Israelis won’t let neutral inspectors into Gaza: Academician
By Kourosh Ziabari

Prof. William O. Beeman is the head of the anthropology department at the State University of Minnesota, and for years he also served as the professor of Eastern studies at the Brown University of Rhode Islands. He has written more than 100 research articles about the culture, history, politics and sociology of Iran.

In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, Prof. Beeman discussed a variety of topics related to the Israeli offensive in Gaza and said that Iran has successfully created an anti-imperialist alliance against U.S., Israel and other hegemonic powers by unifying the oppressed nations of the world.

“The Israelis had kept the Gaza citizens virtually as prisoners for months. Although there was a cease-fire in place, and it has been violated, it is clear that Israel wanted to totally destroy Hamas,” Prof. Beeman said.

“This has been the constant Israeli philosophy for a long time. They believe that if they completely crush their enemies, they will never rise again. This shows how ignorant they are of Middle Eastern culture. They may crush their enemy today, but the grandchildren of the people they terrorize will grow up and eventually come back to confront them,” he added.

Prof. Beeman explains: “Israel has powerful lobbying forces in the United States and Europe. Moreover, the Europeans know that if they blame Israel, the United States will be very angry at them. Therefore they know that they have to be very gentle on Israel. Germans in particular are very sensitive. They don’t want to be accused of being anti-Semitic and they will be called Nazis if they condemn Israel!”

“Israel is in violation of multiple international conventions, but the U.S. will veto any attack against them in the Security Council, and everyone knows that,” Complains Prof. Beeman “Condemnations of Israel will also never reach the International Court for the same reason. The International bodies can condemn Israel, but they can’t enforce their decisions. Unless the United States opposes Israel, nothing will happen.”

The American academician talks about the power of Israeli lobby in the United States: “This lobby is hugely influential. AIPAC interviews every candidate for office. If they don’t seem sufficiently pro-Israeli, AIPAC works to defeat them with huge amounts of money and thousands of lobbyists. This is, of course, legal in the United States, but it means that all our politicians in public office support the pro-Israeli position; furthermore, the pro-Israeli forces control the major Washington think-tanks, and they dominate the media. Other opinions almost never appear in major news outlets.”

“Israel has been accused of using white phosphorous, but it hasn’t been proven. If it is proven, then they may be in big trouble, because that is even more awful than the pro-Israeli forces can tolerate. It would be a true war crime. One problem is that Israelis won’t let neutral inspectors into Gaza,” Prof. Beeman states.

“Israel has special status with the Bush administration. No American administration has been so lenient with Israel,” Prof. Beeman says.

He adds: “On the other hand, the U.S. has done virtually nothing about Darfur, largely because the Chinese government supports the Sudanese leadership. Let us say that the United States only tries to control other nations when it is politically expedient!”

Prof. Beeman praises Imam Khomeini’s leadership: “Imam Khomeini’s philosophy was inspirational for many people throughout the world and I certainly support this ideal.”

He talks about the Iranian Islamic Revolution: “This has been one of the hallmarks of the Iranian Revolution as it goes forward. Iran’s support for downtrodden people in Lebanon and the Palestinian world shows the power of this philosophy. It is an ideal toward which we all must strive.”

“Consequently, people must continually make their leaders aware of these ideals, and hold them to those ideals. This should be a theme in the next Iranian elections, in my opinion,” he states

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