This tragic comedy comes on the heels of an Israeli Defense Forces attack on a peaceful protest in the West Bank that left American activist Tristan Anderson in critical condition when a tear gas canister struck him in the head. Anderson and his partner, Gabrielle Silverman, were taking photographs as the protest of the security wall wound down.

According to Silverman, Anderson’s ambulance was held at a checkpoint for 15 minutes because Palestinian ambulances are never allowed to go to Israeli hospitals and an Israeli ambulance had to be driven to the border. When they were preparing to close the ambulance doors, she said, an IDF soldier blocked their path and smirked at them, refusing to move.

A San Francisco protest of this incident in front of the Israeli embassy also resulted in a scuffle between demonstrators and police.

Unfortunately, eagerness to resort to violence is commonly expressed in countless videos depicting IDF soldiers, decked out in military hardware and carrying American M-16 rifles, firing at Palestinians armed only with rocks and slingshots as American-made F-16 fighter-bombers and Apache gunship helicopters fly overhead and raze Palestinian buildings.

Palestinians have inadequate food, water and medical supplies due to Israel’s blockade, they are facing attacks on peaceful protests, and nearly 90 percent of Israel’s citizens favored the Gaza war. Selling this as decent behavior is like selling klan hoods in Harlem.

Israeli politics committed to violence a long time ago, and no amount of buffing will erase what Israel is inflicting on the Palestinian people. In America, although support for Israel remains high, my sense is that the “tit-for-tat” argument is starting to lose ground in the wake of Al Jazeera’s reported 100-to-1 casualty ratio of the Gaza invasion.

In his letter to the editor, Consider both sides regarding Israeli, Palestinian conflicts (SN 3/18), Scott Kelber responded to Joshua Kaplan’s pro-Israel letter, Think about current lives, hardships of many Israelis (SN 3/17), by saying what America’s Pro-Israel Lobby does their best to obfuscate: “Any attempt to disguise criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic is dishonest. You can oppose the actions of Israel without being anti-Semitic.”

Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former toe-sucker extraordinaire of the Jewish state, on March 4 condemned the demolishing of Palestinian settlements in East Jerusalem. You know it’s bad when Smithers is denouncing Mr. Burns.

The solution to the rocket attacks and conflict (and the image problem) is as clear as it has ever been: withdraw troops from occupied territories, lift the blockade on supplies, destroy illegal portions of the wall, recognize a Palestinian state. But Israel’s politicians have no interest in peace on those grounds.

So, Mekel is left with sending poets and artists around the world to show Israel’s softer, cultured side. He admitted $2 million wouldn’t be nearly enough, saying, “We need 50 million. We need 100 million.” Israel has a slight benefit as a predominantly white population, but South Africa couldn’t swing apartheid 20 years ago. Mekel has a better shot trying to convince the world that Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe is a peaceful democratic leader. He’d have better prospects if he took the $2 million and tried to bribe Jesus.

Drew Robert Winter is a State News guest columnist and English and journalism senior. Reach him at winterdr@msu.edu.