[Peace-discuss] But What Could Israel Do?

[C. G. Estabrook]

	"But What Could Israel Do?"
	By Stephen R. Shalom, Israeli Occupation Archive – 5 June 2010

...Washington has for many years given Israel the material support to enable its 
atrocities — Israel is the number one recipient of US aid in the world; number 
two is the Egyptian dictatorship, the other country responsible for the Gaza 
blockade. But more important than economic and military aid is that the United 
States has provided the diplomatic cover for Israel’s oppression of 
Palestinians. The Bush administration did this with gusto, but for all his talk 
of change, Obama has done the same. (Indeed, if you compare their UN General 
Assembly voting records, Obama’s administration has been if anything a little 
worse than Bush on Israel-Palestine.) By blocking action on the Goldstone 
report, Obama essentially gave Israel permission to commit war crimes. By 
preventing anything but the mildest criticism of Israel in the Security Council 
in response to Israel’s criminal assault on the Gaza flotilla, Obama has assured 
that atrocities will continue. By itself publicly offering only regret but not 
condemnation for the assault, the U.S. government shares Israel’s 
responsibility. And by opposing an international inquiry into the attack on the 
aid flotilla — as opposed to letting the perpetrator investigate itself — Obama 
has granted impunity for murder.

The blockade must be lifted immediately and the occupation ended. And that will 
require ending the U.S. support that makes these horrors possible.

Stephen R. Shalom teaches political science at William Paterson University in 
NJ. He is a member of the IOA Advisory Board.

http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-06-05/stephen-r-shalom-but-what-could-israel-do/

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