U.S. Special Relationships in the Middle East
U.S. policy in the Middle East has for decades pivoted on two countries: Saudi Arabia and Israel. Washington is the guarantor of both states. They are heavily armed by the Pentagon. Saudi Arabia, aggressively promoting its own brand of fundamental Islam, Wahabism, has supported extremist groups starting in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1980s. Today, rich Saudis stoke sectarianism in Syria and Iraq. Saudi armies invade Bahrain. Its air force bombs Yemen. As for Israel, it occupies a privileged position in Washington’s worldview. No matter the administration, Democrat or Republican, no other country has received as much diplomatic, military and financial support. The Palestinians? Sorry, you’re not special. Palestinians have always been marginal to the geopolitical concerns of U.S. policymakers. They are invited to so-called peace processes, which may lead to Bantustans with a few casinos and malls.
This event was presented by the Lannan Foundation.
Speaker
Richard Falk
Richard Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton. He is the co-convener of SHAPE, Save Humanity and Planet Earth. He is the recipient of the UNESCO Peace Education Prize. He served as special rapporteur for the United Nations from 2008-2014 on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. He is the author of numerous books including The Great Terror War, Unlocking the Middle East, Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope and Chaos and Counterrevolution: After The Arab Spring. He is the co-author of Protecting Human Rights in Occupied Palestine.
Howard Mettee –
It is a pity that much of the rest of the world agrees that as a minimum the Palestinians have a moral right to their own state that Israel and the US denies them. This is the very thing the US and Israel insists upon for themselves, and rightly so. Why is it they cannot admit that others who share this world. are not also entitled to an independent nation as a birthright?
In more diplomatic terms Professor Falk outlines this historical conflict and its many complicated facets. Yet still one cannot wonder why that as the slow extinguishment of a people actually takes place in front of our eyes proceeds, it is not characterized as genocide much as was exacted upon the Native Americans of the US some 150-200 years ago. Not a pretty picture for a society that prides itself on social justice, equality of opportunity and freedoms that cannot be supported without an equitable economy. One hopes Professor Falk’s words might stir the conscience of the foreign policy establishment(s) of the US-Israel complex.