Israel Maligned
"We all live in a sinking submarine, a sinking submarine..."
"We all live in a sinking submarine, a sinking submarine..."There exists, in today's western international community, a large and rather vociferous community that is incredibly quick to demonize the state of Israel. From banal cries of apartheid (might want to study that word a bit before tossing it around) to assertions of genocide (again, some definitive and historic study should commence) Israel is maligned more than understood. The uber-liberal western elements support of the eternally "downtrodden" is too bright a flash point to allow them any inkling of realistic discovery through realistic analysis. So attuned to their idealistic, Utopian bullshit they are that they refuse to entertain the very thought that this conflict cannot be neatly canned in a sensational talking point.
While I am "pro-Israel" I do not adhere to a blind philosophy regarding my support. Having looked around the region and compared the politics, philosophies, social structures and global influence of each regime I decided that Israel has more inherent positive elements than negative and that the regimes that surround them do not, generally, seek global-social participation beyond that of their hydro-carbon fattened wallets. Take oil out of the equation and what would the Saud family be? How western friendly would their regime be? Of course one could argue that the US alliance with Israel has at it's root the same oil elements that bolster a friendly relationship with the Sauds. Not that Israel has oil but that their powerful military presence and pro-American stance provide a counterbalance to wahhabist and other fundamentalist elements in the region.
This fact only bolsters my opinion of Israel and it's secular (yes, I said secular) regime. Secular because there is a difference between Judaism and Zionism both in definition and in, as far as Israel is concerned, practice. Further there is a vast difference between Zionism and Shariah, just ask any Israeli woman (even an Arab woman!) and it's effect on the society that it dominates. Many of the anti-Israel cult either don't realize or care to entertain the vast difference between a Zionist state and a theocratic state.
The focal point of the uber-liberal Utopian eternally "downtrodden" (ULUED) visage are the Palestinians. Having been left high and dry by both the Rand Mcnalliite states after WW2 and the arab aggressors against the newly formed Israel ("head for the hills and return after we win! Shit, we forgot to win...") the Palestinians have (rightly) been rallying for a sound sovereignty for sixty years. In their plight the Palestinians have received "support" from surrounding Sunni states (and Shia) both financially, politically and militarily. In the ULUED's world such support is a heroic exercise in righting what is a genocidal, apartheid wrong.
In reality the support of surrounding states amounts to bolstering instability along the borders of a hated rival. The realization of a Palestinian state is the last (maybe the worst) thing these international "philanthropists" have in mind. The realization of a Palestinian state would require a Palestinian (Hamas) acceptance of an Israeli state. Such a fact is not lost on the likes of Egypt, Iran or Syria. For nearly 40 years the Palestinians have been the patsies in a regional proxy conflict between the Israeli's and their surrounding aggressors. This idea is seemingly lost on the ULUED who seem to hold Israel as the great "evil" holding the Palestinians from realizing a sovereign state.
In a recent post I reported the Hamas relationship with Iran. That Iran supports Hamas and not the more moderate and, under Abbas, more receptive faction to a two state solution, speaks volumes. This glaring effect is lost on the ULUED who hold tight to their short sighted, simplistic visions of freeing the Palestinians from their Israeli overlords. Iran and it's tacit support of a divisive "political" faction is ignored. Israeli intervention in Gaza (which fell into chaos after the Israelis pulled out: Hamas built an infrastructure of resistance and then failed to redeploy or even consider it when the target of said resistance left the theater which left lots of "unemployed" resistance...) caps the headlines of the ULUED. That other states toss fuel on this fire is apparently a sidenote not worthy of their righteous consideration.
The current fractious, bloody and damn near civil war environment in the Palestinian territory can be attributed as much to the international ULUED myopic vision of the conflict as it can to the tacit state support of Hamas. While Israel maintains a flawed position on the Palestinian resolution, the overwhelming blind influence and "support" of the ULUED promises to hamstring any real resolution of a 100+ year old conflict as it blindly cheerleads without understanding (or considering) the depth of the conflict at hand.
2 comments:
Great post. I think that's very perceptive about the "ULUED", and about Israel's neighbours.
You know, I can't remember the last time I heard a New Zealander defend Israel. Certainly never on campus, it would be unthinkable.
Thanks Phil and that's a sad indication (the bit about defending Israel and your campus) of the painfully myopic position of both the mainstream and academic vision. It's an either/or debate all to often. Sad that for every Phil (or Luke or Dan, etc.) there's a thousand iconoclasts that fart forth their divisive opinion from a seemingly prescribed mentality. More disconcerting is that the faux-utopian ideal seems to catalyze in both academia and media (at least here in the states.)
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