We the people have been betrayed

Will Israel ever be able to completely oppress and subjugate the Palestinian people? Missiles haven’t done it, nor has torturing thousands in prison camps. Now we are seeing the river of blood approach, the no hands barred slaughter of hundreds and soon thousands of Palestinian civilians. And still they refuse to be subservient, despite being walled off in squalid ghettos.

There is another group of people, however, that has been much easier to bring it to its knees. All it took was a lot of money to get the US Congress to vote unanimously for the invasion of Gaza. Apparently any revulsion at the slaughter of hundreds of women and children couldn’t match the fear of being out of favor with the Israeli lobby. 

Of course, our nation’s Congress has a long history of being for sale to the highest bidder. Would our representatives ever vote against Big Oil, Wall Street, the insurance industry or Big Pharma? Standing up for what is fair always comes out last with these corporate sycophants. Why shouldn’t Israel dictate our foreign policy?

America has spent over three trillion on disastrous wars in the Middle East. It has impoverished the middle class, while sending America’s young to die for cleverly crafted lies. Many of the neocons who sold these wars to a subservient Congress have been Zionist fanatics with deep ties to the apartheid state of Israel. 

We pay a terrible price for Israel’s complete control of our Congress. We the people have been betrayed.

Fred Nagel

Rhinebeck, NY 12572

845 876-7906

Word count: 250

Egregious, distorted, and deluded

To the Editor:

Imagine coming home to find a pile of rubble where your home was. Imagine getting a phone call at 3 AM telling you to evacuate your family from your apartment because the building will be crushed by a Hellfire missile in 58 seconds. Imagine daily shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity. Imagine being imprisoned by 20 foot walls and military checkpoints. Imagine the bombs coming and you and your children have no where to run and no where to hide.

Sadly, this only begins to describe Palestinian life in Gaza at this moment. Israel's war machine (financed by you and me) of Apache helicopters, fighter jets, missiles, white phosphorus bombs, tanks, drones, and the latest in high tech weaponry is methodically and surgically maiming and killing thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children.

Israel's actions and policies (and all who support them) have become so egregious, distorted, and deluded they cease to be human. It is not about the pathetic and ineffective homemade rockets launched by Hamas. It's about 40 years of brutal Israeli military occupation of Palestinian lands. It's about the relentless theft of Palestinian homes, land, and farms to build Jewish only settlements. Let's be honest, Israel does not want peace. Israel wants all Palestinian land and all of the Palestinians out of Israel. All of Israel's actions serve to support and provide evidence of Israel's true intentions which are to appropriate all Palestinian land and cleanse Israel of Arabs. Actions don't lie.

Eli Kassirer

When people at home tired of the slaughter

The Northern Irish understand Palestine like few other people. Their ancestors lived through hundreds of years of a brutal apartheid. 

The Britain invaded Ireland in the Sixteen Hundreds and proceeded to colonize it with religious sects and minorities it didn't want at home, particularly the Presbyterians. Most Irish in the US can trace their heritage to one of the consequences of that occupation, a genocidal famine that killed a million Irish and drove another million to the New World.

By 1922, the Irish had freed themselves of British occupation. That is, all but the northern counties, where Protestants held the majority and religious discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and British funded death squads continued. 

Only when the English people at home tired of the slaughter was a peace between the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland possible. A treaty, brokered by the US in 1998, eliminated all forms of religious discrimination in Northern Ireland and insured human rights for every citizen. In fact, religion was completely separated from the state and all forms of apartheid made illegal. 

Although many of the physical walls between groups still exist today, there is a feeling of hope that the two religions can coexist.

Could such a peace come to Palestine? The citizens of the US are becoming increasingly tired of supporting the blatantly racist regime of Israel. Now that Jewish settlements in the West Bank have made a two state solution impossible, it is time for Americans to insist on an end to all apartheid in Palestine.

Fred Nagel