Britt Combs: With Bush gone, Israel fears music will stop

The Israelis' recent campaign against Hamas and invasion of Gaza has claimed many hundreds of lives. The exact figure will be forever unknown due to the political interests of all involved parties, each of whom have great motive to exaggerate the figures. In the United States, of course, the news is met with gung-ho approval. This week the Bush administration blocked a U.N. Security Council call for a cessation of hostilities. MSNBC reported Tuesday morning that the resolution was drafted in large part by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Israelis find themselves in a game of musical chairs. When Bush leaves office, they fear, the music will stop. Until then, they are vying for position. It may be that Obama will enact a radically different Middle East policy than that of his predecessors, but it is unlikely.
Yes, Israel has plenty of legitimate reasons to fight and many enemies willing to engage them. But each time they get involved in aggressively policing the Palestinians or campaigning against them, it becomes clear:
One, the struggle is so long-entrenched that national guilt and inexcusable brutality has roots beyond living memory, for Israel and Palestine alike. The original guilty parties are all dead. Yet the cacophony of biased, unreliable voices is pervasive. Accurate information is hard to come by and all is suspect. A sensible person has to take everything with a grain of salt.
And two, that unwavering U.S. support has tended to embolden Israel to adopt an unreasoningly hostile attitude toward their unwanted neighbors. The arguments of Israel's supporters go unquestioned and unchallenged year after year; American money continues to flow in unprecedented volume and deaths continue to mount.
The fact is that the U.S. government gives Israel a fortune in military aid, one which enables them to take an unwaveringly bold stance. We have supported and enabled their acquisition of nuclear weapons, as well as the most advanced types of conventional hardware. No human could long resist becoming expansionist and hostile when that kind of meddling so enables them.
Tens of billions of dollars in U.S. support combine with the access we give them to the latest weaponry. Countless stories of Israeli espionage against the United States over the past few decades have not decreased our willingness to support turn at every turn. Tales emerge of their funneling American weapons technology to China. Bill Gertz of The Washington Times reports that missiles fired by Hamas into Israel were the same missiles, supplied by China to Hamas. Irony! But, then, those who live by the sword often die by it.
Also on Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert boasted that he gave Bush a direct order to block the U.N. resolution. The New York Times reported: "I said, 'Get me President Bush on the phone,'" Mr. Olmert said in a speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, according to The Associated Press. "They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care: 'I need to talk to him now,' " Mr. Olmert continued. "He got off the podium and spoke to me."
Is that not something? Does that make you feel like you we are allied with the Chosen People of God, sure enough? I cannot understand where we are so duty-bound to support them in every move.
Consider another time the Israelis got into it with some enemies. When they fled Egypt, God Himself led the campaign. With plagues of frogs, partings of the sea and rains of fire He led the Israelis to victory. He had Gideon to whittle his army down to almost nothing, in order to demonstrate His mastery of the battlefield. Now we're told they are in a fight for survival and God will judge us on our willingness to fight with them. Why? Won't He use His super powers to defend them? When and how did that change?
It is said they are a vital strategic ally in a crucial region. But it is not so. They offer no advantage as a staging ground since we have bases throughout the Persian Gulf Region. We can't stage campaigns from there as we don't want to draw fire on them. We can't allow them to fight in our many campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, as we have to have Moslem allies who would object. Basically they test our weapons for us (against civilians as well as terrorists) and we do their actual fighting for them against Iraq, possibly Syria and, if they get their druthers, Iran. What a bargain!
For all the Palestinian guilt in this conflict, there is equal Israeli guilt. Like it or not Palestinians are a worthy nation, and they have had to see their homes bulldozed, been walled off from their families and jobs, and subjected to every indignity. They do what anyone would, they use what weapons they have. Plain and simple, it's just a natural human instinct.
Israel helped empower Hamas by marginalizing Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas. When such a moderate was unable to treat with the Israelis, and the imposed poverty and isolation continued and increased, Hamas found an open door to political legitimacy.
Israel does not want to negotiate with reasonable, moderate and progressive Palestinians; thus they chose to deal with their more extreme sets. So be it.
If US. aid were cut off, we would surely see a much more neighborly, reasonable Israel. Maybe the Golden Rule would them prevail.