Published on Thursday, May 15, 2008 by the Boulder Daily Camera
Israel at 60: The Cost of US Sup****t
by Ida Audeh
Israel’s 60th anniversary is an op****tune occasion to question why the
U.S. government offers unlimited sup****t to a country that persistently
and routinely violates principles that Americans hold sacred.
The U.S. government finances an illegal military occupation in the West
Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. Since October 1973,
total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in
2003 dollars. What does this aid buy? Illegal Jewish-only settlements
built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinian towns and villages
encircled by walls more monstrous in most places than the Berlin wall.
Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks between Palestinian towns that bring
the normal movement of people and goods to a standstill and constitute
daily humiliations. Gaza sealed and under siege, with food and fuel
withheld. Since the second intifada started in September 2000, at least
4,719 Palestinians have been killed and 32,213 wounded.
Israel’s strategy seems to be to make life so unlivable for Palestinians
that those with options will leave, and those without options are
controlled by the Jewish state. Is this a strategy that Americans can
sup****t?
Israel’s sup****ters excuse Israel’s appalling violations of
international law and human rights by insisting that it is a democracy
and thus shares a lot with the United States. But that is not true.
Israel distinguishes between citizen****p rights, such as the right to
vote, which is available to non-Jewish citizens of the state, and
nationality rights, which are reserved for Jews. This is not a feature
of democracy as we know it.
Several laws have been enacted in Israel whose intention is clearly to
maintain Jewish numerical superiority and to reinforce the Jewish
character of the state, all of which belie the claim that Israel is a
democracy. Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel,
has identified more than 20 laws in Israel that discriminate against
Palestinian citizens of Israel by working the Jewish character of the
state into the text of the law. Israel defines “public good” in
ethno-religious terms; lands expropriated from Palestinians for the
“public good” benefit Jewish citizens only. The 20 percent of the
population that is Muslim and Christian are regarded as a demographic
threat. Obsession over the ethnic and religious composition of a country
is also not a typical characteristic of democratic societies.
Sup****t for Israel is garnered under false pretenses and enforced
through coercive tactics. Americans should consider the effect of these
strong-arm tactics on our public life.
A small but powerful lobby has had an inordinate influence on the
executive and legislative branches of the government, on the media, and
on our public culture. Neither a former president and Nobel Peace Prize
winner like Jimmy Carter, or establishment professors from prestigious
universities like John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Stephen
Walt (Harvard University), are immune from charges of anti-semitism if
they question Israel’s policies.
These assaults on the personal integrity of people who express
non-mainstream political views has had a profoundly corrosive effect on
free speech and public debate.
Members of Congress of both parties accept pro-Israel political action
committee money and in return, they sup****t and initiate legislation in
sup****t of Israel.
Both the public and the media have been trained to accept without
question the unseemly spectacle of presidential candidates and elected
officials who swear allegiance to a foreign country, as though this
should inspire the trust of U.S. voters.
Israel’s illegal policies toward Palestinians and its neighbors have
been the subject of more than 65 U.N. resolutions. Israel routinely
ignores General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, and its
intransigence is defended by the United States. Sup****ting Israel puts
the United States at odds with most of the people of the world, and it
also means that the U.S. government grows accustomed to defending
violations of international law. Yet neither Israel nor the United
States is above the law.
Pro-Israel organizations and individuals have led the campaign promoting
anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry in this country. Generalizations and
smears that would be easily identified as bigotry if African Americans
or Latinos were the subject trigger no objections when they are made
about Arabs and Muslims.
Palestinians in growing numbers are demanding equal rights for all
residents of Mandate Palestine.
Americans can hardly oppose this demand while at the same time claiming
to be a beacon of freedom and democracy for all peoples.
Ida Audeh is a Palestinian who grew up in the West Bank and now works as
an editor in Boulder.
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