a primer on Israel/Palestine, and emotional non-sequiturs

I 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.

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 an excellent tutorial that covers the period from the start of Zionism through 2014 from the Middle East Research and Information Project. It is 16 pages of small print, but it covers the subject all in one place.

Few will read it.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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. Listen to what they say. I do.

protesting against IDF support

On June 13, 2013 I participated in a protest demonstration at a fundraiser given by the Friends of the IDF in downtown Chicago. This group sends money to support USO type activities for the IDF troops. With the video and still shots taken at the protest, I thought I would create a video (3 minutes) to explain why the IDF is so undeserving of American support in any form.

State Dept acting for Israel

Omar Barghouti is a Palestinian who has written a book, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions
that is, as you might expect, not one that Israel would like to see a best seller.

To promote the book, Barghouti planned a tour of the United States - to New York City, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Brandeis University, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, but the plans stalled when the U.S. State Department balked at giving him a visa.

This is a perfect example of Zionism at work in America. It's no exaggeration to say that Zionists are everywhere in this country in positions of power, wealth and influence, be they Christian or Jewish. The recent bowing of Obama to their will was shown by the US veto in the UN of a resolution calling for the Israeli settlements to be withdrawn from the occupied territories. Obama was silent about this contradiction of stated U.S. foreign policy of long standing. Instead, his UN representative, Susan Rice, spouted nonsense about the need to go through the peace process - which is now universally seen as the cover it has always been for the Israeli land grab. It's now clear to everyone that Israel has a veto in the UN Security Council though it is not a member of it and this strength is so powerful it can force the US to place Israel above American interests.

My recent post with Jeff Blankfort's interview is further evidence of Americans supporting Israel making the decisions large and small that keep their fellow citizens under a covert censorship that is both broad and deep.

The Barghouti book tour visa issue was so blatant it became a project for Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP called for people to sign a petition to the State Department objecting to the denial of a visa. The result was a rare victory over the Israel lobby (don't click the "read more" link on the victory page because it goes to the wrong page).

Things happen when people get motivated to make them happen. Kudos to JVP for working for justice and open debate. The group is instrumental in opposing the Israel lobby because it is proof against the absurd charge that to oppose Israeli policy is to be anti-Semitic.