Over the past several years, Netanyahu has gone out of his way to embarrass virtually every U.S. official, including President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. There are Israeli officials who believe that Netanyahu has gone too far this time.
by MELVIN A. GOODMAN
Just when one believes Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner couldn’t possibly go any lower he proves all of his critics wrong by stooping so low his actions may bring charges of treason.
Conservative Pat Buchanan once got in trouble by calling Capitol Hill “Israeli occupied territory,” but even he might not imagine what’s happening now – with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu invited to address a joint session of Congress to decry President Obama’s foreign policy.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has said in January that “Israeli” settlements amount to “creeping annexation” of Palestinian territories by “Israel” and have taken a “heavy toll” on the rights and sovereignty of Palestinians.
The Israeli election’s one certain outcome is that, whoever wins, the next coalition will, actively or passively, allow more of the same: a slow, creeping annexation of what is left of a possible Palestinian state, as the US and Europe bicker.
The British Broadcasting Corporation is up to its old dirty tricks again, spreading government disinformation in an attempt to make trouble for Iran.
And it is more than a coincidence that America’s rulers have stepped up their aggression towards Russia since President Putin has embarked on a raft of regional trade and development alliances with Eurasian countries, Iran, China, and other BRICS nations, as well as Latin America. Putin’s declared moves to replace the US dollar with bilateral currencies for transactions in energy trade has also marked him out as a threat to US hegemonic interests.
White House and State Department officials had already become increasingly disturbed by what they saw as heavy-handed battlefield tactics that they believed risked a humanitarian catastrophe capable of harming regional stability and Israel’s interests.
They were especially concerned that Israel was using artillery, instead of more precision-guided munitions, in densely populated areas. The realization that munitions transfers had been made without their knowledge came as a shock.
Image above: Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, left, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Cairo, Egypt, November 2011 (photo credit: AP/Office of Khaled Mashaal)
Israel is distorting/reinterpreting international law to justify its use of militarized force in order to protect its colonial authority. Although it rebuffs the de jure application of Occupation Law, Israel exercises effective control over the West Bank and Gaza and therefore has recourse to police powers. It uses those police powers to continue its colonial expansion and apartheid rule and then in defiance of international law
Image above: A former top Iraqi military commander and vice president in the Hussein government, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has joined forces with the jihadists of the Isis (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) Reuters
