Thursday, August 03, 2006

Politically Incorrectly Wrong!

Bill Maher at the Huffington Post offers an analogy:
As I watch so much of the world ask Israel for restraint in a way no other country would (Can you imagine what Bush would do if a terrorist organization took over Canada and was lobbing missiles into Montana, Maine and Illinois?) - and, by the way, does anyone ever ask Hezbollah for restraint. you know, like, please stop firing your rockets aimed PURPOSEFULLY at civilians? - it strikes me that the world IS Mel Gibson. Most of the time, the anti-semitism is under control, but that demon lives inside and when the moon is full, or there's been enough alcohol consumed,or Israel is forced to kill people in its own defense, then it comes out.

This is just flat out wrong. Israel is a democracy and a nation of laws. Deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime. It doesn't matter if the other guy started it, this is childish logic. Tell me Bill, in your hypothetical, did the United State invade Canada like Israel invaded Lebanon? Did an American General massacre refugees like Ariel Sharon did? Did the US occupy Canada for decades? Hezbollah didn't just appear out of the ether. This conflict, like the rest of the mess in the Middle East, has deep roots and many fathers. Try to pretend like you understand that.

Holding Israel to a higher standard than Hezbollah is self evident. Criticizing them for the immoral and illegal targeting of civilians isn't anti-semitism, its called valuing the lives of innocent Lebanese as much as we value innocent Israelis. For those of us who don't subscribe to the fantasy world of NeoConservatism, it's also called good strategy not engage in a futile conflict that moves you no closer to the political settlement. You know, a political settlement, the only thing that has a hope of ending the bloodshed.

The world is not a drunk religious zealot who belongs to a sect that reveres a form of medieval Catholicism that perpetuated anti-semtism. What is far more prevalent in this country is a religious bigotry deeply embedded in the Dominionist strain of Evangelical Christianity that despises Islam, Secular Humanism, the Enlightenment, Atheists and a cornucopia of other "isms", including ones completely fictional that exist in their own heads. By the way Bill, is it or is it not anti-semitism to support Israel only because you hope it brings about your own Doomsday mythology where your faith's adherents get dropped into eternal damnation. Welcome to James Dobsons and George Bushs Middle East policy. Now does it occur to you why maybe they are drawing out this conflict? Or that the Vice President and pack of deranged whackjobs want to use Israel and spill the blood of her children to play out their foreign policy fantasies?

Mel Gibson is the world, huh? Well, then the world is one ugly drunk.

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