By Chris Basten

  If you tried to figure out where all your tax dollars go (which is anywhere from $3-$7 trillion depending on who is telling the truth), you would easily go insane. The government doesn't even know what it does with all of this money (or so we are told). Billions go unaccounted for and I'm sure it goes toward our "wonderful, moral causes" that we keep hearing about. One of those "moral" projects is supporting Israel. However, once one studies our support of Israel, you will be hard-pressed to find anything moral about it.

In 1998, Rep. Bob Levigston had this to say while in Jerusalem: "Israelis need to understand that they're not the 51st state, and they certainly don't want to be treated like America's stepchild. Continued economic assistance when they're doing quite well is demeaning." Demeaning is an understatement. Estimates show that the U.S. government spends an annual $6.3 billion on Israel alone. Think of how astronomical and debilitating to our economy this is.

Of course, criticizing our ties to Israel or just the Israeli government itself is attacked by apologists as anti-Semitism. Yawn. This name-calling is older than sliced bread. Criticizing Israel is about nailing its despicable government. Being anti-American has to do with exposing the tyranny of the State.

If you condemn a country, the mainstream tends to think of it in the all-encompassing way that includes men, women, and children. They think of it in religious terms. If you don't support Israel, you are an anti-Semite. If you hate America, you are against our Judeo-Christian roots. How dare you disparage these hard-working, peaceful citizens in this way?! But this is not what is meant by anti-Israeli and anti-American wrath. Almost any time someone mentions a country, they're alluding to its government, not its people.

Nationalists have a hard time grasping this. They think excoriating a country is about completely undermining everything it stands for. They seem to reason like the Three Musketeers: "All for one, and one for all!" On the contrary, slamming America, Israel, or any other country for that matter, has to do with denouncing what their government stands for which is often brutal militarism. Criticizing a country comes at the expense of the State, not its individuals and families.

Colin Powell boldly affirmed that, "It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel." In the same breath, it is not anti-American to criticize the policies of the state of America. The United States' backing of Israel's government and economy is no less than an outrage. A third of U.S. foreign aid goes to Israel each year. This money is used to bulldoze surrounding countries' property and kill innocent people because we are good Judeo-Christians and they are bad Muslims.

I'm not going to excuse non-Israeli and non-Western governments for their atrocities either. They have retaliated in ways that are no better than their enemies. But America's empire is picking sides and exposing its own citizens to security risks that could soon look exactly like Israel. President Bush recently explained that Israel "has every right to defend itself from terror." He ended the sentence there and didn't add an important stipulation: "with our support."

The duplicity is maddening. The state of Israel, along with the American government, seems to really believe that they are innocent victims. There they were, minding their own business, when all of the sudden angry Muslim fundamentalists appeared out of nowhere and started blowing up their families and businesses for no apparent reason. It doesn't help any when our media eats this nonsense up. Palestinians and other Middle Eastern countries have grounds for their white-hot anger. This does not excuse their suicide-bombings and killing of innocent people but there are definitely reasons behind their rage.

At any rate, how else do we expect these countries to respond? We're familiar with their militant histories as it is and when we stir up the hornets' nest with sanctions and bulldozing of their property, all while referring to it as a moral imperative, it's no wonder why the blood is being shed everywhere. We're forgetting that one's brand of force is no more or less moral than another's. Slapping a Palestinian flag on tanks and guns is no different than pasting an American or Israeli flag on them. Force is evil no matter how many ribbons and bows you put on it.

Killing, torturing, and beheading are fundamentals of the State. It doesn't matter which state we're talking about either. Force does not work no matter who sponsors it. But the supporters of our "moral" American and Israeli governments, like Joseph Farah, contend that force is the only answer. Indeed, many agree with these state-supporting journalists and believe all the more that our cause really is moral and necessary. They equate war with furthering peace because the media and the State says so. They resort to calling us anti-Semites and anti-Americans because we cannot live with the atrocities of government in any hemisphere.

Giving $6.3 billion per year to a country that is economically sound on its own is contemptible enough as it is. But giving this money to further the plans of the state of Israel while it bulldozes and kills Palestinian families is unacceptable. There is nothing anti-Semitic or anti-American about saying so. A hard-working citizen in the United States should not have to be forced to give up his earnings to promote the interests of Israel, or any other country for that matter. Furthering this immorality makes America and the rest of the world a dangerous powder-keg. The American government is funding and inciting force all over the world. So when will we stop funding the force of the 51st state and calling it moral?