Das zweischneidige
Schwert Demokratie Die Revolution in Ägypten bringt Israel in ein Dilemma: Freude über
den Umsturz und Angst vor politischem Chaos halten sich die Waage.
Wer würde einen Marsch zehntausender Palästinenser Richtung Israel
aufhalten können?
Kairos Palästina – Die
Stunde der Wahrheit Eines der gegenwärtig wichtigsten Dokumente zum
israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikt trägt den Titel "Kairos
Palästina – Die Stunde der Wahrheit". Es ist zugleich ein für die
ökumenische Bewegung insgesamt wichtiger Text. Die Autoren sind
palästinensische Christen und Christinnen.
At the end of January, I interviewed Jeff Halper of ICAHD while he was in New
York researching his new book on the Israeli defense industry. Here are some of
the key points in this very important interview which is also available as a
podcast.
“I don’t think Americans are really aware of the degree to which both
their monies and their presence in the world is felt almost solely in a
military sense...American troops are stationed in 174 of the 190 countries
in the world...So the American story abroad is absolutely a military story,
a negative presence, a military presence...a violent presence...The biggest
export of the US to the world is military violence and technology and Israel
is very much a part of tht because Israel is a surrogate for the US in many
places...the strongest lobby for Israel in Washington isn’t AIPAC, it’s the
defense contractors in the Pentagon.”
“Referring to the “rising new hegemon of the BRIC countries (Brazil,
Russia, India, China)”, Halper suggests “Israel would cut off the US
especially if it felt it was being compromised or if it felt the United
States was genuinely going to pressure it to give up the Occupation. Israel
wants to keep the Occupation.. That’s the basis of its security politics. So
it begins to play around--it doesn’t want all of its eggs in the American
basket.”
“Israel is trying to make itself indispensable to the big powers that be
and plays them off against each other just like Egypt did in the Cold
War...Israel has extremely close relationships to military contractors in
Europe...it’s developing jet fighters with Holland and Sweden, nano-weaponry
with Italy...Israel is the #1 arms exporter to India.”
“(Since 9/11) You have a whole other complex emerging where the
military is integrated with internal security within your country: airports,
borders, immigration, prisons--Israel is the world’s #1 developer of
drones...they also export the technology. Brazil has bought drones from
Israel because it has to pacify the favelas (in preparation the 2014 World
Cup Soccer finals and the 2016 Olympics).”
Halper says Israel is exporting what they’ve learned in the West Bank:
“how to control people...insurgent populations..a global Gaza...a
laboratory...it exports out...instruments of domestic control...used y
American police forces...smart fences and surveillance inside
cities...Israel just signed a contract with Canadian prisons.”
“With Israel there’s no such thing as civil liberties: there’s a real
contradiction between this idea of security and democracy, civil rights,
civil liberties... It’s called the securitization of policy, even the
militarization of policy. Once you say security takes precedence over
everything, you’re really on a slippery slope...The more you can scare
people and get into the war on terror, the more security becomes acceptable.”
Israel does a lot of business with Arab countries, with (powerful
minorities in) Iran...the Christians in Lebanon, the Kurds in Iraq...In West
Africa, Israelis, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah get together, dealing in arms,
diamonds...A Hezbollah guy said: ‘There is the Middle East we’re at war with
each other. Here (in West Africa) it’s all business.’”
In conclusion, Halper tells us: “Security politics is something we
should put much more of a light on than we do. If you did a security
politics map of the world-budgets, military relationships, transfer of
military technologies, control aspects...Israel would be a superpower...On
the map, it would be bigger than France or Britain...Israel is the fourth
largest nuclear power in the world and it never signed a nuclear
nonproliferation treaty...”
More about Dr. Jeff Halper, his books and the Jerusalem-based ICAHD (Israeli
Committee against House Demolitions) is available
here.