Middle East Press on US Aid to Israel, Ties between Turkey and Israel and Iran Nuclear Deal: New Age Islam's Selection, 29 December 2020
By
New Age Islam Edit Desk
29 December
2020
•
Untold Story of US Aid to Israel
By
Ramzy Baroud
• New
Hope for Good Ties between Turkey and Israel
By
Hakki Ocal
• The
Iran Nuclear Deal: Don’t Confuse the Means with the End
By
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami
•
Test Of Humans In 2020
By
Hamood Abu Talib
•
Israel Leads In Vaccinations
By
Rina Bassist
------
Untold
Story of US Aid To Israel
By
Ramzy Baroud
December
28, 2020
On Dec. 21,
the US Congress passed the COVID-19 relief package as part of a larger $2.3
trillion bill intended to cover spending for the rest of the fiscal year. As
usual, US representatives allocated a vast sum of money to Israel.
While
unemployment and poverty levels in the US are skyrocketing as a result of
repeated lockdowns, Washington found it essential to provide Israel with $3.3
billion in “security assistance” and $500 million for US-Israel missile defense
cooperation.
Although a
meagre $600 payment to help struggling American families was the subject of
several months of intense debate, there was little discussion among US
politicians over the large funds handed out to Israel, for which there are no
returns.
Support for
Israel is considered a bipartisan priority and for decades has been perceived
as the most stable item on the US foreign policy agenda. The mere questioning
of how Israel uses the funds — whether military aid is being actively used to
sustain its illegal occupation of Palestine, finance Jewish settlements, fund
annexation of Palestinian land or violate Palestinian human rights — is a major
taboo.
One of the
few members of Congress to demand that assistance to Israel be conditional on
the latter’s respect for human rights is Bernie Sanders, the Democratic senator
who has twice sought presidential nomination for the party. “We cannot give
(aid) carte blanche to the Israeli government — we have the right to demand
respect for human rights and democracy,” Sanders said in October 2019.
His
Democratic rival Joe Biden, now president-elect, quickly countered. “The idea
that I’d withdraw military aid, as others have suggested, from Israel is
bizarre,” he said.
It is no
secret that Israel has been the world’s leading recipient of US aid since the
Second World War. According to the US Congressional Research Service, Israel
has received $146 billion of US taxpayers’ money as of November 2020.
From 1971
until 2007, the bulk of these funds proved fundamental in helping Israel
establish a strong economic base. Since then, most of the money has been
allotted for military purposes, including the security of Israel’s illegal
Jewish settlement enterprise.
Despite the
US financial crisis of 2008, money continued to be channeled to Israel, whose
economy survived the global recession largely unscathed.
In 2016,
the US promised even more aid. The Obama administration, often mistakenly seen
as hostile to Israel, increased US funding by a significant margin. In a
10-year memorandum of understanding, Washington and Tel Aviv reached a deal
whereby the US agreed to give Israel $38 billion in military aid covering the
financial years 2019-2028. This is a whopping $8 billion increase compared with
the previous 10-year agreement, which ended at the end of 2018.
The new US
funds fall into two categories: $33 billion in foreign military grants and an
additional $5 billion in missile defense.
US
generosity has long been attributed to the unmatched influence of pro-Israeli
groups, lead among them the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. However,
little lobbying has been required by these groups in the past four years as
powerful agents within the administration itself became Israel’s top advocates.
Aside from
the seemingly endless “political freebies” that the Trump administration has
given Israel in recent years, it is now considering ways to accelerate the
timetable of delivering the remainder of US funds as determined by the last
agreement, which currently stands at $26.4 billion. According to official
congressional documents, the US also may approve additional sales of the F-35
fighter jet, and accelerate delivery of KC-46A refueling and transport
aircraft.
These are
not the only funds and perks Israel receives. Much more goes unreported since
it is channeled indirectly or simply promoted under the flexible title of
“cooperation.”
For
example, between 1973 and 1991, $460 million of US funds was allocated to
resettling Jews in Israel. Many of these new immigrants are now the very
Israeli militants who occupy the West Bank illegal settlements. In this case,
the money was paid to a private charity, the United Israel Appeal, which passes
it on to the Jewish Agency. The latter has played a central role in the
founding of Israel on top of the ruins of Palestinian towns and villages in
1948.
Under the
guise of charitable donations, tens of millions of dollars are regularly sent
to Israel in the form of “tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and East Jerusalem,” according to The New York Times. Much of the
money, falsely promoted as donations for educational and religious purposes,
often finds its way to funding and buying housing for illegal settlers, “as
well as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles to secure
(illegal Jewish) outposts deep in occupied (Palestinian) areas.”
Quite
often, US money ends up in the Israeli government coffers under false
pretenses. For example, the latest stimulus package includes $50 million to
fund the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Funds, supposedly to
provide investments in “people-to-people exchanges and economic cooperation
between Israelis and Palestinians with the goal of supporting a negotiated and
sustainable two-state solution.”
Actually,
such money serves no particular purpose, since Washington and Tel Aviv endeavor
to ensure the demise of a negotiated peace agreement and work hand-in-hand to
kill the now-defunct two-state solution.
The list is
endless, though most of this money is not included in the official US aid
packages to Israel and, therefore, receives little scrutiny, let alone media
coverage.
As of
February 2019, the US has withheld all funds to the Palestinian Authority in
the West Bank, in addition to cutting aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine refugees, the last lifeline providing basic education and health
services to millions of displaced people.
Judging by
its legacy of support for the Israeli military machine and the colonial
expansion in the West Bank, Washington insists on serving as Israel’s main
benefactor, if not direct partner, while shunning Palestinians altogether.
Expecting the US to play a constructive role in achieving a just peace in Palestine
shows not only indefensible naivety but also wilful ignorance.
----
Ramzy
Baroud is a journalist and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the
author of five books, the latest being “These Chains Will Be Broken:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity
Press, Atlanta).
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1784061
-----
New Hope
for Good Ties between Turkey and Israel
By
Hakki Ocal
DEC 28,
2020
In the
1930s the founder of the young Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was
swinging back and forth between two worlds: the West (which literally meant
Europe symbolizing modernization) and the East (which necessarily spelled the
Soviet Union. The new leader of the regime, former President Ismet Inönü,
managed to keep the country out of the second European war (which, like the
first one, turned into a “world” war eventually) and took the side of the new
representative of the West, the United States.
This move
was not totally new for Turks; even during and after World War I, there were
popular initiatives to ask former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to accept
Turkey under its protection, but Wilson had other plans for Turkey:
dismembering it and creating a greater Armenia and a unified Kurdistan instead.
Moreover, later Wilson would transport the Greek invasion army to Turkey.
Turkey's
symbolic entrance into World War II on the side of the Allies in 1945 helped it
to become a charter member of the United Nations. The Soviet demands for
military bases in the Turkish Straits – which, by the way, had never been
documented – provided the basis for the Truman Doctrine in 1947: The U.S.
guaranteed the security of Turkey and Greece, and Turkey willingly rushed to
Korea to help the American forces. As a result, Turkey joined NATO and became
the first Muslim country to recognize the state of Israel in March 1949.
The Ottoman
Empire had helped Jews to survive the Spanish massacres in the 14th and 15th
centuries and helped them to migrate to the Balkans. Following the Russian
persecutions of Jews in the early 20th century, Zionist leader Theodor Herzl
even asked Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to allow Jews to acquire Palestine,
which resulted in a massive Jewish return to the Holy Land.
Jews, as
well as Arabs and other ethnic and religious minorities of the empire, enjoyed
their religious and judicial autonomy in the Balkans and Palestine. Thus, the
Jews became passionately loyal to the Ottomans.
Enter Sir
Lawrence of Arabia and his handler Gertrude Margaret Bell to the stage. With
them not only Jews and Arabs but every other minority, no matter how minor they
are, became passionately anti-Ottoman and pro-independence.
The British
had skillfully managed to use the idea of a prospective “national home for the
Jewish people” in Palestine to garner the popular support “for involvement
against isolationism” in the U.S. since 1917.
Despite the
presence of several Jewish espionage spy networks fighting the Ottomans, the
young Turkish republic didn’t have any other chance then to forgive the Jewish
terrorism against the Ottomans. The country forgave but did it not forget: It
voted against the U.N. Partition Plan for Palestine; however, Turkey recognized
the state of Israel. Its first diplomatic mission was a legation, and even that
was downgraded to the level of charge d’Affaires after the Suez Crisis in
November 1956 when Israel invaded Egypt after it nationalized the Suez Canal.
Since then,
Turkey-Israel relations had many ups and downs to say the least. After the
Israeli occupation of Arab lands in 1967, almost all Turkish governments kept
the relationship at a minimum.
Upon
Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem and enunciation of Jerusalem as its
eternal capital, the representation was relegated to the level of second
secretary in 1980.
In 2005
then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Israel offering to serve as a
Middle East peace mediator and looking to build up trade and military ties.
Two years
later, Israeli President Shimon Peres visited Turkey and addressed the Turkish
Parliament. Another guest of Turkey at that time was the Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas who was on the same podium the next day.
Turkey
always hoped that those diplomatic initiatives would further
Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and that Israel would start seeing Palestinians as
their partners in peace.
But a
couple of months later, Israel started what it calls the Operation Cast Lead
and what the Muslim world calls the Gaza massacre. Two years later came the
Gaza flotilla raid in which nine Turkish aid workers were killed by Israeli
troops raiding the Mavi Marmara, a charity ship flying a Turkish flag.
There have
been some reconciliation efforts since then. For instance, in 2013, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
apologized for the Gaza flotilla incident.
A
reconciliation agreement was announced on June 27, 2016, to end the six-year
rift in the relations between both countries. Yet, Israel, never heeding the
meaning of that agreement with Turkey, killed 12 Palestinians on the Gaza
border.
Erdogan
emphasized that last week, saying, the people-to-people relationship between
the two countries would have no problems should the Israeli politicians see
Turkey’s redlines regarding the rights of the Palestinian people.
One point
where they should coordinate their policies is concerning the fact that Israel
has moral obligations to the Palestinians.
Sometimes a
strong message is the one given in confidence. Good ties with Israel, we
learned, are not necessarily “good” or “bad” in themselves. But good ties are
the only tool to build that confidence-inducing environment between the two
countries.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/columns/new-hope-for-good-ties-between-turkey-and-israel
------
The Iran
Nuclear Deal: Don’t Confuse the Means with the End
By
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami
December
28, 2020
Recent
comments by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif regarding the expected
US return to the 2015 nuclear deal under the incoming Biden administration
indicate the increased Iranian expectations from the potential negotiations.
From the
tone of Zarif’s comments, when he said Iran was ready for Washington to return
to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), one might think he was the
one dictating terms to the US, but issues such as the Iranian missile program
are non-negotiable.
Zarif is
disregarding observations made by President Rouhani, who took note of
statements by US President-elect Joe Biden’s new national security adviser,
Jake Sullivan, that the incoming administration wants to box Iran in via
Washington rejoining the nuclear deal, forcing Tehran to comply with the terms
of the original deal. He stopped short of addressing Iran’s missile program or
Tehran’s hostile interventions in the sovereign affairs of US regional allies,
which Biden had mentioned earlier.
This shift
in the tone of comments from the Biden administration prompted Rouhani to rush
to announce that Iran was ready to comply with all the nuclear obligations
stipulated in the nuclear deal, in a bid to woo the incoming administration. In
contrast, Zarif understands Iran’s missile program is among the most
contentious issues within the JCPOA, and wants to use it as a bargaining chip
to secure Washington’s return to the deal.
These
diplomatic maneuvers make the US return to the deal seem inevitable, but
America’s true motives remain hidden.
When Barack
Obama introduced the JCPOA to the world in 2015, the foremost justification for
this interim 15-year deal was to give Iran’s regime an opportunity to change
its behavior to integrate it into the international community as a normal state
that respects international law and the norms governing relations among
countries.
Logically
speaking, it is impossible to agree a deal to prevent a country from committing
evil acts that threaten global security and peace for 15 years, then allow it
to carry out its threats when the deal expires. In reality, of course, there
were no reformists in Iran capable of persuading the regime to be more open to
the West, nor was the deal reviewed by those who crafted the JCPOA considering
the regime’s belligerent policies toward the international community and to
Iran’s neighbors in the region.
Despite
this illusionary hope of peace and normalization resulting from the deal,
Iran’s regime took immediate advantage of it to support its proxies and allies
in the region, boost its missile program, purchase weapons, strengthen its vast
domestic repressive apparatuses and intensify internal tyranny — just as
regional states had warned it would.
When Trump
came to power he announced that the deal had failed to achieve its objectives.
but he did not mention the primary objective; integrating Iran into the
international community. Instead he focused on the deal’s failure to curb the
regime’s nuclear ambitions. Here the crisis began. The original fundamental
objective was forgotten, and the means turned into the end. Five years on, the
question is, is Iran viewed as a normal state and to what extent has it been
integrated into the international community?
After the
US pulled out of the JCPOA, the other signatories viewed its return as vital
for the deal’s successful continuation. However, they have remained heedless of
the potential drawbacks, with nobody asking why Europe wants it to
continue? With Washington’s imminent
return to the deal becoming an objective, the tools and means to realize this
should be pursued.
Iran has
hoodwinked the world into forgetting the primary aim of the deal, making the
international community believe that the main question is the regime’s
compliance; in fact, this was not the end, but the means.
Iran is also
pursuing this deliberate confusion between means and ends at another, deeper
level, which is better understood if we question the plausibility of Iran’s
claims about its own “peaceful” objective behind agreeing to the deal.
The regime
believes that its “forward defense” strategy offers the best means for its
survival and for maintaining the regime’s critical support base. In other
words, the nuclear deal in its entirety is, from Tehran’s perspective, nothing
but a tool for the regime’s survival through ensuring that the focus of any
dispute with the West shifts away from considerations of the regime’s
viability, instead transferring attention and pressure to the more manageable
nuclear deal, which can be discussed, impeded, and delayed at great length over
the years. As a result of this strategy, the regime itself is no longer subject
to the same scrutiny or hostility, which has instead been transferred to the
subject of the nuclear deal.
To end the
regime’s absurd plan to turn the means into the end, we should insist on
focusing on the nuclear deal’s original end objective, i.e. integrating Iran
into the international community and turning it into a normal state that does
not pose a threat to the security and safety of the international community. We
need to relegate the various means used to meet this end to their proper place
and avoid opting for means that proved unsuccessful before and reclassifying
them as a realistic end.
The new US
administration should remember the objectives that prompted Obama to sign the
agreement, and ask itself whether a return to the deal can realistically be
considered a successful means to integrate Iran into the international
community and turn it into a normal state.
------
Dr.
Mohammed Al-Sulami is head of the International Institute for Iranian Studies
(Rasanah).
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1784076
------
Test Of
Humans In 2020
By
Hamood Abu Talib
December
29, 2020
Undoubtedly,
the year 2020 will be recorded as the worst year in the modern history of
mankind. But at the same time, it witnessed giant leaps human beings made in
the fields of science and technology, as it was a practical test for all the
scientific theories and applications propounded, developed, and invented by
them and about which they boasted in times of goodness and prosperity.
Then, they
found themselves facing a great challenge all of a sudden and they have had to
prove that life must continue despite the terrible global pandemic. Things
invented by the human mind seem very simple, but they played an important role
in protecting and saving him from the deadly coronavirus.
Just
imagine what it would be like if a person did not find the elements and
compounds that contribute to the manufacture of hand sanitizers, which have
become, with the pandemic, more used than any cosmetics used by humans
previously. Similar is the case with medical masks without which the virus
would have obtained an open transit visa to every lung.
Think of
the existence of these simple things before you think about the enormous technologies
in laboratories and medical research centers that made scientists prepare the
vaccine against coronavirus as a result of complex techniques and continuous
experiments that did not stop even for a single moment since the nature of the
virus was determined.
If a person
has committed grave mistakes against fellow human beings by inventing the means
of mass destruction and committing unforgivable follies, then on the other hand
he has achieved a great advancement with scientific progress against the biological
threats caused to his life.
If this had
not happened, he would not have reached the extent of producing more than one
vaccine for a new virus within a record time and under harsh conditions. These
are the manifestations of good and bad in this weak but mighty being. And this
year was a witness to both aspects — darkness and light that are inherent in
it.
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/601919/Opinion/Voices/Test-of-humans-in-2020
-----
Israel
Leads In Vaccinations
By
Rina Bassist
Dec 28,
2020
Health
Ministry director Hezi Levi said this morning that there are currently enough
vaccines to immunize a significant segment of the Israeli population. Speaking
with Ben Caspit and Yinon Magal on 103FM radio station, Hezi noted that the
authorities are working to receive more doses. Israel has so far administered
only the Pfizer vaccinations, with Moderna vaccinations expected to arrive to
the country in the first quarter of 2021.
Hezi spoke
shortly after the ministry announced a new daily record in coronavirus
vaccination numbers: Sunday saw 98,916 shots administered, bringing the total
number of Israelis vaccinated to 379,000. Per capita, Israel has just slightly
passed Bahrain and most European countries.
Hezi said
in the radio interview that the numbers are "nice achievements, but we all
want to increase," adding that the health minister's directive is "to
vaccinate about 150,000 a day — and I believe we will be able to achieve
that."
Quite a few
Israelis, including physicians, had expressed concerns over the safety of the
vaccine, saying they did not intend to get vaccinated. But the numbers so far
show that many Israelis are enthusiastic and eager to get it.
On Saturday
night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, "We are starting the
week with gigantic news. I spoke over the weekend with the heads of the
companies that are providing us with the vaccines and I told them that our goal
by next weekend is to reach 150,000 vaccines a day. Afterward, another 4.5 million
will come and another 4.5 million, but this is the critical stage and we can
accomplish it."
Health
Minister Yuli Edelstein tweeted yesterday, "Israel is the first country in
the world to repackage it so that vaccination can reach end locations quickly
with maximum accessibility to the public. Sela workers are operating in an
environment of two degrees [Celsius]! This way we are sure to reach every
location in Israel without losing precious vaccines. This is how Israel is
leading the world in administrating vaccinations!"
However,
the number of Israelis infected by the virus is still rising, with another
3,498 virus cases diagnosed on Sunday. The death toll now stands at 3,226 since
the outbreak of the virus in Israel.
Yesterday
evening, the country entered its third national lockdown since the start of the
pandemic. The government has officially called for a lockdown of two weeks, but
health officials have warned it will likely go on for a month. Regulations now
bar Israelis from entering another person’s home and restrict movements to one
kilometer from home, with some exceptions. Nonessential shops are closed.
Restaurants are closed and not even allowed to sell takeout. Schools in
"red" cities are also closed.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/12/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-coronavirus-vaccination-drive.html
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