Kerry, Bush, Ignore The Core Issues In Terror War: Israel And Palestine

by Franz Schurmann

(PNS) -- Though the two presidential candidates have pummeled each other about Iraq, Bush and Kerry seem to have agreed not to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. policy toward it. According to Agence France Press (Oct. 20), "the two candidates have made a concerted effort to avoid discussion for what has been a hallmark of diplomatic efforts for the last 30 years."

Taiwan has been a similar non-issue in the presidential campaign. Though Israel and Taiwan are located on polar opposites of the huge Asian continent, they both came into being as American protectorates when the Cold War was taking shape -- Israel in 1948 and Taiwan in 1949.

Though both candidates have been mum on Taiwan and Israel, there are good reasons for thinking that whosoever wins on Nov. 2 will sooner or later have no choice but to undertake major changes in the American-Israel and American-Taiwan relationships. Both Israel and Taiwan, on the other hand, hope that America will continue on the same course it has taken for decades.

Both Israel and Taiwan have been major recipients of weapons from the Pentagon for over 50 years. Thirty years ago, when Israel occupied all of Palestine, the shipping of Pentagon weapons to Israel zoomed up. During this 50-year time span, the grounds for this Pentagon policy have not changed. Israel and Taiwan argue they are U.S. allies who are under long-term threat by their neighbors.

For more than 50 years, Congress has invariably passed bills that come from the Pentagon. House members have to run every two years if they want to keep their seats. And ever since the Pentagon was built during World War II, it has generally been political suicide to vote against "patriotism."

But the Pentagon is consuming such huge amounts of money that it threatens the American and global economies. Both candidates undoubtedly realize that, but seem to have colluded to cut off talk about Israel and Taiwan. Presidents have changed the course of longstanding foreign policy in the past, however. On July 15, 1971, Nixon announced in a five-minute speech that he was going to visit Mao Zedong, America's arch-enemy. He did that by bypassing the Pentagon and the State Department. It was that coup that finally ended the three wars in Indochina.

In 1948, President Truman faced a presidential race that most pollsters predicted he would lose. In February 1948, he was confronted with Soviet troops marching into Prague to support a Communist Party that had just then overthrown a democratically elected government. Even more worrisome to Washington, early that some year, the Chinese Communists were virtually assured total victory throughout China, including Taiwan.

On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the new sovereign State of Israel. On the same day, Truman officially recognized the new state, even though he had not informed many of his highest advisers. But the shrewd politician Truman knew that Stalin wanted to be first in the recognition line, because there were many Jewish and Arab Communists all over the Middle East. Having taken Czechoslovakia, many in Washington thought that Stalin was ready for another coup, to wit, in the oil-rich Middle East.

Truman's sudden move in recognizing Israel undoubtedly helped his re-election. Jewish voters went for him and not the crime-fighter Tom Dewey. But the real backing for the new State of Israel came from a big change in the stream of history. To many it seemed that, after two terrible world wars, World War III would soon break out all over the world.

What emerged was a hybrid of peace and war, the Cold War. The "cold" meant that the big powers henceforth would not shoot at each other as they did in the previous World Wars. Hot wars would continue in the form of "proxy wars." The Korean War was a proxy war because, while the USSR provided planes and artillery to the North Koreans and the Chinese "volunteers," there were no major clashes between American and Soviet forces.

Ben Gurion in West Asia and Chiang Kai-Shek in East Asia sensed that the best of all worlds, in their view, was a Cold War. Harry Truman not only shared their worldview, he was its creator. His coup on Israel recognition gave him confidence to get out from under the shadow of Franklin Roosevelt. He then created NATO, which brought in German troops into European defense even before the Korean War. And on June 27, 1950, he ordered the American Navy to interdict any Mainland China move to occupy Taiwan.

The Cold War kept the Pentagon-driven Israel and Taiwan policies intact. An electoral campaign is not a place to take on the Pentagon. That is perhaps the reason neither candidate has brought up what the end of the Cold War might mean for Israel and Taiwan. But whoever wins on Nov. 2 will have to make not only big changes in Israel and Taiwan policies, but in the Pentagon itself.