UN in…or Not; Why the U.S. Won’t Cut Ties with Israel

– A thick web of military-strategic ties is at the heart of the US-Israeli relationship –

By Phyllis Bennis

Good news from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation: Our ninth annual conference just concluded last week in Kansas City, a great success with lots of good discussion on future work challenging U.S. military aid to Israel, building the U.S. and global BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaigns, and working for real accountability for Gaza. If you want to take a look at some of the video of the Saturday night festivities honoring Brazilian filmmaker Iara Lee and other participants of the Free Gaza Movement flotilla, Congressman Brian Baird for his support of human rights in Gaza, and a great local hip-hop team (with me as MC for the evening), take a look here.

Very unnerving news from the Middle East, even beyond the escalation in Afghanistan and the rising violence accompanying the reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq: the recent clash on the Lebanon-Israel border. Not because this particular clash will inevitably lead to a wider war, but the fact that such a minor border squabble could escalate so rapidly, leading to the killing of at least three Lebanese soldiers and perhaps a high-ranking Israeli soldier. It’s a reminder of just how unstable the overall situation is. Part of the problem is U.S. refusal to talk to Hezbollah, one of the most influential components of Lebanon’s elected government, which means that the only messages passed are those in the form of sanctions, isolation, and the “global war on terror.” Threats against Hezbollah, as well as Hamas and Syria, continue as the U.S. coin of the realm, all focusing on the rising threats against Iran.

The United States actually provides military support to the Lebanese national army (who were involved in the border clash – Hezbollah did not participate, saying that they take their orders from the national military). So unlike the Israel-Gaza confrontation, in Lebanon the U.S. actually has contact with the “other” side, not only with Israel. (Lebanon’s $100 million is about 1/30 Israel’s $3 billion annual military aid.) Some in Congress, predictably, have already called for aid to Lebanon to be reconsidered. But has anyone in the Obama administration done anything beyond calling for “restraint” to deal with the overall danger of escalation on the border? Stay tuned – but don’t hold your breath.

In the meantime, I’ve just come out with two new pieces. First a short blog on Huffington Post on the recent announcement that Israel would accept a UN investigation of the killings on board the flotilla back in May.

Israel to let the UN in…or Not?
What a coup for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon! Israel just agreed it will cooperate with a UN-backed international investigation into its lethal May 31 raid on the Mavi Marmara, the ship attempting to break the siege of Gaza. Nine Turkish nationals, one of them also a U.S. citizen, were killed by Israeli commandos who attacked the ship from assault helicopters and naval speedboats.

It should be a big deal, right? Ban called it “an unprecedented development.” Commentary bloggers raged that it would be an “atrocious precedent.” After all, Israel has never accepted UN or international investigations of its human rights violations before – look how it rejected and condemned the UN’s Goldstone Report documenting possible war crimes during the 2008-09 attack on Gaza. Look at their 2008 refusal to allow the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Professor Richard Falk, to enter the West Bank to carry out his mandate – instead arresting him at Tel Aviv airport, tossing him into a dirty prison cell overnight and deporting him the next day. Look at Israel’s refusal to allow Archbishop Desmond Tutu into Gaza to help conduct an international investigation.

There’s more – if you want to read the rest, and/or comment on the article, it’s here.

Then, I published an op-ed on AlterNet taking a look at why Israel’s defense minister keeps returning to Washington, when the official top diplomat, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is nowhere to be seen. Has to do with the primacy of the military ties, it turns out…

Why the U.S. Won’t Cut Ties With Israel, no Matter How Extreme its Government Gets

A thick web of military-strategic ties is at the heart of the US-Israeli relationship.

Rumors are floating around about why Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was in Washington – again – last week when Israel’s official top diplomat, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is nowhere to be seen. This was Barak’s seventh visit to DC; Lieberman has been here exactly once.

So what’s up with that? Why isn’t Israel’s most important envoy playing the key diplomatic role with Israel’s most important diplomatic sponsor? One reason is that Lieberman is an embarrassment to many, even here in Washington’s Israel-can-do-no-wrong political culture. His party, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) is so far right that Kadimah – the party of the 1982 “Butcher of Beirut” Ariel Sharon and Tzipi Livni who helped orchestrate the assault on Gaza – and the extremist settlement-backing Likud party of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, look centrist and center-right by comparison.

Lots more in this one, including a fascinating set of “bragging points” prepared by Rep. Howard Berman, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, for Democrats to use while campaigning for the mid-term election, focusing on how the Obama administration and the Democratic-led Congress has given Israel everything it wants, more military aid than ever, more advanced weapons, etc.

Take a look at the rest here. And it would be especially great if you could comment on this one – a few early commenters jumped in with some pretty ugly ideas, so I’d love to get a different set of views looking at these issues!

And for those of you in the Detroit area, I’ll be speaking tonight for Peace Action’s annual Hiroshima Day commemoration, “Stopping Nukes, Stopping Wars: Ending U.S. Empire from Hiroshima to Afghanistan!” Call 248-548-3920 for more information.