|
best course is to calm down a bit and consider how we are all being manipulated by the shit-heads in the White House and their war profiteering corporate news monopolies.
I am not Jewish, but I am sympathetic on Jewish issues and on Israel's survival. One of the biggest mistakes that Israel's supporters in the U.S. have made (and I mean all of us, not just Jews) is to equate Israel's safety with large-scale U.S. military support, and an aggressive militaristic stance, to the detriment of diplomacy. Furthered by war profiteers (in both countries, I think), this has led to Israel becoming more and more of a walled in, medieval fortress, bristling with armaments, surrounded by hostile neighbors--a completely untenable position.
But, even worse than this, Israel's leaders have allied themselves with a fascist junta in the U.S., the illegitimately installed Bush regime. A poll I saw here yesterday showed EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT of Americans opposed to U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war. Opposition to the Iraq War/Occupation is now over 70%.
This, too, is untenable--this immense distance between White House policy and the will of most Americans. BOTH countries are being led down a militaristic path--in the case of the U.S., against the clear and overwhelming will of the majority, and in the case of Israel I suspect something similar (most people want peace; leaders keep fomenting non-peace).
And, quite frankly, I think we are being SET UP to blame Israel, and not the real instigators of this mess, the Bush Cartel and its junta in the White House. Here's how I see it.
An added and critical factor in this current situation is the NeoCon/Bushite "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC), a program long laid out by the Bushites to invade Iraq, Iran and Syria, and gain dominance over all Mideast oil fields. The huge U.S. opposition that has developed to this policy--and also the European, Russian and Chinese opposition--has stymied the Bushites. They cannot proceed with their invasion plans. And what I think has happened is they've gone to PNAC-Plan B: get Israel to do it.
That's easy to do. Israel is led by militarists (who are possibly also driven by war profiteers), and it has a fearful population, quite understandably concerned about Israel's safety and survival. With Israel's leaders creating a wider war, all that has to happen is some "Gulf of Tonkin"-type incident (manufactured or real)--say, a Hezbolla rocket hitting a U.S. plane or ship or other military facility--and we're in. The Bushites don't have to explain or justify in that situation (and this Diebold Congress wouldn't require it, anyway). They can just escalate and escalate, to their hearts' content.
I think that's what's happening. The Bush junta decision-makers and the current Israeli leadership are in cahoots. Neither is acting in the best interests of its own people. But the worst bad actor in this situation--the real instigator--is the Bush junta, not Israel. Without Bush junta support, none of this would be happening (the bombing of Beirut with the threat of invasion of Lebanon, Syria and Iran). The Bush junta holds all the power to fund or not fund both Israeli defense and Israeli aggression. Israel is more of a pawn, a tool--with a willing (and, in my opinion, very wrong-headed) leadership, it's true, but still, the true predators are the Bushites.
One of the things that greatly concerns me about this--Israel acting as a proxy for the Bush junta, and having the Bush junta as its only ally--is that the Bush regime couldn't care less about Israel. Their real buds are the Saudi sultans and the bin Ladens. They would abandon Israel in a minute, if they saw profit in it. They have no heart. They have no loyalty. And they are fascists--indeed, white supremacists, who constantly appeal to their base, that small minority of Americans who love to hate, and who scapegoat gays, brown immigrants, "liberals," blacks, women--whoever the "hated group" of the moment is. That hatred could be turned on Jews once again, if it suited the Bushites to do so. They would do it without a thought. They don't care! They're in it for the MONEY and POWER. They want to become the Lords of the Earth. They are without conscience.
I don't excuse Israel's bombing of Beirut and the slaughter of innocents--nor their oppression of the Palestinians. Both things are war crimes. But I think I DO understand their fear. They have the same fear of anyone living in a "bad" neighborhood--with the desire to surround yourself with barbed wire fences, attack dogs and lots of weaponry. Such measures will never make you safe, on a permanent basis. But it's an understandable impulse. Real safety, and strength, will only come through care and nurturing of a safe, prosperous community, where everyone has a decent life, and hope of betterment. Israel, however, has been in perpetual crisis since its beginning, so it's very difficult for it to take the big steps of diplomacy and generosity needed to create a truly safe neighborhood. Militarism will never get them there. But like a homeowner in a rough neighborhood, they are in a fog of militarism and mutual hostility that is extremely EXPLOITABLE by the profiteers who manufacture fences and weapons, and also by brutal police forces with their own agendas.
The Bush junta has no such understandable motives for ITS war crimes--which have amounted to cold-blooded murder on a massive scale, driven by greed.
Israel is in a very dire situation, partly because its leaders have allied Israel with the Bush fascists, who are the pariahs of the world. And part of Israel's situation is historical--how Israel came into being (including the ill motives of the western powers, which had little to do with a safe haven for Jews, and everything to do with oil)--for which living Israelis are not responsible, any more than living Californians are responsible for the "Gold Rush" slaughters of the Pomo Indians. I know that Israel's Islamic neighbors are still stuck in the past (they tend to hold thousand year old grudges as well--but the recent grudge of the creation of the state of Israel in their midst, and how it was done, is especially inflammatory). And many Israelis are stuck in the past as well--constantly repeating and rehearsing every outrage against them, often in an extremely defensive mode, and not being able to envision a world in which Israel is NOT under siege.
And how does all this relate to the current pending (s)elections in the U.S., and your stated fear that Jews will abandon the Democrats, because George Bush is "better" for Israel?
Well, for one thing, I have a lot more respect for Jewish voters than you do, apparently. I don't think they are so easily fooled. I don't think that average Jewish voters--like other average American voters--buy the Bush junta agenda of creating WW III in the Middle East, for fun and profit. That 84% of Americans opposed to U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war has to include a large component of Jewish Americans.
Behind this fear (of Jewish voters abandoning the Democrats in the November (s)elections), I think is a fear of loss of military funding (as well as political support) for Israel among Americans. But I think, in both cases, you are blaming the wrong parties for that potential loss of support. The Bush junta has done more to discredit U.S. Middle East policy than any Leftist critic of Israel. And Israel itself--its current leadership--has done more to discredit Israel's cause than anybody who is crying foul at the bombing of Beirut.
The association of Israel (as a country, as the birthplace of Judaism, and as a safe haven for post-Holocaust Jews) with Bush junta fascists and with callous war profiteering is the problem, NOT the critics of Bush fascism and war profiteers. And THAT association was created by Israel's leadership and the Bush junta. In other words, Israel's leadership, by pushing U.S./Bushite military engagement in the Middle East, and riding that wagon, and carrying out Bushite scenarios (PNAC-Plan B), has brought discredit upon Israel and has imperiled its support in the U.S. Only by undemocratic means (rigged elections) can that military support be maintained in the U.S., at this point, with over 70% of Americans opposed to the Iraq War, and 84% opposed to wider U.S. Mideast involvement--and also with a $10 trillion deficit from the Bush junta's war and from their tax cuts for the rich.
The situation very much resembles World War ONE, as a matter of fact--at least economically. The rich foment war, and bleed the poor--and reap enormous profits from it all. And revolutions are born of their excesses. I think that both poor Americans and poor Israelis will come to realize what is happening (and poor Arabs as well), and start throwing off the rich fuckers who are bleeding EVERYONE dry.
Militarism is NOT the answer for Israel. Creating a safe neighborhood IS. And the only route to a safe community is diplomacy and generosity.
I would like to remind you and all DUers of the destruction of Iranian democracy in 1954, by the U.S. and Israel, who PREVENTED the Iranians from having a good, open, democratic government and the real, egalitarian prosperity that a democratic government can bring. After fomenting riots and civil chaos, to bring down the democratically elected government, the U.S./Israel then installed the horrible Shah of Iran, who inflicted the Iranian people with 25 years of torture and oppression. In short, WE drove the Iranians into the arms of the present fundamentalist mullahs.
Americans don't tend to remember these events, but the Iranians do. They have no reason to trust us. But think what the Middle East would be like now if we had taken a different course, and lived up to our own ideals, and had permitted Iran to undertake its own own democratization. No one wants to be ruled by mullahs. Young Iranians are chafing under their strictures today. The mullahs could never have won democratic elections. If we had taken the better course, Israel today would have an equal, self-realized, prosperous partner in Iran, for creating and maintaining Mideast peace and insuring Israel's survival. In our greed for oil, we (the U.S.), and Israel in its paranoia, did not allow that to happen. What a colossal mistake it was!
But, as with democracy in America, we must never give up on the vision of peace, democracy and justice that everyone wants (apart from the few greedbags and fascists who are now running everything).
So, here is my thesis: The Bushites are hypocrites, liars and thieves, on a giant scale. Their "support" for Israel is entirely opportunistic. They are USING Israel--and its state of fear for its survival--to accomplish their own greedy ends. Israel itself is in a panic--and suffering very poor leadership, as we are (perhaps also driven by war profiteers). They have been induced to widen the Mideast war, as the price of Bush junta support--as well as it suiting the warmongering faction--and also out of a deep perception of how rickety the Bush junta is, how unreliable and incompetent they are, and how little support they have at home and in the world. Israel's bombing of Beirut seems crazy. This may be why. It IS crazy. It's the crazy PNACers operating upon Israeli fears.
And I do greatly fear this possibility that Israel is being set up as the SCAPEGOAT for the Bushites' failed policies. These policies WILL fail. There is no way that the US/Israel can rule over the entire Middle East as an armed fortress. Both countries will exhaust all their resources doing so, and then it will implode. And when the shit hits the fan for the U.S.--in foreign relations, national security and financial bankruptcy--all traditional scapegoats will be at risk. And the Bushites have a particular penchant for stirring up low intelligence bigotry.
We MUST find the path to a wiser, peace-oriented policy! We MUST! The good people of the United States and the good people of Israel and the good people of all Middle East countries MUST find the way. The current course is headed for major disaster, and could indeed lead to the end of the world (with ONE limited nuclear exchange! --read Carl Sagan's "The Cold and the Dark").
The question to me is not, will Jews abandon the Democrats in support of DISASTROUS Bush junta policy--disastrous for Israel and for everyone else? The question for me is, how will we, the American majority, deal with Rove's pre-written narrative of this election, by which he is weaving hatred of gays and brown immigrants, and the "Mideast crisis" into phony post-election "explanations" of their miraculous "victory" in November?
We will never get wise, new, visionary, peace-oriented policy from the White House until we have TRANSPARENT elections. We will never have peace in the Middle East, and Israel will never be safe, until we have TRANSPARENT elections, and let the wisdom of the people reign supreme. I think the wisdom of the people will produce disarmament in the Middle East, and both big and incremental movements toward dethroning the sultans and the mullahs, and creating healthy democracies. I think the American people--if they were re-empowered and re-enfranchised--would direct our leaders to do this, and would put the matter in the hands of U.N., with strong U.S. backing. And I think that the American people would never abandon Israel. Israel's safety and future depend on American democracy, not on Bush fascism. Bush fascism is the wrong road for us all.
Re: the November (s)elections. Unfortunately, Diebold and ES&S will see to it that we don't have this choice. We will not have the choice of wise, new, visionary, peace-oriented policy, that would be good for Israel, and good for us, and good for all the peoples of the Middle East. Nearly all of our Democratic leaders equate support for Israel with humongous, out of control war spending, which they almost all favor and vote for. Diebold and ES&S will (s)elect them in our primaries, and will (s)elect Bushites (thieves, liars, incompetents) for the majority in Congress.
That's the situation. The only potentially effective protest I can think of--that can be mounted for November--is a massive citizen revolt against the rigged electronic voting machines, by Absentee Ballot voting. If enough people do it (and many are--it's up to 50% in Los Angeles already), the machines will be made obsolete and the system will have to be reformed. (What good will all these shiny, new, election theft machines be, if nobody will vote on them?). AB voting is not safe, but it IS a PROTEST--an effort by the voters to get their vote COUNTED. Spread the word. Bumper sticker: "Bust the Machines--Vote Absentee!"
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
