Honesty about the Middle East
August 22, 2002

by Joe Sobran

     A dozen years ago, during the debate over war with 
Iraq, Patrick Buchanan caused a storm by observing that 
the chief advocates of war were the Israelis and "their 
amen corner in this country." Nobody really denied this; 
at least nobody could deny that there was such an "amen 
corner" and that it was pushing for war. But you weren't 
supposed to talk about it. It was a sort of unwritten 
law.

     This time Buchanan's remark would be truer than it 
was then. Hardly anyone is eager for war who is not also 
a supporter of Israel and the harsh rule of Ariel Sharon. 
Can you think of anyone who opposes American support for 
Israel who also wants the United States to attack Iraq? 
Or anyone who favors American support for Israel who also 
opposes war on Iraq?

     The chief difference between 1990 and this year is 
that the Amen Corner now probably numbers more Christian 
fundamentalists than Jews. And they are guided more by 
the Old Testament than the New. If Sharon were to 
massacre Israel's entire Palestinian population, most of 
them would find good Scriptural precedent to justify it. 
For people of this mindset, it's enough that the Bible 
says God once gave the Holy Land to the Israelites, 
ordering them not to spare the inhabitants, man, woman, 
child, or beast. That's all we really have to know about 
the Middle East.

     Of course foreign policy is made by people with 
worldlier purposes. It looks suspiciously as if a war on 
Iraq would be aimed at achieving American hegemony over 
the region. We are hearing that every country in the 
region that has huge oil reserves also has, by 
interesting coincidence, an intolerably corrupt and 
despotic government. This, we are told, merits "regime 
change." The United States must overthrow all 
dictatorships that have a lot of oil.

     As the Church Lady used to say, how convenient! Our 
duty perfectly coincides with our interest! We must 
promote democracy around the world, but especially in 
oppressed lands that also happen to be petroleum-rich. No 
longer are we targeting an Axis of Evil that includes 
North Korea. The current target is the Axis of Oil. This 
may even embrace Saudi Arabia, a long-time U.S. ally now 
being denounced as a treacherous enemy.

     And Israel? Israel is safe from American bombs and 
regime changers. It has no oil and, its apologists 
insist, it "shares our democratic values." If so, it 
shares them in a curious way. Israel's "democracy" is 
based on a direct denial of the "self-evident truths" of 
the Declaration of Independence. In fact, the 
implementation of those truths would mean the end of 
Israel as we know it.

     According to the Declaration, "all men are created 
equal." Israel is based on the understanding that Jews 
are, in George Orwell's phrase, "more equal than others." 
If Palestinian Arabs were accorded the same rights as 
Jews, they would flood into their homeland and become the 
voting majority. Jewish supremacy would soon end, and the 
country would soon cease to be a "Jewish state."

     Israel is actually the only "democracy" that can't 
afford equality. That is why it refuses to allow a "right 
of return" for expelled Arabs, even though it affirms a 
"right of return" for Jews everywhere, even those who 
have never lived in the Holy Land. Its Jewish majority is 
an artificial creation that must be maintained by endless 
racial discrimination against people who lack Jewish 
ancestry. Think of that. A "democracy" based on racial 
discrimination!

     This is so obvious that it's amazing that the 
Palestinians and their sympathizers so seldom point it 
out. Most of them speak as if the solution to the 
Israeli-Palestianian struggle would be a separate 
Palestinian state, with no reform in Israel itself. Why 
don't they simply demand equality before the law in 
Israel? Is that out of the question?

     Honest Zionists have always acknowledged, even 
insisted, that Israel can't be both Jewish and 
democratic. They have been called extremists for saying 
so, but their logic is impeccable and, now, unavoidable.

     Israeli propaganda depends heavily on the claim that 
Israel is "democratic." Don't expect a retraction of this 
claim in the near future. But Americans looking for 
excuses for attacking Israel's oil-rich neighbors should 
be forced to face the truth.

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