[Peace-discuss] Standing up to AIPAC means supporting Israeli dissidents

Fri Jun 13 08:32:57 EDT 2014

      They call themselves New Profile
      <http://www.newprofile.org/english/node/231> and their website has
      graphic presentations <http://www.newprofile.org/english> of how
      militarism is increasingly dominating every aspect of Israelis
      life.By +972 Blog <http://972mag.com/author/972blog/>

|Published March 20, 2014

  Standing up to AIPAC means supporting Israeli dissidents

/*The voice of 'pro-Israel' militarism has been ringing through the 
halls of Washington D.C. since the 1970s. Now, to end the occupation, 
American citizens must couple their opposition to AIPAC with support for 
anti-occupation groups in Israel.*/

By Philip Farah

In the 1970s, Israeli TV had a great program, Nikui Rosh, that was 
something like the country's version of Saturday Night Live. Its most 
famous skit was one in which Israeli leaders would start beating the 
drums of war, warning against threats from across the Lebanese or Syrian 
borders, whenever the Israeli economy was in crisis. This is an old 
trick everywhere: when your leadership is being questioned, rally the 
nation to unite against the enemy. Today, Israeli leaders don't need an 
economic crisis in order to rattle their sabers because they have a 
chronic political crisis: what to do with the Palestinians under their 
control <http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41723.htm>, a 
population whose numbers 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/ei-exclusive-palestinian-population-exceeds-jewish-population-says-us-government/5491> may 
have already exceeded those of Jews in Israel. The leaders' answer is, 
again, to point the finger elsewhere: Iran is the Boogie Man, with its 
(Muslim) bomb that threatens not only Israel, but all of the West's 
Judeo-Christian civilization.

Is there a war that Israeli leaders or their Washington friends, 
especially the neocons, do not love? Was there a voice cheering more 
loudly for the U.S. to launch a war on Iraq 
<http://mondoweiss.net/2008/06/hollings-says-iraq-war-was-launched-in-large-part-to-secure-israel.html> in 
2002 than theirs? Was there a greater disappointment than theirs when 
the Syrian chemical weapons crisis did not result in U.S. military 
strikes against Syria?

President Barack Obama at the AIPAC Policy Conference 2011. (photo: 
AIPAC) <http://972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/11/Obama2_pic.jpg>

President Barack Obama at the AIPAC Policy Conference 2011. (photo: AIPAC)

This week, at the annual conference of the American Israel Public 
Affairs Committee, prominent politicians raced to the podium to declare 
their hawkish foreign policy credentials in order to curry favor with 
the powerful lobby group. Some leaders 
<http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/03/john-mccain-thanks-aipac-for-supporting-military-intervention-in-syria/> complained 
that the current crisis in Crimea, for example, is the result of the 
U.S. losing its reputation as a tough international policeman, and that 
the "mullahs" in Iran ought not to be trusted and that Israel and its 
friends in the U.S. ought to keep up the pressure. Prime Minister 
Netanyahu (whose speech in Congress last year received more standing 
ovations than President Obama's), declared at the Conference that the 
stifling economic sanctions weren't working and that a "credible 
military threat is needed." 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.535661> The 
voice of "pro-Israel" militarism has been heard in Washington at least 
as far back as the early 1970s, when it was eloquently articulated by 
Nathan Perlmutter 
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/08/04/890238/-The-Anti-Defamation-League-Has-No-More-Credibility> of 
the Anti-Defamation League. He expressed concern that "nowadays war is 
getting a bad name and peace too favorable a press;" that "peacemakers 
of Vietnam vintage-- transmuters of swords into plowshares," condemn 
U.S. policies in Vietnam and Central America while "sniping at American 
defense budgets."

Israeli militarism pre-dates the establishment of Israel in 1948. 
Vladimir Jabotinsky, the spiritual father of the current ruling party, 
said that force was absolutely necessary for the creation of the Jewish 
State because it was foolhardy to expect the Palestinians, who 
constituted the overwhelming majority at the time, to give up their 
country voluntarily. Ben Gurion, the first leader of the new state, 
continued the tradition by brilliantly parlaying Israel's military 
capabilities as an asset for "Western interests" in the region and 
beyond. Israel's military establishment and its military industries have 
played a prominent role in many countries, including El Salvador 
<http://www.wrmea.org/wrmea-archives/96-washington-report-archives-1982-1987/january-1987/715-israeli-arms-sales-to-central-america-an-overview.html>, 
Guatemala, 
<http://mondoweiss.net/2013/05/guatemalan-genocide-christian.html> Iran 
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/a-generation-ago-israelis-found-paradise-in-iran/>, 
South Africa 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.562796>, Zaire 
<http://www.wrmea.org/wrmea-archives/186-washington-report-archives-1994-1999/april-may-1997/2540-israel-comes-to-the-rescue-of-africas-most-corrupt-ruler-.html>, 
and Sri Lanka 
<http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/01/31/how-israel-helped-sri-lanka-defeat-the-tamil-tigers/>. 
In this role, Israel often played the role that the U.S. was too 
embarrassed to play because of abysmal human rights records in these 
countries.

Female Israeli anti-occupation activists protest the siege on Gaza at 
the Erez Crossing on International Women's Day. (photo: Activestills) 
<http://972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2014/03/0Q7A8796_wm.jpg>

Female Israeli anti-occupation activists protest the siege on Gaza at 
the Erez Crossing on International Women's Day. (photo: Activestills)

I may be a wild-eyed optimist, but I do see a glimmer of hope in Israel. 
Just read Israel's leading English language online publication, 
/Haaretz/, to see that there are more and more Israelis 
<http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.572166> -- albeit still a 
minority --- telling their leaders that their hubris is driving the 
country towards the edge of a cliff. However, the Israeli peace group 
closest to my heart consists of a number of feisty mothers and 
grandmothers who are fighting militarism in their country, including 
helping some of their children and grandchildren who refuse conscription 
in the army. They call themselves New Profile 
<http://www.newprofile.org/english/node/231> and their website has 
graphic presentations <http://www.newprofile.org/english> of how 
militarism is increasingly dominating every aspect of Israelis life. The 
more we in the U.S. encourage groups like these, the greater the chance 
of a just peace in Israel/Palestine.

/Philip Farah, born and raised in Jerusalem, is co-founder of the 
Washington Alliance for Middle East Peace in Washington, D.C. /This 
piece first appeared on The Huffington Post 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-farah/american-israel-public-af_b_4908183.html>. 
//

*Related:*
Does Kerry need to convince AIPAC to support peace? 
<http://972mag.com/does-kerry-need-to-convince-aipac-to-support-peace/80458/>
Speaking truth to AIPAC's power 
<http://972mag.com/speaking-truth-to-aipacs-power/77124/>

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