this link was in the comments of the previous post on palestine. i've only gotten this far into it and am already posting it here. its long and appears to be quite comprehensive, so far;
Nothing that Israel does in its affairs would be of quite such great
concern to the world were it not for the fact that Israel drags along,
willy-nilly, the world’s greatest power, much like some
impressive-looking but feeble-willed, dazed parent stumbling along
behind a screaming toddler demanding yet another goody. The threat of
serious wars has grown exponentially in recent decades precisely owing
to this fact, and not just wars but wars reflecting neither justice nor
principle, the aggressive reordering of other people’s affairs by
sweeping them into the pit of hell. The so-called war on terror is just
part of the fallout of millions of the world’s powerless and abused
watching helplessly and without hope the embarrassing public spectacle.
The terrible bloody war in Iraq was almost exclusively for Israel’s
benefit. The Syrian “civil war” is a deliberately-engineered conflict
for Israel’s benefit. The coup in Egypt, wiping away the sacrifice of
thousands of Egyptians in a revolution for democracy and restoring a
junta, again reflects Israel’s interests in the region. The constant
threats and needless hardships imposed upon Iran, a country which has no
modern history of aggression and which every intelligence service knows
has not been working towards nuclear weapons, reflects yet the same
interest. Indeed, so determined is the government of Israel to keep this
huge country pinned down that it pulled out all stops in using its
immense congressional influence trying to embarrass the President and
prevent a sensible international agreement with Iran. And, more
ominously, Netanyahu has threatened countless times to attack Iran,
knowing full well that the United States would be forced to come to his
assistance when Iran struck back, as it would have every right to do.
But it is not just constant wars and threats of wars, the liberal use
of extreme force against the interests of others, which make modern
Israel perhaps the greatest threat to peace on the planet. The effects
of America’s unprecedented and inappropriate relationship with Israel
have corroded badly the values and meaning of American society.
America’s democratic government, always rather fragile at best, is
literally becoming hollowed out. Today America copies a great deal of
the ugly garrison state practices of Israel: aggressive and intrusive
intelligence, anti-democratic laws, police and security being given
close to a free hand in attacking human rights, secret prisons, and even
extrajudicial killing on a large scale. The President speaks of
governing by “presidential order” rather than by legislation, the
intelligence establishment ignores the Constitution and the courts, the
“homeland” security establishment heavily arms itself against public
disorder, and even military men make the odd public reference to
military government in an emergency. Where is the Constitution with its
crucial Bill of Rights in all this? Cut in scraps lying on the floor
like snippets from a film-editor’s work.
Of course, so far as rights go, Israel never had, nor can it ever
have a Bill of Rights, given its peculiar organization and the practices
of its garrison-state establishment. Imitating Israel’s practices and
adopting its views remove any state automatically from the whole trend
of western society since the Enlightenment. Israel’s leaders may speak
all they wish about “the Middle East’s only democracy,” but the words
are as insincere as television advertising claims for a new mouthwash.
Can you have democracy for only one carefully-defined group? Can you
have democracy without the restraints of a Bill of Rights upon an
abusive majority? Can you have democracy which holds millions in
perpetual isolation and subjects them to countless abuses? Can you have
democracy where you prefer dealing with juntas and kingdoms to
democratic governments in neighboring states? Can you have democracy
which constantly threatens war on those who do not threaten it? Can you
have democracy which conducts witch-hunts on a grand scale, just
re-naming the witches as terrorists? Can you have democracy which
interferes in the internal affairs of other democratic states? And, in
the end, can you have democracy founded on the Orwellian principle that
“all animals are equal, but some are more equal”?
https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/understanding-modern-israel-why-it-is-driving-the-world-towards-madness/
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