A thoroughly depressing interview with heroic journalist Gideon Levy.
“It is a myth today [that Israel is a democracy]. Israel is a democracy – a real and liberal and full democracy – only to its Jewish citizens, only within the old Israel, within the 1967 borders. The rest [of Israel], on the other side of the line, is the farthest thing from a democracy. It is one of the most brutal, cruel regimes in the world today.”
The argument that “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East” is often seen as the basis fo the “deep friendship” between the two countries. But since the premise is false, we have to look for the source of the “friendship” elsewhere.
In an interview on the Charlie Rose show yesterday, Colin Powell backed Arik Sharon’s position that the PA “must crack down on terrorism” before dismantling settlements:
“It is very difficult if not impossible for the prime minister of Israel or any other nation in the face of activity that seems to be tolerated by the governmental authorities on the other side … to say to his people that he is yielding to pressure from the Americans or anyone else.”
Consistency and logic would say that it is no easier for the Palestinian leadership to crack down on Hamas or appear to be yielding to American pressure, considering the daily brutality the Palestinian people face? So why doesn’t Powell say that? One difference, of course, is that U.S. politicians don’t have to face Palestinian attack dogs who savage any politician who has the courage to speak the truth about the situation. I have come to the conclusion that the so-called Jewish lobby is the worst enemy of the Jewish people, and bears major responsibility for the death and mayhem in Israel/Palestine.
But the problem is much deeper than that. I don’t think it is a co-incidence that the conflict has reached its unprecedented depths under the Bush administration. Colin Powell called America a Judeo-Christian country during that same interview. The fundamentalist Christian beliefs of Bush & Co along with their neo-conservative ideology have totally distorted their view of reality. They see the world through the same prism that Arik Sharon and his ilk do. It is no coincidence that these people are leading the U.S. from one disaster to another.