“No I can’t” Obama says
The implication of those words is that all the Jews of the world have a common ethnic origin and national heritage, and therefore a valid claim on the land that today constitutes Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As I and others (including Israeli historian Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People) have documented, that is simply not true. Almost all if not all the Jews who went to Palestine in answer to Zionism’s call had no biological connection to the ancient Hebrews. They were the descendants of peoples from many homelands (mainly in Eastern and Western Europe) who converted to Judaism centuries after the brief rule of the ancient Hebrews ended and thereafter had only their religion and its rituals in common. And the same can be said of most of the Jews of the world today. (It’s possible that there are today more Palestinian Arabs than Jews who are descended from the ancient Hebrews).
Obama began his arrival speech with answers to a question which he said was sometimes asked about America’s relationship with Israel – “Why does the United States stand so strongly, so firmly with the State of Israel?“
I think some of Obama’s answers to that question need to be examined and challenged.
He said:
We stand together because we share a common story – patriots determined “to be a free people in our land,” pioneers who forged a nation, heroes who sacrificed to preserve our freedom, and immigrants from every corner of the world who renew constantly our diverse societies.
Missing from that answer is that the “common story” includes the fact that both nations were founded on ethnic cleansing. America was ethnically cleansed of most of its native Indians, and Palestine was ethnically cleansed of most of its indigenous Arabs.
Could it be that a shared history of ethnic cleansing is the reason why very many Americans are pre-disposed to buy Zionism’s propaganda?
He said:
We stand together because we are democracies. For as noisy and messy as it may be, we know that democracy is the greatest form of government ever devised by man.
The reality is that America is a democracy in name only, not substance. What passes for democracy there is for sale to the highest lobby bidders. As some concerned Americans have noted, the U.S, has “the best democracy money can buy.” (President Kennedy tried and failed several times to introduce legislation to end the corruption of American politics. If he had been allowed to live and serve a second term, he might have succeeded).
Also true is that for democracy to exist the citizens of nations, the voters, need to be informed enough about critical issues to call and hold their leaders to account, and not only at election time. The fact is that the vast majority of Americans are not informed enough to do that.
It can also be said that if freedom to criticize Israel’s policies and actions is one test of democracy in action, Israel is far more democratic than America.
He said:
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