Democracy don’t rule the world

You better get that in your head

This world is ruled by violence

But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

— Bob Dylan

 

 

In the film “Ender’s Game,” Harrison Ford’s character tells a boy who had been bullied that, when you finally have your adversary defeated, don’t stop pummeling and kicking him even after he is helpless. Do more to him than he has done to you. That way, he will not dare attack you again.

In other words, overwhelming violence is the only protection against violence. The bullied must morph into the bully.

If we set aside Israel’s 75-year-long dispossession of Palestine, and even accept Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas “started it,” it is still clear that the logic beneath Israel’s operation in Gaza is to project ruthless power.

It is a logic only available to the currently stronger participant. It is neither defense nor revenge, but rather a calculated strategy of domination intended to prevent all future resistance. For Netanyahu, retrieving Israeli hostages is secondary to his real goal: a public performance of absolute dominance.

Emperor Augustus certainly believed that Rome had crushed Jewish resistance out of existence in 70 AD when the defeated rebels were dispersed from their homelands. The Jewish forces had fought so fiercely that Rome employed forced exile to eliminate all future Jewish resistance. Yet even this could not entirely destroy the memory and the dream of a homeland.

The strategy of ruthless violence might work against a bully whose only motive is to enact dominance himself, but will it work against a mother who has dragged the limp bodies of her children from the rubble created by American bunker-buster bombs? Will fear of further violence take away her anger, not just at Israel but at the United States?

Certainly, the Israeli mothers felt the same grief on Oct. 7. They too, will never forget. But their government’s overwhelming assault on Gaza will not make the grief go away.

If Palestine should ever develop the means to defeat Israel, is its only option to viciously crush Israel to prevent it from ever harming Palestine again? If we are in a world where violence of the powerful is the only way of suppressing resisting populations, it implies that humans care only about their own safety and are vicious beneath the surface. If so, that view must also apply to Israelis themselves.

The only alternative justification is that Palestinians are less human and must be treated accordingly. But some of us believe that neither Israelis or Palestinians are essentially selfish, and that pursuing cooperation and equality are choices — not just in moments of crisis, but in particular when we are establishing the basic structures of living together.

To understand the Palestinian tragedy, we no longer need to speak of the long history of Israeli oppression: Now we can see that whole history of brutality encapsulated before our eyes. The old ploy of naming every criticism of Israeli government actions as antisemitic is threadbare. Demonstrations throughout the world, and especially in the U.S. and Israel itself, including one self-immolation, are holding a mirror to the hypocrisy of power. They are demanding an unconditional cease-fire and an end to U.S. military funding.

This is an existential moment for the Union. But, in the midst of this horror, how has the U.S. responded? By rushing to Israel another $8.9 billion in unrestricted military aid. According to The Times of Israel, Hamas’ total military budget is between $100 million and $350 million. Even using the larger estimate, Israel’s military budget is 67 times greater. The new U.S. aid package itself is 25 times the Hamas budget.

The supposedly dangerous Iranians could not get even 1% of their missiles to land in Israel. One reason for this is that the U.S., the UK, Germany and France all helped Israel intercept the missiles.

We hear President Joe Biden suggesting caution and more precision to the Israelis, but where are the U.S. and its powerful allies when the bombs are falling on Palestinians? Does the U.S. now support the Israeli policy of total domination?

The U.S. claims to defend “the rules-based international order,” but while taking land is condemned in Ukraine, it is almost never mentioned in Palestine.

For those around the world watching this, the credibility of the United States is plummeting. Embracing Netanyahu’s strategy of total domination undermines any U.S. claims to support justice, democracy, and evenhandedness around the world. It sure looks like “Sundown on the Union.”

Patrick McGreevy lives in Greenfield. Comments welcome at pmcgreevy64@gmail.com.