America’s Complicity in Evil
As I write at 5pm on Monday, May 31, all day has passed since the early morning reports of the Israeli commando attack on the unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, and there has been no response from President Obama except to say that he needed to learn "all the facts about this morning’s tragic events" and that Israeli prime minister Netanyahu had canceled his plans to meet with him at the White House.
Thus has Obama made America complicit once again in Israel’s barbaric war crimes.
Just as the US Congress voted to deep-six Judge Goldstone’s report on Israel’s war crimes committed in Israel’s January 2009 invasion of Gaza, Obama has deep-sixed Israel’s latest act of barbarism by pretending that he doesn’t know what has happened.
No one in the world will believe that Israel attacked ships in international waters carrying Israeli citizens, a Nobel Laureate, elected politicians, and noted humanitarians bringing medicines and building materials to Palestinians in Gaza, who have been living in the rubble of their homes without repairs or medicines since January 2009, without first clearing the crime with its American protector. Without America’s protection, Israel, a totally artificial state, could not exist.
No one in the world will believe that America’s spy apparatus did not detect the movement of the Israeli attack force toward the aid ships in international waters in an act of piracy, killing 20, wounding 50, and kidnapping the rest.
Obama’s pretense at ignorance confirms his complicity.
Once again, the US government has permitted the Israeli state to murder good people known for their moral conscience. The Israeli state has declared that anyone with a moral conscience is an enemy of Israel, and every American president except Eisenhower and Carter has agreed.
Obama’s 12-hour silence in the face of extreme barbarity is his signal to the controlled corporate media to remain on the sidelines until Israeli propaganda sets the story.
The Israeli story, preposterous as always, is that the humanitarians on one of the ships took two pistols from Israeli commandos, highly trained troops armed with automatic weapons, and fired on the attack force. The Israeli government claims that the commandos’ response (70 casualties at last reporting) was justified self-defense. Israel was innocent. Israel did not do anything except drop commandos aboard from helicopters in order to intercept an arms shipment to Gazans being brought in by ships manned by terrorists.
Many Christian evangelicals, brainwashed by their pastors that it is God’s will for Americans to protect Israel, will believe the Israeli story, especially when it is unlikely they will ever hear any other. Conservative Americans, especially on Memorial Day when they are celebrating feats of American arms, will admire Israel for its toughness.
Here in north Georgia, where I am at the moment, I have heard several say, admiringly, "Them Israelis, they don’t put up with nuthin’."
Conservative Americans want the US to be like Israel. They do not understand why the US doesn’t stop pissing around after nine years and just go ahead and defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. They don’t understand why the US didn’t defeat whoever was opposing American forces in Iraq. Conservatives are incensed that America had to "win" the war by buying off the Iraqis and putting them on the US payroll.
Israel murders people and then blames its victims. This appeals to American conservatives, who want the US to do the same.
It is likely that Americans will accept Israeli propagandist Mark Regev’s story that Israelis were met by deadly fire when they tried to intercept an arms shipment to Palestinian terrorists from IHH, a radical Turkish Islamist organization hiding under the cover of humanitarian aid. This explanation is crafted to allow Americans to sink back into their stupor.
Americans will never hear from the US media that Turkey’s prime minister Erdogan declared that the aid ships were carefully inspected before departure from Turkey and that there were no terrorists or arms aboard:
"I want to say to the world, to the heads of state and the governments, that these boats that left from Turkey and other countries were checked in a strict way under the framework of the rules of international navigation and were only loaded with humanitarian aid."
Turkey is a US ally, a member of NATO. Turkey’s cooperation is important to American’s plan for world hegemony. Turkey now realizes that the Israeli state is comprised of total evil. Erdogan must wonder about the morality of Israel’s American protector. According to a report in Antiwar.com, the Turkish government declared that "future aid ships will be dispatched with a military escort so as to prevent future Israeli attacks."
Will the CIA assassinate Erdogan or pay the Turkish military to overthrow him?
Murat Mercan, head of Turkey’s foreign relations committee, said that Israel’s claim that there were terrorists aboard the aid ships was Israel’s way of covering up its crime. Mercan declared:
"Any allegation that the members of this ship is attached to al-Qaeda is a big lie because there are Israeli civilians, Israeli authorities, Israeli parliamentarians on board the ship."
The criminal Israeli state does not deny its act of piracy. Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich confirmed that the attack took place in international waters: "This happened in waters outside of Israeli territory, but we have the right to defend ourselves."
Americans, and their Western European puppet states and the puppet state in Canada, will be persuaded by the servile media to buy the story fabricated by Israeli propaganda that the humanitarian aid ships were manned by terrorists bringing weapons to the Palestinians in Gaza, and that the terrorists posing as humanitarians attacked the force of Israeli commandos with two pistols, clubs, and knives.
The ignorant Americans will swallow this story without a hiccup.
Read more by Paul Craig Roberts
- The Shame of Being an American – February 16th, 2011
- Kleptocrats at Work – February 6th, 2011
- Things Have to Change in Order to Remain the Same – January 31st, 2011
- Western Civilization Has Shed Its Values – December 5th, 2010
- A Government Caught Up in Mendacity and Lies – December 1st, 2010





u go
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:17 am
Shame on the world of silence.
Druthers
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:58 am
Great post Paul Craig Roberts!
Partners in crime, duplicity and manipulation, masters of the art, controllers of the message our "democratic" thugs are true professionals.
Our Sopranos' of the unending international vaudeville taking place as they gesticulate before the cameras like organ grinder monkeys tipping their little hats and rattling their tin cups before moving on to the next crime site.that will be roped off in dollars.
It must be true that only the good die young – just look at what we have left.
keltrava
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:38 am
Could be interesting if Turkey sends a naval escort. Turkey is in NATO which means any attack on a Turkey is an attack on NATO.
Personally I was surprised that in the first few hours of the saga the BBC which has an office in Israel followed exactly the military censorship imposed on Israeli media. Amazing that it took the BBC several hours to mention that Britons were on the ships. Up till that time the flotilla was soley an Turkish initiative. All interviews were with parrots like Mark Regev who incidentally is more boring to listen to than Gordon Brown.
Another aspect not being fully reported. The detainees are returning as soon as they are because Erdogan put the word on Obama who then put the the word on Netanyahu who in turn immediately ordered release of all detainees. The IDF was not expecting this and is rather annoyed.
As a long time watcher of Israeli politics I am positive that the army holds much more political power than is realized.
E. A. Costa
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:51 am
Turkish ship
International waters.
Turkey a member of NATO.
protobone
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Were Turkey to send war ships to accompany the next round of aid flotillas, it'll be the U.S.S. Liberty all over again. The U.S. will allow Israel to work it's terrorism and whatever administration is ensconced in the White House will "praise" the Israelis and that'll be that.
Well said Mr. Roberts. I'm glad you're back and writing.
E. A. Costa
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:01 pm
But surely the Turk knows Ovid, even if Obama don't:
sed non sunt faciles; nam cur mea vota morantur
currere me nota nec patiuntur aqua?
E. A. Costa
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:38 pm
And for the estimable Mr.Roberts, whom one is overjoyed to see publishing essays again, a bit more Ovid perhaps:
et quanto mallet, quam scriberet, illa nataret,
meque per adsuetas sedula ferret aquas!
which, if the Turks don't know, the Russians surely do, and the Greeks,and which might be
translated extremely but very strategically, and with a veritable linkage out of Kissinger,say:
A Turkish ship is pirated–that's the news,
And Saakashvili is pissing on his shoes.
Connestee
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Great to see you back, Paul, because the antiwar movement needs columnists like you. I know it sometimes seems hopeless because what really allows things like this to happen is the stupidity of the American people, so it happens over and over again. Thanks for calling it like it is.
liberranter
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Turkey is a US ally, a member of NATO. Turkey’s cooperation is important to American’s plan for world hegemony.
Especially Amerika's continuing colonial occupation of Iraq, and, should Amerika actually be suicidally stupid enough to do it, Amerika's invasion of Iran.
Turkey now realizes that the Israeli state is comprised of total evil. Erdogan must wonder about the morality of Israel’s American protector. According to a report in Antiwar.com, the Turkish government declared that "future aid ships will be dispatched with a military escort so as to prevent future Israeli attacks."
As reader Protobone mentions, this will no doubt result in a USS Liberty redux. Only next time no one will swallow the "accidental attack" BS that the criminal Eshkhol government of 1967 successfully rammed down the world's throat following the Liberty attack. The fallout of an attack on Turkish military assets in international waters will have much wider repercussions than did the attack on the US Navy vessel. While Turkey might suffer militarily in a clash with Israel (a highly debatable assumption, by the way), one thing is for certain: an attack on Turkish naval vessels by the IDAF or IDN will NOT go unpunished. Antagonizing the only secular Islamic nation in the Near East would be the ultimate bonehead play on Israel's part, but then again, the megalomaniac neocon-fascist Israeli establishment is clearly not known for its discretion or common sense.
donna
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:10 pm
This otherwise excellent article has one enormous oversight: it's not just the right or conservatives, but so-called progressives in Congress, the media and our neighborhoods are also rooting for Israel. Politicians who fought for health care and financial reform are solidly onboard with Israel, repeating ad nauseum the Israeli PR/BS. We have a big problem in this country with progressive domestic politics and regressive, hawkish foreign politics. Solution? Real progressives must draw a line in the sand and insist that progressive candidates stand against wars, apartheid, illegal occupations and inhumane blockades–regardless of which country is perpetuating these crimes. Yes, there has to be a litmus test for progressives–or let's just retire that word.
E. A. Costa
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:56 pm
The American duopoly is two parties:(1) Right Wing (Democrats); (2)Even More Wing(Republicans).
Both of them, with a few exceptions, are Corporatist, Fascist, Imperialist–as well as bought off.
Most "Progressive Democrats" are not progressive or leftist or socialist at all–they aim at Capitalism with social welfare, which is still Capitalism.
There was a major break in the '60's, with a New Left, but since then the US has been regressing, and is more reactionary than it was in the '50's and 60's.
Just one example–Nixon's Health Insurance proposal makes him look like Mao Zedong compared to Obama and his fraudulent Corporatist "reform".
On the other hand, the US is bankrupt, the genuine economy is comatose, and the empire is collapsing, all the direct consequence of Imperialism and Finance Capitalism, which, as Lenin showed in detail, are intimately related.
That is a simple economic analysis and has nothing necessarily to do with ideology.
Lenin in fact describes the present situation to a "T"if you choose to look at his on Imperialism and Capitalism.
In fact, it is just a repeat of the fall of the British Empire and Austro-Hungary and to certain extent Gemany.
Economically the US is right now one step away from Wiemar, but the closer model, for sheer luancy and absurdity, may be Austro-Hungary in its last days.
If the Wiemar model is next, one predicts for the US the worst of both worlds–that is, all the dislocation and chaos and none of the fun.
In the meantime enjoy your Cajun Shrimp Petroleum which the Corporatist Hyper-Capitalists will soon be telling you is nutritious, delicious, and good for you too.
Tastes a little like shrimp sauteed in Vaseline.
Jeremiah
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Dr. Roberts, are you back? I hope so. I've really missed your insightful articles.
I know it's a struggle, but don't give in to despair. I believe fewer Americans than you think are swallowing the propaganda. Most are simply asleep. And judging by the comments I'm seeing, even on MSM articles, a number of our fellow citizens are starting to wake up.
So please keep on writing and fighting the good fight! We're listening, with open minds and hearts.
Showmedemocracy
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Turkey's American crime is that it does not come from a English speaking history (so they think). I have read over twenty different articles from the United States and Canada on this disaster & the Turkish . This is what I get: Turkey and Israel are really ok with each other, cause of xy and z reason. Its really about the egotism of the Turkish Prime Minister (he is trying to win points, he doesn't believe it, he set out all the time to be the head of the Islamic world). America's little empire and its current mentality are going to bust. It can not sustain itself. The United States can not come to the grip that its 305 million people are not the top dogs any more. Many Brits had a hard time coming around years ago. Really smart people know it and are not alarmist about that fact.
The Israeli left has been screaming for year how Israel is changing for the worse. There is no peace process despite Obama/Mitchel. The US via AIPAC corruption shields the current Israeli Administration. Why do we pretend they don't?? Why are we not angry FROM A SOVEREIGNTY point of VIEW. Why is dual citizenship not challenged? We have a former member of the Israeli Defence Forces in the Presidents own cabinet (yet, cause he voices Peace Process he is harrassed by the Right wing in Israel). Are we a Republic or Are we Not? Are we Sovereign or are we not. If we where spending Billions of dollars of AID and sending it to the Vatican for Catholics, we all know there would be an outcry. Our own Government PAYS lip service to the Constitution of the United States. Presidents start wars and congress is consulted…….I am preaching to the choir, all of you know the rest….
John
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:57 pm
I just order a t shirt with the Palestinian flag. I am not a fan of any gvt, but at least Hamas has never bothered me personally, told me what crops I can grow in my garden or garnished my paycheck.
V for Vendetta
June 4th, 2010 at 12:33 am
Thank-you Dr. Roberts. You truly are a great American who is not afraid to stand up and speak truth to power. Sir, I humbly salute you for all of your good efforts to warn the American people of the institutionalized evil – governmental and corporate – that now threatens to destroy us all. I pray that God will strengthen you and protect you as America continues its slow devolution into utter tyranny and grinding poverty. God help us.
JC(Safe in OZ)
June 4th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Israel screams "700 terrorists, al queda, taliban, death ship, murderers……etc…etc
And then they let them all go?
Who,s kidding who here!
madjid22
June 4th, 2010 at 1:13 am
USA has become Israel's dog as the world watch how stupid congress has become
uncapable to see right from wrong, bad tiding are in the corner for those who can't differentiate Light from darkness ,you are so doomed to fail and no one trust what USA preaches to the world when they
the stupidity of the white house and congres has surpassed everest mountain.
No one do what USA has done for Israel but a slave
Yarmulke
June 4th, 2010 at 4:19 am
Paul Craig Roberts has really gone off the deep end. He seeks to persuade but his reliance on childish hyperbole has the opposite effect. He completely discredits himself with ludicrous statements like the following:
“The Israeli state has declared that anyone with a moral conscience is an enemy of Israel”
“Turkey now realizes that the Israeli state is comprised of total evil.”
Really, Mr. Roberts? Total evil? Are you talking about a country comprised of millions of diverse people, or Lex Luthor? What are you, twelve years old?
You yourself pointed out that there were Israeli citizens on board the Turkish ship. You clearly support their efforts and consider them individuals “with a moral conscience”. Thus you contradict yourself.
Put away the comic books and try some adult-level analysis, for a change.
Dave
June 4th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
If you were on the ship you might think differently.
Bud Wood
June 4th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
It would be more appropriate to say "the USA government is complicit" rather than saying "American is complicit".
Jim Farrell
June 4th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Thank you Mr. Roberts. We need more folks to stand up against the madness and evil that is growing like a cancer. Wake up people. There is no hope for America unless its citizens wake up and take back our government from the power brokers/ banksters that run everything. Obama is only a smooth talking puppet, he makes no decisions without being told to. The spending, power, and intrusiveness of the US government is growing exponentially. The plan is very simple : keep the people ignorant, divide them in every possible way so that a unified voice is impossible, and keep them dependent on government handouts whether its jobs/contracts/welfare/stimulus/grants or prison, and keep them distracted with TV, phamaceuticals, alcohol, pornography, & mass media that functions as the government mouthpiece. Wake up People!!!
Druthers
June 4th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
There are people going through the comments down-grading anything favorable to Mr Roberts and up- grading any comment favorable to Israel – systematically.
IndianaJohn
June 5th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Rhymes with shadow.
IndianaJohn
June 5th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Glib and mabe clever too.
mystic
June 7th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
"Turkey may suffer militarily if Israel attacks it.."
You need to qualify that, because Israel has already attacked a NATO state, Turkey, and I cannot understand why Turkey doesn't insist that NATO (like say, the US) defends Turkey against Israel when it sends another convoy? That would force the US to refuse its NATO obligations and definitively end NATO, which is a good thing because it would empower Russia and Iran. Putin and Ahmadinejuad may well have the last laugh.
Also Mr Roberts, why not put your cards on the table once and for all, and list all the Israeli owned companies in the US so that we can start a boycott of Israel like the UK has already done? I believe Starbucks is Israeli owned, and that may be a good start. This worked in apartheid South Africa without a drop of blood being shed. Despite its protestations to the contrary, Israel cares very much about its global pariah state and the only way to bring about an end to the siege is BDS: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.