Some Things to Think About

Benjamin Netanyahu seems panic-stricken over Iran. 

Sunday’s newspapers report:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved quickly to block even tentative steps by Iran and the United States to ease tensions and move toward  negotiations to end the nuclear crisis, signaling what is likely to be a sustained campaign by Israel to head off any deal…”The test is not in what Rouhani says, but in the deeds of the Iranian regime.”[1]

Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former Netanyahu aide, adds “Israel is clearly focused on Iranian action.” 

How in heavens name can he make such a statement and keep a straight face?  Without question, Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons.  However, it seems that our political position is that if Israel drops bombs on unarmed civilians, explodes chemical weapons on children and stockpiles an arsenal of nuclear weapons, it is a legitimate act of security. If Iran even thinks of doing such things, it’s a crime that must be punished.

While Iran has invaded no one, or even threatened to invade anyone, Israel has attacked Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.  Israel has pulled off numerous “assassinations” of Iran’s leading scientists, while drawing red lines on maps to threaten the use of WMDs.  So, who is the neighborhood bully?

Netanyahu cries “security,” but it may not be for the reasons he wants us to believe. It could be that security is the last thing he wants.  Why? For at least two reasons:

First – The belief that Israel is being threatened keeps Israel’s economy thriving. When my friend Chris Weaver said that 40% of Israel’s economy depends upon military and security operations, he was challenged. Ilise Cohen, scholar and activist member of Jewish Voice for Peace, said that his figure was actually too conservative.  Regardless, without an enemy out there to fear, Israel’s economy would collapse, even with huge parts of it financed by the U.S. taxpayer.

Second – Keeping Iran on the hot plate, which does nothing for the US and our relations with the rest of the world, serves another important strategy of Netanyahu. It keeps our focus off of his continued building of Jewish only settlements in Palestine, the construction of his apartheid wall, the theft of Palestinian water, the humiliation of check points and road blocks, and the destruction of olive trees, none of which has anything to do with security.

In the midst of Netanyahu’s cry of, “they are out to get us” several questions about Iran’s nuclear program begin to surface.   

In spite of all the sympathy Netanyahu gets from quoting Ahmadinejad as saying Iran wants to “wipe Israel off the map,” The Washington Post, The New York Times and other news organizations including AntiWar.com, contradict his translation of Ahmadinejad’s speech in October, 2005. What Ahmadinejad actually said in Farsi was, “this regime occupying Jerusalem must disappear from the page of time.”[2]  He proclaimed a moral condemnation,  not a physical threat.  He anticipated the fall of Israel’s apartheid political structure, not the annihilation of the Jewish people.

Why should anyone give Iran the benefit of the doubt?  Because in 1982, when Iraq attacked Iran which began an eight year war, Iraq dropped poison gas on the cities of Iran. Yet, in spite of the fact that more than 10,000 Iranians were killed by the use of mustard and nerve gas, from which 90,000 still suffer to this day, and in spite of the fact the Iran had the capacity to produce such weapons, Iran refused to retaliate in like manner.  Their ultra conservative interpretation of the Koran which still governs the Islamic Republic of Iran views Weapons of Mass Destruction as a violation of Islamic morality.  For what its worth, there has never been an Iranian suicide bomber.  If Iran’s religion prohibits the use of chemical weapons because it is immoral to kill innocent people, surely, and here is the point, Iran’s fundamental commitment to Islam would not allow the use of a nuclear bomb. To do so is “forbidden by God.”

Are not all the reasons we are given as to why we must invade Iran; WMDs, violations of human rights and sponsoring terrorism not the same reason we heard ten years ago as reasons why we must invade Iraq?  Israel has been declaring for the last 20 years that Iran is only a year or two from acquiring nuclear weapons and that it is an unbelievably horrible place to live.

Then why, in spite of diaspora groups offering $30,000 per family on top of Israel’s governmental incentives, Iran’s Jewish community, the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, refuse to leave Iran to emigrate to Israel?

Today, Jews in the Islamic Republic vote like other Iranians for president and for deputies to represent their cities and towns in parliament. But the Jewish community is also constitutionally guaranteed a seat of it own in the Majles, (Parliament), even though it is much smaller than a normal parliamentary district. There are at least two dozen functioning synagogues (some with Hebrew schools), 21 kosher restaurants, and a Jewish newspaper in Tehran, there is a 20,000 volume Jewish library, a Jewish hospital and Jews serve in the Iranian army.[3]

The question is, why don’t we try doing things to remove from Iran the motives for wanting war, such as:  lifting sanctions, curtailing Israel’s assassination of Iran’s young scientists and why don’t we muzzle Netanyahu?

Of course, our economy, especially for the wealthiest of the wealthy,  also depends upon having enemies out there. But have we not created enough enemies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya, Egypt and Palestine to satisfy the hunger of our own military industrial complex?  Do we really want a war with Iran too?

Just something to think about.

                                                                                    Thomas L Are

                                                                                    October 11, 2013

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[1] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 21, 2013. p. A-3

[2] See Going to Tehran, By Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett,   (Metropolittan Books, 2013.) p.19. Washington Post, October 5, 2011;  The New York Times, June 11, 2006;Antiwar.com, May 26, 2007

[3] Going to Tehran, By Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett,   (Metropolittan Books, 2013.) p 93..

Cover Up for Israel

During dinner with a friend, I happened to mention that it was the 46^th. anniversary of the assault on the Liberty. My guest, a college professor, responded that she did not know about the Liberty. Even though her field of study was science, not history, I was surprised. I should not have been. She represents a large segment of  America’s educated community and she did not know anything about the USS Liberty.  Of course, it is not her fault.  The news of the Liberty was covered up.  How could she know?  I sat there comparing the assault on the Liberty with the assault on Benghazi.

I don’t know what happened in Benghazi. Don’t guess we will ever know. Congress is screaming to find out.  “We must investigate,” they say. “We’ll leave no stone unturned.  It’s our duty to know. Our credibility is at stake.”

We may never know what happened last September in Benghazi, which caused the death of three brave Americans. However, I do know what happened on June 8, 1967. Israel deliberately attacked an unarmed American ship in international waters, killed 34 brave American sailors, wounded 171 others, and Congress has, to this day, refused to  investigate what or why it happened.

What happened is abundantly clear. Israel’s warplanes, on a sunny afternoon, after circling numerous times, bombed and machine gunned the U.S.S. Liberty. With the Stars and Stripes flying and the ship’s identification numbers clearly visible, Israeli jets struck the antenna to hinder any SOS call for help. Torpedo boats blasted the Liberty while Israeli aircraft strafed our men aboard and dropped napalm on the decks.  Israel fired on the crew as they tried to rescue their fellow sailors and shot up life rafts in the water to prevent there being any survivors.  Yet, none of this merited a Congressional investigation.

Professor James Petras writes:

In an unprecedented act of betrayal, President Johnson, in close liaison with powerful American Jewish Zionist political backers, covered up the mass murder on the high seas by issuing orders, first to recall Mediterranean-based warplanes from rushing to assist their besieged comrades, then threatening to court-martial the survivors who might expose the deliberate nature of the Israeli assault and finally by repeating the Israeli line that the attack was a matter of mistaken identity, a lie which numerous military leaders rejected.[i]

Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chair of the Joint Chief of Staff, described the official conclusion of the Naval Court of Inquiry as a whitewash and “one of the classic all-American cover-up”.   

The clampdown was not actually for security reasons but for domestic political reasons. I don’t think there is any question about it. What other reason could there have been?  President Johnson was worried about the reaction of Jewish voters… I will never buy the idea that the pilots did not know this was an American ship. The attack was deliberate.[ii]   

Secretary of State Dean Rusk agreed,

I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. Their sustained attack to disable and sink Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander. Through diplomatic channels we refused to accept their explanations. I didn't believe them then, and I don't believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous.[iii]

In 2002, Captain Ward Boston, JAGC, U.S. Navy, senior counsel for the Court of Inquiry, said that the Court's findings were intended to cover up what was a deliberate attack by Israel on a ship it knew to be American.

 

Israel claimed it was an accident. Yet, I know from personal conversation with the late Admiral Isaac C. Kidd ---president of the Court of Inquiry --- that President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of “mistaken identity.” [iv]

Jamal Kanz, Middle East scholar and author, wrote just last week:

The cover-up was finally exposed by an Israeli pilot who was interviewed 15 years later by former Congressman Paul McCloskey about the attack. The senior pilot revealed that he informed headquarters the target appeared to be a US ship, but was told to ignore the American flag and proceed with the attack.[v]

One Liberty survivor, David Lewis summed it up:

If it was an accident, it was the best planned accident I’ve ever heard of.[vi]

Even if it were a mistake, which no one believes anymore, deliberately shooting up life rafts in the water of a ship in distress is a war crime. If it’s not, it should be. Was Johnson afraid of Israel?  Hardly.  He was afraid of the ire of the American Jewish voting community and its lobby. And that’s not the worst of it. Every president thereafter has yielded to an unwritten job description: He must above all else, cover up for Israel.

George Ball, former undersecretary of state wrote, “If America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything.[vii]   He was right. And that is the worst of it.  

Thomas Are
June 25, 2013

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[i] James Petras, War Crimes in Gaza and the Zionist Fifth Column in America, (Clarity Press, 2010) p.127

[ii] Paul Findley,  They Dare to Speak Out. (Lawrence Hill, New York., 1989) p. 179

[iii] Dean Rusk, As I Saw It, (WW Norton, 1990) p. 388.

[iv] Counterpunch.org, June 9, 2007.

[v] Jamal Kanz,  The USAs Irrational Relationship with Israel,  Intifada-Palestine Newsletter, June 6, 2013

[vi] BBC Documentary on the USS Liberty: Dead in the Water.

[vii] James Scott, The Attack on the Liberty,  Simon and Schuster, 2009.) p.287.

 

 

Does He Not Like Jews

My grandson pulled into the driveway.  His friend saw my bumper sticker;

                         FREE PALESTINE, END THE OCCUPATION,

and said, “What’s with your grandpa, does he not like Jews?”

It’s amazing that a desire to see an end to Palestinian suffering so immediately turns into Jew hating or anti-Semitism. Yet, all across America, the prevailing attitude is that Israel is so frail that the least question concerning Zionist conduct will destroy not only the nation of Israel, but Jews everywhere --- when in reality, the exact opposite is probably true.  Many, including myself, believe that if Israel does not listen to international criticism it may well destroy itself.

However, to address the question at hand,  The answer is: I do not like some Jews in spite of some very notable exceptions.  The exceptions are those Jewish leaders who sacrifice their relationship with their family, community and synagogue to call for an end to the occupation. Some get squeezed out of their jobs and have their professional life sabotaged because they defend the moral standards of their faith. I know and respect many Jews. They are “beautiful people.” 

On the other hand, some Jews, in spite of being intelligent, religious and fair minded in every other area of life seem to go totally blind when it comes to the atrocities of the State of Israel.  When they close their eyes to the illegal and unjust expansion of Israel into Palestinian lands, when they stand by, knowing that Israel is destroying homes, abusing children, bombing innocent people by the thousands, stealing water and uprooting Palestinian livelihood and when they generally defend Israel’s doing all it can to make life for Palestinians unbearable, then yes, you could say I do not like them.

I also do not like news reporters who act more like Israel’s defense attorneys than responsible journalist willing to share with the American audience what is going on in Palestine.  They speak endlessly about Israel’s “security” without ever mentioning the right of Palestinian security.  They use the word “terrorism” as if it is an exclusive product of Arabs in the Middle East without ever hinting that Israel and America might also be guilty of terrorism.  While dominating the news with Israeli rights, the term “occupation” is seldom mentioned or made visible. Yes, I do not like those who distort the truth about Netanyahu’s extremism, politicians of both parties who stand against Palestinian human rights or the Israeli lobby.

And I dislike even more the Christian Right, those super Christians who believe Palestinians have no rights because GOD wants it this way, saying “divine rights trump human rights”.  How ridiculous to think the god Jews call Yahweh chose them to be preferred above all others and gave the land of Palestine to the Jews as a sovereign, eternal and indisputable gift. Any questioning of the right of Israel to murder, displace, steal and torment the Palestinians is declared to be denying the authority of the Bible, and  a threat to world peace.  They say, “God wants it this way.”  This “theology” is not only declared by the likes of John Hagee and Pat Robertson, but believed by my neighbors who go to church every week to sing praises to the God of Israel.  Besides that, they declare that Jesus cannot come again except to the throne in Jerusalem and won’t come again until all that land is militarily controlled by Israel.  I want to ask, “How do they know?”  They will answer, “The Jewish Bible told me so.”

Nor do I like ignorant Americans who are proud of their ignorance.  A neighbor, also looking at my bumper sticker, said to me,  “I am not with you on this issue, big Tom.”  I invited him to lunch. We talked for an hour. I gave him a copy of Steadfast Hope, a short booklet with video concerning the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict published by the Presbyterian Church.  When we parted, he handed it back to me saying, “You might as well keep this. I am not going to read it.”  I drove home thinking, how can he be so certain of his position on such an important issue if he is unwilling to even hear the rest of the story?  I also thought that he is not alone. Many many Americans are ignorant when it comes to what is being done in their name and it is not their fault. They seldom hear anything but Israeli propaganda in the news, from their politicians or even from their pulpits. How else could they form another opinion, unless they are willing to read. 

I don’t even like myself for not standing up more to “Free Palestine and End the Occupation” for fear that it might cost me friendships or bring criticism from my neighbors. I want to be liked, so I, too often, hold my tongue, which allows others to assume that I agree with them when they make asinine statements like, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” or “It’s our duty to support the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Do I not like Jews?  I hate the betrayal of the moral ethics I have learned from the teachings of Jesus and the Jewish Prophets. I dislike myself for allowing propaganda to thrive unchallenged all around me.  Yes son, there is a lot to dislike. And as long as the truth is distorted and people are treated with cruelty, I invite you to join me in the things I do not like.

                                                                                                Thomas Are

                                                                                                May 27, 2013

Obama in Israel

Someone, in fact several people, asked for my take on Obama’s visit and speech in Israel.  I am terribly flattered as though what I thought might make any difference.

Some have contacted me expressing disappointment and even anger that Obama was not stronger in condemning Israel for its brutal treatment of the Palestinians.   I have read that some Palestinians were feeling betrayed by the American president.   I understand their anger. However, but for what it’s worth:

I read (not heard) Obama’s speech to the students in Jerusalem and I am not that upset by it. Like those who are angry, it galls me that he referred to “the courage of the Israeli Defense Force,” without any reference to its brutal bombardment of its unarmed neighbors such as Lebanon in ’82,  and Gaza in ‘08-09 and again in 2012, killing hundreds of civilians.  Knowing that history, how can he say, “In Israel we see values that we share.”  He brought up rockets in Sderot, without a hint of the multiple murders of women and children in Gaza that triggered those rockets, as “Israel’s right to defend itself.” He called Menachem Begin, one of the world’s worst terrorist, “a brave leader” of Israel. He must have forgotten Begin’s Irgun days when he blew up the King David Hotel, executed British soldiers and massacred at least a hundred unarmed citizens in Deir Yassin.  Nor in any way did Obama hold Begin accountable for the thousands, mostly women and children, killed during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Our president referred to a two state solution without any reference to the almost 600,000 settlers who continue to steal land and water from Palestinian families. He ignored the construction of the apartheid wall as well as praised Israel’s military disengagement from Gaza as if it had been a disengagement. It’s not “disengagement” when you continue to control the imports of food, medicine and fuel, and shoot fishermen seeking to survive in their own waters.

I agree that Obama ignored Israel’s abysmal behavior and record of human rights violations.

At the same time, the word “Palestine” has seldom passed the lips of any U.S. president, politician, preacher  or broadcaster for the past 64 years. Obama obviously knew, since his Cairo speech, that anything he said on this issue would be repeated over and over.  Yet, he still put the Palestinians on the table. 

 

But the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and justice must also be recognized. Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their home. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.

Then, maybe in the best part of his speech, he paints Arabs, especially Palestinians, as “no different” than the kids to whom he was speaking:

Four years ago, I stood in Cairo in front of an audience of young people. Politically, religiously, they must seem a world away. But the things they want – they’re not so different from you. The ability to make their own decisions; to get an education and a good job; to worship God in their own way; to get married and have a family. The same is true of the young Palestinians that I met in Ramallah this morning, and of young Palestinians who yearn for a better life in Gaza.

He used the term, “occupation,” and spoke of “justice for Palestinians.” Will his saying these things make any difference? Probably not to the governments of the U.S. or Israel.  But maybe, just maybe, his recognition of a Palestinian people who  have hopes and dreams just like those to whom he was speaking may touch the conscience of those young people.   I don’t think he was talking to Netanyahu or the U.S. Congress. He was talking to the future Israel which will be one state made up of Israelis and Palestinians.  Those kids will have to decide whether it will be an apartheid state of violent oppressors or a democratic nation for all its citizens.

He challenged those 2000 students in Israel, and he did so, in spite of the attacks he will receive from the big four: Netanyahu, the Republicans, the Christian fundamentalists and the lobby, none of which express any caring for the Palestinians. The reality of the Israeli/Palestinian situation has been deliberately hidden from the American people. At least, Obama put it on the table.

Now, it’s up to the rest of us, ordinary people like you and me, to keep it there.

Thomas Are

March 30, 2013

Just Another Leak in the Dam

JUST ANOTHER LEAK IN THE DAM

Wow! There is a leak in the dam and the alarm bell is ringing.  Something is happening.

FIRST – In spite of the all out effort of the United Sates to block the Palestinians from being recognized as an observer state, the United Nations, with the support of 138 nations, voted for it. Among other things, this means Israel may soon face the International Criminal Court which has already declared Israel’s settlements a violation of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva convention which:

Prohibits the transfer of civilian populations to occupied territory.  It says the settlements are “leading to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable state and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self determination.

Unity Dow, one of the UNHRC judges said:

The magnitude of violations relating to Israel’s policies of dispossession, evictions, demolitions and displacements from land shows the widespread nature of these breaches of human rights … The motivation behind violence and intimidation against the Palestinians and their property is to drive the local populations away from their lands, allowing the settlements to expand.[1]

Of course, the US attitude and Israel’s response is that such statements are “biased” and “counterproductive.”  If you agree with those who believe that Israel has unquestionable rights to steal Palestinian land and oppress millions of people and that Palestinians have no right to resist, then you will remain silent. However, you must be aware that most of the world considers America’s attempts to shield Israel’s actions criminal. When it comes to Palestine, most world leaders say that we are not just supporting the wrong side, we are the wrong side.

The alarm bells are ringing. Israel did not have its way before the United Nations. That is not all.

THEN - Chuck Hagel was confirmed.  The very idea that anyone not “lobby certified” could actually become a member of Presidents Obama’s cabinet rings alarm bells in Israel’s Zionist halls. Never mind that Hagel earned two purple hearts, and a medal for valor fighting for the US in Viet Nam, he failed to pass the muster with Israel-firsters in congress.  He is perfectly qualified to defend America, but he failed to commit to Israel’s issues, including no reduction of money for Israel’s military even as our own military budget is being cut, or to declare war with Iran if Israel feels threatened.  According to Philip Weiss, “It was alright for Hagel to criticize the U.S., but not alright to criticize Israel.”[2]  When Hagel suggested that the Jewish lobby intimidates people on capital hill and gets Congress to do “dumb stuff,” he was attacked by Lindsey Graham, “Name one dumb thing Congress did because of pressure.”  Hagel folded in hopes of gaining confirmation.  But, I can name some dumb things: supporting settlements, building an apartheid wall in the West Bank, and cutting off electricity, fuel and water to the people of Gaza, assassinating leaders who reach out for peace and killing hundreds of innocent women and children. I don’t know what Graham calls those kinds of actions but I call it “dumb stuff.”   And the hearing itself was evidence of intimidation by the Jewish lobby.  Yet in spite of Israel jerking the chain of so many people in Congress, Hagel was confirmed even after having declared, “I am a United States Senator. My oath is to the Constitution of the United States, not to Israel.” One more leak in Israel’s propaganda dam. 

THIRD - For years, Israel has dominated the film industry in showing movies telling of Israeli courage and the miracle of 1948 just the way Israel wants the American public to believe it happened. Classic among these is the movie, Exodus based on Leon Uris’ book by that same name.  It is still on the market.  Anyone can go into a leading bookstore and ask for it.  “Of course, we have it.” The clerk will say, "The fiction department is right over here.”

Then, two of the five documentaries nominated for the 2012 Oscar Awards focused on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

The nonfiction film, 5 Broken Cameras shows Israel’s failed effort to squelch the spirits of those demonstrating against having their lands taken in the name of Israeli security.  The title “5 Broken Cameras” comes from the fact that five cameras were destroyed by Israeli bullets and the film’s producer, Emad Burnat, was wounded by soldiers while trying to film what was going on. Why such a violent reaction?  It could be that Israel is ashamed and fears for anyone on the outside to know?  “Burnat photographed settlers burning and uprooting ancient olive trees, and Israeli troops injuring protesters with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets.[3]

Mr. Burnat and his wife were hours late for the banquet given in his  honor. They had been arrested at the Los Angeles Airport because he could not prove that he had an invitation to the Oscar presentations. Only after Michael Moore learned of his arrest and intervened was Burnat released.     

Then, “We are making the lives of millions unbearable, into prolonged human suffering, and it’s killing me.” And, “We’ve become a brutal occupation force similar to the Germans in World War II.”  These are not the words of a group of Israeli peace activist or left wingers in Israel. These are quotes form two of the most respected leaders in Israel, former heads of Shim Bet, (Israel’s version of the F.B.I.)

Yesterday, I saw The Gatekeepers, the second documentary nominated for an Oscar by the Academy Awards. In this film, six former heads of Shin Bet express their opinions on such things as Israeli and Palestinian terrorism, torture, the morality of targeted assassinations with uncontrolled “collateral damage” which means the killing of innocent by-standers.  I was amazed to hear Israeli “strongmen", calling for more dialogue and less violence.  Referring to a violent scene, one said, “These moments end up etched inside you, and when you retire, you become a bit of a leftist.”

The Gatekeepers film director, Dror Moreh, presents a bleak view, “I am now worried about what is happening in Israel...Nothing good will come to the State of Israel by continuing this conflict.”[4]  As I sat through this film, I was stunned and disappointed. I felt admiration for those who used to represent power as they re-evaluated their actions, denounce the occupation and now sound like normal sensitive human beings.  I was disappointed that it took them so long.

All across Netanyahu’s government alarm bells are ringing. Of course, all across America there are politicians and media pundits who are still trying to un-ring that bell.  But word is leaking out. Israel is not the victim.  

Not one Israeli was killed in 2012 by Palestinians. Meanwhile, in the first 13 days of this year, Jewish settlers and IDF soldiers shot dead at least five young unarmed Palestinians.

Over the past decades Israel  has not hesitated to use violence on the unfortunate Palestinians --- arresting, torturing and killing them in large numbers, seizing and settling their land, demolishing their houses, stealing their water, and subjecting them to innumerable humiliations and human rights abuses.[5] Israel has rejected many opportunities for peace because each one required the stopping of settlements and recognizing the rights of Palestine to exist in its own land. 

Thomas Are

March 26, 2013

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[1] John Glasser, UN Report: Israel Must Withdraw All Settlements or Face ICC. , Anti-War.com,

 January 31, 2013.

[2] Philip Weiss,  Hagel Offers himself as Secretary of Israel’s defense.   January 31, 2013

[3] Pat and Samir Twair,  Two Palestinian, Israeli Documentaries Depict Evils of Military Occupation.,  Washington Report on Middle  East Affairs,  April, 2013. p.50

[4] Interview with New York Film Festival Director Richard Peria, October 17, 2012.

[5] Patrick Seale, Obama’s Appointment with History., Washington Report on Middle  East Affairs,  April, 2013. p.12

Imperialism

Imperialism has been defined as a stronger nation taking the land, labor and resources of a weaker nation for its own gain.

In our local newspaper, several weeks ago, a Jewish friend wrote to complain to the editor about an article concerning the recent presidential election. However, his main concern seemed to be an article written several years ago by the same writer which contained criticism of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. He wrote:

I do not know how this woman gets away with such large press. She is either blindly naive or truly has a frightful agenda. Her previous “opinions” on Israel are unconscionable as she portrays Israel as the big bad bully. Israel for its proportion of the world population (less than  .02 percent of the world population) has contributed more to modern society, medicine, science, technology and humanitarianism than any other nation.

          The Jewish people over the centuries have contributed more to civilization than any other people in proportion to their population size in terms of moral-ethical values, human rights, science, medicine, philosophy. Count how many Jewish Nobel prize winners compared to Muslim prize winners … with 16 million population of the Jewish faith compared to a billion Muslims. (1)

I do not know anyone who says that Jews are not smart. The debate is over the morality of the Zionist government of the State of Israel. The Germans, in the 1930s, were smart people. Brian McLaren raises the question of how a country like Germany, “the epicenter of the enlightenment with it rationality and its mind-set could sink into the barbarism of Nazism and all it entailed.”

The intellectuals realized that Nazism was an excessive growth of confidence ---confidence in their national ethos, in their rational and interpretive powers, in their scientific prowess, and so on. When this confidence grew out of proportion, it became malignant, giving the “us” of Germany a kind of manic hyper-confidence to claim racial superiority and global dominance even if that meant extermination of those who were determined to be “other,” “them” or “not us” (2)

The holocaust happened because good people turned a blind eye to evil policies. This does not take anything away from the IQ level of the German people, it simply points out that smart people can choose to ignore the darker side of their own government. Just this week, Israel announced 3,000 new settlement units and the world is still waiting for the outcry of the “moral-ethical values, human rights” Nobel prize winning Jews of Israel and America to shout, “stop it.” Surely they are smart enough to know what is going on.

The simple question facing the population of the world is: Is Palestine a part of Israel? That is not a hard question. Israel with its Knesset and Supreme Court has had 62 years to figure it out. Does Palestine belong to Israel? Yes or No?

If the answer is yes, then why does democratic Israel not have all its citizens living under the same law? Why not equal treatment? If the answer is “no,” then by what right, moral or otherwise, does Israel have to tear down Palestinian homes and replace them with Jewish only houses, to transfer water into Israel, to exploit labor by denying opportunity for Palestinians to work for themselves? What right does Israel have to keep 2.5 million Palestinians shut up as in a prison?

My Jewish friend has every right to defend Israel's expansionism, but at least he should have the integrity to call it what it is: Israeli imperialism.

Thomas Are

December 24, 2012

(1) Smoke Signals, Letters to the Editor, November 2012.

(2) Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change, (Thomas Nelson, 2007) p.36.

I Wish Obama were listening

To tell you the truth, I am disappointed in Barak Obama's anemic response to the Israel/Palestine crisis. I remember well his beautiful declaration in Cairo in 2009.

It is undeniable that the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians, have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years, they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in the refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations, large and small, that come with occupation.

So, let there be no doubt, the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate aspirations for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own.

Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist. At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestinian's [right to exist]. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

These was the most encouraging words spoken by a president in my life time, and millions of people dedicated to peace through justice around the world remember them well. I wish that Obama also remembered them. But it seems that he is choosing to wash his hands of the whole Israeli/Palestinian mess. Peter Beinart in Newsweek writes, “Even though E1 has long been an American red line.(1) And even though the Israelis alerted the White House mere hours before they announced the decision, the Obama administration's response was pro forma and bland. Publicly, Obama said nothing. It was the first sign of what senior administration officials predict may be a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Obama's second term: benign neglect. (2)

In what terms can the silence of Obama be described other than that he has in fact “turned his back on the Palestinian people?” He obviously knows that the United States is up to its ears in supporting Israel's illegal activity with our money, weapons and UN Security vetoes.

Roger Waters, addressing the United Nations on November 29, 2012, spelled out Israel's guilt of international crimes in five terms: apartheid, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, violation of Geneva Convention and use of illegal weapons. At risk of diminishing the power of his full address I will summarize his presentation.

APARTHEID – to establish on a racial basis the domination of any one group of persons over any other group of persons and systematically oppressing them, as has been the policy of Israel towards the Palestinians since 1948.

ETHNIC CLEANSING - as in the systematic expulsions of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and 1967.

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT – as in the punishment of an entire civilian population, explicitly prohibited by the Geneva Convention. Israel has violated its obligation as an occupying power by the virtual imprisonment and blockade of the entire population of Gaza.

VIOLATION OF GENEVA CONVENTION - which prohibits an occupying power from transferring citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory.

USE OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS – such as dropping white phosphorus on civilians, which sticks to the skin like jelly and burns at 1500 degrees, declared to be a war crime.

To those who say, “But, Hamas started it all.” Roger Waters responds. How we understand history is shaped by when we start the clock. Start the clock in the afternoon with rockets flying into Israel and Hamas looks guilty. Israel is simply defending itself. But, start the clock earlier that same morning when a 13 year old boy was shot dead by an Israeli soldier as he played soccer, and history looks a little different. Start the clock even earlier, like in 2009 and 271 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers. During that same time, not a single Israeli was killed.  In fact, Waters, said, “IT” actually started in 1967 with the occupation of Gaza and West Bank. The crisis of rockets is rooted in occupation.

Obviously the rest of the world takes these facts into consideration. I only hope Obama is listen.

Thomas Are

December 17, 2012

1 – The geographical area of Palestine between the West Bank and Jerusalem.

2 – Peter Beinart, Why Obama Will Ignore Israel, Newsweek, December 17, 2012. p.22