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December 30, 2008
Israelis, Gazans, and the American political elite
Glen Greewald points to a poll taken a few months ago showing that 71% of Americans don't believe that our government should take sides between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Which puts us the the overwhelming international majority. 18 different countries were polled and 14 of them showed a majority not wanting their government to take sides.
Polls taken during Israel's disasterous invasion of Lebanon in 2006 showed the same thing - a majority of Americans opposed taking sides in the conflict. Instead, what Americans want is for our government to A.) remain neutral and B.) be even-handed in our treatment of the warring sides.
Yet our political leaders are virtually uniform in stating unqualified (or very nearly so) support for what Israel is doing and what Israel has done. Ditto for the 2006 war in Lebanon.
Greenwald notes the complexity of the situation in Gaza and the resulting variety of positions deemed "reasonable" by Americans voicing opinions on the conflict. He notes that even some who generally side with Israel are nevertheless opposed to this bombing of Gaza for strictly pragmatic reasons - it not only won't help but will make things worse - "that it won't achieve anything positive, that it will exacerbate the problem, that it makes less likely a diplomatic resolution, that there is no military solution to the rocket attacks".
But among our political elite there is lockstep rhetorical agreement in support for Israel. To the point that, as Greenwald notes, if a selection of quotes were lined up and the source names removed... it would be impossible to decipher which came from NeoCon warmongers and which came from Congressional Democrats.
Greenwald is incredulous:
In a democracy, one could expect that politicians would be afraid to express a view that 70% of the citizens oppose. Yet here we have the exact opposite situation: no mainstream politician would dare express the view that 70% of Americans support; instead, the universal piety is the one that only a small minority accept. Isn't that fairly compelling evidence of the complete disconnect between our political elites and the people they purportedly represent? (his emphasis, not mine)
Meanwhile, for those who claim that it is only Muslims and Arabs voicing support for genocide, I stumbled across an AP piece quoting an Israeli, "We should keep pounding them until they beg for mercy," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, all of Gaza can be erased." This man has lived under onerous conditions - frequent Hamas missiles raining down on his community. His being upset with Hamas is entirely understandable! But would erasing 1.6 million Gazans fix anything? Heck, that's not "an eye for an eye". It's "your life, the lives of your family and of your neighbors... for an eye". Which is what far too many (one is far too many) Palestinians have said regarding wiping out Israel.
Back to Greenwald, he cites a 2006 poll which showed that a strong plurality (46%) of Americans blamed both sides while Bush rushed bombs to Israel so that they could be dropped on villages and Lebanese government military bases (which hadn't lifted a finger to attack Israel or Israelis) in Lebanon.
Turns out Americans have a much stronger sense of fairness than our political leaders. Actually, I doubt that all of those political leaders truly hold such uncritical views of what Israel is doing and has done. It's just that it's political suicide for them to speak honestly about it... because that's how powerful the Jewish lobby is here in the "land of the free and home of the brave (sic)." Which, for those inclined to keep score on these sorts of things, should NOT be construed as letting our political elites off the hook for their own statements and positions. Real politick excuses nothing. It simply gives context.
Posted by Kevin at December 30, 2008 07:15 PM
