It scares me when someone in a fairly mainstream publication says something which makes sense. I’m afraid Greenwald does that now and then.
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?…
Bernstein’s mentality is echoed by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who defends Israel’s actions by approvingly quoting Barack Obama’s statement that “If someone was sending rockets on my house where my daughters were sleeping at night, I would do everything to stop it, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” But that mindset justifies any and all actions by any group with a legitimate grievance, as in: “if my family and I were forced to live under a 4-decade foreign occupation and had our land blockaded and were not allowed to exit and my children couldn’t access basic nutrition or medical treatment, I would do everything to stop it, and I would expect Palestinians to do the same thing.” That happens also to be the same mentality that was used to justify the 9/11 attacks (“if my family and I were forced to live in a region in which a foreign superpower dominated our politics and propped up brutal dictators for its own ends, I would do everything to stop it, and I would expect Muslims to do the same thing”).
But — just like those who insist that American Torture is different because American leaders use it for noble ends — this is nothing more elevated than an adolescent refusal to view the world through any prism other than complete self-centeredness, where one’s own side merits infinite empathy and the “other side” merits none. When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute — like most intractable, bloody, hate-driven, decades-long wars — there is endless blame to go around to countless parties. Commentary which fails to recognize that, or, worse, which insists it’s not true, is almost certainly the by-product of this blind self-regard.
Then he quotes at length George Washington’s warnings about getting too deeply involved in the quarrels of other countries. Favoring anyone too much ties us down, and cannot possibly ever be in our nation’s best interests. For those of us who recognize the theology of Covenants, knowing this falls under the Covenant of Noah, we have every right to point out their sin, for this is nothing less than defiance of what God said. For those of you who embrace Dispensationalism, please show me how this Modern Israel participates in any way in the Mosaic Covenant? First, they openly reject that covenant, so they can’t inherit any of the promises. Second, if you don’t yet realize virtually none of Israel’s citizens are of Hebrew lineage, I wonder just how you are going to explain to Jesus Christ you refused to learn any facts about this mess?
