On Friday night here in New York City I was at the opening night show for the newly released (in the theaters) documentary "Uncovered," Robert Greenwald's year old film about the runup to the war in Iraq and how there was not uniformity among military, diplomatic and intelligence types at all about going to war and also how the SCLM helped perpetuate talking points about the validity of the war.
Not much new to folk around here. But a compact 90 minutes or so that makes for a compelling traditional doc. After the film Robert Greenwald was there to answer questions along with Ray Mc Govern a 27 year CIA intelliegence analyst veteran. Who is a real character. He has lots of funny zingers in the film and is one of the more prominently used experts in the film. He had some interesting things to say after the house lights went up...
After chiming in on a few different questions he said unprompted (paraphrasing)
Phillip Zelikow said in passing during the 9/11 Commission hearings that 'Of course the real cause of the War in Iraq was to protect Israel but this is the truth that must never be spoken.' But it is these neo conservatives and their ties to the Likud Party and our Israel policy in general that need to looked at very closely and seriously reevaluated.
Now I can't find that quote in the context McGovern was referring to after googling around some but Philip Zelikow has mentioned this before. But Ray got me thinking...
My question is this: (and I ask it as a born and bred New York City Jew) what is up with our slavish devotion to Israel?
Yes they are our ally that shouldn't stop purely and just because our involvement with them gives us headaches.
Sure, we recognized them first as a nation in 1948.
And yes, they are in a strategically important place to us and they are a little bit of sunshine to the US in an area that otherwise has one eyebrow raised at us fairly often.
Also, unjustly, there is rampant antisemitism that runs through certain Arab communities/sects that would like to see less of Israel on the world stage if not totally eliminated.
Yes they are entitled to their land but if giving some up and not treating the Palestinians like second class citizens will bring peace...go for it.
So what are some possibilities to changing our Israel policy so that it is more rational?
One thought I had would be to elect a president who knows something about Muslim history and was comfortable talking about Muslim spiritual issues. Imagine the kind of dialogue a president could start in the Muslim world if he/she could authentically talk about Koran suras or Al- Ghazzali or Rumi and their own take on the words of Mohammed while not divorcing their own spiritual values.
Perhaps the notion that "we" are out to destroy "them" could be dispelled which might effect our Israel policy...but in the mean while, what ate some possibilities for a more intelligent approach to Israel from our side of the political spectrum?