Voted out, and shamed

I don't know what to say about a country whose political class can't call for a cease fire. We see the absolute slaughter of women and children, and still they say nothing. We listen to the stories of families ripped apart or simply obliterated, and yet Rep. Pat Ryan keeps cheering on the carnage. Is our ruling class filled with war criminals?

Does it help to point out how our Congress is bought and sold by the Israel Lobby? Pat Ryan was paid $28,850 by the lobby in 2022 (reported by Opensecrets.org). That money is now covered with human blood.

Have you no shame, Pat Ryan? As a West Point graduate weren't you taught not to butcher civilians? Not to murder thousands of children? What kind of soulless barbarian would defend Israel's mass murder? What kind of human being would take money from the Israel Lobby, if it meant selling their soul?

Let's show our absolute disgust with such supposed leaders, be they Republican or Democrat. Join a local rally, or go to DC (mideastcrisis.org). Ending US support for this racist, apartheid, and bloodthirsty country has to be our most important goal. We will not be "good Germans," as millions are marched to their extermination.

As a citizen and a US veteran, I demand that my flag not be covered with the blood of millions of Palestinians. And those who take the money and sell their humanity must not only be voted out, but shamed for what they have done to our nation.

Fred Nagel

United States is entirely complicit in the genocide

 

On October 7 I was shattered by the news of Hamas's murderous attack on Israeli Jews. I have friends, family, and colleagues in Israel, and many Jewish friends here. I share their anguish. I long to see the hostages returned safely.

 

I am also shattered by Israel's savage response. As I write, over 7000 Gazans have been killed, nearly 1.5 million displaced. Half of them are children. Israel has cut off water, food, and fuel. People are dying of dehydration. Families are forced to leave Gaza City and then bombed as they try to walk to safety. Palestinians in the West Bank--who are not represented by Hamas--are also being murdered, their villages torched by Jewish settlers while the Israeli army stands by. 

 

Please, people, especially those whose post-trauma response makes you demand revenge, please try to hold these complicated but not incompatible truths in your heart:

• Murder of civilians is unjustifiable, no matter their ethnicity.
• Revenge makes nobody safe.
• What Hamas did was an atrocity. 
• It did not come out of nowhere.  
• Resistance to occupation is inevitable, and permissible under international law. 
• When Israel and the world ignores or outlaws peaceful resistance, it is tragically predictable that some will resort to violence. This is not a justification. 
• If we do not look at root causes we will never understand or change. 
• The only way to build peace in Israel/Palestine is for Palestinians to have the same rights as Israeli Jews, including the vote. 
  

 

The United States is entirely complicit in the genocide now taking place. The US could end this horror overnight by withdrawing military aid to Israel. The refusal of Biden and almost all of Congress to insist on restraint is a disgrace. I salute the few who speak out. 

Jo Salas

Coming to terms with genocide

How do we as human beings come to terms with genocide? We research it and catalogue its atrocities. We trace it back to campaigns of racism and violence. And still we wonder how it could have been done. Are we the same people who drove the Cherokee Nation on its Trail of Tears? Would we have forced a million Armenians into the desert to die? Could we have looked the other way while 6 Million Jews were imprisoned and slaughtered?

Now, we don't have to wonder about what we would have done during mass murders of the past. Our own country is behind the current genocide of the Palestinian people.

England and the US created Israel as their colony in the oil rich Middle East. By 1948, Jewish militias were using terrorist tactics to clear 750,000 Palestinians from the land they had lived on for centuries. The result was called the Nakba, or catastrophe.

Israel has been using terror and ethnic cleansing ever since. At the same time, England and the US have funded and encouraged Israel's apartheid regime, no matter how many millions have suffered or died under its brutal occupation.

There are now about 6 million Jews and 6 million Palestinians in the Holy Land. England and the US must end their colony's war crimes and make peace, like what was finally done in South Africa and in Northern Ireland.

Each generation gets a chance to do the right thing when its time comes. Stand up against the genocide of the Palestinian people.

Fred Nagel

Place in the history of genocide

At first, taking tens of thousands from the Israel Lobby seemed like a no-brainer to Rep. Pat Ryan. Who knows really where the money comes from? Some very rich "philanthropists" with close ties to Israel just like giving their money to members of Congress. And so many are on the take:

Schumer, Charles      $546,007
Warnock, Raphael   $489,917
Jeffries, Hakeem     $439,790
Menendez, Robert   $109,800

It is only when push comes to shove, that this yearly dole becomes something else. Those free trips to Israel and all that money take on a darker meaning. You are asked to support an apartheid state committing genocide on millions of Palestinians. You have to explain why you back the killing of 2,500 children in less than two weeks. You have to defend the death march of 2.3 million, without food, water or shelter. And you are called upon to promote even more billions in military aid to Israel when it somehow runs out of bombs. All of a sudden, Pat Ryan finds he has blood on his hands, and like Macbeth, all of "Neptune's ocean" won't clean them off again.

The familiar canards won't work anymore. Is Israel just defending itself as it forces millions of civilians on a death march? That's like the Nazis claiming self defense while Jews and Romani are shipped to Auschwitz. Pat Ryan will have his own place in the history of the Palestinian genocide. For he has sold his soul to virulent racism and ethnic cleansing, like most members of Congress.

Fred Nagel
 

Made in Woodstock at Ametek Rotron

 

As the bombs continue to explode on the civilian population of Gaza, Woodstock citizens should realize that many of the weapons used in this terrible war depend on parts made in Woodstock. Ametek Rotron is part of the huge military industrial complex. One of their products is used in the illegal cluster bombs that are part of the arsenal that Biden provides to the IDF. Ametek Rotron is the largest employer in our town. Like almost every county across the nation, small and large weapon industries ensure that the local state and federal representatives keep supporting war. Ametek Rotron is not about "peace and love", We in Woodstock are being held hostage by these merchants of death. 

DeeDee Halleck

One more Rotron fan for Israel

I posted this at https://woodstockweaponswatch.blogspot.com/: 

On October 16, as Israel pursued its ethnic cleansing and collective punishment of civilians in Gaza, its Ministry of Defense invited tenders for a "sample" 200AC fan "made by Rotron Inc." Ametek Rotron's contributions to foreign militaries mostly fly under the radar -- we've reported on their sales to Israel before -- but this request, unusually, turned up online. It's just one fan, but the word "sample" suggests that more will follow, and it confirms that the Israeli military continues to rely on made-in-Woodstock components as it violates international law. The government set a quick deadline of Nov. 1, suggesting the fan(s) are to be used soon. 

We know that made-in-Woodstock Rotron fans are used in many of the advanced weapons systems deployed by Israel and supplied by the US -- warplanes, tanks, rocket launchers, military helicopters, drones, armed personnel carriers, and warships. 

The procurement notice was published by Al Bawaba, a Jordan-based news site (paywall) and also by Bidsinfo.

Laurie Kirby

Please let us stand for peace

 My letter to the Daily Catch:

I'm so disturbed by the conflict in Israel/Palestine and the unending, simple and biased media blitz in the US. I have been long concerned about the brutal apartheid that Israel has become, this time under Netanyahu, and the US military support that has helped fuel this conflict. I do not want to hear another politician use the term "unprovoked" in regards to the attack by Hamas. I do not support the use of violence by either Hamas or Israel. I do not stand with Israel when they are perpetuating war in Gaza, inflicting far more harm than was done to them. It is time to look at what is happening now and name it correctly. Israel has a vastly superior military and has used it to maintain the occupation, throwing Palestinians out of their homes and confining them to walled in camps. Israel has been brutal in the killing of civilians which is strictly against international law, yet the US stand with Israel no matter what. What is terrorism if it is not a desperate act by people who are systematically brutalized. But war is real terror and this war has been killing far more Palestinians than Israelis. It is wildly unfair to paint the people of Gaza with one brush and indiscriminately wage war on an entire population, most whom are just trying to live their lives. Netanyahu is a war criminal and must be removed. The United States has got to stand with the people, not with one people over the other. I only stand with the people of Israel who refuse to allow their brethren to live in the settlements, condemn the brutal regime of Netanyahu, and demand equal rights for the Palestinians.

I also think it is imperative for the people of the US to look at the history of this region and understand how complex and interwoven the people have been. There has also been extreme meddling by other nations for purposes not in the best interest of the people. We cannot allow those that profit on war and conflict to call the shots. If we stand with one people over another we are encouraging conflict and standing for war. Please let us stand for peace.

 

Cary Kittner