5. The United States has been accused of double standards in its Middle East Policy and with Israel along the following lines, and this is why it has lost credibility among many people of the Middle East. Examples are the following:
A.) U.S. ignores and even supports human rights violations by its allies like Israel (against Palestinians), Saudi Arabia, etc. but viciously criticizes human rights violations against countries which are not friendly to it as it did against Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
B.) The U.S. allows the nuclear arsenal buildup of allies like Israel, but raises hell on the same issue about other countries not friendly to it. The US and Israel cooperated on military research and development and shared advanced technology for the development of the 200+ nuclear bombs at Israel’s DIMONA plant , which neither the U.S. nor Israel has acknowledged.
C.) The U.S. ignores fundamental justice of the Israeli illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, continued settlement expansion, closing Palestinian territories, and liquidation of Palestinian rights to due process. But it raises the same issues against its enemies in the Middle East.
The fundamental question is, can there be peace and justice under Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and the inhuman treatment of Palestinians whose liberties are systematically corroded? This is not anti-Semitism, but social justice. The real source of strife in the Middle East has always revolved around the Palestinian question since 1948. The abduction, murder and systematic torture of Palestinians in their own lands, make it an imperative for the Palestinians to defend themselves. A two-state one system settlement has been proposed in the past, but this has been overshadowed by Israel’s continued cantonization (or even racial and religious apartheid) and maltreatment of Palestinians in their remaining but shrinking territories.
Israel has been carved out like a U.S. military base in the Middle East. The United States uses Israel to lay its claim over vital oilfields for U.S. and other Western companies. In other words, Israel’s role as an imperial base of the United States must provide the context of any discussion of the Gaza and Palestinian question. The Gaza carnage and attacks, Palestinian Arab and Middle East attitudes towards Israel and the United States can never be understood from a colonialist perspective. (Bulatlat.com)
Note on sources: British journalist Robert Fisk is probably the best source on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and probably on the Middle East. He is the author of the book, The Great War for Civilization (The Conquest of the Middle East), and Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. He has covered and lived in the Middle East for the past 30 years as a correspondent for the British newspaper, The Independent.
Lecture given by the author at a Forum at the Natatanging Bulwaga Gusali ng Katipunan, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila-PLM or University of the City of Manila on January 13, 2009
