And this is not to be missed.
Josh Paul
The State Department's Dual Standard for Israel
Thursday, October 24th7:00 PM (EST)(Cocktails start at 6:30 pm)
1700 8th St NW, Washington, DC
Josh is an insider’s insider. He toiled in the State Department for more than 11 years working as a Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which is responsible for U.S. security assistance and arms transfers. He also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Army Staff, and as a Congressional staffer for Representative Steve Israel (D-NY). Josh holds master's degrees from the Universities of Georgetown and St Andrews, Scotland. He is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the organization Democracy Now for the Arab World (DAWN) and a recipient of the 2023 Callaway Award for Civic Courage.
Josh verifies the wisdom of George Washington’s Farewell Address in warning against excessive fondness towards any nation. The words are worth quoting in full because they fit like a glove the one-sided blind love affair between the United States and Israel:
“[A] passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.”
The dual system for Israel Josh will detail confirms President Washington. Josh will describe the State Department’s SOP as one standard for Israel and another for all other nations; the injury to the United States caused by extralegal, unconditional, and unquestioning provision of lethal military assistance to Israel over Gaza, the West Bank, South Lebanon, or otherwise; and the unredressability of the injury because of the political dynamics endowing AIPAC and the military-industrial-security complex with undue influence in the corridors of power.
Israel knows America’s eagerness to play poodle. As long ago as October 3, 2001, according to Israel radio Kol Yisrael, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres warned Prime Minister Arik Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and “turn the US against us.” An infuriated Sharon shouted, “every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don't worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.”
Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s soundtrack is a rule-based international order. But he can be summoned as a witness against himself. He shuts his eyes to Israeli genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He hotly denies that Israel targets civilians—even when he knows civilians use pagers or walkie talkers and will suffer death or injury when they explode.
Flint Hill VA 22627
USA