Kabuki - US and Israel style

Kabuki - a form of traditional Japanese drama with highly stylized song, mime, and dance, now performed only by male actors, using exaggerated gestures and body movements to express emotions, and including historical plays, domestic dramas, and dance pieces.

In a recent post I described how the apparent conflicts between the US and China are highly dramatized for the consumption of the local audiences. Now it is time for the US to take on Israel in a WWF style showdown. [Please pardon my liberal mixing of metaphors.]

The US vs. Israel

Round 1: The US wrestler "Zionist Joe" heads to the Israeli corner to congratulate top Israeli wrestler "Bulldozer Bibi". Bibi pretends to shake hands with Joe, but then slams him to the mat! And the crowd goes wild. Joe gets up and tries to poke Bibi in the eye, but Bibi is to quick for him and fends him off by holding his hand up between his eyes. He then taunts Joe by saying, "Na, na, na-na-na." Rather than taking offense, Joe once again stretches out his hand in friendship and laughs. "You old rascal," he says. "That was some move. I never saw that coming."

The judges huddle as bikini clad girls prance around the ring announcing the upcoming Round 2. After a brief delay, the judges award 2 points to the Israeli side. Normally only 1 point is awarded for winning the round, but they award an extra point for the spectacular takedown.

Round 2: Emerging from the US corner is the formidable "Hillary the Obliterator". The Israeli corner looks slightly concerned and at first refuse to come out of their corner. After a brief huddle, they once again send out Bibi. The two meet in the center of the ring. Hillary stares down Bibi, but Bibi stares right back at her and never blinks. Then Hillary dances around the ring, wildly gesturing and beating her breast in imitation of an enraged female gorilla. Bibi sits in a stool in his corner and mostly ignores the outburst. Soon the bell rings to end the round.

Once again the judges huddle. Their seems to be some hesitation, but after a brief discussion the judges declare the round to be a draw and award 1 point to each team. The judges explain that they were highly entertained by Hillary's display of raw emotion, but that ultimately the tactic inflicted no harm on the Israeli wrestler.

The announcer steps to the middle of the ring. He holds up Bibi's hand as he shouts out, "and the winner by unanimous decision and still cham-pi-on is IS-RA-EL!" The mostly pro-Israel crowd goes wild, as the losing US team kneels and kisses the feet of the Israeli champion as is customary.

But seriously folks...

If you thought that you were seeing anything like a real conflict between the US and Israel over the issue of Israeli "settlements" in East Jerusalem, you're sadly mistaken. This whole controversy was scripted out in advance. Bibi needed an excuse to be able to tell his local ultra-right wing supporters that the US was pressuring him on settlements. Obama needed to be able to act like he was getting tough on Israel. Biden messed up the US response so badly, that Clinton had to be brought in to convince the Israelis and Arabs that the US was really angry over the incident. Of course we weren't, but it was important to pretend that we were.

As the Jerusalem Post reveals, the whole incident was designed to put a stop to a Likud Central Committee meeting on unfreezing settlement construction. Well, alright the article doesn't come right out and say that, but if you read between the lines the truth becomes apparent.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received backing from his ministers and the parties in his coalition Sunday as he faced a deepening crisis in Israel’s relations with the American administration.

While officials in Washington were quoted as saying that Netanyahu would have to choose between his ties with US President Barack Obama’s government and his coalition partners, ministers and MKs took steps to ensure that he would not have to make such a difficult choice.

Despite American pressure, not one of the 30 ministers in Netanyahu’s cabinet has expressed support for freezing construction over the pre-1967 border in Jerusalem. A check among the five Labor ministers found that they were all in favor of continuing to build in neighborhoods like Ramat Shlomo and Gilo, where the American administration opposes building.

“The consensus in Israel supports continuing to build in Jerusalem and that’s not going to change,” a Labor minister said.

In a speech to the Labor Party’s executive committee at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, Defense Minister Ehud Barak denied the charge made by Obama adviser David Axelrod that a decision to build 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo was intentionally announced during US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit in order to humiliate him.

“The technical mistake during Biden’s visit was not intentional but it was undoubtedly superfluous and dangerous,” Barak said. “Our connection with the American people and our relationship of respect with the American administration and the president are important components of Israel’s security and foreign relations.

“While we are ultimately responsible for our fate, our friendship with America is important for our security and for the chance to calm down the region, and this friendship requires us to behave with mutual respect and responsibility.”

National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer suggested at the event that the escalating pressure from the Obama administration on Netanyahu would only increase the prime minister’s popularity ratings.

“The more Bibi is scolded, the more Right the people will go,” Ben-Eliezer said.

Netanyahu already received a political boost from the American pressure. He used it as an excuse to pressure hawkish Likud MK Danny Danon to postpone Thursday”s Likud Central Committee meeting that was set to focus on stopping the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria.

Danon had hoped that the central committee would pass a proposal demanding that the 10-month freeze that ends September 25 not get extended. But he caved into pressure from Netanyahu and agreed to postpone the forum on the condition that a new date for it be set within 30 days.

“I have no doubt that my proposal to restart building in Judea and Samaria would win a majority, but the prime minister is in the middle of an eternal struggle for Jerusalem, so I accepted the prime minister’s request to delay the meeting,” Danon said.

Netanyahu could receive another political boost from Obama if Kadima MKs use the American pressure on Israel as an excuse to split the party and join the coalition.

So Netanyahu postponed the Likud party's decision to extend the West Bank settlement "freeze". But at the same time he announces that, "The building in Jerusalem - and in all other places - will continue in the same way as has been customary over the last 42 years." It doesn't sound as if he is shaking in his boots after Clinton's rebuke.

And this is nothing new. Unfortunately, the corporate media has a selective memory. As recently as November of last year I highlighted a similar situation with regards to Israeli "settlements" in East Jerusalem in a post I called, "The Battle for East Jerusalem". Back then the State Department said it was "dismayed"; Clinton calls the latest Israeli move an "insult".

Maybe if Obama had done something to punish Israel for its assault of Gaza just before his taking office, then the Israelis would actually take the US seriously. Let's face it. The US doesn't get angry over Israel bombing Palestinians. The US doesn't get angry about Israel demolishing Palestinian homes. The US doesn't get angry over the Apartheid Wall through the West Bank. And the US never got angry before about the illegal Zionist takeover of East Jerusalem.

The only reason the US is angry now is because their is a perceived direct insult towards us by Israel. They can kill and maim as many Palestinians as they want and the US will remain silent. They can destroy Palestinian homes by the hundreds and the US will remain silent. They can even murder a US citizen - as in the case of Rachel Corrie - and the US will remain silent.

The show must go on...

The "peace process" must go on - not for the benefit of the Palestinians, but for the benefit of the Zionists. You might come to the conclusion that this is a battle between two factions of Zionists. Not even! They are not "battling" anymore than pro wrestlers are battling. They are just putting on a show. Either way, the Zionists win.

You see they need their "peace process" to maintain their cover for the Zionist expansion. And they pay their flunkies in the P.A. like Abbas well to play their part. Anyone Palestinian who offers real resistance is labeled a "terrorist", like Hamas. And that allows others who resist Israel to be labeled as "terrorist sympathizers" - like Rachel Corrie and the ISM (International Solidarity Movement).

So don't get all excited about these recent events and expect them to result in any substantive change in the US-Israeli relationship. Real change would be the US Navy breaking the siege of Gaza to deliver much needed food and supplies. And that's just not going to happen. Real change would be the US permanently cutting off all aid to Israel - especially military aid. Again, not happening.

Some have suggested that the US military is behind this new push. Well yes, the US military would like to see Israel give more credence to the "peace talks". This helps to soothe the feelings of the local Arab dictatorships. But there is no desire to see the creation of a real "Palestinian state" - even if such a thing were possible. The only goal is the very limited one of calming the feelings on the "Arab street". They don't want a group of "radicals" challenging the status quo dictatorships of such loyal US allies as Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Egypt. You already have some "radical" talk from the government of Turkey, and they don't want that spreading through other Arab and Muslim countries.

So yes "the show must go on". Next week there will be an AIPAC conference in Washington. Hillary and Bibi will go another round of fake combat. Eventually there will be new "talks about talks" between the sell-out P.A and Zionist Israel. More Palestinian children will be killed because they are "Hamas terrorists". The Goldstone Report will be forgotten in the midst of all this.

Eventually Israel will sufficiently provoke Palestinian anger to the point where there will be a new "terrorist attack" on Israelis that will result in deaths. No mention will be made in the US Corporate Media about how many Palestinian homes were destroyed or children imprisoned to cause this reaction. The names of the dead Israelis will feature prominently in the reports, while all the Palestinian victims over the years remain anonymous.

The Israelis will use these "terrorist attacks" against them to justify a new wave of violence and murder against the defenseless Palestinians. The media will depict this as a "cycle of violence", but in reality it is a carefully planned script. It is a cycle of gross deliberate provocation, followed by a minor retaliatory attack, followed by a wave of brutal state violence against the Palestinians.

Lights, camera... action!