Israel Benefits as World Loses

Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think? --Peter Hitchens

(MANAMA, Bahrain) - What started off as Arab Spring has turned morbidly into Arab Fall. What began as a seasonal description became directional and self-destructive.

Not only have movements that looked promising failed to benefit anyone but Israel, they have drawn their sponsors exorbitantly toward bankruptcy.

The Israelis and their lobbyists in the United States laugh quietly when they hear someone complain about the $3 billion in annual gifts America sends to Israel.

Why is that funny? Because it only represents a tiny portion of what Israel really costs America. Add the total costs of all the wars the US has fought for Israel.

The Iraq war alone has cost America $815 billion and it's still not over. It has benefitted no one but Israel--not America and certainly not Iraq.

The number of Iraqis slaughtered in the US war and occupation of Iraq: 1,455,590.

Nearly half a million people have died from war-related causes in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003, according to an academic study by a research team from the Universities of Washington, Johns Hopkins, Simon Fraser and Mustansiriya (Oct.2013).

Anyone with a few hours of work as an investigative journalist and a calculator would know that Israel has been the sole beneficiary of Iraq's near-total destruction.

One must ask the same question about the other imbroglios that America has been supporting in the Middle East: Who has benefited?

Support for the uprising in Egypt: America echoed protesters chanting “Down with Mubarak” in favour of democracy, until democracy elected Mursi, the wrong man for Israel.

Whatever happens in Egypt, Israel is determined to be the beneficiary.

Repeated bombings of Libya were designed to get rid of Muammar Gaddafi so that Israel wouldn't have to worry about what Libya’s madman would do with Libya's petro dollars.

The Pentagon spent $1.1 billion in 2011 to launch attacks to destroy that country's air defences and established a no-fly zone. America and NATO paid. Only Israel benefited.

Syria - controlling chemical weapons: More than $1 billion per month. No-fly zone another &1 billion a month Already cost 100,000 lives. Refugees cost $7.5 billion.

Shimon Peres acknowledged the benefit to Israel of the death and destruction in Syria: "Today the Syrian President Basher al-Assad is punished for his refusal to compromise with Israel and the Syrian people pay for it."

The Syrians, America and Saudi Arabia pay. Israel benefits.

Led by Israel, Iran is currently Israel's major objective of death-dealing slaughter in the Middle East.

The efforts Israel makes to convince the world that Iran has nuclear weapons or wants to develop them have been non-stop. Israel's propaganda campaign is as constant and effective as anything Herr Goebbels put together in Nazi Germany.

Currently, Iran and the P5+1 nations are looking for a way to avoid the fates of the countries suffering from Arab spring becoming Arab fall.

Until a fair and reasonable solution can be negotiated Iran will suffer from undeserved sanctions while Israel benefits.

Palestine continues to be the major victim of Israel's perfidy, as it has been for the past 50 years.

Total Cost of Wars Since 2001:$1,500 trillion
The war in Afghanistan: $667 billion
The War in Iraq: $815 billion

Trillions of dollars in monetary costs; millions of lives lost and impoverished--monstrous unjustifiable expenses dictated by Tel Aviv.

The world loses. Israel remains the only real beneficiary.

Throughout his life as an educator, Dr. Paul J. Balles, a retired American university professor and freelance writer, has lived and worked in the Middle East for 40 years - first as an English professor (Universities of Kuwait and Bahrain), and for the past ten years as a writer, editor and editorial consultant.

He’s a weekly Op-Ed columnist for the GULF DAILY NEWS . Dr. Balles is also Editorial Consultant for Red House Marketing and a regular contributor to Bahrain This Month. He writes a weekly op-ed column for Akbar Al Khaleej (Arabic). He has also edited seven websites, including bahrainthismonth.com, womenthismonth.com