The Myth of Israel as ‘US Aircraft Carrier’ in Middle East, by Jean Bricmont and Diana Johnstone

Outside annual AIPAC meeting in Washington, March 2016. (Susan Melkisethian, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

If Israeli apartheid were to disappear, oil and trade would still flow from the Middle East towards the West.

Why does the United States give total support to Israel?

In answer, there is a common myth shared by both champions and radical critics of the Zionist state which needs to be dispelled.

The myth is that Israel is a major U.S. strategic asset, described as a sort of unsinkable American aircraft carrier vital to Washington’s interests in the Middle East.

The line of argument of those who share this myth is to show that the United States has economic and strategic interests in the oil-rich Middle East (which nobody denies) and to quote American (and, of course, Israeli) political figures who claim that Israel is the best or even the sole U.S. ally in the region.

For example U.S. President Joe Biden has gone so far as to say that if Israel didn’t exist the U.S. should have invented it.

But the crucial evidence, totally missing from their analysis, is the slightest example of Israel actually serving American interests in the region.

If no examples are given, it’s simply because there are none. Israel has never fired a shot on behalf of the United States or brought a drop of oil under U.S. control.

We can start with a common sense argument: If the U.S. is interested in Middle East oil, why would it support a country that is hated (for whatever reasons) by all the populations of the oil producing countries?

In the 1950s, such was the reasoning of most U.S. experts, who put good relations with Arab countries ahead of support to Israel. This no doubt helps explain why AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was founded in 1963, to align U.S. policy with that of Israel.

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One response to “The Myth of Israel as ‘US Aircraft Carrier’ in Middle East, by Jean Bricmont and Diana Johnstone

  1. Gandalf Carlin's avatar Gandalf Carlin

    The Rapture Express pablum puked from rockstar pastors.

    We must join at the hip with the indispensable or no ride on the express.

    No such event was mentioned for 1800 years.

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