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Joe Biden: “I am a Zionist. You need not be be a Jew to be Zionist”
Why did the American “Democratic” president give apartheid Israel carte blanche to carry out its unprecedented genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza? Why don’t Palestinians register on the radar of the White House and mainstream America? In other words, why does White America hate us?
One very telling moment in this regard is that of January 6 2021 when a mob of White racists stormed the Capitol in Washington, demanding a reversal of the outcome of the presidential elections in which their President and role model, Donald Trump had lost to the Democrat’s candidate, Joe Biden.
Biden, at the time, won the election claiming that he would introduce a more democratic, humane, and, more importantly, inclusive vision.
At the time, Philip Weiss, senior editor and founder of the pro-Palestinian, progressive news site ‘Mondoweiss’, wrote a hard-hitting analytical piece titled “America’s Whiteness Crisis, and Zionism’s,” just a few hours after the mob of white bigots stormed the Capitol.
In this article, Weiss maintained that it was no coincidence to see Israeli flags brandished at the Capitol Hill riot because “Israel’s proudly-stated principle of Jewish supremacy, higher Jewish rights to land and office, have long been a model for white supremacists.”
He went on to argue, eloquently, that there are glaring contradictions between Zionism and democratic ideals as evident in Israel’s more than 60 racist Basic Laws, including the notorious Nation-State Law that defines Israel as the state of Jews only.
As per the definition of apartheid under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israel’s practices towards Palestinians amount to “an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination.”
But Trump supporters, like Israeli Zionists, do not give a damn about the ICC and its definitions, nor do they know what basic human rights mean, nor do they see the humanity of the “other”— whether Black, or Palestinian, or Hispanic! But neither do Biden and his State and Defense Secretaries.
Coincidentally, a couple of days after the Capitol riot, ‘The Guardian’ newspaper ran a piece by Hagai El-Ad, the former executive director of Israel’s most liberal human rights organization B’Tselem, the title of which is very telling: “We are Israel's largest human rights group – and we are calling this apartheid.”
El-Ad is blunt about Israel’s apartheid and racism based on the “the systematic promotion of the supremacy of one group of people (the Jewish people) over another (the Palestinians,)” which, he concludes, is “deeply immoral and must end.”
Soon after that, all main-stream HR organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and even B’Tselem itself, issued reports labeling Israel’s regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean apartheid.
Interestingly, different from South African apartheid and American segregation laws, “Israel’s definitions do not depend on skin colour,” but that makes no material difference; what really matters, according to El-Ad is “the supremacist reality which is the heart of the matter.”
He does not mince his words and calls a spade a spade: it is “Jewish supremacy!” In the case of Make America Great Again (MAGA) it is racial supremacy; in apartheid Israel, it is ethno-religious. Hence the love affair between the two of them.
The comparison between the apartheid regime of South Africa and the American South under the Jim Crow Laws is unavoidable. Ideology has its own way, especially when it is hegemonic – a way that represents the interests of racial supremacists.
The Whites of apartheid South Africa defined the institutions of the country as democratic, albeit ‘White democracy’, by and for whites only. The idea of defining the country as exclusively white and democratic at the same time was never accepted by the international community.
But that is the model for Trumps’ supporters, the bigots who stormed the Capitol and who happened to be overwhelmingly white; that is what “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) is all about. And that, alas, seems to be the driving force behind genocidal Joe’s love affair with apartheid Israel.
In other words, Biden’s Middle East policy is not in any way different to that of Donald Trump, namely, denial of the very existence of the Palestinian people.
What Trump supporters basically want is a state similar to both Israel and white South Africa, a state where the exclusive right of whites to “self-determination” is guaranteed! But is genocidal Joe better? Hence the admiration for Israel, and I would add White South Africa, and the unashamed brandishing of the Israeli flag, the Confederate flag, and declaration of Joe Biden’s love of Israel.
But, ironically, the same far-right that admires Israel happens to hate Jews, slogans such as “Camp Auschwitz” and “6 Million Was Not Enough” were spotted, next to the Israeli flag, in Capitol Hill!
To explain this “contradiction,” Philip Weiss quotes Jewish Voices for Peace: Many white supremacist groups both hate Jews and love Israel. Depending on their specific ideology, they may admire Israel as a model of ethnic supremacist state, share its Islamophobic and anti-Arab views, and/or want Jews to be corralled in their own state far away from the US.
Making America Great Again (MAGA) would ideally lead to specifying the nature of the United State of America as the nation-state of the White people and where;
A: The United States becomes the national home of the White people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious, and historical right to self-determination. (something Joe Biden claims to be opposed to)
B: The right to exercise national self-determination in the United States is unique to the White people. (also rejected by Biden)
Sounds familiar? That would be America’s Nation-State Law if those far-right fascists got their way. But Joe Biden is a self-proclaimed Zionist who is NOT opposed to Israel being the state of Jews only and its right to “defend itself” as an apartheid state.
Palestinians have obviously joined African Americans and native Americans in the “political unconscious” of mainstream America. White America hates us, then, because we are not born to White mothers. And so does apartheid Israel.
This is exactly like the difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, both lovers of Israel for the same reason, and haters of A(i)rab Palestinians.
Hendrik Verwoerd, Jim Crow, Ariel Sharon, and some ideologues and politicians of WWII must be clapping with joy in their graves
Editor's Note: Haidar Eid is a Professor in Gaza, bombed out of his country. This is his first article after getting to a point where he could write. He has written exclusive articles for The Citizen in the past, is a musician as well and has shared his songs with us. He never left Gaza through the years, despite being a scholar of international repute and with many opportunities across the world. We publish this article that was first published in The Electronic Intifada, with respect and regards for a man who has had to see days he could never have imagined.
