FORMER US Secretary of State (Late) Henry Kissinger once stated “It may be dangerous to be America’s ENEMY, BUT TO BE America’s FRIEND IS FATAL”.
Countries in the Gulf, like Qatar, which housed the biggest American Base in the region, and announced plans to invest trillions of US Dollars in USA, have been jolted by fatality of their friendship. While it is advisable for the Muslim Majority countries to tread carefully and diplomatically while dealing with major Western super powers, they must be very vigilant in maintaining any close relations. There is no need for confrontation, but to exercise caution. After the much publicized, meetings between US administration and President Trump, the Arab countries, and other Muslim Majority states had negotiated a 20-point plan for a Ceasefire in Gaza, cessation of bombardment and killings of unarmed Palestinians, withdrawal of IDF and simultaneous disarmament of Hamas etc. and right of Palestinians to form their own government (with exclusion of Hammas). However, what was announced jointly by President Trump and Netanyahu was very different from what was agreed with them. These were terms of a surrender by Palestinians, with no mention about fate of the land on which they had lived for centuries. Israel’s Minister for Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir deny the very existence of Palestine, although Bible and Holy Quran clearly state that Jesus Christ was born in Palestine and was crucified there on orders of Roman Governor of Jerusalem Pontius Pilate in the presence of extremist rabbis. The plan announced was regularization of annexation by Israel. Palestine existed much before advent of Judaism. It was known as the area of Cannan.
There should be no doubt, that relations between states are usually, transactional in essence, based on common strategic interests. The depth of these relations, depends on whether mutual interests of two nations are short term or long term. The US has a history of short-term transactional relations with countries, located far away from it, except with Israel, with whom it shares ideological relations, based on some concocted version of biblical events and Zionist version of Torah.
The Biblical reference to people of Israel is with reference to genocide by Pharoah, such as the killing of their first-born male child. In sharp contrast, Zionist Israel is involved in a genocide of Palestinians, where hundreds of thousands of unarmed women, children and elderly have been butchered, with weapons supplied by US, UK etc. Hospitals, schools and refugee camps have been bombed, and more bombs have been dropped on Gaza, than were dropped in WW11. What is going on, is a planned ethnic cleansing of Gaza, with declared objective of replacing it with Real Estate project called Mediterranean Riveria. This plan has been talked about by Jerry Kuchner, Donald Trump, Netanyahu and members of his extremist right-wing Zionist coalition government. The Plan announced by President Trump and Netanyahu envisages a caretaker government headed by Tony Blair (nicknamed as American Poodle, for his controversial role in the fake WMD in Iraq). Over 2Million Iraqi citizens were killed because of Tony Blair’s fabricated WMD allegation, which was used to justify NATO intervention. We must remember that Iraq was a former ally of USA, which it had armed to attack Iran in a war that lasted almost 8 Years.
It seems to in the nature of USA and beneficial to the interests of its Multi-Billion Armament industry, to create alliances and start wars, as long as casualties and fatalities are Muslims. Bob Woodward, in his book “VEIL” states “most crucial was President Zia’s willingness to allow CIA to funnel growing amounts of paramilitary support to the Afghanistan rebels through Pakistan. Casey, the CIA and Reagan Administration all wanted Zia to stay in power. — The CIA station in Islamabad was one of the biggest in the world”. No sooner had the US accomplished its goal of waging a Proxy War against Soviet Union to avenge its defeat in Vietnam, they abandoned Pakistan, and left it alone, to face the backlash from extremists and mercenaries of all shades and opinion, who were given sanctuary on its soil. It is an established norm that no State should allow armed militias on its soil. Pakistan made this folly and till to-date it continues to hammerague from within, facing threat of terrorism. It took Pakistan over five decades to realize that this short- term transactional relationship is to the sole advantage of USA. Finally, sanity prevailed, and we realized, that relations can be mutually beneficial between two countries, such as Pakistan and China, who share long term common strategic interests within their geographical region. The whole Middle East needs to wake up to ground realities. American perspective and policies are based solely on Israel’s interests and plans for proposed Greater Israel, which extends and includes parts of Holy sites in Saudi Arabia to parts of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon etc. to the borders of Iran. The only threat they face is from Israel. Territorial sovereignty of all Muslim majority countries and states in the region are threatened by Zionist ambitions and plans for expansion, in pursuit of their agenda of Greater Israel. Israel is the sole nuclear-powered State in the region, with a conventional army equipped with latest weaponry and yet uses perceived threats from its neighbors, to expand its boundaries and attack countries in the region. The US President has formally accepted annexation of Golan Heights, in violation of all international laws and declarations and rulings of ICJ, UN etc. This seems to be the new norm in the region.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Lahore.
