Israel’s demonstration of its military prowess in 1967 confirmed its status as a ‘strategic asset’ as did its moves to prevent Syrian intervention in Jordan in 1970 in support of the PLO. Under the Nixon doctrine Israel and Iran were to be ‘the guardians of the Gulf’, and after the fall of the Shah, Israel’s perceived role was enhanced. Meanwhile, Israel has provided subsidiary services elsewhere, including Latin America, where direct US support for the most murderous regimes has been impeded by Congress. While there has been internal debate and some fluctuation in US policy, much exaggerated in discussion here, it has been generally true that US support for Israel’s militarization and expansion reflected the estimate of its power in the region.
The effect has been to turn Israel into a militarized state completely dependent on US aid, willing to undertake tasks that few can endure, such as participation in Guatemalan genocide. For Israel, this is a moral disaster and will eventually become a physical disaster as well. For the Palestinians and many others, it has been a catastrophe, as it may sooner or later be for the entire world, with the growing danger of superpower confrontation. Noam Chomsky
It cannot be too often stressed that Israel had no credible pretext for its 2008-9 attack on Gaza, with full US support and illegally using US weapons. Noam Chomsky
Israel is following policies which maximise its security threats ... policies which choose expansion over security ... policies which lead to their moral degradation, their isolation, their delegitimation, as they call it now, and very likely ultimate destruction. That’s not impossible. Noam Chomsky
Israel is a pretty crazy state. Noam Chomsky
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are under a military occupation. It’s the longest military occupation in modern history. Noam Chomsky, interview ‘Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land’ 2004
The US blocked diplomatic moves from the Arab states, from Europe, from the PLO, anything, because it just refused to accept this kind of diplomatic settlement. Well there’s a name for that in the United States – it’s called the Peace Process. What it actually is is the process by which the United States prevented peace. ibid.
The two major Israeli political groupings (Labor and Likud), with unfailing US support, agree that Palestinians cannot be permitted to control their own land and resources, as they would under meaningful autonomy. Israel relies heavily on West Bank water; control over water has also been a major factor in conflict over the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
For many years, the US has stood virtually alone in blocking a diplomatic settlement in the Middle East ... Given US power, its opposition amounts to a veto. Accordingly, the peace process has been effectively deterred. ibid.
The prevailing judgement has been that enhancement of Israeli power contributes to US domination of the region. For such reasons, the US has always blocked attempts at diplomatic resolution. ibid.
The basic terms of the international consensus on the Arab-Israeli conflict were expressed in a resolution brought to the Security Council in January 1976, calling for a settlement on the pre-June 1967 borders. ibid.
Lying behind these gambits is the belief that US-backed Israeli violence has finally brought the Palestinians to heel. ibid.
The US veto effectively terminated any UN role in the peace process. ibid.
The Israeli rejection clearly showed that the basic problem is not Palestinian’ rights per se, but rather the fact that recognizing them would end Israeli control over the territories. ibid.
The available evidence indicates that the US kept to the international consensus until February 1971, when it rejected the Jarring-Sadat initiative. US isolation increased in the mid-1970s as the consensus shifted to recognition of a Palestinian right of self-determination. Coincidentally, it was in February 1971 that George Bush became part of the executive apparatus as UN Ambassador. A compliant bureaucrat, Bush has adhered to US rejectionism throughout, and gives no indication of any departure today. ibid.
In 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon, killing several thousand people, driving out hundreds of thousands more, and placing the southern zone under the rule of a murderous client force. Israel remains in defiance of UN Security Council resolution 425 (March 1978) ordering it to withdraw from Lebanon immediately and unconditionally. ibid.
The United States is now providing the Israeli air force with what they call special weapons. Noam Chomsky, lecture Manchester 2004, ‘Imperial Grand Strategy’
Since about 1970 the United States has stood virtually alone in the international arena in blocking diplomatic efforts to bring about a negotiated settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict through peaceful means. Noam Chomsky, lecture July 1995, ‘Protecting Corporate Power Against Democracy’, Youtube
The flotilla: Israeli helicopters flew over the boats, let commandos down from them … We give them the helicopters with the purpose of carrying out war crimes. Noam Chomsky, New York Peace Action Benefit, ‘Obama’s Imperialist Policies’, Youtube 56.24
Intifada: in its first month Israel killed 75 Palestinians … in response mostly to stone throwing using US helicopters to attack apartment complexes and other civilian targets. Clinton responded by making the biggest deal in a decade to send new military helicopters to Israel. The US population was protected from that information by the press. Noam Chomsky, Failed States audio
It was not the villain Arafat who was the prime obstacle to the realization of a Palestinian state but rather the United States and Israel. ibid.
Unlike Iran, Israel refuses to allow inspections at all, refuses to join the non-proliferation treaty, has hundreds of nuclear weapons, has advanced delivery systems, also it has a long record of violence and repression; it has annexed and settled conquered territories illegal … and many acts of aggression. Noam Chomsky, lecture Centre for Popular Economics, ‘Who Owns the World’, Youtube 59.02, 2012
Kissinger won out: we followed the policy of stalemate. Since that time the United States has been alone in the world outside of Israel in blocking every move towards a political settlement. It’s vetoed UN security council resolutions … year after year. Noam Chomsky, lecture BMFA 18th February 1993
An international poll … Israel ranked way down at the bottom, right next to North Korea. Noam Chomsky, lecture Brown University April 2010
The pretext was that Israel was defending itself against rockets from Gaza. That pretext is accepted by the human rights groups, by the Goldstone Commission, by about 100% of commentary: it doesn’t have a particle of credibility. Israel and the US knew exactly how to stop the rockets. There had been a ceasefire and during the ceasefire Israel admits there was not a single Hamas rocket. Israel violated the ceasefire. ibid.
Israel uses sophisticated attack jets, naval vessels to bomb densely crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques and slums … to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanised armour, no command in control, no army, and calls it a war. It is not a war. It is murder. Noam Chomsky
There have been periods where almost no Israelis have been killed and large numbers of the Palestinians have been killed. Those periods have been referred to routinely by the American press as periods of ‘relative calm’. Hussein Ibish, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League USA
How a people, a race, who were victims of the holocaust can then go and perpetrate the same sort of conditions ... is beyond me. How they can do that and get away it under international law? Annie Machon, interview 30th April 2010
We have what is now quite an oppressive regime in the occupied territories where Israelis are lording it over Palestinians, usurping their territory, demolishing their homes, exerting a very severe form of military rule in order to remain there. Gila Svirsky, Israel Coalition for a Just Peace
Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians contrary to the rules of international law. It has waged a war against the civilian population, particularly children. Nelson Mandela
The belligerent attitude which is adopted by the Israeli government is to us unacceptable. Nelson Mandela
I want to talk about Palestine. What is being done to the Palestinians now is horrendous – in their own territory, by the occupying power, which is Israel. They are taking away all of the basic human rights of the Palestinians, as was done in South Africa against the blacks. Jimmy Carter, NBC television
Mossad are ruthless and cunning, having the capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act. The Washington Times 10th September 2001, cited report ‘US Army School of Advanced Military Studies’
It is the last taboo subject in America. You can talk about lesbians, blacks, gays, anything you want. But not America’s relationship ... with Israel. Robert Fisk
I think Israel is in the White House. There is no difference any longer between US policy in the Middle East and Israeli policy. Robert Fisk