Noam Chomsky on Why Does the U.S. Support Israel? : ​
why does the united states support #israel ? well there's a history and a very interesting one that actually goes back to goes back a long time one thing to remember is that christian zionism is a very powerful force which goes back long before jewish zionism in england particularly christian zionism was a powerful force among british elites it's part of the motivation for the balfour declaration and for britain's support for jewish colonization of israel remember the bible said you know and that's a big part of british elite culture same in the united states woodrow wilson was a

devout christian who read the bible every day so did harry truman in the roosevelt administration one of the leading officials harold ickes once described the return of the jews to #palestine as the greatest event in history it's realizing the lesson of the bible these are deeply religious countries in which the biblical commands so-called are taken quite literally also this is just part of colonization this is the last phase of european colonization and notice that the countries that are most strongly in support of israel are not just the united states it's the united states australia and canada the offshoots of england anglosphere sometimes called unusual forms of imperialism these are settler colonial societies colon societies in which the not like india not like the british in india say the societies the south africa was a little like this or algeria under the french settler colonial societies in which the settlers came in essentially eliminated the native population also driven by religious principles very religious groups driven by christian zionism those are major cultural factors there are also significant geostrategic factors and you go back to 1948 there was actually a split between the state department and the pentagon in the united states over how to react to the new state of israel the state department was

was questioned it was not committed strongly to israeli conquests the establishment of the state and was concerned about the refugees it wanted an implementation of the refugee problem the pentagon on the other hand was very impressed with israel's military potential the israeli military successes if you look back at the internal record and declassified the joint chiefs of staff described israel as the second largest military force in the region after turkey and a potential base for u.s power in the region that continued can't run through the whole record but in 1958 when there was a serious crisis in the region

israel was the only state that strongly cooperated with britain in the united states and it won plenty of support from the governments and the military for that reason 1967 is when the current relations with israel were pretty much established israel performed a major service to the united states by destroying a secular arab nationalism a major enemy of the united states and supporting radical islam which the u.s supported and it continues right until the present right now we saw an example of that just during the gaza latest gaza attack you recall that at one point israel began to run out of munitions during the assault despite the fact that it's uh armed to the teeth that the united states provided israel with additional munitions through the pentagon and notice where they were taken from these were u.s munitions pre-positioned in israel for eventual use by u.s forces one of many signs of how the israel is regarded as essentially a military offshoot of the united states very close intelligence relations that go way back many other connections and the media tend to take up to support the policy of the government with very few you know kind of little questioning around the edges but basically accept the policy so for example take another issue take the u.s invasion of iraq you cannot find the phrase u.s invasion of iraq in the u.s media there was obviously an invasion a blatant act of aggression a textbook case of well that's nuremberg trials called the supreme international crime cannot be mentioned president obama is praised as an opponent of the invasion what did he say he said it's a mistake it's a strategic blunder we're not going to get away with it now that's about as that's the kind of opposition that you heard from the german general staff during hitler's invasion of russia it's a blunder shouldn't do it should knock off england first that's regarded as opposition the same in vietnam it's now there's now a commemoration underway big commemoration of u.s sacrifices in vietnam try to find the phrase u.s invasion of south vietnam there or anywhere in the past year since 1961 when it took place non-existent maybe on democracy now i would i write but way out of the fringe and this is not unique to the united states it takes a britain right now there's interesting debates in the british literary journals like the times literary supplemen... #chomsky

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