Artwork by SWOBODA
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY With apologies to Woody Guthrie and especially all Palestinians:
This land ain’t your land, this land is my land
From the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea waters
From the Lebanon cedars to the Sinai sand dunes
This land was made for me not you
Could easily be the first stanza of Israel’s national anthem, right? Certainly the words reflect the aspirations and sentiments of Israelis over the last 70 years, no? All right, let me make something perfectly clear up front: I don’t hate Zionists per se — at least not in a racist or anti-ethnic sense. I hate them in the same sense that I do the flagrant oppressor, the unmitigated hypocrite, the self-righteous religionist, or the professional extortionist, especially since Netanyahu’s government fits so perfectly into all four categories. So, in light of Israel intruding itself so determinatively into the Iran Nuclear Treaty discussion, what better time to illustrate my true feelings about Zionists and the aforementioned applicables.
Oppression: Let’s get something straight: there is no Israeli/Palestinian “conflict.” Period. This constant tumult isn’t a battle between equals. This isn’t some clash of titans. For God’s sake, this one-sided bloodbath is (and always has been) Palestinian “David” vs. Israeli “Goliath” — with David on crutches and both arms in slings. Believing otherwise is self-delusion of Republican proportions. Israel, with a whole hell of a lot of couldn’t-have-done-it-without-
by an America that never had any intentions of helping them out other than a barely audible tsk tsk now and then whispered in the general direction of Tel Aviv. Why? Because no American government has ever been able to summon the courage, common decency or simple humanity to put compassion and morals ahead of its fealty to the most powerful special interest group in the history of such ilk, namely, the Israel lobby. The only reason the Palestinians haven’t been completely “cleansed” up to now is Israel’s lingering fear that the Arab states might finally muster sufficient morality and backbone to take decisive military action. Face it, the only reason Israel acts the way it does (and gets away with it) is that it CAN! The U.S. could put an end to Palestinian suffering in a New York minute if it chose to. All that would be required is for America to acknowledge and renounce Israel’s genocidal conduct and refuse further succor or support of any kind until and unless the Palestinians are granted statehood and made whole for all of the unconscionable wretchedness they’ve been forced to endure for three-quarters of a century. Meanwhile, the barbarity continues.
Hypocrisy: (A) Israel should be allowed nuclear weapons, Iran shouldn’t. Do I really need to take this any further? Have I left anything out? Yeah, I get it. Iran hates Israel, will never recognize her right to exist, wants her wiped from the face of the earth. Hot air is plentiful in that neck of the woods. Truth be told, so do China, Cuba, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and Venezuela, just to name a few. So what? Zionists are uber-humanitarian folk who can always be counted on to do the right thing? Shirley you jest! Let’s face it, poor, put upon, defenseless Israel (who, thanks in large part to the U.S., just happens to maintain the most potent military the Middle East has ever known) has shown herself to be one of history’s most conscienceless oppressors, and given the fact that she has ALREADY bombed one Middle East nuclear facility and publicly stated she won’t hesitate to do the same to Iran’s, why should her neighbors ever believe that she wouldn’t use her nuclear weapons on them? Why the hell does she have them in the first place?! (B) Obviously United Nations resolutions apply only to other nations. Israel, with a whole lot of veto help from its U.S. buddy on the Security Council, has completely ignored dozens upon dozens of resolutions directed against it — more than any other country in the history of the United Nations — nearly every one of them condemning her atrocious actions against the Palestinian people. (C) Israel’s (and the U.S.’) bandying of the term “terrorists” to describe the Palestinian people could very well be one of the most hypocritical assignments of the term in recent history. (D) Israel is one of the world’s major exporters of weaponry with most of it going to human rights-abusing regimes. Guatemala, El Salvador, South Sudan and Ethiopia during their civil wars, and South Africa throughout the apartheid era, were among the beneficiaries. The Israeli government also gave the go-ahead over the years for arms exports to PRE-REVOLUTION Iran (yeah, those SAVAK fellows were some real charmers), Syria and Indonesia, as well as African states including Algeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, all of them proven human rights abusing countries. Apparently $hekel$ have a way of confusing even the most “principled” of hypocrites.
Sanctimony: What’s to be said? I mean, we’re talking about “chosen” people here. I’m guessing that hearing and reading such a description repeated again and again over the course of a couple millennia might tend to turn one into a legend in their own mind, no? Feigning righteousness ad nauseam in their actions toward the Palestinian people has lifted Zionism into the very ether of hypocritical self-righteousness. Spare me the bullshit, Israel! Bigotry is bigotry. Butchery is butchery. Subjugation is subjugation. Today’s Zionists are classic examples of the author’s newly coined generational maxim, “What’s been done unto you, you will likely do unto others.” Just as the husband who brutalizes his wife and sons, so will his sons likely brutalize theirs. Apparently you’ve learned only hatred and retribution from the Holocaust. You’re not a kinder, gentler, more tolerant or understanding people for having lived through or been told of such a horrid and appalling experience. Indeed, you’re an entirely less caring, less compassionate people. You haven’t progressed, you’ve regressed. You’ve lost all empathy for the hopes and aspirations of others. You’re God’s “chosen” people alright … God’s chosen usurpers. You’ve replaced the goodness of the Golden Rule with the gold standard for godforsaken rule.
Extortion: Make no mistake, the Iran Nuclear Treaty is all about Israel. There would be no Iran Nuclear Treaty were there no Israel. Apparently it wasn’t enough for the Israeli Prime Minister to accept an unconstitutional invitation to address the American Congress (without even consulting with the American President) in order to deride and derail an American President’s foreign policy initiative, he also had the unmitigated gall to continue said derision and attempted derailment (along with some blatant lying and hypocrisy) by brazenly carrying his campaign against the treaty to an address before the Jewish lobby’s principal pressuring arm, AIPAC, in conjunction with the visit. And never mind Israel’s interference in American foreign policy, what about its spying — which, by the way, wasn’t the first time — on its number one benefactor and protector without whose “back having” there wouldn’t BE a state of Israel?! Under any other circumstances, by anyone else, such actions would be considered espionage (along with an unhealthy dose of American perfidy) of Manning/Snowden/Assange proportions (speaking from the Right, of course)! But, when you’ve got a pogrom of political fear waiting in the wings ready, willing and able to be unleashed on the American Congress by the Israel lobby, it’s apparently considered business as usual. Hell, with friends like Israel, who needs enemies?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Fed up early stage septuagenarian who has actually been most of there and done most of that. Born and raised in the picturesque Pocono Mountains. Quite well educated. Very lucky to have been born into a well-schooled and somewhat prosperous family. Long divorced. One beautiful, brilliant daughter. Two far above average grandsons. Semi-retired (how does anyone manage to do it completely these days?) and fully-tired of bullshit. Uncle of the Editor-In-Chief.