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in the Jerusalem Post. I don't think the poster has any obligation to explain the article's title, and maybe I'm misconstruing your question, but it seems to me to have an edge to it, as if you were baiting the poster to say something anti-Jewish, or to blame Israel for the U.S. disaster in the Middle East.
It is absolutely vital, for Israel's sake, as well as for our own and for the rest of the world's, that we be able to talk about Israel, about its influence on U.S. policy, about the politics within Israel and in the region, and about Israel's current situation in the Middle East, especially with regard to the massive U.S. military presence, the Bush Cartel's disastrous mistakes in Iraq and its disastrous impact on American democracy.
The article is quite a thoughtful one, and attempts to distinguish the differences between Republican and Democratic support for Israel. Both parties fully support Israel and side with it against the Palestinians and the Arab/Muslim world. The Republicans were trying to sell a position (to AIPAC) that the Iraq invasion and occupation enhances Israel's security--or, rather, their spokesman puts it in the negative: that if Al Qaeda were to take over Iraq, it would be very bad for Israel. The Democratic spokesman (Howard Dean) stressed the big differences between the Christian right and American Jews, on social and political matters, and the threat posed to Jews by the Christian right.
The Republican's argument about Iraq and Al Qaeda is Bushite double-talk at its worst. There were no jihadists in Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. And if there are any there now--apart from merely angry Iraqis defending their homeland--they are entirely of our own making (probably in more ways than one).
Dean's argument was more interesting--and it is something I have often wondered about. How can Jews abide this dangerous, rightwing 'Christian' jihadism that Bush, Cheney and Rove, and the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, give such a big trumpet to (way out of proportion to its numbers, I believe)? How does traditional Jewish liberalism get reconciled with Bushite fascism--or does it? Does it remain an excruciating conflict--fear for Israel's survival, and a desire for easy solutions (Bushite militarism) vs. revulsion at Bushite social and economic policy?
My own opinion is that the Bush Cartel is no friend to Israel, and, rather than enhance Israel's security, it has pushed and abetted the most rightwing elements in Israeli society to promote the notion of Israel as a medieval fortress bristling with armaments surrounded by hostile neighbors. It has gone so far as to building an actual wall to divide up and defend pockets of Israel settlements within Palestinian areas, that carves up Palestinian farms and vineyards and creates yet more hard feelings.
I think that this notion of Israel as an armed fortress is completely untenable, and that a true friend of Israel would be working overtime to completely re-think Israel's position in the Middle East, and to create a new era of diplomacy, generosity, wisdom and the pursuit of mutual benefit, with the goal of peace, security and prosperity for all of the Middle East's peoples.
The Bush Cartel is, instead, turning the region into a tinderbox, with the horrendous threat of a nuclear exchange that would not only make the Middle East unlivable, it could well destroy all life on earth (i.e., Carl Sagan's thesis, in "The Cold and the Dark," of the impacts to the planet of even a limited nuclear exchange). I think that the Bush Cartel's motives are ill, indeed--and that its policies are insane. I cannot imagine a worse thing to do than to excite paranoia in Iran, and fear of attack, and to force them to seek nuclear weapons to defend themselves, for instance. I think that the Bush Cartel's pursuit of terrorists is completely insincere, and that what they are really seeking is primarily to stuff their own pockets with billions and billions of unaccountable U.S. taxpayer dollars, to create additional opportunities for looting (Rumsfeld: freedom = the freedom to loot), by deliberately creating chaos, and to PREVENT the development of decent civil government wherever the last deposits of oil are located, so that their oil giant members can profit from it at the expense of the people who own it.
Israel's rightwing may think that they've pulled off a coup, by drawing the entire U.S. military machine into the Middle East--and I think that there is no question that that has been Israel's lobbying position in Washington DC. I think they have made a disastrous error, partly because I don't think the prime movers of the Bush Cartel care a fig for Israel or for the PNAC agenda; I think their motive is greed, and that PNAC is just window dressing--a way to make their greedy designs appear to have some point, some philosophy of government behind it, and a way to keep certain parties on board.
I think Israel is going to suffer for this, both in the Middle East and here in the U.S. The Bush Cartel's foreign and domestic policies are catastrophic, and Israel may suffer a backlash here, and loss of support, because of it. And I do sense a sort of hysteria in some U.S. Jewish supporters of Israel to prevent this from happening, which shows itself as, a) a bristling, touchy reaction to even the mildest discussion of these issues, and an immediate leap to accusations of anti-semitism at even the slightest criticism of Israel (and outright horror if anything like the AIPAC spy scandal is mentioned); and b) a desire to prevent open discussion, just to stifle it--to disallow any questioning of, or consciousness of, Israel's role in current U.S. foreign policy.
Serious questions arise, in my mind, as to whether or not--given the Bush's Cartel's greed, militarism and fascism, and given the Israeli rightwing's blindness to the Bush Cartel's true motives and beliefs, and Israel's opportunistic use of the Bushites' militarism--either of these democracies can survive in any recognizable form. In this country, the Jewish community has always been a magnificent supporter of liberal democracy, of human and civil rights, and of all progressive causes. I sense an acute and wrenching conflict within the Jewish community between these profound liberal beliefs and fear that Israel will not survive--fear that breeds a dependence on the immediate security that can be gained by violent means, at the expense of real, lasting, long term security that can only be gained by painstaking diplomacy, generosity and seeking the common good. This fear has placed some Jews under the spell of the worst, most ill-motived, most fascist leaders we have ever seen in the U.S.
It may be understandable, if you live in a neighborhood that is full of gangs, tribal conflicts, crime and violence, to arm yourself with lethal weapons, and make your home into an armed fortress, and to support brutal police tactics. You can survive that way, temporarily--maybe. But you have not created security. If you can't step out of your door without fear of assault, something is very, very wrong, and the only way to correct it, and to achieve a decent quality of life, is by long term effort at community development, community strength and cohesion, and the creation of mutual prosperity and understanding.
My own view is that I sympathize with both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both peoples have a right to be there. And so, it MUST be worked out. Period. But right now what is happening is that outside forces are hugely exploiting and exacerbating this conflict, for horrendous motives such as greed and a desire to claim the earth's last oil reserves; for war profiteering and arms dealing; for murder and torture, and for ideology (the PNACers, and the jihadists, and the so-called 'Christian' right).
Where is justice? Where is peace? Where are the representatives of ordinary people, who tend to get along just fine--and break bread together and trade with each other, and enjoy their own similarities and differences, and their community and family lives--if the greedbags and geo-political powermongers would just go away?
Fascism, greed for money, oil, and power, delusions of grandeur, escalating mutual injury and self-righteousness, religious fanaticism, thousand year old grudges, and weapons of unmitigated destruction seem to have all come together to threaten a final holocaust in the "cradle of civilization." Is that how we want it all to end? In the lunatics' Armageddon?
It is a time for openness and for wisdom. I pray that the good people of the Middle East and of the world will prevail. I do think they will--but not by ignoring the central conflicts that are driving all others: the conflict between rich and poor (or, rather, the war against the poor by the rich), and the maintenance of the state of Israel, a rightful goal in and of itself, in my view, by violence and injustice, underpinned by paranoia and a cycle of vengeance.
Re: Iran. The U.S. destroyed its democracy, deliberately. If we had not, think of what the region would feel like today, and how Israel might be faring. Re: Iraq. The U.S. supplied WMDs to Saddam Hussein, for use against the Iranians, and propped up his dictatorship as a U.S. client state. If we had not, think what the Middle East would be like today. Re: Afghanistan. The U.S. armed and supported Al Qaeda and warlords and drug dealers, in a proxy war with the Soviet Union. Think what the world would be like today, if we had not done so. And I won't even go into Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. The U.S./Israeli Middle East policy has been a catastrophe in the making for many decades. It is time to undo the harm, to make recompense, and make peace. There is no other option.
Some speak of "endless war" but that is NOT a option--because it WILL end, sooner rather than later, with humanity's hopes and dreams in ashes--if global warming doesn't get us first. As I said, it's time for openness and wisdom--and for putting our houses in order, and for tending this beautiful garden that we have been so careless of. We cannot afford to do otherwise, so a way MUST be found to forgive even the worst injuries, to permit and even foster the natural development of Islamic societies--sans our greedy interest in their oil--to rid the world of the weapons of war, and look to the good of all.
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