The panic signals are out again about our wayward youth linking up with dubious causes out of ignorance, naivete, and alignment with malevolent foreign forces. Whenever young Americans or really any Americans start to publicly notice that U.S. policy contradicts its alleged commitment to freedom and justice for all, they are roundly smeared in the corporate media, which is owned lock, stock, and barrel by massive centers of private wealth with a long history of sidelining the voice of the people or distorting its message beyond recognition. In fact, the forces of organized panic are now so concerned about popular opposition to Israel's mass slaughter in the Gaza Strip that they have attempted to codify and ban "anti-Semitic" speech, causing some embarrassment to Israel's Christian Zionist base, which joyfully awaits the End Times when they anticipate the vast majority of Jews will be justly consigned to the Fires of Hell for all eternity. With all due respect for the extermination campaign in Gaza, such Christians say, it could lead to a ban on the Bible, that is, the Bronze Age real estate guide used to justify Jewish supremacy in Palestine in the first place. Just where would that leave the Religion of Brotherly Love?
Not that more reasonable strategies readily suggest themselves. After all, just what are committed Zionists to do these days? If they aren't allowed to massacre helpless civilians, harass, torture, and jail opponents, and destroy the careers of courageous American students peacefully protesting their grotesquely self-righteous butchery, how exactly are they to rescue their cause? They can't defeat Hamas, still less Hizbollah, and an all-out war with Iran would destroy Israel completely, along with much else. They can't monopolize the explanation of events when everyone's live stream constantly highlights Israel's hypocrisy and delusion. They can't negotiate in good faith (witness Israel rejecting its own proposals vis-a-vis the hostages when Hamas accepts them), as that implies Palestinians aren't savage terrorists deserving only subjugation, expulsion, and murder. In short, their only card is force, and force alone lacks legitimacy. Their plight is aptly summed up in the image of Aaron Bushnell burning to death outside the gate of the Israeli Embassy in Washington in protest of the Gaza slaughter while a clueless Secret Service officer points a gun at him.
"I don't need a gun," says another man, attempting to extinguish the blaze.
But guns (and bombs) are all Israel has.
No comments:
Post a Comment