Noam Chomsky says Israel is US military base

The anarchist libertarian socialist Noam Chomsky told Press TV on Wednesday that the nation of Israel is more like a military base for the United States.

American linguist and author of such books as “What Uncle Sam Really Wants” and “Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture,” Noam Chomsky, was interviewed on Wednesday by Press TV to explain the complicated relationship between Tel-Aviv and Washington. The American sociopolitical analyst said, “Israel is essentially a US military base, the US positions weapons there, that's a very close military and intelligence tie.” Commenting further on the weapons Israel received between 2007 and 2008 from the US, “[Israel] is receiving weapons constantly. In fact, weapons were sent during the invasion of Gaza. They tried to send them, they were supposed to send them from Greece, and Greece refused to ship them.” Chomsky, an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, discussed when the Pentagon was asked about the weapons transfer; they actually explained how it wasn’t for the Gaza invasion but rather the positioning of US weapons, he noted. Former 2008 Presidential Candidate and Republican Congressman of Texas, Ron Paul, said at a conference that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi actually took an Iranian bill off the table because “Israel told her to.” Chomsky said in the interview that Israel controls a large part of America’s foreign policy but still has to act within the confines of what Washington allows. “Take for example Israeli threats against Iran or US threats for that matter, in which if anybody cares it is a violation of the UN charter. Last summer in 2008, right in the middle of the presidential election… Israeli lobbyists tried very hard to push through a resolution in congress calling for a blockade on Iran which essentially would have been an act of war.” A lot of Washington officials were spoken to, says Chomsky, but the move was terminated after the White House spoke to Israel, “Israel cannot go beyond what the US permits.” The general consensus in the international community is that Iran is enriching uranium for the purpose of creating a nuclear weapon, which some countries and leaders, such as the Prime Minister of Turkey, view as nonsense. Chomsky concurs with that assessment and believes that Western media outlets spread false information and reports that have been “exaggerated” about Iran’s nuclear program. “There has been a massive propaganda campaign that demonizes Iran, that portrays it as a major threat to world peace that has been going on for the past three years.” On the topic of President Barack Obama being award the Nobel Peace Prize, Khabrein Info reports that Chomsky finds the right reason in choosing Obama because of the intent of peace, “The hopes and prospects for peace aren't well aligned -- not even close. The task is to bring them nearer. Presumably that was the intent of the Nobel Peace Prize committee in choosing President Barack Obama.”