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Monday, June 07, 2010

Nice work, Israel
Posted by Jill | 5:44 AM
There's always been this nasty stereotype of the crafty, cunning, sneaky Jew. I never knew where this came from, because as someone who's from parents who were self-styled Jewish intellectuals, it always seemed that we wore our intelligence on our sleeve. So it's hard to fathom, how even as paranoid as Bibi Netanyahu is, he could be so fucking stupid as to not figure out that if you're going to attack a ship from one of your few Muslim ally states in the Middle East, they're going to get pissed off:
The women wore veils. The men donned green Hamas headbands with swirling Arabic script. They gathered by the thousands in a sunny, working-class plaza in Istanbul, bellowing: "Damn Israel!"

The Saturday demonstration seemed incongruous with the image Turkey has long had in the West as a secular friend of Israel and the United States.

But in recent days, public anger has flared over Israel's bloody seizure of a Turkish-flagged aid ship headed to the Gaza Strip, which is under an Israeli blockade. The incident occurred as Turkey has been strengthening ties with Muslim governments in the region -- becoming more vocally pro-Palestinian and trying to head off new U.N. sanctions on Iran.

That has prompted worried speculation at home and abroad: Is Turkey turning away from the West?

The article goes on to take a more reassuring tone about the Turkish government, but if faced with relentless anti-Israel demonstrations in the streets, how long is it going to take before the pro-western secular government is overthrown? And THEN what happens?

American policy has always been staunchly pro-Israel on the grounds that Israel is our only truly reliable ally in the Middle East. But how much of an ally is a country that insists on behaving like a lone wolf? Israel's paranoia may be justified by the fact that there are those who want it wiped off the map, but I'd like someone to tell me just how sixty-plus years of this has done anything to stop that threat.

I know that there are many American Jews who will support everything the Israeli government decides to do, right or wrong. And they vote. And politicians, particularly Democratic ones, are terrified of losing that vote, particularly to a party whose tubthumping for Israel is based on the apocalyptic delusions of their own religious fanatical base. You'd think that American Jews would be smart enough to know that the so-called pro-Israel sentiment of the Christofascist Zombie Brigade isn't based on love for the Jews, but on the promise of being able to sit on the couch with Jesus, chowing down on nachos and watching unconverted Jews burn. But Israel is such a blind spot that sometimes Israel policy drives everything.

If poor little Israel can't survive without American support and money, don't you think we ought to have some input in how it conducts itself as part of the world community?

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My attitude changed forevermore against Israel when the Bush administration told Israel to "have at it" in their relentless attack on Gaza right after Obama was elected president. To me, that was the signal right there that there would be no cooperation with Obama from Israel during his tenure. I do not know any Jews of color so that is where the mutual admiration with the Evangelical Christians lie. It has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with being bossed around by a black guy. After all BiBi is Harvard educated is he not?
6/7/10, 6:37 AM  
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