Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

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April 17, 2011 Tomgram: Ira Chernus, The Great Israeli Security Scam [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Last Tuesday, this site offered a personalized, signed copy of the new paperback of Andrew Bacevich’s bestselling book Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War to any reader willing to contribute $75 (funds that help keep this website afloat).  Many thanks to those of you who generously sent in donations!  For those of you who meant to but haven’t yet, just click here to go to our donation page and find out more.  Should anyone want a personalized, signed copy of my book, The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s, it’s also available.  Tom] Recent uprisings and rumblings across North Africa and the Middle East from Tunisia and Egypt to Saudi Arabia and Yemen have shone a bright, unflattering light on long-time U.S. allies in the region -- despotic kleptocrats whom we supported sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars, or in some cases multi-billions of dollars, for decades.  After an era of relative silence, the media has finally begun paying a modicum of attention to the company the U.S. has kept in that part of the world.  Through it all, however, one Middle Eastern ally has flown under the radar, despite the fact that, for years, it was often deemed the only country in the region really worth covering. I’m speaking, of course, of Israel which, in this months-long burst of headline coverage, has much of the time shrunk from the Middle East’s giant to near invisibility, which is perhaps a kind of relief.  Israel is, after all, a small (if powerful) nation in a far larger world.  Despite that, like the other Middle Eastern lands that have been our semi-clients, Israel deserves to have a bright light shone on it, too.  While we disabuse ourselves of various Middle Eastern myths, including myths about the nature of Islam, it might be time to do a little disabusing when it comes to the encrusted mythology about Israel in this country -- and the place to start, as TomDispatch regular Ira Chernus suggests, might be with the myth of Israeli insecurity. Wouldn’t it be interesting if, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington in late May at the invitation of House Majority Leader John Boehner to give a “peace speech,” Americans viewed him and his version of “peace” with something closer to the skepticism they would now bring to anything said by former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.  (To catch Timothy MacBain’s latest TomCast audio interview in which Chernus discusses what to make of American attitudes toward Israel and the Palestinians, click  here, or download it to your iPod  here.)  Tom Three Myths of Israel's Insecurity And Why They Must Be Debunked By Ira Chernus Here are the Three Sacred Commandments for Americans who shape the public conversation on Israel: 1. For politicians, especially at the federal level: As soon as you say the word “Israel,” you must also say the word “security” and promise that the United States will always, always, always be committed to Israel’s security. If you occasionally label an action by the Israeli government “unhelpful,” you must immediately reaffirm the eternal U.S. commitment to Israel’s security. 2. For TV talking heads and op-ed pundits: If you criticize any policies or actions of the Israeli government, you must immediately add that Israel does, of course, have very real and serious security needs that have to be addressed. 3. For journalists covering the Israel-Palestine conflict for major American news outlets: You must live in Jewish Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv and take only occasional day trips into the Occupied Territories. So your reporting must inevitably be slanted toward the perspective of the Jews you live among. And you must indicate in every report that Jewish Israeli life is dominated by anxiety about security. Click here to read more of this dispatch.