NO US policy shames its professed ‘value-based foreign policy’ as much as its Israel policy. Washington has been effectively sitting on the sidelines in contempt of world public opinion while some 30,000 civilians, mainly women and children, have been slaughtered in Gaza.

Seventy-five years of massive US military aid and financial assistance has been the bedrock of Israel’s national power. America’s absolute political support, especially its wilful advocacy at the UN, has shielded Israel from punishment for its wrongs, inciting more offences and more US support. Why should the US not be considered complicit in Israel’s inhumanity in Gaza?

We are mistaken if we attribute Washington’s iron-clad support simply to the work of the Israel lobby (AIPAC). Israel is embedded in America’s body politic, where its influence is pervasive and deep-rooted. Granted Washington needs a reliable ally to look after its strategic and economic interests in the Middle East. But over the decades, a bevy of high-profile Israel sympathisers in the think tank community, media and financial world have exaggerated Israel’s value as an ally and its vulnerability in the region, to make a case for the policy of endless US support and the risks of........

© Dawn