POST CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS......

 

A Merry But Meaningful Christmas

 Washington Watch
December 26, 2023

Dr. James J. Zogby ©

President

Arab American Institute

 

With genocide unfolding in Gaza, Christians in the Holy Land are having a difficult time feeling joy this Christmas season. Bethlehem has canceled its traditional celebrations. There will be no tree-lighting or festivities. Instead of setting up the traditional Nativity scene of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in a stable surrounded by shepherds and their sheep, Rev. Munther Ishaq, a Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem, has erected the birth scene with the baby Jesus laying in rubble. Rev. Ishaq said that this was an appropriate representation because “if Jesus were born today, he’d be in solidarity with the suffering humanity of Gaza.” 

 

To be sure, there will be Christians in the West who will scoff at these Palestinian actions accusing them of miscasting or politicizing Christmas to suit their needs. In reality, however, the grossly distorted version of Christmas is its popular manifestation in the West where the trees, lights, Santa Claus and gift-giving have eclipsed the birth of Jesus as the dominant themes of the Christmas season. These innocent-enough traditions have been exploited by commercial interests, making the month before Christmas Day a crass non-stop blitz of enticements to buy and buy more. 

 

When Christmas in the West does involve religious themes, the birth narrative is presented as a sort of sanitized fairytale. The town of Bethlehem is silent and peaceful. “All is calm, all is bright,” and then the birth just happens, followed by rejoicing.  

 

Other aspects of the story we can glean from scripture and tradition, however, suggest a more complicated and more profoundly human subtext to the story. These have been glossed over in our contemporary retelling of the story but would have been both understood and unsettling to those who heard the story two millennia ago. 

 

Mary was a young girl, nine months pregnant, forced to ride a rough journey for days from Nazareth to Bethlehem, her husband Joseph’s family seat. On arrival, they found no place to stay and so were forced to spend their time in one of Bethlehem’s many caves. A tradition captured in the Qur’an tells of Mary as she was about to deliver, going off on her own and crying out in labor pains saying, at one point, “I wish that I had not been born.”  

 

We are also told in scripture that the new parents were warned that the Roman ruler of the region, feeling threatened that a child had been born who might challenge his authority sent his troops to slaughter newborns. This threat forces Mary and Joseph and their newborn infant to flee to Egypt to save their child’s life. 

 

When all the parts are put together, a different picture emerges than the one that has been popularized in our culture. In addition to the rejoicing at new life and the celebration of the child whom they understand will offer salvation, a more complete picture must include the starkness of the setting, the pain accompanying birth, and the normal fears of the new parents accentuated by their concern for his and their safety in the face of oppressive rule. 

 

And never forget Mary’s words on being told she would give birth to Jesus. She praises God, saying in part, 

 

“He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. 
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. 
He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed.” 

 

As Rev. Ishaq notes, Jesus is to be seen in solidarity with and giving hope to suffering humanity. The baby in the rubble offers “hope of a new beginning coming out of destruction.” 

 

This more faithful rendition of the Christmas narrative aligns with today’s reality faced by Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem and Gaza. In Bethlehem, they are strangled and cut off from the rest of the West Bank by a 28’ high concrete wall and massive Jewish-only settlements built on their communal lands. They’ve lost access to their fields and vineyards and their ability to travel is severely constricted. In Gaza, Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes, which have been reduced to rubble, and then bombed or killed by sniper fire when they seek refuge in their churches. 

 

As I write this, I am reminded of the fact that more than 30,000 Palestinian women in Gaza are pregnant. Like Mary, they have no comfortable place to go to deliver their babies. Their homes are destroyed. From day to day, they are on the move to escape the relentless bombing. They, like Mary, live in fear. 

 

And so, Rev. Ishaq’s action is, in fact, the most appropriate way to commemorate Christmas, because the story of the birth of Jesus is an act of identification with suffering humanity and an expression of hope that comes with each new life. With this in mind, please have a “Merry but meaningful Christmas.” 

A powerful message and strong words paralleling and depicting the genocidal massacres taking place in the occupied Palestinian territories....  My many thanks to all, happy holidays and a hope for peace and dignity. 

Bertrand Russell’s Last Message: Israel-Palestine War

 

This statement on the Middle East was dated 31st January 1970, and was read on 3rd February, the day after Bertrand Russell’s death, to an International Conference of Parliamentarians meeting in Cairo.

Bertrand Russell in 1957

The latest phase of the undeclared war in the Middle East is based upon a profound miscalculation. The bombing raids deep into Egyptian territory will not persuade the civilian population to surrender but will stiffen their resolve to resist. This is the lesson of all aerial bombardment. The Vietnamese who have endured years of American heavy bombing have responded not by capitulation but by shooting down more enemy aircraft. In 1940 my own fellow countrymen resisted Hitler’s bombing raids with unprecedented unity and determination. For this reason, the present Israeli attacks will fail in their essential purpose, but at the same time they must be condemned vigorously throughout the world. The development of the crisis in the Middle East is both dangerous and instructive. For over 20 years Israel has expanded by force of arms. After every stage in this expansion Israel has appealed to “reason” and has suggested “negotiations”. This is the traditional role of the imperial power because it wishes to consolidate with the least difficulty what it has already taken by violence. Every new conquest becomes the new basis of the proposed negotiation from strength, which ignores the injustice of the previous aggression.

The aggression committed by Israel must be condemned, not only because no state has the right to annexe foreign territory, but because every expansion is an experiment to discover how much more aggression the world will tolerate. The refugees who surround Palestine in their hundreds of thousands were described recently by the Washington journalist I.F. Stone as “the moral millstone around the neck of world Jewry.” Many of the refugees are now well into the third decade of their precarious existence in temporary settlements.

The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was “given” by a foreign Power to another people for the creation of a new State. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their number have increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled in masse from their own country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East.

We are frequently told that we must sympathize with Israel because of the suffering of the Jews in Europe at the hands of the Nazis. I see in this suggestion no reason to perpetuate any suffering. What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy. Not only does Israel condemn a vast number of refugees to misery, not only are many Arabs under occupation condemned to military rule; but also Israel condemns the Arab nations only recently emerging from colonial status, to continued impoverishment as military demands take precedence over national development.

All who want to see an end to bloodshed in the Middle East must ensure that any settlement does not contain the seeds of future conflict. Justice requires that the first step towards a settlement must be an Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied in June 1967. A new world campaign is needed to help bring justice to the long–suffering people of the Middle East.

 

These 54 years old words, pronounced by the great Bertrand Russel, are still applicable to the letter, the Western populations, in part, and their official political leaders and all the media propaganda and lobbies have decided to go on and turn an absolute blind eye, deaf ear and dead mind and soul.  No one would care to publish such words. 

One more example of how bias our Western media is, I'm asking why is not one reporter, journalist or commentator in any form of media nowadays asking the ex-president Trump his opinion of what's happening in Palestine and the illegally occupied territories, is he avoiding the subject ?? as maybe he's trying to benefit and gain from the increasing  numbers of voters who will stay away and not vote for Mr. Biden for his stance on the entire massacre and genocide of the Palestinian people, even declaring flatly that he's a Zionist, something that half of the world's Jewish population and world masses are finding it revolting, but both Biden and Trump are trying to benefit from it electorally, politically, financially and definitely not ideologically, again the media is fully an accomplice in such games. 

Finally, I wonder, how can we partner with Israel's genocide against the Palestinian population while condemning the Russian acts of aggressions in Ukraine, what's the difference between the two barbaric aggressions, or can we condemn the French resistance during W.W.2 as terrorism compared to the Palestinian reactions against occupation, apartheid and brutal annihilation.   

  As always my many, many thanks to all, happy holidays everyone.  

Why I'm another Jew finally embracing BDS.....

 By Matthew Gindin 
The Israeli state’s long slide into the magnification of all of its worst features has become a downhill slalom of late. Granted, the militant nationalist Zionism that underlies the state was born in injustice and bad decisions and is founded on a betrayal of both Jewish tradition and the lessons of Jewish history, but of late the situation has become so horrific that it is difficult to even talk about.
In recent years the Israeli government has declared that Jews alone have a right to self-determination in Israel and demoted Arabic from being an official language; aggressively continued moving Jews into the Occupied Territories as settlers while displacing Palestinians; implicitly or explicitly allowed Jewish settler violence against Palestinians, their farms, and their water sources; killed and jailed scores of Palestinians including children; made a legal distinction between the rape of a Jewish woman by a Jewish man and a Palestinian man (the latter carries the penalty of a terrorist act), and continued to countenance millions of Palestinians living in sealed off, poverty soaked, under-resourced, and policed ghettoes. In the last two days I read of allegations that Israeli police branded a Palestinian in custody on the face with a Star of David and saw footage of Jewish settlers, women and men, standing in a street to block the passage of a Palestinian ambulance.
The Kahanist (Jewish Supremacist) bloc which is now part of the ruling government of Israel, is composed of, or allied with, settlers with extreme, genocidal aspirations. I have recently seen video of a mother allied with this movement joyfully encouraging genocidal sentiments among her young children, as well as footage of other children raised by these people singing songs about killing Arabs. It is not just Arabs, whose existence is a symbol of everything which obstructs the Jewish purity of Israel, but also Christians, another symbolic enemy, who are being attacked. In recent months an Israeli journalist went “under cover” as a priest and was spat on in the street by Orthodox Jews. Video surfaced of a Christian monk being told to remove his cross by an Israeli soldier because it was offensive to the Jewishness of the city; there have been numerous incidents of Jewish settlers engaging in hate speech, violence and thuggery against Christians.
This is why after years of being on the edge, I am finally, belatedly, embracing the BDS movement, an international nonviolent movement which has aimed, for the last eighteen years, to apply the methods used against South African apartheid against Israeli apartheid. I have spent years defending those who do support BDS against scurrilous charges of antisemitism or deception about the nature of Israeli human rights abuses, without myself getting on board. Yet at this point I feel that all people of conscience, and all Jews who hold best values of our tradition in their hearts, should do so as well.
Here is why.
As I understand it, the BDS (Boycot, Divest and Sanction) movement is predicated on two things.
#1: the status quo for Palestinians in Israel is intolerable, and extreme pressure must be brought to bear both on the on the government and the relatively privileged members of the state (Israeli Jews) to change things.
#2: Palestinian civil society has requested internationals to show solidarity through BDS. BDS is a nonviolent movement founded by Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti (winner of the Gandhi Peace Award) and other Palestinian activists which is an alternative to the violent resistance of the Israeli state practiced by many Palestinian militants over the last several decades.
The origin of BDS among Palestinians distinguishes it from, for example, a call by a Canadian activist to boycott China, or Nike, or Myanmar. In this case, the victims themselves- Palestinians, are calling for BDS of Israel.
Why I Have Not Embraced BDS Before
In the Jewish community BDS is largely considered outside the bounds of acceptable discourse and action. In Vancouver where I live there is, as far as I know, only one Jewish Institution willing to openly rent space to Jewish organizations who promote it like IJV, the Peretz Centre for Secular Judaism. There is one more- Or Shalom Synagogue, where I worked for four years, willing to seriously allow BDS supporters and anti-Zionists (usually, if not always, an overlapping group) to engage in public community dialogue.
For the last three years I have worked as education director at Or Shalom, a role coming to an end this October due to downsizing in the organization. For the last few years I have felt that publicly embracing BDS would be a self-defeating obstacle to teaching and leading dialogues about the realties of the Israeli state and the history of Zionism within a Jewish institutional context. Now that I am moving away from a role as institutionally embedded Jewish educator, I don’t think that’s the case any longer.
I also want to give internal pressure it’s due. For some time I have in fact practiced an informal type of BDS- I have not attended Israeli Independence Day celebrations or collaborated in any form of celebration of the Israeli state, and when I have taught or spoken about Israeli it has solely been from a place of critique. Yet the situation now, which I feel is every bit as dire as that of Apartheid South Africa, and bears comparison with the most egregious human rights violations in human history, makes any form of collaboration or interaction with the Israeli state ethically intolerable.
On the Jewish calendar, we are now in the month of Elul, traditionally a time for confronting our own wrongdoings and reckoning with what we need to change. What could be more pressing for the global Jewish community than reckoning with the failure of Zionism and standing up to the evils perpetrated by the Israeli state, Kahanism, and Jewish supremacist settlers in our name?

A good and factual short article by a Jewish American columnist, fighting the officialdom political repression of free speech and acts being dictated by Zionist lobbies in America and all through the Western hemisphere.   I wonder would we have dared to call the French resistance during the Nazi occupation "terrorists" or a terrorist organization.     

My usual many thanks to all, stay safe and well.  

As Humanitarian Pause is ending, US Must Demand Change in Israeli Tactics and Must Not Provide a Blank Check for Netanyahu

 J Street statement.... November 30, 2023

J Street is deeply grateful that the humanitarian pause in place for the past week has brought the release of over 100 hostages, a break in fighting between Israel and Hamas, and a significant influx of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

We’ve shared in the joy of watching Israeli families reunite with loved ones, and we’ve shared in the horror of hearing stories of their captivity. And we’ve experienced profound concern and despair as we continue to learn more about the devastation and growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

We hope that the pause in fighting will be extended for days to come – as called for in the existing agreement or under new terms – with more hostages released and the delivery of substantially more humanitarian aid to meet the urgent needs of civilians in Gaza.

And let us be clear: We demand the immediate release of all hostages in Gaza and an end to indiscriminate rocket fire and terror attacks against Israel.

Sadly, we know that the halt in fighting is temporary, which is why it’s so important to articulate our views about what should happen next.

While J Street supports Israel’s right to take military action in accordance with international law to bring Hamas terrorists to justice and protect Israeli citizens, we echo the Biden Administration’s clear admonition to the Netanyahu government: “Be surgical, be targeted, be precise, try to minimize civilian casualties wherever possible.”

We are extremely concerned about the fate of Gazan civilians, including those displaced from the north, as the fighting moves south. We appreciate and agree with the White House spokesperson’s recent public statement: “We don’t support southern operations until the Israelis can show that they have accounted for all the internally displaced people of Gaza.”

At the same time, we are alarmed by Israeli actions in the West Bank – by both settlers and the Israeli army – that are leading to high civilian casualties and the displacement of families and entire communities. Every day, the Israeli government and extremist Israeli settlers are taking actions aimed at cementing permanent, undemocratic control over the West Bank and pushing the only viable path out of this crisis – the creation of an independent demilitarized Palestinian state – further out of reach.

These actions run totally counter to the long-term goals and interests that should be at the center of both Israeli and American policy: Long-lasting peace and security achieved through diplomacy and a political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian and broader Israeli-Arab conflicts.

America’s continued support for Israel as fighting may soon resume should be grounded in two principles: (1) There must be guardrails around Israel’s conduct of the war (2) There can be no blank check for the Netanyahu government in the upcoming aid package.

We support the administration’s work with Israel to press for calculated, targeted operations, tailored to the threat Hamas presents and with a focus on special operations, anti-terror tactics and anti-tunnel operations.

The administration should make very clear that a resumption of widespread high-intensity bombing – and the resulting high civilian casualties – is unacceptable.

The greater the destruction inflicted on innocent Palestinian families, the higher the likelihood of mass forcible displacement; the harder it will be for anyone to govern post-war Gaza; the greater the risk this operation leads to retaliatory violence and terror; the deeper the fracturing of global support for Israel; and the greater the risk of regional escalation.

As Senator Chris Van Hollen has said, an absence of red lines in the conduct of this war “cannot be consistent with American interests and American values.” President Biden must make clear that the US will not provide unbounded support for a war led by Prime Minister Netanyahu if it has no limits and no exit strategy.

If Netanyahu cannot or will not adopt the restrained, strategic approach urged by the US and other key allies, this war will tragically lead only to more bloodshed, suffering and instability – without truly defeating Hamas, breaking the cycle of conflict or creating a path to a better future.

Regarding the Biden Administration’s request for supplemental assistance, the Senate is likely to consider – as early as next week – the President’s comprehensive request. This is a crucial opportunity for Congress to ensure that this next round of military aid is not a ‘blank check’ for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Security assistance must genuinely advance American interests and Israeli security – which is not to be confused with supporting the agenda of Israel’s current far-right government.

Congress and the president should ensure – as security assistance is provided – that:

• All necessary mechanisms are in place and enforced to ensure US security assistance is delivered and used in compliance with both domestic and international law.
• No aid is diverted to enable settler violence or further steps that permanently deepen the occupation of the West Bank.
• Plans for the next phase of military operations will be highly targeted and provide maximum protections for civilians from potential harm.
• The delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza will be greatly increased and expedited.
• They are insisting on an Israeli commitment to ending the occupation of Palestinian territory in a defined and reasonable time following the end of hostilities.

There is no path to resolution of this conflict if Hamas retains the operational control of Gaza that made its brutal October 7 attack possible. But the path to a better future will also be out of reach if the US sets no guardrails for the Israeli government's military campaign and provides its assistance in the form of a blank check.

Our goal at J Street is clear – safety and peace for Israelis and Palestinians in states of their own. How these next weeks proceed will determine just how possible that goal will be when the fighting is done.

I copied the statement as I received it, few points could be debated to render the entire statement more fair and balanced, but like many Jewish voices nowadays, it's sensible and factual.... It represent a fair majority of American and International people.    As always, my many thanks to all my good readers for their time. 

AN OLD STORY STILL IN THE MAKING ....

 

*The Lebanese diplomat Charles Malek predicted seventy-four years ago what we have reached today.*

*Charles Malek said this to the Lebanese in 1949*

Charles Malek talks about “the stages of the Zionist movement,” “America and the Arab world,” and “the fate of Lebanon.”

These three titles are related to Israeli strategies and their repercussions on the Lebanese and Arab realities, their complexities and dilemmas.

Malek begins his report with a descriptive presentation of the Arab situation, saying:
“The Palestinian issue was, and still is, the most dangerous Arab issue of all, and its fate is therefore the fate of the entire Arab world. The Palestinian Nakba is a clear picture of the Arab Nakba, and the weaknesses that generated Arab failure in Palestine are the same weaknesses that generated and are generating comprehensive defeats in the Arab world.”

Charles Malek says:
“Everything that has happened so far in Palestine and regarding Palestine is only the beginning. As for the conclusion, it will either be the right of the Arab world and its colonization by the Jews, or its rise again as a modern, respectable world that participates with living civilizations in creating and preserving values. Whatever the case, the future “The near future will be darker than the present and more dangerous than the past.”

*Why is the future darker and more dangerous?*

Charles Malek explains the details of this by saying:
“Entering Israel as a member of the United Nations is not an act that stops the ambitions of the Zionist Jews and ends their danger. The State of Israel, with its current status and borders, is not a stable for the invading Zionist power, but rather a gathering center for it, a soil for its growth, and a point of departure and leapfrog for its bordering and remote Arab countries, politically, economically, and socially.” The sayings of the Jews are not meaningless or of little significance:

In fifty years there will be only two countries in the world: America and Israel, and in these statements there is something that deserves to be examined and paid attention to.”

Charles Malek: *“I am certain that our future is colonization and enslavement by the Zionist Jews, and no one will be sad about our enslavement.”

*What about those dangers?*

According to Charles Malek, “The stage that ended with the emergence of Israel is a prelude to the next complementary stage, which aims to actually colonize and enslave the Arab world. At this stage, work will be done to prepare for expansion in the Arab world and deepen the seizure of its capabilities.”

*Where is the United States of America in this?*

Charles Malek answers:
“The aid and development projects issued by America must be interpreted as, for the most part, tempting appeasements for the agitated Arab sentiment, and their outward appeasement reflects sympathy for the Arab world and interest in its progress, while their inwardness links Arab urban progress to the stability of the Jewish state, and makes the former conditional on the latter.”

*What are the next Israeli strategies?*

Charles Malek answers this question by saying:
“The Zionists have succeeded, but they will not be satisfied with this partial success, because their ambitions will not end with the patch of Palestine that they seized. As for the second stage, their goal is to prove that they are the ones chosen to develop the East, and that they are the real power in it, and they are the representatives of its interests and the deciders of its will, and Palestine In its entirety, it is not sufficient for the needs of the Jews. Israel wants to control the Arab world, and wants to be the heir to all its previous eras. Just as it was once known, in whole or in part, as the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Turkish, or Mandate era, so Zionism wants to In his great era, it is known as the Israeli era. The Arab world is the vital domain of Zionism, and I say: If this remains the case in the Arab world (patching, superficialities, disintegration, ecstasy with the past, improvised policies, lack of sincere reform), then I am certain that our future is colonialism and enslavement by Before the Jews, no one will be sad about our enslavement.”

Charles Malek: “There is a danger that a hidden agreement will occur between Israel and some short-sighted Lebanese, and they will cause a pro-Israel coup, but such a coup inevitably leads to chaos, with Syrian intervention, then Israeli intervention, and thus to a new war, in which Lebanon will not be the winner.” Absolutely"

*Is there anything more dangerous?*

According to what was stated in this predictive report, there are dangers and dangers that cannot be counted or limited, and among these risks, as Charles Malek says, “a day will come, and it may be soon if not present, when nothing will be resolved or linked in the Arab world.” Except with the consent of the Zionists, and in that case, governments, systems and people are established or overthrown, based on the consent or anger of the Jews, so a head of state or head of government rises or falls, because Tel Aviv, and behind it, global Judaism centered in New York and other Western capitals, wanted his rise. Or its downfall.”

*What's next in the days?*

Charles Malek continues by saying:
“A day will come when the Jews succeed in convincing the West and some of our politicians and thinkers that they are the means of communication between the West and the Near East in economics, urbanization, culture and politics. The Arabs are committed to recognizing and cooperating with Israel, and these projects will be complex in a way that will primarily lead to consolidating the foundations of Israel and making it the cornerstone of the economic system and the pillar of urban progress in the Near East.”

How can this challenge be met?

Charles Malek links the factors in confronting the Israeli challenge, supported by the countries of the East and West, to the necessity of establishing a liberal reform movement at the general Arab level, and in this regard he asks:
“Where could this reformist liberal movement emerge in the Arab world? I very much doubt that any of the Arab countries can be the first, or be the bearer of its torch to the rest of the Arab countries. Lebanon and Syria remain before us among all the Arab countries. I am certain that this desired renaissance will not take place except in Lebanon or in Syria or... In Lebanon and Syria, is Lebanon aware of its responsibilities in this field, and is it prepared to cooperate with the new Syrian regime, without compromising any of its freedoms or independence?

Any advice for Lebanon and the Lebanese?

Charles Malek said this to the Lebanese in 1949

A very factual and up to date talk , describing in details what's being prescribed and played in the area. As always , my many thanks to all for following and reading.

BIZARRE, STRANGE AND ABNORMAL TIMES ....

 

Indeed we live in bizarre times, in times where one can criticize his own administration, his or her President and government, his or her Senators and representatives and any civil servant, his or her church leaders, Jesus Christ or any of the prophets, even God could be criticized or denied, all is permissible publicly or privately, in writing or verbally, we are all protected by law, by tradition, by freedom of speech and by respect to each other's liberty. 

All but in one case, we are not allowed to criticize the Israeli government or its almighty Netanyahu, Smotrich , or Itamar Ben Gvir, not even Kahana. Of course not the Israeli Army generals and commanders, or speakers, it seems that mentioning any of them in any form or shape of criticism is against the law, against humanity, against civilization and human progress and dignity, one is horribly suddenly transformed into an antisemitic and holocausts denier. 

It is a punishable act, even to say that they are a fascist extreme right wing group, that they are committing and perpetrating war crimes according to all international laws, the head of the U.N. was threatened to be fired and asked to resign and forced to shut up. An American Rep, member of Congress is silenced and later censured for her comments about the policies of the actual Israeli regime and government, she didn't even mention its PM and any of the other few appointed ministers, most of them indicted criminally in Israeli courts. 

Many in America and Europe, and other places including of course Israel, are being systematically punished , fired from their jobs or even jailed and silenced in various ways, just for saying their opinions, or daring to criticize the government of Israel, its members and their policies. 

The fact that they would be committing some heinous acts, apartheid, genocide, humiliating an entire people, killing thousands of children, with their mothers, fathers and grand parents, are not worth any consideration and surely no condemnation. Just don't criticize the perpetrators, look the other way and don't even think about it, or dare say a word of indignation, God if he's still there at all, gave them the right to do whatever..... Never mind that he was, historically,  the original inciter to horrific brutality and supremacy after all.

Fascism, theocratic dictatorship, various forms of authoritarianism, theft and brutality are all criticizable aspects of governance and political tactics, so are apartheid and supremacy of any kind. Thus subject to discussion, praise and criticism, let's openly admit that to link this criticism to hate and antisemitism is wrong, foolish and manipulative. 

It is a clear sign of coercion and manipulation, which is becoming a major problem in our lives, political, intellectual, economical, civilian and military. Especially as we go into our 21st century. 

As always , my profound many thanks to all.              

   

WHY DOESN'T THE WORLD CARE ABOUT KILLING PALESTINIANS ???

 

 

World leaders are witnessing Israel's killing of Palestinians in #Gaza with blatant indifference and brazenness. Despite the bleak scene being disturbed by protest demonstrations against Israel from here and pro-Palestine positions from there - even if they are increasing in number and intensity over time in many countries - this does not change the scene of international and regional neglect and inaction that surrounds the globe, in the face of Israel’s killing of an entire people. And accompanied by terrible sadism, the Palestinians are held responsible for what is happening.

The Palestinians feel that the world has abandoned them, and that they are abandoned and defeated. Most of them appeal to God, on social media pages, to grant them victory and avenge them. Yes, it is the deep feeling tinged with regret and resentment this time, that “there is no power nor strength except in God.” One of their poets said it with a suffocating sigh: “It is no longer important today that anyone loves us. It is enough for the great angel to love us in his bright sky.”

Why don't world leaders care about killing Palestinians? In light of the horror of what is happening, the question cannot be posed in a less clear and harsh way.

Before I try to answer the question, limiting myself to thinking about the relationship of these leaders with Israel and the interconnection of their countries’ interests with its interests, let us get to know more about these people, at the top of the ladder of global political power.

They are the descendants of the capitalist system, both Western and Eastern. Private property capitalism in democratic systems, and state capitalism in systems called communism or socialism, and both place profit above every other human consideration, and replace human values ​​and feelings in a way that serves the hegemony of the profit doctrine.

They are the children of the industrial revolution, which has destroyed the global climate and public health, and now threatens the existence of man on this earth.

They are the fathers of artificial intelligence and the promoters of the techniques of human reproduction from the skin, without a love relationship between the woman and the man, which will cause a radical transformation in the composition of the human being and its characteristics, in favor of the machine and its operating rules.

These same people, or their fathers or grandfathers, began to define terrorism according to its historical origins, immediately after the French Revolution, as a practice carried out by the emerging state itself, to intimidate and restrain its citizens at home and its enemies abroad, in order to preserve the state’s security and order. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, other definitions began to appear, describing organizations and groups as terrorist because they confront the state and use violence against civilians for political, ideological, or religious purposes. We have moved from the concept of state terrorism to the concept of group terrorism against the state.

In a parallel line, instead of considering war a terrorist practice that uses violence against civilians before others, the wars fought by colonial-capitalist countries were legitimized in international law, and the latter invented the term “war crime,” as if war was not a crime in itself.

In light of this moral decline in the course of terminology related to violence, in line with the development of the interests of colonial and capitalist countries, it is not surprising that the Hamas operation was classified as “terrorist” because it killed civilians, while the war that Israel declared on Gaza is seen as a self-defense operation. Although it kills thousands of civilians, it is under the name of separate “war crimes.”

What is astonishingly surprising is this complete separation of what is happening, in the speech of world leaders, from the reality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The colonial-capitalist countries do not want to recognize the occupation as a founding factor in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and as a continuing actor in continuing and fueling this conflict.

Colonial-capitalist countries derived and continue to derive their influence from the occupation or exploitation of the world's resources. The territorial occupation of other countries is the founding crime of their influence, it is their “original sin.” Also, facilitating, covering up and establishing Israel’s occupation of Palestine is its secondary crime, which it does not want to acknowledge.

In terrorism, there is killing, destruction, intimidation, terror, and restraining individual and collective will, and creating a permanent feeling of insecurity. Is there a situation that generates all these effects, more than the occupation? Terrorism is the mechanism of occupation and the condition for its continuation. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is, in itself, an act of terrorism. The reactions of the Palestinian people, from Hamas, Fatah and other non-violent groups, are nothing but diverse forms of confronting this terrorism and the reason for its existence, i.e. the occupation. This is what the colonial-capitalist countries do not want to acknowledge, to serve their interests and the interrelated interests of Israel on the one hand, and because such recognition constitutes a radical moral condemnation of them. Apparently, killing the Palestinians, by turning them all into terrorists, is less costly to them, economically and morally, than recognizing the occupation. Cost is the opposite of profit, in the capitalist understanding.

During the events of the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Lebanon, between the Palestinian factions, I wrote under the title “Palestinian”: “Kill him. He is a Palestinian. The Palestinian said to the Palestinian. Is there anyone in this world who would care about killing a Palestinian?” The Hamas operation not only opened our eyes widely to the cruelty of the world towards the Palestinian people, but also to the recklessness of some Palestinian resistance factions, both religious and foreign-affiliated in particular, with the lives of the Palestinian people, by undertaking actions, the consequences of which include opening the doors to the Israeli monster, to annihilate the people. Palestinian.

When a Palestinian kills a Palestinian, or adopts strategies that do not care about the lives of Palestinians and their development, do not be surprised then, if the colonialist-capitalist acts as if the life of the Palestinian person has no value. His conscience will not be shaken unless the Palestinian, through his practices, his humanitarian belief, and his liberation project, raises the value of the Palestinian person. Only non-violent, non-religious civil resistance is capable of carrying out this noble mission. It is no longer convincing, after everything that is happening today, to repeat that “Israel only understands by force,” unless what is meant is that its preferred language is violence, which is its sure way to annihilate the Palestinian people and completely eliminate their just cause.

This article was initially published in Annahar,A leading Lebanese newspaper and signed by GH. Salibi the translation is mine through Google. , 

                                    

 .As always, my many thanks to all.

                                                    thanks to all  

Biden Returns From Israel Empty-Handed........ BY RALPH NADER

 

If President Joe Biden were a pony, instead of a perennial warhorse (e.g., gung-ho for Bush/Cheney’s criminal destruction of Iraq), he would have his tail between his legs on his return from a one-day trip to Israel. He failed to achieve any immediate, critical objectives while the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the defenseless Palestinians continues.

Did Biden get Israel and Egypt to allow the exit of hundreds of American citizens fleeing the Gazan firestorm? No!

Did Biden open up corridors for humanitarian aid to the babies, children, women, elderly and other civilians in Gaza who had nothing to do with the October 7th Hamas homicide/suicide attack on Israelis? No!

To the contrary, earlier in the week he cruelly ordered his UN Ambassador to veto a widely supported resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Did he forcefully double down on his earlier counsel to the Israeli government to obey the laws of war, then and now, being openly violated? No! He continued his silence after the Israeli Defense Minister ordered his soldiers with the genocidal command, “No electricity, no food, no fuel, no water…” That death sentence includes patients in hospitals who must endure the carpet bombing of this long-time blockaded tiny strip of desert land holding 2.3 million people. (See, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide).

Did Biden press for the exchange of Hamas’ hostages for the release of Palestinian prisoners, including young Palestinians, who have been in Israeli jails for years without due process or charges? No! Worse, Biden failed to object to the Israeli military stating that the release of over 200 Israeli hostages is a “secondary priority” to smashing Hamas and Gaza “into the Stone Age.” This policy flouts the moral codes of many venerable Judaic sages described in an October 19, 2023, New York Times column by Mikahel Manekin titled “The Safety of the Hostages Must Come First.” Israel conducted two prisoners for hostages’ exchanges, one in 2004 and one in 2011.

Did Biden, in strong terms, tell the Israeli politicians that they have already exacted revenge many times over on the stateless people of Gaza – in civilian lives lost, injuries, related spread of disease, destitution and destruction? Did he say it is inhumane and counterproductive to bomb hospitals, clinics, schools, mosques, churches, apartment buildings, water mains, electric networks and ambulances, all of which is in violation of civilized norms and rules of war? Of course not. He greenlighted Israel’s genocidal warfare from the beginning of the Israeli assault and sent U.S. weaponry. He is enabling other actions of “co-belligerency” against the defenseless Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Did he even get the 20 trucks of humanitarian aid waiting at the Rafah crossing – also bombed by the Israelis – from Egypt into Gaza before he left? No!

Biden did come back with a bill for the American taxpayers – who for decades have been forced to pay for these Israeli wars. Now Biden wants Congress to approve $14 billion for Israel to address the colossal failure of Netanyahu’s extremist coalition to protect its own citizens on the border. (Adding only $100 million for Palestinian relief).

That sum of money, to be authorized without any Congressional hearings or Congressional oversight, is greater than the combined annual budgets of the FDA, OSHA, NHTSA and the section of HHS, whose missions are to reduce the loss of hundreds of thousands of preventable American fatalities in the workplace, on the highways, and in the marketplace and the hospitals. (See, the 2016 peer-reviewed study from the John Hopkins University of Medicine).

Lastly, still not calling a ceasefire, Biden is disregarding his own military’s private advice against an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza as raising the risk of a larger war in the Middle East that would clearly be against the national interests of the American people and U.S. security.

He could have done what President Eisenhower did in 1956, when he demanded that the Israeli, British and French attack on Egypt stop immediately.

And stop, they did!

After all, the U.S. has some influence over Israel, to put it mildly. The U.S. endorses all Israeli aggressions (including Israel’s admission to bombing hundreds of sites in Syria, mired in its civil war and no threat, in addition to striking Damascus International Airport). All with U.S. advanced weapons, and billions of dollars in annual aid to Israel, a prosperous military, technological and economic superpower. In fact, Israel’s social safety net is better than that of the U.S.!

Biden provides total diplomatic cover in the U.S. with Washington’s automatic UN vetoes, and pressures allies to follow the party line.

Moreover, Biden seems unwilling to recognize the historical origins of this conflict that now has mighty Israel occupying, colonizing, brutalizing and stealing land and water from the twenty-two percent of the original Palestine left for millions of Palestinians under Israeli daily control.

Biden should take a moment in the Oval Office to read page 121 of the book “The Jewish Paradox” by Nahum Goldman (January 1, 1978), the head of the World Zionist Organization. He quotes the leading Founder of the Israeli state, David Ben-Gurion as candidly saying to him: “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

Today’s Israeli leaders refuse to demonstrate this degree of empathy. Instead, they provoke and deny the creation of a Palestinian state, envisioned by the Oslo Accords they signed in 1993, hurl the most racist epithets (“animals,” “vermin,” “snakes,”), and make sure the politicians in the U.S. Congress never utter the words “Palestinians also have a right to defend themselves” as violently subjugated victims of Israel the superpower.

Many members of Congress who demand giving Israel whatever money and weaponry it wants for whatever it does, violating human rights under international law in its illegal occupations and blockade, turn around and vote against the child tax credit, worker health and safety, universal healthcare, paid family leave and daycare for Americans. Their viciousness – as with the homicidal outburst of Gen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) against all Palestinians, and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) a Harvard Law graduate, saying “As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza…” set new levels of depravity.

A few Senators see it differently, especially Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) who noted “…it is no secret that Gaza has been an open-air prison” with “horrendous living conditions,” and that “children and innocent people do not deserve to be punished for the acts of Hamas.”

Little known is that Israel and the U.S. fostered and funded the rise of Hamas as a religious counterpoint to the secular Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). It was established in 1987 following the first intifada uprising. A 2009 The Wall Street Journal article titled: “How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas” noted:

“Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction…”

To Biden and the Congressional “howlers” for the death of civilian innocents, historical facts matter little. Hamas’ lethal attack on October 7th was preceded by far greater numbers of Israeli violent attacks over the past decades taking four hundred times the number of innocent Palestinian lives, injuries and other casualties than inflicted on innocent Israelis.

Israel’s carpet bombing of Gaza will take twenty times or more lives of innocent Palestinians than those killed by Hamas on October 7th with the casualty toll of direct fatalities and the loss of life from the devastation of life-sustaining water, food, medicine, shelter and other hospital/clinic emergency infrastructure.

Also conveniently forgotten is the detailed peace offer to Israel in 2002, by 22 member states of the Arab League to establish diplomatic and trade relations with a recognized Israel in return for its retreating to the 1967 borders and creation of a Palestinian two-state solution. The Israel extremists in Congress and President G.W. Bush declined even to respond to this proposal. (See, the March 29, 2002 New York Times article: Mideast Turmoil; Text of the Peace Proposals Backed by the Arab League).

It is incumbent on the supreme military superpower in the region to take the initiative for peace over the powerless victims under its thralldom. That country is, of course, high-tech Israel, bristling with the latest weapons and nuclear atomic bombs.

Both the brave Israeli human rights groups and those courageous human rights Israelis standing shoulder to shoulder over the years striving to conduct non-violent civil disobedience at the besieged Palestinian village level, only to be dispersed by Israeli soldiers, know the real obstacle to peace. It is the plan by the right-wing Israeli parties to annex the entire Palestinian West Bank (nearly attempted under Donald Trump) and forcefully drive Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt.

Joe Biden is skilled at shedding tears at memorials of grief in this country. But he runs dry when the recurring catastrophes befalling Palestinians beg for his presidential compassion and actual deeds.

He will not escape history’s judgment.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! 

My usual many thanks to all....