"A Below-The-Belt Blow"
If you need any further proof that the relationship between the U.S. and Israel has become warped, spend a few minutes checking out some Israeli newspapers on the Iran NIE -- the feature articles, the opinion pieces, all the way down to the message board posts. It's quite extraordinary: the outrage, the feeling of betrayal, the sense of entitlement to a supportive, obsequious, almost vassal-like U.S. intelligence apparatus. That Israel's political and military leaders have made no pretense of hiding their own scorn for the NIE is both striking and telling. How common is it for one ally to publicly mock another's intelligence community?
It's obvious now that one of our main "allies" depends on us, like them, living in a constant state of alarm. For Israel, ideally, it's fear by osmosis. There's clearly a longing for those heady days right after 9/11 -- "very good" for the relationship, Bibi gushed -- when Americans "got" the threat. But it's not just fear. We've also become occupiers-in-arms, with the same rotting of national identity and soul suffered by Israel during the past few decades well underway here.
At this point I don't think it's an exaggeration to describe this relationship as not only perverted, but increasingly dangerous.
It's obvious now that one of our main "allies" depends on us, like them, living in a constant state of alarm. For Israel, ideally, it's fear by osmosis. There's clearly a longing for those heady days right after 9/11 -- "very good" for the relationship, Bibi gushed -- when Americans "got" the threat. But it's not just fear. We've also become occupiers-in-arms, with the same rotting of national identity and soul suffered by Israel during the past few decades well underway here.
At this point I don't think it's an exaggeration to describe this relationship as not only perverted, but increasingly dangerous.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Monday, December 10, 2007
6 Comments:
I just walked over here from Sullivan's blog and found you about to get drawn and quartered by the Israeli faction of the Weimar Republic.
You said exactly what I've tried to say about the Israel/U.S. relationship. I'm impressed.
I don't care that they're Jewish or Semites or anything else about the people, I just care that they expect our acquiescence. By definition, wouldn't they need to be a state or a territory of the U.S. to expect that? Wouldn't it be absurd to ask that as a question?
Wouldn't it be absurd to act like that's an inappropriate question?
Apparently not.
I'm reading you from now on. Even if only to watch the execution :)
Excellent, TCR, excellent.
If you need any further proof that the relationship between the U.S. and Israel has become warped, spend a few minutes checking out some American newspapers on the Israeli reaction to the Iran NIE -- the feature articles, the opinion pieces, all the way down to the message board posts. It's quite extraordinary: the outrage, the feeling of betrayal, the sense of entitlement to a supportive, obsequious, almost vassal-like Israeli intelligence apparatus. That America's political and military leaders have made no pretense of hiding their own scorn for the NIE and Israel's reaction is both striking and telling. How common is it for one ally to publicly mock another's intelligence community, or their own?
It's obvious now that one of our main "allies" depends on Israel, like the GOP, living in a constant state of alarm. For Bush, ideally, it's fear by osmosis. There's clearly a longing for those heady days right after 9/11 -- "very good" for the relationship, Bush gushed -- when Americans "got" the threat. But it's not just fear. We've also become occupiers-in-arms, with the same rotting of national identity and soul suffered by Israel during the past few decades well underway here.
Heh - you think Israeli "outrage" is bad today? Wait 'til after the next election (ours)! Once the Bush regime and its gang of neocon criminals is gone - hardcore hardliner-enablers all - from office, the level of what will be objectively, anti-Americanism, will probably make the current "hysteria" seem mild by comparison.
Jay - the "hardliners" are embedded in multiple layers of our current gov't. They won't be gone by a long shot.
Cheney's "Boys from Brazil"
Israel's 'dependence' on the US has something to do with the fact that the US is the guarantor of Israel's continued existence. So of course, they get paranoid about the potential fallout from the internecine fight here between the CIA and the Bush White House. While Israel's occupation of what would be Palestine is long overdue for expiration, as is our occupation of Iraq, it has to be considered that it would benefit both Israel and Palestine to have a formal peace. So what keeps the boiling pot of the Middle Eastern stew bubbling? Could it be that the US is attached to the chaos as a way to keep its mitts in the falafel basket? To keep the other players in the region from settling down and becoming, if not prosperous then at least satisfied? I happen to think that the Islamic fanaticism that the Israeli-Palestinian struggle keeps going benefits the neo-cons here at home who want to maintain a climate of fear and support among Americans, all the better to rip away our Constitutional protections under the guise of fostering security while ripping off the treasury to feed their friends at, for instance, Halliburton and Blackwater. When there's no more money to be made at warmongering, peace will break out.
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