Your tax dollars at work, promoting the politics of inclusion abroad:
“This is a Jewish city,” said Shimon Gafsou of his adopted home town, “now and forever.”To be more specific: “I would rather cut off my right arm than build an Arab school,” the mayor said in an interview on his terrace at city hall.
Ditto mosques. “No, no, no. No mosques, ever,” said Gafsou. Nor churches. Or Ramadan lanterns or manger scenes. “And no Christmas trees,” said the mayor of a town that abuts the largest Arab city in Israel, celebrated as the childhood home of Jesus.
“Everyone can live here, that is the law, as long as they understand this is a Jewish city,” Gafsou said. “And in that way we are a microcosm of the state of Israel.”
I don't wade into this hornet's nest very often, and to be honest, in one way I really don't care how the Israelis run their country or even the Occupied Territories; if they want an apartheid state, fine and dandy, then let them deal with it. What I do care about is the fact that our money is helping to underwrite this crap. It's impossible to see how it advances our national-security interests in any meaningful way, and if your humble blogger ran the zoo, the welfare payments would have been cut off long ago. I realize it's an article of faith in official policy circles in this country that any criticism of any Israeli government policy is forbidden because Hitler, but we'd be a lot better off as a nation if we stopped talking about "democracy promotion" and started practicing it instead.
---Baron V
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