Israel has no ‘Protective Edge’

While writing this article, the deluge of innocent blood continued to flow unabated across the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip. The rabid madness of the Zionist killing machine is igniting a Palestinian holocaust without ovens, but with the use of nano-enriched uranium missiles whose intense heat melts metal in no seconds. Israel’s operation “Protective Edge” is without any safety rail and will never provide protection for Israel in its slide towards a bottomless pit, according to well versed military and political observers, most important among them Lt. General Michael Flynn, head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Philip Gordon, President Barack Obama’s Middle East adviser.

“Is there going to be peace in the Middle East?” asked Flynn, recently while speaking before an audience of national security specialists in Washington DC. His answer was: “Not in my lifetime, not in my lifetime”. General Flynn’s speech was delivered while the rabid beastly Israeli machine was slaughtering women, children and others in Gaza. The general asserted the fact that “the Middle East conflict has become a clear threat to American national security”. The biggest threat of all, he noted is “the threat of an unconventional weapon in the hands of people who I know having the intent to use it”. And it will be used, according to the CIA’s testimony before the Senate committee on intelligence, delivered two years ago. The CIA identified Flynn’s “unconventional weapon” as the dirty bomb, billing it “Al Qaida’s favourite weapon of choice” which is made of conventional explosives with the addition of a radioactive element such as Cesium-137 which can be easily obtained from any hospital treating cancer patients with atomic radiation. Both the DIA and the CIA appear certain that if the fighting in the Middle East keeps going on, the so-called dirty bomb will be used. Flynn’s extreme pessimism stems from the fact that the Palestinian/Israeli conflict has been transformed by the ruling Israeli Likud party into a religious conflict and such conflicts are fought until death without any possibility of a compromise.

Gordon in a harsh speech shocked a large Israeli audience at Haaretz’ newspaper International Conference on Peace on July 8 when he said that “the United States of America will not be able to defend Israel against international pressures after failing to delineate its borders and end its occupation, according to the two-state solution.” He said the “Israeli occupation shall certainly lead Israel into isolation by the international community resulting with boycott”. His next shocking words followed: “The United States will never agree to or support the annexation of the West Bank.” Gordon concluded by saying that “only when Palestinians enjoy a life with liberty and security with true sense of dignity and sovereignty, Israel shall attain its peace and true security”.

Horrified right-wingers in Israel were extremely shocked and one of them - David Horowitz - commented on the speech in Powerline by saying: “What’s happening? Philip Gordon criticised Israel as if he just arrived from another planet, the Zod, mixing the Middle East with Finland.” Headlines of the Israeli news media followed the speech with comments echoing Gordon’s warnings: “Boycott and isolation if Israel won’t end occupation”, “The White House says US can’t stop ‘tsunami’ of boycott and isolation if Israel won’t end the occupation” and “Obama’s top official blasts Israel for denying Palestinians sovereignty, security and dignity”.

Flynn and Gordon’s reality shocks came soon after the occupied Jerusalem-based think-tank, The Jewish People Policy Institute released its long awaited study, titled “Jewish and Democratic: Perspectives from World Jewry” which revealed the increased growth of support of American Jews for the boycott of Israel and the changing landscape of the Palestinian non-violent BDS campaign debate in the US. Despite its focus on American Jews who oppose “the racist policies of Israel”, the study highlighted the same opposition among the mainstream Christian sector in America by declaring: “the Presbyterian Church of USA joins the BDS movement”. The study said “occupation negates security, democracy and peaceful co-existence and will lead to a racist state in the end”. Moreover, it stated that “in the United States where the debate over the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) is heavy and heated, The Jewish Voice for Peace (a coalition of Zionists, anti-Zionists and non-Zionists) states clearly that it aligns itself with methods as well as the aims of the Palestine Boycott National Committee that calls for ending the occupation, achieving equality for Palestinians living in Israel and recognising the Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return.”

The Jewish Voice Rabbinical Council, headed by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and Rabbi Brian Walt strongly believes that Palestinian human rights are God-given and the BDS campaigns of boycott against Israel are a righteous movement that should be supported by all Jews. These very conscious Jews are certain that a racist/apartheid Jewish state will never survive for long. They are only trying to save Israel from its self-destructive behaviour which for sure would bring and hasten its end. But would Israel heed such calls to move on a right path and change its policy to save itself from its un-protective edge that is devoid of any safety rail?

Professor As’ad Abdul Rahman is the chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.