Sick to death of religious orthodoxies

Bible thumpers are making our societies a living hell. Never content with just having strong religious beliefs, these thumpers want to inject their holy directives into all our lives. They are against abortion, but instead of simply not getting one themselves, they want to deny every women's right to choose. The same is true about LGBTQ rights. Thumpers are never satisfied establishing guidelines for their own lives.

Despite the fact that a large majority of Americans favor a woman's right to have an abortion, they are obsessed with criminalizing it. Gay and transgender rights also have strong public support, but that doesn't matter to the hard right evangelical minions and their hopelessly corrupted mega church leaders.

Another gang of biblical extremists have taken over our foreign policy. Old Testament thumpers demand that Israel has a right steal land in Palestine because God said it belonged to them two thousand years ago. And the slaughter of Palestinians fits right in. Israel's genocidal attacks on Gaza come right from God's warmongering advice to his chosen people. "Destroy them and all their possessions. Don’t have any pity. Kill their men, women, children, and even their babies. Slaughter their cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys (Samuel 15:3)."

Our nation's founders were already sick to death of religious orthodoxies back when they wrote the Constitution. It was supposed to protect us from zealots bossing everyone around with their interpretation of God's will. We must organize once again to defeat these narrow minded, mean spirited holy fanatics.

Fred Nagel

Pot calling the kettle black!

To the Editor:

Congress and the Administration roundly criticize and sanction China for its alleged human rights abuses against the Muslim Uighurs. Meanwhile they support Israel lock stock and barrel in its blatant oppression, dispossession and outright apartheid against the Palestinian Muslims and Christians. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! The hypocrisy is simply stunning.

Gregory DeSylva

The 99%, deserve someone better

My disappointment with Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-NY-19) had been limited to his utter lack of interest in human rights. He has been a steady and well paid ally to apartheid Israel, raking in $31,723 from the Israel Lobby in 2021. Just how does that cash square with his talk about overcoming racism?


But his recent cosponsoring of the SALT Deductibility Act shows just what kind of a rich man's Democrat we have voted in. In his own words he supports "bipartisan legislation that would eliminate the harmful cap on state and local tax deductions." Harmful to whom? Why to the very richest of Americans who want even more tax breaks than they have now. According to the Brookings Institute, "Lifting the cap on the SALT deduction would massively favor the rich, with most of the benefit going to the top one percent." 


According to Rep Delgado, all he is doing is, "simplifying the tax code by closing loopholes that serve only the wealthiest Americans." No, Rep. Delgado, you are pushing through a bill that would, again according to Brookings, "give almost three times as much, as a share of the cut, to the top one percent." 


How stupid does he think we are? His recent letter to constituents is full of praise for working families. But Rep. Delgado knows just who is paying his tab: Wall Street, the wealthiest Americans, and the Israel Lobby. Democrats like Delgado are simply worthless to the rest of us. Don't we, the 99%, deserve someone better?

Fred Nagel


Israel Attacks Human Rights Groups as “Terrorist”

Last week, the gov’t of Israel declared six leading Palestinian human rights groups as "terrorist institutions," subjecting them to harsh sanctions under Israeli law. Targeted were Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine, Bisan Centre for Research and Development, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and Union of Agricultural Work Committees. 

This latest attack is part of an ongoing strategy to criminalize and end any resistance to Israel’s apartheid gov’t and settler violence. We stand in full solidarity with the organizations Israel has targeted and call on all people of conscience to condemn Israel’s actions. Tell Rep. Antonio Delgado and senators Schumer and Gillibrand: Defend Palestinian Human Rights Organizations!

Jewish Voice for Peace-Hudson Valley

The Middle East Crisis Response


From Next Door


Merle—I love all you do for the community, especially Family of Woodstock. But I think you are way off base here. As an American Jew I believed Israel was a wasteland filled with lazy Arabs until I went then in 2006 and 2007. As a youth I bought lots of $2 trees to make Israel green. However, during my three times of doing human rights work with International Women’s Peace Service, I saw that the trees were used to obliterate thriving Palestinian villages once 750,000 Arabs were driven out of the new country of Israel. I saw homes demolished, children injured and gassed, school kids terrorized by Israeli Army Jeeps outside their classrooms, teens sent to prison for throwing a rock at a tank and so forth. 

An IWPS volunteer from South Africa said apartheid in Israel was worse than in her own country. It was a shock to see how Palestinians had to use sub-standard back roads while Israelis sped by on highways, how Israelis drove right through checkpoints while Palestinians sometimes waited 3-6 hours to pass through.  I personally know a pregnant woman who lost her baby because she was held up for his hours at a checkpoint. I interviewed a man in Nablus whose 6 year old son was shot by an Israeli soldier as he sat on his home’s stoop eating a snack after kindergarten. 

Sometimes it’s hard to face the truth but I hope you will soon realize that the Israeli army commits human rights abuses daily.



Paula Silbey

To the Editor:

Unfortunately,  Israel has become a rogue nation and a pariah state to much of  the international community.  Human rights abuses,  military occupation, illegal settlements, home demolitions, brutal invasions and bombings (resulting in the deaths of  hundreds of children), and a cruel  blockade that deliberately causes food, water, and medical supply  shortages  for more than a million Palestinians all contribute to Israel’s isolation in the world.   


Israel needs to be criticized and Israel needs to change.  Any government (whether it be China, Saudi Arabia, Hondouras, or the US)  needs to be criticized  when  repeatedly violating  human rights  and inflicting humiliation and suffering on innocent peoples.  The state of Israel could not commit any of these abuses without the $3.5 Billion of US taxpayers dollars that go to Israel  every year.  

Clearly,  it is not anti-semitic to criticize the policies of the government of  Israel.  The sad truth is that Israel’s policies and actions have generated a worldwide backlash of antagonism and hatred towards Israel. And tragically, Israel’s policies and actions incite, provoke, and abet  those who are genuinely  anti-semitic.  

I would encourage Americans  who truly  care about the future of Israel to advocate  for changes in Israeli policy that  would promote real peace and justice for all.  The future is indeed bleak for an Israel bent on maintaining an apartheid, colonial, settler state.  The future  Israel may not look like a Zionist dream, but hopefully, it will be a  peaceful and just nation inhabited by both Jews and Arabs. 

Eli Kassirer

A false and dangerous claim

I’ve been disturbed by recent letters repeating the false and dangerous claim that BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) is anti-Semitic — and that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.

It is all too easy to stifle criticism by smearing it as anti-Semitic. No decent person wants to be labeled an anti- Semite. But, tragically, this smear gives cover to the real anti-Semites by conflating hateful prejudice with le- gitimate, peacefully expressed concerns about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Israel is impervious to international law, under which it is illegal to colonize occupied territory. It is impervi- ous to moral condemnation for its brutality. When Palestinians fight back, they are crushed by Israel’s mas- sive firepower — lavishly funded by your tax dollars and mine. But when they call for peaceful protest in the form of BDS, Palestinians and their supporters are reviled and suppressed as being anti-Semitic.

Boycotting is a time-honored and effective form of protest. As the National Coalition Against Censorship says, “Boycotts are a form of speech that is protected by the First Amendment.” Pro-Israel lobbying groups don’t care about the First Amendment, instead pressuring state and federal legislators to pass bills penalizing or even outlawing BDS.

Like many who advocate BDS, I myself have a Jewish background. I am fully aware of the horrors of anti- Semitism and I understand the deep fear that the Holocaust could happen again — a fear that is cynically ex- ploited by the Israeli government’s rhetoric. But it is both cruel and irrational to project that fear onto the Palestinians — who had nothing to do with the Holocaust — and use it to fuel appalling injustice.

BDS calls on people of conscience to take a non-violent stand against entrenched oppression. I will continue to support it.

Jo Salas

Three Cheers for Ben & Jerry's

 8/4/2021 Letters to the editor (8/4/21) - Hudson Valley One

Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling its ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territories was courageous and definitely not anti-Zionist. I am an American Jew who supports Israel’s right of existence and ability to flour- ish. However, I do not support its apartheid actions. I do not hate Israel and I am definitely not an anti-Semite. But I do hate its human rights abuses, especially against children and the people of Gaza.

Fifteen years ago, I did human rights work in the West Bank/occupied Palestinian territories with In- ternational Women’s Peace Service and was shocked to see how many apartheid rules are in place. Today re- strictions and abuse are even more rampant. Let’s hope that other companies will follow Ben & Jerry’s coura- geous example.

Paula Silbey

US should not support abuse of children

It is unacceptable that our government has two primary constructs for justice when it comes to Israel/Pa- lestine: one where Israel is reflexively supported to deny human rights and justice for Palestinians in the name of “security,” and an equally false construct where Palestinian resistance to ongoing occupation and de- nial of their basic human rights is delegitimized as “terrorist.”

As someone who has worked for decades to end the illegal occupation of Palestine, I am often asked, “Where are the Palestinian organizations who seek justice through peaceful democratic means?”

My answer: “They are routinely silenced by the Israeli government and the US media, or harassed and even killed by the Israeli military.”

Here are examples from just this week alone:

On July 29, Israel’s paramilitary raided the headquarters in Ramallah of a nonprofit children’s rights organiza- tion without any warrant or explanation. This organization, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), is an independent, is a local Palestinian child rights organization dedicated to promoting the rights of children living in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Computers and client files were seized with no warrant, no reason and no receipt for the materials confiscated.

On July 28, an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed in Hebron in his father’s car at a checkpoint. On July 24, a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed when his village was overtaken by Israeli forces.

Palestinian children are routinely arrested and imprisoned without trial for throwing stones or for other forms of protest. The Israeli military intentionally uses lethal force, which cannot be justified by international law, while our government defends Israeli “security.” Security can never be secured when an entire popula- tion is denied basic human rights.

Sadly, our own representative, Antonio Delgado, is complicit in this denial of justice. I urge others to sign this open letter: http://chng.it/vtSpBJnz6h in support of HR 2407 (now HR 2590). And call Representative Delgado’s office to co- sponsor this bill which prohibits US foreign aid to go towards the abuse of children.

Cheryl Qamar

I support Ben and Jerry’s

The fracas over the pullout from Israeli settlements in the West Bank by Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is still on my mind, as I find myself enjoying Tom and Jerry’s ‘Chocolate Therapy’ ice cream. As I lick my spoon, I, however, find it difficult to comprehend why the loss of commercial ice cream should be such a big deal.  Isn’t it fun to make homemade ice cream?  And wouldn’t that be a great activity for the children in the settlements?!  Forget brands!  Make your own. I’m going to heed my very words and make ice cream with my grandchildren!  

Meanwhile, I find it difficult to comprehend why the pullout of ice cream should constitute such a terrible offense compared to the pulling up of 1000 year- old olive trees in the occupied West Bank to make room for those settlements, for privileged roads for those settlers to and from their settlements on stolen land.  More than 100,000 Palestinian olive trees had been uprooted by Israeli authorities and settlers since 1967.  Palestinian farmers and their families along with international friends who help safeguard the olive-pickers have been violently threatened and harmed by settlers. Why do they do this?  Olive oil constitutes a major source of vital nourishing food – so I would like to see those who criticize the pullout of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream from the Israeli settlements also strongly criticize the pulling- up of the olive trees that Palestinians have always depended on for their health and essential well-being!   I think it takes years for a newly-planted olive tree to bear fruit (and only a few hours to make homemade ice cream) and so I’ll never be able to share with my grandchildren and carry on that age-old tradition – that vital link with the earth – of indigenous people. Pity!  That’s a real loss to shout out about!  I support Ben and Jerry’s action!  


Jane Toby


Ice cream and children go together. But should ice cream be sold in a country that treats some children like vermin? A country that routinely murders children in Gaza and the West Bank? A country that holds its 5 million Palestinians in the vicious grip of apartheid? 


Ben and Jerry don't think so. The founders of that famous ice cream company have drawn the line at selling their products in Israel's illegal settlements. But isn't boycotting an act of antisemitism? Quite the contrary say the two impresarios of frozen desserts. "That we support the company’s decision is not a contradiction nor is it anti-Semitic. In fact, we believe this act can and should be seen as advancing the concepts of justice and human rights, core tenets of Judaism."


Somewhere during the seventy years of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the country of Israel lost track of these core tenets. In fact, Israel has always shown itself to be the antithesis of justice and human rights for Arabs living in the Holy Land. Starting with the Nakba in 1948, when three quarters of a million Palestinians were driven into exile, the state of Israel has always stood for violent Jewish supremacy, not for justice and human rights.


We know from our own history that Jews have always been there to oppose racism in America. Many Jews, like Ben and Jerry, now oppose racism in Israel as well. Have a Ben & Jerry's cone this weekend to celebrate this return to Jewish values.  


Fred Nagel

 

I’m a Jewish U.S. Army veteran

 Dear Editor,


I’m a Jewish U.S. Army veteran. I have been to Israel and the West Bank with other veterans more than once. I have also been to the Jewish quarter in Jerusalem. I have seen and directly experienced the sadistic cruelty and brutality of rabid settlers, backed up by the IDF in the West Bank. I have also witnessed the mostly nonviolent resistance of Palestinians to the strangling oppression of the occupation. It’s about time that Ben and Jerry’s joined the boycott and I commend them for it. 

The attempt to squash their right and others to nonviolently protest Israel’s illegal (under international law) occupation – what Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu referred to as an apartheid worse than what they had in South Africa – and your editorial supporting that, is beyond deplorable. It is yet another example of bullying and an attempt to silence and punish legitimate, nonviolent dissent that the Israeli government and its supporters here in the U.S. engage in.

In 2020 the U.N.voted 165-5 to approve a draft resolution in favor of Palestinian self-determination, with Israel and the United States voting against. Is practically the entire world wrong? Or would you say they are all Israel haters and anti-semites?” 



Tarak Kauff

Hope that other companies will follow Ben & Jerry’s courageous example

Your editorial about Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling its ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territories was way off base. I am an American Jew who supports Israel’s right of existence and ability to flourish. However, I do not support its Apartheid actions. I do not hate Israel and I am definitely not an ant-Semite. But I do hate its human rights abuses, especially against children and the people of Gaza. Three times I did human rights work in the West Bank/Occupied Palestinian Territories with International Women’s Peace Service and was shocked to see how many Apartheid rules are in place. Let’s hope that other companies will follow Ben & Jerry’s courageous example.

Paula Silbey

Delgado willing to take a stand?

 

Letter: Is Rep. Delgado willing to take a stand against Israel?

Dear Editor:

When U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado holds his next town hall, will he address a question many have been asking him for months? We want him to co-sponsor H.R. 2590. It would withhold military aid to Israel when used in violation of international humanitarian law to abuse Palestinian children, destroy homes, confiscate land or annex Palestinian territory.


This year, Israel’s oppression has worsened. The whole world saw the indiscriminate bombing of civilian homes in Gaza. Two highly respected organizations, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights center  B’Tselem, have documented how Israel’s routine treatment of Palestinians constitutes apartheid, an internationally recognized human rights offense.

As a Jewish American who is older than the State of Israel, I’m relieved that people are finally noticing the ugly reality behind endless bipartisan praise for Israel’s supposed support of democracy and human rights. Today, more and more Americans, including Jewish Americans, are demanding justice for Palestinians.

Delgado says he supports human rights, so why does he parrot discredited talking points from the pro-Zionist lobby? Why has he been “unable” to meet constituents to discuss this, even after 2,300 voters signed a petition favoring H.R. 2590? And why are questions about U.S. policy toward Israel never picked to be addressed at his town halls?

Here’s a suggestion. Attend a Delgado town hall. See for yourself. Will Delgado answer any questions from advocates for H.R. 2590? Will he join the growing number of representatives who already are co-sponsors? If he does take that principled stand, I’ll be the first to cheer.

Bob Gelbach

Saugerties, N.Y.

We will stop criticizing Israel ...

Attached and below is my letter to the Hudson Valley One in response to accusations of anti-Semitism against NewPaltz Women in Black. We demonstrate regularly in defense of Palestinian rights. It was printed in the July 21, 2021, issue.


Naomi Allen

We Will Stop Criticizing Israel When Israel Stops Oppressing Palestinians

Why do we “single out” Israel for its abuses of Palestinian human rights? Shouldn’t we look at China’s abuses, or Myanmar’s, or the way Saudi Arabia treats women? All of those things are terrible, but as Americans, our focus is on demanding changes from our government. Only Israel gets $4 billion a year (plus special supplements) from Americans’ tax money to commit these atrocities. The U.S. government has “singled out” Israel for this benefit. Our money buys the bombs and bullets that destroy homes and families in Gaza. Our money buys the Caterpillars and surveillance equipment that destroy homes and families in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Jewish National Fund, which will only sell or lease land to Jews, is a tax-exempt fund under American law. 

When someone tells us to avert our eyes from these atrocities and look at the atrocities elsewhere, they don’t want to have to answer—do you support these acts or not? If you oppose racism and white supremacy in the U.S., why would you want to hush up the same acts, the same thinking, the same privilege, that protect one ethnic group—Jews—at the expense of all others? 

Palestinians deserve equal human rights, and it is not anti-Semitic to say so. Not only have Jews all over the world spoken up for Palestinian rights, but Israeli Jews are beginning to speak up also—1000 Israeli Jews just began circulating a letter “Stop Israel’s Apartheid!: An open letter to the international community,” which you can read here: https://jews4decolonization.wordpress.com

A poll of American Jews by the Jewish Electorate Institute and published in Ha’aretz, the N.Y. Times of Israel, on July 13, showed that one-quarter of American Jews agree that Israel is an apartheid state, and 22% believe that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. 

58% said we should cut aid to Israel so it couldn’t spend more U.S. money supporting the Jews-only settlements on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Not to mention the 16,000 artists from all countries who have called for an end to Israeli apartheid: https://mondoweiss.net/2021/06/this-is-not-a-conflict-this-is-apartheid-over-16000-artists-sign-letter-in-solidarity-with-palestine

Are they all anti-Semites?

The charge of anti-Semitism, when it is used to silence critics of the Israeli government, is just a cloak that supporters of Israel’s policies use to cover the naked shame of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. It also discredits criticism of genuine anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in the U.S. mainly thanks to Trumpism and its open support of white supremacy. 

In the meantime, here are some books you can read that will help clarify the history of the region:
“The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe;
“The General’s Son,” by Miko Peled, grandson of an Israeli hero of 1948 and 1967;
“The Iron Wall,” by Israeli historian Avi Schlaim.
 
Naomi Allen

Schenectady High School email stirs controversy

Regarding your article today "Schenectady High School email stirs controversy...." you use the words "complex" and "nuance."  A military occupation of another people, persisting for 74 years so far, is neither complex nor nuanced.  It is simply an outrage, one that, bolstered by the US government's uncritical support for Israel, has largely been ignored by the rest of the world.  Criticism and reporting on Israel's project to seize as much land as possible from Palestinians and force as many Palestinians to leave is well documented in the Israeli press, both in Hebrew and in English, through the statements of Israeli politicians and the enactment of laws privileging Jews worldwide over the Palestinians who live there. Calling this what it is is not anti-semitic.  In fact, implying all Jews would support Israel's actions is a slur.  I refer you to the Pew Center's recently released study showing that American Jews have widely differing views on Israel.  https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/21/u-s-jews-have-widely-differing-views-on-israel/.  Less than half think Israel is essential to being Jewish. It's encouraging to see there is an on-going conversation on the issue. 


Lisa Mullenneaux


Delgado holds another virtual townhall meeting on July 28

To the Editor,

Congressman Delgado holds another virtual townhall meeting on July 28.  But will he address a question many have been asking him for months? We want him to co-sponsor HR 2560, a bill that has gathered sponsors each year, and that would prohibit use of US military aid by Israel in violation of international humanitarian law, by abusing Palestinian children, destroying homes, confiscating land and annexing territory in occupied Palestine.


Already this year, Israel’s oppression has worsened. The whole world saw the indiscriminate bombing of civilian homes in Gaza. Around the same time, two highly respected organizations, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights watchdog, B’Tselem, documented how Israel’s routine treatment of Palestinians constitutes apartheid, an internationally recognized offense against human rights.  


As a Jewish American who is older than the State of Israel, I’m relieved that people are  finally noticing the ugly reality behind endless bi-partisan praise for Israel’s supposed support of democracy and human rights.  I’m especially pleased that more and more Jewish Americans, especially the younger generation, are demanding justice for Palestinians.


Representative Delgado says he supports human rights, so why does he parrot discredited talking points from the pro-Zionist lobby?  Why has he been “unable” to meet constituents to discuss this, even after 2,300 voters signed a petition favoring HR 2560?  And why are questions about US policy toward Israel never picked to be addressed at his townhalls?


Here’s a suggestion. Attend the townhall on July 28. See for yourself.  Will Delgado answer a question from advocates for HR 2560? Will he join the growing number of representatives who are already co-sponsors?  If he does take that principled stand, I’ll be the first to cheer.


Bob Gelbach

Supporting Palestinian Rights Is Not Anti-Semitic!

 Supporting Palestinian Rights Is Not Anti-Semitic!


Dear Editor,


New Paltz Women in Black holds a vigil every Saturday on Main Street in front of Elting Library, from 12:45 to 1:30. We stand for an end to all kinds of racism, including anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and white nationalism; for protection of the environment;  for women’s equal rights, including the right to choose abortion; for LBGTQI equality; against U.S. militarism and bullying of countries around the world (and our 800 bases in 70 countries); and for human rights over private profit everywhere.


This includes Palestine and Israel, where the indigenous Palestinian population has been and still is being driven from its homes and lands, subjected to second-class citizenship, and oppressed by a brutal, degrading occupation that has lasted 73 years, not to mention Israel’s criminal blockade of Gaza, now in its 13th year.


International law recognizes the right of an occupied people to resist—if the Palestinians stopped resisting they would disappear as a people overnight.  It does not recognize the right of the occupying force—Israel—to steal Palestinian lands and homes and resources, build Jews-only settlements on occupied land, refuse to vaccinate the occupied population against Covid-19—in effect, to try to eradicate the Palestinian people. 


Were you shocked by the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, which wiped out an African-American neighborhood? Israel carried out such massacres on 500 villages in Palestine in 1948, killing thousands and expelling 750,000 people from their homes; and it continues to destroy Palestinian villages and neighborhoods throughout the region. 


Do you think redlining and discriminatory mortgage practices to prevent racial integration in the U.S. were deplorable?  In Israel and in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli government builds homes that can only be occupied by Jews. Because of these settlements, the dream of a two-state solution is dead. If you read the daily newspapers you can see that the current unrest was ignited by Israel’s evictions of Palestinians from homes in Jerusalem where their families have lived for generations, turning those homes over to Jews from Brooklyn. 


Do you believe in religious freedom and separation of church and state? Israel invades mosques and other holy sites at will. 


Do you believe that all people should have equal rights? In Israel, the law guarantees the right of self-determination only to Jews.


Israel’s right to exist is not being threatened. It has accords with all the major Arab countries, and enjoys a lively trade with them and with the rest of the world, giving Israelis the highest standard of living in the region. 


But the right to exist of the Palestinians is at serious risk. Should they just shut up and submit to another 73 years of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and degradation?


Until Palestinian refugees have the right to return to the land of their birth, there can never be peace. The refugees of 1948 and 1967, and their descendants, still living in squalid refugee camps throughout the region, must be allowed to go home. 


Israel’s systematic violations of Palestinian human rights must be called by the correct name—apartheid. The whole world can see this. Israel claims to speak for all Jews everywhere, but it does not speak for us, or for the increasing number of American Jews who reject Israeli human rights abuses and stand up for the rights of Palestinians. 


Naomi Allen


We Will Stop Criticizing Israel When Israel Stops Oppressing Palestinians

 We Will Stop Criticizing Israel When Israel Stops Oppressing Palestinians

Why do we “single out” Israel for its abuses of Palestinian human rights? Shouldn’t we look at China’s abuses, or Myanmar’s, or the way Saudi Arabia treats women? All of those things are terrible, but as Americans, our focus is on demanding changes from our government. Only Israel gets $4 billion a year (plus special supplements) from Americans’ tax money to commit these atrocities. The U.S. government has “singled out” Israel for this benefit. Our money buys the bombs and bullets that destroy homes and families in Gaza. Our money buys the Caterpillars and surveillance equipment that destroy homes and families in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Jewish National Fund, which will only sell or lease land to Jews, is a tax-exempt fund under American law. 

When someone tells us to avert our eyes from these atrocities and look at the atrocities elsewhere, they don’t want to have to answer—do you support these acts or not? If you oppose racism and white supremacy in the U.S., why would you want to hush up the same acts, the same thinking, the same privilege, that protect one ethnic group—Jews—at the expense of all others? Palestinians deserve equal human rights, and it is not anti-Semitic to say so. Not only have Jews all over the world spoken up for Palestinian rights, but Israeli Jews are beginning to speak up also—1000 Israeli Jews just began circulating a letter “Stop Israel’s Apartheid!: An open letter to the international community,” which you can read here: https://jews4decolonization.wordpress.com

A poll of American Jews by the Jewish Electorate Institute and published in Ha’aretz, the N.Y. Times of Israel, on July 13, showed that one-quarter of American Jews agree that Israel is an apartheid state, and 22% believe that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. 

58% said we should cut aid to Israel so it couldn’t spend more U.S. money supporting the Jews-only settlements on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Not to mention the 16,000 artists from all countries who have called for an end to Israeli apartheid: https://mondoweiss.net/2021/06/this-is-not-a-conflict-this-is-apartheid-over-16000-artists-sign-letter-in-solidarity-with-palestine

Are they all anti-Semites?

The charge of anti-Semitism, when it is used to silence critics of the Israeli government, is just a cloak that supporters of Israel’s policies use to cover the naked shame of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. It also discredits criticism of genuine anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in the U.S. mainly thanks to Trumpism and its open support of white supremacy. 

In the meantime, here are some books you can read that will help clarify the history of the region:

“The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe;

“The General’s Son,” by Miko Peled, grandson of an Israeli hero of 1948 and 1967;

“The Iron Wall,” by Israeli historian Avi Schlaim.

Naomi Allen

Wars protecting profiteers, not our freedoms

 Dear Editor,

Instead of offering an opportunity to mourn those whose lives have been taken by war, Memorial Day all too often brings with it sales at the malls, barbecues ... and the predictable platitudes from members of Congress – only 17% of whom ever have been in the military – asking us to thank our troops for sacrificing their lives to "protect our freedoms.” 

As a veteran myself, I would remind them that every single war waged by the U.S. since World War II and every single onebefore that has been about protecting the interests of the war profiteers, not about protecting our freedoms. Our freedoms are protected by our Constitution, and they would be just fine if elected politicians stopped trying to take them away from us by passing laws that criminalize dissent and make it harder to vote. I will also add, that the massive funding of the military-industrial complex drains a huge portion of our tax dollars that could go instead to much more needed human and social services.  

This Memorial Day, let us grieve for the millions of lives needlessly taken by the foolish notion that our bombs will keep us safe and free. They do nothing except cause massive suffering and make the war profiteers obscenely rich. Our safety and our freedoms depend, instead, on all citizens putting public pressure on those politicians whose militaristic policies make us less free and safe.  

Tarak Kauff
NYC Veterans For Peace

Never uttering the word apartheid

For anyone familiar with Israel's treatment of Palestinians, there isn't really much new. The Israeli Army is bulldozing houses in the West Bank so that more Jewish settlers can move in. This "ethnic cleansing" is done so that new immigrants from Brooklyn with the right religion can replace Palestinians.

Then there are the attacks on mosques using teargas and rubber bullets. There are the shootings and crippling of protesters determined to save their farms and homes. Or the beating and incarceration of children. We have seen it all before, like an old documentary film on Kristallnacht.

The people of Gaza have endured much more: the genocidal attack on their schools, hospitals, power plants, and sewage systems. Israeli military assaults on Gaza always kill lots of children, hundreds in fact. The ultimate aim of the Israeli Army is extermination, and each new bloodbath tests the boundaries of what Israel can get away with.

What is new about Israel's murderous behavior is that more Americans are finally becoming aware of our country's role in perpetuating this carnage. The US protects Israel from the condemnation of the rest of the world at the UN. When it comes to more bombs, missiles and planes, the US is always there to arm and fund the monstrous Israeli war machine. And most of our Congress is simply paid off by the Israel Lobby. Our "progressive" Rep. Delgado, for example, rakes in $30,000 per year from the Lobby and has never uttered the word apartheid.

Fred Nagel

To the Panel on WAMC

 Dear Friends,

In 2017 I went along with a small team of U.S. veterans and Miko Peled, a Veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to the West Bank to see for ourselves the reality on the ground. Four of us on that trip were Jewish. We traveled all over the West Bank. Wherever we went we were treated with Palestinian hospitality. Not so the IDF and armed Israeli settlers, who we saw teargassing and oppressing Palestinians in their own villages. We saw the huge walls constructed by Israel that broke apart Palestinian villages,  farmland and even families. The arrogance and cruelty was appalling. We also got teargassed and shot at with rubber bullets as we joined nonviolent Palestinian protests. We were physically attacked by armed settlers in Nabi Saleh. 

I listened to the roundtable today (May 17th) as the tragedy in Palestine was discussed. How interesting that no one refers to the house demolitions and expulsions of Palestinian families in Jerusalem that basically started this current bloodletting. One of your panelists commented on the history back in 1948. I would suggest you educate yourselves a bit deeper to get to the roots of this ongoing tragedy. I’m a Jew and I took the time and trouble years ago to educate myself as to the history beyond the mythology promoted by Israeli Zionists and also here in the U.S. by many in the media and government.  

As a veteran, I have a number of close friends who served in the IDF, like Miko, who will give a story that differs from the superficial official public narrative, a view from the inside, as many Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan vets also give us about their wars.

Meanwhile our country supports a globally recognized apartheid state of Israel with more than $10 million every day ($3.8 billion/year) and political/diplomatic cover in the United Nations and other international forums.

I suggest you read the General’s Son by Miko Peled

If you would like to have Miko as a guest to get another perspective, it could probably be arranged. Here’s a video of Miko exposing some myths on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhNf__kYviY 

Thanks for everything you do. I’ll be interested in a response.  

Tarak

Tarak Kauff
NYC Veterans For Peace
Peace & Planet News

In solidarity with rallies around the world

Dear Editor


Israel's insatiable quest for "lebensraum" at the expense of the native Palestinians evicted from their homes in E. Jerusalem hearkens back to the expulsions of Cherokee Indians by Donald Trump's favorite dead president, Andrew Jackson. Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, 16,000 Cherokees, most of whom were fully "civilized" (they even had their own newspaper), were evicted from their homes and farms in NC, TN, and Al , and force marched 1000 miles to Oklahoma. At least 4000 died along the way. Most of those stolen lands were appropriated by slave owners.


The creation of Israel in 1947 by western powers, eager to dump Jewish refugees from WW 2, led to the immediate expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their long time family homes, millions more displaced in intervening years, forced into permanent refugee camps in ever diminishing lands. Some 500 villages were demolished.  Periodic wars and bombings by Israel's massive U.S. funded military, one of the world's largest, keep the "untermenschen" in line. Regular demolitions of Palestinian homes, olive groves and villages, barely make the news. Occasionally Palestinians fight back with stones or crude rockets, reminiscent of native Americans defending against heavily armed cavalries with tomahawks.


We forget that Arabs are also Semitic peoples.  Protesting the atrocities of the far right Netanyahu regime is no more "anti-Semitic" than protesting U.S. endless wars is "anti-American". Contact your politicians and demand that our tax money is withheld from Israel's military until the occupation and Jihad against Palestinians is ended. Join Jewish Voices for Peace, Mid East Crisis Response, and Women in Black at the Elting Library in New Paltz Saturday at 12:45 p.m., in solidarity with rallies around the world. 


Edmund Haffmans

Comment to NPR's "All Things Considered"

 To All Things Considered, weekend:

"Israeli police and Palestinians clashed…." That was the NPR brief report yesterday, neutral as ever. When it comes to Israel/Palestine, what ATC leaves out is always most notable. Did Palestinians suddenly rise up from prayers at their holiest mosque on the holiest day of the Muslim calendar to attack Israeli police? It snuck very briefly into one of your previous reports that the Israeli police had started a riot with Palestinians as they were leaving the mosque. That fact was never mentioned by NPR again. From then on the story begins wherever Israel wants it to, with unruly Palestinians who, for no reason whatsoever, at least none given by ATC, rise up to strike at armed Israeli police. 
 
NPR claims the mantle of "most trusted name in news”. On the subject of Israel/Palestine it is rare to hear an unbiased or fair report. Palestinian necks have been under the knee of Israel far longer than the 50 years that NPR is now celebrating. The time is long overdue to tell the truth.

Judith Simon

Learning to love apartheid

How do our governmental representatives learn to stop worrying and love apartheid? There is a discouragingly long list of progressive sellouts who have talked about human rights for Palestinians before they ran for office, only to forget about the suffering of five million once elected.  


I am not talking about Trump, who learned to love Israel when Sheldon Adelson showered him with a hundred million. No, I am talking about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke openly about Israel's racist oppression, only to clam up when the Israel Lobby cash started flowing. And what about our brave new House member, Antonio Delgado, who won't let the word Palestine slip from his lips? His price? $31,723 last year from the Lobby (OpenSecrets.org). Or our new senator from Georgia, Raphael Warnock, who described the government of Israel as "shooting down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brother like birds of prey" before he was elected. Now he is off to the bank with this year's payment of $444,659 from the Israel Lobby, having taken back all his rash words for the generous donations. 


Israel's influence on our government is as strong as that of Big Pharma, Big Banks, or Big Oil. It is a system drowning in cash and corruption. No matter whom we elect, they end up selling their souls for the money. When it comes to supporting the racist, Jewish supremacist regime in the Middle East, they become PEP, progressive except for Palestine. 


The Israel Lobby is poisoning our democracy.


Fred Nagel

 

Whom Does Delgado Work For?

Last summer Rep. Antonio Delgado was asked in an Open Letter to support H.R. 2407, the "No Way to Treat a Child Act," which made our $3.8 billion in foreign aid to Israel contingent on their ending their flagrant military detention and abuse of children. Delgado’s response to the over 2000 signatories was no response; he refused to meet with a coalition of local groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, Women in Black, MECR, and Veterans for Peace. The groups were forced to send him a video appeal, which he, too, ignored.

This year Rep. Betty McCollum has introduced a similar bill, H.R. 2590, “The Palestinian Children and Families Act,” to ensure no U.S. tax dollars fund the Israeli military’s imprisonment of Palestinian children, demolition of family homes, and further theft of Palestinian land. “U.S. assistance intended for Israel’s security,” she argues, “must never be used to violate the human rights of Palestinian children.” Delgado’s response? He has added his signature to a letter opposing her bill and supporting unrestricted aid to Israel. 


Your representative’s job is to represent YOU. So if you live in Congressional District 19 and disagree with Delgado’s giving Israel a free ride, tell him so by calling his offices (Kingston: 845-443-2930, DC: 202-225-5614). Then sign the Open Letter here: http://chng.it/vtSpBJnz6h


Lisa Mullenneaux


Urge Support for H.R. 2590, “The Palestinian Children and Families Act”

Recently various Representatives of Congress, including Delgado and Maloney, signed an open letter supporting the unconditional $3.8 Billion yearly aid to Israel, despite Israel’s flagrant human rights violations. There is a better choice.

H.R. 2590, “The Palestinian Children and Families Act,” seeks to promote justice, equality and human rights by ensuring no U.S. tax dollars fund the Israeli military’s imprisonment of Palestinian children; demolition of Palestinian homes; and further confiscation of Palestinian land in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in violation of international law. Rep. Betty McCollum introduced the bill by asserting “U.S. assistance intended for Israel’s security must never be used to violate the human rights of Palestinian children.” 


Each year Israel prosecutes 500 to 700 Palestinian children under 18 in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Ill-treatment during detention is the norm according to UNICEF. Minors are bound, blindfolded and sometimes beaten when arrested, and not allowed to have a lawyer or parent present during interrogation, where abuse and coerced confessions are common. They’re held in prison from arrest until completing their sentence with no bail. Harsh treatment often leads to long-term trauma.  See -> https://nwttac.dci-palestine.org


Recently Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group - have documented Israel’s apartheid government, which includes the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians coupled with systematic oppression and inhumane acts.


Urge your Representatives to support HR2590 and hold Israel accountable. How can we say no to the children?

-------------------------

Thanks,
Tom

Stop taking money from the Israel Lobby

Representative Antonio Delgado certainly has Israel as his friend. The Israel Lobby gave him a free trip to Israel at the start of this first term, and has been very kind to him ever since. The website Open Secrets has Rep. Delgado receiving $29,698 from the Lobby for 2020. 

Rep. Delgado's constituents haven't been so lucky. Four local groups (Jewish Voice for Peace - HV, Middle East Crisis, Veterans For Peace, and Women in Black - New Paltz) have been asking for a meeting with him for the last two years. According to his Junior Legislative Assistant, Matthew Gerson, Rep. Delgado has just been too busy to talk about Palestinian rights. Matthew didn't seem particularly interested either, but that might have been because he interned at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a private, non-profit in Israel that promotes the apartheid state. 


Rep. Delgado has been similarly effective in avoiding questions about Palestine in town hall Zoom meetings. He has refused to cosponsor HR 2407, the bill that protects the rights of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails. He never responded to a petition with 2,300 signatures urging him to meet with the four groups. There were numerous letters to the editor and two full page newspaper ads, and still our representative has never let the word "Palestine" slip from between his lips. 


Isn't it time for all his constituents to simply ask him to stop taking money from the Israel Lobby? We voted for Rep. Delgado to represent us, not Israel.


Fred Nagel

NPR "progressive except for Palestine"

On NPR's Morning Edition (2/3/21), a guest from the Anti Defamation League was introduced to comment on racism in America. The ADF is probably the very last organization that should be given airtime to discuss racial or religious hatreds. 


From its beginning tracking neo-Nazis and other right wing groups, the ADF has devolved into attacking what it calls "Arab propaganda" on university campuses, and branding any criticism of Israel as antisemitic.


And then there is the spying the ADF has done on the ACLU, Greenpeace, NAACP, and United Farm Workers. In addition, the ADL was instrumental in opposing the building of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center and the proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan. 


The ADF used its links to the NYPD to insert its racist views into police training by the showing of "The Third Jihad," a virulently Islamophobic film, to 1,500 of its officers. 


NPR decision to use the ADL to comment on racial extremism in American is typical of what is now referred to as PEP, or "progressive except for Palestine." 


Fred Nagel

Gaza’s Rockets: Weapons of Terror or Liberation?

 

Gaza’s Rockets: Weapons of Terror or Liberation?

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 2020, pp. 42-43, 63

Special Report

By Gregory DeSylva

THE ROCKETS and mortars that Hamas and other Gaza militant groups fire into Israel are almost universally condemned. Most U.S. politicians blame these projectiles for the Israel-Gaza conflicts, and the U.N. and EU have condemned them. In 2014, President Barack Obama legitimized Israel’s “Protective Edge” assault on Gaza, stating, “As I’ve said repeatedly, Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks that terrorize the Israeli people.” In November 2019, presidential candidate Joe Biden followed suit: ”Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorist threats. It is intolerable that Israeli citizens live their lives under the constant fear of rocket attacks.”

Rockets are a significant reason for Gaza’s continuing split with the West Bank: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has denounced them as “counterproductive,” accomplishing little and provoking Israeli retaliation endangering Gaza civilians.

ROCKETS, LAW, AND LIBERTY

For the international community, these denunciations reflect the rockets’ perceived violation of international humanitarian law (IHL), the area of international law concerned with the means of war. Attacks intentionally targeting civilians are absolutely prohibited under the principle of noncombatant immunity (NCI). Attacks that target military assets but incidentally impact civilians are acceptable only if their civilian impacts are proportionate to their military purposes. Attacks that can’t discriminate between military targets and civilians pose unacceptable risks to civilians and are forbidden because they’re indiscriminate. Gaza’s rockets lack internal guidance systems and thus are very inaccurate. So it’s generally infeasible to make meaningful distinction with them between military targets and civilians. Ergo, they’re indiscriminate and forbidden under IHL. Ditto for Gaza’s mortars.

Thus, compliance with IHL would require Gaza to end all use of its projectiles. But how can weak, technologically unsophisticated Gaza liberate itself from powerful, technologically advanced Israeli oppression if it’s deprived of its only possibility of impacting Israel militarily? Non-violent resistance alone won’t do—Palestinians have engaged in it for decades with little success, the most recent instance being Gaza’s “Great March of Return” that left 13,000 protesters severely wounded and over 180 dead at the hands of the Israeli military. The “peace process” has been an even greater failure.

IHL creates this conundrum by dissociating the justice of a party to the war’s cause from the means it can use in making war. Under this rubric, both aggressor and victim must comply with IHL in their means of combat. Gaza’s overwhelmingly just cause gives it no right whatsoever to utilize its projectiles against an entity that has dispossessed and oppressed it for over seven decades. Yet, foregoing them could condemn Gaza to perpetual oppression. As such, IHL is constituted to keep down the oppressed to the benefit of powerful oppressors. It also conflicts with relevant parts of international human rights law: the rights to liberty, freedom of movement and to return to one’s country.

ABSOLUTIST LAW IN EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES

IHL’s “no exceptions” divorce of the justification for war from the means of war hasn’t gone uncontested. Michael Walzer proposes a striking exception in his classic Just and Unjust Wars. If a country is in a “Supreme Emergency”—imminent danger of conquest by an aggressor that would subject it to tyrannical oppression—then this preeminent justification for war gives it the right to fight by any means it chooses, including deliberately attacking the aggressor’s civilians. This rationale was implicit in Britain’s bombing of German civilians in WW II. Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed Britain’s only chance to avoid Nazi tyranny was to target German civilians. By doing so he hoped to undermine Germany’s military and/or to arouse its civilians to overthrow the Nazis. Though the impact on Germany’s war machine was minimal and no uprising occurred, these attacks, which killed more than 300,000 civilians, were tacitly accepted by the international community.

Although Walzer proposes only the Supreme Emergency exception to IHL’s separation of cause and means of war, there’s no a priori basis for disallowing additional exceptions. Gaza isn’t facing a Supreme Emergency—it’s enduring Supreme Oppression. The full scope of what was in store for it has manifested over decades rather than in one fell stroke.

Many Palestinian refugees fled to Gaza from their homes in what is now Israel to escape the 1948 war, expecting to return when the violence abated. Israel violated—and to this day violates—their right under international human rights law to return to their country. Thus, they have been largely confined to Gaza for decades, where they have languished in rampant unemployment and poverty. In 1967, Israel occupied Gaza, subjected it to harsh military rule and began colonizing it, shoving aside the refugees and brutally suppressing their resistance. Then it fenced in Gaza, making it into a big concentration camp. All of this contributed to Hamas’ rise to power and significant rocket attacks on Israel beginning in 2006, Israel’s strangling siege and blockade in 2007, intensified rocketing, and a series of savage Israeli reprisals from 2006 to 2014.

If Supreme Emergency warrants an exception to IHL, then such Supreme Oppression also warrants it. Britain struggled against a more powerful enemy to avoid tyranny and loss of liberty; Gaza is doing so to throw off tyranny and regain liberty. Its just cause for war is at least as strong as Britain’s was, and it has at least as much right as Britain did to choose its means of war. This doesn’t mean Gaza should fight “any way it chooses.” If it seeks liberty instead of revenge, it shouldn’t intentionally target Israeli civilians as have some of its militant factions. Such bald contravention of IHL is indeed counterproductive because of the condemnation it arouses by the governments and citizens of foreign nations, by the U.N., and by NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. U.N. and NGO reports of IHL violations in the conflict have far greater bearing on Gaza’s fortunes than any military impact its projectiles might have. These assessments have contributed to its ruling Hamas party and some of its militant factions being placed on lists of terrorist organizations, resulting in crippling economic sanctions—including the blockade—against Gaza.

IHL puts Gaza in a cruel catch-22 predicament. If it uses its projectiles in violation of IHL it can expect continued condemnation and the negative impacts it has on the Palestinian cause. If it forgoes them, it is likely to remain interminably under Israel’s knee. Humanitarian law that limits the oppressed to such intolerable options is itself inhumane and should be amended. For cases like Gaza’s, this amendment should permit regulated use of indiscriminate weapons involving reasonable relaxation of the noncombatant immunity of the oppressor’s civilians. This amendment would pertain to certain provisions of Additional Protocol I of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to other areas of IHL.

Per this amendment, “regulated use” of such indiscriminate weapons would be available only to entities enduring extreme, perpetual violation of their human rights under international law. Regulated use of such weapons must be essential to gaining those rights, and there must be no viable alternative for gaining those rights. They must not be used for extraneous purposes such as terrorism or vengeance. They must have only military objectives, although there can be no guarantee that they will not impact oppressors’ civilians or that those impacts will be proportionate to their military objectives. Oppressors bear responsibility for impacts upon their civilians because they force oppressed entities to utilize such weapons by depriving people of their lawful human rights. This responsibility would be reinforced in cases like Gaza’s in which—as documented by Amnesty International—the oppressor locates its military assets in or near its civilian areas, from which it launches attacks against the oppressed entity.

The amendment should also provide for termination of the use of such weapons as soon as an oppressor terminates its violations of an oppressed entity’s human rights. In Gaza’s case, Israel would have to end its blockade and sanctions against Gaza and permit its refugees to return to their country or—if they prefer—make restitution to them based upon expert, disinterested assessment of their losses.

WEAPONS OF LIBERATION

Whether or not IHL is so amended, Gaza has a moral right to such regulated use of its projectiles to cast off Zionist tyranny. It is suggested that its leadership clarify to the international community its right to use its projectiles based on principles such as those in the proposed amendment. Israel probably would still retaliate disproportionately, but international sentiment might then shift toward Gaza. These changes in Gaza’s means of war undoubtedly require new or reformed leadership that can unite its populace and factions in purpose and policy. Challenging though all this is, it may be Gaza’s only viable path to liberty. Such changes also could open the way for reunification with the West Bank establishment in averting the extinction of Palestinian statehood hopes, now critically endangered by Israel’s annexation agenda.


Gregory DeSylva is a board member of Deir Yassin Remembered and has written and produced six videos related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

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