A Synthetic Scandal: Ilhan Omar & AIPAC

“That victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he, or she, has become a threat.” James Baldwin

Maybe AIPAC, the powerful Israel lobby, doesn’t directly buy political favors in the way the NRA does, but that doesn’t mean that politicians from both parties aren’t influenced to  outright support AIPAC’s aims or remain silent about them for fear of landing on the wrong side of the lobby. And you can see by the hysterical reaction to Ilhan Omar’s comments about AIPAC how quickly bipartisan indignation and righteousness gets ginned up. How dare this first year congressperson from Minnesota criticize AIPAC! The temerity. Naturally, anti-semitism must be Omar’s motivation. What else could it be in our black and white world?

Omar apologized but you can bet money that she will be forever fighting the anti-semitic label, which is one way AIPAC wields influence. On their best days, Washington D.C. politicians are a pusillanimous lot, and for the majority of them the idea of crossing AIPAC is about as welcome as a colonoscopy. Get smeared with the anti-semite brush and you can kiss your career goodbye. An AIPAC endorsement can spell the difference between winning or losing an election or reelection bid. And it hardly matters if the charge is baseless. You just can’t criticize Israel, period. You can’t compare AIPAC to the NRA though they both practice and benefit from influence peddling. You can’t bring up the fate of the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank without having anti-semitism thrown in your face. I can think of no other nation in the world that can squelch even the mildest criticism as quickly as Israel can. The Israeli Defense Forces shoot and kill unarmed Palestinian protesters without consequence. This is a fact, not an anti-semitic statement. I don’t contest Israel’s right to exist as a nation and have security for its citizens. I don’t question the reality of anti-semitism in the world; it is real. I do question whether Israel has a right to forcibly expel Palestinians from their land, wall them into pitiful enclaves, restrict their freedom of movement, torch their olive trees and take their water, or strangle the life out of them in Gaza; I also question the Netanyahu government’s support for democratic values.

But just try having this debate in the United States, or Britain, for that matter. You can’t. No critique of the government of Israel is allowed. The subject is off-limits. The second you raise the question of the Palestinians you are deemed to be hostile to Israel, and if you’re hostile to Israel you will be chased from the editorial pages of the New York Times, from CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and all the rest. You will be silenced. Ask Angela Davis or Mark Lamont Hill. Ask Noam Chomsky. Ask Jeremy Corbyn. Ilhan Omar is in good company.

MJ Rosenberg, a contributor to the Huffington Post, wrote the following: “AIPAC uses the same tactics as the NRA to ensure that the United States never deviates from support for whatever policy the Israeli government is pushing at the moment.” It’s assumed that Israel’s foreign policy objectives are indistinguishable from those of the United States, and that the United States will always, and forever, provide diplomatic cover and military aid to Israel.

Donald Trump has called for Omar to resign over this synthetic scandal, a ridiculous thing for him to say but hardly unexpected from the most corrupt person to ever inhabit the White House. Less than two years ago Trump was apologizing for neo-Nazi’s who chanted “Jews will not replace us!” Pelosi and others in the Democratic Party leadership have extracted an apology from Omar, that’s enough. Like the NRA, the fossil fuel lobby and Big Pharma, AIPAC uses all the means at its disposal to influence the United States government on behalf of Israel. This is a fact and nothing to apologize for. If supporters of Israel are so certain of their righteousness and morality, why are they afraid to engage in debate and discussion?

The Coward's Pulpit

The other day I was thinking about Franklin D. Roosevelt and his fireside chats that were broadcast on radio across the country. I’m not old enough to have heard FDR in real time, but I have heard recordings. That patrician voice coming from the box, families gathered around hungry for hope, some certainty in a time of economic hardship at home and growing turmoil in Europe and Asia. Roosevelt said he understood their worries and fears -- and people believed him. Roosevelt used his bully pulpit to lift people’s spirits and assure them that America would come out all right.

Then I thought of Donald J. Trump and how he abuses the most powerful bully pulpit on the planet, creating divisions between people, inciting others to follow their basest instincts, spreading falsehoods, and attacking anyone who challenges, contradicts or criticizes him. Has any American president since the turn of the 20th century used such coarse and imbecilic language as Trump does almost every day via Twitter? Has any American president in that same time threatened to bomb countries with whom the United States isn’t at war so cavalierly, as if the bombs will only harm the “bad guys,” never innocent men, women, and children? Has any American president been so obsessed with appearing strong? How many people has Trump called “weak” or “sad” or “pathetic” since he was inaugurated?

Trump World is a frightening, dystopian place ever on the verge of chaos, the border is porous and dangerous people are always breaching it, hell bent on mayhem, plunder, rape, and murder; other countries take advantage, refuse to play by our rules or show enough deference for our greatness; laws are onerous things for others to abide by; the media is dishonest; judges are biased; minorities are greedy. In Trump World we must fear the Other, the outside world, and each other. Strength must be our highest virtue, all else is subordinate. The weak are unworthy. Women should know their place and stay in it. Dissent of any kind is unpatriotic. Empathy and compassion are for suckers.

Echoes, faint perhaps, of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. If he could, Trump would purge the government of rivals and institute loyalty oaths -- not to the United States or its citizens -- to him.

Short Takes:

I’m delighted that the cruel Ayn Rand disciple, Paul Ryan, has decided to turn in his speaker’s gavel and retire to a lucrative career doing God-knows-what for the Koch Brothers. Good riddance to a true political hack.

Trump’s knee-jerk, shoot-from-the-hip response to a chemical attack in Syria, allegedly perpetrated by the Assad regime, who Trump referred to as an “animal,” is another example of his manifest unfitness for office. Nobody knows with anything approaching certainty who is responsible for the chemical attack. It could be the Assad regime, of course, but it could also be opponents of the government or some splinter group; the situation in Syria is very complicated and Trump’s stupidity is making a bad situation tense and dangerous.

Once again, Israel is getting away with murdering unarmed Palestinians. The Israeli propaganda machine works overtime to paint the protesters as tools of Hamas, an absurd but useful claim. As usual, the US corporate media turns a blind eye and deaf ear. The US must support Israel -- no matter what crimes the latter commits.

How does Sarah Huckabee Sanders sleep at night? All the lies she vomits up on behalf of Trump has to take a toll.

Hats off to football club AS Roma, who knocked FC Barcelona out of the Champions League tournament. Talk about David versus Goliath.

Iran: Our Beautiful Bogeyman

"Saudi Arabia may purchase $110bn in sophisticated US armaments, but in two years its air force has failed to subdue irregular Houthi forces in Yemen, though its merciless bombardment has brought 17 million Yemenis to the brink of famine and an incipient cholera epidemic." Patrick Cockburn

Iran. Iran. Iran. Repeat. Iran. Iran. Iran. Morning, noon and night. State sponsor of terrorism, enemy of moderate elements in the Middle East, violator of human rights, mortal danger to Israel. Iran is the bogeyman of choice for Saudi Arabia, Israel and the U.S.

As it was under Obama so under Trump:  the drumbeat for war never stops and the American warfare state never takes a holiday. If there is one lesson the Trump people have learned in the first five months of their regime, it is that military action makes corporate media news personalities salivate and poll numbers rise. Things going to hell on the domestic front? Launch cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield. Press coverage a little rough, too many uncomfortable questions about Russia? Rattle the saber against North Korea or drop a massive bomb on Afghanistan. The network mouthpieces, liberal (so-called) and conservative, will nod their heads in unison and describe you as “presidential,” even if five minutes earlier they were speculating about your mental stability and wondering if you will survive a full term.

And no matter what is happening at home, always, always, always, be prepared to accuse Iran of stirring up trouble and posing a direct, imminent threat to Israel. Never mind that Iran is virtually surrounded by US military assets...If we had the honesty to strip away the BS, lies, and propaganda about Iran, we would see that Iran has more to fear -- far more -- from the US than the US does from Iran.

Here’s what John Wight had to say in a recent piece for Counterpunch: “Specifically, on what planet can Iran be credibly accused of funding and supporting terrorism while Saudi Arabia is considered a viable partner in the fight against terrorism? This is precisely the narrative we are being invited to embrace by President Trump in what counts as a retreat from reality into the realms of fantasy, undertaken in service not to security but commerce.”

Most Americans are too stressed out about their falling living standards, student loan debt, medical bills, opioid addictions, car payments, foot fungus, erectile dysfunction and disintegrating financial circumstances to fret about what their government is doing in the distant Middle East. They don’t understand, or care, about the schism between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam. Most buy the fear-based lie that Islam is a religion that promotes violence and hatred against the West and is hell-bent on ruling the entire world. Likewise, we have been taught, conditioned like lab rats is more accurate, to believe that Israel is a righteous nation in a precarious situation, surrounded by murderous Arabs, and must be supported by America without question. And Saudi Arabia, oil-soaked Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most repressive regimes, where executions take place in public and all dissent is brutally stifled (the reason old Wilbur Ross didn’t see any protesters on the streets), is our staunch ally and bosom friend.  

Donald Trump appears even more ridiculous outside our borders than he does within them, cozying up and kissing the asses of despots and tyrants, professing his love for the F-18 fighter jet.  Everything about Trump screams the worst of our country: hubris, bellicosity, vacuousness, stupidity, vanity, cruelty, excess, hypocrisy, and narcissism. I feel sorry for Pope Francis, a man of decent instincts, who came face-to-face with Trump in Rome and probably felt a cold chill skitter down his spine. “Until now,” I imagine the Pope thinking as he looks heavenward, “I have considered you a merciful and just God.”

Bombs Away

Israel is at it again in Gaza, and the American news media plays right along, perpetrating the fiction that Hamas is a military power. The fact is that whatever offensive capability Hamas can muster, Israel has ten or twenty times more. If Hamas kills five Israelis, Israel will kill 500 Palestinians in retaliation.

Diplomats from western countries turn their heads and avert their eyes. On ABC’s Good Morning America, the time spent on Gaza is dwarfed by reports about holiday travel and Black Friday shopping tips. Our priorities are crystal clear: get home to kith and kin, gorge on turkey and beer, and then rush to the mall to sink deeper into debt.

Right now, every day in Gaza is black. Artillery shells whistle across the sky and turn houses and buildings into rubble; children die; hospital wards overflow with the wounded and maimed; too many casualties, too few doctors and nurses, plasma, blood or bandages. There is no electricity or running water. Humanitarian aid can’t get in fast enough or in enough volume to alleviate suffering.

Except for North Korea and Iran, the United States would not let this happen to any other nation, nor we would allow any other nation to flaunt international law the way Israel has done for decades. A nation that occupies another by force, practices targeted assassination, kidnapping and sabotage, decade after decade, while UN resolutions turn yellow with age would be treated like a pariah. Israel appropriates Palestinian land and water, erects barrier walls, and builds settlements on territory taken by military force, and the United States applauds and bows. 

Hamas is not innocent in all of this, but the Israeli response never fails to be disproportionate. If your neighbor punches you on the arm, hit him over the head with a sledgehammer.

While bombs rain on Gaza, some Americans pitch tents outside their local Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Target, waiting for Black Friday and the deal of the century. 

Love, Israeli-Style

Terrorism n. Terrorist principles and practices; the systematic employment of violence and intimidation to coerce a government or community, esp. into acceding to specific political demands. The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary

Ironic to hear a Jewish rabbi, the head of a pre-school not far from Santa Barbara, reacting to a third incidence of vandalism against the school, swastikas spray-painted on the walls in the dead of night. The rabbi spoke of Jewish values handed down the centuries and from every corner of the globe – tolerance, love, understanding, and knowledge – that are the antidotes to hatred, bigotry and racism.

While the rabbi spoke of Jewish values, Israeli rockets, artillery shells and deadly cluster bombs rained down on Gaza, indiscriminately killing Palestinian men, women and children. As the rabbi spoke of love twelve miles from where my family dwells, a United Nations school in Gaza was destroyed by three Israeli tank shells, killing 40 human beings who had taken refuge inside.

And while this act of terror – and what else can it be called? -- was taking place and the lifeless, bloody bodies of innocent children were pulled from the rubble, an Israeli spokesperson had the audacity to accuse Hamas of “war crimes.”

Israel never lacks a justification for its actions. When Israel destroys a Palestinian ambulance with Hellfire missiles (purchased from, or provided by, the United States), the fault lies with Hamas, not Israel, because only Hamas is diabolical enough to transport guns and ammunition in ambulances and thereby make it necessary for Israel to target them for annihilation.

The abuser is really the victim, you see, and the abused deserve to be punished.

And of course that UN school jammed with petrified and helpless people was a Hamas ammunition depot. As an Israeli spokesperson told the Al Jazeera network, Hamas had "booby-trapped" installations in Gaza, leaving Israel no choice but to retaliate. "This is how it is in wars,” the spokesperson said. “We did not choose to be in a war. However, Hamas chose to target Israelis, we did not force them to do anything, and Hamas chose terror."

Like the United States under the Bush/Cheney regime, Israel is always righteous, moral and only acting in its own defense against an implacable enemy; Hamas, on the other hand, never rises above being a “terrorist” organization with no regard for human life, law or recognized standards of decency.

F-16’s, Hellfire missiles and cluster bombs are not instruments of peace. Israel says it has no beef with the Palestinian people, just Hamas, but let’s be clear: Israel’s ferocious assault against Gaza is punishing Palestinians collectively. Hamas did not block critically needed supplies from entering Israel or build settlements on Israeli land or disregard one “peace” treaty after another. Does Hamas bear some responsibility for these hostilities? Of course, but what else can a dispossessed, occupied, and downtrodden people do when politics, diplomacy and decades of UN resolutions fail?

Israel, the United States, and Britain either have short historical memories or willful myopia. A little more than six decades ago, Israel boasted homegrown terrorists determined to wrest Palestine from British control and establish a Jewish homeland. As all people do, Jews ached for their own land and control of their own fate. One leader in this struggle was Menachem Begin, who would go on to become Prime Minister; yesterday’s terrorist is tomorrow’s politician.

Why can’t Israel and its principal benefactor, the United States, understand that the Palestinians want the very thing that the Jews wanted in the early years of the twentieth century? Why does the West always ascribe righteous motives to Israel and evil motives to the Palestinians? The more important question –the one never addressed in the Western mass media – is this: why is Israel allowed to slaughter innocent people with impunity? Is killing really the road to peace and long-lasting security or does it just inflict fresh wounds and slice into old scars?

But don’t say Israel can’t act benevolently – yesterday the Israeli army gave Gaza residents a brief cease fire so they could stock up on supplies before the next wave of attacks. One wonders where in war-ravaged Gaza the people were supposed to buy bread, drinking water, baby formula, medicine, coats, blankets or fuel oil.

A Disproportionate Response, Gaza, December 2008

You slice our finger,
We cut off your hand;

You pluck out our eyes,
We chop off your head;

You shell our homes,
We level your cities;

You throw rocks,
We fire missiles from F-16’s;

You kill our soldiers,
We kill your children;

Whatever you do,
We will do X 10;

Because,

Your terror,
Is no match for our terror