Israel is extension of American power in Middle East: Brian Becker

Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, a protest umbrella group consisting of many antiwar and civil rights organizations, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV while commenting on US Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren’s fierce defense of Israel’s recent bombing campaign in Gaza.

Warren said at a local town hall last week that Tel Aviv has the right to bomb hospitals and schools in order to "defend itself."

“Elizabeth Warren’s decision to vote for Israel’s bombing in Gaza was not unusual. In fact, it wasn’t the majority of the US Senate that supported Israel, it was the entire US Senate. The vote in the Senate was 100-0 to support Israel in its bombing campaign against Gaza,” Becker said.

“And even tough 2,200 Palestinians have died, thousands more were wounded, 10,000 homes were destroyed completely, and 100,000 people made homeless, the US Senate completely supports, 100 percent -- not figuratively but literally 100 percent -- Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza,” he added.

“Then [at] the summit of the US foreign policy establishment, and within the political elite inside the United States, there’s complete support for Israel because Israel is understood to be an extension of the American power in this very geo-strategically and resource-rich part of the world,” Becker stated.

The civil rights activist went on to say that for last 45 years Israel has been “the largest recipient of foreign aid and it functions more or less like as a client, or a proxy, or an extension of American power.”

“And because there’s no room for division on this point, all of the Congress, both houses, the House of Representatives and the US Senate, continues to support Israel in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people and against Israel’s neighbors,” he noted.

During the recent war on Gaza, Israeli warplanes targeted a number of schools and hospitals, in defiance of the Geneva conventions which ban such attacks.

Some 2,200 Palestinians, including 500 children, lost their lives during the Israeli offensive.

According to the UN Children’s Fund, some 373,000 Palestinian children are in need of immediate psycho-social first aid due to the onslaught.

UN agencies in the Palestinian territory warn that the humanitarian situation is getting worse due to the persisting siege of the impoverished enclave by Israel.

Gaza's blockade since June 2007 has caused unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty. The conditions have been drastically aggravated by the latest Israeli offensive against Gaza.

HK