Telling tales

Australia’s leading Zionist lobby, AIJAC, has been busy. In the latest edition of their monthly magazine, The Review, one writer claims there are “genocidal tendencies in Iraq and Gaza,” anti-Zionism is unquestionably always anti-Semitism, and the UN “is very much broken.” Such paranoia and victimhood would usually be the cause of a disadvantaged people, as opposed to an aggressive military power in the Middle East. Of course, it’s more politically convenient to be portrayed as the victim rather than the aggressor.

AIJAC’s Director of Policy Analysis, Ted Lapkin, contributed to the ABC Perspective program yesterday:

“In 2003, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage described Lebanon’s Hizbollah movement as the “A-Team” of Islamic terrorism. But twenty years earlier I was fighting as an Israeli army officer against that very enemy.

Israel serves as a canary in the mineshaft for the democratic world, providing advance warning of threats that later emerge to menace the West. Thus for reasons of pragmatism, as well as principle, Israel should be regarded as a cherished ally in the fight against global jihadism.

“This is a war, and we need all the friends we can get.”

Brave, noble Israel is vital in the “War on Terror”, or so we’re told. Israel’s true cost to the West is only now being realised. Take this striking opening from the 2002 Christian Science Monitor:

“Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by today’s population, that is more than $5,700 per person.”

Lapkin prefers to paint a different picture of the Jewish homeland:

“Israel is a progressive Western democracy in a global region that has hitherto been dominated by cultural backwardness and autocratic tyranny. Despite tremendous adversity, Israel has managed to build a first-world nation that combines the political values of liberty with cutting edge technological sophistication.”

A “first-world nation” thanks to American largesse and cynical strategic concerns. How long would Israel last without US aid? And does the average American tax-payer know, let alone approve, of how their money is being spent? Don’t count on it. The veil is starting to slip.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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