Israel’s penchant for bloodshed finds a willing partner

The US has continued to offer proof that no correlation is necessary between a massive outlay on military technology and security when it comes to Israel. All it requires as prerequisites are human rights violations and a commitment to colonial expansion in order to propagate a security narrative that is selectively triumphant and defective, depending upon circumstances and the motives of the day.

YNet news has reported that following a letter signed by 83 US senators to President Barack Obama, the White House has agreed to increase military aid to Israel. According to an unnamed administration official, “In light of Israel’s dramatically rising defence challenges, we stand ready to support a substantially enhanced new long-term agreement to help provide Israel the resources it requires to defend itself and preserve its qualitative military edge.”

The White House statement also clarified that the forthcoming memorandum of understanding between Israel and the US “would constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in US history.” Israel is seeking an increase from $3.1 billion per year in military aid to $4 billion; an incredible $11 million a day.

Obama seems to be making the most of his last months in office by accelerating and exacerbating human rights abuses by employing various strategies, notably the maintenance of support for Israel at the expense of the civilian Palestinian population. In a way, the recent revelation can be applied to what is happening in Arab countries in the region; countries are being turned into more or less failed states followed by “sincere” attempts to rescue them, often by the same factions which have corrupted them in the first place and are subservient to the US. Israel’s strategic function is to allow America to employ the same rhetoric about Israeli “security” while exploiting its increasingly invisible victims.

Contrary to the White House statement, the expected increase in military aid to Israel does not reflect any “dramatically rising” security concerns. It is, however, reflective of the constructed dependency that Israel and the US have nurtured, as well as indicative of which is the only entity in Washington’s eyes deserving of preservation in the region. This is despite the fact that the reining-in of Israel, or a one-state solution, would constitute a major first step towards initiating stability in the Middle East.

For Palestine, the increased military aid to Israel is not only a threat to its remaining slivers of territory and its civilian population but also a blatant humiliation complete with bullies, spectators and victims. At the helm is the parody provided by the UN and international law, followed by international organisations dependent upon US financial support. The trickle of aid given grudgingly to Palestine, yet lauded by the puppets in charge of the mundane details of colonial exploitation, is nothing but a veneer facilitating the cycle of negotiations and temporary alleviation, with the latter becoming a perpetual factor as Israel designates further indignities to inflict upon the Palestinians.

To speak of discrepancies in all of this would be to do a disservice to Palestinians. This latest nefarious scheme is an exercise in power and impunity which turns international law into a defective and helpless bystander. What is the point of having laws and conventions which guarantee the right to resist colonialism by any available means when the political spectrum, particularly the relationship between Israel and the US, has rendered them obsolete when it comes to their implementation? Israel’s apparently insatiable penchant for bloodshed has indeed found a willing partner in the United States of America. Shame on them both.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.