zhonghebus
zhonghebus

從島嶼出發,往西方飛,再往西方飛,最終回到了島嶼,回到了我的城市,路上經過被怪獸汙染的農田,與怪獸奮鬥的人。沒戰鬥力的自己,只能拿起筆,開始紀錄被城市遺忘的人。有養一隻貓兒叫酷妹。

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict|Why does the United States support Israel? (one)

(edited)
The following content is translated from a speech given by American Jewish scholar Noam Chomsky in 2015.

Why does the United States support Israel? Well, this has its history, a very intriguing history. Going back a long time ago, the first thing to remember is that Christian Zionism (Note 1) once had a stronger power than Jewish Zionism. Earlier.

In England at that time, Christian Zionism was extremely popular among the British elite. It was the supporting force behind the Balfour Declaration (Note 2) and directly explained Britain's support for the Jewish colonization of Israel. . Remember, the Bible says this too, and it looms large in British elite culture.

The same is true in the United States. Woodrow Wilson was a devout Christian who read the Bible every day, as was Harry Truman. During the Roosevelt administration, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes once described the return of the Jews to Palestine as "the greatest deed in human history," and everything was shown in the Bible. These countries with strong religious consciousness strictly abide by the so-called "Biblical command." This is just part of colonization.

As the last piece of the puzzle of European colonization, we can also see that not only the United States supports Israel, but also Australia, Canada, these tributaries of England (ie European civilization), or the so-called Anglo world. This is a lesser known form of imperialism, which is settler colonial society. Not like Britain in India, but like South Africa, or France in Algeria. In such a settler colonial society, we can see that the colonists come in and completely eliminate and exterminate the local population. The above is from the perspective of religious factors, religious forces driven by Christian Zionism, these are the main cultural considerations.

In addition, there are geostrategic considerations . If you go back to 1948 in the United States, there was a difference of opinion between the State Department and the Department of Defense about the newly formed state of Israel. The State Department actually had doubts that they did not fully invest in the war for the founding of Israel. At that time, the domestic establishment was more focused on the refugee issue and hoped to be dealt with first. The Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, is very interested in Israel's military capabilities and its potential, especially the success of the Israeli military. If you look back at declassified government documents, the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time described Israel as the most powerful military force in the region after Turkey and as a core base for U.S. power in the region.

By 1958, when a serious crisis occurred in the region, Israel was the only country that cooperated with the United Kingdom and the United States, and therefore received support from the U.S. government and the U.S. military. By 1967, what we now know as the “U.S.-Israel relationship” was essentially established. Perhaps Israel's greatest contribution to the United States was the destruction of secular Arab nationalism. This force has always been a major threat to the United States, and the United States and Israel turned to support extreme Islamism, which remains the case today.

We can see this relationship in the Gaza conflict in 2014. When Israel was running out of ammunition, the United States quickly provided it with additional ammunition through the Department of Defense. Pay attention to where these ammunitions come from. These have been shipped to Israel and were originally intended to be used by the US military. This also shows that Israel is basically a unit of the US military, and they have always had a close intelligence exchange relationship. The American media, which often takes a pro-government stance, hardly questions this. Of course, this is not only about relations with Israel, but also about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. You will not see the media using the word invasion, but aggression is a fact. The U.S. invasion of Iraq is now a must-teach case in textbooks. It was called "invasion" in the Nuremberg Trials. "Supreme International Crime" is a war crime. But no media reported it truthfully.

Obama is praised by everyone as an opponent of this aggressive war, but do you know what he said at that time? "This was a mistake, a strategic mistake that left us unable to avoid accountability afterwards," he said. You can also hear this response when Hitler invaded Russia. There were also German officers who opposed the invasion. They said it was wrong and we shouldn't do it. This was the well-known opposition voice, certainly from Britain first, during the Vietnam War. Similarly, if you look at whether anyone used the term "invasion of Vietnam" around 1961, there were almost none, and it is still rare today, maybe only on the program "Democracy Now!"

The United States is not alone. In the UK, the media began to debate whether to use the word "genocidal", a term that characterized British colonialism hundreds of years ago. But now, should Britain face the issue of Israel truthfully? Of course, this can also be asked on other topics.

This is the power of the elite community that has traditionally blindly supported the country and capital. This phenomenon is quite shocking. The so-called elites always like to think of themselves as "dissidents", "critical", "brave" and "challenging authority". This is completely wrong. Historically, only a handful of people are truly like this, and these non-mainstream elites are usually punished by the state. The mainstream, those who claim to be independent thinkers, are actually mostly supporting state power. This is not novel at all.

(Original speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQ_0MubbcM)

Note 1: Christian Zionists believe that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land in 1948 and the establishment of the modern sovereign state of Israel fulfilled biblical prophecies. Some Christian Zionists believe that the gathering and return of the Jews to Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6) is a prerequisite for the second coming of Jesus. However, the relationship between the United States and Israel is based on religious and geopolitical considerations, which are inseparable and indispensable.

Note 2: Balfour Declaration 1917, a public declaration issued by the British government during World War I, emphasizing Britain's support for the Jewish people to establish a new country in Palestine. Behind the scenes, Herbert Samuel (a cabinet member who supported Zionism) and the British Zionist organization strongly promoted Zionism and issued the "Future of Palestine" (also known as the Samuel Memorandum) in 1915, and then a committee was established to deal with it. This issue urged Prime Minister Asquith at the time to formally express his position. Asquith, who originally supported the reform of the Ottoman Empire, eventually resigned. His successor, Lloyd George, supported the division of the Ottoman Empire and the British trusteeship of some territories. In February 1917, representatives of the British government and Zionists held a meeting, and the results of the discussion were issued by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, which was the Balfour Declaration. Only Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews participated in the entire discussion, without any representatives of Palestinian residents.

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