John Mearsheimer: Israel's Real Purpose In Its Atrocities in Gaza

John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, co-author of the paper (available online) and subsequent book (with Stephen Walt) _The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy_, presents a concise timeline description and absolutely the clearest account of the true reason behind Israel's wanton atrocities in Gaza.

Mearsheimer argues that diminishing Hamas or stopping their rockets are subsidiary goals for Israel, to Israel's more central goal of controlling all of historical Palestine via an "Iron Wall" policy that would permanently subjugate the Palestinian people and ensures Israeli control of all Palestinian land, air, water, borders/sea, and economy.

Mearsheimer points out that this goal cannot be achieved, and certainly not by the brutal method of a total war on the Palestinian people. The likely outcome even in the case of relative Israeli success is a permanent Apartheid, which itself will [thankfully] doom Israel as a chauvinistically and exclusionary "Jewish State" [and its racist state ideology of Zionism].

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"Another War, Another Defeat"

- by John J. Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago,

writing for The American Conservative,

January 26, 2009

Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Don’t believe it. Israel has foolishly started another war it cannot win.

The campaign in Gaza is said to have two objectives: 1) to put an end to the rockets and mortars that Palestinians have been firing into southern Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005; 2) to restore Israel’s deterrent, which was said to be diminished by the Lebanon fiasco, by Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and by its inability to halt Iran’s nuclear program.

But these are not the real goals of Operation Cast Lead. The actual purpose is connected to Israel’s long-term vision of how it intends to live with millions of Palestinians in its midst. It is part of a broader strategic goal: the creation of a “Greater Israel.” Specifically, Israel’s leaders remain determined to control all of what used to be known as Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful of disconnected and economically crippled enclaves, one of which is Gaza. Israel would control the borders around them, movement between them, the air above and the water below them.

The key to achieving this is to inflict massive pain on the Palestinians so that they come to accept the fact that they are a defeated people and that Israel will be largely responsible for controlling their future. This strategy, which was first articulated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s and has heavily influenced Israeli policy since 1948, is commonly referred to as the “Iron Wall.”

What has been happening in Gaza is fully consistent with this strategy.

[read more here:] http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/jan/26/00006/

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