Stop U.S. Support of Israeli Terrorism

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

'Aid' to Israel --better described as a 'rogue' or 'terrorist' nation than a 'state' --must end! Most recent among a series of 'false flag' attacks or so-called "incidents" of Israeli origin is a recent atrocity: Ten dead as Israel storms aid ships, an act of terrorism by 'Israeli commandos, an attack of a convoy of Gaza-bound aid ships'. The time has come to cut off all 'aid' to Israel.

The ships were in international waters. Palestine has --rightly --called the attack a massacre. I call it an act of terrorism by a terrorist state.

The bloodshed sparked street protests and government ire in Turkey, long Israel's lone Muslim ally in the region, which had supported the convoy. Ankara recalled its ambassador from Israel and Turkish President Abdullah Gul demanded that the culprits be punished.
The European Union demanded an inquiry and France and Germany said they were "shocked." The United Nations condemned violence against civilians in international waters.
Israeli officials said the marines were met with gunfire and knives when they boarded the ships, which included a large ferry flying the Turkish flag. Activists seized at least two pistols from the boarding party, the officials said.<
Israel's attempts to maintain its three-year-old blockade on the Hamas Islamist-ruled enclave while avoiding bloodshed that would spark an international incident collapsed in spectacular fashion: "It's going to be a big scandal, no doubt about it," Israel's Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Reuters.
-Ten dead as Israel storms aid ships, sparks outcry

This act of terrorism by the 'state' of Israel, a U.S. 'client state', is but the most recent in a long list of Israeli outrages to include the murder of innocent men, women, and children.
By supporting Israel, the U.S. violates the 'Symington Amendment' in which aid of any type is forbidden to 'Nuclear states' not signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty'.
Moreover, 'Dual-citizen' Israelis now serve in U.S. government positions, obvious instances of conflict of interest but worse --allegiance! This practice subverts U.S. security and might have been considered 'treasonous' had the U.S. 'war on terrorism' been real! A more convincing case is that Israel itself is a terrorist nation in partnership with the United States. I find it hard to believe that any other nation has ever allowed another nation the access allowed Israel by the United States.
K-Street, where paid lobbies 'nest' and purchase favors and preferential treatment, has replaced Congress. Lobbies, in fact, draft the laws and solicit support for them among members of Congress. The most powerful lobby is the so-called 'Jewish Lobby', most certainly bankrolled by the state of Israel. It is not unusual that the U.S. is routinely sold to the highest bidder, but, in the case of Israel, the U.S. taxpayer is stuck with the bill.

At the beginning of every fiscal year, the U.S. makes a lump sum payment of cold hard cash to Israel, a procedure not duplicated for any other nation receiving U.S. 'aid'. It looks like a payoff in response to a shakedown because that is precisely what it is! What leverage, we wonder, is used by Israel on the U.S? The Carvellian quick response: terrorism! Terrorism is a racket! Israel exploits 'terrorism' to shake down the U.S. tax payer. Now we know why Israelis danced on 911.
Israel is among the world's richest nations. Nevertheless, Israel receives more U.S. tax payer money than any other 'single recipient' of what is euphemistically called 'U.S. aid', more, in fact, than all of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa combined. Though Israel is barely larger in population than metropolitan Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston, it receives more aid than two continents. Those areas include some of the poorest regions which receive much less U.S. aid than does wealthy Israel who clearly does not need it.
Then what does U.S. aid to Israel consist of? At the top of the list is, of course, the aforementioned cold, hard cash. Other 'aid' includes the weapons of war themselves.

The U.S. administration has notified Congress of the following proposed government-negotiated Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreements, export licenses for industry-negotiated Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), or leases of military equipment to Israel. The Arms Export Control Act requires only that the administration notify Congress of FMS and DCS valued at $14 million or more. Sales below that threshold are not recorded here.
--Arms Transfers to Israel: 1993 to Present

Former Secretary of State Shultz 'credited' Netanyahu for 'effecting a change in American policies on terrorism'. That's 'political speak' for 'Israel extorted billions of dollars in aid by raising the specter of 'terrorism'. Fear of 'terrorism' is responsible for the transfer of billions of dollars to Israel because the U.S. tax payer is brainwashed, literally trained to fear anyone with a tan wearing a turban. Terrorism is how the moneys 'given' to Israel are officially justified. What is 'terrorism' but the practice by the U.S. and its client state, Israel, to extort billions from U.S. taxpayers?

The set of deliberately misleading and discredited assumptions followed by the proponents of the War on Terror must be repudiated. The government is wasting 10s of billions of dollars, propping up this sham, in the wake of the enforced fear-mongering that has crept in since 9/11. In return for the tax dollars that pay for blooding our hands, we had habeas corpus struck down, arbitrary “no-fly lists” are implemented, our government is perpetrating terror hoaxes on the people, and over 100 Canadian soldiers have died fighting what Stephen Harper admits is an un-winnable war.

Despite the obvious ill effects on society, the tenets of the GWOT are still off-limits for inquiry, or you are a ‘troofer’ and subject to derision and ridicule. It doesn’t matter that you are speaking truth. Ask Lesley Hughes.

Canada seems to be under the ideological and political grip of a foreign power, that is leveraging control over Canadian parties and politicians. Many powerful Isr-el lobby groups operate in Canada bending the government’s ear to the Isr-elis.

They need the pretense of the “existential threat” to Western Civilization represented by Arab terrorism to justify what was a long-standing plan to invade the middle east. Thus, we are following a set of deliberately misleading erroneous assumptions that have manipulated us into war.

--Origins of the War of Terror: Bush, Netanyahu and the CIA

It was in 1979 that Netanyahu organized an international conference against terrorism, under the auspices of the Jonathan Institute — a private foundation dedicated to the study of terrorism. It is hard to believe that it was not the very purpose of that 'foundation' to frighten the U.S. into coughing up the billions for Israel which habitually milks the U.S. tax payer. Yet recently, Netanyahu is reported to have defied the U.S. over Israeli settlement policies that have clearly destabilized the Middle East. See: Netanyahu defies U.S. over Jerusalem settlement

Leo Strauss, the so-called 'intellectual' godfather of neo-conservativism, believed that neocons ought to 'lie' to the unwashed masses because, it is said, they 'can't handle the truth'. Well --the truth is Benjamin Netanyahu believes he owns the NEOCONS. Tails wag dogs. I say: a pox on both their houses. Israel should be 'cut off' now. No gradualism, no time for therapy sessions! Cut them off now and balance the budget with the savings. (BTW, the last balanced budget was in a Democratic Regime)

The prime minister's speech last night returned the Middle East to the days of George W. Bush's "axis of evil." Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a patriarchal, colonialist address in the best neo-conservative tradition: The Arabs are the bad guys, or at best ungrateful terrorists; the Jews, of course, are the good guys, rational people who need to raise and care for their children. In the West Bank settlement of Itamar, they're even building a nursery school.

No empathy for the refugees from Jaffa who lost their entire world, not a word for the Muslim connection to Jerusalem - neither a fragment of a quote from the Koran, nor a line of Arabic poetry.

--Netanyahu and a Return to the Axis of Evil

If it has not been eclipsed by Mossad, the CIA is most certainly the world' biggest 'terrorist' organization. The late Benazir Bhutto revealed the truth before she was brutally gunned down in the streets of Karachi: US policy causes world terrorism. Conveniently for 'official terrorists, she died before she could tell the rest of the story.

When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation -- namely, life, liberty and justice for all. Dictatorships such as Musharraf's suppress individual rights and freedoms and empower the most extreme elements of society. Oppressed citizens, unable to represent themselves through other means, often turn to extremism and religious fundamentalism.

--Benazir Bhutto, A False Choice for PakistanA favorite CIA tactic is the CIA "front".

The May 12 terrorist attacks on the al Hamra, Jadawal and Vinnell compounds in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, which killed more than 90 people, were not merely assaults on “symbols” of the imperialist West. The bombers were also intent on weakening the rule of Saudi royal family.

While the timing of the bombings in Saudi Arabia and in other countries — just hours before US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Saudi Arabia — suggested a coordinated assault on US targets, the bombings in Riyadh were targeted at key props of the reactionary regime.

All three Saudi Arabian targets were associated with Saudi Arabia's role as a US client state: residential compounds housing mainly expatriates working in the country, the offices of the Vinnell Corporation and the residences of its employees.

Vinnell, founded in California in 1931, first gained a foothold in Saudi Arabia in 1975. An article by Matt Gaul in the June 1998 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, revealed that it was the culmination of a close relationship between the corporation, the US military and Washington's intelligence agencies. This relationship stretched back to the end of World War II, when the US government used the company to ship supplies to the China's counter-revolutionary party, the Kuomintang.

During the 1950s and '60s, Vinnell constructed US military airfields in Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, Thailand and southern Vietnam. According to Gaul, it was during this period that Albert Vinnell, the corporation's founder, “offered his staff's services to the [CIA], and several CIA agents used employment with Vinnell as cover for operations in Africa and the Middle East”.

-- Rohan Pearce, CIA front targeted in terrorist attacks, 28 May 2003

How does the CIA do it?

It uses every trick in the book: propaganda, stuffed ballot boxes, purchased elections, extortion, blackmail, sexual intrigue, false stories about opponents in the local media, infiltration and disruption of opposing political parties, kidnapping, beating, torture, intimidation, economic sabotage, death squads and even assassination. These efforts culminate in a military coup, which installs a right-wing dictator. The CIA trains the dictator’s security apparatus to crack down on the traditional enemies of big business, using interrogation, torture and murder. The victims are said to be "communists," but almost always they are just peasants, liberals, moderates, labor union leaders, political opponents and advocates of free speech and democracy. Widespread human rights abuses follow.
--Steve Kangas, A Timeline of CIA Atrocities

It is time that people themselves began to demand an end to the un-holy CIA/Israel partnership even if there is precious little that mere 'people' can do against that other 'terrorist' organization: Mossad. There is, however, tremendous political pressure that might be applied to members of Congress and the various 'consulate' offices that the client state of Israel maintains on U.S. soil.

ISRAELI EMBASSIES around the world – please share!

Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina... See More
Embassy of Israel in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Embassy Av.... See More
De Mayo 701
Piso 10 Buenos Aires
Phone: 54-11-43382500
Fax: 54-11-43382555

Israeli Embassy in Mendoza, Argentina
Honorary Consulate of Israel in Mendoza, Argentina
Olascoaga 838 -(5500)
Mendoza - Argentina
Phone: +54 - 61 - 380642
Fax: +54 - 61 - 235940

Israeli Embassy in Ottawa, Canada
Embassy of Israel in Ottawa, Canada
1005-50 O'Connor
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6L2
Canada
Consular Reception Hours:
10:00 - 13:00
Phone: (613) 567-6450
Fax: (613) 237-8865
,
Web: www.embassyofisrael.ca

Israeli Embassy in Shanghai, China
Consulate General of Israel in Shanghai
7th Floor, New Town Mansion
55 Loushanguan Road
Shanghai 200336
Phone: 86-21-62098008

Israeli Embassy in Taipei, China
Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, China (Republic)
Bet Agron,
Hillel Street 37,
Jerusaelm
Phone: (02) 2757-9692
Fax: (02) 2757-7247

Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark
Embassy of Israel in Copenhagen, Denmark
Lundevangsvej 4
2900 Hellerup
Phone: 45 -88185500

Israeli Embassy in Paris, France (Paris)
Embassy of Israel in Paris, France
3, rue Rabelais
75008 Paris - France
Phone: 01 40 76 55 00

Israeli Embassy in Berlin, Germany
Embassy of Israel in Berlin, Germany
Auguste-Victoria-Str. 74
14193 Berlin
Germany
Phone: 030/8904 5531

Israeli Embassy in Rome, Italy
Embassy of Israel in Rome, Italy
Phone: 06 36198500
Fax: 06 36198555

Israeli Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands
Embassy of Israel in The Hague, Netherlands
Ambassade van Israel
Buitenhof 47
2513 AH Den Haag
Phone: 070-3760500

Israeli Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand
Embassy of Israel in Wellington, New Zealand
111 The Terrace,
PO Box 2171,
Wellington
Phone: 04 472 2368
Fax: 04 499 0632

Israeli Embassy in, Poland
Embassy of Israel in Poland
ul. Krzywickiego 24
02 078 Warszawa
Phone: (48 22 ) 825 09 23 or ( 48 22 ) 825 00 28
Fax: ( 48 22 ) 825 16 07

Israeli Embassy in Singapore, Singapore
Embassy of Israel in Singapore
24 Stevens Close
257964
Singapore
Phone: 65-2350966

Israeli Embassy in Miami, United States
Consulate General of Israel in Miami, United States of America
100 North Biscayne (Yitzhak Rabin) Boulevard
Suite 1800
Miami, Florida 33132
Phone: 305-925-9400
Fax: 305-925-9455

Israeli Embassy in San Francisco, United States
Consulate General of Israel in San Francisco, United States of America
456 montgomery street,
suite 2100,
San Francisco, 94104
Phone: 415 - 844-7500
Fax: 415-844-7555

Israeli Embassy in Chicago, United States
Consulate General of Israel in Chicago, United States of America
111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1308
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: 312-297-4800
Fax: 312-297-4855

Israeli Embassy in Houston, United States
Consulate General of Israel in Houston, United States of America
24 Greenway Plaza,
Suite 1500 Houston,
Texas 77046
Phone: (713) 627-3780
Fax: (713) 627-0149

Israeli Embassy in Los Angeles, United States
Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles, United States of America
6380 Wilshire blvd.
Los Angeles CA, 90048
Phone: (323)852-5500
Fax: (323)852-5555

Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, United States
Embassy of Israel
3514 International Drive, NW,
Washington DC 20008
Phone: (202) 364-5500
Tel: (Visas and customs) (202) 364-5527 E-Mail: ask@israelemb.org

Israeli Embassy in Atlanta, United States
Consulate General of Israel in Atlanta, United States of America
1100 Spring St., N.W. Suite 440
Atlanta, GA 30309-2823
Phone: (404) 487-6500
Fax: (404) 487-6555

Israeli Embassy in Boston, United States
Consulate General of Israel in Boston, United States of America
20 Park Plaza, Suite 1020
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: (617) 535-0200
Fax: (617) 535-0255

Israeli Embassy in Madrid, Spain (Madrid)
Embassy of Israel in Madrid, Spain
Velázquez 150, 7º
28002 Madrid
Spain
Phone: (91) 411 13 57

Israeli Embassy in London, United Kingdom
Embassy of Israel in London, Great Britain
2 Palace Green
London
W8 4QB
Phone: 020 - 7957 9500

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The War on Terrorism is a Racket!

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

At the beginning of every fiscal year, the U.S. makes a lump sum payment of cold hard cash to Israel, a procedure not duplicated for any other nation receiving U.S. 'aid'. It looks like a payoff in response to a shakedown because that's what it is! What leverage, we wonder, is used by Israel on the U.S? The Carvellian quick response: terrorism! Terrorism is a racket! Israel exploits 'terrorism' to shake down the U.S. tax payer. Now we know why Israelis danced on 911.

Israel is among the world's richest nations. Nevertheless, Israel receives more U.S. tax payer money than any other 'single recipient' of what is euphemistically called 'U.S. aid', more, in fact, than all of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa combined. Though Israel is barely larger in population than metropolitan Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston, it receives more aid than two continents. Those areas include some of the poorest regions which receive much less U.S. aid than does wealthy Israel who clearly does not need it.

Then what does U.S. aid to Israel consist of? At the top of the list is, of course, the aforementioned cold, hard cash. Other 'aid' includes the weapons of war themselves.

The U.S. administration has notified Congress of the following proposed government-negotiated Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreements, export licenses for industry-negotiated Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), or leases of military equipment to Israel. The Arms Export Control Act requires only that the administration notify Congress of FMS and DCS valued at $14 million or more. Sales below that threshold are not recorded here.

--Arms Transfers to Israel: 1993 to Present

Former Secretary of State Shultz 'credited' Netanyahu for 'effecting a change in American policies on terrorism'. That's 'political speak' for 'Israel extorted billions of dollars in aid by raising the specter of 'terrorism'. Fear of 'terrorism' is responsible for the transfer of billions of dollars to Israel because the U.S. tax payer is brainwashed, literally trained to fear anyone with a tan wearing a turban. Terrorism is how the moneys 'given' to Israel are officially justified. What is 'terrorism' but the practice by the U.S. and its client state, Israel, to extort billions from U.S. taxpayers?

The set of deliberately misleading and discredited assumptions followed by the proponents of the War on Terror must be repudiated. The government is wasting 10s of billions of dollars, propping up this sham, in the wake of the enforced fearmongering that has crept in since 9/11. In return for the tax dollars that pay for blooding our hands, we had habeas corpus struck down, arbitrary “no-fly lists” are implemented, our government is perpetrating terror hoaxes on the people, and over 100 Canadian soldiers have died fighting what Stephen Harper admits is an unwinnable war.

Despite the obvious ill effects on society, the tenets of the GWOT are still off-limits for inquiry, or you are a ‘troofer’ and subject to derision and ridicule. It doesn’t matter that you are speaking truth. Ask Lesley Hughes.

Canada seems to be under the ideological and political grip of a foreign power, that is leveraging control over Canadian parties and politicians. Many powerful Israeli lobby groups operate in Canada bending the government’s ear to the Isr-elis.

They need the pretense of the “existential threat” to Western Civilization represented by Arab terrorism to justify what was a long-standing plan to invade the middle east. Thus, we are following a set of deliberately misleading erroneous assumptions that have manipulated us into war.

--Origins of the War of Terror: Bush, Netanyahu and the CIA

It was in 1979 that Netanyahu organized an international conference against terrorism, under the auspices of the Jonathan Institute — a private foundation dedicated to the study of terrorism. Hard to believe that it was not the very purpose of that 'foundation' to frighten the U.S. into coughing up the billions for Israel which habitually milk the U.S. tax payer. Yet recently, Netanyahu is said to 'defy' the U.S. over Israeli settlement policies that have clearly destabilized the Middle East. See: Netanyahu defies U.S. over Jerusalem settlement

Leo Strauss, the so-called 'intellectual' godfather of neo-conservativism, believed that neocons ought to 'lie' to the unwashed masses because, it is said, they 'can't handle the truth'. Well --the truth is Benjamin Netanyahu believes he owns the NEOCONS. Tails wag dogs. I say: a pox on both their houses. Israel should be 'cut off' now. No gradualism, no time for therapy sessions! Cut them off now and balance the budget with the savings. (BTW, the last balanced budget was in a Democratic Regime)

The prime minister's speech last night returned the Middle East to the days of George W. Bush's "axis of evil." Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a patriarchal, colonialist address in the best neo-conservative tradition: The Arabs are the bad guys, or at best ungrateful terrorists; the Jews, of course, are the good guys, rational people who need to raise and care for their children. In the West Bank settlement of Itamar, they're even building a nursery school.

No empathy for the refugees from Jaffa who lost their entire world, not a word for the Muslim connection to Jerusalem - neither a fragment of a quote from the Koran, nor a line of Arabic poetry.

--Netanyahu and a Return to the Axis of Evil

Category of Terror

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Tiptoeing Through the Tulips with Netanyahu

by Omyma

Just when you thought the dastardly Neocons were history, out comes their most staunch supporter and, one could even argue, inventor - Israel! Nary a word is said against them, even after the Gaza massacre, since everyone is real scared of that Boogyman of Boogymen, the dreaded Israel PAC.

And one of those who does not feel in the mood for political suicide right now is our Prez, Barack Obama. Quite understandably. One hopes that he would be one of the few people alive who could walk that razor-sharp line between Our Sacred Relationship With the Hallowed Existence of Israel and the Facing the Hideous Reality of What Israel Is Actually Doing.

Most politicians, when it comes to Israel, have no choice but to tiptoe through the tulips. What else can you do? It's practically a political rite of passage to the American Halls of Power to don the yarmuk? and make a pilgrimage to, if not Israel itself, at least a few high-profile bar mitzvahs. Even "liberals" like Hillary Clinton and Obama have to change course - anything smelling of pro-Palestinian rights (am I tagged yet?) has got to be purged from the discourse. It's always about-face for Palestine, gung-ho militarism for Israel. Anything else would mean becoming The Human Pariah.

Now the Israelis, in their push to see just how far they can go, after bulldozing the civilian population of Gaza in cold blood, elected the Supreme Neocon Militant himself, Benjamin Netanyahu. And, true to form, he's upping the ante, claiming if Barack doesn't stop Iran from gaining nukes, he will - the old-fashioned neocon way, namely, a "strategic pre-emptive strike." Oh, that Netanyahu, at it again!

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Israel: Neocon Welfare State in Denial

by Omyma

Israel, America's sacred cow, can do no wrong. This creates a certain ethical difficulty, because Israel is in fact doing almost everything wrong.

If Our Sacred Cow needs money, the Treasury's coffers are always open, such as back in July 2008:

While almost all federally financed programs were denied any funding increase for the coming year, aid to Israel from the United States will increase thanks to a legislative loophole and some deft maneuvering by pro-Israel lobbyists.

Congress bypassed the normal appropriation process on June 26 when it approved a $170 million raise in military aid to Israel, as part of a larger supplemental spending bill. The increase contrasts with the standstill in budgeting for almost all other government programs.

In August of 2007,

Jerusalem and Washington signed an agreement that should direct $30 billion to Israel over 10 years.

Nancy Pelosi, for one, gave increased aid to Israel her foot on the gas pedal.

The first indication of the special maneuvers came at the annual conference of Aipac, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the podium.

“I don’t know if Harry or John Boehner told you this earlier,” Pelosi said in her June 4 address, referring to Senate majority leader Harry Reid and House Minority leader John Boehner, “but the first installment of this increase, $170 million, will be in the supplemental appropriation bill the House will consider soon, in fact, that we are considering now, so we can expedite this.”

It was no loopholes barred for Israel. And it is always that way.

On June 19, (2008), Aipac’s director of legislative policy and strategy briefed congressional staffers and explained the need for increasing foreign aid to Israel, stressing that the Jewish state’s expenses on security are higher than any other country in the industrialized world because of the threats it faces.

Bipartisan support for bypassing legislative hurdles was apparent in the June 27 Senate vote, which tallied 92 supporters and only six senators opposing the bill. Aid to Jordan and Mexico are the two other foreign military assistance items included in the bill.

The $170 million raise to Israel will bring the overall military funding to $2.38 billion — the highest of any such package.

The new aid to Israel is part of a larger deal which includes multi-billion-dollar arms deals with Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries, all aimed at strengthening nations seen as crucial in curbing Iran’s influence in the region. That package is an arms deal and does not require the appropriation of any funds.

The Gaza Operation alone cost about NIS 3 Billion, or about $722,705,186.19 in US funds. Yes, that's almost 723 million bucks! Your taxpayer dollars paying to slaughter an unarmed largely civilian population by a heavily-armed sophisticated military operation.

Oh, and every little attempt by Palestinians in their own defense - the horror! - against the Israeli war machine (and home-bulldozing operation), such as the Intifada, is used by Israel as part of their propaganda and lobbying program to obtain even more aid, especially military aid, from the U.S.

The Israeli treasury would prefer to raise money by taking advantage of the rest of the $9 billion in guarantees granted to Israel by the United States in 2003, during the second intifada.

That gave Israel the right to issue $9 billion worth of bonds on the U.S. market, repayment of which is guaranteed by Washington. American backing for the bonds means that the interest Israelis have to pay on the bonds is as low as possible - just a hair above the rates on comparable bond issues backed by the Federal Reserve. Israel has used only $4.4 billion of the guarantees. The last time the state issued bonds in the United States backed by the guarantees was in 2004.

Aside from that purely military package, aid to Israel is huge - "Annual U.S. Aid to Israel Is Double Entire United Nations Budget":

The annual $3.5 billion in U.S. grants and additional $2 billion in U.S. loan guarantees for Israel amount to more than $1,000 per Israeli . That helps explain why Israel's per capita gross domestic product now is somewhere between Spain's and Britain's, and far above anything recorded in the developing world. Yet no Western European country receives U.S. foreign aid, and no developing country receives anything remotely approaching total U.S. aid to Israel.

Another statistic puts the figure per Israeli more conservatively,

The $3 billion or so per year that Israel receives from the U.S. amounts to about $500 per Israeli.

Were one to crunch the numbers for Jewish Israelis, who mostly benefit from that aid, the number would be even higher. And note the above statistic is for direct aid, not including side benefits (which were accounted for in the higher stat).

Some in Congress, however, are reviewing this, a point not lost in Israel:

Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington state, visited Gaza last week with fellow Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and was struck by "the level of destruction, the scope of it, specifically the civilian targets - schools, hospitals, industry."

Baird also said Israel had "apparently willfully destroyed any capacity of the Palestinians to rebuild their own infrastructure."

Baird called for President Obama to re-evaluate U.S. aid to Israel. But is there even a chance of that? Senator John Kerry, who also visited Israel, has made no such re-evaluation calls. He is taking what has always been the U.S.'s No Questions Asked Stance when it comes to Israel. He strongly defended Israel's right to defend itself against the rocket attacks, affirmed that the U.S.'s stance against Hamas remains firmly unchanged, and put the onus of stopping the violence squarely on the head of Hamas - and by implication, the Gazans and the Palestinians.

Kerry represents the status quo, and those who dare to speak or even hint at any change in attitude towards Israel to something more, shall we say, critical, or requiring some kind of responsibility or accountability on the part of Israel... this is blasphemy. It's beyond unpatriotic. It's heresy. Israel is our sacred cow, our holy grail. It is not a nation, it's a cause. And the cause is Zionism.

Without going into what Zionism is or is not, or arguing about its merits or lack thereof, the net result is the creation of Israel as a welfare client of the United States. Without U.S. aid, Israel would be in deep trouble. Even its GDP is all tied up in that aid. In reviewing the figures below, bear in mind the huge difference in size between Israel and the United States. Israel's population is about 7,337,000, of whom about 5,542,000 are Jews. That latter statistic is important, because Arabs are second-class citizens in Israel, and U.S. aid is not really directed at them, and they are generally harassed by the government. Compare that with New York City, which has over 8 million people.

Ifamericansknew has some statistics on this, giving a total (for all time) conservative estimate on U.S. aid to Israel at about $114 Billion.

It must be emphasized that this analysis is a conservative, defensible accounting of U.S. direct aid to Israel, NOT of Israel’s cost to the U.S. or the American taxpayer, nor of the benefits to Israel of U.S. aid. The distinction is important, because the indirect or consequential costs suffered by the U.S. as a result of its blind support for Israel exceed by many times the substantial amount of direct aid to Israel. (See, for example, the late Thomas R. Stauffer’s article in the June 2003 Washington Report, “The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion.”)

A case can be made that among the "incidental" costs of U.S. support for Israel is in the Iraq War, which is considered in the Arab world to have been waged largely at Israel's behest, protests and explanations to the contrary notwithstanding. I personally think oil had something to do with it, not to mention Haliburton. But indeed Israel fits into the U.S. picture of power in the world, using Israel as a military "hitman", a perennial excuse and threat to weild against the Muslim and Arab world.

And there are still more "costs":

Among the real benefits to Israel that are not direct costs to the U.S. taxpayer are the early cash transfer of economic and military aid, in-country spending of a portion of military aid, and loan guarantees. The U.S. gives Israel all of its economic and military aid directly in cash during the first month of the fiscal year, with no accounting required of how the funds are used. Also, in contrast with other countries receiving military aid, who must purchase through the DOD, Israel deals directly with the U.S. companies, with no DOD review. Furthermore, Israel is allowed to spend 26.3 percent of each year’s military aid in Israel (no other recipient of U.S. military aid gets this benefit), which has resulted in an increasingly sophisticated Israeli defense industry. As a result, Israel has become a major world arms exporter; the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports that in 2006 Israel was the world’s ninth leading supplier of arms worldwide, earning $4.4 billion from defense sales.

In other words, the U.S. is subsidizing a substantial part of Israel's GDP. The tangled web of U.S.-Israeli financial relations is difficult to determine, since much of it is undocumented or intertwined with the secret, black Pentagon "budget". But the more you look, the more you wonder if the U.S. is really a government for the U.S. people or, perhaps, the Israeli people.

Before 1998, Israel received annually $1.8 billion in military grants and $1.2 billion in economic grants. Then, beginning in FY ‘99, the two countries agreed to reduce economic grants to Israel by $120 million and increase military grants by $60 million annually over 10 years. FY ’08 is the last year of that agreement, with military grants reaching $2.4 billion (reduced by an across-the-board rescission), and zero economic grants. Then, in August 2007, U.S. and Israeli officials signed a memorandum of understanding for a new 10-year, $30 billion aid package whereby FMF will gradually increase, beginning with $2.55 billion in FY ’09, and average $3 billion per year over the 10-year period.

That was Bush's gift to Israel - the creation of a permanent welfare state in the Middle East. What, they worry? No wonder they can mow down Palestinians with impunity. They're our little spoiled child. Or better yet, our little spoiled fetus. After all, they're still fighting for this arcane notion of "right to exist". Something like the right to life. Even though Israel is a recognized state with its own military, economy, government, etc., etc., yet their number one priority is always sucking from that umbilical cord. And the U.S. staunchly refuses to come to term, literally.

The right to exist, in fact, is not to be confused to recognition. Hamas has agreed to recognize Israel formally. It's the "right to exist" clause that they, and more moderate Palestinians refuse. Because it means the right to exist as a Jewish state. That gives them the right to expel thousands of Israeli Arabs now living in Israel. And this is not empty talk.

Here's what Yisrael Beiteinu said:

“We’ll move the border. We won’t have to pay for their [i.e. Israeli Palestinians'] unemployment, or health, or education. We won’t have to subsidise them any longer.”

“When there is a contradiction between democratic and Jewish values, the Jewish and Zionist values are more important.”

“If it were up to me I would notify the Palestinian Authority that tomorrow at 10 in the morning we would bomb all their places of business in Ramallah.”

Israel is a nationalist state based on racism. That's especially sad in light of its inception being as a response to the Holocaust and the atrocities committed against the Jews. That such a nation, such a hope, should end up as a right-wing security state whose existence is based on race supremacy above all, subsidized heavily by the U.S., is something of which Israelis and Americans are both in a state of supreme denial.

Gaza woke some people up. But in Israel, politics is swinging even farther to the right. Patriotism, nationalism, militancy are everything in Israeli politics.

What about the Palestinians' rights? Well, it's not about human rights or cooperation or even peace. It's about power and money. It's a spoiled fetus who always gets its own way, protected by a nation now under stress of economic doom.

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Talk of Imminent War Against Iran Amid an Attack of 'Coincidences'

The "coincidences":

• A series of internet disruptions due to cut telecom cables that has cut Iran off the Internet!
• Israel is not affected.
• An Iranian Oil Bourse, where oil, petrochemicals and gas will be traded in various non-dollar currencies, is set to open this month.
• Israelis have been told to prepare for war, presumably with Iran

Before leaving the Middle East, Bush is reported to have promised Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would join Israel in a nuclear strike on Iran. In Israel, there is talk of "...a rain of missiles" for which Israelis must prepare now.

Speaking on radio as part of a military propaganda offensive, retired general Udi Shani said: "The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory."

Shani was tasked recently with drawing up a report on the way the military authorities operated during Israel's 2006 summer war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

During that conflict thousands of rockets hit Israel, but were limited to the north of the country from where hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated.

The character of war has changed, said the general.

"Strikes to the rear must now be taken into account -- that is what will come and we must prepare in a totally different way for this eventuality," he said.

--Israelis told to prepare 'rocket rooms' for war

By the time the following dispatch hit what was left of the internet, it was clear: the world is under attack by organized coincidences.

Egypt denies the earlier reports on the Mideast Internet outage, saying there were no ships present around when the cables were cut off.

Egypt's Ministry of Communications announced in a statement Sunday that "a marine transport committee investigated the traffic of ships in the area, 12 hours before and after the malfunction, where the cables are located to figure out the possibility of being cut by a passing vessel and found out there were no passing ships at that time.”

The Ministry had originally stated that a ship dropping its anchor on the two key cables was most likely responsible for Wednesday's cut in service that robbed Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India of much of their internet.

The statement added that the location, 8.3 kilometers from the port of Alexandria, was in a restricted area so ships would not have been allowed there to begin with.

Internet blackouts are impacting large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa after four undersea cable connections were severed.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems.

--'No ship behind ME internet outage'

That there was 'no ship' would rule out the official 'dragging anchor' theory.

DOHA (AFP) — An undersea telecoms cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged, disrupting services, telecommunications provider Qtel said on Sunday, the latest such incident in less than a week.

The cable was damaged between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das on Friday, Qtel's head of communications Adel al Mutawa told AFP.

Cables were also damaged last week in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to Internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and south Asia.

The cause of the damage is not yet known.

--DOHA (AFP) — Qatar reports new damage to Gulf undersea cables

It is amazing how much damage can be done by a rogue coincidence.

A repair ship was expected to begin work to fix the two cables in the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday. They were damaged on Wednesday, rupturing connections not only in Egypt but also thousands of kilometres away.

--Qatar reports new damage to Gulf undersea cables

The sub-plot that ties all these "coincidences" together is the planned opening of the Iranian oil bourse where petrochemicals, oil and gas will be traded in non-dollar currencies. Iran Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari has said that the bourse will be open during the Ten-Day Dawn, ceremonies marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. There's more at: Oil Bourse

Making these developments especially ominous are Bush's repeated threats and promises to Israel that he will join a nuclear attack on Iran. I wonder if this improbable attack of the cable killing coincidences, denying oil traders access to the net, is enough to delay the opening of Iran's planned oil bourse.

Given the precipitous fall of the dollar, only idiots will not consider the effect that an Iranian oil bourse will have on a war-mongering US.

Bush, of course, denies that his wars of aggression have anything to do with oil and, in a very, very narrow technical sense, perhaps not! They are, in fact, motivated by the fact that over the course of a century, the US economy was utterly dependent upon the availability of cheap energy, initially from West Texas, but later, the Sheikhs!

One wonders what goes on inside the heads of blithering idiots, primarily those who wage war upon their own people, those idiots who threaten the world from atop a precarious perch. So precarious the American position --one wonders if impeaching and removing this blithering idiot now is simply too little too late. Even now, however, good people are morally bound to oppose Bush even if it is with a dying breath beneath a mushroom cloud!

GOP, Oil Bourse, Bush, Nuclear War

Bush Promises to Nuke Iran

Whether or not Bush manages to plunge the world into a new dark age may depend upon which version of the recent US/Iran confrontation is believed. So far, Bush's utter lack of credibility may be working to our advantage. One dares not think of the consequences to world peace if Bush had embarked upon this tour of the middle east with a shred of credibility, a modicum of political capital among every Middle Eastern capital but Jerusalem.

Israeli radio reports that Bush promised Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States will join Israel to nuke Iran. CNS reports the Bush administration had seriously considered the nuke option but put it on a back burner. Lydia Georgi, writing in Pakistan's Daily Times, thinks Bush is unlikely to win support outside Israel for any US military action against Iran.

It would appear, however, that the US has already tried to provoke a Gulf of Tonkin-like incident, releasing a video tape in which it is claimed that five small speed boats confronted US Navy ships in the strategic Straits of Hormuz on Sunday. Iran claims its video tape proves that its boats did not threaten US vessels in the Gulf.

Iran Version

Here is the US version:

US Version

Completely differing versions of events. Indeed, ABC News reports that voices on the recording may not have come from the Iranian speedboat. It comes down to credibility. The Bush administration has none. Bush is power mad. Someone should have told him that credibility is power! Real Texans have always known that.

Noam Chomsky

The Bush itinerary includes Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, a trip he claims is aimed at promoting peace between Israel and Palestinians. But it's what Bush calls the “aggressive ambitions” of Iran that has already trumped every other topic. The Iran version of the events in the Straits of Hormuz are credible.

Alec Russell: So is America going to bomb Iran?
Jack Straw: Iran attack would be 'nuts'

The Bush administration is planning to use nuclear weapons against Iran, to prevent it acquiring its own atomic warheads, claims an investigative writer with high-level Pentagon and intelligence contacts.

President George W Bush is said to be so alarmed by the threat of Iran's hard-line leader, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, that privately he refers to him as "the new Hitler", says Seymour Hersh, who broke the story of the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

Some US military chiefs have unsuccessfully urged the White House to drop the nuclear option from its war plans, Hersh writes in The New Yorker magazine. The conviction that Mr Ahmedinejad would attack Israel or US forces in the Middle East, if Iran obtains atomic weapons, is what drives American planning for the destruction of Teheran's nuclear programme.

Hersh claims that one of the plans, presented to the White House by the Pentagon, entails the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against underground nuclear sites. One alleged target is Iran's main centrifuge plant, at Natanz, 200 miles south of Teheran.

--Philip Sherwell in Washington, Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'

A US intelligence report --released in December --pulled the rug from under Bush's primary pretext for war on Iran. If Bush wishes to begin a nuclear war, he will have to manufacture the pretext as Hitler faked a polish attack on German radio towers, as the US hoaxed a "Gulf of Tonkin" incident. Surely, there are some members of Bush's otherwise challenged administration who have bothered to read Goebbels and Goring. Nazi literature seems to have become Bush's Junior Woodchuck's Handbook.

An update:

Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel

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