Israelis and their supporters tend to depict Israel as a country of miracles. What else could explain the country’s astonishing “birth” and subsequent survival against all sorts of “existential” threats? How else would Israel go on to develop at such a phenomenal pace, making the “desert bloom” and scoring a continuously high ranking amongst developed nations in most noteworthy aspects?
Meanwhile, Palestinians continue to be depicted as “their own worst enemies,” a people who “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” and who stand outside the parameters of rational human behavior. Israel is often, if not always, contrasted against a regional backdrop of “backward,” “undemocratic” and essentially violent Arabs and Muslims.
These depictions — of the luminous, civilized Israelis against the wicked, backward Arabs — is the recurring polemic infused tirelessly by Israeli, American and Western media. Most often, it goes unchallenged, thus defining the West’s understanding of Israel and its moral “right to exist.” The argument is rooted in the horrors of the Holocaust. However, Israel’s handlers have managed to turn deserved sympathy for that tragedy into an unwarranted assertion, somehow equating Palestinians with Nazi Germany in order to justify a constant state of self-defense.
In this specific context, the power of the media cannot be overemphasized. It has defined a fallacious reality, based on a skewed narrative. Never in history has a story been so slanted as that of Palestine and Israel. Never has the victim been so squarely blamed for his own misfortunes as has the Palestinian. This is not an arrogant counternarrative to Israel’s concoctions. It’s a glaring truth that continues to be either ignored or misunderstood.
The “miracles” often associated with Israel are not random; they are unmitigated assertions. Miracles are a religious notion, referring to the unexplained and supranatural. Thus they become exempt from logical questioning. Such formula has served Israel’s strategic purposes well. On the one hand, Israel’s existence is portrayed as a resurrection of sorts: from near-annihilation to a “miraculous” rebirth. Indeed, considering how the “birth” of Israel story is offered, the narrative is no less impressive than biblical legends. Such discourse has been used successfully to appeal to a much larger group than those who merely identify with Israel on ethnic or religious grounds. It has impressed tens of millions of Christian fundamentalists worldwide. In the United States, Christian Zionists represent the popular backbone of the pro-Israeli camp. While American Jews tend to vote based on economic or political interests, Christian Zionists see their allegiance for Israel as a religious inevitability.
Like religious miracles, Israeli miracles are viewed as either irrational or as a “matter of faith.” They can either be accepted in bulk or rejected in bulk; the bottom line is that they are beyond argument, beyond the need for tangible proofs. Those foolish enough to deconstruct this — and thus question Israel as a state accountable to law, like all others — are subjected to the wrath of God (in the case of the “true” believer) or the wrath of the media and the Zionist lobby. When an American politician, for example, is accused of not standing “fully” behind Israel, the accusation doesn’t warrant a justification. It stands on its own, like a biblical commandment that has survived the test of time and reason: Thou shall stand fully behind Israel. The accused politician can only defend his record of support for Israel; he cannot question why this is necessary in the first place, or ever acknowledge the fact that the latter’s track record is stained with blood, illegal occupations, human rights violations and defiance of international law.
As the 60th anniversary of the “birth” of Israel draws near, a most impressive — albeit grotesque — misrepresentation of that history will be offered in abundance. Media pundits and politicians will celebrate the miracle, omitting how the “birth” was erected on the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages.
The killing and ethnic cleansing that became known as the Palestinian Catastrophe — or Al-Nakba — was not the work of invisible miraculous beings, but rather of well-trained and well-armed Zionist gangs, and their supporters.
Nor did Palestinians lose the battle due to their laxity or backwardness. Their bravery, for those who care to consult serious historical research (such as Israeli historian Ilan Pappe or the late Palestinian professor Edward Said), is a badge of honor that will be carried by Palestinians for years to come. They lost because, as parallel historic experiences demonstrate, neither bravery not fortitude are enough to withstand so many powerful forces at play, all plotting for their downfall.
Moreover, those celebrating Israel’s miraculous efforts in making the desert bloom — the inference being that “nomadic” Palestinians failed to connect with the “neglected” land, and only the “return” of the rightful owners managed to bring about its renewal — will most likely forget that it was the Palestinian proletariats, the cheap, oppressed, and dispossessed labor force who mostly worked the land, erected the homes and tended to the gardens of the miracle state. No less than $100 billion of American taxpayers’ money contributed to Israel’s current economic viability, or military preparedness.
All of this is likely to be overlooked as Israel and “friends of Israel” around the world celebrate another miraculous year of existence, survival and affluence. But will they pause to wonder why there are over 5 million Palestinian refugees dispossessed and scattered around the world? Will they lend a moment of silence to the many thousands who were brutally murdered so that Israel could maintain this fallacious miracle? Will they ever understand the pain and the tears of successive generations dying while holding onto keys of homes that were destroyed, deeds to land that was stolen and memories of a once-beautiful reality from which they were violently uprooted?
If there is indeed a miracle in Israel’s existence, it is the fact that such a lie could be perpetuated for so long, despite glaringly obvious truths to the contrary. Indeed, the miracle is that so much injustice could reign for so long uncontested.
