Someone, in one of the tussles I get into online, which are
both draining and refreshing, dulling and clarifying, called Israel a
"gangster state".
I can't resist contemplating the following rejoinder: to the
east of Israel there's a monarchy, more traditional than gangsta per se but not
even close to democratic; it's a relatively nice place we call Jordan. To the north,
there is Lebanon, dominated by Hezbollah, a well-armed Shiite, Iranian backed military
force, which, lately, has been too pre-occupied trying to rescue the murderous Syrian
regime of Bashar al-Assad to devote itself to its main purpose, namely the utter
annihilation of the state of Israel, but has been husbanding all sorts of weaponry
for that eventuality.
Moving east, we find Egypt, the most populous state in the
Arab world. After exemplifying to the utmost the unfortunately stunted aspirations
of the Arab spring, Egypt has lapsed back into military dictatorship and is ruled
by a take no prisoners junta that extinguishes any kind of opposition.
Shall we go north, to Iraq, a state which was irresponsibly splintered
by the United States — broke, that is, but not owned — and is now yet another joint
in the Shiite arm that stretches from Teheran through Bagdad onto Damascus and Beirut?
Or shall we pause for a moment to underline the rabid Sunni response — ISIS —
to this development?
I haven't even mentioned Iran, per se, the theocratic Shiite
force to the north or Saudi Arabia, its Sunni counterpart to the south.
Given all this, Israel stands out as a "gangster
state"?
And yet Israeli seizure of West Bank land is nothing but gangsterism,
fortified by religious nationalism, and I completely and utterly oppose it.
Write a story about famous Jewish gangsters.
ReplyDeleteEast is east and west is west, but otherwise, seemed pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteMore generally, though, why even respond to name - calling? You can't, without descending in to your opponent's crap.
Just for me, the grain of truth in the epithet as applied to Israel is that this democracy keeps re-electing the makers of the same criminal policy, basically all our adult lives now. the electorate has taken on some very gang - like behaviors. Not to mention the very widespread anti - Arab racism over there that we keep reading about.
Best, Steve
Steve, hi. As I say, sometimes the tussle does serve to clarify my own thinking. But I do wish someone had responded to this post by saying we focus on Israel, and can't but, because we fund and arm it as we do none of the other states discussed.
ReplyDelete