Overlooking the Obvious

Internet poster Hal Straus asks, "In response to the Christmas Day attempt by a passenger to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight...What steps do you think officials or passengers should take to improve airport security?"

The most obvious answer is to ask ourselves what we've done to inspire such hatred in the first place. In my view, it's because we are the biggest hypocrites on the planet.

We invaded Iraq allegedly because of its violation of a UN resolution. Yet we turn a blind eye to Israel's violation of some 66 UN resolutions. We "liberate" an oil-rich country from its evil dictator (causing the deaths of 150,000 of its people in the process), yet we embrace other evil dictators and ignore their human rights abuses (e.g., Saudi Arabia, China) when it suits us, all the while touting our values and morality to the rest of the world. We vehemently condemn Iran's budding nuclear program, while an unstable, terror-ridden country like Pakistan harbors bombs with our blessing.

But the most egregious of our hypocrisies is our unconditional support of Israel, even as its government commits illegal occupation, apartheid, war crimes and atrocities against the Palestinian people. Our financial backing of Israel's war machine -- used to inflict oppression, suffering and death on Palestinians -- fuels the agenda of terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and enables them to recruit followers, who perceive their enlistment as a moral obligation, delivering justice to the unjust.

All the clever, high-tech security measures in the world won't be enough to protect us, as long as we continue to ignore the root of the problem and bow to the demands of Israel and its AIPAC lobby at the expense of our national security.

America's biggest terrorist threat is the hatred it generates by uneven foreign policies and unconditional support of Israel.

Wake up, Washington.


Photo: Holocaust and Gaza