Keep your eye on Israel and Palestine

Far worse than the issues confronting the administration at home, the Middle East will continue, in the next few years, to be the center of conflict and expenditure of resources for the United States. Obama’s meeting with Mubarak Aug. 18 may be a critical first step, but just as the IRA question had to be tackled at home, so, too, does part of the Israeli/Palestine question need to be addressed at home.

Three IRA, sorry, Sinn Fein, members went to Boston in the 1990s to raise funds for “the struggle.� They took those funds, went to Venezuela and then secretly to Cuba, traded the money for drugs, then made their way back to Boston and sold the drugs for loads more money and sent that money home. The problem was they were caught, because the drugs ended up in inner-city schools.

IRA funding in the United States went deep underground and was severely cut, political support in Boston dried up. Nor could the Catholic Church stand by and promote the demise of children, even with their hatred of fellow Christians and “English rule.� Devoid of their power base, surprise, surprise, within three years an IRA peace was brokered.

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In the United States, funds for the support of Israel have long been the backbone of activity of fervent groups. While most are above-board and clear in their humanitarian focus (like the UJA) to keep Israel from being overwhelmed by their xenophobic (and truly dangerous) neighbors and general lack of worldwide support, some U.S. funding and support groups for Israel are deeply rooted in the same sort of religious hatred, bigotry and racism. Let’s be clear, such hatred is not just on the one side.

When you weigh up the adversaries like Iran, Syria, factions in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, you can see the whole place is a tinder keg. Iran’s potential nuclear weapons just make the chance of war worse.

It doesn’t take much to harden hearts, making peace impossible or setting fire to the whole region. Take the most recent pamphlet, being circulated among the Israeli military (the Israeli Defense Force – IDF). This booklet, titled “On Either Side of the Border,� claims that the Pope and cardinals help arrange tours for Hezbollah higher-ups to Auschwitz, part of a training program on how to wipe out Jews. It was published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. U.S. money, U.S. influence, U.S. naïve support of the principle of the State of Israel corrupted to pernicious ends. The IRA situation all over again. Only this time it is words, not money, propaganda, not drugs.

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The purpose of the booklet, as one soldier was quoted in Israeli papers, was simple: “Read this and you’ll understand who the Arabs are.� The booklet goes on to explain how most of Europe’s politicians and journalists work against Israel, including secret funds to undermine Israel, promote the extinction of Jews generally and so forth. The most damaging part of the pamphlet is this: “Every Arab, deep inside, is a fan of the Nazis.�

It took a few weeks after Haaretz, a Tel Aviv paper, released details of the booklet for the IDF to withdraw it and stop distribution. Probably every soldier got to read and absorb the propaganda by that time. And every paper in Israel, while criticizing the booklet and its dissemination, has gone out of its way to investigate the facts of the booklet and, while they cannot prove anything is true, they cannot disprove it either.

Hearsay stands; hearsay is convenient propaganda when feeding mass hatred and mistrust. And the Middle East just gets worse, aided by U.S. dollars, no doubt raised in good spirit based on true beliefs, misused by those with agendas that can only lead to violence.

Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.

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