The U.S. & Israeli Governments’ Insanity

Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)

On November 3rd, Reuters headlined “US, allies try to craft Gaza endgame as deaths, destruction mount”, and reported:

The process is still at what another U.S. source terms an informal “idea-floating stage.” Key questions include whether Israel can destroy Hamas as it has vowed and whether the U.S., its Western allies and Arab governments would commit military personnel to stand between Israel and the Palestinians, overcoming a long reluctance to do so.

The White House said on Wednesday there were “no plans or intentions” to put U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza. …

It is also unclear whether the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza, would be able or willing to take control. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday held out the prospects for a “revitalized” PA, but President Mahmoud Abbas’ administration has been plagued by accusations of corruption and mismanagement. …

Even if Hamas’ leadership is toppled, it would be all but impossible to eradicate pro-militant sentiment from the Gaza population, raising the threat of new attacks, including suicide bombings, against whomever assumes power.

“If the Israelis succeed in crushing Hamas, I think it’s going to be extremely difficult to get a governing structure in there that is going to be legitimate and functional,” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator.

“The ‘day after’ exercises right now strike me as fantastical,” Miller said. …

There is a growing realization that massive amounts of international aid will be needed to rebuild Gaza, and such an infusion would be nearly impossible to secure from Western governments with Hamas still in charge. …

Among the options that U.S. officials have discussed is creation of a multinational force to maintain order. Its composition could include some mix of European or Arab countries, though no government has openly expressed interest in joining such a force. …

Some policy analysts have also floated the idea of deploying to Gaza a United Nations-backed force – either a formal U.N. peacekeeping force, as it does on the Israel-Lebanon border, or a multinational force with U.N. approval.

But diplomats say there have been no discussions at the United Nations about such a move, which would require agreement among the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council. …

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for saying the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Israel expects a long war but says it has no interest in re-occupying Gaza.

Outside experts, some known at times to have the ear of U.S. policymakers, are weighing in on what a post-war Gaza might look like.

If Hamas can be stripped of its “veto power” and Gaza is demilitarized, “that could open the way for establishment of an interim administration with a technocratic Palestinian-led government that operates under some kind of international and/or regional umbrella,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator and White House adviser. …

An article authored by Ross and two of his colleagues at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, proposed that once Israel withdraws, security in Gaza be provided by a “consortium of the five Arab states who have reached peace agreements with Israel – Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.”

But there is some skepticism that such an arrangement could be struck.

“Arab states aren’t going to put boots on the ground to kill Palestinians,” said former negotiator Miller, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Those were the only ideas that Reuters’s 7-member team were able to identify from the U.S. Administration, now, after Biden had said, in closing his October 7th speech, “Remarks by President Biden on the Terrorist Attacks In Israel”: “Let there be no mistake: The United States stands with the State of Israel, just as we have from the moment the United States became the first nation to recognize Israel, 11 minutes after its founding, 75 years ago.”

Biden is backing up those words, by actions. On October 15th, the N.Y. Post headlined “US Navy sends second carrier group back to Israel as Gaza invasion nears” and described the vast flotilla of weaponry, men, and aircraft carriers, that the Post described as each being “a floating airport for fighter jets and other military aircraft,” which Biden was sending to support Israel’s operation against the Gazans.

Whereas the Gazans are born, and live, and die, as inmates in the world’s largest open-air prison (with Israeli guards blocking their exits and entrances), the Americans are expecting Arabs and Muslims to help Israel to conquer them. But if that wish were to be fulfilled, then the millions who now are marching and demonstrating against Israel’s slaughter of those born inmates might instead start demonstrating and marching for the overthrow of their own leaders. Why do America’s officials expect those leaders to do that? But they apparently do. Apparently, they take seriously these insane proposals. It very publicly displays the caliber of America’s leadership.

And this insanity is entirely bipartisan, because both political Parties are controlled by their billionaires, who are even stronger in their support for Israel against Palestinians than their voters are. Thus, on November 3rd, Vanity Fair magazine headlined “Donald Trump, After Bashing Netanyahu, Is Trying to Shore Up His Pro-Israel Cred: While Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war is drawing rare praise from Republicans — “A+” says one GOP donor — the former president is doing damage control in speeches and privately with Jewish leaders on the right.” Trump “positioned himself as the most pro-Israel candidate in the field. ‘I will defend our friend and ally the State of Israel like nobody has ever defended,’ Trump told the 1,000-plus crowd of donors and activists. Twice Trump said: ‘I love Israel.’ After his RJC speech, Trump reportedly had a private dinner with Miriam Adelson, the widow of late GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.”

The caliber of America’s leadership is determined by the caliber of America’s billionaires. It’s an aristcracy, not a democracy. And this is the caliber of those aristocrats. And, after all: every aristocracy is highly tribal. One can’t reasonably blame democracy for this insanity, because it is in service to America’s aristocracy — these ‘philanthropists’, who endow ‘charities’ (and buy politicians) (so as to reduce their taxes).

Is America the world’s most corrupt country? Maybe. But it’s got lots of competition. Israel, for example.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.