America and Israel

Oct 16, 2024 Editorial

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – There was a certain resignation that it was just a matter of time before matters came to where they are now. Global media headlines said all that needed to be said. America is sending an air defense system and troops to Israel. The objective is “to defend Israel.” If there is any set of people who are in urgent need of a strong defending presence, it is the population of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. With regret, and to America’s shame, the cries of the embattled, brutalized Palestinians have been largely ignored. Their constant pounding from the air and by land theirs to bear, however they can. But America is sending military hardware and military men to help defend Israel. This is the Alice in Wonderland world lived by America regarding the daily conflagration and human destruction that are now as commonplace as the sunshine that beats so cruelly on helpless people.

It is an irrefutable aspect of huge historical developments that big events begin with small steps. America should have known better, done well to recall what became the quagmire of Vietnam. How its small actions began in similar fashion in Southeast Asia, and how it got irretrievably stuck there for long, costly decades. The arms went, then the advisors followed. One American president, then another, and last a third all got trapped by their own mistakes, which contributed to tremendous upheavals in both the international arena, as well as the domestic front. Vietnam became a vacuum that sucked in China, Russia, and North Korea on one side. On the American side, the backing came from Australia, New Zealand, and Europe in one form or another. The teeming jungles of Vietnam became a quicksand and deathtrap for American money, men, and materiel. Is that timeworn adage all over again: history repeating itself?

America has supplied Israel in liberal quantities with money, war materiel, and now the first trickles of its men. On the surface, they are to operate the sophisticated air defense system in the event of another ballistic attack on Israel, as such had originated in Iran. This is an ominous development, with great risks of escalating tensions in an already volatile theater of conflict. The rest of the Middle East is watching uneasily, while the rest of the world cannot be happy with anything that is related to the latest American decision.

Where is the limit to America’s utterly one-sided involvement in what went from savage war to tragic humanitarian condition? There may be none, since this is an election year in the US, and it is getting closer and closer. The incumbent Democrats have come under intensifying fire from their Republican foes, about not being fully committed to the side of Israel, not doing enough. It was the same stoking of the embers about being “soft on communism” that pushed Democratic party presidents into Korea, then Vietnam. The Republicans led by red-baiting Senator Joe McCarthy (a helpless alcoholic) goaded the Democrats in charge into taking irresponsible actions that led to great turmoil in different places. Seventy-five years later, the hard right in the Republican camp, with erratic former president Donald Trump leading the way, have found an issue that causes no end of disturbance in the White House and the party that holds much of the power. To appear to be weak on Israel could be a fatal consideration, which the Democrats are trying desperately not to be. Hence, there is this call to another level of commitment to the cause of Israel,

It is doubtful that other powers competing for influence in the Middle East will be unmoved by what is sure to be seen as a dangerous extension of America’s already formidable presence alongside Israel. The Palestinians are starving and dying in their numbers, but there is America, the mediator of the world, so ensnared in what does not help the situation, but hinders any sustained movement towards de-escalation. It is brutal world and war is hell, yet America and Israel have both seem to come to love it. When all efforts should be dedicated to lowering tensions, America sends an air defense system and men. The danger is palpable, not to be underestimated.

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