After returning from a trip to the Middle East, Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) says that there is a dispute about a census between the Kurds, Turks, and Arabs, but “underlying all this is oil,” says Reed. (2:15)
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.”
By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service
Eugene Bird, President of the Council for the National Interest made this distinction at a public hearing today held by the Council for the National Interest on the implications of the current U.S. Military Aid to the Middle East. He said, “The Obama administration with regard to the re-supply of Israel, regardless of what she does, regardless of how she uses the weapons, is no different than the Bush administration.”
By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service
At a public hearing on current U.S. Military Aid to the Middle East, retired Ambassador Edward Peck said that the fighting in Gaza is not a war. He said, “That wasn’t a war. There are not two armies fighting there. There was a huge powerful army, armed, financed and equipped by us, kicking the crappe, that’s a French word, c-r-a-p-p-e, kicking the crappe out of a helpless, defenseless people, who had nothing to fight back with.”
By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service
At a public hearing on U.S. Military Aid in the Middle East, retired Ambassodor Edward Peck said “We do not sell arms to Israel, we give arms to Israel. 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…the Israeli’s decide how to spend that money anyway they want with no controls of any kind whatsoever, which is not necessarily in our interests.”
By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service
At a public hearing on U.S. Military Aid to the Middle East today, retired Ambassador Edward Peck said, “The American public knows nothing about the Middle East and because they know nothing they are not very interested, and because they’re not very interested they don’t know much, because nobody is going to tell them.”
International Affairs Correspondent Blanquita Cullum talks to Dr. Harlan Ullman Senior Adviser Center for Strategic and International Studies about the Bush administration and Obama as the new president. (5:33)
