IN 1973, Henry Kissinger, the Jewish Secretary of State whose family fled Nazi Germany as refugees, sat with a group of powerful US-based Jewish business leaders and intellectuals in New York for what might be called a hard chat.
“Now it is very easy for a group like this to try to say that American and Israeli interests are identical,” Kissinger told them. “The United States has an interest in the survival of Israel. But we, of course, have an interest in the 130 million Arabs that sit athwart the world’s oil supplies.”
Forty-five years on, Middle East oil matters far less to the US as it approaches energy self-sufficiency. But though the troubles remain in decades of violent stalemate, the age of terror has brought Israel and the US closer than ever.
The decision by US President Donald Trump to shift the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has given Israel, and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, the strongest endorsement from a US Administration since Ronald Reagan was president.
Monday, May 14, marked the 70th anniversary of the creation of Israel — for them, a celebration. And every year, on May 15, Palestinians mourn Nakba, marking “the Catastrophe” when hundreds of thousands were dislodged from their homes.
Read the article by Paul Toohey in The Townsville Bulletin.