American Colonialism and Support for the Jewish State

Manifest Destiny. Another word for imperialism.

One of the reasons why Israel maintains strong support in the United States - well, used to anyway - is that the American founding narrative is similar to the Zionist settler myth.

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The United States was settled by pioneering Europeans who were moved by a strong belief in God that nothing else but Manifest Destiny put them on the land and that it was their duty to tame the new expanse. Zionist mythology argues the same: European Jewish settlers were pioneers also moved by a belief that Providence wanted them to claim the land and use their abilities to "make the desert bloom." The American settlers also argued that they were creating a new civilization and that the Native Americans were simply uncivilized nomads with no rights to the land they had cultivated for years.

This nearly identical founding story makes Americans identify with Israel. Israel is seen as the nation establishing Western civilization in the Middle East. This identification can be seen in the words of Texas Gov. Rick Perry in his visit to Israel:

Besides the Gaza-Mexico comparison, he drew a parallel between Texas' shrine to freedom and an Israeli mountaintop fortress where Jewish zealots held out against a Roman siege before committing mass suicide.

"The comparison between Masada and the Alamo was not lost on me," he said, recalling his first visit to Israel. "We're talking about two groups of people who were willing to give up their lives for freedom and liberty."

President Lyndon B. Johnson, also a Texan, once remarked that Israelis are the "Texans of the Middle East." The analogy makes perfect since. The conquest of Texas was one of the most imperialistic things the United States ever did. American settlers began to settle in Mexico's Texas but they, like Zionists in the Holy Land, did not settle to live as equals with the natives but to one day claim the land as their own. The Alamo battle was not some fight for "freedom and liberty" but simply a fight for imperial conquest. The Mexicans were fighting for their country that American settlers want to simply steal. The Alamo is a symbol of imperialism, but the White Man also crafts clever myths to justify his immorality.

Manifest Destiny was not benign expansion of America's borders, but the violent deposition of millions of Native Americans. Both the American and Zionist settlement resulted in the ethnic cleansing of the native people and the wholesale theft of their land. And both justified it by claiming they were "God's Chosen People." Understanding America's own history and its parallels with that of Israel is key to understanding American identification with Israel.

But while the United States has moved passed being a White Supremacist nation with all people accorded equal rights, and the tragedy of the Native Americans is taught to all school children; Israel still clings to an ever more dogmatic Jewish supremacy and not only is the tragedy of the Palestinian people not taught in schools and denied but the Israeli Knesset is seeking to ban public mention of that tragedy with punishment being three years in jail. The United States has joined the civilized world while Israel still clings to the despotic, racist, destructive and grotesque nationalism of times past.