Israel

[Guest]

(Bumpa STIKKA @ Jun. 01 2010,22:05) Just nuke the lazy cunts - then at least Israel would have somewhere nice by the sea to build houses.

Why not just gas them?

Theyre obviously sub-humans,unlike the glorious master race-sorry,chosen people

[Guest]

(guydesavoy @ Jun. 02 2010,00:23) As for 'pearls before swine'...there is another quote form a similar source that is more appropriate here :

'Forgive them, for they know not what they do'  

How on earth is that a more appropriate comment?

Could you explain how "forgive them for they know not what they do " is apertaining to this thread?

Forgive who?The Israelis?The Palestinians?

Please explain...

[Jake_Sully]

Its funny I get chewed by far right and far left but no one else has said anything. I just don't like terrorists. And if I'm to be honest, you should know something about me. I used to work in World Trade Center, building #7, 31st floor. After the experience and watching Palestinians dancing on the street, it made my blood boil.. I'm convinced they're not innocent nor the good guys, but then who exactly is innocent? Whore.. people don't take palestinians seriously because of their willingness to be intolerant of others and taking part in mass killing of civilians.

Bumpa I hope you realize by being that far right, people that you really like/ love would have to be eradicated too. You can't have a double standard just to suit you when you like and its not like you're going to be the leader (you'd be at most or a fundraiser person that is invited every so often for money) so someone else would make the call on who is dear to you if they get to stay or go. Are you really willing to do that for your beliefs? How many good friends would pay the price for it when they've done nothing to offend you other than being born in a different ethnicity and is that something they really control? That is guilt by association. Judge people by their actions, not by their background.

Ultimately in war, truth is the first casualty. These 2 sides have been fighting so long, no one really knows the truth anymore (I bet the truth has been changed to favor their propoganda - an example is Iran denying the holocaust) and I bet you Israel is tired of fighting too. I have a few people from Israel at work and we've talked. They prefer living in America because they hate Israel's politicians. They think they cater to extremists (left and right) and force the Arabs into a corner and when they lash out in anger it creates the unsafe conditions you have there currently. Furthermore its not like they hate the arabs.. they just don't trust them but they have said some arabs they know personally are very nice. I've met their kids on parties and there is no blind hate, no willingness to go enlist in the military to go exterminate the Palestinians. Their kids on the other hand, don't really want to do the military service but they have to, they won't get any jobs in Israel otherwise - courtesy of the bureaucracy.

So basically the way I look upon it, aid to any of these sides (yes the UN humanitarian effort, liberal activist effort, and the US support of israel) is just prolonging this conflict. If everyone turns a blind eye to it, doesn't help them one way or the other.. they'll have to come to terms sooner or later.

[f0xxee]

A question gentle (gentile?) readers....

A. Hitler and other prominent anti-semites for years have been labeling the ills of the world on the jewish ownership of banking and financial institutions.

Given the recent GFC which to a large extent was birthed in the offices of Wall Street Banks and in particular the collapse of Bear/Stearns, Lehman Brothers and and the current issue of dodgy practices by Goldman Sachs....
Could the anti-semites have a point? When I read about the PIC's of these institutions I dont read about Connor's and O'Malleys, I read about Cohens and Goldsteins.

Do the Jews own the Big Banks and are they manipulating the USA at will?


Discuss.

[Torurot]

Give any 18 yr old an Uzi and ultimate power and I'll show you a punk!

To use hydroponics you need power (electrical) to run pumps etc. Seeing as Gaza does not have 24/7 power it's not going to fly.
Solar panels are currently prohibitively expensive. The other essential ingredient is water. Israel steals considerable amounts of the Palestinian water, having destroyed a large number of other wells in Gaza, and in return in some parts of Gaza dumps it's sewage (untreated).

[guydesavoy]

(travis bickle @ Jun. 02 2010,02:43)

(guydesavoy @ Jun. 02 2010,00:23) As for 'pearls before swine'...there is another quote form a similar source that is more appropriate here :

'Forgive them, for they know not what they do'  

How on earth is that a more appropriate comment?

Could you explain how "forgive them for they know not what they do " is apertaining to this thread?

Forgive who?The Israelis?The Palestinians?

Please explain...

I was referring to people who think they are casting pearls when in fact they are merely tossing pebbles  

[Lefty]

(whore @ Mar. 09 2010,09:45)  It was my views towards Iran that made this person call me a Zionist.

I think thats very true what Strocube said about if people criticize Israels crimes they will get labelled as being anti-semitic.

While one can find reasons to be critical of the current Iran govt, the Iranians I've met here have all been very nice, friendly people. I get a much better vibe from them than I do from any Arabs. They don't like their govt either and long for a return to the days when the Shah was in power and the USA and Iran were on friendly terms. While the Shah was an autocratic ruler, the country was more prosperous and the govt less oppressive than at any time since.

[Tomcat]

(whore @ Jun. 01 2010,20:48) If you really do buy into Israeli bullshit your either Jewish or very gullible.

Im not Jewish or gullible my friend, why should one be Jewish to support Israel anyway. Typical left wing bullshit where no other view counts except ones own.

The Boat was loaded with Turkish Islamists who are supporters of suicide bombers and various other undesirables. Should have torpedoed the fucker and be done with it. The troops were also attacked as they boarded and had every right to shoot to kill.

Just like you said Whore, the Genocide commited by Mao must be forgotten and that was then and this is now... well that gets everyone of the hook then doesnt it...

[Tomcat]

(f0xxee @ Jun. 02 2010,05:05) Do the Jews own the Big Banks

In the USA i have no idea who own the banks. In the UK i think the Govt own most of the banks since 2 years ago.

[azza33]

Blah blah blah

would you step into a cage to pat a snarling bull terrior???

Dumb fucks had it coming... Least 5 of the ships were smart enough to surrender peacefully!

[Torurot]

Obama's Timidity and Deaths at Sea
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/060110a.html
By Ray McGovern June 1, 2010

A chief lesson to learn from President Barack Obama€™s recent unwillingness to stand up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Lobby is that such timidity can get people killed.Casualty figures are still arriving in the wake of Israel€™s Sunday night-Monday morning commando attack on an unarmed flotilla trying to bring relief supplies to the 1.5 million Palestinians crowded into Gaza. Already, at least nine civilian passengers aboard the ships are reported killed, and dozens wounded.

Yet, seldom has an act of aggression been so well advertised in advance. Israel had made clear that it would use force to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza and heard no stern protest from President Obama, who apparently could not overcome his fear of Israel€™s legendary political clout.

Earlier this year, Obama did criticize Israel€™s continued settlement of Palestinian areas and Netanyahu€™s resistance to hold meaningful peace talks, but the President has failed to follow up his words with firm action or resolve.

For that reason, Netanyahu was left convinced that Israel could do what it wished, including dropping commandos by helicopters onto crowded ships and after an apparent clash with civilians on one of the ships, ordering the use of lethal force.

Then, Netanyahu could expect that America€™s Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) €“ with leading figures like Wolf Blitzer who built his journalistic career by working for the Jerusalem Post €“ would finesse the murderous assault into something reasonable and possibly even tilted sympathetically toward the Israeli troops.

Early on, CNN began repeating the Israeli €œexplanation€ for its attack on the high seas, parroting the Jerusalem Post which reported that €œmilitants were killed€ after they set upon Israeli naval commandos who boarded one of the six ships Monday morning at two o€™clock.

The commandos €œwere met with strong resistance from men armed with bladed weapons and the situation degenerated into a massacre when one of them grabbed the weapon of a soldier and opened fire,€ said the Jerusalem Post, quoting Israeli military sources.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the relief convoy organizers had a €œradical Islamic anti-Western orientation,€ and that Israeli €œnaval forces were attacked with metal clubs and knives, as well as live fire,€ though there were no reports of Israeli deaths. The IDF statement continued:

€œThe demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose,€ adding that the Navy then used riot dispersal methods, which include live fire, according to JTA, the global news service of the Jewish people.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed the organizers of the convoy for the violent outcome, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told a news conference why that was so: €œThe organizers€™ intent was violent, their method was violent, and unfortunately, the results were violent.€

So, you see, the Israeli military resorted to violence only in self-defense. Right.

*Quiet Conversation*

On Monday, President Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone about the incident. Afterwards, the White House said Obama had expressed €œdeep regret€ over the deaths, but declined further comment, citing €œthe importance of learning all the facts and circumstances€ as quickly as possible.

However, don€™t count on the timid Obama or his Likud-leaning advisers €” much less the FCM €” to question the Israeli version.

We are likely to get an €œexplanation€ worthy of the late Alexander Haig as to why the slaughter may well have been €œjustified.€ Haig€™s death in February brought to mind comments he made about a brutal incident on the night of Dec. 2, 1980, shortly after Ronald Reagan€™s election victory.

In rightist-ruled El Salvador, government security forces stopped four American churchwomen in their mini-van and were ordered to kill them. The soldiers first raped the women and then executed them with high-powered rifles.

Reagan€™s foreign policy team decided to treat the rape-murder as a public relations problem, best handled by shifting blame onto the victims. And so, the women were deemed not nuns, but €œpolitical activists.€

After becoming Reagan€™s first Secretary of State, Haig told Congress that €œthe nuns may have run through a roadblock or may have accidentally been perceived to have been doing so, and there may have been an exchange of fire.€

In just a few weeks, the American women had gone from being innocent victims to €œpolitical activists€ to armed insurgents €“ although knowledgeable U.S. government officials conceded there was no evidence to support Haig€™s shoot-out speculation. As an intelligence analyst at the time, I knew of Haig€™s inclination to make up stuff.

Watch for the same thing to happen to the international €œactivists€ who were killed and wounded in the incident off Gaza. I don€™t watch the FCM anymore (it€™s just too much for my Irish temper), but I€™m told that Israel-friendly pundits are already spinning faster than the famous centrifuges in Iran.

*Uncle Remus€™s Wisdom*

€œHe Don€™t Say Nothin€™,€ as Uncle Remus put it, with improper grammar but with an accurate understanding that by not saying anything you can often convey a powerful or dangerous message.

As a presidential candidate, Obama was careful to say nothing about the brutal Israeli blockade against the 1.5 million people in Gaza, about to enter its fourth year. As president-elect he stayed mum as the Israelis attacked densely populated Gaza, killing some 1,400 Gazans.

As President, he has backed down at every significant moment when Netanyahu thumbed his nose at Obama or at Vice President Joe Biden.

Obama knew about the €œFreedom Flotilla€ and its plan to bring supplies to Gaza. And he had to be aware of Israel€™s threats to attack the relief ships. But, like Uncle Remus€™s B€™rer Fox, Obama €œdon€™t say nothin.€™€

Quite the contrary, Obama€™s pro-Zionist White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who recently vacationed in Israel and met with Netanyahu last Wednesday, extended an invitation for a working visit at the White House. Netanyahu was to visit Obama on Tuesday after a four-day visit to Canada.

On Monday morning, Netanyahu canceled out of a gala dinner to be held in his honor in Ottawa and nixed the visit to Washington. He said he hoped that both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Obama €œunderstand that Israel has a great security problem.€

*Getting Away With Murder*

The fatal incident off the Gaza coast was not the first time Israel had used lethal force against a nearly defenseless ship at sea. The attack on the €œFreedom Flotilla€ was reminiscent of the attack on the USS Liberty during Israel€™s Six-Day War against three of its Arab neighbors.

The war started on June 5, 1967, when Israel carried out an unprovoked Blitzkrieg attack. What is my source for €œunprovoked?€ Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who 15 years later admitted publicly:

€œIn June 1967, we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that [Egyptian President] Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.€

Three days into the war, Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats turned their firepower on the intelligence collection ship USS Liberty in international waters after the Israelis had identified it as a U.S. Navy ship.

The Israelis later insisted they had lost track of the ship and that the strafing was an accident in the fog of war. However, U.S. intelligence intercepted Israeli conversations at the time, indicating that the Israeli mission was to sink the ship and leave no survivors.

Israeli commandos clad in black were about to land from helicopters and finish off what remained of the Liberty crew when Seaman Terry Halbardier (later awarded the Silver Star) slid over the Liberty€™s napalm-laden deck to jury-rig an antenna and get an SOS off to the Sixth Fleet.

Israeli forces intercepted the SOS and quickly broke off the attack. But 34 of the Liberty crew were killed http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/060109a.html and over 170 wounded.

To avoid exacerbating bilateral tensions, the U.S. Navy was ordered to cover up the deliberate nature of the attack, and the surviving crew was threatened with imprisonment, if they so much as told their wives. When some of the crew later called for an independent investigation, they were hit with charges of anti-Semitism.

One of the surviving crew of the USS Liberty, decorated Navy veteran Joe Meadors, was with the €œFreedom Flotilla€ when it was attacked. Meadors is past president of the USS Liberty Veterans Association.

The State Department tells us that Joe Meadors survived this latest Israeli attack. At last word, he sits in an Israeli jail.

*Rachel Corrie*

Another incident occurred on March 16, 2003, when 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, an American volunteer serving in Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement was run over by an Israeli Army bulldozer after a prolonged face-off in full view of several of her volunteer colleagues.

Rachel was trying to prevent the bulldozing of a Palestinian home where she had been staying.

The apparent message the Israelis wanted to convey in killing Rachel Corrie was that international volunteers would no longer be exempt from the brutal treatment accorded young Israeli volunteers who tried to stand up, as Rachel did, for decent treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.

The FCM€™s excitement over President George W. Bush€™s eagerly anticipated €œshock-and-awe€ bombing of Iraq three days later pushed what limited coverage there was about Rachel€™s murder to the back pages. The Israelis claimed the killing was an inadvertent mistake, like the shoot-up of the Liberty.

The courageous Rachel was very much with the Freedom Flotilla in spirit. One of the ships in the convoy bore the name €œRachel Corrie.€

Israel cannot hide behind €œinadvertence€ this time, although its spin-masters are already doing their best to smear the civilians on the ships with buzzwords, calling them €œterrorists€ who €œambushed€ and tried to €œlynch€ the Israeli commandos.

These P.R. tactics may work with the American FCM and neocons in Washington €“ and by extension the TV-watchers in the United States €“ but patience with Israel in the international community is wearing paper-thin.

Much of this has to do with Gaza, including the Israeli attack from Dec. 17, 2008, to Jan. 18, 2009, as well as the three-year blockade that began when Hamas won Palestinian elections and became the governing party in Gaza.

Israel and the U.S. government deem Hamas to be a terrorist organization, though some other countries regard it more as a resistance movement fighting against Israeli occupation.

Yet, regardless of how one feels about Hamas, Israel€™s harsh blockade of Gaza and last year€™s military assault are widely seen as inflicting a humanitarian disaster on the Palestinian people.

*Has Netanyahu Gone Too Far?*

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has reacted strongly to the Israeli attack on the relief ships, the largest of which sailed from Turkey. According to one report, Turkey has served warning that Turkish Navy ships will escort future relief convoys to Gaza.

Erdogan has had it with Israeli mistreatment of Muslims in his eastern Mediterranean neighborhood. On Jan. 29, 2009, at the economic summit in Davos, he leveled harsh criticism to Israeli President Shimon Peres€™s face, labeling Gaza €œan open-air prison.€

Erdogan angrily cited €œthe sixth commandment €” Thou Shalt Not Kill,€ adding, €œWe are talking about killing€ in Gaza. Erdogan€™s one-and-a-half-minute tirade was captured on camera by the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7859417.stm .

Five days before Erdogan€™s outburst, the Brazilian government also condemned Israel€™s bombing of Gaza and its effect on the civilian population as a €œdisproportionate response.€

It seems to have been the atrocity in Gaza that galvanized the successful joint effort by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to defy Israel by getting Iran to agree to transfer fully half of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey for further processing, rendering it unusable for a nuclear weapon.

Defy Israel? you ask. If Israel believes that low-enriched uranium is an essential part of an €œexistential threat€ to Israel from eventual nuclear weapons in Iran, would the Israelis not be delighted at Iran€™s agreement to send half to Turkey? Good question.

If the truth be told, Israel cares a lot less about Iran€™s uranium that it does about forcing €œregime change€ in Tehran. Netanyahu does not want any agreement with Iran; he wants sanctions against Iran, and eventually a military conflict.

And this twin wish is shared by American neocons who remain influential in the Obama administration and in the FCM.

The pro-Israeli hardliners appear to be the ones running U.S. policy on the Middle East, not Obama, who appears only nominally in charge. Unusually clear proof of this came when the Brazilians released a letter revealing that Obama had personally encouraged the Brazilian and Turkish leaders to pursue the kind of deal they were able to work out with the Iranians.

Thus, the leaders of Brazil and Turkey were surprised when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other administration spokespeople trashed the tripartite Iran-Turkey-Brazil deal and pressed ahead with a new round of sanctions.

And the President? Did he step and acknowledge encouraging Brazil and Turkey to seek the uranium deal? Well, he don€™t say nothin€™.

*Israeli Influence *

While Americans continue to be starved of real information from the FCM, people around the world are able to view with disdain the degree to which Washington dogs are wagged by Israeli tails.

When I suggested five years ago before a Capitol Hill hearing chaired by Rep. John Conyers that Israel was right up there, together with oil and military bases, as comprising the real rationale for war on Iraq, I, too, was called anti-Semitic. But the evidence has always been as clear as it is abundant.

An inadvertent remark by former British Prime Minister Blair has provided insight €” straight from the horse€™s ass, I mean, mouth.

In early February 2010, the British press revealed that Blair, testifying to the Iraq war commission in the U.K., offered the following account of his discussions with Bush in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002. That€™s when Bush said war was the only way to deal with Saddam Hussein, and Blair acquiesced.

But Blair€™s remarks revealed that Israeli concerns were a major part of the equation and that Israeli officials were involved in the discussions. Thus, Blair:

€œAs I recall that discussion, it was less to do with specifics about what we were going to do on Iraq or, indeed, the Middle East, because the Israel issue was a big, big issue at the time. I think, in fact, I remember, actually, there may have been conversations that we had even with Israelis, the two of us, whilst we were there. So that was a major part of all this."

It is a safe bet that Hillary Clinton€™s Likud-friendly lieutenants and their new junior partners in London are busy conferring with Tel Aviv right now about how to handle the PR challenge caused by the upstart leaders of Turkey and Brazil with the temerity to work out a deal with Tehran. (Never mind that Obama personally asked them to do it.)

How does one make into a bad thing Iran€™s agreement to ship half its uranium out of the country, even if additional steps might still be needed to assure the world that Iran is telling the truth when it says it isn€™t building a nuclear bomb?

More and more people around the globe are seeing Obama as subservient to the Likud Lobby, perhaps not as enthusiastically as Bush was, but still unwilling to put action behind his occasional words of dissatisfaction.

Important players in the Middle East, as well as increasingly assertive countries like Turkey and Brazil, conclude that the policies and behavior of Tel Aviv and Washington are virtually identical.

And then there is the $3 billion or so that the United States gives Israel each year that enables the Israelis to arm themselves to the teeth. It is understandable, then, that many will blame Washington for what happened in the dark of night, on the eve of Memorial Day, on the high seas.

*Hard Lessons*

The likely results are three-fold:

*--On Memorial Day next year, there may well be hundreds more €œfallen heroes€ to honor*, killed by Muslim and other €œmilitants€ who make no distinction between what the U.S. had done in Iraq and Afghanistan and what Israel does in Gaza and the occupied West Bank €” and add Lebanon and Syria, for good measure.

As Gen. David Petraeus pointed out earlier this year, the unresolved Arab-Israeli €œconflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel€ and thus puts U.S. troops at greater risk.

€œArab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the [region] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world,€ Petraeus said. €œMeanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support."

*--The linking of U.S. support with Israeli actions enhances the incentive of terrorists to ply their dark arts in the United States.*

While it is difficult to find a measure of objectivity in official U.S. government documents on this topic, every so often there is a slip between cup and lip. There was such a slip on Sept. 23, 2004, for example, when the Pentagon-sponsored U.S. Defense Science Board issued a formal report concluding:

€œMuslims do not €˜hate our freedom,€™ but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights.€

You will not be surprised to find out that the board€™s report was generally suppressed in the FCM, as were the following, more specific, examples:

€œBy his own account, KSM€™s [9/11 €œmastermind€ Khalid Sheikh Mohammed€™s] animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experience there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.€ [9/11 Commission Report, July 22, 2004, page 147]

And what motivated Dr. Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, the 32-year-old Jordanian physician of Palestinian origin, who on Dec. 30, 2009, detonated a suicide bomb at a CIA site in eastern Afghanistan, killing seven American CIA operatives? According to his brother, al-Balawi €œchanged€ during the three-week-long Israeli offensive in Gaza, which killed some 1,400 Gazans.

When al-Balawi volunteered to treat injured Palestinians in Gaza, he was arrested by Jordanian authorities, his brother said. It was after that arrest that al-Balawi allowed himself to be €œrecruited€ to spy on al-Qaeda for the CIA.

Quickly, it became payback time for Americans and Jordanians whom he associated with Israel.

Christmas underpants bomber Abdulmuttallab, also is reported to have been particularly outraged by Israel€™s slaughter of the 1,400 Gazans at the turn of 2008-09 and Washington€™s defense of Israel€™s action.

That Israeli actions in Gaza acted as catalysts to al-Balawi€™s and Abdulmuttallab€™s determination to exact revenge on the U.S. is hardly surprising €” the more so in view of Washington€™s efforts to suppress the findings of the UN-commissioned Gaza investigation by Justice Richard Goldstone. His report concluded that:

€œThe blockade policies implemented by Israel against the Gaza Strip, in particular the closure of or restrictions imposed on border crossings in the immediate period before the military operations, subjected the local population to extreme hardship and deprivations that amounted to a violation of Israel€™s obligations as an Occupying Power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. €¦

€œIsrael has essentially violated its obligation to allow free passage of all consignments of medical and hospital objects, food, and clothing that were needed to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the civilian population €¦

€œThe Mission concludes that the conditions resulting from deliberate actions of the Israeli forces and the declared policies of the Government with regard to the Gaza Strip before, during, and after the military operation cumulatively indicate the intention to inflict collective punishment on the people of the Gaza Strip.

€œThe Mission, therefore, finds a violation of the provisions of Articles 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.€

*--Attacking Iran?*

It is no secret that this goal enjoys high priority on Netanyahu€™s agenda. It could be stopped in its tracks by a public warning from President Obama €” but all signs point to his bending to neocon advice to shy away from a showdown.

The fact that world leaders consider Netanyahu a clear and present danger to peace in the region is showed by the way the leaders of Turkey and Brazil moved at an accelerated pace to bend the Iranians to the kind of deal that Obama personally had advocated, before being overruled by Clinton and Democratic neocons.

The urgency of the Turkey-Brazil initiative came through in the words of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who could hardly have been more explicit:
€œWe can't allow to happen in Iran what happened in Iraq. Before any sanctions, we must undertake all possible efforts to try and build peace in the Middle East."

*A Green Light*

Netanyahu listens only to Washington, when he listens at all. Following the bloody attack on the Freedom Flotilla, I imagine he will now get at most a mealy-mouthed €œplease-don€™t-do-this-again€ from the White House, together with an Al-Haig made-up excuse about an €œexchange€ of fire.

If that proves to be the case, Netanyahu is altogether likely to consider that Israel has a green light to provoke hostilities with Iran, with the full expectation that the United States will jump right in to help the non-ally ally finish the job.

Non-ally ally? Sorry, despite what you hear from Obama, Congress and the whole Washington Establishment, Israel is not an ally of the United States. Webster€™s (and international law) define ally as €œa state associated with another by treaty.€

There is no mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and Israel. (Washington has broached the idea to Israel from time to time, but Israel has said no thanks. Treaties, you see, require internationally recognized borders, and Israeli leaders avoid that subject like the plague.)

NATO member Turkey, on the other hand, is a U.S. ally. This could make things very awkward if Turkey sends its warships to accompany the next convoy trying to lift the siege of Gaza. It is possible that Washington may have to choose between a real ally and a synthetic one, if shots are fired.

*Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. As an Army infantry/intelligence officer and later a CIA analyst, he spent almost 30 years in intelligence work. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).*

*To comment at Consortiumblog, click here <http://consortiumblog.blogspot.com/>. (To make a blog comment about this or other stories, you can use your normal e-mail address and password. Ignore the prompt for a Google account.) To comment to us by e-mail, click here <http://www.consortiumnews.com/contact.html>. **To donate so we can continue reporting and publishing stories like the one you just read, click here <https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/..._page_KEY=2043>.*

[azza33]

All you left wing fucktards need to be lined up and SHOT!

More nukes.. more nukes .. more nukes!!!

[Lefty]

Throughout this thread, I've seen posts saying this or that country or region should be nuked. Anyone who advocates Israel nuking anyone, or anyone else nuking them for that matter, is a complete idiot. Using nuclear weapons would have a far ranging and negative effect on the entire planet. If Israel did use nuclear weapons to obliterate the entire Arab world. like someone suggested, the residual effect would end up ruining them too.

[azza33]

lot of tongue in cheek comments Lefty

[Lefty]

I know yours were, but some of the others didn't come across that way. Hard to tell someone's intend all of the time, on forums though.