That Kind Of Talk Can Get You In Trouble. Part 4
The Propagandist unleashes a multi-part series reporting on a bizarre display of political indoctrination and doublespeak that occurred in a forum promoting the book "Antisemitism. Real and Imagined", co-written by English professor and 9/11 truther Michael Keefer. Ironically, Mr. Keefer made a number of statements related to Israel that reasonable people might infer as anti-Semitic. Or are these statements merely legitimate criticism of Israel (and supporters of a particular Israeli government policy)? You be the judge.
Then there's the small matter of the blockade on Gaza. Keefer was kind enough to outline the background of the situation as he saw it. "The blockade of Gaza is intended, let’s use the term, to terrorize the civilian population into reversing the position it took in what is generally acknowledged to have been an untarnished and democratic election. That blockade is a very severe violation of international law."
To anyone completely ignorant of the actual situation in Gaza, this might seem reasonable. A blockade on any territory would seem inherently unjust, particularly if the only reason is to "terrorize" and "starve" them into overturning the result of a democratic election. Why would anyone want to do that? The people in Gaza who won the election must be fine upstanding examples of liberal democracy, since, well, they got elected. We have elections in this country. Everybody operates by the same rules, right?
Indeed, the blockade has been characterized as illegal by the United Nations Human Rights Council, whose members include such shining examples of human rights advocacy like China, Saudi Arabia, Kyrgystan, Bangladesh, Russia... you get the picture. And if you'd like to point out that the USA is also represented, it should be noted that they've boycotted sessions condemning the blockade. And of course, Keefer's really big pet peeve is that Canada supports the blockade.
Keefer's words portray Gaza - at least until you press him on it - as a fairy-tale land where democracy has been squelched by tyrannical Israelis who care nothing for international law. Actually, the reverse is true. The blockade has undoubtedly helped prevent greater numbers of international law violations by an Islamist movement in Gaza that has nonetheless managed to murder and kidnap Israelis, not to mention (as Keefer admitted when cornered) horrifying murders and violations of rights against Palestinians. Even with the limited means at their disposal, Hamas has managed to fire nearly 15,000 rockets from Gaza into Israel over the years. It should also be remembered that the Egyptians are so frightened of the Al Queda proto-state that they shut down their border with Gaza at the same time as Israel - yet you don't see worldwide condemnation of Egypt.
The principle of self-defense is well established for both private citizens and nation states. Yet Keefer makes no allowances that this can be a factor in the blockade. Well, he does allow that some of his allies would suggest that Hamas is a "nasty" organization; but "what does that have to do with a completely illegitimate violent and horrifying attempt to terrorize a population, to starve a population?"
What does that have to do with the blockade? Everything.
If you suggest that we must ignore Hamas, ignore the missiles, ignore the torture, the kidnapping, the incitement, the human rights violations across the board; if we should pretend that they don't even exist - there is no Hamas, for the purpose of this discussion - then what we must infer is that the Jewish state (and all of the blockade's supporters) is obsessed with evil for its own sake.
If that's what Keefer wanted his audience to understand, then that's anti-Semitic. Did he mean it? Who knows. For a guy who teaches people how to communicate, it's impossible to nail down anything he says. I can say the most likely inference one would draw is another anti-Semitic trope, but him and his fans are bound to deny it.
But it doesn't stop there. Keefer also says in reference to the 2008 invasion of Gaza that "If you launch a missile from your garage, that’s a war crime. Attacks on civilians are always war crimes. But most civilians killed were Gazans."
Again, Keefer is equating a genocidal terrorist movement that has managed to grab some territory and plant a black flag, with a democratic state that is trying to defend itself from said genocidal terrorist movement. Hamas unleashes rockets and gunmen on Israel without discriminating between men, women, children, even toddlers.
International law hasn't yet caught up with Hamas tactics of firing rockets from schoolyards and using mosques as arms dumps. Civilian casualties were higher in Gaza than in Israel because Israel took measures to protect its citizens. Hamas deliberately puts its civilians in the firing line. Equating Hamas with the state of Israel - actually, suggesting that the state of Israel is even more bloodthirsty and toxic than Hamas, is not merely irresponsible.
If Keefer is truly informed about what Hamas represents, as he suggests he is, then one can infer a more poisonous motivation for Keefer's stance - an old scourge he denounces at other times as "vile" and "shameful".
Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist. This is Part 4 of a series. Read the next part of That Kind of Talk Can Get You Into Trouble
