Friday, October 31, 2014

From Serious Injustice to Chickenshit Bibi:

The devolution of America's Middle East policy:

In 1919, American officials had the brains and the moral fibre to recognise that Western backing for Zionist settler-colonialism in Palestine would lead to a serious miscarriage of justice, and had no qualms in saying so:

"The [Paris] Peace Conference should not shut its eyes to the fact that the anti-Zionist feeling in Palestine and Syria is intense and not lightly to be flouted. No British officer, consulted by the Commissioners, believed that the Zionist program could be carried out except by force of arms... That of itself is evidence of a strong sense of the injustice of the Zionist program, on the part of the non-Jewish populations of Palestine and Syria. Decisions, requiring armies to carry out, are sometimes necessary, but they are surely not gratuitously to be taken in the interests of a serious injustice. For the initial claim, often submitted by Zionist representatives, that they have a 'right' to Palestine, based on an occupation of two thousand years ago, can hardly be seriously considered." (The Recommendations of the King-Crane Commission)

In 2014, when senior officials in the Obama administration, unencumbered by either brains or moral fibre (too old-fashioned?), refer to that same injustice, this is about as good (and sophisticated) as it gets:

"The thing about Bibi is, he's a chickenshit... He's not Rabin, he's not Sharon, he's certainly no Begin. He's got no guts." (Binyamin Netanyahu 'chickenshit', say US officials in explosive interview, Peter Beaumont, theguardian.com, 29/10/14)

That, of course, is off the record. When one of them is speaking on the record, he invariably reverts to sycophantic drivel:

"There are times when we disagree with actions of the Israeli government and we must raise our concerns, such as our concerns about Israel's settlement policy. We raise these concerns as a partner who is deeply concerned about Israel's future and wants to see Israel living side by side in peace and security with its neighbors." (ibid)

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