Democracy Matters Read Free Page B

we can do abroad. Probably the most difficult challenge facing our democracy, in the near term at any rate, is that of the centrality of Middle East politics for the American empire. If we are to stabilize the world and enrich democracy in the world, we must confront the anti-Semitic hostility of oil-rich autocratic Arab regimes to Israel’s very existence, as well as Israelis’ occupation and subjugation of Palestinian lands and people. We must act more decisively to stop both the barbaric Palestinian suicide bombers’ murdering of innocent Israeli civilians and the inhumane Israeli military attacks on unarmed Palestinian refugees. These explosive issues test the capacity of all Americans to engage in a respectfuland candid dialogue; indeed, they may be pivotal in determining the destiny of American democracy.
    How does one honestly criticize the close relationship between American imperial elites and Israeli political officials without falling into ugly anti-Semitic traps? How does one sympathize with the always-fragile existence of a hated people, like the Jews, anywhere in the world while also acknowledging that Israel is a military giant in the Middle East, and that American Jews constitute an organized, powerful force in the American empire to buttress this military might? How does one highlight the inexcusable conditions and treatment of Palestinians under Israeli occupation while also acknowledging the aims of some Palestinian groups to push Israel into the sea? Can a Jewish state become a full-fledged secular and democratic state without the annihilation of its Jewish citizens? Will the American empire abandon the Jewish state when its economic interests are in direct conflict with such support? Whom are Jews to trust? Whom are Palestinians to trust? Will myopic leadership on both sides preclude any just peace? Will anti-Semitic hatred and anti-Arab bigotry squelch any democratic alternative?
    Wrestling with these heart-wrenching queries requires all the critical intelligence and genuine compassion we can muster, yet to remain satisfied with the status quo may well lead to disaster. It is impossible to talk about democracy matters on a global scale without engaging these questions. And given the increasing threats of terrorist attacks on America and others abroad, we must grapple with them for our own security and sense of justice.
    This does not mean that we should turn away from the wretchedof the earth in Africa facing both the unprecedented AIDS epidemic and the betrayals of authoritarian leaders; or suffering Latin Americans still under the aegis of transnational corporations and deferential elected officials; or struggling Asians trying to find or preserve a niche in the new world order. To focus on the Middle East is not to single out any regime for special treatment or targeted demonization. Rather it is to acknowledge that Islamic fundamentalist gangsters do pose a threat to the United States and the world and that they gain their potency from U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. An American imperial response to this real threat may pose an even greater threat to the United States and the world. And the American democratic experiment cannot flourish alongside such an American imperial response. This is why the response of the Bush administration to 9/11 wreaks havoc here and abroad—more wealth inequality, less resources for jobs, education, health care, and the arts, and increasing distrust and hatred even from former allies.
    The ugly events of 9/11 should have been an opportunity for national self-scrutiny. In the wake of the shock and horror of those attacks, many asked the question, why do they hate us? But the country failed to engage in a serious, sustained, deeply probing examination of the possible answers to that question. Instead, the leaders of the Bush administration encouraged us to adopt the simplistic and aggressive “with us or against us” stance and we ran roughshod over our