Similarities between US and Israel
Josh Ruebnner is the Policy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and a former Analyst in Middle East Affairs at Congressional Research Service. He gave a presentation of his book, among other places, at the Woodstock, NY library and the Quaker Center in Great Barrington, MA.
Frederick Nagel of MECR in the Hudson Valley carefully listened to Josh Ruebner in Woodstock and wrote down what he thought would be interesting to know. He thinks that Ruebner's book, “Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace,” is a detailed look at racism and American’s relationship with Israel. <http://joshruebner.com/?page_id=687>
Here are some of Ruebner’s points:
-The white majority in the US has never accepted two basic truths about our country, that it was built on the ethnic cleansing and genocide of indigenous peoples, and that much of our present day wealth was derived from slave labor. Until whites understand and accept these basic truths about our society, there will never be a true reconciliation between whites and people of color.
-The white majority in this country has remained “incredibly immature” in resisting these truths, despite the fact that people of color and the remaining indigenous populations understand them.
-There are also structural reasons why racism persists in this country. Politicians exploit race devisions during elections. Corporations exploit race to keep the workforce divided. And finally, the US is a vast, global empire that is sustained by military invasions of other countries, and racism is inherent in that system of exploitation.
-Racism has gradually been diminished on the federal level. Progress over the last century has eliminated laws favoring whites over blacks. The battle is now on the state and local level where these laws still persist.
-Demographic changes may also diminish racism, since whites will no longer be the majority in this country.
-Israel is a “mirror image” of racism in America. The country was build on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and that fact is adamantly denied by the Jewish majority.
-Mythologies have been created (land without a people) to keep the majority from coming to terms with the racism inherent in Israel’s history.
-There are similar structural reasons why racism persists in Israel. Some of its politicians openly advocate ethnic cleansing and genocide. It’s corporations exploit the water and other resources in the occupied territories. Israel is a highly militarized nuclear power with no set boundaries that considers itself exempt from international human rights laws.
-Racism is endemic in Israel’s “monoethnicity.” Over 50 laws on the national level discriminate against non-Jewish citizens of Israel (about 20 percent of the population). In the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians have virtually no rights at all.
-The militarization and overt racism of American police forces reflect the close ties between the US and Israel. Many American police officers now receive “counter insurgency” training in Israel. The same weaponry we see in Ferguson and other parts of this country is also being used to oppress the Palestinian people.
For some who think that considerations of the nature of racism gets in the way of real progress on the local level, I recommend Cornel West’s recent talk on the Comnonwealth Club.
<http://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2014-10-03/cornel-west>