Regarding Our Complicity! Part I

The issue of complicity often comes up when the US engages or allows its imperial outposts to engage, directly or indirectly, in violence. That could be when the US invades other countries or carries out long distance attacks, killing civilians, destroying infrastructure. But also when the US sends a green light to its partners who help her maintain political and economic hegemony to indulge in similar behavior. The simplest reason is that the US is often mistaken by its residents as a democracy, only. It does have a democratic make-up, but besides being a superpower, it's also an empire and for that logical reason alone, its mainstream media turns itself into an extended arm of the US foreign policy. Look no further than the lies made up by the neocons, our political and military ruling elite before we invaded Iraq. If it weren't for the extra efforts made by New York Times, Fox and CNN among other conservative and neoliberal media outlets and their foot soldiers to create a prowar consensus and/or neutralize a popular antiwar movement, we might not have the blood of millions of innocent Iraqis staining our fangs. Journalists had already looked at how outlets like PBS/KQED (pseudo public broadcasting enterprise) would have on their talk shows two conversative Republicans and one or two conservative Democrats to present a fair and politically balanced set up. And people were more than happy to be fooled. The charade of fair journalism has continued to work, albeit with destructive consequences for the global south and other disadvantaged people, not to mention our bruised, angry Mother Earth.
   Continuing with a similar tactic, recently, Fox network's intellectually infirm Sean Hannity had on his show Cornel West and Alan Dershowitz discussing the tragic loss of men, women and children at the beginning of the new cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, the occupier and the occupied, while the host playing clearly on the side of the occupier and missing the point that victims are seldom passive, who can and will strike back and commit acts of violence, too, a la Nat Turner, to cite one example from the page of African American history. Many readers of the world history would, or should, know the watershed event often described by two names: 1857 War of Independence and Rebellion of 1857, depending on the points of view of the colonialists and the colonized. The uprising against the British was brutally crushed, but before that the natives, too, committed acts of brutality towards the British, including women and children. The great of poet of the time and resident of Delhi, Ghalib mourns and condemns as such in his letters. To assume that the colonized/occupied/brutalized will not retaliate or strike back or commit murder of civilian population stems from our racist tendencies to view the defeated as incapable of fighting or writing back.
   Now back to the pairing of Mr. West and Mr. Dershowitz. Both are religious, to begin with, but fair enough since they represent two opposing poles of American political landscape. Now, both academics, but Mr. Dershowitz has been accused of plagiarism by Norman Finkelstein in a very well-known encounter on Democracy Now. You can watch the entire exchange here.

Scholar Norman Finkelstein Calls Professor Alan Dershowitz’s New Book On Israel a “Hoax”.
   Let's backtrack a bit. Norman Finkelstein had discovered after a thorough reading  of Joan Peter's book
From Time Immemorial was a complete hoax. In a very informative article, Prof. Chomsky writes about it here:

The Fate of an Honest Intellectual The Chomsky article is also informative in that it fleshes the complicity of our academic culture with regards to perpetuating lies surrounding the Israeli occupation of Palestine. So, the question arises why Fox and Sean Hannity would invite a plagiarist!? For a simple reason, perhaps? Because he, the network, the system are complicit in the suffering and dispossession of an indigenous people. Having a gullible citizenry also helps.

   Mainstream media outlets are business enterprises and one can understand their moral bankruptcy. Now let's turn our attention to an institution that's revered by many, partly for its non-profit posture. Our public libraries! San Francisco Public Library carries 3 copies of Joan Peters From Time Immemorial, by and large seen as a hoax. One copy for the record's sake would've sufficed. Worldcat database shows over 1500 holdings across the US and beyond. Only one copy in SFPL of Norman Finkelstein's book Image and reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, which debunks the book by Peters. Worldcat shows arout 870 copies. Now look at the book that was plagiarized from a hoax: The Case of Israel by Dershowitz. SFPL has 3 copies, not including 1 copy for Large Print, whereas 1 would've sufficed, alas, for record's sake. Worldcat shows at least 1500. Many of the holdings are by academic libraries. Now let's turn out attention to a wonderful service most public libraries offer, Link+, serving public library users in California and, I believe, parts of Nevada. Peter's book: 15 copies. Finkelstein's book: 5 copies. Dershowitz's book: 30 copies.

What do you think?

Peace and justice!