The course “Apartheid in Israel-Palestine”

 

The course “Apartheid in Israel-Palestine” recognizes a reality accepted by most of the world and opens it up to discussion. Isn’t that what we expect from institutions of higher learning? Fact #1: Israel has been condemned as an apartheid state by Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; Israel’s own human rights monitor, B’Tselem; members of the EU Parliament; and last year the Presbyterian Church (USA); among others. Fact #2: The International Criminal Court is investigating Israel for the crime of apartheid. 

What prevents more public outcry? Several myths—that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East,” that the Occupation is temporary (56 years and counting), and that a ”peace process” will soon bring an end to abuses. If Bard’s course allows reality to depose those dangerous myths it will be an educational landmark.

Prof. Lisa Mullenneaux

Collapse of our corrupted two party system

Political parties in the United States change over time. Sometimes the issues are so monumental that old parties die and new ones are born. The abolition of slavery is one example. The Whig Party disappeared before the Civil War and the Republican Party emerged.

We have overarching issues of the day in 2023. There is the enormous gap between the very rich and the rest of us that has plagued our nation for the last 40 years. Rich people buy politicians of both parties to make sure that our laws favor only the obscenely wealthy. Working people haven't had a break since Jimmy Carter.

Another issue is war. Both parties are enthusiastic supporters of our endless wars abroad. Both parties mouth the same platitudes about fighting for democracy, freedom and human rights, all the while shoveling enormous profits to the nation's major weapons makers. We have over 800 military bases around the world, and our soldiers and advisors are involved in wars in Africa, the Middle East, and now Eastern Europe. Both parties are fine with that, despite the fact that we are risking a nuclear annihilation.

A third issue is our unending support for tyrants and genocidal states. From Saudi Arabia to apartheid Israel, we reward the worst of human rights abuser, and both parties seem to like it that way, as long as the bribes keep coming. Most of our Congress is paid off by the Israel Lobby.

May the New Year bring the collapse of our corrupted two party system.

Fred Nagel

Marching off to that nuclear winter

Twenty years of war has cost the United States trillions of dollars, thousands of its young men and women, and the almost universal condemnation from the rest of the world. Afghanistan and Iraq are in ruins, joining Vietnam and Korea as victims of our military prowess and quest for world domination since World War II.

Perhaps these calamities visited on Third World countries will help us dig deeper into our own national psyche, starting with the myth of good intentions. For each invasion of foreign lands, the American people were offered noble reasons for the carnage. For Korea and Vietnam we were told that our country was fighting for freedom from Communism. For Afghanistan, it was freedom for women. For Iraq it was to punish a dictator who was "killing his own people." Of course, we also understood that the latter two invasions were in retribution for 9/11, a moral judgment that most American citizens accepted. Paying back these Islamist countries also became part of the honorable intentions that most citizens believed in.

To preserve this mythology, other aspects of our system need to be obscured. Like the staggering profits of our weapons makers. No matter who ultimately wins these wars or how many innocents get obliterated, the military industrial complex always comes out on top. We are told that wars break out, and that we must spend our national treasure defending ourselves and doing good in the world. We never conceive that it goes the other way around. That the weapons makers sit in the Pentagon strategizing how they can make billions starting new wars, and then our media comes up with the lies to make it all palatable.

Perhaps the war in Ukraine will be an end to all wars. A nuclear exchange with Russia would terminate most life on earth. But our media never dwells on the negatives of our war making. Perhaps we will go marching off to that nuclear winter with all our patriotic righteousness still intact.

Fred Nagel

Teaching the Palestinian side of what is happening

 I can't see what is wrong with teaching the Palestinian side of what is happening.
    

When Great Britain  decided  that the Jewish people  should be given Israel after World War 11 , it was much like settlers in what is now the USA  being  given settling homesteads in  Native American lands 

Here the  Native Americans were  promised, tricked , moved , killed and subjugated. Much the same thing is happening  now to the Palistinians under Israel's occupation.

To show the reality of how the Palestinian people also had rights to the land on which they are living  is a good thing. Palestinians  have been marginalized while their homeland is  taken away  piece by piece  by every illegal settlement is built in land outside of Israel's original borders.

Israel's boundaries have expanded, while  Palistin's have shrunk. When the Palistinians  rightfully  rebel against this occupation and theft of  their land and  Israel's  misuse of  military power against them  It is time the whole story is taught.

The United States sponsors  the Illegal settlements  and Israel's military build so as to have an ally in the Middle East..while continuing the myth that the Palistinians  don't really exist.

Three cheers for Bard for bringing this discussion into their school

-Antonia  Weidenacher

'What antisemitism is, what it is not, and why it matters' by Donna Nevel

www.sun-sentinel.com /opinion/commentary/fl-op-com-antisemitism-zionism-israel-criticism-2022092...

What antisemitism is, what it is not, and why it matters | Opinion
Donna Nevel ⋮ 5-6 minutes ⋮ 9/25/2022

As we enter the Jewish New Year, many Jews are beginning to reflect upon our past year and consider how we — individually and collectively — can participate in creating a more just world in the year to come. One of the critical issues that I hope will engender a good deal of reflection in our Jewish communities is how we speak and think about antisemitism, and why it matters.

Antisemitism, like all forms of injustice, harms people and communities. In recent years, we have witnessed Jews being murdered in synagogues, Jewish cemeteries being desecrated, and visibly religious Jews being harmed. We have seen the growth of white nationalist and white supremacist movements that, in different forms, denigrate and target Black people and other communities of color, queer and trans people, Muslims, immigrants and Jews. We have seen so-called political leaders doing much the same.

Resisting antisemitism must be part and parcel of our collective work for liberation and justice. But — and there is a but here — much of the organizing against antisemitism by mainstream Jewish organizations actually makes it more difficult to challenge antisemitism and to participate in work for collective liberation.

Many Jewish organizations speak about criticism of Israel or Zionism as antisemitic, but that is a misuse and, in fact, an abuse of what antisemitism is. Antisemitism is directed at Jews as Jews. Criticism of Israel or Zionism is directed at a nation-state. There is nothing discriminatory or antisemitic about challenging any or all policies of a nation-state, including the Jewish state.

There are critiques of Israel and Zionism that grow out of a deep commitment to human rights. This commitment is not about being against anyone, but, rather, it’s about the unwavering support of equal rights for all. Zionism is a political movement that resulted in the dispossession and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their land and homes. Opposing that movement in favor of a movement that honors and respects all who live there is an important principle to uphold. That is not remotely antisemitic. In truth, conflating anti-Zionism and antisemitism turns the focus far away from fighting antisemitism and envisioning a world in which all people are treated with dignity, and, instead, is about building support for Israel’s unjust, discriminatory system that privileges Jews over all others and continues to engage in land theft and enormous violence against Palestinians.

When I was a young Zionist activist in college — before I learned about the consequences of Zionism on the Palestinians living there — I went to a hasbara (propaganda) training at the Israeli Consulate. I remember being shocked that one of the things we were told was that when someone argued against Israel, not to address the argument, but, instead, to accuse the person of antisemitism. This tactic has become much more widespread today and it’s why dangerous definitions of antisemitism, like the one put forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism and has gotten much attention, must be vehemently opposed.

The IHRA definition comes appended with 11 illustrative examples of antisemitism, seven of which specifically focus on the state of Israel, rather than Jews as a group. One such example: “Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” What does that even mean? Is this something we would even consider as a problem in any other international issue? Of course not. People have a right to focus on issues that move them, and for many of us who are Jewish, we feel an obligation to make clear Israel does not have our support and to speak out about the injustices being committed. And, frankly, for Palestinians or anyone concerned with human rights and justice for the Palestinian people, it should be quite obvious why they would focus on this issue. That is not antisemitic.

This Jewish New Year, may we recognize that to truly challenge antisemitism and participate in the struggle for justice, we are obligated to insist that the struggle against antisemitism not be derailed to further policies and practices that harm Palestinians and all those fighting for justice, for this also harms the struggle against antisemitism itself. Our commitment to challenging antisemitism must be rooted in a politics and practices that embrace justice for all.

Donna Nevel, a community psychologist and educator, is a long-time Jewish activist living in South Florida.

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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