Israel, the War on Terror and the "Holocaust Effect"

Last week, WikiLeaks released 200,000 pages of US War machine secrets. Like the Pentagon Papers, it may eventually lead to a paradigm shift about an unwinnable war. The Af/Pak Papers go even farther: they expose a “big lie” about the War on Terror. In these documents, what was once murmured is now screamed from the roof-tops: our long-time ally, Pakistan, has been funding and training the Taliban.

With friends like these, who needs “enemies”?

It’s been a long, hot summer for the US War machine. US assassin cabal Task Force 373 was exposed by WikiLeaks with "prima-facie evidence" of war crimes for killing seven children in Afghanistan. Back in May, the US Machine’s top Middle East ally, Israel, rappelled from their helicopters onto a flotilla of human rights activists. Nine aide workers, including one American, were killed in the violent melee. Yet Israel was not censured by the USA, and Congress just approved $33 billion more for Afghanistan.

To fully understand that seductive mix of violence and propaganda called “The War on Terror” you need political and historical chops. But you also need a special kind of insight, into something I’m calling “The Holocaust Effect.”

I want to robustly confront the Nazi genocide against the Jews, but from a new angle. The state violence the Jews suffered has boomeranged back. The only thing worse than suffering violence is when the victim population chooses to ape that violence. Sure, there are no gas chambers in Gaza, but Israel and her supporters have nonetheless crossed a line of late.

This came out last week during the failed campaign of Zionists and right-wingers to stop plans for an Islamic Community Center near Ground Zero. Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said, "[9/11 Victims Families’] anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted."

An organization dedicated to fighting the return of fascism is now endorsing a victim’s “entitlement” to bigotry? Sounds just like Israel’s policy in Gaza.

In the name of victim-hood, violence metastasizes. Israel is the birthplace of two major world religions. Both preach the God of peace, mercy and understanding. But Israel’s huge heart has turned to stone. Without a commitment to gutsy, God-based, peace and nonviolence, Mainstream Zionism has become an ugly practice of hate and murder. Politics alone can’t address the problem, you have to know the Torah, the Bible. You must know God to be able to fully face up to this Zionism of the modern day.

Israeli violence depends on US violence for its life. Just a couple years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu frankly admitted "We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq," because those events "swung American public opinion in our favor." Here in New York, the “War on Terror” is based on our use of the Holocaust Effect. Look at the past nine years of daily life in NYC. There are similarities between those who increase police and military power here, and the Israeli policies in the occupied territories. The power structure in NYC claims that we were the victims of terror. As a result, that same power structure trashes the Bill of Rights, and puts soldiers on our streets. My bag can be searched at random in the subway. Pre-recorded announcements during that train ride refer constantly to terror, threats, and “suspicious packages.” Yet the power structure has never felt compelled to produce an objective investigation of the 9/11 attacks. Contradictions remain unsolved. The question of justice in this country is frozen in the trauma of terror.