Many Americans are baffled by the Republican Party’s cult-like devotion to Trump, but don’t realise that US political support for Israel has the same irrational, partisan and self-serving zeal Opinion | Ziyad Motala
The United States went through a serious test of its democracy under Donald Trump. It is no secret that the Republican Party has a cult-like devotion to Trump. Those in the party that display rationality with regards to facts or the law, or worse, do not sign on to Trump’s repeated lies, face political sanctions. Many Americans are numbed and baffled by this irrational obsequiousness.
Popular US media report on Israel through this power-politics paradigm. In the latest assault on Gaza, with few exceptions, the popular media scantly interrogated the disproportionate use of force by Israel against humanitarian norms of international law. Also missing was the fact that any military battle between Israel and the Palestinians, including Hamas, is akin to a fight between an elephant and a puppy.
Naftali Bennett, who was just sworn in as Prime Minister once stated, “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that.” Prominent Israeli politicians have stated they will maintain control over the land designated for a Palestinian state in perpetuity – testimony to the fact that peace and the two-state solution is and was always a delusion.
Successive US administrations are hostile to any independent fact-finding of Israeli actions through the UN or the International Criminal Court. For the first time, there is a chorus, including parts of American civil society, that whilst recognising the horrors of the Holocaust, question the mythology of Israeli innocence. This chorus is vocal in demanding adherence to international law and a soul searching about US support for what Israel has come to represent. Increasingly, Israel is characterised as an apartheid state, a declaration that was inconceivable a few years ago.
The Human Rights Watch report has called for a new approach to Israel based on the recognition of human rights and invites interrogation of the most fundamental question about the genesis of Israel and Israel characterising itself as a “Jewish” and “democratic” state.
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