MER - 7/16/97:

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.

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."