The
bizarre and pointless Israeli assault
on Gaza has exposed the extent to which Israeli pressure has undermined
American institutions. That corruption should be of deep concern to every
American. Both here and abroad, we will eventually pay an enormous price for
it. Notice the following facts.
Our media has been corrupted. Almost every news channel
has allowed Israeli military officials to give long, uninterrupted
opportunities to frame the conflict in grossly misleading ways, and to repeat
their official lies and talking points almost ad nauseam. They are rarely
challenged by the media when these lies totally fail to reflect the reality of
Israel’s actions. At the same time, there is almost no Palestinian
representation in the coverage. Several well-respected reporters have been
pointedly recalled or ‘disinvited’ from various networks for filing reports
which tried to restore some balance to the coverage.
The Presidency has been corrupted. Obama repeats
Netanyahu’s stock phrase that, “Israel has a right to defend itself.” This is
not a defensive operation. The president’s statements, and the support they
imply, simply ensure continued Israeli aggression and war crimes.
Our
mission to the UN and our commitment to international law have been corrupted.
Today in the UN Human Rights Council, America cast a lone vote NOT to even
investigate the horrors that are on TV every day. In 2013, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice told Reform Jews
that a “huge part” of her job was defending Israel. Silly us—we thought her
job was to defend US interests and
values. With all that is happening around the Middle East, shouldn’t that keep
her busy enough?
Our entire legislative branch has been corrupted. The US
Senate just overwhelmingly approved S.Res. 498 – “A resolution expressing the
sense of the Senate regarding United States support for the State of Israel as
it defends itself against unprovoked rocket attacks from the Hamas terrorist
organization.” The words “defend” and “unprovoked” are both lies. Even the
phrase “Hamas terrorist organization” is a misrepresentation—Hamas is a
national resistance movement struggling to defend the last crumbs of
Palestinian land from absorption by Israeli aggressors. The U.S. Senate
voted 100-0 to support Israel’s actions and to ask for a dissolution of the
Palestinian national-unity government—even though the lack of a unity
government had previously been used by Israel and the US as an excuse NOT to
negotiate with Palestinians. Yet, dripping in lies and hypocrisy as it is, S.Res. 498’s co-sponsors
range from our own Wyden and Merkley to Paul Rand and Ted Cruz. House votes on
these Aipac/Israel sponsored kinds of resolution are usually even worse.
Even federal agencies charged with ensuring the
safety of the US public have been corrupted. On July 22nd the FAA
banned US airlines from flying into Israel’s main airport, Ben-Gurion
International because a Hamas rocket had landed only a mile from the airport.
Israel railed against the FAA suspension, insisting that the airport was perfectly safe!
That is a supremely hypocritical claim. The entire Israeli PR
establishment has railed all week about the
dire existential danger posed to the entire state of Israel by Hamas rockets.
Yet Israeli PM Netanyahu and former PM Shimon Peres lobbied fiercely for the
President to reverse the FAA ruling. In the wake of the tragic downing of a
Malaysian air jet in a war zone this week, we should ALL be able to agree that
being in range of Hamas rockets should certainly rule out all civilian air
traffic into Ben-Gurion International until there is a lasting peace. Yet
today, even though there was no evidence that the situation on Thursday was any different than it had been the day
before, the FAA lifted the flight ban.
Netanyahu
or the FAA can no more guarantee the safety of a plane coming into or out of
Israel than they can predict a lightning strike. A Hamas rocket could land
anywhere almost anytime. Netanyahu simply wants the airport open—even if it means
placing US lives at risk to make Israel appear safe. This enormously
hypocritical reversal completely undermines Netanyahu’s rationale for the
massive civilian casualties in Gaza.
I suggest
that everyone hold their own war crimes trial. Simply turn off the sound and
watch some video coming out of Gaza. As you do, remember that Israel claims it
tries to minimize civilian casualties
and that Hamas tries to maximize
them. Then remember these key points.
1.
In
2013, prior to the Israeli breaking of the ceasefire, ZERO Israeli civilians
had been killed by rockets from Gaza. According to the Israeli watchdog group
B’tsalem, 36 Palestinians were killed in the same period.
2.
Since
the fighting began, only two Israeli civilians have been killed as opposed to
40 IDF troops (a 5% civilian casualty rate). Some 1,000 Palestinians have been
killed, (UN estimates show an 80% civilian casualty rate).
3.
Despite
repeated Israeli claims, no independent
reporter on the ground has actually seen evidence that Hamas is using civilians
as human shields.
4.
This
kind of operation has been tried by Israel before and has never worked.
5.
Prior
operations of this kind have created far more causalities than they prevent.
6.
A
disproportionate military response, even
to a real provocation, is a war crime.
7.
Intentionally
bombing civilian hospitals, schools and mosques is a war crime.
8.
Israeli
warnings of imminent attack are irrelevant—Israeli policy has left Gazans
nowhere to go.
9.
During
the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto uprising in WWII, the Jewish resistance fought house
by house for weeks through the crowded neighborhoods. I don’t recall anyone
criticizing their choice of battleground. Like the people of Gaza today, they
simply had no choice. What would a 4 hour extension of a 12 hour ceasefire have
possibly meant to them?
Above all,
everyone should remember that to this
day, Israel has not shown any evidence that Hamas was involved in the
killing of the three Israeli teens— the act Israel has used to justify breaking
their prior ceasefire with Hamas and to create this horrific, pointless,
genocidal violence. In fact, reports on the 25th of July showed
there is evidence that Israel knows Hamas wasn’t involved. The only rational verdict I can reach is that the
carnage we see today is a conscious and deliberate Israeli strategy— a strategy
that is corrupting the US as surely as it has corrupted Israel.
What is that strategy? As reporter David Hirst wrote of
the 2008 Israeli assault on Gaza, Israel deliberately killed civilians in the
hope that the (remaining) civilians would then blame their plight on Hamas.
“The ultimate goal was to inflict such pain on the Gazans that they would turn
against the regime which had brought down this mayhem on their heads, driving
it from power.” (Beware of Small States, by David Hirst, p.401). That, I’m
sorry to say, is the only explanation that really accounts for the horrific
number of civilian casualties Israel has created in Gaza in the last weeks. But
even if you approve of this strategy (which clearly involves war crimes), it
has clearly failed. Gazans aren’t blaming Hamas. In fact, even the more
moderate Palestinians on the West Bank are becoming more radicalized and
rallying behind Hamas. In fact it’s really not about radicals vs. extremists;
it is simply about the people of Palestine trying to defend their land from
Israeli’s intent on stealing it. That is the some 125 years of modern Israeli
history in a nutshell.
So even if for some inexplicable reason you have read all
this and watched the mayhem in Gaza, and still side with Israel, at least don’t
delude yourself. Israel isn’t winning. It is soaking itself in blood and shame and
guaranteeing that the future of Israel will be more of the same.
Finally,
throughout the world the current catastrophe has served as an ongoing, 24/7, 18
day infomercial for how American values have been corrupted by narrow, vicious,
and purely political Israeli interests. A future generation of Americans will
pay the price for this. Extremist anti-Americans are being created across the
region every second. We have Israel to thank for that. Some ally.