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Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Israelis watch MSM distorted coverage of Gaza

 I have nothing to add to this article from Jewish Currents that describes the media coverage Israelis receive. This is something Americans have been exposed to since the Vietnam War.

What the Israeli Public Doesn't See

Monday, January 22, 2024

The right to exist

 The "right to exist" theme causes great anxiety in Israel because of the might-makes-right nature of the creation of the state. Of course the US is also a product of might making right but the crucial difference is that native-Americans are recognized as full citizens in addition to having some (not much) of their ancestral lands reserved for them.

Israel from the beginning had no intention of any role for the Palestinian Arabs beyond menial labor, much like the case of South Africa where blacks were welcome to come work but had to leave when the day was done. That has not changed and the idea of the land being exclusively for Jews is as strong as ever with the ongoing expansion expected (Israel has no official borders and has always been and continues to be in an official state of emergency).


It is this adamant exclusivity that sticks in the craw of the world and it is testimony to the power of the Israel lobby and its associated wealth applied to the corrupt US campaign scene that has Uncle Sam, once known as Mr. Liberty and Justice for All in a trance for Israel.


If Israel is let off the hook by the ICJ, nobody will be surprised just as nobody is surprised that the UN is constitutionally unable to fulfil its purpose. The ICJ will not thereby be delegitimized, only seen as ineffectual by design like the UN itself. All the testimony gathered will not be erased from history.

The world can easily see what is taking place in Gaza and is not fooled by Israel painting Oct 7 as a continuation of the holocaust as if atrocious behavior toward the Palestinians over the history of the country has not had some relation to Oct 7.


The holocaust is a human rights disaster that Israel sees as an exclusive possession and shield against any complaints over what it has done or is doing. Israelis have a rat in the skull on this that is not present in a large number of American Jews now on the forefront of objection to the Gaza slaughter. The fact is that as an exclusively Jewish state dedicated to living (and expanding) by the sword, Israel truly is illegitimate and will be until the natives have a place in it.

North Korea, to me, doesn't hold a candle to Israel as a threat to the world because Israelis are ever-ready to see a "second holocaust" at any time and would not hesitate to launch nuclear weapons with the idea of "never again" even if the world must be brought down. Netanyahu truly sees himself leading the forces of light against those of darkness, no matter how heavily armed is Israel or how helpless are the Palestinians. The US has foolishly pumped up this Israeli inflatable by mindlessly fueling it over decades in fear of the political consequences of not doing so. 1967 was a miracle from God for Israel after which all would be possible and Uncle Sam, the God of military power, has continually fed the mania.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Chicago city council puts Palestinians in their place

A proposal was put before the Chicago City Council for a resolution calling for the end of the slaughter in Gaza (going on now for months). It was defeated in a way that defies reason; that "holocaust remembrance day" is coming soon. This call to stop the resolution was presented by the only Jewish member of the council.

Does this make any sense to you? How does one thing have anything to do with the other in a way that one should stop action on the other?


This says that to pass the resolution would in some way be disrespectful of the remembrance day. How could this be? A commemoration of an event long gone in which millions died denies calling for the cessation of a current mass killing? To the contrary, the former cries out for the latter.


What this asks is that people think of the Jews who died long ago in a different category to the Palestinians being killed by Jews who are Israelis right now. The key is the attack on Oct. 7 which has by Israeli PM Netanyahu been equated with the holocaust. In other words, think of Oct. 7 and pause on the resolution because Oct 7 is unjustifiable while the slaughter in Gaza is something less.


The terrible truth is that Zionists have claimed sole ownership of the holocaust and, blinded by self-righteousness, completely miss the true lesson of that horror - that human beings can too easily disregard the humanity of other human beings and destroy them without hesitation or limit.


The holocaust is not the possession of one people, but of all of us. It is testimony that too many Israelis quite honestly see nothing wrong with what they are doing or have done to the Palestinians so immersed are they in victimhood. This rat in the skull was present from the beginning in Israel and thanks to the United States has been nourished to the point where it is now in full bloom.


The emotional appeal of Israel

Naturally it is politics, not justice or morality, that strongly influences how ICJ judges will decide on Israel's genocide. Exactly the same reason is behind the impotence of the UN. Germany, still racked with guilt over the holocaust, is expected to side with Israel, when the real lesson of “never again” is that no people should exterminate another people, in whole or in part, which is clearly what Israel is doing. Germany looks at the past rather than what is happening now in order to decide on what is happening now. How things will look is all important, not the slaughter of tens of thousands of the faceless.

This is exactly what Israel wants all but its antagonist(s) of the moment to be blinded by and it has worked well. Israel does not want its citizens to be called Israelis, but Jews, for this very reason, to maintain the status of victimhood even when slaughtering those helpless to defend themselves.

Suppose you were on the street and you heard someone shout “They’re killing the Nigerians!” and compare it to how you would react emotionally if instead someone shouted “They’re killing the Jews!” Isn’t simply reading that repellent and evocative? There is no comparison because of all that is known about the holocaust, precisely the reason that so many states have made it law that the holocaust be taught before high school in American public schools. Who knows or cares about Nigerians?

The plain fact is that Jews are no more or less human than any other group. Praise is in order for good deeds and condemnation in order for bad deeds. But, here again, imagine someone saying “the Nigerians were condemned by the ICJ!” vs “the Jews were condemned by the ICJ!” Our emotions respond to what we know about history. Americans know nothing about Nigerians or Nigeria, they know, or at the very least have heard about Jews, Judaism, the Bible, the holocaust, the plucky “story of Israel” that is entirely a tale that Israelis want Americans to hear, they have seen movies with Jews and about Jews, produced by Jews, they have heard stories about Jews, plays about Jews, TV series about the holocaust and they know Jews as neighbors and public figures. Howard and Sarah Greenblatt down the street have been to Israel and they loved it. Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis are just two examples of the glitterati who were Jews. Wow, wasn’t Spartacus a great movie! How about beautiful Natalie Portman and Gal Gadot, not only is Gal a Jew but an Israeli.

And the Palestinians? They are just more crazy Arabs, violent, prone to using terror, suicide bombers, Arabs killed a bunch of Americans in Iraq, hit the US on 9/11 and most of all, though one or two might own a quickie mart nearby, are not neighbors, nor public figures, nor featured in media except in stereotypical roles. If you want to see the very worst of this, view the opening scene of the old movie “Cannonball Run II” that could not be more offensively bigoted, under the thin cover of humor, with Ricardo Montalban as an Arab Sheik. It is extremely hard to watch. The Nazis practiced such open bigotry against Jews and we can be thankful that against Jews it would not be tolerated in the US, but with Arabs, who will object?

All this exposure to one group in positive ways and to another solely in negative ways. Is it any surprise who Joe Biden said “we” are standing with before ignoring Congress and illegally committing our military? I have no doubt many ignorant Americans cheered at that and now we are the invincible sword of Israel (the force of light against the force of darkness) in the war of a foreign country against groups (with more likely to come) that did not declare war on us and were not out to get us, but will be in response to our attacks.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

The philosophy that drives my pro-Palestinian view

POINT ONE: I do not capitalize the word holocaust deliberately. It has nothing to do with questioning what happened or belittling it.

For Zionists, it is intentional that the word be capitalized because to them it represents something unique that justifies their claim to be unique along with what they have done and do in Palestine. For them, Jews are victims of the rest of humanity. This can never change. As PM Netanyahu has put it, "we must always live by the sword". For Jews the other will always be the aggressor. Humanity is divided between Jews and all others. In this cosmic injustice, Jews can never be anything other than defenders and in the right whatever means are chosen for this assumed defense.

This is the reason that the 20:1 kill ratio (Pals/Israelis) is not of real note to Israelis, nor is the destruction of Gaza. It is an imperative. Six million dead Jews say this, so Israel claims, without being able to actually hear what the dead might say. No non-Jew can question this in spite of many living Jews vehemently saying, "Not in Our Name" over much of the history of Israel up to right now.

This is way Netanyahu has said with a straight face that we are witnessing the forces of light (Israel) vs the forces of darkness (the Palestinians but really all the Arabs, the Turks, the Iranians and any others opposed to what Israel does). He is gracious enough to include the US as an ally on the side of light.

I want to look at Oct 7 in a way you may be able to understand by using a scene from the movie, Sophie's Choice, as powerful a flick as any I have seen. Sophie is a resident of a concentration camp. She is fortunate to have obtained a job as maid for the Nazi commandant. He has a family and a nice home with a lawn and garden. His children play happily in this comfortable life that answers all the needs one could want including parental love and complete security.

But there is a gate on the yard of the commandant's house. When Sophie leaves the house and opens the gate she is presented with the horror of the death camp. Nothing but the wall at the edge of the commandant's yard separates the ideal life from hell. Of course this is no secret to the commandant, yet he is not bothered by it in the least...one place is home, one place is work.

On Oct 7 we saw this same scene, the carefree, delightful music festival for those with clear consciences on one side of the Gaza fence and the hell of the Gaza prison on the other. The big difference is the Gazans, in the form of HAMAS, had managed to build a capability to attack those living the good life seemingly without any fear of what was right next door to which they had no objection.

Oct 7 happened. What has been topic one for the Israelis and in the US? The horror of the day or the horror of the years, the decades, the entire lives of those on the other side of the fence? It is no accident that we are told "this is the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust!" while the unlimited killing and destruction continues as I write, 20 times the loss of life, with the US supplying the means without question. Yet Americans for the most part don't see anything but "our ally" under attack. The Nazi commandant from the movie would understand this if ever any group of prisoners could storm his hearth and home. His response would be a duplication of what Israel is doing right now.


POINT TWO: The taking of the land

Right now there is a continuing uproar in the United States over the outrage of illegal immigration. The Mexicans and other groups must be stopped at the border using any means necessary, a wall, arrest and imprisonment. This influx cannot be tolerated. Democrats and Republicans both agree something must be done...this about an influx of people who in number do not make up even a fraction of a percentage of the US population.

But the Palestinians are wrong to have objected to an unlimited number of Jews coming to Palestine. They are wrong to have turned to violence against Jews. They are wrong to think this process should not continue right up to the present with plans for it to go on indefinitely as they are herded into a corner in Gaza. It is an outrage that some Palestinians have turned to violence resulting in JEWS BEING KILLED! and we should all think of the holocaust.

Now the Jews who have immigrated to Palestine with the intent of becoming a majority of the population everywhere in Palestine are not the same as the immigrants trying to get into the US. These people at the US/Mexican border simply want a better life, any life at all compared to what they have known.

Not one of them is thinking of turning the US into Mexico, of replacing English with Spanish, of ejecting the present non-Latino citizens of the US, of depriving such citizens of their civil rights, of tearing down what has been built in the US and replacing it with what the immigrants want to build, of getting rid of all English place-names and passing a law the puts English beneath Spanish as the national language, of claiming the US as their rightful homeland (though that is true enough), of banning the display of the American flag, of taking all firearms away from non-Latinos. I could go on and on in this truth telling.

I rest my case. You be the judges. Most Americans, completely ignorant had long ago come down on the side of Israel, those people "just like us" but the Oct 7 attack has thrown open wide a door to reveal Israel as its true, unvarnished self and the sight is not appealing. Just possibly justice might be served at least in some way, if only partial, for a long standing horror of death and dispossession.


PS...I recall talking with a Jewish woman years ago who had just returned from Israel. It was at a meeting of JVP where people were telling of their experiences there. This woman told of walking in Jerusalem when she saw an armed Israeli policewoman hit an elderly Arab woman with the butt of her rifle.

This visitor walked up to the Israeli and said "I just saw what you did. Why did you do that?" The response was "It's just an Arab". Note the use of the word "it" for a human being.

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Is it true that there are two sides with a balance between them?

I write in very late December of 2023 as the Israeli slaughter in Gaza is continuing while the US stands by supplying anything needed for Israel to continue the project.

A man whose commentaries I admire, Murtaza Hussein, posted an essay in which he said he believes there is a balance between Israel and the Palestinians, that violence is not the answer and he is reluctant to take sides. I posted my disagreement which follows...


Murtaza your opening is deeply moving, but with all due respect I believe you are wrong in attempting to make equivalent the situation of Israelis and Palestinians.


I knew absolutely nothing about the situation until about 25 years ago when I took an undergraduate course in US national security and another about the history of the Ottoman Empire. I began to wonder why, time after time, Israel was able to continue to take land and the Palestinians lose it, not only violating international law but with the full protection in the UN by the United States, veto after veto being used to stop any sanction of international law, the very law that the US has always claimed should be honored and in whose design the US was a full participant after WW2.


Being proud of the US claim to stand for liberty and justice for all, I could not believe the hypocrisy of mouthing mild criticisms of Israel, calling for a two state solution but in the end always going with what Israel wanted to do. A perfect example was when Joe Biden was VP under Obama. The US had recently told Israel that it did not want to see any further expansion of settlements. Biden was on a visit to Israel when that country announced the expansion of settlements. Biden was furious. But, as always, nothing came of it and the settlements expanded.


You speak of Israelis you know and of Palestinians you know and how you cannot come down on one side or the other, yet you mention in your opening the inability of most Palestinians to visit the mosque you visited easily. That gives great power to your account of the man enraptured to be in a place so revered by him. Though the mosque has no religious significance to Jews (or Christians), Israel has total control of the site and is the party determining who will and who will not go there, in fact, who will and will not go anywhere in the West Bank and who will and will not be able to go in or out of Gaza.


You appear to believe that the mass of Israelis and Palestinians are benign and that it is only a selection of each that engages in violence. But surely you know that humiliation of Palestinians by Israelis has been a daily occurrence for decades, be it the IDF entering Palestinian homes at 3AM to take a "census" of the occupants, or settlers beating Palestinian farmers and setting fire to their olive orchards in the West Bank, or the "Independence Day" annual march by Israeli Jews through Palestinian East Jerusalem, fully accompanied by Israeli police ready to pounce on any Palestinian who might not appreciate the march.


You mention violence being ineffective, yet violence won Zionists the initial State of Israel. Violence by Israeli settlers is routine and the settlements expand. Violence won Israel the occupied territory of the West Bank and Jerusalem. Right now violence is clearing out Gaza. The Israeli human rights NGO, B'Tselem (bet-SELL-um) stopped reporting violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by Israelis because the process was always the same - report submitted - an investigation opened - investigation clears perpetrators or is dropped entirely. In other words, the process was pointless.

What I am saying to you Murtaza is something I am sure you must know. Life has been hellish for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and filled with violence at the hands of Israelis, all of whom may carry arms (Palestinians may not) and with the only "justice" in the West Bank coming from Israeli military courts with a 98% conviction rate.


How have Israelis been living all the while? As most Americans do...decent homes, full civil rights, travel anywhere at any time in or out of the country, start up companies if they wish (it is "start-up nation") and here is the ultimate: if one is a Jew and an American, one can enjoy dual citizenship, having full rights in both the US and Israel plus, if wished, one can move to Palestinian land and make it one's own (Israel provides a financial incentive) retaining all the rights of an Israeli...of course there will be Palestinians nearby with no rights at all, but they are under tight control and the developed settlements are gated communities. Enjoy!


Not at all a balance.


Here is what convinced me that Palestinians might have a case for violence. In a poll held in Israel within the last two years, Israelis were asked about the future. What did they see as optimal? The answer was overwhelming, continue on in the same way. Why not? A lid was on the Palestinians, settlements were expanding, life was quite decent. What might a poll of Palestinians have revealed about an indefinite continuation of the status quo, particularly in the prison of Gaza?


In the 19th century in America, it was not Zionism, but Manifest Destiny that was taking the land from the natives. One of these "Indians" by the name of Red Cloud said, "They (the white man) made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it".


The "two state solution" was never a meaningful thing, never more than an empty phrase for politicians in DC to mouth. Netanyahu has now proudly stated that he alone has kept two states from coming to pass, but anyone who looks at a map of the West Bank can see that it is so filled with Israeli settlements, military zones, etc. that there is no contiguous Palestinian area for a state and this was in fact a goal of the settlements, to make two states impossible. Done!


Those 19th century American Indians had a choice. Remain peaceful and watch the land get taken, or turn to violence, make a stand, hopeless though it might be, but die fighting for the beloved land. Americans now look upon the Indians who fought as heroic. Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Cochise and many other turned to violence and now the very people who took their land look back in remorse at the relentless ethnic cleansing that swept a civilization away. And remember, Indian attacks on white settlers were vicious. They scalped, they burned people alive, they disemboweled and were called animals, savages, barbarians, snakes. Sound familiar? They were the HAMAS of their time.


But HAMAS is different in that the Palestinians are not a tiny group of people. Though Israel is now actively exterminating Palestinians in Gaza, this is not 1870. The Palestinians were, before Oct. 7, regularly suffering and dying and Israelis were saying, as I just noted above, no problem with that, keep it up. According to UN statistics, since the lawn mowing in Gaza began in 2008-9, the ratio of Israeli deaths to Palestinian deaths has been 1:20 and the world was ignoring it. Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge each killed Palestinians in a number similar to the Israelis who died on Oct 7. Did anyone notice? Now, after Oct. 7, that ratio of 1:20 is being approached and will likely be exceeded. At last the job of 1948 can be completed. A very recent poll of Jewish Israelis (80% of Israelis) indicates they don't think the IDF is doing enough in Gaza.


It just might have occurred to HAMAS that since death and suffering were to be the future, why not launch the Oct. 7 attack? Some Israelis would die and the resulting slaughter, a spasm of destruction, would open the eyes of the world to what Israel is about, what it has always been about from the early days of Zionism, to clear the land of the natives and take it for the exclusive use of Jews, a token 20% Arab Israeli population tolerated, but only just. For all the hell the American Indians took, what remains of that people are full American citizens. Israel wants no Palestinians as Israeli citizens and no Palestinians on the land. Everyone out.


To this extent, HAMAS has been successful. The world is appalled, the mask has been ripped from the face of Israel so that no hasbara can hope to cover the carnage. The most obtuse American is now aware of the slaughter. American Jews are rising up against Zionism in multitudes of the young who are closing highways and bridges, making a fuss that won't stop. Even mainstream media anchors cannot hold their revulsion when hearing nonsense coming from Israeli spokespeople about so much effort being made to avoid civilian casualties. Now Israel is on the spot as are US politicians who once had no firmer ground to stand on than support of Israel but are now sounding maniacal (Nikki Haley: FINISH THEM!)


I have not been reading an Israeli newspaper for decades, I have not been reading every book I can find on Israel/Palestine, I have not been attending Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) meetings for nothing.


I never thought I would be ashamed to be an American, but I am right now as my President does all he can to supply the genocide with all it needs, the zenith of the support in money, weapons and diplomatic cover the US has provided to Israel, essentially turning it into a superpower and by doing so inviting it to become the monster we now see in operation, eagerly destroying a people that it sees as less than human.


Liberty and Justice for All - NOT ethnic cleansing and apartheid. The blind are now beginning to see. The entire world is in opposition to a community of two, the US and Israel. The tail wags the dog with ease as Netanyahu is given all the time he needs to kill without limit, but it now is all in the open for all to see. No longer will Israel be able to (shamefully) use the millions who died in the holocaust as a protective shield to cover its own wholesale destruction of a people no less human than any Israeli.

Please people, Americans in particular, wake up.


Tuesday, December 26, 2023

A common question regarding Israel/Palestine...what is the solution?

 I found the following comment on a interview of Norman Finkelstein...

From @KelliLowrey:

"...would like to know how Jewish people are not considered indigenous to this land as well? Also, Norm is very book smart but what is his solution for this situation?"

My reply to Kelli...

Kelli, your statement is indicative of how Israel's status and policy are protected. Being indigenous and being exclusive are entirely separate things. The issue is not the former, entirely the latter. To ask about what is to be done has an obvious answer - to call into question the exclusivity and end it, yet it is never mentioned because it would mean change in what Israel is all about, what Israel fears most, that the state it is, is not legitimate. Therefor Israel will continue to do what it does by design: ethnic cleansing and apartheid running free. So it has always been but as of now it may not be true that so it shall always be. That all people are equally human is a powerful concept. Israel flouts it proudly, being in complete control, but ironically protected by the inequality Jews suffered in Europe 80+ years ago.