FALLEN STARS

It is a sad reflection on our times that accusations of anti-Semitism are so hastily hurled at anyone who dares to criticise Israeli policy. The term seems to emerge from an emotional maelstrom of American/Israeli sensitivities, steeped in the doctrinal quagmire of the warped counterpart of Judaism: Zionism.

The notion of being “chosen and “special” is curious; it is a strange contradiction to proclaim to be doing the will of the One God of all Humanity via the exclusivity, separation and aggressive tendencies of the followers of a single monotheistic religion. That said, it is also quite appropriate from the viewpoint of Yahweh/Jehovah, who, it seems, would be quite satisfied with as much exclusivity, bloodshed and collective egoism as possible. The fact is, whether it is Islam, Christianity or Judaism, monotheistic religions are concerned with patriarchal control – period. Any original forms of objective spiritual truths have long since been lost in favour of the extensive emotional dividends it can provide for a powerful few.

Many Jewish people abhor such exceptionalism and insist that it is simply the chosen lot of those Chosen peoples to take on a more onerous task of fulfilling “G-d’s” will (and no doubt, according to such interpretations of “G-d”, the punishment that will be meted out should they fail). Though this in itself does not alter the initial premise of being “special,” there is certainly a great difference between Jewish people and the Zionist control as the primary factors in the Israeli government and encroaching settlers.

There are indeed Jewish and Arab peoples desperate to live in peace, though their initiatives are being drowned out by gunfire, bombs and the incessant screams of the dying, usually children. With such deep emotional wounds inflicted on both sides and for so long, where peace is consistently sabotaged, it suggests that the powerbrokers have huge stakes in the continuance of this carnage inside the barbed wire of our social conditioning.

From the cradle to the grave we are programmed to be used and abused and to be set against each other in innumerable ways from within our own families to the conflict of nation states, fostering the dialectic of “us and them” “divide and rule,” “eye for an eye” and the tragically false notions of a progress that is largely materialist by definition. Therefore, in one very real sense, we are all in this together. Yet the level of our perceptual blindness is dictated by our deference to the comfort zones of dogmatic beliefs which are never more applicable than in the highly charged context of the United States and Israel.

The Palestinian peoples' claim to their own land and heritage has become a fight for the most basic human rights, indeed their very right to exist; where poverty, settlement encroachment, and extreme oppression from Israeli forces has become a daily part of their lives. That is not to say that Palestinian terrorist atrocities are somehow vindicated by these assertions. Suicide bombing attacks are wholly abhorrent, but they arise from the anger and desperation of a brutally oppressed people; a response to a persistent aggression: occupation and virtual genocide. When a people are denied liberty and freedom, via a system of “closures” and curfews, where over 65% are knee deep in poverty, the nature of this reality dictates that extreme measures will rise to the surface as peaks of resistance, as a reaction to the aggressor’s ferocity. What goes around comes around.

In 1947, following on closely from the outpouring of sympathy for the Jewish Holocaust, Zionists were able to secure a vote at the United Nations for the Partition of Palestine into two states. Israel served as a valuable strategic interest for the U.S. whereby continual financial assistance ensured an optimum channel into the Middle East enabling the U.S. to usurp the waning dominance of the British in the region. Since that time it has resulted in the gradual ascendance of Orthodox Jewish fundamentalism, Zionist dogma and the present day achievement of three primary objectives. Firstly, to make the destruction of Palestinian society palatable by claiming a religious moral high ground where paramilitary reprisals are seen as an evil attacking an exclusive mandate from God. Secondly, to expel or “transfer” Palestinians to areas outside Palestine and to “import” Jewish peoples from all over the world to offset the increase in their population. Despite promises of free transportation, cash allowances and free housing from land stolen from the Palestinians themselves - this plan failed. But the plan to make life as unbearable as possible must in the end pay dividends, and this is what the Israeli Government is banking on with assistance from the United States representing the third and most pertinent objective overall.

We now see two psychopathic personalities, Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush, at the helm of a symbiotic relationship where the Palestinians’ human rights are being inexorably squeezed out of existence. It is clear that the quasi-religious and interventionist policies of the neo-conservative Bush administration and the Jewish/Zionist strangle hold on the media, indeed U.S. society, are playing a mutual game of back scratching with a decidedly taut interplay of fanatical religious goals and aspirations. These dangerous undercurrents are flowing in and out of purposeful strategy of political expediency and ruthless one-upmanship where the Iraqi population, and the Middle East as a whole suffer extraordinary hardship from such frenzied drives for omnipotence.


DIS-UNTIED NATIONS

It is not within the scope of this column to outline the extremely serious flaws within the organizational structure and agencies of the UN. Although truly humanitarian peoples work under its aegis, and have achieved enormous successes, they are all restricted by the bars of a system of control that defines the limitations of those successes. The reality is that the inaction, ineptitude and total failure of the UN on a wide range of international issues is reflected and sourced from its attendees and affiliated agencies such as the infamous International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank both established under the highly dubious 1944 Bretton Woods agreement which coincidentally came into operation in 1947. The World Bank earns almost as much from interest and loan repayments as it hands out in new loans each year. Over 60% of the bank’s loans goes to suppliers outside the borrower countries for such things as consultancy services, machinery and of course, oil. Control of the bank is vested in a board of executives representing national governments, whose votes are apportioned according to the amount they have funded the bank. Thus the USA has nearly 20% of the vote and always appoints the board’s president. Consequently, resolutions, conventions, declarations, protocols, amendments and condemnations have little effect in a world held fast in the cement of lies. The UN has been severely co-opted and akin to the remains of the American constitution, effectively acts as an apologist for the world’s only super power.

William Blum’s Rogue State (2003) provided a random selection from the seventies and eighties of the U.S. and Israel’s consistent assault, on not only the Palestinians, but the Geneva Convention’s human rights articles and international ethics. Cast your eye over an adapted list of United Nation resolutions which indicate exactly where their true interests lie: [abstentions not included]


Res. No: 33/110 Yes/No vote: 110-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Palestinian living conditions.

Res. No: 33/113C Yes/No vote: 97-3 (US, Israel, Guatemala)
Subject: Condemnation of Israeli human rights record in occupied territories.

Res. No: 34/46 Yes/No vote: 136-1 (US)
Subject: Alternate approaches within the UN system for improving human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Res. No: 34/90A Yes/No vote: 112-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Demand that Israel desist from certain human rights violations.

Res. No: 34/113 Yes/No vote: 120-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Request for report on the living conditions of Palestinians in occupied Arab countries.

Res. No: 34/133 Yes/No vote: 112-3 (US, Israel, Canada)
Subject: Assistance to Palestinian people.

Res. No: 34/136 Yes/No vote: 118-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Sovereignty over national resources in occupied Arab territories.

Res. No: 34/160 Yes/No vote: 122-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Include Palestinian women in agenda on UN conference on women.

Res. No: 35/13E Yes/No vote: 96-3 (US, Israel, Canada)
Subject: Requests Israel to return displaced persons.

Res. No: 35/75 Yes/No vote: 118-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Condemns Israeli policy regarding the living standards of Palestinians.

Res. No: 35/122C Yes/No vote: 118-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Israeli human rights practices in occupied territories

Res. No: 35/174 Yes/No vote: 120-1 (US)
Subject: Emphasising human rights of nations and individuals.

Res. No: 36/15 Yes/No vote: 114-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Demand that Israel cease certain excavations in East Jerusalem.

Res. No: 36/27 Yes/No vote: 109-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Condemns Israel for its bombing of an Iraqi nuclear installation.

Res. No: 36/73 Yes/No vote: 109-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Condemns Israeli policy regarding the living conditions of Palestinian people.

Res. No: 36/87B Yes/No vote: 107-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Establishment of a nuclear-free weapons zone in the Middle East.

Res. No: 36/96B Yes/No vote: 109-1 (US)
Subject: Urges negotiations on the prohibition of chemical and biological weapons.

Res. No: 36/120A Yes/No vote: 121-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Rights of the Palestinian people.

Res. No: 36/120B Yes/No vote: 119-3 (US, Israel, Canada)
Subject: Palestinian rights.

Res. No: 36/120E Yes/No vote: 139-2 (US, Israel)

Subject: Status of Jerusalem.

Res. No: 36/133 Yes/No vote: 135-1 (US)
Subject: Declares that education, work, healthcare, proper nourishment, national development etc. are human rights.

Res. No: 36/146A Yes/No vote: 141-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip.

Res. No: 36/146B Yes/No vote: 121-3 (US, Israel, Canada)
Subject: Rights of displaced Palestinians to return to their homes.

Res. No: 36/146C Yes/No vote: 117-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Revenues derived from Palestinian refugees’ properties.

Res. No: 36/146G Yes/No vote: 119-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Establishment of University of Jerusalem for Palestinian refugees.

Res. No: 36/147C Yes/No vote: 111-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Israeli violations of human rights in the occupied territories.

Res. No: 36/147F Yes/No vote: 114-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Condemns Israel’s closing of Universities in the occupied territories.

Res. No: 36/173 Yes/No vote: 115-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Permanent sovereignty over national resources in occupied Palestine and other Arab territories.

Res. No: 39/9 Yes/No vote: 134-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Cooperation between the UN and The League of Arab States.

Res. No: 39/49D Yes/No vote: 121-3 (US, Israel, Canada)
Subject: Convening a Middle East peace conference.

Res. No: 39/95A Yes/No vote: 120-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Israeli human rights violations in the occupied territories.

Res. No: 39/95H Yes/No vote: 143-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Condemns assassination attempts against Palestinian mayors and calls for apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators.

Res. No: 39/224 Yes/No vote: 146-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Economic and social assistance to the Palestinian people.

Res. No: 41/91 Yes/No vote: 17-1 (US, Israel)
Subject: Need for result-oriented political dialogue to improve the international situation.

Res. No: 42/69 Yes/No vote: 145-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Calls upon Israel to abandon plans to remove and re-settle Palestinian refugees of the West Bank away from their homes and property.

Res. No: 42/159 Yes/No vote: 153-2 (US, Israel)
Subject: Measures to prevent international terrorism, convene a conference to define terrorism and to differentiate it from the struggle of people for national liberation.

How typical that both Israel and the U.S. should block resolutions opposed to the intervention in the internal or external affairs of states or financing the training of journalists and strengthening communication services in the undeveloped world. How typical it is that both should oppose further resolutions regarding nuclear weapons including: a need for a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty; the call for Israel to renounce possession of nuclear weapons; cessation of all nuclear test explosions; declaration of non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states; World-wide action for collecting signatures in support of measures to prevent nuclear war, curb the arms race and promote disarmament; Prohibition of the development of new types of weapons of mass destruction and an Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues.

Following on from Israel’s refusal to place its nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards which was condemned by the UN in a resolution back in 1987, it makes the present day actions of Israel and its call for Arab states to disarm all the more hypocritical and despicable. It is nauseating to follow the actions of Bush sanctimoniously calling for weapons of mass destruction to be given up while Israel sits on its own illegal nuclear facilities and expanding bio-chemical weaponry.

The constant and regular dynamic of the U.S. was to oppose ALL the above. The only exception was an abstention regarding a call for a “convention for the rights of the Child” which gives some indication as to the kinds of people we are dealing with here. Nevertheless, they seem to have had their way by exacting the same petulant but dangerous demands by covert means. The blatantly undemocratic and self-serving tendency has now reach new heights of Fascism.

Far from being the epitome of democracy, the United States reveals its true colours in the votes above, opposing virtually ALL social, economic, political, ecological and humanitarian resolutions unless it benefits its own and Israel’s interests, the latter prodding its monolithic handmaiden - the Whore of Babylon - to do its bidding.

It seems Kofi Annan has well and truly lost any shred of credibility with his recent support for the blatant propaganda of the World Jewish Congress and its call for a UN general assembly resolution condemning anti-Semitism. It’s that old tired programming again in which criticism of Israel’s policies creates the hysterical reaction of anti-Semitism and the agenda therein. From Signs of the Times June 22nd:

"…ANY condemnation of the opinions of Jews or of the state of Israel which claims to act in their name, is immediately counter-condemned as "anti-semitism", or "hatred of Jews simply because they are Jews". Simply stated, if a "goyim" does not at least unconditionally accept and ideally praise the actions of Israel and therefore agree with the opinions of pro-Israeli Jews, then by default, he or she "hates Jews because they are Jews".

The result of this deliberately manufactured "world wide rise in anti-semitism" can only be bad for ordinary Jews around the world, who bear the brunt of Arab anger at the policies of Sharon and the "Zionists" in Washington. At the same time, this manipulated rise in "anti-semitism" can only be good for Sharon and his cohorts, giving them, as it does, further carte blanche to viciously attack Palestine and its people in the name of protecting the interests and lives of ordinary Jews.

Our conclusion in all of this is that ordinary Jews are being "set up" in some way by their own "leaders", and there is much evidence that it would not be the first time that this has happened.

Clearly, this is the reality of the situation at present, and we find it difficult to believe that Kofi Annan does not understand that this is the case. As such, we must conclude that Annan is a closet supporter of the genocidal policies of Sharon and the Washington "Zionists", regardless of the moderate humanitarian face that Annan, as head of the UN, is compelled to present to the world."

THE BUSINESS OF WAR

The financial ties between the U.S. and Israel represent an extraordinary long term policy in double standards and favouritism which has extended across successive administrations and stretched the idea of aid to its limits. For most members of Congress, let alone for most Americans, the sheer scale of this monetary support is not known, nor is the mainstream media keen to trumpet this caricature of expenditure.

It is an easily verifiable fact that Israel has been the beneficiary of aid totalling more than $84,854,827,200 billion since 1949–1997.

Not bad for a country which comprises only 0.001% of the world’s population and boasts a GNP higher than Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza.

The majority of this money has come from loan guarantees converted to grants with any outstanding loans “forgiven” by Congress, which is not a little insulting to Latin American and African countries still pounded by debt repayments keeping them in a state of perpetual poverty and economic subservience.

But Israel is a very special case it seems. Other countries receive aid in quarterly instalments whereas Israel is fed its substantial booty at the beginning of the fiscal year. We must also include the annual $1.5 billion banquet from private U.S. funds in the form of tax deductible donations and Israeli bonds under the umbrella protection of a considerable number of powerful Jewish charities, a well-oiled process that once again sets an international precedent.

According to Richard Curtiss of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs the total cost to the U.S. taxpayer reaches an astonishing 134.8 billion since 1949, not adjusted for inflation, or put in another way, the 5.8 million Israelis received nearly $14,630 from the U.S. government by Oct. 31, 1997 which “…cost American taxpayers $23,240 per Israeli.”

Too bad the citizens of the United States don't receive similar aid from their own government.

It is the powerful leverage of the Jewish lobbyist organizations operating on behalf of Israel which command enormous funds which Congress meekly approves and never cuts. For example, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) coordinates the campaigns for donations and has a $15 million dollar budget and some 52 national Jewish charities from which to rally to the cause, some of whom appear to be adopting nothing more than a platform for denigration of all things Arabic spun at the edges with conciliatory platitudes.

American businessmen and Zionists are also grabbing a slice of the pie under the shroud of “reconstruction” now taking place within the open wound of Iraq. One example comes from The Iraqi International Law Group (IILG) which was set up last July by Salem “Sam” Chalabi, the nephew of the head of the Iraqi National Congress Ahmad Chalabi, a Pentagon favourite and leading member of Iraq’s (read U.S.) governing council.

Mr Marc Zell who was a one time member of the Likud party and campaigned for the now leader in waiting, Binyamin Netanyahu, has the onerous responsibility of finding Israeli/American companies to do business in Iraq. Zell, who has offices in Jerusalem and Washington ran a law practice with none other than Douglas Feith, the Pentagon vulture now conveniently assigned the task of reconstruction in Iraq. Zell is becoming more outspoken with his views on the rights of settlers to occupy Palestinian land as well as promoting the idea of supplying Iraqi oil to Israel via a pipeline, something which Ariel Sharon was enthusiastically pursuing while visiting Iraq last year. Having extremely strong ties to the Pentagon before and after the invasion it comes as no surprise that Zell and others like him represent a piece in an overall strategy of Israel to drain Iraq if its life-blood in more ways than one.

Biased business opportunities have nothing to do with establishing a cohesive and sustainable infra-structure, rather, this represents the future “glories” of capitalism and an open door to the basic ingredients of this form of extreme consumerism, the culture of sex, violence and MTV - the U.S. way. A black market, mafia driven exploitation will thrive, should it even reach that stage. (Indeed, pornography is already supplying the demand in some hastily revamped cinemas and living rooms of Iraqi citizens as one indication of Western alliance influences). Russians will tell you the mafia network is ready to spring into action anywhere where there is a society vulnerable and shattered. Although Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, let us not forget who originally placed him there and who now sees Iraqi democracy is an amusing afterthought.

Big money pouring in to Israel - particularly after the ransacking of Iraq - has meant Israel’s military capability has been enhanced to a significant degree, due in part, to illicit arms technology transfers and the sharing of weapons systems software technology. What is more economically incestuous is that much of the military aid to Israel is used to buy weapons from the U.S. and heavily subsidized by the same, thus furthering the demand for more weaponry in the Arab states. Indeed, 80% of arms to Arab countries is sourced from the U.S., (though it is also true that many European arms manufacturers have been keen to provide weapons for Israeli, most notably the United Kingdom).

A prime example of stunning hypocrisy is evident from the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act which prohibits military assistance to any country “which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” We can also include the Proxmire Amendment which bans military assistance to any government that refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities. And here we have the U.S. happily flouting such laws with Israel continuing its own nuclear capability while crying foul against any other nation attempting to do the same.

But the Israeli Powers that Be see themselves as “chosen” and “special” with a mandate to do as they please while engineering and riding on the back of a unilateralist expansion Beast.

In summary, one facet of Homeland Security is the big bucks opportunity for those willing to capitalize on the misery of Iraq and the implanted fear in American society.

Reports of the Israeli’s developing ethnic specific weaponry becomes less of a rumour and more of reality when we cast an eye over the 200 companies and corporations listed as “recipients for grants from U.S./Israel binominal foundations” at the Jewish Virtual Library (a division of American Israeli cooperative Enterprise). The text goes into a romantic, hand in hand explanation of the two countries with “shared value initiatives” in sudden capital letters and as “partners for Change.” One may take a shrewd guess that the kind of “change” and “initiatives” are very different to the flowery image of participation and renewal depicted here. The grants were primarily in terms of biotechnology, energy, telecommunications, high technology, agro technology as listed, however, they are rather more coy concerning the armaments expenditure, though the 2002 $80,696,756 foreign (read U.S.) military contracts total is indicated. Keep in mind the long history of interest in biotechnology including non-lethal weaponry which has had a massive investment drive over the last ten years stemming from growing push for greater military control within America’s virtual absence of constitutional law, we see that Israel has been given assistance that fits in very nicely to the shadow government’s executive line of a New World International Order.

The Israeli network within the Bush Government fronted by Paul D. Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle and David Feith, to name a few, would suggest that American/Jewish interests are so intertwined that is hard to know just where America ends and Israel begins. In fact, more than a decade ago Deputy Secretary of Defence Wolfowitz and I. Lewis Libby, Chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, had argued in draft policy statements to press for the further establishment of various imperialist polices including the development of biological weapons that can “target specific genotypes [and] may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.”

It makes you wonder just who the real “terrorists” are and how many other “useful” tools have been laid out on the geo-political chessboard.

The now infamous report in the London Times back in 1998 described Israel’s claim to have successfully developed an “ethnic bullet” that targets Arabs. Indeed, no denials have been forthcoming and from the same report an Israeli government spokesman said: “we have a basket full of serious surprises that we will not hesitate to use if we feel that the state of Israel is under serious threat.” (For a detailed exploration of Israel’s bio-weaponry please read the Signs of the Times supplement on Ethnic Specific Weapons). It seems a far cry from notions of peace and reconciliation though again ironic in its parallels to Nazism. This may also connect to the expansion of the Human Genome Project and America’s love affair with Eugenics which harks back to the brain drain of Nazi scientists during and after the Second World War which in turn created the principles upon which the CIA and the NSA were formed.

One might also ask the question: if Arabs can be targeted genetically, can the Israelis also target other "genetic lines," such as peoples of Black or White, Anglo-Saxon heritage?

Continue To Part II