Kill the myth of "linkage" for America's sake

Submitted by Randall P. (United States), Mar 29, 2010 at 14:46

It seems that among the best things we can do right now is to debunk this resurrected myth of "linkage." The last 40 years have proven that despite being the most technologically advanced civilization on the planet, America is still prone to buying into illusions and myths - namely that the Muslim/Arab world will like America more if it abandons Israel, its Jewish partner in Western democracy.

Our wealth has turned our population into a field of flowers, able to absorb the natural wonders of the world, but quickly shrivels up and withers when it feels that its personal security is threatened. If the average Joe is deluded into thinking that our friendship with a "Jewish state," even a democratic one, makes the violence-breeding Muslim world like us less, then he will choose the phony security. But if this "linkage," the convenient delusion created by Israel's aggressive neighbors to gain undeserved sympathy is accepted as true, then Israel will suffer while America becomes the Arab world's patsy.

Obama has intentionally resurrected this "linkage" monster-phantom and held it up again after many years of being mostly buried. Its phoniness cannot be understood by the average TV addict. Simply making a ridiculous statement - that the U.S. war with Al Qaeda is being undermined by unhappy Palestinians - is believed by the simple-minded, so long as Obama or one of his team-members makes it. Even without explaining how. The simple statement is all that is necessary before the world press, including the NY Times, BBC, and even the press in Israel, begin to assume it has meaning and may be true, even if no one can explain how. That would require some real "thinking," not a strong trait for Americans today.

If they did think about it they'd discover the exact opposite of the "linkage" mythology: that most Arab countries where the Palestinians have moved to have been evicted or intentionally confined to refugee camps. Egypt doesn't like their radicalism, nor does Jordan or Lebanon. King

As a result, the only "linkage" that exists in Arab countries, along with Iran and Turkey, is the pretense that they actually want to help the Palestinians. They thereby use this pretense to control the politics of our U.S. leadership and its supporters, who will believe the fallacy of "linkage:" Help the war-making Muslims defeat the Jewish homeland, and the oil-rich Islamic world will like and respect you more. Maybe they'll let you have easier access to oil. And they'll keep loaning you back the dollars you gave them at the gas pump. Maybe they'll try to control their terrorists. That's what Europe assumes, anyway. Now we have Obama to convince Americans of the same fallacy – our newest myth-maker. He no doubt correctly believes that an American who loves "dancing with the stars" and watches "American idols," will believe anything you feed them. He seems to be right.

By focusing on debunking and exposing the myth of "linkage," we could go a long way to undermining those who wish to use that myth to harm Israel while it also weakens America as a reliable ally. Simply denying that "linkage" exists and challenging its U.S. promoters to prove its existence could pour water on this wicked phantom and help dissolve it. It would put its promoters on the defensive, in any case. It might even prove that Obama's buying into this myth for the sake of creating a pseudo-friendship with Muslim states is actually weakening America, as it has weakened the European states that still promote the "linkage" myth.

Remove the curtain from the myth and the real power reveals itself: our desire and addiction to petrodollars and cheap oil. If that's all America stands for, then at least we'll know.

Hussein of Jordan moved to quash the militancy of Palestinian organizations during "Black September" and Arafat he killed 20,000 Palestinian civilians before evicting them. They were speedily thrown out of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf states during Desert Storm. There are no Arab neighbors that have invited the Palestinians to live there and assimilate. The only state that has allowed them to assimilate and live in partnership is Israel, which took in over a million and still tries to convert them into a peaceful people - unsuccessfully.

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