Nothing that Israel does in its affairs would be of quite such great concern to the world were it not for the fact that Israel drags along, willy-nilly, the world's greatest power, much like some impressive-looking but feeble-willed, dazed parent stumbling along behind a screaming toddler demanding yet another goody. The threat of serious wars has grown exponentially in recent decades precisely owing to this fact, and not just wars but wars reflecting neither justice nor principle, the aggressive reordering of other people's affairs by sweeping them into the pit of hell. The so-called war on terror is just part of the fallout of millions of the world's powerless and abused watching helplessly and without hope the embarrassing public spectacle.
The terrible bloody war in Iraq was almost exclusively for Israel's benefit. The Syrian "civil war" is a deliberately engineered conflict for Israel's benefit. The coup in Egypt, wiping away the sacrifice of thousands of Egyptians in a revolution for democracy and restoring a junta, again reflects Israel's interests in the region. The constant threats and needless hardships imposed upon Iran, a country that has no modern history of aggression and which every intelligence service knows has not been working towards nuclear weapons, reflects yet the same interest. Indeed, so determined is the government of Israel to keep this huge country pinned down that it pulled out all stops in using its immense congressional influence trying to embarrass the President and prevent a sensible international agreement with Iran. And, more ominously, Netanyahu has threatened countless times to attack Iran, knowing full well that the United States would be forced to come to his assistance when Iran struck back, as it would have every right to do.
But it is not just constant wars and threats of wars, the liberal use of extreme force against the interests of others, which make modern Israel perhaps the greatest threat to peace on the planet. The effe cts of America's unprecedented and inappropriate relationship with Israel have corroded badly the values and meaning of American society. America's democratic government, always rather fragile at best, is literally becoming hollowed out. Today America copies a great deal of the ugly garrison state practices of Israel: aggressive and intrusive intelligence, anti-democratic laws, police and security being given close to a free hand in attacking human rights, secret prisons, and even extrajudicial killing on a large scale. The President speaks of governing by "presidential order" rather than by legislation, the intelligence establishment ignores the Constitution and the courts, the "homeland" security establishment heavily arms itself against public disorder, and even military men make the odd public reference to military government in an emergency. Where is the Constitution with its crucial Bill of Rights in all this? Cut in scraps lying on the floor like snippets from a film-editor's work.
Of course, so far as rights go, Israel never had, nor can it ever have, a Bill of Rights, given its peculiar organization and the practices of its garrison-state establishment. Imitating Israel's practices and adopting its views remove any state automatically from the whole trend of western society since the Enlightenment. Israel's leaders may speak all they wish about "the Middle East's only democracy," but the words are as insincere as television-advertising claims for a new mouthwash. Can you have democracy for only one carefully defined group? Can you have democracy without the restraints of a Bill of Rights upon an abusive majority? Can you have democracy that holds millions in perpetual isolation and subjects them to countless abuses? Can you have democracy where you prefer dealing with juntas and kingdoms to democratic governments in neighboring states? Can you have democracy that constantly threatens war on those who do not threaten it? Can you have democracy that conducts witch-hunts on a grand scale, just re-naming the witches as terrorists? Can you have democracy that interferes in the internal affairs of other democratic states? And, in the end, can you have democracy founded on the Orwellian principle that "all animals are equal, but some are more equal"?
The truth always and everywhere has been that a society heavily burdened by the military cannot be a truly free and democratic society. An armed camp like Israel has its values and future far more determined by the sheer weight of its military-intelligence-security establishment than by any elections or slogans about democracy, and this same unpleasant truth applies increasingly to America.
The effect of Israel upon the United States in some ways resembles the effect in space of a black hole with its immensely powerful gravity pulling matter towards the certain destruction of its event horizon.
It has become common for criticism of Israel to be conflated with anti-Semitism. Canada's Prime Minister Harper, an ungracious man at the best of times, has been himself guilty of doing so. It is, of course, simple name-calling, certainly not the kind of thing we expect from a prime minister, but even more, it is a bully's technique used to intimidate people who disagree.
The practice of calling critics names is closely related to the endlessly repeated argument of Israeli governments that settlement negotiations must start with the Palestinians accepting that "Israel is the country of the Jewish people." On first hearing, that might seem plausible, but a moment's reflection shows its dangerous nature and calculated dishonesty. It is not up to people outside a country to characterize the country's nature or make-up, and no one has ever expected that in any case, until now in the case of Israel.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
