If you ask Americans about the current Middle East crisis, most of them will tell you what our useless mainstream media has spoon-fed them for decades: Israel is good and is our friend. Arabs are animals.
The media has been doing an outstanding job of presenting the current Israeli slaughter as the struggle of heroic, pioneering Israelis (who look and act so much like us!) against the crude, satanic terrorism of Hezbollah (and Arabs and Muslims in general). And why not? The right wing never ceases to remind us about how Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East (well, there’s also Lebanon, but pretty soon they won’t even have a country anyway) and how Israel is an outpost of Western enlightenment amid a blackened sea of Muslim barbarity.
Such a piece of propaganda falls apart as soon as you examine closely and independently the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. First of all, the Israelis took land that wasn’t theirs, in a place where they were not wanted. I understand Jews want a homeland, but it makes little sense to break into someone’s house, shoot at them, kick them out and then steal their home and proclaim it your own as the Israelis did to the Palestinians. You should damn well expect them to be mad enough to want to kill you fairly frequently.
Second, Israel is not America’s friend. They have sent spies to steal our secrets and military technology (see Jonathan Pollard and the AIPAC spy scandal). In 1967, they attacked an American navy ship, the USS Liberty, despite being clearly identified as an American ship. Israel has nuclear weapons and won’t admit it, even to its “friend”, the United States. Israel’s lobby in Washington, AIPAC, has helped warp and distort our foreign policy and political discourse by creating an ubiquitous pro-Israel bent. Our support for Israel has created nothing but enemies for us in the Muslim world.
The Israelis have spent decades brutalizing their Arab neighbors and their captive Palestinian population. It’s time for our government to stop egging them on and to demand they act responsibly. But don’t count on the American media to make that argument.
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I think people everywhere are realizing that we are being divided and fed nationalistic propaganda while criminal governments manipulate us for their own profit. And we’re tired of it. This IS Rigoddamndiculous. All of us, the citizens of the U.S.,Israel,and Lebanon, whoever, would be all right with one another in a social gathering and find we have a lot in common, but throw in national anthems, flags, and government/media propaganda and we’re all enemies. Fuck this shit. We need to start flexing our collective muscles and throw these assholes out.
Brian
PS- the above was written last night when I got home, after many beers. On the whole I stick with the statement, but recognize today that the odds of “throwing these assholes out” is a bit more of an uphill battle than perceived while being somewhat wasted.
Let’s do it anyway.
Brian
Don’t worry, I was pretty buzzed myself when I wrote the original article…:) hehehe. Still, I stick with what I wrote as well and agree with your sentiments. I think it’s also worth mentioning that there are many Israelis that disagree with the crap their government is doing.
The World Can’t Wait, drive out the Bush regime.
http://www.worldcantwait.net/
Just watched most of “Why We Fight” last night and then watched “Meet the Press” and now I’ve got insomnia because it’s worse than I thought… They literally never tell us the truth. As for Congress voting to endorse our friends Israel, I guess they had their balls in a vise as usual, or something, but these people have no consciences and I’m going to endorse throwing them all out on their fat asses this fall.