It was a week of glaring double standards that made a mockery of U.S. favoritism for Israel. And at least some journalists noticed.
The United States government condemned Russia for annexing portions of the Ukraine–even as it approves Israel’s annexations of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. “Apparently not all annexations of occupied lands by foreign powers are the same in the eyes of America,” Ayman Mohyeldin of MSNBC noted wryly.
While at the State Department Said Arikat of Al Quds made a fool of the official spokesperson by asking what the difference is between Israel’s killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh for doing her job and the Iranian government killing of Mahsa Amini for not properly wearing a hijab. The U.S. government has of course gone along with Israel’s whitewash, while condemning the Iranians. Arikat:
The Palestinians look at what you have done with, let’s say, the Shireen Abu Akleh case. I mean, you have sanctions the Iranian morality police, as you should have, because a young woman died in their custody and so on. Palestinians die in Israeli custody all the time. You have not spoken about – I mean, you’ve spoken about Shireen Abu Akleh; you have not pursued any kind of independent investigation. And as far as they’re concerned, this issue is dead. It’s gone. So, I mean, they look at your actions and they lose faith, Ned.
Thanks to American docility, the killing of Palestinians in the occupied territories continued unabated this week. Soldiers raiding a Palestinian home so terrified 7-year-old Rayan Suleiman that he ran into the street and had a heart attack and died. We can only imagine the last moments of this beautiful little boy’s life, terrorized because he was born on the wrong side of the apartheid wall.
The American government said it was “heartbroken” by Rayan’s death, but of course the government will do nothing to sanction Israel over this behavior. We can only hope that such extraordinary atrocities move the discourse in the United States.
It wasn’t a very good week on that front. A journalist was fired by The Hill TV for daring to document Rashida Tlaib’s “apartheid” charge against Israel. Happily, Katie Halper then published her apartheid minidoc on YouTube and it is now racking up views, 60,000 so far.
The Hill TV is hardly the only establishment institution trying to stop the apartheid talk. Liberal Zionist organizations have thrown themselves into the battle against the honest labeling of Israeli discrimination. Rep. Josh Gottheimer is leading the covert war against social media for making a superstar of Rashida Tlaib.
While the American ambassador to Israel is doing his utmost to preserve Israel’s reputation. Thomas Nides praised the “phenomenal, phenomenal” Israeli soldiers in the context of Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing.
U.S. favoritism for Israel really is shameless. Though every week more Americans see through it.
