What Does Zionist Israel Want? By Hassan El-Najjar

What Does Zionist Israel Want?

By Hassan El-Najjar

Al-Jazeerah, February 13, 2002

The ultimate Zionist goal: The establishment of an Israeli empire from the Nile to the Euphrates

Zionist Israel wants to continue its military occupation of Palestine indefinitely. This keeps Palestinians in the occupied territories as a slave labor force without any political or national rights. If they resist the evil Israeli occupation, they are labeled as "terrorists." If they give up and leave, then a major Zionist Israeli objective is achieved. Palestinian refugees and their descendants, who were forced to leave Palestine during the 1948 War, are still deprived of going back to live in their homeland. At the same time, Jews are encouraged to immigrate to Israel from everywhere around the world. This is an evil Zionist scheme that puts Palestinians and Jewish immigrants (who become Israelis) in a continuous conflict that depletes both of them.

But who benefits from that prolonged and bloody conflict? The military industry, the financial institutions that finance it, and militarism in the U.S. and Israel are the major beneficiaries. In addition, Cold War II entrepreneurs also benefit from prolonging the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and extending it to include as many Arab and Muslim countries as possible. It is in this context that Iran and Iraq are added as direct threats to Israel, together with North Korea (which may supply them with missiles). Finally, multinational oil companies (wrongly described as American) stand to benefit most by keeping a tight grip on the production and marketing of Middle Eastern oil. Therefore, it was not surprising that the Zionist Israeli Likude government in the 1980s had issued an Israeli coin with a map of a Greater Israel on it, that extends from the Nile to the Euphrates. The map includes (from West to East) Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, and about half of Saudi Arabia. This means that the Zionists consider the oil-rich area in the Arabian Peninsula as part of their imperial project to enslave Arabs and Muslims and deprive them of their resources. Moreover, they do not hide their plans to control Al-Medina, where Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi Al-Sharif is located. This is the second Holiest Islamic shrine (the first is in Makkah and the third is in occupied Jerusalem).

How did the Zionist Israeli goals become America's goals? There is no reason, whatsoever, (from the perspective of American national interests) that justifies dragging the United States to support this Zionist conquest of the Middle East. Until 1991, the United States had no bad blood with Arabs and Muslims. The U.S. did not occupy any Arab land, like the other European imperialist powers. The Gulf War represented the first American-led War against an Arab and a Muslim country, Iraq. The war was totally unnecessary, as Iraq pleaded so many times to be allowed to leave Kuwait without punishment. President Bush's (Sr.) answer was, "No way Jose," and "No face-saving." The 1991 Gulf War was a goal in itself. It aimed at the destruction of Iraq, as a service for Israel. It had nothing to do with evicting the Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. The War resulted in killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, and about a million and a half of Iraqi civilians died during the 1990s as a result of the sanctions and embargo imposed on Iraq until today.

But who dragged the Bush (Sr.) administration to the war against Iraq? Simply, the pro-Israel experts and officials in the administration did. The most prominent among these were Dennis Ross and Larry Eagleburger in the State Department, and Richard Haass and Brent Scowcroft in the National Security Council. They succeeded in branding Iraq as an enemy to the United States several months before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which was used as a pretext to destroy Iraq as a service to Israel. In short, they succeeded in using America to support the Israeli conquest of the Middle East, in order to achieve their dream of Greater Israel.

Are Republicans the only party that blindly supports Zionist Israeli goals of expansion and conquest against Arabs and Muslims? Absolutely not. When President Clinton was absorbed by his legal cases, the United States was led by a team of pro-Israelis. These included Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, and Madelene Albright in the State Department, Sandy Burger in the National Security Council, and William Cohen in the Defense Department. The only reason that there was no major wars in the Middle East was because of the Labor governments of Rabi, Peres, and Barak, which were involved in the peace process with the Palestinian Authority. The pro-Israel Clinton team would not have hesitated in supporting Israel if it launched a major war in the 1990s.

What about the Bush (Jr.) administration, to what extent is its war on terrorism is a service for Israel? With Paul Wolfowitz (as a Deputy Secretary of Defense) and Richard Haass (as an Assistant to the National Security Advisor), Israeli interests are well protected. Actually, Wolfowitz never hid his calls for extending the war to include Iraq, Iran, and many other Arab and Muslim countries. In fact, identifying the Palestinian resistance organizations of Hamas and Jihad together with the Lebanese Hizbullah as "terrorist" groups is a big service for Israel. These organizations have never targeted any other country except Israel. Their struggle has been directed against the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian and Lebanese territories, and it will end whenever the evil Israeli occupation ends. Once more, pro-Israelis have succeeded in dragging the United States to fight Arabs and Muslims for Israel, in order to maintain its military occupation of Palestine, and its hegemony in the Middle East.

Is there a way out of this abyss that is destroying Muslims, Jews, and Christians; Americans, Arabs, and Israelis? Yes, there is a way out. First, the United States government should stop its support for the Zionist Israeli aggression against Arabs and Muslims. The U.S. $4 billion in annual military and economic assistance to Israel should stop until Israelis withdraw from the Palestinian territories and relinquish their Zionist plans for Greater Israel. Second, the sanctions and the embargo imposed on Iraq should be lifted to prevent more loss of life. The destruction that the Gulf War caused would not allow Iraq to pose any threats to any country in the region. Third, it is time for the American troops to leave the Arabian Peninsula and come back home. Arabs are like Americans, they do not like to see foreign troops on their soil, particularly in their Holy Land. Fourth, the peace should be kept by economic development, like the Marshal Plan in Europe after World War II.

How can this be achieved? The Bush administration, and its successors, should project the United State as an honest broker and a real mediator, in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Right now, the U.S. is a protector of Israel, it has taken the Israeli side even against the Palestinian People, who suffer from the Israeli occupation. This bias in the American foreign policy can be remedied by counterbalancing the influence of the pro-Israel experts and officials in the administration. It is unbelievable that the Bush administration is embarking on a conflict with so many Arab and Muslim countries without appointing any Arab Americans or Muslim Americans in major decision making positions in various departments and agencies in the administration. This has left pro-Israel officials unchallenged in what they propose or recommend to the President and his cabinet members. The status-quo represents the brutal absence of a major principle in the American democracy, which is the system of checks and balances. Thus, it not only has compromised the American democracy but also the real American national interests. It is not in the best interest of the United States to fight the Arab and Muslim worlds in order to achieve security for the aggressive and expansionist regime in Zionist Israel. Arab Americans and Muslim Americans should be appointed to major positions of decision making in the administration. Their presence in the administration will serve as a counterbalance of the present hegemonic presence of pro-Israel officials.

Is this going to happen? Can any American president stand against the Israeli aggression? Can any American president have the courage to appoint Arab Americans and Muslim Americans to the highest positions in his administration? Can any American president be allowed to define the national interests of the United States away from the interests of Israel? I hope that he can, and as soon as possible, so that the proposed conflict, Cold War II, can be stopped before it is too late.

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* Dr. Hassan El-Najjar is the Editor of Al-Jazeerah.