Perhaps the American ‘moral commitment' to Israel is one of the biggest misnomers of international politics, because there is no morality whatsoever in the commitment to a fascist state that murders women and children, occupies, destroys and appropriates homes from their inhabitants, and attacks peace activists in international waters. I write this knowing that in the time after I finish this article and before it is published, Israel would have committed yet another crime. Yet, this American commitment continues as we saw during Benjamin Netanyahu's recent visit to Washington, when the Obama administration backtracked on every single stance it took in the past, including in what regards the issue of settlement in the West Bank and the seizure of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem. This is while the Israeli Prime Minister failed to offer anything that can help push the peace process forward. Settlement activity is not just an Israeli crime, but also an American one. Below, I will briefly quote two paragraphs from a 13-page report published by the New York Times last week: “An examination of public records in the United States and Israel identified at least 40 American groups that have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last decade. The money goes mostly to schools, synagogues, recreation centers and the like, legitimate expenditures under the tax law. But it has also paid for more legally questionable commodities: housing as well as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles. American tax law is more lenient than Israel's. The outposts receiving tax-deductible donations — distinct from established settlements financed by Israel's government — are illegal under Israeli law. And a decade ago, Israel ended tax breaks for contributions to groups devoted exclusively to settlement-building in the West Bank.” I pause here to say that the New York Times is pro-Israeli. However, it confirms what I have always believed, along with many Arab political commentators, that the U.S Congress is more pro-Israeli than the Knesset, as it stands against each administration that attempts to defend US interests in the face of Israel. In the past few weeks alone, I read a letter signed by 75 Senators calling on President Obama to consider the interests of Israel, and another letter signed by 334 members of the House asking the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be discrete about any US-Israeli disagreements. The issue is not about one report in a newspaper. In truth, the latter coincided with an article written by Anthony H. Cordesman from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, an expert whom I believe to be one of the best military experts in the United States, while the Centre is among the best and most credible of its kind. Cordesman said that the depth of America's moral commitment does not justify actions by an Israeli government that makes Israel a strategic liability to the United States. He also said that it is not in the interest of the United States at all that Israel is not pursuing peace with its neighbors, or when Israel shows intransigence in what regards the issue of Jerusalem that would make the city purely Jewish rather than a mixed city. He adds that Israel must realize that it has obligations to the United States, and that the US patience has limits. This is because the long-term nature of the US-Israel strategic relationship depends on Israel seeking peace with the Palestinians, forfeiting and ceasing to build further settlements, avoiding the adventure of a military strike against Iran, and refraining from threatening US interests in the Arab and Islamic worlds. I and other Arab writers have already said this. However, we are not a major US liberal pro-Israeli newspaper or a prominent military expert in Washington. The extremism of the Israeli government is alienating American Jews, who are liberal in the first place. I expect their disillusionment with the Netanyahu government to continue because of last week's decision to hand over religious affairs to the rabbis who would decide who is Jewish, without reporting to the civilian leadership, which means more religious – after the political – extremism. Thus we read about Polish and Israeli peace activists who entered the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, and wrote slogans in English and Hebrew in support of the people of Gaza and raised the Palestinian flag on a wall. The activists included Yonatan Shapira, a former officer in the Israeli air force, who said that some of his family members of Polish origin were killed in the Holocaust, and added that oppression, occupation, and crimes against humanity are one and the same whether they were committed in Warsaw or Gaza. I await Israel to change, or America to follow the rest of the world and change its policies towards Israel, because defending it is impossible. There is no morality whatsoever in dealing with an immoral state. [email protected]
