Part I: America
This essay was first published here, by the Friday Times on July 03, 2024.
Wars have a habit of revealing ugly truths about the world. The war in Gaza has been no different. This discussion will focus on what this war teaches us about America, the Muslim world, Muslims in America, and the “rules” based international system. Accordingly, it has been divided into four parts.
Since October 7th, the Israeli military has been on a rampage. It has killed at least 37,746 people, an estimated 70% of whom were civilians. Another 84,942 have been wounded while 20,000 Palestinian children have been made into orphans. Apartment buildings full of women and children have been crushed under the weight of 2,000-pound bombs, turning entire neighborhoods to dust and rubble. Mass graves dot much of the terrain, which consists of a hellish landscape of shelled out buildings. In short, Gaza has been turned into a wasteland.
This carnage is the result of the synergy between Israeli ingenuity and America’s military industrial complex. Armed with the deadliest weapons America has to offer, as well as its own locally made arms, Israel fields one of the most lethal, technologically advanced militaries in the world. Its arsenal contains state-of-the-art drones, strike fighters, artillery, and tanks. It also has cutting edge electronic warfare and signals intelligence capabilities, which are powered by the latest artificial intelligence software.
This software has been used to generate “kill lists” of over 37,000 targets for Israeli forces to attack even though it has a ten percent margin of error. This is merely consistent with the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) rules of engagement which allow it to kill 20 civilians for every low-level Hamas fighter or 100 for a high-level official. Due to this software and its lax rules of engagement, the IDF has launched thousands of attacks using American made weapons knowing with absolute certainty they would kill innocent women and children.
America’s leaders, who often claim to stand for a universal concept of human rights and an international system in which civilians are protected during times of war have not been silent. No, they have seen these crimes and spoken loudly in support of them. Nearly the entire spectrum of America’s political elite, from its right-wing blowhards like Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton to its supposed progressives like President Biden and Richie Torres, have gone out of their way to justify and express their unequivocal support for Israel as it engages in the mass murder of tens of thousands of civilians. They have also worked hard to secure billions in funding and a steady flow of munitions to make sure it can keep the slaughter going.
When news of fresh crimes, like mass graves full of people with their hands tied behind their backs leaks out, they deny and deflect. When videos of Israeli snipers shooting an elderly grandmother or unarmed men waving a white flag emerge, they pretend not to see them. They remind us that the glaring evidence of these crimes comes from the Hamas run health ministry of Gaza and hope we will ignore the truth staring us in the face.
We are taught to question information received from Palestinians as inherently untrustworthy. But we must always believe Israel’s government. Never mind that it is run by Kahanists like Ben Gvir, who was convicted of terrorism, and Bezalel Smotrich, who believes Israeli Arabs should live under a set of “differentiated rights.” When this extremist government releases casualty figures claiming to have killed 12,000 Hamas fighters, we must take it as fact while ignoring that this number represents every adult male killed in Gaza. Instead of expressing outrage at the absurd premise that all Palestinian men are in Hamas, America’s leaders suspend logic for the sake of their allies.
But their greatest lie is describing Israel as a healthy, vibrant democracy when it is clearly an apartheid state by virtue of the different set of laws governing Palestinians and Jews in the West Bank and its de facto annexation of this territory. Western and Israeli human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem have all described it as such. Even the former head of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, finally admitted it. But America’s leaders cannot.
On a superficial level, their deceit stems from self-interest and their complicity in Israel’s crimes. To admit the truth would be to indict themselves. Aside from being complicit in the massacre committed these past eight months, they have provided $260 billion to fund and arm Israel over the decades. Without this support, the brutal military occupation and violence it has inflicted on the Palestinians would not have been possible. Admitting Israel is an apartheid state would be tantamount to admitting America supports a nation that is closer to Nazi Germany on the ideological spectrum, thus its leaders simply refuse to do so.
The inability of America’s leaders to be honest about Israel and its brutal war in Gaza shows that in America, the truth does not matter. It can be dispensed with when it does not match the preferred narrative no matter how much contradictory evidence gets live streamed to our phones by the brave Palestinian journalists Israel has been doing its best to murder. The truth has become a matter of perspective, not fact. It is a commodity that can be shaped to suit the preferences of consumers. Fox News for some, MSNBC for others.
Part of the reason America’s leaders lie so shamelessly is that they are never held to account by the “watchdog” media meant to act as a check on their power. In America, the media is part of the establishment and most journalists are little better than tribal propagandists cheering for their side as they demonize their adversaries and refuse to examine facts critically or impartially. Given the degree to which America’s media and leaders work together to suppress the truth, it is not surprising that TikTok, as one of the few sources of information they cannot control or twist, was banned with such overwhelming bipartisan support. As Sen. Mitt Romney explained with such refreshing honesty, this ban has far more to do with “widespread Palestinian advocacy on the app” than national security.
In their hubris and arrogance, America’s leaders ignore the obvious: those who are not guided by the truth are blind. They can neither see nor logically process simple facts. As it has buried itself in lies and contradictions, America has stopped making sense. The world’s supposed “arsenal of democracy” sells weapons to brutal dictators all over the world. Its leaders talk about freedom and democracy to justify invading other countries. Treasonous, orange buffoons rule the day. By refusing to embrace the truth, America is sowing the seeds for its own demise.