Precommentary by Dr. Patrick Slattery — Here is a very interesting article from Chris Hedges discussing the importance of Max Blumenthal’s book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.” Hedges is a former New York Times reporter, and like many white liberal critics of Israel he engages in a certain amount of vilification of whites in order to shield himself from anti-Semitism charges. For instance, he starts his article by stating that Israels treatment of Palestinians “rivals” white treatment of blacks in apartheid South Africa, as if the townships were ever bombed with white phosphorus! That notwithstanding, he goes on to make numerous points and the article is well worth reading.
Imploding the Myth of Israel
By Chris Hedges
Israel has been poisoned by the psychosis of permanent war. It has been morally bankrupted by the sanctification of victimhood, which it uses to justify an occupation that rivals the brutality and racism of apartheid South Africa. Its democracy—which was always exclusively for Jews—has been hijacked by extremists who are pushing the country toward fascism. Many of Israel’s most enlightened and educated citizens—1 million of them—have left the country. Its most courageous human rights campaigners, intellectuals and journalists—Israeli and Palestinian—are subject to constant state surveillance, arbitrary arrests and government-run smear campaigns. Its educational system, starting in primary school, has become an indoctrination machine for the military. And the greed and corruption of its venal political and economic elite have created vast income disparities, a mirror of the decay within America’s democracy. (Read the rest of the article here.)
