Nothing is 100 Percent

Nothing is 100 percent. No person is totally good or totally bad, nor is any action. We all wind up contributing to things that we would not choose to support.  By the time I had breakfast this morning, I had supported sweatshops where the sheets on which I slept were sewn and left a significant carbon footprint by its transportation to the store where I shop. Global warming is a product of living.

Politicians love this aspect of being able to find an alternative argument to any action or policy that does not benefit their cause. This intertwining of good and bad in everything we do means that opponents can always find enough flaws in our good efforts to bring us to inaction.  When we call Israel to cease its abusive treatment of non-Jews both within its walls and beyond, its defenders accuse us of ignoring all the good there is about Israel, and they are right.

Israel does protect the freedom of its press, holds open elections, has developed high-tech medical procedures and engineering systems. Israel has established a land of opportunity… at least for Jews.   

For these reasons, the United States has been the patron saint of Israel for decades. However, Lawrence Davidson points out that the popular reasons for supporting Israel are not the whole story:

The common given reasons are suspect. It is not because the two countries have overlapping interest. The US seeks stability in the Middle East and Israel is constantly making things unstable (mostly by practicing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, illegally colonizing conquered lands and launching massive assaults against its neighbors). Nor as is often claimed, is the alliance based on “shared Western values”.  The US long ago outlawed racial, ethnic and religious discrimination in the public sphere. In Israel, religious-based discrimination is the law. The Zionist state’s values in this regard are the opposite of those of the United States.[i]

For these reasons, I support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) non-violent movement, which has gained much more traction outside the US than here. Our presidential candidates love cast dispersions on BDS. By doing so, they not only gain praise, it makes them sound as though they are on top of the Israel/Palestine situation and would probably cost them very few votes, if any. 

Jeb Bush, “On day one I will work with the next attorney-general to stop the BDS movement.”

Ted Cruz, “BDS is premised on a lie and it is anti-Semitism, plain and simple.”

Marco Rubio, “This BDS coalition of the radical left thinks it has discovered a clever, politically correct way to advocate Israel’s destruction.”

Hillary Clinton, “We need to make countering BDS a priority.”

Marc Ellis, Jewish scholar and activist, finds such caricature amusing:

The Knesset anti-BDS solutions are becoming more and more bizarre. First they try to stamp BDS out by waving the magic wand of anti-Semitism around the world.  Then they propose to mobilize Jews and everyone else that counts politically to rise up because BDS wants to destroy Israel. Even supporters of Israel should ask: Can these strategies succeed when the world is aware that an entire people are being ghettoized by Israel.[ii]

I have been an anti-Zionist for almost thirty years. I move in those circles, read anti-Zionist books, attend conferences, study documentaries, subscribe to anti-Zionist magazines, have hundreds of anti-Zionist friends and I have never, ever heard anyone talk about wanting to destroy Israel or “push all the Jews into the sea. No one wants that to happen.  What they do want is for Israel to become a democratic nation committed to living in peace with all its citizens and its neighbors. That cannot happen as long as Israel insists upon being a Jewish state.  

I support BDS, not because it is perfect, but because it is the best hope I know of to pressure Israel into living by the rules that respect liberty and justice for all like any other nation claiming to be a democracy.

BDS is not perfect. As it exposes Israel’s underside, it inevitably feeds to latent anti-Semitism. It hurts some innocent people along the way and disrupts the social unity in Israel and its critics.  

But, having said that, I support BDS because it works.

During the Gaza war in the summer of 2014, dock workers in the Port of Oakland refused to unload cargo from an Israeli ship. That same summer the Presbyterian Church passed a divestment resolution that pulled millions of dollars from companies profiting from the occupation. [This summer, the Methodists joined the Presbyterians and voted to withdraw their investments from five major Israeli banks for divestment]. Last April, the British bank Barclays dumped its holdings of Elbit Systems and the Danish bank Merkur terminated its contract with G4S.  The European Union is about to start “slapping labels on products produced in Israeli settlements.”[iii]

And what do the supporters of BDS want?  At least three things: To end the occupation. To give Palestinian citizens within Israel equal rights and protection, and to respect the right of refugees to return to their homes. Is that enough?  No. But it would bring hope to the Palestinians and peace to Israel.  

Now: NEWSWEEK REPORTS THAT FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN ISRAEL HAS DROPPED BY FIFTY PERCENT.[iv]  

It’s not perfect. I wish it were 100%.  But it is enough to get Israel’s attention and cause anxiety in the Knesset for its failure to stem the effects of BDS. Hopefully Israel will get the message: Join the nations of civilized people or become even more isolated.

Thomas Are

January 21, 2016

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[i] Lawrence Davidson, BDS in the crosshairs of US Presidential Candidates.

[ii] Marc Ellis, The (Jewish)) Civil War Heats Up. Sort of., Mondoweiss,  January 1, 2016.

[iii] Mondoweiss, An Open Letter to Dan Rabinowitz: Let’s Get our Facts Straight about BDS, November, 2015.

My note: G4S and Elbit Systems provide security equipment to Israeli prisons at which political prisoners are held without trial and subjected to human rights abuse, including torture.

[iv] Jack Moore, Foreign Investment in Israel Drops by 50%. Newsweek, June 25, 2015.

Clinton for President

I have a suggestion. Let's elect Hillary Clinton President...

                                                                                                ...of Israel!

She obviously loves Israel. Annie Robbins, writes:

            Yesterday Hillary Clinton gave a speech in Washington that included more pandering to Israel             than any speech I've heard from any American politician. It was endless. Israel is a brave                     democracy, a light unto the nations, a miracle, its “prowess in war” is “inspiring,” and we                   must take the US-Israel relationship to the next level.”[i]

I can't imagine what “a next level” would look like.

In her speech, she never mentioned the “occupation.” It just does not exist and settlements don't matter.  She would be great as President of Israel.  Other than not knowing the difference between Hamas and ISIS, she is highly qualified and she would love it.  She loves policies in Israel that she claims to hate in America. For instance, she ridicules Donald Trump's wanting to put a ban on Muslims coming into the U.S., while such is standard practice in Israel.  I have a friend who was denied entrance into Israel last year simply because he was not Jewish and had a camera. If it is wrong, racist and xenophobic to do so here, why is it acceptable in Israel?  She condemns Donald Trump's proposal for a wall on our border with Mexico and praises every wall Israel has ever built on its own land, on borders and on land belonging to others, especially those walls that seal out Palestinian and seals in their water.

Benjamin Netanyahu would welcome her as his president. They have been swooning over each other for years. She supports everything he does even when it puts American security in jeopardy.  Iran, she says, not Israel, but Iran, is guilty of bad behavior.  She seldom spells out just what Iran does to be so bad, other than supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, both of whom exist to protect its citizens from Israel's aggression.

She brags that, as Secretary of State, she undermined the Goldstone Report, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza bombardment of Gaza during December 2008 and January 2009:

            The Goldstone Report accused Israel of numerous war crimes and violations of international             humanitarian law. Israel committed “a grave breach” of the Fourth Geneva Convention in its             intentional targeting of civilians... It also documented the Israeli military's use of chemical             weapons like white phosphorus on civilian areas, including hospitals.

            Clinton emails reveal that the United Nations Human Rights Council, under heavy pressure,             postponed consideration of the Goldstone Report from October 2 until March 2010... An                     email from Harold Koh, Legal adviser to the Department of State demonstrates that the U.S.               State Department self-consciously and successfully obstructed endorsement of the Goldstone               Report by the UNHRC.[ii]

 She looks at Israel with total tunnel vision. She sees nothing in the summer of 2014 as Israel again attacks Gaza with 6000 airstrikes in 51 days, killing 2400 people including over 500 children. Her Israeli heroes flatten homes, destroy power and sewage plants and bombs U.N. shelters and all she has to say is that the people of Gaza brought it on themselves. No other nation on the globe gets such a pass.  A Palestinian kid throws a rock and spends years in prison while Israeli settlers who firebomb homes and kill innocent people continue to roam around free. Israel builds walls, checkpoints, settlements and Jewish only roads and all she can say is that Israel wants peace.  Of course, the fact that her political campaign is bankrolled by a Zionist billionaire has no influence on her political decisions. The fact that Israel's occupation of West Bank, Golan Heights and Jerusalem has been declared illegal under international law for years, well, she chooses to ignore that, too.

Hillary Clinton, in younger years fought for civil rights, against the war in Vietnam and specialized in children's rights. Then she decided to run for the senate in the heavily Jewish populated State of New York. Suddenly, it no longer mattered to her that the Israel she supported committed state terrorism, persecuted an entire people, stole its land and water, killed its people, the victims became the “terrorist.” 

As someone said, “Israel gets to use violence. Palestinians don't.”  That's her rule. Israel simply defends itself.”

If Israel is looking for a president who wears blinders and is comfortable with half-truths, then they could not find a better candidate than Hillary Clinton. Of course, no one expects her to be elected president of Israel. In fact, she may well wind up being president of the United States.  I just want us to be aware of her sell out to militant Zionism, its racism and all the pain she excuses on their behalf.

Thomas Are

December 31, 2015

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[i]Gideon Levy, Hillary Clinton Is No Friend of Israel. Mondoweiss, August 11, 2015

[ii]Jared Flanery, Deferring Justice: Clinton emails show how State Dept. undermined U.N. Action on Israeli War Crimes. Salon.com. November 19, 2015.

Israeli Boycotts

Recently, I have been thinking about my Christian friend, Na’im, who lives in Jerusalem. It is his home. He was born there and has never lived any where else.  He is a citizen of Israel, but not a “national.”  This is hard for me to understand having grown up in America where every citizen belongs to the nation. Not so in Israel. Only Jews belong to the nation.  Citizen Na’im lives every day under separate laws and privileges.

What if I believed the political discharge of every presidential candidate about how wonderful Israel is and its being the “only democracy in the Middle East,” and decided to move there to be close to my friend?  After all, there is enough violence, corruption, racism and poverty in my daily newspaper to cause one to ask if there a better place or is the whole world coming apart?” Of course, I would never move to Israel, but it does raise an interesting question. What would my life be like in democratic Israel?

In the first place, I would soon learn that no where in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel will I find the word democracy.  The founders carefully did not call Israel the Republic of Israel. The idea of a republic carried too much responsibility. So, until this day, Israel has never declared itself to be a democracy, not even in its Constitution. In fact, Israel has no Constitution.  

The next thing I would learn is that I could never, ever become a full citizen of that state. Israel chooses to be a Jewish nation for its Jewish citizens.  It boycotts those who are not Jews.  If I tried to buy a home I would run into a local culture that is actually proud of its racism. I would be told in clear terms that I “did not fit the cultural fabric of their community.”  In fact, there is nothing subtle about the discrimination. I would be told right up front, “We don’t sell to non-Jews.”  Israel not only boycotts individuals, Israel boycotts non-Jewish towns and villages by not providing community services such as equal education opportunities, garbage pickup, health care and public safety. 

If I tried to enter the labor market, I would find newspapers advertising jobs for Jews only. Non-Jews need not apply.  When I wanted to take my grandchildren for a swim, I would find the public pools and parks closed to me.   

I would never be allowed to live in a settlement, even though my U.S. tax dollars paid for their construction, nor would I be safe living near one.  Settlers are into burning. They burn trees, cars, churches and schools. Sometimes, they even set fire to people with impunity.

And where did I get this image of life for a non-Jew in Israel? From David Sheen, a journalist, writer and filmmaker originally from Toronto, Canada, now living in Dimona, Israel, a Jewish citizen of Israel, who holds a greater respect for the ethical dimension of his faith than for the psychotic State of Israel.

I would learn that by law, 93 percent of the land in Israel is reserved for Jews only and bans non-Jews from leasing it. Another law ensures that if an Israeli citizen marries a Palestinian who is not an Israeli citizen they will not be allowed to live together. If I enrolled my child in a school that teaches the real history of 1948, the ministry of finance will withhold funds from my school.[1]   In Israel, no matter what I witnessed or believed, I would learn that I am not free to criticize Israel.

Our politicians “love” to talk about Israel and they see it as they choose it to be.  But if they lived there, even for a short time, they might take a second look. They might even be able to acknowledge that Palestine is occupied and that Gaza is being massacred.  But, let’s not expect too much.  After all, it’s an election year.  

Thomas Are

November 17, 2015

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[1] See Donald Wagner and Walter Davis, Zionism, and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land.  (Pickwick Publications 2014) p.48

Nightmares

I had two nightmares last night.

In the first, I was watching a boxing match between a “defender” and a “terrorist”.  The defender was wearing brass knuckles, carried a club, wore a helmet and danced freely around the ring. On the other side, the terrorist had only one arm, was forced to stay within a six foot circle, had no head protection, and was about a tenth the size of the defender.  To top it off, the referee was the defender’s Uncle Sam.

My second nightmare was when I woke up and realized that it was not a dream.  It is what is commonly referred to in the U.S. as the “Peace Process” between Israel and Palestine.  Our politicians and news pundits keep saying over and over again, “We must get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiation table. They must work out a peace plan between the two of them.”

Such a dream is a nightmare.  

But, it is real life to about 4 million Palestinians living in some of the worst conditions anywhere on the planet.  It is watching helpless as your land is stolen from you to build Jewish settlements connected by Jewish only roads. It is struggling to find water. It is  having the road on which you live blocked by walls and barriers and check points controlled by a power determined to make your life so miserable that you will leave or die.

A YWCA of Palestine Action Alert reports:

Four Palestinians, ages 13-19 have been executed in less than 32 hours. Over 500 have been injured just since Saturday, October 3^rd. More than forty have been shot with live ammunition while another 150 or more shot with rubber bullets. Fourteen ambulances have been attacked. It is for all these reasons that the Red Crescent has declared a “state of Emergency.” We call it the Endless State of Emergency.

Writing for the Alert, Marc Ellis  continues:

Many of those killed were innocent of the alleged crimes they were said to have committed. They were children coming home from school like 13 year old Abed Al-Raham Obeidallah who was shot in the Aida Refugee Camp or Hadeel Al-Hashlamon, an 18 year old young woman trying to cross the Hebron checkpoint. She was shot 10 times and left to bleed out. Later her ambulance was met by her father, the doctor on duty on the eve of the Jewish Holiday, the Atonement or what Jews call Yom Kippur who had to pronounce the death of his own daughter. In one case one of the alleged “terrorists”, Fadi Alloun, 19 years old, was going home and was gunned down by the police in Jerusalem when he approached them for help against an angry mob of settlers calling, “Death to Arabs” in Jerusalem.[1]

Perhaps the worse part of the nightmare is not the massacres and bombardments that rain down every few years. The worst of it is having your name smeared as a terrorist, deserving to be punished, while those who harass you are lifted up as moral heroes.

So, get back in the ring, the U.S. says to the Palestinians, as it throws its full weight and support behind Israel. It is the only hope you have of fulfilling your dream of being a respected and prosperous people.   But to the Palestinian, it is no longer a dream. It is not even a nightmare. It is the only life they are allowed to live.

Thomas Are

November 7, 2015

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[1] Marc Ellis, Endless State of Emergency – YWCA of Palestine Action Alert,  Global Ministries.Org. October 8, 2015

But, It's the "Truth"

How can you turn a true story into a lie? It’s simple. The New York Times,  CNN and Fox News do it often. Here’s how it works:

IGNORE CONTEXT 

Never mention that the “stone throwers” are on their own land trying to defend their own homes against the tanks and bulldozers of an occupying force, and that it is the longest occupation in modern history.  In fact, the word “occupation” is seldom seen in the US media and when it is, it is used as a part of “the occupied West Bank,” as though no one is responsible.  It’s just the way things are. But, if there is no occupation in the story, there is no story. Yet, “Only 4 percent of U.S. Networks mention “occupation” as part of the story.[1]  They focus more on Palestinian rage without addressing reasons for the rage.  And they never present Israel as the aggressor against mostly unarmed youth but only as defending itself against the “aggressor.”  Even murder is presented as “self-defense.”

REPORT EVERY REACTION AS THOUGH IT WERE AN ACTION

Again, present the aggressor as the victim. Rarely show Palestinian rage as reaction to years of brutal occupation of West Bank and blockade of Gaza. Write about rockets. Make no mention of Israeli accountability for closures, curfews, Jewish only roads, the uprooting of olive trees and the denial of basic human rights including separate laws for settlers and Palestinians. In fact it is better to not mention settlers at all.  It might raise the question, “On whose land have these occupiers settled? Never raise such questions as the right to leave and reenter ones own country and the humiliation of having Israel’s sewage and waste dumped in your neighborhood.  It’s easy to distort the facts. First rule is just choose what to leave out and second, set up the frame.

On October 10, 2015, Jewish Voice for Peace circulated a petition entitled: Tell the New York Times: We need Accurate Reporting on Israel and Palestine, saying, The Times’ headlines consistently frame Israel as the victim, completely misrepresenting an uprising which is a response to decades of displacement, occupation and repression:

--Over 50% of headlines depicted Palestinians as the instigators of violence, while no headlines depicted Israelis as aggressors.

--No headlines referenced racist mobs that have roamed the streets of Jerusalem shouting “Death to Arabs.”

--Palestinians were referred to as terrorists 41 times, while the term was used four times (including quotes from Palestinians) to refer to violent Israeli actions intended to terrorize Palestinians.

--The terms “violent” or “violence” were used 36 times to refer to Palestinians, and 2 times to refer to Israelis.

--The terms “attack(s)” or “attackers” were used 110 times to describe Palestinian actions and people, and 17 times to describe Israelis.

RARELY SHOW THE FACE OF THE VICTIM

Count the tears of the aggressor. Paint the poor combat armed Israeli soldier as the “real” victim. Give him a name, talk to his parents and friends. Interview his father sobbing, “He was such a good boy.” Show their pain. 

On the other hand, if the victim is a Palestinian, never show him as a real person with feelings, a family and dreams for a future. Show no empathy.  He is a non-person. Someone said, “The rule is: If it’s a Palestinian perpetrator, exaggerate his crime. If the perpetrator is an Israeli, the crime didn’t happen”

Rev. Dr. Mitri Reheb, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem wrote:

            Dear Friends,

A new wave of political unrest is here. Within the last five weeks, over forty young people from Palestine were killed and over 1100 injured. These are not mere numbers, but young people with faces, names, and dreams. Yet, as if their lives do not matter, the Israelis are easing their already loose laws on using arms with a clear message of shoot to kill. For the Israeli government, these young Palestinians are rebels that do not deserve to live. They must be taught a lesson. To add insult to injury, you hear the western politicians talking about Israel’s right to defend itself, and standing shamelessly with Israel.

He then adds: “Their lives matter to God.” 

CAST DOUBT ON THE ACCURACY OF THE STORY

When an Israeli missile struck meters away from the Hassan family home south of Gaza City, crushing the sleeping family inside, Haaretz qualified the reports:

            Palestinians Say Pregnant Woman, Child Killed following Israeli Strike in Gaza.

The New York Times added that the bombing was “retaliatory,” implying that the victims were at least partially responsible for their deaths and joined in raising doubt about the story’s accuracy by saying, “Israeli Retaliatory Strike in Gaza Kills Woman and Child, Palestinians say.[2]  

LEAVE OUT A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE STORY

Ignore the recent bombings and needless deaths of Palestinians, Israel’s cynical restriction on the food allowed into Gaza, control of imports and exports to destroy any hope of economic stability.  And heaven forbid, never mention road blocks, check points, the wall or theft of Palestinian land for settlements.  Such one sided reporting by most US media is not an anomaly:

Last year when Israel bombed and strafed Gaza for 51 days, resulting in more than 2,200 deaths, of which 75% were civilians, CNN brought on one Israeli spokesperson after the other. From Benjamin Netanyahu to Mark Regev; from Lt Col. Peter Lerner to Alan Dershowitz; Americans were subjected to uninterrupted coverage of Israel’s version of events…while CNN often operates essentially as Israeli state media, outlets like the Wall Street Journal openly demonize the Palestinians as “blood lust.”[3]

Huffington Post reports that a House Committee meeting on the current wave of violence in Jerusalem concluded that the current instability is caused by Palestinian leaders encouraging their people to kill Israelis. Eliot Engel, ranking member of the committee lamented, “It is heartbreaking to wake up seemingly every morning to a new report of a stabbing or a shooting of innocent civilian in Israel.” 

However Mr. Engel failed to express concern for the 21 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces just this month (October) despite having no connection to terrorist attacks.  He did not mention the Israeli teen who stabbed four Arabs saying, “All Arabs are terrorist.” Nor did he mention that between January and July of this year, settler violence caused 42 casualties.[4]

In the first month of Israel’s “shoot to kill” policy, 16 Palestinians have been killed in West Bank and Gaza and more than 1,000 bullet injuries have been reported.[5]

 Lop-sided reporting comes easy for the U.S. media.  They have had a lot of practice. 

Thomas Are

October 30, 2015

[1] Media Educational Foundation Documentary, Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land , U.S. Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 2004

[2] Mondoweiss,  Haaretz and New York Times Whitewash deadly airstrike on Sleeping Gaza Family. October 12, 2015.

[3] Mondoweiss,  You Can’t Say U.S. Media is Reporting Violence in Israel-Palestine in an Evenhanded Manner.,  October 22, 2015.

[4] Jessica Schulberg, Foreign Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post, Do Palestinian Lives Matter?

 October 2, 2015.

[5] Mondoweiss,  You Can’t Say U.S. Media is Reporting Violence in Israel-Palestine in an Evenhanded Manner.,  October 22, 2015.

Child Abuse

I have in mind a frightened Palestinian kid, probably 8 years old, being held by four Israeli soldiers, fully armed for combat. He was so terrified that he had wet his jeans and there was no one, no parent, pastor or city mayor to protect him and tell him that he was going to be all right.  They knew full well that he was not going to be all right. In fact, he was going to be subjected to isolation and inhumane treatment. And he knew it.

Israel has no conscience even when it comes to abusing children.

Jewish scholar and author Marc Ellis made me aware of this when 25 years ago he wrote of a local mukhtar being ordered by an Israeli captain to round up twelve Arab boys:

The soldiers shackled the villagers, and with their hands bound behind their backs, they were led to a bus. The bus started to move and after 200-300 meters it stopped beside an orchard. The “locals” were taken off the bus and led into the orchard in groups of three. Every group was accompanied by an officer. In the darkness of the orchard, the soldiers shackle the Hawara residents’ legs and laid them on the ground.  Officers urged the soldiers to get it over with quickly, “so we can leave and forget about it.” Then flannel was stuffed into the Arab’s mouths to muffle their screams and the bus driver revved up the motor so that the noise would drown out their cries. The soldiers obediently carried out their orders; “to break their arms and legs by clubbing the Arabs, to remove their bonds after breaking their arms and legs and to leave them at the site.” Their mission was carried out.[i]

Soon after reading this, I had the opportunity to talk with Ellis. “Did this actually happen?” I asked. “Or is this some effort to slander Israel?” Immediately, and with tears in his eyes, he said, “I did not write a novel.”

During the first Intifada, according to the Washington Post, during the first 30 months of the uprising, Israeli soldiers have shot and killed 159 children and beaten thousands. More than 50,000 children were treated for injuries, including 6,500 wounded by gunfire. The average age of children killed was ten.  What was their crime?  Heaving stones, scribbling slogans on walls, or displaying Palestinian flags.[ii]  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[iii]

Of course, that was twenty-five years ago.  Someone said that it must have involved extenuating circumstances. (Of course, when Israel is involved, it is always extenuating circumstances.)

So, what has changed?  According to Middle East Children’s Alliance:

Today, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are growing up in decrepit refugee camps, with more arriving every day. Meanwhile children in Palestine continue to suffer “Israel’s acts of aggression” in their daily lives under occupation… Just since the year 2000, more than 1,400 Palestinian children have been killed.  (That’s one child every three days for thirteen years.)  Also, by the end of April, a total of 196 Palestinian children were imprisoned and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system. Each year, approximately 500-700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12 years, are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system.[iv]

In the past year, Israel’s abuse would include the murder of over 500 children in Gaza. According to Na’im Ateek, their crime included being born on the wrong side of Israel’s wall, playing soccer on the beach or taking refuge in UN “safe” places  Yet, our media has little to report about the torn and burned little bodies of innocent children.[v]  Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a designated shelter in Gaza,” said Pierre Krahenbuhi, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. “Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today, the world stands disgraced.”[vi]

In addition to the deliberate killings, when Israel demolishes homes by the thousands, uproots olive trees by the tens of thousands, blows up sewage and water treatment plants, when over half a million people are displaced and 10,000 wounded, it doesn’t take much imagination to know that children suffer the most.

Then there is the burning alive of 18 month old Ali Dawabsheh by settlers who tossed a fire bomb into his home, a bomb which also killer both of his parents.  A crime which has gained little attention in the US media.

And even in Jerusalem. Just last week (Sept 20, 2015) Israeli forces “fractured the skull of Mohammad Issa, a 13 year old boy.”  Two days earlier (Sept 18) 10 year old Yousef Sami Yehya Dari remained in the hospital for nine days receiving treatment for a gunshot in the back causing painful injury to his spleen from which he may never recover.   And last  night (Sept 20) Israeli forces entered a Palestinian family home and kidnapped an 8 year old girl and arrested three young men. No reason was given. Even walking to school can be dangerous with multiple checkpoints where children as young as 4 years old are subject to bag-searches, frisking, detention and arrest by heavily armed Israeli soldiers, who often without warning fire tear gas grenades.[vii]

No wonder that little kid wet his pants.  I would have too.

Thomas Are

September 24, 2015

[i]  Rosemary Radford Ruether  and Marc Ellis, Beyond Occupation,  (Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.) p. 1

[ii] “Rights Group accuses Israel of Violence Against Children in Palestinian Uprising,” Washington Post, May 17, 1990. Cited in my book, Israeli Peace/Palestinian Justice, (Clarity Press, 1994) p.16.

[iii] From same article,  Washington Post May 17, 1990

[iv] UN Day for Children Victims of Israel’s Acts of Aggression,  Middle East Children’s Alliance, June 4, 2014.

[v] Na’im Ateek, For the sake of the Burning Children of Gaza, Sabeel Ecumenical  Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem, July 30, 2014

[vi] World stands Disgraced as Israel Bombs Another UN-Designated Shelter in Gaza. Published by Common Dreams, july 30, 2014

[vii] Israeli Forces Fractured Teen’s Skull as Jerusalem Demonstrations Continue,  Mondoweiss, September 21, 2015. 

Drinking Poison

Someone said, “A fool drinks poison expecting his enemy to die.”  I can’t think of a more fitting image for Benjamin Netanyahu.   Know it or not, he is killing himself.

There is a fascinating children’s story about an emperor who wears no clothes. The point of the story is that the emperor walks around naked and he is the only one who does not know that he is wearing no clothes. I think of Netanyahu. He is drugged on his own propaganda, chosenness, power and wealth and does not know that he is actually choking  himself.

He is poisoned by his own propaganda.  While the whole world saw television images of the senseless bombing of Gaza, the deliberate killing of men, women and children, the targeting of schools, hospitals, ambulances, electrical and sewage plants plus the destruction of agricultural fields, live stock and farms, Netanyahu still spoke of Israel as having “the most moral army on globe”.     He looks at five year old kids and can only see terrorists and justifies their massacre as an “act of self-defense”.  His nation supports two sets of laws, one for Jews and the other for non-Jews and he still speaks of Israel as the “only democracy in the Middle East”.  He steals land, labor, and resources, including water, from an occupied people and with a straight face calls Israel the “start-up nation.”  It is sad to see a man in power poisoned by his own propaganda.

And Chosenness.   I don’t know that Netanyahu has ever claimed to be a religious person. However, he loves that part in the Jewish scripture about God blessing those who bless Israel and cursing those who curse Israel.  Of course, this was recorded by a Jewish scribe who claims to have heard it from the Jewish God in a Jewish language and recorded it in his Jewish scared literature for all non-Jews to read and obey.

However, if we believe in monotheism, that there is one God over all, then when Israel celebrates Joshua’s victory over the Canaanites, was not God also God of the Canaanites? And if God won, does this not mean that God also lost?   More to the point, even in the Jewish Bible, chosenness carries with it the basic Jewish values of justice and charity. The land is held conditionally and is losable.

Wow! Chosenness really gets complicated.

Most outsiders would recognize that Netanyahu is poisoned by power.  Constantly having to outdraw and out shoot all his neighbors to survive is exhausting.  There has to be a better way to feel safe.  It’s an old saying, but true, that the only way to get rid of an enemy is to make a friend of him.  Israel had its chance but chose the poison of power as a means of dominating its enemies.  Thus Israel must invest more and more resources into maintaining its military might, and like salt water, the more it drinks, the more thirst it feels.  Never having enough power to feel secure, I wonder if Netanyahu lies awake at night yearning for more weapons, military aid and people without conscience to maintain his oppression of its neighbors.

When I remember how viciously the Nazis treated the Jews less than a century ago, it is impossible for me to understand how Netanyahu can turn around and abuse another people. He does it, not because he has a right, but simply because he is drunk with power.  His mind and heart must be so toxic until he is beyond memory, feeling or reason.  

Finally, Charity can become an addictive poison, especially when your very existence depends upon it.  Israel survives only by handouts from other people, mostly Americans.  In addition to the three to six billion dollars every year put in Israel’s cup by the US tax payer, hundreds of private, tax free, organizations send hundreds of millions of dollars to keep Israel afloat. However, with the ever growing needs of American people at home, even Netanyahu must realize that his “blank check” life line is in jeopardy.  More and more political leaders, especially Democrats, are beginning to ask why the fourth most powerful nation in the world needs our charity.  

There is no doubt that Israel has enemies. I can understand why.  I am an enemy of its policies. Yet, having said that, I do not wish harm to Netanyahu. I would strip him of his power if I could, which some believe would kill him, but I do not wish him dead.

Whether he believes in it or not, I believe his scripture, that he too is created in the image of God.  And, some day, maybe late in life, he is going to be lying on a bed and begin to feel a few qualms. Just because of the “image of God” in which he has been created, even Benjamin Netanyahu will realize that for most of his life, he has been drinking poison. And on that day I will feel sorry for him.

Thomas Are

September 3, 2015