M@ga-ZinE

Front Page   << PREVIOUS - 13 - NEXT>>  Index Page     The Victim That Is Israel By Arun Gupta   <<<PREVIOUS PART The “blood was on the hand of the pro-Hamas activists” because “Israel, like the United States and other democratic nations, is at a severe disadvantage trying to combat a ruthless foe willing to sacrifice its own people to score propaganda points.” Boot may be too generous in calling the activists “pro-Hamas,” however. The Israeli ambassador reveals they are actually Hamas’ “sponsors [who] cower behind shipments of seemingly innocent aid.”   Passengers may have included European legislators, U.S. diplomats, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Israelis, artists, historians, doctors, clergy and journalists from around the world. But Israel was not battling civilians on a “mission of mercy,” writes the great humanitarian Marty Peretz. In fact, the Turkish sponsor, the Humanitarian Relief Fund, “is said to have ties to Al Qaeda. Which would be logical since Al Qaeda is an ally of Hamas.” Furthermore, Peretz illuminates, Hamas is the “Gazan outpost of the global jihad” and “second cousin once-removed of Hezbollah.” Thus, in stopping the aid flotilla, Israel was really battling a branch of the devious global jihad that hates the West irrationally. (Hamas is also “an Iranian pawn,” which may seem confusing because Iran and Al Qaeda are fierce enemies, as are Hamas and Al Qaeda, but such are the complexities of the Middle East that only experts like Peretz can divine.)   Prior to the deadly attack, there were eight previous attempts to deliver aid by sea, including ships that Israel chose not to confront and which delivered goods to Gaza without incident.  This time, the Israeli navy spent “many weeks … preparing to meet the flotilla,”, the military admitted three days before the raid that it planned to use violence, and the Israelis warned the captains of each ship while in international waters that “lethal force would be used if they persisted.” Despite all this, we learn from the Wall Street Journal, Israel “walked into a trap set by a flotilla of Hamas sympathizers;” from the New York Times, it “blundered” into a trap; from the L.A. Times, it “fell into a trap;” from the Financial Times, it “sail[ed] into a Turkish trap; and from the Guardian, it was “lure[d] … into a trap.”   If it seems curious that prominent media all conclude that golden-hearted Israel was duped, such is the blatant doublestandard applied to the “small, isolated” nation that “is destined and compelled, like a puppet on a string, to react the way it did.” That double standard also requires that the Israeli ambassador, counsel generals, embassy officials, academics, novelists, and journalists, and their American supporters, be given a largely unchallenged platform in the mainstream media.   The task at this point would appear to be disentangling what happened during the actual raid. For instance, why were the “outnumbered, under-equipped and incorrectly prepared commandos” – who also happen to be “the best trained and most effective in the world,” – “taken off guard by a group of Arabic-speaking men”? Why has one journalist, Max Blumenthal, been able to force Israeli officials to admit they doctored photos and audio clips released after raid or show they falsely claimed five passengers were “active terror operatives”? Why have eyewitnesses on the Mavi Marmara said[32] “live ammunition was fired before any Israeli soldier was on deck,” and “The Israeli navy fired on the ships five minutes before commandos descended from ropes that dangled from helicopters”? There are also the 81 questions that Uri Avnery has compiled, such as why is Israel claiming Gaza’s territorial waters are part of Israel’s territorial waters when it has “separated” from it; why were five people on the Mavi Marmara shot in the back; “What is the source of the lie that the Turks called out ‘Go back to Auschwitz’”; and “Who invented the story that the activists had brought with them deadly weapons”?   All these questions miss the point. Israel is still the victim, even if it’s a “self-inflicted wound,” so say the Times from New York to L.A. You see, Israel made the mistake of trying to justify its actions with evidence. It forgot that reality has a well-known terrorist bias. When the facts sympathize with Hamas, terrorists and drugged cockroaches, Israel needs to dispense with the facts. Because we know Israel is the eternal victim that is all we need to know. All that matters is how Israel says it perceives the situation.   Arie Lova, Eliav, one of the “granddaddies of the Israeli Left” and a founder of Labor Party, who died literally hours before the raid on the flotilla, put it best in an interview six years ago, saying, “We acted as they would have done to us.” While he was speaking about Israel’s founding war of aggression, the statement justifies every actual Israeli atrocity since 1947 and any future one. Since Israel is confronting “ruthless, indiscriminate animals” its response is only limited by the imagination. After all, according to the Obama administration, “the president has always said it will be much easier for Israel to make peace if Israel feels secure.” And how does Israel feel? “Israel has long seen itself as the Alamo, a fortress under the siege,” a former U.S. ambassador to Israel explains.     We come to one of the most important principles of the Middle East conflict: While we should treat Israeli perceptions as reality, Palestinians’ reality is just perception. For example, “Palestinians say the restrictions on food imports and construction materials have created a humanitarian crisis.” Whether or not the people of Gaza are suffering is up for debate; it’s just a matter of what the Palestinians say versus what the Israelis say.   So the next time there is news about Israel killing activists, massacring children, bombing a refugee camp or perhaps obliterating an entire country, there is no need to pay attention to the “facts.”The only reality you should consider is that Israel, the eternal victim that says it will never feel secure, is just responding to some terrorist’s outrage. And once the last “ruthless, indiscriminate animal” is exterminated, there will be “peace.”             Originally published by alternet.org. Research assistance provided by Susie Rivo.   Front Page   << PREVIOUS - 13 - NEXT>>  Index Page