April 04, 2014
Consider
these two incidents that occurred in the past few days in the United States and
you should start to grasp the basic elements of a slow, subtle but steady and
important shift that is taking place in the United States. It is happening in
that arena where pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian sentiments express themselves
in public, and seek to influence American government policy, mass media
language and depictions, and even the decisions of churches and other
non-government organizations like student and professional groups.
In Las
Vegas, three likely Republican presidential candidates addressed the Republican
Jewish Coalition that basically is a bank account for wildly pro-Israel
candidates run by the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. They leaped, howled and
virtually stripped naked in proclaiming their endless love for Israel and
Zionism, hoping to get hundreds of millions of dollars that Adelson will offer
Republicans who are sufficiently pro-Israeli and might have a chance at winning
the presidency. These included Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, Gov. Scott Walker of
Wisconsin, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. Christie apparently went for
the Buffoon of the Year Award when, after he had accurately referred to the
Palestinian West Bank as the “occupied territories,” he apologized in person to
Adelson the next day for using this expression. Rabid Zionists prefer to call
the West Bank part of the historic land of Israel, or, at best, a “disputed”
territory.
This is a
routine spectacle in the United States, and it has been going on for decades.
It spikes to new levels of shameful political pandering when national elections
approach. Such powerful pro-Zionist groups and individuals that have
traditionally shaped much of the public discussion and official American policy
on Palestine and Israel are suddenly finding themselves increasingly challenged
in public; consequently, their influence is slowly being reduced to a shrinking
body of Americans that is primarily composed of politicians in Washington, D.C.,
who are most susceptible to the pressures that extremist Zionists can exert by
throwing around accusations of anti-Semitism, and who are also most in need of
funds to run national campaigns.
At the
same time as this was going on, a group called Students for Justice in
Palestine followed the established procedures and received permission to hang a
banner at the entrance to Columbia University’s Barnard College in New York
City, calling for justice in Palestine. The next day, after protests by
pro-Israeli groups, the university president ordered the banner taken down. In
the past, the story would have ended there. This time, however, it did not,
because Students for Justice in Palestine activists followed up with a campaign
of writing articles in the local media, and they continue using social media to
challenge what they saw as the pro-Israeli bias of the administration.
Similar
situations are taking place routinely across many American universities, or in
professional and academic societies, mainstream churches, and other groups that
no longer remain silent in the face of Israel’s continued colonization,
subjugation and mistreatment of the Palestinian people and their land. Another
example is the call this week by mainstream American civil liberties groups to
oppose a proposed law by a pro-Israel Illinois state lawmaker calling on all
university administrators to condemn the use of all academic
boycotts—presumably because some American academics have called for boycotting
Israeli universities.
This new
tendency to stand up to pro-Israel fanatics in the United States reflects
expanding global moves by governments, labor unions, and other to boycott
Israeli government or private institutions that colonize and exploit
Palestinian lands and communities. For the first time ever on a large scale, it
is now more acceptable in mainstream American society to discuss Israeli behavior
in public, assess whether Israel is acting justly or criminally, and propose
measures to force Israeli compliance with the rule of law and ethical
international norms of behavior.
The
simple but historic message I read in this trend is that traditional Zionist
intimidation tactics are losing some of their effectiveness—other than against
American presidential candidates who will remain fully compliant with Zionist
demands. Pro-Zionist fanatics (both Jews and Christians) are concerned because
grassroots activists are openly challenging them, and, more importantly,
organizing activities that include boycotts, divestments and sanctions
advocacy, and public gestures as simple as planting posters or hanging banners
that counter the Zionist extremists.
The activists
for Palestinian justice and against Zionist criminality include a sprinkling of
Palestinian- and other Arab-Americans, but more importantly they also include
many progressive Jewish-Americans—along with plain old WASP-type Americans who
feel they should stop acceding to Israeli excesses and unethical behavior and
take action to promote genuine peace and justice among Israelis and
Palestinians.
Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large
of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute
for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of
Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon. On Twitter: @ramikhouri.
Copyright © 2014 Rami G.
Khouri—distributed by Agence Global