While officialdom inside the Beltway seems frozen in fear of risking “anti-Semitism†charges by actually standing up for the human rights of Palestinian people, some progress at the grassroots has been noticeable. It includes the growth of groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Tikkun, and The Shalom Center, where activists have worked to refute the false claims that American Jews are united behind Israeli policies.
At the epicenters of the conflict -- where the belief that “only force can assure justice†seems to be even stronger than when I. F. Stone wrote about it 41 years ago -- the conclusion has been drawn and redrawn so many times that deadly repetition has become paralytic. While some Palestinian “militants†have terrorized and murdered, the Israeli government has terrorized and murdered on a much bigger scale, using a vast arsenal largely financed by U.S. taxpayers.
From afar, in the United States, it’s too easy to shake our heads at the lethal loss of moral vision. Don’t they know that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind� But the cycle of violence is extremely asymmetrical -- while the U.S. government provides Israel with billions of dollars and invaluable “diplomatic†support.
What’s going on in Gaza right now is not just an eye for an eye. It’s a hundred eyes for an eye. And the current slaughter is not only an ongoing Israeli war crime. It has an accomplice named Uncle Sam.
Norman Solomon is the author of “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.†To watch video of his recent appearance on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,†click here.
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