MER - Washington - 2/14/98:
It's not too often these days that you find an American journalist or politician speaking up about the extraordinarily close and hypocritical U.S./Israeli alliance.
Back in 1990 right-winger Pat Buchanan insisted that it was Israel and
its "Amen Corner" (alias for "lobby") that was the main source
of pressure in Washington to go to war with Iraq. Right as he was
then
and now he was vilified then and since.
This
provocative little column comes from the Orlando Sentinel newspaper in
Florida. Pass it along.
Just so you can keep up with the perpetual crisis in the Middle East, I have a little quiz for you.
Question:
Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer:
Israel.
Q:
Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty and bars international inspections?
A:
Israel.
Q:
Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other
nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United
Nations Security Council resolutions?
A:
Israel.
Q:
Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders
of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent
assassins
into other countries to kill its political enemies
(a
practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)?
A:
Israel.
Q:
In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military
officers
admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were
executed?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its
soldiers
who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country in the Middle East created 762,000 refugees and refuses to
allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation
to
people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated?
A:
Israel.
Q:
In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United
Nations
diplomat assassinated?
A:
Israel.
Q:
In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered
the
assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become
prime
minister?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic
facility
in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship in international
waters,
killing 33 and wounding 177 American sailors?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan
Pollard,
to steal classified documents and then gave some of
them
to the Soviet Union?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country at first denied any official connection to
Pollard,
then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the
American president grant Pollard a full pardon?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby
in
the United States, according to a recent Fortune magazine
survey
of Washington insiders?
A:
Israel.
Q:
Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United
Nations
Security Council resolutions and has been protected
from
29 more by U.S. vetoes?
A:
Israel.
Q:
What country is the United States threatening to bomb because
"U.N.
Security Council resolutions must be obeyed?"
A:
Iraq.