The genocide is not over

In these terrible times of ramped up political violence, including the murder of a protester in Minneapolis, it's extraordinary to open HVI and see a letter that seems to threaten lethal violence against the Women in Black who stand outside the library each Saturday. This letter is in line with the verbal and physical bullying carried out by the pro-Israel counter-protesters across the street--obvious to any observer, and serious enough that WIB has had to request police protection.

The claim that WIB does not protest wars other than Israel's is manifestly untrue. An example: last week's vigil included signs protesting the bombing and kidnapping in Venezuela and demanding an end to this reckless aggression.

Over the years WIB has stood against injustice on many different fronts including climate breakdown and reproductive rights. Since October 2023 the group has focused on the carnage in Gaza and the West Bank because the US is bankrolling it, making US taxpayers directly complicit in these horrendous massacres (not the case, for example, in Ukraine or Sudan). It is our responsibility--yours and mine--to do all we can to end it.

And no, the genocide is not over: as of early January over 400 people have been killed in Israeli bombings since the so-called ceasefire, including at least 70 children. Hundreds more have died from starvation, exposure, and disease. The numbers grow daily.

Jo

To the Editor:

 

As a 78 year old Jewish man I find “Ava Lowle’s” letter which states  that  “Someone is going to get killed…in New Paltz”  extremely disturbing and frightening.  In the past, I have received face-to-face death threats from pro-Israel Zionist demonstrators who  threatened me with,  “I will kill you!” accompanied with  throat cutting gestures.  And yes,  I did report this to the nearby  police and the officer did have a conversation with the Zionist who threatened me, but no further action was taken.  This is not the only death threat that I (and others) have received while peacefully demonstrating  to end the ongoing Israeli genocide and war crimes  in Gaza.  

The police and district attorney need to immediately and thoroughly investigate “Ava Lowle”  and her apparent call for a “public tragedy”  where “Someone is going to get killed.”  I have also witnessed pro-Israel Zionist demonstrators verbally attacking and threatening passing cars.  In some cases the Zionists actually ran into oncoming  traffic,  literally chasing cars and  screaming  and taunting  drivers to “get out of their cars!”  “Ava Lowle”  asks,  “What will make this stop?”  Good question.  A  good beginning would be a thorough investigation by the police and the district attorney.  

As long as we still have our rights of free speech and assembly,  “Ava Lowle” is welcome to organize and demonstrate about Ukraine, Africa, Venezuela,  Minneapolis or anywhere else where people are suffering.  Of course,  the pro-Israel Zionist supremacists are desperate to curb any speech that exposes Israel’s criminal genocide, starvation of children, land theft, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.  For Zionists, only pro-Israel propaganda (hasbara) is allowed.  In a desperate attempt to silence free speech and  criticism of Israel, the Zionist billionaire Larry Ellison (at the urging of Prime Minister Netanyahu)  purchased Tic-Tok and CBS  to try to repair Israel’s image and regain control of the narrative.  But it’s too late,  Americans have come to realize that Israel is a racist,  rogue nation and a  pariah state doomed to failure and collapse.  

Eli Kassirer

The Empire and Its Ruling Class

 
The United States is in a time of transition, from democracy to imperial rule. Of course, the overthrow of Venezuela was a long time coming. Trump wasn't the only president to shred international law and proclaim that anything the empire wants is fair game. No, our two party, one military industrial complex has been waging illegal wars for years.

Trump's overthrow of yet another country, however, is without the usual nuance or pretense. Perhaps he doesn't have the vocabulary to say things in more than one way. The US wants all the world's oil, so it is willing to destroy the Middle East to get it. Israel is our partner in crime, and no slaughter of the Palestinians is too much. No subterfuge here.

One change in US imperialism is the level of profiteering that our president is willing to take part in. He will be building gambling casinos on the bones of six million Palestinian people. A Gilded Age charnel house.   

Another aspect of this different direction seems even more dramatic. The rest of the world has come to expect naked imperialism from our country, so there is little change in their expectations. The "land of the free" will continue taking what it wants. No, this transition is about who runs the empire once it has committed itself to crimes against humanity. Like various authoritarian regimes in the past, the US will now be run by its billionaire class, freed from all the complexities of representative democracy. Welcome to a fascist America.

Fred Nagel

Entrenched bias and selective outrage

The media reaction to the deadly attack on Jewish Hanukah celebrants at Bondi Beach in Australia has revealed far more about entrenched bias and selective outrage than about the incident itself. Within hours, large parts of the press and broadcast media shifted their focus away from the massacre and toward exploiting the attack to mount an assault on pro-Palestine demonstrations around the world, branding them as complicit in antisemitic violence.

This response followed a familiar pattern: a criminal act was weaponized to smear a global protest movement that has consistently mobilized against mass killing, genocide, and state violence--Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza. Framing the Palestine rights movement as responsible deliberately obscures a basic truth--our demonstrations have always been against killing, mass slaughter, starvation, and genocide. They are protests against the destruction of civilian life, not against Jews or anyone else.

Many of the shocked, shocked commentators now expressing alarm about violence are the same figures who, over the past two years, justified or remained silent about Israel's bombardment of Gaza, rationalized the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, or said nothing as hospitals, schools, and refugee camps were reduced to rubble.

It's also interesting to note what has been minimized, marginalized, and played down: a Syrian Arab Muslim man, Ahmad Al-Ahmad, jumped one of the shooters and prevented him from continuing his killing spree. His actions should have been central to the story; instead, they are nearly erased. Why? Because the facts interfere with the false notion that Muslims are inherently violent, driven by hatred of Jews.

Conflating peaceful protests against genocidal atrocities with a criminal act draws attention away from those atrocities and chills legitimate dissent.

But we will not be chilled. We refuse to allow smears to replace facts, or selective outrage to silence a movement rooted in the most basic moral demand of all--that human life, Palestinian life, must matter.

JOIN US!

Woefully silent

To the Editor:
Jesus is love - Christmas his birth.  Churches have been woefully silent about Israels two year  genocide in Gaza. Considering that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and would be Palestinian, it seems inexplicable that the churches are so quiet (except for the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac in Palestine).  Jesus message, “love the poor, the sick, the oppressed.”

The State of Israel, despite the “ceasefire” continues to bomb, bury, and kill innocent Palestinian women, children, babies, and men.  The people of Gaza are still being deprived of food, water, and medicine.  Two million are trapped and terrified by the IDF.  Our government supports and funds these atrocities with your tax dollars.  What would Jesus do?  Pray, witness, speak, act?  What are the  churches doing?  What are you doing?  Are Christians supporting genocide and starvation with silence?  Learn the truth at electronicintifada.net or read about Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac.  

Consider joining a local group like mideastcrisis.org or jewishvoiceforpeace.org.  Perhaps, join with Women In Black who stand peacefully in solidarity with Palestine every Saturday from 12:30-1:30 in front of the New Paltz Elting Library.  You might even feel motivated to call the White House 202-456-1111 or Pat Ryan 202-225-5614 and say “No U.S. weapons or money to fund Israeli genocide.”  So as we celebrate his birth the question, “What would Jesus do?”

The Gaza "Ceasefire" is a total fraud.

The Gaza "Ceasefire" is a total fraud. The fire has not ceased, and there have to be meaningful penalties for Israel's violations, which are constant, including airstrikes, shootings, and other assaults on the people of Gaza--at least 497 violations from October 10 to November 22. Israel has killed at least 339 Palestinians, including more than 70 children, and injured more than 871 others. It is a continuous barrage of deadly assaults.

The deliberate starvation hasn't ended either, as only around 200 trucks of aid per day are being allowed into Gaza, far short of the agreed-upon 600. Malnutrition is still off the charts.

And the IDF hasn't withdrawn from Gaza,, with 40 active Israeli sites still operating beyond the partition line, in clear breach of the ceasefire agreement.

But most U.S. journalists seem happy to close their eyes to these facts and pretend that the ceasefire is holding. As a result, charities that deal with humanitarian aid for Palestinians have seen a catastrophic drop-off  in donations--the world thinks Gaza doesn't need our help anymore!

We need to renew the pressure on our leaders to actually end the violence, withdraw the Israeli troops, and allow in the humanitarian aid Gaza now depends on. We cannot shrug and look away.

According to Mondoweiss, Israel is exploiting the "ceasefire" agreements to establish new realities on the ground, projecting itself as the regional hegemon by launching increasing attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.

We Will Not Be Silent! Join Us!

Starving the Children

The United Staes has reached a new low in its foreign policy. We are starving tens of thousands of children to death in Gaza. First we destroyed their schools and colleges. Then we blasted their houses into dust. We demolished all their hospitals and medical facilities, and destroyed their access to potable water. At this point, we have turned the Gaza Strip into a killing field, with millions of Palestinians digging through the rubble just to find their children.

Of course, there have been other holocausts in history. But even the Nazis tried to cover up their mass extermination of Jews and Romany. Towards the end of World War II, they buried millions in secret graves. Even the Nazis knew that their slaughter was beyond any boundaries of human kind. Even the Nazis knew enough to feel shame.

We, as citizens of the most powerful military empire the world has ever seen, have complete access to pictures and stories of this Palestinian holocaust. Our mainstream media doesn't dwell on it much, but the charnel house of Gaza isn't kept a secret. An internet search of "children" and "Gaza" will fill your mind with the unbearable images of our country's war crimes. Yet few in our government seem to care very much. They sit around and spout Israeli talking points while collecting their hundreds of thousands in bribes from Zionist billionaires.

And we are oblivious to what our government is doing, as we turn a blind eye to this wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people.

Fred Nagel