A picture brings together Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi (right) and American Aaron Bushnell (social networking sites)

An American writer said that the United States is a country divided against itself, not only because of the war that Israel is waging in the Gaza Strip;

But also because of its contradictory view of the two incidents of self-immolation, one of which occurred a few days ago in front of the Tel Aviv Embassy in Washington, and the other in Tunis, the capital, in 2010.

A member of the editorial board of the Washington Post and its columnist, Shadi Hamed, explained that some of the reactions to US Air Force soldier Aaron Bushnell recently burning himself in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington while shouting “Free Palestine” were not limited to rejection, but also included - She was angry at what he did.

The writer commented on these reactions by saying that some people's quickness to explain Bushnell's behavior as resulting from a psychological illness suggests double standards.

He cited this as evidence by Michael Starr, in his article in the Jerusalem Post, describing the suicide incident in protest against the Gaza war as “a state of hysteria,” while journalist Mark Joseph Stern described those who commit this act as “suffering from mental disorder.”

Bouazizi

When it came to the suicide of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi by setting himself on fire on December 17, 2010, in protest against the police confiscation of his small cart - an incident that sparked the Arab Spring revolutions - no one questioned whether he was suffering from a mental illness, and even President Barack Obama He praised him at the time as a “hero,” according to the Washington Post article.

Western media rarely described Bouazizi's death as a suicide, and in the face of this double standard, writer Shadi wonders: How can one suicide incident be a heroic act, while another is considered an act of madness? Psychopathy?

The article compares Bushnell's suicide with Bouazizi's suicide, noting that the American soldier apparently thought carefully and alerted the media to it hours before carrying out his act, unlike the Tunisian street vendor whose action was in response to the authorities confiscating his goods and the police's mistreatment of him.

One critic noted that while Bouazizi was protesting against his government, Bushnell was preoccupied with a “distant ethnic and religious conflict.”

In his article, the writer believes that the American soldier has no “kinship ties” to the region, “so why does he have an overwhelming feeling about other people’s problems?”

split

This leads us - according to the author - to the existence of a fundamental division related to how the Americans interpret the war on Gaza.

According to the article, this war is not just an external conflict that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands, and it is not far away, as some analysts believe.

Shadi goes on to say that the United States is Israel's main military sponsor, providing it with the "emergency" weapons and supplies it needs to continue its war.

What is more, according to Shadi, is that the US Air Force, of which Bushnell was a soldier, provides Israel with intelligence information that helps it target a site in Gaza with intense aerial bombardment.

The columnist asserts that the United States is directly involved in a way that does not happen in any other conflicts.

Bushnell did not look at the war in Gaza as a conflict far from him. Rather, he said, “I will no longer be involved in genocide,” warning at the same time that he was about to carry out an “extremist protest” action, but he added that, compared to what people in Palestine continued to witness, “At the hands of those who occupy their land, (the protest) is not extremism at all, as our ruling elite has always accepted as normal.”

According to the Washington Post article, it may be illogical or even crazy to think about doing what Bushnell did, but it is inconceivable that Bushnell - and millions of other Americans - do not feel a growing sense of helplessness over their government's facilitation of the mass killing of unarmed people. to a big limit.

Source: Washington Post