Miko Peled's Hatred for Israel and America

This article first appeared in New English Review.

Man Without a Country





Miko Peled is a hot-headed martial arts instructor who lives in Southern California. He is also an immigrant from Israel and son of a formal Israeli general. When he's not breaking bricks at the dojo, Miko is on a full-time campaign to destroy the nation of his birth. In fact, he is one of those dime-a-dozen speakers who show up on local college campus, invited to speak by the Students for Justice in Palestine or the Muslim Student Association, and tell his audiences what a horrible, racist, settler-colonialist country Israel is-the country of his birth, mind you. I saw him some years ago at UC Irvine when he was giving his off-the-shelf dog and pony show, and he got all in a tither because I was video-taping him. I had to inform him that he was at a public venue on a public university campus, therefore, I had every right to videotape him. (I continued to videotape.) I know other individuals who have aroused similar ire from the prickly Mr Peled when they videotaped his talks.

In Peled's own events calendar we note that he was scheduled to speak at a May 22, 2020 webinar with noted deportee Sami al Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who was linked to Middle East terror groups. After being imprisoned for a time, he was deported to Turkey where he now resides.

Now Peled is not the first immigrant to America who damns his former country. Some people come from really bad places. I don't consider Israel one of them, but if Peled disagrees that's his right. What I didn't realize until recently is that Peled is no big admirer of his adopted country-America, where he now resides.

In this recent article by Peled, he compares the recent killing of a Palestinian by Israeli police with the killing of George Floyd.

Peled writes:

"People of color in America, and particularly Black men, are hunted down by the authorities all the time. Palestinians are hunted down by Israeli authorities on a regular basis, and in both cases, it is so prevalent that it is hardly news. The name of one victim is forgotten as soon as the next is killed."

"As hard as it may be to believe, in Israeli society, there is less regard for the life and civil rights of Palestinians than there is regard for people of color in the U.S."

Then Peled gets to the meat of the matter:

"Perhaps it would be easier to understand and accept this if we stop pretending that the United States and Israel are actual democracies. Perhaps it is time to refer to both Israel and the U.S. as two violent, racist, genocidal, settler-colonial enterprises who could care less for the rights of people."

"While hatred and cruelty can be found everywhere, one can expect things to be worse when a state suffers from systemic racism and has violent tendencies. The United States and Israel suffer from systemic racism and violent tendencies and unless they are cured of these two maladies, there will be more grotesque killers like those that killed George Floyd and Iyad Halak."

First of all, I know nothing about the killing of this Palestinian man in Israel. Here is what the Jerusalem Post says about it. Indeed, on the surface, it looks like a questionable shooting and deserves a full investigation. As for George Floyd, I have commented fully on it (I have condemned the shooting) and if Mr Peled wants to know my full position on that, he can research my postings.

But here is my quandary: Poor Mr Peled, having emigrated from his country of birth, which he clearly despises to the core, now finds himself in America-which he apparently also hates. In his own words, he has said that America (like Israel) is a "violent, racist, genocidal, settler-colonial enterprise who could care less for the rights of people."

Well, I'm sorry if you don't like us, Mr Peled. At the risk of sounding like a nationalist (which I am), I would suggest you consider moving on to another country more to your liking. We don't need folks like you who wash up on our shores and spit on us. We don't need you to tell us about our racial issues. We have been struggling with them and trying to fix them  since the 1960s, according to my history book, and we know we have more to do. But we have accomplished more in that regard than any other society could. Speaking as a retired law enforcement officer, I can tell you that the Floyd case was an aberration and is not representative of 99.9% of cops in America.

So leave, Mr Peled. If that is what you really think America is, you obviously chose the wrong country to immigrate to, and you need to find another. I suggest Turkey. Then you can have all the events with Sami al-Arian you want, in person, face to face.

Of course, Peled's reply would be, "I'm not going anywhere." Of course he's not. Life here in this racist, genocidal, settler-enterprise is too good here, isn't it Mr Peled? Hypocrite.