“America’s position in the world is one of moral leadership.  And that’s what America is all about.  And frankly, it’s not only about what takes place in the streets of Tehran but it’s also about what takes place in America’s conscience. . . . The fact is that America has been and will be the beacon of hope and freedom.”

John McCain, advocating President Obama take a tougher stand on Iran, Face the Nation, June 21st

Really, Senator?

There has been a lot of talk in the media and on the streets of Los Angeles lately about the plight of the protestors and the human rights situation in Iran.  Rightfully so, but they are not the only people in the Middle East suffering.

We love to criticize the “tyrants of Iran” and their awful treatment of their people, but our own human rights record and that of our greatest ally is highly questionable.  Israel has had a difficult time portraying themselves as a beacon of freedom and democracy without repressing an unsanitized version of their history.

Exhibit A: UN resolution 63/178 , The Right to Development.  It appallingly calls to recognize: “Poverty is an affront to human dignity,” and shockingly the resolution shows deep concern that, “The majority of indigenous peoples in the world live in conditions of poverty, and recognizing the critical need to address the negative impact of poverty and inequity on indigenous peoples by ensuring their full and effective inclusion in development and poverty eradication programmes”.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, as of 2000, 21.9% of children in the US live in poverty. This is by far the highest child poverty rate in the developed world.  Evil Socialist France has 7.5%.  I agree with the Republican Party.  We don’t need any of those wimpy French solutions to our problems.  Our free market capitalist system is the key to our prosperity.  And besides, child poverty is a quintessential Traditional American Value.

According to the US Census Bureau, as of 2007; 10.5% of White Americans were living in poverty.  According to the 2000 Census (data for “American Indians” are not shown separately from Asians and Pacific Islanders in the 2007 report) 25.1% of native Americans were living in poverty.  Perhaps our opposition to addressing “the negative impact of poverty and inequity on indigenous peoples” stems from our inability to recognize the plight of our own indigenous native tribal peoples in America.

But, then again, under our system, everyone has an equal chance of success, so the “Indians” should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get their acts together.  Personal responsibility is the American Way.  America’s genocidal campaign against them was SO long ago.  Why can’t they just get over it already?  Plus, they have their own casinos now.

Wisely, the US voted against this radical proposal by the UN.  Sadly only a few other countries joined America in its brave battle against the spectre of sinister Socialist forces seeking to redistribute Good White American money to the ungrateful natives.

The final vote was 182 in favor, 4 against, and 2 abstentions.  Among those countries voting in favor were: North Korea, Iran, Russia, Sudan, and Syria.  The only courageous Defenders of Democracy that stood with the US were: the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Ukraine.

Israel abstained, undoubtedly due to their own “problems” with their indigenous populations.  Indeed the Israelis have a lot in common with us.  They’ve had to deal with their own indigenous crybabies, the Palestinians, since 1948.

The Haganah’s “Plan Dalet” took effect in early April 1948, with the subsequent creation of the State of Israel on May 14th.  The Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary group which was the precursor to the Israeli Defense Forces.  Its members included future Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon.

The plan (which was executed brilliantly), under “Assignment of Duties” calls for “destruction of villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris), especially those population centers which are difficult to control continuously” and “in the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state. The villages which are emptied in the manner described above must be included in the fixed defensive system…”

Imagine the nerve of the Palestinians.  They spent generations in the land G-d promised to his chosen people for their Jewish State.

Human progress waits for no one.  Palestine had no official flag or international recognition, so finders keepers losers weepers.  Clearly, Israel is the Only Democracy in the Middle East, and they survived against the odds.

In the process they had to destroy 530 Palestinian villages and get rid of (according to the UN Concilation Commission’s estimate in 1950) 711,000 of the “obstacles that had to be cleared on a difficult path” as the first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann put it.

Those 711,000 refugees who arrogantly demand the right to return to their homes are just Arabs.  Predominately Muslims who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  In other words: not really human beings in the same way we are.

Apparently surviving a Holocaust justifies a Nakba.

Our “special relationship” with Israel is based on shared “values”.  After all, we both know what a hassle ethnic cleansing can be.