Levy then takes particular aim at the substantial, if unofficial, U.S. support for Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights. "Occupation is American values? Occupation serves the American interest? Doesn't America see that it pays a hell of a price for this automatic and blind support of Israel and of the occupation project? Is it reasonable that in the 21st century, the United States will finance an apartheid regime in the occupied territories? All those questions should be raised."
Levy is by no means alone at raising the alarm about where Zionism has led Israeli society. For a more detailed treatment of the intolerance and nascent fascism showing its face, the reader can take a look at Israeli Professor David Schulman's "Israel: The Broken Silence," a review of six exposes on Israeli society and behavior. This has just been published in the 7 April 2016 edition of New York Review of Books. Schulman concludes that "The far right in Israel very readily opts for totalitarian modes of thinking and acting, and it's not clear who is left to stop it." It certainly will not be Hillary Clinton.
Part IV -- Conclusion
Who raises objections to the consequences of U.S. complicity in Israel's political disaster? People such as Richard Falk and Gideon Levy do, and thereby keep alive some semblance of rational discourse about the place of democratic values in U.S. foreign policy formulation. However, despite their rhetoric, liberal politicians like Hillary Clinton have clearly abandoned those values when it comes to any reference to Israel and its behavior.
What this means is that the substance of Clinton's speech at the AIPAC convention was mere propaganda -- an effort to rationalize, or perhaps simply to cover up, deeper and more base motives. Therefore, if supporting "shared democratic values" is not what motivates Clinton's kowtowing, what does? The answer is naked political opportunism. Here is the formula: (1) American politics runs on domestically garnered money, and lots of it: running for office, just about any office from dog catcher to president, requires constant financial solicitation; (2) special interests, be they economic concerns, professional organizations, or ideologically motivated groups are a major source of these funds; (3) in exchange for their largesse, such interests require political support for their causes. Here enters, among others, the Zionists, whose deep pockets, ability to shape media messages, and rally voters, both Jewish and Christian, are well known. An alliance with the Zionists is politically profitable while incurring their anger is sometimes politically fatal.
Of course, such an alliance means the abandonment of any objective or even rational consideration of U.S. policy toward Israel and much of the rest of the Middle East. And indeed, the national interest relating to this increasingly dangerous part of the world has long ago been tossed overboard. It has been replaced by the parochial interests of wealthy, well-organized and influential ideologues.
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