US-Israel: UN-holy land alliance

Close military and political co-operation between Israel and the US hangs heavy over the proceedings on Palestinian statehood bid in the UN Security Council. Some believe the overall peace process in the Middle East is also hampered by the alliance.

­The Palestinian Authority has given the UN two weeks to decide on the issue, after accusations that the US was intimidating member states to bog the bid down in bureaucracy.

President Obama has vowed to prevent the recognition of any free Palestinian state without the approval of Israel.

And a recently-emerged report which claims that President Obama approved the transfer of 55 hi-tech bunker buster bombs to Israeli military only proves there is strong mutual interest between the states.

Mahmoud Labadi, the head of media at the international relations commission in the West Bank's Fatah Movement, believes that peace can only come through mutual understanding between both sides, but admits that the United States is an important element of the puzzle.

“The Tel-Aviv–Washington axis is blocking the peace process in the region,” he claims.

The events at the UN have seen a torrent of criticism unleashed at America, with many accusing Washington of new heights in their level of pandering to Israeli interests.

“Washington should stop its double standard policies,” Labadi said. “It should also stop financing Israel on all levels, equipping Israel with the most sophisticated weapons.”

Israel first requested the GBU-28 Hard Target Penetrators in 2005, but the Bush administration refused to supply them, world media reported last week. Obama, on the other hand approved the deal just months into his term of office.

According to author and historian William Blum, the increased co-operation between the Israeli and the US is all about Obama’s election campaign funding.

“The US has been giving Israel arms for decades and decades. This is nothing new,” Blum said. “It is not based on logic. If you ask for a rational explanation, that is not what [Obama] does. He is pro-Israel because of the money he gets in the US for his election campaigns. He gets a fortune from the Jewish lobbies and Jewish individuals.”

“That is what motivates him and that is the only rational,” Blum added. “He has not have to be logical about what he does, or consistent.”

­Political satirist, columnist and author, Ted Rall, compared co-operation between Israel and the US with the tail wagging the dog. 

­“It seems there are very few limits that the United Sates is unwilling to cross in order to support Israel at any cost. You have to almost wonder how it is that the tail wags the dog in this respect. Israel is a tiny nation the size of New Jersey. It has no oil wealth; it has barely a strategic position. And yet it is telling the world’s sole remaining superpower what to do.”

­Scott Horton, a host of the Anti-War radio station, believes the whole idea of selling "bunker-buster" missiles to Israel is so that they can use them on the Natanz [nuclear] facility in Iran. 

“George Bush refused to do it as he didn’t want to leave the decision up to the Israelis,” he told RT.  “But now Obama is putting himself into a position whether he wants it or not he very well may face a flight of Israeli F16s over Iraqi airspace and a phone call from Benjamin Netanyahu saying ‘It’s on’. What is he going to do? He is not going to do anything about it.”

“George Bush never let it escalate that far,” he went on. “Obama has given them everything they need to get us into a war with Iran. A war that will be a disaster for American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and Bahrain for example, for the navy in the Persian Gulf and for the entire global economy – and who knows what kind of repercussions.”