I normally avoid all discussion of the United States, Israel, and Palestine; and the history, conflicts, and issues therein; because the debate is always full of emotion on both sides that I have no emotional stake in. Now I do. This scoop from Max Blumenthal details how Israeli security forces trained United States policemen in their coordinated eviction of Occupy camps.
The United States gives aid, weaponry and preferential treatment to Israel on the premise that Israel is the only democracy in the middle east, and therefore the only middle eastern country that harbors and protects human rights. When Israel attacks Palestinians, or it’s own people, and is called out on its patent human rights abuses; it asserts that those human rights abuses are actually acts of self-defense.
And the logic goes, if you don't support Israel's right to self-defense, you don't support Israeli statehood.
By questioning Israel you are threatening it’s existence- making yourself an Anti-Zionist, and Anti-Zionism is Anti-Jew. Even if you, the supposed Anti-Zionist are yourself a Jew or Jewish-American, you are simply attacked as a “self-hating Jew.”
[Pro-tip: "self-hating" people are more likely to be correct, anyways, since they don't desire to exonerate themselves.)
Is there no way to be Anti-Israel in America without it being misconstrued as racism? I'm not Anti-Jew, since I don't consider “Jew” an important ethnic distinction(ooooh does that make me a Nazi, Anti-Zionist, or ordinary bigot? take your pick.) I'm not an Anti-Zionist, since I don't care one way or the other about Israel or it's right to exist, and I certainly don't care about a Biblical or Koranic mandate. I don't care about any country other than the United States. And the Israeli regime are bad people whose relationship with America, my country, is toxic and deleterious.
The same is true of the United States relationship with Saudi Arabia and other regressive regimes- the difference here is that Saudis aren’t coming onto our land and training our own police officers, on our dime. (although they are partly responsible for some other bullshit)
When a United States Marines Veteran is protesting financial crime and inequality after having fought for Wall Street's(definite) and Israel’s (supposed) best interests; is then critically injured by police officers who've been trained by Israeli security forces, with paramilitary 'less lethal' weaponry- I kind of take it personally.
I'm not and never was very interested in the supposed crimes of Israel against Palestinians or it's own people. But now, Israel is guilty of conspiring to commit violent acts against American citizens. on United States Soil.
“Fucking Nazis. Nothing ever changes.”- Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski
As a jew, a libertarian, atheist, and immigrant, I have a unique perspective on the matter. It is definitely an impurity from the libertarian viewpoint to defend Israel at the expense of the United States, likewise, the existence of Israel was motivated by Britain's and our foreign policy in the Middle East. Israel was created to control the Suez Canal, and the original immigrants had no alternative but to go there. However, we live in a democracy, and a very large population and lobby of Americans supports it. I personally think it's stupid to live over there, but I can understand the religious sentiment/attachment to the land and pride of the Israelis, and I have family and friends there that I would like to see do well. Anyway, real life is impure ideologically, and I encourage you to read more about the forces at work over there. There is no easy solution.
ReplyDeleteI only find it amusing that the Palestinians refer to the Israelis as usurpers, but not England, Jordan, Egypt, or Syria who all controlled that tract of land before the "jews" took over. Also Hamas being in control of Gaza doesn't help as they have vowed to wipe Israel off the map (in recent years they have calmed down a little, but hey, you gotta remember some things). As for Israeli troops training U.S. cops to fight protesters, that is totally fucked, and I put that on our government. USA... USA... USA... dumb shits.
ReplyDeleteI think that both of the above comments are notably insightful. In particular, both commenters rightly mention that Israel's starting point as a state was defined by western powers. When the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is discussed today, it's often posed as a tension between Jews and Muslims or something, but so much of the problem was ignited, in the first place, by western colonialism. (I think that the drawing of boundaries by western powers is also to blame for much of the war in Africa; boundaries were set by the colonizers, not according to, say, tribal affiliation.)
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