Tag: Palestinians

Why My Posts Have Recently Become More Erratic

Perhaps you always thought my posts were erratic (…which reminds me of a story: back in the days when I was working with college students, I once met a young woman for coffee who asked me to define the word erotic. I thought this a bit odd, but answered her question and then asked one of my own.  Why do you ask?  “Oh,” she said. “I was trying to explain an idea to one of my professors. I was getting flustered and said, ‘Sorry, sometimes my thoughts become so erotic.’ I didn’t understand why he blushed and walked away.”  Ok. End of story.)

Even if you have always thought my postings were erratic – yes, I have erotic notions too, but I will never share them here with you – I feel the need to explain why they are now more erratic than usual.

I am trying to work diligently on my current book project, which means less time is available for blogging.  I will continue to post my occasional thoughts on theology, politics, world affairs and the church for you, my readers, who, for some odd reason, find my thoughts worth considering.

But, at least for the time being, the majority of my time will go to a new book addressing the damaging contributions made to the Israel-Palestine conflict by the advocates of Christian Zionism in the American church.

The book will have three interwoven streams of argument.

The first will discuss the history of Zionism and its implementation in Israel. The second will tell a few of the many heartbreaking stories I have personally encountered during my visits to the West Bank and Israel. The third will open up the Bible and explain how Christian Zionists (i.e. Christians who believe that modern Israel is God’s chosen nation) misinterpret Scripture with disastrously immoral consequences.

I am now working on chapter 4 (of a projected 12). After completing the first chapter that includes a personal story of Palestinian suffering, I sent a copy to my friends in the West Bank for their review. I have promised them that I will not publish anything personal without their approval.

So, after writing the story of a friend who was shot in the face, for no particular reason, by an Israeli soldier, I sent off the first draft.

Below is a short excerpt from his response:

You have presented a summary of our plight in the strongest way ever… It’s heart felt with facts and legal dimensions. It’s not biased with empty weak claims, but in defense of justice and humanitarian rights that’s rightfully presented. You made my soul cry and screaming…enough injustice…How the world is really blindfolded intentionally and unintentionally… I could never present our case any better…. thank you, brother…

Completing this book is my mission right now. It is one small thing that I can do. It may not be much, but just think of how different the world could be if everyone did the one small thing that they alone could do to improve the lives of others who were suffering.

I won’t disappear altogether, but I felt the need to tell everyone what I am up to.

My blog’s home page tells me that I have 485 subscribers. I find that hard to believe, to tell you the truth. I suspect that someone at Bluehost is pulling my leg. But I do appreciate those of you who actually exist out there is cyberspace and take the time to look at what I write.

I am extremely blessed. Yet, every day my blessings remind me of the unjust suffering endured by others whom Terry and I dearly love in the land of Palestine.

I am incensed at the way American Christians can use the Bible and theology to excuse the blatant oppression of an entire group of people. As I work my way through volumes of Christian Zionist literature I must periodically stop and take a break so as not to give myself a coronary.

Healthy theological debate is always worthwhile. But there is nothing healthy about any theology that teaches us, no matter how inadvertently, not to care about others.

No follower of Jesus Christ is ever justified, no matter what his/her theological argument may be, in siding with the strong against the weak; in enabling the powerful to exploit the powerless; in blessing the oppressors standing upon the neck of the oppressed; in using God’s word as a cover-story for murder, racial discrimination, and ethnic cleansing.

So, I’ve got to complete this task while I can.

Thank you for understanding.

The Poverty Stricken People of Gaza Continue to Threaten Israel’s Existence

Rockets have been fired from Gaza and Israel again worries about its imminent destruction…

Now for a word of sanity from Gideon Levy. His latest article is “The Gaza Ghetto Uprising.” You can read the article by clicking on the title above or take in the excerpt below:

“Everything is completely disconnected from context and reality, intentionally and willfully. Half a week after Holocaust Remembrance Day,  the knowledge that 2 million people have been locked up more than 12 years behind barbed wire in a giant cage doesn’t remind Israel of anything and doesn’t arouse anything. Half a week before Independence Day, the struggle for freedom and independence of another people is perceived as murderous terror for no reason.

“Even the desperate attempt to prevent the brink of starvation is perceived as greed; the effort to somehow impart the appearance of a holiday in the holiest month of the year is depicted as extortion. That’s how low the brainwashing goes and no one protests. Everyone accepts it with a shrug.  Anyone who doubts how hollow and destructive the inculcation of the Holocaust is in Israel should look at the responses in Israel to this Gaza Ghetto Uprising. Anyone who ignores the reality in Gaza or tries to deny its disaster has learned nothing.

“Gaza is a ghetto and what’s happening in the south is a ghetto uprising. There’s no other way to describe it. You can make claims against Hamas but you can’t make any claims against Gaza. It’s fighting for its freedom and no struggle is more just than its struggle, and Hamas is its leader.

“The countdown to Hamas’ death has already begun: Only seven more months until the UN report, until Gaza is unfit for human habitation. But Israel yawns and its spokespeople only know how to tout “deterrence,” that monster we’ve created to justify every killing, closure and bout of destruction, as we lie ourselves to death that there’s something to deter 2 million unemployed, desperate, humiliated people, some of whom are hungry or dying for lack of medical care, and all of whom are locked up…

“A country that is established on the memory of the ghettos, which only a few days ago sanctified that memory, hides its face from the much larger ghetto that it built with its own hands and doesn’t want to see, one hour from the center of that country. A country that was established in a bloody struggle will not recognize the justness of the struggle of another people and wonders whether that people even exists. A society that considers itself exemplary, which was established on the world’s indifference to its suffering, shows monstrous heartlessness to the suffering it is causing…”

Israeli Soldiers Shoot, Nearly Kill, An Unarmed Shepherd Boy

The Palestinian teenager was handcuffed and blind-folded, thrown to the ground.  When he tried to stand a soldier shot him and hit a major artery in his right leg.

He began to run. He was shot a second time, again with live ammunition.

Fortunately, a neighbor filmed the entire event. You can see for yourself in this Ha’aretz article.

The ever vigilant Gideon Levy has a follow-up account, giving more detail in today’s edition of Ha’aretz. Y0u can read the entire piece here, or check out the excerpt below:

“It all started last Thursday with a road accident in which Fatima Suleiman, a local teacher, was killed. Lately most of the access roads to the village have been blocked by the IDF, leaving one entrance, which opens dangerously onto the main road. That’s where Suleiman was killed. Osama Hajajeh attended the funeral, along with most of Tuqu’s residents, who are angry about their village being choked off by roadblocks. After the funeral, the young people went to demonstrate, some of them by throwing stones at military vehicles.

“Suddenly Hajajeh, a shepherd boy who had never been arrested, felt someone grabbing him from behind and throwing him to the ground. Between the olive trees, soldiers from the IDF unit had laid an ambush for the stone throwers. There were four to six soldiers, and after hurling the boy to the ground they handcuffed him behind his back, blindfolded him and began to drag him toward their jeep. At one point he remained kneeling on the ground, a soldier standing over him. The ground was thorny, Hajajeh relates now, from his hospital bed, so at one point he tried to get up for a minute and shake off the thorns. He now tells us, contrary to the published reports, that he had no intention of escaping – only to stand up. “How would I escape? With hands bound behind me and blindfolded?” he asks.

“The moment he stood up, a shot rang out. He says he didn’t feel anyone trying to grab him before the shot was fired at him. The bullet hit him in the right leg. Frightened to death, Hajajeh started to flee for his life. He didn’t yet feel pain in the leg, he says now, but he knew he was wounded. He had stumbled only a few steps before the second shot came, the bullet slamming into his left leg. Both shots struck him in the thigh, by the groin, but the second one hit a major blood vessel. He collapsed to the ground.

“He didn’t black out, but in the video clip he looks stunned. He remembers only that the woman from the village who reached him – also a teacher – removed his blindfold as he lay there.

“Ali-Mohammed Hajajeh, a construction worker of 47 with six other children – Osama is the third oldest – is a smiling man who understands that his son’s life was saved almost by a miracle. Osama remembers lying on the ground as the soldiers fired tear gas and brandished rifles at anyone who approached and tried to get him out of there. He was finally placed in the car of a village resident who rushed him to the local clinic; from there a Palestinian ambulance took him to the hospital. About half an hour passed from the moment he was wounded until he was evacuated.”

Hear the Gazan People Explain Their Protests

The Electronic Intifada posted an article yesterday where young men and women participating in the ongoing Day of Return Marches along the Gaza Imprisonment Fence explain why they continue to face down Israeli bullets week after week.

The article is entitled, “Why We Protest.” Click on the title for the entire article or read the excerpt below:

It is always important to listen to the ways in which others explain themselves, their actions and their attitudes.

When it comes to understanding Israel and Palestine, this is especially important because the Western media rarely tells the entire story, substituting Israeli government talking-points for real investigation.

The worst source of information, in this regard, is Christian media. Listening to the so-called “expert analysis” provided by Christian newscasters always makes me want to scream, shout, and pull my hair out because they are no different than the mainstream when it comes to mindlessly repeating the propaganda fed to them by Israel’s government.

Here are the typical explanations for why thousands of Gazan residents gather every week, offering up their bodies for Israeli army target practice:

  1. The vast majority of the Gazan’s who march are Hamas terrorists seeking to destroy Israel.
  2. Hamas completely controls the marches, directing everyone who participates.
  3. Israel is only defending its southern border from a hoard of would-be, foreign invaders who want to enter the country illegally. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
  4. The Palestinian Authority from the West Bank is trying to take control of Gaza away from Hamas so the people are out to defend Hamas.

Yes, I have heard each of these ignorant and utterly false “explanations” expressed by some Christian “expert” providing his/her insights into the “Palestinian problem” on Christian radio.

You can also read them all in any number of Christian news magazines, both in print and online.

However, I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that not a single one of these pontificators has every been inside of Gaza, or lived with a Gazan family, or interviewed any of the people who brave the live ammunition and tear gas shot at them by Israeli soldiers week after week.

How often do these spokespeople for Christian media let their audience hear, first hand, the words and the voices of the people who are being killed and wounded week after bloody week?  Never.

Folks, this is not journalism.  Nor is it Christian.

God’s people are supposed to care about Truth. If we care about the truth, then facts matter. If we want to know the facts, then we have to engage the people who are actually involved. We have to do research. We have to investigate. We have to listen to all sides, AND be open to hearing things we never expected. We have to be even-handed. We must be willing to change our minds. We’ve got to be willing to admit that we have been wrong, that we misunderstood. We have to stop repeating the things that others tell us to believe and learn to think for ourselves.

More than that, we must be ready to repent, to confess our past errors. We must speak Truth to Power as we Speak Up for those who suffer, who are marginalized and ignored.

We have got to call sin sin, identify evil as evil, and condemn atrocities even when committed by those we call friends.

Here are only two of the stories from this article:

“More than 200 Palestinians have been killed since the launch of the Great March of Return along Gaza’s boundary with Israel on 30 March 2018.

“Palestinians participating in the protest series are demanding their right to return to the lands on the other side of the boundary from which their families were expelled decades earlier.

“Every two in three Palestinians in Gaza is a refugee.

“Protesters are also calling for an end to Israel’s land, sea and air blockade on Gaza, now in its 12th year, which has plunged the territory into poverty and despair.

“Mohammed Zaanoun, a member of the Activestills photo collective, has documented the Great March of Return since its beginning.

“Here protesters tell their stories and explain why they come back to the boundary week after week, despite Israel’s brutal crackdown.

Husam, 25, from Khan Younis, southern Gaza

“Last Friday, when I had the Palestinian flag painted on my face, I was hit by a gas canister directly in my back. I was badly injured and transferred to a hospital. I’m now being treated at home. I wish to recover so I can go [back to the protests] next Friday.

“Despite the killings and the injuries, I am still going. I think I will keep participating even if it lasts for nine years, not just nine months. One of the worst things I’ve seen was one of the Fridays during which about 60 people were killed, when they [soldiers] were killing youth randomly and shooting towards heads and legs. It was a horrific day. I felt like I was in a nightmare.

“It was so hard when I could not save one of my comrades who was bleeding on the ground after being injured by an Israeli sniper, and then he died. I can’t understand how they can kill unarmed people.

“After nine months, the world is still not doing anything. We need them to stand with us and to stop the killing of the unarmed youth by the occupying forces…

Aya, 21, from Gaza City

“I participate because it is our duty to demand our full rights, as the Palestinian people, despite the killing and the injuries. This is the march of a nation.

“I ask Avichay Adraee [the Israeli army spokesperson who advised Palestinian women on Twitter that it was best for them to stay at home] to sit next to his wife instead of spreading foolish speech. I have witnessed so many scenes of children being killed and the targeting of women, medics and the press. My oldest sister was seriously wounded but thank God she survived and she returned to the protest again. After all that time, the Return march continues and will not stop.

“I wish that the world would stop the oppression of the occupation and the killing of innocent, unarmed people. The difficult thing in my life is that I’m looking for a future amid the darkness. I wish to live in a society like any other Arab or Western society where there are no wars or killings, only justice, equality, love and peace….”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naturally, many folks (including many Christians) will accuse these people of lying. They will say, in effect, that they are not worth believing…

But why? Because they are Palestinians?

Are Palestinians not capable of telling the truth? Are they not able to think for themselves, to make up their own minds?

Such popular accusations of lying or serving as useful Hamas stooges not only express the crudest form of racism, they also reveal that the one expressing such foolishness has never put his/her life on the line for a heartfelt conviction.

How many people do you know who are willing to die for something they know is a lie?

U.S. Media Ignores Israeli Chants for Genocide While Condemning Legitimate Criticism of Pro-Zionist Lobby Groups

I am offering this post to highlight the stark contrast that exists between the way U.S. news outlets cover criticism of Israel (think of Rep. Ilhan Omar) vs. the way it covers, or fails to cover, truly horrific, racist events in Israel itself.

The difference is telling.

The events described in the article below occurred in 2016.  Think back two

A large anti-Palestinian rally in Tel Aviv. The sign says, Kill Them All

years ago. Can you remember hearing a news story describing these anti-Palestinian rallies in Tel Aviv?

Compare the number of times you’ve heard a public figure suggest that Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite with the number of similar condemnations you’ve heard of these despicable Israeli demonstrations.

The article was written by Whitney Webb, a reporter for Mint Press News. She describes an anti-Palestinian rally in Tel Aviv, Israel.  The article is entitled, “Thousands of Israelis Take to the Streets Calling for Palestinian Genocide.”

Israel in 2016 was no different than it is today. No, I take that back. Israel in 2019 may be worse.

While mainstream America, including too many of our politicians, are ready to muzzle Israel’s critics, a sizeable portion of Israeli citizens publicly advocate racist violence against Palestinians.

So, which is the more “dangerous” type of speech?  Ilhan Omar’s criticism of the power of pro-Zionist lobbying groups in D.C.?  Or large public rallies in Israel calling for the genocide of the Palestinian people?

You can read the entire article by clicking on the title above.  I also provide an excerpt below:

“Israeli government concern over recent violence has led them to arrest Palestinians for social media content that could potentially lead to crimes. So far, 145 Palestinians have been arrested this year for ‘pre-crime’ via social media ‘incitement.’ This practice eventually led to a collaboration between Facebook and the Israeli government, whose joint effort to curb social media ‘incitement’ has led to the banning of several Facebook accounts of Palestinian journalists and news agencies.

“However, social media, as well as mainstream Western media, have failed to condemn Israeli ‘incitement’ against Palestinians, a practice that is surprisingly

Another anti-Palestinian rally in Israel, photographed by Dan Cohen, a Jewish-American journalist. The crowd was chanting, Death to Arabs.

common considering the little to no attention it receives. Often these anti-Palestinian posts, pictures, and rallies are rife with calls for genocide, with cries of ‘Death to the whole Arab nation’ and ‘Kill them all’ surprisingly common.

“Even the Times of Israel ran an op-ed article about ‘When Genocide is Permissible’ in reference to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Though the post was eventually taken down, it points to an all-too-common and dangerous mentality that social media, the Israeli government, and Western media ‘conveniently’ ignore.

“An Israeli news agency even put the then-suspected preferential treatment to the test and found that Facebook and the Israeli authorities treated calls for revenge from Palestinians and Israelis very differently.

“Even massive rallies calling for Palestinian genocide have been ignored entirely by social media and the corporate press. Earlier this year in April, a massive anti-Palestinian rally took place in Tel Aviv where thousands called for the death of all Arabs. The rally was organized to support an Israeli soldier who killed an already-wounded Palestinian by shooting him execution-style in the head…

“A Jewish reporter at the scene remarked that it seemed ‘more like a celebration of murder than anything.’ Despite the obvious animosity and incitement made evident at the rally, it isn’t difficult to imagine what the response would have been if this has been a pro-Palestinian rally calling for the deaths of Jews. The stark divide between what is permissible for Palestinians and what is permissible for Israelis should concern us all as the widespread bias of social media, the press, and many governments threaten to blind us from the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

In Israel Fascism Can Smell Like Democracy

Perhaps you have heard about the strange campaign ad recently released by Israel’s Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked. It describes her favorite perfume

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked

called Fascism. But she believes it smells like Democracy.

I am posting a copy of the ad with accompanying English translation below.  Take a look:

 

Throughout her political career, Shaked has objected whenever the Supreme Court has (periodically) defended the civil rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens.

She despises “liberal” activists who condemn Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and described all Palestinians as inherently violent people who deserve to be eradicated.

She was a prominent advocate for Israel’s recently approved Jewish Nation-State Law which explicitly defines Israel as a state of, for and by Jews and Jews alone.

In other words, Shaked’s ad is mocking anyone who fails to understand what has, in fact, always been the truth about Israel — Israel’s political Zionism provides democracy for its Jewish population and no one else.

At least Shaked has the cajones to discard political double-speak. Unlike most politicians, she says what she means.

George Orwell once wrote that “political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Nothing embodies Orwell’s maxim on the political abuse of language more graphically than Zionism’s stranglehold on the definition of “acceptable discourse” concerning Israel.

Take, for instance, Israel’s insistence on referring to itself as the only democracy in the Middle East.

Shaked believes in that lie as much as any successful politician in Israel. It’s a given.  What sets her apart however is her willingness to say what she actually means, what in fact every Zionist politician means by those words.

Israel has never been a democracy for all its citizens. But that stark reality has always been obscured by the smoke and mirrors of Zionist propaganda and its successful redefinition of words like democracy.

Shaked, on the other hand, is a rare phenomenon:  she is an honest Zionist.

She has publicly declared that if genuine democracy (e.g. equal treatment for everyone before the law) happens to threaten Zionist Israel’s status as an exclusively Jewish state populated and governed by a Jewish majority (which it certainly does), then Israel must give up its pretense of democracy.

That is the point of her ad.  And, even though few will admit to it, that is why her ad has caused such a stir within Israel and around the world.

Shaked is not playing the traditional Zionist word-games.  And for that, at least, I admire her.

She presents the ugly face of political Zionism for what it is: a mask.

It may be a lovely mask for Israel’s Jewish majority – just as Shaked could be a model if she wanted a new career – but for Israel’s Palestinian minority, Zionism has always meant fascism.

The Great March of Return, One Year Later

An estimated 40,000 Palestinians gathered in Gaza today (read the entire article for the figures listed below), as they have every week for the past year, in order to celebrate the anniversary of their Great March of Return rallies protesting their 12 year confinement.

As always, they were met by armed Israeli tanks and soldiers on the opposite side of the fence. That’s right. It’s sling shots against tanks.  And it’s not really a “border.” Israel has no internationally recognized borders. Palestinians and the Israeli military face-off at a prison fence.

During today’s rally, 4 more people were shot dead, 3 of them teenagers. 40 more people were wounded.

Over the past twelve months,  the Israeli army has murdered 194 people, including women, children (41), medics (3) and journalists (2).

More than 29,000 people have been wounded, over 7,000 by live ammunition resulting in 120+ limb amputations.  Evidence indicates that much of this ammunition is of the exploding variety deliberately used to cause maximum tissue damage.

Let that number sink in: 29,000 people shot, many permanently injured and maimed for protesting their illegal imprisonment.

It’s called mass murder, maybe even genocide.  The one thing it is NOT is Israeli self-defense.

Israel is not protecting a border; it is executing ethnic cleansing.  According to Israeli sources, as reported by U.N. investigators, “No Israeli civilian deaths or injuries were reported during or resulting from the
demonstrations.” Only 4 Israeli soldiers have been injured, none killed.

So the score is Israel — 29,000; Palestinians — 4. Not much of a match, if you ask me.

As usual, the world remains silent in the face of Israeli bloodletting.  Well, almost.  The United Nations recently released a 22 page report from its Human Rights Counsel detailing and condemning Israel’s persistent violation of “international humanitarian law.”

The Council concluded that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.  But since when has a U.N. report changed national behavior?

The Israeli government immediately condemned the report, as it always does whenever anyone tries to call them to account.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, responded with the tried-and-true “poor me, I’m the victim” defense,  insisting that the “council is blinded by hatred of Israel.”

No nation has fine-tuned the self-pitying instrument of perpetual victimhood as masterfully as Israel. It is her favorite tool in the propaganda arsenal. If you can’t dispute the facts, attack the messenger knowing full well that your fellow bullies will eagerly join you in the fray.

Sure enough, the United States remains Israel’s favorite partner in international bullying, having consistently blocked such investigations whenever possible.

And the #1 American enablers of Israel’s brutal criminality is not the pro-Zioniist lobby AIPAC but the conservative Christian church. (Check out these article: here and here and here and here. )

So, once again, just as the German Christian church embraced Adolf Hitler; just as Christians of the Confederacy defended slavery; just as the Pilgrims of Massachusetts Bay slaughtered Native Americans to make way for their New Zion; so American evangelicals blissfully bless Israel’s weekly massacre of encaged Palestinians without a twinge of doubt, shame, or guilt.

There is no greater testament to the death of the evangelical social conscience and the self-absorption of American Christianity.

 

Israel Loves Collective Punishment

Osama bin-Laden’s writings explain that the 9/11 Al Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers was a response to US imperialism in the Middle East; particularly the presence of American troops on Saudi Arabian soil.  That was a defilement of the holy land, in his eyes.

Bin-Laden justified the mass-murder attack in the heart of New York City because, in his mind, all Americans were equally guilty for the crimes of U.S. forces around the world.

Bin-Laden saw American civilians in the same way that many 19th century military commanders viewed Native Americans.  They were all equally guilty of resisting white settlement.  Therefore, all of them, including women, children and the elderly, were legitimate targets for white retribution.

Israel thinks the same way about Palestinians. As a nation, Israel stands in the same moral league as Osama bin-Laden and Col. John Chivington (the man responsible for the Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in 1864).

Gaza bombarded again

Once again, Israel is bombing the people of Gaza after several Israeli’s were tragically killed when their home was struck by a rocket fired from within Gaza.

Personally, I wish everyone would stop dropping bombs and firing rockets.

Both sides are behaving like Osama bin-Laden.  But there is no question that Israel remains the aggressor, the instigator of this entire horrible tragedy. How long will this Zionist state keep the people of Gaza locked up inside their open-air prison, with minimal food supplies and no –that’s right, NO – sources for clean drinking water anywhere?

Israel has always used this strategy of collective punishment.

I have seen it with my own eyes.

We were living with friends in the West Bank during the run up to Israel’s last assault on Gaza in 2014, Operation “Protective Edge.”

Three Israeli settlers from one of the many illegal settlements popping up

Operation Brother’s Keeper, every member of the Hamas political party was arrested and jailed

around the West Bank like mushrooms on steroids were kidnapped and later found dead. (I may write about the supposed search and rescue efforts – called Operation Brother’s Keeper – which swirled around us that summer in a future post.)

Israel had identified two suspects, though they never released any evidence to verify their definitive claims. Israeli officials said the two men were members of Hamas (the party that now governs Gaza), even though Hamas representatives not only vehemently denied the connection, but insisted that Hamas had nothing to do with the kidnappings.

The Hamas argument was entirely believable, given that Hamas was in delicate negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (the group that governs the West Bank) to form a unity government. Jeopardizing those negotiations with such a senseless stunt, knowing that it would bring down the wrath of Israel, made no sense at all.  (By the way, Israel’s government at that time hated the idea of a unified Palestinian government.)

We had become friends with an independent photojournalist that summer.  One evening she learned that the Israeli military was entering Hebron on a search and destroy mission. They intended to arrest their two suspects or at least let the Palestinian community know the consequences of not handing them over.

Our journalist friend intended to document the mayhem, and I was going along to take photos of my own.  Late into the night we searched for transportation to Hebron, but every effort failed.  Reports were circulating about gangs of Jewish settlers roaming the streets, together with the soldiers, attacking Palestinian cars and pedestrians.  No one was willing to drive us.

In the morning, we caught the first public bus to Hebron.  My friend had heard that Israel soldiers had bombed two Palestinian homes.  Since the soldiers were unable to find the two suspects, they located two family homes of the suspects’ relatives and destroyed them completely.

Eventually, we found both homes.  The shell-shocked families led us through the ruins.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, was left intact.  You can see it all for yourself in the accompanying photos.

Anything that was breakable was broken.  Everything shreddable had been shredded. All foodstuffs were torn from their bags or containers and strewn everywhere.

Both families were made to sit at a table and watch as the soldiers ridiculed them, hitting, kicking and slapping them, insisting that they tell them the whereabouts of their accused cousins.

Finally, once every nook and cranny of the homes were made unlivable, the soldiers walked upstairs to detonate a bomb in the family room.

Both explosions sent concrete walls flying through the air, opening large, gaping wounds blackened by flames. Fires raged throughout the remains as both families were forced to watch their belongings go up in smoke.  Once the soldiers left, they were free to put out the fires as best they could.

As I walked through the ruins, taking in the heartlessness and injustice of it all, I thought of General Sherman’s strategy of eliminating the American Indian.  His subordinates received explicit commands to kill, burn and destroy everything and everyone they met.  Attacking an Indian village meant that nothing was left standing.

Collective punishment has always been at the heart of Israel’s Palestinian policy.

Imagine that you are awakened late one night by soldiers kicking down your front door. Your children are pulled out of their beds and everyone is made to sit at the kitchen table.

Then the soldiers inform you that your second cousin (on your mother’s side) is suspected of a serious crime.  If you don’t tell the police where to find him, they will destroy you home.

Think about that.

Your cousin is suspected of a crime.  He has not been arrested or charged, much less tried or convicted. No evidence of your cousin’s involvement has been presented anywhere. Not in court; not on a charge sheet; and certainly not in the media.

The government can simply make a naked, unsubstantiated accusation. And on the basis of that accusation, your home will be demolished.  Why?  Because you are related to the accused.

Yep.  That, my friends, is what passes as “justice” for Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

Similar situations occur over and over again, month after month in the Occupied Territories.

And people wonder why rockets fly out of Gaza…

Out of the Mouth of Bibi

“Out of the mouths of babes,” so the old saying goes.  Children, in their naivete, are often more familiar with the truth than those jaded grown-ups talking in “grown-up” speak all around them.

But sometimes speaking the truth can also help the cynical prime minister of Israel jockeying for position in his upcoming, national elections.

Bibi is trying to woo the right.  He has always been a right-winger, but he is desperately working to polish his ethnocratic-Jewish-nationalist credentials.

So, baby Bibi (aka Benjamin) Netanyahu dared to speak the truth about Israel’s institutionalized, state-run racism — Israeli democracy is not for everyone, but only for its Jewish citizens.

That’s what he said.  Netanyahu was prompted to lay bare the ugly truth about life in Israel by a

Israeli actress, Rotem Sela

posting on social media from the Israeli actress Rotem Sela.  (You can read the complete story about this racial broo-haha in Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post newspapers.)

In response to a televised political interview promoting Israel’s Jewish exclusiveness, Ms. Sela wrote a social media posting saying that:

“Israel is a country for all its citizens. And every person was born equal. Arabs, too, God help us, are human beings. And so are the Druze. And so are gays, by the way, and lesbians, and…shock…leftists.”

In reply, Netanyahu uploaded a picture of himself against the backdrop of an Israeli flag, and said:

“Dear Rotem, an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens.

Bibi Netanyahu

According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People – and them alone.” (emphasis mine)

You can read about the other Israeli celebrities, including the actress who played Wonder Woman, jumping into the debate here.  The article is entitled “Wonder Woman vs. Bibi.”

What I find amazing about this Israeli conversation is not the prime minister’s willingness to openly admit that Israel is NOT a nation for all its citizens.  Nor am I surprised to read about celebrities giving voice to their humanitarian instincts, desiring justice and equality for all of Israel’s citizens.

What amazes me the most is the utter lack of self-understanding, the absence of any cultural or historical awareness on the part of these Israeli “liberals” who can say things as:

“Israel is a country for all its citizens. And every person was born equal. Arabs, too, God help us, are human beings.”

Really?  Since when?, I wonder.

I wonder, has Ms. Sela ever  lived in an Arab (read Palestinian) neighborhood, either in Israel or the Occupied Territories?

Has she seen the gross inequality for herself?

Has she ever witnessed the daily experience of Israeli Palestinians whose

A Palestinian family in East Jerusalem. Israeli authorities demolished their home because the state wants their property for Jewish construction

schools, hospitals, trash collectors (and every other sector of public services) are dramatically under-funded in comparison to the wealthy, well-subsidized Jewish neighborhoods nearby?

Has she watched the weekly slaughter of Palestinian protesters in Gaza, innocent men, women and young people being gunned down by the beloved Israeli army?

The results of Israeli bombing in Gaza

Has she ever watched the daily dehumanization suffered by Palestinians in the West Bank as Israeli soldiers abuse them for doing nothing more than walking to school or driving to a neighbor’s house?

Sure, many resident Palestinians are technically “citizens of Israel.”  But they are always second-class citizens.  Just as African-Americans were second-class citizens in this country long after they had received the right to vote.

I once asked a member of an Israeli leftist organization working to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, how it was possible for an entire society to exist where the vast majority of the people refuse to see, or cannot see, the gross injustices daily inflicted upon its Palestinian population.

After a pause, she shook her head and said:

“Zionism has done an amazing job at branding an illusion.  It’s a collective psychosis.”

So, while I admire these celebrity instincts, we also need to challenge Rotem Sela and her friends to shake off their Zionist psychosis.

To raise a ruckus, challenge, confront and overthrow the entire, elaborate, dehumanizing affair known as political Zionism, from top to bottom.

Dig down to the roots and pull it all out. It has always been rotten to the core.

Israeli Journalist Says, Keep It Up, Ilhan Omar!

Gideon Levy, of Haaretz newspaper, has written an important endorsement of Ilhan Omar and her fellow newcomers to Congress.  Mr. Levy is an anti-

Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy

Zionist, Israeli Jew who has condemned the inhumanity of political Zionism, both in Israel and the US, for many years.

Levy speaks as an insider and knows what he is talking about.  We should listen to him.

His article is entitled, “Keep It Up, Ilhan Omar.”

I have copied the article below:

“Maybe Mogadishu will turn out to be the source of hope. This war-torn city was the birthplace of the most promising U.S. congresswoman today.

“Ilhan Omar is not only one of the first two female Muslim members of the

Rep. Ilhan Omar

House of Representatives, she may herald a dramatic change in that body. “Hamas has entered the House,” Roseanne Barr was quick to cry out; “A black day for Israel,” tweeted Donald Trump. Neither Hamas nor a black day, but a glimmer of hope on Capitol Hill.

“Maybe, for the first time in history, someone will dare tell the truth to the American people, absorbing scathing accusations of anti-Semitism, without bowing her head. The chances of this happening aren’t great; the savage engine of the Jewish lobby and of Israel’s “friends” is already doing everything it can to trample her.

“The president mentioned removing her from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Congress was set to pass a resolution, the second in one month, against uttering “anti-Semitic expressions,” specifically aimed at Omar’s statements.

“When will Americans and Europeans stop running scared every time someone screams “anti-Semitism”? Until when will Israel and the Jewish establishment succeed in exploiting (the existing) anti-Semitism as a shield against criticism? When will the world dare to distinguish between legitimate criticism of an illegitimate reality and anti-Semitism?

“The gap between these two is great. There is anti-Semitism one must fight, and there is criticism of Israel and the Jewish establishment it is imperative to support. Manipulations exercised by the Israeli propaganda machine and the Jewish establishment have managed to make the two issues identical.

“This is the greatest success of the Israeli government’s hasbara [the Hebrew word for propaganda]: Say one critical word about Israel and you’re labeled an anti-Semite. And labeled an anti-Semite, your fate is obvious. Omar has to break this cursed cycle. Is the young representative from Minnesota up for it? Can she withstand the power centers that have already mobilized against her in full force?

“Maybe it’s important that she knows there are people in Israel crossing fingers for her? 

“Her success and that of her congressional colleagues, Rashida Tlaib from Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, could be the first swallows that herald the coming of spring. This is the spring of freely expressing opinions about Israel in America. Cortez already asked this week why isn’t bigotry aimed at other groups condemned just like statements against Israel are.

“What, after all, has Omar said? That pro-Israel activists demand “allegiance to a foreign country”; that U.S. politicians support Israel because of money they receive from the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, and that “Israel hypnotized the world.” What is incorrect in these statements? Why is describing reality considered anti-Semitic?

“Jews have immense power in the U.S., far beyond the relative size of their community, and the blind support given by their establishment to Israel raises legitimate questions regarding dual loyalty. Their power derives from their economic success, their organizational skills and the political pressure they exert. Omar dared to speak about this.

“Just imagine what Israelis and Jews would feel if Muslim Americans had the same political, economic and cultural power Jews have. Such power, above all the intoxication with power that has seized hold of the Jewish establishment, comes with a price. Omar and her colleagues are trying to collect on it.

“Due to the Israel lobby, the U.S. does not know the truth about what is happening here. Congress members, senators and shapers of public opinion who are flown here ad nauseam see only Israeli victimhood and Palestinian terror, which apparently emerged out of nowhere. Islamists, Qassam rockets and incendiary balloons – not a word about occupation, expropriation, refugees and military tyranny. Questions such as where the money goes and whether it serves American interests are considered heresy. When talking about Israel one must not ask questions or raise doubts.

“This cycle has to be broken as well. It’s not right and it’s not good for the Jews. Omar is now trying to introduce a new discourse to Congress and to public opinion. Thanks to her and her colleagues there is a chance for a change in America. From Israel we send her our wishes for success.

“When will the world dare to distinguish between legitimate criticism of an illegitimate Israeli reality and anti-Semitism?” (all emphasis mine)