Honesty about the Middle East
August 22, 2002
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 werent supposed to talk about it. It was a sort of
unwritten law.
This time
Buchanans 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
Israels entire Palestinian population, most of them would find
good Scriptural precedent to justify it. For people of this mindset,
its 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. Thats 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.
Israels 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 Orwells 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 cant 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
its 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 dont they simply demand equality
before the law in Israel? Is that out of the question?
Honest Zionists have
always acknowledged, even insisted, that Israel cant 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.
Dont expect a retraction of this claim in the near future. But
Americans looking for excuses for attacking Israels oil-rich
neighbors should be forced to face the truth.
Joseph Sobran
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