THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 AND THE "IT'S NOT ISRAEL" CAMPAIGN | 2004-09-04
In George Orwell's 1984, when Big Brother wanted to change the official government line on some matter of history or policy, functionaries in the Ministry of Truth worked to make historical facts that contradict the new "Party Line" disappear down the "memory hole." New facts were then invented to go along with "established" history.
In today's sound-byte society full of people who have all the memory of a poodle on crack, it doesn't take a whole lot of manipulation for people to forget things. That said, most people do remember 9-11. Most people remember where they were, what they were doing, who they were with, in the same way those who were alive then remember when Kennedy was shot.
Take a moment and consider what you remember about 9-11: the crisp, blue sky; the plane crashing into the first tower, then another plane into the second; the towers one by one crumbling to the ground; the horror of watching people jump from burning buildings; reading about the dead and the search for bodies amidst the twisted rubble; the yellow-clad soot-covered firefighters and the sudden way they became heroes.
But do you remember that, in the wake of 9/11, a poll showed the huge majority of Americans (over two to one) thought that we needed to reconsider our whole slavish devotion to Israel in our foreign policy?
Do you remember how every politician and "religious leader" rushed into the "It's not Israel" campaign?
Of course you don't.
Nobody does.