Opinion Editorials, December 2011

Obama and Israel's Security

By Alan Hart

Redress, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, December 8, 2011

Alan Hart wonders whether President Barack Obama “is aware that Israel’s existence has never been in danger and chooses to ignore the truth of history for self-serving political reasons, or whether he is ignorant”.

If American election campaign funders who support Israel right or wrong formed a circle and demanded that President Obama stand naked in the middle of it while they sang Hava Nagila (“Let us rejoice”), I am sure he would agree to do so. That thought came into my mind when I read the Reuters’ report, published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, of what Obama said to a group of fundraisers in the Manhattan home of Jack Rosen, the chairman of the American Jewish Congress.

Then, as my imagination let rip, I imagined Obama thinking to himself, while he was naked and they were rejoicing, something like: “Thank God they didn’t demand that I bombed Iran as the price of their money and votes.”

To be serious…

Rosen said at the meeting, “It would be remiss for me not to say there are many in the Jewish community who are concerned.” About what exactly?

According to the Reuters report, the concern, not in quotes from Rosen’s mouth, was about the relationship between Israel and the United States. But that’s a fig leaf. The real concern of those American Jews who are taken in by Zionist propaganda is that a second term Obama might, just might, decide to put America’s own real interests first and confront the Zionist lobby and its stooges in Congress in order to get a real peace process going. (Readers of the third volume of the American edition of my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews will be aware of what former President Jimmy Carter told me. For those who are not aware, Carter told me that any American president has only two windows of opportunity to take on the Zionist lobby: “in the first nine months of his first term” and “the last year of his second term if he has one”.)

So far as the present is concerned, Rosen added: “America has never been as supportive of the state of Israel as President Obama and his administration.” Another way to put it would be to say that no previous American president has had his testicles so firmly gripped by the Zionist lobby as Obama.

In response to Rosen’s opening remarks, Obama said Israel was “the US's most important ally.” (So, how do you explain Israel’s cold-blooded and murderous attack on the USS Liberty, Mr President?) He went on: “I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration. We don't compromise when it comes to Israel's security ... and that will continue.”

The problem with the American presidential fixation with Israel’s security is that it is based on a myth – that poor little Israel has lived in constant danger of annihilation, “the driving into the sea of its Jews”. As I document in detail in my book, the truth of history is that Israel’s existence has never, ever, been in danger from any combination of Arab forces. Not in 1948. Not in 1967. And not even in 1973.

And what about the future?

Unless it provokes a confrontation – I am sure it will at some point – there is no prospect of Arab attacks on the nuclear-armed military superpower of the region. Yes, missiles might be fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip prison camp, but they do not and will not constitute a major or serious threat to Israel’s security. And they would not be fired if Israel’s leaders were interested in peace on terms which would provide the Palestinians with an acceptable amount of justice.

For reasons I have explained in previous articles, the notion that a Palestinian mini-state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would pose a threat to Israel’s security is too silly for words.

And just as silly, even more silly, is the assertion that Iran poses a threat to Israel’s existence. Even if it did possess nuclear weapons, there will never be an Iranian leadership that would launch a first strike on Israel. If it did the whole of Iran would be obliterated. (I do not myself believe that Iran is currently developing nuclear weapons, but I would be surprised if there are not forces in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards for example, which are arguing for a nuclear weapons programme for deterrence.)

The unknown about President Obama is whether he is aware that Israel’s existence has never been in danger and chooses to ignore the truth of history for self-serving political reasons, or whether he is ignorant.

If the latter is the case there would be some hope for the future and I have a suggestion to make. Could somebody with influence and access and who cares buy a copy of my book, or get one free from my American publisher, and hand it personally to Obama? It could have this inscription by the donor: “If, Mr President, you get a second term, you must read this book.”

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editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org