From: Damien R. Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Sat Apr 20 2002 - 12:46:18 MDT
On Thu, Apr 18, 2002 at 10:11:38AM -0700, David Lubkin wrote:
> For eighty years Israel (and the predecessor Jewish community) has been
> regularly pilloried for alleged misdeeds that are dwarfed by Arab behavior
> against Israel, Jews, other Arab states, or their own people. Every one of
> the states that has attacked Israel have outrageous barbarities in their
> recent past. Why is there a double standard?
A US politician caught lying under oath, or embezzling money, might be
castigated, thrown out of office, thrown into jail. The government of
the Netherlands has resigned en masse recently for failing to stop
ethnic cleansing in Serba -- not for being complicit, but for being
bumbling.
But the politicians of North Korea are causing their citizens to starve
en masse, and the West doesn't really care. Oh, we'll say it's horrible
and even evil if asked about it, but it doesn't make the news as much as
local scandals. Why is there a double standard?
Most of the people I know will readily admit Israel is far better than
any of the Arab countries. But yes, Israel gets the detailed criticism.
Part of this is thinking of Israel as "us". Part of it is utility --
Israel's close enough, and democratic enough, to have a real hope of
shaming it into shape, hope you just don't have with Saudi Arabia or
North Korea. And part of it is the standards Israel claims for itself.
Israel's proud of being "the only democracy in the Middle East". Israel
was founded largely by European Jews, with European values. Israel
expects that the horror of the Holocaust be seen as significant --
expects that the Holocaust be _seen_ as a horror. But the modern value
systems which view the arbitrary killing of another tribe as a horror
come with baggage, such as not torturing prisoners, or censoring your
occupation residents. The Arab states, and North Korea, don't even
pretend to subscribe to our value systems, so we don't waste time
pointing out how they fail.
It's more complicated, since they do slightly, and we do, somewhat. But
essentially Israel wants to be treated as an enlightened Western
country, and gets judged by that standard. Saudi Arabia is just a
distasteful ally, as we no doubt are to them, and gets judged by that
standard. There's not much middle ground.
Unfortunately for Israel, because I often think of it as a
contradiction. Founded by Westerners, with Western values, for tribal
purposes, partially in retreat from the tribal persecution they suffered
in Europe. I don't think it's a particularly healthy mix.
-xx- Damien X-)
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