Three Ways to Respond to Charles Krauthammer

Read someone like Charles Krauthammer and we have three choices.[1] 

One, we can join the popular ranks of Israel defenders. The U.S. Senate recently (July 18) passed a resolution supporting Israel’s attack on Gaza by a vote of 100 to 0. A week earlier, the House of Representatives passed a similar resolution and President Obama has been tongue tied with the exception of, ”Well, Israel has a right to defend itself.” However, defending Israel’s right to “defend itself” is a position which is becoming harder and harder to maintain.

Two, we can choose to ignore the whole situation which is what most Americans do. After all, who does not have enough to think about? And we are so busy with making a living and keeping the family happy. Rather just think about a ball game or watch a movie.

Or, three, we can push back against popular opinion, consider the obvious and ponder the history. We can listen to our hearts, but when we do, suddenly the first two options no longer appear valid. However, I warn you. This third option, of facing what you know is right, and standing up for peace through justice may well make you an outsider. That is why so few people do it.  

Krauthammer sees every act of caring for the suffering of the Palestinians as abetting terrorism and every criticism of the policies of Israel as anti-Semitic.  He shows little concern for the facts that do not support his opinions.

He writes:, “Israel accepts an Egyptian proposed Gaza ceasefire; Gaza keeps firing.”

Wow! What terms were offered for the cease-fire?  Israel will continue to blockade the borders, air and sea access to the outer world. Deny the entrance of fuel, electricity, medicines and food, to make life for the Palestinians as  miserable as possible. 

Palestinians did reject the cease fire. In spite of the pain and death they were experiencing every day, they were unwilling to go back to the “slow death” they have been enduring for 47 years. Since 2000 Israel’s right to security has killed a Palestinian child on the average of one every three days

According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas proposed a 10 year cease-fire in return for the release of prisoners arrested during the hunt for missing Israeli teens, the opening of Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, and UN supervision of Gaza’s port.[2]

Emily Manna, a young girl from Gaza writes:

Dear American media, I’m asking you to simply tell what’s happening in Gaza. You watched this play out. You watched a heinous murder of Israeli teens, and you saw no evidence presented that this was an action sanctioned by the Hamas organization. You watched as Israel demolished houses, arrested hundreds, and killed civilians in clashes, all in a supposed attempt to find the killers and punish them, and with no attempt at due process. You watched as Palestinians were targeted by Israelis in racist attacks, and you watched as Israeli police abused an American teen, the visible representative of the invisible masses of Palestinian teens who undergo the same and worse. You watched as Hamas said it would not tolerate collective punishment of Palestinians, and you watched as violence between Israel and Gaza followed.

         You watched, but you chose to tell Americans that Hamas simply began firing rockets at Israel with no clear rationale, and that Israel had no choice but to defend itself. You chose to give Americans a picture that portrayed an oppressed, impoverished, and desperate people as a violent, insane aggressor, and Israel, a nation with one of the world’s most advanced militaries, as a victim that must defend itself by bombing Gaza.[3]

In a post the day before, from the Jabalya refugee camp, Sarah Ali (a contributor to a collection of short stories called Gaza Writes Back) wrote:

Last night was horrible. My house shook every five minutes! Except for half an hour in the evening, we’ve been without electricity for over 48 hours. Due to the long blackout, we had no water as well. The Israelis have (again) bombed a main power generator that supplies electricity to many areas. There was Israeli shelling from the sea, air and land. I could hear the kids in our neighbors’ houses crying in terror all night. This is not about destroying Hamas; this is about destroying every Palestinian in Gaza, destroying our lives, crushing our dignity and morale. Let it be known to (Israel) that the more they kill and destroy, the stronger we become. We have nothing left to lose. Now I would rather die with my family under the rubble of our house than have a humiliating truce. No justice, no peace.”[4]

Killing Palestinians seems to make up the agenda for the day.  So far, in this “war” only one side has tanks, planes, gunships and drones.  Only one side has a defensive shield and safe places to hide. Not surprisingly, the casualty list is 608 Palestinians, 75% civilians, and 27 Israeli soldiers. On Sunday alone, a hundred Palestinians were killed, many of them children.

Krauthammer declared that “Hamas deliberately aims at civilians; Israel painstakingly tries to avoid them.”  Of course, those Palestinian rockets are pretty crude, without any guidance system. That is why so many of them land in open areas or even back on Palestinian soil.  On the other hand, Israel has the most sophisticated rockets on the globe.  Yet, It’s disturbing how many hit mosques, schools, hospitals, water systems and electric grids. It is also funny how with all the blast and search for rockets which are supposed to be hidden in those building, very few have been found. I am sure if Israeli soldiers stumbled on a warehouse of explosives and rockets in a school it would be all over the US media.

Krauthammer writes: “Occupation? There is not a soldier, not a settler, not a single Israeli in Gaza. It was less then 1o years ago that Israel uprooted its settlements, withdrew its military and turned Gaza over to the Palestinians.”

“Turned Gaza over to the Palestinians?”  What he does not tell you is that Israel withdrew only to the borders of Gaza. Cut off food, electricity, water, medicine and continued to restrict aid to the impoverished people of Gaza.

He says, “Israeli counterfire produces dead Palestinians for international television. Which is why Hamas perversely urges its own people not to seek safety when Israel drops leaflets warning of imminent attack.”

Could he be serious? If so, he surely hopes we do not watch the evening news. Parents screaming, children running and hospitals looking like horror movies as doctors witho0ut medicines try to treat the injured.  Palestinians caged in the world largest open air prison have no place to go. Israel has the fence surrounding Gaza patrolled and electrified with both gates locked.

For those of us who chose option three, this has been a frustrating and painful week. But, nothing like what Krauthammer supports, in Gaza.

                                                                                                Thomas Are

                                                                                                July 23, 2014

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[1] Charles Krauthammer, Gaza Situation Presents us Moment of Moral Clarity, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Saturday, July 19, 2014.

[2] Reported on  All In with Chris Hayes.

[3] Reported in Mondoweiss, July 22, 2014

[4] Pam Bailey, We have nothing left to lose. I would rather die with my family under the rubble of our house than have a humiliating truce’: Palestinian youth demand justice. Reported in Mondoweiss, July 22, 2014.

Chris Matthews in Context

I am never surprised by what I hear on Fox News.  I was not even surprised when Diane Sawyer lamented the suffering of the Israelis while showing pictures of Palestinians being bombed.  She later apologized, not for her one sided report, but simply for showing the wrong pictures.  However, I was surprised when Chris Matthews on MSNBC took such a Zionist position on Hardball. (July 15^th)

He begins by grabbing your attention with a “Now hear this.”

It’s about how Israel and its Palestinian neighbors are dealing with the tragedy of four young people killed …

         Israel went out and found the killers of the Palestinian boy. They found them, arrested them, charged them. They clearly went about the business of punishing the guilty.

         What about the Palestinians?  How did they go about rendering justice? Matthews quoted Chuck Schumer, “They cheered. They called the kidnappers heroes. The mother of one of the suspected kidnappers said, ‘If he (my son) truly did it, I’ll be proud of him till my final day’”.

Matthews goes on to say:

I have thought for a while about when will we have true peace between Israel and its neighbors?  It’s when Arabs are ready to punish another Arab for killing a Jew. That will be the day when Israel will be ready to trust their neighbors, when they show the most primitive respect for the Jewish people, respect for their right to their homeland, even more, respect for their right to life.”

It’s hard to know where to start. I excuse Chuck Schumer.  His political life depends upon Jewish money and votes.  Matthews however is a different case.

Israel blew up the homes of the families of the Palestinian suspects. No trial. No evidence of guilt. Just suspects.  I can’t help but point out that Israel has not blown up the Israeli homes of those arrested.

As I read, “They called the kidnappers heroes,” I reflect on the murder of 29 Palestinians in prayer at the mosque in Hebron by Baruch Goldstein.  He was killed while pulling off his massacre . But drive through Hebron today and you will see an Israeli memorial in his honor as a hero of Israel. What’s the difference?

Matthews talks about respect for Jews, while teenaged girls walk around Tel Aviv carrying a placard reading, “ HATING AN ARAB IS NOT RACIST, IT’S HAVING VALUES.”  Scribbled on the walls at check points through which Palestinians are forced to line up are anti-Arab slogans such as, ARABS TO THR GAS CHAMBERS,” and DEATH TO THE ARABS.

Matthews talks about respect for Israel’s right to a homeland, which of course was taken from Palestine by driving off or killing 750,000 Palestinians, many who are still living in refugee camps in Gaza to be bombed yet again, for the third time in seven years. Nevertheless, the Palestinian leadership has offered peace and recognition for Israel to have 78 percent of what used to be their homeland and over and over, Israel has rejected the offer in favor of building more settlements on the 22 percent left for Palestinians to live on.

Most offensive of all, Matthews calls for Palestinians to learn to respect life. At the time of his broadcast, 222 Palestinians had been bombed to death by Israel, mostly civilians including many, many children, while one, I repeat, ONE, Israeli militant died of shrapnel injuries from a Palestinian rocket.  Back in 2008-2009, 1430 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza as compared to 13 Israeli soldiers, with 4 having died by friendly fire.  In 2012, Israel again bombed Gaza killing 133 Palestinians, mostly civilians, while two Israeli soldiers lost their lives.  So, I ask Chris Matthews, who needs to “show the most primitive respect for life?

I am certain that what Chris Matthews said is all true.  I believe the grieving mother did say that she was proud of her son and I have no doubt that Israel arrested those responsible for the murder of a Palestinian kid.  However, that is such a tiny sliver of the total picture until he distorts the truth. All speakers know that, “text without context is pretext.”  Look at the numbers. The context, as Matthews spoke, was:

214 killed, including 44 children, 1,585 injured, including 435 children, 22,600 people displaced, 23 health facilities, 81 schools, and 2, 360 homes damaged, 900,000 people without access to water.[1]

Think for a moment. What happens to people who do not have water? They fight, get sick or die.

 I am puzzled that a seasoned journalist such as Matthews would present such a warped analysis of the massacre taking place in Gaza.  Perhaps he was influenced by the AIPAC junkets he took to Israel. At any rate, I have lost a bit of confidence in MSNBC and I will never trust Chris Matthews again.

                                                                                                 Thomas Are

                                                                                                 July 17, 2014

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[1] Source:  UN OCHA, updated July 16 at 3pm local time, does not include 4 children killed this afternoon on the beach or several other incidents. 

 

It's Absolutely Amusing

The headline story in my newspaper this morning is about a superstar basketball player  moving from one town to another to attract sports fans.  You have to look back four pages to see anything about Israeli rockets killing more than 150 people in Gaza, most of them refugees with no safe place to run in order to protect their families. They have had little to do with the small ineffective rockets fired into Israel by radical militants. Most of them are simply refugees who had everything stolen from them by Israel in 1948 or again in 1967. They live day by day just trying to hold on to life while living under the control and abuse of a mighty army determined to make their lives miserable. And now, yet again, they are being bombed, one explosion every four and a half minutes.

 A doctor, serving with The Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Ramallah, wrote just today,

July 13, 2014:

As you all know by now, almost a week ago, under the false pretense of self-defense, Israel launched yet a new deadly massive attack on Gaza. At the time of my writing this message to you, 151 people have been killed, among which at least 26 children, and another 1,000 at least injured. OCHA estimates that over 75% of victims so far have been civilians. More than 500 homes have been either completely destroyed or severely damaged, putting over 3,200 people – families with young children and elderly – in the streets. 300,000 more are threatened with displacement if Israel moves forward with the announced ground operation. Just yesterday morning, Israeli forces bombed a care facility for people with special needs without any warning while 5 patients and one nurse were inside. The building was destroyed and two of the residents, two handicapped women, were literally blown to pieces.

But, that is not news.  Our news media is far more concerned with who is playing basketball.  No wonder that Americans have been accused of being “sports crazy.” We yearn to be entertained and spend billions of dollars every year on amusements.

I think it is significant that the word “muse” means to think. Thus, “amuse”  means to not think.  How often someone has said to me,  “I know things are bad over there, but I don’t want to think about that right now.”  In the meantime, the middle east is exploding and much of the pain is supported by our government.  Will we as Americans ever shoulder our responsibility for what is happening in Gaza? One answer is “no”, not as long as we can find ways to keep from thinking about it.

What is not amusing is the poor refugee family standing by helplessly as bulldozers demolish their home and a wall separating them from their work and medical care or Jewish only roads preventing them from traveling from one little community to the next. Even while sick or wounded, they negotiate 600 road blocks and check points where 18 year olds with machine guns humiliate them. It is not amusing when forty year old olive trees are cut down in less than a minute, or when their water is piped away for Jewish use only in settlements built all around them by armed extremist who harass them because “God gave their land to the Jews and the Jewish God wants only Jews to live on it.

How can the mainline churches of America be so silent?  Do we also go to church to be entertained? Nothing in Christian or Jewish theology can justify the theft of a neighbor’s land and the killing of another people. NOTHING.

However, go to church, read the paper, listen to the news or just the conversation in most homes and restaurants, and what gets our attention is a basketball player moving from one city to another.

It’s absolutely “amusing.”

                                                                                                            Thomas Are

                                                                                                            July 14, 2014 

Kidnappings

I remember very well the kidnapping and murder of three civil right workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I was living in Mississippi and I cried for them and their families. I was angry. They were good “kids,” who risked their lives to help an oppressed people and had hurt no one in the process.  I also remember, everyone knowing exactly who to blame.  Yet, in my wildest emotion, I never dreamed that my government would go after the Ku Klux Klan, or the State of Mississippi, with tanks and bombs. The whole nation would have been outraged at the thought of homes being destroyed, hundreds of people arrested and innocent kids killed.  Go after the guilty, OK, but for heavens sake, do not pounce on the whole community. That is not the way democracy works. It’s not even the way decent human beings protect themselves or treat others.

Now, fast forward to last week, June 12, 2014.  Three Israeli teens, living in a settlement built on stolen land, were kidnapped and killed by God only knows who. Nevertheless, Netanyahu said, “It was Hamas and they will pay.”  Certainly, Hamas had kidnapped in  the past, most notably Gilad Shalit in 2006.  He was treated humanely. Hamas wanted to use him as a bargaining chip in an exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Hamas openly announced its responsibility and purpose. It causes one to wonder, what would Hamas have to gain by killing three young teens?

Since then, at least ten Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers. This morning’s newspaper reports the abduction of a young Palestinian teen. He had been burned alive.

Palestinian Attorney General Abdelghani al Owaiwi said he received initial autopsy results from a Palestinian doctor who was present at the autopsy in Tel Aviv. He said it shows that 16 year old Palestinian , Mohammed Abu Khdeir, whose death has sparked large protest in his east Jerusalem neighborhood suffered burns on “90 percent of his body.

            “The results show he was breathing while on fire and died from burns and their
             consequences,” al-Owaiwi said.
            His account provided the first details of the preliminary findings to be made public.   
            The autopsy found evidence that Abu Khdeir had breathed in the flames as burns were
            found inside his body, in his lungs, bronchial tubes and his throat.[1]

In retaliation for the death of their three, Israel has arrested over 550 Palestinians, including children hefted from their bed in the middle of the night, hauled away to be brutally treated, denied sleep, water, and the right to use a bath room. Even visits by a parent or a lawyer are denied. Fifteen hundred homes, businesses and schools have been raided and Gaza has endured more than 40 bombings, even though the kidnapping took place in the West Bank.

Since the year 2000, 1,384 children have been killed. Of that number, only about 40 were engaged in hostile activities, such as throwing rocks at soldiers occupying their land.[2]

Maybe the saddest part is that we hear very little of this side of the story from our media.  The evening news simply dismisses it as a “cycle of violence,” which must be addressed by the parties involved.  They seldom mention that this violence is taking place in occupied land and that only one side uses planes, tanks, and white phosphorus to punish an entire people.

Back in 1964, I celebrated the trial and conviction of those responsible for the death of three civil rights workers. I also celebrated living in a democracy that punished them because they were guilty of a crime and not because they belonged to the Klan or just happened to live in the State of Mississippi.

God help us.

                                                                                                Thomas Are

                                                                                                July 6, 2014

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[1] Mohammad Daraghmah, Doctor: Arab teen was Burned Alive. Atlanta-Journal-Constitution,

Sunday, July 6, 2014.,  P. A-2.

[2] Pam Bailey and Medea Benjamin, Children’s Lives in the Balancer (Is one worth more than another? Mondoweiss, July 1, 2014. Also see Action Alert, Jewish Voice for Peace, July 2, 2014.

Save the Children

While the world and especially the US is trying to negotiate a quick fix with Iran to get help  in containing the violent attack of ISIS into Iraq and when Israel is seen more and more on the wrong side of peace, suddenly three Israeli teenagers disappear. I would never approve of kidnapping, but I can’t help but think, how convenient for Netanyahu.  Of course, Netanyahu blames Hamas and he may be right. But why would Hamas do such a stupid thing, especially right now?  They certainly have not forgotten the disproportionate military poundings by Israel any time there is a Palestinian response to Israel’s occupation.  Hamas well remembers the “war” on Gaza five years ago which killed over 1400 men, women and children, destroyed 22,000 buildings, including, mosques, schools, hospitals, public works and homes. The death ratio was over a hundred to one.  So why would Hamas risk such atrocities again?  But, maybe out of decades of frustration, they did abduct three kids.

Regardless of what happened, Netanyahu is milking it for every drop of “victimism” he can squeeze out of it.

Marc Ellis, Jewish author and long time activist for peace and justice writes:

Here we go again. Israel has launched –yet another – full-scale invasion of the West Bank.   This in response to the kidnapping of three Israelis. Or is this cover for – yet another – collective punishment because the Palestinians declared – yet another – a Palestinian state?[1]

Three teenagers disappeared while hiking from their illegal settlement homes. Hopefully they are being treated humanely. They certainly have the sympathy of the US media.  We know their names, have seen their pictures on our television screens and in our newspapers. We have watched their mothers cry and plead for their return every day since June 12^th. What we do not see is the more than 200  Palestinians who have disappeared from their homes or the killing of twenty year old Ahmad Sabarin or the injury of an eight year old little boy in the name of Israel’s “search.”  

What we don’t hear is the pain of the hundreds of Palestinian children kidnapped by Israeli soldiers and being held God knows where for God knows how long.  But, one thing for sure, they are not being treated humanely.

Ziad Abbas wrote:

Although I have been living far from Palestine for years and I am now in my forties, I still have nightmares about the Israeli army invading my house when I was a child and about the first times I was tortured. That is the reality most Palestinians former prisoners live with for the rest of our lives.[2]

It seems that Israel has always been threatened by children.  According to the Washington Post, in the first 30 months of the 1987 intifada, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 159 children. Thousands were beaten. More than 50,000 children were treated for injuries, including 6,500 wounded by gun fire. “The average age of children killed was ten,”  What was their crime? What had they done to provoke such punishment? Heaving stones, scribbling slogans on walls, or displaying Palestinian flags. Save the Children concluded that one-third of beaten children were under ten years old, and one fifth under the age of five. Nearly a third of the children beaten suffered broken bones.[3]

Ellis says, “Missing Jews are a terrible price to pay. But, then, the Israeli jails are filled with “missing” Palestinians.[4]

It is hard for me to imagine. I have a warm and comfortable bed in which to lie down. I have a safe place to sleep. I am reasonably free of pain, fear and anxiety.  However, none of this would be true if I were a Palestinian living under Israel’s boot.  On any night, for any reason, Israeli troops may break into my home, at any time, usually around 3 o’clock in the morning, tie my children’s hands behind their backs and deliver them blindfolded, beaten, frightened  and crying to be locked up in solitary confinement. According to Defense for Children International-Palestine, about 500 to 700  children are arrested by Israel every year. They are immediately separated from other children, allowed no visits from parents, pastors or even a lawyer. Soiling themselves when not allowed to go to a bath room simply adds to their humiliation and fear.  

How long before we speak out to save the children?

                                                                                                Thomas Are

                                                                                                June 20, 2014

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[1] Marc H. Ellis,  Hunting for Missing Justice, June 19, 2014, Mondoweiss, June 20, 2014.

[2] Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,  Zaid Abbas, Torturing and Jailing Palestinian Children, Other Voices,  December 2013, p. 2.

[3] “Rights Group Accuses Israel of Violence Against Children in Palestinian Uprising,”  Washington Post, May 17, 1990

[4] Marc H. Ellis,  Hunting for Missing Justice, June 19, 2014, Mondoweiss, June 20, 2014.

Its the Same Story

May 15, 1948 is a day to remember. To the Jew, it is a day to celebrate the Declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel. To the Arab, it is a day to lament as “The Nakba”, the greatest catastrophe in Palestinian history.  To Israel, it was a time when God finally stepped in and declared Jews as his favorite people, perhaps his only people. And gave them, yet again, someone else’s land

This Thursday, May 15, synagogues, movie houses, newspapers and TV screens will be filled with ceremonies and celebrations of the goodness of God to the Jews and the bravery of those first pioneers who established the State of Israel, the “only democracy in the Middle East.”

At the same time, very little will be mentioned concerning the plight of the Palestinians who lost their land and freedom. More than 750,000 driven from their homes, many raped, robbed and massacred to make room for a Jewish state.  Over 500 Arab villages destroyed, bulldozed down and covered up, creating the largest refugee problem in modern history.  

Someone said, “Kill one person and it’s a crime. Kill a thousand and it just a statistic.”

However, the Nakba has flesh on it. I received a reply to one of my earlier blogs:

Tom, this is when my wife Aida and her family fled Palestine with only the clothes on their backs, leaving their three story home and her father’s two stores. They lost it all.  For the first 25-30 years of her life, she would wake up screaming, 4-5 times a month, that the Jews were after her to kill her and her family When I met Aida in 1956, she and her three brothers, her mom and dad, were living in one room, with a small cooking area and a bathroom. There were four small beds around the room which were used to sit on in the day time and for them to sleep on at night. This room was about 12 X 16!!!   Your Friend, TONY

Multiply that story by a thousand times and it is easy to understand why Israel’s Declaration of Statehood is so difficult to be seen as something to celebrate.

I think of Elias Chacour, whom I met about 30 years ago.

When Elias Chacour was about nine years old, his father called the family together. “There was a monster up in Europe who persecuted and killed Jews.  He is dead now, but the Jews still do not feel safe there.  So, they are going to come and live with us for a while.”  Chacour remembers being excited to move out of his bedroom to make room for their guests. After all, Jews were also the children of Abraham. They were blood brothers. 

Only they did not come as guests. They came with guns.  In one day Chacour and his  family were driven from the home up into the hills at gun point “ One soldier growled, “This land is ours. Get out now. Move.”

What they did not know was that all over the Galilee, Palestinians were being driven from their homes. In the struggle, parents were separated from their children, some never saw them again.  Some older folks did not make it. Little Elias and the other people of Biram tried to climb up to a little cross road village called Gish. Surely their neighbors would help them. But, the strangest thing. When they finally arrived in Gish, there was no one there.  The homes and shops were empty. Everyone wondered what had happened to the people of Gish.

Several days later, the children of Biram were playing in a near-by field. Their ball rolled down a ravine. Elias went to retrieve it. As he reached down he saw the hand of a small child sticking up out of the sand.  He had just discovered what had happened to the people of Gish.  They had been rounded up and executed. [1]

This was not an isolated case. It reflected the official goals of Zionism. Historians list at least 33 massacres of Palestinians villages. Israeli historian Tom Segev writes:

Israel was born: of terror, war and revolution and its creation required a measure of fanaticism and  cruelty.[2]

In 1940, Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency’s Colonization Department,  said:

Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal if the Arabs are in this country. There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries – all of them. Not one village, not one tribe, should be left.[3]

Raphael Eytan, IDF Chief of Staff said:

We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel… Force is all they do or ever will understand… When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.[4]

It is amazing that Israel has managed to sell to the Western world, (meaning the US,) the smoke and mirrors that, in spite of the facts, Israel really is the victim that needs an enormous amount of money to be protected from the bad Arabs.

I have known Elias Chacour for almost three decades and in spite of having been savagely beaten by Jewish soldiers who accused him of being a nine year old terrorist, he says only, “I cannot hate them. They are my blood brothers. Perhaps confused and afraid. but never the less, my brothers.”

So, this Thursday, May 15^th, as Israel celebrates its day with pride, I will fly a Palestinian flag in the front of my house to declare solidarity with Elias Chacour, Tony Rukab and many others who have suffered 64 years of Nakba.   I cannot fathom anyone looking back over Israel’s history of military domination of a weaker people and find anything of which to be proud.

I am an American and there is much about my country of which I can be proud, but our celebration of Israeli atrocities is not one of them.

Thomas Are

May 14, 2014

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[1] Read Elias Chacour, Blood Brothers, (Fleming Revell Company. 1984) p 20, 36-53.

[2] Cited by Alison Weir, Against Our Better Judgment, (If Americans Knew.org, 1914) p.58

[3] Alan Hart, Zionism, The Real Enemy of the Jews.  Volume One.,  (Clarity Press, 2009) p. 122.

[4] Idid.,  p.123.