Atheist Meditations

In the last weeks we have seen some bad things happening in the Middle East. More than just about any 'debate' that our worthless talking heads have manufactured since the beginning of Mr. Bush's reign, the discussion of Israel's actions and place in this conflict is so skewed that it has great educational value for the less politically sophisticated.

Israel is probably the most complicated nation-state in the history of the world. Her demographic make-up, the position she holds in the international community, along with the sympathies and prejudices that we assign to her jewish population. Almost half of the American population sees the nation of Israel as a religious icon, and not as a country in the world with the same rights and responsibilities as any other nation. The Israeli lobby in Washington is easily the most powerful lobby in the country, and unlike most lobbyists who bought into the 'Republican Only' policy of the K-Street project, they continued to spread their monies accross the aisles of congress. Particularily East Coast Liberals, as we've been forced to bear witness too as these types scream and protest the 'Prime Minister' of Iraq since he has not condemned Hezbollah to hell for their actions.

20% of the Israeli military budget comes directly from us, the U.S. taxpayers. Of course, that money just come right back around to purchase weapons from Lockheed Martin and other U.S. weapons firms - who pocket all that profit from such sales, that's how the military industrial complex works. Thus the weapons that are being used to bomb Lebanon into a wasteland are all marked, 'Made with Pride in the U.S.A.'

We have a bunch of laws in this country that nobody cares about. It is suppose to be illegal for the U.S. public to be exposed to propaganda, yet we have seen countless confirmations from the Military and other sources that they aim said filth directly at the domestic audience - not to mention whatever FOX News is suppose to be. We also have laws on the books which makes it illegal to sell arms to any country that will not use them soley for defensive purposes.

Fun Fact for Conservatives: Back in '82, when Israel invaded Lebanon the last time, President Reagan put a halt on all weapons sales to Israel that lasted 10 weeks and certainly had an impact on Israeli foreign policy.

Consider him eligible for sainthood, or our first 'Spokesman for Big Business' President, one cannot argue that he was a strong President. He was strong enough to make things happen in the international arena with his words, and he was strong enough to stand up to the Israeli lobby and put pressure on them to conform.

Israel waited until Bush was this big of a failure to start this sort of operation. I highly doubt that he would have done anything to impede the Israeli war machine even at his heyday after 9/11, but he is a man - and at that point he could have done something.

Most analysists put the Israeli military at either the third or fourth most powerful in the world. That's a trip for such a little country, but they are a nuclear power equipped with the very best weapons we American taxpayers can give them. Every Arab country could unite against them and probably fail spectacuralily (i.e. Six Day War.) The United Nations, never a very powerful body, ain't gonna really do anything either.

Only one man in the world could have any sway over what the Israeli's choose to interpet as 'defending themselves' and that man was George W. Bush. The man who gets openly ridiculed at international press conferences ain't gonna sway nobody.

Sometimes I wonder if the persecution of the Jews in WWII has lead to some sort of paranoia complex in the national character of Israel. Something like the propaganda that the Russian state still uses 'we got hit and hurt because we were weak, I shall make us STRONG, and no one will be able to ever hurt us again.' Israel has a political system that favors that sort of strong language and rhetoric.

Other times I feel like the creation of the Jewish State was the greatest folly of the twentieth century; how much pain and suffering has been triggered by this Final Crusade? Multiple generations of violence, and it ain't gonna stop anytime soon.

Israeli children learn about their country from textbooks that have been selectively re-written to ensure that said children 'believe in their country enough to fight for it.' How different is that from an Islamic school that produces suicide bombers?

Too often, people tend to think of Israel as a special country surrounded by barely civilized murderous savages. Thus what is acceptable there is different from anywhere else. God wants them there.

If Israel is a nation, then it has the same rights and responsibilities as any other nation, regardless of how terrible the suffering that the chosen people endured over five decades ago. The whole point of international law, was to limit the actions of powerful nations against their weaker neighbors. If you invade a nation, you have a responsibility to the population that you now occupy. The ancient Romans could just keep decimating (that's killing one out of ten people) until the will to resist had been squelched, but hopefully the last few hundred years of liberty and civilization has raised the bar a bit.

The military of Lebanon has purposefully been kept rediculously weak, to satisfy the Israeli population. Thus they could never prevent an incursion of Hezbollah - like if the U.S. turned all border security over to a few hudred minutemen, they just ain't gonna be able to get 'er done. By destroying every bridge, factory, harbor, and anything else that qualifies as infrastructure the Israelis' are insuring that the Lebanese people will be devoting the next ten years to just trying to rebuild. With money from where? How much suffering will occur in that time?

Strategically, there is no way to stop Hezbollah from using southern Lebanon to lanch rockets, short of nuking the entire landscape.

What they are doing is punishing the Lebanese people, and that sort of collective punishmet yet another one of those laws that nobody seems to care about anymore.