America hypocritical toward Israel and the world

Americans have become patriotic recently. We wave our flags, sing our anthem, and mourn for our fellow Americans. We support our government and the media, and, in doing so, stifle dissent both voluntarily and for fear of governmental and societal repercussions. Examples abound: Mark Green's support in allowing Rudolph Giuliani to hold office for three more months, Planned Parenthood's decision to end its "Roe v. Bush" website, and Ari Fleisher's condemnation of Bill Maher for calling us "cowards" on his show, Politically Incorrect.

DAVID SILVERMAN/GETTY IMAGES Israeli soldiers confront Palestinian resistance in the Gaza strip.

Although understandable, these reactions are problematic. The common refrain asserts that because the terrorists are attacking democracy and our way of life, we let them win if we let them alter either. Yet this is a simplification. We believe in it because we want to trust in the righteousness of our government and the necessity of its actions. We want to feel reassured. We want to believe that someone, somewhere, has some idea about how to handle the crisis we now face. We have too many unanswered questions to ask any more, and we avoid looking too closely at our government for fear of seeing the hypocrisy of many of its actions. Unfortunately, we have allowed our patriotism, brought on by fear, to blind us to this hypocrisy—and that is dangerous for us and the rest of the world.

In Bush's proclamations that he wants Osama bin Laden "Dead or Alive," he indicated it was acceptable for our military to search out and, if necessary, murder him without trial. Donald Rumsfeld echoed this sentiment. "Do we have a right to defend ourselves by going after people who murder thousands of Americans?" he asked. "You bet your life we do and we're doing it."[CNN Late Edition, 10/30/01] The American government and the media seem to agree that we are justified in this action, implying that we don't need to question our morality when faced with the "evil one."

However, the American government's demands on Israel also seem to imply that Israel cannot exercise the same practice—that however terrible the killing of Israeli citizens, they do not necessitate or warrant the clandestine actions that bin Laden deserves. America sends out its own CIA to snuff out al Qaeda members, and perhaps even its financiers; but according to the State Department, it "opposes a policy of targeted killings" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [Washington Post, 10/16/01] Clearly, the United States desires stability in this region, but we need to recognize the parallels between the Israeli and American reaction to known terrorists.

We cannot allow our arrogance to blind us to the fact that the Israelis experience the same rage as we do, and that they have the same desire to protect their citizens. Just as Bush initially would have been satisfied if the Taliban had turned over bin Laden, the Israeli government would be happy if Arafat brought the members of Palestinian terrorist organizations to Israel for trial. Yet Israel, like the U.S., is forced to use other tactics.

The media has been ignoring such similarities. As much as we might sympathize with the plight of Palestinians, we have to understand that many of the Palestinian terrorists who commit these killings desire to overthrow the Israeli state, or at least drive many of the Jews out of Israel. Any state—Israeli, American, or otherwise—must fight for its way of life when confronted with a power that wishes to destroy it.

Nothing about war is pretty, peaceful, or desirable. However, the obligations of the press and the government are to be honest with their constituents, to allow them to make a fair assessment based on the facts, and not on the most convenient story. This hypocrisy stems beyond Israel. We also undermine our professed advocacy of democracy when we support autocratic regimes like Saudi Arabia's for our own economic benefit.

We have established a double standard in American policy and mass media, which makes it acceptable for us to defend ourselves at all costs while condemning others who appear to be doing the same thing.

Our hypocrisy and ignorance lead to terror. The media continues to make the Palestinians look uneducated, ill-equipped, and fanatical, while it portrays the Israelis as harsh, unreasonable, and tyrannical. Meanwhile, Americans are made out to be proponents of democracy, fighting for the preservation of freedom. Dissent and variation in opinion do exist, but the news that reaches the majority of Americans keeps them ill-informed.

The lights have been turned off in Afghanistan, and the people left frightened and uninformed. We cannot leave our own citizens in the dark and allow ourselves to believe only the best about our actions. Clearly no one want to turn mass-murderers into martyrs, but must the U.S. and Israel continue with their policies of assassination? And should we not confront our hypocrisy on this issue? Perhaps if we face these problems honestly, we can avoid trying to fight our battles in the dark. Eve Gutman is a junior in Calhoun.

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