Israeli leaders and their supporters, Roger Cohen among them, must be about the most ungrateful people on earth as they expect the US and the European countries to go out of their way to help Israel, either by strengthening it directly or by weakening the states and institutions that could in some way prevent Israel from doing all it wanted to do, even when such acts were in contravention of international laws and norms. Israelis want the US and European countries to take all measures that are to Israel's liking, and benefit, even at personal costs to them in men and material, they do not feel under any obligation to reciprocate the gesture in any way, or even to say ‘thank you’. Perhaps they believe that God created this world, and all the people in it, just to serve Israeli interests.
They do not show any gratitude to these countries for giving them a state and making it the strongest and the only nuclear power in Middle East, the Israelis and their supporters miss no chance to take swipes at the US and the European countries for not coming down heavily, against any state that Israel considers to be an irritant and a possible hindrance in its desire to expand its territory in all directions. In Roger Cohen's latest article 'Anchorless World' published in the Nation on September 18 demonstrates the same line of thinking. He comes down hard on the United States, Britain, Germany, France, the European Union as well as NATO for not launching an invasion on Syria as the Israeli leaders wanted. How dare they show such defiance?
Registering a strong protest against these countries, Roger Cohen completely ignored the fact that these are the countries that gave the Zionists a state of their own. France gave it the nuclear reactor and together they helped Israel become a nuclear power, with Germany supplying it nuclear-capable submarines at subsidized rates. During Israel's attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon, Americans supplied it all the ammunition and Britain provided speedy air transport so as to ensure that Israel does not run out of bombs to drop on Muslims.
The United States maintains a huge cache of arms and ammunition in Israel from which Israel can draw as per its requirement and the US keeps replenishing this stock. Now Israel expected these countries to invade Bashar al-Assad's forces, for the killing of 1,400 Syrians through the use of chemical weapons, when it has not even been established that this was Syrian regime that used it. Roger Cohen and Dr. Tewes Wischmann seem to think that Nazism and use of chemical weapons in Syria were atrocities of equal magnitude and were the only ones in human history about which children will ask their parents. He very conveniently omitted the dropping of nuclear bombs on Japanese civilian population by Americans?
Roger Cohen also ignored the use of Napalm bombs by the Americans against Vietnamese civilians, as well as the extensive use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has given rise to an alarming increase in cancer cases and birth of deformed babies. Of course, one does not expect him to refer to mass murders and atrocities committed and facilitated by the Israelis against Palestinians, citizens of these countries are also getting tired of their rulers endless appetite for adventures in the service of an ungrateful Israel and its supporters who never utter a word of thanks but are all too eager to insult, humiliate, criticize and taunt them for not doing yet more.
S.R.H. HASHMI,
Karachi, September 18.