Israel as a scapegoat for the U.S. - that _is_ and has been for some time been the practical, and not merely ideological, usefulness of Israel for U.S. policy in two distinct ways.
For Uncle Sam's Arab clients, to steer popular anger away from themselves. This has its dangers, and can only work up to a point, lest Israel appear "too successful".
For the rulers of the U.S. itself, it acts in the same way, deflecting direct criticism of Washington onto Israel and, by ldeological extension, onto the "Jews worldwide". It's a machiavellian "Scapegoat the Jews" game, played (even unconsciously as a kind of ideological 'double blind') by "Israel's staunchest supporters". At the limit, if anything goes wrong with policy, it allows Washington to 'permit' the American population to "blame Israel" rather than have the blame placed where it belongs, on 'their own' government. I think this is already in play now, and I predict a rise in 'naive' or 'passive' mass antisemitism in the U.S.
That is why I will rantingly insist, against appearances, on Israel as a state extension of the U.S., the "U.S. in the Middle East". It means, again against appearances, that the Israeli people have 'no state of their own' independent of the U.S. Which is why we should always insist that, whether it be Guatamala, the West Bank or Lebanon, it is the U.S. Who Is To Blame. As Clinton himself really admitted in his Guatamala apologia. -Brad Mayer
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 16:17:03 +0000 From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com> Subject: Re: UK budget, Israel
>From: James Heartfield <Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk>
>
>The WEEK
>ending 21 April 2002
>
>THE STATE OF ISRAEL
>
>... When Americans poll overwhelmingly for Israelis
and against
>Palestinians, they do so whether they are Republican
or Democrat, white
>or black.
>
>Such a degree of identification ought to mean that
Israel can count on
>US support.
[No "ought" about it, James. The Israelis *can* count on U.S. support, e.g., from today's NY Times:]
Israel Winning Broad Support From U.S. Right
By ALISON MITCHELL
WASHINGTON, April 20 — Gary L. Bauer, the Christian conservative who grew up as a janitor's son in Kentucky, and William Kristol, the scion of New York Jewish intellectuals, long ago forged an unlikely but close friendship as warriors of the right.
They have fought together on issues like promoting family values and the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. But the cause that now rivets them both is Israel, and their joint, consuming devotion to it illustrates the deep pro-Israel sentiment in the conservative movement....
The strongly pro-Israel sentiment marks a profound and telling shift inside the Republican Party, political strategists say....
The pro-Israel constituency in Congress is now so broad that it transcends both party and ideology, with Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the staunchly conservative House majority whip teaming up with Representative Tom Lantos, a Democrat of California, to introduce a resolution of solidarity with Israel.
[Full text: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/21/politics/21RIGH.html]
Carl
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