Some interesting quotes in this piece by an Israeli guy:
"This is without any justification according to the teachings of Christ. Far as I know, Saddam Hussein has not mobilized military forces along the borders of the United States, nor even along his own border to invade a neighboring country - nor have any of these countries pleaded for our assistance, not does he have weapons of mass destruction targeted at the United States" ~ Jim Winkler, general secretary of the Methodist Board of Church and Society (US)
“Modern war policy is being run on a policy of “round up the usual suspects,” just so long as they’re "their b#st#rds (Arabs) and not our b#st#rds (settlers)”
Weapons of mass distraction, Thomas O’Dwyer, Ha’artez, 24 October 2002
We are all against stereotypes, right? Wrong of course - we are all against negative stereotypes of the group we belong to. Find me an Irish person who objects to “the old country” being lauded for its beauty, hospitality, music, cultural heritage, Nobel laureate writers and poets. On the other hand, try walking into an Irish pub in Boston muttering in an English accent about priest-ridden, manic depressive Irish drunks who only seem to be happy when they’re blowing each other up in Belfast - and see how many milliseconds it takes for a stereotype to leap out of nowhere and punch you in the head.
During their 800 years of occupation the angry, oppressed, under-educated “fighting Irish” had manual labor for work, and drink and religion for distraction, so in some sense they could be accused of collaborating in creating their own negative stereotype.
The preamble is necessary before I ask if anyone at all is worried about the image Israel is collaborating in creating for itself in the world - the arrogant, opinionated, war-mongering, loud-mouth of the democracies. Those of us who live here as citizens are perfectly aware that the loutishness comes from the top - that always unpalatable amalgam of bull-necked uniforms and sleazy suits that characterize the nationalist right, whether it be in Serbia, Turkey or Israel. And now we’ve added skinheads in kippas on hills to the lovely brew.
If I was a member of the Jewish Diaspora community - traditionally liberal, cultured, humanist and soft-spoken - I’d be getting worried about how much this militaristic Israeli boorishness is going to rub off on me. It’s bad enough that we are locked in a war of occupation and oppression with a nation we will one day have to live with as neighbors when we stop shooting them in their streets (yes - and they with us, when they stop blowing us up in ours). It’s a war that has dragged the national image to an all-time nadir on the world’s television screens.
No, that’s not enough - now we have to be on the war-mongering rather than the peace-making side in the new blood lust to kill Iraqis in their streets. Now we have to be cheerleaders for the jungle war drums beating round the Bush.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations last week jumped on the Bush Blast’em Bandwagon. The final resolution specifically pledged support for the use of force - albeit adding lamely, “as a last resort.” The original draft a week earlier supported only unspecified “presidential initiatives,” but mentioned White House efforts to build a UN and international consensus.
Even then Morton Klein, the always irritated president of the Zionist Organization of America, sniffed that the resolution was not one his group would have written: “We at ZOA believe it is unproductive to give Saddam another chance to destroy weapons of mass destruction, but we do support this as a good consensus statement that does support ultimately military action.”
Even better, the Jewish organizations are cozying up to the Iraqi National Congress, the rag-tag crazy and useless exile opposition. Entifadh Qanbar, the INC’s Washington office director, spoke at a gathering of AIPAC on October 7.(Did they notice how eerily close “Entifadh” is to “Intifada?”)
For the INC, the Jewish lobby is a golden carpet leading all the way to open American cash coffers. It is also the kiss of death for its credibility in the Arab (including Iraqi) world in that glorious new dawn allegedly on the horizon - “the post Saddam Hussein era.”
What is even more disconcerting is that while the Israeli-Jewish world is enthusiastically clambering “on board” the blood wagon - why, Bush’s very own church most certainly is not. The United Methodist Church, which numbers the president and Vice-President Dick Cheney among its members has launched a scathing attack on his preparations for war against Iraq.
“This is without any justification according to the teachings of Christ,” said Jim Winkler, general secretary of the Methodist Board of Church and Society. He said all attempts at a “dialogue” between the U.S. president and his own church over the war has fallen on deaf ears at the White House. The church is the third largest in America.
The Methodist Church, says Winkler, is not pacifist, but “rejects war as a usual means of national policy.” Methodist scriptural doctrine he added, specifies “war as a last resort.” Ah - maybe that’s where the Conference of Presidents got the phrase to tag on the butt-end of their resolution.
“War is essentially a defensive thing,” says Winkler. “Far as I know, Saddam Hussein has not mobilized military forces along the borders of the United States, nor even along his own border to invade a neighboring country - nor have any of these countries pleaded for our assistance, not does he have weapons of mass destruction targeted at the United States.”
Modern war policy is being run on a policy of “round up the usual suspects,” just so long as they’re “their *******s (Arabs) and not our *******s (settlers).”
There has to be a dictator who gets a series of final warnings, a belated missile fireworks display over his capital, firm statements that the dictator will not be allowed to prevail, and an ethnic minority that must be turned into refugees in order to save their homeland (which is then destroyed by the saviors).
The formula ends in some inconclusive, volatile mess careering toward a much hyped exit strategy, which someone in fact forgot to install at the planning stage. The dictator survives. His policies prevail. It was not surprising that Saddam Hussein was the only Muslim leader to come out firmly in support of Slobodan Milosevic. It was not surprising that Ariel Sharon was the only Jewish leader to do the same and oppose the war in Kosovo.
Blood and death and famine and destruction are the apocalyptic riders of the horses of war, but let it not be forgotten that truth is the first victim. Words are weapons of mass distraction (to borrow the name of a 1997 movie about two tycoons who set out to destroy one another even if it meant destroying themselves).
Every war brings its crop of howlers - just watch the IDF spokespeople trotting out the lying cliches every time the army royally screws up something else.
The war in Kosovo left a lingering image in my own head - not least because I served in the British military and know that they think fooling journalists is a sport akin to ripping up foxes from horseback.
A British Air Force commander delivering a military briefing to reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels was so woefully full of cliches and generalizations that the briefing was totally worthless and devoid of facts - and then we understood where he got it from. From 1984 - the novel, not the year. “Oceania is gloriously advancing on all fronts and Eurasia is being overwhelmed.” Or is it the other way round? Doesn’t matter - Israel’s for it.