Ireland must affirm its neutrality

I live in the United States. I’m also a veteran of the US Army. I’m American but part of my heart belongs to Ireland. Some three years ago former Marine Major Ken Mayers and I were arrested in Ireland for protesting the US military’s blatant abuse and disregard of Irish neutrality at Shannon airport. That’s because we believe Irish neutrality has a significant role to fulfil for peace.

Contrary to the 24/7 main stream media news, it is US and Nato expansion and the aggressive arming and training of the Ukrainian army, including ultra-right neo-Nazi elements, that are the primary cause of war in the Ukraine. Russia can be blamed for falling into the trap that was intentionally set, a conflict that actually began in 2014 for the purpose of weakening and fragmenting Russia and enhancing US global hegemony.

I understand now that Irish Minister for Defence Simon Coveney is considering contributing Irish troops to a European Union mission to train the Ukrainian military. How well I remember in the early sixties, when “advisors” from my outfit, the 101st Airborne Division, were sent to Vietnam. Soon there were thousands of young American soldiers killing and dying in that war. Is this what Simon Coveney wants to see happen with young Irish men and women? There is a negative force in Irish politics that wants to sell the most precious commodity Ireland has – its neutrality – down the drain to the highest bidder, the US/Nato war machine.

The EU is itself very unfortunately falling into this trap.

Edward Horgan, a veteran of considerable experience in the IrishDefence Forces who retired with the rank of Commandant after 22 years service that included peacekeeping missions with the United Nations, states in a previous letter, "Ireland’s ever-closer integration with Nato and the increasing militarisation of the EU are diminishing Irish traditional positive neutrality, something that is supported by the vast majority of the Irish people. If the EU becomes a war project rather than a peace project, Ireland’s membership of the EU may be called into question."

For the sake of all humanity, including the Ukrainian people, Ireland must affirm its neutrality and stand not for war as Simon Coveney wants, but for peace.

Tarak Kauff

Julian Assange, in jail for exposing the empire

There is nothing our mainstream media loves better than a war crime. That is a war crime committed by an enemy of the US. Crimes that can be traced back to our numerous invasions and occupations of other countries don't count at all. 

The years long genocidal treatment of civilians in Yemen and Palestine is paid for by the United States. The bombs used are from American factories. Without US support these war crimes would end. The same could have been said for the millions killed in Korea, Vietnam, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. 

The My Lai Massacre was one of the few war crimes that the US has ever admitted to. And that was almost covered up by the young Army major ordered to investigate the mass murder. Years later, that same officer, then Secretary of State Colin Powell, would lie to the UN about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction." There is nothing like covering up US war crimes for advancing one's career in the empire. 

The reverse is true for truth tellers. Those foolish enough to even research US war crimes are hounded, like the current members of the International Criminal Court. The US has branded them "national security threats," denied them visas, and threatened them with other retaliatory actions. 

And then there is Julian Assange, who proved that the US committed war crimes in Iraq. For him no penalty is too great. He will spend his life in jail simply for exposing the empire's hypocrisy. 

Fred Nagel

Response to David Drimer's letter to the editor

Response to a letter by David Drimer

David Drimer lives in an alternate universe, where Israel "wants nothing more than to be at peace," and is willing to build "an independent Palestinian state, to see that dream come to fruition." I don't really think that Drimer believes all that. How could he? Israel is an apartheid state, with separate laws, roads, and housing settlements for its Jewish population, and nothing but bullets for its five million Palestinians living under occupation. So all the evidence in the world isn't going to change Drimer's mind. 

In fact, any attempt to point out how brutal Israel is to Palestinians gets put in that grand, amorphous category of antisemitism. Suddenly, one is labeled a proponent of "ZOG," whatever that is, and Drimer is back to familiar territory. We can argue about what antisemites do beside yelling "Zog" to other white supremacists. And whatever criticism of the extreme racism used to ethnically cleans the Holy Land gets identified as just another "trope." It seems like there is a trope for almost any criticism of Israel. In fact, pointing out that there are a lot of tropes is probably another trope. 

So I am not going to descend into trope land. If Drimer can argue about what antisemitism is, why then he doesn't have to talk about what Israel actually does to its Palestinians living under brutal occupation. That behavior is simply indefensible if one cares at all about human rights. 

For it is indefensible to drive millions of Palestinian from their homeland. It is indefensible to destroy 170,000 Palestinian homes since 1948. Indefensible to cut down 9,300 Palestinian olive trees last year alone. Indefensible to murder civilians with drone and sniper attacks, with an average of 6 Palestinian children killed each month in 2021. No, Drimer would prefer not to go there. He can't really defend Israel; the American people know too much. 

Fred Nagel

Jul 2022 Hudson Valley 1

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Drimer’s letter from January 2022

Pro-Israel policies not the work of ZOG

The Jewish Federation of Ulster County agrees with Fred Nagel that it’s wrong for religious extremists to “inject their holy directives into all our lives.” (Our Founders did not favor religious extremism, December 24.) But Nagel further proclaims a theocratic element has “taken over our (US) foreign policy,” they declare “Israel has the right to steal land in Palestine,” and Israel commits “genocidal attacks in Gaza.” It’s not true, and it cannot be sourced except in anti-Semitic propaganda.

The claim references the most pernicious anti-Semitic trope: Pro-Israel US policies are the work of “ZOG.” ZOG is a white-supremacist acronym for “Zionist Occupied Government,” which reflects the belief the US government is controlled by Jews. This has resulted in slogans such as “Smash ZOG” or “Death to ZOG.” That’s simply loathsome hate speech, and it should be shunned by civilized society.

Israel does not steal land in Palestine. If Nagel means Judea and Samaria, often called the West Bank, it’s “disputed territory” under international law, annexed illegally by Jordan after the 1948 War with Israel. When the entire Arab world again attacked in June 1967, and Israel emerged victorious just six days later, Israel seized control of those “disputed” areas for security purposes. Subsequently, Israel has provided security, water and utilities and has supplemented food and health care on a massive scale for the benefit of area residents, even during armed conflict.

Israel has offered to support the creation of an independent state there no less than three times. Those offers have been rebuffed by Arab governments seeking to benefit politically from keeping the Palestinians trapped in permanent refugee status.

There is no “genocide” of Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis. Israel has every right to protect itself from violence at the hands of Palestinian entities which divert funds to build terror tunnels, fire rockets at residential Jewish neighborhoods and pay stipends to the families of terrorists who kill Israelis. Look no farther than the streets and football stadiums named after convicted terrorists to prove the truth of that.

Israel wants nothing more than to be at peace, and it’s willing to help build and assure the prosperity of an independent Palestinian state to see that dream come to fruition. The rest of the region is waking up to it, too. Israel is in varying stages of negotiations to normalize relations with the greater Arab world, primarily due to their common security interests. They all see Iran – the largest state exporter of international terrorism in the world – as a looming threat to peace. But Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist faction ruled by a dictator who refuses to call elections in violation of its own Constitution, is supplied with money, arms and rockets by Iran. A permanent peace remains elusive.

Nagel’s opinions are based on hyperbole and easily dismissed, but he is shockingly inappropriate in embracing the most sinister of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

David Drimer

Executive director, The Jewish Federation of Ulster County

The Israel Lobby

One might say that the Israel Lobby isn't much worse than some of the biggest of corporate advocacy groups. Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Banks, and the weapons makers spend millions on campaign contributions and flood DC with their lobbyists. Is Israel doing anything different?

Well, most lobby groups don't spend a lot of time spying on the American people. Certainly not to the extent the Israeli Lobby does, using its huge collection of personal data to destroy the job prospects of college students and professors. In fact the lobby goes beyond that to infiltrate American human rights organizations, even using the Israeli spyware company NSO to trace their communications and locations. Pro-Israel reporters have infiltrated our major media, like Isabel Kershner for the New York Times, whose son served in the Israeli Army and husband works for an Israeli propaganda group (the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv).

The Israel Lobby has a close relationship with groups that fan Islamophobia in US campuses and communities. The Clarion Fund distributed copies of the racist film "Obsession" to millions of people in the same year it was awarded $18 million from the Donors Capital Fund, a group that links conservative causes to overseas funders operating in Israel. Jewish Voice For Peace has recently identified at least seven major foundations involved in creating and funding anti-Muslim sentiment in the US.

The Israeli Lobby is, in fact, much more destructive to our democracy than corporate advocacy groups.

Fred Nagel

Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes

Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes

In the West Bank of Israel/Palestine, there’s a housing shortage, but it’s limited to one ethnic group: Palestinians, and by design. “More than 1,000 Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, including around 500 children, are bracing themselves for the potential arrival of Israeli bulldozers that would demolish their homes…this large-scale expulsion would amount to an act of forcible transfer, which is a war crime and crime against humanity,” Amnesty International recently warned. “The imminent displacement of Palestinians from Masafer Yatta offers a stark reminder of the cruel strategy Israel has used for decades to maintain its cruel system of apartheid over Palestinians.”

Palestinians, many of whom have lived in the West Bank for generations, are being evicted from their homes so that they can be demolished to make way for Jewish-only settlements and businesses. Authorities often claim the homes were built without “permits,” even though they may have existed for decades. For Palestinians, their biggest investment is their home. They may spend thousands of dollars pursuing a permit, only to be denied, like most others – and see their homes demolished with short notice (minutes), with the owner liable to pay the cost, losing possessions and forced to live in a refugee camp or rented house. Imagine the emotional stress, especially for children.

Israel controls development in the West Bank, isolating Palestinian communities to keep them segregated from Jewish-only communities through discriminatory planning and housing policies. This is a denial of the basic human right to an adequate standard of living, including housing. By contrast, Israel provides subsidies and services to encourage Jewish Israelis to settle there; courts even approve Jewish communities built without permits.

Palestinians peacefully protest, but are often arrested and met by excessive force by the Israeli Defense, who use rubber bullets, stun grenades and live ammunition. Some become frustrated and feel they have no choice but to turn to violence, which politicians stoke. Yet Palestinians are often met by settler violence, abetted by the IDF.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented Israel’s apartheid laws, policies and practices. Per international law, apartheid is a crime against humanity committed by one racial/ethnic group that maintains an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination over another group. Dispossession of land and fragmentation of the population are components of apartheid. Learn more at www.amnestyusa.org/endapartheid.

Israel often claims its actions are to maintain “security.” But the real goal of its colonial project is to create a contiguous Greater Israel from the Mediterranean in the east to Jordan in the west – Jewish only, without Palestinians.

Israeli journalist Michel Warschawski quipped that “The symbol of Israel is no longer the Star of David, but rather the bulldozer.” Peace is difficult with unlawful demolitions. Israel receives almost $4 billion per year of US taxpayer money to enforce its brutal system of apartheid. Demand your members of Congress (202) 224-3121 hold Israel accountable.

Tom Midgley