Mike Whitney – The Unz Review Sept 23, 2024
Israel is neither a friend nor ally of the United States. Israel looks out for Israel 100 percent of the time and really doesn’t care what happens to anyone else. Americans have been brainwashed into believing that Israel is “our pit-bull in the Middle East” who keeps the natives in line. But this simply isn’t true. Israel’s activities in the region undermine US interests and inflict severe damage to America’s public image. Here’s how foreign policy expert John Mearsheimer summed it up:
Israel is a strategic albatross around our neck. It’s a liability. Let me just point out, the US doesn’t just give Israel lots of weapons and lots of money. It gives it unconditionally. This is truly remarkable. We don’t treat Israel like a normal country and help it because it’s to our benefit strategically. But that’s not what’s going on here. The US does what it does because of the Lobby. (AIPAC) The United States has a political system that’s set up in ways that allow interest groups to have great influence. Well, the Israel lobby is one of the most, if not, the most powerful lobby in the US. And the lobby goes to enormous lengths to make sure that American foreign policy supports Israel unconditionally. And, it is wildly successful. It’s truly impressive at how good the lobby is at getting US foreign policymakers to support Israel hook, line and sinker. PalMedia@PalBint
We don’t blame Israel for figuring out how to rig the system, so it works to their own advantage, after all, the US operates the same way in nations around the world via its media, its NGOs and its intelligence agents. So, it would be hypocritical for us to criticize Israel for behaving the same way that we do. But that doesn’t change the fact that Israel is a strategic liability, in fact, it just underscores the point. Consider, for example, the recent developments with a key strategic initiative (that you might not have even heard about)—upon which America’s future competitiveness depends. If we take the time to understand how critical this initiative is to America’s global power and prosperity and—at the same time—notice how cavalierly Israel has destroyed any prospect of the initiative succeeding, we can get some idea of the callous disregard Israel has for American interests.
What are we talking about?
On 10 September 2023, representatives from India, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, the EU, and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding which committed their countries to a groundbreaking plan that would link production facilities in Asia with markets across the Middle East and Europe. The plan was called the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and it was concocted as an alternative to China’s expansive Belt and Road Initiative which has emerged as the Gold Standard of cross-continent infrastructure projects. The BRI includes more than 125 countries and reaches 65 percent of the world’s population. It is, by far, the biggest infrastructure and investment project in history and it is vastly lowering shipping costs, boosting productivity, and enhancing prosperity. The IMEC is Washington’s attempt create an alternate system of trade that duplicates many of the BRI’s features and which—according to the experts—will enhance America’s ability to compete with China in the new century. In other words, Washington is counting on the IMEC to preserve America’s preeminent place in the global order and to assist the US in its broader ambition to economically contain China.
Does that sound important?
You bet it does. Check out this excerpt from the Times of Israel:
US President Joe Biden and his allies on Saturday announced plans to build a rail and shipping corridor linking India with the Middle East and Europe, an ambitious project aimed at fostering economic growth and political cooperation.
“This is a big deal,” said Biden. “This is a really big deal.”
The corridor would help to boost trade, transport energy resources and improve digital connectivity. It would include India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Israel and the European Union, said Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser….
“We think that the project itself is bold and transformative, but the vision behind the project is equally bold and transformative, and we will see it replicated in other parts of the world as well,” Sullivan said….
Sullivan said the network reflected Biden’s vision for “far-reaching investments” that come from “effective American leadership” and a willingness to embrace other nations as partners. He said the enhanced infrastructure would boost economic growth, help bring countries in the Middle East together and establish that region as a hub for economic activity instead of as a “source of challenge, conflict or crisis” as it has been in recent history.
Biden unveils US-backed transport corridor to link India to EU via Mideast, Israel, Times of Israel
Biden is right. The plan for a massive rail and shipping corridor linking India with the Middle East and Europe, is a very big deal. And Washington has a lot riding on that deal, including its future prosperity and power. Regrettably, Israel can’t be bothered with such trivialities as America’s future, especially when it conflicts with their own fanatical ambition to conquer a minuscule stretch of barren ground in Gaza. In their mind, that’s all that counts.
Keep in mind, Washington has been working on the IMEC for a very long time. In fact, the so-called Abraham Accords are merely a subset of this broader economic integration strategy. The Accords were aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors so that traditional rivals would all agree to work collaboratively on the same integration project. But, of course, Israel’s 11 month-long rampage in Gaza has obliterated any hope of Arab leaders working with Israel regardless of pressure from the United States. Just last week, Saudi Arabia—which is a key node in the IMEC—announced that it was ‘calling it quits’ and would suspend all efforts to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. This is from an article at Responsible Statecraft:
In a televised speech today, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated that, “The [Saudi] kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. We affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”
With this statement, the Crown Prince appeared to dash the Biden’s administration’s lingering hopes of achieving a landmark normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would have also given Riyadh a U.S. defense agreement as well as a pledge to assist in the establishment of a civilian nuclear program.
Although the Biden administration had previously signaled that they might be willing to move forward with the U.S.-Saudi defense agreement even in the absence of normalization with Israel, MBS’ announcement appears to finally kill the possibility of the so-called “Grand Bargain” that Presidential advisors Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, and other senior Biden officials had hoped would offer a means of countering China, resolving the Gaza crisis, and topping Trump’s Abraham Accords all in one….
MBS’ clear statement of Saudi support for the establishment of a Palestinian state demonstrates the impact of the events of the past year. Israel’s devastating campaign against Gaza – cutting off water and electricity, dropping an average of 42 bombs every day, and blocking adequate food, health supplies, and other basic necessities from entering the territory – have provoked worldwide condemnation, which is strongest in the Middle East. MBS: No Saudi-Israel normalization until Palestinians get a state, Responsible Statecraft
No one is blaming Israel for responding to the attack on October 7. What Israel is blamed for is its 11-month-long bloodbath that has killed tens of thousands of civilians while reducing 80% of all the structures in Gaza to rubble. That’s not an acceptable response to terrorism. That is genocide.
Of course, if we are going to be honest, the Gaza genocide is just the tip of the iceberg. If we really want to appreciate how much of a burden Israel is, then look no further than the US State Department’s own website. Here’s what you’ll find:
The 75-year partnership (between the US and Israel) has been built on mutual interests and shared democratic values from its inception, with Israelis and Americans united by their commitment to democracy, economic prosperity, and regional security.
SECURITY ASSISTANCE AND COOPERATION
The abiding U.S. commitment to Israel’s security is buttressed by robust security assistance to Israel – including the 10-year, $38 billion MOU that was concluded in 2016. Consistent with the MOU, the United States provides $3.3 billion annually in Foreign Military Financing and an additional $500 million in missile defense funding. Missile defense funding supports several cooperative missile defense programs, including David’s Sling and Iron Dome, as well as Arrow, Arrow II, and Arrow III, whose life-saving capabilities have proved vital to Israel’s security. In 2022, the United States provided $1 billion in supplemental funding to replenish Israel’s stock of missile interceptors for the Iron Dome….
REGIONAL PEACE AND COOPERATION
The United States is committed to promoting a more integrated, prosperous, and secure Middle East that benefits all its people. We are dedicated to deepening and expanding normalization and integration between Israel and Arab and Muslim-majority states – as exemplified by the Abraham Accords, other normalization agreements… the United States – advances regional integration, cooperation, and development to augment peace, security, and economic prosperity for the wider region, including initiatives that could strengthen the Palestinian economy and improve Palestinians’ quality of life. The United States remains committed to advancing a comprehensive, negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict….
As part of our efforts to promote a two-state solution and regional peace, the United States is programming the first two years of a five-year funding plan (a $100 million tranche)… to strengthen people-to-people engagement between Israelis and Palestinians. US Relations with Israel, US State Department
It’s shocking, isn’t it? $3 billion here, $38 billion there. Pretty soon, you’re talking real money.
And you might notice that all the money is funneled in one direction: from Washington to Tel Aviv. Never the reverse. Why is that?
Notice, also, how the author boasts about the the Abraham Accords, and the “regional integration” projects (IMEC), and even the elusive “two-state solution”, all of which are of paramount importance to the United States but all of which have been deliberately sabotaged by our ‘good friend’ Israel.
I don’t know how any objective-minded person can review the facts and not draw the same conclusion as Mearsheimer, that Israel is a strategic liability and an albatross.
If we were smart, we’d close our embassy in Jerusalem and recall our ambassador immediately. Enough is enough.
@Mike Whitney
What an idiotic statement is that: “No one is blaming Israel for responding to the attack on October 7.”
Responding to what “attack”? An action of resistance by desperate people occupied by shylocks for a century?
But, to say the truth, there are some sane thoughts in the artcle as well. For instance this one:
“If we were smart, we’d close our embassy in Jerusalem and recall our ambassador immediately.”
It is very atheistic and humanist to be concerned about “Public Image”. God is no respecter of persons or their opinions, and there is a long task of getting into alignment with the God plans
“No one is blaming Israel for responding to the attack on October 7…”
Well that’s not true. I am blaming Israel because they contrived it…
Isn’t this the essence of a limited hangout or at least the alternative journo who pitches his copy to the vast half-truther readership? Virtue signalling as to Israel’s atrocities while implicitly accepting the mainstream narrative of how it all began…
Why not also say something like, “No one can blame George Bush for responding to Bin Laden on 9/11 etc…”
Black Gang members jailed
After ambushing car and shooting at a girl inside aged 4, in botched hit on a Hackney rival gang
Story by John Dunne
Two black north London gangsters have been jailed after a car they believed was being driven by underworld rivals.
Jordan Shaw and Joshua Fraser, members of the “Boyz in the Hood ” gang in Manor House, were on a “ride-out” into opposition territory in Hackney when they ambushed a vehicle in February 2023.
and shot up a family including a girl, aged four and a 13-year-old boy. No-one was injured in the incident which happened in Shrubland Road.
Shaw, 20, from Green Lanes, was given 21 years behind bars for two counts of possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder
while searching for members of the Black Bloods gang who are now aligned with the Enfield Nigs,
Revenge was called for after Wayne Walsh was stabbed at the Notting Hill stabbings festival
The police gazette claim there are 250 black gangs allowed to operate in the greater london area
That is an appropriate poster for the currently released ,motion pictures, war production.the xxx…th? sequel in the successful war on terra genre.a genre marketed successfully and developed by the director b.satanyahood.mr.satanyahu is also in charge of art direction, special FX and scriptwriting.available in your home theatre right now…for free.just open your mind for a reality bending experience.
Mr.satan-yahoo!,has also assembled some middle-eastern theatrical troupes,as part of his philanthropical mindedness.an outreach to the hearts and minds of the mena-peoples.these troupes have also been a loyal partner in spreading the arts and literature.
When more people start to wake up to the fact that China is as much a prodigy nation of the Rothschild dynasty as Israel, they many better understand why Rothschild international Jewry wants an expanded Israel not just for US and Israeli dominance in the Middle East (ME) with a hand in controlling its resources, but also with BRI road & rail in connecting to Africa with the ME linkages, an expanded Israel appears destined to be a major trade hub. With Gaza it will have more shipping access on the Mediterranean as well as pipeline routes for its oil-rich neighbors. as access to off-shore natural gas.
The Chinese-Rothschild silk-road BRI is an $8 trillion development with a southern rail and road development going above India through Afghanistan through Iran and into Turkey, and the BRI has at least one major northern going from China through Russia and the Ukraine into the EU. That is superficial picture but the BRI also has routes already mapped out from Iran through the ME connecting with proposed road and rail routes from Africa. The alleged “US fostered” IMEC so far is only a $2 billion development but it is mostly already established with the existing shipping routes, and it is to the south of BRI routes. One finds it hard to see much conflict, except perhaps for the US & UK interests with the development of the BRI. Although there is traditional conflict between China and India, the trade routes are distinct.
There also may be economic conflict with US & UK interests, however, over the control of ME resources with BRI going into the ME, and then liking with Africa.
Whitney, who appears to be an “American first” guy with respect to the control of future global trade appears to be peeved because the Rothies and international Jewry doesn’t really give a damn for the US anymore, except to bleed it more in order to advance their interests in the ME. That ethic centric combo no doubt sees the future as they have always seen it, and that is with themselves with no real roots but always following the money and always at very center of mercantile trade, commerce, and investment opportunities. This comes at a time now after having cleverly bled the US and the West with the massive outsourcing in the development of China, which in effect turned each Western nation into a debtor nation (to you know who). We now live in a false and failing prosperity, cluttered with made-in-China ticky tacky were it seems we cannot afford to make virtually anything on our own anymore. Slowly but surely we see the economic and military power following Asian development as are the money-wondering Jews. In our own life times no doubt we will see them throw off the US like a worn-out old shoe.
Apart from the true machinations of Israel, as a larger nation in control of more ports and whether with the BRI from Iran into their ME-controlled turf, or in proximity to IMEC trade routes into the ME, they want to be most central. Then there are the sea routes from the ME into the Black Sea to Odessa in the Ukraine, which the Rothschild and US interests are busy buying up. In fact, the plans for the Ukraine with the northern BRI through are that it is also is to be a major trade hub. Obviously, these factors have a great deal to do with the present hostilities not only in the ME but also in the Ukraine, and just may explain why the US is trying to erect an new iron curtain between the EU and Russia. Except for US and UK business interests, those nations are beginning to look like odd-man-out with respect to geopolitical plans and trade routes regarding both China and India.
Another jooish scam,”hitting the waves intact”.
” But those splashdowns did some damage’. It’s also unclear why SpaceX went to the trouble of salvaging the hardware from the sea;
want to see a fake rocket booster array,up close? https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-booster-retrieved-sea-photo. The way it is hoisted tells us it’s fake.impossible with a few strands of steel wire rope.
Follow the money of the international banking cartel Khazarian Mafia (KM), not their feeble Bolshevik sock puppet (p)Resident Biden. The words iterated therein is the KM. Only their profits matter. Nearly all nations now sing to the tune of their song.
The following reveals the KM’s nefarious plan for world domination and enslavement of all mankind for the sake of their ownership of all. According to https://antimatrix.org/Convert/Coleman_The_Committee_of_300_4th_edn_1997.html , topic: NWO – Interview with rabbi Abe Finkelstein about Jewish control of the world:
Here is their god: https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=276887 (VIDEO) 150K Jews Gather in Chicago For Child Sacrifice Ritual – First President of Israel in Attendance by tts-admin | Nov 30, 2023:
Antrimatrix continued:
https://antimatrix.org/Convert/Books/Rabbi_Abe_Finkelstein_Interview/Rabbi_Abe_Finkelstein_Interview.html has the details.
Antimatrix continued from Chapter – INSTITUTIONS THROUGH WHICH CONTROL IS EXERCISED:
This helps to explain Starmer’s ruthless lawlessness toward the indigenous white Brit, incarcerating them for voicing disagreeing opinions otherwise guaranteed by the British Bill of Rights after the Magna Carta whilst he lets the foreign invaders perform their carte blanche destruction freely upon white Brit society.
They consider not the white Brit as a fellow countryman but that of brute “cattle”.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change darkness into light, and light into darkness; that change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter! […] That justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Isaiah 5:20,23 (Jewish Publication Society)
Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they execute it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; thus they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Therefore thus saith HaShem: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk upright; for it shall be an evil time. Micah 2:1-3 (Jewish Publication Society)
@ Think About It :
You are almost 100% correct. I made a similar type comment concerning Notsofast in the article as it appeared on The Unz Review : Unz.com .. The only thing you are missing is once America and NATO are destroyed, Germany will be free to lead a New Europe and possess the former NATO weapons. Germany then will also shift its focus eastward toward Russia and China, the BRICS+ , the BRI and the SCO. Thus the Eurasian Landmass will be the new Superpower, going from Beijing, China to Moscow, Russia and Berlin, Germany. And Israel as you said will be part of a major trade hub to both Europe and Africa. As God had said, Jerusalem is the focal point of the World!
children regularly tortured and raped in israeli jails
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/09/24/733893/palestinians-israeli-jails-g
Great posts…
@ Stormin Norman
If what you say is true then the direction is that of the Zionists and the Christian dispensationalists will continue on their march for an earthly Jerusalem which will be the City of Man, and not the City of God, no matter how much fake one-world religion” or deism they try to cloak it with, and I fear that we will continue to have endless wars which will become increasingly more destructive.
@ Think About It:
I applaud you on your Christian understanding / knowledge concerning Zionism and the fake state of Israel as well as the folly of Dispensationalism and its sheep of Christian Zionists. Also, I too want to be in the City of God! Also from your comments, you are a well educated, well read human being / scholar that explores Alternative Media websites like I do to search for Truth!
The analysis ends with, “If we were smart, we’d close our embassy in Jerusalem…”
The “we” is ambiguous. Who is “we”? As the Biden people flood the country with invader/immigrants, that weakens any unified Americans remaining, which is the hidden aim of international jewry/zionism/George Soros kind of operation.
Think of who protests against the Israeli genocide on college campuses. That is what Netanyahu rails against, calling it “unconscionable” and “has to stop”. Think of how there are calls to criminalize criticism of Israel, or defining it as anti-semitism, a criminalizing of such subtle dimensions that has been in process for years and now, with the ever-widening wars by Israel, is a convenient placement to continue those wars, ever-more with American participation.
Israel is not an ally to America. It is the opposite.