Group: Obama and Bush the same on Israel

By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service

The Obama administration is no different than its predecessor when it comes to providing intelligence and military aid to Israel, an action that continues to hamper positive U.S. relations with other Middle East countries. That is the opinion of representatives of the Council For the National Interest, which conducted a public hearing to discuss the implications of current U.S. military aid to countries in the Middle East.

“The Obama administration has shipped replacement munitions that were used up in Gaza, very high-tech missiles and that sort of thing, to Israel in an emergency effort just about 10-days ago,” said Eugene Bird, President for the Council of National Interest. “I think this reflects that the Obama administration – with regard to the re-supply of Israel – is no different than the Bush administration.”

Some speakers suggested the United States should re-evaluate its unconditional support of Israel, especially within the current political identity.

“We do not sell arms to Israel, we give arms to Israel,” said Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force. Additionally, the Israeli government decides how it wants to utilize the resources and funds given by the U.S. “There is no purchase involved, which is a nice thing. It’s a blank check, and, as you know, that blank check is delivered on the first day of the fiscal year, October 1st, and the Israeli’s can then earn interest on this money while they decide how to spend it… (This) is not necessarily in our interests,” Peck said.

Bird estimates that over the next 10-years the U.S. will give Israel $30 billion to Israel and “that there will be 150,000 more Jewish colonists on the West Bank during that period… The American taxpayer, over the years and in the future, will be paying about $200,000 for each colonist that is placed on Arab land and which destroys the chances for a two-state solution.”

Israeli peace activist, journalist and writer, Uri Avnery said, “I think American arms to Israel should be conditioned…so that the peace agreement will be signed between Israel and the Palestinian people, hopefully a Palestinian unity government including both Fatah and Hamas – I would (expect such results) by the end of 2009 or the middle of 2010 not later.”

Some say that the Middle East is an issue of which Americans remain uninformed and that American politicians view the subject as a killer of constituent support.

Peck blamed said that the lack of information available was a result of the pro-Israel lobby. “They don’t allow anyone else to talk….We’ve been silenced. We are not allowed to criticize Israel. You’re instantly an anti-Semite if you do, He said. “In Israel you are allowed to criticize Israel government policy…but you cannot do it here without provoking a fire-stone.”