Lessons in Assimilation - Netanyahu addresses Congress

Netanyahu's speech to congress raised some interesting points. Here, I'd just like to point out how the process of "assimilation" cripples the ability of our "leaders" to think or speak about the reality we all inhabit. They speak of the reality their dragons inhabit -- one of ruthless competition to survive against enemies created by their own paranoia. Netanyahu has never been one to allow the facts to ruin a good story and his speech is classic Netanyahu. The thunderous applause that greeted his tour of the Bibi's world was also classic -- another example of the utter mindlessness that has gripped American politics.

Netanyatu makes great pains to personalize the Americans and Israelis -- he talks at length about his personal gratitude toward Obama. It is always the other side that is a mindless monster. It is the other side that will only understand overwhelming force. It is Iran, not Israel or America, that seeks to rule the Middle East through terror and raw military might. It is Iran, not Israel that cannot be trusted under any circumstances.

Netanyahu seems to want a nuclear free Middle East but has not volunteered to give up his own nuclear weapons, or even admit he has them. Every single person in that room knows about the Israeli nuclear arsenal. By Netanyahu's own logic, Iran is forced to answer the Israeli threat by developing its own nuclear capability. He does make it clear toward the end of the speech that Israel is prepared to use whatever means possible (presumably including a nuclear strike) to end the threat posed by Iran. Israel is the world's biggest "cheater" when it comes to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, yet Netanyahu's main point is that Iran could never be trusted to comply with any "deal" and, even if it could, Iran must abandon its open hatred of Israel as a pre-condition to any "deal". The actual workings of such a "deal" are outlined here. Of course, there is no such inspection program for Israel. Unique among the nations of the world, Israel has a secret arsenal of actual, deliverable nuclear weapons, not just a "development program".

The speech was delivered to the Congress of the biggest terrorist nation on Earth. His complaints about Iranian "aggression" were wildly applauded by folks whose "double think" prevents them from remembering American aggression against dozens of countries since World War II (Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, Iran and a dozen others). This includes the American-backed current aggression against the West Bank, being chopped up into bits by Israeli "settlements". It is worth noting that within living memory, the US pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war as part of it's aggression against Cuba -- finally settling on a 50 year campaign of terrorism in that state to defeat a "communist" government. Of course, the everyone tries to forget naked Israeli aggression that began the occupation of Palestine in 1967. The logic behind Israel's preemptive "defensive" move to destroy the Egyptian military is presumably the logic recommended by Netanyatu when he speaks of Israel going it alone if necessary.

We will believe Netanyatu's claim that Israel is an outpost of democracy in the Middle East when we see a free vote in all of Palestine (including Israel) for a government that represents all the inhabitants of Palestine (not just the Jews).

The scary rhetoric and actual "terrorist" attacks against Israel are aimed at reversing Israeli aggression, the illegal conquest and continuing annexation of Palestinian lands, against UN resolutions. It would seem that Israel has the power to reduce tensions in the region by reducing and/or reversing it's own aggression against the Palestinian people. Since this aggression has gone on for a century, hatred of Israel is now "hard wired" into generations of Arabs and Persians, so it is not reasonable to expect it to vanish in order to give Netanyahu a better "deal".

I am no great fan of Iran or its surrogates, but the Iranians I have met are not monsters. Nor are the Arabs, Persians, Israelis or Americans. It is the dragons -- the Nations -- that dissolve the human reason of their citizens leaving  only the mindless desire for power, growth, expansion and -- above all -- annihilation of enemies. Iran's hatred of the US and its proxy in the region, Israel, goes back to the US-backed overthrow of the legitimate (but "socialist") government of Iran and installation of state terror under the Shah. The only difference between this action and the actions that Netanyahu fears is that they succeeded.

When I watched Netanyahu's speech, I grieved for hundreds of smart, reasonable people in that room who have been turned into zombie robots. That conversation was between two dragons - Israel and America. The zombies rise to their feet on queue, applauding each lie as it falls from Netanyatu's lips. It's not about the welfare even one single person. It's about crushing "Iran" because Iran is behaving exactly like the two dragons in that room. Dragons need an enemy. They lust for a fight -- the bloodier the better. Netanyatu promises that there will be a fight, and he is confident that America will join him. This is a man with a finger on the trigger of the only nuclear arsenal in the region.  He stopped thinking like a human being a long time ago.