'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Weissglas, son of Earl Butz?

Longtime Israeli National Security Advisor Dov Weissglas, who in February 2006 argued openly for applying the "Weissglas diet" to the entire population of Gaza, certainly wasn't the first bullying imperial ruler to argue that starving citizens of another nation might be a handy way to force them to submit. As I just noted here, Raj Patel recalled that Richard Nixon's Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz argued openly in the 1970s that,

Hungry men listen only to those who have a piece of bread. Food is a tool. It is a weapon in the US negotiating kit.

Indeed, just about all the histories of various European colonial ventures around the world, or Japan's colonial venture in mainland Asia, etc., mention the use of forced impoverishment and imposed hunger as key weapons in forcing the compliance of the conquered nations.

Butz was forced to resign as Secretary of Agriculture in 1976 after making a remark that was both racist and sexually demeaning. He died a few weeks ago, aged 98.

Maybe the Israeli government-- as well as all those economists and policymakers who are still trying to argue that the so-called "free market" should always be allowed to reign supreme in everything-- should be reminded that it is the agreed stance of the governments and peoples of the world that everyone in the world has the right "to have access to safe and nutritious food." No exceptions.