Wake up, America! Israel is no friend of yours
August 25, 2006
The so-called "special relationship" between the the US and Israeli governments is well known. It goes without saying that the vast majority of Americans wholeheartedly support their nation's love-fest with Israel. Most Americans feel an affinity with Israelis to the detriment of Arabs. How mistaken they are! The fact is that while Americans benefit hugely from the Arab world, little do they know they are on the losing end when it comes to Israel.
The US-Israel bond has become so incestuous that few Americans even question its value. Even fewer ask themselves what the US gets out of its financial, military and moral support of a foreign entity that their government believes can do no wrong. At the same time, they remain suspicious of the Muslim world.
The misguided post-September 11 policies promoted by the Bush administration have reinforced the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim stance of most Americans. A recent Gallop poll suggests four out of 10 Americans feel "prejudice" toward Muslims.
These attitudes are nothing short of a slap in the face to Arab nations that have invested trillions of dollars in the US economy and consider themselves Washington's strategic partners.
Continue to read:
http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/Deskto...060&ChannelId=4
Full Version: Wake up, America! Israel is no friend of yours
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Foreign Policy and National Defense > Foreign Policy & National Defense Issues Archive
QUOTE(Solve et Coagula @ Aug 27 2006, 11:29 AM)
Wake up, America! Israel is no friend of yours
August 25, 2006
The so-called "special relationship" between the the US and Israeli governments is well known. It goes without saying that the vast majority of Americans wholeheartedly support their nation's love-fest with Israel. Most Americans feel an affinity with Israelis to the detriment of Arabs. How mistaken they are! The fact is that while Americans benefit hugely from the Arab world, little do they know they are on the losing end when it comes to Israel.
The US-Israel bond has become so incestuous that few Americans even question its value. Even fewer ask themselves what the US gets out of its financial, military and moral support of a foreign entity that their government believes can do no wrong. At the same time, they remain suspicious of the Muslim world.
The misguided post-September 11 policies promoted by the Bush administration have reinforced the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim stance of most Americans. A recent Gallop poll suggests four out of 10 Americans feel "prejudice" toward Muslims.
These attitudes are nothing short of a slap in the face to Arab nations that have invested trillions of dollars in the US economy and consider themselves Washington's strategic partners.
Continue to read:
http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/Deskto...060&ChannelId=4
August 25, 2006
The so-called "special relationship" between the the US and Israeli governments is well known. It goes without saying that the vast majority of Americans wholeheartedly support their nation's love-fest with Israel. Most Americans feel an affinity with Israelis to the detriment of Arabs. How mistaken they are! The fact is that while Americans benefit hugely from the Arab world, little do they know they are on the losing end when it comes to Israel.
The US-Israel bond has become so incestuous that few Americans even question its value. Even fewer ask themselves what the US gets out of its financial, military and moral support of a foreign entity that their government believes can do no wrong. At the same time, they remain suspicious of the Muslim world.
The misguided post-September 11 policies promoted by the Bush administration have reinforced the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim stance of most Americans. A recent Gallop poll suggests four out of 10 Americans feel "prejudice" toward Muslims.
These attitudes are nothing short of a slap in the face to Arab nations that have invested trillions of dollars in the US economy and consider themselves Washington's strategic partners.
Continue to read:
http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/Deskto...060&ChannelId=4
I know I have something to say here, but not quiet sure how to put it.
Over the course of the last year, more so than any other time I can remember, outside influence has tried to twist my thinking. By outside I mean, friends from around the world, articles of fact written by Nations that consider us infidels.
We are all being bunched together with Bush. I'm starting to half arse feel like I need to speak up and defend the US to outsiders. We're under a horrid administration right now, but it will be gone or lose much of it's power soon. The US is still by far the best place I know of to live - irregardless of how many from outside the US would try and have me think otherwise.
I feel like people outside our borders think they know what's better for us than we do - and start asserting pressure to try and sway the US Citizen left or right. Well it doesn't work like that for me.. though some had me going for a bit.
I'm not blind, I can see what's so very wrong here and we're working to correct it on 06 and 08.
I pick up our own American Newspapers, magazines and articles and I know it's got about 5 grains of truth in the whole thing, I pick up one written in the mid-east about America I give it about 1 grain.
Is anyone starting to feel possessive over the U.S or is this just a me thing? I'm sick of it being slammed for 6 years under Bush - while many of those same countries have prospered off of us for years, and vice versa... and Izrael is not the only country in the mid-east that has propsered from it's tied to the U.S.
I'm so sick of all the propaganda from all quarters I can't express it.
You're not alone Terra!
You're not alone Terra!
The orignal article is from the Daily Star, which is pretty reliable, but with an obvious Pro-Arab bias. Still much of what the piece points out is valid and it can not hurt to know what Arabs think of us now and before 911...
http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/Deskto...060&ChannelId=4
The Pentagon doc is here....
Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication
US department of Defense
September 2004
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
For Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
Washington, D.C. 20301-3140
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09...mmunication.pdf
From which....
The media ignored it.
Just like they ignored....
The Israel Lobby
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html
http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/Deskto...060&ChannelId=4
QUOTE
This is because Washington and the powerful pro-Israel lobby rely on media propaganda to indoctrinate the American people into believing that Israeli and US policies coincide.
The US government needs Americans to believe Israelis are the good guys, so they will happily open their purses to keep Israel armed to the teeth even if this means the US becomes a target for extremists prepared to use heinous methods to vent their genuine grievances.
Why do they hate us?"
When it comes to Arabs and Muslims, a small percentage of which are seen on television burning US flags, Americans are fond of asking: "Why do they hate us?"
Until five years ago, the US was held up throughout the Arab world as a beacon of human rights and civil liberties; American technology and culture was admired, while Arab youth dreamt of studying and working in the US. This changed after September 11 when the Bush administration used this pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and began detaining Muslims without charge or trial.
To serve his own agenda, Bush wants us to believe extremist elements "hate democracy and freedom."
However, a 2004 Pentagon report placed on its Web site tackles this subject with rather more honesty. It reads:
"Muslims do not hate our freedom but rather they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy."
The US government needs Americans to believe Israelis are the good guys, so they will happily open their purses to keep Israel armed to the teeth even if this means the US becomes a target for extremists prepared to use heinous methods to vent their genuine grievances.
Why do they hate us?"
When it comes to Arabs and Muslims, a small percentage of which are seen on television burning US flags, Americans are fond of asking: "Why do they hate us?"
Until five years ago, the US was held up throughout the Arab world as a beacon of human rights and civil liberties; American technology and culture was admired, while Arab youth dreamt of studying and working in the US. This changed after September 11 when the Bush administration used this pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and began detaining Muslims without charge or trial.
To serve his own agenda, Bush wants us to believe extremist elements "hate democracy and freedom."
However, a 2004 Pentagon report placed on its Web site tackles this subject with rather more honesty. It reads:
"Muslims do not hate our freedom but rather they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy."
The Pentagon doc is here....
Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication
US department of Defense
September 2004
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
For Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
Washington, D.C. 20301-3140
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09...mmunication.pdf
From which....
QUOTE
- Thus when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy. Moreover, saying that “freedom is the future of the Middle East” is seen as patronizing, suggesting that Arabs are like the enslaved peoples of the old Communist World — but Muslims do not feel this way: they feel oppressed, but not enslaved.
- Furthermore, in the eyes of Muslims, American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering. U.S. actions appear in contrast to be motivated by ulterior motives, and deliberately controlled in order to best serve American national interests at the expense of truly Muslim self determination.
- Therefore, the dramatic narrative since 9/11 has essentially borne out the entire radical Islamist bill of particulars. American actions and the flow of events have elevated the authority of the Jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims. Fighting groups portray themselves as the true defenders of an Ummah (the entire Muslim community) invaded and under attack — to broad public support.
- What was a marginal network is now an Ummah-wide movement of fighting groups. Not only has there been a proliferation of “terrorist” groups: the unifying context of a shared cause creates a sense of affiliation across the many cultural and sectarian boundaries that divide Islam.
- Finally, Muslims see Americans as strangely narcissistic — namely, that the war is allabout us. As the Muslims see it, everything about the war is — for Americans — really no more than an extension of American domestic politics and its great game.This perception is of course necessarily heightened by election-year atmospherics, but nonetheless sustains their impression that when Americans talk to Muslims they are really just talking to themselves.
The media ignored it.
Just like they ignored....
The Israel Lobby
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html
QUOTE(Terra @ Aug 27 2006, 05:07 PM)
We're under a horrid administration right now, but it will be gone or lose much of it's power soon. The US is still by far the best place I know of to live.
I agree.
QUOTE(amy @ Aug 27 2006, 08:16 PM)
I agree.
Of course if we keep arming other nations to the teeth so they can make us more enemies, that might not hold up.
QUOTE(Terra @ Aug 27 2006, 02:07 PM)
I know I have something to say here, but not quiet sure how to put it.
Over the course of the last year, more so than any other time I can remember, outside influence has tried to twist my thinking. By outside I mean, friends from around the world, articles of fact written by Nations that consider us infidels.
We are all being bunched together with Bush. I'm starting to half arse feel like I need to speak up and defend the US to outsiders. We're under a horrid administration right now, but it will be gone or lose much of it's power soon. The US is still by far the best place I know of to live - irregardless of how many from outside the US would try and have me think otherwise.
I feel like people outside our borders think they know what's better for us than we do - and start asserting pressure to try and sway the US Citizen left or right. Well it doesn't work like that for me.. though some had me going for a bit.
I'm not blind, I can see what's so very wrong here and we're working to correct it on 06 and 08.
I pick up our own American Newspapers, magazines and articles and I know it's got about 5 grains of truth in the whole thing, I pick up one written in the mid-east about America I give it about 1 grain.
Is anyone starting to feel possessive over the U.S or is this just a me thing? I'm sick of it being slammed for 6 years under Bush - while many of those same countries have prospered off of us for years, and vice versa... and Izrael is not the only country in the mid-east that has propsered from it's tied to the U.S.
Over the course of the last year, more so than any other time I can remember, outside influence has tried to twist my thinking. By outside I mean, friends from around the world, articles of fact written by Nations that consider us infidels.
We are all being bunched together with Bush. I'm starting to half arse feel like I need to speak up and defend the US to outsiders. We're under a horrid administration right now, but it will be gone or lose much of it's power soon. The US is still by far the best place I know of to live - irregardless of how many from outside the US would try and have me think otherwise.
I feel like people outside our borders think they know what's better for us than we do - and start asserting pressure to try and sway the US Citizen left or right. Well it doesn't work like that for me.. though some had me going for a bit.
I'm not blind, I can see what's so very wrong here and we're working to correct it on 06 and 08.
I pick up our own American Newspapers, magazines and articles and I know it's got about 5 grains of truth in the whole thing, I pick up one written in the mid-east about America I give it about 1 grain.
Is anyone starting to feel possessive over the U.S or is this just a me thing? I'm sick of it being slammed for 6 years under Bush - while many of those same countries have prospered off of us for years, and vice versa... and Izrael is not the only country in the mid-east that has propsered from it's tied to the U.S.
Oh my Terra - Thank you so much for your post. Thank you for putting into words, what I just can't seem to say. Bless ya!
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