I’m tired of the “I STAND WITH ISRAEL” and “I STAND WITH PALESTINE/GAZA” (or, less often, with Hamas) displays that we’re seeing now. The place to stand right now is BETWEEN THEM, with one palm raised up towards EACH, to hold them back.
Of course, it is obvious that it’s too late to hold a hand up in the face of Hamas: they already pulled off their clever trick of using surprise and horrible violence to gad Israel into an insane drive to purge Gaza — purportedly of Hamas, but effectively of Palestinians altogether. So our overriding mission right now is not to remonstrate about the horror of the initial atrocity in this round of the conflict, but to keep Israel from committing a numerically worse atrocity against the million adults and million children in Gaza.
We are the only country that can do what need to be done: tell Israel that we will be airlifting food and water into Gaza and that they had better not interfere with our efforts. If Israel does shoot down one of our planes, then bomb just one of the illegally built settlers’ houses in the West Bank. Harsh, I know — but when you’re trying to prevent someone from committing a mass atrocity, you have to take steps.
But I seriously doubt that it will come to that. Wiser Israelis, and the majority of American Jews, would be happy to see Netanyahu forced to stand down. By preventing mass carnage, we’d be doing Israel a favor.
So: massive amounts of “just add water” MREs and loads of water to drink and cook with. I don’t know what we can do in the “fuel” department, but Sterno would probably be safe to drop — and if we can parachute down something to help provide some electricity, that would be great.
This is a matter of OUR national security. If Israel’s siege kills a large number of Gazans, with OUR support, WE are the ones who will lose support worldwide. (For Hamas, this is probably a bonus, one that they expected.) This can’t wait; Biden should get the relief coming as soon as possible. And our ships should ensure that the Israeli Navy cannot stand in the way of deliveries of basic human rights supplies by sea.
We cannot led madmen in Hamas and in the Knesset drag us into being part to an atrocity that will rival Vietnam and Iraq. We need to take ameliorative measure, and we need to do it NOW.
That’s where I stand. And until this is done, I’m not prepared to discuss the larger and complex issues of Israel’s right to live in peace and Palestinians’ right to return of their land. We can argue about that another time. Now is the time to save lives — overwhelmingly innocent lives. We’re the only ones that Israel really doesn’t want to kill. It’s our responsibility to act.
And anyone who says, right now, that you “Stand With Israel” — understand that this is one American Jew who isn’t appreciative, and who resents that you’re not standing with me right now: against a genocide.
Please call President Biden him and ask him to do the humane thing. The number of the White House Switchboard is 202-456-1414. I’ve already called. The White House Comment Line is 202-456-1111, open from Tuesday through Thursday, 8-noon Pacific Time. You can also send emails to the President through whitehouse.gov/contact.
Pro-Palestinian march down Jamboree in Irvine around 4:40 pm today. It was easy being pro-Israel before 9-11, now not so much. Zionists problems are spread across the world. You can’t contain thought and belief behind walls and fences. And propaganda has a problem with the internet.
Were you pro-Israel before 9/11 then, if it was so easy? That’s sort of a weird time to have switched, as 9/11 was more about U.S. troops “defiling” Saudi Arabia with their presence (in the eyes of Bin Laden) than about Israel at all. I don’t know what to make of your third sentence, but don’t feel obliged to clarify.
Israel and Zionists have been using indoctrination and propaganda since 1948 to muddle the truth. This fight has now reached school curricula in California and the United States.
As for 9/11, it’s just a marker but Muslim population and influence has strengthened in US and elsewhere since 2001. Were there any Muslim majority city councils in US before 9/11?? There was a lot of emigration from Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan to US since that date.
Sheesh
Propaganda exists on all sides, in most international conflicts.(and beyond, of course.) Your first paragraph sounds, once again, conspiratorial.
The advent of Muslims in our political culture, and our culture generally, where good things have been happening to the comedy scene, is following the same path as seen for most groups that aren’t straight white Christian cis-men. It was their turn, after many years spent waiting in line. It has nothing to do with 9/11. It may have a lot to do with Israeli intransigence towards Palestinians burgeoning since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, but 9/11 was not a draw for Muslims to come here to be abused. It may also have a lot to do with travel and visa processing being easier.
I understand that propaganda (on the mass media) can be easily debunked on the internet. Of course it’s also amplified there, all depends what internet you choose to look at.
There was duality in the statement that propaganda has a tendency problem with the internet.
Now, israel is spreading propaganda in ads displayed in game apps like Words with Friends, etc.
Here is the ad.
https://youtu.be/kh-0_OtpY2Y?si=pYwr6BDwIERnsUNv
Uh, I really doubt that that’s real. The ad may be real, but its presence in a Words With Friends game could have easily been faked.
Hijacking people’s online games is not a way to endear oneself to them.
I play Words with Friends. If you don’t pay thru the nose you gotta watch ads in between each game. And I’ve seen political ads. During Measure A, lotsa anti ads.
Sterno not required – MRE’s have their own self heating component.
Thanks. I’ll notify the President!
Today OC Bos passed resolution supporting Armenian human rights and calling for the end of hostilities.
I spoke during comments in relating to Arab, Palestine and Muslim community’s opposition to County resolution standing with israel. Brian Kaye among others was there.
Going back to canceling and doxxing.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/berkeley-law-professor-asks-employers-not-hire-my-antisemitic-law-students-your-duty.amp
I’ve got to go along with Neshanian on this one. This law professor is a jerk and should not be involved in teaching.
I think that it’s simplistic to say that “Israel caused this attack,” but it’s even more simplistic to say that anyone who believes that Israel caused it by maintaining a grip on Gaza’s throat for so long is unfit to hire. It’s a complex issue, in which both sides have claims that are valid in some ways and not others, and reasonable people have to be able to disagree about it, especially in an academic setting.
And disagreeing about the state of Israel’s policies does not equate to anti-Semitism; one can oppose Israel without hating Jews. I do believe that Jews need a homeland where they should be able to live in peace, and unless it’s an uninhabited island somewhere it is going to lead to fights over ownership rights — but that doesn’t make the situation impossible to navigate. Good people on both sides have been working for decades to determine a way to a just solution — and extremists (and even less-extremists) on both sides simply haven’t taken the process seriously enough. A just solution will require give and take — and I hope that it will turn out better for the less well-armed group than it has in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
One distinguishing feature in this particular conflict is that it’s not the case that one side has a massively lesser amount of power, as the Kurds or Aboriginal North Americans; here, both sides have substantial amounts of power, of different sorts, and so they don’t want to give up a winnable struggle. One weak link to Israel’s power is that it depends so greatly on support for the United States, which is why Hamas deliberately used an atrocity to provoke something between a massive war crime and an actual genocide. That’s why so many U.S> leaders like this professor work so hard to cast dissent as anti-Semitism: because the power structure here knows that the U.S. is the weak link. I look forward to being proven wrong about Professor Shmuck not being fired; if he is, he can surely find a well-endowed Chair at Liberty University’s Law School, where he can be happy among the eschatological fundamentalists.
Denying students the benefit of their expensive Berkeley degree because they’re resisting the national pro-Israel consensus, based on their own moral assessment of the situation is pure thuggery. I presume that Berkeley will not fire Professor Thug because of the blowback they would get — but if I were a Berkeley student I would seriously consider suing the school for tortious interference in business prospects, or some other appropriate suit. And whoever hires the smart students that other people overlook because they take a popular view will be that much better off for it.
This is about whose children will die. Parents who teach their children well, also obey the “rules”. When in 1,500 years has radical political Islam ever shown regards to human suffering?
Hello Pamela Wykoff!