Obama, the United States and Israel against the world of demons

It is often said that the US or Western opinion shapers have attempted to demonize, most recently Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Saddam Hussein, and previously Muamar Khadafi, Yasser Arafat and Gamel Nasser. This is actually wrong in a subtle but important way and the implication is much broader than immediately apparent.

Most Americans consider the idea that there should not be an Israel to be an evil idea. By most Americans I include most otherwise liberal members of the US foreign policy establishment. Every indication is that Barack Obama is a member of this group. For most Americans a person who does not believe there should be a Jewish state is an anti-Semitic monster - and does not require further demonization.

This is important because this belief creates a world of demons for those who hold that belief. Most non-Jews in the Middle East do not believe there should be a Jewish state in Palestine. For most Americans, including Obama, that means that most non-Jews in the Middle East are animals, more worthy of death than democracy.

Obama has no qualms with supporting dictators who routinely torture their political oppositions in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt because of Obama's conception of the people of Arabia, Jordan and Egypt as likely opposed to the existence of Israel and therefore not worthy of democracy.

There are some Iranians who believe some accommodation should be reached between the United States and Iran over Israel. The same is, of course, also true in many other places in the Middle East. I just want to point out that two thirds of Iranian people did not believe Israel was a legitimate state in 2006. Those Iranians who disagree and want to find common ground with Americans should understand that Americans see two thirds of your country as demons.

The United States is just as opposed to democracy in Iran as it is in Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, and for the same reasons that Americans perceive as moral. Americans involved in foreign policy believe, and you can ask them, that a pro-Israel dictator such as the Shah is preferable to lead Iran than an anti-Israel democratically elected leader.

American believe, if they have the opportunity, that imposing a pro-Israel dictatorship over Iran is their moral duty. Regardless of the cost in lives and suffering of the people the pro-Israel leadership is to be imposed upon, just as it is, if at all possible, in Egypt, Lebanon or Iraq.