Adding nationalism to a religion

Does adding nationalism to a religion make it more compelling or immune to criticism? 

It is an old trick, of course. The Byzantines attacked the the Zoroastrian Persians in 629, all in the name of defending Christianity. 

Soon after, Mohammad, the great warrior who founded Islam, experienced a vision that he was the last prophet. His armies swept all before them, including Persians, Jews, Christians, and Turks. 

The Crusades were organized on the same concept, sending Christian soldiers to fight the heathens. For hundreds of years starting in 1096, armies from Europe were sent to recapture the Holy Land from the followers of Islam. 

The fourteen-hundreds saw the mass expulsion of Jews from Spain as well as the conquest of the New World, where fifty-five million indigenous people would eventually be sacrificed to the Lamb of God. 

Zionists added nationalism to Judaism in the early years of the twentieth century. Ever since that marriage of convenience, we have been told that criticizing Israel's military expansion and occupation is antisemitic, no matter how many millions of Palestinians have been dislocated or murdered. 

In truth, all religions have been used at some point in history to justify slaughter and territorial expansion. That doesn't make it right. And beginning with the Enlightenment, we have come to question some of the more malevolent of religious dogmas. 

"The arc of the moral universe is long," said Martin Luther King, "but it bends toward justice." Justice for all peoples facing oppression. Even the Palestinians.  

Fred Nagel

The Real Assault on Democracy

The New York Times quotes Alexander Hamilton to support the impeachment of Donald Trump. Hamilton wrote that a president who fosters “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils” is betraying our trust. First is was Trump colluding with Russia, and now it is with Ukraine. 

Yet there is one country that has gained almost unlimited power in the U.S. government, and that country is Israel. Its extraordinary influence hardly ever makes it onto the pages of the NYT. 

There is little written about links between Trump and his largest campaign donor, the Israeli/American and radical Zionist, Sheldon Adelson. Trump benefited greatly from the 100 million Adelson gave to the Republicans in 2016, and quickly rewarded Israel by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli, and pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement. 

In fact, Israel has dominated American foreign policy since its lobby funded Truman's famous whistle-stop tour. Once elected, Truman recognized the state of Israel just minutes after it was declared in 1948. 

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, in their groundbreaking book "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" cites the lobby as a major factor in the invasion of Iraq, a misadventure that has cost taxpayers over a trillion dollars. Now Israel insists that we spend another trillion attacking Iran.

When will Americans start seeing this insidious Israeli influence for what it is, a well planned and funded assault on our democracy.

Fred Nagel

The wrong side of history

Germany has come out swinging in its recent support of Israel, condemning the boycott of Israeli products and cultural events as antisemitic. Criticizing antisemitism would have changed the course of history 90 years ago. Is this just a case of bad timing?

Today, it is not Israeli Jews facing racism, violence and the systematic erasure of their culture; it is the Palestinians. Jews in Israel don't need protection any more than the Nazis did during the Third Reich. What the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is almost exactly what was done to Jews in the 1930's.

Maybe Germany just doesn't get that human rights are for all people, not just for those in power. In the years up to WW II, all the Germans could talk about was racial purity and how they needed other people's lands, about the same things being demanded by Israelis today. 

In fact, Germany and Israel have agreed on human rights issues before. Both countries opposed the boycott of apartheid South Africa, and both considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Human rights for Black South Africans was about the last thing that either country cared about when it mattered the most.

Germans may think that aligning with Israel will somehow erase the horrors of the Holocaust. It's a cheap fix. Germany is abandoning the Palestinians now for short term commercial and geopolitical gain. Once again, the Germans are on the wrong side of history; they have learned so very little.

Fred Nagel

My right and my moral responsibility

Now that the House of Representatives has decided that boycotting Israel is antisemitic, it is time that I confess my various crimes. 

I have indeed been boycotting products. I refuse to do business with Airbnb because the company makes money renting apartments and houses in the illegal settlements. Palestinian homes get demolished and Jewish only settlement blocks are built, then rented out by Airbnb. 

I also would never buy or sell my house using RE/MAX, another company profiting from the settlements. RE/MAX buys and sells apartments and homes there, but of course not to everyone. Only to those with the right ethnic and religious backgrounds need apply.

I refuse to buy a Volvo because the car company makes heavy equipment used to destroy Palestinian homes. HP will never get my business because of the work they do computerizing the checkpoints and surveillance systems in the West Bank. I wouldn't use HSBC Bank because it loans money to companies that arm the occupation. 

If I were a gambler, I would boycott the Sands Hotels because they are owned by Israeli/American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who buys support for Israel by donating tens of millions to Trump and the Republican Party. If I had young children, I wouldn't let them watch Fox Kids or Power Rangers because they belong to Israeli/American billionaire Haim Saban, who ensures support for the occupation by paying millions in bribes to the Democratic Party. 

Boycotting is both my right and my moral responsibility. 

Fred Nagel

Needed to bring a just and lasting peace

Following is the LTE by Joey Naham and Jim Brown published Sunday, August 25th in Newsday,  concerning the BDS Issue:

Letter to the Editor, Newsday, published August 25, 2019.

"The controversy over Israel’s refusal to allow an official visit by two members of Congress highlights the negative effects of a misguided bipartisan attempt by representatives of both major political parties to attack and smear the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights and freedom. By an overwhelming margin in July, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution to condemn the BDS movement and to endorse an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution. Legislatures in more than two dozen U.S. states have passed measures condemning the BDS movement or banning contracts with businesses involved with it.

Such undemocratic action is divisive and violates free-speech rights. It is outrageous that lawmakers have supported legislation to penalize or vilify anyone who advocates a boycott of Israel for its oppressive treatment of Palestinians under a decades-old occupation.
BDS is a peaceful approach to change — part of the process of negotiation, now stalled — that is desperately needed to bring a just and lasting peace to Israel and Palestine."
Joseph Naham and Jim Brown,

Editor’s note: The writers are chair and secretary, respectively, of the Green Party of Nassau County.

Last night I had the strangest dream

Last night I had the strangest dream. My country had turned into a Christian nation, and everybody who wasn't part of the church, lost most of their rights. 

Suddenly, only Christians could drive on our nation's major highways. Only Christians could buy property. Our legal system had split into two forms of justice, one for Christians and one for the nonbelievers. In fact, nonbelievers were put under military justice, with few rights and long prison terms for being another religion. Even their children were routinely rounded up and sent to jail.

Some of the prisons for the nonbelievers were immense open air camps behind barbed wire. Christians could shoot into such camps at will, often killing men, women and children. Their fields were destroyed and we cut their food supply to keep them all at the brink of starvation. We didn't let them fish in international waters and routinely shot at their boats. Life for millions of non-Christians was made short and brutish, a sort of punishment for not being of the right faith. 

A funny thing had happened to my Christianity. I knew my religion was full of wise teachings, but I couldn't remember any of them. Now my beliefs were nothing but love for my country and hatred for all non-Christians. I didn't allow anyone to challenge my beliefs either. To me, anyone who questioned what my country had become were simply anti-Christians. 

Last night I dreamed my country had turned into Israel. 

Fred Nagel

BDS will end Israeli apartheid

To the Editor:

Israel is a rogue nation which repeatedly violates international law,  UN resolutions, and the human rights of Palestinians and Bedouins.   This outlaw and criminal  behavior  would not be possible without the  support of the United States and our taxpayer dollars ( $3.8 billion per year).  Since 1967 Israel has demolished 55,000 Palestinian homes - in 1948 Israel demolished 60,000 homes and terrorized  850,000 Palestinians into abandoning their land and homes.  Since 1967 the Israeli army (IDF) has militarily occupied  Gaza and the West Bank, and imposed a brutal blockade on Gaza,  intentionally causing shortages of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies.  This  year peaceful, non-violent  border protests by desperate Palestinians  were met with Israeli army sniper fire that killed over 200 Palestinians  including journalists,  medics, and  disabled demonstrators  in wheelchairs - IDF snipers  severely wounded  more than 20,000 protesters! 

With the relentless, violent and illegal theft of occupied Palestinian lands, homes, and farms  to build apartheid, Jewish only settlements  there are now over 500,000 Jewish settlers occupying over 200 settlements, outposts, and neighborhoods.   Israel has been condemned widely by the international community for it’s brutal ethnic cleansing and creation of an apartheid state where only Jews have full citizenship and rights.  

The non-violent BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions)  movement is attempting to pressure Israel to end it’s military occupation, secure equal rights for all (Jews and Arabs), and to allow Palestinians to return to their  stolen lands.  A boycott ended South African apartheid - hopefully, BDS will end Israeli apartheid. 

Eli Kassirer

New Paltz, NY