The Self Awareness Of Empire

The holocaust of the Palestinians is upon us. The ongoing eradication of two million people isn't really hidden, nor is the fact that the US is the major driver for the butchery. We supply the bombs and the planes to make it happen. We send billions upon billions to Israel just in case they run out of money while pulverizing hospitals, schools and apartment buildings. And we defend Israel's crimes against humanity at the UN, making sure that the killing can go on without international interference.

But what has this genocide taught us about our own society? We don't have two political parties when it come to supporting this carnage; we have only one. They can demonize each other, but would never question the slaughter in Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon.

We have such congeniality within our religious community that our ministers, priests and rabbis would never mention this holocaust amongst themselves or to their congregations. That wouldn't be the sensitive thing to do, so they all agree to avoid ever bringing it up.

We have a national media that continually defends Israel's wholesale war crimes. New York Times reporters were instructed not to use the words "genocide," "ethnic cleansing" or "occupied territory" when writing about Israel's massacrers. A similar directive must have been issued for the word "slaughter" which only gets applied to Hamas and not to the Israeli army.

We have have college and university presidents who fall all over themselves not to appear critical of Israel. They fire teachers who speak or write about this holocaust. They send in the cops to physically break up student groups that are demanding an end to apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

We have police departments that are more than willing to crack a few heads when students complain about free speech rights on campus. Chances are that at least some of their senior officials have been sent to Israel for "counterterrorism training." At least 1,000 top brass have taken part in such indoctrination, while thousands more have participated in US conferences run by Israeli security officials.

We have a political structure that is awash in large political donations. They are bribes, of course, like Sheldon Adelson's $20 million gift to the Republican Party that resulted in Trump moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In legal terms this is called "quid-pro-quo," the oxygen of our completely corrupted two party system. Take a peek at how much the Israel Lobby is able to give to almost every member of Congress by looking at OpenSecrets.org. So many of our representatives are paid hundreds of thousands to look the other way while children are purposely starved to death in Gaza.

Our children or grandchildren will be asking about all this someday. How is it that you let our country commit a genocide? Didn't you know that millions of women and children were being slaughtered by Israel? Were you aware? How in God's name could you have done nothing?

Fred Nagel

God gave the land to the ancient Hebrews?

Zionist Israel's most basic rationale for its colonization of Palestine is that God gave the land to the ancient Hebrews, therefore today's Jews have the right to it.  Israel apologists frequently cite scripture to support this claim. (For clarity, all citations from The New English Bible). For example, in Genesis 17:8 God tells Abraham, "As an everlasting possession I will give you and your descendants...the land in which you now are aliens, all the land of Canaan." 

Conveniently, Zionists omit the next verse, in which God tells Abraham, "For your part, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you..." Thus, the land grant was conditional, based on the Hebrews keeping God's commandments such as "Administer true justice show loyalty and compassion to one another, do not oppress the orphan and the widow, the alien and the poor, do not contrive any evil, one against another." (Zechariah 7:9-11). 

Nevertheless, the Hebrews incessantly violated God's conditions, so God punished them: "An enemy shall surround the land; your stronghold shall be thrown down and your palaces sacked (Amos 3:11)...and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus. (Amos 5:27).  The result was foreign invasions resulting in permanent loss of the land with the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 63 B.C. The claim, therefore, that God gave the land to the Jews is a half-truth omitting the conditions of the land grant and the Hebrews' violations thereof. Nevertheless, today's Zionists presume to have divine right to the land, stealing more and more Palestinian land and crushing Palestinian resistance.         

 

Gregory De Sylva

Benefit of the Doubt

As a U.S. veteran, I have always given the benefit of the doubt to my country. The millions killed in Korea and Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s just could have been the fault of US weapons makers, eager to trade body counts for corporate profits.

And then there were the millions slaughtered in the misguided U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Like the previous conflicts, the invasions were all based on dirty little lies about defending our country or spreading freedom to the Third World.

But America's unrelenting butchery in Gaza has nothing left to cover its war crimes. The Palestinian children are dying with no food, no water and no shelter from the storm. The empire has decided it needs these human sacrifices for some arcane geopolitical advantage. And the savagery is now going into its second year.

We are finally coming to realize that the empire and its grubby, bloodstained ally, Israel, are the true impediments to world peace. Most countries already know this, judging by the huge numbers of UN member states that castigate the US and Israel for their ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Only the American people stand in the way of the worst genocide since the Third Reich. It is a simple choice: demand an end to our country's mass murdering of children or become part of it. Insist that our venal Congress stop accepting millions in Israeli bribes, blood money that supports this most grotesque of all apartheid colonies.

Fred Nagel

Never Again for Anyone

 
From Marcy--

The Washington Post lost the plot early in the week by writing about the hopes of Palestinians returning to the north, in Gaza.  In one video, a young man is beaming as he strides, "I can feel the breeze of the North" he says, profusely thanking god for returning him to his home. Further along a woman sits on her belongings, children clustered around her. Why is she waiting? She doesn't know. They've closed the checkpoint. No one knows why. Exhaustion and resignation etch her face, as she waits. Waits to return to her demolished home. Waits to find human remains of her loved ones.

These are human beings, that we've bombed and starved with our tax dollars. Human beings we've driven from homes and killed and terrorized with our tax dollars. And for once, one of the great "newspapers of record" dares us to see the human beings we have done this to, and know the truth. Their human lives are not worth less than the human lives of those who open and close the checkpoints. Their lives are the lives we are fighting for, in protesting Israel's ongoing apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

There is a ceasefire in Gaza, and a ramping up of Israeli state terrorism and killings in the West Bank. Armed thugs (some settlers, some in uniform) seek to drive more human beings from their homes and livelihood. 

This week marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In memory of the Nazi Holocaust I'd like to propose the following: Never Again for anyone. Never Again the dehumanization, the ethnic cleansing, the starving, the bombing, the slaughter, the terrorizing of human beings whose only crime, it seems, is existing. A persistent, breathtaking accomplishment of existing, existing despite the best efforts of the nuclear armed military superpower we fund.

Join us!

Common antisemitic words

 Common antisemitic words and phrases to watch out for:

"NAKBA" Because it implies that Israel has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians forever. It's only been 75 years.

"HOLY LAND" Because it describes several religions in this region, when we know that only Jewish people are allowed.

"HOME DEMOLITIONS" Because everyone knows that only Israel is bulldozing houses in Israel/Palestine. There must be other countries doing a lot of bulldozing that are being routinely overlooked.

"APARTHEID" Because it suggests that Israel is a racist country. In fact, only Jimmy Carter and a few human rights organizations use this word. And they only use it because they are antisemites.

"WAR CRIMES" Because it brings to mind two million people starving and dying in Gaza. Its use at colleges will make some Jewish students sad and even upset.

"ISRAEL LOBBY" Because it implies that Israel bribes the US Congress. Congress takes boatloads of money from the oil lobby, the weapons makers, and the pharmaceuticals. Why is Israel being singled out?

"ONE STATE OR TWO STATE SOLUTIONS" Because Israel has been dead set against either solution for a very long time. Even asking this question is another sign of being an antisemite.

"FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE" Because the Israel Lobby says this is antisemitic. What gives people the right to put "Palestine" and "free" in the same sentence?

"GENOCIDE" Because everyone already knows that the IDF is slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinians. Can't people get off Israel's back!

Fred Nagel

Trail Of Tears

Trail Of Tears

Bodily feelings sometimes go away, but always return with a bit more urgency. Like hunger, you can forget it for a while, but it invariably comes back stronger. That is what the children learn, as they are slowly starved to death by the US/Israel death machine.

I find that as I immerse myself in day to day events, this slaughter is always waiting to come back to me. Could the country I love be starving children to death by the thousands? By the tens of thousands? Their spindly arms and legs have that Buchenwald look. I can't bear the images that wait for me to close my eyes.

Once the children behind barbed wire fences appear to me, my mind starts a desperate search. Could my own country be murdering children like this? Could our own churches and synagogues be cheering on the extermination? Did we catch this endless warfare and charnel house slaughter from the Nazis?

Both political parties want this butchery. All the money we have is going into more bombs and planes. We can't get enough of it. We wave our flags, heedless of what our country is really doing. We sing "God Bless America," as if we had the right to ask our lord to celebrate the holocaust of this century.

Are we incapable of empathy? Is this life but a trail of tears, the name given to our very own ethnic cleansing and annihilation of the Cherokee Nation? Who on earth can protect the Palestinians from the barbarians?

Fred Nagel

Hope to see more of you in the streets in 2025

 
We are all grateful for this fragile ceasefire in Gaza and the  prisoner exchanges,  despite the fact that Israel is violating the ceasefire and continues to inflict violence against civilians  in Gaza and the West Bank,  Women In Black are braving the cold every Saturday to stand in solidarity with Palestine.  Unfortunately, the pro-Israeli, zionist counter demonstrators  across the street have become more aggressive and emboldened of late.  Our solidarity with Palestine and our truth telling about Israel’s war crimes and genocide really disturbs them.  Their arrogance and depraved support for genocide are truly disturbing,  but will in no way deter Women In Black from peacefully speaking the truth.  
 
With the worldwide crackdown and intimidation of   pro-Palestinian journalists, students, and academics it it more important than ever that we stand strong in the face of this backlash.  Ali Abunimah is a journalist who founded the electronicintifada.net  (one of the best sources of real information) has been arrested  by Swiss authorities prior to giving a lecture.  To sign a petition to release him use this link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1XDwHoJ27T/?mibextid=wwXIfr -  Below are  pictures of the MLK Day rally in the  New Paltz Peace Park.  There were about 200 people in attendance and we chanted and marched through downtown New Paltz.  Much to the consternation of the police because the march spilled into the street.  Hope you are all well and staying warm.  And hope to see more of you in the streets in 2025.  
Peace always,
 
Eli