Arabs & Israel 6577: Rationalization Vs. Realism
Ricshulman
by Richard H. Shulman
The world that exists is unlike the world that is reported. Brought up on
myths of democracy and society being rational, people are being manipulated on
behalf of the ruling class. Most people misuse their brains to rationalize
excuses. The contradiction in how the parties involved behave and how
observers rationalize about it is widespread. It is in that hiatus that the
Arab-Israel conflict is carried on. It is because of that syndrome that it
carries on. Alleged facts and interpretations of the facts are intertwined, so
that equally important in people's opinions of the Arab-Israel conflict is what
they "know" about it and how they think about it. Proper understanding
requires skepticism about their sources of information. Here are some examples
from various issues, to illustrate that much of what we think we think we have
learned is propaganda.
From a single "NY Times" editorial of 5/29 came two examples. One is an
uneasiness that Russia is building a nuclear plant for Iran, contradicted by an
assurance that Iran did pledge to follow the rules for civilian use only. The
other describes how African countries and gangs, including America's African
"allies," are taking advantage of the civil war in the Congo to despoil it of
natural resources.
What African "allies" of the US? What do those countries do for the US, to
merit the term, "allies?" Not much. What obligations has the US towards them?
None. Americans casually call other countries "allies" when they are not.
The term, "allies," is misused.
Pledges of civilian nuclear use should no be taken as assurances. Iran made
that pledge, but terrorist states make all sorts of pledges. Hard enough to
rely upon non-terrorist states' pledges, it is foolhardy to rely upon terrorist
states' pledges. The terrorists violate their pledges, their propaganda is
mostly lies, and their sense of honor is different from the Western sense of
honor. The "Times" should be ashamed of itself for taking an Iranian pledge
seriously. Islam instructs the faithful to break pledges to the infidel when
advantageous, i.e., when the balance of power has shifted enough for the
Muslims to take advantage of the infidels.
The next day's edition described the false claims made on resumes. Between a
quarter and a half of all major claims are false. Companies that check resumes
won't hire the people who tried to lie their way into the job. But, so people
say, lying is prevalent in American adults. The firms that check will be
hiring people who don't lie on the resume but lie otherwise. Those firms are
deceiving themselves. If they checked all resumes and let applicants know
their lies were found out, resumes might become more useful, again.
Losing population, some US cities, to remain viable, have recruited immigrants
to shift to their locale. They deny they will be importing social problems
and, to the contrary, assert that they will be gaining from diversity. The
same week, the newspaper had a picture of the shattered windows of a pub in
England, a country then celebrating its diversity with ethnic riots. A
non-racist view of ethnicity is that that human beings from all over the world
have much the same potential. Their cultures and historical circumstances
determine when they blossom. But to contend that collecting the world's
peasants confers some sort of a benefit upon ones' own people, without
substantiation, is mindless political correctness.
The US seeks to get the Arabs and Israel back to negotiations. What for? The
two sides are irreconcilable, i.e., the Arabs cannot reconcile themselves to
the existence of a Jewish state. Negotiations therefore are dangerous for the
Jewish state, since Israel would negotiate under the illusion of making peace
and the Arabs would negotiate to help themselves make war. The myth in the
West and in Israel is that negotiations solve problems. Not in some cultures!
Israelis are unrealistic, failing to recognize the Arabs' different ways of
thinking and the West's motives. PM Sharon, himself, criticized his country,
in regard to the collapse of a wedding hall. He castigated the national
practice of skirting rules (probably acquired by living under persecution and
maintained under bureaucracy.) Israelis call Westerners suckers for obeying
laws and waiting on line. But the Israeli culture of slackness and of
improvisation makes them the suckers (NY Times, 5/31, A8). The building
collapse has not been traced to corruption.
It breaks my heart to make this next point. The President of the American
Jewish Congress complained that in criticizing Egypt for its persecution of an
advocate of democracy, Thomas Friedman failed to contrast that with the
vigorous domestic criticism of PM Sharon of Israel. Israel, he says, has no
show trials. It is democratic like America, and this quality is the basis for
the two countries' "enduring relations." (Letter to the NY Times.)
The American Jewish Congress complaint is based upon ethnocentric myopia. Both
countries have much less democracy than its people complacently believe they
have. It comforts them to think that they rule themselves. Actually, they are
ruled by an influential clique, the lobbyists who buy candidates, the
concentrated media, and, to some extent, the people. Israel has less democracy
than does the US. It is partially a police state. It does have show trials,
such as the one of Yigal Amir and it has phony investigating Commissions, such
as those by Shamgar. Its prosecutors act for political reasons. Perversely,
in the name of democracy, it allows Arab citizens to carry on sedition and
express their loyalty to the enemy.
Richard H. Shulman (unaffiliated with any group. Junk mail deleted unread.
Constructive criticism welcome.)