The Electronic Intifada 13 November 2004
The saddest thing about the American election of George Bush is that in the long run it will make the United States irrelevant in all matters save that we have the power to blow the world up, many times over, through our military might. To elect a man who has brought a great nation from astonishing surpluses to the brink of fiscal and cultural bankruptcy, whose sense of moral superiority is elitist and obscene and who in the name of Christ, whose message was to love one’s enemy, has declared war on an emotion - terror - and in the process killed over 100,000 people - boggles the mind. And of course, there’s always Zionist Israel and its minions pushing and prodding and mega-manipulating the message.
In the last several months I have received numerous emails from a Neo-Con Blogger who sought me out. He calls himself the “Truth Provider.” In an article published on the internet he writes to his Dear Friends, “A well planned, well executed propaganda campaign can be measured by the amount of lies absorbed by the targeted recipients. It can also be measured by false terminologies that after time become the accepted norm.” Mr. Truth then proceeds to point the finger at the Arab-Palestinians as the propagandists as he instructs Israeli supporters in his Don’t Say - Say Dictionary to target unsuspecting recipients of his twisted version of the truth. Don’t say “Jewish Settlements” - say “Jewish villages, towns, or Communities,” he instructs. Don’t say “Colonialism” - say “Return to the Homeland.” Don’t say “Palestinian Militants” - say “Palestinian Terrorist.” Don’t say “West Bank” - say “Judea and Samaria.” You get the picture. He has also predictably informed me that “there is no Palestine” and became quite defensive when I sent him an article by Gideon Levy that began, “More than 30 Palestinian children were killed in the first two weeks of Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip. It’s no wonder that many people term such wholesale killing of children ‘terror.’ Whereas in the overall count of all the victims of the Intifada the ratio is three Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children the ratio is 5:1,” Levy stated.
“Dear friends,” Mr. Truth Provider wrote to the e-mail list supposedly in sync with his thinking. ”Here is another shameful communication I received from Genevieve Cora Fraser, who keeps pushing the Arab/Palestinian cause, using such Israeli bigots as Gideon Levy as her sources of false information. Levy’s articles are published by Haaretz. The latest lies she is disseminating is an article about the ‘massacre’ of hundreds Arab/Palestinian children by the IDF, written by Levy.”
What does the Truth Provider have to do with Campaign 2004 and the election of George Dubya Bush, aside from his disdain for Kerry and support for the current regime? Whether it’s the Evangelical Zionist Christians or the Zionist Neo-Cons enshrined within the administration, or the political machinations of the Oh-So-Machiavellian Karl Rove and company, the tactics are the same and there is much reason for them to gloat. As Mr. TP says, “A well planned, well executed propaganda campaign can be measured by the amount of lies absorbed by the targeted recipients.” Unfortunately, enough Americans bought the lying slogans repeated over and over and over again, such as, “Freedom is on the March” which really meant, we will bomb Iraq into submission. These slogans and lies don’t need to make much sense - just repeat them often enough until they sound so familiar they become “common knowledge” and are mistaken for truth. In the end, Kerry may have won the debates but he challenged Americans to think and consider when over half of the public wanted to fall asleep at the switch as the train of state barrels over a cliff.
Am I bitter? Yes, and disappointed. To be a dyed-in-the-wool caring about something-greater-than-myself liberal does not make me less patriotic. My eyes fill with tears when I hear the Star Spangled Banner and think about the meaning of the words as I pledge allegiance to the flag which ends, “With Liberty and Justice for All.” Despite his stated support for the policies of Ariel Sharon, I have spent the past six months in door-to-door campaigning throughout New England on behalf of John Kerry and at the end, in Florida. As a constituent of Kerry’s for over 20 years, I have seen his ability first hand and also know that he is not a racist. Though some may call it disingenuous, I suspect Kerry’s support for Sharon was election-year rhetoric, much as donning military camouflage fatigues might have gotten him through the Mekong Delta. However, I have no doubt that Kerry wants what is best for Israel. Frankly, I do too.
My take on our nation’s support for conflicts in the Middle East is that, along with a need to control the regions’ oil supply and sell armaments, it is based on deeply rooted racism craftily promoted by pro-Israeli spin doctors over the past several decades. But Kerry is no racist as his 1971 testimony before a Congressional subcommittee proved. He exposed the war crimes committed against the people of Vietnam, labeling them as racist. Kerry’s Primary Campaign was run by an Arab, and he has repeatedly stated he would appeal to moderate Arab and Islamic countries to build peace through a platform of understanding. And if you examine Kerry’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, he didn’t breathe a word about Israel or Sharon. No wonder people in support of Zionist Israel were wary of him. The Zionist agenda is racist through and through, not only in regard to Palestine, but in Israel too. For many Arabs and Bedouins living in Israel, even the basics of modern life are denied, such as electricity and running water, while Jewish Israelis living nearby are granted these and many other privileges. In the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East,” the Arab member of the Israeli Knesset Azmi Bishara has been indicted for daring to speak his mind. And though Israel “allows” him to be the representative for the Arab-Israelis, he is a “silent” member who has been stripped of his rights to speak before this august body of Zionist-Jews.
According to reports of the International Community in Defense of Azmi Bishara, “On 11 November 2001, Attorney General Elyakim Rubenstein, who also serves as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s legal advisor, filed two indictments against MK Bishara. The first indictment, which charges MK Bishara with violating the ‘Prevention of Terror Ordinance’ (1948), concerns two public speeches made by MK Bishara in which he affirmed the right of occupied peoples to resist occupation in accordance with international law,” the report states. ”The second indictment, which charges MK Bishara with violating Regulation 18(d) of the ‘Emergency Regulations’ (Foreign Travel) (1948), concerns MK Bishara’s arrangement of humanitarian visits for elderly Palestinian citizens of Israel to reunite with their refugee relatives in Syria.”
How can the United States of America whose Constitution and Bill of Rights enshrines “Liberty and Justice for All” hand over billions of tax payer dollars each year in support of Israel’s fascist agenda? That too boggles the mind. How can a country pretend to be a democracy when an honored public official is indicted for arranging humanitarian visits for the elderly? But pretend they do in that Rights-for-Jews-Only country which bankrolled its start-up by the theft of Palestinian land, property and bank accounts as they vanquished its once flourishing population to the dregs of a refugee existence.
Contrast the inhumanity of the Israeli government towards non-Jewish residents with the non-racist attitude of their avowed enemy, the recently deceased Yasser Arafat. ”Because it is the Terra Sancta, the Holy Land, it is not only for Palestinians, but for the Israelis, for all Jews, for all Christians, for all Muslims,” Arafat said. He proved it too with his heart-felt friendship with Israeli Jewish members of the peace camp, such as Uri Avnery. What heresy! No wonder the Zionists wanted him dead. Arafat’s belief set itself against the Israeli racist apartheid agenda and their genocidal actions against the sons and daughters of Palestine which Arafat countered with bloody resistance. Arafat’s funeral and the heart-felt grief of millions (and possibly billions) of Palestinians and people throughout the world is a tribute to his greatness despite personal flaws. Along with promoting a much-needed Palestinian nationalism movement, his leadership bonded people in a shared humanity and civil rights, not in a misguided hegemony bent on world domination and control. As the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela stated in tribute to Arafat, “He was not only concerned with the liberation of the Arab people but of all the oppressed people throughout the world, Arabs and non-Arabs. To lose a man of that stature and thinking is a great blow to all those who are fighting against oppression”.
Yes, Arafat is gone from the world stage but will his demise offer new opportunities at a time when once again the democratic election of a US president has been called into question? I doubt it. Not with a Zionist President at the helm bent on a hegemony ruler-ship of the world in partnership with Israel. It’s funny how a computerized vote for Kerry turned into a vote for Bush in far too many instances. Could the exit polls have really been wrong? What about the deliberate suppression of millions of Kerry supporters whose votes were “spoiled” or made “provisional,” could they have turned the tide of the election?
In the final days of the campaign, I was a volunteer for Move On PAC in Florida. I canvassed door to door for three days in a Republican precinct in Seminole County and later served as a poll watcher on November 2nd. Though the Republicans in support of Bush registered strongly in my recollections, as I tallied results at the end of canvassing each evening what shocked me was that Kerry was ahead two to one, and on the Monday before Election Day, three to one among those I canvassed. And on November 2nd Exit Polls showed Kerry in the lead, but once that was revealed, in certain swing states Kerry’s support quickly evaporated. Was it Voter Fraud? Only a thorough investigation as requested by certain members of Congress can clear the air from the stench of what has followed the Bush Administration from the beginning - something very rotten in the state of America.
Genevieve Cora Fraser is a poet, playwright and journalist as well as a long-standing environmental and human rights activist.
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