Mike L.
For those of you who may not know, I have been tapped by an Iranian media outlet to answer a series of questions around the Arab-Israel conflict and have agreed to do so.
Was it wise of me to do so?
I have no idea, but this is Mr. Soleimani's third question:
3- Is it true that on the issue of Palestine, America obeys Israel? Or vice versa? What about Iran?
This is absolutely a terrific question.
Does Israel control the United States or does the United States control Israel?
This question is directly at the heart of how so many people - Muslim, Christian, and otherwise - view the Jewish State of Israel. According to the hate-filled and racist Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as well as Mearsheimer and Walt's book, the Jews represent a malevolent force that stands behind the scenes manipulating foreign governments and foreign media to the detriment of the innocent citizens and residents of those lands. According to this fantasy, America obeys Israel.
This is what the Nazis thought, by the way.
They thought that Jews controlled Germany.
Hitler imagined that the German defeat in World War I was the fault of the tiny Jewish minority in Germany at that time. You may not be aware, but Jewish-Germans represented a grand total of about 1 percent of the entire population of the country, which is why they were so easily swept up. We simply did not have the numbers to defend ourselves either physically or rhetorically via the media. The hatred against us came about so quickly, or so it seemed, and did so in such an overwhelming fashion that we stood no chance to even begin to stand up for ourselves.
The German people honestly believed that the Jews were guilty for their economic and military losses after World War I, which is why they voted for Hitler to begin with. We were scapegoated then, just as we are being scapegoated now, by the vast Arab-Muslim majority in the Middle East.
The truth, of course, is that the United States does not obey Israel. I just wish that the United States would take Israeli advice now and again. You may not be aware of this but my friend Arik Sharon recommended to George W. Bush against attacking Iraq, because he considered Iran, your country, to be the real threat. George W. Bush disagreed and went about conducting a little military operation known as Shock and Awe that took Saddam Hussein out of power.
I marched against that war, you should know.
In any case, Israel does not control the United States, nor does the United States control Israel.
The US and Israel are allies because - as we so often say - we share the same values. In today's world what that means is supporting secular democracy as opposed to al-Sharia. Iran, whatever its virtues, is an Islamic theocratic state. The Jews in Iran are a terrified and subdued minority and Gay people, which according to outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, don't even exist in your country, are sometimes hung from cranes.
Women are occasionally stoned to death for the crime of infidelity... or, perhaps, the crime of getting raped... not that western feminists care.
So, what about Iran?
You know what might be helpful? If Iranian leadership were to say to the rest of the world that what they want is to open up trade relations with Israel. That would be terrific and there's no reason - aside from the prevailing bigotry against Jews in so much of the Muslim world - that it could not happen.
Until that does happen, however, Israel cannot allow your country to gain nuclear weaponry because you have threatened to wipe us off of the map.
Why would you think that Jewish people would ever allow any such thing?
We won't.
Debate Magazine
