In the US, when it comes to Israel:Don’t you dare speak your mind! [Archives:2004/718/Opinion]

No one would ever believe that in the land of the free and the brave, one is not exactly free to express their mind or state their opinions as they would like to. This has become more apparent in a post 9/11 environment. This observer has clearly noticed this as some old American friends, who I used to regularly correspond with, all of a sudden ceased their flow of emails, soon after that tragic day for fear of being suspected or even being put on a watch list. Nevertheless, one has never really been at full liberty in the United States to raise certain issues or even aspire for certain artistic or cultural achievements. This is more obvious when the theme of such expression of opinion or cultural endeavor touches upon a certain theme that has a strong interest group of an institutionalized nature standing behind it. This column has touched upon certain approaches used by the international Zionist establishment to thwart any semblance of disapproval of Israeli actions or simply present a cultural and social venue in the region that does not discolor the Arabs and gives luster to the Israelis.
There is also another less formalized, but nevertheless, an active element of the Zionist lobby that literally relies on arm-twisting, pressure, blackmail and harassment, just to name a few of the illicit and mischievous ways by which anyone who stands in the way of the Zionist agenda in the United States and Europe is encountered. Mind you, one is not speaking here about the kind of irritation Arabs or Arab-Americans are bound to meet, even if they are not partaking in any anti-Zionist drive, but the kind of treatment Americans of European, African or other ethnic origin have come across.
From personal experience, this observer recalls the good old university days, when I was subjected to intimidation and harassment on the phone and outside my residence by gangs of people, who were not at all pleased by some of the lectures, or even opinions I gave in free for all discussions on the Middle East. I was reminded of this long-forgotten unpleasant experience, when I realized that there are now many Americans subjected to such tactics that reflect a clear unabashed attitude of Zionist sympathizers towards blocking any dissemination of facts or even views that go against the pretentious image that the Zionist establishment paints Israel or the Zionist cause in the American and international media. Many individuals have written emails describing some of the unusual irritating and threatening assaults they have encountered from those who have openly rejected the Zionist cause or even expressed disapproval for the awesome suffering that the Palestinians have been subjected to since the state of Israel was embedded in Palestine. In most cases, these people hadn't the faintest idea about the regional scene, until their curiosity led them to research the background of the Middle East “problem” and came to realize that there are indeed two sides to the story. Some aspiring writers relate how their promising writing careers were all of a sudden blocked, because they expressed disapproval of the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians under Israeli occupation and felt it to be contradictory to the innocent image that Israel is projected by in the West. There were others who wrote that, because they felt that the support of Israel by the United States contradicts American values and undermines American interests, they were subjected to harassment by telephone without any inhibition against the use of derogatory or foul language. Some even complained that their loved ones were the target of such harassment, when they were unable to obtain results by annoying their original target. John Kaminski ([email protected]) writes: “The Zionist phone harassment took a turn for the worse this morning when my girlfriend received two calls before 9 a.m. The first on her cell phone, as she recounted it, was a male caller who said, after she answered, 'I need to speak with you now.' When she asked for his identity he merely replied, 'I am going to speak with you soon'. These phone calls are characterized by the foulest language and an unwillingness to dialogue.”
Anyone who recalls the Monica Lewinsky affair and did some research on the people behind the affair, will not fail to realize the Zionist intrigues behind the scenes. It was a Jewish publisher from New York that even paid Linda Tripp US $ 500,000 for releasing the tape, which in the end was a failed investment. Ask Larry King, who in fact interviewed the wealthy lady and her son on his Larry King Live Show on CNN on at least two occasions and they both admitted this. It is to Bill Clinton's personal strengths that such tactics never made him turn away from the basic issues in the Middle East problem, which simply never met eye to eye with the Zionist agenda.
To give more evidence of this obviously intriguing approach to defending a “cause”, many informed readers should have undoubtedly come across the large outbursts against the recently made Mel Gibson film, “Passions”, which highlights the suffering of Jesus by certain elements of Jesus' own Hebrew constituency. The fact that they were Jews was not Mel Gibson's fault, but some of the criticism of the film was so outlandish and insulting. In one critique in Slate Magazine, the critic delved into the “homosexuality” of the Director and literally sought to project the film as a reflection of that homosexuality, without any real critical treatment of the film per se.
But as time proceeds, it is clear that many Americans are awakening to the threat to the United States, which Israel and her American supporters are literally forcing upon the United States and these people are actively engaged in serious anti-Zionist work in the United States, notwithstanding the harassments and even the threat of death. And this is without any effort by the Arabs to solicit or even encourage such activism, financially or even morally! Finally, Kaminski underscores the dangerous challenge ahead of him: ” a reminder of what happened to me when they find me with six .22 slugs in the back of my head”.
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