— Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir on the American airlift during the 1973 War: “Things did not go particularly well for Israel over the next couple of days. However, as Israel started to push back the daily advances, the Nixon administration initiated Operation Nickel Grass, an American airlift to replace all of Israel’s lost munitions. This was huge because planeloads of supplies literally made it possible for munitions and other supplies to appear again for the Israeli countereffort. During the airlift, 567 missions were flown, dropping more than 22,000 tons of supplies. By sea, another 90,000 tons of material were delivered.
— How Richard Nixon Saved Israel from Nixonfoundation.org
Preface
The above quotes are realities about Activity Nickel Grass, a US (US) carrier that was greater than the Berlin Transport of 1948-49, and about how Israel ended up battling for its endurance. The United States has been an important ally and supporter of Israel ever since Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, which established the United Nations Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. However, the War of 1973 contributed to altering that relationship’s entire dynamic. The United States has unwaveringly committed itself to Israel’s defense ever since that airlift.
The US has, for the most part, ensured that there must be “no daylight” between the two sides, a phrase attributed to the incoming US President Joe Biden, who describes himself as a “proud Irish-Christian Zionist.” This is true even when there have been disagreements regarding Israel’s behavior.
The United States will hold a presidential election two days after this article was published. The question of which of the two candidates will be a better fit for bringing peace to the Middle East and forcing Israel to stop its barbaric genocidal war is one of many other policy concerns, including domestic policy.
The US system, which represents the current power relationships, is controlled by what political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt referred to as “the Israel Lobby” in their 2007 book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. While this concern is entirely legitimate, it is largely, if not entirely, misplaced due to structural reasons.
The US-Israel relationship and US support for Israel are referred to by Mearheimer and Walt as “unique” in US history. In addition, they argue that rather than being “based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives,” as is commonly believed, this relationship “is due almost entirely to US domestic politics, and especially to the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’.”
The Israel lobby’s workings are the subject of a lot of literature. Together with big money, Christian Zionists, and Israeli hasbara (public diplomacy techniques), organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) aim to harm politicians, activists, and even academics who are critical of Israel and its policies.
Akela Lacy published a report titled “How Does AIPAC Shape Washington:” on October 24 in The Intercept. According to the report titled “We Tracked Every Dollar,” AIPAC has “embraced a new strategy” and plans to “use its vast funds to oust progressive members of Congress who have criticised Israel’s human rights abuses and the country’s receipt of billions of US dollars in military funding.”
“AIPAC’s approach to electoral spending is bipartisan,” claims Lacy. The plan is to back candidates who support Israel and beat candidates who don’t. Anyone who has been to Washington, D.C., knows that any administration’s legislation and actions can be influenced if the right people are in the power corridors.
Since 1972, the United States has provided Israel with unqualified diplomatic support in addition to financial and military assistance. “The US has vetoed resolutions critical of Israel more than any other council member — 45 times as of December 18, 2023, according to an analysis by Blue Marble,” according to Globalaffairs.org. “pertained to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories or the country’s treatment of the Palestinian people,” according to 33 of these resolutions.
The Zionist state is able to carry out the ongoing genocide in Palestine and war crimes in Lebanon because of the financial and military support that the United States has provided Israel for decades. It is instructive to contrast the US’ actual behavior with its platitudes about a two-state solution as an essential for peace. This US support for its client state will continue, regardless of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the election on November 5. As a result, the US and its Western allies will be held accountable for Israel’s crimes against humanity. As I have previously noted in this space, the United States has also consistently vetoed the push for Palestine’s statehood and full membership in the United Nations because statehood confers sovereignty and the right to self-defense on Palestine. Neither Israel nor the United States can accept that.
COROLLARY Before I get into the specifics, I want to state the already established proposition: Without the unique support it receives from the United States and some Western allies of the United States, Israel could not have sustained itself, its incessant wars in the Middle East, and its systematic violence against the Palestinian people.
This support comes from diplomatic, financial, and military sources. This is also true for the current generational war waged by Palestinians against Zionism. Without the complete and unrestricted diplomatic, financial, and military support of the United States, Israel would not have been able to maintain its ongoing war.
This fact reveals a straightforward fact: The United States cannot be expected to work toward an equitable solution to the Palestine issue because it is not an honest broker. The United States of America bears responsibility for Israel’s crimes against humanity because it shields Israel from their consequences. The ongoing war is also an example of this.
Also, this means what I’ve said before in this space: There will be many ups and downs as this war goes on. It can only come to an end when Zionism ends.
The desperation of Israel: An American Patriot missile defense system on display on March 8, 2018, during a joint US-Israeli military exercise: | AFP On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack against Israel along the Golan Heights and across the Bar Lev Line on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. Israel has exclusive access to the most advanced platforms and technologies used by the US military. Even though Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan had famously referred to the Bar Lev line as “one of the best anti-tank ditches in the world,” Egyptian forces conquered it in just two hours. The line was thought to be invulnerable.
To counter Israel’s air superiority, the Egyptians and Syrians had modernized their forces in the months leading up to the War by purchasing Scud Surface-to-Surface Missiles from the Soviet Union. Dutzendes of Israeli APCs, tanks, and fighter jets were destroyed in the first few days of the war.
A Memorandum of Conversation from October 9, 1973 between Israeli Ambassador to the United States Simcha Dinitz, his military attaché Gen. Mordechai Gur, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Gen. Brent Scowcroft, deputy assistant to the president of the United States for national security affairs, can be found in the archives of the US Department of State. The conversation’s contents reveal the Israeli losses and the panic that was developing:
Dinitz said: Up until 9 a.m. Israeli time, we received a message summarizing our losses. There were a total of 49 aircraft, including 14 Phantoms, 28 Skyhawks, 3 Mirages, and 4 Super Mysteres. Tanks: approximately 500 tanks were lost. On the way, some went missing.
Kissinger said, 500 tanks! How many are there? [ toward Scowcroft:] Haig ought to arrive here. Okay, we can give him the numbers….
