The American Hypocrisy
Copyright Jonathan McNeill 20020317
Just about everyone knows someone else who is always criticizing other people for things they do all the time. We call this hypocrisy and look down on those who commit it. However, it seems that very few people acknowledge or even recognize a very significant bit of hypocrisy being committed by the U.S. right now.
On September 11th, 2001, America was attacked by terrorists. It is now believed that we lost approximately two thousand of our citizens that day. Once we felt certain we knew who committed the act, we viciously went after the perpetrators of that crime. Even now, our armed forces are in Afghanistan routing out the last bits of the Al-Qaeda terrorists cells in that country. President Bush tells us that we must remain vigilant.
Meanwhile, in a country (Israel) a fraction the size of ours, terrorists are attacking and killing a larger percent of the population of Israel nearly every week than have been killed by terrorism in our country in the past ten years. When Israel goes after those who have harmed her (Palestinian terrorists, and friends of Arafat), we tell her that she's doing something wrong.
Nearly every day, terrorists commit acts of war against Israel, but we scold Israel for taking the same actions we have. Their case is even so much more clearly a case of self-defense. Our enemies denied for several months that they had anything to do with the WTC attack. Her enemies are obvious, and acknowledge what they have done.
What crime does Israel commit by defending itself? No crime whatsoever.
The U.S. news media says nothing about this. Their reports are all glowing with approval of the Palestinians and the PLO. Minor crimes against Palestinians are front page news, but the murder of six Israelis is buried somewhere in the middle of the newspaper. Or, in the case of t.v. and radio, ignored altogether.
Are our bastions of neutrality and fairness openly displaying anti-Semitism? Why is it acceptable for the U.S. to defend itself, but not for Israel? Please, ask yourself these questions the next time you turn on the t.v. or radio, or read the newspaper. If you're the letter-writing type of person, why not send off a letter or two? If not, at least keep these things in mind when you're discussing current events.