Democrats are speaking in strong support of Israel and its invasion of Lebanon.
I have heard Rep Jane Harman (D) say that we should not call for a cease-fire, because Condi Rice is basically right that Hezbollah needs to be defeated now, lest we face the same situation in 6 months. I’ve heard Sen. Chris Dodd (D) say that George Bush did the right thing in expediting the shipment of bombs to Israel because we are supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. I’ve heard other Democrats on the news, none of them calling for a cease fire.
If any Democrat has criticized or condemned Israel for its invasion, I have not heard it.
This is an enormous blunder on the part of the Democrats. Not only is it arguable wrong morally, it is wrong tactically. Democrats are repeatedly reinforcing the neoconservative principle that terrorism must be met with military force. When the time comes for the US to invade Syria or Iran, the Democrats will not be able to argue against it. They have accepted the premise: Destroying civilian infrastructure and inflicting horrendous collateral damage is an appropriate way to deal with terrorism. If Israel is right in invading Lebanon, Israel will be right in invading Syria, and if Israel is right in invading Syria, the United States will be right in invading Iran. The political struggle for Iran is over. The Democrats have surrendered.
And even the blogs have let me down. DailyKos is rightly excoriating Condi Rice and George Bush, but completely ignoring that Democrats are as much the problem. I’ve never known DailyKos to shrink from a principled fight with the Democratic party, but the silence now is deafening. What is going on?
I feel like the world has gone mad, and even the oases of sanity which formerly sustained me are drying up.
The US has passed beyond hope.
I came to the conclusion a while ago that there really are no safe havens, and that oases of sanity turn out much more often than not to be merely mirages.
Where shall we look for allies?
This was the only card Rove had to play. He knows the left is generally speaking critical of Israel’s settlements and supportive of a negotiated settlement that gives back the vast majority of the West Bank. He knows that the left can be split and neutered on foreign policy if Isreal becomes the issue.
When Israel is threatened and the left becomes critical of Israel, it drives a substantial number of Jews into the arms of the party that unquestioningly supports Israel, right or wrong.
It also galvanizes evangelicals. If the left comes out hard on Israel, it cannibalizes itself.
The Dems refuse to play that game, as a block. But the problem is, this Rovian strategy is foolproof. Do the right thing and fall to pieces in internecine fighting. Do the wrong thing, and lose all ability and moral authority to oppose neo-conservative strategies.
It sucks. It’s a weakness that has always been there. It’s why the blogs generally ignore discussing Israel at all.
Thanks for your reply, Booman. I’m glad to hear that there is something “going on” in terms of politics… and I’m not just crazy. And the blogs ARE discussing Israel and Lebanon, quite heavily, in fact. However, nobody is discussing the fact that the Democratic party is not on our side on this one. And, frankly, that’s terrifying. When Nancy Pelosi crosses a progressive cause in a major vote, there’s usually a hundred diaries about it. I couldn’t find one diary about her vote in support of Israel’s actions in Lebanon.
This issue is pathological. If we can not condition our support for Israel, there will never be peace in the Middle East, United States standing will sink even lower, and we may be drawn into a conflagration of biblical proportions. And all because nobody can say anything critical of Israeli policy. And if people on progressive like DailyKOS can not hold the party accountable, then nobody can.
I have been reading a lot of the comments and diaries on DailyKOS. The comments of Israel’s defenders are exactly the same as the chauvinist defense of the war in Iraq: If you criticize a country’s policy, you are anti-that-country. That Democrats would let that kind of stupidity run rampant bodes ill for their ability to rein in the imperial machine.
My thesis for the last six years has been that we can take our party (Democrats) back and create a United States that the United States was always meant to be — a fair, egalitarian society that promotes peace and justice throughout the world. Now I’m thinking the best I can hope for from Democrats is some window dressing about health care while the empire continues apace.
It’s really breaking my heart.
.
To read my comments and diaries critical of Israeli politics and participate in the discussion.
There is sufficient ‘democratic’ debate on the Israeli-Palestinian issue @BooMan.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY