Outside of the dumbed down American public, the rest of the world is well aware of the violent and brutal nature of US foreign policy. That policy has given rise to the widespread use of imprisonment, torture, assassination, political coups and a global network of CIA operated gulags. Abu Graiab and other US torture facilities smack of Israeli influence. This is what the state of Israel does to its political enemies and we are following suit. Both nations have a track record of extensive human rights violations; and both are appalling.

Because of its close ties with the US, Israel is essentially the fifty-first state of the US. Whatever the political aims of the US, it shares them in common with Israel. The Israeli influence upon US foreign policy is both profound and troubling. The Israeli political lobby in the US is deeply entrenched and active. Regardless how horribly Israel behaves toward Arabs; it is beyond reproach by the high priests of power and corruption operating the US government.

Richard Perle is one of the Israeli lobby’s chief operatives inside the Bush regime. Perle, like the true prince of darkness that he is, prefers to keep a low public profile. Those who do dark deeds prefer to avoid the light; and Richard Perle is such a man. But Perle’s finger prints are over the Bush regimes’ Middle East foreign policy. Make no mistake about it; Richard Perle is as virulent a malignancy as there is in the Bush regime. Given the menacing nature of the players involved, that takes some doing.

A word of caution seems in order at this point. While examining the nature of both the US and Israeli states, one has to be careful to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is important not to confuse the actions or inactions of a citizenry with those of the government that, in theory, at least, is supposed to represent them. The moral values of the citizenry may be the polar opposite of those of the government; or they may be virtually identical. The same applies to the people of Israel. When I refer to the US or Israel I am referring to their respective governments, not necessarily to the citizens themselves.

With the blessings of the US, and in full view of the world, Israel is engaged in a violent and malicious campaign of ethnic cleansing against the people of Palestine. Like the US in Iraq, Israel is an unlawful foreign occupier of Palestine. Few Americas can appreciate the harsh treatment, beatings, harassment and humiliation; and the frequent killings that the Palestinian people are routinely subjected to at the hands of the Israeli military. The violence and humiliation perpetrated upon the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip bears a striking similarity to that imposed upon the Iraqi people at the hands of an unlawful foreign invader—the United States. This is no accident. The commercial media in the US always portrays Israel in a positive light, while portraying the Palestinians as a group of blood thirsty, crazed fanatics incapable of respecting life.

That US made helicopter gun ships and munitions are routinely involved in the maiming and killing of Palestinians, many of them innocent women and children, is a fact that cannot be lost on them. US foreign policy in the Middle East, regardless of which party is in power, has never been even handed. It has never been just. It is utterly lacking moral authority and ethical integrity. That is why it has never succeeded at creating peace and stability in the region. Nor has that ever been its real intention either. Its intentions are more sinister—to pilfer the Arab owned oil reserves in the region; to arm and to use the Israeli military to impose martial law upon the region’s indigenous people; to extend the domain of US hegemony in the oil rich region. Every people have the right to defend themselves. However, Israel and the US are foreign occupiers in lands where they have no rights of ownership. The legitimate citizens of the occupied nations have an inherent right and moral obligation to resist foreign occupation, by any and all available means. Hence the quagmires we witness in the Gaza Strip and in Iraq. They are not going to go away in our lifetimes.

Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance writer residing in the eastern panhandle of West Virgina. He welcomes your comments at earthdog@highstream.net