IT is foolish to collapse the character of the American leaders with the make-up of the American people. We should all in this world admire the courage of an American named Edward Snowden. This young man is what symbolises the greatness of the American people. We should all admire the courage of Chelsea Manning. It is Americans like her that causes the world to admire the American people.

What Snowden did, what Manning did, what millions of university students are doing as I write now is what makes the American people so great. We may resent or dislike or hate some terrible legislators in the 50 States of the US and in the federal legislature but Senators like Tom Cotton who wants Israel to bomb Gaza out of existence, a sentiment shared by the Governor of New York, do not represent the essence of what constitutes the American character.

The US is a nation very different in positive and negative, and frightening contexts from the rest of the world, an analysis of which that cannot be explained here. Electoral politics drive State and Federal politicians to glorify a banal, non-achieving, ordinary, small country with a small population named Israel. In a world of 200 independent countries, Israel is just another country without anything special about it. In fact, a special place with special people is the CARICOM family of nation.

What Jamaica has and what Jamaica has achieved, Israel would be unable to match in hundreds of years to come. There is absolutely nothing special about a country of 8,000 square miles with eight million people. Why Israel has been transported onto the world stage is because of Jewish money in electoral politics in the US.

If you want to become an elected State or federal politician, you have to be pro-Israel. If you criticise Israel, as the saying goes – cat eat your dinner. American politicians then pander to Israel because big Jewish corporations contribute substantially to their electoral success.

On the world stage, European leaders side with the American government because the security and financial edifice of the European nations are intricately connected to the US. The exception is Ireland and Scotland. There is no support for Israel in those two nations because the leaders there do not depend on Jewish money to get them elected.

Do you know that Barack Obama’s campaign manager in his first term campaign was a Jewish man who fought in the 1967 war between Israel and the Arab states – Emmanual Rahm? After his victory, Obama made Rahm his Chief of Staff. Rahm brought in substantial donations for Obama’s campaign from Jewish corporations.

The point is leadership of the West and their populations have divergent views on Israel and what Israel is doing in Gaza. The Italian government asked that the population to show respect for the Holocaust anniversary six weeks ago but on that very day there were gigantic pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Rome.

The German Chancellor said that Israel is Germany’s reason of state. Does the German population embody that emotion? I doubt it. In London, the pro-Palestinian protesters are relentless.
We come now to the beauty of the American people. There are widespread pro-Palestinian demonstrations on major American campuses with the police invading the campuses and breaking up the protests. A few hundred students have been arrested. The question is – can these demonstrations morph into the anti-Vietnam emotions that overran American campuses?

For a select few in Guyana that like to talk about undemocratic government, they should take a look what the police are doing in the US. They are invading the ambience of peaceful protest and beating and arresting students. Please take a look at the videos to see how police power is exercised in, of all places, the United States.

You look at those humongous outpourings of sympathy for the Palestinians, you get the feeling that Biden’s re-election has receded. There is a part of the human soul called the “conscientised being.” Here is where the ultimate instinct of decency resides.

None of those demonstrators like Trump and will vote for him. But the conscientised part of the soul will prevent them voting for Biden. This is how the conscientised part of the soul will put it – “I don’t like Trump but my conscience would not allow me to vote for Biden.” If I were an American citizen, I would have embraced that sentiment. Conscience guides you to have a clean mind.

Looking at those students reminded me of the counter-culture era where the students turned Western countries on their head. It is so edifying to watch the American people denounce genocide in Gaza. Whatever we think of their leadership, there is beauty, value, purpose and philosophy in the American people. They are great folks.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.