It is difficult to write dispassionately about the Middle East because we have such a massive amount of our capital invested there-–financial, military, moral capital and our standing in the eyes of the world at stake. Indeed, our very survival as a nation is at risk if we extend ourselves too far. We are outnumbered, too far from home and in jeopardy.

The relationship between Congress and Israel is, in my opinion, the most egregious example of members of congress having been “bought” by a special interest. How else could a reasonable person explain the “lone guarantees” of billions of tax money dollars spent on Israel each year if the members of congress had not been unduly influenced?

In an effort to make some sense out of the ridiculous situation in Iraq, we must ask ourselves, “What exactly is going on? Just why did we invade Iraq and what, exactly, is the reason we remain there”? Why are we involved and why should we feel this one-sided responsibility and sympathy for the Jews when, logically, it should be greater for the Palestinians--those are Palestinian houses we see being bulldozed, not Jewish houses; Jews are doing the bulldozing with American bulldozers.

Palestine, now being ravaged by Jewish invaders, has been predominantly occupied by indigenous Arabs for untold generations, it is not Jewish land, the biblical claim of Moses not withstanding, and we are simply on the wrong side of right and wrong on this issue.

Historically, our involvement with Israel came in the late 1940’s when the British, who had fallen “heir” to the Palestinian Region after the Ottoman Empire broke up, found themselves unable or unwilling to cope with the flood of Jewish refuges entering the area from Russia and Eastern Europe so they turned the problem over to the United Nations. With “seed” money from the Rothschild family of France and from the United States, David Ben Gurion declared a new state: “Israel” in the area referred to as “Palestine” and encouraged Jewish people to settle there. Initially, American money was sent as humanitarian aid, as it should, but, unfortunately, the aid took on a life of its own and became the source of funding for the new state.

With the best of intentions, we helped the Jews fleeing Eastern Europe and Russia establish a new homeland in Palestine. Unfortunately, the Jewish state was established at the expense of the indigenous Arabs who were then forced to become refugees fleeing into Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, understandably, raising the ire of all the Arabs in the Muslim world. This acquisition of land was done by force, largely with American arms; a power grab, apparently without any serious attempt to purchase the land or by other amicable means; all this being made possible with American money and military hardware.

Okay, so Jews have bad things happen to them, what does that have to do with America? We have had absolutely nothing to do with Jew’s historical problems in the Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe or anywhere else in the world. That is a Jewish problem and we should not be involved with their problems anymore than we should with Catholic problems in the Vatican.

We should think in terms of what is best for our country, which happens to be America, and with that in mind, we should extricate ourselves from the Middle East with as much dignity as we can and as quickly as we can let the Jews and Arabs settle their own differences. Withholding our money would prompt a quick solution.

Decisions of war and peace in Iraq have been based upon lies so we can’t accept without great skepticism any information from official Washington. Nor do the reasons given by the media add up, they are completely inconsistent with what we can see for ourselves. Washington and the American Media have very little credibility.

Not even the official reasons given for the urgency to attack Iraq is credible; the fear that Saddam would use weapons of mass destruction. That was an admitted lie but it still is not the real reason, in my opinion. Bad intelligence based upon lies? Supposedly. That reason still lacks something to be convincing.

The real reason, I believe, was to protect Israel from being over run by hostile Arab neighbors. When we examine a map of the Middle East it shows Israel to be surrounded by enemies. A defeated enemy, Egypt, lies to the South of Israel, sworn enemies, Lebanon and Syria lie to the North of Israel, thousands of angry Palestinian refugees who fled the invading Jews into Jordan, lie to the East, (eager to get their land back), and Iraq, also lies to the East whose nuclear facility was once attacked and destroyed by Israel. Some very angry neighbors indeed surround Israel.

The map shows how closely it is linked with Israel’s security and offers the only credible reason for our precipitous action into Iraq—especially the urgency of it; why we couldn’t wait. If we had waited, our excuse for making the pre-emptive attack into Iraq would have no longer been valid because there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found.

If we had waited-- we may have reconsidered the invasion and call our presence on the border a “training mission” and return home, leaving Israel to fend for itself. (There was some sign of our hesitancy just before going into Iraq, as I remember). It was in Israel’s best interest for an immediate attack and for our military to remain-- but it is not in America’s best interest.

In addition to the WMD excuse, the second reason mentioned was to secure the Iraqi oil fields for Halliburton and Co. That doesn’t seem quite plausible either because it begs the question, “Why must we invade and plunder Iraq’s oil, why not just buy it from them, as we did before our self-imposed but failed embargo? We buy oil from others in the region so why do we feel compelled to invade Iraq and take the oil forcibly?

Now our relationship has cost us our “good guy” image and are as hated as the Jews we sponsor, seen in the Muslim world as a bully intent upon taking over their lands. Who and what is our next headache? Iran? Syria? Both are mentioned as new enemies. Europe is disgusted.

Our involvement with Israel is destroying our economy—it has involved us in a war no one can justify and no clear-cut way to “win”. It continues to be a bottomless pit soaking up our financial and military recourses.

Right now, inflation is dangerously eating up the savings of retired people and corporations are increasingly unable to honor retirement commitments. At some point, we will wake up, economically devastated, unable to act rationally.

How do we fix this awful situation? Since we cannot morally abandon the Israelis I suggest we declare victory in the region and invite the Israelis to come home with us. Clumsy leadership has gotten us into big trouble and having to rely on the same people to get us out of it is not very comforting.

Like it or not, America is largely responsible for the existence of Israel and we must continue to be responsible. To just leave Iraq and abandon the area would mean another Jewish holocaust and I don’t think anyone wants that. It may sound facetious but I am serious when I suggest we bring them along when we pull out--which I think we must. Israel is populated with roughly the same number of Jews as in this country—six million or so--doubling the number would not sink the ship. We turn an official blind eye to the influx of cheap labor from south of the border, so maybe those fabled Jewish brains would be an asset. Anyway, I suspect all Jews wishing to come to America are already here. Those wishing to stay in Israel can determine their own fate.

Donald Wedin 11/03/06
E-mail: wedonmar@olypen.com