Sunday, November 2, 2008

Why Condemning Israel and the Zionist Lobby is So Important

First some misguided beliefs:

  • that the ZPC is just another lobby;
  • that other nations and their leaders commit equally violent crimes and abuses;
  • that criticizing Israel is anti-Semitic;
  • that Israel is a democracy and the only one in the region;
  • the uniqueness of Jewish suffering and the Holocaust as exclusively affecting Jews; and
  • that Israel/Palestine discussion should be balanced - in complete denial of a powerful oppressive state v. a near-defenseless and persecuted people - on their own and with virtually no outside help.
Now some facts:
  • the Israeli Lobby is far and away the most powerful in America;
  • criticizing Israel more than other abusive states is important because of its inordinate ability to influence US policy;
  • accusation of anti-Semitism is a canard, a non-starter, a way to shift attention from real issues;
  • Israel defiles democracy by granting it only to Jews and not even all of them; it disdains the less privileged much the way they're treated in America;
  • exploiting the Holocaust as an exclusive Jewish issue defiles the outrage of so many others, including much greater ones; and
  • the imbalance between pro-Israeli representation v. hostile or indifferent views about Arabs is pronounced.
Confronting the Israeli Lobby is vital because it plays such "a decisive role (and) world-historic impact on the present and future of world peace and social justice." Ignore it and consider the peril of America hurtling from wars to greater ones with no end in sight and solidifying tyranny at home.

Consider also some "big questions facing Americans as a result of the power of Israel in the United States:"
  • the ZPC wants was; "has played a major role" in influencing them in the past eight years; and is very capable of pushing America into new conflicts regardless of which party in Washington is dominant;
  • the big issue is "World Peace or War" and the horror of the latter;
  • Israel and its Lobby harm US democracy by stifling "the right to debate, to elect (and) legislate free from coercion;" also to select political candidates strongly opposed to Israeli policies and against providing financial and military support;
  • Israeli interests harm our own; further, "never in the history of the US republic or empire has a powerful but tiny minority been able to wield so much influence" over our foreign policy for the benefit of another nation;
  • by doing it, the ramifications are staggering: permanent wars; massive deaths; unimaginable human misery and destruction; outrageous and ill-directed amounts of spending; a staggering amount of unrepayable debt; the alienation of the entire Muslim world; growing world indignation overall; and the demise of democracy in America - partly because of sacrificing homeland interests to serve those of a tiny foreign power.






























Watch the video Rabbi Against Israel (Zionism)

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