Gaza’s misery has to be stopped, Financial Times of London
You know, that radical rag. Tells you what a large chunk of the international business community is thinking, actually. I/P is not good for business, clearly. I'll take that.
Incidentally, I might add that the Israelis are not stupid: they helped Hamas in the '80s in order to undermine the PLO and Fatah. Why? In order not to have a "real partner," and by then it was becoming embarrassingly obvious that the PLO was ready to negotiate. Now the divide-and-rule excuse is still alive -- thank god; they can go on with annexation and ethnic cleansing. Territorial and ethnic expansion is and always has been Israel's goal, Labor or Likud, for nearly a century, and throughout the "peace process," despite heavy propaganda to the contrary (at least in this country). Very similar to the Bush administration's (and most Democrats') use of "Al Qaida" as an excuse for whatever they'd like to do internationally. That is, it's a very old, very common tactic by any state -- Western, non-Western, modern, ancient, medieval, whatever. I'm embarrassed to have to even write this; it should be utterly obvious.
Israel (by which I mean, the government and whomever supports it in Israel and over here) couldn't care less about Sderot, missiles, etc., primarily. It's useful. Sitting down and talking to Hamas, Fatah, etc., would lead to a total disaster, from the elite perspective: territorial shrinkage.
Nor does the US want Israel to stand down, no matter what any potential Israeli government might want in the future. Israel is our military base in the Middle East (well, one of them); it helps in our proxy war with Iran, and has done us many services in Latin America (in the '80s, as everyone knows, or should), Africa, and so on. Anyone who thinks we aren't using Israel is buying into propaganda -- including those on the "left" who see only an Israeli conspiracy to wag the superpower dog. There is some truth to that, but no dog as powerful as the US gets wagged without allowing it to happen. As soon as the elites in this country have had enough of Israel, if that ever happens, not only will Israel be dropped like a hot potato, but its current American-Jewish "supporters" will dump it, too.
And the coming backlash will be not only really anti-Semitic (the real thing), but also conveniently fanned by US elites in order to hide their own complicity. You can see this developing already in utero on the Ron Paul right. Of course, avoiding an anti-Semitic backlash in the US is not the primary reason to end this horror in the occupied territories, but you'd think supposedly "pro-"Israel types in the US, at least Jews, would get it. I think the smarter do, and thus are hysterical about the increasingly widening debate on I/P in the US. They probably know they'll get sold out by their WASP-y manipulators to whom they sold out around 1967 (see Heller's incomparable Good as Gold) -- to say nothing about the Christian-Right nutcases with whom they've allied.
Morons.
Incidentally, I might add that the Israelis are not stupid: they helped Hamas in the '80s in order to undermine the PLO and Fatah. Why? In order not to have a "real partner," and by then it was becoming embarrassingly obvious that the PLO was ready to negotiate. Now the divide-and-rule excuse is still alive -- thank god; they can go on with annexation and ethnic cleansing. Territorial and ethnic expansion is and always has been Israel's goal, Labor or Likud, for nearly a century, and throughout the "peace process," despite heavy propaganda to the contrary (at least in this country). Very similar to the Bush administration's (and most Democrats') use of "Al Qaida" as an excuse for whatever they'd like to do internationally. That is, it's a very old, very common tactic by any state -- Western, non-Western, modern, ancient, medieval, whatever. I'm embarrassed to have to even write this; it should be utterly obvious.
Israel (by which I mean, the government and whomever supports it in Israel and over here) couldn't care less about Sderot, missiles, etc., primarily. It's useful. Sitting down and talking to Hamas, Fatah, etc., would lead to a total disaster, from the elite perspective: territorial shrinkage.
Nor does the US want Israel to stand down, no matter what any potential Israeli government might want in the future. Israel is our military base in the Middle East (well, one of them); it helps in our proxy war with Iran, and has done us many services in Latin America (in the '80s, as everyone knows, or should), Africa, and so on. Anyone who thinks we aren't using Israel is buying into propaganda -- including those on the "left" who see only an Israeli conspiracy to wag the superpower dog. There is some truth to that, but no dog as powerful as the US gets wagged without allowing it to happen. As soon as the elites in this country have had enough of Israel, if that ever happens, not only will Israel be dropped like a hot potato, but its current American-Jewish "supporters" will dump it, too.
And the coming backlash will be not only really anti-Semitic (the real thing), but also conveniently fanned by US elites in order to hide their own complicity. You can see this developing already in utero on the Ron Paul right. Of course, avoiding an anti-Semitic backlash in the US is not the primary reason to end this horror in the occupied territories, but you'd think supposedly "pro-"Israel types in the US, at least Jews, would get it. I think the smarter do, and thus are hysterical about the increasingly widening debate on I/P in the US. They probably know they'll get sold out by their WASP-y manipulators to whom they sold out around 1967 (see Heller's incomparable Good as Gold) -- to say nothing about the Christian-Right nutcases with whom they've allied.
Morons.