Like Trump supporters, the US’s blind loyalty to Israel is sustained by an alternate reality and selective rendition of facts.
The United States went through a serious test of its democracy under Donald Trump. It is no secret that the Republican Party has a cult-like devotion to Trump. Those in the party that display rationality with regards to facts or the law, or worse, do not sign on to Trump’s repeated lies, face political sanctions. Many Americans are numbed and baffled by this irrational obsequiousness.
For decades, Palestinians have felt that the US political support for Israel has the same irrational, partisan and self-serving zeal as the Trump loyalists, the difference being that it is present regardless of political party.
Despite facts or international law, the US position relies on one supposed truth: Israel is a democracy, an innocent victim that merits unqualified support.
International law presents a recurring and unsteady tension between law and power. Does international law seek to uphold the rule of law as a universal ideal or does it impose power to further parochial politics? The predominant theory strives for universal applicability and the entrenching of the rule of law as an imperative applicable to all nations. Power must bend to law.
The US approach to Israel, in comparison, follows “might makes it right”…..more
