The US blames Arabs for the suffering of Gazans while supporting Israel's illegal policy of collectively punishing the entire civilian population.
On Sunday August 12, news from Gaza was distressing: The Ministry of Health announced that it would no longer be able to treat cancer patients in the Israel-besieged Strip.
“Colon and lung cancer, as well as lymphoma patients cannot be provided with the necessary therapy now,” said Dr. Mohammed Abu Silmiya, director of Abdulaziz Al-Rantisi Hospital for Children.
Israel is ultimately responsible for the Gaza siege which has extended for more than 11 years. With direct US backing, Israel has launched three major wars on Gaza in the name of fighting terrorism, destroying much of the tiny region’s infrastructure. A hermetic siege has punished ordinary Gazans, who are now lacking everything, including the most basic needs of clean water and electricity.
Now, even chemotherapy is no longer available.
But the war on the Palestinians has been a joint venture right from the start. The US has stood by Israel for many years and, as of late, orchestrated the demise of Gaza.
Washington has done everything in its power to isolate the impoverished Strip: It warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party against reconciliation with its Hamas rivals. It fueled and sustained the Israeli war and siege on Gaza. It backed Israel politically on every available platform to shield Tel Aviv from its war crimes in the Strip and throughout Occupied Palestinian Territories.
For many years, the US acted as if a peace broker. Although the American act failed to impress Palestinians, it perpetuated the illusion in the minds of US allies that US administrations are forces for good, standing at an equal distance between two parties in an even-handed ‘conflict’.
The advent of Donald Trump to the White House has ended the charade.
While the new administration brazenly defied international law by moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it also took a series of measures to financially punish international bodies that extended recognition, political support or any sort of aid to Palestinians. In the course of a few months, the US took on the United Nations culture agency, UNESCO, pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council and has cut aid to the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA.
The attack on UN organizations was led by the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who has played a central role in the new, anti-Palestinian discourse.
But she is not alone. In an article for CNN, Haley, along with US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the President and Jason Greenblatt, US representative for international negotiations, articulated an American point of view that read like text book Israeli Zionist narrative.
They placed all the blame on Palestinians, and spared Israel from any wrong-doing.
“Unfortunately,” they wrote, “Hamas’ malign activity is pushing Israel to engage in increasingly significant acts of self-defense. As in the case of past conflicts, Hamas starts a clash, loses the battle and its people suffer. That is the reality that needs to change.”
That was on July 23. A day later, Haley, using twisted language, chastised Arabs for failing Palestine and the Palestinians. In an 8-minute address to the UN, Haley spoke as if a pro-Palestinian activist, agonizing over the losses and suffering of the Palestinian people.
“Country after country claims solidarity with the Palestinian people … Talk is cheap. No group of countries is more generous with their words than the Palestinians’ Arab neighbors,” she said.
She lamented: “But all of the words spoken here in New York do not feed, clothe or educate a single Palestinian child. All they do is get the international community riled up.”
Welcome to ‘post-truth’ America.
While the Arabs are expected—in fact, required—to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brethren, the primary reason for the subjugation of the Palestinian people is the continued US support for Israel.
Since 1999, the US has supported Israel through 10-year long Memorandums of Understanding. According to these arrangements, support for Israel does not require Senate approval and, despite the massive aid, it still does not include missile defense funding.
The last US president to sign a decade-long commitment of funding to Israel, which is set to last between 2019-2028, was President Barack Obama, who provided Israel with more money than any other president in US history.
According to US Congressional Research Service, as of April 2018, “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.” This means that, to date, “the United States has provided Israel $134.7 billion in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding.”
Most of that military assistance has been used to fight Palestinians and Arab neighbors, to support the Israeli military Occupation of Palestine and to reinforce the Israeli blockade of Gaza. For Haley to rebuke Arabs for not doing enough to help Palestinians is simply disingenuous.
As harmful as US military support for Israel and the manipulation of the comparatively limited aid to Palestinians as it has been, US interference in Palestinian political affairs has been equally destructive.
The blatant American interference in Palestinian politics is juxtaposed with complete insubordination to the Israeli government, regardless of the fact that Tel Aviv has moved sharply to the right, and is increasingly shedding any claims to true democracy.
Considering that the US anti-Palestinian and pro-Israel stances have accentuated in recent months, one is hardly moved by Haley’s false sympathy with Gaza and the Palestinians.
Only weeks before she criticized the lack of Arab support, she lectured the international community on Israel’s benevolent approach to what she saw as Palestinian violence.
“No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has,” she said on May 15, shortly after many UN ambassadors stood up for a minute’s silence to mourn 60 Palestinians who were killed while peacefully protesting the siege at the fence separating Gaza from Israel.
Haley’s peculiar attacks on unsupportive Arab governments is designed to distract from the US’s own role that has emboldened Israel and held Palestinians prisoners to military Occupation and an inhumane siege for far too long.
So, this article really isn’t about Gaza needing cancer medicine. It’s really about how America is treating Gaza?
Just for my own information, why is it the US’s fault? The US isn’t responsible for providing health care for any other land, why Gaza?
The answers to your questions are answered clearly in the article. The author isn’t arguing that the US is responsible for providing health care in Gaza. You should try reading actually articles before commenting them.
I did. And, again, the article isn’t really about Gaza needing cancer medicine, like I said.
You obviously didn’t read the article, or you wouldn’t ask why the US shares responsibility when that is clearly explained in that article, you wouldn’t ask why the US is “responsible for providing health care” for Gaza as though the author had suggested it was, and you wouldn’t be saying it isn’t about Gazans suffering under Israel’s illegal blockade.
Or, perhaps you really did read it and are just being deliberately dense.
No, I read it. The first two paragraphs (sentences, and the 4th) mention not being able to get the cancer drug. The whole rest of the article is about everything except that.
What the article does is blame the US. It isn’t the US’s responsibility to take care of any other country. Even the headline suggests that it’s the US’s fault. I didn’t say a word about Gazans “suffering under Israel’s illegal blockade”. I didn’t mention it at all.
I think you’re looking for an argument about Israel vs Gaza, the US vs Palestine, etc.
I’m not going to bite.
Like I said, perhaps you really did read it and are just being deliberately dense. Begone, troll!
Jeremy!
I understand you have barred GeneP54 from making further comments on the FPJ site (he contacted me via Discus – The magic of the internet, eh!).
If I may, I would like to request that you reconsider the “Banning Order” to allow GeneP54 to respond to my comments.
In my opinion, GeneP54`s response to myself was polite and courteous, albeit he displayed the standard “Conditional bias” prevalent among supporters of Zionist policies in Israel.
For what it`s worth, I enjoy the “cut and thrust” of FPJ forums, and it is one of the best websites available for Middle Eastern focused debates – and it`s always good to talk.
Best regards,
Mike Thompson.
Mike, only because you as a longtime frequent participant in the comments section are requesting this, I have unblocked the user.
Any additional trolling behaviors or other violations of the terms of use will get the user banned again.
Thanks Jeremy.
I appreciate there are standards that should be met, but in the case of GeneP454, you have my gratitude, thanks again.
It was Britain that created the basis for a European Colony in Palestine, Gene, and Britain knew what it was doing!
But since 1947 it is the USA that has sustained this European Colony in Palestine, providing unconditional, Financial, Military and Diplomatic support.
Israel is in violation of 70 United Nations Resolutions, an all time record.
The USA has vetoed a further 31 UN Security Council Resolutions critical of Israel, so preventing the United Nations from imposing sanctions, another all time record.
Added to which the USA has (since 1972) threatened to veto a further 42 U N Security Council Resolution critical of Israel to prevent debates, one more all time record.
Since 1947, Israel has expanded it`s borders by military aggression, which now enclose all of Palestine, part of Syria and Lebanon.
There are to-day 5 million UN registered Palestinian refugees, all denied the right of return to their homeland, simply because they are non-Jewish.
In July 2018, Israel passed legislation stipulating only Jews had the right for self determination, that`s religious Apartheid by any other name.
There are 2 million Palestinians existing in the Gaza Ghetto, 3 million Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank, 5 million Palestinians outside Israeli borders and nearly 2 million Palestinian`s living as Residential Citizens within Israeli borders.
That`s 12 million Palestinians subjugated by 6 million Israelis of mostly European origin. That could only have happened with unconditional USA support, it`s impossible to blame intrinsic Palestinians for that situation.
It`s a strange situation where the majority of the worlds, some, 15 million followers of Judaism live and are assimilated in their own respective homelands (majority in the USA) and have neither the need nor the desire to live on occupied Palestinian land.
The lack of medical supplies is just a “minor” detail in 71 years of Zionist Apartheid policies that have had the full support of every USA administration.
As a comparison – After only 13 UN Security Council Resolutions critical of Iraq for not disclosing the WMD that did not exist, the USA led the 2003 attack on Iraq – very difficult for the USA to absolve itself for the situation of Palestinians to-day.
Actually, the WMD’s DID exist.
There is no such thing as Palestine today. The whole area used to be called Palestine, but it has since divided into individual countries. The people who today call themselves Palestinian are actually nomads from Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and neither country will take them back since they’ve been exiled.
Any land that they have to call ‘Palestine’ is land that Israel has given them, but it is not anyone’s job to support them. If they want to be recognized as a country, then they need to be independent, themselves.
My introduction to Palestinians was back when I was a teen, when I saw a the cover of Life Magazine. It was a picture of small children holding massive guns, standing in formation. That was in June, 1970. Even as a teen I knew that was wrong. They have been trying to take Israel off the map since Israel became a nation, actually before. They don’t want a two state agreement, they want one state and that state to be Palestine.
It seems that you are very anti Israel and very pro Palestine. That’s kind of sad considering the destructive mentality of Palestine.
No, they did not. Just ask the CIA.
All of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are occupied Palestinian territory under international law. In 1948, the Jews owned not even 7% of the land in Palestine. Israel was established by ethnically cleansing most of the Arab population from their homes in Palestine, wiping hundreds of Arab villages off the map, and conquesting their lands through force of arms.
And Jeremy, what do you have to say about the muslims in India that demanded the territory now called Pakistan, and the atrocities carried out by muslims on the hindu and christians and jews when Pakistan was established by Britain?
It`s good to “talk”, Gene.
My response was to your comment “The US isn`t Responsible (for health care)”. I simply provided you with a few incontrovertible facts that the most anti-Palestine of people cannot dispute.
No WMD have ever been found in Iraq – However, Tony Blair still maintains they will be!
Filistine is the “Arabic” word for a land that has existed for thousands of years, many 5,000 year old Egyptian Hieroglyphs mention Filistine, only the Torah (Bible) uses the name Canaan and Israel.
The word “Palestine” was first used by the Greek Herodotus some 450 BC and that name has “stuck”, a bit like Deutschland being known as Germany.
Over 140 countries recognise “Palestine”, Chinese maps do not show “Israel” instead they show “Palestinian Territories”.
David ben Gurion and Yitzhak ben Zvi, both stated many many times (and wrote in their books); “The Palestinians are the descendants of the inhabitants of the ancient land of Judea” (Judea was named by The Roman`s, after Herod Archaus, and adopted in 1947 by the UN as part of a proposed Arab State).
You will be aware that the Hebrews originated in what is now Iraq (When it was Egypt obviously) Abraham was born in the ancient city of Ur (close to to-days Basra).
Abraham, and Hebrews arrived in Filistine (Canaan), Abraham living in Hebron for most of his life, among a predominantly “Pagan” population. 400 years later David and Solomon ruled the majority Pagan population for no more than 69 years.
There are several Arab followers of Judaism who ruled in the Levant and elsewhere, Hiram was “King of Tyre” succeeding his Pagan father, Abibaal. Hiram himself was a Pagan who converted to Judaism and while there is no direct evidence, the circumstantial evidence is supportive.
The Torah states Hiram was Jewish, a close friend of David, and the person who built the Temple of Solomon, but it has to be said that (at the current time) not a single piece of evidence has been unearthed to confirm such a temple ever existed, despite decades of concentrated archeological searching.
To-date, only The Torah mentions Israel, there is no existing historical reference or evidence whatsoever of a “Kingdom of Israel” not even any oblique reference in the detailed records of the campaigns of Pharaoh Seti who marched his army through “Biblical Israel” on 7 consecutive summers to fight the Hittites (Northern Syria, Eastern Turkey).
As for you seeing a picture of Palestinian Children holding massive guns, I accept your comments, that said I see no point in responding with opposing examples – all that would produce is very long lists!
Your comment regarding the intentions of Palestinians is simply your opinion – however it must be said that “The destructive mentality” of Zionist policies have clearly achieved the reverse to what you say Palestinians wish to achieve, that is, Israel has managed to “take Palestine off the map”.
European settlers have for centuries migrated to foreign countries, the success stories are limited to those countries where settler numbers vastly outnumbered the intrinsic populations of hugely unpopulated destinations. The obvious successes are The USA, Canada and Australia.
European countries also colonised countries where they were vastly outnumbered by the intrinsic population, achieved only by overwhelming military superiority. All of those European colonies have now gone, the majority intrinsic populations rejected European minority rule (As did the American 13 colonies in 1776).
The USA appointed King-Crane Commission was sent to explore the possibility of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, its 1919 findings were – “Such a proposal is untenable, for two main conditions; 1 It would require the removal of the intrinsic Palestinian population, and 2; It could only succeed by force of arms”.
In my opinion a “One State” solution is the only long term option available to Israel, you are correct when you say that that state would become “Palestine” simple demographics make that inevitable. But it would mean that some 6 million Israelis of mostly European origin would gain the security of integration into Arab society.
The alternative is for Israel to rely on maintaining military superiority, and that, Gene, has never ever, throughout mankind`s history, been achieved on a permanent basis.
The UN is a failed entity that is instituting its one world govt.
The UN has contributed NOTHING towards producing peace or prosperity, instead, the very opposite, on all fronts.
The UN is now an instrument of war on Western Civilisation, in particular, Christianity.
The UN has no legitimate voice.
The people reject the UN, utterly.
Palestinians are not anymore important than any other people under islamo-marxist attack with the muslim brotherhood leading the way in all its guises.
Tell muslims to reject their pagan death cult and join the rest of humanity.
If Israel is not legitimate, then neither is Pakistan.
If Israel is in illegal occupation then what is Turkey doing in Cyprus???
Actually, CenaFoura, The United Nations was created, like the League of Nations before it, to “promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security”, not a “World Government”.
The LoN failed because every member country had the veto, getting 100% agreement with 100% of any organisation is well nigh impossible – for example; Christian wars against Christians have regularly occurred over the past 2,000 years.
The problem with the United Nations is that while all member countries are equal, 5 member countries are more equal than the others, The USA, Britain, France, Russia and China all have the right to veto resolutions, and 4 of those 5 are Christian countries.
Judaism is the foundation on which the two later Semite Religions of Christianity and Islam were built – Judaism, Christianity and Islam all venerate the God of Abraham.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are Monotheist (One God) religions, not Polytheist (Pagan or Many God`s) religions.
WW1 was a Christian affair – 30 million died.
WW2 was a Christian affair – 80 million died.
In comparison Muslims are like Mary Poppins, or Mother Theresa if you prefer!
Pakistan (and Bangladesh) were created within the existing borders of India, it was a mutual migration of Hindu`s and Muslims, a result of the effects of 200 years of imposed de facto British Christian rule!
The Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus is regarded as illegal under international law as confirmed by UN Security Council resolutions.
Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights is also regarded as illegal under international law as confirmed by regular UN Security Council resolutions.
You give the impression that you hate Muslims, that of course is your choice and entitlement, CenaFoura.
For myself, I have no belief in God, or Gods, and of course that is my choice and entitlement.
As is my choice to correct the misunderstandings that you seem to hold.
I think you will find, Gene, that you can comment again on FPG – Just keep to the Comment Policy!
could you add a little condemnation of Egypt who has kept their crossing in to Gaza closed more than the Israel? or add a bit of condemnation for the PA who has cut the salaries of government works and stopped paying for electrical service to Gaza.
I must admit, TH, the Egyptian restrictions on the Rafah crossing is somewhat confusing, it`s roots go back to the 1973 war.
CIA records show that Israel was facing defeat, and threatened to use “Tactical nuclear weapons” unless the USA provided military assistance- which was provided.
The USA was determined not to allow such a situation to develop in the future, a peace treaty was brokered by the USA, The Sinai was returned to Egypt and in return Egypt accepted Israeli conditions for the movement of goods via the Gaza Rafah crossing.
In return the USA guaranteed annual “aid” contributions to Egypt and Jordan (Syria refused a Peace Treaty), conditional on the continuation of “Peace”. During the leadership of Sadat and Mubarak, Egypt paid lip service to Israeli demands of Rafah restrictions and turned a “blind eye” to tunnels that were built, only occasionally (after USA pressure) taking actions to destroy some.
After Mubarak resigned and the Muslim Brotherhood Government was voted into power in Egypt, President Morsi relaxed all Rafah restrictions, and the USA reduced “aid” contributions, which went to Egyptian organisations controlled (in the main) by senior Egyptian Military commanders.
The subsequent Military coup resulted in President Sisi taking charge, a crack down on the Rafah restrictions and renewal of USA “Aid” payments – Money talks, it was ever so!
As for the Palestine Authority, it must be realised that all Palestine revenue is collected by Israel, all international payment to the P.A. is received by Israeli banks, who forward it to the P.A. It is not unknown for Israel to “Withhold” payments to the P.A. if Israel feels that the P.A. is not complying with Israeli requirements.
You may be aware of The 1994 Oslo Peace Accord, between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, where in return for Palestine disbanding the military arm of the PLO, Israel agreed to a phased withdrawal from the West Bank and an unrestricted road access between Gaza and the West Bank.
While the military PLO was disbanded before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, and while there was a sizable pro-peace section of Israelis, the extremist Israeli element completely rejected the Oslo Accord as a betrayal of Israeli (Zionist) values.
To-day, Israel has yet to implement it`s agreements, indeed has continued to build settlements in the West Bank and has increased it`s blockade of the Gaza Ghetto
As for withholding payments to Gaza, Israel has a long record of such actions, in 2006, when Hamas was elected, Israel immediately froze contacts with Hamas and blocked the transfer of tax and customs receipts worth some $50 million per month.
It must be said that Israel has destroyed Gaza`s power stations, making Gaza dependent on electricity supplied by Israel, and on Israeli terms – while blaming Palestinians for this situation!