US and Western Media Bias for Israel is Primary Fuel For Violence in Middle East

I am not Palestinian.  I am not from Gaza and have no relatives there.  And as an atheist, I am a long way from being Muslim.  But when I read reports in the US media (which amounts to a global media) about events in the Middle East, it’s hard to contain my anger.  I can only imagine how a Palestinian or Muslim might feel

The response of US capitalism and its media to clashes between the misnamed Israeli Defense Force and Palestinians and/or their supporters, reveals the blatant bias in favor of the Zionists.  “We urge both sides to show restraint” is a common plea from powerful US political figures including the US president.

It is hard to gauge which is more frustrating, the fact that these words would be spoken at all or that the speaker has such contempt for those the comments are directed at that they expect us to give them any credibility whatsoever.  The vast majority of people in the world do not give them credibility of course, and certainly no Muslims do.

Israel, one of the two parties that the US asks should show "restraint," spent 7.3% of its GDP on its military in 2006, ranking it number 6 in the world. It is reputed to have a huge nuclear arsenal but refuses to confirm or deny this.  It has a navy, a hi-tech air defense system and modern aircraft and weapons thanks to the generosity of the US taxpayer.

The Palestinians on the other hand have no state, no military, no ships, no aircraft and, in Israel proper, less rights than Jews.  The vast majority of them live in Bantustans within the Israeli Apartheid system.  More than one million of them live in Gaza, perhaps the largest concentration camp in the world.  The disparate body count on both sides after the last two murderous offensives of the misnamed Israeli Defense Force, the excursions in to Lebanon and Gaza, reveal the equally disparate military might of the forces at play.

The western media bias continued in the aftermath of the illegal boarding of their ships and murder of aid activists attempting to deliver supplies to the people of Gaza. “Flotilla Accounts Show Both Sides Fueled Clash” is the headline in a Wall Street Journal report published today.

“Turkish charity members prepared fro a brawl” the article points out, “cutting iron railings into weapons,..” and defending themselves with  “circular saws”  that “didn’t belong to the ship.”   My gosh!  The US intelligence agencies are correct, these charities are terrorist organizations, importing circular saws in to a community of 1.5 million people blockaded by a regime that has uprooted people from their homes, deprived them of a livelihood, strafed civilian communities with modern US jets and more.  An F16 doesn’t stand a chance against an Arab armed with a circular saw.

The Israeli commandos who boarded the ship illegally from helicopters shot five of the occupants in the head according to Turkish forensic reports.  But we can’t believe those Turks, can we?  Aren’t they Arabs just like the Iranians?

The Zionists and their US backers want nothing less than the Palestinian people to accept their lot, to offer no resistance to the destruction of their homes and culture. The same is expected of people on a boat attacked in international waters by commandos armed to the teeth.  Don’t resist. The activists admit their violent intentions, “If you think that using small sticks is not passive resistance, OK, we are not passive resisters” says one official of the charity involved.

The Bias continues with the recent reports that Iran is supplying Syria with a radar system that would provide early warning in the event of attacks on its soil from the Israeli air-force. Perhaps the illegal bombing by Israeli Jets of a Syrian facility in 2007 has something to do with Syria’s desire for a radar defense system. US and Israeli officials are concerned that such a deal “undermines” Israel’s military dominance in the region.  In other words, any threat to the military dominance of its proxy in the region will undermine the ability of the US to control the region’s resources.  Again, complete subjugation is the only option. And why does Iran not have the right to nuclear technology, including weapons?  The US never bombed North Korea.

Stuart Eizenstat, former ambassador to the EU under Clinton is pushing the EU to take a harder line against Iran.  Eizenstat is a lawyer, and mouthpiece for the US global corporations.  He is an ardent supporter of the Zionist regime receiving the Courage and Conscience Award from the Government of Israel for his efforts.  Arguing for harder sanctions against Iran stems from his dual loyalty to the US corporations and the Zionist regime.  The influence of Zionists, both Jewish and Christian, in the formation of US foreign policy does not go unnoticed by the victims.

The reason that most Americans buy in to the propaganda is the extreme censorship that pervades the US mass media.  Most US citizens couldn’t point to Iraq on a map not long after the their government bombed it in to antiquity.  The media in the US is the most censored in the so-called free world.  This is made easier by the fact that the leaders of the workers’ organizations offer no significant alternative view.

This situation is the best recruit for the Islamic fundamentalists groups.  Israel, the elephant in the room, and the uncritical US support for the regime, is the greatest contributor to the violence and growth of “terrorist” groups.

But the other danger is the rise of anti-Semitism that this portends.  It is not the traditional anti-Semitism of the European kind, but a response to the horrors committed against the people of the region by the Zionists.  The US gentile capitalist class has no love for Jews; they are, after all, their competitors.  The relationship with Israel is based on it being the only reliable ally in the Middle East.  As the former British governor of Jerusalem once said about the creation of a Jewish state there, it would be “Our loyal little Ulster in the Middle East”.  Were this to change, or, which is quite possible, the US working class under continued economic hardship, to tire of billions of dollars in US taxpayer money going to Israel, the US capitalist class would not emerge as the best defenders against anti-Semitism.

There have been some cracks in the relationship as was pointed out in the British Guardian last week.  And comments by the US General Petraeus published in the New Statesman reveal some concern within US circles about the role of Israel in destabilizing, and therefore threatening, US interests in the region.

One thing is certain; the crisis in the Middle East cannot be solved on the basis of capitalism.