tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16816866.post116882164475903793..comments2024-02-29T02:10:56.878-08:00Comments on J O S H U A P U N D I T: The Bush Administration prepares to sandbag Israel - and slaps Abbas around a littleFreedom Fighterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13649470110087808596noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16816866.post-1168841851223525242007-01-14T22:17:00.000-08:002007-01-14T22:17:00.000-08:00Indeed they could.It's not well known, but the US ...Indeed they could.<BR/><BR/>It's not well known, but the US refused to even sell arms to Israel (with one small exception, a few air defence missiles during the Kennedy Administration) or give them any aid until well after the 1967 war.<BR/><BR/>That includes the 1948 war, when Israel was attacked at the moment of its UN sanctioned birth by 5 well armed (and in one case,British officered) Arab armies who were quite plain about their intentions to massacre every Jew in Israel.<BR/><BR/>In 1967, the Israelis used French Mystere jets, obsolete US, British and French arms and some stuff that was, frankly, improv..captured Soviet cannons on a British Centurion tank chasis with American electronics, for instance.<BR/><BR/>The US in 1967, inthe words of LBJ, was `neutral in thought, word and deed.'<BR/><BR/>Nixon, really, was the one who changed all that.<BR/><BR/>And in the past,when some American administrations have made unreasonable demands, the Israelis have in fact said `no', notably during the Carter and Bush `41 administrations.<BR/><BR/>Israel's problem is the same one we have here - weak, ineffectual compromised leadership. Olmert is an accidental PM who is despised by most Israelis (the last Ma'ariv poll showed him with a 14% approval rating)but has managed to barely stay afloat by juggling coalition politics. <BR/><BR/>He is the first Israeli PM without any significant military experience, and his wife, daughter and sons are part of the lunatic fringe of the Israeli Left.<BR/><BR/>He won't last very much longer..and hopefully Israel will not sufer permanent damage because of his idiocy. For now, he and Livni are content to play the game with Bush and Condi Rice.<BR/><BR/>BTW, the vast majority of the aid Israel gets ( actually, about $3B) gets spent here to buy US arms and as credit towards Israel's share of the R&D costs of joint weapons programs like the Patriot and Arrow missiles.Freedom Fighterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13649470110087808596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16816866.post-1168831935543861352007-01-14T19:32:00.000-08:002007-01-14T19:32:00.000-08:00But does Israel have to accept these concessions? ...But does Israel have to accept these concessions? Can't they just say "screw you, America, we're gonna do it our way" and leave it at that? <BR/><BR/>Of course, I guess that 2 billion a year in $ doesn't come without any strings attached, but surely we wouldn't just cut them off, right?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com