Why Is Israel Always Beyond Criticism?

The Providence Journal’s commentary (“Palestinian repression”) refers to Israel as “a democracy that usually respects human rights.” I wonder how the people on the Gaza peace flotilla killed and wounded by Israeli commandos feel about that contention. I wonder how the family of Rachel Corrie feels about the human rights record of Israel. Rachel was an idealistic and heroic young women killed while using her body as a shield against an Israeli bulldozer that was attempting to raze the home of a Palestinian resident. I also wonder how the people of the West Bank feel about Israel’s commitment to democratic ideals after nearly 50 years of occupation and repression during which “settlers” have continued to expand Israel’s territory into the West Bank by stealing Palestinian land. The Israeli government has effectively Balkanized the West Bank while continuing to implement a policy that can only be described as ethnic cleansing.


The notion that Israel “is held to a vastly higher standard than other regimes in the Mideast” is more than disingenuous. The brutal response of Egypt, Libya, and Syria to its own citizens during the “Arab spring” uprisings has been staples for many months of the American media. Rarely is the brutality and lawlessness inflicted on Palestinian residents by Israeli soldiers even acknowledged by our politicians and media. The erstwhile presidential candidate, lobbyist, and history professor Newt Gingrich informed the American public that the Palestinians were a fictional people. The Journal must have a narrow definition of double standard.

The shibboleth that Israel is surrounded by “neighbors who threaten its obliteration” is a false and endlessly repeated narrative that justifies every criminal action taken by the Netanyahu government. Israel is armed with the best military technology American tax dollars can buy. It also possesses more than a hundred nuclear weapons that would instantly reign down on any neighboring countries that posed a true threat to Israel’s existence. Sadly, the lie of tiny Israel’s vulnerability to annihilation by its crazed and irrational neighbors is never questioned. Consequently, Israel has been granted a de facto license to intensify its murderous policies. ”;

The truth is that Israel is not held “to a vastly higher standard than other regimes”, rather it is not held to any standard. America’s policy of looking the other way has enabled Israel to continue its brutal annexation of the West Bank and made the genuine pursuit of peace a rhetorical farce. Netanyahu knows there has never been, and is not likely to be in the near future, any accountability for Israel’s contempt for international law.