The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> the problem with Chomsky....

the problem with Chomsky....
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Monday, February 7 2011, 12:50:09 (UTC)
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I'm not sure I agree with his assessment of the Gaza situation in this article, part of which I attach....

U.S. Savage Imperialism, Part 3
Part three of a Z Media Institute talk, June 2010


In parts one and two of "U.S. Savage Imperialism," Chomsky talks about the U.S. global mission and the Mideast with particular regard to Iran and Israel/Palestine. He closes by speculating on whether, with world pressure, the U.S. might shift its policy and insist on Israel accepting the international consensus on a two-state solution. What follows is a transcript of the first group of questions asked by the students attending Z Media Institute 2010.

Q: Can you talk about Egypt's role in supporting the siege of Gaza and also about the steel wall it's building?

CHOMSKY: You're quite right that Egypt has been complicit in Israel's savage siege of Gaza. Actually, Egypt is more frightened by Hamas than Israel is. Egypt is a brutal dictatorship, strongly supported by President Obama who has said straight out that he's not going to criticize them because Egypt helps us maintain stability in the Middle East. That's why nobody in the Middle East with a brain functioning can take Obama seriously when he talks about human rights.

But Egypt's very worried because if they ever allowed anything remotely like a democratic election, there's a popular force in Egypt which could turn into a majority—namely the Muslim Brotherhood. And the U.S. supports them in that. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt was horrified by their popular victory in Palestine. Egypt also understands U.S./Israeli policy, which is not very obscure. The U.S. and Israel want to throw Gaza, which has been virtually destroyed by the Israelis, into the hands of Egypt. Israel doesn't want it, the U.S. doesn't want it. They can't just kill everybody the way they could in the 19th century because you couldn't get away with it now. So the idea is to keep the population in Gaza barely alive, to abandon any responsibility for them, and to toss them into the hands of Egypt, which doesn't want them. For that reason, and because of the fact that they're ruled by an offshoot of the Muslim brotherhood, Egypt has been participating in the siege.

They are, as you said, also building a wall—apparently with U.S. engineering support—to seal off the country totally, partly just to increase the savagery of the siege, but also partly to confound U.S./Israeli policy of attempting to toss Gaza into Egypt's hands, which they don't want.

...hold on. Zionism requires the removal of all Arabs from Israeli land...is Chomsky saying that Israel is willing to give up territory? What evidence is there that Israel would give up ANY land? It seems to me much more likely that Israel wants to force the Palestinians out of Gaza so they can TAKE it...why would they want Egypt to have it when they can't be sure what Egypt will be like in 50 years...or a hundred? The idea that Israel doesn't want any more land seems to me to fly against history, Zionism and the fucking bible too.



Q. I've been interested in Israel's motivations for the Gaza attack. Norman Finkelstein has written that it was to restore Israel's deterrence capacity. I wonder if you agree with his thesis and his position that Israel at some point must suffer a military defeat, possibly at the hands of Hezbollah.

CHOMSKY. I think Finkelstein has a case. Israel was defeated in 2006 and they need to maintain a posture of invincibility after being so terrible harmed. Maybe they thought by smashing up Gaza, they could restore it, but I don't know exactly who they thought they were impressing. To show that an advanced modern army can destroy a totally defenseless population which can't even fire a pistol in response is not a very impressive demonstration of deterrence capacity.

...I don't understand how such worldly-wise people can still miss the main point to American "support" of Israel...my god we have Vietnam and the Iran/Iraq wars as examples of how far this nation will go to sell WEAPONS...and even create false wars just to make MONEY! Why is that so difficult to comprehend? Is it too simple? Do historians and political science types prefer dusty explanations with bibliographies and big books and conferences? Does it offend their professional pride, make a mockery of all the time and money THEY spent on getting their lofty degrees to admit that it's all as simple and basic as "MONEY"?

..there is nothing new in this simple explanation....the Krupp family used to send its sales force to Africa and elsewhere to CREATE hostilities...then they pulled out their catalogues and sold weapons to all sides...we did the same thing in Iran/Iraq...our warmongers made FORTUNES off selling to both sides.....hell if they could have drawn in Syria and Egypt too they would have done even better.

I wish pundits would stop scratching their heads in trying to "figure out " US policy in the MidEast...it's the same simple, basic, fucking, capitalist "policy" we use everywhere else, including here at home..."MAKE MONEY"...that's all, that simple.

The United States has a perfect customer in Israel...even better because the money to pay for all these weapons, which then have to be justified, doesn't COME from Israel, but THROUGH Israel...from us, we, the taxpayers....that means we don't have to hear the Israelis say, "listen, we don't have enough money to afford your latest sidewinder zooper dooper missles....or your backwards flying fighter jets...we just don't have the money"!

"No problem"..our sales force says...we'll GIVE you the money"!

These warmongers have an enormous source of their own funds...they don't NEED money from Israel. All they need from Israel is the PRETEXT...the excuse with which they can weep to us about how we must help poor Israel...and you know how much Americans have always LOVED Jews!



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