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Israel - why they aren't that good an ally
Prepared April 1999 by John Nordin
Overview
We give a lot of foreign aid in support of the Israeli government. They receive more aid than we give many regions of the globe. We have the idea that they are an embattled ally, a stable democracy amid hordes of unsavory Arabs. But little of that survives an examination of the facts.  (Numbers in parenthesis refer to endnotes.)
Issues
  • Israel is one of the few countries where torture is legal (1). They regularly torture Palestinians (2). They have tortured American citizens arrested in Israel (3). They are regularly sited for a wide range of human rights abuses (4).
  • Israel is one of the few countries of the world where Jews are not free to practice their religion. Only the most conservative Jews ("Orthodox Jews") have religious freedom. Conservative and reform Jews do not have the same rights as Orthodox Jews.
  • The Israeli government enforces cruel conditions on the mass of Palestinians who have committed no crime and advocated none. These conditions includ the bulldozing of houses (5), gassing residents of a house who are threatened with death if they leave (6), lock-downs of entire neighborhoods, the killing of innocent civilians, restrictions on travel and the like. Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship are not exempt from this sort of discrimination.(7).
  • The Israeli government perpetuates the myth that Israel was "a land without people for a people without land," when in fact, they have been actively engaged in ethnic cleansing of the area, including Jerusalem (8) since their inception.  In 1948 alone, they destroyed 400 Palestinian villages (9).
  • Israel exercises tremendous influence over U.S. foreign policy, to the damage of our interests in the Arab and Persian worlds.
  • Israel exercises influence over U.S. domestic actions, including such things as banning the sale of high resolution satellite imagery of Israel (15), an action that may have been motivated by concern for the financial health of Israel companies.
  • Foreign aid to Israel occupies a disproportionate share of our foreign aid.  For example, $3 billion out of a total of $20 in Clinton's 1999 budget request (17).
  • In 1967, Israel attempted to sink an American Navy Ship, the Liberty. 34 were killed, and crew of the Liberty reports that the attack went on for over 2 hours, and included close range fire from Israel boats at the life rafts of the Liberty. Admittedly, 1967 is a long time ago, but the US government cooperated in the cover-up of this incident, agreeing quickly to pass it off as an accident. Congress never investigated. You can read more about the Liberty at the Crew Members web site or at (19) and (20).
Footnotes
(1) Amnesty International, "Israel and the occupied Territories, country report 1998", as on their web site.
(2) Maureen Meehan, "Legality of Torture in Israel Debated but Not Decided," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1998, p.11.
(3) Eugene Bird, "The 40 Days of US Citizen Anwar Mohamed Under Israeli Interrogation and Torture,"Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April/May 1999, p.68.
(4) Human Rights Watch, 1999 country report on Israel, as reported on their web site
(5) Maureen Meehan, "With World Attention on Iraq, Israel Seized Opportunity to Demolish Record Number of Palestinian Homes," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1998, p.12-13.
(6) Edna Homa Hunt, "The Many Faces of Terrorism," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Aug/Sept 1997, p.72.
(7) Maureen Meehan, "Israeli Forces Open Fire on Arab Citizens of Israel Protesting Land Confiscations Inside Israeli Borders," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1998, p.25.
(8) Paul Findley, "Ethnic Cleansing in Jerusalem, Israeli Style," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Aug/Sept 1997, p.9.
(9) Nathan Jones, "Despite Censorship, Israel's Media Contain Truths Its Foreign Supporters Deny or Call 'Anti-Semitism'", Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Jan/Feb 1999, p.50.
(15) Shawn L. Twing, "US Bans High-Resolution Imagery of Israel, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1998, p.21.
(17) Shirl McArthur, "Administration Requests 1999 Foreign Aid Increase And Full Funding for Israeli Military and Economic Aid," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1998, p.24-25.
(19) Paul Findley, "Even as USS Liberty's Heroic Captain Receives New Honor, Coverup of Israeli Attack on His Ship Continues," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1998, p.26.
(20) Richard H. Curtiss, "US Navy Captain William L. McGonagle (1926-1999), Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April/May 1999, p.63.

Last modified 5/7/99