A full-page ad (one page PDF file) in the July 2nd edition of the Sunday New York Times seeks realistic changes in the current unwritten alliance between Israel and the United States. It charges that as it now stands the alliance is responsible for subverting U.S. national interests away from the principles on which the American nation was founded.
Alluding to the upcoming Independence Day celebration, the ad, which will be read by 3 million readers of the Sunday Times, argues that "while we celebrate others needlessly suffer under an illegal occupation, with no end in sight. Here at home, the Bush administration has sung its own praises about democraticizing the Arab world while hypocritically implementing a policy intended to bring down the duly elected government of the Palestinian people.""How it is that our alliance with Israel has led us so far astray [from our founding principles]?" the ad asks.
Sponsored by the Council for the National Interest Foundation, the ad is captioned, "America and Israel: A Troubling Alliance." It quotes President Eisenhower's famous reference to the military-industrial complex in his farewell address and states that today it has been replaced by a military-industrial-intelligence complex in which the United States interests are now intertwined with Israel's. It is now becoming difficulty to separate U.S. and Israeli interests.
Ads
By linking its national interests to Israel, the United States has been led into a "an almost senseless war and occupation" in Iraq, into backing Israel's claims to the West Bank and Golan Heights, and into mimicking in Iraq Israel's military and targeted assassination approach to counterinsurgency, which has severely complicated U.S. efforts to deal with worldwide terrorism.
To fix the U.S.-Israel alliance, the Council suggests that the U.S. press Israel to finally agree upon internationally recognized borders with Palestine and Syria (still undefined after almost 60 years of existence); press Israel to accept a viable two-state solution in negotiation with the Palestinians; seek the help of the Arab League to make a peace with Palestine a regional peace; and insist that Israel acknowledge its nuclear arsenal, join the non-proliferation treaty, and submit its nuclear material-handling facilities to a new international inspection agency. That way it could turn megatons of nuclear material into megawatts of electricity, and save billions of dollars in oil imports.
The ad urges Congress to hold a series of hearings on the alliance and the "road to peace" in the Middle East, with witnesses from all interested parties, not just from Israel and its supporters. It seeks the monitoring of Israeli aid as an essential step to realignment its alliance.
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Haitham,
This is REALLY good. I found this article dated April 6th by the CNI Foundation which bought this ad. They were trying to raise the amount needed, $49,000, to publish it. It also seems they had some problems getting it in the paper in the first place
http://standforjustice.blogspot.com/2006/04/cni-to-publish-new-york-times-ad.html
CNI is an interesting entity. It is made up of American citizens of all walks of life http://www.cnionline.org/about/
There mission statement is this “CNI seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values, protects our national interests, and contributes to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as to restore a political environment in America in which voters and their elected officials are free from the undue influence and pressure of a foreign country, namely Israel.”
It’s founder is Paul Findley, a former congressman. This is REALLY REALLY good news for us Americans who are so tired of the same old bias. Now if CNI could just publish it in the LA Times (and every other city’s paper) I would be happy as a clam!
Yes, CNI (Council for the National Interest) is doing good work in the U.S. It is tiny compared to the Zionist lobby, but we have to start somewhere. Here’s a few of the former govt. officials who are participating–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERX8WpM_cRg
They also have a forum, but it doesn’t seem to be used much–
http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewforum&f=1
Support them if you can!
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