Will US Military Observers Return in Body Bags?

During US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s June 28th visit to Israel, Powell announced that the US would dispatch military “observers” to oversee implementation of US-brokered accords between Israel and the PLO. On July 27th, two days before the Tisha B’Av fast that marks the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem, the new US ambassador, a Jewish American,. Daniel Kurtzer, was reported to be in the final stages of preparing the final draft for the deployment of US troops in Israel.

These US troops would patrol Jerusalem and Judea, also known as the west bank, all defined by the US as “occupied” by Israel.

Since US state department policy makers have determined that Jews have no sovereignty in Jerusalem or the west bank, US observers would be expected to show little respect for the concerns of Jews who live in these areas.

All this follows confirmed reports that the US has been training the security forces of the PLO, even at a time when the PLO has declared war on the state and people of Israel, soldiers and civilians alike, especially in Jerusalem and Judea.

US troops, even in the form of “observers”, would be an invading army, following in the footsteps of the British, who were awarded a mandate over Palestine by the League of Nations in the 1920’s and expelled by the new Jewish state during its War of Independence. 1945-1948

To the surprise of many, the US does recognize any part of Jerusalem as part of Israel, west or east. Any birth certificate, passport or legal document issued by the US Consul in Jerusalem reads “Jerusalem”, with no designated nation state mentioned.

The US state department maintains the policy that it adopted in 1948, which is that the Jerusalem -Bethlehem region must become an international city, when it was slated to be administered by the US under a UN trusteeship

Indeed, UN negotiator Count Folk Bernadotte was shot to death by Israeli Jews in September, 1948 in Jerusalem, he was in the final stages of negotiating that American plan to transfer ‘”greater Jerusalem” to a US trusteeship. The US had already selected a Mayor for Jerusalem, a Quaker prelate from Philadelphia.

The Swedes have never forgiven Israelis for killing Bernadotte.

Luck would have it that Bernadotte was not a US diplomat.

The US never abandoned the plan that Bernadotte was negotiating for Jerusalem when he was killed.

While Jewish religious law forbids Jews to raise a hand against an Israeli soldier, Jewish religious law would not forbid a Jew from resisting a soldier from a foreign army in Jerusalem or Judea.

Jewish Americans, amongst others, would be in for quite a shock if US troops fall at the hands of Israeli resistance fighters.

It is not too late for US public opinion to reconsider the idea of dispatching US military “observers” to Israel.