Mohamed Khodr’s Column
The Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II is among the most horrific against humanity in the twentieth century. Other holocausts have been the Soviet Holocaust against Russian Christians and Muslims (100 million), the Turkish Holocaust against Armenians (1-2 million), the Khmer Rouge holocaust against Cambodian civilians (3 million), and the Belgian holocaust in the Congo (10 million). The ethnic cleansing in Palestine, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Rwanda inexplicably did not meet the arbitrary definition of a “holocaust”.
However only the Nazi holocaust had consequences beyond its immediate geography and time. The holocaust of European Jews extrapolated into a cold and hot world conflict that created a flashpoint between the three Abrahamic religions, the forceful dispossession of an entire population from its land, the Palestinians; several wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors, an increase in Cold War tension that came close to a nuclear war; erected a political and cultural barrier between the United States and the Muslim world; the expenditure of hundreds of billions of American tax dollars in support of Israel that led to a MidEast arms race making the region the largest importer of weapons worldwide; the installation of Arab autocratic governments that used the Palestinian conflict to enhance their corruption and oppression of their own people; the tragic irrelevance of the United Nations and other International organizations in impacting the region’s peaceful resolutions; the illusory navigation of America’s dependence on Arab oil while supporting Israel leading to American policies fraught with double standards, the total loss of America’s credibility and leadership as a nation that espouses self determination, human rights, justice, and peace as evidenced by the annual support of the world for Palestinian rights in the U.N. only to be opposed by Israel and its client state the United States, and the strengthening of Islamic Fundamentalists dedicated to ending Israel’s and America’s hegemony on Arab land and politics that led to the terrorism of 9/11. Most importantly for Americans and Europeans the Nazi Holocaust became the only intellectual and emotional narrative and barrier enshrined in images and guilty consciences blindly supporting Israel to the exclusion of history, truth, or opposing arguments. The Holocaust and Anti-Semitism ensured compliance, conformity, and silence to Israel’s aggressions while leading to America’s billions, weapons, and vetoes supporting Zionism, an ideology of Jewish grandeur to the total exclusion of others. The persecuted of Europe themselves became the persecutors of others with total disregard to their historical suffering, their religious values, and their own humanity.
Zionism, a political ideology, founded by Theodore Herzl, an Austrian Journalist, was a politico-military-financial strategy to expropriate Palestine from its natives and establish a safe haven for Jews. Herzl sold the European powers, primarily England, that Zionism solves Europe’s “Jewish Problem”–that Europe will get rid of the Jews; it will have a colonial outpost in the vital Middle East region; and that Europe will enjoy the fruits of Jewish money and power. Given that Europe was a racist colonial continent at the time it supported the argument for a Zionist (Jew only) colonial state–Israel. Thus the confluence of Europe’s and Zionist ambitions were solidified, later to be joined by the United States in response to Jewish domestic politics. As Harry Truman, fearing for his electoral defeat and in need of New York state, said when he opposed General Marshall and his entire administration in recognizing Israel eleven minutes after its declaration of independence said: “I am sorry gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism, I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents.
On a daily basis in our media one constantly finds editorials, columnists, letters to editors extolling Israel’s virtues, its democracy, its western civilization, its generosity toward peace, and its constant fear and fragility from annihilation by its violent, uncivilized, undemocratic neighbors. Repeatedly we hear, Israel is our only ally in the region, the only one we can depend on; it shares our history and religious foundation. Beyond these clever sound bytes there has never been any serious discussion or dialogue on just what such statements mean or what are their merits, neither in the media nor in Congress. It would benefit the American people given our “war on terrorism” that is focusing on Muslim nations to comprehend our relationship with Israel and how its jeopardizing our relationship with 56 Muslim nations, with one fifth of the world’s population.
Our relationship with Israel has lacked truth and dialogue from its very inception in 1948. In reality our political, economic, and financial support of Israel is primarily based on the power and money of the Jewish American lobby and on our media’s overwhelming sympathy to “accentuate Israel’s positives, and eliminate the negative”. Americans dare not speak out against Israel and thus our silence permits the human tragedy and suffering of both Israeli’s and Palestinians, especially of the occupied, oppressed millions of Palestinian refugees. Israel has launched with its American supporters the most sophisticated public relations campaign inculcating in America’s mind (and wallet) a mantra of sound bytes that permeates our thoughts and feelings. America is drowning in a corrupt sea of Zionist myths and propaganda. Not until recent history have the “Palestinians” even been acknowledged as a people, as human beings, as even potential second victims of the western holocaust against innocent Jews. There have been four victims of the Holocaust: The Jews, the Palestinians, American foreign policy, and Truth. Israeli influence and spin in our media and government has allowed this conflict to be defined as a one way Jewish “soliloquy”.
In their book “The Wizard of Oz” Normon Solomon and Jeff Cohen state: “In the world according to U.S. media, the high moral ground in the Middle East belongs to Israel’s government…..In news coverage, Israeli casualties are apt to have names, faces and bereaved relatives, while Arab victims are likely to be fleeting images: nameless, faceless, distant….Israel’s most crucial allies include the mass media of the United States. Together with top officials in Washington, news outlets keep reinforcing the assumption that the Israeli government can do little wrong.” The corollary to such a statement is that Palestinians can do no right.
September 11 should be a date where Americans launch their own “Intifadah” against politically motivated and packaged opinions and reclaim our independent thinking and reasoning for what is good for America and world peace. Only when Americans are independent of foreign “Passionate Attachments” to nations can we truly honor the dead of 9/11 and ensure that not us nor any other nation will bury its innocents due to pandering policies to special interest groups. Truth will set us free and give us peace.
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