Switching it up...
…in more ways than one! First, I’m actually attempting to submit this on time, so here goes nothing. Second, I’ve decided to share something that is actually important. Here is an excerpt from an article I read today that I found interesting, regarding Israel:
Before no other country on the planet does the United States kneel and plead like this. In other trouble spots, America takes a different tone. It bombs in Afghanistan, invades Iraq and threatens sanctions against Iran and North Korea. Did anyone in Washington consider begging Saddam Hussein to withdraw from occupied territory in Kuwait?
But Israel the occupier, the stubborn contrarian that continues to mock America and the world by building settlements and abusing the Palestinians, receives different treatment. Another massage to the national ego in one video, more embarrassing praise in another.
Now is the time to say to the United States: Enough flattery. If you don’t change the tone, nothing will change. As long as Israel feels the United States is in its pocket, and that America’s automatic veto will save it from condemnations and sanctions, that it will receive massive aid unconditionally, and that it can continue waging punitive, lethal campaigns without a word from Washington, killing, destroying and imprisoning without the world’s policeman making a sound, it will continue in its ways.
Illegal acts like the occupation and settlement expansion, and offensives that may have involved war crimes, as in Gaza, deserve a different approach. If America and the world had issued condemnations after Operation Summer Rains in 2006 - which left 400 Palestinians dead and severe infrastructure damage in the first major operation in Gaza since the disengagement - then Operation Cast Lead never would have been launched.
It is true that unlike all the world’s other troublemakers, Israel is viewed as a Western democracy, but Israel of 2009 is a country whose language is force. Anwar Sadat may have been the last leader to win our hearts with optimistic, hope-igniting speeches. If he were to visit Israel today, he would be jeered off the stage. The Syrian president pleads for peace and Israel callously dismisses him, the United States begs for a settlement free ze and Israel turns up its nose. This is what happens when there are no consequences for Israel’s inaction.
I hate to potentially embarrass myself by talking about something I’m woefully uneducated about, but I’ve always been kind of confused by America’s steadfast allegiance to Israel. I’m not exactly sure why Israel was created after World War II, or why the Jews inherently deserve land they lost earlier in history. I’ve never really understood why I’m not supposed to feel bad for displaced Palestinians. I don’t claim to know who is right or who is wrong, but it does seem that we support Israel wholeheartedly and without any question, and I’m not sure why they deserve that sort of special treatment.
