By William A. Cook

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s new Prime Minister, in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg (Atlantic Monthly, March 2009), ordered the new President of the United States to complete two “great missions” on behalf of Israel: “fix the economy” lest Israel not be able to collect its annual alimony of 3 billion plus the 30 billion promised by the Bush administration, and “prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons” lest Israel’s monopoly on such weapons be challenged in the Mid-East. The interview is a primer into the mentality of Israel’s new government. As always with any utterances from Israeli officials, one has to translate the assertions from the reality. Let’s consider his pronouncements in their order of utterance.

First, he asserts, “the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a ‘hinge of history’ adding that ‘Western civilization’ will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.” Now the reality. The true “hinge of history” was the clandestine development of nuclear weapons, in the plural, by Israel against the better judgment of then President John F. Kennedy, a development that the deceptive state continues to deny despite having placed Mordechai Venunu into solitary confinement for 18 years and continues him under house arrest for exposing that development. But truth to Israel is only what words it officially utters, not what is known and documented or corroborated by an eye witness found guilty by Israel of a traitorous act. Say it is not so enough times and it morphs into truth.

Why is this a “hinge of history”? Because it makes Israel the only nation in the mid-east that possesses weapons of mass destruction in open defiance of the Mid-East Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which it refuses to sign, and thereby becomes the primary threat to all nations in that area. These nations understand that Israel has invaded and occupied in years past and to the present day their territories: Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, and Palestine. Its invasions have been brutal in their devastation, of water systems, sewage, highways, ports, electrical generating plants, hospitals, bridges, rail lines, supply depots, and, of course, people. This nuclear protected state maintains the fourth largest military machine in the world, protecting less than 6 million people. No neighboring state even comes close. Despite being the 16th wealthiest nation in the world, Israel never pays to rebuild what it destroys; it lets the world communities do that and then strikes again as it did the schools built by the United Nations in Gaza.

For the nations in the Mid-East, the reality of Israel’s nuclear arsenal and its willingness to invade nations without legitimate provocation graphically illustrates why and how Israel intends to maintain Western sovereignty in the Mid-East: apply the Western colonial mentality to the area, using force of arms, deception of the indigenous peoples, control of the essential powers that could intervene to stop their plunder, a pseudo-legal framework to make legal land theft, extrajudicial execution, illegal invasion, and internal control of necessary countries for support, i.e. the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and hence the United Nations. To argue that Iran, a signatory of the Mid-East Nuclear non-proliferation Treaty, has the capacity to “wipe Israel off the map” is more than ludicrous even if Ahmadinejad had actually uttered the words (which he did not). To argue that Iran in possession of one nuclear weapon could erase Israel from the Mid-East is more than ridiculous, it belies common sense and it’s calculatingly deceptive to arose fear in the Israeli population and in America since one nuclear weapon fired at Israel would result in the obliteration of many Iranian cities with their populations even as the winds of its own weapon blew over Iran. What conceivable logic would allow Iran to undertake such folly? The “failure of Western civilization” was the act that permitted the existence of a Zionist state in 1948, a hinge that opened the door to unending war in the Mid-East.

Second, he asserts, “… of the Iranian leadership, ‘You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.’” What Netanyahu did not say was that this very reality has happened in Israel and has been a reality there since the Premiership of Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu has power today because he has brought into his government a Zionist “messianic apocalyptic” “Settler,” Avigdor Lieberman, whose fanaticism has catapulted him to prominence as the messiah that will rid greater Israel of its undesirable Arabs by expulsion or by atomic bomb. This man has articulated his racist venom to the world community contradicting in the process the very words used by Netanyahu to pacify the West. Beginning under Sharon, Israel has welcomed the Christian Zionist Evangelicals from the United States, Christian cults that prophecy the coming Armageddon that requires the existence of the state of Israel before the slaughter of the Muslims and the second coming of Jesus Christ. These Christian Zionists have contributed millions of dollars to Israel specifically to bring Russian Jews like Lieberman to its shores so that these fanatics can help them bring about the final battle that will destroy Islam. Israel has two brands of Zionist cults in power and has demonstrated the will to use that power against their neighbors. Given this reality, who could question that the Israeli apocalyptic cults are the more dangerous.

Third, he asserts “President Obama must consider Iran’s nuclear ambitions to be his preeminent overseas challenge.” Why? Because an Iran with the nuclear bomb would activate her“… militant proxies (would be able) to fire rockets and engage in other terror activities while enjoying a nuclear umbrella. That raises the stakes of any confrontation that they’d force on Israel.” Ironically, Netanyahu’s assertion explains why Israel has been able to invade its neighbors at will, Lebanon in the fall of 2006, Syria last year, and Gaza two months ago. Clearly, Israel has not been timid in asserting itself against “rockets and other terrorist activities,” since it razed Lebanon over the “kidnapping” of two soldiers and invaded Gaza because of rockets sent into Israel. With two to three hundred nuclear bombs awaiting deployment, Israel has no reason to fear any of its neighbors. However, with its new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, it has only its own government to fear since he has already advocated dropping the bomb on the Palestinians. Perhaps Obama’s real preeminent challenge is to subdue Lieberman who not only has asserted the willingness to use the atomic bomb but has many at his disposal, not mythological ones conjured into existence for Iran by a government that needs to foster fear in the Israeli population.

Fourth, he asserts “Finally, you’d create a great sea change in the balance of power in our area – nearly all the Arab regimes are dead-set opposed to Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. They fervently hope … that the U.S. will act to prevent this … (if not) Washington’s Arab allies would drift into Iran’s orbit … One of Iran’s goals is to convince the moderate Arab countries not to enter peace treaties with Israel.” Now Netanyahu offers the coup de grace for President Obama lest he miss the point, a Mid-East controlled by Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme Iranian leader. Consider the implications: (a) a Mid-East country with the trappings of a democracy, the election of its President, but with the real power vested in its religious leaders; (b) a country set on preventing neighboring Arab states from entering peace treaties with Israel; and (c) a country that would control its neighbors so it can command hegemony in the area by possession of the ultimate weapon. But while Netanyahu speaks of Iran in these fearsome terms, he remains silent on the reality that is the state of Israel: (a) it too has the trappings of democracy with elections, but with the real power vested in the Zionists that control the purse strings to the United States and their power over the United States Congress and its largesse to Israel without which the state of Israel would fall; (b) it is Israel that has prevented the neighboring states from entering peace treaties as is most obvious since 2002 when the Saudi Prince proposed a Peace Treaty (still on the table following the Arab League’s meeting in Qatar two weeks ago) wherein all Arab states would recognize the state of Israel and Israel would recognize a state of Palestine with both parties ceasing violence against the other; and, finally, (c) it is in fact Israel that controls its neighbors with real weapons of mass destruction and a state of the art military that it has used before and continues to use against its neighbors.   

Those who live by deception must constantly reconstruct truth to conform to their distortion. So afraid is Israel of their distortions being exposed, it lives in fear of truth. Its greatest fear at present, obvious in the Israeli peoples’ choice of Netanyahu, Lieberman and the religious right parties in contrast to the American peoples’ selection of Barack Obama, is the loss of America’s support for the continued suppression of the Palestinian people and the further annexation of their lands. Hence the need to constantly deceive by framing their desperate plight in the Mid-East, surrounded by nefarious enemies bent on destroying them, at sea in a world of anti-Semitism, victims again, innocent always.

Netanyahu understands his lies; but he bolsters his arrogance in addressing the new United States President, offering him the elder statesman’s wisdom, because he knows that our Congress has just voted a resolution with only five nays and 410 yeas and 20 present supporting the most heinous atrocity yet committed by the state of Israel, the ravishment of mothers waiting for their children to come home from school, of fathers caught at work in the factory or the shop or in the field, of men preparing to be installed as policemen to protect the citizens, of the old and infirm, the sick and dying caught, all caught unawares by the onslaught of fury leashed upon them by the Israeli military, all chained in place like animals ready for slaughter. Why should he worry, America belongs to Israel and nothing Obama can do can change that now.

Forty six years ago, another young American President stood his ground against Israel’s then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. It became a test of wills, the American President adamant that there should be no nuclear weapons in the Mid-East if peace were to prevail, and a just as adamant Prime Minister of Israel willing to deceive the United States and work with China to get such weapons. Within a year of Kennedy’s assassination, Israel had the bomb as did China. That was the last American President to stand against the forces of Israeli control. The test now is simple enough: will Obama march to the Israeli drummer or will he march to his own drum.  

– William A. Cook, Professor of English, University of La Verne, California author of Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape of Palestine, and The Chronicles of Nefaria. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: cookb@ulv.edu.