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It's pretty extraordinary that in a democracy, the political elite is able to render completely off-limits a view that the vast majority of Americans support. They actually render majority-held views unspeakable and then remove the issue entirely from what is debated. No matter what one's views are, there is no denying that our policy towards Israel is immensely consequential for our country. Yet, by virtue of the fact that presidential candidates are required to affirm essentially the same orthodoxies, there's very little difference in their positions towards Israel and therefore our current policy approach towards Israel will simply not be part of anything that is debated, even though most Americans overwhelmingly oppose that course.
Indeed, as soon as he secured the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama made a pilgrimage to AIPAC in order to avoid the "Howard Dean mistake" and to vow that there would be no such debate over Israel in this election: [em in original]
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Most reality-based folks know that our 'terrorist threat' is a direct result of letting Israel do basically what it pleases with regard to the Palestinians. Protecting Israel from it's neighbors, many of whom would like to see it destroyed, is one thing. To give them carte blanche to run roughshod over the human rights of a race of people who have every right to live where they do is another.
How quickly they forget, on their 60th Birthday, that the people who founded the State of Israel were once on the other side of the fence.
I'm going to work. I hate Mondays ...
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