Have you ever found yourself in the following awkward situation? There you are, hanging out at a peace rally or something, chit-chatting with some perfectly sane left-wing progressive who hates war and loves democracy — and you both are happily nodding your heads in agreement regarding how mega-corporations, greedy neo-cons, avaricious war mongers and all of their sleazy congressional lobbyists are currently stealing your very own government right out from under your very own feet?
But then you make that one big mistake! You happen to mention that perhaps Israeli neo-cons might be killing too many Palestinian children on the West Bank. And then all hell breaks loose. And suddenly your sane and rational left-wing progressive friend is suddenly all in your face and screaming at you that you are being anti-semitic, while he himself has now become a freaking hero for gleefully cheering on greedy neo-cons, avaricious warmongers and sleazy lobbyists — solely because they are Israelis instead of Americans.
And suddenly YOU have become the bad guy for criticizing Israeli neo-cons who are using the exact same techniques that American neo-cons use, and that both of you are now protesting when they’re used in the good old USA — such as corporate election-buying, NRA-style fear-mongering, Fox-News-style propaganda lies, “preemptive” war, genocide, theocratic manipulation, indefinite detention, outrageous land grabs, racism, fudging public records, shady banksters http://www.roitov.com/articles/yareah.htm, corrupt government officials, false-flag spying http://www.roitov.com/articles/x.htm, corporate welfare for the 1%, nepotism, housing scams, insider trading and all kinds of other things that progressives normally hate.
And the next thing you know, your friend isn’t even SPEAKING to you any more. Or, worse still, he isn’t even reading your blog!
And if you should also happen to mention AIPAC and all the right-wing dirty tricks that it does here in America too, and all the wing-nut conservatives that it sends to Congress, your normally-sane progressive friend suddenly gets this hurt look on his face like he was a four-year-old and you had just told him that THERE WAS NO SANTA CLAUS!
But seriously, guys. Just tell me one single thing — just one little thing — that the America-Israel Political Action Committee has ever done that was even remotely progressive. Er, I’m waiting. What have you got?
On the other hand, I’m sure that you could tell me a whole bunch of things that AIPAC has accomplished that would make any right-wing fanatic proud and happy and supportive. Fox News seems to love AIPAC. So does the NRA. Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, even Rush Limbaugh get all googly-eyed over AIPAC. GWB loves AIPAC. And so does Dick Cheney. Can’t get much more wing-nut than that!
And who, exactly, do you think orchestrated that recent crazy filibuster against Chuck Hagel? The most sturdy crop of wing-nuts in the Senate this year were obviously behind that one. And who do you think was responsible for planting this year’s crop of wing-nuts and neo-cons in Washington? Why, it was Farmer AIPAC of course — using a Citizens United tractor. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33981.htm
To quote the Huffington Post, “According to at least one former Israeli diplomat, Alon Pinkas, [the recent Senate filibuster against Hagel has] risked introducing dangerous politicization into the U.S.-Israel alliance — exactly what the senators claimed they were trying to avoid. ‘When Israel is mentioned 166 times and China 5, you know something is distorted and wrong and cannot seriously reflect serious foreign policy priorities.’” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/chuck-hagel-israel_n_2600367.html
The politicization of America’s foreign policy by 40 senators whose campaigns were funded by AIPAC? Has a neo-con wing-nut fringe group taken over our Senate or what!
Would Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxemburg, Albert Einstein, Howard Zinn or even Noam Chomsky condone AIPAC’s obviously shady right-wing and neo-con tactics and goals? Or would even Hillel the Elder or the Baal Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name approve? What do you think?
Face it guys, AIPAC isn’t Santa Claus for Israel or even for America. AIPAC is Santa Claus for neo-cons, right-wingers and fringe-group right-wing fanatics.
PS: Here’s what Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem University has to say about the AIPAC-funded Israeli neo-con wing-nuts who have taken over Palestine (and Israel too, shame on them): “Rhetoric about democracy and liberty in Syria and Iran is stripped naked when people see Western-supported colonialism, racism and subjugation in Palestine. Here is where billions in Western taxpayer money is used to destroy life while enriching land thieves and war criminals.” http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2013/02/here-facing-immorality.html
PPS: Have you seen the new music video “Gangnam Gaza Style”? It’s hilarious! A handful of brave Gaza guys soon discover that, in their home town now under neo-con occupation, gas is mostly unavailable, ATMs don’t work, kids can only safely play soccer if they simultaneously watch out for IDF aerial bombardments, that they face chronic unemployment and have to sneak food in through tunnels from Egypt and that they live in the world’s largest prison — and they do all this Gangnam Style! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7PN9fn9PQ&feature=share
And here’s a video from my FaceBook friend Saeed Amireh (from Ni’lin) that we could easily call “Gangnam East-Jerusalem-Style” — if only someone would set it to music, and if only it weren’t so tragically sad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCX9j230x8
And most of these heartless killings and bombardments and war crimes in Palestine are paid for with monies that have been approved by our Congress — under the financial influence of neo-con right-wing fringe groups such as AIPAC.
And then it is we progressives who get yelled at for not supporting cold-blooded murder. Sigh.
