The support for Israeli expansionism, repression,
the whole alliance that’s developing, that
support has shifted in the United States from
the more liberal sectors—roughly, the Democratic
Party—to the far right.
Not very long ago, support for Israel was
based passionately in the liberal sectors
of the population.
It was a Democratic issue.
It isn’t anymore.
In fact, if you look in the polls, people
who identify themselves as Democrats by now
tend to support Palestinian rights more than
Israel.
That’s a dramatic change.
Support for Israel now is in the most reactionary
parts of the population: evangelical Christians,
ultranationalists.
Basically, it’s a far-right issue.
Among younger people, this is even more the
case.
I mean, I can see it myself, just in my own
personal experience.
Up until about maybe 10 or 15 years ago, if
I was giving a talk at a university on Israel-Palestine,
even my own university, MIT, I had to have
police protection, literally.
Police would try to prevent the meeting from
being broken up.
They wouldn’t let me walk to my car alone.
I had to be accompanied by police.
Meetings were broken up.
Nobody was objecting to any this.
It was happening all the time.
That’s changed totally.
And it’s a very significant change.
I think that sooner or later—I hope sooner—this
may lead to a shift in U.S. policy.
There are some very simple moves that could
be made in U.S. policy that would change the
situation in the Middle East dramatically.
So, for example, one simple proposal is that
the United States government should live up
to U.S. law.
That doesn’t sound too dramatic.
The United States has laws, like the so-called
Leahy Law, Patrick Leahy Law, which requires
that no military aid can be given to any military
organization that is involved in systematic
human rights abuses.
Well, the Israeli army is involved in massive
human rights abuses.
If the U.S. were to live up to U.S. law, we
would cut off aid to the IDF, the Israeli
army.
That step alone would have a major effect,
not just the material aid, but the symbolic
meaning of it.
And it’s quite possible that with the shift
of public opinion, especially among younger
people, there might come a point when there
will be a call for the United States to follow
its own laws.
OK?
Again, not a very dramatic appeal.
And it wouldn’t even be breaking new ground.
