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Israeli Democracy or Hypocrisy - by Stephen Lendman
An October 2007 Haaretz editorial titled "Democracy or hypocrisy" contrasted the "occupying Land of Israel to the democratic Israel" in calling for a "debate about Israel's control over the lives of Palestinians deprived of civil rights," saying its democracy is flawed and not addressing it is hypocrisy.
Throughout history, regimes rhetorically embraced democracy as cover for more despotic policies, no different today throughout the world in countries like India, Pakistan, America and Israel practicing what Michael Parenti calls "democracy for the few," (the) "shadier sides of US political life (in which) proponents of the existing social order have tried to transform practically every deficiency into a strength."
He asked, "Who gets what, when, how and why?" Why do so few benefit at the expense of the many? Why are peace, social justice, and real democracy illusions in a nation embracing the opposite of what they represent? Why instead do poverty, racism, sexism, exploitation, rapacious capitalism, and imperialism, in fact, define how America and Israel are governed?
Indian writer Arundhati Roy says her country's model is "designed to uphold the consensus of the elite for market growth (and has) metastasized into something dangerous" in her book titled, "Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers." She admits to being "hysterical" about where India is heading, sabotaged by religious nationalism and political expediency, "genocide" in the bloody 2002 Gujarat riots, "ecocide" for greater profits, and corruption at the highest levels. She compares Hindu right wing persecution of Muslims to Hitler's persecution of Jews and asks:
"What kind of India do they want? A limbless, headless, soulless torso left bleeding under the butcher's clever with a flag driven deep into her mutilated heart?"
Is it less true for America or in how Israel treats Muslims, many its own citizens yet denied virtually all rights afforded Jews, and in Palestine none under military occupation.
On December 27 in the Electronic Intifida, Ali Abunimah said "Israel resembles a failed state" in citing one year after Operation Cast Lead, "but for the people there time might as well have stood still," given how viciously they were attacked, the false premise for doing it, the many hundreds murdered in cold blood, many thousands left with horrific wounds, virtually everyone emotionally traumatized, the vast amount of devastation left, and the wasteland that's now Gaza under siege, out of sight, out of mind, and out of the consciousness of world leaders doing nothing to help.
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