Izzy Gone Rogue? Or... Oh, Now You Call Them War Crimes

It remains of course our humblest of SMC opinion that there is very little if anything in Israel's current massive purges into the occupied territories and Lebanon that is not in lockstep with the U.S. Administration's larger and rather immediate designs for the region. The stability and example afforded by Lebanon's fledgling status as a beacon of hope in the region was never more important to the Bush Administration than their revolutionary designs for the region at large.

Israel is simply and diligently executing its marching orders as received from the Bush Administration. Official American and British expressions of alarm and reservation in the current crisis are but choreographed and standard fare theatrics. It has come time, per tactical and strategic consideration, for Israel to step up to the plate, slugger the bat, and strike a base hit or better for the team on their World Series march forward.

So of course it is a little hypocritical for bleeding heart news junkies to riotously pile on Israel for systematically perpetrating atrocities and war crimes that are in fact quite negligible in comparison to those committed during, and ensuant to, the most recent U.S. shock and awe campaign against Iraq.

Likewise, it remains silly at best to single out Israel for committing atrocities that are in fact but an intended consequence of our very own warfare doctrine of total spectrum in-theater dominance whereby the destruction of civilian assets deemed to hold some or any value for the enemy de jour is deemed as a legitimate target for stand-off destruction during which collateral damage is always inevitable - and on many ocassion even desired for the psyop terror utility it brings to bear. And of course, criticizing Israeli war crimes without mentioning their integral utility to our own military designs and our uninterupted hardware, intelligence, and logistic support for Israel leaves me somewhat dumbfounded - though never even marginally surprised.

As I remember, very little specific consideration was given to any of the victims of collapsed buildings in Iraq during the first few years following our invasion. The crushing, shredding, and terrorizing of little children remained undisputedly relegated for descriptive definition to the language skill sets of military clinicians back then - and still does for the most part.

It is understandable then that Israel feels unfairly singled out for special treatment when it's own murderous incursions receive more critical mainstream media review in the early days of this their chosen onslaught than did the U.S. Perhaps therein does lie a speck of anti-semitism - or something else. I can't tell.

I can sense the frustration of Israeli spokespersons as they incredulously wonder why the particular atrocities they try to pitch, and the mitigating language they've swiped from the Americans to sanitize their mass terrorism against civilians from...well, terrorist overtones, does not receive the same meek and acceptant response from the media as when the U.S. plays these same propaganda games in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Israeli spokesvolk try their best to pan off the same sinister twistspeak as their U.S. counterparts, but instead they get back a flurry of impertinent follow-ups by some CNN bimbo with newfound wrinkled concern, a vexation all but missing when attending Pentagon press briefings.
-M1


Much has been made in the U.S. media of the Syrian- and Iranian-origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel's weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States.

The United States is the primary source of Israel's far superior arsenal. For more than 30 years, Israel had been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance and since 1985 Jerusalem has received about $3 billion in military and economic aid each year from Washington. U.S. aid accounts for more than 20% of Israel's total defense budget.

Over the past decade, the United States has transferred more than $17 billion in military aid to this country of just under 7 million people.

Israel is one of the United States' largest arms importers. Between 1996 and 2005 (the last year for which full data is available), Israel took delivery of $10.19 billion in U.S. weaponry and military equipment, including more than $8.58 billion through the Foreign Military Sales program, and another $1.61 billion in Direct Commercial Sales

During the Bush administration, from 2001 to 2005, Israel received $10.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing—the Pentagon's biggest military aid program—and $6.3 billion in U.S. arms deliveries. The aid figure is larger than the arms transfer figure because it includes financing for major arms agreements for which the equipment has yet to be fully delivered. The most prominent of these deals is a $4.5 billion sale of 102 Lockheed Martin F-16s to Israel.
-An Excerpt From An Article From Think Tank Foreign Policy In Focus

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