Obachomsky

I was reading Alternet last week, the uber progressive leftist publication, when I saw this headline:

 

And I thought "you got me". What is the one thing that America can do to turn itself around? Conquer Ebola, help the disadvantaged, deal with that whole income inequality thing, cure cancer? Tell me, tell me. And surprise, surprise, the answer instead is, America can fuck Israel, the greatest threat to this and every other planet in our solar system.

The article is actually an ersatz interview with another noted Israel hater and self loather, Amy Goodman, who serves him up the appropriate softballs:

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think is the most—the single most important action the United States can take? And what about its role over the years? What is its interest here?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, one important action that the United States could take is to live up to its own laws. Of course, it would be nice if it lived up to international law, but maybe that’s too much to ask, but live up to its own laws. And there are several. And here, incidentally, I have in mind advice to activists also, who I think ought to be organizing and educating in this direction. There are two crucial cases.
One of them is what’s called the Leahy Law. Patrick Leahy, Senator Leahy, introduced legislation called the Leahy Law, which bars sending weapons to any military units which are involved in consistent human rights violations. There isn’t the slightest doubt that the Israeli army is involved in massive human rights violations, which means that all dispatch of U.S. arms to Israel is in violation of U.S. law. I think that’s significant. The U.S. should be called upon by its own citizens to—and by others, to adhere to U.S. law, which also happens to conform to international law in this case, as Amnesty International, for example, for years has been calling for an arms embargo against Israel for this reason. These are all steps that can be taken.The second is the tax-exempt status that is given to organizations in the United States which are directly involved in the occupation and in significant attacks on human and civil rights within Israel itself, like the Jewish National Fund. Take a look at its charter with the state of Israel, which commits it to acting for the benefit of people of Jewish race, religion and origin within Israel. One of the consequences of that is that by a complex array of laws and administrative practices, the fund pretty much administers about 90 percent of the land of the country, with real consequences for who can live places. They get tax-exempt status also for their activities in the West Bank, which are strictly criminal. I think that’s also straight in violation of U.S. law. Now, those are important things.

I am not going to beat this to death, won't even try to defend Israel this morning. But I did have a minor epiphany when reading this. The President is obviously a closet Chomskyite. He pals around with guys like Khalidi, his whole worldview was shaped by people who hate Israel. The Alice and Amy Goodmans, the Roger Waters, Peter Gelbs, Teresa Kerrys and Barack Obama's of this world are heavily invested in a narrative where the evil Israelis jews are the cause for most of the world's ills and if we could just get rid of them, our planet's problems will be instantly solved. Shia will love sunni, the 33rd parallel will dissolve, cats will play with dogs, we can beat the swords back into plowshares again.

I see no anti-Semitic implications in denial of the existence of gas chambers, or even denial of the holocaust. Nor would there be anti-Semitic implications, per se, in the claim that the holocaust (whether one believes it took place or not) is being exploited, viciously so, by apologists for Israeli repression and violence. I see no hint of anti-Semitic implications in Faurisson's work ...Noam Chomsky, letter to Bill Rubenstein