Joe Hack

In a move that reeks of hypocrisy and double-standards, the Bush administration has signed a deal that will provide Israel with $30bn (£14.8bn) of military aid over the next 10 years. Lest we forget, it is the Bush administration which has so vehemently condemned what it alleges are Irans atempts to provide small-scale military asistance to insurgents in Iraq and those opposing Israels occupation of Palestinian land. You would have wonder, as an objective observer, what the Bush administration would say if any other country tried to supply $30billion dollars of killing machines to any opponents of Israel in the middle east.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said the aid will preserve his country’s military advantage over other countries in the Middle East. The new military aid package represents a massive 25% increase from present levels. The Bush administration also announced multi-billion-dollar arms deals with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Gulf states last month. Washington says it wants to help its allies in the Middle East meet their security needs and counter the growing power of Iran in the region. Opponents say that the USA is engaging in a dangerous escalation of arms supply which will undoubtedly inflame an already desperate situation.Mr Burns, with sinister echoes of George Orwells 1984, called the $30 billion package of killing machines an “investment in peace”. The money must be used to purchase military equipment from the US defence industry, although Israel will also be permitted to use 26.3% to buy equipment from local companies. So coincidentally an indirect boost to Bushs friends in the weapons industry at the expense of the American taxpayer ? The arrangement requires Congressional approval, but Mr Burns said he thought there would be little opposition. Sadly, he is probably right.

Now I do not for one moment dispute the right of Israel to exist, although I firmly believe that its illegal occupation of Palestinian land remains a festering sore in the middle east that will fan the flames of conflict for as long as it goes on. It is quite likely, although not proven, that other countries like Iran and Syria are supplying various resistance groups .. insurgents .. call them what you will .. with very low-level assistance in terms of hardware, A few rifles, bits of explosive, certainly nothing large-scale like warplanes or tanks or cluster bombs or other sophisticated weaponry. It is an indisputable fact, however, that the Bush administration is pouring huge and unprecedented levels of weaponry into Israel which will do nothing but perpetuate the present desperate conflict. In terms of meddling where it has no business, America stands head and shoulders over any other power in the middle-east. But the truth is that for as long as Israel has the overwhelming military and nuclear superiority that it enjoys over its neighbors there is very little incentive for a moderate compromise to be reached. I am painting no-one exclusively as the bad guys because in the first place I do not go in for such simplistic bullshit and secondly because there is genuinely fault on all sides, but one-sided massive injections of killing machines is NOT the solution.

The only power on earth that might bring peace to the middle east right now is America and since he was elected president Bush has stubbornly and steadfastly refused to do a damn thing to help . All he seems to be capable of doing is to pour even more weapons into one of the longest-running and most bloody conflicts in modern times. It is exactly like throwing gasoline onto a fire. Whatever your feelings about Israel, and I know some Americans have a strange loyalty that defies logic or morality, what Bush is doing is really NOT the answer. In fact, it is the problem.Tags:al quaeda atrocity Bush civilian killing Israel Political News republican terrorism war on terroral quaeda, atrocity, Bush, civilian killing, Israel, Political News, republican, terrorism, war on terror

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