The Washington Times today prints a letter from James J. David, a retired general in Georgia, eloquently calling for sanctions against Israel in light of the unending violence in Gaza/Jerusalem:
It seems that this seesaw retaliation will never end, not as long as Israel continues its brutal and illegal occupation… Mr. Bush promised in his State of the Union address that he will end
the spending of taxpayer money on "wasteful or bloated" programs. Not
only is this additional foreign aid to Israel a "wasteful and bloated"
program, but it also is illegal and immoral. It’s illegal because
Israel uses this military aid in violation of the Arms Export Control
Act and Foreign Assistance Act to violate the human rights of
Palestinians through its brutal military occupation and siege of the
West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. It’s immoral…
A good thing that the Washington Times prints this sort of thing. I hope soon that the New York Times will start printing more of such letters, which it surely gets in buckets. Some time ago the otherwise-emulable Tony Karon wrote that there are "tropes" in American political life supportive of Israel quite apart from the lobby. I’m genuinely curious about those tropes, what they are? General David is invoking an American trope: fairness.
