Total number of comments: 77 (since 2010-11-12 04:36:50)
Clif Brown
enough - end the occupation
Website: http://endoccupation.blogspot.com/
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- ‘Forward’ piece on destruction of Palestinian neighborhood fronting Western Wall … 4
- Israel cracks down on American travel to West Bank by … 1
- Bradley Manning rally to feature, Ellsberg, Ann Wright, Dan Choi, … 0
- Another ‘NYT’ piece buys Israel’s al-Dura report– which PA spox … 1
- Jewish philanthropies stay away from org dedicated to Yiddish culture … 7
- Reporters Without Borders on the Israeli al-Dura investigation: ‘the nature … 2
- Obama’s secret wars in Muslim world make Americans vulnerable 2
- ‘Al Jazeera’ reposts Massad piece, after censoring it 0
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- Israeli airport sorts passengers with ‘Jewish stickers’ and ‘Arab stickers’ 2239
- Washington state bus-ad campaign dares to state: ‘Equal rights for … 1716
- Two friends meet for 5 minutes in Jerusalem 1691
- ‘Newseum’ folds under pressure, will not include Gaza cameramen in … 1368
- Palestinian-American Raed Zidan plants flag on top of Everest, dedicates … 1339
- Christians denounce Israel’s manhandling of worshipers at Holy Sepulcher on … 950
- Barbara Boxer’s visa bill for Israel comes under concerted attack 809
- In photos: Gaza marches and rallies mark 65 years of … 442
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- International Criminal Court opens preliminary investigation into attack on Mavi … 96
- Barbara Boxer’s visa bill for Israel comes under concerted attack 89
- Abulhawa declines to ‘balance out’ several Israelis in ‘Al Jazeera’ … 86
- Kennedy’s insistence on right of return prompted Ben-Gurion to rewrite … 75
- Washington Post’s racism map omits Israel 73
- Israeli airport sorts passengers with ‘Jewish stickers’ and ‘Arab stickers’ 69
- Uncompromising hope inspired by Ghassan Kanafani 63
- ‘Newseum’ folds under pressure, will not include Gaza cameramen in … 62
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- RT @grassfed: MT“@BPFF_Festival: #Palestinian film "Omar" by Hany Abu-Assad, receives 5 min standing O at #Cannes: http://t.co/xvCDQDwuDP” …, 2 hours ago
- ‘Forward’piece on destruction of Palestinian neighborhood fronting Western Wall not embraced by all ‘Forward’ readers http://t.co/a8nvXYynM6, 4 hours ago
- Israel cracks down on American travel to West Bank by requiring tourists to obtain military permit http://t.co/vNUagVufkS, 4 hours ago
- Bradley Manning rally to feature, Ellsberg, Ann Wright, Dan Choi, Sarah Shourd http://t.co/C1C7G1DXJ6, 4 hours ago
- "belligerent military occupation of Palestine does not need any hoax or staged incidents to expose its brutality" http://t.co/PGFbErTIOK, 4 hours ago
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- Stephen Shenfield: One of the main psychological resources at the disposal of the Zionists is the desire of many...
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Not the usual protest. I don't think many will watch it through. At first, I was curious. Then it seemed silly, mundane. But as the words of the pamphlet were spoken, they affected me due to their familiar sound...of history, of other places and other people but with the same contempt mixed with arrogance of humans amid others they consider dogs, cockroaches, the names vary, of efficient removal of litter or refuse from a community. What a litter-free public space. It is a clean community!
Then the vomiting, slow, deliberate, wordless expression. The national blue is forced down but comes up again from at least one stomach. The message arises with the method and my emotions began to stir.
Then the upside is down. The head, the site of reason, is in the bowl of vomit and the dirty shoes are up at the level of face-to-face conversation. Finally, the song derived from pain, supporting the rise of a state...for the oppressed who dreamed of it, but not of what it does. The blue wiped on the shirt, making the clean shirt a rag...or is it a flag?
Message received. Well done.
I am not Jewish. I attended a weekly vigil in downtown Chicago for the JVP. I was given signs to hold, there was a banner. A leaflet was passed out. When I originally asked if I could help pass out leaflets I was refused. Then I was told that I could pass them out but if any passerby asked about it, I was not to comment but to direct them to a Jewish demonstrator. Since this was the only show in town, I continued attending, though somewhat put off by the treatment.
Then I decided to bring my own sign. This was not appreciated. I was told that all signs had to be approved by JVP beforehand, though I protested that we were all working for a common cause - to relieve the oppression of the Palestinians. I was also told I was not "showing respect" to JVP when I brought my own sign without approval. I was then told that JVP essentially owned the site for the one hour that they have their demo, although it is a public space.
I explained that I supported them and was not opposed to what they were doing, that we should work together. When next I showed up with my sign, one of the JVP people attempted to force me away from passersby, stepping in front of me so that he could pass out a JVP flyer and I couldn't pass out something I had brought.
Feeling this was childish, I put down my sign and started calling out to the people to take his material, telling him at the same time that I was not in competition with JVP.
I did get an email explaining how JVP needed to control the content of the material and that since they had been conducting the vigil for many years, they felt it was legitimate for them to do so, or they would be misrepresented to the public.
To my mind, the presentation of the plight of the Palestinians to the public is all that is important. I don't think the general public gives a hoot about the manifesto of this or that subgroup and would never bother to take the time to find out about them. I haven't been back but, as far as I know, they are still there passing out the densely worded pamphlet explaining who they are.
Prepare for Hillary to be served up as the next Dem candidate for president. Not that new faces are any guarantee of change, Obama's performance in office has put an end to that idea. But hope springs eternal - how about Elizabeth Warren?
Being special is dangerous, a double edged sword. If the special are unprotected they are abused by those who are not special. If the special are secure and cannot be touched, they will abuse those who are not special.
The proof of the above comes first with the holocaust and then with Israel. Israel cannot be touched so it abuses, with a will, blatantly, not only without apology but with a condescending self-righteousness.
What does this say but that Jews are no different from any other people. Power corrupts and by making Israeli power absolute, the United States has fueled the corruption until it stands flagrantly before the world. Because of previous abuse, those who follow the religion of those abused can now abuse without limit. The next tour of Yad Vashem begins in ten minutes.
How I wish that every human being could continually remind him/herself, "my outlook and identity are created by what I was fed by my elders. This is what distinguishes me from other people and what makes them distinguish themselves from me. Beneath this indoctrination, every one alive is equally human...without distinction, human. I will make an effort to put aside my treasured opinions/identity to find the human part of me that is the basis of my existence, the real untutored me."
A Jew, an Arab, an Irishman, a Jain, an Inuit are all, if shuffled at birth, interchangeable human brains ready for feeding. I cringe when I hear someone say "we" when referring to history as if that person had been present at some remote time in the past, and is still alive today nursing some physical scar. We all begin anew at birth. We become what we are fed. Israel takes a commonly fed diet of ancient history and beliefs, reincarnates the phantom for the present day, to abuse, dispossess and oppress, all made possible under the label of Jew.
My wife and I are lily white. My son is marrying a woman from Cameroon who could not be blacker. My daughter has married a Peruvian who speaks no English. Let all the world's special creeds and religions be forgotten and let children of all colors and appearances grow to mix and mate seeing each other for what they are - equally human.
You quote Michael Desch - "The reality is that our ideological soul-mates are ruthlessly self-interested."
This is nationalism at work. See 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th century Europe. Israel and the United States are subject to the same disease, but I believe it will ultimately sever Israel from Judaism as a whole as it become blatant (if it isn't already) that love of nation subverts the historic humanist strain in the religion. Strutting uniformed armed Jews barking orders and treating unarmed Arabs as cattle. What would Hillel (the man, not the organization) say? The sturdy supporting columns of the diaspora will turn to sand. Israel will ultimately be seen an embarrassment, a mistake, the creation of a nation making a mockery of the very thing it was supposedly created to insure.
Herzl, unfortunately, could not see the abyss into which nationalism would fall in the 20th century and thought of it as a preservative. Europeans look back with horror at the carnage. Their former colonies look back at the oppression and injustice. But Israel pushes the nationalism accelerator to the floor, heedless of predecessors who chest-beat, bellowed ultimatums and marched to destruction carrying high the national banner.
I forgot to mention - Minnesota is on the Israel bond-wagon too, even in the face of the courageous attempt by the Minnesota Break the Bonds group of activists to get it off.
flyod - thanks for bringing attention to this. Illinois has been on the Israel bond-wagon for several years now since State Senator Jeff Schoenberg cleared the way with legislation allowing state purchase of foreign debt - though interestingly in most of the years this has been legal, Israel bonds alone are purchased.
Ohio has recently joined the Israel bond-wagon, I believe last year.
Each year I write to each of the members of the Illinois Board of Investments and remind them of the hypocrisy of funding a state that denies indigenous people liberty and justice in their own land. The official response from the attorney of the Illinois State Treasurer is that Israel bonds are a great investment. How the debt of one country outshines the investment possibilities of dozens of others that "foreign investment" would must remain mysterious to investors, to those of us who read Mondoweiss, there is no mystery.
I encourage any readers in Illinois, Ohio or NYC to write, letting the decision makers know that some can see through the curtain to the Wizard of Oz behind these "investments".
He is in a fix, no doubt about it. But what IS the job of an ambassador if not to put the best spin on things for the home country regardless of the truth, smiling all the while?
"Mr. Smoothie" is a perfect fit, is he not?
Of all ambassadors to the U.S., the one from Israel shouldn't complain - what others have such a mighty machine of propaganda working for them in the form of U.S. citizens who will see no fault with the country he/she represents and are more than willing to shout it out at every opportunity while shouting down those who disagree?
I'm afraid he's just going to have to work harder to keep what's looking more and more like a rotten tomato smelling like a rose.
On a related topic - I've noticed rather than saying "X is a Jew", people will say "X is a Jewish person", while there will be no hesitation in saying "X is a Catholic", for example.
I think the penetration of the Jewish experience in the 20th century is deep in the mind of Americans, with images of Jews being called out for persecution or destruction never far below consciousness. The word Jew is uncomfortable. Inhibition in expression results. In particular, appending "person" to "Jewish" is a direct indication that the speaker is identifying Jews as persons, something they were denied in the holocaust, though the speaker may well not be aware of this. The simple use of a three letter word carries baggage, the need to declare to oneself and others "I am not anti-Semitic" is there.
Politicians typically wiggle and squirm, saying anything to get into office. As a result it's difficult to know who they really are. Abe Lincoln was an exception - true to himself throughout his campaigns and even dooming his re-election to the House by speaking forcefully against the Mexican War.
Hagel writhed in his nomination hearing. I hope, along with you, that he will now conduct himself as we hope he will. If he does it will be against the current of American Empire thinking - a very hard thing to buck. Empires are not known to rationally scale themselves back, no matter who is in power. Visions of the world are not easily altered. Group-think is powerful. Let's cross our fingers.
I'm reading Ilan Pappe's Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. If only Hagel had taken a copy of this book to his hearing and to each questioner about Israel responded with, "Senator, have you read this book?"
Time and again in my reading, I come across some episode that could come right out of today's news from Israel. The project of Zionism has never deviated, only the words spoken to distract the outside world have changed. This book, along with the confirmation provide by Mearsheimer and Walt, leaves no room for doubt that the United States has abetted a historic injustice. If only Hagel had used his time to confront it head on. At some point, someone in power will. In the meantime all of us little folks have to keep up the fuss.
Speaking of the impact of munitions, I was impressed by two photos I found in the penultimate edition of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. The first shows an Israeli soldier taking a picture of the impact crater from a Palestinian rocket and the second shows the impact crater from an Israeli missile (from an F16, most likely). These pictures are definitely worth a thousand words.
Thank goodness for this ridiculous reaction - it gets nonsense out in the open and into the headlines. Someday, perhaps the story will be about the boy who cried anti-Semitism instead of wolf.
As with McCarthy, the psychological terror will continue until someone stands up to it. Hagel could have stood strong, instead he writhed and squirmed. Who will be the one to be strong?
What a brilliant piece this is, so concise, penetrating, perceptive. There isn't a paragraph that isn't worth quoting. I'm sorry to say Kovel is new to me, but I will make it a point to follow his output. One more treasure found in the gold mine that is Mondoweiss.
I think the highest priority should be to get quantities of this skunk water here in the United States so that people can smell it. A quart jar of the stuff would be great to have at any talk about what Israel is doing. It should be possible to obtain the stuff from those on the scene since the IDF is not stinting in the application. Shooting it with a fire cannon as seen in the photo means there are hundreds of gallons available for the taking. Runoff from roofs could be captured.
Annie, thanks very much for posting this. I have had zero luck getting either of the two pastors of the largest Methodist church in the area (the sanctuary could easily seat 1000) to even respond to my queries to them (beyond "I'll get back to you") about the decisions of the church's General Assembly on Palestinian issues compared to the lack of action from most congregations to support them. I will copy this post of yours and mail it, allowing them to see that some Methodist clergy are not passive in the face of injustice, just as was the case of a certain person 2000 years ago that is the model upon which they claim to live their lives.
I went to YouTube just now to check the stats on views of the video, but found something I have never seen before on YouTube "public statistics have been disabled"
Hummm, now I wonder what the story is on this? Though I can understand how comments might be disabled because of nothing but profanity, etc., what sense does it make to disable statistics on viewing?
You are swimming in the middle of the ocean, struggling to stay above water. In all directions it is same-old, same-old. Suddenly, you spot an air mattress. Do you hesitate, wondering if it is properly inflated, pause because you wonder how it got there?
When I read the position statement on the Green Party website concerning the Russell Tribunal, I immediately sent the largest political donation I have ever made to any political party.
I look at Obama and Romney and am disgusted. The two are what can be expected of a rotten process that is completely entrenched, accepted by a gullible public that thinks what has recently taken place between the two on TV was a debate.
McCabe/Kovel offer a detailed critique of the air mattress, but I will grab for it anyway.
maggielorraine - your insightful comment brings to mind what is meant by individualism.
Many years ago I participated in The Forum, a derivative of Werner Erhard's EST. To make a huge simplification of the program, it was all about the individual coming out; to discover freedom, to find yourself whatever it be. The takeaway for me was the huge inhibition of the individual by the expectations of society.
One of the participants was a woman from an Islamic country, I believe it was Pakistan. At the start of the weekend program she was emotionless, would hardly say a word and that almost inaudibly; self effacing in every way. By the end of the program her face was alive with a smile, she was talking eagerly with others and it was clear she was, for the first time in her life, enjoying herself as a person fully interacting with others. She was suddenly a person and loving it. If there were proof that the program worked, she was it, and we had all seen the transformation take place along with the change most of us had found in ourselves. It was a turning point in my life.
That's "good" individualism - the development of the person to appreciate and take advantage of all life has to offer. I think of this when I read of your coming out, making a positive move influenced by Rand's writing.
But the bad individualism comes from going beyond the positive self-development into the easy trap of feeling superior and justified in dominating others, into making oneself the judge of others, the superman. This is Rand's failing. She goes so far into this dark extreme that contempt and rejection of the other stands supreme.
Remember Mick Jagger singing "I rode a tank, held a general's rank, while the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank"?
Ayn Rand could have accompanied the spread of European dominance in exactly the same way as indigenous people were swept aside by the individuals who were clearly their superiors, urging them on. Her comments regarding Israel and Arabs are hardly surprising.
You grabbed the good idea of individual freedom, used it to your advantage, not over others, but, like the Pakistani woman, over the not-you that you had been. You stopped before you became the monster that lurks in us all because you distinguished the repulsive from the worthwhile.
From what I see of the actions and the words of those who trumpet Ayn Rand, they've run with her blindly and cannot see what they've become. Once the self is almighty, it can no longer judge what it does: all that I do is good because I do it.
I bought Benjamin's book at a talk she gave locally. I was disappointed to see a low turnout and mostly elderly people. For entertainment, a singer gave us his composition, "Protest Songs are Dead". But Media is a dynamo and shows up everywhere, seeming to be about 3 or 4 people in one. I told her that Code Pink's creativity is wonderful. The skits they put on in public are nothing if not attention getting.
Per the drone issue. I think we are in a fairly brief window of unchallenged drone operation during which it appears to be a magic weapon. Nobody gets killed except for people who are expendable in the view of the administration. With lots of folks like Dick Cheney at the top, that includes a very large number of people. But drones fly slow and usually low (the remark about a lawn mower sounding like a drone is proof).
With freely available remote controlled "omnicopters" and such which can be carried in a large attache case, eventually drones will be brought down by home-made counter-drones. Conceivably, even a fly by wire system would work that would overcome electronic countermeasures by drones.
Whatever comes along will provide the latest replay of a response to any technology. As in the past, the counter-measure will cost a fraction of that of the weapon it is designed to destroy, as we've seen with the IED's.
The result is one country spending billions with no end in sight and the opposition spending hundreds or thousands to keep the dollar hemorrhage going. It can't go on indefinitely. The old standard of who is winning is becoming as out of date as the idea that war has a beginning and end.
Remember all the sympathy of the world (even from Hezbollah) after 9/11? That sure is a distant memory and drones have put a definitive end to it.
Pessimism, may I speak to it?
Ms Harvey, you say "When the day comes that Israel realizes that it is standing against the whole world..."
Don't many Israelis already take this for granted and even embrace the idea of standing tall no matter what others do or think? Isn't this a part of the history of Judaism that kept it going through the years of persecution when there was literally no help to be had from any direction? Flight and relocation were common, but now we have visions of God and Masada and a last stand on sacred soil all swirling together with some pretty potent weaponry. Doesn't every Palestinian know that Israel is holding Dirty Harry's pistol just itching to say "make my day"? An American from NYC, just moved to a settlement, sees himself a hero standing upon the shoulders of 2500 years of history; pure madness in the individual.
Consider the paranoid individual convinced that all are against him and ready to lash out unpredictably because no action by another can be framed as anything other than a threat. There are drugs for such individuals but no drug for a country of them. 1940's German and Japanese leadership felt justified until the bitter end when the whole world had long since been against them and they literally had hardly a bullet left with which to hold out; pure madness in the state.
The lesson is that paranoia/entitlement as a national trait only ends in catastrophe brought on by the trait in itself. This is happening with Israel, so far in slow motion.
The United States offers fawning support which only feeds the beast. The only thing that could end this fawning is revulsion in the U.S. at the cost to this country for supporting an irrational act by Israel that is clearly seen to be such. When carte blanche is given, some such act is inevitable. Would you say to a paranoid, "do what you think is best and I'll back you up all the way"? Then he goes on to kill your sister. Your attitude is changed.
An attack on Iran by Israel is exactly the kind of insanity we should expect. Obama has not shown himself the kind of man to stand up absolutely for anything. I honestly can't see him doing anything but piling into a war Israel starts.
The U.S. began as a daring assertion of the rights of the people. It appears to be ending that experiment with the triumph of lawlessness: it starts wars on its own, and will reach the nadir by handing the power to bring it to war over to another country with which it doesn't even have a treaty.
Something will happen. Our attitude will change.
This is in perfect accord with the "Arabs are animals" idea.
Think about how people have treated animals through the ages. If they are considered a nuisance or interfere with what people want to do, they are swept from the area by hunting or poisoning. If not a nuisance, they are ignored and left to deal with the consequences of human populations as best they can. My drinking water and yours must be pure, but the animals can swim in our sewage, so what? After all, they are just animals.
We humans, as we are always pointing out to each other, are not animals, right?
I read in the NY Times a month or two ago that the great majority of funds from Homeland Security given to private organizations for protection of Americans went to Jewish groups. This makes no sense when it is crazy Americans who are suspicious of and attacking Muslims for being Muslim.
Phil, helpless though you may feel at the moment, you've taken a stand and that in itself is a major step.
XtraNormal is great. I gave it a try with Liberty and Justice for All in November of last year. Israel/Palestine comes into play about half way through the 3 and a half minute video.
Krauss, your comment is exactly to the point. I've copied it and reproduced it at my blog as an example of how comments can greatly enhance a topic.
For the relatively short time I've been involved in the effort for Palestinian justice, I've thought the series of four chronological maps is the most powerful imagery available. In a glance it tells the story.
Far from complexity, the word to think about is perversity. All should look at the maps and wonder about the perversity of Israel claiming to be a victim that is always on the verge of being "driven into the sea".
So many positive things are happening as the truth comes out. What could send me into a deep depression, however, would be the election of Romney, the very model of a one-percenter and a guy that would bring any and all Israel fanatics accidentally left behind by Obama back into the administration.
Those in power, who daily oppress and try to expel as many Palestinians as they can, appeal to the world's sympathy by claiming that those who who have no power want to throw them out. It confirms that Israel doesn't exist in the real world.
The flag of Israel and the uniforms worn by the IDF should all have a flame icon to stand for the holocaust, because a major idea in the state and its supporters since WWII has been that it is impossible for Jews to be oppressors by virtue of the fact that they were so terribly oppressed. No other oppression can compare, no other oppression deserves the name. Jews have a unique right conferred by way of a colossal wrong.
But it's pure delusion, as is all nationalism. When those who hold the delusion voice appeals based on it, the absurdity comes through loud and clear. Why did so many Slavs have to die a few decades ago? Because Germany needed living room, wasn't it obvious? To the Germans it was.
I live in a residential neighborhood where I can easily hear children playing in yards that our building overlooks. It's wonderful to hear the kids but I'm sorry to say that these tots give voice to things that put me in mind of Israel. Two that are heard very frequently are "IT'S MINE!" and "I WAS HERE FIRST!"
That Palestine should be a democracy is plain, it is the very minimum that justice demands, leaving aside the displacement and occupation issues. Yet to hear American politicians talk you would think it is the Israelis who are under occupation, not the occupiers. Anti-Semitism gets bandied about frequently by Jews who are in the top ranks of the power structure here. Doesn't anyone, any Joe Citizen, ever pause to consider that such speakers are talking nonsense given the position they have achieved and the air-play they get?
I've lived over six decades in the Chicago area. I'm not Jewish, so you would think I'd be likely to hear anti-Semitic remarks freely given, particularly back in the 1950's and 60's while I was going through school.
The grand total of anti-Semitic remarks that I have heard comes to 1. That's right, one, and the person from whom I heard it has been in the grave for 30 years. Yet Abe Foxman is still sounding the trumpet. What has been a frequent occurrence is my finding out someone is Jewish accidentally when they mention it themselves. My conclusion from this is that anti-Semitism is a red-herring and to call it out is the mark of a fraud.
When, oh when will Americans have the guts to say "I am against Israel". In this account, as in so many other cases, a critic must always profess praise for Israel with the exception of the difficulty of the Palestinians.
But the little difficulty is the basis on which the country was founded - dispossession - that continues to this day.
I'd recommend Occupied Palestine (occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com) as another site where the nitty gritty of daily life and strife for Palestinians is given. There are so many news items that I usually scan the headlines or it would be overwhelming.
Phil, I wanted to let you know of the effectiveness of you and your crew at MW. I sent the link to Nima Shirazi's piece on Shamir that you posted to a friend of mine. Here is his response:
"This is disgusting. Everyone put your heads in the sand. Even back when he was in office, I didn't trust him. What newspapers/blogs do you subscribe to? I need to get angrier!"
Chipping away little by little produced Mount Rushmore - so also can Zionism be brought into high relief from the block of ignorance of most Americans.
Suppose a mine had extended under a town and there was a great danger the mine would collapse and take the town with it.
You lived in a nearby mining community and all you ever heard was talk of the mine - how much ore it was bringing out, what should be done to make it safer, how many miners it employed and how to enlarge it to get greater output, whether there was good management, etc. The one thing you would never hear about is the danger to that town that is over the mine because the mine is the unquestioned good.
So it is with Israel, a colony that has brought nothing but grief to all around it and certainly to the people who live or lived where it now holds sway. Like those in the mining town, the world and the United States in particular have been listening to the talk of the miners. Only now and with such clear statements as Sabawi makes, and on a site such as Mondoweiss, is the reality coming out about the town that has always been sitting on top of the mine.
Keep it up, Dersh. Your hyperbolic discourse is one big help to those who might pause to wonder if there isn't something to BDS after all.
Binyamin is, surprisingly, the only one to mention the crucial point of full citizenship. A Native-American can move anywhere in the U.S. and cannot be prevented from buying property just like any other citizen. The Palestinian is a sub-citizen and there is no qualm about, rather a determination to keep him that way.
I think most Americans feel some shame for what happened to the natives, even going so far as to claim native blood (often with little or no proof) as a point of pride. Though Indians were treated in the past in a way that I think any Palestinian would easily recognize, current Anglo accounts in literature and common perceptions in society give native-Americans a nobility that is in no small part due to guilt about a history that none can deny. The connection between injustice and the Native-American is very solid in the American mind, whether or not most Americans are aware that all is not well even today.
Of course, complete conquest allows we modern Anglos to indulge in this elevation of those who have no chance of seeing the return of their civilization, no chance of claiming even having even a tiny compensation for the loss of a way of life that would impact the modern white man.
For me, the terrible history of Anglo treatment of the Indian is a driving force behind my efforts for the Palestinians. I cannot go back to 1800 to work against what I know was wrong (as futile as that would be even if I could), but I damn sure can work against my own self-satisfied countrymen supporting the current iteration of the same project.
The proof of hypocrisy in American lamentation about the Indian today, is the support of Israel, either actively or through apathy that allows the repulsive pandering to Israel by the U.S. government.
It's to the credit of many Jewish Americans (and far too few non-Jewish Americans) that they are very disturbed about what Israel is doing and, like Phil and Adam and many others, are acting while the tragedy is in progress.
My first thought was the consul general believes Americans are fools who will never bother to find out what's going on. But on second thought, from all I hear of how Israelis feel, they are engaged in exactly what the consul is trying to get going here - they go about their active lives, perhaps birding, running, etc. and ignore what is going on a few miles away. So the consul general can be forgiven for suggesting what is proven to work on home ground; thinking the same thing can be pulled off in the U.S.
I have a very good friend that I asked to watch the video I made about the situation in I/P, a few weeks before we met for lunch so she'd have time to do so. We have lunched regularly for many years where we talk enthusiastically about everything under the sun. So at this most recent meeting I asked her if she had watched my video. She replied apologetically that she had seen part of it (it's ten minutes total!!!) but that she "just isn't interested in those kinds of things".
Now if a good friend cannot spend ten minutes of time to view the effort of someone she knows and likes, how can there be any hope to influence the American public? The United States is an unused democracy - the process could work but it is barely used as was intended by those worthy designers in the 18th century.
It's no wonder lobbies rule Congress, the American public almost rolls out a red carpet for them to do so. Let me modify the saying: the only thing required for the lobbies to triumph is that the electorate do nothing.
Things have come to a head at a local school. The constant turmoil there since a bully arrived has become intolerable, with students being prevented from playing on the playground equipment and many injuries as fights have broken out with the bully.
The school principal calls an assembly with the police standing behind him and announces that all the kids but the bully will be moved to another school so that the bully will have the place to himself without the constant strife that has made it so difficult for him.
This is Joe Walsh's reasoning and why we have a need for the acronym "WTF".
I looked Walsh up on the list of Congressional recipients of Israel lobby money in the current issue of Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and, remarkably, he is not listed. So perhaps this position of his is from the heart?
The similarity of the Native-American experience and that of the Palestinians is profound. I was so struck by it that I created a ten minute video called Twin Tragedies: Manifest Destiny and Zionism. Most Americans, I believe, are ashamed of what was done to the "Indians" but aren't lifting a finger over the re-do in Palestine that they are fully supporting.
A clear voice speaking the truth. May there be thousands of comments in thanks. As for the lack of reaction of the audience there at the time, at least it's an improvement over audiences jumping up to attack the protester(s) as we have seen numerous times. The glacier is melting, can you feel it?
I regularly get emails from the "White House Office for Jewish Outreach" which is curious since I am not Jewish. But since I'm on the inside now, I thought I'd ask the Office if there is a similar Office for Muslim Outreach. No reply.
I'm sorry to hear about this. Here in Illinois, the state continues to buy Israel debt (and that of no other country) each year. My state senator Jeff Schoenberg pushed through the legislation years ago that allows state purchase of foreign debt, which has been used with only a few exceptions to purchase Israel debt only. Schoenberg is retiring. The man who hopes to replace him, Daniel Biss, has remained silent to my emailed request to him to indicate his position on Israel.
Israel is a beneficiary of so much behind the scenes activity like this that the public doesn't know about (tax deductible contributions to settlement support groups, etc.)
My email to the members of the Illinois Board of Investments has also gone unanswered, but every attempt should be made to let people know that there is an awareness of what is going on.
Phil you are exactly right and tod's comment is too.
I watched, but it was like hearing a long joke in which the punch line is missing. It's clear that the punch line would be just a little bit too much to say, so we are left hanging with a non sequitur video as it stands.
Stewart is usually excellent in that he nails the culprit whatever the subject at hand. Here, he couldn't do it.
Phil, you say "Deeper things had to change; American consciousness about the patriarchy had to change. "
But I wonder about this change. I suspect very much of the animus against Obama and yes, women, is a barely suppressed rage that everything has gone wrong since the good old days. Rick Santorum is tapping this bile that has not gone away.
I read that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the FBI say the number of hate groups is shooting up. I used to think America had changed but I'm becoming convinced that there is a large store of intransigent hatred of all things progressive that is barely contained.
"a small country in a tough neighborhood"? The metaphors that are used to cover for Israel. I prefer this one: A bully complains that (after he has repeatedly kicked kids off the playground) he is just one guy in a playground full of those who want to get him.
The self-righteousness is astounding. As is mentioned on MW frequently, the Palestinians don't exist unless they can be held up as bad guys. The danger of Israel to the United States is that it is blind to reality and in the view it holds, it is the eternal righteous victim that can do no wrong. The Iran issue is proof that there is no bridge too far for Israel when the US is so easily leveraged. For the U.S. President to be on the leash of this thinking is terrifying, as is the fact that it is so blatantly obvious -yet most Americans sleep.
Friends of mine who are intelligent people respond to my pleas to them to do as little as write their Congresspeople with "why do you care about this so much?" as if it were of next to no significance to Americans. My favorite response from one of them who is pro-Israel: "What have the Palestinians ever done for you?"
It's all good.
Things change when a particular political movement becomes so outrageous as to be a farce and transparently so. This is what finally causes a neon sign to turn on in the public mind flashing STOP THIS. Think of how long the antics of Joe McCarthy went on and with time he became so strident, so bold, so full of himself that the tide turned. J. Edgar Hoover only lasted because he kept everything discreet and was a master of backing off when necessary.
Extremism of any stripe is nothing if not certain of how correct is its thinking. When mass opinion tends in its direction, it can remain subdued because things are going its way. But when serious questions start, when doubt appears, it's like the curtain being pulled aside on the Wizard of Oz and the lever pulling is revealed.
I would like to thank Bibi and the Republicans for making possible his astounding performance in front of Congress last year. It's the kind of bold, self-confident move that shows just how far things have gone...how far gone is our legislature.
Hey I made a quick fix discovery that I will reveal first right here on Mondoweiss for the benefit of all video makers worldwide. No, no need to send me huge amounts of money.
After making my comment about wind noise, I realized you had probably been using a cellphone cam or a tiny pocket camera that has nothing more than a tiny hole for a microphone. Today being a windy day, I took mine out and tried using a cotton ball with a rubber band holding it in place over the microphone hole. It works great! The wind is audible but doesn't cover the person talking. It could save an interview and as far as I know, even the notorious IDF checkpoints will let a rubber band and a cotton ball through!
Phil - thanks for this video. Yet another tragedy.
A tech tip for the future, from my years in broadcasting - Though I haven't been there, I know that Palestine is a windy place because of the many videos I have seen with wind noise a problem for the audio. The solution is to use a muff (usually made of foam plastic) on the microphone. If a camcorder is being used that doesn't have a mic that sticks out from the body of the camera, an inexpensive external mic can be purchased at a place like Radio Shack (if the camcorder allows one to be plugged in) and a muff placed on it. This will also get rid of the explosive popping sounds made when people speak very close to the mic and hit it with their breath.
A similar tally might compare the number of arrows shot by the American Indians at the white man vs the number of bullets shot by the US Cavalry at American Indians. one side is resisting and the other side oppressing.
The American Indians were composed of many tribes with sub-factions within those tribes. Not all resisted with violence and certainly no one had control of all violence directed at the white man.
The US Cavalry, like the IDF, was a military force deployed by and directed by a central government with complete control over all violence by uniformed personnel directed at American Indians - it was a policy.
We know from comments generated by the recent Palestinian school bus accident that the sentiment of "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" is alive and well in Israel.
The capture of American sentiments on Israel by hasbara is evident from outrage that is voiced at the Gaza rockets and silence about IDF turkey shoots. Anyone who knows the history of the Zionist project in Palestine should not be even slightly surprised that, like the American Indians, there are those who resist with violence.
No doubt there were many Americans in the 19th century who were outraged and cried "the Indians are shooting arrows at us!"
Was the destruction of the Native Americans due to the fact that they resisted with violence? It's a laughable proposition in hindsight, but you can be sure there were many white Americans who convinced themselves at the time that the US government was performing a service to the country and civilization by sweeping violent animals from the plains.
TetaMM: thank you, thank you for the link to the 2010 presentation that included the insight-filled remarks of Ian Lustick, every sentence of which is worth reading even more than it was 18 months ago. It's links like this in the comments on MW that make it a gold mine for those who want to know more. Of course the average citizen will never get word about the content of such speeches like this. Even if the printed text were presented to them, one look at the length would likely result in a pass, but it's encouraging to know that there are people out there with the knowledge needed and, I hope, with the ear of those in power.
My concern is not so much with large-scale wars such as Afghanistan and Iraq, because they have proven to be disasters. I can easily believe the claim that enlisted personnel overwhelmingly approve of Ron Paul. What has me worried is the new love for targeted assassinations, drone strikes, etc. a la Israel. If the US becomes a known user, even a proud user of this method (judging by Obama's elation), the danger of a hit being attributed to the US, correctly or not, will invite exactly the kind of response that we all want to prevent, acts of terror within the US.
I think this is the recipe for endless anxiety. Something awful happens. Who did it!? There must be some immediate response!!! Formal armies can be withdrawn fairly easily and obviously, but where is the end to infiltration by difficult to identify individuals and small groups? Who can say conclusively "it's over"? It was the hysterical fear of infiltration that drove the US into the anti-Communist hysteria that was a low point in our history.
If acts of terror within the US occur, there would be even more calls for the kind of Patriot Act legislation that is causing the United States to self-destruct, eroding the very things that make this country the standard for human rights and liberty for all. Fear can drive people into a cage of their own making.
This is why I love to hear Ron Paul talk about limitations on what the President can do. Recent occupants of that office apparently believe there are no limitations. It was one of the highlights of the 20th century, a glorious moment for the United States when Richard Nixon was on the point of being brought to book.
I also love to hear him ask us how we would feel if we were in the position of Iran at the moment, being dictated to and threatened from all sides. The foundation of sanity is being able to see oneself in the other.
Finally - for proof that we have gone insane and need the kind of antidote that Paul could provide - I give you Leon Panetta, moaning and groaning before Congress, warning of the dire consequences of any cuts to the military, a military that is bigger than the next five (maybe ten) runners-up combined, with no contenders and no enemies on our borders. The United States policy makers have lost all perspective and Paul stands alone among any candidate for the Presidency including the President that shows he draws a connection between our Constitution and what we do.
P.S. there was a warning long ago - when the Department of War was renamed the Department of Defense
Self righteousness is one of the great dangers of life. It is so comforting and excuses anything in the mind of the holder.
In Christianity, Jesus exemplifies innocence that is punished. We are told that because of his complete innocence vs the total guilt (evil) that opposed it, the result of the opposition was cosmic - enough to make up for all the sins of mankind from the beginning of time.
That is one heck of a lot of righteousness, ready made for those who wanted/want to latch on to it to make themselves righteous or, better said, to make them self-righteous. One can comfortably get behind Jesus in this way that is antithetical to everything attributed to him.
So off to get the Christ-killers people went, filled with hatred but convinced they were acting with a pure, the purest possible, motive!
We all tend to wear a wolf's clothing while seeing ourselves as the most innocent of sheep. One can bellow about Christ, but that is very old hat and has a very odious history that can't be denied. Bellowing about the Holocaust is far more contemporary - the odious history of this bellowing is only now being written.
Sarah, I'm an atheist who believes that we are chemical machines with nothing about us that is supernatural or spiritual (non-physical).
But that said, I believe that such events as you describe can re-wire the brain in an instant - can change views, can alter behavior from that point on. We are all powerfully affected by what we see others do and particularly so if we are in a position to join them. At worst this produces mob violence but at best it results in what you saw. I would bet that none of the people who participated in the prayer that day left the scene quite the same. They were strengthened by it, religion at its very best.
Thanks for the very well done report.
People operate on feelings. Rational thought can be powerful but feelings prevail. Being a journalist should continually cause one to question one's own feelings. In this report, the key for me for me was the remark (intended as humor) about being able to be home for dinner - couldn't Ethan Bronner say the same?
For myself, I realize living a sheltered life as an American without a single anxiety about my personal security, where I will find the next meal or the next dollar, make me almost certainly incapable of knowing in the smallest degree about the residents of other countries subject to those who move the levers of the American Empire. It is the contrast between my life and that of a Palestinian without rights for the same duration that fascinates me and drives me to do something about it.
Once I assumed that Walter Cronkite was as close to speaking daily truth as was possible. Now I never watch MSM news and suspect anything I hear from it. NPR I find particularly smug and self-righteous. Just the precise and carefully crafted sound of Robert Siegel's voice puts my teeth on edge.
To know anything about anything, you have to do the work to find out. MSM news is really storytelling where the daily report builds a linear puzzle with virtually predictable pieces that confirm what has gone before - rather than a take on a multidimensional puzzle with the next piece of many possible shapes. God forbid viewers should be confused!
"There's Always More to Know" should be the motto of every journalist, particularly with daily news when there is such pressure to have a tidy wrap-up to end every story. In the best of all worlds it would be the motto of every citizen.
I'm 61 years old and have never given a penny to any presidential candidate (though maybe my memory is failing). I just gave $50 to Paul's campaign. I disagree with him on some points, but the least danger to our country is the most hyped - terrorism, and the greatest danger is the loss of our freedoms under cover of the terror hype.
Obama, with hype about hope and a mellifluous, lofty oratory that comes off as one addressing children before proving its emptiness by the contradictory actions that follow, is so infuriating that I want him out of office. He is a fraud who belongs back in the patent medicine era.
The Republicans with the exception of Paul are a cast of cartoon characters. The list from which we must choose our president has never been shallower, nor the amount of financial power interested in a shallow president being elected, greater.
I hope everyone who picked Obama because he is black is now properly educated that any kind of racial selection, for or against - is no good ground for action. Too bad we can't have the voices of all the candidates first processed through the monotonous Kindle voice reader before we hear them - THEN make a decision on the worth of what we hear based on content and not delivery. Or simpler, read the full text of a debate rather than listening to the candidates. If you don't believe in the power of delivery, check out any of the many videos done at XtraNormal, where the impact of what a blue bunny says can be profound.
Hey everybody.
I'm not sure if this means anything, but I just dug this story up from a couple of years ago...
" Palo Alto Artificial intelligence experts have announced the creation of a machine that, while not fully human, certainly looks the part and, it is hoped, will be able to show basic human thinking ability. One problem already encountered is unexplained repetition of phrases of speech. It will soon be tested on what may be quite challenging tests of logic, such as playing checkers and low level reasoning tasks. In an attempt to humanize their creation, the scientists have nicknamed their creation 'Victoria' and plan to eventually donate it for government work."
I haven't asked him to do anything more than change the view he has had for decades that both sides are equally responsible and that he wishes they would simply destroy each other and be done with it. My appeal has been for him to simply keep in mind what I've mentioned to him the next time he hears news from Israel or sees U.S. politicians talk about Israel. The bottom line - Palestinians are people.
I have been exchanging emails with a very good friend, trying to snap him out of his paralysis on the subject of Israel. In his latest to me he included this:
"Right now my main job is taking care of my wife and the kids... This is the best I can do, and I won't apologize for not being able to jump feet-first into any cause, no matter how compelling."
This is a generic excuse one can use for anything - my family first. It's commonly used as a conversation stopper.
But reading it, I thought of Mustafa pictured with his family. Is there any reason to believe that Palestinians love their families less than Americans or Israelis? Of course not. This is, in fact, what drives my activity concerning the Palestinians. I daily think of how much I have that they are denied, and with my money expediting the denial.
So I sent my friend the picture of the Tamimi family titled "TamimiAlive.jpg" and the repulsive photo of his shattered face called "TamimiDead.jpg" and explained that his capital crime was stone throwing, with a link to the story.
I asked my friend to consider how he would feel if Mustafa's fate were meted out to either of our sons.
In this way, Mustafa lives and continues to do good work and I'm glad to help him do it.
Ok - here's the scoop. It turns out that the drone was being run under Windows, there was an unexplained error and the message "DronePilot has encountered a problem and needs to close. Send error report to Microsoft?" appeared. Unfortunately, the operator panicked and hit "no" or we would have a full report from MS on what happened. ALWAYS send error reports to Microsoft - it's a patriotic duty!
Seriously, I think we need to wait for further info before jumping to conclusions about how it happened. Drones are designed to fly slowly and with great stability. This may be a very lucky event in that the thing came to rest in an area without obstacles such as trees. If communications failed, it's possible the thing slowly lost altitude until it reached the ground, though you would think there would be an auto-destruct method to prevent that.
If we see a video of the Iranians flying the thing, then I will be impressed!
We have Liad, who seems to be a decent chap, wishing to come to America. At the same time, I understand that many of the most rabid settlers come from America.
What does this say about the future of the two countries? If the foreign policy of the United States regarding Israel were not so captive, this movement of populations would be win-win for the U.S., but if the extremists are calling the shots what does it matter where they are located?
As for the idea of individuals gaining at the expense of the common good, isn't the US a good example? After all, what is this whole 1%/99% thing, the bank bailout, the Citizens United decision and the continual call for less regulation all about if not the few gaining at the expense of the many?
What has tripped up the U.S. repeatedly is the anxiety factor of our leadership. How can a democratic political system that has shown it's inherent strength now for over 200 years be continually headed by people who think it is about to be undermined by every wind that blows?
While the world admires the personal freedoms we enjoy and most would love to share it in their own part of the world, our leadership counteracts that very positive image with the endless fear they show by an obsession with domination everywhere. From the frenzy over Communist power (a system whose collapse was welcomed by the very people who were supposed to be under its sway) to the current Islamophobia, America must be forever planting military bases and issuing warnings; setting up trip-wires for intervention and laying down markers not to be crossed.
How ironic that freedom and liberty, so attractive to the great majority of mankind, cannot be allowed to do their good work of setting an example for others to try their best to emulate. Instead we must have a ponderous and heavy-handed policy backed with unlimited weapons that disfigures the U.S. image all over the world. Top it off by calling it "national security".
Now after 19 people pulled off an attack with airliners of all things, we have heavy-handed law enforcement right here in the U.S. to oppress us as well with the FBI running after people who simply visited the occupied territories. If anything, it appears this monster of coercion and force is relentlessly putting liberty and justice for all in the shade everywhere, crushing the very way of life that it is promoted as protecting!
Israel and the U.S. are alike in one way - they are hard at work on their own undoing, completely blinded by an obsession with hard (as opposed to soft or diplomatic) power.
What a comprehensive and informative piece. It's what I've come to expect from Mondoweiss.
I was so inspired by it, I decided to send a link to it to the police chief of my city. In my cover letter I mentioned that he may already have some familiarity with the things discussed so should find the reading particularly interesting.
Property rights: what starts when the first white man declares land is his.
Good work! I am trying to find out the situation in Illinois. I have discovered that a strong supporter of Israel, State Senator Jeff Schoenberg (now retiring) was instrumental in getting legislation passed within the last ten years that allows Illinois to purchase foreign debt. Schoenberg has been silent to my email expressing my concern with his trips to Israel and attempts to pass Illinois legislation regarding Iran, I've no doubt he would have nothing to say on Israel bond purchases.
Thought it has not been easy to find the state's investments for the past decade on the Net, I have found the information for 2007 and 2010. In the earlier year there were other countries along with Israel whose debt was purchased. In 2010 there was $12 million going to Israel alone. I suspect that the purchase of Israeli debt has been a constant throughout the period with other countries' debt purchased only from time to time to give the illusion that Israel just happens to be one of a group. I am attempting to find out the full history of Illinois purchases of Israel's debt as I write this.
I have been unsuccessful so far in getting a statement from Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford certifying that state money paid to Israel has not been used for the settlements, nor have I been able to get his office to provide me with any Israel-supplied information submitted to his office certifying that the money will not be so used. I did inform him of the international law issues you describe. All I have received is a letter from the attorney representing the Treasurer's Office that "due diligence" was done on the Israel debt instruments, and that Israel debt is a great buy. We all know how meaningless due diligence is from the recent banking disaster and the meaningless AAA ratings of junk derivatives. I think rubber-stamping would be an appropriate description of the process.
When the public is not paying attention, we know that legislators routinely pass legislation that benefits their own favorite causes. My state representative, my state senator, my rep in Congress, my two Senators are all staunch supporters of Israel, Mark Kirk being the blue and white flag-waver in chief. To get past this wall is a task for which I welcome others Illinoisans to join me and I applaud the efforts of those who are doing the right thing in Minnesota.
BTW - one of the people who has announced that he will be running for the Illinois state senate to replace Jeff Schoenberg has been silent in response to my email to him asking if he expects to continue the practice of taking trips to Israel. If nothing else, I am learning patience!
How things have changed for the better since the time of Rosa Parks' bus ride. She was alone, there was no press, no video, even to make an audio recording would have been difficult as audio cassettes were in the future. Let people say what they will about technology, for outing what needs to be outed, we are living in a wonderful time.
But more could be done. How about a way to up-link to satellite from a cheap camcorder? With this it would be possible to get video/audio without the possibility of the authorities (in any of their many forms) grabbing the memory chip or tape. For example, you are being approached by people who intend to beat you. With the up-link, everyone can see it coming along with you and no destruction or seizure of your equipment can stop your video from being seen because it has already been sent.
Reading of what the Knesset and the U.S. House are up to brings up a vision of two idiots joining hands to jump over a cliff together. The U.S. is the unquestioned superpower yet from the home-grown fanaticism, one would thing we are in mortal danger from a country floundering toward getting a single nuclear weapon of which we have many thousands. Iran doesn't keep me awake at night. Israel does because it has tremendous destructive potential with a free pass from the US. Khrushchev famously said "we will bury you!" but it's looking like we will bury ourselves.
Hussein Obama has long been a topic with the settlers. Take the example of Hebron settler Alfred Ginsburg (he is I believe from Brooklyn per his comments) interviewed on the street in Hebron in 2010 by Ashira Ramadan, a Palestinian seeking the views of the settlers (and finding it expressed with gusto). The source is episode 63 of the excellent series "Sleepless in Gaza and Jerusalem". Go to 20:00 in. Go to 20:00 in.
From all I've read of the run-up to the Iraq War, Iran was the preferred target of the Zionists but Cheney and Rumsfeld held out for Iraq. Iraq it was, with Iran still left on the list. The United States has been hijacked.
I know someone who lost family in the holocaust. Though otherwise a timid person and the last that I can imagine taking to arms, his face lights up when he speaks of Israelis being trained to fight and how all know how to use weapons, that to see a soldier carrying a gun is no unusual thing. He also rants against the hated Arab, though he doesn't know a single one. Toward critics of Israel he is bellicose. I think that he has substituted the Palestinians for the Nazis since the former are present and available while the latter are gone. For him, Israel is a standing monument to counter the image of the meek and submissive Jew that for him is shown by the holocaust. To speak with him about all the oppression we know to be happening under the power he so admires is pointless. Israel is acting to sooth his sense of humiliation while he sits safe and warm at a great distance. I can't imagine anything the Palestinians could do that would be satisfactory to him. There is no reasoning with outlook because it isn't based on present reality. The only hope I see is that his generation is aging and will be passing. Those not touched as he has been will be open to thinking differently
All arguments about alliance, identity and commonality fall before the incompatibility of the following two fundamental items
1) Liberty and Justice for All
2) The Jewish State
Sylvia, thank you for your very comprehensive account of the gathering. I think your conclusions are valid. I am not Jewish, but attend JVP events and participate at their vigil in Chicago. I am also a supporter of the SJP group at a local university and attend their events as well. It's my wish to see more WASPs (my P has lapsed) like me get involved because all Americans, not just those who are Jewish, should be outraged at the claim that modern Israel is almost another state and that Israel is an asset to us.
My sister, who converted to Judaism decades ago, absolutely refused to attend a meeting with me when I challenged her to meet an Arab in person, a group about which she has rigid views but no member of which she has ever known. She, like your father, is cemented into position. Having sent her kids on Birthright trips long ago, I wonder how in the world she could alter her outlook even if truth should meet her face to face.
I also find it difficult to believe that Americans will be budged. There is too much entrenched opinion allied with indifference. What gives me encouragement, however, is the wealth of information on the Net. The case is made by all the videos, interviews, blogs like Mondoweiss, that are always there for anyone who will be bold enough to entertain a doubt. All it takes is a tiny bit of curiosity to take a look and the whole castle of preconceptions can crumble - as it did for me.
This is good news. As readers may not know, the United Methodist Church passed a resolution at its General Assembly in 2000 opposing the occupation. Though I am an atheist, I was raised by an ordained Methodist minister and remained within the church through my teenage years. With this as an introduction at the largest Methodist church in the area, I thought it might be interesting to find out why I had seen nothing in the news in the 11 years since that resolution was passed indicating any action on it.
A letter to the senior pastor at the church brought silence. A phone call to the same person brought no response. Not easily deterred, I attended a Sunday service, being well familiar with the greeting of the congregation afterward. Upon shaking the man's hand to whom I had written and on whose voice-mail I had left a message, I identified myself. He apologized, said he would have replied but I had not included a return address. I could only think to myself "Help me, Jesus!" to keep my cool. What a silly excuse to hide behind for someone who heads a congregation claiming to follow a moral course and who suggests to so many how they might follow moral lives. I gave him my phone number and he said he would call. He did not.
I can only conclude the 2000 resolution of the United Methodist Church General Assembly is meaningless. Kudos to the Presbyterian Church for actions taken.
I found both Virginia's essay and Issa's response thought provoking but unmentioned in either is that the United States is already financially broke, only continuing to act as if nothing is wrong by the fact that the dollar is the international unit of exchange while China and Japan, who are America's creditors, don't call in the debt. The British Empire collapsed quickly after WW2 because the U.S. provided a safe haven for those wishing to flee the pound.
Is there any evidence of any empire in history willingly scaling back? Do empires have epiphanies? No, as Jared Diamond reminds us in his book Collapse empires just keep on keeping on.
Another topic unmentioned and the only bright spot I see for change is the young generation of Jews, primarily in America, where they are free of the brainwashing that goes by the name of Israeli schooling in history, complete with indoctrination trips to Poland to put the proper spin on the Holocaust (see the movie, Defamation). Young American Jews have entry to every nook and cranny of the American system, be it political or economic and from there they can have quite an effect without fear of the increasingly absurd charges of anti-Semitism.
The settlers are eagerly blowing away the remaining tatters of Zionism as a heroic effort, their single-minded expansionism telling the true "Story of Israel" that has been there all along, covered with the shelter of the Holocaust, now evaporating as those of that generation depart this world.
Each generation has a chance to see things anew. The U.S., for all its faults, does allow the individual to investigate for him/herself more freely than anywhere else on the planet.
So my equation is simple
Young people who are Jews + independent thought that Judaism promotes in the U.S. + U.S. freedom that allows individual freedom to thrive = change.
Jewish fanatics in the U.S. flock to the settlements, while those fanatics who remain make, along with such AIPAC boys as my own Senator Mark Kirk, increasingly absurd statements that, like the boy crying wolf, raise questions in the minds of rational people. Within Judaism in the U.S., things are going to give, are giving, along generational lines, and I don't see it going in Israel's favor.
P.S. and as I write, more CO2 pours into the atmosphere. Change is coming.
Very interesting. Thanks for the detailed response. I've read much of what you have written. Your efforts, and long pursuit of justice, are appreciated.
I'm left wondering what happened after that successful ad campaign. Was there a follow up or, if the campaign ended, why?
Lillian when you said "I had this dream before I knew the reality of the original land theft and the glib justification of a moral right for all Jews to live on this land. Now I must join dissenters in condemning the inhumanity perpetrated on the Palestinians, the ghetto-ization, the attempt to silence a peoples who will not be silent but who suffer in the hands of their tormentors."
I can agree whole-heartedly. I set out some time back to examine the facts, having heard hasbara all my life (though I am not Jewish). I did the research from afar (with Mondoweiss part of it) but could only make the same conclusion as you have from your experience there.
America is, I'm sorry and ashamed to say, a fully supportive partner in the madness to which you object. We all have to make some noise about it in any way we can. Your experience is an inspiration. There's no excuse for inaction.