We Americans Are Sick and Tired of Israel

As I browsed through the heavily propaganda laden MSNBC web site, which is known as an Israeli mouthpiece, I noticed Newsweek released an article today declaring that the last time Israel was isolated it committed some pretty crazy acts. My take on the whole article was that if Israel isn’t treated with kid gloves, in other words, if Israel isn’t treated differently than we treat the rest of the world who commits outrageous acts, then they will commit more outrageous attacks and it will be our fault for isolating Israel.

Now, Iran has been isolated for awhile. They have decided to pursue nuclear weapons, counter to what the world had requested, or at least to enrich uranium to a level higher than necessary for power production, and do we treat them with kid gloves or give them special treatment, because we know that when Iran is isolated, they do some pretty crazy stuff too.

In further reading the article, it goes on the explain how Israel buddied up to the apartheid regime in South Africa, a common brother in a minority running a country where the majority is not of your race or religion. Beyond shared tactics, the Israeli’s pumped a billion dollars into the apartheid regime that eventually fell.

In an attempt to scare the populace, the author claims that Israel has the money and desire to align themselves with a rogue regime and with their desire to attack Iran, it could prove to be disastrous. Tell me again, how a war between Israel and Iran, with the US on the sidelines, stands to hurt anyone but Israel. The author is obviously trying to manipulate the reader to believe that if we think that Iran is a rogue regime, piss off Israel and see what you get.

That is hardly the reasoning a sane person uses to establish diplomatic ties between two countries. The same outrageous behavior we condemn and criticize every Muslim nation in the world for enacting, we now give carte blanche to Israel to appease them and not act like a lunatic, pariah state. Isn’t this where we say that the crazy people are running the insane asylum?

Granted, Obama has done nothing to endear himself to any side in this conflict. That is what happens when you have to straddle a fence, because what is right, is not what is putting money in your campaign coffers. I mean, if we could get as many wealthy Arabs funding campaigns in the US as we have Jews, then the Arabs would have a much greater say in what happens, but as we know, Obama is owned by the Israeli lobbies, like much of the US government, and therefore he can not do what is right, he is stuck doing what is politically prudent. As such, he aggravates the Israeli’s because unlike Bush, he actually had the audacity to stand up to Netanyahu on the settlement issue, which prompted right wing protests in Israel calling Obama everything from the “N” word to a Muslim extremists.

Of course, Obama irritates the Muslim world, because even though he actually stood ground on the settlement issue, he eventually backed off enough to give Netanyahu and escape route without losing face. In addition, Obama continues to call Israel an ally to the end, regardless of their actions, when allies should be determined specifically on their actions, not on how much money they put in the bank for you.

For over 60 years the US has provided coverage for Israel for every action from Sabra and Shatilla, to Beit Hanoun, from the Gaza beach massacre to the Operation Cast Lead massacre. From Rachel Corrie being run over by a bulldozer to British journalist Thomas Hurndell being shot by snipers, from children in Gaza being used as sniper targets to 12 year old Dua abd al Qader, who was shot in the head because she was playing too close to the wall. This not only angers the Muslim community, I am an American born citizen in America, and I can only see rage when I think of those things. Especially the last, with Dua Abd al Qader, who was shot while I was there, and as a reporter, I was the one to report it, to announce it on Palestinian radio. It was hard to not hear my voice quiver with sadness and ire. It is hard not to think crazy thoughts myself when I rethink that day.

The Israeli propaganda machine is running full speed after this latest incident and they have called in their boys from all over the US to start the rumor and innuendo mill so that they can start to manipulate the American opinion on this latest attack. Unfortunately, Israel has overplayed the propaganda card, and even Americans no longer believe what is written in their own papers. Americans are now smart enough to check the BBC, (news.bbc.co.uk) and other international papers, where we know, that our government and the Israeli media conglomerate in the US, has not put their dirty little hands on articles and redacted anything that is negative about Israel.

Undoubtedly, Israel has crossed the line, and the world knows it. The question is, is the US going to continue to ignore what Israel is doing, regardless of the damage it does to the US, regardless of how it targets the US, regardless of how it makes US citizens targets around the world, regardless of how it makes US business targets overseas, regardless of how it hurts the US to continue to support Israel, or…

Is the United States actually going to stand up and say, we have reached the end of the siege on Gaza, we are no longer going to allow Israel to treat the Palestinian population as less than human. We are no longer going to allow indiscriminate arrests of Palestinians without due cause or process. We are no longer going to allow the detention of Palestinians without due cause or process. We are no longer going to issue Israel a blank check to close roads, build roadblocks, and restrict the flow of the Palestinians. We are going to make Israel treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect, the type of dignity and respect that we Americans demand on a daily basis, the type of dignity and respect that Palestinians have to beg for and are denied.

America is paying lip service to what is right in the Middle East and Americans are getting tired of putting our children on the line to fight Iraq for Israel, we are tired of putting our children on the line to threaten Iran for Israel. We are tired of taking our tax dollars, when many of us are barely making ends meet and provide those dollars to Israel so they can violate international law, and thumb their noses at the world, because they have the backing of the world’s superpower. We are tired of reading in the papers, day after day, about more Israeli attacks, more people killed by Israel, we are tired of reading about how Israel stole passports and killed a man in Dubai, we are tired of reading about civilians being killed by a heavy handed, brutal violent regime, and stamping “Made in the US” on these actions.

Quite frankly, we Americans are sick and tired of Israel.