Sunday, July 24, 2016

America's political obsession with the occupation state of Israel

So Michele and I have been watching (and enjoying) the series, Mad Men.  But from the very first season, there were signs of the political obsession with Israel that you find in American political and hollywood cultures.  Just out of nowhere and for no reason, Israel is invoked: as gratuitous as the nude scenes of movies or as the extraterrestrial computer-animated creates in big movies.  A TV series that refused to tackle seriously women's issues or race relations or gay and lesbian issues would decide to tackle the foreign policy issue of Israel. And when stars and creators of the show would be pressed for the lousy presentation of race and gender, they would either say that it was not our problem or that we just reflected the era. Reflecting the era? Posters of Moshe Dayan were hung on walls?  There even a hunting accident on the show only for a character to wear the eye patch just like Moshe Dayan.  And they would showcase an ad tourist campaign for Israel, as if the state came from Hawaii and not over the dead bodies of Palestinians.  This is like how there are more courses taught on Israel at US universities than there are courses taught on Indonesia, Vietnam, India combined.  I don't think that it is accidental.  There are Zionists in the US political and hollywood elite who purposefully promote Israel and ZIonism to ensure that public support for Israel remains.  I expect this to increase as the new generation of Americans, including Jewish Americans, care less and less about Israel and absorb less and less about Israeli occupation propaganda.  After posting on the matter on Facebook, a colleague shared this interview with the creator of the series in which he discusses in a racist manner his obsession with Israel: ""I think that despite anti-Semitism, that the Israeli victories in the late Sixties were very inspiring to the American public. And those characters like Moshe Dayan were completely heroic. For being outnumbered, for being smarter, for winning against all odds.""  How ignorant you have to be in this time and age to believe that Israel, with a massive arsenal of WMDs even THEN, won "against all odds'?  From what we know now, the US administration of Johnson never for a second had an iota of doubt that Israel would win the war and win it decisively.