Quick! Think of some of the things your tax money funds. You thought schools, public transportation and social security, didn’t you? What you may not have realized is that American taxpayer money also funds ethnic cleansing in the Middle East.

Sure, the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are complex, but one thing is clear: between the human rights violations, the apartheid and the expansionism, Israel’s leadership is morally bankrupt. Of course, as the “police force” of the world, our great nation has taken action in one of the ways it knows best: throwing wads of money at the problem.

The United States gives several billions of dollars a year to the IDF so they can buy laser-guided missiles for “self-defense” (that is, “protection” from the dozens of heavily-armed infants they kill each month). Perhaps the most unsettling thing about Israel is its proclivity to racism, and, following that to its logical conclusion, aforementioned ethnic cleansing. Israel’s recent aggression in the Gaza Strip is proof.

Allow me to provide the following disclaimer: in no way should anti-Zionism be equated with anti-Semitism. Distaste for the nation of Israel does not necessarily imply distaste for Jews or Judaism. In the same way American civil rights activists placed great faith in the idealism that their country embodied despite their dissent, it is possible and important to question Israel while respecting its heritage, even as an American Jew or Israeli citizen.

If most Jews took the time to research the history of the conflict in a historical context, they would find that their religious principles even oppose the current actions of the Knesset. The Jewish people have an emphasized responsibility when it comes to the peace-making process. Their sentiments can make or break international politics—especially those living in the United States; it’s crucial that they make their voice rise above the insidious Zionist lobbies that bribe our politicians on an annual basis.

What many fail to realize is that before the Balfour Declaration was drafted, South America, Uganda and even Alaska were proposed as possible sites for a future Jewish state. The reluctance to settle anywhere else but Palestine came down to two words: Eretz Yisrael, Hebrew for “Land of Israel” in its religious context; the holy right. While the persecution of the Jewish people certainly warrants protection, it’s clear that this conflict was ignited by the far-right Jewish community, who insisted on building a home on top of another’s with no regard to human rights.

Israel has no business in Palestine, at least not in this millennium. The bottom line is that those spearheading the Zionist agenda wanted a Jewish state filled with Jews. If there are more Palestinians than the “chosen race” in Israel, what sort of Jewish state would it be? In fact, Menachem Ussishkin, a notable Zionist, claimed in 1938 before the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency that, “There is no hope that this new Jewish state will survive to say nothing of developing, if the Arabs are as numerous as they are today."

He was right: the birthrate for Palestinians was then and is now greater than the birthrate and immigration rate of Israeli Jews combined. It was at this point the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist organization who later became a branch of the IDF, was formed to do what terrorist groups tend to do—terrorize—in this case, the Palestinian families living in Israel. This, compounded with the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, accounts for the countless displaced Palestinians either living in squalor in the occupied territories or in Arab refugee camps.

In this context, the motivation for the recent aggression in the Gaza Strip becomes clear. Israeli leaders patiently await rocket launches from Palestinian territories, hoping for new justification to carry out what they have always wanted—the removal of the Palestinian people from “their” land.

Provocative incitements by Israeli religious and political authorities are a testament to this mentality. Gilad Sharon, the son of the former prime minister Ariel Sharon, wrote in his blog: “[We need to] flatten all of Gaza.” Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai added that “we must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure including roads and water.”

Recent developments in the UN have granted the Palestinian people state recognition and with it an end to active hostilities in the region (a preemptive move by the Israelis to garner international support in the required vote to admit Palestine as a non-member observer state). Israeli leadership has responded to this development poorly to say the least: more predatory housing construction for, you guessed it, the Holy Land’s finest chosen ones: Israeli Jews.

Israel has shown its true colors: the Western world is slowly waking up to find Palestinian bodies strewn left and right and just one person with blood on their hands: their child, Israel. Plans for new Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory have Western leaders worried—Britain has summoned the Israeli ambassador to voice concerns over the move. International political leaders remain apprehensive; this is a turning point on which the future of Israel and her insidious motives hinge precariously.

Opinions articles represent the views of the author only and do not reflect the views of Boston College or Gavel Media as a whole.

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