Israel seeks automatic US aid

Press TV has interviewed Ralph Schoenman, the author of the Hidden History of Zionism. from Berkeley who talks about Israel’s war preparations and US President Barack Obama’s needs to keep Tel Aviv satisfied to win the country’s upcoming election.

The following is a transcript of the interview.

Press TV: This request for 700 million dollars of US taxpayer's money is yet to be approved, but would you be at all surprised if it is, and?

Schoenman: There is no question that it will be approved. I should mention to you that the request was above and beyond the money that the Pentagon has already approved for Israel's Iron Dome system and short-range missiles, which were completely unsuccessful during the attacks by Israel on Gaza recently.

The Israelis want to expand the number of batteries available, but it goes far beyond that. The two top layers of the systems they seek will be the high-altitude Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems that are designed to counter ballistic missiles, specifically, quote here, from Iran's Shahab 3B and … and Syria's Scud C&M600 weapons. So this is clearly designated as part of a prepared assault upon Syria and Iran as well.

The entire Arrow program is stipulated in United Press International as having largely been funded by the US since the 1990s, and they are rushing as many batteries of the Iron Dome in the operation deployment as fast as possible - this is a quote unquote from the United Press International.

So we have to see this in its precise provocative context. The Jerusalem Post has reported that Israel is seeking an automatic multi-year US missile aid. They state that Israel is seeking a multi-year budget, which will not require administration approval, but which will be automatic on an annual basis. They are seeking to increase this military aid for Israel's missile systems and establishing an automatic multi-year program, which I repeat and I quote, "will not require annual approval."

This is beyond the estimated three billion dollars, which is the formal number under a ten-year memorandum of understanding that was signed in 2007.

So this is a rapid escalation of the funding for a missile system, which is designed to prepare for expanded war and there's no issue about this.

The US war games that were prepared by the Pentagon, which leaked into the New York Times on March 21st, underscore the advanced character and recklessness of the Obama administration’s preparation for war against Iran in complete conjunction with the Zionist state…

Press TV: This request by Israel for 700 million dollars from US taxpayers is coming at a time when the US administration is right not dealing with a debt crisis of its own, its debt keeps increasing; its credit rating was even downgraded yesterday by an independent agency.

Is it even smart for the Obama administration right now to be funding Israel considering there are serious cutbacks being made at home and the people are not happy with the economic situation on the ground in the US?

Schoenman: Well, that's the very nature of the systemic crisis in capitalism, in global capitalism, in which as you indicate the system is essentially bankrupting itself because there are no real productive forces developed.

It's financialization of a … economy and it's predicated upon permanent war, expanded war, imperial conquest… and the correlative of this is to rapidly introduce measures for police-state rule in the US.

With the National Defense Authorization Act and the declaration by Attorney General Eric Holder that due process, which means the Bill of Rights and normal constitutional protections, no longer have any sway in the US, they are replaced by something called judicial process, namely, in a state of permanent war, the president has the authority automatically to invoke arbitrary detention, military control and the disappearance of citizens who are designated as opponents of US governmental policy.

That’s the correlative. Yes the financial crisis is exactly what motivates and drives this war for imperial conquest as a means of expanding and guaranteeing continued imperial or rather ruling class control while the population is seized with the austerity imposed upon them and the absence of any attempt to meet their day-to-day survival needs.

It's a crisis of the system. It can only be met by a generalized popular resistance, which will be protected, but can only result in the overthrow of this system, which is designed to subject not just the peoples of the region of the Far East and Middle East to war, but the US population itself to the consequences of repression at home and adventure abroad.

That's what underlies these reckless preparations for expanded war targeting Iran, and only the very beginning is the targeting of Iran, it is a threat to the peoples of the world.