Doing Homework in Class: A Saga

I remember sitting in the back of my World History class, trying to work discreetly on my laptop as my teacher lectured. I’d always loved history — I still do — but AP curriculum finds a way to condense revolutions and minds at work into Powerpoints and seven-step essays. Anyway, my teacher caught me not paying attention. This wasn’t the first time or the last, so I wasn’t surprised when she asked me my opinion on the day’s discussion. I said my thoughts might hurt a few feelings and did she really want to know? She looked a little taken aback at my readiness, but honestly, I was just posturing. I had no idea what the lesson was about. She had me gauge just how offensive we were talking, and I managed to stall enough to realize my opinion on the subject truly could be pretty offensive. We were discussing the creation of Israel.

I’m not naive, and I wasn’t then. Any and all education has traces of agenda. It’s not my teacher’s fault the American government sides with Israel. But there was a certain lack of the other side of the story in that classroom and many others across America, and looking back, I think I’d have paid attention if our discussions had been more than one-dimensional. Again, this wasn’t all my teacher’s fault. American education certainly has its own brand of propaganda, but what distinguishes students of the free world from students in madrasas and China is our access to virtually unlimited information. We have an obligation to seek out perspectives, decide for themselves, and voice their opinions. Sure, I was frustrated that my peers might blindly believe everything being taught, but I wasn’t any better. I hadn’t said anything to disagree until my teacher asked. I hadn’t even been paying attention.

What happened next was really my fault. In an instance of what can only be described as very poor word choice, I said what had happened to the Israelites was natural selection. If I was running for office, the media would cut my response here, and I’d be an anti-Semitist. But since this was a classroom and not a press conference, well, that’s almost exactly what happened. Groans, boos, chaos ensued. My teacher looked at me in shock, and I tried to explain myself as fast as I could before she wrote me up.

Obviously, I didn’t mean the Holocaust was just a good way to speed up evolution. The Israelites were a mighty people back in the day, but as civilizations militarized, Israel did not. Perhaps the Israelites relied a little too much on God’s grace because they were quickly conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, each of its neighbors and beyond. Jerusalem has been taken 44 times in history with various periods of peace between each new ruler, but apparently, no amount of time was enough for the civilization to build up a strong army and effectively defend itself. So, the nation of Israel fell, seemingly forever. The Jewish people scattered throughout the world.

Israel did not adapt. They could not survive among the fittest. The Palestinians settled there, effectively defending their land until the international crusade to disrupt the laws of nature. Logic doesn’t really have mass appeal. It’s much better politics to emphasize suffering than go on a walk down memory lane, even if we were in a World History class. My Darwinian take didn’t play well. One of my classmates announced to the class that according to Michelle Wu, America shouldn’t help people suffering around the world or send struggling countries foreign aid even if it only takes up one percent of the federal budget because it interferes with natural selection.

That’s exactly what I think, and I hope I said so (My memory cuts out a little here). People throw around one percent like it’s an inconsequential figure, but in terms of the federal budget, one percent is $38 billion. $38 billion for Americans who need help right here at home, who are crying out for secure borders, quality education, and safe streets. No, I do not think we should be giving away tens of billions of dollars to governments around the world, much of which does nothing but add to the pork barrel of corruption and bureaucracy off the backs of suffering citizens in impoverished countries. Aid goes out in loans, yes, but to repay these loans, governments raise taxes to unimaginable levels, choking off any capital generated by the working class or small businesses. Big companies that salivate at the idea of cheap, eager labor would never move to these places that need jobs the most; taxes are just too high. Our misplaced goodwill often does more harm than good.

Where does our goodwill go in the first place? Which countries receive foreign aid? Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda make up half of America’s top ten. Countries lacking infrastructure and stability largely due to constant strife, ethnic or religious. Imperialism did this to them. The Europeans split their continent up like a pie and left centuries of conflict in their wake. They did the same in Central and South America with America playing a crucial role, South Asia, the Pacific. They disrupted the natural selection of developing nations continents away, stunting their growth, taking their resources, disrespecting their borders, inciting constant war seen to this day. What has happened now in Palestine? The same old powers, now presided over by America, have pushed two opposing peoples together once again because one group says the land is its birthright, expecting everyone to just make nice and thrive. It’s value signaling through modern imperialism. Think the foreign aid argument doesn’t hold up with rich and successful Israel? Israel is the third-largest recipient in American foreign aid, taking in 3.2 billion worth of American dollars, more than each of the African countries. Developed countries and America especially love to declare themselves the moral authorities of the entire world. If we are going to insist on forcing everyone to do what we say, couldn’t we at least not repeat our mistakes over and over?

Here’s the simplest argument against the creation of Israel: people already lived there, people whose religious beliefs and monuments clashed greatly with Jewish beliefs and monuments. I can’t really fathom how a group of world leaders came together and decided this was a good idea, but I can’t change the past. The reality of our present, however, is just as frustrating. The left never fail to drag the gun lobby, big pharma, and oil interests in their attacks against the right, but the true benefactor of American politics is the pro-Israel base. This particular interest group’s Congressional bench is miles deep and has financial power to the tune of $22 million in a year. President Trump’s campaign dollars increased significantly after his promise to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The Democratic Majority for Israel emphasized Democrats’ strong Israel ties and threatened other “discordant voices” to fall in line. Many associate the pro-Israel lobby with the right, but many top recipients of AIPAC money are Democrats. In a world where the right has guns, pharma, big business while the left has unions and the environmental lobby, Israel interests are the common thread between the two parties.

It makes no sense. For the small-government Republicans, our military foreign aid stresses our budget and widens our deficit with no real American interests in that region. For the humanitarian Democrats, the Israeli government is everything but humanitarian. Either way, it’s just another example, and a major one, of interest groups controlling our government. At some point, it has to stop.

Oh, by the way, in the end, I wasn’t written up, but I did get a good talking to. I remember being whispered about for a little while. I remember being told nicely to watch my mouth, or I’d be in trouble come college admissions time. My teacher never called on me again.

- MW