US President Barak Obama has asked Congress to pay $205 million for Israel's latest missile system, called the 'Iron dome'.
Tel Aviv completed tests in January on its short-range anti-missile system which is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells. President Obama argues that Israel must have such a system.
Author Ralph Shoenmen spoke to Press TV about this issue. Below is the transcript of the interview:
Press TV: By choosing to fund Israel's military and missile's system, isn't the US encouraging an arms race, when it's supposed to be brokering a peace deal?
Ralph Shoenmen: Well, first of all I have to say that the idea that the United States is brokering a peace deal is nothing more than silly propaganda, quite frankly. The United States is not interested in peace, but in pacifying the Palestinian population. Pacification means intensifying occupation, and advancing the process of displacing the Palestinian people, once again under the cover of a new war. That is the process; that is the dynamic. The United States from the beginning [of Israel] has been the principle arms financier. The United States completely subsidizes the entire military and intelligence apparatus and, in fact, the entire [Israel] itself.
One hundred billion dollars, in the first forty years, and the official figures of military and other support are the tip of the iceberg, because there are a whole range of billions of dollars of loans that are never paid back.
Furthermore, the terms under which countries are able to receive aid for example include the obligation to make purchases from Israel. Israel alone is exempt from being required with money given to it to make purchases from the United States.
Israel is an instrument of US imperial policy in the region, so this now, an additional 200 million dollars, for so called anti-missile system is part of the preparations for a new war; part of the threats to Iran, part of the expanding wars of aggression in Afghanistan, as before in Iraq and also in Pakistan.
Just to remind our listeners that it is only a short few days ago that Israeli and US propaganda was in full gear inventing the story that scud missiles were being supplied by Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. And that Hezbollah was receiving hundreds of tons of arms from Iranian ships.
All of this was designed to prepare the ground for what in fact are Israeli-US plans to escalate the military preparations for a war in the general region. Iron Dome is an expression of that, it comes on the heels of this claim that scud missiles were being provided to Hezbollah. Notwithstanding that it was confirmed on the 11th May that the United Nations has found no evidence of any such scud missiles or arms.
Press TV: Earlier Israel had announced that it was going to demolish more Palestinian homes in Eastern al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the US has warned Israel of taking inciting steps. But now the US has, granted it money beyond its defense assistance budget. Now what kind of questions does this raise regarding US impartiality?
Ralph Shoenmen: Well, the question of impartiality, is itself, not based on any reality, Israel is a creature of American imperialism. It's a complete subsidized instrument of imperial hegemony in the region, with respect to the Palestinian people; it's a steady process of removing the Palestinians from their land and from history.
The United States makes noises, about not expanding settlements because they use those noises to induce the regimes of Mubarak and King of Jordan and other countries …, to go along with US imperial plans for the region and they give them some color, of protection, by making noises about settlement, which of course are complete paper noises.
I mean they don't exist in any reality, because the United States continues to give full military backing and financial backing to the very government who is doing these very things they claim to oppose.
[Source: PressTV]
Add a comment
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|