fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Israel’s Occupation and Hawkish Delusions

It is a measure of how fanatical "pro-Israel" hawks in the U.S. have become that they condemn others for accurately describing Israel's role as an occupier.
shutterstock_159347798

This op-ed from Rep. Alan Clemmons is as nonsensical as can be:

The terms “occupier” and “occupation” have infiltrated the media, academia and government bodies around the world. Mostly their use has been confined to non-Jewish organizations. Now, however, Jewish groups like J Street have taken to slandering Israel as an occupier, thus engaging in anti-Semitic speech and lending material support to Israel’s enemies.

It is a measure of how fanatical “pro-Israel” hawks in the U.S. have become that they condemn others for accurately describing Israel’s role as an occupier. It should be uncontroversial to acknowledge that ever since the 1967 war Israel has occupied territory that does not legally belong to it, and for almost fifty years Palestinians living in that territory have been living under a foreign government’s occupation. In the past, hard-liners in the U.S. have openly supported the occupation or at least refused to criticize it, but now they are pretending that the occupation isn’t what it obviously is. This is part fantasy and part propaganda to cover for a policy that should have been ended decades ago.

Even George W. Bush didn’t try to play games with language like this, but plainly referred to “the occupation that began in 1967” and even called for an end to it (not that he was going to do anything to bring that about). Contrast that with last year’s Republican platform, which made the same absurd and dishonest that the party rejects “the false notion that Israel is an occupier.” When Republican hawks won’t even acknowledge that there is an occupation and Israel is the occupying power, why should anything else they have to say on these issues be taken seriously?

Advertisement

Comments

Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here