[Peace-discuss] [OccupyCU] News from Neptune on UPTV for 6 June 2014

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss]

ya'aQov--

This is one of the few things I think I've understood from you (beyond your outrage), and it does suggest a real point of disagreement. 

The government of Israel would be unable to continue its oppression of Palestinians without the support - political, diplomatic, economic, and military - of the US government.  But the US provides this support because it finds Israel useful for American imperial purposes - notably the control of Mideast energy resources. "Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the more astute of the senior planners and analysts, pointed out in the journal National Interest that America's control over the Middle East 'gives it indirect but politically critical leverage on the European and Asian economies that are also dependent on energy exports from the region.'"  

Israel is America's "stationary aircraft carrier" in the region. If it stopped performing that service, the US would cease to support it, as in 1956.

It is not the case, as some (including friends at CounterPunch) surmise, that US policy is controlled by the Israel government or lobby.

Therefore Americans (such as AWARE) who object to Israel's crimes should direct their protests to Washington, not Tel Aviv. And their boycott and divestment campaigns should be directed at American companies (such as Caterpillar, here in Illinois) that support those crimes. Similar principles would seem to apply, mutatis mutandis, to academic boycotts.

Regards, Carl

On Jun 9, 2014, at 6:39 PM, ya'aQov <yaaqovz at gmail.com> wrote:

> ...I have another standpoint: a solution in Israel/Palestine
> will come, if ever, from within and not remote-controlled by Uncle
> Sam's money...