Gaza Flotilla: Israel, the United States, and a Special Relationship

There seems to be a double standard in the application of the principles in the War on Terrorism. The inhuman acts that unbreakable allies perpetrate upon defenseless humanitarian aid givers, are apparently perfectly fine and good. It seems it is the activists’ word, versus the Likudnik government of Israel at this point, and the Obama administration — like finely tuned clockwork — appears to be siding with the latter of the two.

The Goldstone Report, of course, made us all acutely aware of the kind of treachery, that the state of Israel is capable of enacting upon a near defenseless people. Complete with using innocents as human shields, and firing illicit weapons at civilian targets, en route to an unconscionable loss of human life. This seems to be, more or less, just act II of the same old tired practice. So far as we know, these acts will keep coming, until the state of Israel falls out of favor; with it’s most trusted confidant — and benefactor — the United States regime.

But as the U.S. recently fought vociferously to keep an ‘exigent’ military base in Okinawa; the United States military base, the state of Israel, will not be very easily loosened from the grip of the empire as well. Of course, one wonders if the dog wags the tail, or if the reverse is the case in this instance. Though the United States has made nearly as many enemies — throughout the world — as its sister state Israel; one would think this sort of practice of civilian slaughter, would turn even the superpower pariah’s hardened stomach.

It’s not like the U.S. hasn’t used white phosphorus before, or attacked civilian targets; and although many are raising the question of whether or not, we are watching the beginning of the end for the state of Israel; who is raising that identical question about the U.S.? Of course, the U.S. subsists on power, fear, bribery, and sheer, brute chutzpah. So at least some — if not all — of these factors, will still be at the United States’ disposal; even if it falls to an all-time nadir.

And Obama was supposed to embark upon a new kind of presidency. One where soft power, and multilateral action were supposed to make U.S. imperial mandates not as unpalatable to the rest of the world — and such that the rest of humanity might even like what it is that the U.S. is presenting. Well, Israel with its intransigence in settlement building — and now murdering innocents — appears to be raining on Obama’s imperial grandstand. And at least as mercilessly, as a broken oil pipe in the Mexican Gulf.

Therefore, I think that one has to wonder, how unbreakable, that unbreakable is, when it comes to the U.S. special relationship with its ‘interminable’ ally Israel. And if Israel sinks to depths, where Obama finds that he can’t master the currents; will Israel be left out in the cold, like so many client states, that no longer serve their imperial raison d’etre? Nothing has shown this massive capability before this unparalleled moment in Israeli-American history; but what other than the senseless murder of those who can only defend themselves with whatever they could muster up from the starboard or galley — of a humanitarian aid vessel — could be capable of such a tectonic shift in a seemingly indestructible union.

Sean Fenley is an independent progressive who would like to see the end of the dictatorial duopoly of the so-called two party adversarial system. He would also like to see some sanity brought to the creation and implementation of current and future U.S. military, economic, foreign and domestic policies. Read other articles by Sean.

4 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. mary said on June 8th, 2010 at 5:14am #

    Israel to hold its own internal investigation. No surprise there then.

    http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1275975321.html

    I like this sarcastic suggestion that the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, could be the independent member on the team. He was in charge when the BBC banned the appeal for Gaza after Cast Lead and who met Sharon and Peres when he visited Israel a few years back with his Zionist wife Jane Blumberg.

    Their news output on the flotilla attack has been more outrageous than their usual pro-Israeli reporting.. ‘Israel says’ is repeated throughout the reports and there have been innumerable segments with Mark Regev live on the line from Israel.

  2. mary said on June 8th, 2010 at 5:57am #

    A case in point about the BBC bias. Their reports have stated that 2,000 people attended the protest in Whitehall followed by a march to the Israeli Embassy last Saturday. As you see here, 20,000 attended which was the general concensus of those who attended.

    http://stopwar.org.uk/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

    Ken Loach, the film director, points out in his speech (on the video link) that there is never any Palestinian voice or representation and he gives the example of only Regev coming on after news of a UN report on the conditions in Gaza was announced.

  3. bozh said on June 8th, 2010 at 7:27am #

    Merry, yes,
    The greatest criminal minds, the priestly-plutocratic ‘elite’, investigating their evil deeds.
    Interestingly, tho the plutos and clergy [ ?all; well, i don’t know] work for entirely different teloses [ends], they are extremely antisocialistic; i.e., against a peaceful-caring-sharing society.
    World plutos and wld-be plutos work for permamence of their mastery over us [at least 80% of world pop] while a particular clergy works for enslavement of 100% of world pop to its dogmas.

    Regarding crimes on high seas, once again their ‘findings’ wld be publicized only.
    tnx

  4. Rehmat said on June 8th, 2010 at 7:33am #

    Israel is very good in its “transparent” investigations. For example, Jonathan Pollard, who is serving life sentence in the US for stealing close to one million American secrets for Israel – has long been declred “hero” by the successive Zionist-regimes. Some of the others who went through Israeli transparency include Ariel Sharon for supervising the genocide of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila camps (Lebanon), the Jewish leaders declaring wars on Lebanon (2006) and Gaza (Dec-Jan, 2009) and lately the Jew commando who murdered Turk aid workers on Freedom Flotilla in cold blood.

    Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli-born British Jew writer and musician, in an iterview with RT said that Israel’s international terrorism comes from Zionists’ interpretation of the Jewish Bible (watch the video below).

    http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/jewish-vengeance-israel-vs-turkey/