Yesterday’s New York Times had an article about how the current Gaza war has overwhelming support in Israel. I have no doubt that is true. But, except for serving as a vehicle to get the “Israeli viewpoint” across, this article is not newsworthy.
The depth of delusion of people in a country at war is quite common. Need we repeat the fact that when the second war in Lebanon broke out in 2006, nearly all Israelis (in fact probably more than this go around) supported that war? At the time, when I and others pointed out the foolishness of that war, we were roundly attacked as being out of touch with reality. But only a few months ago, the Winograd report affirmed all our criticisms about that war. For almost the identical reasons, the current war is as delusional, immoral and doomed to failure as the Lebanon war, perhaps even more so. And I have little doubt that in a year or so, when the waste in lives and the failed results of the war will be apparent to all, the Israeli public will once again feel betrayal and disappointment.
There is one aspect of this story which might be baffling for people who aren’t Jewish. How can Israelis be so confident in their point of view, in the face of almost universal world condemnation? The answer is actually quite simple. It ties into something I’ve often discussed on this site. Many Jews and almost all Israelis view the world through the lens of the Holocaust. The thinking goes: “the world was silent while Jews were victims of genocide. No surprise that the world, particularly Europe, sides with the Arabs in their war against the Jews. It’s just another example of their historical Judeophobia.” While one can almost understand Israelis’ paranoid delusions (and of course paranoia always has some roots in reality – it certainly doesn’t help when Muslim preachers call Jews pigs and dogs), there is no excuse for the NY Times to uncritically report the Israeli viewpoint without any critique. In a subsequent post I will go into more detail in providing such a critique.
Tags: Hypocrisy, Israeli Army, Lebanon, Propaganda, War Crimes