Israeli action -- paid for by U.S.

By EVAN RENFRO | Posted: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 11:45 pm

It is of the utmost importance for Americans to understand the recent killings - or shall we dispense with euphemism and call them what they are: murders -of aid workers in international waters by Israeli commandos as yet another example in a pattern of atrocities committed by a nuclear-armed theocracy.

The humanitarians were attacked while attempting to bring civilian supplies to people living under a blockade that has been judged both illegal and inhumane by the United Nations, and that clearly violates the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on collective punishment.

The victims of the assault who are still alive, including an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, are, as of this writing, still being held prisoner by Israel. Nebraskans are among those responsible for enabling Israel's long history of such illegal actions.

One of the most significant realities in geopolitics today is that Israel is enabled to carry out its violent policies (including ethnic cleansing) solely because of the assistance, both financially and militarily, given to it by the United States.

Israel is the single largest beneficiary of U.S. tax dollars.

Israel is also the only state where the annual aid is given in a lump sum, thereby allowing Israel, rather than the U.S. taxpayer, to enjoy the interest on this multibillion-dollar gift.

Why? In whose interest is this happening?

During the Cold War, the argument that the United States needed a military ally in the region was at least somewhat cogent, if morally blind. Several Arab countries were tilting toward Moscow, and Israel was willing, after extensive bargaining, to lean toward Washington.

With the end of the Cold War, and the consequent dominance of capitalist ideology, this "national security" argument became nonsensical.

During the first Gulf War, the most assistance our regional ally could lend us was to do nothing at all, which is precisely the most helpful policy Israel has been able to manifest since.

U.S. security is greatly degraded whenever Israel acts like a lunatic state, bombing, shooting, and assassinating in a willy-nilly, seemingly deranged manner. Such actions are occurring with increased frequency, and one can be justifiably concerned that a theocratic state, with a history of violent aggression, possesses 200-300 nuclear devices.

It is impossible to know exactly how many such weapons Israel owns, because it is one of the few states (along with North Korea, India, and Pakistan) to have consistently refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which would allow for inspections to be carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Another popular argument is based on religious ideology. While Jews in the United States comprise only a tiny fraction

(3 percent) of the overall population and are quite divided on the subject of Israel, Christian Zionists abound and, particularly under the Bush administration (including G.W.B. himself), gained unparalleled access to the levers of U.S. foreign policy.

The mind-set here is that in order to hasten the return of Jesus, Israel not only must be protected but must be made to be a dominant entity.

What happens to Jews at the moment of apocalypse is, of course, too sanguinary a project to describe in a family newspaper, though it is detailed in the New Testament's Revelations. In this way, Christian support for Israel is equivalent to a rope's support of the hanged man.

In the final analysis, one comes to the inescapable conclusion that uncritical U.S. support for the state of Israel is counterproductive in the contexts of both security and morality.

What to do about it? I don't know. I leave to the reader's own judgment what action is most appropriate.

People are being killed in large numbers by agents of foreign state whose salaries are paid with your tax dollars.

Evan Renfro is a doctoral candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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