Part of my daily routine involves perusing Haaretz’s front page for the latest on Israeli diplomacy. On any normal day, one or two headlines baffle me and force me to question the news itself and the editor behind the screen. But today’s headlines are something else. So many of them set a new benchmark for hypocrisy and double standard. Allow me to elaborate.
Netanyahu welcomes Obama’s statements on Israel’s right to self-defense
PM Benjamin Netanyahu reacts postively to U.S. President Barack Obama’s AIPAC speech; Peres meets with Obama for 35 minutes after speech.
The right to self-defense is reserved for Israel only. After all, Obama’s administration, with a stamp of approval from Israel’s government, has gone to great lengths to avoid recognizing the Palestinian right to self-defense. It is a twisted world when the occupier is seen as the defenseless victim and the occupied is sanctioned for simply refusing to accept inequity.
Lieberman: Israel would offer aid to Syrians if asked
FM says that even without diplomatic ties, Israel cannot sit idly by while a massacre is taking place in a neighboring country.
Lieberman is wrong. In fact, he was among the many politicians who applauded Israel for its role in the 22-day invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009. The great humanitarian state of Israel may be responsible for a few field hospitals here and there but as long as it maintains an illegal, oppressive, and inhumane occupation of “a neighboring country”, its efforts will forever be in vain. [Read more...]
Debate Tweets 2012: You’d think Israel didn’t have a friend in the United States
Twitter’s latest crop of political pundits and Middle East experts took the internet by storm during the final Presidential debate of 2012. The “Foreign Policy Debate,” as it was largely mischaracterized, was essentially a boast fest with both Presidential candidates vying over who has and who will give more of their shoulder for Israel to rest its head on.
But even amidst such absolutist pro-Israel fervor, our experts have fallen under the illusion that Israel does not have a friend in the United States. It’s as if the billions of U.S. tax dollars handed to Israel’s military is not support enough. Or the exclusive Israel-customized F-35 fighter jets Obama sold at a bargain to Israel just after repurposing over $55 million on “resettlement” projects to help Jews move to Israel — that is what being a bad friend and an even worse ally is all about, ladies and gentlemen.
So here’s what they had to say.
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