On the "They're Obsessed With Us" Refrain
Craven Weasels Like Daniel Pipes Use this to Deflect and Vilify Israel's Critics
I am always disappointed to hear the plaintive refrain “they’re so obsessed with Israel,” when it has so clearly made an ideological and geopolitical impact grossly disproportionate to its actual size.
This complaint reverberates in reference to any and all unobsequious references to Israel in news media, academia, or political discourse.
Daniel Pipes, the notorious Islamophobe and shameless apologist for Israel, wrote a supremely whiny article in 1984 —published of course in pioneer neo-con Norman Podhoretz’s Commentary Magazine— in which he did somersaults trying to show that New York Times coverage of Israel’s ruthless, blatantly illegal assault on Lebanon in 1982 was wholly biased and unfair to Israel.
The offensive featured indiscriminate bombing of neighborhood after neighborhood in Beirut, killing about 15,000 civilians in the name of rooting out the P.L.O. But Pipes was only appalled by the fact that anyone would have the gall to report that Israel was the aggressor, writing:
American journalists are interested in only two topics in the Middle East: Israel and the United States. Whatever takes place that is related to these countries is amplified and broadcast to the world; whatever does not is virtually ignored.
Therein was initiated the clever tactic of deflecting focus away from Israeli mass murder and pinning it instead squarely on the media themselves for daring to break with tradition and call Israel on the carpet.
Pipes is one of an army of reprobate apologists, lobbyists, and so-called journalists who use this tactic brilliantly, turning the tables on truth-tellers, forcing them to scramble in their own defense, an act of supreme perfidy built on the flimsiest of logical fallacies — the ad hominem attack.
In fact, I am obsessed, largely because I’m still trying to ascertain how in such short order (basically 3 years) Jews could have gone from being humiliated, dehumanized and nearly obliterated to exercising exactly the same conditions upon Palestinians. It’s like they turn immediately around once the Nazi killing stops and start their own killing. This behavior can only be explained by the concept of the cycle of abuse and the repurposing and projection of one’s trauma onto another.
Although the killing starts well before ‘48, it’s hard to avoid seeing ‘48 as the pinnacle of early Zionist violence, which has only since been honed, sharpened and has metastasized.
No one is “obsessed” about this ongoing story simply for the sake of being obsessed, or because they have nothing better to do. Over the years and especially since 1967, when Israel openly defied international law it has acted as though it’s above the law, which of course it can do with impunity with the universe’s biggest enabler seated firmly (and permanently) on the UN Security Council.
Israel’s behavior is befitting of a “rogue” nation, and rogue nations garner the attention of the international world. So you can quit your whining about undue spotlight on such a small, pitiful and helpless country. It’s frankly embarrassing and insults the world’s intelligence.
Frankly, it’s like if Ted Bundy said: why is there so much undue attention on my behavior? Why is everyone looking into my past? Why is everyone trying to figure out my motivations? I mean, I’m just ONE PERSON. Why is everyone so interested in what I’ve done?
Yeah, think of Israel, and all its feckless apologists, Israel, the serial killer, totally nonplussed: why are they so OBSESSED with us??? It’s unnatural. It’s unhealthy. The attention is so disproportionate. They should report on other stuff. The focus on us isn’t fair, it isn’t right. Other countries do this kind of stuff too, and they’re so much bigger. It must be because we’re Jews, and everyone hates Jews. And everyone wants to see them fail. That must be it. Has to be. There’s just no other viable explanation.