Palestinians may as well bang their heads up against the concrete wall
Israel has built, before they get any sympathy from America. The
impoverished, militarily mismatched, people of the occupied territories,
are
continuously outmanouvered on all fronts by the powerful Israeli lobby, US
politicans, and the American media.
Op-ed) Ramzy Baroud Saturday 19th April, 2008
A memorable quote in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) still
carries a wealth of relevance.
He writes, "They own the [holy] land, just the mere land, and that's
all they do own; but it was our folks, our Jews and Christians, that made
it
holy, and so they haven't any business to be there defiling it. It's a
shame
and we ought not to stand it a minute. We ought to march against them and
take it away from them."
Recently an influential pastor, John Hagee of the Dallas's
Cornerstone
mega-church, followed his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate
John McCain with some telling remarks. "What Senator McCain, I feel, needs
to do to bring evangelicals into his camp is to make it very clear that he
is a strong defender of Israel and that he has a strong 24 years of being
pro-life. And I think on those two issues they will get on common ground
and
have a common understanding."
Such are the views of a man who has ever- growing influence among an
ever-swelling culture in the US, the evangelical Christian bloc. No
mention
was made of the well being of Palestinians, even Christian Palestinians,
many of whom are descendants of the early church.
To be sure, the human rights and needs of Palestinians are rarely
addressed by American officials. On the rare occasion that they are, any
expression of sup****t must be closely followed by a strong condemnation of
"Palestinian terrorism."
Welcome to America's parallel reality on Israel and Palestine,
bare-faced in its defying the notions of common sense, equality and
justice;
ever-insistent on peeking at the Arab- Israeli conflict through a looking
glass manufactured jointly in the church, in Congress and in the newsroom,
where the world is reduced to characters interacting in a Hollywood-like
movie set: good guys, well groomed and often white-skinned versus bad guys
bearing opposite qualities.
One may become accustomed to watching, reading and listening to the
chorus of sup****t that America -- its politicians, most of its mainstream
media and a large conglomerate of its churches and clergies -- tirelessly
offers Israel. While the advocacy for Israel by various evangelical
churches
is both bizarre -- since the ultimate objective of this crowd is the
annihilation of most Jews and the conversion of some as prerequisites for
"the Rapture" -- and widely acknowledged, their influence on the political
culture of America is not equally recognised. For example, Pastor Hagee, a
televangelist to 99 million viewers, established Christians United for
Israel (CUFI) in 2005 following the publication of his book, The Jerusalem
Countdown: A Warning to the World.
US writer Robert Weitzel explains, "Hagee envisions CUFI as the
Christian version of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the
powerful pro-Israel lobby whose political clout has significant influence
on
US foreign policy in the Middle East."
Journalist Max Blumenthal took his cameras to the CUFI's
Wa****ngton-Israel summit held July 2007, in Wa****ngton DC. The result was
a
do***entary entitled, Rapture Ready: The Unauthorised Christians United
for
Israel Tour. It opens with former Republican House Majority Leader Tom
Delay, who is asked how im****tant the Second Coming is as a factor in his
sup****t for Israel. "Obviously, it is what I live for. Really, I hope it
comes tomorrow. Obviously, we need to be connected to Israel to enjoy the
Second Coming of Christ."
Weitzel re****ts, "John Hagee is not without fawning friends in
Wa****ngton. Presidential hopeful John McCain made a campaign stop at the
summit and admitted to the audience that, 'it's very hard trying to do the
Lord's work in the city of Satan ... ' House Minority Leader Whip Roy
Blunt
followed McCain to the podium and assured the faithful that 'This is a
mission, this is a vision that I believe is a vision for God's time.'
Senator Joe Lieberman was there and described Pastor Hagee as an 'Ish
Elokim,' a man of God." Even President Bush sent his best wishes, "I
appreciate CUFI members... for your passion and dedication to enhancing
the
relation****p between the United States and Israel. Your efforts set a
****ning example for others ..."
While most US politicians are self-seeking, power-hungry and would
do
whatever it takes to be elected, the average American, though it may seem
otherwise, is not born "pro-Israel" and "anti-Palestinian". Most Americans
are pro the manufactured yet misleading images of Israel that reach their
homes through television, wait at their doorsteps in the morning
newspaper,
and confront them through the Web. Israel has mastery over the language of
the Western media, which, again, helped create a parallel reality that has
little correlation to the real world, that of facts, numbers and actual
events. That alternative universe only exists on newspaper editorial
pages,
in mega-churches and in the blabber of Fox News "experts."
There is no serious or equitable debate regarding Palestine and
Israel
in the US cor****ate media, nor in any other US cultural, political and
religious circles. If the existing narrative is to be called a debate,
then
it's one with an imagined, not real, language, almost entirely irrelevant
to
realities in Palestine and Israel; one that is largely predicated on a
narrow minded, apocalyptic religious discourse that for decades has found
itself an accepted point of departure for most politicians, even those who
falsely pose as liberals.
Between the two discourses, that of misguided religious fantasies
and
pandering politicians, there maybe exists enough room for alternative
narratives. Unfortunately, that space too is overwhelmed by cultural
misconceptions, institutional bias and deliberate confusion introduced and
instilled by media producers, pundits and other manufacturers of American
popular culture.
Until the gatekeepers of US culture are seriously challenged,
Palestine will continue to reside in American imagination as a battle
between good and evil, a "Holy Land" that must be wrested from the hands
of
those who might have owned the land, at some point, but now "haven't any
business to be there defiling it."
-Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of
PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and
journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A
Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).
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