Godspeed to Gaza
By
Israel Shamir
[An
updated Talk at Teramo University,
Italy, May 2010]
The Turks did it! The world as we know it has changed with the
new-found independence of Turkey. Within one month, this erstwhile
American semi-colony under the charismatic leadership of
Recep Erdogan
has made two strong moves that have brought it to the forefront of
policy-making:
Together with Brazil,
Turkey has arranged and signed the Tehran Declaration of a nuclear
fuel swap deal with beleaguered Iran. This declaration derails the
Israeli plans of sanctioning Iran to death prior to bombing it. The
sanctions plan was already on its way to the Security Council;
allegedly Russia and China had been pressured to agree. At the last
moment, like a
deus
ex machina -- like Divine
intervention in the medieval theatre – these two new great powers of
Turkey and Brazil entered the stage and snatched victory from the
jaws of defeat. All the plotting of Israeli lobbyists in the US and
Europe was wiped out in an instant. Indeed, as the Muslims say: they
plot, but Allah plots better.
Israel received the news
of the Turkey-Brazil-Iran agreement as a heavy blow. “We were
defeated by the crafty Turks and Iranians,” read the headlines of
Israeli newspapers. Not so fast. The US State Department had tried
to minimize the damage, effectively
asking: “Who cares what these lowlifes agree about? If we have
decided to bomb somebody, bomb we shall. We shall never allow facts
to confuse us.” Thomas Friedman in the NYT was
disappointed why “a Holocaust-denying thug” is allowed to live.
However, world policy-making has changed, and decisions are not made
exclusively in Washington, London or Moscow any more. Mid-size
countries – regional powers – are back in vogue, and it is much
better for all of us.
Russia’s position remains
somewhat doubtful. There are persistent rumours that Russia had
agreed to support the sanctions despite the Tehran swap deal
declaration, and these rumours had caused President
Ahmadinejad to issue a strong warning.
“We do not know whether Russia is a friend or a foe”, he
said. ‘Surely a friend’,
replied the Russian foreign minister Mr
Lavrov, adding that Russia is well pleased with the
Declaration and wishes it to succeed. Nothing is final in our world,
but meanwhile it seems that Turkey and Brazil,
Erdogan and Lulu, succeeded in killing the Israeli-American
aggression plan.
After derailing the
sanctions against Iran, the indomitable Turk sent his vessels to
relieve the siege of Gaza.
A whole flotilla of small and medium boats is on its way to Gaza
now, and among them, a large boat from Turkey, accompanied by a boat
bought and equipped by another great friend of Palestine,
Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia.
Free Gaza did sail boats
to Gaza over the past two years with differing results; they had
some important persons aboard, notably our friend, the wonderful
Cynthia McKinney, but this is the first time that the steering of
this freedom regatta has passed from the hands of nice European
volunteers to the locals, to the peoples of the region. This is a
vast change, and a change that means a lot. While the Palestinian
cause was only the cause
celebré of Europeans with
conscience, it was containable. Now, when it has become the concern
of the local region, the countdown for the freak Zionist mini-Empire
has begun.
And speaking of ships,
there are clear signs that the biggest ship of all, the United
States of America, is turning as well. Big ships cannot stop on a
dime, advises the Nautical Almanac. They may require as much as 5
miles to stop, with gears in full reverse. Big ships may need 5-10
miles to turn. Now, what is true for
supertankers and aircraft carriers is equally true for
America.
By the time of
Obama’s inauguration, the Lobby had an
impressive influence over America, influence that some experts would
define as total control. The Lobby was closely connected with the
Israeli right-wing establishment. Its roots went deeply into the
coffers of Wall Street. Its fingers orchestrated the US media.
Europe was in constant fear of the Jews.
Within one year, the
Lobby has lost much of its position:
-
Israeli Prime
Minister Netanyahu was publicly humiliated and sent back home
running from the White House’s back door.
-
President Obama
uttered an unheard-of call for Israel to join the NPT (nuclear
non-proliferation treaty);
-
The U.S. “accepted
Arab demands to pressure Israel over its atomic program”.
-
A secret historical
document revealing Israel's attempt to sell nukes to the South
African Apartheid regime was published by the
Guardian.
-
Threats have been
sounding that the US will stop blocking anti-Israeli resolutions
in the Security Council.
-
Jews are
extremely unhappy with Obama, for Obama, in his
Inaugural address, mentioned Muslims ahead of Jews, “We are a
nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and
nonbelievers.” (Read this craziest ever hilarious list of
complaints!)
It appears that President
Obama is a cool customer, who knows when to go forward and when it
is good to wait. He probably has learned how to catch the big fish.
Meanwhile he is undoing the financial basis of the Lobby.
-
The
Madoff affair was a painful attack
of the Lobby’s purse. That criminal managed the funds of many
Jewish organizations. For mysterious reasons he admitted his
crime, and the dominoes began to fall. An old and venerable
American Jewish Congress went down, as well as many smaller
bodies and individuals.
-
For obscure reasons,
Lehman Brothers was allowed to fall, starting the financial
crisis. Lehman Brothers was a prominent Jewish institution,
actually a reincarnation of the famous Kuhn, Loeb bank. It went
down. Such a collapse could not take place without the Obama
Administration's blessing.
-
Now there is a
lasting and sustained attack on Goldman-Sachs, one of the
biggest and power-connected financial groups. Goldman-Sachs was
described by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz
as an institution whose list of partners reads like a list of
East Side Synagogue donors, all Jewish. Now there are daily
reports of misdeeds and crimes committed by GS in the US and
elsewhere. GS can be tried, found guilty, dismantled and its
executives sued. If it goes down, and this is possible, the
Lobby will find itself in a harsh and inhospitable world. Obama
is closely connected to GS, the body that infiltrated all power
structures, but apparently he is not going out of his way to
save them.
In Israel, there is a
feeling that the Dubai debacle was played up by Obama. Israeli
security services took a proper lashing in Dubai. They had planned a
small and neat trick: the assassination of a
Hamas official. But this crime provided Dubai with an
opportunity to out many Israeli spies, who apparently were using the
Gulf merchant city as their forward HQ in preparing an action
against Iran. From Dubai, it is possible to enter Iran even without
passport control. Dozens of Israeli spies weren’t there just to kill
a Hamas man; they were after bigger
prey.
Now, not only have they
been outed, but the modus operandi of
Israeli services who cloned European and
American passports wholesale was made public as well. After the UK,
Australia expelled an Israeli ‘diplomat’ representative of the
Mossad. In France, where the Zionists
were at peak strength, now there are big changes. President Sarkozy
(despite his Jewish roots) has expressed his lack of patience with
Israel. One of the best known political writers of France, Regis
Debray has published a book attacking
not just Israel, but even the French Jewish community and its
synagogues for their support of Israel. In the UK, a politician that
has constantly criticised Israel has become the deputy prime
minister.
In the
old argument of Dog and Tail, the Dog decided to downgrade the Tail,
while the pathetic attempts of the Tail to order the Dog around had
failed miserably, and not for lack of trying. Apparently, somewhere
within the US establishment it was decided that the American
imperial interests are not being served by Israel, and moreover,
that the Jewish establishment has become too overbearing and bitchy
for its own good. It was decided that the Jewish shrew must be
tamed, and so she shall.
I doubt the Israeli wet
dream of attacking Iran will materialize now. The chances are 80 to
20 against such a move. However we will have a storm warning: if and
when Mrs Tsipi
Livni joins the government, the chances will go up to 50:50.
Israel has never entered a war without the substantial support of
the left, and Mr Ehud
Barak’s presence is not sufficient.
Taming is not breaking. A
cautious President Obama did send signals that he is not looking for
an all-out war with the organized Jewry. He met with
Elie Wiesel
and comforted him. He invited more Jewish leaders to the White House
– and at the same time he allowed Israel to take a substantial
beating. Obama is devious, observers in Israel feel; he is playing a
tricky game of embracing with one arm and pushing away with another
arm. It appears that there is a forthcoming weather change: at least
the older generation of Jewish leaders – conservative, belligerent,
aggressive, suspicious, - will give way to a new generation, that of
Dan Axelrod, Rahm
Emmanuel, J-street and the like. Whether it will be a change of
style or of substance, it is too early to say – but style is
substance, too.
Sure, this will not be
enough for many of our friends. People began to pour out their
disappointment with Obama within 24 hours of his inauguration. “Wot!
A whole day has passed and the American troops are not out of Iraq
yet, Israel still gets American support and the bankers are being
bailed out?” However, this was to be expected. The US was fully
geared to go in a certain direction; even if Obama would like to
change course, it would take a longish time.
An interesting sign of
this change can be observed in the Hollywood movie
Prince of Persia. It is
a fable of the Empire’s assault on an innocent state (the US attack
of Iraq?). The assault was caused by a bald Jewish-looking neo-con
of a King’s brother who lied and supplied false information of WMD
because he wanted to become the King. The bad
Neocon used evil assassins (surely Israelis?). Eventually the
main character, the Prince, born in the gutter and elevated by the
King for his merit (Obama?) stops the war, makes peace with the
enemy, even marries the Princess.
It was noticed that the
US film industry often produces films presaging changes in the
policy. Bombing of Serbia, 9/11 and Afghan war were shown in
Hollywood movies before they occurred in real life. Judging by the
Prince of Persia, the childish Americans are being prepared to a big
change.