MER FLASHBACK - 7/16/97:
AMERICA - "TORMENTER" OF THE PALESTINIANS
All too often there is a basic misunderstanding in the USA. Because
the major American media rely so extensively on information sources and personalities who
are either working for or with the extended Israeli/Jewish lobby, or who are in one way or
another creatures of, or funded by, the U.S. government, the range of opinion and analysis
easily available to most Americans on matters Middle Eastern is extremely limited.
And for this basic reason much of the American public accepts such
concepts as "peace process", "terrorism", and the assertion that the
U.S. actually promotes "democracy" and "human rights" in the Middle
East region at face value.
Hence when America is pronounced as "militarist",
"oppressive", "hypocritical", "anti-democratic", and
"tormentor", most Americans are rather bewildered and all too easily and quite
wrongly dismiss those who use such terminology as "radicals" and
"extremists".
With few direct reference points and such a deluge of constant
misinformation and disinformation, most Americans simply can't easily relate to the
realities of their country's actual involvement with the countries and peoples of the
Middle East. We try of course to help improve this situation with MID-EAST REALITIES, both
here on the Internet and weekly on TV -- but facing our own reality our efforts are quite
minuscule in comparison to what we are all up against. In this overall context, read this
interesting and provocative recent commentary from PALESTINE TIMES, published in Amman.
POLITICAL PROSTITUTION IN WASHINGTON
Two recent classic examples of political prostitution came from
Washington, D.C., the capital of the nefarious "new world order."
The first came from the Speaker of the Senate, Newt Gingrich, who
claimed that the prohibition by the Palestinian Authority of land sales to Jewish settlers
was a Nazi-like behavior. The second example took the form of a House of Representative
decision recognizing occupied Jerusalem as "Israel's united and divided
capital."
As for Gingrich's remarks, it is sufficiently obvious that his
charade was not motivated by genuine human rights concerns pertaining to the killing of
innocent human beings by a despotic authority. As we all know, Palestinian Authority
police have killed, or tortured to death, over 15 innocent detainees since the instalment
of Yasser Arafat's administration in Gaza and Jericho more than three years ago.
Interestingly, none of these murders moved "Gingrich's
conscientious concerns about human rights." Moreover, the truly Nazi-like behavior of
Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in the West Bank (like beating Palestinian children
to death) doesn't seem worthy of his morbid attention because the victims happen to have
the "wrong blood" and bear the "wrong names."
Putting his malicious intent aside, Gingrich's remarks demonstrate a
great deal of ignorance. At best, they are characteristic of a man whose tongue functions
much more swiftly than his mind does. The loose- lipped Gingrich should have done some
homework before he uttered his misbegotten words. He should have known that if any group
of people in Palestine can be likened to the Nazis, it is the Jewish settlers.
He should have known that there are hundreds of thousands who
unashamedly believe that "Jewish blood is redder than non-Jewish blood (including
Gingrich's, of course) and that their lives are therefore preferred by the Lord."
The ostensibly politically-correct Gingrich should have known that
the Israeli authorities are running, as always, concentration camps in several areas of
the West Bank, including Meggido prison, in which Palestinian detainees are tormented to
death or made to live an enduring hell.
The miserable speaker should have known that there are ministers
serving in the Israeli government (like Rafael Etan and Areil Sharon) who do not hesitate
to use exactly the same words in describing Arabs that the Nazis used to describe Jews.
Indeed, would Mr. Gingrich like to come to Hebron to meet Jewish
settlers who would readily describe themselves as "Nazi Jews"? It is always good
to defend human rights. This is a sublime duty, to say the least. However, one should
defend human rights for the right reason, lest one be ensnared by hypocrisy and expediency
considerations.
Needless to say, it is very hypocritical to seek to appease the
Jewish lobby, which seems to strike terror in Gingrich's heart, by falsifying facts and
making corrupt analogies with the intent of harming an oppressed people like the
Palestinians. Or does Gingrich want to vindicate the oft-voiced premise that "America
is the tormentor of the Palestinians."
