Honored by Hatred: Elite Propaganda and U.S. Policy in the Middle East

The pen of the propagandist thus makes it a moral obligation for the U.S. to continue to support Israel's ongoing wiping of any viable future Palestinian state from the map because its enemies harbor similar intentions towards Israel. Why the U.S. shouldn't support Palestinian aspirations for a state against Israel's ongoing policy of wiping any potential Palestine from the map because its existence would be right and consistent with our moral obligations is left unexplained.

By the time he's done, Cohen manages to explain away hatred towards the U.S. as being the result of the U.S. "adhering to certain principles" (this is certainly true, but Cohen clearly means moral principles), rather than the result of the U.S. having strayed from moral principles. Our support of Israel, our bombing of Iraq, our deliberate policy of starving Iraqi children, our overthrow of democratic leaders, our support for oppressive regimes—all of these historic U.S. policies and deeds are the result of policy-makers "adhering to certain principles", and thus good and true and right.

The U.S. not only has done nothing to deserve the hatred of others, but they only hate us because we are so good, and so we should therefore take pride in the fact that we are so unloved by so many people in so much of the world.

It is hardly uncommon for such utterly nonsensical arguments in favor of existing U.S. policies to be propagated among the educated elite, among politicians and the intelligentsia. That this state of affairs even exists offers extraordinary insight into the political culture of the U.S. and is a sad commentary upon the health of true moral principles amongst educated Americans.

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