Why I Am a Realist
THE NATION
POLITICS / AUGUST 23, 2024
Celebrating at the DNC in a Time of Genocide
Joy was everywhere—as long as you didn’t think about Gaza.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/dnc-gaza-genocide/
This article about the DNC and Israel’s genocide in Gaza reminds me of why I am a realist.
Realism emphasizes that there is no higher authority in the international system that can come to your rescue if you are in serious trouble and that you cannot depend on other states to come to your aid in the crunch. Indeed, those other states might someday put their gunsights on you. After all, who can know the future intentions of another state? In those circumstances, there is no chance that international law or just war theory will save you.
In such a world, the best way to survive is to have a state of your own and make sure that state has a lot of military power. This is what we realists call a self-help world.
Turning to the Palestinians in Gaza, there is no question Israel is threatening their survival. There is obviously no higher authority that can rescue them. The Israelis thumb their noses at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), not to mention the United Nations.
One might expect “liberal” America to come to the Palestinians’ rescue, especially since it is governed by the Democratic Party, which is filled with people who constantly preach about the rule of law, human rights, and morality in foreign policy.
In fact, the Biden administration is complicit in Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza. And, as the above article in The Nation makes clear, the Democrats at the top of the party did everything possible to keep the Palestinian issue off the DNC’s agenda while celebrating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are playing an important role in making Israel’s genocide happen.
To take this one step further, Jews have suffered enormously over time, in good part because they did not have their own state. Zionism, which is all about creating and maintaining a powerful Jewish state, was aimed at fixing this problem. One might think that a people who see themselves as “eternal victims” would have some measure of introspection and sympathy for the Palestinians — and given the Holocaust, be horrified by the mere possibility of genocide being committed in their name. But that is not happening.
Given the horrors that have befallen the Palestinians, it seems to me — thinking like a realist — that their only hope is to get a viable state of their own and make it as powerful as possible.
Whether they can succeed is another matter.
I fail to understand the exceptionalist approach to Judaism and Jews. Many religions have been persecuted and some did not survive. The experiences of Jews are no different to the experiences of many other religious groups. Yes some Jews were persecuted in some places at some times but many others were not. Any group which sets itself apart and takes an elitist if not supremacist stance for any reason is likely to become a target at certain times. Not condoning, just explaining human realities.
And why would Jews have a right to a State when no other religion has such a right? If Jews did have that right and they do not, then every religion would have the same right.
Most Jews throughout history have been part of society to relatively successful degrees, just like any other religion. The Zionist and sometimes Jewish agenda to push for a State was as much propaganda and lies as any sort of truth.
If one were to believe that Jews needed their own State then why do most Jews not live in Israel, never did and never will and why have many Jews, particularly Orthodox, always rejected the concept of a Jewish State? More to the point, regardless of any belief that Jews need their own State the simple fact is they had no right to take someone else's country and set up their State.
Even worse, the sadistic and bestial nature of the Zionists, Jews and Israelis does not reflect Judaism or real Jews and in fact taints the religion and its followers. Israel is the most dangerous place any Jew could live and a travesty of their religion. Those who claim Israel represents Judaism and Jews are anti-semites proclaiming that Judaism and Jews support and promote occupation, colonisation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape, murder, torture, theft and sadistic cruelty toward non-Jews.
Jews do not need and neither do they have a right to a State and one look at Israel makes it clear that fascist religious states have no place in a civilized world.
Gaza’s fate will be our own. Such unchecked evil has a way of normalizing bloodshed. The spineless complicity of democrats has brought us to this horror which will only escalate at the border, our Gaza.