For decades, since
the creation of the modern nation-state of Israel, the United States government
has displayed international favoritism and bias towards the state of Israel,
despite Israeli violations of international and human rights violations against
the Palestinian people, which has greatly tainted the political reputation, and
has assisted in economically draining, the United States. Condemnation of this political and economic
bias is often argued by two views: 1) Israel is a democracy in the Middle East
and shares the same values of the United States. I am not certain if that is a good thing or
not, because either the United States is as free and just as Israel or both
entities are imperialist and international corrupt. At any rate, Israel is a modern state based
on the Jewish ethnicity while the U.S. is a nation of immigrants and
variety. Israel is often accused of
apartheid-style treatment of the Palestinians and Arab-Israeli citizens, while
the United States rose to power through natural resources produced from slave
collars, whips and lynching. The
historical similarities between the big brother and the little run deep. 2) Israel is a strategic ally in the
region. This argument may have held
political weight during the Cold War era and capitalism strived to break the
balance of power and fully expand imperial globalization, but that ship sailed
over two decades ago and Israeli reckless aggression behind U.S. military and
economic muscle has become a liability to the United States in the global
theatre.
The argument
bringing awareness concerning the irrational American bias towards Israel has
always been domestically downplayed by skillfully slanted, or completely avoided,
media coverage and double-sided lip service from Republican and Democratic
administrations alike, especially concerning peace processes in support of solving
the Israeli-Palestinian land conflict and establishing overall equality in the
Middle East. In 1971, President Nixon
stated in a radio address that “In the Middle East, the United States took the
initiative to stop the fighting and start the process of peace”[1]. In 1980, on the way out of office, President
Carter stated that “America must always stand for these basic human rights at
home and abroad” and that the United States was a “beacon for human rights”
that “must continue to perfect here at home the rights and the values which we
espouse around the world”[2] In 1999,
President Clinton stated during his State of the Union Address that “all
Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for lasting peace in
the Middle East” after the so-called accomplishments of the Wye agreement[3]. During the 2005 State of the Union Address,
President Bush pledged to “ask Congress for $350 million to support Palestinian
political, economic, and security reforms. The goal of two democratic states,
Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace is within reach—and America
will help them achieve that goal”[4].
The international rhetoric of previous U.S. administrations of both
parties has sounded hopeful through recent decades, but concurrent to these
public proclamations have been extremely strong and unleveled economic and
political support towards the nation-state of Israel in the region, almost to
the point of hypocrisy, by the United States.
That support has been continuously levied regardless of how that economic
and military support has impacted the Palestinian position, the surrounding
Arab states, or further isolated the United States from the global village as
the great evil.
How is Political Bias Generated?
The irrational
U.S. bias towards the nation-state of Israel is established and solidified by
Zionist capital, both Jewish and gentile, through powerful lobbyist
organizations, such as the leading American-Israel Public Affairs Committee,
and is supported from several different points of view within the domestic United
States population. The first point of
view which generates domestic support, both economic and political, is created
by the religious indoctrination of the Christian religion which teaches
adherents from youth that the Jewish people are God’s children and that, as
contained in the ancient scripture writings of unknown authorship, Israel is a
land that God promised to the Jews. This
point of view is strongest, or most zealous, within the Christian Evangelical
community where Christian Zionist leaders such as John Hagee teach that “the
end of days, the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ are imminent”
and that “the rebirth of Israel and the restoration of Jerusalem are a prelude
to the return of the Lord”[5]. This irrational
religious ideology, indoctrinated through many avenues from youth to the
downtrodden and lonely, leads to domestic political power when converted
towards domestic pro-Israeli support, which materialized politically in 2006
when “In February of that year, John Hagee, pastor of Cornerstone Church in San
Antonio, Texas, unveiled Christians United for Israel (CUFI), an organization
intended to be a Christian counterpart to the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), which describes itself as "America's pro-Israel lobby"[6].
At this point, let the rational and
irrational reader alike remember that Israel is a foreign government, ally or
not, and separate government. Even the most
loosely affiliated Christians in the United States subconsciously hold a high
opinion of Israel, even if they are unable to explain the difference between
the ancient tribes of Israel and the modern nation-state government of Israel
founded in 1948.
The second point
of view which domestically generates political support and favor toward Israel,
heavily mass produced through inorganic popular culture and news reports with
political motives, is formed by the indoctrination of uneducated working masses
by American media outlets, often Jewish owned and pro-Israel, that produce a
subconsciously effective political support process that Dr. Norman Finkelstein,
the famed Jewish political scientist, termed the “Holocaust Industry”. Finkelstein’s thesis concerning the creation
of blind support for Israel is based off the atrocities of the pre-World War II
Jewish Holocaust “evoking historic persecution” to deflect “present-day
criticism” of Israeli aggression, and that by “invoking the Holocaust” through
mass media is a political “ploy to delegitimize
all criticism of Jews” and the modern nation-state of Israel concerning
incessant amounts of U.S. military aid to Israel, the apartheid-like treatment
of the Palestinian people by the Israeli military, airstrikes on Palestinian
civilian sectors which have killed women and children, the confiscation of
Palestinian land and the construction of illegal Israeli settlements, and the fact
that Israel has long possessed nuclear weapons without ever being required by
the United States or the international community to sign the international
non-proliferation treaty[7]. Was the
Holocaust worse than other atrocities in history? The transatlantic slave trade was much worse than
the holocaust and happened on American soil, and it receives little media
coverage in the U.S. compared to coverage and subconscious references to evoke
empathy for the German Holocaust.
While the first
two point of views were based on indoctrination, which can only be successful when
applied to ignorance or implied on a young mind to initiate a vicious cycle,
the third category view for supporting Israel in the United States is based
strictly on people of ignorance and apathy toward governmental decision making,
international current events, history, or any other element of domestic and
international importance for the United States and her children. This third perspective group is more absorbed
with the trivial and shallow dramas of what is inorganically considered a
social life, or what gross jokes were on the television show Family Guy, or
what video game is being played, and if ever cornered and pressured to attempt
a political response, usually performs like a parrot or sheep and shows the questioner
why they shouldn’t have taken the time to ask their opinion in the first place.
Buying Representative Democracy
On the other side
of the spectrum, the position that the majority of students of domestic and
international current events and history realize, along with those Americans
that possess a conscious concern for the current and future conditions of the
United States and the future for American children, is a position of serious
concern over this American government bias towards Israel and how it is generated
domestically through capital purchasing power.
With the majority
of the American population, which for the most part work hard and long hours to
provide for their families, either falling under the categories of viewing
Israel from some level of Christian holiness, in some cases placing the Jewish
nation-state of Israel in higher esteem than their own birth nation of the
United States, or the category of being indoctrinated through mass media to
view Israel as a poor victim state, or those who simply saturate themselves in
apathy and do not pay attention, it is virtually easy, especially for the
Zionist pro-Israeli lobbyist network along with the Christian Zionist lobbyist
network, to manipulate the representative democracy of the United States in a
bipartisan manner in order to get pro-Israeli resolutions, such as the annual 3
billion dollars in foreign aid to Israel despite American debt and deep
domestic cuts occurring in the United States, passed through the House of
Representative and the Senate. After
all, in a parliament or representative democracy, a proposed Congressional resolution,
once approved by the sub-committee, only needs a majority of individual votes
in each chamber to pass and become government reality. The pro-Israeli lobbyist organizations know
which Congressional representatives to donate campaign funds to, usually starting
with the Christian right and the many congressional representatives with dual
U.S.-Israeli citizenships, and which Congressional representatives to slander
or invest capital against during the next Congressional race. The pro-Israeli Jewish-Christian lobby in
America is not a weak disenfranchised political entity. It is one of the most powerful lobbyist
organizations in Washington, and every presidential debate on foreign policy
since 1960 has witnessed presidents compete fiercely to promise Israel more
than their opponent because of the power of the pro-Israeli lobby, which, most
importantly for concerned Americans, takes marching orders from a foreign government.
The Israeli lobby
has succeeded year after year since the Cold War era to secure over 3 billion
dollars in U.S. foreign and military aid to the nation-state of Israel, and
this continuous and excessive funding has not only been economic spending that
could be utilized domestically for lower economic Americans, it is hypocritical
to the international promises spoken by almost every presidential
administration since the 1970s concerning American values and American efforts
towards peace in the Middle East and a Palestinian state. The United States may provide the Palestinian
territories with a few million dollars to assist poverty for international
public relations, conditioned with political demands by the Israeli government,
but the lobby influenced economic bias to Israel will continue to paint the
U.S., and the American people, as international hypocrites, possibly even evil,
as long as the U.S. Congress continues to appease the pro-Israeli lobby and
approve annual economic aid to Israel in the billions each year along with the
most technologically advanced weapons available, technological gifts of
weaponry are utilized by the Israeli military to physically oppress, imprison,
and murder Palestinians.
It is the
pro-Israeli lobby generated U.S. funding to Israel, and how that funding is
utilized by Israel, that complicates political relationships between the United
States and Arab states in the Middle East region and tarnishes the United States
on the International stage. The same
American hypocrisy can be witnessed in the use of the United Nations Security
Council veto by the United States to defend any United Nations resolution
condemning Israel, which has occurred over 40 times since 1972, on issues like
excessive military force against Palestinians or the unilateral bombarding of Lebanon
[8]. In the majority of the U.S. vetoes protecting
Israel, the United States stood against the rest of the global village.
Notes
[1] Nixon, Richard M. 1971.
“Radio Address About second Annual Foreign Policy Report to the Congress
(February 25, 1971),” University of Virginia, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3875
[2] Carter, Jimmy. 1981.
“Farewell speech,” University of Virgina, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/5536
[3] Clinton, William J. 2003.
“State of the Union Addresses by United States Presidents: State of the Union
speeches by William J. Clinton,” Penn State University, http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/poldocs/uspressu/SUaddressWJClinton.pdf
[4] Bush, George W. 2005. “2005
State of the Union Address,” University of Virginia, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/4464
[5] Smith, Robert O. 2012.
Anglo-American Christian Zionism. Ecumenical Review 64(1): 27-35
[6] Gross, Terry. May 16. 2008 “Pastor John Hagee on Christian
Zionism, Katrina,”, NPR, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90508742
[7] Finkelstein, Norman. 2009.
“The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on The Exploitation of Jewish Suffering,” http://archive.org/stream/HolocaustIndustry/nf_holocaust_industry#page/n17/mode/2up
[8] “U.S. Vetoes of UN
Resolutions Critical of Israel”, 2013, Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/usvetoes.html
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