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