TRUMAN TO TRUMP

From Truman to Trump, we have never had an American president to speak with integrity when calling for peace in the Middle East.

What was it?  Eleven minutes? And Truman was falling all over himself to be the first national president to “recognize” the new state of Israel.  Never mind the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had their homes, freedom and livelihood taken from them by force. Truman celebrated “peace” in Israel.

Even a child will shout, “It’s not fair,” when forced to accept tranquility without regard to justice. When Donald Trump casually announced Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, totally ignoring the historic, emotional and religious claims of Jerusalem as their national capital, even children will respond, “It’s not fair.”

Not only that. It is not going to work. In spite of what Trump and Netanyahu wish, Palestinians are not going to just disappear. Even with the more than three billion dollars a year the U.S. sends to Israel to enforce the repression of Palestinian rights, international law and human conscience is caught in a bind facing the unlawful occupation and oppression of another people.

Let us be honest, at least with ourselves. The United States has never been an “honest broker” when it comes to Israel. From Truman to Trump, we have acted more like Israel’s defense attorney while ignoring the endless building of more and more settlement in the West Bank and Israel’s repeated bombardment of Gaza, including the destruction of sewage treatment plants, rendering what little water they have undrinkable.

In the meantime, Israeli snipers are firing live ammunition into crowds of unarmed demonstrators at the border, having already killed hundreds and wounded thousands.

What sickens me the most is that from Truman to Trump, every American president has chosen to ignore this blatant injustice and the American news media has chosen to look the other way.

Thomas Are

November 27, 2018

Living on Killing

That’s not just some kind of game board slogan, it’s the daily policy and practice of the state of Israel.

Trump keeps suggesting that he wants peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but offers no plan that has a chance of working, precisely because Israel has no interest in peace. What Israel wants is Palestinian land for its settlements… and water. Why settle for peace when Palestinians can be controlled by targeted assassination, home demolitions, road blocks, check points, settler violence and the blockade of Gaza.

All Israel has to do, according to Amon Sofer of Haifer University, is to treat Palestinians like animals.

Seal the territory off from the outside world and shoot anyone who tries to break out. When 2.5 million people live in a closed off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill, all day, every day.[1]

Surely one would hope that was just the rantings of one fanatic and not to be taken seriously.

On Monday, May 14, in Gaza, Israeli snipers shot and killed 60 Palestinians, including 6 children – and injured almost 3,000 others amid scenes of smoke, fire, teargas, dust, agony and blood.

These are the children and grandchildren of those who were driven from their homes during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 to make room for the new State of Israel.  Their only crime was not being Jews.[2]

No matter how you look at it, with the blind backing of the U.S., Israel wins. With one very important exception. Israel is losing the support of young American Jews

Jared Kushner does not represent the majority of young American Jews. The New York Jewish Week reported a survey of 4000 Modern Orthodox Jews:

One of the study’s most concerning findings, experts say, is a decrease in emotional connection and active support of Israel…while 71 percent of those 55 and older actively support the Jewish state, less than half – 43 percent – of Jews 18 to 34 do the same.[3]

Robert Herbst, civil rights lawyer and political activist, affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace said,

Today, I am ashamed to be Israeli. – young Jewish snipers deliberately shooting down unarmed Gazans gathered in protest at the border fence that helps keep them confined in the largest open-air prison in the world, killing 18 and wounding more than 1,000 is an unspeakable, unlawful outrage.[4]        

Since Herbsy wrote those words on April 4, 2018, the number of casualties has greatly risen. To date, Israel snipers have killed 214 and wounded over 18,000.[5]

Thomas Are

November 15, 2018

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[1]. Kill and kill and Kill, By Saree Makdisi, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June/July,2018. P. 8.

[2] Kill and kill and Kill, By Saree Makdisi, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June/July,2018. P. 8.

[3] Support for Israel is tumbling – even among young Orthodox Jews, Mondoweiss.net, 10/1/ 2017.

[4] Robert Herbst, Jewish state, Jewish values, Jewish Shame,  Mondoweiss. April 4, 2018

[5] Google: Gaza protest: All the Latest Updates, Palestinian News/ Al Jezeera.