Shameful Hypocrisy of the West

by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

22 Apr 09 | CASMII

Abraham Lincoln described a hypocrite as a man who murdered both his parents… and pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. The vile and shameful hypocrisy of the West in order to accommodate Israel has no boundaries – with no end in sight.

Eight years ago, Israel demanded that the United States boycott the 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), better known as Durban I owing to its location in Durban, South Africa. The conference dealt with the most basic of human rights in addition to the issues of slavery and the plight of Palestinians. At that time, the U.S. and Israel had walked out abhorring the language of racism. Yet, the Israeli government had no qualms about working with the Apartheid government of South Africa – without reservation, and while the world boycotted this racist regime, the Israeli government provided them with the technology to build the most heinous weapon known to mankind – the nuclear bomb.

In 2008, America’s first black president was elected. Peoples around the world shared America’s vision of ‘Hope” and ‘Change”. The President-elect’s multi-ethnicity prompted many to claim him as one of their own: the name Hossein, the namesake of a Shi’a prophet, pleased the Iranians. The Arab Bedouins in northern Israel believed he was related to them. Arab Moslems could relate to an American president whose name meant ‘blessing’ in Arabic. Mr. Obama himself had told the Jewish community that his name meant ‘lightning’ in Hebrew. As candidate Obama, he had promised AIPAC something that Mr. Bush would not dream of doing. In spite of numerous resolutions against Israel for its occupation of East Jerusalem, Mr. Obama declared there should be an undivided Jerusalem, raising even the eyebrows of some in the Bush Administration.

It comes as no surprise that the Obama administration boycotts Durban II with a few other “Western” countries in tow – at the behest of Israel. What is offensive to those who appreciate equality and abhor racism is the hypocrisy of a country whose Prime Minister declared openly: “[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs.”-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, “Begin and the ‘Beasts,”‘ (New Statesman, June 25,1982). Did any “Western” country protest or find this racist remark to be vile and shameful? >>>

About these ads