In 1837, Hans Christian Anderson crafted a short story. Two shifty weavers promised the emperor of a certain kingdom, a new suit of clothes. The thing was, the suit could only be recognized by the truly wise. It would be invisible for those out of touch with reality.
When the emperor paraded before his subjects in his new clothes, no one dared to say they couldn’t see the suit, for fear they would be seen as out of touch with reality. This charade continued for some time.
This isn’t in the story, but I can just imagine the two thieving weavers, laughing all the way to the bank, pocketing the exorbitant cost of the wonderful new wardrobe – until a little child cries out to any who would hear: “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!” And the truth finally dawns.
The view of our President and the US on the Israeli/Palestinian situation is finally clear and unambiguous. We are exposed. There has been no genuine support for the Palestinians. Only for the Israelis.
There is no longer even a fig leaf to cover our supposed support for the Palestinians. It has dried up, shriveled and been blown away by the fiery, unpredictable wind out of Washington. There may have been principled statespersons over the years who may have actually believed the two disputants could, should and would negotiate the status of the land and the capital. But those people are gone.
In one stroke of his pen, the President of the US overturned decades of hypocrisy: the mask of an even-handedness and the farce of impartiality. The President has trashed the US position regarding the disputing parties, expecting them to sit down and negotiate contrasting claims. By his action, our President has thrown his (and our US) support completely for the Israeli position.
You claim Jerusalem as your eternal, undivided capital? You got it!
Palestinian claims for the land and Jerusalem as their capital? Sorry. They don’t matter.
US impartiality? Sorry. We’re for Israel.
Honest broker between the two sides? Nope. We made that claim, but it was never true. Prohibiting funds to Israel if they support human rights violations is only just now before our House of Representatives.
Negotiate the future of the land or the capital? What’s to negotiate? It’s Israel’s.
The way Israel has treated the indigenous people through the years? Nothing wrong there. That was simply the cost of nation-building.
Orchards destroyed, homes demolished, land confiscated, Arabs eliminated from East Jerusalem, and the residents disenfranchised in the “West Bank and Gaza”? Legitimate. Every bit of it.
For Palestinians to resist? That makes them “terrorists” doesn’t it? And the US doesn’t support “terrorists”.
But what do Jews, Muslims and Christians in Israel and the US think about this unequivocal bonding? Not so much, as more and more people are learning the “truth” about what has been going on over there. And the world is supposed to bow down to the will of the Israelis and the Americans? How likely is that going to be? With grassroots opposition growing, our President’s position will continue to erode in the years to come.
With the US abdicating the “honest broker” role, there will be other power brokers who will step into that role. We and the Israelis are one, eternal and undivided. We have lost our way.
So now we see the first step in our President’s plan for “Peace” over there: The Israelis have our full support. No need for the Palestinians to expect our help. This is what “Peace” looks like. Get used to it. The Palestinians have no “cover.” At least not from the United States. That fiction has now finally been exposed, naked in the light of the new day.
For many Americans, there is shame and embarrassment in the kingdom. The emperor has no clothes. And the Palestinians have no “cover” either.
Someone in this short story is exposed as out of touch with reality.
And it isn’t the little child who cried out, so everyone could hear: “But he isn’t wearing anything
at all!”
