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When It Comes to Palestine and Israel, the US Simply Doesn't Get It
Biden and Palin hid like rabbits from the centre of the Middle East earthquake
Palestinians ceased to exist in the United States on Thursday night. Both Joe Biden and Sarah Palin managed to avoid the use of that poisonous word. "Palestine" and "Palestinians" - that most cancerous, slippery, dangerous concept - simply did not exist in the vice-presidential debate. The phrase "Israeli occupation" was mercifully left unused. Neither the words "Jewish colony" nor "Jewish settlement" - not even that cowardly old get-out clause of American journalism, "Jewish neighbourhood" - got a look-in. Nope.
Those bold contenders of the US vice-presidency, so keen to prove their mettle when it comes to "defence", hid like rabbits from the epicentre of the Middle East earthquake: the existence of a Palestinian people. Sure, there was talk of a "two-state" solution, but it would have mystified anyone who didn't understand the region.
There was even a Biden jibe at George Bush for pressing on with "elections" - again, the adjective "Palestinian" went missing - that produced a Hamas victory. But Hamas appeared to exist in never-never land, a vast landscape that gradually encompassed all the vast and black deserts that stretch, in the imagination of US politicians, from the Mediterranean to Pakistan.
"Pakistan's (nuclear) missiles can already hit Israel," Biden thundered. But what was he talking about? Pakistan has not threatened Israel. It's supposed to be on our side. Both vice-presidential candidates seemed to think that our ally in the "war on terror" was now turning into an ally of the axis of evil. Even Islam didn't get a run for its money.
Indeed, one of the funniest reports of the week, yet another investigation of Obama's education, came from the Associated Press news agency. The would-be president, the Associated Press announced, had attended a Muslim school but hadn't "practised" Islam.
What on earth did this mean, I asked myself? Would AP have reported, for example, that McCain had attended a Christian school but hadn't "practised" Christianity? Then I got it. Obama had smoked Islam but he hadn't inhaled!
Travelling across the US this week - from Seattle to Houston to Washington and then to New York - I kept bumping into the results of America's White House-induced terror. A well-educated, upper-middle-class lady at a lunch turned to me and expressed her fear that Islam "wanted to take over America". When I suggested that this was pushing things a bit, she informed me that "the Muslims have already taken over France".
How does one reply to this? It's a bit like being informed by a perfectly sane and rational person that Martians have just landed in Tennessee. So I used the old Fisk trick when confronted by ravers of the "admit George Bush did 9/11" school. I looked at my watch, adopted a shocked expression and shouted: "Gotta go!"
But seriously. There was Biden on Thursday night, telling us that along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan - he was referring, of course, to the old frontier drawn by Sir Mortimer Durrand which most Pushtuns (and thus all Taliban) regard as fictional - "there have been 7,000 madrassas built ... and that's where bin Laden lives and we will go at him if we have actually (sic) intelligence".
Seven thousand? Where on earth does this figure come from? Yes, there are thousands of religious schools in Pakistan - but they're not all on the border. In another extraordinary bit of myth-making, Obama's man told us that "we kicked the Hizbollah out of Lebanon" - which is totally untrue.
And, of course, Israel - a word that must be uttered, repeatedly, by all US candidates - became the compass point of the entire Middle East, this "peace-seeking nation ... our strongest and best ally in the Middle East" (quoth Palin) of whom "no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend...than Joe Biden" (quoth Biden).
Israel was "in jeopardy" if America talked to Iran, Palin revealed. "We have got to assure them that we will never allow a second Holocaust." Thus was the corpse of Hitler dug up yet again - just as McCain resurrected the shadow of the Second World War last week when he blathered on about Eisenhower's sense of responsibility before D-Day. That Israel can quite adequately defend herself with 264 nuclear warheads went, of course, unmentioned, because acknowledging Israel's real power undermines the image of a small and vulnerable country relying on America for its defence.
Israelis deserve security. But where were the promises of security for Palestinians? Or the sympathy which Americans would immediately grant any other occupied people? Absent, needless to say. For we must gird ourselves for the next struggle against world evil in Pakistan.
Biden actually demanded a "stable" government in Islamabad, which was a little bit hypocritical only a few days after US troops had crossed its sovereign border to shoot up a Pakistani house allegedly used by the Taliban. As General David Petraeus told The New York Times this week, "The trends in Afghanistan have been in the wrong direction ... wresting control of certain areas from the Taliban will be very difficult."
It's an odd situation. Obama and Biden want to close down Iraq and re-conquer Afghanistan. The Palin College of Clichés characterised this as "a white flag of surrender in Iraq" while continuing to warn of the dangers of Iran, the name of whose loony president - Ahmadinejad - defeated McCain three times in last week's pseudo-debate.
But it's the same old story. All we have learned in America these past two weeks, to quote Joan Littlewood's Oh! What a Lovely War, is that the war goes on.
- Posted in
86 Comments so far
Show AllDon't be silly.
Also, the cruel embargo on Cuba was not mentioned.
When It Comes to Palestine and Israel, the US Simply Doesn't Get It
And likely never will.
I had to learn about Palestine-Israel before having an opinion. I am 100% pro-Palestine. I think if most americans knew the real history they would be as well. The problem is that we are miseducated on this topic. We also have a small but effective jewish population in this country that won't allow real dissent on this issue. How they get away with this truly amazes me as they are a very small minority!
Agreed,
How can anyone, with a operating moral compass, and with any knowledge of the history of the conflict, be anything but strongly pro-Palestine.
Who robbed who of their land and farms, homes and livelihoods?
Who are the native people, and who are, overwhelmingly the racist colonizers?
Who has done the major part of the killing and ALL of the ethnic cleansing?
The U.S. doesn't get it on a lot of fronts!!!
The U.S. and Israel are mirror images of each other, heavily militaristic, belligerent, blind with power, war-mongering, paranoid and always ever so right. Bringing up the word Israel in the U.S. is like bringing up the word abortion; end of discussion or the conversation goes nuts!
This only proves that our handful of representatives in federal government are subservient to the powerful jewish tribe here and there.
The only way to bypass jewish, banking, corporate, Miami-cuban, and other centers of concentrated money and power is by direct democracy.
Fisk don't get it either. As long as we cannot speak openly about Israeli policy because we fear being branded antisemitic we can never honestly approach this issue. Pres. Carter has tried and has been marginalized. And who on earth honestly believes Carter to be anti anything when it comes to humanity? Like Wall Street, Israel prefers to function in the backroom applying inhumane tactics that serve them and them alone. The Palestinians could do better but are often overwhelmed simply trying to get clean water or get through an Israeli wall-checkpoint. When will we learn we are all connected and that militarism serves only a small handful of people to their benefit and seriously hurts so many?
some people it seems will believe anything, because the truth doesn't square with their religious / political dreams..
i do believe most major religions of the world state that, "we are ALL GOD'S children", but i guess like most people, GOD has favorites?
How in the name of any supposed God can one evict from their homes and lands thousands and thousands, force them into unlivable conditions not unlike open prisons, then expect the world to respect them, because even though they never, ever lived in the area, a God said it was theirs?
keep clinging to your myths and stories like frightened children, because to put it in common parlance, "you ain't seen nuthin yet!"
i will now hunker down and brace myself against the rabid antisemitic and jew hating epithets that are headed my way, sure as the sun rises in the east, i always found it interesting one can say anything about any religion but judaism, and not be "crucified", bad pun i admit..but laugh or go nuts..your choice.
Robert Fisk is brillant, and knows as much as anyone alive about the Middle East.
My only question to him would be, "So what else is new?"
The world is filled with myriad absurdities, and none more absurd than international politics and relations among nation states.
Many, many things are left unsaid, remain taboo, are distorted beyond all recognition, and euphemized out of existence.
Our Congress is occupied Israeli territory so any discussion of Israel policy can easily be prevented.
Hoa binh
Obama had smoked Islam but he hadn't inhaled!
**great line
Secularism is full of religious nuts too though. They just believe in Evolution instead of the Great Chain of Being-but the point is the same--humans are better than everything else(they claim it isnt, but that's what they use biology for--genetic engineering, vivisection exploded in frequency after Darwin etc).
The truth about Palestine is that for most US voters what happens in a tiny part of the Middle East is irrelevant to them.
Its like East Timor or Burma.
And Israel has a much stronger lobby and some of its interests tie in with US military policy. The way the politicians fall over to protect is just incredible. Never would have thought Carter would be stuck in the margins and he will probably be ignored until he is dead.
On the issue of Islam and France--I do think its ridiculous that someone like Bridget Bardot gets fined because she calls Islam barbaric for its animal sacrifices(mind you-Judaism has it too-but Jews are in far fewer numbers and it isnt as public as the Eid idiocy).
Religious zealots should not be allowed to push their anti-social/unethical beliefs outside of their home country--there are fanatics in Islam who want to push sharia law in Europe.
>>Secularism is full of religious nuts too though. They just believe in Evolution instead of the Great Chain of Being-but the point is the same--humans are better than everything else(they claim it isnt, but that's what they use biology for--genetic engineering, vivisection exploded in frequency after Darwin etc).
What rubbish! "Secularism is full of religious nuts"....how do you keep your head from exploding after uttering such nonsense?
You clearly know nothing about secularism, evolutionary theory or the scientific method.
Show me a single evolutionary biologist who believes that "humans are better than everything else." If anything this is the mantra of Christian Dominionism. Evolutionary biology teaches us that what separates man from animal is a difference in degree, not one in kind. We are just another branch of the same evolutionary tree. We all share a common ancestor..
>>but that's what they use biology for--genetic engineering, vivisection exploded in frequency after Darwin etc).
Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. Science, whether investigating genetics, or any other form of research is not inherently evil. It is often the use of this science, whether research into nuclear fission or fusion gets employed as nuclear warhead, or genetic research is utilized to enhance Monsanto's profit. It is the corporate and governmental entities who use science for such evil purposes. The same research can and is used for many peaceful and life-enhancing technologies.
re: "vivisection exploded in frequency after Darwin"....pure malarkey. Why do you feel the need to slander what many consider to be the greatest and most influential scientist? There was plenty of vivisection pre-Darwin, and there is plenty today. The only difference today is industrialization and the proliferation of corporate entities that perform vivisection. If you actually bothered to read some Darwin (and I suggest you do), you'd quickly find that he was greatly disturbed by vivisection (in fact this is what lead him to not pursue a career as a physician).
Darwin was well aware of the moral implications of his theory. When he wrote in one of his journals:
"Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy the interposition of a deity. More humble and I think truer to consider his created from animals."
...he was speaking of the religious worldview that grants to humans a moral status superior to that of any other creature on the planet, and that a "creator" put the other creature here for man's use. This theory regards human life and ONLY human life as sacred. Darwin realized that (as his and other's meticulous research proves) there is no "creator" in the biblical sense, and therefore the "moral" guidance found in that ridiculous tome must be replaced by a moralism that does not grant humans any "special" status.
You write:
"Religious zealots should not be allowed to push their anti-social/unethical beliefs outside of their home country--there are fanatics in Islam who want to push sharia law in Europe"
Religious zealots, whether Muslim, Christian, believers in Zeus or the tooth fairy should not be allowed to push their nonsensical and dangerous worldviews ANYWHERE. Such people need rehabilitation and psychiatric care. We need to get beyond the "belief" in imaginary deities looking down on us from the skies above, and this "my god is the only true god and you better worship my god or I'll kill you" mindset. Maybe then we might have a little peace in the world.
We need more science, and more secularism to guide the world at this critical juncture. Not religious hokum of any variety.
Great reply, Biomusicologist.
I still don't know enough about this part of the middle east to give an informed opinion. Though some here helped me learn about the Palestinians side of this problem. And I believe they need to be given much more consideration.
I also believe now that Congress and the Senate have elected Obama, there may be a better chance for some rersolution there.
For one objective perspective, let me suggest:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
This is another good resource:
http://www.imemc.org/
Thomas More at Oct. 4 at 12:58 pm
Since Obama, like McCain, has sworn fealty to AIPAC, it is highly unlikely that the [alleged] agent of hope will offer much hope, if any, to the Palestinian people.
Great article. Fisk is one of my favorite journalists.
Obama had smoked Islam but he hadn't inhaled!
**great line --Agreed
Zionism is the problem. Zionism is racism. Zionism is a barrier to peace. It will take a century to clean up the mess of the last century of Zionism. If we start now.
Fat chance.
"real world"- you are acting like an uninformed clone in the Zionist Support Brigade . . .
seedeevee,
And your fascist, anti-semite crock of shit means something? "...the last century of Zionism. If we start now..."
Do you think that your ignorant utterances, like most of the rest of these fools here on this subject, are the equivalent of a studied analysis of the Israel/Palestine political situation? You exemplify one concept, that of an ignorant American under the influence of some of the most ignorant people of this country. I am embarrassed whenever I read these comments from so many here that suffer a delusion of being a 'progressive.'
Zionism is not the problem anymore than Islam is the problem. Americanism is the problem and Fisk has his head up your collective ass.
"I still don't know enough about this part of the middle east to give an informed opinion. Though some here helped me learn about the Palestinians side of this problem. And I believe they need to be given much more consideration." (Thomas)
Unfortunately we tend to view the world through the lens of a sporting event.(Our side and their side ..a manichean approach... the good guys and the bad guys) In your comment Thomas you are doing exactly what we all should and must do, and that is, imagine the other.
Well, I'm so glad you approve .
bligh4
I think many people are just having "empathy fatigue" when it comes to the Israel/ Palestinian question. Nothing is ever resolved and nothing ever will be unless both sides start acting with something approaching good faith. Israel controlling all access- and building settlements on one side and the Arabs loudly calling for Israels annilation and mass murder on the other- does not sound like good faith to me.
I'm going to worry about something else for a while.
bligh4,
No Arabs are calling for Israel's annihilation, or for any mass murder. Such a characterization of the Palestinian's demand for their land and homes back is pure, US/Israeli/AIPAC propaganda.
If you go here: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
You will see that it is Israel that is doing the greatest share of mass murder.
bligh4
USAn
Thanks for the reply. Well, all I can say is that I can read Hamas's charter as well as anyone, I see the sermons calling for the death of the jews on palestinian and arab TV, and I have seen demonstrations in my home town calling for the abolishment of the state of Israel. If Hamas changes their charter and Arab TV stops broadcasting hate- then maybe I will change my mind.
Again, a pox on both houses. I'm STILL going to worry about something else.
Bligh,
Just to be clear, are you fluent in Arabic?
And at this point I fear the two-state solution is dead. So the only solution will be the transformation of Israel into multi-confessional, state, like Lebanon, which itself would be a peaceful place if it weren't for the irritant of Israel to it's south, and all the Palestinian refugees still trapped there in conditions of poverty.
If this is annihilation, it is the annihilation of a state and a regime, not a people - like the old Soviet Union experienced, which was largely a good thing.
bligh4
USAn. Am I fluent in Arabic? No. I was not aware that was a requirement to have an informed opinion on the matter. With that line of reasoning, all the non-english speaking Arabs could not have an informed opinion on the US, or non-hebrew speakers could not have an opinion on Israel.
My business partner is fluent in both Arabic and Farsi, and has vouched for the accuracy of the broadcasts that I have seen.
I am afraid that a multi-religious state is no longer possible in the middle east. The majority will vote in a state based on Sharia, and the others will either continue to exist as second-class citizens, emigrate, or perish. This has been the pattern in all the countries in the area for the past two decades.
God help them.
..
bligh4 you don't belong here with you rational, informed opinion! Only hate on this subject. Bad form not keeling in mate.
bligh4
Apparently you're right goose. I need to keep a cheatsheet on my computer to see who I am supposed to irrationally hate.
thanks for the heads up.
bligh
A cheat sheet to irrationally hate? You really do need some mental help.
Jason Jordan
Sandpoint, Idaho
I will support your position on this. I have very dear friends who are fluent in Arabic, Armenian, Farsi and a couple of dialects. Their parents live in Lebanon where Hezbola(sp.inc) has influence also, big time. Their belief is that Hamas is causing trouble and inciting it in Palestine, even after being elected into power. And remember they picked up the slack caused by the death of Yasser Arafat. His positions were toast upon his death. Peace was actually very close until then. But then the American fascists, commencing with Ronnie 'Bozo the Clown' Raygun, came into power all the way through the shitbag we have now. If I were a Middle East leader, I would do just what they are doing. Schmooze, rip'em off on energy, fuck with their heads politically, show the American people what shmucks their leaders are and fart bad gas in their direction. HarHarHar.
For those posters who have remarked on their lack of knowledge regarding the Israeli/Palestinian relationship, let me suggest a daily scanning of Israel's (somewhat) liberal newspaper:
www.haaretz.com
Thanks for the link.
"Well, I'm so glad you approve ."(Thomas)
Thomas my name is Dante and I fully support your message.
Dante
My apologies. That was my irritation showing thru from a condesending comment on another post you made. Had no place here and was not a coherent statement.
Actually I appreciated your compliment. Again , my apologies. I'll watch myself closer in the future.
The Palestinian "cause" got exactly the mention it deserves. These people have systematically destroyed any peace process again and again. They have throughout their struggle repeatedly committed atrocities..... in fact their "struggle" consists almost entirely of atrocities, and the "courageous freedom fighters" have consistently brought retribution down upon their own "innocent" people by perpetrating their crimes from areas with large concentrations of civilians, and or fleeing back to those areas. It has been entirely a campaign of terror with absolutely no serious effort at achieving a settlement.
The innocent who suffer always deserve our sympathy...... but the hand that ultimately has brought all this suffering to both the so called Palestinian people and the people of Israel is the hand of these "courageous freedom fighters". There clearly is no peace process that will satisfy them short of extinction of the Jewish race.
The drawn out campaign of these "freedom fighters" which has consistently targeted innocents, and consists of murder, rape, hijacking, and human bombs has earned them my total contempt as few movement in human history have. They exist in a hell of their own creation.... and are determined to share it with the rest of the world. I have watched this conflict from a distance for a large part of it's 60+ years, and must admit that nothing I have seen or read of it inclines me to the slightest sympathy for their cause!!
Howard
Two words my friend: Military Occupation.
Listen, Israel was condemned by the UN Security Council - this means those resolutions which were NOT vetoed by the US and already watered down considerably and adopted under a tame legal base (=not triggering any harsh measures) because the US normally threaten to veto any resolution that mentions Israel!!! - exactly 321 times http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Nations_resolutions_concerning_Israel
Iraq was condemned in Security Council Resulution no 660 for invading Kuwait and was immediately attacked, for starters.
Already in 1948, a UN Security Council Resolution called for the return of ALL refugees in Palestine/Israel, no. 194, though. Nothing ever happened.
The famous 242 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_242 - never followed up.
Israel annexed the Golan Height, banned by international law.
You might want to study the Fourth Geneva Convention http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fourth_Geneva_Convention#Article_47
And, yes, guess what: International law applies to Israel and America as well.
Araquin,
You are allowed to take these things, articles, U.N. Resolutions out of context as much as you desire. It will not change the history of the last 4000 years. The most recent being the last 100 years and European, mostly British, then American after WWII, help and interference as some would suggest. You neglected to indicate the votes by the U.N. countries involved to attempt a partition of Israel/Palestine territory in 1947-48. 58% voted for it, 10% abstained, 33% or so voted against it. The latter were all Middle Eastern states, including Pakistan and India.
Resolution 242 was the agreement after the 1967, 6 day war where Egypt was the aggressor. Israel did not 'annex' the Golan Heights. They 'won' it. The U.N. stated that the resolution of the final borders were up to the negotiations of the parties involved. End of Story.
As for your assertions of Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention having relevance, can you indicate to all of us out here where the U.N. addressed this issue in a resolution binding Israel to compliance? Seriously, I don't see it in my Encyclopedia Brittanica...
And, finally, the 321 resolutions you proclaim in your first paragraph? Could you elucidate the truth a little more, without the logical fallacies.
But thanks for the references to the most unreliable source on the internet.
A tool with Stone for brains -
Google "palestinian child killed"
Educate yourself.
The US politicians cannot be that stupid. They know very well that the Israel-Palestine issue is central to all other issues in the Middle East. Once that issue is resolved, the US will not have to worry about Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, etc. In fact, if that issue were resolved, it would have made the Iraq adventure unnecessary.
The reason the US is not doing it is because they (the US politicians) are afraid of Israel. Not that Israel can do any harm to the US, but because Israel’s powerful and influential lobby groups will make sure that politicians who do not kowtow to Israel are not re-elected.
What a disgrace it is for every American when the world witnesses that even the US presidential candidates genuflect before the AIPAC Board. What a shame indeed.
The United States of Israel is the problem.
Read UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338.
Learn the truth about the USS Liberty.
Learn the truth about Sabra and Shatilla and Qana (twice).
Research:
Kaminev
Sverdlov
Radek
Trotsky
Kaganovich
Yagoda
How MILLIONS were starved to death in Ukraine in the 30s.
The Federal Reserve and how it came into being.
BE INFORMED....JUST THE FACTS.
And don't forget Mordechai Vanunu.
And Chewbacca. Don't forget him.
Amen, Robert Fisk, this unqualified Israel-adoration was an utter disgrace.
If anyone of those two had wanted to do anything about "terror", this would have been their chance. To give the impression that Palestinians are human beings as well.
Considering that Palin actually got a question regarding the causes of climate change, a question about why anybody east of Istanbul is literally spitting fire when they think of US Middle East policy, would have been entirely appropriate.
I can't blame them, this is so unjust.
I had been unaware of an nth amendment to the US Constitution which calls for unconditional support for whatever AIPAC finds appropriate, BTW. They all act as if there were one.
And I can only agree with those here who recommend Ha'aretz. They occasionally write the kind of stuff which would immediately cause right-wing Jews to call you an anti-semite in America or Europe, if you wrote the same.
Zionists have been conducting their own Holocaust in the Middle East for half a century and more. America and the world's Jews are paying for it. (In both ways)
Agreed! Let's call it what it is.
Of course, since Biden and Palin have both publicized their fealty to Israel (what about to the U.S.?), their reluctance to draw attention to Israel's actions is completely understandable.
Dave
http://daveeriqat.wordpress.com/
It's understandable Robert Fisk. I don't know the exact numbers, but I would guess there are millions of Jewish voters here, and thousands of Palestinians. It's all about getting elected.