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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Eric Kennedy

Atlanta, USA | July 25

David is the Goliath

Denial, a psychological defense mechanism, is an unconscious mental maneuver that cancels out or obscures painful reality. We hear no evil, see no evil, and hence feel no pain or confusion. We don’t have to confront or change things that don’t exist.[1] This is the mentality that plagues Israel today. Not just the people within the modern state of Israel but expatriate Israelis as well. For most in the Jewish state, Israel can and has done no wrong. The forcible removal of Arabs from their homes by British troops in 1947 and the subsequent occupation that continues today of Palestine was a war of independence, not a conquest. The 1982 Sabra and Chatila massacre were the result of an unpredictable action by a Lebanese militia that Israel had no knowledge of and couldn’t have done anything about, not a planned attempt to wipe out the Palestinian people or genocide. Now, the killing of some 340+ innocent Lebanese civilians and bombardment of Maronite and Sunni regions including ports and wells that have no relation to Hezbollah are actions to protect Israel’s very existence from a menacing terrorist threat that could wipe out Israel at any time, not war crimes.

Israelis have been subjected to the notion for nearly sixty years now that at any time, someone out there wants to and could eliminate Israel and Judaism from the Earth. On one point, they are right. There is always some raving lunatic threatening to liquidate the “Zionist state” and people. A role played beautifully now by the cognitively challenged President of Iran. Despite this, Israelis have been raised to believe the threat is ever present and they are alone in the struggle. Any time the Israeli military engages in another escapade it is most certainly to defend Israel from certain destruction. For Jews who live outside of Israel, they are told without reservation that “if you don't live in Israel you have no right to criticize Israel.” This, coupled with heavy censorship of the media in Israel, only buttresses the collective mentality of Israelis, and even many Jews throughout the world. Israel is the “Promised Land” and the last stand for Judaism throughout the world and, therefore, couldn’t and wouldn’t do any wrong (outside of basic embezzlement, corruption, and poor fiscal policy that is found in any government.)

Denial plays a major role in Israeli foreign and internal policies, especially in regards to the Palestinian situation. The powers that be in Israel often use this as the justification for their massive armament and frequent military adventures. They portray Israel as a David amongst a Goliath; the Arab states. Many times, the Israeli media and even the government will portray racist caricatures of Arabs as beast-like savages going after a helpless child or woman insinuating that the Arab states seek the destruction of a small, weak Israel and Israel is incapable of defending itself. That is far from the reality. Israel is actually a massive power, not just in the Middle East but throughout the world. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor from December 9th, 2002, David R. Francis notes that Israel has received approximately $3 billion a year in US foreign aid for many years now, two-thirds of which is for military support. According to the CIA World Factbook, its GDP (purchasing power parity) is approximately $154.5 billion, larger than Venezuela, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Israel spends nearly 8% of its GDP on military expenditures and has a total of roughly 2.46 million citizens fit for or already in military service.

Compared with the Arab world, Israel far outguns the region especially when factoring in the reported 200 nuclear weapons they possess according to former Israeli nuclear technician John Crossman (a.k.a. Mordechai Vanunu.) Though several Arab states receive a large amount of US military and financial aid as well, none have the support in the US government or corporate world that Israel enjoys due, in large part, to the massive lobbying network AIPAC. In fact, many in the US government criticize these Arab regimes for alleged links to terrorism, undemocratic systems, and human rights abuses. Among these are Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Should there be another Arab-Israeli war, the US would automatically side with the Israelis as they did in 1973 and provide all necessary military hardware and financial assistance to ensure an Israeli victory. Israel’s military and economy, while not among the top ten in the world, are envied by many nations as over 160 countries rank below Israel in these categories.
The Arab states on the other hand are often disorganized and even exchange public insults when it comes to international or interregional issues. This was highlighted in the past few years when an Arab League meeting was pulled from live television due to Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi trading insults with Saudi Arabia’s, King Abdullah. Others have humble economic or military power if any at all. The Arab states tend to pose a greater threat to themselves and each other than they do to Israel. There is quite a bit of propaganda sent to Israeli citizens about the Arabs and conspiracy theories that always put the Israeli people on edge. The Israeli government is aided in this by groups such as Hamas who occasionally do attack inside Israel in the form of a suicide bombing that unfortunately kills several innocent people. Despite this being entirely unIslamic and tragic, the Israeli state presents this as the beginning of a wider war on all Israelis and makes them think it is vulnerable again. While those who die in these despicable attacks are vulnerable, usually club or café goers, the state itself is not. It is quite secure.

There have been many instances over the past thirty plus years of Israeli actions against many Arabs in the region however. Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the deadly attacks against Israeli athletes at the 1974 Munich Olympics, Israel began a policy towards Palestinians that would grow ever more brutal over the years taking more and more from a largely defenseless people. In 1983, Israel launched and invasion of Lebanon allegedly to push back the PLO from the Israeli border. This led to a full occupation of the south of the country and a catastrophic assault on the capital, Beirut. Israeli’s assault on the Lebanese during their civil war will go down in history as one of the more brutal, inhuman military campaigns of the 20th century. Israelis commonly use bombs, missiles, and other munitions that contain depleted uranium in the occupied territories which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law. With the massive US foreign aid, the Israelis have built dozens of checkpoints within the West Bank of Palestine in an effort to cut off communication and to strangle the Palestinian economy. They systematically bulldoze the homes of the families of suicide bombers as an act of revenge and make no effort to address the root causes people in the territories become suicide bombers in the first place.
The current assault on Lebanon is a prime example of Israeli denial. Hezbollah, at best, poses a minimal threat to Israel by having the capability of launching several low tech, low power, short range rockets in Israel’s general direction. They certainly post no threat to the existence of state. Israel on the other hand, responds, allegedly, to the kidnapping of two of its soldiers by launching a full scale war against a defenseless Lebanese nation that had no knowledge of or say in the kidnapping. Israel is so powerful that it had the capability to cut Lebanon off from the world within 24 hours of the assault by imposing a naval blockade, bombing civilian air and sea ports, and taking out roads leading out of the country. Israel takes pride in attacking those it knows cannot defend itself against their superior firepower and know they have veto power in the UN Security Council through the United States to commit any atrocity they see fit. They have used this power for nearly thirty years now assaulting defenseless civilians and waiting for an opportunity of utmost weakness to invoke it’s “right to defend itself” usually from imaginary or miniscule threats. Be it the Lebanese civil war, economic and political collapse in the occupied territories, or currently in Lebanon following the removal of Syrian forces from Lebanon before Lebanon is able to build a professional army to defend itself.

Israel is far from defenseless. It has, and still does, commit atrocities, war crimes, and crimes against humanity with impunity. The Israeli state has no regard for the human toll resulting from its military adventures on defenseless populations and fails to acknowledge any wrong doing or liability for the condition of devastated civilian infrastructures. Any time something is proposed accusing Israel of these gross and frequent violations of international humanitarian law, they cry foul and deny any wrongdoing while flooding the Israeli public with annihilation propaganda and censoring Israeli and foreign press from showing any pictures or videos or other media reports of or from the Israeli actions. I honestly doubt most in the Israelis public is currently aware of the humanitarian catastrophe in Lebanon. It is barely being told here in the United States due to our pro-Israeli media. Denial, a psychological defense mechanism, is an unconscious mental maneuver that cancels out or obscures painful reality. We hear no evil, see no evil, and hence feel no pain or confusion. We don’t have to confront or change things that don’t exist.
posted by SAVE LEBANON, @ 1:46 AM, , (0) comments