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Israeli Democracy or Hypocrisy - by Stephen Lendman
An October 2007 Haaretz editorial titled "Democracy or hypocrisy" contrasted the "occupying Land of Israel to the democratic Israel" in calling for a "debate about Israel's control over the lives of Palestinians deprived of civil rights," saying its democracy is flawed and not addressing it is hypocrisy.
Throughout history, regimes rhetorically embraced democracy as cover for more despotic policies, no different today throughout the world in countries like India, Pakistan, America and Israel practicing what Michael Parenti calls "democracy for the few," (the) "shadier sides of US political life (in which) proponents of the existing social order have tried to transform practically every deficiency into a strength."
He asked, "Who gets what, when, how and why?" Why do so few benefit at the expense of the many? Why are peace, social justice, and real democracy illusions in a nation embracing the opposite of what they represent? Why instead do poverty, racism, sexism, exploitation, rapacious capitalism, and imperialism, in fact, define how America and Israel are governed?
Indian writer Arundhati Roy says her country's model is "designed to uphold the consensus of the elite for market growth (and has) metastasized into something dangerous" in her book titled, "Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers." She admits to being "hysterical" about where India is heading, sabotaged by religious nationalism and political expediency, "genocide" in the bloody 2002 Gujarat riots, "ecocide" for greater profits, and corruption at the highest levels. She compares Hindu right wing persecution of Muslims to Hitler's persecution of Jews and asks:
"What kind of India do they want? A limbless, headless, soulless torso left bleeding under the butcher's clever with a flag driven deep into her mutilated heart?"
Is it less true for America or in how Israel treats Muslims, many its own citizens yet denied virtually all rights afforded Jews, and in Palestine none under military occupation.
On December 27 in the Electronic Intifida, Ali Abunimah said "Israel resembles a failed state" in citing one year after Operation Cast Lead, "but for the people there time might as well have stood still," given how viciously they were attacked, the false premise for doing it, the many hundreds murdered in cold blood, many thousands left with horrific wounds, virtually everyone emotionally traumatized, the vast amount of devastation left, and the wasteland that's now Gaza under siege, out of sight, out of mind, and out of the consciousness of world leaders doing nothing to help.
On the same date, Haaretz writer Gideon Levy asked: "Was Israel's Gaza offensive worth it," saying "the (past) year was a year of shame for Israel, greater shame than any other time. It is shameful to be Israeli today" given a conflict that wasn't "a war but (so unjustifiable an) assault (that) Israel's international status was dealt a severe blow, in addition to Israeli indifference and public blindness to what happened in Gaza."
An Israeli "Goliath" mercilessly attacked a "Palestinian David," then "wrap(ed) itself in sick apathy despite what was happen(ed and) refuses to open Gaza's gates to let in supplies....leaving Gaza to its fate, to its ruins."
Is this democracy? Is it better in India, America, or many other nations masking reality behind a friendly face, then running roughshod over millions at home and abroad.
Israel even does it to Jews. About 15,000 Messianic ones complain of threats, harassment and police indifference. They follow the Torah and Talmudic teachings but believe in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. According to author Paul Liberman:
A Messianic Jew is "a person who was born Jewish or converted to Judaism, who is a 'genuine believer in Yeshua (Jesus), and who acknowledges his (or her) Jewishness." They practice bi-spiritually, outside of customary Judaism and Christianity, yet they believe they're authentic Jews, "complete" ones to the ire of secular and Orthodox Israelis, some radicalized to target them the way Israel persecutes Muslims.
In a disturbing March 2008 incident, fire damaged their Jerusalem church, and in December 2008, ultra-Orthodox Jews burned Christian holy books. These and other incidents portray a nation much different from its image, one so eroded that Shalamit Aloni's May 9, 2009 Haaretz article headlined, "Sadly, Israel is no longer democratic," saying:
there's a "Jewish state and no equality of rights....Democracy exists....only in the formal sense: There are parties and elections and a good judicial system. But there is also an omnipotent army that ignores legal decisions that restrict the theft of land and owned by people who have been living under occupation for the past 42 years. And since 1992, (a Jewish state) means an ethnocracy (in which) gentiles are (considered) donkeys."
Neoliberalism's Impact on Israeli Jews
