[Peace-discuss] Chomsky on Gaza, Obama

[Morton K. Brussel]

Let Chomsky explain Freeman's withdrawal. (No doubt he will find an  
answer that suits him.) The "U.S. analysts" he mentions see things  
more clearly than he in this instance. As is elsewhere mentioned,  
practically the whole Muslim world is harshly critical of the U.S.  
position wrt Israel. That should logically play a part in separating  
U.S. (and U.S corporate) interests from Israeli interests.)
--mkb

On Mar 11, 2009, at 12:50 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> "...it’s convenient for U.S. analysts to blame the Israel lobby for  
> policies they don’t like. That leaves us 'clean', just misled by a  
> lot of bad Jews ... For some reason, many people prefer illusions  
> about [Obama]. But one cannot charge him with concealing his  
> extremist positions."
>
>
> 	India national magazine Frontline interviews Prof. Chomsky
> 	on the post-Gaza situation in Palestine-Israel and the region.
> 	Shelly Walia  14-27 Mar 09 | Frontline, Vol. 26 Issue 6
>
> Prof. Shelley Walia is a Fellow and Dean, International Students, at  
> Panjab University, Chandigarh.
>
> SHELLEY WALIA: Coming directly to the reasons for the Israeli attack  
> on Gaza, do you believe that there could be a larger plan at work  
> that has as its planner the U.S. aiming to finally provoke Iran to  
> enter the ongoing conflict?
>
> NOAM CHOMSKY: I doubt it. It would have been highly unlikely for  
> Iran to respond more than verbally to the attack. There is a  
> straightforward reason, I believe. Israel wants to take over the  
> valuable parts of the West Bank and to leave the remnants of  
> Palestinian society barely viable. And it, of course, wants to do so  
> without disruption. It has succeeded, by violence, to suppress  
> resistance within the West Bank. But the other part of occupied  
> Palestine, Gaza, is still not completely under control. For other  
> reasons, Israel has refused to abide by any of the ceasefires that  
> have been reached and intends to maintain the siege that is  
> suffocating Gaza. Invasion was a means to suppress resistance to its  
> ongoing (U.S.-backed) crimes in the occupied territories.
>
> SW: The fertile part of Gaza represents about a third of the Gaza  
> Strip, this being the part Israel has always wanted to retain owing  
> to its economic productivity and sale of produce to Europe. How  
> would you then react to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza a few years  
> ago? Is it because the maintenance and protection of Israeli  
> settlers was proving rather costly for the Israeli government or  
> because the U.S. nudged [then Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon in that  
> direction, or because Sharon had his own agenda?
>
> NC: The motives do not seem obscure. Gaza has been turned into a  
> disaster area under Israeli military occupation of 38 years. A few  
> thousand Israeli settlers take a substantial part of the scarce land  
> and resources and have to be protected by a large part of the  
> Israeli army. Sane Israeli hawks understand that it makes no sense  
> to continue with these arrangements. The settlers, who were  
> subsidised to establish themselves there, are now being subsidised  
> to settle elsewhere, leaving the population of Gaza to rot in a  
> virtual prison. The few scattered West Bank outposts that are being  
> abandoned are also simply an annoyance for Israel.
>
> The “disengagement plan” is in reality an expansion plan, as was  
> made plain at once. The presentation of the plan was coupled with an  
> announcement of tens of millions of dollars for West Bank  
> settlements and infrastructure development, a further expansion of  
> the programmes designed to ensure that valuable land and resources  
> will be incorporated within Israel, while Palestinians will be left  
> in scarcely viable cantons. The shameful “separation wall” is one  
> particularly ugly feature of these programmes. The actions are gross  
> violations of international law and elementary human rights but can  
> continue as long as they are supported by the reigning superpower.  
> American citizens are the only ones who can put an end to these  
> continuing and very severe crimes.
>
> The operation was a complete scam, a repeat of “Operation National  
> Trauma ’82” as the press called it at the time, carefully  
> orchestrated, a media triumph, intended to convey the message:  
> “Never again must Jews suffer so; the West Bank is ours.
>
> SW: Would you agree that there is the complicity of [Palestinian  
> President] Mahmoud Abbas with the Palestinian contras who are backed  
> by the U.S. and Israel? He does not have the authority, moral or  
> otherwise, to call together the Palestinian people for anything.
>
> NC: Abbas is in a difficult position, no doubt. He does not want to  
> accept the results of the democratic election that was won by his  
> rival Hamas. With U.S. support, he attempted a military coup in  
> Gaza, but that was beaten back and Hamas took over total control.  
> His forces have been trained and armed by the U.S. and its regional  
> allies, and assigned the task of suppressing any opposition in the  
> West Bank, in particular, opposition to Israeli crimes in Gaza. One  
> result is that he has very little credibility. There may be some  
> chance of a unity government. It is possible that Israel’s decision  
> to violate the ceasefire by invading Gaza on November 4, 2008, was  
> intended to disrupt planned meetings in Cairo to establish a unity  
> government. The pretexts offered were too absurd to merit comment.
>
> SW: How far do you think that the military action of Israel is  
> disproportionate to the ends that it hopes to achieve? Is it  
> legitimate under international law? Israel is crossing every red  
> line of the Fourth Geneva Convention, of the Nuremberg Principles,  
> of all of the laws of war that were developed in the 20th century.  
> It has the backing of the U.S. and thus feels cocksure of its actions.
>
> NC: That depends on what we think it hoped to achieve. The attack  
> did succeed in killing many civilians and destroying villages,  
> institutions, and infrastructure, while also devastating much of the  
> agricultural land and the limited industrial capacity of Gaza. The  
> actions were “proportional” to achieving such ends, which we can  
> only assume were the real ones. Of course, all of this is in gross  
> violation of international law, as is U.S. support for it. In fact,  
> all of this is in direct violation of U.S. law, which bans the use  
> of U.S.-supplied arms apart for “legitimate self-defence”, and it is  
> transparent that Israel’s actions do not fall under that category.
>
> SW: Do you think that there may be some reason for going into the  
> attack on Gaza at a juncture when the Bush administration was  
> leaving office and Barack Obama was to be sworn in on January 20?  
> Was there a feeling that the U.S. government at that point would not  
> react in any negative way? Labour gained 50 per cent more in the  
> elections, mainly because Ehud Barak was the man who was mostly  
> identified with this operation. He was the Minister of Defence, as  
> you know. Or, do you think it is just overreaction?
>
> NC: We know from Israeli sources that the attack was meticulously  
> planned in advance. It would only make sense, from Israel’s point of  
> view, to carry out the attack so that it could do maximal damage but  
> end immediately before Obama’s inauguration, which is what happened.  
> That way Obama could pretend that he could not comment on it,  
> because “there is only one President” (that didn’t prevent him from  
> commenting on many other things, including bitter condemnation of  
> the Mumbai terror and the “hateful ideology” behind it). And since  
> the attack had formally ended immediately before the inauguration,  
> he could maintain his silence after assuming the presidency, thereby  
> continuing Bush’s policies, as he has done on other matters as well.
>
> SW: It was not an attack on Hamas but on the whole structure of the  
> society of Palestinians. Hospitals, universities, mosques were not  
> spared. And if you keep citizens under such a harsh siege there are  
> no options but to retaliate. The only democratic election in West  
> Asia should have been given time to prove itself. Hamas is not  
> guilty. Israel is for breaking the ceasefire and killing civilians.  
> The aim is to see that democracy does not succeed. In spite of the  
> siege of the past two months, no bombs were thrown by Hamas. Any  
> comments?
>
> NC: A recent poll of Muslim opinion found that large majorities “see  
> U.S. support for democracy in Muslim countries as conditional at  
> best. Only very small minorities say ‘the U.S. favours democracy in  
> Muslim countries whether or not the government is cooperative with  
> the U.S.’. The most common response is that the U.S. favours  
> democracy only if the government is cooperative, while nearly as  
> many say that the U.S. simply opposes democracy in the Muslim  
> countries.” I am quoting from the summary by one of the world’s most  
> respected polling agencies. The large majority are surely correct,  
> and the same principle holds elsewhere. As the most strongly pro- 
> government scholarship has conceded, the U.S. has supported  
> democracy if and only if it conforms to strategic and economic  
> objectives. Europe is, of course, the same.
>
> Western intellectuals and their allies elsewhere naturally prefer a  
> different story, but as is often the case, the victims have much  
> clearer insight into reality than the servants of power.
>
> SW: Do you agree that the provocation has come from Israel and not  
> Hamas. It broke the ceasefire two months earlier and is conveniently  
> blaming Hamas. And then it is asking the residents to leave Gaza.  
> How is it possible? Where should they go when there is that  
> crippling blockade in operation? This notion that Israel has a right  
> to defend itself – against whom?
>
> NC: A state has the right of self-defence by force only if it has  
> exhausted peaceful means. In this case, Israel plainly had peaceful  
> means that it refused to pursue: ceasefire, and termination of  
> criminal actions in the occupied territory. Accordingly, it cannot  
> appeal to the right of self-defence.
>
> SW: Do you not think that the result of this kind of provocation  
> will bring about the third Intifada instead of peace and security?  
> Do you think the last chance for negotiations is now destroyed? The  
> Hamas leadership in Damascus is against any ceasefire.
>
> NC: Before the attack, the Israeli government was aware that Hamas,  
> including the Damascus political leadership, was calling for a  
> ceasefire – but a real one, which would end the siege. A siege is an  
> act of war. Israel has always insisted on that. In fact, Israel  
> launched two wars (1956, 1967) in large part on the claim that its  
> access to the outside was partially limited, which is far less than  
> a siege. The possibility of a political settlement remains open. As  
> before, it turns on whether the U.S. will abandon the strong  
> rejectionist policies it has pursued (with Israel), in international  
> isolation, since the mid-1970s.
>
> SW: Would you say that the two-nation theory is now in jeopardy,  
> especially now with the escalation of war? Palestinians will now  
> have to seek refuge in Jordan or Egypt if Israel decides to push  
> them out of the West Bank. Egypt and, to some extent, Jordan have  
> been thrown off balance by the withering criticism they have faced.  
> The alliance of Iran, Syria, Hizbollah and Hamas – the quartet that  
> is fighting against a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian  
> conflict – is critical of Jordan and Egypt as well of the two-state  
> solution.
>
> NC: I think your description, while conventional, is an error, a  
> reflection of the force of Western propaganda. The facts are quite  
> clear. There has been an overwhelming consensus in support of a two- 
> state settlement since 1976, when the U.S. first vetoed a Security  
> Council resolution to this effect put forth by the Arab states  
> (including Syria, which still supports it). It is now supported by  
> virtually everyone, including Hamas, which has repeatedly and quite  
> publicly called for it. Iran has made clear that it would back the  
> position of the Arab states, which formally support this policy, and  
> call for normalisation of relations with Israel in that context.  
> Hizbollah’s position is that it will not disrupt anything that  
> Palestinians accept. That leaves the U.S. and Israel, the leaders of  
> the rejection front since the 1970s. There has been one break in  
> U.S.-Israeli rejectionism: negotiations in Taba, Egypt, in January  
> 2001, which were coming very close to an agreement when Israel  
> terminated them prematurely.
>
> It is not too late for the two rejectionist states to return to what  
> was almost achieved there, and if the U.S. decided to do so, Israel  
> would surely go along. Unfortunately, Obama has clearly rejected  
> that position. In his first foreign policy declaration, he praised  
> the Arab League position as “constructive” and urged the Arab states  
> to proceed with normalisation of relations with Israel. But he  
> carefully omitted the crucial precondition for normalisation: a two- 
> state settlement. He is an intelligent man and chooses his words  
> carefully. He could hardly have been more explicit in rejecting the  
> international consensus.
>
> SW: What do you think is Egypt’s role in the peace process at this  
> juncture? Its role as the chief negotiator in the Muslim world has  
> been sagging owing to its declining economic situation and  
> escalating poverty.
>
> NC: The Egyptian dictatorship despises Hamas, an offshoot of the  
> Muslim Brotherhood, which would surely do very well in Egypt if it  
> were permitted to participate in a free election. But even if it  
> tries to be an honest negotiator, Egypt can do nothing as long as  
> the U.S. maintains its rejectionist stance, not only in words but by  
> providing the decisive military, economic and diplomatic support for  
> Israel’s systematic and of course criminal actions to take what it  
> wants in the West Bank. And we should add “ideological support”,  
> such as the absurd propaganda claims about who is blocking a two- 
> state settlement, which are widely believed, thanks to U.S. power.
>
> SW: Evidently, the formulation of the U.S.’ West Asia policy is  
> dependent on the pro-Israel lobby and their Zionist supporters  
> within the government. The brutal military occupation within  
> Palestine has evoked little concern or response from the U.S.  
> government, and its silence, therefore, indicates its complicity  
> with the pro-Israel lobby that controls the U.S. political agenda.  
> Do you agree?
>
> NC: No, I don’t agree. I think that is a very serious  
> misunderstanding of how policy is made. True, lobbies have  
> influence. There are many dramatic cases. Take Cuba. A large  
> majority of Americans have wanted to end the embargo and have normal  
> relations for years, powerful business interests (energy,  
> agribusiness, pharmaceutical, and others), but the political parties  
> won’t touch it because of the Cuban-American vote in Florida and a  
> few other States.
>
> To be sure, there are state interests, and those probably dominate.  
> But the lobby has had a powerful effect. Even a tiny lobby like the  
> Armenian lobby came very close to severely harming U.S. relations  
> with Turkey, a major ally, last year, by getting Congress to  
> (almost) pass an Armenian genocide resolution.
>
> In the case of Israel, it’s convenient for U.S. analysts to blame  
> the Israel lobby for policies they don’t like. That leaves us  
> “clean”, just misled by a lot of bad Jews. There’s some truth to it,  
> as in the case of other lobbies. But it’s much exaggerated.
>
> The debates over the influence of the lobby are typically quite  
> abstract: they have to do with sorting out influences that mostly  
> converge – strategic-economic, lobby. The test is when U.S.  
> government policies and the lobby conflict, as often happens. In  
> that case, invariably, the lobby disappears, knowing better than to  
> confront real power. Just happened last summer, once again, in an  
> important case: the lobby was intent on ramming through Congress a  
> resolution calling for a virtual blockade of Iran, a very high  
> priority for Israel. At first they rounded up congressional support,  
> enough to pass it, until the White House hinted quietly that it was  
> opposed, not wanting to be dragged into a war with Iran. The measure  
> (HR 362) was dropped; the lobby was silent. Not uncommon.
>
> The debates also are paralysing. They have no implications for  
> activism, except one. If the claims are correct, then I’ve been  
> wasting my time for years in talking, writing, organising, activism.  
> I should instead put on a tie and jacket and go to the corporate  
> headquarters of Intel, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, and a host of  
> other major corporations investing in Israel, and should explain to  
> them, politely, that they are harming their interests by doing so,  
> and should use their political and economic power to put the lobby  
> out of business, as they can do in five minutes. No one adopts that  
> tactic. But why?
>
> SW: Why is Obama quiet? It suits him to speak on economic matters or  
> Iraq, but on Israeli atrocities he has not made a single statement.
>
> NC: Obama made it clear long before that he is a passionate  
> supporter of Israeli policies. In his campaign, he emphasised that  
> he was a co-sponsor of a Senate resolution in 2006 barring any  
> interference with Israel’s criminal aggression in Lebanon. He also  
> called for Jerusalem to be the permanent and undivided capital of  
> Israel, a position so outrageous that his campaign had to claim  
> publicly that his words did not mean what he said. I wrote about  
> this a year ago, in a book published before the elections, simply  
> relying on his formal positions. For some reason, many people prefer  
> illusions about him. But one cannot charge him with concealing his  
> extremist positions.
>
> SW: Do you think Israel has crossed the line of humanity and  
> legality in its recent onslaught on Gaza?
>
> NC: We should describe this as a U.S.-Israeli assault. It surely  
> crosses both lines, but hardly for the first time.
>
> http://littlealexinwonderland.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/chomskys-lectern-
> geopolitics-of-the-us-israel-gaza-massacre-and-illusions-about-obama/
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