The mirror is cracking: America's reflection in Israel's wars

The fact that the US-Israel attacks on Iran have, first and foremost, derailed US-Israel relations is the most significant development for both countries since World War II. Until now, the hidden face of these relations had always been a source of stories about the dominance of mysterious forces. When mysterious forces were mentioned, Jewish families came to mind, as they are the visible face of global capital. In fact, many people shared the belief that the world was governed by certain families. And indeed, the events themselves were extremely mysterious. The "USS Liberty incident," which occurred during the Six-Day War in 1967, was one such event. Israeli warplanes bombed the US ship for 75 minutes. The deaths and injuries from the bombing were ignored by the US. The matter was quietly swept under the rug, and only much later was a single book published about this mysterious incident. Its author was a soldier who had been on the ship. Even Israel's bombing of a US ship could not derail US-Israel relations. But after the two countries' joint attack on Iran, these relations are about to be derailed for the first time. The tensions and verbal sparring between them are also allowing the mystery to dissipate.

One of the most important books published in recent times to explain US-Israel relations bears the signature of Amy Kaplan. The book, titled Our American Israel, has the subtitle: The Story of an Entangled Alliance. The title can be understood as "Our American Israel." The subtitle can be translated as "the story of a complex alliance." In this article, I will only discuss the introduction of the book. The author says that Zionism belongs to the US and, by extension, the Anglo-Saxons. In fact, the book even states that Zionism is part of American identity. The following sentences are worth dwelling on:

"This special relationship has never been confined to the United States and Israel alone. From the beginning, it has also encompassed the Palestinian people—even in mainstream narratives that deny their existence or in pervasive images that render them invisible to American eyes. The dominant narratives that identify Israelis with Americans have always been challenged by counter-narratives, both from within and outside the United States. The most popular American story of Israel's founding, as told in the novel and film Exodus, models itself on the American Revolution as an anti-colonial war of independence against the British. In contrast, a counter-narrative champions the Palestinian perspective, which sees Israel's founding as a colonial project supported by Western imperial powers."

The phrase "the identification of Israelis with Americans" reminded me of Edward Said's analyses. The following sentence is also quite important in terms of defining the relationship between the two countries: "The parallel histories of settler colonialism have formed the basis of America's identification with Israel. The destiny of both nations is to possess the Promised Land, as promised by God." The author says that the concept of the chosen people stems from this special mission. "Both nations were initially founded by European colonists who displaced native peoples and seized and transformed their lands in the process of creating a new immigrant nation." Amy Kaplan goes on to say that both nations "deny their own histories of conquest." The "civilizing mission" played a major role in Americans forgetting their history regarding the indigenous peoples of North America. Israelis, too, have believed that by including Palestinians in the category of "animals," they were carrying out a colonial project in the name of Western civilization. From these sentences, we understand that Israel serves as a distorted mirror for Americans. This is precisely what we meant when we said that Zionism is an ideology belonging to Americans and Anglo-Saxons.

The fact that the attacks on Iran did not result in success was the last straw. Israel had already failed to achieve its goals in Gaza, and the genocidal attacks had dragged on for far too long. This situation caused the mirror metaphor to take on a different function. Now, for the first time, Americans are beginning to see their own reality reflected in Israel's mirror. In the last article, I pointed to the growing suspicion toward Zionist ideology. The words of US Vice President James David Vance can be evaluated within this framework of doubt. Because for them, the problem is not merely the failures of the Zionist Israelis. Ideological doubt could also bring with it a questioning of American history. Because the mirror has now begun to tell them the truth.