tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330332108385928312024-03-04T20:28:01.388-08:00Daylight between America and IsraelClif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.comBlogger340125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-68357432881179118932024-02-14T15:53:00.000-08:002024-02-14T15:53:53.140-08:00Israelis watch MSM distorted coverage of Gaza<p> <span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/what-the-israeli-public-doesnt-see?emci=468ab4d1-76cb-ee11-85f9-002248223794&emdi=a23096db-7bcb-ee11-85f9-002248223794&ceid=141099">What the Israeli Public Doesn't See</a></span></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-10962179714442492812024-01-22T14:58:00.000-08:002024-01-22T14:58:20.698-08:00The right to exist<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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).</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-46773881341853394852024-01-21T17:22:00.000-08:002024-01-22T15:56:26.364-08:00Chicago city council puts Palestinians in their place<p><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"" style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;">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?</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br /></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-85420409475823370282024-01-21T17:18:00.000-08:002024-01-21T17:18:30.203-08:00The emotional appeal of Israel<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">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.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">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.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">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?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">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.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">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?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">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.</p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-43819517980089384902024-01-07T15:25:00.000-08:002024-01-07T15:42:30.473-08:00The philosophy that drives my pro-Palestinian view<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">POINT ONE: I do not capitalize the word holocaust deliberately. It has
nothing to do with questioning what happened or belittling it.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;">POINT TWO: The taking of the land</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.2px;">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.</span></span>
</p>
Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-31106230797491543632023-12-28T16:11:00.000-08:002023-12-28T16:37:06.037-08:00Is it true that there are two sides with a balance between them?<p>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.</p><p>A man whose commentaries I admire, Murtaza Hussein, <a href="https://mazmhussain.substack.com/p/some-thoughts-on-the-gaza-israel" target="_blank">posted an essay</a> 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...</p><p><br /></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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!</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">Not at all a balance.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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?</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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".</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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!</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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!)</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-8) 0;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">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.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">Please people, Americans in particular, wake up.</span></p><p><br /></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-85284206323298289452023-12-26T17:02:00.000-08:002023-12-26T17:02:05.937-08:00A common question regarding Israel/Palestine...what is the solution?<p> I found the following comment on a<a href="https://youtu.be/Gn4Be-e6BdU?si=_vOQziijUNGW4WmY" target="_blank"> interview of Norman Finkelstein...</a></p><p>From @KelliLowrey:</p><p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">"...would like to know how Jewish people are not considered indigenous to this land as well? </span><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Also, Norm is very book smart but what is his solution for this situation?"</span></p><p>My reply to Kelli...</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-60356448400439546822023-12-23T16:57:00.000-08:002023-12-23T16:57:52.531-08:00Never in history is there a precedent to the tail wagging the dog like Israel does to the US<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There is no historical precedent to Israel's control of US foreign policy, indicative of the upside down situation in Palestine/Israel<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">FDR spoke of the US as the arsenal of democracy.
Now it is the arsenal of Israel, making Israel for the moment the world's only
superpower because everyone in power in DC is a helpless puppet for a madman in
Jerusalem. Israel in general and he in particular have worked the levers in DC
far more effectively than the Wizard of Oz did in Oz.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Regarding the religious issue, it is the holocaust that drives Israeli
psychology. Certainly there is pride in the history of the area of Palestine/ancient
Israel but far more important is the learned self-righteousness that will
abide, even applaud, any act of cruelty toward the Palestinians as justified. A
poll in Israel revealed a great majority believed the IDF has not acting
harshly enough in Gaza. What a flash in the pan is Gaza compared to six million
dead at the hands of the Nazis. The mental transfer of Nazism to any opponent
of Israel is easily done. Netanyahu even made the outrageous statement that
Arabs had given Hitler the idea of the final solution!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Widely used by Israelis has been "they want to kill us!"
attributed to the Palestinians while in actuality the killing ratio has been
10:1, 20:1 (P killed: I killed) since the first Gaza assault in 2008/9 and who
can say what the current slaughter will show? We don't know the final toll, but
there is no evidence the Israelis care with even gov't officials easily failing
the ritual mention of HAMAS when hailing the elimination of a people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This substitution of accusation for truth was on display at the hearing of
Rep. Stefanik who roasted the three university presidents about a hypothetical
call on campus for "genocide of the Jewish people" when she had no
evidence of this phrase being used, though it is certainly possible it could be.
The presidents afterward groveled to clear themselves of...what? Of nothing
more than defending freedom of speech! This roasting of the presidents was
taking place while mass killing was underway by Israel, leading more than a few
to say it was the real thing - genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We should be greatly concerned with something someone might say and not at
all concerned with what people are actually doing?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Israel has used the holocaust as a mighty shield, to intimidate any and all
who oppose what Israel does and to justify by comparison what Israel does. Just
as nobody but an untutored boy would call out that the emperor had no clothes,
so will no one call out this grotesque misuse of a monumental tragedy to cover
for another one. Israelis are blind to this shameless use of the dead to cover
dealing in death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">History will not be kind to Zionism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-41480682056503528982023-12-12T23:39:00.000-08:002023-12-15T21:29:48.588-08:00Human Beings are Capable of Good and Bad, Israeli Jews Included<p>Israel is put in a class by itself and has been since its creation. It has never accepted responsibility for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees that it created in 1948, refusing a penny (or shekel) to support them. Instead the UN had to come to the rescue and is still, 75 years later, providing health and education services to the over 50 camps still sitting on the sites where they were established using tents so long ago. Incredibly, Israel has asked that even this UN relief operation be stopped.</p><p>That Israel is a colony is undeniable. That Israel is not a democracy because it rules over people who have no vote is undeniable. That Israel has openly engaged in ethnic cleansing is undeniable. That the US has protected Israel from any censure by the UN is undeniable. The Palestinians have been referred to as the niggers of the Middle East. It's true for everyone to see - no civil rights, constant abuse, constant questioning over what they are doing and where they are going. Easy conviction and imprisonment can be expected. And something never suffered by African-Americans, a registry of every single Palestinian by the Israelis, a number assigned to each just as numbers were assigned to concentration camp inmates by the Nazis.</p><p>While all this might make sense to Israelis, what is going on with America? It can only be the holocaust that makes Israel exempt. The movie Exodus was a blockbuster in the US, telling the story that Israel wanted told of its creation with handsome Paul Newman in the starring role. The intro to the movie that became famous is of crossed human arms holding weapons against a backdrop of flames. The British, portrayed in the movie as antisemitic by Peter Lawford, had in fact gone to great lengths to keep a lid on the region, up to and including a brutal suppression of the quite understandable Arab Revolt of 1936-38 that rejected the Zionist takeover that by then was perfectly obvious to anyone paying attention.</p><p>The British conducted a survey of the population of Palestine in 1939 to try to find a way to settle things that would respect both the Jews and the Arabs. In the resulting white paper, which soon-to-be Israeli president David Ben Gurion rejected immediately but secretly, land was reserved for both sides. The Arabs, seeing what had been all theirs at the start of the 20th century rejected it for "offering" them 45% of Palestine though they made up 55% of the population. Ben Gurion vowed to fight WW2 with the Allies and then get serious about Palestine. So it would be.</p><p>In the movie and in the actual event, the British were despised because they called a halt to Jewish immigration after 250,000 had recently arrived from Europe, in line with the recommendation of the white paper resulting in the British boarding the ship Exodus, loaded with holocaust survivors, and forcing the refugees back to British controlled Germany. The world, including the US, unwilling to take the refugees as morality would dictate, instead denounced the British.</p><p>The fact that is not allowed to be expressed, and is something I have never, ever heard anyone in any American government say, is that Jews are no more or less human than anyone else. That they suffered a horror in Europe in no way justified their going to Palestine and forcing the Palestinians out. But this would not have won Harry Truman the vote of American Jews. Yet the movie Exodus would have us believe that Zionism was perfectly rational and even heroic as we see Paul Newman and Lee J. Cobb and a group of young Jewish kids deal with skulking Arabs hiding in the shadows, conniving with Nazis and murdering a beautiful white Jewish girl. Hollywood could have done no more for Zionism and Americans ate it up to our cost.</p><p>The US has thrown aside liberty and justice for all in favor of the Israeli exception. What makes this doubly strange is that American Jews would never ask for or be extended similar exceptionality here in the US where they are equal American citizens along with all the rest of us. There would be outrage if American Jews were excused when called before the justice system, if they were given a unique discount on home purchases, given land exclusively, from which they could pump sewage onto other land, etc., etc down the list of what Israelis do and have been doing to Palestinians openly and without apology for so many years.</p><p>Now we are allowing Israelis the ultimate: to kill and destroy without limit, to take more land, to determine what to do with all the money and weapons we give them while we stand by timidly and do not dare to intervene, our foolish Secretary of State running around the world trying to get other countries to join us! And this has been going at a lower level for decades with the US holding off all attempts at entirely peaceful sanctions from an outraged world via the UN, pressuring other countries economically to vote as the US and Israel wish them to vote.</p><p>The enormous irony of the holocaust is that it has so impressed the minds of Zionists and Americans that another holocaust is now underway perpetrated by those who believe that that victimhood 80 years ago makes them uniquely righteous, allowing any and all behavior on their part in the taking of land and the killing of people with the mighty US holding the world at bay with the immense armed force that is now truly doing the opposite of what that force is intended to do - PROTECT THE UNITED STATES, not a foreign outlaw country. Our Navy right now intimidates all for the sake of epic injustice to proceed without restraint. Need anyone wonder if this is ramping up hatred of the United States? HAMAS committed an act of terror, but in doing so it revealed, even to the most obtuse, the clear status of Israel as a unique oppressor that must not be stopped.</p><p>"Give me your tired, your poor</p><p>Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."</p><p>The masses are huddled in Gaza waiting to be killed and have not been free in their lifetimes.</p><p>The Statue of Liberty is now nothing but a relic and a joke.</p><p>And our blind President is ready to go to the wall to leave unrestrained a foreign country with less than 2% of our population.</p><p>There are many American Jews who see exactly what is going on and denounce it. If you support them, as I do and have done for over 25 years, check out the Jewish Voice for Peace website. Let it also be said that there are a dwindling number of Israelis who denounce what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians over decades. Check out the website of B'Tselem (bet SELL um).</p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-65304813957286580912023-12-12T23:36:00.000-08:002023-12-15T21:29:22.209-08:00The Holocaust as Learned PTSD<p>Many Jews after the holocaust, not just survivors, but Jews around the world including in the US, were subject to the ultimate PTSD that altered their outlook on the world and their fellow man. It was crystal clear that Jews had been marked for wholesale extermination, limited only by the fight against Nazism to spreading even further than it did. I know of one Jew in particular, now very elderly, who has a terrible case of misanthropy, can see no good in anyone, is the first to offer a harsh judgement on people that I know not to be what he sees in them. His entire family with the exception of his parents died in the holocaust and he is also a victim in a way that has him in a mental prison that has turned him against all but other Jews and even against them if they don't think, like he does, that the Palestinians are animals.</p><p>His example of this mega-PTSD has so warped the views of so many people that they cannot see themselves as anything but victims-in-waiting if not actual victims as was the case on Oct 7. In fact, for these people, Oct 7 was nothing but validation of their upside down view. The history of who did what and why amounts to nothing. Rational argument amounts to nothing. As Netanyahu has said "we will always live by the sword" never considering it is the sword that Israel wields that gives credence to his words. He repeatedly says "ask HAMAS" as he truly believes it is HAMAS that is responsible for all his killing of innocent people. His hand is forced, but it is a clean hand. Mega-PTSD.</p><p>Mega-PTSD fired up Zionism and drove the terrorism that was led by such as Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir who would both become Israeli Prime Ministers preceding Netanyahu (whose father was a rabid Zionist). Mega-PTSD drives the odd tunnel vision version of "never again" which means destroy before being destroyed (pre-emption) and the most perverted aspect of all which is that what one thinks is true, is true, and there can be no refutation of it by anyone, anyone who for the simple act of disputation is per se antisemitic. A Zionist cannot be questioned regarding any destruction or killing by Israel as it is, by definition if Israel is doing it, a necessity and only a pale shadow of what Jews suffered in the holocaust against which no tragedy, past, present or future is worthy of the name. Thus the slaughter without hesitation we are witnessing. Mega-PTSD.</p><p>Most Israelis suffer from this mental illness because of the holocaust though the problem is not limited to Israel. Israel promotes this mental illness, seeking to pass it on by sending public high school students to Auschwitz to be bathed in the horror and supplied with Israeli flags they are welcome to wrap around themselves as they contemplate what is clearly intended as a horror that is directed at them for which Israel is the one and only shelter.</p><p>This mental illness cannot be cured, short of some trauma that results in waking up, so the only hope of escape is the rise of new generations that can see clearly rather than down the dark holocaust tunnel with Israel a shining light at the end. Because of the indoctrination of Israeli youth, it is American Jews that offer real hope and that is evidenced by the outstanding actions of Jewish Voice for Peace, which I cannot praise too highly and with which I have been actively involved since before the turn of the century. These "kids" are inspired by their Judaism, using it as an escape from Zionism by which it has been hijacked.</p><p>If you hate what you see going on in Gaza, as I do, don't hesitate to not only give generously to JVP but to turn out for any event they sponsor near you. They welcome all, including Palestinians, Christians, atheists, you name it, because they understand so well the humanity we share and that they believe is not just valued but honored by their religion. They say "not in our name" and "never again for ANYONE!" from the heart and I say bless those hearts that have escaped the cruel grip of Zionism.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-13287888882086477712023-12-12T23:34:00.000-08:002023-12-15T21:23:37.308-08:00Antisemitism as a Zionist Shield<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Jews are as integrated into
American culture as it possible to be. This is the place they are not only
safe, but successful in every field be it in science, the arts,
business...actually the only occupation where I think it would be rare to find
Jews is in manual labor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I grew up with Jews many of
whom I never knew were Jews because it wasn't of any significance. As an adult
it's the same way. For me, all the uproar about antisemitism in the US seems
preposterous as the actual slaughter of people who are equally human beings
with those dropping bombs on them is being conducted with gusto in Gaza.
Clearly it is "look HERE, not there!" and a significant number of
Jews (as are in JVP) are not buying it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">What really astounds me
regarding Zionism is that nobody thinks it strange that American Jews as I have
just described above, and they uniquely among Americans, may at any time and
virtually instantly be given Israeli citizenship while retaining their American
citizenship. This allows the epic hypocrisy of having full civil rights and
freedom here in America while at the same time being able to move to Israel,
have full rights and freedom there and move on to land where the natives have
no rights at all. How blind can one be?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">More than that, many
settlers in Israel are dual citizenship Americans so can go out and beat up the
natives, even be fully armed by the gov't to kill those natives right now. Have
your cake, eat it too while just outside the window are the natives barely
getting by, under the boot of your military and, not surprisingly, thinking of
giving you serious, even lethal grief after getting that from Israel for
decades. Who can possibly be surprised at HAMAS any more than surprised at the
terror visited on US settlers by the American Indians? The Indians were essentially
wiped out. Israel is working on that now in Gaza. Was nobody paying attention
to previous lethal assaults on Gaza that killed far more Gazans than the number
of Israelis killed on Oct 7. Are Americans asleep?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The crazy accusation of
antisemitism to anyone opposing what Israel does is the height of absurdity.
Any group of people is capable of the full range of human behavior from the pit
of horror to the height of benevolence. Jews are no exception. To say that Jews
who are Israeli are doing and have done terrible things to the Palestinians
routinely is not antisemitism but a statement of fact. To call Israel a colony,
to say that it has repeatedly violated international law under the protection
of 45 UN vetoes courtesy of Uncle Sam is not antisemitism but history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Joe McCarthy is back. Are
you now or have you ever been an antisemite?!<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-35734611743637731262021-05-30T16:38:00.002-07:002021-05-30T16:42:45.319-07:00pro-Israel surveillance and smears<p> </p><div style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: HalisR, Futura, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px;"><h2 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.9375rem; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Zionist Groups in US Operate Campaigns to Quash Palestine Solidarity on Campus</h2></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></p><div class="entry-summary" itemprop="description" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="entry-summary" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20.25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">Surveillance of and smear campaigns against student activists are common features of pro-Israel lobbying operations.</div><div class="entry-summary" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20.25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/zionist-groups-in-us-operate-campaigns-to-quash-palestine-solidarity-on-campus/" target="_blank">from TruthOut</a></div><div class="entry-summary" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20.25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="entry-summary" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20.25px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">YouTube video: <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/the-palestine-exception" target="_blank">The Palestinian exception to freedom of speech</a></div></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As the world bears
witness to the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%;">violent
dispossession</span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> of Palestinians at the hands of Israel’s
apartheid regime, this very same regime is conducting a parallel project of
suppression, censorship and surveillance in the United States. An extensive
network of U.S.-based pro-Israel lobbying groups, working </span><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876" style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hand in hand</span></a><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> with
Israeli intelligence agencies, continue to fund multimillion-dollar campaigns
to destroy Palestinian liberation struggles and ensure professional, legal and
financial consequences for Americans who dare to speak out against Israeli
apartheid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">College campuses have
become a central battleground of the lobby’s suppression efforts. Groups
like <a href="https://www.nationalsjp.org/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Students for Justice in Palestine </span></a>(SJP)
pose a major threat to long-term bipartisan support for Israel as their
campaigns unsettle pro-Israel political narratives and introduce young people
to the violent realities of the occupation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While pro-Israel organizations
that intervene in campus activism often try to do so under the radar, their
counterinsurgency strategies and patterns are being <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/the-palestine-exception"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">exposed</span></a>. </span><i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Truthout</span></i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> spoke
with three SJP chapters across the country about their efforts to advocate for
Palestinian liberation and the challenges of organizing grassroots campaigns in
opposition to a multimillion-dollar lobbying and surveillance regime.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Surveillance
and Smear Campaigns<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 2016, </span><i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Al Jazeera</span></i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> sent
an undercover journalist to intern and network within the Washington,
D.C.-based Israel lobby. His <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">reporting</span></a> confirmed
what many advocates for Palestine already suspected: The lobby is funding
complex surveillance operations to undermine Palestine activists, particularly
those on college campuses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jacob Baime, the
executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), was caught on
undercover footage <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Leaked-Documentary-Israel-Lobby-Uses-Psychological-Warfare-to-Sway-US-Policy-Opinion-20181105-0009.html"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">boasting</span></a> about
the organization’s multimillion-dollar surveillance technologies and smear
campaign tactics. The group’s strategy, he revealed, is fabricating allegations
of antisemitism against activists in order to create a sense of crisis. The ICC
conducts “oppositional research,” <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">defames
activists</span></a> using anonymous websites and promotes these
defamations using targeted Facebook promotions. Baime’s associate, Noah
Pollak, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-israel-spies-on-us-citizens/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">admits</span></a> that
defamation is a major feature of the lobby’s strategy to suppress criticism of
Israel, noting, “you discredit the messenger as a way of discrediting the
message.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Organizers in all of the
SJP chapters </span><i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Truthout </span></i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">spoke with emphasized the personal risks they shoulder in
publicly condemning apartheid. Organizers cited these risks in their requests
to participate in this article anonymously. Many activists end up with profiles
on Canary Mission, a blacklisting website that publishes the private
information of anti-apartheid student activists and academics. When this
occurs, their names are publicly associated with allegations of antisemitism
and “terrorist” affiliations. The website’s explicit aim is to prevent critics
of Israel from accessing professional opportunities. </span><i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Al Jazeera’s</span></i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> investigation
revealed the Canary Mission website is <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2018/8/30/canary-missions-veil-of-anonymity-pierced"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">operated</span></a> by
Baime and financed by convicted American-Israeli real-estate mogul Adam
Milstein. Milstein is the founder is the Israel-American Council and sits on
the board of prominent pro-Israel lobbying organizations, including the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), StandWithUs, Birthright Israel
and the Israel on Campus Coalition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Palestinian students,
the risk is even greater. A member of SJP at the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign explains, “Many of us are ourselves Palestinian and of course
run the additional risk of being banned from Palestine by the Israeli
government when we are vocal about the atrocities in Palestine.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Running surveillance and
smear campaigns against student activists is a common feature of pro-Israel
lobbying operations. Last year, SJP members at Tufts University were <a href="https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2021/03/08/judiciary-member-alleges-discrimination-garners-national-attention-members-of-sjp-tcu-senate-face-harassment/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">nonconsensually
recorded</span></a> and subsequently doxxed by Israel lobbyists attending
a private, virtual event. Tufts SJP — which was campaigning to end a university
program that sent Tufts University police officers on training trips to Israel
— was <a href="https://www.wrmea.org/2020-june-july/tufts-university-students-targeted-by-pro-israel-groups-are-not-backing-down.html"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">targeted</span></a> by
pro-Israel lobbying groups with a barrage of attacks and accusations of
antisemitism. Some of these organizations included StandWithUs, the
Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center and a variety of
pro-Israel news sources.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Many of us are ourselves
Palestinian and of course run the additional risk of being banned from
Palestine by the Israeli government when we are vocal about the atrocities in
Palestine.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A member of Tufts SJP
says that the organization is being targeted because of how effective it has
been at changing the narrative about Palestine on campus. She explains, “We
[SJP members] now have to be very careful to conceal our identities and have
become adapted to dissociating our names from our work.” But by building a
broad coalition of social justice organizations at Tufts, “we have been able to
connect Palestinian struggles for freedom to the struggles of others working
towards collective liberation.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Lawfare”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Coordinated media attacks
play a particularly important role for the pro-Israel lobby. By accusing SJP’s
student activists of antisemitism, these organizations legitimize the
lobby’s <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/students-for-justice-in-palestine-sjp"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">assertion</span></a> that
advocacy for Palestinian rights on college campuses creates an unsafe learning
environment for Jewish students. The lobby is leveraging this narrative to
accomplish something much more consequential — to redefine civil rights
legislation and anti-discrimination policies to include criticism of Israel as
a form of antisemitism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Lawfare,” or legislative
warfare, is a <a href="https://www.thelawfareproject.org/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">key
aspect </span></a>of pro-Israel lobby strategies. Organizations like the
Brandeis Center <a href="https://socialistworker.org/2019/01/15/the-documentary-israel-doesnt-want-you-to-see"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">lobby</span></a> university
administrators and tech companies, as well as local, state and federal
legislatures, to adopt definitions of antisemitism that explicitly include
critiques of Israel. These definitions ultimately punish students standing in
opposition to Israeli apartheid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In September 2020, the
SJP chapter at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
successfully <a href="https://www.arabamericannews.com/2020/02/21/university-of-illinois-student-body-passes-bds-resolution-against-companies-that-do-business-with-israel/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">passed</span></a> a
student government resolution calling on the university to divest from
companies operating in illegal West Bank settlements. The resolution
garnered <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210524172002/https:/www.foxnews.com/us/university-of-illinois-student-government-passes-bds-resolution-school-no-plans-to-act-on-it"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">national
outrage</span></a> from pro-Israel news outlets, and the names of
activists involved in the campaign were eventually added to Canary Mission’s
public blacklist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two months later, two
students in collaboration with the Brandeis Center, a pro-Israel lobbying
organization based in Washington, D.C., <a href="https://brandeiscenter.com/university-of-illinois-jewish-students-file-complaint-with-u-s-department-of-education/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">filed</span></a> an
official complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the UIUC
administration had failed to protect students from antisemitism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Filing complaints with
the Department of Education became a highly effective tool for Israel lobbying
organizations under the Trump administration. Kenneth Marcus, the founder of
the Brandeis Center — the very organization filing antisemitism complaints
against universities — was nominated by President Trump to act as assistant
secretary for civil rights within Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education. There,
Marcus <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-administration-adopts-new-definition-of-anti-semitism-in-schools-education-department/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">announced</span></a> the
department would adopt a new “working definition” of antisemitism that would
include criticisms of Israel. In practical terms, Marcus <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/kenneth-marcus-steps-down-from-us-education-department/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">paved</span></a> the
way for pro-Israel students and organizations to leverage the financial and
legal power of the Department of Education against universities that fail to
take action against Palestine advocacy on their campuses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Brandeis Center
complaint filed against UIUC <a href="https://brandeiscenter.com/university-of-illinois-jewish-students-file-complaint-with-u-s-department-of-education/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">bundles</span></a> instances
of explicit antisemitism — like the presence of swastika graffiti on campus
property — with criticism of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian liberation. A
Brandeis Center lobbyist even <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">admitted</span></a> during
a campaign at the University of Tennessee that the real antisemitism that
Jewish students faced on the campus was from Christian evangelicals in the
community trying to proselytize them, not the pro-Palestine activists at the
center of the Brandeis Center’s lobbying efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Filing complaints with the
Department of Education became a highly effective tool for Israel lobbying
organizations under the Trump administration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The UIUC university
administration, under increased legal scrutiny, ultimately released a
joint <a href="https://blogs.illinois.edu/view/6231/1530347443"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">statement</span></a> with
pro-Israel organizations. The statement expressed a commitment to combating
antisemitism on campus, which would include anti-Zionism and criticism of
Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On May 14, 2021 — amidst
the height of bombings of Gaza and one of the largest Palestinian uprisings
since the intifadas — Illinois General Assembly Minority Leader Jim
Durkin <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2021/05/university-of-illinois-ihra-definition-antisemitism-jim-durkin/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">introduced</span></a> new
legislation calling upon the University of Illinois to adopt the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/23/ihra-misrepresents-own-definition-of-anti-semitism-says-report"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance</span></a> (IHRA) definition of
antisemitism, which pro-Israel organizations like the Brandeis Center endorse.
This definition expands conceptions of antisemitism to include criticism of
Israeli government policy and challenges to Zionism. Durkin told the <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2021/05/university-of-illinois-ihra-definition-antisemitism-jim-durkin/"><i><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Jewish Insider</span></i></a>, “this resolution, I
hope, puts the university on notice that we’re watching, and we want you to
resolve this in the appropriate way.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh72KppZ2Vqb_tLNo_2mnDliXhq_lE1IjzskeL0Hf-1Z51me8P9NdnUWf65A8nLJknmMrXNJ2ucuTwqtAQk00bYCZy2OlsTRlTZKXdssIDR_c5stm_tz6tLM6ZbXxbjsYaVv_mencEiFjo/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="611" height="97" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh72KppZ2Vqb_tLNo_2mnDliXhq_lE1IjzskeL0Hf-1Z51me8P9NdnUWf65A8nLJknmMrXNJ2ucuTwqtAQk00bYCZy2OlsTRlTZKXdssIDR_c5stm_tz6tLM6ZbXxbjsYaVv_mencEiFjo/w379-h97/image.png" width="379" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
progression of pro-Israel lobby suppression campaigns on college campuses.</span></div><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jewish-led organizations
like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow have continuously rejected the lobby’s
efforts to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. On the contrary, prominent
Jewish activists and scholars such as Noam Chomsky and Judith Butler have
argued that conflating anti-Zionism and antisemitism can itself be antisemitic:
For instance, provocations by Christian Zionists and evangelicals who suggest
Jews living in the United States ultimately belong in Israel. Similarly, the
suggestion that critique of Israeli state violence is antisemitic necessitates
the belief that Israel, and its violent colonial expansion, reflect the will of
the Jewish people as a whole rather than Israeli government policy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Regardless, the
pro-Israel lobby’s coordinated campaigns to target SJP’s activism have achieved
their desired effect. As a Palestinian member of SJP UIUC explains, “The media
and legal scrutiny have made many students afraid to speak out,” which raises
the “stakes” for pro-Palestine advocacy. Student activists are forced to
reallocate their energies away from effective advocacy for Palestine and
towards addressing suppression campaigns.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What’s
Next?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Israel, the war of
public opinion, particularly in the West, remains an essential feature of its
national security strategy. Israel enjoys unconditional and bipartisan
political support within the United States Congress, an asset leveraged to the
tune of $10 million each day in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-israel-statement/u-s-israel-sign-38-billion-military-aid-package-idUSKCN11K2CI"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">military aid</span></a>.
It’s no surprise that the Israeli government invests enormously in preserving
public support for Israel and subsequently working to neutralize organizations,
groups and individuals engaged in critique of Israel’s illegal occupation and
institutionalized apartheid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Both the Trump and Biden
administrations have acted in lockstep with this systemic repression campaign.
In September 2020, the U.S. State Department under Trump <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/09/09/us-state-department-planning-expanded-campaign-using-all-legal-and-policy-tools-to-combat-antisemitic-bds-movement-against-israel/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">committed </span></a>to
“target,” “fight” and “kill” the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement
(BDS), a nonviolent economic boycott campaign modeled after a similar campaign
to fight South African apartheid. The Biden administration also signaled its
commitment to disenfranchising Palestine advocates when his Secretary of State
Antony Blinken <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/biden-administration-enthusiastically-embraces-ihra-antisemitism-definition"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">affirmed</span></a> that
the administration “enthusiastically embraces” the IHRA definition of
antisemitism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The consequences of these
coordinated suppression efforts are not hypothetical. They consume the
political and professional careers of many Palestine solidarity activists.
Recently, amid the bombing of Gaza, Emily Wilder, a Jewish journalist with the </span><i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Associated Press</span></i><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, was <a href="https://www.stanforddaily.com/2021/05/20/alumna-fired-from-associated-press-following-scr-targeted-social-media-attacks/"><span style="color: #9c162c; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">fired </span></a>following
a campaign from right-wing groups who condemned her years of advocacy with
Students for Justice in Palestine. It’s evident that Israel’s continued
investment in surveillance and defamation campaigns is likely to continue to
have a chilling effect, not only on the movement for Palestinian liberation but
more widely on free speech.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-27867386851406391102020-05-23T12:34:00.000-07:002020-05-23T12:34:22.342-07:00activists and scholars leaving IsraelThis article appeared in Haaretz on May 3, 2020. Because Haaretz has a pay wall and I believe this topic is so important I reproduce it here in full...<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">After Losing Hope for Change, Top Left-wing Activists and Scholars Leave Israel Behind</span></div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
They founded anti-occupation movements and fought for the soul of Israeli society, but ultimately decided to emigrate. The new exiles tell Haaretz how they were harassed and silenced, until they had almost no choice but to leave</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
Last December, when no one knew that the coronavirus was lurking around the corner, Eitan Bronstein Aparicio, 60, and his partner, Eléonore Merza, 40, left Israel for good. They are both well-known in circles of left-wing activists. He founded the organization Zochrot some 20 years ago, she is a political anthropologist, and they co-authored a book on the Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe,” as Palestinians refer to the events surrounding the founding of Israel). Ideologically, politically and professionally, French-born Merza, the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Circassian father, simply could not bear the situation any longer. Although she was about to be granted permanent residency status in Israel, she found a job in Brussels and the couple moved there, with no plans to return.<br />
<br />
In a phone conversation with Haaretz from the coronavirus lockdown in Belgium, Bronstein Aparicio says he still finds it difficult to believe that he left. “I look on it as a type of exile, a departure from the center of Israel,” he explains.<br />
<br />
Born in Argentina, Bronstein Aparicio emigrated to Israel with his parents when he was 5, growing up in Kibbutz Bahan in central Israel. “My name was changed from Claudio to Eitan – I carry the Zionist revolution with me,” he laughs. He describes himself as a “regular Israeli” who did military service, like everyone else. A personal process that he terms the “decolonization of my Zionist identity” led him to establish Zochrot (“Remembering,” in Hebrew) in 2001, an NGO that aims to raise awareness of the Nakba and of the Palestinians’ right of return among the Jewish public. He has five children: Three of them live in Israel, one in Brazil, and the youngest, a boy who’s almost 4, lives with the couple in Brussels.<br />
<br />
“There is one point on which I am completely in accord with the move – namely, the need to rescue my son from the nationalist, militaristic education system in Israel. I am glad I got him out of that,” he says, adding, “People with a similar political profile to mine have the feeling that we have been defeated and that we will no longer be able to exert a meaningful influence in Israel. In a profound sense, we do not see a horizon of repair, of true peace or a life of quality. A great many people understood this and looked for another place to live. There is something quite insane in Israel, so to look at it from a distance is at least a little saner.”<br />
<br />
Indeed, many of those who belonged to what’s termed the radical left in Israel have left the country in the past decade. Among them were those who devoted their life to activism, founded political movements and headed some of the country’s most important left-wing organizations: Not only Zochrot, but B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Coalition of Women for Peace, 21st Year, Matzpen and others. The individuals include senior academics – some of whom were forced out of their jobs because of their political beliefs and activities – and also cultural figures or members of the liberal professions, who felt they could no longer express their views in Israel without fear. Many came from the heart of the Zionist left and then moved farther left, or looked on as the state abandoned principles that were important to them, to a point where they felt they no longer had a place in the Israeli public discourse.<br />
<br />
They are scattered around the world, trying to build new lives with fewer internal and external conflicts, very often out of concern for their children’s future. Most of them shy away from terming themselves political exiles, but make it plain that opposition to the Israeli government is what drove them to leave, or at least not to return. Some declined to be interviewed, from a feeling of unease at leaving and because they do not want their private act to become a model for others. Those who spoke to Haaretz would be the first to admit to enjoying privileges that allowed them to move to a different country, as none of them faces an uncertain economic future or the prospect of engaging in menial labor. Still, a clear note of pain runs through all the conversations.<br />
<br />
Among the well-known names no longer living in Israel are the curator and art theoretician Ariella Azoulay and her partner, philosopher Adi Ophir, who was among the founders of the 21st Year, an anti-occupation organization, and refused to serve in the territories; Anat Biletzki, a former chairwoman of B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories; Dana Golan, former executive director of the anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence; planner and architect Haim Yacobi, who founded Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights; literary scholar Hannan Hever, a cofounder of the 21st Year who was active in Yesh Gvul; Ilan Pappe, a one-time candidate from the Arab-Jewish party Hadash and a member of the group of “new historians,” who left the country over a decade ago and lives in London; and Yonatan Shapira, a former pilot in the Israeli air force who initiated the 2003 letter of the pilots who refused to participate in attacks in the occupied territories, and took part in protest flotillas to the Gaza Strip.<br />
<br />
Others include political scientist Neve Gordon, who was director of Physicians for Human Rights and was active in the Ta’ayush Arab Jewish Partnership, a nonviolent, anti-occupation and civil equality movement ; Yael Lerer, who helped found Balad, the Arab-nationalist political party, and was founder of (the now-defunct) Andalus Publishing, which translated Arabic literature into Hebrew; Gila Svirsky, a founder of Coalition of Women for Peace; Jonathan Ben-Artzi, a nephew of Sara Netanyahu, who was jailed for a total of nearly two years for refusing to serve in the Israeli army; Haim Bereshit, a BDS activist, who headed the Media and Cinema School in Sapir College in Sderot and established the city’s cinematheque; Marcelo Svirsky, a founder of the Kol Aher BaGalil Arab-Jewish coexistence group and cofounder of the Jewish-Arab school in Galilee; and Ilana Bronstein, Niv Gal, Muhammad Jabali, Saar Sakali and Rozeen Bisharat, who sought to create a joint Palestinian-Jewish leisure and culture venue in the Anna Loulou Bar in Jaffa (which closed in January 2019).<br />
<br />
The new “leavers” join those who left for political reasons many years ago, among them: Yigal Arens, a Matzpen activist and son of the late Moshe Arens, a longtime defense minister; Matzpen activists Moshe Machover, Akiva Orr and Shimon Tzabar, who left in the 1960s; as well as the filmmakers Eyal Sivan, Simone Bitton and Udi Aloni, who left in the 1980s and ‘90s.<br />
The word that recurs time and again in when one speaks with these individuals is “despair.” Percolating despair, continuing for years.<br />
<br />
“I remember vividly the period of the Oslo Accords, the euphoria – which I shared,” Bronstein Aparicio says. “I remember years when there was a feeling that maybe [the conflict] would be resolved and maybe there would be peace, but that feeling hasn’t existed for a long time. It’s a state of constant despair that keeps growing.”<br />
<br />
Thus, after long years of activism, all the interviewees testified that they had lost hope for political change in Israel. Many of them are convinced that if change does occur, it will not come from within Israel. “I think it could come mainly from outside,” Bronstein Aparicio explains. “I have hopes for BDS, which is the only significant thing now happening in the field. From that point of view, political exile like this can have a meaningful role.”<br />
<br />
Feeling of failure<br />
<br />
Neve Gordon, 54, launched his political activity when he was 15, attending demonstrations held by Peace Now. He was wounded seriously during his military service as a combat soldier in the Paratroops. At the time of the first intifada (which began in December 1987), he served as the first executive director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Subsequently he was active in Ta’ayush, which pursues avenues of Jewish and Palestinian cooperation, and was a founder of the Jewish-Arab school in Be’er Sheva. During the second intifada he was part of the movement of refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.<br />
<br />
Although his political activity has been extensive, Gordon may be best known to the general Israeli public primarily for an opinion piece he published in The Los Angeles Times in 2009, when he was head of the department of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er Sheva. In the essay, Gordon stated his support for the boycott movement and termed Israel an apartheid state. An international furor erupted, and the university’s president at the time, Rivka Carmi, declared that “academics who feel that way about their country are invited to look for different professional and personal accommodation.”<br />
<br />
In the years that followed, Gordon’s department at BGU became a target of systematic campaigns by right-wing organizations, notably Im Tirtzu, which demanded its closure because of the political views of a number of its faculty members. In 2012, Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) called for Gordon’s dismissal. At the end of that year, the Council for Higher Education recommended that the university consider shutting down the Gordon’s department if certain reforms weren’t undertaken, but its decision was ultimately revoked a few months later after a few changes were introduced.<br />
In those tumultuous years, the professor says, he received a number of threats on his life. Three and a half years ago, he and his partner, Catherine Rottenberg, who was head of the university’s gender studies program, together with their two sons, moved to London after both received European Union research fellowships. Gordon is now a professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London.<br />
<br />
It wasn’t the threats on his life that prompted him to leave, Gordon says, nor the struggle against the higher education establishment. In the end, what tipped the scales was concern for the future of their children. “I don’t see a political horizon, and I have two sons, with all that’s entailed in raising sons in Israel.”<br />
<br />
And you also landed an excellent job in London.<br />
<br />
“True, but my job in Israel was better by a long shot. I really liked the Ben-Gurion department, I liked the students and also the faculty. I felt I had a community, and it was very hard to give that up. Even when we got to London, we didn’t plan to stay. If we’d been a young couple without children, I’m not sure we would have stayed.” Gordon adds, “It’s not the easiest thing, to get up and leave at the age of 50-something. There’s a feeling of personal failure and the failure of a [political] camp.”<br />
<br />
Was there a particular moment when the impossibility of remaining in Israel became clear?<br />
<br />
“There was no one moment. Over the years we experienced growing extremism. It reached the point where we felt uncomfortable taking our children to demonstrations, because of the violence. The day-to-day racism is creating a place where I don’t feel I belong.”<br />
The final blow, says Gordon, came when he began to feel it was no longer possible to speak out freely against the racist situation he witnessed. “The dialogue within Israel, which used to be open and which I took pride in, changed. Things that people like me espouse – support for the boycott movement, or terming Israel an apartheid state – became illegitimate,” he says. “And then you are already not only outside the consensus, but outside the true public discussion. You become a curiosity. And then you say, ‘What do I need this for?’”<br />
<br />
Did the country change, or did you change?<br />
<br />
“To be fair, the change is undoubtedly both in me and in the country. I also underwent a certain process. What I understood was that the solution cannot be contained in Zionism.”<br />
<br />
Haim Yacobi, Gordon’s colleague at BGU, and subsequently head of its politics and government department, also left Israel. One of the founders of Bimkom, which deals with issues of equality in spatial planning and housing in Israel, Yacobi, an architect by training who is today 55 years old, moved to England three years ago with his partner and their three children, when he received a professorship at University College London. Like Gordon, he says that he did not leave because of political harassment: “If you look at the political situation in Israel squarely, on top of the colonial project in the West Bank and Israel’s becoming an apartheid state, then the question that arises is what I want for myself and for my children.”<br />
<br />
He adds, “For people like me – whose work is critical and political, and who were also involved as activists – the politics of hope or of despair is of very weighty significance,” he says. “To emigrate at my age and status is to say: I am in despair, I see no hope. That stems from my political analysis, based on how I view as a just state and society. It’s not a decision that’s made overnight. We didn’t leave Israel because of the price of cottage cheese. We were exactly at the stage in which good bourgeois folks start to see the fruits of their labors, and I feel that I was very successful in what I did in Israel. It’s very frightening to emigrate at a late age and to reinvent yourself.”<br />
The final blow, says Gordon, came when he began to feel it was no longer possible to speak out freely against the racist situation he witnessed.<br />
<br />
Yacobi notes that many of his colleagues in Israel, even among the radical left, viewed his leaving as a betrayal. That reaction came as a surprise, but didn’t make him change his mind. “The motivation to establish Bimkom was my belief that change was possible. I am less naive now,” he says, adding that the political violence in Israel led him to realize that getting out was the only option for him.<br />
Although Yacobi says he felt wanted in Israeli academia, he agrees that academic freedom in the country has been downgraded. “I think that very problematic forces, politically, have entered and have effectively become the police of the academic world,” he says.<br />
<br />
Bar-Ilan to Brown<br />
<br />
Indeed, one of the disturbing things that emerged from the conversations with academics now living and working abroad is the decisive contribution of Israeli institutions of higher education in forcing out scholars who espouse a radical-left political outlook. The process was not always a blatant one, and even when it was, some of the interviewees adamantly refused to talk about what they underwent, for fear their former universities would react by trying to damage their professional reputations.<br />
<br />
A clear-cut case, which was reported widely, was the refusal of Bar-Ilan University, in early 2011, to grant tenure and promotion to Ariella Azoulay, who had been teaching at the institution for 11 years. Dr. Azoulay, 58, a scholar of visual culture, curator, documentary filmmaker and one of Israel’s most influential interdisciplinary thinkers, was hired by Bar-Ilan five years after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, when the university had an image problem. This was an act with a pluralistic aroma: to employ a lecturer with well-known leftist views at a university with a religious, right-wing orientation where the prime minister’s assassin had been a student. A decade later, deep into the Netanyahu era, when right-wing organizations were compiling blacklists of scholars who criticized Israel, Azoulay’s radical approach apparently sat less well with the university’s directors.<br />
<br />
To the broad protest by senior academics who expressed concern that Azoulay was a victim of political persecution, Bar-Ilan University responded that its considerations had been strictly professional. Still, her achievements were enough for her to get a job offer from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island – an Ivy League university with a reputation as one of the world’s finest institutions of higher learning.<br />
<br />
A year and a half after she was denied tenure, Azoulay left the country together with her partner, Adi Ophir, a philosophy scholar and lecturer at Tel Aviv University, and a leading figure in the Israeli left. Prof. Ophir was 61 at the time; Azoulay was 51. The offer she received from Brown included a teaching position for him as well. For the past seven years, the two have been living in Providence, teaching, conducting research and writing books that enjoy impressive international success.<br />
<br />
Ophir is leery of the term “political exiles.” “Decisions of this kind are a combination of many things,” he says in a Zoom conversation from Rhode Island. “The trauma of [Azoulay’s] ejection from Bar-Ilan was an important part of it. Before that we had never looked for job opportunities abroad. Only when it became clear that they were going to throw her out for political reasons. And also the way the dismissal was received by academic colleagues – there was a respectable letter of support, but that was all. Other universities did not volunteer to hire her.<br />
<br />
“But still, if she hadn’t received that incredible job offer [at Brown], it’s possible that we would not have had the determination or the strength to undertake such a dramatic move. The more significant political fact is that since we got here we haven’t considered returning. The moment a full life became possible in a different place, the political and moral compromises that life in Israel entails became intolerable.”<br />
<br />
Is what happened to Azoulay typical of what’s going on in Israeli universities and colleges today?<br />
<br />
Ophir: “A rift opened at the start of the second intifada [in 2000]. We saw ourselves become increasingly anathematized. I was never persecuted at Tel Aviv University, but there’s this constant feeling of something growing all around, a kind of encrustation and it signifies: These are the boundaries, you can’t cross them, those ideas can’t be voiced now, you can’t deal with those things. Because for anyone who does deal with them, it’s not clear whether his doctorate will be approved, or whether his article will be accepted, or whether his students will receive scholarships. In my case, at least, everything was very minor, but there was a growing feeling that we were simply no longer wanted in this place.”<br />
<br />
From afar, he continues, “I started to see things I didn’t see from there. In Israel, I had many reservations about BDS. I thought about it from the viewpoint of my activity in academia, and I kept trying to tread between the raindrops, as it were: to recognize the legitimacy of the boycott movement without accepting its sweeping formulation. But I came to understand that what I was trying to do was protect myself and my space in the academic world.”<br />
<br />
Ophir wasn’t always in that zone of consciousness. He grew up in a right-wing Revisionist home before becoming a devoted member of the socialist Zionist youth movement Hamahanot Ha’olim. In 1987, he cofounded the 21st Year together with Hannan Hever, who became a professor of Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is now living in the United States. Theirs was a protest movement that called for refusal to serve in the territories and for the boycott of products made in the settlements.<br />
<br />
“Hannan and I spoke at the time about the refusal to serve in the army in terms of self-fulfillment,” he relates. “We thought that personal commitment to the State of Israel was to be expressed in a refusal to serve in the territories. I was totally a Zionist. It took me more time to understand what it means to be a Zionist.”<br />
<br />
Ophir does not deny that the country he lives in, the United States, is responsible for horrific wrongs. “In that sense, the United States is a terrible place, and since Trump’s election it has become a lot more terrible,” he says. “But when you oppose the regime in the United States, you are not alone. You are part of a large mass, active and creative. I can talk about it with students with absolute freedom. In my last years in Israel I felt that when I talked politics at the university, I was looked at like a UFO.”<br />
<br />
Do you also feel less alone in regard to your views about Israel?<br />
<br />
“For the majority of my colleagues, Israel is a lost case. And most of the time, I am with them. A political exile is someone whose life remained in the place he left, and whose life in the new place is stamped in that context. I don’t feel that way. I feel a great deal of pain together with a deep sense of pointlessness. Occasionally I still do something on campus, small things. That is my ‘reserve duty.’ But the center of my attention and interest is no longer there. The whole world is going from bad to worse, possibly toward its end. The Zionist colonial project is a tiny blip within it.”<br />
<br />
He continues, “It was a long process of separation. My mother died after many years of dementia. The parting from her lasted 15 years. The parting from Israel somewhat resembles that. Israel is something that is becoming alien and remote. In large measure I replaced my interest in political Israel with a growing interest in Jewish thought and history. I found myself a small patch that replaces the house in Tel Aviv. I’m enjoying being a Diaspora Jew.”<br />
<br />
Were there people who felt you were abandoning ship?<br />
<br />
'A political exile is someone whose life remained in the place he left, and whose life in the new place is stamped in that context. I don’t feel that way.'<br />
<br />
“Yes – a good many, I think. Some said so openly. I thought they should be leaving, too. But that’s easy to say: Not everyone gets a golden parachute for relocating. Obviously there is an egoistical element in what we did.”<br />
<br />
Are there things you miss about Israel?<br />
<br />
“Hummus?” Ophir laughs. “Just kidding. I miss my children and my grandchildren. Very much. Sometimes I miss Tel Aviv. Sometimes I miss traveling around the country – going to the desert in winter. But there is hardly a place that I would walk across today and not feel that I was walking on someone else’s land.”<br />
<br />
Ariella Azoulay declined to be interviewed, but sent a written statement: “I don’t trust the press and I don’t want to be represented by it; I support the boycott and have no interest in being interviewed for a Zionist newspaper. What I have to say about the fact that I was born to be an ‘Israeli’ as a form of control by the state over the body and mind of its subjects and citizens, and about my refusal to identify myself in the ‘Israeli’ category, I wrote in the introduction to my new book and I have nothing to add to that.<br />
<br />
“And in addition, emigration out of a feeling of the impossibility of living in the place where you were born, because you serve to keep out those who were expelled from it, is painful, and I have no interest in sharing that pain with a Zionist audience that denies the pain and the loss that the State of Israel inflicted and is continuing to inflict, above all on its Palestinian inhabitants, and in a different way on its Jewish citizens.” (Azoulay’s most recent book is “Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism,” published last year.)<br />
<br />
Once is enough<br />
<br />
Hagar Kotef, 43, found herself in an even more disturbing situation with regard to an Israeli university. Dr. Kotef, who was active in Machsom Watch and other left-wing movements, completed her doctoral studies in philosophy at Tel Aviv University and at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2012, she had an opportunity to come back to Israel as part of a plan to integrate returning academics. She was offered a teaching job in a prestigious program at one of the country’s universities.<br />
<br />
On the evening before her contract was approved, a right-wing NGO launched a campaign against her employment by the university. As a result, the rector refused to sign the contract, and the university put forward new conditions for the appointment, notably a demand that she sign a commitment relating to her political activity: Kotef was required to undertake not to attend demonstrations, not to sign petitions and not to speak publicly – or in the classroom – about any subject not related to her academic research.<br />
<br />
It was the summer of 2014. When Operation Protective Edge broke out, in the Gaza Strip, Kotef signed an internet petition calling for Israel to negotiate with Hamas. Minutes later, she received a phone call from the university informing her that her employment was terminated. Kotef took the case to the Labor Court and was reinstated. “I started to work, but my job contract never arrived.”<br />
<br />
Kotef and her partner, a physicist and brain scientist, started to look for jobs in England. “It was clear that staying there [at the university] wasn’t an option, and also that I wouldn’t find a job anywhere else in Israel,” she says.<br />
<br />
Kotef later found employment as a senior lecturer in politics and political theory in the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. After teaching a semester there, she and her family left Israel permanently: “The combination of what happened in the university, the war, the violence in the streets, the fear to speak out, the racism and the hatred simply broke me.”<br />
<br />
Even today, six years later, Kotef is still clearly shaken by the memories of that period. “Exile is too highly charged a concept: I don’t categorize myself as a political exile, because all in all we left for a good job and a good place. But at the same time, we did not leave by choice and it wasn’t a relocation.” Kotef admits frankly that she did not find a way to continue her political activity in London.<br />
<br />
“I’m not capable of being an activist [regarding Israel or other issues] here,” she adds. “A few years ago, my partner scolded me for going to a demonstration: ‘We’ve already been expelled from one country because of you, we don’t want to be expelled from another.’”<br />
<br />
Do you feel guilty about leaving?<br />
<br />
Kotef: “No. I lost hope that it’s possible to change things from within, so I don’t feel I could be doing something if I were [in Israel]. If anything, I feel guilty toward my family, toward my parents, who were separated from their granddaughters, and toward my daughters, whom I moved to this place. Sometimes I look and say it’s lucky we’re not in Israel; and sometimes there is a feeling of loss. London is a cosmopolitan city, but there is still a hatred of minorities here, which Brexit exposed intensely, and we will always be strangers here.<br />
<br />
“But I prefer to live and raise children in a place where my foreignness sometimes generates antagonism, rather than in a place where I am part of the side that is racist toward the other. There are moments when I ask myself what we have done, but I don’t feel that it was really our choice.”<br />
<br />
Dangerous place<br />
<br />
“I did not have a golden parachute of work in academia like some others had,” says Yael Lerer, 53, a translator and editor who spearheaded attempts to draw Israelis and Palestinians closer together from a civic and cultural point of view. Lerer, who moved to Paris in 2008, was a central activist in the Equality Alliance, an Arab-Jewish political movement out of which emerged Balad (acronym for National Democratic Alliance), later serving as the party’s spokesperson, parliamentary assistant to MK Azmi Bishara and as Balad’s first election campaign manager. She founded Andalus Publishing in 2001.<br />
<br />
Although Lerer has lived in Paris for more than a decade, she says she feels she never left Israel. “I come and go. I haven’t sliced myself off from Israel. It’s just that my day-to-day life has become more pleasant. My French friends complain about racism in that country, but we are talking a whole different scale from Israel.”<br />
<br />
The political persecution she experienced in Israel sometimes also makes it difficult for her to find work in France; to make ends meet she has to supplement her earnings from translation and editing by working in real estate (“which I really hate”). “There are projects that interest me but that they don’t let me do, because when I’m googled in France the first thing that appears is that I am one of those Israelis who forged an alliance with the terrorists,” she says. “There was incitement to murder me and I was slandered. I was offered a job in television, but someone vetoed it, because they didn’t want to get in trouble with the Jewish community. Research institutes that approached me also backed off at the last minute for the same reason. So I can work mainly in things where I am not up-front [about who I am].”<br />
<br />
In 2013, Lerer returned to Israel for a time and was a Knesset candidate on behalf of Balad, in the 12th (and unrealistic) place on its list. While taking part in a panel discussion ahead of the election at Netanya Academic College, she was the target of a violent attack by rightists. The other panel participants did not come to her defense, she says.<br />
<br />
“It was almost a lynching,” she recalls. “It’s a lucky thing there were security guards. I’d always thought that even if I received hate messages and threats of murder, it would only be on the web, but that in real life no one would do anything really bad to me. Suddenly I understood that I could no longer count on that. I understood that Israel had become a dangerous place for me.”<br />
<br />
Best time to emigrate<br />
<br />
Rozeen Bisharat and Saar Székely, who are life partners, despaired of Israel at a younger age than the other interviewees, but even so, they felt they had to leave fast. “The best point to emigrate is in your early twenties,” says Székely. “But I was already 33 and Rozeen was 32, and we had the feeling that in another minute it would be too late.”<br />
<br />
Székely, who is Jewish, and Bisharat, who is Palestinian, were among the owners of the Anna Loulou Bar in Jaffa, and were political activists in different ways. Bisharat was involved in the student organization of Hadash, and during the social justice protests of the summer of 2011, erected “Tent 48” on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, in an effort to simultaneously raise awareness of the Nakba. Székely was an activist via political performance art. They left Israel two-and-a-half years ago.<br />
<br />
What prompted their departure, they say, was the question of whether it was possible to effect<br />
change. “When you try to exert influence or to change public opinion, it depends on whether you believe that it’s still possible to change things,” Székely says. “It’s a question of optimism – and that’s what we ran out of in the period before this.”<br />
<br />
Hope waned for Bisharat after the protest movement ended and was severely battered in the Gaza war of 2014.<br />
<br />
“For years I thought it was possible to generate change in Israeli society, to bring people content they hadn’t been exposed to,” she says. “But having a different opinion started to be considered treason. Automatically, if you don’t agree with the state’s way, you are a traitor. And I, as a Palestinian, was told: ‘You don’t like it? Go to Gaza.’ There’s no one to hold a discussion with. Not even in Tel Aviv. Part of my leaving was a desire to liberate myself from my role as ‘a Palestinian in Tel Aviv.’ In Berlin I am from the Middle East, or part of the Arab world. I am not a gimmick the way I was in Tel Aviv, but one of hundreds of thousands of other foreigners. Berlin gives me access to the Arab world, I can meet Syrians, Egyptians and Lebanese, I can be Middle Eastern. Tel Aviv today is far more white and European than Berlin. My real cultural exile was in Israel.”<br />
<br />Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-76282578539426765892020-02-02T16:37:00.000-08:002020-02-02T16:37:24.456-08:00Americans need education on Israel rather than the holocaust<br />
I am a reader of The Conversation, a site that puts up essays by academics on their fields of expertise. Recently they published an appeal for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-legislation-is-needed-to-make-holocaust-education-more-prominent-in-public-schools-5-questions-answered-130681" target="_blank">more education on the holocaust in American public schools</a>. I replied with an essay calling for American education on the country's relationship with Israel and what Israel is doing that goes against the American motto of liberty and justice for all. Here is that essay.<br />
<br />
<div style="background: rgb(241, 241, 242); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
The great irony of education on the holocaust as well as in the several holocaust memorials in the U.S. is the studious avoidance of any mention of how the state of Israel, borne of the holocaust, until which Zionism had fallen short of interesting enough Jews to move to Palestine to create a Jewish state, practices eviction and oppression of the native Arab people while at the same time stating “never again.” Just as Hitler proclaimed that Jews were not Germans and had to go, Israel proclaims that the Arab natives, not being Jews, have to go. Though Israel does not practice extermination as Hitler did, it does practice systematic oppression, harassment and eviction (going on now in East Jerusalem as I write) going so far as to deny that there is a Palestinian people all in the service of making life so intolerable for the Palestinians that they will leave on their own though they are refusing to go, despite decades of mistreatment.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(241, 241, 242); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Just as the United States swept Native-Americans from the continent with intent, so Israel seeks the same with the Arabs on the land it wants for Jews alone. We in America are ashamed of what was done to the “Indians.” and we are proud (most of us) of being a multicultural society where all are equal under the law. The descendants of the Indians have full civil rights along with all other Americans today. Yet Americans, uneducated in what is going on in Israel, voice not a whimper in objection to a repetition of what was done to the Indians, instead watching our government pouring on full support, billions of dollars in aid (Israel is the #1 recipient of our aid) and defending Israel from any consequences of violating international law against moving one’s own citizens into territory occupied in war by repeatedly vetoing UN sanctions on Israel. The U.S. alone stands with Israel in this way. The hypocrisy is epic. Education please!</div>
<div style="background: rgb(241, 241, 242); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Yet this knowledge is not passed on to U.S. public school students though it involves American current events and is a direct refutation of what America claims to stand for: liberty and justice for all. The holocaust is, by comparison, foreign history. Our current president has gifted Israel with everything on Israel’s wish list - our embassy placed in Jerusalem, endorsing the wording of a State Dept. document outrageously equating anti-semitism to criticism of Israel, the silencing of peaceful campus protests against Israel and just this week, the OK on Israel seizing more Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(241, 241, 242); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Many American Jews are outraged that what Israel is doing is being done in their name, organizing to oppose it in organizations such as <a href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #557585; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Jewish Voice for Peace</a>.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(241, 241, 242); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Is yet more holocaust education needed? It is required in the public schools in many states. The holocaust is continually featured in media, either the main subject or background to literally dozens of movies, books, plays, and magazine articles produced over the years and each new year features additions. It is a staple. There are holocaust memorials in several locations across the county and there is no lack of funding for more. It is a subject far from being unaddressed.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(241, 241, 242); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Education of all Americans is needed on the power of lobbies of which Israel’s is among the most powerful, so powerful it can get Congress to support enthusiastically what is definitively un-American! This education would truly be valuable for creating an awake and aware citizenry and would help reduce the ranting between Americans, helping them understand not just how corrupt our government has become, but why and how it is able to be pushed against the bedrock ideals that America once stood for in a concrete ongoing refutation of the truths we supposedly hold to be self evident. Russian interference? It is nothing compared to Israel’s tail wagging the dog.</div>
<div style="background: rgb(241, 241, 242); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
You know about the holocaust, all Americans do to at least a limited extent. Educate yourself in an area where another country desires Americans be ignorant. Let Jews who are on the scene in Israel and appalled at what their country is doing tell you the whole terrible story. Visit <a href="https://www.btselem.org/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #557585; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">B'Tselem</a>, the Israeli NGO for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. They know that things will not get better as long as the U.S. gives full support to a human rights disaster. If we do nothing to end “the special relationship” then Americans are responsible for the awful project Israel conducts in broad daylight thumbing its nose at the rest of the world with our blessing. Education should affect behavior. If you feel sorrow for what we did to the Indians, if you regret the holocaust, then speak out for the Palestinians.</div>
Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-71413531012176703392019-12-10T14:17:00.000-08:002019-12-10T14:27:18.483-08:00Lives: Reporting on Hong Kong vs the West Bank<h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: raleway; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin: 0.4em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d4e53; font-weight: normal;">This is a reproduction of an essay from the </span><a href="http://cptpalestine.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Christian Peacemaker Teams</span></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: #4d4e53;">website. It is on point, a </span></span><br /><span style="color: #4d4e53; font-weight: normal;">point being graphically made for many years now by Alison Weir at </span><a href="https://ifamericansknew.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">If Americans Knew</span></a><span style="color: #4d4e53; font-weight: normal;"> and also by </span><a href="https://www.btselem.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">B'Tselem</span></a><span style="color: #4d4e53; font-weight: normal;"> on the scene.</span></span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d4e53; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #4d4e53; font-family: Raleway; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 30px; margin: 0.4em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</h2>
<h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #4d4e53; font-family: raleway; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin: 0.4em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Lessons of Hong Kong</h2>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“How was I supposed to think about a world where the life of a Palestinian is utterly disposable?”</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">— Pamela J. Olson, <em style="border: 0px; color: #898989; font-family: "Droid Sans"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fast Times in Palestine</em></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
When millions of people are in an open struggle for freedom, the world takes notice. The Green Movement in Iran, the Arab Spring, the Maidan in Ukraine, are just some of the recent challenges to authoritarianism that have drawn global admiration—and headlines. Now it is Hong Kong’s turn.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
On 1 October, during one of Hong Kong’s massive demonstrations, a protester was hit in the chest by a live round of ammunition, and 4 October, another live round hit a demonstrator’s leg. The world’s press noted both of these developments. Fortunately, both victims lived. The story turned tragic on 8 November with the death of student Chow Tsz-Lok, who sustained fatal brain injuries in a fall near a police action. The Washington Post headline: “Student’s death plunges Hong Kong into night of grief and fury.” Since then, two more protesters have died from police violence.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "duru sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #110101;">In the U.S. Congress, the Hong Kong demonstrations sparked a bipartisan push for legislation to end the sale of crowd-control munitions to Hong Kong. The </span><b><a href="https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/blackburn-colleagues-work-defend-freedom-expression-hong-kong" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">legislation</span></a></b><span style="color: #110101;"> was introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley, who said that the U.S. “should never be complicit in police violence against pro-democracy protests.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
“You can’t compare griefs,” goes the old saying. It takes absolutely nothing away from the struggle of the Hong Kong protesters to wonder aloud why a much bloodier struggle for similar goals in Palestine fails to attract the same level of sympathetic attention. In 2018, Israeli forces killed 289 Palestinians, most of whom were unarmed and not participating in hostilities against Israeli forces. In the first nine months of 2019, 89 more Palestinians were killed. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
The glaring contrast with Hong Kong is this: The Israeli forces routinely violate the rules of discrimination and proportionality that their own regulations require. Too often they use live fire when their own lives are not in danger, and too often they fire indiscriminately. Certainly the Hong Kong demonstrators face strong police forces and, ultimately, the overwhelming might of the Chinese military. It takes admirable courage to persist despite the potential for a very repressive response. Nevertheless, even after we take into account the recent tragic deaths in Hong Kong, the contrast between the casualty level there and the casualty level in Palestine is dramatic. And as long as Israel faces no consequences for the use of live ammunition and dangerous “less lethal” munitions against unarmed Palestinians, why wouldn’t they continue to treat Palestinians as “utterly disposable”?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
A key factor in Israeli impunity – also in contrast with Hong Kong – is world indifference. Comparing the press coverage of both places, that indifference is not surprising. The USA’s politicians, media executives, even sports teams have felt the need to respond to events in Hong Kong, but American governmental and corporate benevolence flows to Israel almost without comment in mainstream media.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "duru sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #110101;">About a year ago, 416labs.com published a </span><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/558067a3e4b0cb2f81614c38/t/5c391cc4758d46ef9834907f/1547246789711/416_LABS_50_Years_Of_Occupation_Jan+9th.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>detailed content analysis</b></span></a><span style="color: #110101;"> of headlines in five leading newspapers, from 1967 to 2017, relating to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Israeli sources dominate coverage both in sheer quantity and in terms of positive rather than negative sentiment. Israel-centric headlines exceeded Palestine-centric headlines by a four-to-one margin.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "duru sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #110101;">Certain sectors of the American electorate accept a pro-Israel bias almost without question. For example, vice president Mike Pence gave a </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-pence-liberty-universitys-commencement/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">commencement address</span></b></a><span style="color: #110101;"> to this year’s Liberty University graduates. (Liberty University is the USA’s largest Christian institution of higher education.) Early in his speech, Pence reviews the achievements claimed by the Trump administration. For example:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; color: #898989; font-family: "Droid Sans"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We’ve been rebuilding our military, standing with our allies, and standing up to our enemies. And under this administration, if the world knows nothing else, the world knows this: America stands with Israel. (Applause.)</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
For the constituency Pence represents, Israel as a country exists in a category all its own, not subjected to the critical eye of Trump’s isolationist America-first presidency. Palestine is not simply a point of American neglect and ignorance. It’s worse than that: Palestine is to be regarded only through an Israeli lens. Palestinians, their rights, their reality, and their identity as a people, are to be systematically neutralized.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Palestinians themselves steadfastly refuse to accept Israel’s plans for them. There are small but encouraging signs that their persistence is affecting the current imbalance of media attention. First, the younger generation of Jewish Americans is far more critical of Israeli occupation policies than their elders. Second, the taboo among American politicians against criticizing Israel has been weakened by the willingness of three contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination – Warren, Sanders, and Buttigieg – to advocate placing conditions on USA military aid to Israel. Their mini-rebellion, mild as it is, has been widely covered in the mainstream press, which just might be the first tiny step toward a more balanced coverage of the occupation.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #110101; font-family: "Duru Sans"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-indent: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
In the meantime, let’s ask Jeff Merkley, sponsor of the crowd-control munitions bill, and his co-sponsors, senators Cornyn, Markey, and Blackburn, whether their concern about police violence against pro-democracy protests extends beyond Hong Kong.</div>
Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-83697890319488586312019-05-30T22:31:00.000-07:002019-06-01T11:38:31.047-07:00BBC, Hebron Exposed: A Weapon of Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZvZ-FptlX4M/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZvZ-FptlX4M?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
The Palestinians are powerless to counter the endless, continual humiliation that Israelis, be they civilians, soldiers or police, are dedicated to inflicting on them every day, year after year, while the world stands by and the United States ("liberty and justice for all") backs everything that Israel does.<br />
<br />
The only way Palestinians can avoid complete helplessness is to make videos of their oppression. In <a href="https://youtu.be/ZvZ-FptlX4M" target="_blank">this BBC production</a>, a video that would never be shown on American mainstream media, you the viewer are introduced to the situation in Hebron where a small group of Israeli settlers live within an otherwise Palestinian city with Israeli soldiers stationed there to be sure the settlers are protected not only from harm, but from any consequences for what they do to the Palestinians. Please watch and imagine how anyone could bear this mostly non-lethal terrorism where arrest and harassment are meted out for any or no reason by people who hold all the power against people who have no rights.<br />
<br />
The Dred Scott decision of the U.S. Supreme Court contained the opinion that "the Negro has no rights that the white man need observe." <a href="https://youtu.be/ZvZ-FptlX4M" target="_blank">This video</a> shows that concept in practice today where the Palestinian has no rights that the Israeli need observe.<br />
<br />
I just read this in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>According to reports published by the Israeli organization Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights, based on 1,163 cases in the years 2005-2017, the probability – in violent crimes involving Jewish perpetrators and Palestinian victims – that a complaint submitted by a Palestinian to the Israel Police would lead to an investigation, apprehension of a suspect, a trial and conviction was 1.9 percent. Fully 91 percent of the investigations conducted in the Shai (the West Bank) District during that period concerning harm done to Palestinians or their property were terminated without indictments being handed down; 82 percent of the cases were closed for reasons that show that the police apparently failed to collect evidence or locate suspects.</i></span><br />
<br />Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-42407043085734048522019-05-11T14:56:00.002-07:002019-05-11T15:23:21.291-07:00a slaughter with full US supportAlison Weir (not to be confused with the British author), the American journalist whose eyes were opened two decades ago to the Palestinian plight, has for some time published the figures showing the lopsided cost of the strife in Palestine/Israel where state of the art weapons inflict a great number of casualties on the Palestinians. Her website, <a href="https://ifamericaknew.org/" target="_blank">If Americans Knew</a>, is well worth a visit for the graphics she presents.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, I discovered an equally powerful presentation of the same kind of information, shown just below, by way of Prof. Juan Cole's website, <a href="https://www.juancole.com/2019/05/palestinian-israeli-wounded.html" target="_blank">Informed Comment</a>. This graphic shows an over 200:1 ratio of fatalities and a 560:1 ratio of injuries within the 13 months of the Palestinian Great March of Return beginning in March of 2018 (referred to as GMR in the graphic below). This documents the assassination and injury of unarmed demonstrators at the Gaza border of Israel by Israel soldiers with sniper rifles. Seeing this, you can understand how Israelis can easily live with the destruction their country inflicts on the Palestinians.<br />
<br />
Watch an outstanding <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000005933727/israel-gaza-medic-killed-rouzan-najjar.html" target="_blank">investigative video of a Palestinian medic killed by the Israeli sniping</a> from the New York Times, an uncharacteristically honest look at situation by that paper. Informed Comment has also published this: <a href="https://www.juancole.com/2019/05/thousands-palestinians-amputation.html" target="_blank">thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza at risk of amputation from Israeli sniping</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMI2G_dOFnCXDJDHxFUpJ9k37Gvd2W_uX6yGv3TZdu_WWvcucxZauvgPcezR2ENz5HGl-kgBNLTf3Jk2_BObA2tTnQqzQJEcc4m1hGvZAYmzAqvYzfISvrWe3p7nMqv35WW89BD-Q7pGg/s1600/Palestinian2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="577" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMI2G_dOFnCXDJDHxFUpJ9k37Gvd2W_uX6yGv3TZdu_WWvcucxZauvgPcezR2ENz5HGl-kgBNLTf3Jk2_BObA2tTnQqzQJEcc4m1hGvZAYmzAqvYzfISvrWe3p7nMqv35WW89BD-Q7pGg/s400/Palestinian2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-47342301832566338512019-04-28T16:09:00.001-07:002019-04-28T16:12:27.172-07:00I attend a talk by Amira Hass<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0DBV4CBF1DYNElkK-uN9dmUvQUbS54YOVczVSjRlnkwFXP1DK4f-ufpbW0T48DVIwRo9L3NGrmtzkH8AEiur7v0eDuk3CP64G4W10OcDghkJ8ROHcEp4Z1FmCMlsRUVyL5e3vQqMVFEE/s1600/hass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0DBV4CBF1DYNElkK-uN9dmUvQUbS54YOVczVSjRlnkwFXP1DK4f-ufpbW0T48DVIwRo9L3NGrmtzkH8AEiur7v0eDuk3CP64G4W10OcDghkJ8ROHcEp4Z1FmCMlsRUVyL5e3vQqMVFEE/s320/hass.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Amira Hass, journalist with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, spoke today in the Chicago area. I attended as I admire her courage in standing up for Palestinian rights. There were about 200 people in the meeting room at a public library with all seats taken. She spoke for about an hour and then took questions from the audience.<br />
<br />
She told us that the number of Israelis who, like her, see the injustice of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians has dwindled from what it was 20 years ago. Though this injustice is practiced daily by the army and the police, it is easy for Israelis to ignore the situation while the settlers deliberately indulge themselves in oppression, threatening and beating Palestinian farmers and shepherds, uprooting Palestinian olive trees and appropriating Palestinian land on their own initiative.<br />
<br />
She said that outside pressure is the only method that will force a change. She noted than the newspaper keeps track of page clicks and this information has revealed that when she writes of the wrongs against the Palestinians few Israelis read what she has to say. If on the other hand she writes of things that are wrong with the Palestinian leadership such as corruption, Israeli readership is much higher. The situation of the Palestinians has become so routine that it bores Israelis, a good example of how it isn't hard to get along with somebody else's troubles...even when one is the cause of them.<br />
<br />
She explained her avoidance of the term terrorist; that when she mentions some violent act she describes the act instead of putting it down to terrorism as is usually the case. She questions why an act of violence by someone in uniform is excused as the rightful use of authority while the same act by a non-uniformed individual will be called terrorism. She pointed out that every effort the Palestinians have made to find a solution to the problem of their land being taken from them has been condemned, even if entirely peaceful such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.<br />
<br />
She displayed <a href="https://www.btselem.org/download/settlements_map_eng.pdf" target="_blank">this map</a> of the occupied territory (West Bank) that clearly shows the impossibility of a two state solution.<br />
<br />
It was not an upbeat presentation because all indications are that Israel will continue to do as it pleases while the world watches helplessly as the United States government reinforces Israeli extremism, at least through the end of the Trump presidency.<br />
<br />
I was pleased to see a much larger percentage of young people in attendance than I have at similar events in the past. As an American, I am disgusted with the actions of my government regarding Israel, but I am very proud of the many Americans, in particular American Jews who are disgusted by Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and in particular are revolted by Benjamin Netanyahu's attempt to present Israel as the representative of all Jews worldwide.Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-24147355644153380852019-02-03T20:19:00.000-08:002019-02-03T20:25:48.909-08:00I listen as Israeli activist Jeff Halper speaks at a local churchLast night I attended a talk given by Jeff Halper, a man I met 9 years ago when he was attending a hearing in Chicago on Israeli violations of human rights. He spoke last night primarily about a one state solution for all the people of Palestine/Israel.<br />
<br />
Jeff was born and spent his youth in the U.S. before moving to Israel and becoming a citizen there in 1974. He is active in the Israeli <a href="https://icahd.org/" target="_blank">Campaign Against Housing Demolitions</a> (ICAHD) that rebuilds Palestinian home demolished by Israel. Israel uses demolitions as a way of evicting Palestinians citing Israeli laws that prevent any construction in Palestinian areas. Jeff mentioned in his talk that ICAHD had over the years rebuilt 300 homes, but that Israel had demolished 50,000 since 1967. I took a look at my post about Jeff from 9 years ago and noted the figure for demolitions at the time was 24,000 so Israel has been very busy.<br />
<br />
On this trip to the states, Jeff is also promoting his new book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/War-Against-People-Palestinians-Pacification/dp/074533430X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549251756&sr=1-1&keywords=jeff+halper" target="_blank">War Against the People</a>, </i>that tells of the large worldwide market for Israeli military and security related hardware. He told us that Israel is the second largest arms supplier to China and he displayed a map of the world indicating all the places where Israeli items from Kfir jets to crypto-analytic software are sold. Israel promotes its products as tested and proven which Jeff told us means used upon the Palestinians.<br />
<br />
With all this income from exports, one has to wonder why the United States is providing Israel with $38 billion in military hardware over the current ten year long "memorandum of understanding" signed by President Obama. The answer is, of course, that the great majority of that money must be spent on U.S. military equipment. It is a gift both to Israel and U.S. military contractors.<br />
<br />
Jeff spoke passionately for 90 minutes, letting us know what I already knew, that the two-state solution offered in what were claimed to be peace talks and the solution that is automatically voiced by U.S. politicians who know it is a safe position to take, is dead. He showed <a href="https://www.btselem.org/download/settlements_map_eng.pdf" target="_blank">a map of the West Bank</a> that makes it obvious that there is no place for a Palestinian state. Israel never intended such a state to be and has always refused to call its rule of the West Bank an occupation since in the view of most Israelis the land is Israel's that just happens to have Arabs living on it...for now.<br />
<br />
If not two states, then the future must be one state for all the people, not just Jews. In answer to what the state might be called, Jeff joked it might be "Palestein" but the concept is quite serious. The group associated with the promotion of the idea was founded by 100 people, Jews and Arabs, including Jeff, called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/odsc.org/" target="_blank">One Democratic State Campaign</a> (Facebook) and has a ten point political program outlining what ODSC stands for...<br />
<br />
1. a single constitutional democracy<br />
2. the right of return for Palestinian refugees<br />
3. individual rights shared by all<br />
4. collective rights (no discrimination against any community)<br />
5. immigration open to all<br />
6. construction of a shared society (institutions open to all)<br />
7. economic justice (ending the current full services for Jews and substandard service for Arabs)<br />
8. commitment to human rights, justice and peace.<br />
9. joining with those in Arab countries who long to see democracy in their states as well<br />
10. joining the international community of progressives supporting an alternative global order that<br />
stands for egalitarianism and the end of intolerance, oppression and wars<br />
<br />
I see nothing in this list I would disapprove, but as I mentioned in a question I asked Jeff, the government of Israel, one that has been repeatedly supported by a majority of Israelis, stands four square for sustaining the oppressive apartheid system they conduct at present. The road to implementation of a single state for all will be rough and cannot make progress without the support of the United States, which, though it claims to be for liberty and justice for all, backs the opposite in Israel.Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-29246667046218214322018-12-19T13:56:00.001-08:002018-12-19T14:02:38.292-08:00Bradley Burston on toxic Zionism<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><i>Bradley Burston of the Israeli newspaper <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-zionism-as-a-form-of-toxic-masculinity-1.6760661" target="_blank">Haaretz</a> has written a powerful opinion piece that is so impressive I reproduce it here. Zionism was originally an attempt to shelter a helpless people by giving them complete control in a country of their own, but with the unlimited power it now has under the protection of the United States it has become a monster of oppression allowing Zionists, if they so choose, to act like Nazis once did with impunity and for the same reason: power without accountability. Like National Socialism, Zionism will fail because the contempt for others that comes with power is inevitable in the two ideas.</i></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> There's
something inside me that I can't seem to get rid of. I push it down, try to pay
no attention, but still it rattles around down there, souring the system. Then,
over the last miserable couple of weeks, I realized that it's time I brought
this up, to the surface, and, at long last, dealt with it.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It's
about </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/TAG-zionism-1.5599160" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #045973; text-decoration-line: none;">Zionism</span></a><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">. </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/TAG-zionism-1.5599160" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #045973; text-decoration-line: none;">Zionism</span></a><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> as
a form of toxic masculinity.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Toxic
masculinity, as in: I, as a self-decreed Alpha, can do whatever the Capital Eff
I please, to whomever I please, for whatever personal benefit I can extract,
with absolutely no fear of negative consequence.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">As
in: I should be able to badger and bludgeon anyone I please, in order to get my
way, regardless of the issue, regardless of how many people it hurts, demeans,
infuriates, oppresses. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Why?
#BecauseZionism.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It
has to do with toxic masculinity in behavior, policy, enforcement, in word and
deed. In the West Bank, and in Israel proper.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It
has to do with just one week, in which right-wing Israeli soldiers attacked and
fought with Israeli Border Police, in an effort to </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-soldiers-suspended-for-attempting-to-violently-release-arrested-settlers-1.6747210" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #045973; text-decoration-line: none;">forcibly release
settlers</span></a><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> the Border Police troops had arrested for throwing
stones at Palestinian homes in the West Bank. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">You
read that right. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It
has to do with settlers pressuring cabinet ministers to attend a protest AGAINST
their own government, for not acting fast enough to respond to terrorist
attacks by immediately legalizing – in the vernacular, "Koshering" -
thousands of settlement homes which even Israel recognizes were built illegally
on Palestinian-owned land. Obedient as dogs under a threatening stick, nine
ministers, one short of a cabinet majority, attended the protest, </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">You
read that right.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">All
in the service of </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/TAG-zionism-1.5599160" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #045973; text-decoration-line: none;">Zionism</span></a><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> as
a form of toxic masculinity – all for the sake of the new Greater Israel, where
2,000 wrongs make a right wing.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">All
for the sake of Zionism, which has testosteronized into a he-man,
screw-everyone-but-us government of the settlers, by the settlers, for the
settlers. A government deriving its just powers from the consent of the
settlers. And no one else. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It
has to do with overstepping – crushing underfoot - all imaginable bounds, just
because you can. It has to do with Israel pressuring U.S. state and federal
government to enact anti-BDS legislation, and reportedly asking German
Chancellor Angela Merkel to act to </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/report-israel-demanded-germany-cut-funding-to-jewish-museum-in-berlin-1.6726205" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #045973; text-decoration-line: none;">cut-off German
funding </span></a><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">to organizations and institutions which Benjamin
Netanyahu's office views as critical of its policies – among them, the Israeli
news and commentary website +972 Magazine, and, most astonishing, the Jewish
Museum in Berlin.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">You
read that right, too.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It
has to do with doing all that, and then saying nothing, looking the other way,
when a Texas school district allegedly </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/texas-speech-pathologist-fired-for-refusing-to-pledge-not-to-boycott-israel-1.6750517" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #045973; text-decoration-line: none;">fires a
children’s speech pathologist </span></a><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">because she refused to sign a
pledge not to boycott Israel, prompting a lawsuit over First Amendment rights.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">All
for the sake of a Zionism which now takes the worst, most obnoxious elements of
what may be called the Israeli personality, and glorifies them, to the exclusion
of what was once actually positive here. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Meet
the New Zionist Man: Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Bezalel Smotrich, of the
radical settler-dominated Tkuma faction of the hardline Bayit Hayehudi
party. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Famed
for: Having called an LGBTQ Pride march a "parade of beasts"; having
urged segregation of Arabs and Jews in hospital maternity wards ("It is
natural that my wife would not want to lay down next to someone who just gave
birth to a baby who might want to murder her baby in another 20 years.");
having said that children throwing stones at soldiers should be shot to death,
and having declared, regarding Israelis, that </span><a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Bayit-Yehudi-MK-causes-uproar-by-saying-God-commanded-Jews-not-to-sell-homes-to-Arabs-409241" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #045973; text-decoration-line: none;">God commanded
Jews </span></a><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">not to sell homes to Arabs.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Current
claim to fame: Author of profoundly surreal legislation initially approved
Sunday by the Netanyahu cabinet, which would, if passed by the Knesset,
magically legalize no fewer than 65 illegal West Bank outposts, supply them
with infrastructure, government services, connection to the Israel Electric
Corporation power grid, and a Treasury guarantee of a mortgage for any settlers
who want to build a new home where they are – as well as effective immunity
from official enforcement actions like eviction and demolition. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Or
Meet the New Zionist Man: Yair Netanyahu, prospective Knesset Likud candidate,
and the potty-mouthed, racist, girlfriend-humiliating, hormone-driven,
uber-privileged, colossally arrogant sock-puppet son of the prime
minister. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Watch
him progress in stature and influence as he publicly advocates ethnic cleansing
against millions of Muslims, promotes anti-Semitism against left-leaning Jews,
swears on the witness stand like a leave-drunk sailor, and, for dessert, makes
obscene gestures in a courtroom, </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Watch
his proud parents kvell. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Why?
'Cause he's a real man. Cause he's a real rightist. Cause he's Israeli and
Jewish and Likud.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Because
Zionism now equals settlements. And democracy-strangling legislation. Because
in order to win the favor of the crucial swing vote of racist ultra-masculine
(in their own minds) neo-Kahane neo-fascists and, yes, to win the favor of the
settlement movement, Israel's leaders now call for war when the military is
against it. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Groveling
at the feet of the far-right, beating their chests like male great apes in
display, Israel's leaders now want to uproot and expel family members of
terrorists - even when the Shin Bet and senior army and police officials have
explicitly and repeatedly told the cabinet ministers that the expulsions are
counter-productive in combating terror, and are directly in conflict with to
Israel's short- and long-term interests at home and abroad.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">You
read that right. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It's
gotten so bad that the discourse of toxic masculinity now also extends to those
who oppose Zionism, and who have adopted its aversion to sympathy and
compassion for any of those who stand on the other side of the conflict.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">So
where does that leave me? </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">It
leaves me, and an enormous number of other Jews, orphaned of a homeland,
supplanted by well-meaning evangelicals and foreign anti-Semites and other
Greater Israel-friendly supporters of settlements and permanent occupation and
permanent Netanyahu and permanent warfare and permanent collective punishment
and denial of basic rights for millions of Palestinians. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">I
can tell you this: If this is Zionism, I am so off the bus. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">If
you'll excuse me, I have some uprooting and expulsion of my own to do. Inside
me.</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "georgia" , serif;">There
may be no cure for toxic masculinity, but that's no reason to leave it to
fester where it is.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<aside class="[ content__el content__aside ] author-info has-block-link" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(74, 115, 133); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 3.11111rem; max-width: 30.1667rem; padding-bottom: 0.722222rem; position: relative;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<figure class="media__fig" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0.777778rem 0px 0px;"></figure></aside>Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-70422144330704788312018-10-22T18:45:00.000-07:002018-10-22T18:45:19.087-07:00Khashoggi murder in perspectiveThe world is in an uproar, quite properly, over the murder of one Saudi journalist in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At the same time, it makes clear the hypocrisy of the world over the daily killings by sniping of unarmed Palestinians at the Gaza/Israel border. These killings, actually executions, are being done by the IDF, the army of Israel with not the slightest reprimand from Washington.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The life of a journalist lost is unacceptable, but the many lives, thousands over the years, of Palestinians by Israel is even more so.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here is an email I have sent to my U.S. Representative, Jan Schakowsky...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Dear Jan: I know that you, like me, are outraged by what appears to have happened to one man at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. Yet, I know you are more than willing to overlook the many killings of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers executing them at the Gaza/Israel border on a daily basis, ongoing now for months.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>I would like to think this is due to the views of your donor base and not to your personal feelings. You are a very commendable Congressperson with a record that, with the exception of Israel, deserves praise. Even then you do occasionally show some thought on that country as you did when you refused to attend the speech to Congress by PM Netanyuhu when he was invited by Republicans. I hope that before you retire you will find the courage to stand up for liberty and justice for all for a people kept under the boot of Israel for over 60 years now with the full support of the USA.</i></div>
Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-74784585228751593172018-10-05T15:01:00.000-07:002018-10-05T15:01:16.243-07:00State anti-boycott laws will fallThere's <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/victory-federal-court-az-law" target="_blank">good news today from Palestine Legal</a> telling of a judge stopping the enforcement of Arizona's anti boycott of Israel law, Arizona being one of 25 states to have such a law pushed through by the Israel lobby. Since the Supreme Court has long held that a corporation is a person with rights protected by the Constitution, it stands to reason that freedom of speech by a business cannot be limited by states.<br />
<br />
The anti-boycott of Israel laws specify that if a business participates in a boycott of Israel, the state will not do business with it. This is an attempt to cripple the <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds" target="_blank">Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement (BDS)</a> that was started by the Palestinians as a peaceful method of putting pressure on Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank, to give equal rights to Palestinians and to allow Palestinians to return to their homes in Israel.<br />
<br />
Eventually a case such as this one in Arizona will work its way to the Supreme Court where it will be ruled unconstitutional, invalidating all such state laws.Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-37461121487512991152018-07-06T23:27:00.001-07:002018-07-06T23:27:59.746-07:00Zionism is anti-Semitism? A must read<br />
Five years ago Joseph Massad wrote an essay for Al Jazeera's website, <i><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013521184814703958.html" target="_blank">The Last of the Semites</a>, </i>subtitled, "It is Israel's claims that it represents and speaks for all Jews that are the most anti-Semitic claims of all."<br />
<br />
How can this possibly be? Can you think of a any title more likely to make people scoff?<br />
<br />
I gave him a chance and he makes a solid case, pointing out that Zionism shared with European anti-Semitism the idea than Jews in Europe were not Europeans, but a people apart who could never belong and needed to be moved from Europe to a place of their own. This is in contrast to the view of the great majority of European Jews who did not have any desire to go to Palestine and felt themselves to be part of the countries in which they lived. Massad's article is a must read.<br />
<br />
Zionism was having a very hard time attracting Jews to Palestine until after World War 2. Then, with the aid of anti-Semitism in the US and Britain that denied Jews in the displaced persons camps of Europe entry, Zionists were assured of an influx of Jews to Palestine, who had nowhere else to go. In fact Zionists did what they could to keep the US and Britain from admitting Holocaust survivors. For detailed information on this period, read <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Holocaust-Struggle-Zionists-Aftermath/dp/156751278X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1530942437&sr=8-2&keywords=in+the+shadow+of+the+holocaust" target="_blank">In the Shadow of the Holocaust</a></i> by Yosef Grodzinsky.<br />
<br />
Today, Benjamin Netanyahu continues to tell European Jews that they should move to Israel and insists that he in his role as Israeli Prime Minister speaks for Jews worldwide, outright denying by this that such people, equal to the number of Israelis, are simply American, German or English. In other words they are to be discriminated as Jews, called out to leave their homes against their own preference to be known as citizens of their native lands.<br />
<br />
In short, Hitler had and Netanyahu has the view that half the world's Jews should not stay where they are for the fact that they are Jews. Hitler had no objection to German Jews going to Palestine and neither does Netanyahu. In fact Zionists worked out a deal with Hitler in 1933 to expedite such a move. You may recall an eager Netanyahu rushing to Paris after the Charlie Hebdo killings. The man is concerned with convincing non-Israeli Jews that they should leave their own countries for a place he designates for them, while at the same time proclaiming he speaks for them.<br />
<br />
Anti-Semitism is the idea that Jews are not like other people, but must be set apart. Zionism endorses this with the added ideas that there is only one place where Jews do belong and it must be exclusively theirs with the expulsion of non-Jews who are native to the place selected. In the long run, this cannot last, but the horror of the Holocaust gave it a boost that has kept the idea going as Israel moves further to the right. This is to be expected of a society based on discrimination that blatantly oppresses under the protection of a country that has the gall to claim it stands for liberty and justice for all. It says volumes that Donald Trump is very popular in Israel.Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-7589829826314217462018-06-30T23:40:00.001-07:002018-06-30T23:43:06.337-07:00a primer on Israel/Palestine, and emotional non-sequitursI began this blog years ago with the intention of spreading the truth about the plight of the Palestinians, wrongly maligned in the United States and inaccurately portrayed in history by "The Story of Israel" that is accepted without question in the U.S.<br />
<br />
The first years of this blog make up a tutorial on the situation in Israel/Palestine. As this foundation has been built, my postings have tapered off. But I have found <a href="https://www.merip.org/sites/default/files/Primer_on_Palestine-Israel(MERIP_February2014)final.pdf" target="_blank">an excellent tutorial that covers the period from the start of Zionism through 2014</a> from the Middle East Research and Information Project. It is 16 pages of small print, but it covers the subject all in one place.<br />
<br />
Few will read it.<br />
<br />
It is a fact that emotions rather than facts determine the views of most people. Learning about any subject takes effort and few will bother to understand foreign affairs particularly with a mainstream media that paints a ridiculously simplistic picture that any TV viewer can effortlessly watch. If you or I have a generally good or bad feeling about something, even a full presentation of facts that show the feeling is unfounded will be resisted. It is the "my country right or wrong" idea and we see it now in the outright anger that greets new data showing global warming to be real.<br />
<br />
Eyes glaze over and attention wanders when Americans should be paying careful attention to a situation that could well bring our country to grief is discussed. Today, in 2018, the U.S. policy in the middle east is the policy that Israel wishes it to be. Donald Trump has moved the U.S. embassy for Israel to Jerusalem, the Israeli settlements continue to expand, Palestinians are murdered by Israeli soldiers sniping them down at the Gaza border, and Iran is demonized. The policy of Benjamin Netanyahu is the policy of Donald Trump.<br />
<br />
Rather than attend to the facts, people will support Israel for reasons that have nothing to do with the situation over there. For example, one might say "I have a good Jewish friend that I know strongly supports Israel. He knows more about it than I do and I wouldn't feel right not supporting him." Can you see there is no logical connection here?<br />
<br />
Or how about, "I know about the Holocaust and the Jews deserve a place of their own where they feel secure." This thinking disregards entirely the people who are native to Palestine that were ejected by force when Zionists took the area for themselves exclusively in 1948 and continue to take more today. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said, "After the Holocaust, Jews are allowed to do anything." It is the same logic.<br />
<br />
If my neighbor is terribly wronged by others, does that give him a license to throw me out of my house though I had nothing to do with the wrong done him, because he says he would feel safer having my house for his exclusive use?<br />
<br />
The above reasoning is not rational. The only way to take a stand on any issue is to base it on facts that can be used to build an opinion that can be defended. Many Americans who are Jews are revolted by what they see going on in Israel and openly repudiate it, Jewish Voice for Peace being a large group of such people. They base their view on what they know to be true about Israel. <a href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/" target="_blank">Listen to what they say.</a> I do.<br />
<br />
<br />Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233033210838592831.post-36409329163680487362018-06-29T16:16:00.001-07:002018-06-29T16:17:14.198-07:00Israelis ask for international pressure against IsraelI once wondered what might happen if Palestinians simply marched, unarmed, against the Israeli barriers erected on Palestinian land, whether it be the huge concrete wall or simply the 500 foot deep "no-go" zone in Gaza. Could the Palestinians do what Gandhi had done when he resisted the British presence in India with mass protest that placed human bodies against armed force?<br />
<br />
In the last months, I got my answer. Palestinians did exactly that and were shot down at random by Israeli soldiers sniping at them from behind a fence hundreds of feet from where the Gazans stood demonstrating, no threat to Israel. Here is a photo of a Palestinian shot in the face with a tear gas canister, something designed to disperse people, to injure them.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglah1oWUqa1cXzuyk0mAK_8GVmsWQyCa_zYy2d4iiEpsaLb57BPP96oe4aqbA2K5Q0jsPCRTjFeZgyL1SpQSy8rnkoaNS27YcIgxkQeXo5n0XhqwSDOjTtExf9_VmdgljPNRoqGhywcXg/s1600/teargas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="953" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglah1oWUqa1cXzuyk0mAK_8GVmsWQyCa_zYy2d4iiEpsaLb57BPP96oe4aqbA2K5Q0jsPCRTjFeZgyL1SpQSy8rnkoaNS27YcIgxkQeXo5n0XhqwSDOjTtExf9_VmdgljPNRoqGhywcXg/s320/teargas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Things have gone so far in Israel that Israelis, a small minority, are asking the outside world to intervene. Of course, there have always been Israeli human rights groups, such as B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence and others I list on this site that have worked against the extreme rightward movement of Israeli society but I think the members of these groups all realize change will not come from the inside.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/29/israelis-call-world-intervene-behalf-palestinians?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=279647&subid=17671262&CMP=GT_US_collection" target="_blank">Here is an essay</a> by two Israelis asking for international intervention, intervention that the United States, alone, always prevents. This protection of a serial violator of international law show that modern Israel is the creation of the United States, ironic for a country that once claimed to be for liberty and justice for all.Clif Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com0