by B. R. GOWANI
Every few years, the caged and helpless Palestinians reach the limits of their endurance suffering Israeli atrocities. They fight back and sustain more deaths, devastation, and deprivation. The United States, which never tires of preaching “human rights” “democracy” and other such noble values act as if the Israelis have cut off the US president’s tongue.
Metaphorically, this is true when looking at the power the Israel Lobby (1) exerts over the corrupt congresspersons. The US presidents’ voice returns when the Israelis have carried out their agenda. Even if they open their mouths in between, most of the time it is to support the Israeli hideousness.
On 12th May, President Joe Biden , answering a reporter’s question on the current flare-up of Palestinian frustrations and Israel’s precise and deadly attacks, blamed Palestinians without mentioning Israeli killings of Palestinian civilians, including a great number of children:
“My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory.”
Biden doesn’t say that he’ll order Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – one of the most heinous leaders on the world stage today – to stop these war crimes immediately. Instead he’s talking about the rockets being fired by Hamas. In reality, Israel’s Iron Dome shield has stopped most of the rockets.
Look at the number of casualties: over 140 Palestinians killed, while only 10 Israelis have been killed as of Sunday morning Jerusalem time. The conflict keeps raging on.
The disproportionately high Palestinian casualties are a result of Israel’s technological advancements and cruel disregard for the indigenous inhabitants of the land they are stealing.
Figures from the last big conflict which took place in 2014: Palestinian casualties: 2,220 (armed groups 605, 1492 civilians, 123 unverified) versus Israel’s 71 (66 soldiers, 4 civilians, which included 1 child, and 1 unknown).
“Israel has a right to defend itself” has become a kind of Biblical verse which US politicians chant whenever Israel indulges in violence. The corporate media follows the same pattern without detailing as to why the desperate and terrorized Palestinians fight back.
There is no danger at all to Israel, Palestine is no match for Israel’s arsenal. Israel is a nuclear power in possession of 200 nuclear weapons.
In an email to Jeffrey Leeds, his business partner, former US secretary of state Colin Powell wrote about Netanyahu’s warning to US Congress against Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
“Anyway, Iranians can’t use one [a nuclear weapon] if they finally make one. The boys in Tehran know Israel has 200, all targeted on Tehran, and we [the United States] have thousands. As [Iran’s President Mahmoud] Akmdinijad (sic) [said], ‘What would we do with one, polish it?’ I have spoken publicly about both nK and Iran. We’ll blow up the only thing they care about – regime survival. Where, how would they even test one?”
Back in 1986, when Biden was a US Senator, he had defended Israel thus:
“It’s about time we stop apologising for our support for Israel.” “There’s no apology to be made. It is the best $3[.1] billion investment we make. If there weren’t an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”
In 2016, then-president Barack Obama raised the annual free money — or as John V. Whitbeck puts it a “tribute” — to Israel from $3.1 billion to $3.8 billion, despite the fact that Netanyahu had humiliated Obama in 2015 on a visit to the US where he addressed the joint session of the US Congress that was not approved by Obama. Israel is the largest US aid recipient in the world. Between the late 1940s and November 2020, Israel has fleeced the US taxpayers of $146 billion. Then there are donations from US citizens amounting to tens of millions of dollars.
Netanyahu was mad at Obama who was trying to somewhat improve the US relations with Iran with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), which Netanyahu vehemently opposed. Israel doesn’t want any other country to emerge strong in the region.
If there were no Israel, the United States would have created one to control the Middle East and its oil. One wonders if Biden is any less cruel or hypocritical than the former president Donald Trump? The only difference being that Trump’s cruelty was out there in the open through his big mouth and on Twitter. Biden neither tweets nor open his mouth much, but cruel he indeed is. But then sometimes you feel pity for US presidents who, in their eagerness to please Israel and the Israel Lobby, lick their boots — although the US is used to getting its boots licked by the rest of the world. In 2015, at an yearly Israeli Independence Day festivity, Biden shamelessly overdid it:
“Everybody knows I love Israel… You know me. You raised me. You educated me.”
With the backing of the courts, police, and military, some Israelis are throwing out Palestinians to take over their houses (video below). Israeli forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and injured hundreds of Palestinians and attacked Gaza, the largest open-air prison in the world.
US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib tweeted at Biden questioning his silence:
“I was 7 years old when I first prayed at the Al Aqsa with my sity [sic]. It’s a sacred site for Muslims. This is equivalent to attacking the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, or the Temple Mount for Jews. Israel attacks it during Ramadan. Where’s the outrage @POTUS?”
The only congressperson of Palestinian origin, Tlaib, in her speech to the Congress, pointed out the silence, hypocrisy, and callous indifference of the Biden administration for the plight of Palestinians.
When the sadistic Biden government decides it’s time to perform brokering a “ceasefire”, Biden will do something.
Many progressives were impressed with the little crumbs (in the shape of two-year free college, etc.) Biden has thrown at them. I hope they wake up and form a block in Congress that demands substantial changes beneficial to the common people, stops free money to Israel, and brings an end to US imperialism.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com
Note:
(1) The extremely powerful Israel Lobby grew even more in strength through Trump’s unilateral recognition, even amidst widespread international opposition of the disputed city of Jerusalem claimed by both Palestine and Israel as their capital. (Jerusalem has religious significance for Christians, Jews, and Muslims.)