Total number of comments: 222 (since 2011-02-26 17:49:48)
Kris
I lived in Lebanon for six years when I was a little child. My first memory is of Palestinian refugees who brought their babies to my parents' apartment, to get infant formula that my mother gave them. Almost 60 years have passed, and I have had a happy life. I am a grandmother, still enjoy my work as a registered nurse, and yet in all these decades, the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of Israel has continued.
"Safety and security can only prevail under the shadow of Islam, and recent and ancient history is the best witness to that effect."
Can't argue with that. Try reading Kate's daily posts on this website: day after day of evidence that there is no security or safety for Christians or Muslims under the shadow of the "Judaism" of Israel.
I'm reading "Fast Times in Palestine" now, and can highly recommend it. Ms. Olson is a very engaging writer and her book is as compelling and entertaining as a really good novel.
On your computer screen, there is a space where you can type in what you want to know--for example, "Israeli laws discriminate between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens." Then you push the "return" button, and suddenly you are presented with many, many links where you can find the information you seek.
Here are two links for you: link to nytimes.com
link to fightracism.org
Who cares where Barghouti studied? I'm glad he got to pursue his education, unlike all the Palestinian students in Gaza whose lives have been deliberately ruined by Israel's refusal to let them take up their scholarships in universities abroad. Israel's casual cruelty is horrifying and disgusting.
Access to excellent education has meant everything to my children. I look at them, and I think of all the young Palestinians whose dreams Israel has deliberately destroyed.
Thank you for this outstanding essay!
Thank you, this is beautifully written, and haunting.
RoHa: "To me it looks like part of a deliberate, planned, policy to keep Palestinians uneducated and as close to harmless as possible."
You're right, of course.
It's time to get on board with an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. Ali Abunimah, link to electronicintifada.net sums it up very well:
"It is in this context, where Israel thwarts Palestinian education from the earliest age through university, that Palestinian civil society’s calls for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions must be seen.
"Next time you hear someone oppose the academic boycott of Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people on the grounds that it somehow limits “academic freedom,” ask that person what their position is on Israel’s ongoing blockade of Palestinian education. And more importantly, ask them what they are doing about it."
Israel won't let these students from Gaza travel to the West Bank to attend colleges. Excerpt from the article on huffingtonpost.com, below. Just another example of Israel's policy of casual, pointless cruelty toward the Palestinians, and the U.S. government's witless groveling to Israel.
link to huffingtonpost.com
"Under Israeli pressure, U.S. officials have quietly canceled a two-year-old scholarship program for students in the Gaza Strip, undercutting one of the few American outreach programs to people in the Hamas-ruled territory. The program now faces an uncertain future, just two years after being launched with great fanfare by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during a visit to the region.
"The program offers about 30 scholarships to promising but financially challenged Palestinian high school seniors from Gaza and the West Bank to study in local Palestinian universities.
"It is a rare opportunity for gifted students in Gaza, which has been constrained by an Israeli blockade since Hamas seized power five years ago. The blockade has made it harder for Palestinians to travel abroad. Both Israel and the U.S. consider Hamas a terrorist group because of its hundreds of attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings, and frequent rocket attacks from Gaza.
"After allowing the scholarship program to proceed in 2010, Israel this year refused to give permits for the Gaza students to travel to the West Bank. Hamas' rival, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, governs the West Bank."
from Deuteronomy 20 (verses 16 and 17 pertain to Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians):
10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.
19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege:
20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.
I'd like to correct my comment that the average nuclear bomb is now 100 times more powerful than the one we dropped on Hiroshima.
The nuclear bomb we dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kt (kilo tons), while
the "modern strategic warhead is, with few exceptions, now typically in the range of 200-750 kt." link to nuclearweaponarchive.org
The radioactive fallout from detonating a nuclear bomb would cover a huge area. The average nuclear bomb today is 100 times more powerful than the ones the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The people who die immediately from the nuclear blast are the lucky ones. Many more people suffer horribly from radiation poisoning for days to months before they die. And many, many more people suffer for years after that with cancer and birth defects and cancers in their children.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a long time ago, and we in the U.S. have forgotten about all the deaths and suffering we caused by dropping those nuclear bombs. And most of us don't even know about the high rates of cancer and birth defects we have caused in Iraq by using depleted uranium weapons there.
You can read about how nuclear bombs work, here: link to nuclearfiles.org
And then read about what happens to people after a nuclear bomb explodes, here:
link to bt.cdc.gov
It seems to me that every country should have some nuclear bombs, to deter attacks by the U.S. and Israel, but the evidence is that Iran not only is not trying to make nuclear weapons, but does not even want such weapons, because of their religious beliefs.
From the haaretz article linked to by Citizen:
"(Netanyahu) also rejected the idea that a nuclear Iran could be contained, and ridiculed "the absurd notion that a nuclear-armed Iran would actually stabilize the Middle East." Given Iran's record of aggression without nuclear weapons, he said, "just imagine Iranian aggression with nuclear weapons ... Who among you would feel safe in the Middle East? Who would be safe in Europe? Who would be safe in America? Who would be safe anywhere?"
Maybe one of the hasbara posters could fill me in on what Netanyahu means by Iran's "record of aggression."
Here's the full transcription of Ahmadinejad's speech:
link to ibtimes.com
Unlike Netanyahu's speech, Ahmadinejad's speech is not about trying to gin up a war of aggression.
Actually, Ahmadinejad's speech at the U.N. was entirely rational.
Thank you, Woody--now I'll be laughing all day!
"The Civil Rights movement was won in the streets of places like Birmingham and Selma, not at garden parties."
Seriously, "proud"zionist, how old are you? Like every other human rights movement in history, the Civil Rights movement was propelled forward by millions of small acts, including conversations at garden parties, as well as by big acts like violence and demonstrations.
In the case of the Civil Rights movement, all of these acts together created the momentum that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Similarly, Phil's conversation at the garden party is one of the millions of small acts that are helping create the momentum which will result in justice for Palestine. Sure, there are large events, too, like Israel's murder of peace activists like Rachel Corrie, and Israel's massacre of the defenseless Palestinian families trapped in Gaza, to say nothing of Israel's leading role (now in the news again) in the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla, etc., etc., etc. There are all the Palestinian demonstrations of steadfastness, humility, and courage, as well as all the demonstrations of arrogance and cruelty by the Jewish Israelis. There will be the uproar when Palestine is finally a non-voting member of the U.N. and brings charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Large and small, each of these acts is important.
Raindrops become a stream, streams become a river, and the rivers become a sea. It seems to me that Phil is a person who actually lives by his faith, and that is why he has the courage to speak out on behalf of the powerless.
Micah 6:8-- He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Pretty much the opposite of everything Israel has ever done. Phil is a person who has taken this to heart, and that is why what seems like "politiking" to someone like you probably looks more like seeking justice and mercy to Phil. Weddings, funerals, 4th of July parades, whatever--there is not a second in any day when it is not appropriate to seek mercy and justice and speak out on behalf of the oppressed.
Gosh, "proud"zionist, you make me feel young again! You sound just like my racist neighbors in Houston when I was a teenager in the early 60's!
Like you, they thought it was boorish (they said "tacky") to mention civil and human rights at a party. Or at any time, really. Besides, they knew that our "nigras" were perfectly satisfied with their place in our society--at the bottom, scrubbing the floors and hauling out the trash. In fact, we loved our "nigras," and even gave them our discarded clothes and the leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinners!
It was race traitors (people like Phil) and outside agitators (Yankees like, say Michael Schwerner), who were stirring up trouble down heah, despite the fact that there were much worse problems in other parts of the world!
It's because of people like you and your wife, Phil, that the day is coming when apologists for Zionism will be the ones who will feel socially awkward when truth is spoken about Israel's crimes. I think it's the way it was in Texas in the early 60's, when it seemed as if suddenly it was not okay to be openly racist any more. But we know that the change was not "sudden" at all: it was the result of years of patient work. Like yours.
You really are a light in the darkness.
"All of this isn't to imply Israel is to blame for the current Iranian impasse or that the failure to reach an accord with the Palestinians is the sole fault of Israel."
Actually, the sole fault in both of these situations IS Israel's.
You're right, the Democrats have exactly the same position as the Republicans, but like to pretend that they care about human rights for the Palestinians. (Just as they like to pretend to care about protecting unions, Social Security, Medicare, the environment, human rights, etc., etc.)
Check this out: "Why We Should Welcome Mitt Romney's Middle East Straight Talk," here: link to electronicintifada.net
President Carter is revered also because he is the reason that Guinea worm disease has almost been eradicated. Which means that President Carter has saved millions of people from horrible suffering.
link to cartercenter.org
ATLANTA…Former U.S. President and Carter Center Founder Jimmy Carter announced today that only three endemic countries remain in the fight against Guinea worm disease, poised to be only the second disease in history—after smallpox—to be eradicated.
"Guinea worm disease is fewer than 1,800 cases away from becoming only the second disease in history to be wiped from Earth," said President Carter, who was joined by former Nigeria Head of State General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria Federal Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chuwku, Nigerien Counselor Boubacar Moussa Rilla, and other dignitaries from around the world for the The Carter Center Awards Ceremony for Guinea Worm Eradication to honor Nigeria and Niger.
"Nigeria and Niger's recent success halting transmission of this ancient and horrible affliction provides yet another vivid reminder of how people in even the most marginalized circumstances can thrive when given the tools and knowledge to help themselves," President Carter said.
Also known as dracunculiasis, Guinea worm disease is a debilitating parasitic infection that affects people living in remote, poverty-stricken communities. The disease is contracted when people consume water contaminated with infective Guinea worm larvae. After a year, a one-meter-long worm slowly emerges from the body through an agonizingly painful blister in the skin. There are no vaccines or medicines to prevent or treat the disease. Guinea worm is being wiped out chiefly through health education and behavior change, for example using simple tools like water filters to prevent the disease.
Nigeria Guinea Worm Background:
Since 1988, the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program has worked with the Nigeria Ministry of Health to eliminate Guinea worm disease. At the beginning of the campaign, Nigeria was the most endemic country, reporting over 650,000 cases in all 36 states in its first nationwide survey for the disease. Known locally as the "impoverisher," Guinea worm disease outbreaks in southeastern Nigeria, alone, cost rice farmers an estimated US $20 annually in the late 1980s. However, through persistence, leadership from individuals like General Gowon, and Nigeria's contribution of US $2 million of its own funding to The Carter Center for the campaign, Nigeria reported its last case in a 58-year-old woman in southeastern Nigeria in November 2008.
OlegR,
Aside from the fact that the Israeli thieves have no right to do anything at all to this Palestinian spring, putting goldfish in a spring is certainly not an "improvement." Introducing a non-native species is stupid, and goldfish foul the water quickly.
It's an "improvement" in the same way that it was an "improvement" to plant all those non-native trees that created an inferno in Mount Carmel: clueless and destructive.
Thank you for this story, and thank you for the unforgettable photograph. There will never be another holiday for me in which I do not look at my grandchildren and children and remember the heartbreak of this grandmother. Every grandmother in the U.S. and Canada needs to see this picture, and read this story.
I hope that mondoweiss will make it a priority from now on to publish pictures of the Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks, to make it easy for all of us to share these images as widely as we can. Our friends who look away from reports about Israel's savagery find it much harder to look away from photographs.
Here are my email to Rudoren, and her reply:
URL:fawning Dani Dayan article
Comments: Wow. Your article about Dani Dayan was even beyond fawning. I think you need to inform yourself about Israel's ethnic cleansing and theft of Palestinian land, as well as about APARTHEID.
One would think that a NYT reporter would note the irony of Dayan's principled refusal to visit apartheid South Africa, given his role in imposing apartheid on the Palestinians. And given the fact that eminent South Africans, including Archbishop Tutu, have described the situation in Israeli-occupied Palestine as even worse than apartheid was in South Africa.
You should go to the Jewish Voice for Peace website link to jewishvoiceforpeace.org and to mondoweiss.net, and become better informed.
Sincerely,
Kris
jodi rudoren rudoren@nytimes.com
10:23 PM (10 hours ago)
to me
Kris,
Thanks for your note. Actually the reason I included the Apartheid quote was precisely because of the juxtaposition, given many people's belief that West Bank occupation/settlements are akin to Apartheid. So, I'm glad that worked for you, even if you didn't realize it; I try to present my observations and let redraws make connections and draw conclusions.
I've met with the heads of both Jewish Voices for Palestine and Mondoweiss, and I do look at those sites occasionally. But it's a good reminder to be reading widely and broadly.
Thanks again for writing -- and reading.
Jodi
//The Iman’s obsequious tone is uncomfortably noted. I can’t criticize him for he lives in a very hostile environment and offending the wrong Jew or Christian can result in his being brought up on charges.//
Exactly right, ToivoS. I remember all too well how careful Southern blacks had to be when they spoke to whites, and this Iman's words bring it all back. Lieberman is a puppet of the powerful Jewish organizations in the U.S. that have been promoting hatred of Muslims for a long time. Not only has this resulted in Muslims being targeted by hate crimes, but they are also at constant risk of being unfairly arrested and imprisoned for decades on trumped-up charges.
Pre-emptive killing is not self-defense, Jon s. Not when Obama does it, not when Esther does it, not when Israel does it, and not when anybody does it. I think it partially the example of stories like Esther's that has influenced many Jews and Christians to think that killing is "the appropriate way of dealing with people indoctrinated and trained to kill the Jews" or anyone else. (As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.) But pre-emptive killing is a stupid, as well as evil, strategy. How many more enemies do you suppose Esther's mass murder gained for the Jews? How many more enemies are Israel and the U.S. creating every single day?
Should we pre-emptively kill every Aryan nation sympathizer, as well as every Israeli who has been advocating death to Arabs? How about every white racist who expresses satisfaction that famine wipes out blacks in Africa? While we're at it, should we kill everyone who hates the U.S. and Israel? The problem with your philosophy is that it breeds more and more justifiable hatred, and more and more killing.
Esther and her uncle could have been generous and compassionate in victory, and tried to make friends with their enemies. This would have involved hospitality (which carries a huge value in the Middle East), and trying to find out why their enemies hated them, and then trying to make amends and common cause. In order to do this, they would have had to treat their enemies with respect, as if they were people, too.
But we have seen from hateful stories like Esther's, as well other Old Testament accounts of massacres by the Jews, and from rabbis in Israel today, that many Jews consider non-Jews to be sub-human, worthy of no respect or consideration at all.
Jon s,
Here's the gist of the story: Prime Minister Haman gets the King to okay the massacre of all the Jews. Then Esther and her uncle convince the King to change his mind--there will be no massacre of the Jews. Haman, who had plotted the massacre with his wife and advisers, is executed.
This is not enough for Esther and her uncle. They get the King's permission to massacre all of their enemies, and have 78,800 people killed.
Happy, harmless, kid-friendly???? Not unless you think kids should be taught to celebrate ruthless killers.
This is what would have made it a good story: Esther and her uncle rejoice that they have saved their own people. Because they take the sixth commandment seriously, they decide that instead of killing the 78,800 non-Jews, they will invite them all to a series of big feasts with the Jews and find ways that the Jews can befriend them.
That would be kid-friendly, and might have set a better example to the Zionists who decided to move to Palestine. Imagine if they had decided to become friends and brothers with the Palestinians, instead of robbing and killing them.
//The Israeli government has done everything in its power to convince Christian evangelicals that Zionism = Judaism, and it has largely succeeded.//
True, but it would be more accurate to say that the Israeli government has tried to convince EVERYONE that Zionism = Judaism. This has been how the Israelis have been able to block awareness of their crimes for so long--any criticism of Zionism has been criticized as "antisemitism."
People are losing their fear of criticizing Israel's crimes against the Palestinians, and also increasingly aware of the malign influence of wealthy Zionist Jews on our government and news media. As you say, "Mixing politics and religion is almost always a bad idea," and in this case, it is extremely dangerous, especially as economic and social conditions continue to deteriorate, since we know that it is times like these that lead to dangerous scapegoating and violence.
I am an extremely average Christian baby-boomer, and throughout my life, as soon as I became interested in something, suddenly there were millions of women just like me who were also interested in it. It has been affirming in a way, but also, because so many experiences throughout my life have affirmed how average and predictable I am, very humbling. No one wants to be ordinary!
So I have no doubt that many, many people just like me have stopped caring if someone accuses them of "antisemitism" for criticizing Israel, and have started looking at their Jewish friends, who are so silent on the one issue where they could make a difference, and wondering how our Jewish friends could believe that the lesson of the Holocaust was that Jews are entitled to steal and murder in the Middle East, and everyone else should look the other way. "Never again" turns out to apply to Jews only.
I know that lots of other boomers grew up on Bible stories, just like me, and I'm sure there were many like me who were also repelled by the hateful story of Esther, as well as all the other stories in which the Jews imagined that God endorsed their wholesale slaughter of men, women, children, babies, and animals.
Now, as we are becoming aware of what the "Jewish state" of Israel has been doing to the Palestinians, it will not be surprising if many people think back to those stories in which the "chosen people" thought God was on the side of violence and murder, and imagine that it is Judaism itself that fuels Israel's murderous rampages.
Assuming your family includes children, it amazes me that you want them to live in a place where their lives will be based on oppression and theft.
Although it can be very hard in the U.S. to make a living, don't forget that life is so short, and eternity is so long. How can the subsidies you will get for becoming a colonialist be worth the damage you will do to your souls?
It's a great idea for someone like Phil Weiss (i.e., Jewish) to do this, and insane to encourage Arab American students to think that it's safe for them to do anything in the U.S. but keep their heads down. The war on "terror" is a war on Muslims, and, American or not, Muslims are in constant danger in this country of being thrown into prison for decades for doing absolutely nothing.
That is why I will not contribute to any program that provides scholarships for Muslim students to study in the U.S. These students should absolutely stay out of the U.S., and attend universities in Europe, where their lives can't be destroyed so easily.
/This piece serves my contention that the Israel lobby is central to the dysfunction, and that my own work involves issues of community self-interest: persuading western Jews that Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East is undermining our safety, not enhancing it./
Exactly right.
The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran thinks Islam is the one true religion? Shocking!!! Nevertheless, there is a large and thriving Jewish community in Iran, where non-Muslims are not persecuted and, unlike Muslims in Jewish-controlled lands, are not subjected to daily pogroms.
In the Jewish State of Israel, mosques are burned and desecrated, and Muslims and Christians are treated with contempt and casual cruelty. Not to mention the apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Jewish rabbis who are paid by Israel openly support the notion that it is right for Jews to kill gentiles, including babies, if the Jews imagine the gentiles will harm Jews sometime in the future.
Islam accepts people who convert to Islam whole-heartedly, as does Christianity, while converts to Judaism don't really become full Jews in the eyes of the Israeli Jewish religious establishment. In fact, many Jews in the U.S. don't even make the cut, as far as the Israeli Jewish religious establishment is concerned.
There is no way to be a "Cast Lead participant" and NOT be a war criminal.
My parents remember that these people called themselves "Palestinians." But so what? Even if they had called themselves "mashed potatoes," they would still have the right to return to the homes they were forced to leave because of violence.
Giladg, you need to acknowledge that the Age of Colonialism ended long before the Zionists began stealing Palestinian land, and that international law prohibits acquiring land through conquest. Since the issuance of UN Resolution 194 , around 120 resolutions have been issued to stress the Palestinians’ right of return to their homeland. This right includes the return to Palestine which was occupied in 1948 and not only to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Not so, Giladg. My parents were Presbyterian missionaries in Beirut and Tripoli in the late 1940s, trying to help the Palestinian refugees who had been driven out of their homes and villages by the vicious Jewish terrorists. These refugees identified themselves as Palestinians, and that is what everyone called them.
I am shocked that your mother's best friend in Jerusalem is so deliberately hateful and manipulative. She is elderly, so maybe dementia is making her so spiteful, and she can't help it. Or maybe it is her culture that has taught her to be so nasty, just as we see how cruel Israeli culture is through the eyes of your young friend.
Thank you for this beautiful piece.
This is excellent information, thank you, AllenBee.
"...I wonder, when that ethnic cleansing has progressed far enough, if there isn’t going to be a fundamental and radical readjustment of the world’s image of jews and jewry in general instead."
I think that a fundamental readjustment of the world's image of Jews is happening already, and the pace of the readjustment will accelerate exponentially as people wake up to what Israel has been doing. The blindfolds are falling off, faster and faster. Cries of “anti-semitism” no longer have any power to stop the discussion, and charges of “delegitimization of Israel” just lead to increasing awareness that Israel is not legitimate at all.
The light that sites like Mondoweiss shine on Israel's crimes makes it impossible for me to look away. I sweep my kitchen floor, and I remember photos of weeping Palestinian women sitting on the rubble of their homes that the Israelis have bulldozed. I work in my garden, and I remember that Israelis are continuing to bulldoze Palestinian olive trees, fields, and orchards. My children are enjoying the benefits of great educations, and I remember the Palestinian students whom Israel won't allow to travel to the European universities that have awarded them scholarships. My daughter-in-law takes her baby to the pediatrician for a check-up, and I remember the Palestinian babies and children who die because Israel won't allow them to get to hospitals in time.
My parents are elderly and frail, and as I witness their courage and vulnerability, and how they cling to their dignity, I remember how Israeli soldiers deliberately humiliate elderly Palestinians at the apartheid checkpoints. My mother asks anxiously if it's "really safe" for me to "drive home in the dark?" and I bite my tongue, instead of reminding her that I'm 65, for heaven's sake! I remember that a mother is a mother no matter how old her children become. And then I remember all the Palestinian mothers whose children have been killed or imprisoned by the Israelis.
Awareness of Israel’s loathesome and continuing crimes now causes me to look at my Jewish friends in a very different way. Who are these people, so involved in progressive causes, yet so silent on the one issue where their voices would really make a difference? Isn't it, well, cynical, and an insult to God, to observe Yom Kippur every year while they look away from the evil that is being done in their names? The kind of “Christianity” that endorses war, plunder, apartheid, and casual cruelty, is an abomination, and so is that kind of “Judaism.”
Everywhere I go, I wear a 3" button that I made: It is the photo of beautiful little Abir Aramin, who was murdered by an Israeli policeman when Abir and her little sister were walking to the store to buy some candy. The button says, "Just another Palestinian murdered by Israel. Abir Aramin, age 10, shot in the head." People can not help looking at the button, Abir's face is so lovely. Non-Jews usually either ask about the issue, and appreciate the opportunity to discuss what is happening, or they already know, and say something to indicate sympathy. A few Jews indicate sympathy, too.
What is chilling is the number of Jews whom I have known for years whose eyes keep darting to the button as we talk, but they absolutely will not acknowledge the button or engage in discussion on the topic of Israel, though there is absolutely nothing else that they are not eager to discuss. Who are these people, wonderful friends, whom I thought I knew?
Brilliant strategies for increasing awareness, like these billboards, will inevitably result in more and more people looking at their Jewish friends and wondering.
This is an excellent essay, but I'm surprised and disappointed that the title has been changed. When I first saw it here a few hours ago, it was "Death of a Self-Avowed Terrorist: Former Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir Goes to the Great Hague in the Sky."
That title was both thought-provoking and funny. Whatever our faith, or lack of faith, we all wonder about the after-life. Is there one? What will it be like? Is that where we will finally find (and perhaps suffer) justice?
Who could have sensibilities so delicate that they are offended by the idea that an outstanding war criminal like Shamir might face a heavenly court of justice?
This is a great story, Dooler. Many thanks for your work and courage. I really loved your telling the Israeli soldier that he had two minutes to get off the Palestinian land! Such an important fact cannot be stressed often enough: it is PALESTINIAN land, not "disputed territory" as our complicit media likes to call it.
Thank you for this story. Harriet Sherwood's current article that you link to is worth covering, too; the picture of the Israeli soldiers looming over the little boys they have arrested is priceless.
I have tried to share this current Guardian article on facebook three different times, but it just won't come up. Does facebook censor news reports from abroad? Hope you'll cover the article, and include the picture, so that I can post it on facebook.
Thank you for this very moving, powerful essay! It is really beautiful.
You could look at the statement of the American Association of Pediatrics. link to patiented.aap.org They do not recommend routine circumcision.
You could look at the information provided by Doctors Opposing Circumcision, here: link to doctorsopposingcircumcision.org
You could watch Mark D. Reiss, M.D., Executive Vice-President of Doctors Opposing Circumcision, discuss the effects of circumcision upon the developing brain and the risks and complications of infant circumcision:
link to youtube.com
The risks of circumcision include bleeding, infection, meatal stenosis (scarring of the hole the urine comes out of), damage to the urethra, cosmetic and functional issues, amputation, and death.
My point is that no matter what people's religious beliefs may be, today we rejecting the idea that religious practices that harm other people can be allowed. In supporting the genital mutilation of babies, you are supporting the infliction of genuine risk and harm on a person who is given no choice in the matter.
Whether or not you think the risks to the baby are trivial, or the loss to the adult male is negligible, the parents of a baby do not own him, and should not have the "right" to subject him to medically unnecessary mutilation and risks.
The point about racial segregation, massacres, and slavery is that even though there are people who sincerely believe that G*d approves of these practices, we nevertheless do not allow these believers to inflict their beliefs on other people. It follows that we now are realizing that parents shouldn't have the right to circumcise their infants, no matter how sincerely they may believe that genital mutilation pleases G*d.
Maybe I didn't express my idea well enough, Mooser. I was trying to offer a possible reason why genital mutilation continues to be valued by some religious groups today, despite the recognition that the risks of this procedure are not outweighed by any medical benefits to the baby.
Social psychologists have demonstrated the value of hazing practices in achieving group cohesion and identification, and a mother submitting her baby to genital mutilation could be seen as analogous to a "pledge" who is submitting to pain/humiliation in order to become part of a fraternity. We all know that the patriarchs thought that G*d required genital mutilation, but the patriarchs thought lots of things that we recognize today as harmful or useless. We no longer think it is a good idea to stone sinners, for example. Yet many of us cling to the practice of circumcision, even the many Jews who call themselves "non-religious." Why? Maybe the practice persists because it is an effective way of promoting group cohesion. Why else would a "non-religious" Jew do such a thing?
On the other hand, some people actually believe that G*d requires circumcision of baby boys. Just as some people still sincerely believe that G*d requires racial segregation and approves of massacres and slavery.
Times change, and religious belief, however sincere, does not make inflicting damage on someone else acceptable. Today, you can have yourself circumcised, tattooed, dyed, or altered by all kinds of elective surgery, whatever you want to do to your own body. But the idea that a parent has the right to impose medically unnecessary, potentially risky surgery on a baby is no longer a given.
Hophmi, I think that's what I said: The AAP does not recommend circumcision.
Religious circumcision is an extreme form of hazing, sort of like fraternity hazing, but in this case, the “pledge” is the baby’s mother, who submits to the genital mutilation of her infant while her every instinct is screaming at her to protect her baby. It is a given in social psychology that hazing effectively promotes commitment to an “in-group,” and that the cognitive dissonance experienced by the “pledge” will usually be resolved in favor of discounting the pain/humiliation experienced, and valuing the “in-group” even more highly.
The Academy of American Pediatrics does not recommend routine circumcision, because the potential medical benefits are not enough to outweigh the risks to the baby. Circumcision rates have been dropping in the U.S. over the past decade as parents have become more informed about the risks, though some religious groups (including Jews and Muslims) cling to the practice.
But religious freedom, as so many have pointed out, does not permit harm to other people, no matter how much value that abuse may have to the religious group. That is why polygamy, child-beating, and refusal of critical medical care for children, are not allowed.
Just as we no longer believe we should stone our disobedient children to death (Deuteronomy 21:18-21), it is past time to outlaw the practice of infant genital mutilation, no matter how effective that practice is in promoting group identity. Jews and Muslims could "mark" their baby boys with indelible ink, instead, and let the boys give informed consent to this medically unnecessary surgery when they are adults.
Hooray for Jewish Voice for Peace! Here's one of their brilliant flashmob performances. focused on TIAA-CREF, in Times Square: link to youtube.com
and here's another great BDS flashmob, in Portland, Oregon, at a New Seasons grocery store:
link to youtube.com
Annie--this is what comes up when I try to "share" this article on facebook:
Richard Falk
link to mondoweiss.net...
LBJ suppressed the truth about the USS Liberty attack out of fear of endangering Jewish supporters
"Endangering Jewish supporters"? This must be a typo, so maybe you could correct it. Also it would be better to have the title of the article, instead of just "Richard Falk," for those of us who want to share it on facebook, so that those facebook friends who don't want to think about Israel/Palestine will at least be exposed to as much info as will fit in the title.
For the "thumbnail," it would be better to have the picture of Richard Falk. Thanks--
Thank you for this excellent essay, which will touch so many hearts that you will not even know about!
I am especially moved by what you say about having found "a deep joy in knowing I stand on the right side of history." I think that you may be finding the "pearl of great price" that is described in the parable found in Matthew 13:45.
AllenBee, your statement that "Jesus was a canny politician; he understood that you attract more bees with honey rather than vinegar," is offensive, and is not supported by anything that you can find in the New Testament. Jesus's life and teachings had nothing to do with "attracting" anyone. The Jewish religious leaders of the day thought that Jesus was a dangerous demagogue and a threat to the survival of the Jews. Jesus said that those who oppress the poor will spend eternity in hell. Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, violently disrupting their legal business. Jesus encouraged law-breaking, and was so uncompromising in his view of the straight and narrow path that God required, that he said you should pluck out your eye if it was tempting you to sin. He said to give away everything you had (although you could keep the bare necessities, like one coat) to the poor. There is no evidence that Jesus would have advocated compromising with evil, and every reason to think that he would not have. Jesus would not have cared how anything would "play in Peoria," or anywhere else.
Your argument that investing in Palestine would be more in keeping with Christian values than divesting from businesses that profit from Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine is offensive, both as a call for Christian collaboration with evil, and also because it is an insult to our intelligence. The evidence of how Israel treats development projects is there for you to see: Israel has a long, well-documented history of deliberately destroying development projects--schools, hospitals, solar panels, sanitation treatment systems, etc.--that have been financed by the EU and other outside groups for the Palestinians. Jesus said that we know the tree by its fruit. We have seen many times that "investing" in Palestine just means watching more money and lives being blown up by U.S.-financed Israeli bombs.
It will be a great thing if the Methodists vote for divestment, but it will be no surprise if they don't. Mammon is the god we worship in the U.S., and that is why people can advance arguments like yours without being overwhelmed by shame, finding virtue in collaborating with evil because it MAKES MONEY, like Caterpillar's production of the bulldozers that continue to destroy so many Palestinian lives.
I don't think that making Gaza into an open-air concentration camp qualifies as "leaving Gaza."
"Reap what you sow?" I'm astonished by this, Fredblogs, since I thought you were a supporter of Israel.
Hosea 8:7: For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
from Clarke's Commentary on the Bible:
"They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind - As the husbandman reaps the same kind of grain which he has sown, but in far greater abundance, thirty, sixty, or one hundred fold; so he who sows the wind shall have a whirlwind to reap. The vental seed shall be multiplied into a tempest so they who sow the seed of unrighteousness shall reap a harvest of judgment. This is a fine, bold, and energetic metaphor.
"It hath no stalk - Nothing that can yield a blossom. If it have a blossom that blossom shall not yield fruit; if there be fruit, the sower shall not enjoy it, for strangers shall eat it. The meaning is, the labors of this people shall be utterly unprofitable and vain."
That describes Israel perfectly, of course, and is why Israel will end up on the dustheap of history.
This is a fascinating account, Sarah Ziyad, and beautifully written. I hope you will continue to write; yours is a compelling voice.
Thank you for posting this. What can I say?
"Iran and the Terrorism Game," another excellent article by Glenn Greenwald, is here: link to salon.com
Greenwald does his usual outstanding job of writing, but the picture that accompanies his article says it all: It is a snapshot of the young Iranian scientist who was just assassinated, with his little boy. That photo of the proud young father and his baby represents so much. The young father's parents, his extended family, his wife, his children.
Here's a new Ron Paul ad, "War Propaganda," juxtaposing the lies presented in the run-up to the U.S. war on Iraq, with the lies now being advanced against Iran:
link to youtube.com
Noam Chomsky points out, in "Recognizing the 'Unpeople,'" link to truth-out.org, that the widely-supported
call for measures to protect civilians in Libya, was rapidly followed by attacks on Libya by the U.S., France, and Britain that were NOT widely supported. Prof. Chomsky goes on to explain that Africans, like Palestinians, are "non-people" as far as the dominant world powers are concerned.
"It should be recalled that there were two interventions. The first, under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, adopted on March 17, called for a no-fly zone, a cease-fire and measures to protect civilians. After a few moments, that intervention was cast aside as the imperial triumvirate (U.S., France, UK) joined the rebel army, serving as its air force.
"At the outset of the bombing, the A.U. (African Union) called for efforts at diplomacy and negotiations to try to head off a likely humanitarian catastrophe in Libya. Within the month, the A.U. was joined by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and others, including the major regional NATO power Turkey.
"In fact, the triumvirate was quite isolated in its attacks – undertaken to eliminate the mercurial tyrant whom they had supported when it was advantageous. The hope was for a regime likelier to be amenable to Western demands for control over Libya’s rich resources and, perhaps, to offer an African base for the U.S. Africa command AFRICOM, so far confined to Stuttgart.
"No one can know whether the relatively peaceful efforts called for in U.N. Resolution 1973, and backed by most of the world, might have succeeded in averting the terrible loss of life and the destruction that followed in Libya. ..."
No one cares when the "unpeople" are slaughtered, so maybe that's why J. Slater seems to accept the idea of only two choices: (1) do nothing or (2) start killing people. You can talk about "just war," and you can pretend that you have only two choices, and you can ignore the fortunes that our financial and political elites make from war, and the resources they will steal as a result of war, but, underneath all the "educated" rationale, there is only evil. It's as if I were to whip up a batch of delicious cherry frosting and spread it on a dead rat: it might look good for a minute, but it would still be disgusting.
Maybe you are wrong about Ron Paul. Given that once a person of color has a criminal record, his opportunities shrink from limited to nil in the U.S., you would think that the "non-racist" position would be to end the War on Drugs. Oddly, supposedly "racist" Ron Paul is the only candidate who is speaking out on this subject. Here is what Paul said Saturday night at the New Hampshire Republican debate:
"And one of my heroes is Martin Luther King because he practiced the libertarian principle of peaceful resistance and peaceful civil disobedience, as did Rosa Parks. But, also, I'm the only one up here and the only one in the Democratic Party that understands true racism in this country is in the judicial system. And it has to do with enforcing the drug laws. Look at the percentages.
"The percentage of people who use drugs are about the same with blacks and whites. And yet the blacks are arrested way disproportionately. They're -- they're prosecuted and imprisoned way disproportionately. They get -- they get the death penalty way disproportionately. How many times have you seen a white rich person get the electric chair or get, you know, execution? But poor minorities have an injustice.
"And they have an injustice in war, as well, because minorities suffer more. Even with a draft -- with a draft, they suffered definitely more. And without a draft, they're suffering disproportionately. If we truly want to be concerned about racism, you ought to look at a few of those issues and look at the drug laws, which are being so unfairly enforced."
Coincidentally, the new issue of "Rethinking Schools," all of which is available for free, online, is all about the school-to-prison pipeline that we now have in the U.S.A.: link to rethinkingschools.org
In "Schools and the New Jim Crow," for example, which is an interview with Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," Alexander points out that the War on Drugs is an even more effective tool of racial discrimination than the Jim Crow laws, which the War on Drugs replaced, ever were. The U.S. imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. Since 1970, the number of people in jail in the U.S. has increased 600 percent. That's SIX HUNDRED PERCENT.
You might be interested also in Glenn Greenwald's latest, "The Evils of Indefinite Detention and Those Wanting to De-Prioritize Them"--
link to salon.com
Here's an interesting excerpt, describing a tactic that is being used by those who want progressives to get back into the veal pen. (I'm not saying that you are using a variant of this tactic, I just am puzzled that you seem to think that people can't support BDS and also, at the very same time, support the only anti-war/anti-police state candidate.):
"(4) As we head into Election Year, there is an increasingly common, bizarre and self-evidently repellent tactic being employed by some Democratic partisans against those of us who insist that issues like indefinite detention (along with ongoing killing of civilians in the Muslim world) merit high priority. The argument is that to place emphasis on such issues is to harm President Obama (because he’s responsible for indefinite detention, substantial civilian deaths, andwar-risking aggression) while helping competing candidates (such as Gary Johnson or Ron Paul) who vehemently oppose such policies. Thus, so goes this reasoning, to demand that issues like indefinite detention and civilian deaths be prioritized in assessing the presidential race is to subordinate the importance of other issues such as abortion, gay equality, and domestic civil rights enforcement on which Obama and the Democrats are better. Many of these commentators strongly imply, or now even outright state, that only white males are willing to argue for such a prioritization scheme because the de-prioritized issues do not affect them. Seehere (Megan Carpentier), here (Katha Pollitt) and here (Dylan Matthews) as three of many examples of this grotesque accusatory innuendo.
"There are numerous glaring flaws with this divisive tactic. For one, it relies on a full-scale, deliberate distortion of the argument being made; demanding that issues like indefinite detention, civilian deaths and aggressive war be given high priority in the presidential race does not remotely advocate the de-prioritization of any other issues. For another, many women and ethnic and racial minorities – as well as gay Americans — are making similar arguments about the need for these issues to receive substantial attention in the election...."
These are wonderful stories, and I loved them. But now I'm worried about you. Please stay off the property of your nut-job Christian neighbor who is always trying to kill things, to protect yourself from his poor judgment and itchy trigger (or bow!) finger.
I don't think Zionists' fear that Israel will be "delegitimatized" is unrealistic, because, as they know and as the rest of the world is starting to understand, Israel has always been an illegitimate state, and has absolutely no "right to exist."
Joseph Mossad explained this very well in his essay, "The Rights of Israel":
link to english.aljazeera.net
Thank you, Sarah Ziyad, for this beautiful story. I am humbled by the faith and dignity of the Palestinians.
Thank you, Pat Carmeli--great article!
Maybe the author is trying to stay in the realm of reality, so he would realize that Israel, based on its entire history, is the enemy of the Palestinians.
It seems to me that Israel is also an enemy of God, since it claims to be a "Jewish state," yet consistently acts in ways that every world religion, including Judaism, understands to be evil.
I third it.
"Divide and conquer" is the game Ratner is playing, and that is a game that always ends up with us as the losers.
Wonderful video, thank you for posting it! It seems obvious to me that no matter who is elected, domestic suffering is a given.
Since Ron Paul would stop the wars, stop aid to Israel, stop the war on drugs (which is really a war on minorities), and restore the Bill of Rights and habeas corpus, I support Paul for President.
In fact, I am even planning to attend a Republican (gasp!) caucus in my state (Washington), so I can vote for Paul there.
And now we're being prepared to do the same to Iran.
This is an excellent article, Andrew Haas. Thank you very much. I hope we will see more of your articles here.
Funny that you link to the Geneva Conventions, since Israel is notorious for its violations of them. In fact, the contribution Israel has made to international law has been to succeed in degrading it. Here's a good summary of Israel's singular successes in corrupting international law:
link to original.antiwar.com
"As the former head of Israel’s 20-lawyer International Law Division in the Military Advocate General’s office, Daniel Reisner, recently stated: "If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it. The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries … International law progresses through violations. We invented the targeted assassination thesis and we had to push it. At first there were protrusions that made it hard to insert easily into the legal molds. Eight years later, it is in the center of the bounds of legitimacy." " (from the article linked to, above)
Thank you for posting this. Rafeef Ziadah is truly wonderful.
Me, too.
It seems so strange to me that anyone can get into discussions about Jewish "ties" to Palestinian land, as if that means anything at all. My family has "ties" to Sweden, since my forebears emigrated from there.
Like many U.S. citizens of Swedish ancestry, I wish my great-grandparents had stayed in Sweden. So do I and a bunch of fellow Americans with "ties" to Sweden get to invade Sweden and take over part of it? What if we took only the property that is now owned by, say, African-Swedes, since obviously their claim to the land, as recent immigrants, would be less than ours, since there is no question at all about our being part of the "Swedish gene pool?"
I know the answer is "no;" I'm just not sure why not, if it's supposed to be a rationale for the Jews to dispossess the Palestinians.
I think that the conversations we need to hold are with the Jewish-Americans in our communities. Jewish-American "progressive" support of Israel is the last taboo subject. When that taboo is broken, our Jewish friends have to listen to themselves explaining that because Jews were victims of the Holocaust carried out by the Germans, Jews are therefore entitled to benefit from inflicting ethnic cleansing, murder, torture, etc., on the Palestinians.
Our silence allows Jewish-American "progressives" to remain in denial. The most bitter opponents to a proposed boycott of Israeli products at my local Food Coop were Jewish-American "progressives" who felt that the boycott effort was "divisive." I think what they meant was that the boycott effort was starting to break the powerful taboo that prevents us from criticizing Israel to Jews who are our friends, and challenging their support for Israel's crimes against humanity.
This is wonderful! Congrats, Annie!
Wonderful action by this group of young people!
The little boy is Handala, who was created by Naji al-Ali. Here's the info from wikipedia:
Handala, also known as Handhala (Arabic: حنظلة) is the most famous of Naji al-Ali's characters. He is depicted as a ten-year old boy, and appeared for the first time in Al-Siyasa in Kuwait in 1969. The figure turned his back to the viewer from the year 1973, and clasped his hands behind his back. The artist explained that the ten-year old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland; his turned back and clasped hands symbolised the character's rejection of "outside solutions". Handala wears ragged clothes and is barefoot, symbolising his allegiance to the poor. In later cartoons, he is actively participating in the action depicted not merely observing it.
Handala became the signature of Naji al-Ali's cartoons and remains an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance. Handala is also the web mascot of the iranian green movement.The artist remarked that "this being that I have invented will certainly not cease to exist after me, and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that I will live on with him after my death".
link to en.wikipedia.org
Handala appears also in this beautiful music video of "Freedom for Palestine":
link to waronwant.org
Shame, DanMazella. There are not hours enough in one lifetime to watch all the youtube videos of Israeli brutality and human rights abuses against the Palestinians.
It is not the Palestinians who are stealing land and water resources, and it is not the Palestinians who cynically use their children as human shields as they squat on stolen land. Israelis are like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings: their love of an idol (which for Gollum was the ring of power, and for Israelis is the land belonging to the Palestinians) has deformed their souls.
I am astonished that Lynsey Addario didn't refuse to pass through the screening machines, even if she would have had to strip behind a glass wall. Or even right out there in front of crowds of people. Prenatal exposure to x-rays increases a baby's chances of developing childhood leukemia.
Thank you, Ray, for your heartfelt and informative post.
As I glanced down the very lengthy "Today in Palestine" column, I was seeing news of one pogrom after another. Pogrom after pogrom. And then I got to your comment, and watched the very appropriate, and heartbreaking, videos.
Thank you, dumvitaestspesest.
Thank you for posting this.
Full bore sanctions on EVERYTHING Israel does is a terrific idea.
I can't wait to see this film! The book is wonderful, and I'm so grateful to you, Annie, for recommending it to us.
This is an excellent report, written by two young women who graduated from high school last May--kudos!
Very powerful! Thank you, Annie!
To watch the "Occupy the Occupiers" action to which this article refers, you can click on "video" under the photo at the top of the article. But just in case there are other readers like me who didn't notice that link immediately, click on the link here:
link to mondoweiss.net
This video is delightful! Beautiful young people, entertaining action, uplifting in every way.
If you heard "distortions," please be specific and identify them.
Mine, too. The integrity of these young people is truly heartwarming.
I love flash mobs, too, but am equally enchanted by these beautiful young people and their "mic check" strategy. This action was terrific, and the video will touch the hearts of many thousands of other people.
(I am surprised you like flash mobs; here are two of my favorites. First, from Jewish Voice for Peace ("We Divest From Israel's Occupation" performs a flashmob in Times Square):
link to youtube.com
and second, a BDS flashmob at a New Seasons grocery store in Portland, OR: link to youtube.com
"How exactly does this help the Palestinians?"
By helping to raise consciousness in the U.S. The more times that Americans are shown that it is NOT antisemitic to criticize Israel or to advocate for justice for the Palestinians, the less power Israel's favorite card, the Antisemitic Card, has. This video will be watched by thousands.
"Mic check" is a great strategy, and this video is enchanting to watch! Bravo to these beautiful young people!
Yes, your comment was stupid. And I'm surprised you object to seafoid's comment. Why would Zionists care about Judaism's "most holy place on earth," since they have made such a mockery of Judaism since they began their unholy enterprise of stealing the Palestinians' land? What good is dust after you have destroyed the spirit?
What's YOUR point? As is stated in the article, the family changed from their original name, Milikovsky, to a Hebrew name they picked out, Netanyahu. That's fine, but I could change my name to Netanyahu, too, and it would also prove nothing about my family's (non-existent) origins in the Middle East.
Thanks, Annie, excellent graphic.
Here's another thing that brightened my day:
"How to really annoy the banks and finance companies This works..."
link to youtube.com
Wherein a young business man explains how to turn the unsolicited credit card applications that clog our mailboxes into an effective tool of protest that will Keep Wall Street Occupied.
Very entertaining, and now I can't wait for some more credit card applications to come in the mail.
I think we can look forward to "the worse 4 years of this country's history" no matter who is elected, Republican or Obama (who is a Republican, too, as we have seen). Obama and the other Republicans are all determined to destroy the regulations and social programs that most of us depend on.
Ron Paul is the only one of them who opposes and would end our wars, opposes attacking Iran, opposes our "special relationship" with Israel, and opposes the Patriot Act.
The misery that you see ahead for this country is misery that we have brought upon ourselves; at least we could stop inflicting death and terror on millions of people overseas. The only choice we seem to have in the upcoming elections is whether we will choose misery for ourselves and everyone else, or misery for only ourselves.
What a great interview with this lovely, brave young woman; thank you!
Schalit was not a hostage, he was a captured soldier. But more than 160 Palestinian children are hostages right now. Israel has a long history of using terror as a tool of occupation and ethnic cleansing; these children are being used as hostages to terrify every Palestinian family with the threat of midnight raids where IDF soldiers drag children away from their parents.
The prophet Micah tells us that the Lord requires us "to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with (our) God, " but Israel deliberately mocks every one of these requirements. If you "love Israel," aren't you embracing cruelty, injustice, and contempt for God?
link to imeu.net
According to the latest figures released by the Israeli Prison Service and DCI-Palestine, on 1 October there were 164 Palestinian children (aged 12-17) in Israeli detention facilities, including 35 aged 12-15. Seventy-six of these children have been sentenced, while 88 children are being held in pre-trial detention.
The number of Palestinian children detained in Israel fluctuates, said UNICEF spokesperson Catherine Weibel in Jerusalem. In 2010, on average 250 children were in detention each month, and in 2009 the monthly average reached 300, she said.
DCI estimates that each year about 700 Palestinian children aged 12-17 from the West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli military, police or security agents. According to UNICEF, more than 7,000 Palestinian children were arrested and detained by Israeli authorities over the past 10 years.
What a great post, thank you! Amazing and disgusting to see just how deliberately misinformed Rep. Ackerman insists on being.
Here's an excellent flashmob performance by members of Jewish Voice for Peace. Retirement fund giant TIAA-CREF can run, but it can't hide from Jewish Voice for Peace! "We Divest From Israel's Occupation" performs a flashmob in Times Square:
link to youtube.com
Wonderful, thank you, Sara Besbes!
I wonder if eee has seen this yet, since the other day he was wondering why anyone would accuse Israeli Jews of "pogroms" against the Palestinians.
One pogrom by Israeli Jews after another, 24/7, for so many decades.
This is so beautiful; now I have to buy the book. If there are showings of your film near Seattle, I hope you will post the time, date and place here, so that I can come to see "Local Angel".
Since Foxman and the ADL define any criticism of Israel to be "anti-Semitic," they will never be out of a job. The more we learn about Israel, the more reasons we have to be "anti-Semitic."
po·grom (p -gr m , p gr m). n. An organized, often officially encouraged massacre or persecution of a minority group, especially one conducted against Jews.
Of course, these pogroms we are discussing are not conducted against Jews, but are instead conducted BY Jews.
Why do you bother to post here, eee, if you're not going to read the articles on this website?
If you had been reading "Today in Palestine," which appears every single day, you would know of many, many, many pogroms by Israeli Jews against the Palestinians, since these pogroms are practically a daily occurrence.
Thank you, this is a beautiful post.
Annie, is there a way to see and order one of those t-shirts online?
Excellent analogy!
Outstanding analogy!
Probably you know that Gilo is an illegal Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem. The Fatah "militants" were trying to resist Israel's illegal land grab.
It is not okay to steal someone's land, and then whine when the owners try to fight back.
Thanks to Israel's deliberate long-term strategy of conflating "Zionism" with "Judaism," and "Israel" with "Jew," Zygmunt Baumann is correct when he says that Israel is achieving Hitler's goal: for the world to hate Jews.
And you are absolutely correct, Dex, in pointing out how dangerous that conflation is, and that it is Zionists that the world hates. Unfortunately the Jewish American community is mostly Zionist, either supporting Israel's atrocities actively through fundraising, political pressure, and attempts to silence criticism of Israel, or passively, through their silence.
In my own small town, for example, the local Jewish community was absolutely furious when our food coop considered supporting BDS. They got an Israeli official to fly here from the Israeli consulate in San Francisco to try to set up a private meeting (in violation of the coop bylaws) with the coop board. The levels of self-pity and entitlement expressed by the Jewish anti-BDS people were astonishing, as was their indifference to the suffering of the Palestinians.
A friend of mine even said (and she meant this) that because of the BDS controversy, she felt "too uncomfortable to self-identify as a Jew" in our community. For her, to be a Jew is to be a Zionist. But being a Zionist means supporting ethnic cleansing and other human rights abuses. So it would be best, she thinks, for all of us to agree not to think or talk about it. Complicity through silence.
When I was growing up in Jim Crow Texas, a small minority of whites actively opposed segregation. The majority, however, were segregationists who saw themselves as stalwart Christians who were upholding a righteous social order. It was not until they experienced the shame, over and over and over again, of seeing themselves, through the unwinking eye of the media, as others saw them--disgusting, racist bullies--that their attitudes began to change. This seems to be starting to happen in the Jewish American community.
What I'm talking about is that once the media silence is broken, and "Today in Palestine" is common knowledge almost every day in the U.S., which we hope will happen, the majority of Jewish Americans are going to be forced to look at what they have been supporting, either actively or with their silence.
At this time, Muslims in the U.S. are expected to apologize for everything other Muslims do; no matter that this expectation is absurd. I think that many Jewish Americans are going to be placing themselves in the same uncomfortable position, because they will absolutely not like the thought of being associated in any way with the things that they are successfully ignoring right now.
And I think it is unrealistic not to realize that Israel's campaign for decades to conflate "Zionism" and "Israel" with "Judaism" and "Jew" has had huge success. The big lie technique works and has been effective up until very recently to stifle criticism of Israel.
But because of the successful conflation of Zionism and Judaism, Jewish Americans will realize that their friends and neighbors are wondering if they are the kind of people who support atrocities against the Palestinians.
It will no longer be possible for Jewish Americans to be PEP--progressive except Palestine. The cognitive dissonance will become overwhelming.
I grew up in Jim Crow Texas, and I can tell you that the consciences of most of the whites in my community did not change until they experienced the shame of being in the media spotlight and seeing themselves as others saw them, over and over again. It was the shame of realizing that people didn't see them as devout Christians trying to maintain a traditional social order, but as disgusting bullies beating up defenseless victims. The clincher, of course, was the changes in the law. If blacks had had to wait for civil rights until white consciences changed in the U.S. south, they would still be waiting.
"In months to come, we can expect probing coverage of the occupation at last from the American press, reports on the children seized in the middle of the night, the demonstrators shot, the cisterns destroyed, the olive trees uprooted."
I hope you are right. And I hope that Jewish Americans will start feeling the same kind of societal pressure that is on Muslim Americans, who are expected to step forward and condemn every violent act committed by any Muslim, anywhere.
When Jewish Americans have to start apologizing for Zionist atrocities, and to start worrying that their non-Jewish neighbors are suspecting them of being the kind of people who support shooting at children on their way to school, detaining pregnant women at checkpoints until their babies die, and flooding Palestinian farms with raw sewage, things will start changing for the better very fast.
Not the 51st state, since a state would get only two senators, and Israel gets 100.
Thank you very much!
Israel has deliberately, for a long time, conflated Judaism with the state of Israel in order to prevent criticism: this is why criticism of Israel is "antisemitic."
So when non-Jews observe Israel's vicious actions toward the Palestinians, it is inevitable that they start to wonder about their own Jewish neighbors in the U.S. Are they the kind of people who would shoot little girls on the way to school, threaten little boys with rape, and bomb defenseless families they have imprisoned in a concentration camp? Are they the kind of people who would steal from the poor and defenseless? Are they the kind of people who look aside while "never again" is revealed to be just another lying slogan?
Many of the people who post here are Jewish and may have family ties to the Holocaust, and for you the Holocaust will forever loom large. But the Holocaust has lost its power over many non-Jews, because we see that the descendants of the Jewish victims of Nazi brutality are as ruthless and cruel as the Nazis were. There are too many films on youtube of present-day Israeli abuses of the Palestinians to watch in one lifetime, and it is all happening right now. Not 60 years ago.
We see that Jews wield an influence over the U.S. government far out of proportion to their numbers, are disproportionately wealthy and privileged, and yet are constantly crying victim. They are determined to prevent any criticism of Israel's human rights abuses, and even shut down exhibits of Palestinian children's drawings.
Rabbi Lerner is like someone who claims the right to steal a farm in Alberta, Canada, as an escape hatch, just in case his neighbors get too fed up with his bullying and whining in California. Jews may indeed face vulnerability and hatred, but maybe there are good reasons for it, not just existential ill will.
Maybe Rabbi Lerner should read the book of Hosea again: the prophet warns us that if we sow the wind, we will reap the whirlwind.
The more that people learn about what Ron Paul really says and does, as opposed to the propaganda put out by the corporate bosses, the more people tend to like him. I myself am also very influenced by the fact that Ralph Nader likes Ron Paul.
Nevertheless, even though I know that Ron Paul is the only Repub/Dem candidate who says he'll end the wars and actually speaks out against our "special relationship" with Israel, it was hard for me to put the "Ron Paul for President 2012" bumper sticker on my car.
I had to give myself a firm pep talk, and ask myself if avoiding social ridicule (I live in a "liberal" community) is more important than trying to save all the people who will certainly be killed by the U.S. if Obama or any of the other Repubs wins in 2012.
I had to ask myself why I have no problem with wearing my homemade button everywhere (except work) ( superimposed on a photo of a bleeding, screaming, Palestinian little girl are the words: "Your taxes at work. Israeli soldiers killed her family. This is what Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians looks like." It's a very large button.) , but felt uneasy putting the Ron Paul sticker on my car.
Maybe it's because the truth about Israel is now out in the mainstream, and most people seem to like my button, but the propagandists are working overtime to discredit and marginalize Ron Paul, the only non-corporate, non-war candidate with a chance to shake up our national discussion and stop the killing.
It is very hard to see through the constant spin that surrounds us, and remember that identifying with the oppressors (who are trying hard to discredit and marginalize Ron Paul) is a fool's game. (Surely we all remember how this worked in junior high school: the "popular" clique would gang up on some kid who was different, and somehow the rest of the kids, who weren't even in the powerful clique, would disdain the hapless victim, too.)
If all we can accomplish is getting Ron Paul elected as the Republican candidate, by voting in the Republican primaries, that will be a huge step toward breaking the silence in our corporate-controlled media.
Thanks, Shingo, these are excellent links.
Aref, we in the U.S. can be certain that either a Democrat or a Republican will be elected president in 2012. Either way, we can expect to suffer, big time. However, Ron Paul is the only potential candidate in either party who advocates:
ending the foreign wars, ending the Patriot Act, ending NAFTA and GATT, etc., ending the War on Drugs, ending the two-tier justice system, and ending the corporate control of our government, and ending our “special relationship” with Israel.
Ron Paul is the only candidate who doesn’t get corporate contributions. The corporations fear him, and the corporate media methodically marginalizes him, as they are today, in reporting that Paul said an uninsured, injured person should be left to die, when in reality, Paul didn't get a chance to answer that question at all.
I think we should stop letting our overlords play the “divide and conquer game” with our lives. We are in the same sinking boat as the “rednecks” (many of whom support Paul) we are encouraged to disdain, yet we identify with the guys on the yachts. Wasn’t it “rednecks” who were beaten and killed fighting the great battles to organize the unions? Which side are we on, anyway? No, Ron Paul is not a fan of unions, Medicare or Social Security. Neither are Obama or any of the other Republicans. I’m just saying we need to stop identifying with our oppressors, and make common cause where we can with the people we have been encouraged to despise and ridicule.
We in the U.S. are bound to suffer, whoever is elected in 2012, so I'm not hoping for much. All I want is for the U.S. to stop killing people all around the world, and to stop facilitating Israel's slow-motion genocide against the Palestinians. That's why I'm going to vote in the Republican primary for Ron Paul. If he were nominated, things MIGHT change. Certainly the political discourse in this country would change.
Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, and Bernie Sanders seem to like Ron Paul; maybe we should take a closer look:
link to counterpunch.org
link to counterpunch.org
link to blackagendareport.com
link to youtube.com – Ron Paul on ending the War on Drugs
Ron Paul and Ralph Nader — link to youtube.com
Ralph Nader on the new political dynamic of an alliance between Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul on cutting the military budget and corporate welfare –
link to youtube.com
link to counterpunch.org
How is Ron Paul racist? He is against our wars overseas, which are directed mostly against brown-skinned people, and he is against the War on Drugs, which is a war against poor and black or brown people. Paul would pardon all non-violent drug offenders and free them from prison; most of these people are black or Latino.
I think this great BDS flashmob in Portland, Oregon, is worth watching again:
Portland BDS Flash Mobs New Seasons grocery store
link to youtube.com
Here's what's happening in Washington state: Stand With Us, a Zionist organization, is threatening the Olympia Food Coop, and the Evergreen State College, with "expensive" lawsuits.
Why? Because the Olympia Food Coop voted to take Israeli products off their shelves. And because at the Evergreen State College (where Rachel Corrie was a student), some Jewish students claim to feel threatened because other students criticize Israel's human rights abuses against the Palestinians. It is no surprise to anyone that the Israeli government is directing these attempts to stifle criticism of Israel, from behind the scenes. The full story is here:
"Uncovered: Israel’s role in planned US lawsuit to fight BDS"
link to electronicintifada.net
If cowards would stop capitulating, the Zionists bullies would lose their power, so it seems appropriate to direct anger and protest against the cowards as well as against the bullies.
Good thing that there weren't Nazi sympathizers powerful enough to prevent the publication of "The Diary of Anne Frank."
Since Ron Paul is the only candidate the Repubs or Dems will run in the primaries who does not advocate unquestioning support for Israel, what about voting for him in the Republican primaries?
I disagree with Ron Paul about almost everything, but agree with him fervently on one important issue: STOP THE WARS. So this life-long Democrat is going to vote for Paul in the Republican primary in my state.
And if Paul (or anyone) were to win the general election, instead of Obama? Good. Obama has been a total sell-out, beginning with his silence during Operation Cast Lead. He has achieved more for the Republican agenda than any Republican could have. We would have been much better off with McCain and Palin. Obama kept single payer health care off the table, expanded the wars, enriched the upper economic elite, claims the right to have anyone, anywhere assassinated or imprisoned forever, and is determined to destroy Social Security and Medicare. Obama, as many have observed, is Bush on steroids.
I was so happy when Obama was elected that I cried. Because I thought there would be real hope and change in this country, and it would be led by a black man, something that, having grown up in Texas, I would never have believed possible. Obama's cynical betrayal of all the "folks" (as he likes to call them) who really believed in him and contributed money that they couldn't afford to his campaign is unforgivable.