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of Gary Kamiya's article, that we have long seen (and still do see) Israel through the rose-colored glasses of myth and legend and blind loyalty, I'd like to suggest that his basic ideas about our unflaging, unthinking, all-the-time, every time knee-jerk support of Israel are not only correct, but are also presented in a well organized, well written summary of a pretty darned complex set of circumstances.
Myth. Legend. Romance. I mean, who among us does not sometimes think of Israel playing the role of David (as in David and Goliath)? Who doesn't think of the fledgling state of Israel in the 1950's without seeing Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint in heroic poses against a desert backdrop, while the twin pianos of Ferrante and Teicher blast out the "Theme from Exodus?"
The one idea that Kamiya mentions that especially resonates with me, which I don't often hear mentioned and almost never see in print, is that to question or to criticize Israel is to open oneself to charges of anti-semitism. I think there's a lot of truth in this observation, since I've sometimes been reluctant to say what I think about how Israel has treated its neighbors in, say, the past forty years, for exactly this reason.
It's one thing to defend yourself from acts of terrorism. It's another thing to wall up people into ghettos and punish them indefinately with embargos and sanctions and an ever-present threat of almost unimaginable violence until they have no choice but to fight back. It's one thing to to protect yourself and another thing altogether to murder your neighbor while claiming to be a victim.
If there is an end, someday, to this seemingly endless tale of violence and war, it seems that it is a long way off.
Anyway, Good job Gary. A person has to sort all this history and hatred and myth out and articulate it, if possible, even though millions of people will disagree with our individual final take on the whole deal. And that takes guts as well as smarts.
