Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 36)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 36)
- المحتوى
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«Israel»
Prototype for the RDF
This is a continuation of the study on US—Israeli relations and the Zionist state’s role in the Middle East.
The US—Israeli 1983 memorandum of understanding was a
concrete working program for strategic military cooperation,
providing for: coordination of objectives, strategies and tac-
tics; prepositioning US military equipment, ammunition and
fuel in ‘Israel’; US use of Isracli hospitais in an emergency; use
of Haifa port by the US 6th fleet; US air force use of Israeli
runways and ground support, and the construction of a special
facility for US Strategic Projection Force aircraft; shipment of
US supplies to the Lebanese Army overland via ‘Israel’;
intelligence-sharing; Israeli maintenance and overhaui of US
aircraft and ships in the eastern Mediterranean; cooperation in
anti-submarine warfare; «anti-terrorist» cooperation; coor-
dinated air and naval maneuvers; coordinated defense industry
planning, and research and development; and joint economic
and security projects in ‘third world’ countries.
In the main, the 1983 agreement represented institu-
tionalization of military cooperation that has evolved over the
years, based on the imperatives of imperialist strategy in the
Middle East, and the Zionist leadership’s efforts to assert its
ability to further these imperatives. An earlier installment of
this study dealt with this agreement in terms of US objectives
(see Democratic Palestine 18:«lsrael: Nom de Guerre for US
Military Base»).This article will examine the special operations
undertaken by ‘Israel’ to attain its status as the local power
most capable of projecting US imperialism’s force in the area.
Although the Zionists usually emphasize Israeli «defense
and security» needs, the reality is that few if any of the state’s
military operations can be justified in terms of defense. In ad-
dition to expansionism, an overriding aim of Israeli wars and
special operations has been to attain recognition that ‘Israel’ is
imperialism’s most valuable ally in the region. Long before the
WIS conceived the Rapid Deployment Force (now the Central
€ ommand) or began building its own bases in the Middle East,
‘Isracl’) was serving as a de facto RDF for imperialist
endeavors. In 1966, an Israch official told the New York
Times, «The US has come to the conclusion that it can no
longer respond to every incident around the world, that it must
rely on a local power... as a first line to stave off America’s
direct involvement... Israel feels that she fits this definition»
(cited in Palestine Focus, May-June 1987). The US’s tendency
to use ifs own military power in the Middle East over the past
decade has not diminished the Israeli role, but rather had led to
more advanced cooperation between the two states.
TERROR AND DISINFORMATION
It was ‘Israel’ that staged the world’s first hijacking in
Necember 1954, capturing a civilian Syrian aircraft to get
hostages to exchange for Israeli soldiers who had been cap-
tured infiltrating Syrian territory. In 1958, the Zionist state
provided logistical support at Haifa port for the landing of US
Marines in Lebanon to prop up Camille Chamoun’s pro-
imperialist government. This set the precedent for May 1983,
when the USS Savannah docked at Haifa to take on supplies
36
for the 6th fleet anchored off Beirut, in the failed attempt to
shore up Amin Gemayel’s reactionary government. Later the
same year, the memorandum of understanding was signed,
making such US naval visits routtne. As reported by the
Jerusalem Post, April 4, 1986, US ships have anchored in
Haifa 221 times since 1977, including twelve visits by aircraft
carriers.
As fighting erupted between the Jordanian regime and the
Palestinian revolution in 1970, ‘Israel’ eyed the chance to prove
its credentials in Washington once again, and possibly expand
its Own territory eastwards. The Israeli intelligence claimed
Syria had invaded Jordan with a massive force on the side of
the Palestinians - a claim which the US was obviously unable to
verify. ‘Israel’ claimed it would take both the army and air
force to deal with this. Though nothing materialized, Rabin,
then Israeli ambassador to the US (currently Defense
Minister), recorded the Israeli gains in his memoirs as he
asserted had been related to him by Kissinger: «The President
(Nixon) will never forget. Israel’s role in preventing the
deterioration in Jordan and blocking the attempt to overthrow
the regime there. He (Nixon) said the United States is fortunate
in having an ally like Israel in the Middle East. These events
will be taken into account in all future developments» (quoted
in Seymour Hirsch, The Price of Power and cited in the Jour-
nal of Palestine Studies 54, Winter 1985).
SETTING PRECEDENTS FOR BLACKMAIL
‘Israel’ has staged a series of spectacular ‘firsts’ to establish
its reputation. ay a ‘superman’ able to deal with ‘terrorists’
(read: anti-imperialists) and to battletest military equipment
and techniques for itself and its allies. In 1968, Israeli war
planes attacked Beirnt airport and destroyed 13 civilian
airliners. In 1972, the Mossad arranged the carbomb
assassination of Palestinian writer and PFLP leader, Ghassan
Kanafani. In 1973, an Israeli commando force killed three
PLO leaders in Beirut - Kamal Nasser, Kamal Adwan and Abu
Joseph Najjar - in an operation similar to the recent assassina-
tion of Khalil Al Wazir in Tunis (see article in this issue). In the
same terrorist tradition, the Mossad has murdered a series of
Palestinian patriots abroad, while in the autumn of 1985, the
Israeli air force staged a long-range bombing attack on the
PLO headquarters in Tunis.
According to Amos Perlmutter, Michae! Handel and Uri
Bar-Joseph, authors of Two Minutes Over Baghdad (1982), all
of whom have close ties to the Israeli military establishment,
the 1976 Israeli raid on Entebbe, Uganda, was the first long-
range «rescue» operation of its kind. The 1981 attack on the
lraqi nuclear reactor was the first «pre-emptive» action against
a nuclear installation in history - something previously con-
sidered by the US against Soviet facilities - and the longest
bombing raid in Israeli history. Begin bragged, «This will be
my Entebbe» - anticipating greater popularity as crystallized in
his subsequent election victory. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 29
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