The announcement last week by the United
States of the largest military aid
package in its history – to Israel – was
a win for both sides.
Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu could boast
that his lobbying had boosted aid from
$3.1 billion a year to $3.8bn – a 22 per
cent increase – for a decade starting in
2019.
Mr Netanyahu has presented this as a
rebuff to those who accuse him of
jeopardising Israeli security interests
with his government’s repeated affronts
to the White House.
In the past weeks alone, defence
minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared
last year’s nuclear deal between
Washington and Iran with the 1938 Munich
pact, which bolstered Hitler; and Mr
Netanyahu has implied that US opposition
to settlement expansion is the same as
support for the “ethnic cleansing” of
Jews.
American president Barack Obama,
meanwhile, hopes to stifle his own
critics who insinuate that he is
anti-Israel. The deal should serve as a
fillip too for Hillary Clinton, the
Democratic party’s candidate to succeed
Mr Obama in November’s election.
In reality, however, the Obama
administration has quietly punished Mr
Netanyahu for his misbehaviour. Israeli
expectations of a $4.5bn-a-year deal
were whittled down after Mr Netanyahu
stalled negotiations last year as he
sought to recruit Congress to his battle
against the Iran deal.
In fact, Israel already receives
roughly $3.8bn – if Congress’s
assistance on developing missile defence
programmes is factored in. Notably,
Israel has been forced to promise not to
approach Congress for extra funds.
The deal takes into account neither
inflation nor the dollar’s depreciation
against the shekel.
A bigger blow still is the White
House’s demand to phase out a special
exemption that allowed Israel to spend
nearly 40 per cent of aid locally on
weapon and fuel purchases. Israel will
soon have to buy all its armaments from
the US, ending what amounted to a
subsidy to its own arms industry.
Nonetheless, Washington’s renewed
military largesse – in the face of
almost continual insults – inevitably
fuels claims that the Israeli tail is
wagging the US dog. Even The New York
Times has described the aid package as
“too big”.
Since the 1973 war, Israel has
received at least $100bn in military
aid, with more assistance hidden from
view. Back in the 1970s, Washington paid
half of Israel’s military budget. Today
it still foots a fifth of the bill,
despite Israel’s economic success.
But the US expects a return on its
massive investment. As the late Israeli
politician-general Ariel Sharon once
observed, Israel has been a US
“aircraft carrier” in the Middle East,
acting as the regional bully and
carrying out operations that benefit
Washington.
Almost no one blames the US for
Israeli attacks that wiped out Iraq’s
and Syria’s nuclear programmes. A
nuclear-armed Iraq or Syria would have
deterred later US-backed moves at regime
overthrow, as well as countering the
strategic advantage Israel derives from
its own nuclear arsenal.
In addition, Israel’s US-sponsored
military prowess is a triple boon to the
US weapons industry, the country’s most
powerful lobby. Public funds are
siphoned off to let Israel buy goodies
from American arms makers. That, in
turn, serves as a shop window for other
customers and spurs an endless and
lucrative game of catch-up in the rest
of the Middle East.
The first F-35 fighter jets to arrive
in Israel in December – their various
components produced in 46 US states –
will increase the clamour for the
cutting-edge warplane.
Israel is also a “front-line
laboratory”, as former Israeli army
negotiator Eival Gilady admitted at the
weekend, that develops and field-tests
new technology Washington can later use
itself.
The US is planning to buy back the
missile interception system Iron Dome –
which neutralises battlefield threats of
retaliation – it largely paid for.
Israel works closely too with the US in
developing cyberwarfare, such as the
Stuxnet worm that damaged Iran’s
civilian nuclear programme.
But the clearest message from
Israel’s new aid package is one
delivered to the Palestinians:
Washington sees no pressing strategic
interest in ending the occupation. It
stood up to Mr Netanyahu over the Iran
deal but will not risk a damaging clash
over Palestinian statehood.
Some believe that Mr Obama signed the
aid package to win the credibility
necessary to overcome his domestic
Israel lobby and pull a rabbit from the
hat: an initiative, unveiled shortly
before he leaves office, that corners Mr
Netanyahu into making peace.
Hopes have been raised by an expected
meeting at the United Nations in New
York on Wednesday. But their first talks
in 10 months are planned only to
demonstrate unity to confound critics of
the aid deal.
If Mr Obama really wanted to pressure
Mr Netanyahu, he would have used the aid
agreement as leverage. Now Mr Netanyahu
need not fear US financial retaliation,
even as he intensifies effective
annexation of the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu has drawn the right
lesson from the aid deal – he can act
against the Palestinians with continuing
US impunity.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-09-19/palestinians-lose-in-us-military-aid-deal-with-israel/#sthash.fL4Eq28N.dpuf
Gandhi: ‘My Life Is My Message’
By Robert J. Burrowes
September 29, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- When asked for his message for the world,
Gandhi responded with the now famous line
‘My life is my message’ reflecting his
lifelong struggle against violence.
Gandhi’s life was dotted with many memorable
quotes but one that is less well known is
this: ‘You may never know what results come
of your actions but if you do nothing there
will be no results’.
Fortunately, there are many committed people
who have identified the importance of taking
action to end the violence in our world –
whether it occurs in the home or on the
street, in wars, as a result of economic
exploitation or ecological destruction – and
this includes the courageous people below.
These people have identified themselves as
part of the worldwide network, now with
participants in 96 countries, committed to
ending violence in all of its forms. I would
like to share their inspirational stories
and invite you to join them.
Christophe Nyambatsi Mutaka is the key
figure at the
Groupe Martin Luther King which promotes
active nonviolence, human rights and peace.
The
group is based in Goma in the eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in
central Africa. They particularly work on
reducing sexual and other violence against
women.
Also based in Goma, the Association de
Jeunes Visionnaires pour le Développement du
Congo
http://www.ajvdc.org/ headed by Leon
Simweragi is a youth peace group that works
to rehabilitate child soldiers as well as
offer meaningful opportunities for the
sustainable involvement of young people in
matters that affect their lives and those of
their community.
Given the phenomenal suffering in the DRC,
which has experienced the loss of six
million lives and the displacement of eight
million people due to the long war driven by
Western corporations keen to exploit the
country’s mineral wealth, Christophe, Leon
and their colleagues are testimony to the
fact that committed people strive in the
most adverse of circumstances.
Tess Burrows in the UK is an adventurer
(including parachutist, mountaineer, cyclist
and marathon runner), peace activist,
author, speaker, healer, and ‘most
importantly a mother and grandmother’.
In
her words: ‘I am dedicated to the pursuit of
World Peace and the healing of the Earth.’
Tess has written several books and, if you
are looking for inspiration, I suggest you
try these: ‘Cry from the Highest Mountain’
(describing a climb to the point furthest
from the centre of the Earth), ‘Cold Hands,
Warm Heart’ (describing a trek across the
coldest, driest, windiest place on Earth:
the Geographic South Pole), ‘Touch the Sky’
(describing her climb of Mt Kilimanjaro, in
Africa’s heartland, pulling a car tyre which
included peace messages from every nation on
Earth and embodying their desire for
everyone to pull together to promote peace)
and her latest book ‘Soft Courage’.
Her
video ‘Climb
For Tibet‘ won’t bore you either! The
funds raised from sales of the books and
donations have, among other things, built
six schools in Tibet and supported a Maasai
community tree-planting project in Africa.
Tess collects messages of peace from
individuals and speaks them out from ‘far
high places’.
So
far, this has included the North and South
Poles, the Himalayas, Andes, Pacific and
Africa. You can be part of her next Peace
Climb in Australasia by writing your
personal message on her
website where you can also check out her
books. Be warned however, this website will
exhaust you!
Recently, on the International Day of Peace,
the Afghan Peace Volunteers and Borderfree
Street Kids in Kabul, mentored by Dr Teck
Young Wee (Hakim), reached out to the
visually impaired and blind students at
Rayaab (Rehabilitation Services for the
Blind Afghanistan).
They brought MP3 players as gifts to 50
visually impaired students. The students
will use the MP3 players to listen to
recorded school lessons and educational
programs. Rayaab is an Afghan
non-governmental organization run by Mahdi
Salami and his wife Banafsha, who are
themselves visually impaired.
If you want to see photos
from this day, and to watch an extraordinary
three minute video, you can do so at ‘To
Touch a Colourful Afghanistan’.
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/2016/09/to-touch-a-colourful-afghanistan/
Kristin Christman in the USA continues her
tireless efforts to make our world more
peaceful by seeking to understand the deeper
drivers of conflict while offering practical
steps forward. She is currently working on a
book based on her monumental ‘Taxonomy
of Peace: A Comprehensive Classification of
the Roots and Escalators of Violence and 650
Solutions for Peace.
A
recent rather personal article offers
insight into her approach: ‘Make
serving in war an option, not an order‘
and illustrates how violence is ‘built-into’
society.
Ghanaian Gifty A. Korankye has just
developed a new website titled ‘Daughters
of Africa‘.
Explaining why, she writes: ‘Over the years
I watched women go through unbearable pain
…. Our daughters go through FGM in their
puberty…. The humiliation we face when we
lose our spouse, all in the name of customs
and tradition.’
Determined to help address the issues that
plague many African women she wants to give
them the chance to be ‘a useful voice to our
communities’, to share the success stories
of African women and African-American women
in business administration, the
entertainment industry and elsewhere in
order to share learning from their journeys
and to ‘help mentor our young generation’.
She
invites African women to write to share
their stories and work together to find
solutions. ‘We can do it because we are
daughters of Africa.’
So
what about you? Do you believe that ending
human violence is possible? Even if you
believe that it is not, do you believe that
it is worth trying? As Gandhi noted: ‘The
future depends on what we do in the
present.’ What will you do?
In
essence, working to end human violence and
to create a world of peace, justice and
ecological sustainability for all life on
Earth might not be what gets you out of bed
in the morning.
But
if it is or you would like it to be, you are
welcome to join those of us who are
committed to striving for this outcome by
signing the online pledge of ‘The
People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent
World‘.
And
if you subscribe to Gandhi’s belief that
‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every
[person’s] needs, but not every [person’s]
greed’, then you might consider
participating in ‘The
Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth‘
which he inspired as well.
Each of us has a choice. We can stand aside
in the great fight for survival in which
humanity is now engaged. Or we can be
involved. What is your choice?
The
bottom line is this: What will be the
message of your life?
*Robert J. Burrowes has a
lifetime commitment to
understanding and ending human
violence.He has done extensive
research since 1966 in an effort
to understand why human beings
are violent and has been a
nonviolent activist since 1981.
Robert J. Burrowes is the author
of ‘Why
Violence?‘
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