Washington’s Sly Game in Gaza

Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Strip enters its second month without the “world” – and strangely, those who hold the power – intervening to put a stop to what looks like crimes against humanity, if not a total ethnocide. This is done in broad daylight and in plain sight of a public that can’t do anything. If the aforementioned international community doesn’t manage to make a decision about Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian population – more than 300 children between the ages of 1 and 12 (terrorists?) have been killed by the Israeli army since July 8 – it’s because it is forbidden to trouble Israel, no matter what crimes it commits against the Palestinians.

Sure, we lament the death of Palestinian children, but Israel is never condemned. Of course, “Uncle Sam” could still assure you, with hand on heart, that “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Even against babies? It is without a doubt the only funeral sermon that the United States is allowing in recognition of the Gaza deaths, faced with the wrongdoings of its Israeli protege. It is quite true that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who announced a 72-hour ceasefire last Friday – a truce Israel broke unilaterally – curiously added that “Israel will be able to continue its defensive operations for those tunnels that are behind its lines,” which were defined during the conflict; he conceded that Palestinians “will be able to receive food, medicine and additional humanitarian assistance, as well as to be able to tend to their wounded.”

According to the head of U.S. diplomacy, this “truce,” in simple terms, should first of all allow Israel to continue its “cleaning up,” and only concerned Hamas, which had to cease its rocket firing. In fact, treating the Gaza resistance fighters as “barbarians,” U.S. President Barack Obama, solely blamed Hamas for all the world’s suffering and misfortune. To kill children, even babies and women, certainly isn’t “barbaric” from the American point of view, since it is because of Israel, which – according to U.S. rhetoric – “has the right to security.” But this is only one detail, if we put it in the context of all that the United States has done for Israel – militarily, financially, diplomatically and politically – under pressure from pro-Israeli lobbies, the true masters of thought of Middle East policy.

In fact, the ambiguous and intertwined connections between the United States and Israel – which are making Washington carry out a foreign policy that severely damages American interests – are unrivaled in the annals of diplomacy, as American power fades when faced with the influence of pro-Israeli lobbies. The United States went as far as to put its own security and that of its allies at risk through its incomprehensible support of a terrorist state, which doesn’t respect any rights or comply with any rules or laws, including that which led to its creation – Resolution 181, Nov. 29, 1947.

From 1976 to 2004, the United States awarded Israel $140 billion in the form of economic, military and financial aid, as well as direct annual aid to the sum of $3 billion, which makes up one-fifth of American foreign aid. Moreover, the United States contributed technologically and financially – over $700 million – to the development of the Israeli “Iron Dome” system. In fact, analysts and political commentators cannot explain the “remarkable level” of material and diplomatic support that Washington has provided to Israel.

As an example, since the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon in 1982, the United States has vetoed 32 United Nations Security Council resolutions condemning Israel, which is more than all the vetoes exercised by the other permanent members of the Security Council. How can one state put the interests of another state before its own, especially when that state – the United States – is aware of Israel’s fascist derivations, its role in blocking the peace process, and its edicts. All of this was reflected in the minimally pleasing remarks made by John Kerry – although kept behind closed doors – who declared in front of an audience of diplomats from the Trilateral Commission that Israel “risks becoming an apartheid state” if it doesn’t make peace quickly.

The remarks made on April 25 after the failed peace talks follow up on the suspension of negotiations with Israel that the U.S. diplomatic head made great efforts to restart. That is how Israel rewards the only country that has single-handedly dealt with it for 67 years! So, what game is Washington playing in the Middle East?