Adam Pilarski

Modern Imperialism: U.S. Funding of Israeli War Crimes

Introduction
The controversy surrounding the state of Israel had unfortunately manifested itself in numerous forms. Of late, it has been incarnated as military conflict abroad, constant unrest within the United Nations, as well as protests from activists and, in some instances, even rabbis (RepresentativePress, "Regarding Jews You Don't See Demonstrating AGAINST Israel & Brutally Beaten"). The backlash which the young nation has faced from its initial creation can be attributed to, if nothing else, its policies which are sheerly imperialistic towards the Palestinian people. In the great Noam Chomsky's own words, a certain mentality kicks in to "put those Third World upstarts in their place" (Chomsky, Chronicles of Dissent). This theory, sadly, finds much validation and application in the real world.

Definition of the Problem

Such a theory is, regrettably, further solidified by accounts from former Israeli soldiers themselves. On the activist website, Breaking the Silence, testimonies are collected which detail instances of looting, destruction of property, and killing, all of which are directed

towards civilians in Israeli-occupied territories (Breaking the Silence). Unfortunately, such militaristic brutality carries with it domestic ramifications. U.S. support of the Israeli military is a well-established fact which many international counsels are very well aware of. Indeed, in his "Message to America" Osama bin Laden cited American support for Israel as one of the prime motivating factors for the attacks on 9/11. "The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily" (bin Laden, "Message to America"). While George H.W. Bushs explanation for 9/11 now lives in infamy in the minds of the brightest beacon for freedom and liberty, it remains important that Americans are made aware that their tax money is going toward the funding of Israeli war crimes. In 1997 alone the U.S. federal budget provided $5,525,800,000 of financial aid to the Zionist state, which is roughly a third of the U.S. foreign aid budget ("U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact"). The necessity of such aid is often justified by the gravity-and in turn sympathy-which was purported to come with the generation of the state. However, a further analysis of the historical narrative surrounding the process reveals that the U.S. harbored a less-than admirable agenda in its support of Israel.

History
From the very start, Israel was recognized by the U.S. with much prejudice towards the Palestinians. When the topic of a purely Jewish state in the Middle East was broached to the

then-active president Harry S. Truman in 1946, he responded with great sympathy towards the recently-oppressed European refugees. While the British White Paper, which had promised an equal division of land in Palestine to both the Jews and the Arabs, had recently been nullified, British presence within Palestine was still immensely strong. Britain, having difficulty keeping Jewish migration into Palestine under control, brought the issue to Truman, and thus, shortly thereafter, the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was formed as a means of properly evaluating the Palestinian situation for both sides. In a move which strategically solidified Israel's genesis, Truman issued a statement recommending that 100,000 Jews be admitted into Palestine in April of 1946 ("Truman Library: The Recognition of the State of Israel Online Research File"). It should be noted, however, that Truman never fully recognized an establishment of a Jewish state until, on September 24th of that same year, his Counsel to the President Clark Clifford informed him that the Soviet Union intended to gain complete military, economic, and political control of the Middle East. It was literally ten days later that, on October 4th, Truman announced that the U.S. was in full support of a "viable Jewish State." With the Soviet Union as the only remaining superpower, it may be safe to say that Truman's actions were rooted more in a pre-Cold War international rivalry than they were in altruism. On February 7th 1947, Britain announced that it would terminate its Palestinian mandate and turn the issue over to United Nations. On November 29th, after looking more deeply into the issue, the United Nations then approved the partition to divide Palestine into three entities, splitting states into both Jewish and Arab and setting aside Jerusalem as a neutral territory. On March 18th of 1948, the United Nations reported that they had failed in reaching any kind of peaceful compromise between the Jews and the Arabs. The next day, on March 19th, the United Sates representative Warren Austin

declared to the United Nations Security Council that the U.S. no longer felt that the proposed partition was no longer an option. Three days later, on March 22nd, Truman's letter to his brother discloses a rather damning statement from him, detailing that his thoughts on the Palestinians: "I think the proper thing to do, and the thing I have been doing, is to do what I think is

right and let them all go to hell" ("Truman Library: The Recognition of the State of Israel Online Research File"). Truman's true view on the Arabs could sadly be seen as what was boiling underneath the surface of such seemingly political decisions as the United States' newly changed viewpoint on the Palestinian partition. Furthermore, it is an ominous summation of the mentality Truman took to the people of Palestine from the start. On May 14th, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, reads a "Declaration of Independence" which proclaims the creation of a Jewish state called Israel, in effect at midnight. The timing was intended to correlate with the expiration of the British mandate on Palestine. Exactly eleven minutes after the Declaration is in effect, Truman then has the United States issue a statement which acknowledges Israel on a de facto basis. This statement was elevated to a de jure status a few months later on January 31st of 1949 ("Truman Library: The Recognition of the State of Israel Online Research File."). Naturally, shortly after the declaration, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon all attacked Israel (which would serve as a prelude to general affairs in the Middle East from that point on). While an armistice was signed a few months later, this hardly eliminated the pervading tension which came to define Israel's relation with surrounding Arab nations. Israel's entanglement with other Western nations would ensure a rapturous future for the Middle East.

Once Truman was out of office, the relations between Israel and the United States remind somewhat innocuous by nature. It was in 1967 that a watermark in their dynamic was reached when the United States stood behind Israel. This transaction, Chomsky argues, was born out of the imperialistic, elitist mentality of the Johnson-Vietnam Era. As Israel was proving its military might in the Six Day War, the United States took notice for a multitude of reasons. One of which being that Israel possessed the capability to do what they were failing to do abroad in Indochina and Vietnam, which was to gain victory in a Third World Country (Chomsky, Chronicles of Dissent). It could be said, then, that this mentality has defined the dynamic ever since.

The Need for Change

Certainly the negation of such unruly prejudice is bound by a distinct attempt towards the mutual economic bond between Israel and America. As analyst Stephen Zunes notes, some U.S. government officials justify U.S. financial aid to Israel as being based off of moral grounds, as Israel is a democracy battling for its very survival ("U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact"). However, as has been established above, the financial aid which the U.S. provided reached its peak after Israel had proven its military worth rather than struggling for its initial creation. Zunes also elaborates that the U.S. employs Israel as, if nothing else, a kind of testing ground for U.S. weaponry-even if it takes a toll on civilians ("U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact"). To specify one instant, Israelis were keeping close watch on a small Palestinian village as part of their patrol. While no hostilities were completely initiated, it was only a matter of time until an Israeli-operated helicopter opened fire after children began pelting it with rocks, killing an unquantified number of Palestinian civilians. It is a fact that,

regrettably, the aforementioned helicopter was one which belonged to the U.S. (Junkerman, Power and Terror - Noam Chomsky in Our Time). The conduct with which such weapons are handled is what is perhaps most deplorable. In numerous occupied territories, it is clearly not uncommon for such hostilities to ensue. It would appear, however, that Israels primary motivation for such attacks spring from an expansionist agenda governed by a generally imperialistic mindset. While the research which has gone into the compartmentalization of soldiers is every bit as broad as it is in-depth, atrocities committed by former Israeli military members provide an eerily specific example as to the truths behind such theories. In one particular incident, a mentally retarded Palestinian civilian who was evidently incapable of processing the orders given by Israeli soldiers was shot. When questioned further as to the thought process behind such a harrowing account, the former soldier simply recalled his own rationalization behind the event: it happens, so that is the ruling tone in the Occupied Territories. It happens. A truckload of chicks gone and the guy won't have bread to feed his family. It happens. Yeah, bro, it happens. Okay. It's not in my own home, great. If it's not in my own home, what do I care. And at some point, no matter how much you sympathize with that population, with the Palestinians, you also get into that mode of "it happens". What can you do. It happens (Breaking the Silence). As Chomsky has described it, this testimony seems to be a chilling illustration of the distinct dehumanization which occurs within the Israeli military in regards to Palestine. A similar account details how soldiers even went as far as to take pictures with them alongside their recently fallen opponents, almost as a kind of war souvenir (Breaking the Silence). It is

important, however, to first consider the mentality from which such horrific instances originate from. Indeed, Israeli expansion and Palestinian elimination seems to govern a great majority of Israeli military conduct. In the past 18 months alone, Israel has destroyed a total of 35 Palestinian cisterns. Such infrastructures have hitherto been a vital part in the preservation and continuation of a great majority of Palestinian communities. Even with the condemnation from such groups as the Rabbis for Human Rights and the European Union, the Israeli military is relentless in its depravation of essential resources, as its quest for expansion takes precedence over civil jurisdiction ("Drying out the Palestinians." Haaretz.com). It has even been specified that, in this instance, the objective is to deplete Palestinian resources in order to see their removal from large portions of the West Bank ("Drying out the Palestinians." Haaretz.com). These atrocities are exemplified by Palestines recent filing for war crimes against Israel within the U.N. Their case is built largely on Israels attempt to produce settlements within occupied territories. Even the recently proposed E-1 settlement along the West Bank would effectively sever Palestine from the eastern side of Jerusalem, their intended capitol ("Israel Could Face Palestinian War Crimes Charges). It is important to recall that such gross international disorderly conduct begins as money in the wallet of an average American. While it may be easy to deflect the blame, American civilians have, as always, been fed insanely propagandist notions as to foreign ties with Israel. This is perhaps most often illustrated as a theological argument. It is a common misconception that to be anti-Zionist or anti-Israel is synonymous with anti-Semitic. In Barry E. Horners book, Future Israel: Why anti-Judaism Christianity Must Be Challenged, Horner employs a surprisingly flawed rhetoric of using the New Testament, as opposed to the Torah, as justification for the creation of Israel.

"...I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ did anticipate an earthly Jerusalem of spiritual materiality which would gloriously supplant the carnal materiality of Jerusalem he wept over" (Horner, Barry E. Future Israel: Why Christianit Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged). The carnal materiality of Jerusalem mentioned above is, of course, the temple which Jesus so readily ransacked upon witnessing how it had merely been a center for vice. One can say, then, Horner is truly insinuating that the wars which Israel wages for expansionistic purposes are a kind of Holy Crusade, so that Christians and Jews alike may be redeemed for their superficiality. Going off of the messiah, does not one of his most famous sermons deliver what the American culture views as its essential aphorism for ethics? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In the context of the Jewish faith, those who rank higher in their connection to the divine seem to agree with the aforementioned statement. Such spiritual authority which Horner aims to grant to Israel may be quickly countered, however, by the protests which are conducted on a regular basis outside of Washington D.C. The protestors are none other than rabbis, who have lauded an online campaign against the war crimes which Israel has committed (RepresentativePress, "Regarding Jews You Don't See Demonstrating AGAINST Israel & Brutally Beaten"). They preach that the Torah is completely devoid of any justification for Israels conduct abroad in Palestine. As Rabbi Weiss put it in one of his Youtube statements: We're not allowed to steal. We're not allowed to kill. So all that is being done to the Palestinian people is forbidden by the Torah. We also want the people of Palestine to know, and the people who are in Lebanon and wherever they're suffering because of this

Zionist entity called the "State of Israel," that there is Jewish people who stand up since day one, since the State of Israel came to being and even prior to that when they started making their attempts for a state, the Jewish people stood up and demonstrated and were murdered. And we kept on demonstrating and we will never stop demonstrating (RepresentativePress, "Regarding Jews You Don't See Demonstrating AGAINST Israel & Brutally Beaten"). Weiss last affirmation that the protesting will not stop is in response to two significant atrocities which are being done to anti-Zionist protestors. The first of which is a case of police brutality, as Jews who make such public demonstrations are quickly beaten (RepresentativePress, "Regarding Jews You Don't See Demonstrating AGAINST Israel & Brutally Beaten"). The next is a simple case of media suppression and manipulation, which makes a point to, sadly, to readily support the ties the U.S. has with Israel. While the term corporate media seems to be tossed around by far-left radicals, it is a sad reality which reflects government manipulation. During the infamous invasion of Iraq, George H.W. Bush verified that the regime-run nation was housing weapons of mass destruction, and therefore an invasion was wholly necessary. When no such weapons were to be found, it was clear that such a justification was an illusory attempt to noblify a hold on a country for its abundance in oil. It could be said that a similar drama is now playing out with the use of an existential threat with Irans purported possession of nuclear weaponry. This is stretched even further by an elaborate illustration of bitter resentment towards Israel, with a statement saying that Iran threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the earth ("Israel's Deputy PM Admits Iran DIDN'T Threaten to Wipe Israel out." YouTube). In reality, however, such a statement was confirmed as both misinterpreted and mistranslated in an analysis done by the channel the

Representative Press. In the same video, Chomsky claims that if Iran indeed had nuclear weapons, it would have already struck out at its opponents, given the severity of Israeli war crimes in the past (RepresentativePress, "Regarding Jews You Don't See Demonstrating AGAINST Israel & Brutally Beaten").

Solution
In the light of such chaos, my proposition is as follows: to end U.S. military funding of Israel altogether, so that a vast majority of its aid provided is cut down. Should Israel continue to covet U.S. aid of any kind, it must first provide just collateral. It must desist its building of settlements abroad, as well as withdraw each one established hitherto. In addition, Israel must take money out of its own wallet to pay just compensation to the Arab nations who they have persecuted up to this point. This will be an earnest effort to smooth out whatever rocky ground the U.S. Israeli collaboration may still be treading on. In replacement of its military budget, the U.S. will put the money instead towards aid of third world countries which are in more dire need of it. It is clear that this transaction will prove to be wholly beneficial not only to the majority of the Middle Eastern population, but also to the American public.

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Museum, 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/israel/large/index.php?actio n=chrono>. "U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact." U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact. Washington Report, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.wrmea.org/special-topics/9748-us-aid-to-israel.html>.