Israel’s Useful Idiot

Has the United States Locked Itself into a Middle East War?

By Timothy P Holmberg

There are a few rules to Washington politics that still hold true, even in the midst of the chaos of our non-governance. One of those is that if Israel is attacked, as a politician of any rank, you must find the first news reporter to whom you can to profess your undying and steadfast support for Israel. To be sure, the attack by Hamas was wonton, and crazed, even by their standards. Support for Israel was abundantly warranted.  The moral high ground was once again in Israel’s court, purchased in innocent blood. 

Understandably, this triggered an outpouring of sympathy and grieving. It also triggered one of the less appealing aspects of politicians of all stripes. The need to center themselves in another's grief, and feel their pain . . publicly on camera. And repeatedly. 

Over the years, Israel has employed a well oiled PR machine to assure that the media and politicians carry their view of events in an unqualified way. And this quickly came on display. The hint of a caveat could rain down harsh penalties on the offending politician or reporter (just ask any progressive congress member). 

But while the media and political elite were fixated on the suffering of Israel, something else was almost totally missed. The ominous language coming from the ultra conservative cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made clear that this response was not just to be an exercise in vengeance or Israel’s right to self defense, but something quite darker and perhaps much more dangerous. 

Israel’s military was to have “no restraints” according to its extremist defense minister. Gaza was immediately blockaded and food, water and fuel were to be denied indefinitely. As plans became clearer, bombs began to fly, indiscriminately collapsing entire blocks of civilian housing. In military terms, the entirety of the Gaza strip had become a “kill box”. The Palestinian death toll rapidly rose to eclipse that of Israeli citizens, as has been the case in every single exchange between Israel and Palestinians (usually by multiples). Then, the ultimatum, Israel’s IDF demanded the United Nations remove 1.1 million Gazans in an impossible 24 hour time period. The UN pushed back, and has been almost a lone voice in the wilderness screaming desperately that things were careening out of control. 

Not even a week after the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas, the world now stands at the brink. At the 11th hour, the US Secretary of State feverishly dashes from airport to airport trying to head off a catastrophe that could drag the world into regional, if not global conflict. All the while, Israel continues to plow ahead without hardly a glance over its shoulder. 

How did this get so far, so fast?

Was it the fault of a supplicant western media? One that has assiduously avoided providing the context of an increasing tilt in Israel’s treatment of Palestinians? 

For decades now, Israel has presided over an apartheid state (a statement that could get you censured in Congress). Jimmy Carter said exactly that in his 2006 book, Peace not Apartheid, and was excoriated for it. But, objectively it is a true statement. Or that Human Rights Watch has described Gaza as the world’s largest open air prison? There is no justification for Hamas’ attack, but to most Americans, the attack exists in a vacuum. 

Completely unprecipitated by any context. Thus it could be called Israel’s 9/11. Americans have been groomed by Israeli lobbyists to be blissfully unaware of the steady strangulation of any hope of a Palestinian state. 

Was it a broken American political system? One dominated by monied interests and a well connected Israeli lobbying machine? 

AIPAC (American Israeli Political Action Committee) has spent lavishly over the decades on politicians of both parties. It has also been equally willing to punish those who fail to follow talking points or openly criticize the actions of Israel. They have masterfully wielded the label of “antisemitism “ and equated it with disagreement of any kind with the policies of the Israeli state. When Ilhan Omar had the temerity to call out AIPAC’s money machine politics, she was immediately accused of using an antisemitic trope. In reality, that is precisely what AIPAC does. And it is utterly uncontroversial to otherwise note our politics is clearly “all about the Benjamins”. In this environment, was anyone of any significant office going to speak even a word of caution to Israel publicly? Would anyone say that Israel needs to be careful about provoking a wider conflict? One in which America would be required to come to Israel’s aid. And, a more importantly question, has our broken politics handed and extremist Israeli government a blank check? 

The answer seems to be fairly clear. 

We stand at the 11th hour, with our most powerful leaders working almost covertly to restrain Israel from sending the world off the deep end. 

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken doesn’t spend seven and a half hours with Israel’s “war cabinet” talking military strategy. Rather, he begs discreetly for them to give him something to appease Arabic countries with (lest they impose an oil embargo on us). So far, there have been some vague promises to allow establishment of humanitarian corridors and facilitate aid flowing into Gaza. 

In reality, he probably got next to nothing (precious time will tell). But it’s time to get real. We are dealing with an ultra nationalist, right wing Israeli government. The sooner our leaders get wise to that, the better. Extremists in the Israeli cabinet finally have the excuse to do what they clearly have dreamed of for decades but never had the power to do. Erase the Palestinians. They will say Hamas, but really, they will mean Palestine or any notion of it. 

And Biden, as decent a guy, and as good an administration as he has, will be unable to deter them. His trip is a huge win for Netanyahu, who wants to paste the image of his handshake with Biden all over any question of abuses, or violations of human rights. Biden is now locked in step with whatever Israel decides to do. Netanyahu knows it. Politically, Biden will be unable to do anything that could actually restrain Israel. Not with an election right around the corner, and Republicans looking to pick off any amount of the Jewish vote they can. 

In times passed, the US could have made a simple phone call to an Ehud Barak, Golda Meir, or a David Ben-Gurion. But we are dealing today with a former Fox News commentator, Netanyahu. A man so fixated on maintaining his own power he would gut his own democracy. We, of all countries, should know how his kind operates. But we are reeling from our own divisions and overextended. At this point, we are little more than Netanyahu’s useful idiot. 

And, of course, Putin will be laughing gleefully as he makes travel plans to visit Kiev next summer. 

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Editor’s add on, from Yosef Yisrael, an Israeli television news reporter:

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Lead image by Ted Eytan - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License