The romance of America and Israel

August 6th, 2006 at 15:53 Björn Hallberg

Economist offers some half-baked, timid but still, insights. Well, I wouldn’t use the word plucky, but yes, the Economist has managed to distill something important.

Why is America so much more pro-Israeli than Europe? The most obvious answer lies in the power of two very visible political forces: the Israeli lobby (AIPAC) and the religious right.

But the biggest reason why Americans are so pro-Israel may be cultural. Americans see Israel as a plucky democracy in a sea of autocracies — a democracy that has every right to use force to defend itself. Europeans, on the other hand, see Israel as a reminder of the atavistic forces — from nationalism to militarism — that it has spent the post-war years trying to grow beyond.

It’s good for America that it believes its own lies at least. It’s a variation of the old “we’re all refugees from prejudice in Europe” story again. I have touched upon it earlier when considering Pilgrims and Zionists for instance. My own well-documented feelings of disgust at militarism and nationalism in particular does convince me there is some weight to the argument.

It should also be noted that the Economist fails to factor in the profits of the U.S. military-industrial complex and the proxy role that Israel serves in America’s grand plan of the region. But anyway.

As right as the Economist is in the things it DOES mention, it also glosses over the more controversial implications and a considerable chunk of history. How Israel stole and terrorized its way to existence for instance. That seems fairly ‘autocratic’ to me. As for the inherent value of democracy, consider again, America’s own track record, especially when it supposedly also was a young ‘plucky democracy’. Democracy may have been an early institution, but it did nothing to stop genocide at home or abroad, in fact some of the most blatant crimes history has seen, especially if we consider that they still to this day go unpunished and in fact are lauded by this so called democracy. The worth as such of democracy is exactly nil and is not generally better than a benevolent despot in terms of human rights. But of course, you wouldn’t know that if you were trapped in America’s ideological hegemony, ascribing ‘democracy’ almost mystical properties.

It does seem at a quick glance that it is rather Europe which is truly embattled today by the forces of unreason. Some wanting to drag us down with them in an unending spiral of carnage, if nothing else to quench their cognitive dissonance.

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