Will Israel be America's New Iran?

In international relations, it's good to know who your friends are. Those in the White House today, and those who wish to be in it tomorrow, should take the time to reconsider America's "special relationship" with Israel. With the hindsight of history, we may look back on it as yet another colossal mistake.

Vice President Joe Biden's recent visit to Israel, where he expressed the United States' commitment to its security, was tarnished by the Israeli Interior Ministry's announcement that it would build 1,600 new settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem. It was a slap in the face to Biden, who was urging Palestinians to engage in peace negotiations with the Netanyahu administration. But the announcement is one of a list of "facts on the ground" created by Israel that cast shadows over its commitment to a viable two-state solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently added two shrines in the West Bank to a list of Israeli heritage sites, and the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, unveiled his plan to turn Palestinian districts of the city into Jewish heritage parks. The plan will obviously require more evictions and more Palestinian homes to be demolished, something Israel has rarely balked at. All this is music to the ears of the nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

While Biden was being slighted in Israel, the US State Department released its annual "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," which it presents to the US Congress. Though its report on Israel and the occupied territories is generally fair and well worth the read, the State Department parrots the unsubstantiated accusations made by Israel's apologists against the Goldstone Report, a UN investigation that found both Israel and Palestinian militants guilty of war crimes during the three-week military conflict over a year ago.

In terms of human rights, Israel's year could hardly have been worse. On top of its usual settlement expansions, use of torture, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial assassinations and other discriminatory policies, practices and restrictions, Israel managed to kill more than a thousand Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and collectively punished its entire population with a blockade. Thirteen Israelis were killed during that war, of which four were killed by friendly fire.

Though the report does recognize that scores of human rights violations took place, it repeats the factually inaccurate and misleading notion that Israel attacked Gaza "in response to a sharp increase in the number and frequency of rocket attacks into Israel prior to and following the expiration of Hamas' agreed period of 'calm' on December 19, 2008."

In fact, Israel's war was planned as Hamas was abiding by the cease-fire to coincide with the US elections and President Obama's inauguration. Rocket fire was reduced by 97 percent during the cease-fire, and the rockets fired were from groups other than Hamas and in response to Israeli actions in the West Bank. Israel, which failed to lift the blockade, broke the cease-fire on November 4, 2008, killing six Palestinians. Hamas resumed firing rockets afterward. But the State Department seems to have forgotten these facts. Israel's relationship with America is special indeed.

Beyond the influences of the Israel lobby in Washington, the relationship is hinged on the fact that nuclear-armed Israel is the region's only superpower - the United States can leverage its influence over Israel in its dealings with the Arab states. So the United States has spent billions to shore up its client state in the Middle East. But with an ultra right-wing government in Israel, and America's own reputation in tatters over Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel may be mostly undermining America's credibility.

America's pit bull in the region may become too difficult to control. The 2009 Israeli elections resulted in the formation of not only a right-wing government, but the most overtly hawkish in Israel's history. The ruling coalition includes the religious Shas party, whose head is Interior Minister Eli Yishai, and the ultra right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu, whose head is Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an immigrant of the former Soviet Union and a settler. In this political climate, it should come as no surprise that President Obama is not well liked in Israel.

The rise of right-wing ethnic nationalism in an already militaristic Israeli society makes it difficult for the United States to pretend both countries share common values and outlooks. Israel's youth are becoming as radicalized as its politicians. A recent poll of Israeli high school students showed that nearly half do not believe Israeli Arabs should have the same rights as Jews, and that more than half would deny Arabs the right to be elected to Israel's legislature. This radicalization is surprising considering most Israeli youth have not experienced the same level of violence and injustice as their Palestinian counterpart, yet a 2008 UN study revealed only eight percent of Palestinian young adults believe violence will help solve the conflict.

In its report, the US State Department did recognize the "institutional, legal, and societal discrimination" that Arab citizens and Palestinians face in Israel, and the situation seems to only be getting worse. America's special relationship with Israel will become harder to justify in the future if it turns out the "only democracy in the Middle East" is, in fact, Lebanon.

Israel is pressing the United States to move quickly on Iran, but the threat has been greatly exaggerated. Iran, if it obtains a few nuclear warheads, would not be quick to use one as it would be an act of national suicide. If the United States succeeded in containing the Soviet Union with its massive arsenal of WMDs, Iran would be a cake walk. If Iran wants a nuclear weapon, it is for deterrence. Seeing as the United States is occupying countries on Iran's eastern and western borders, it is understandable that Iran may desire the security having a nuke provides.

It is undesirable that Iran join the nuclear club, but it seems inevitable more states will seek to obtain nuclear weapons as long as such a club exists. For all this talk of Iran threatening to render the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty irrelevant, it would be worth remembering that Israel introduced nuclear weapons to the region in the first place and that it is not a signatory to the treaty.

Iran and its crackpot leader should serve as a lesson to America. In 1953, Iran's democratically elected government was toppled by the CIA for nationalizing its oil industry. America then backed the ruthless and autocratic Shah of Iran. This eventually led to the Iranian revolution, which gave rise to the theocratic government in place in Iran today.

The United States has often supported governments for short-term gains, only to pay the price later. The situation in Israel is nothing like the time of the Shah in Iran, but Iran is an example of America myopically backing whatever serves immediate gains and failing to foresee future outcomes. For an example closer to home, Americans need to look no further than 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

Israel may be the region's superpower, but it must be reined in. Unconditional support will only encourage bad behavior, which could truly harm America's interests in the region. The United States must reconsider its unqualified backing of Israel before the pit bull learns it can bite the hand that feeds it. 

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