RSS Feeds
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it    
Occupation magazine - Life under occupation

Home page  back Print  Send To friend

‘The Palestine Cables’: WikiLeaks expose
by Alex Kane -
Mondoweiss
Dec 08, 2010
alexbkane.wordpress.com


The Palestine Cables’: WikiLeaks expose European chill on Israel after Cast Lead, and Lebanese advice on defeating Hezbollah

WikiLeaks has gone from a drip to a torrent, and we need a way to keep up. With this post we inaugurate a new feature at this site. `The Palestine Cables` will be a weekly chronicle/analysis of important revelations bearing on Israel/Palestine that are contained in the ongoing dump of hundreds of thousands of U.S. State Department cables. Alex Kane will be preparing these reports (when he is not in Israel/Palestine himself). Without further ado, Part I, The Palestine Cables...

The revelations from the classified State Department cables being published by WikiLeaks and news organizations keep coming, and there`s no shortage of items concerning Israel/Palestine.

The cables have included interesting revelations about European countries` relations with Israel--and how much the Goldstone report has mattered, thought not enough--as well as what seems to be a Lebanese official passing on advice to the Israeli government on how to defeat Hezbollah in a new conflict.

One cable, dated September 5, 2006 and sent from the U.S. embassy in Dublin, reports that the Irish government `has informally begun to place constraints on U.S. operations at the facility, mainly in response to public sensitivities
over U.S. actions in the Middle East.` Specifically, the cable states that the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs decided to `forbid U.S. military transits carrying munitions to Israel` because of `the Irish public`s overwhelming opposition to Israeli military actions in Lebanon.`

Another cable dated October 29, 2009 from the U.S. embassy in France reports that, days before France and Israel were set to hold a `strategic dialogue,` French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and suggested that Israel `establish an independent investigation into the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces in the Gaza conflict.` Sarkozy said that `such a step would decrease pressure on Israel and its allies stemming from the Goldstone Report, but Netanyahu responded briskly: `No way.`` In addition, the cable notes that `European countries stopped selling Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) parts to Israel` after the 2008-09 assault on Gaza, although France had continued to sell UAV parts to Israel.

There was also the November 10, 2009 suggestion--two weeks out from when Israel first `froze` settlements--from Germany that the U.S. force Israel to agree to a settlement freeze or else risk the U.S. withdrawing pledges to block U.N. Security Council votes on the Goldstone report. The U.S. said no, calling the proposal `counterproductive.`

Compared to the U.S.`s routine practice of groveling before Israel, the European countries` attitude towards Israel seems remarkable. But that`s not the full story--Europe remains deeply complicit in the Israeli occupation.

I reached out to David Cronin, the author of the soon-to-be-released book Europe`s Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation, to get his reaction to the WikiLeaks revelations about Europe-Israel relations:

ca
Links to the latest articles in this section

Occupation forces injure mourners following funeral of slain infant Mohammad Tamimi
Nabi Saleh village assaulted - toddler shot in the head died in hospital
Palestinians in the snow: thrown from home into the snow, throw snowballs and get arrested