{"id":271478,"date":"2023-07-25T06:08:37","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T06:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=271478"},"modified":"2023-07-26T07:41:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T07:41:25","slug":"its-past-time-to-be-honest-about-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=271478","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Past Time to be Honest About Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philip Giraldi \u2013 The Unz Review July 25, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

One might think that since Honest Joe Biden declared his latest war<\/a> entitled the US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism<\/em> in May the media has certainly taken up the task of exposing evil in these United States by reporting every affront to Jewish groups or individuals and to the Jewish state, Israel. The purpose is to invent a narrative suggesting that the world\u2019s richest and most powerful ethno-religious demographic is somehow a perpetual victim and that goes double for Israel, explaining and forgiving the apartheid state\u2019s occupying army\u2019s targeting and killing of 55 journalists and its murder of more than 150 Palestinian civilians so far this year, including the sniper shooting of a Palestinian two-year-old boy in the head. In spite of all that carnage, a wealthy Israel, which can afford to provide free health care and university education to its citizens, continues to receive nearly $4 billion in military aid plus billions more in trade and charitable benefits from the United States taxpayer annually, totaling more than $300 billion since the Jewish state was founded in 1948.<\/p>\n

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U.S. President Joe Biden kneels in front of outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and his chief of staff Rivka Ravitz, after reportedly hearing she has 12 children.<\/p><\/div>\n

We have lately been treated to a massive propaganda campaign orchestrated by the likes of the notorious American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League\u2019s (ADL) hideous leader Jonathan Greenblatt. One wonders why organizations like that which work closely with the Israeli government are not required to register with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), but to question that relationship got John F. Kennedy killed, so it is probably best to look the other way.<\/p>\n

The role of organizations like ADL and AIPAC, dedicated to spreading lies about the Middle East and the world in general, is in part to convince the American public that Israel is really a wonderful place that is threatened by the Arab \u201cterrorists,\u201d as they choose to put it for obvious reasons. This grants Israel blanket immunity whenever its government exercises the \u201cright to defend itself\u201d doing whatever it takes, including blowing up schools and hospitals and attacking its neighbors. An astonishing bill<\/a> being promoted by extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir currently under consideration in Israel\u2019s Knesset would grant complete immunity for soldiers and policemen who shoot dead Palestinians or foreigners, effectively granting \u201clicense to kill.\u201d Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Tony Blinken might consider that as \u201cself-defense\u201d if asked and, oh yeah, so might our self-declared Zionist president Honest Joe.<\/p>\n

And ADL and AIPAC and all the other groups constantly bleat how there is also a broader threat of surging antisemitism and even the abomination of holocaust denial wherever one chooses to look. Conveniently, Israel, without being held accountable, can imprison, beat, torture, and kill as many Palestinians as it wishes while also stealing their land and other property, depriving them of their livelihoods and of their very right to spend their own lives in peace. The persistent drive to make Israel into an all-Jewish apartheid state that is illegally incorporating what was supposed to have been a Palestinian state is hardly hidden, and, as it includes shooting and making homeless those under occupation who in any way resist, it is actually both a genocide and a war crime.<\/p>\n

Virtually every international organization that has looked into the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, to include Israeli human rights groups, has denounced in the strongest terms the inhuman behavior that has become normal. So why don\u2019t Congress and the American media get it since they are so ready to exploit the essentially bogus narratives of crimes against humanity that are being floated to justify going to war with Russia? If war crimes and crimes against humanity are the metric that one measures by in Biden\u2019s \u201crules based international order\u201d there is no country on earth that is more deserving of being invaded and sorted out than Israel, unless it is the warmongering United States itself.<\/p>\n

Recently we Americans have been treated to several iterations of the \u201cIsrael is good\u201d contrived narrative, a tale that includes how both the US and the Jewish state share an \u201cunbreakable bond\u201d because both nations were \u201cconceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.\u201d And the two nations also are allegedly linked by the \u201cshared values\u201d nonsense, which does not apply if one is either a Red Indian, a black slave, or a Palestinian of either Christian or Muslim persuasion. Indeed, even observant Jews in Israel who are not practicing according to the Orthodox beliefs are subjected to various restrictions on their personal lives, including how they must conform to marry, and suffer from an inability to practice their religious choice openly.<\/p>\n

We have recently experienced a visit to the White House and an address to a joint session of Congress by Israel\u2019s head of state President Isaac Herzog which was preceded by a vote in Congress on a bill introduced by Republicans declaring that<\/a> Israel \u201cis not a racist or apartheid state\u201d and adding that the United States \u201cwill always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel.\u201d The vote abjuring Israel of all misbehavior passed by an overwhelming 412-9-1 vote. The nine \u201cno\u201d votes and one abstention were from Progressive Caucus Democrats, which features Pramila Jayapal as the chairwoman: Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Delia Ramirez and Ayanna Pressley. Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, who has submitted a bill blocking US aid to Israel that is used to imprison Palestinian children, voted \u201cpresent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jayapal, who said recently accurately that \u201cIsrael is a racist state,\u201d was rewarded with a torrent of criticism from her own party, to include a rare joint statement from House Democratic leadership rejecting her remarks plus also a separate statement signed by 43 Democratic Party colleagues who said they were \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about her \u201cunacceptable\u201d views. She consequently apologized effusively before flipping and supporting the resolution. And every other Democrat and all the Republicans voted \u201cyes.\u201d A day later, three House Republicans filed a censure motion<\/a> against Jayapal for having the temerity to call Israel \u201cracist.\u201d That basically confirms the hypothesis that Israel could shit on the heads of the clowns in Congress and the recipients would applaud the act and beg for more. Jayapal is now focusing on more congenial issues like climate change.<\/p>\n

Of course, the bill in Congress is a lie and a denial of reality. Israel is by self-definition legally a Jewish state which makes it both racist and apartheid in structure towards its non-Jewish citizens and also to the Palestinians who have the misfortune of living in areas under Israeli occupation. The recent atrocities against the Palestinian victims have not passed unnoticed even if the Jewish dominated US media has attempted to mitigate what is reported. In fact, many Democrats no longer buy into the Israel narrative. Mondoweiss<\/em> reports<\/a> how \u201cA University of Maryland Critical Issues poll<\/a> from earlier this year found that 44% of Democratic voters believe Israel is \u2018a state with segregation similar to apartheid.\u2019 That survey mirrors a number of public opinion studies that have been released recently\u2026 49% of the Democratic voters polled said they sympathize with Palestinians, compared to just 38% who said they sympathize with Israelis.\u201d Another recent poll<\/a> indicated that 80% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans, in absence of a two-state solution to Israel-Palestine, \u201cwould choose a democratic Israel that\u2019s no longer Jewish, over a Jewish Israel without full citizenship and equality for non-Jewish people living under its authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attempting to address the growing uneasiness of many Americans over the issue of Israel and Palestinian rights, Herzog basically told congress that criticism of Israel is a freedom of speech right but that it should not veer over into antisemitism. Unfortunately, his logic is a bit on the thin side as the definition of antisemitism used by the US government and the media coined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) includes criticism of Israel, making attacking Israeli regarding its ghastly behavior ipso facto<\/em> antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Herzog also lied his way through his preferred analysis of what drives the bilateral relationship with Washington as well as civil liberties and other rights in his own country, saying<\/a> \u201cWe are proud to be the United States\u2019 closest partner and friend. When the United States is strong, Israel is stronger. And when Israel is strong, the United States is more secure.\u201d How exactly the US is made more secure by Israeli destabilizing of the Middle East was not made clear, but Herzog went on with another series of lies explaining how Israel \u201ctakes pride in its vibrant democracy, its protection of minorities, human rights and civil liberties, as laid down by its parliament, the Knesset, and safeguarded by its strong Supreme Court and independent judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing Herzog said was actually true and he forgot to mention the political donations from Jewish sources and the friendly Jewish media coverage that binds most American politicians to Israel. In recent electoral cycles, Jewish donations dominated in both parties and candidates were rightfully fearful of not saying and doing enough when it comes to Israel. But to really appreciate the deep hole of corruption that the United States is in with Israel and its friends in The Lobby calling the shots even when the narrative is so transparently false, it is best to quote the New York Times<\/em> account<\/a> of the revelry in the House of Representatives Chamber as Herzog spoke: \u201cThe reception for Mr. Herzog in the packed House chamber was staunchly supportive, with frequent standing ovations by the assembled lawmakers, including when he decried Palestinians for destroying the prospects for peace by supporting terror attacks against Israel.\u201d Another big lie and the inevitable standing ovations from the Congress critters. We are in deep trouble when our Solons on Capitol Hill cannot appear to discern a series of self- serving lies by a foreign leader which do nothing but impoverish and do damage to the United States and its people. Indeed, the clowns applaud what they are hearing. It is the tragedy of our times, perhaps the final tragedy.<\/p>\n

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is <\/em>councilforthenationalinterest.org,<\/em><\/strong> address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is <\/em>inform@cnionline.org<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite murdering 55 journalists and more than 150 Palestinian civilians so far this year; in the same period the wealthy Israel, which provides free health care and university education for its citizens, has received 4 billion in military aid and billions more in trade benefits from the U.S. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271481,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271478\/revisions\/271481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}