[Originally Posted on Eteraz.org]<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n First, respected scholars Mearsheimer (whom I noticed today sits with Daniel Pipes on an the advisory council of The National Interest<\/em>) and Walt were tarred as raving conspiracy theorists for acknowledging the impact <\/a>of that 800 pound gorilla\u2013the Israeli Lobby spearheaded by AIPAC\u2013on Washington Mideast policy and debate.<\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n Now, President Jimmy Carter is being called an anti-Semite for talking honestly about how Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians looks to its critics. His cardinal sin?\u00a0 Using the A-word, even though by any objective standard the comparison is fair game.<\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n Contrary to the pro-Israeli spin doctors working furiously in the MSM at the moment to convince Americans that this perspective is found exclusively in the fetid fringe inhabited by hate groups and kooks, it\u2019s hardly an unusual comparison to make, whether in academia or the wider world.\u00a0 It is forbidden only in Washington.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The characterization in inevitably debatable in some respects, but it is hardly an outrageous slur, given the compelling evidence\u2013\"facts on the ground\", if you will\u2013that exists for this perspective.<\/p>\n Outside the safe, self-censored confines of the American mainstream media, comparisons of Israeli policy to that of South Africa aren\u2019t unusual.\u00a0 In fact, the most prominent symbols of the anti-Apartheid movement, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have openly and explicitly noted the parallels<\/a>:<\/p>\n In a 2002 speech in the United States, Tutu said he saw \"the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.\" Back in 1999, former South African statesman Nelson Mandela told the Palestinian Assembly: \"The histories of our two peoples correspond in such painful and poignant ways that I intensely feel myself at home amongst my compatriots.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Notice that Mandela felt such kinship as a former victim of South African Apartheid with the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli policy that he referred to as his \"compatriots\".<\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n Now, etymologically Apartheid <\/em>means separation, and if there\u2019s one hallmark of Israeli social policy, it\u2019s the conscious and legally institutionalized\u00a0 separation of Palestinians from Jews.\u00a0 Secondarily, Apartheid means discrimination, which is rampant against Palestinians in Israel proper and within the Occupied Territories.\u00a0 Finally, there are the miserable, cramped, severedly under provided-for enclaves in the Occupied Territories wherein Arabs are allowed to live, areas commonly referred to as \"Bantustans\", an infamous term from South African history.<\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n Israel is not guided by the same unabashedly racist philosophical worldview positing the inferiority of non-white races\u2013though it certainly has serious problems with racism, even against other Jews (e.g., the Ethiopian Falashim, the Sephardim)\u2013but the central focus of Apartheid is law, not philosophical or biological speculations.\u00a0 From a legal standpoint, the Israeli system is kindred to that of South Africa and qualifies as Apartheid. <\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n Is Israel as bad as South Africa?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 Does it resort to a form of Apartheid?\u00a0 Undeniably.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0Ergo, there are grounds for a comparison and to do so is neither a mark of insanity nor hatred of Jews.<\/p>\n So how can there be such a shrill and polemical reaction against his book in the MSM?\u00a0 Because the major media outlets simply don\u2019t believe in open debate on the Middle East.\u00a0 In his\u00a0 recent LA Times<\/em> op-ed<\/a>, Carter hits the nail on the head:<\/p>\n The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations \u2014 but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n Some of the reactions from the MSM, as highlighted in The Week<\/a>,\u00a0 illustrate Carter\u2019s contentions perfectly.\u00a0 Rich Lowry in National Review Online<\/em> ludicrously (but predictably) compares Carter\u2019s blunt but thoughtful analysis to Mel Gibson\u2019s infamous curses against Jews while in a drunken rage, and whines that Carter \"apes the Palestinian position and calls it evenhandedness\".\u00a0 Even if the latter contention were true, so what?\u00a0 Does not much if not most MSM coverage of the Middle East slavishly \"ape\" the Israeli position and call it \"evenhandedness\"?!?\u00a0 How about a little sense of perspective.<\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n Many of Carter\u2019s critics claim that he distorts history but then themselves engage in a particularly offensive (but common) form of revisionism.\u00a0 It is quite striking how often those seeking to rebut Carter resort to the hoary Myth of the Generous Offer (i.e., that Arafat and the Palestinians turned their backs on peacemaking by walking away from a fair treaty in at Camp David in 2000).\u00a0 \u00a0As this article in the National Catholic Reporter<\/a> and this study<\/a> by Seth Ackerman of FAIR show, the Palestinian rejection of Barak\u2019s much exagerrated \"concessions\" was and remains eminently defensible.\u00a0 Yet time and time again, this canard gets resurrected to prove how perfidious and violent those nasty Arabs are.\u00a0 The subtext is that Arabs force poor Israel to oppress them by being so darned uncivilized.<\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n In a way, that\u2019s the most galling thing of all, this demand that Israel not only be allowed to resort to discriminatory practices, but that any mention of said practices be banned from polite conversation.\u00a0 Israel gets to do all sorts of ethically ambiguous things without suffering the normal political consequences, and<\/em> observers are barred on pain of political death from discussing these things with a modicum of honesty and directness.<\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n People can indiscriminately toss around sensationalistic and prejudicial labels about Muslims like \"Islamofascist\", \"Jihadi\" or \"pro-terrorist\", but it\u2019s beyond the pale of civilization to make an obvious policy comparison between two states that are formally committed to containing the growth and movement of their indigenous populations?\u00a0 The chutzpah of some people.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry this comparison causes some supporters of Israel such pain, but imagine how much pain the reality behind the uncomfortable analogy causes for Palestinians!\u00a0 Their situation needs to be factually discussed regardless of who this discussion makes uncomfortabe.<\/p>\n What really saddens and shocks me is how oblivious so many of Israel\u2019s self-declared defenders appear to be to how such frivolous accusations of anti-Semitism reinforce the mindset of Jew haters by appearing to confirm their conspiratorial theories.\u00a0 When politicians and pundits treating disloyalty to Israel as tantamount to treason and when every attempt to openly explore Arab grievances against Israel is met with a firestorm of shrill denunciations and smears, it\u2019s considerably easier for bigots to sell their noxious yarns about Jewish domination of the world.\u00a0 Crying wolf about anti-Semitism is playing with fire.<\/p>\n Carter really deserves credit, respect and gratitude for his leadership and vision.\u00a0 He\u2019s using his prominence to singlehandedly, and at a great political price to himself, jumpstart a much needed (and regularly suppressed) debate in American society about our involvement in the Middle East.\u00a0 His courage is really breathtaking when you judge him by the pedestrian engagement of other ex-presidents.\u00a0 He\u2019s putting his political neck on the line for the sake of the national interest.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n This quote from his op-ed highlights how courageous and unconventional his actions are in the Beltway, not to mention how biased the whole political establishment is against open debate on this vital topic.<\/p>\n It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. Very few would ever deign to visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or even Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents. What is even more difficult to comprehend is why the editorial pages of the major newspapers and magazines in the United States exercise similar self-restraint, quite contrary to private assessments expressed quite forcefully by their correspondents in the Holy Land.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [Originally Posted on Eteraz.org] \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013 First, respected scholars Mearsheimer (whom I noticed today sits with Daniel Pipes on an the advisory council of The National Interest) and Walt were tarred as raving conspiracy theorists for acknowledging the impact of that 800 pound gorilla\u2013the Israeli Lobby spearheaded by AIPAC\u2013on Washington Mideast policy and debate. \u00a0 Now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-washington-and-the-middle-east"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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