CHALLENGING ZIONIST CLAIMS that American thirst for hegemony in the Mid East, and not the Israel lobby, is the prime motivator of US policy toward Israel, Chas Freeman presents convincing arguments against the Zionist position.
Describing the outworn strategic ally polemic as being “far from novel on any score,” Freeman then outlines a number of reasons why Israel is not a strategic ally of America:
-1- Israeli bases are not available for US use.
-2- The US has no bases or troop presence in Israel and stores only minimal military supplies in the country used at will by the IDF.
-3- None of Israel’s neighbors will facilitate overflight for military aircraft transiting over Israeli territory let alone taking off from there. Israel is useless for purposes of strategic logistics or power projection.
-4- Israel is worse than irrelevant to the defense of Middle Eastern energy supplies. The US relationship with Israel has jeopardized these supplies (as in 1973), rather than contributing to securing them.
-5- US relations with Israel do not bolster US prestige in Middle Eastern oil-producing countries or assist the US to “dominate” them, they complicate and weaken US influence. Instead, they have at times resulted in the suspension of US relations with such countries.
-6- Israel does not have the diplomatic prestige or capacity to marshal support for US interests or policies globally or in its own region and does not do so. On the contrary, Israel requires constant American defense against political condemnation and sanctions by the international community.
-7- Israel does not fund aid programs in third countries to complement and support US foreign or military policy as other allies and strategic partners do.
In his closing argument, Freeman asserts that Washington has made Israel its largest recipient of foreign aid, encourages private transfers to Israel through tax breaks, transfers huge quantities of weapons to it gratis, and allocates military R&D to Israeli rather than US institutions. View Entire Story Here.
