#and to my knowledge palestinians are the only ones being murdered by the thousands

[tendercoretroglodyke]

have so far staunchly avoided the topic of palestinian apartheid around my 70 year old liberal jewish father (who kibbutz-ed in israel in his young adulthood) and my 66 year old moderate-democrat christian mother but I'm going to visit them tonight and man I don't think I can avoid it forever!! wish me luck...

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Rachel Wahba

Vice President Kamala Harris’ emphatically raised voice demanding we must “have the courage to object when they use the term ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism?’” rings in my ears.  In what world is that  “courage”? 

It was radical Islamic terrorists who blew up the Twin Towers and destroyed thousands of American lives. It was radical Islamic terrorists who crossed Gaza into Israel and broke the country’s heart and caused the most heinous of acts that they, the Islamist terrorists proudly filmed on their bodycams. 

And the terrorist adjacent chanting “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free Yitbach El Yahud” crashes into our world here on the streets of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco. “Hamas is coming” in blood red paint on monuments in DC is not just a “protest” of a very unpopular Israeli Prime Minister.  

There is no question Jews are between a rock and a hard place. We have for the most part been proud liberals. I remain a proud liberal. But I will never vote against Israel. Never again is now. 

If this country is not one hundred percent behind Israel and resists putting the burden of Gazan suffering on Hamas and Radical Islamist Terrorists and Iranian and Qatar funded terrorism, the Democratic party we have supported is a sham.

 “Americans are naive,” Granny said when I talked with her so long ago. But I no longer think it’s naivete. Its delusional self interest and arrogance not to recognize evil. Hamas is nothing more than a monstrous murderous death cult ready to kill all its people in the service of its paymaster, Iran. It should not be that hard to understand that Iran plans much more than Bin Laden’s pilots could ever do. 

 “Anti-Zionist” chants marching down major cities in America echo Islamic threats against Jews. Terrifying protests on college campuses and cities across America  scream for Israel’s demise, raise Hamas flags and burn American flags, glorify terrorism and normalize anti-Zionism, the Jew hatred of our time.

Denial of life under Islam is astounding despite common knowledge that gay people are not allowed to be free in Islamic countries, and caught being gay means being thrown off rooftops in Tehran, raped with iron rods (if you are a man) and dragged through the streets of Gaza, and hung on telephone poles in the Palestinian Territories. There are no open gay people in Palestine. They flee for their lives to Tel Aviv.  

You have to wonder how a progressive community I briefly felt safe in once upon a time, hates Israel, the only safe space for queer men and women, and are mum on Iran, poster child of oppression of women, murder and torture of gays, literally cloaking the country in black. 

The Orwellian Progressive idealization of monsters who started a war in the most brutal of ways and continue the war by horrifically using its own in every way possible, using its own women men and children, as many of them as it takes, all of Gaza if need be, as human ammunition to get rid of Jews and Israel is mind boggling stuff.   

Granny, you were right. Bin Laden’s rag tag jihadis were here then plowing into the Twin Towers. And it isn’t just “naivete,”on the part of people who refuse to see.  It’s denial, a sick arrogance, a cynical dance by our politicians, an ease from having lived too well too easily in the best country for too long, and a very old antisemitism. 

[whenlovetriestoleave]

When I started teaching at IUG, I met young students, most of whom had never been outside Gaza. This isolation became even worse when Israel tightened its siege in 2006. Many of them could not go to the West Bank for family visits, or to Jerusalem for a simple religious ritual, or to the United States or the United Kingdom for research and visits. Books, along with thousands of other commodities, were not normally allowed into Gaza. The consequences of putting this young generation in the dark, the world must know, has far worse ramifications than we would ever expect.

Teaching Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice was tricky. To many of my students, Shylock was beyond repair. Even Shylock’s daughter hated him! However, with open-mindedness, I worked very closely with my students to overcome prejudices when analyzing literary texts.

Shylock evolved from a simplistic idea of a Jew who wanted a pound of flesh just to satisfy some cannibalistic primitive desires of revenge into a totally different human being. Shylock was just like us Palestinians. Shylock had to endure many religious and spiritual walls erected by an apartheid-like society. Shylock was in a position where he had to choose between living as a subhuman, and resisting oppression by the means available to him. He chose to resist, just like Palestinians do nowadays.

Shylock’s ​“Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech was no longer a pathetic attempt to justify murder, but rather an internalization of long years of pain and injustices. I was not at all surprised when one of my students altered the speech:

Hath not a Palestinian eyes? Hath not a Palestinian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer as a Christian or a Jew is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

Why would Israel bomb a university? Some say Israel attacked IUG just to punish its 20,000 students or to push Palestinians to despair. While that is true, to me, IUG’s only danger to the Israeli occupation and its apartheid regime is that it is the most important place in Gaza to develop students’ minds as indestructible weapons. Knowledge is Israel’s worst enemy. Awareness is Israel’s most hated and feared foe. That’s why Israel bombs a university — it wants to kill openness and the determination to refuse living under injustice and racism.

But again, why does Israel bomb a school? Or a hospital? Or a mosque? Or a 20-story building? Could it be, as Shylock put it, ​“a merry sport”?

-Refaat Alareer. 2022.

[our-blood-is-our-ink]

https://www.tumblr.com/our-blood-is-our-ink/730930961393549312/im-exhausted-of-living-through-historical-once-in?source=share

if it conforts you (probably won't) almost every generation lived through an historical moment... world wars, different pandemics, going all the way back to colonialism. Something important is always happening, and probably other people from the past thought they were the "unlucky" ones...

idk, i just always think of this when someone says stuff like that...

Hi I have zero idea how you meant this but I'm going to be real for a moment.

But before I do, I apologize, as I went on a flow of thought tangent. Primarily, my thoughts have been racing, and it seems to have spilled out to here.

First and foremost, please never come onto a Jewish person's blog, good intent or otherwise, and say something like this.

This is not me feeling unlucky. This is me recognizing the patterns of history repeating itself.

I used to fight with my Hebrew day school teachers when they would teach us about Jewish history, Historia. Because surely, they were wrong. Surely as a whole, people don't hate the Jewish people that much. That another Holocaust could even be a threat. That yet another country will kick my people out of their homes, penniless, for the crime of their culture and religion. That we won't be kicked out from our fucking homeland for the billionth time. (I acknowledge the right of everyone else who considers Israel to be their homeland, everyone deserves to be able to live where they originate from.)

But they were right. And I hate saying that. I hate finding myself agreeing with people who I fundamentally disagreed with the most, because I found as a child, as a student, that their empathy for others lacking.

I can now recognize, wrong as that lack of empathy may be, that it is a product of generations of hate and suffering being inflicted upon the Jewish nation.

It's a jadedness I'm well aware I'm now gaining. This inescapable knowledge that no where is safe. That my half-sister, not even two months, would gain no consideration for her life simply because she's Jewish. That my best friend's daughter, barely two weeks old won't get any consideration to her life, for the crime of her heritage.

I have to sit and live with the knowledge world wide people are openly supporting Hamas in the murder of innocent children. Toddlers. Babies. Infants.

That there are chants being raised of gas the Jews.

Do you know how terrifying that is? To be faced with undeniable proof that there are literally thousands, if not millions of people who want my family and friends -- want me -- dead?

Do you know how gut-wrenching it is that I have to face this realization of "oh, no wonder FDR was able to turn away boatfuls of refugees back to Germany to be slaughter -- Jewish lives don't matter as much to the world as other lived do", of "no wonder my people have faced violence and brutality (such as progoms) for centuries for the simple crime of living" because the truth is, when we need voices raised in support for us the most, there's only silence ringing that can be heard.

And don't think that the Jewish people haven't noticed that most of the more influential folks who don't have any potential political gain out of this war have been Jewish, or have strong Jewish connections. Don't think we aren't aware of how wildly alone we are in this.

And y'all want to know the worst part?

I'm starting to believe that the majority of the secular world would have been happier if Hitler had succeeded in his goals. And that's fucking crushing.

An important note: make no mistake. I don't support any war crimes or inhumane actions done by the Israeli government. I don't support the death and suffering of innocents. I acknowledge that there is much pain and horror and suffering on both sides of this war. I am simply relating my experiences and thoughts, as is anyone's right. I believe the Palestinians have just as much as a right to live peacefully in the land currently known as Israel as much as any Christian, Muslim, or Jew does. Period.

[robertmarch82]

They created a “Palestinian people” as a tactical instrument to have the right to claim land in Israel. It was Nasser, president of Egypt, who brought the Palestinian people on the political agenda first. To strengthen their arguments, they settled Arabs by the millions until today.

Ben Fladder, studied German Language and Literature & IT System at Free University of Berlin (2010)

To explain why Israel is such a big thing on Quora (at least for me), I want to tell you some of the earlier history of the State of Israel. This short part of history is enough to make Israel a big thing for me, I don’t need to go into detail about the almost 1600 years, that Jews lived there as indigenous people from 1500 BC to 70 AD (and until today).

I do not deny, that Israel has committed war-crimes, just as the Arabs have. I am not an Israeli, nor am I Jewish, so I do not have any personal connection to Israel that would make me feel I must justify anything. Just the facts are enough in my opinion.

Before the first Zionistic settlements started in the 1870s, there were roughly around 255.000 Arabic people in the rural areas and around 24.000 Jews (the numbers vary, but that’s the average) living under Osman rule. The land was totally devastated. Agriculture and livestock took place on a minimal level, just barely enough for the self – sustaining of the inhabitants. Reports from 1882 - 1913 talk about “completely sown land, with dirty dilapidated houses built of loam, catastrophic hygienic circumstances”, the little agriculture done with small wooden plows. You find these descriptions for practically all the land. People were shocked when they came there and compared the status quo with what they had imagined.

Felix Bovet wrote about his visit of the area in 1858: „The ... Turkish [Osmans] ... turned it into a wasteland ... The Arabs themselves, who are its inhabitants ... have created nothing here.“ Quote from: Felix Bovet in: "Egypt, Palestine and Phoenicia: A Visit to Sacred Lands" (Can be found in /Scheel/)

The reasons lay in a chaotic, inhuman politic and the traditional lifestyle of the inhabitants. An example is the “Musha-land”, one of six categories of land under ottoman rule. Musha-land is supposed to have been the biggest obstacle against improvement for the fellahin/fell. In addition, wells and fields were further destroyed through steady fights between the Arabic residents themselves and the steady attacks and extortions from their neighbours, the Bedouin. The population was steadily declining.

Alif I. Tannous, a Palestinian intellectual wrote in October 1935: “Until today the fellahin/fell are the object of oppression, disregarding and bad treatment by their own people and the old political regime. The feudal system extincts their life, the effendi-class looks down on them and the old Turkish regime was too corrupt to deal with this vital problem.“

Because of this always declining population, lease declined as well and so the leaders constantly let non-Arabic and Arabic workers into the country. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1911 not less than 50 languages were spoken in what today is Israel.

With the new workers/peasants it went the same way as described above: They fell into poverty; the wars went on and the owners didn’t gain enough income from their land …

So, selling it to immigrating Jews was a jackpot for many of the owners. As said most of the land belonged to Arab families in the cities like the Sursock family in Beirut. They for example sold 240 square kilometres between Haifa and Beisan for over 800.000 British pounds to (among others) the Jewish National Fund. That‘s only one family. There were so many, who got rich by selling land, they had no use for because it was dried out and devastated. The money from these land sales often became the basis for their political power today. They also sold swamp land to those Jews, who had no experience with farming (swamp land was almost impossible to cultivate. If you were lucky enough to survive the first year, you gave up during the second). Jokes made the round about the stupid Jews who paid so much money for swamps.

But the Jews made it. I guess the century-long experience of being mistreated together with the pogroms that had happened not long ago, in Russia, Europe and North-Africa did theirs to motivate them. They put effort, all their money and knowledge into building up new homes. The immigrants that came there were a mix of farmers, workers, soldiers, intellectuals, medics, engineers etc. Men and women were active in the discussions and plannings of the settlements. All that contributed to the successful re-cultivation of the land and to the relatively modern and open society that evolved in Israel.

Together with the green, Arabs came to work there. Many Palestinians are descendants of the migrant workers from Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, who came between 1830 and 1945 to what is now Israel. And they came by increasing numbers, because the Jewish immigrants created more and more work and wealth.

A study from 1943 – 1947 and 1949 – 1963, as well showed that most Arabic inhabitants came from other countries. For example, the village el-Fahan (20 km west of Hadera): In 1943, out of 2.800 inhabitants 900 were from Egypt, 1.400 from Hejaz in Saudi-Arabia, 500 from today’s Jordan. 

The population of el-Fahan exploded when Jordan’s King Hussein brought ten thousands of Arabic settlers there from 1948 – 1967, for the Arabization of the city that is already mentioned in the Bible.

Since the founding of the state of Israel tenth of thousands of Arabic immigrants have come to Jewish cities, farms and fabrics and all the other work opportunities, doubling and tripling the number of Arabs.

The Peel-Commission reported in 1937, that the „… lack of land … is less attributable to many Jews having bought land, but to the increase of the Arabic people.“

So far so good. But now the real problems began. To make it short: The Arabic leaders didn’t like the thought, that the Jews were prospering, especially since the idea of an organized Arabic settlement in the areas had been existent for a while among them. There had been attacks on a lower scale all the time. 

But now a broad anti-Jewish campaign was launched, intensified especially during WW II, all over the Arabic world. Protagonists of this campaign were for example the Muslim Brothers (especially their founder Hassan Al-Banna, a big admirer of Hitler and Mussolini, who praised them in speeches) or Amin al-Husseini - the Mufti of Jerusalem (a searched war-criminal and collaborator of NS-Germany). These campaigns were supported by the Nazis. Hitler and his thugs even set up a radio-station for al-Husseini to spread anti-Semitic ideas from Germany (where he lived as Hitler’s guest since 1941) over Egypt and the whole Maghreb. Powered by the internal explosive situation in the Arab countries – poverty, political fights etc. – this anti-Semitism digged its way deep into people’s thinking.

Arabic leaders and organizations tried to destroy Israel twice with military force but lost. So, they changed their tactics and used not only terrorism but also humans as a “tactical” instrument. During the 1967-war, they actively tried to make Arab inhabitants move out of Israel by telling them horror-stories about massacres by Israeli soldiers and pretending to want them safe when they overrun the country. Similar tales as we had them in Europe during the middle ages and up to the 1940s (some statistics talk about 68% Arabs that left Israel without ever having seen an Israeli soldier. They then denied many of those refugees to enter Egypt for example and used them to “stay an open wound in Israel’s flesh forever” (see the sources). 

They created a “Palestinian people” as a tactical instrument to have the right to claim land in Israel. It was Nasser, president of Egypt, who brought the Palestinian people on the political agenda first. To strengthen their arguments, they settled Arabs by the millions until today.

A quote from the Muslim Weekly Magazine KUL-SHAY, Beirut, 19.08.1951: „Who brought the Palestinians as refugees into the Lebanon, where they came into huge hardship and destitute – no one else but the Arabic States themselves, including the Lebanon.” Can be found in: /Farah/

Since 1967 Arabs built 261 settlements in Judea and Samaria alone - but only 144 Jewish settlements in ALL of Israel were built. But we never hear about that, do we?

When Jordan overran a part of Jerusalem in 1948, the Jews in this part of the city were killed, robbed and expelled to make Jerusalem Arabic. That happened in many parts of the country: Kfar Etzion near Hebron: in 1948, all Jewish citizens except one who managed to flee got shot by the Jordans. On the north side of Jerusalem, a village named Neve Jaakov was arabized through the murdering of all Jews.

Quotes:

·         Zuheir Mohsen, a high-ranked PLO-member, said in 1977 (in a disarming honesty): “There is no Palestinian people. The creation of a Palestinian State is one weapon to continue our fight against Israel and for the Arabic unity. Since Golda Meir is denying the existence of a Palestinian people, I claim, that there is such a people and that it is to be distinguished from the Jordans ... Only for political and tactical reasons we talk about the existence of a Palestinian identity, because it lies within the national interest of the Arabs, to oppose a separate existence of the Palestinians to Zionism. For tactical reasons Jordan, which is a country with fixed borders, cannot claim Haifa and Jaffa. I in contrast, as Palestinian, can claim Haifa, Jaffa, Beerscheba and Jerusalem. But as soon as our rights on Palestine are restored, we must not delay the reunion of Jordan and Palestine not a single longer.” Quote from: W. Roxan: Israel und die Palästinenser. Darmstadt 1978. p.66·

·         Prof. Philip Hitti, Arabic American historian from Princeton university, said in 1946 in front of the Anglo-American committee: „Something like Palestine has never existed in history.“ and in 1988: “One thing is clear: No Palestinian State has ever existed not for the shortest period in the past. There is no Palestinian language either, no distinct Palestinian culture, no special religion in Palestine.” Quotes from: Mitchell G. Bard: Behauptungen und Tatsachen-Der israelisch-arabische Konflikt im Überblick, Hänssler 2002. p.50 (original from Jerusalem Post, 2. November 1991) and from /Pfisterer/ (originally from Six millions de Palestiniens ... valeurs actuelles. Paris 26.12.1988, p. 31)·

·         „The Palestinians… it could have come to a humanitarian solution, like in other parts of the world ... [But it is as] the Arabs in the Arabic League said in those days: ‘We want to keep this as an open wound und use the human beings as a pawn against Israel. Quote from: Joan Peters in, quoted in ARAB NATIONS PERPETUATED THE REFUGEE PROBLEM /Arutz Sheva-4. Febr. 2001

I did not mention all the things we can see on TV every day: Terrorist attacks and rockets that end peace-negotiations and provoke counter-attacks. There are organisations, who have no interest at all to make peace with Israel. They will not stop until Israel is destroyed or they are. The sad thing is that they use their own people, Muslims and Arabs to reach their goals. And these people get brainwashed and let themselves be used for a war, that will better nothing for them. What will happen, when Israel is destroyed? Will the Palestinians live any better in the ruins of this country? It would be so easy: Let the refugees in your countries, not like 1967 when you first called them to leave their homes and then put them in refugee camps and treated them like second class humans. Just let them in, stop telling them, that Israel is the root of all evil.

But this will never happen, I fear that peace will never come. I feel sorry for the Jews, who for almost 2000 years are expelled from their land, fought, harassed and lied upon, be it by Europeans or Arabs, Christians or Muslims. It’s a shame. Not even after the fabric-like murder during the “3rd Reich” we manage to let them live in peace. They do not want to make the world Jewish. They just want to live their lifes with their religion in their country.

When you watch the news, not from Arabic countries or Israel – no, from Europe, then you can find reports about policemen giving their microphones and speakers to people who use them to shout things like “Hamas, Hamas, Jews into the gas” through them:

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein...

Did German (!) police do anything against those exclamations which are illegal according to German law? No, you know what they did? They put a young man on trial, who had stood beside this aggressive bawling people and waved a little, 5-inch-long Israel-flag. Sued him for making an unregistered counter-demonstration. Although the German constitution gives everybody the right to express their opinion peacefully at any time. But the judge spoke justice, right? No. He found that the man was guilty and since he was a kind judge, he offered him, if he would commit his crime, to just make him pay a small fee. Otherwise it would be way more expensive.

Such things happen all over Europe. Jews emigrate back to Israel out of Europe and this only place where they can feel, if not safe, then at least wanted, this place is in steady danger of being destroyed. Arabs have so many countries where they can live in, Europeans, Christians, Muslims have. Why don’t we leave Jews live on this tiny place on earth? I really don’t get it. We are drifting into something very bad. But this time no one will be able to say that they didn’t know anything. This time everybody could see the signs in the newspapers, on TV, on the radio. If you believe in god, no matter which: Beware, beware. If you do not believe in any god then: Will you be able to stand the shame?

Sources:

/Stein/: Kenneth W. Stein: The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939, The University of North Carolina Press, 1984

/Peters/: Joan Peters: From Time Immemorial-The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine, Harper & Row, NY, 198

/Twain/: Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad, London 1881.

/Voss/: H. Carl Voss: The Palestine Problem Today. Israel and its Neighbours.

/RBP/: Royal-British-Palestine-Commission: Report of 1913

/Goldberg/: David B. Goldberg, M.A., Haschiwa: Auf unwegsamen Pfaden- von Touristen selten betreten (Exzerpt), in: Die Rückkehr No.2/1995

/Samad/: Hamed Abdel-Samad: Der Islamische Faschismus. Eine Analyse. Droemer Verlag 2014

/Faran/: Joseph Farah, An unconventional Arab viewpoint, © 2003

/Pfisterer/: Rudolf Pfisterer: Israel oder Palästina. R.Brockhaus 1992.

/Kark/ Ruth Kark, Ed.: The Land that became Israel/ Ran Aaronsohn: Cultural Landscape of Pre-Zionist Settlements. Yale University Press. London 1990

/Scheel/ Wolfgang Scheel. Referat March 2006: Zionistische Landbegrünung als Erfüllung biblischer Verheißungen.

/Ba/ S.83, /Pf/ S.147 (Bericht der Königlichen Palästina-Kommission, S. 242, Detaillierte Protokollauszüge in J. Peters, From Time, S. 302ff). and https://www.freitag.de/autoren/b...

/Fereydoun/: Fereydoun Hoveyda: Que veulent les Arabes? Paris 1991. In German: Was wollen die Araber? Droemer Knaur. München 1992

/EB11/: Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1911

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Israel-seem-to-be-such-a-big-theme-on-Quora-when-there-are-so-many-other-troubled-areas-in-the-world

[ruminativerabbi]

Occupiers

For most Americans, ancient history is, well, ancient history. I say that in a jokey way, but the truth is that the history of ancient and medieval times is covered—to the extent it is covered at all—in our American high schools in a cursory way that by its nature cannot possibly lead students to a clear understanding of the specific way in which the roots of the modern world in all its political, inter-ethnic, and polarized complexity are to be found in much older times. Yet an argument could be made—and a cogent, compelling one at that—that there is no real way to understand the present other than as a function of the past, including the distant past. And this is particularly true, I think, of today’s Middle East: to understand the place of Israel in the world without any knowledge of the specific way modern Middle Eastern reality is rooted in antiquity is basically impossible. And yet I see, day after day, people writing about Israel on various web sites and in newspaper articles who seem to have no firm grounding in the study of ancient or medieval history at all.

The period I’d like to write about this week has the distinction of being (and by far) both the most obscure and the most crucial for any who wish to understand today’s Middle East. I’ll begin with the events of 614 C.E.

There are some years that themselves are famous. 70 C.E. is sort of in that category. 1492 definitely is. So is 1776. But who has ever heard of 614? And yet a convincing and fully cogent argument could easily be made that modern Jewish history began in 614 and that the events set in motion that year reverberate to this day in the region. Let me explain in more detail.

That Rome once ruled the world is the rare fact about ancient times that actually is known to almost all. The fact that the Roman Empire eventually split in two and that its two halves met their respective ends almost a full millennium apart, not so much. But that single detail is at least subtly crucial to understanding today’s Middle East. The Western part collapsed in 476 C.E. when the last emperor of the West, Romulus Augustus—a hapless weakling with an unfortunate overbite—was obliged to hand over his throne to a man named Odoacer, the leader of the Germanic tribes who had successfully invaded the Italian peninsula and established themselves as the new overlords of Rome and its provinces. So that was the end of Rome in Italy. But the Eastern part of the empire, eventually called Byzantium after the original name of its capital city, continued to exist for many centuries and only met its end when the capital, by then called Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 precisely five hundred years and two days before my birth. And that detail continues to echo throughout the Middle East today.

Ancient Israel was part of the Roman Empire. That too is relatively well known. Christians know it because the gospel narrative is set in Roman Judaea. And Jews—or at least traditionally observant ones—know it because we are still fasting on the Ninth of Av each summer to commemorate, among other catastrophes, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the first century when the Jews revolted against their unwanted Roman masters. But what happened after that? That’s where the thinking of even relatively sophisticated students of today’s Middle East gets seriously fuzzy.

To get a running jump at 614, let’s start three years earlier when, in 611 C.E., Iran (then called Persia) went to war with Byzantium and invaded from the east. Things went back and forth for a while, but then, in 613, the Jews of Byzantine Israel joined with the Persians to revolt against the Byzantines. And it worked too: in 614, the Persians, fighting alongside about 20,000 Jewish supporters—including men famous in their day but long since forgotten by all like Nehemiah ben Hushiel or Benjamin of Tiberias—captured Jerusalem. It was a bloody war. According to some ancient historians, the siege of Jerusalem resulted in the deaths of about 17,000 civilians. Another 4500 or so, taken first as prisoners of war, were eventually murdered by the Persians at the Mamilla Pool, then a man-made lake just outside Jerusalem and today the site of a very popular upscale shopping mall. Another 35,000 or so were exiled to Persia. But, as it always seems to, the tide eventually turned. By 617, the Persians determined that their best interests lay in making peace with the Byzantines even if it meant betraying their Jewish allies. And that is just what they did. In 628, the shah of Iran, King Kavad II, made peace with his Byzantine counterpart, a man named Heraclius. The Jews surrendered and asked for the emperor’s protection, which was granted. That lasted about twelve minutes, however: before the ink on the treaty was dry, a massacre of the Jews ensued throughout the land and Jewish residency in Jerusalem was formally forbidden. 

And now we get to the good part. Or at least to the relevant part for the situation as it has devolved down into our day. Just ten years later, in 648, the Byzantine Empire was invaded again, this time by the Islamic State that had grown up after Mohammed’s death in 632. (This is the empire ISIS today would like to restore.)  The Byzantines retreated, the Muslims took over, and Israel was then ruled by Muslim Arabs until the Crusaders arrived a cool four and a half centuries later in 1099.

It was a tumultuous time. The Islamic State was called a caliphate. (Is this starting to sound familiar?) There were several. The first, named the Rashidun caliphate, ruled Israel from Medina in what is today Saudi Arabia. Then power passed to the so-called Umayyad caliphate that ruled from Damascus. And then, eventually, power passed from the Umayyads to the third caliphate, called the Abbasid Caliphate that ruled from Baghdad.

At first, life under Arab occupation wasn’t that bad. Historians estimate that there were between 300,000 and 400,000 Jewish residents in Israel in those days. Umar, the second caliph of the Rashidun caliphate, eventually permitted Jews to return to Jerusalem. The famous Pact of Umar promised Jewish families security and safety, but also classified Jews as dhimmis, i.e., as non-Muslims whose presence in Islamic lands was begrudgingly to be tolerated as long as they accepted their second-class status and agreed to pay a special tax, called the jizya, that was levied against non-Muslims. Things were dismal, but tolerable. But tolerable didn’t last, particularly after the Arabs built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in 691 and the Al-Aksa Mosque in 705. By 720, Jews were banned from the mount, the holiest site in all of Judaism.

And so did the Arabs come to Byzantine Palestine, a land that had been the Jewish homeland even then for one and a half millennia. The progression of foreign overlords feels almost endless, particularly if we count off the years since biblical times. The Babylonians ruled Israel for a mere 48 years before the first Persian occupation of the land, the one featuring such famous personalities as King Cyrus and King Darius, began and lasted for 206 years. The Romans ruled for 388 years, then were succeeded by the Byzantines. They ruled for 297 years until, as noted above, the Persians returned in the 7th century for a paltry seventeen years. Then the Byzantines returned for a decade and were followed by the Arabs, who ruled the land for 461, until they themselves were cleared out by the Crusaders starting in 1099, who ruled for 192 years.

Working all that data yields the semi-astounding result that, in the almost two thousand years from the time the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem in biblical times until the Crusaders were finally defeated once and for all by the Mamluks (yet a different version of Arab invader), the Jews were able to restore Jewish sovereignty to the Land of Israel and rule over themselves for precisely one single century, the one stretched out between the Maccabean victory over King Antiochus in 164 B.C.E. and Romans’ successful invasion of the land a century and a year later in 63 B.C.E.  That’s a lot of years of occupation by a wide range of occupiers.

When I read modern columnists who seem to know nothing of Jewish history talking about the “occupation” and meaning the presence of Israelis in the parts of the Land of Israel that were lost to Jordan in 1948 and recovered more than half a century ago in 1967, I see red. I am fully sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, who have been pawns in a game not of their own devising for more than seventy years and who truly do deserve to be treated justly, fairly, and decently. But when I notice people stigmatizing Israelis as occupiers of their own homeland without reference to the fact that Arabs first came to Israel when their armies invaded in the seventh century and occupied the land for centuries until they were finally defeated by invading armies from the West—that seems, to say the very least, to martial half-truths in the defense of an already-adopted argument.

To understand where things in Israel are now, it’s necessary to take the long view. I understand that not everybody can take the time to earn a Ph.D. in ancient history. But to write authoritatively about the Middle East without appearing to have any knowledge of history, to reference Israelis as occupiers of Arab land without appearing to know that the Arabs themselves came to Israel as an army of occupation—that could be, I suppose, a mere oversight prompted by an abysmal ignorance of history. But why is it that I don’t think that? Not even a little bit!

[olivia-rabbini]

Essay to show a formal tone and knowledge of artists/research 

 The artist and photographer JR is a big inspiration to me as his work has a consistent political message which conveys meaning in many ways to many different people around the world. He started his artistic journey when he was just 15, writing his name on walls and doing graffiti around the streets of his hometown in Paris using his city as a canvas. Using subways tunnels and roof tops, he presented his first side walk gallery at the age of 17, framing photos he took and pasting them on the street walls.

His work inspires me to try and put a message behind the art I create, as he is controversial and allows his audience to question the topic rather than to just to sit and admire. JR has used his art to portray a fair and real story wherever he goes which reflects the actual truth of people and a country, often against popular opinion portrayed in the media. I love his photography and black and white portraits which I have taken inspiration from for my most recent work about communities in London. This project was originally based on the events following the fire at Grenfell and the photography of Tom Cockram, where he captured the faces of people most affected by this tragedy and created a short film. I also wanted to convey a message by painting these people’s portraits and taking pictures on a disposable camera of tower blocks and council estates to go with them.

One of my favourite pieces is called ‘Hold Up’, an enormous print pasted on the side of the Tate Modern in 2008. This temporary piece by JR, a then unknown street artist with concealed identity, can be seen as a big statement only exhibited here for a short time which makes the impact even bigger. It consists of a young black man holding a gun-like structure up to his shoulder, looking along it through the lens making direct eye contact with his intended audience. The strap hanging from the man’s hand bears resemblance to a type of gun used in assassinations or poaching. The circular frame at the end of the object allows the audience to be intimidated as it is not only pointing directly at them, but the protagonist also looks at the audience, so everything points at them.

Upright positioning of his arms angling the object downwards causes a threatening sense as it looks like he is about to shoot. All these aspects signify  immediate danger and violence which is why this piece creates such a massive impact from the outset as it is so big making the audience feel helpless and small. At first glance, we assume it’s a gun due to his pose and hand positions around the object looking like he’s ready to ‘shoot’ or setting up to do so.

Also because of the strap hanging from his arms, it reveals the imagery of a typical rifle perhaps used in gang to gang violence and murders/crimes being committed. The object however is not a gun but a camera, which we begin to see as we look longer at the main subject in the image. JR has created this illusion of a gun to play on how people first interpret someone’s look and actions and make them question why they assume what they do on a first impression. The idea of a gun links to gang violence/culture, the figure holding what is actually a camera is a young black man; does the viewer’s misreading of the image reinforce racial stereo types? The large figure is isolated, standing alone on the side to the Tate Modern in central London, visible to all, not just the public visiting the gallery. This reinforces stereotypes and peoples first assumptions; the camera actually could create a sense of innocence and safety heavily contrasted to the person’s first impression of a gun creating an atmosphere of danger and threat.

In my work currently I’m focusing on communities in London such as age, gender and culture, and how we integrate. A gang is like a group or community some might say, and an escalating problem is knife crime and drug related incidents which have been gang related, especially in London. I would like to incorporate this into my work similarly to how JR uses topical controversial issues for the basis of his photographs and placement of his pastes.

JR started out with his friends when he was just a teenager leaving a mark on his society with graffiti work painted along tunnels around Paris and in the subway, all very public spaces. He started off as a street artist which led him to take photos and document his life through a camera which he found on the Metro subway. Like me, I started off by using a digital family camera, and then as iPhones progressed my photos got better, however I love going back to always having a disposable camera on me, capturing moments that could be gone in a second, the uncertainty of what photos I’ve taken looms when I go to pick up my prints. JR would paste these photos on the walls of the streets and buildings around Paris and framing them in colour to make sure that the public did to not get them confused with advertisements and take them purely only for modern art .

It was known that Israeli and Palestinian people have been in a constant conflict over land and religion for many years affecting thousands and devastating both countries, however, it can be argued that this is only portrayed in one light in the media and doesn’t often get major coverage. So JR went to see if he could change people’s perception and again, without being part of the media and just a simple art project. He held an illegal art exhibition called ‘Face-to-Face’ which was about guessing who is Palestinian and who is Israeli. This involved pasting huge close-up photographs of people’s faces on the border between both countries, the portraits were of people doing the same job but from the separate places within the conflict and on opposing sides. Where the conflict lies between them, they were pasted next to each other and the public were asked who was who? It quickly becomes clear that you cannot tell which person is from which background, and that people are the all same regardless of colour, job, religion, wealth and status.

“Women are Heroes ” – another project by JR this time started in the favelas of south America.  It brought him all around the world pasting huge portraits of women in different places. His project made a huge difference to favelas, as on the side of houses females’ eyes and faces were pasted creating a completely different image from deprivation, poverty, misogyny and corruption to, full of culture and busing with life. He changed the media representation of these places, which were once disregarded and never talked about, to quite the opposite. The project encouraged more and more women to come forward about abuse they have suffered and trauma they have had to endure in their lives and once again he brought people together and changed perception.

 JR he makes a huge social statement wherever he goes and where ever he leaves his mark causing people to question their beliefs and what they know, how the media interferes with what we see. I would love to make an impact like this with my own art and photography – he inspires change and questions beliefs and opinions which I try to hint through what I do.

[the-record-columns]

Dec. 25, 2019: Columns

Junior Johnson holding court among friends at one of his famous breakfasts - just the way we like to remember him

I didn't know Junior Johnson, but I liked him...

BY KEN WELBORN

Record Editor

Some folks are what you would call die-hard racing fans.

Others, like me, would have been called a casual racing fan who, when NASCAR pulled our race from the North Wilkesboro Speedway, felt as though we had been abandoned, and pretty much abandoned them back.

Did that make any sense?

Okay. 

Now enter Junior Johnson.

I, like about everyone who can walk and chew gum, had heard about Johnson all my life.  I had watched him race—of course pulling for the local guy—but really had no real means of getting to know him—and I never did. 

In fact, I really had only one conversation with Junior Johnson in my life during a chance encounter at Smithey's Goodwill Department Store on Tenth Street in North Wilkesboro.  It was in the 1980’s; for me, the old Thursday Magazine days, for him, a retired driver and now car owner.  I was at the back of the line at the lunch counter in the Goodwill waiting to take lunch back to work for me and Joyce Newman—an amazing worker who also liked those special Smithey burgers every much as me.  I happened to look out the corner of my eye to the guy who walked up behind me and, lo and behold, it was Junior Johnson, dressed, as he so often was, in bib overalls

We nodded and spoke, and instantly began talking about the hamburger like no other, the Smithey Burger.  I made my favorite comment about them which is "…not since the Lord blessed the loaves and fishes has anyone taken five pounds of hamburger and stretched it this far," to which Johnson replied, "If eating these burgers would kill you, I would have been dead a long time ago."  (With a quick nod to the late Max Ferree, I confess that I stole that line from Junior and have used it ever since.)

In no time, more folks came in and they all wanted to talk with Junior—and he accommodated them to a man, clearly glad to see them and even signed several scraps of paper held up to him.

Fast forward to the days of The Record.  We would have occasion call on him now and again for a quote or something, and he would always take our call or call hack promptly.  One time that sticks in my mind is a postal carrier who was retiring with about a million and a half miles without an accident. The carrier didn't want a cake or a party—he just wanted his picture taken with his hero—Junior Johnson.  The postmaster called us, and our Editor Jerry Lankford called Junior, and he gladly came to town for the retirement ceremony. 

I tell those two little vignettes to illustrate what I liked best about Junior Johnson.

In fact, when interviewed by a NASCAR program about the 50th Anniversary of Thomas Wolfe's "Last American Hero" story about Junior from 1965, I was asked what I liked best about Junior Johnson. 

"That’s easy," I said, "Unlike NASCAR, Junior Johnson hasn't forgotten his fans, the folks who made him famous."

  As ever, I value loyalty above all else, and, while I didn't really know Junior Johnson, I liked him.

                                Robert Glenn "Junior" Johnson

                                              Rest in Peace

  Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas guilty of child abuse

By AMBASSADOR EARL COX and KATHLEEN COX

Undoubtedly the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will meet (multiple times) in 2020 to again go through their regular routine of condemning Israel for one trumped up violation or another yet they will ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. 

For more than two decades, Palestinian children have been taught that terrorist murderers are heroes; that Jews are evil pigs deserving of death; that Israel has no right to exist and is, in fact, the enemy of all Muslims and the enemy of the entire world. 

Messages such as these are taught in Palestinian schools and are themes woven into children’s cartoons broadcast on PA television. In Palestinian culture, there is no escaping these negative, brainwashing messages which are used by Hamas and the PA to mobilize and recruit Palestinian youth to become actively involved in acts of terror against Israel.

If the stakes were not so high and the consequences not a matter of life and death, the circumstances would be almost comical.  When Hamas uses these messages to target and recruit children to participate in their weekly confrontations against Israel at the Gaza border, the PA is publicly critical yet the PA uses the same tactics making it just as guilty.  A clear example of the pot calling the kettle black.

The UNHRC finds it perfectly acceptable to blame Israel for the deaths of those killed during the weekly border confrontations yet finds nothing wrong with the PA and Hamas brainwashing and poisoning young Palestinian hearts and minds thus enabling them to use their children for fodder during these border confrontations. While the UNHRC claims to be a protector of human rights, it’s simply not true otherwise it would condemn Hamas and the PA for indoctrinating generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and the Jews.  By creating little killing machines, the PA and Hamas are guilty of the worst kind of child abuse. Palestinian youth have been robbed of their innocence.  They are being raised in a culture that promotes violence and martyrdom as ideals for which they should strive. The PA and Hamas are grooming and using their children as combatants which is a violation of international law. 

As the New Year dawns, we must commit anew to standing, without fear or intimidation, for that which is right. Israel must not suffer condemnation for acting in self defense no matter the age of the perpetrator(s).  The use of children in committing acts of terror is illegal and morally unacceptable. Hamas and the PA must be held accountable.

  “YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS”

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps

THE EDITORIAL

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON. 115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

 VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

A Christmas Morning Story

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

It was a long time ago on Christmas morning that little Timmy and his sister Sara woke up early and ran downstairs to see what Santa had brought. They did not expect much, but there was always something special under the tree.

The year had been long and difficult for the Watson family and so many others. Ken and his wife, Mary, both worked for a company that had been in business for almost 100 years.

There had been concerns for years that the factory was losing so much to competition that it might not be able to survive.

With all the good efforts of everyone the dreadful day arrived. It seemed as if it was the worst of all days.  

The family-owned factory employed more than anyone in town. The company supported the schools, the healthcare system, the arts and almost everything else in town. For almost 10 decades it was a family company that cared for everyone in the community.

The Watson family was now in its third generation. Ken’s father and grandfather worked of the factory and little Timmy looked forward to going to work with his father. That would make four generations of Watsons. This however it was not to be.

As soon as it was announced that the factory would close Ken and Mary both started to look for other employment. The problem was that almost 2,000 other people were doing the same thing and in a small town that did not have another large factory that was hiring a lot of people this presented a significant problem for just about everyone.

Most of the people who had lost their jobs were highly skilled people with solid work history. The type of people that any company would love to have. The few openings that were available in the area were quickly filled with the first applicants. And that’s when things got complicated.

Ken and Mary were not in the group of people who quickly got new jobs. They were putting in applications everywhere and getting the same response. “We would love to hire you, but we don’t have an opening”

The Watson family always attended Wednesday night church service. The local minister was aware of the stress in the community over the factory closing, so his messages were focused on giving hope and inspirations.

On one of the weekly midweek services Pastor Simpson delivered a message that sparked and idea for both Ken and Mary. He said, it’s true that we have lost one big company but what would happen if there were a lot of new smaller companies started.

That night when the Watson family returned home. While having tea at the kitchen table Ken and Mary looked at each other and at the same time said. “Let’s start our own business”.

For years Ken had been a furniture designer and Mary had worked in the business office. So, she knew all the administrative basics and Ken knew how to design and make furniture.

Timmy and Sara overheard the conversation and smiled big for the first time in months. They could just tell something good was going to happen.

Ken and Mary stayed up all night long talking over the idea and planning. Before they knew it, it was time for breakfast and the plan was set.

Ken would do what he always wanted to do. He would design and make high quality wooden toys. It would be a balance for Christmas gifting. The idea was not to replace all the high-tech toys and gifts but add to the options. A gift that would not have a short life but would last a lifetime if taken car of.

Ken and Mary’s Forever Gifts would become a household name for those who love the look and feel of real wood. Gifts there stir the imagination and nostalgia that you didn’t even know existed.

In case you are wondering Little Timmy got the first prototype of an airplane that Ken made. That’s the one that launched the company. Sara received the prototype of the first carved wooden ornament that her mother Mary designed.

Other gifts were under the tree as well, however those are the ones that the brother and sister would cherish and share with there children.

 Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its eleventh year of syndication.   For more on the show visit  www.lifeinthecarolinas.com and join the free weekly email list. It’s a great way to keep up with the show and things going on in the Carolinas. You can email Carl White at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.  

[naheemc]

One of the headlining endorsers of #MarchForOurLives held last month in Washington, D.C. was the organization Veterans for Gun Reform. The group released a video that played during the flagship march, featuring 16 veterans who had served in wars from Vietnam to Iraq. They spoke to their personal experience using the M-16—the military-grade counterpart to the commercially-available AR-15 used in the Parkland shooting—and the meaninglessness of differentiating between the two. Throughout the video, veterans comment on their experiences with the AR-15: “There is no reason...why anyone other than military and law enforcement should have an assault weapon like this.” “High powered, rapid-fire assault rifles like the AR-15 are meant for one thing...That’s not something I want in my country.” Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, the video’s director and a veteran himself, says in reference to the availability of the AR-15: "It's like taking a soldier off the battlefield with a machine gun and bringing it into the civilian world." VIDEO cover photo: screenshot from Veterans for Gun Reform PSA, above The rhetoric of the video draws a familiar line between the acceptable use of gun violence on the foreign “battlefield” and its unacceptable use in the domestic “civilian world.” Yet, the persistence of this imagined dichotomy derails the very message many of the march’s young leaders were beginning to raise: Any real challenge to gun violence in the U.S. requires questioning the very culture of militarism that makes it possible—and the U.S.’ role in proliferating it globally. The Israeli military came under international scrutiny in late March when snipers shot live ammunition into crowds of Palestinians participating in the Great Return March within the Gaza Strip. In the first day alone, more than 750 were injured, and at least 18 were killed--including youth, and journalists wearing clearly-designated press vests. Videos showed unarmed protesters murdered as they prayed, as they ran, at times being shot down to cheers from the soldiers. Days later, the U.S. blocked a vote by the U.N. attempting to launch an investigation into the Israeli military’s claim that the shootings were part of a “precision strike." Two additional protesters died from their wounds earlier this week. There are deep ties between Israeli militarism in occupied Palestine and gun violence in the United States. From the U.S.’ multi-billion dollar fiscal sponsorship of the Israeli army, to the weapons tested on Palestinian protesters before they are sold to the U.S. military, transitioned into local police departments, and eventually made available on the civilian market, the way military, police, and interpersonal gun violence are connected internationally is exemplified by the relationships that bind the United States and Israel. A prime example of this are the tactical trainings offered by the Israel Defense Forces to police departments across the U.S., passing on the very strategies used to brutally suppress Palestinian protesters to law enforcement and private security forces internationally. The St. Louis police department participated in these trainings in 2011—one of the many reasons the state’s response to protests in Ferguson after Mike Brown’s murder looked so similar to scenes from occupied Gaza. Indeed, military ties between the U.S. and Israel also lay bare the deep interconnectedness of the fight for Black lives with Palestinian liberation. Ferguson, Missouri. 2015. (Photo via IVN) Many Black organizers expressed dismay at how the country rallied to support Parkland youth in ways it has never supported the victims of police shootings. One of the primary demands of The Movement for Black Lives has been ending the militarization of local police departments—a phenomenon the Veterans For Gun Reform video perpetuates rather than criticizes. Yet, as many pointed out, the difference between #MarchForOurLives and #BlackLivesMatter isn’t merely the skin color of lead organizers, nor their access to resources and the ears of celebrities. It is equally that the former calls for state intervention to stop interpersonal violence, while the latter implicates the state as a primary culprit for interpersonal violence. While one demands gun violence be restricted to “the battlefield,” the other acts from the knowledge that “the battlefield” exists wherever there are Black people, Muslim people, border-crossers, and those resisting the inherent violence of militarism. Where is the line between “the civilian world” and “the battlefield?” Were protesters killed in Gaza, and the thousands of Palestinian children who have been murdered by the Israeli military, acceptable victims of gun violence? If automatic weapons weren’t meant to take the lives of young people attending school in Parkland, were they meant to take the lives of young people attending schools in Baltimore, Kabul, Brooklyn, Waziristan? Deeply disturbing news that child killed yesterday was yet another student at UNRWA school - two others were killed previously.  #Children should never be targets! https://t.co/uFapQwjQ3t — Matthias Schmale (@matzschmale) April 21, 2018 Only days before #MarchForOurLives stormed Washington, hundreds of protesters blocked traffic and interrupted a King’s basketball game in Sacramento, CA, protesting the death of Stephon Clark at the hands of police. While they had no permits, had raised no money, and had no celebrity endorsements, they insisted their message was just as crucial as the one lifted up by Parkland students. They insisted that being shot in your grandmother’s backyard is as unconscionable as being shot in your classroom, or being shot during prayer, no matter the qualifications of the individual pulling the trigger. The same weapons that killed young people in Parkland are killing young people in Damascus, in Chicago, in Baghdad. And just as there is no meaningful difference between an M-16 and an AR-15, no meaningful difference between “the military” and “law enforcement,” there is no meaningful difference between “the battlefield” and “the civilian world.” The distinction merely delineates the communities the state deems deserving of gun violence, and the populations on which it condones the testing of deadly weaponry for the sake of private profit. Instances of gun violence are connected through the governments, weapons manufacturers, and systems of dominance that make them possible. To truly challenge gun violence, our conversations about the international reach of militarism must be connected, too. This essay was written in collaboration with the inspirational, talented, visionary writer and dear friend Benji Hart of Radical Faggot. Benji is a Black, queer, femme artist and educator currently living in Chicago. They have essays featured in the anthologies Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief (2017) and Taking Sides: Radical Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism (2015), both from AK Press. Their writing has also been published at Black Youth Project, Truthout, Salon Magazine, and other feminist and abolitionist media. They are the recipient of the Rauschenberg Residency (2018), Chicago Women and Femmes to Celebrate (2016), and the 3Arts Award in the Teaching Arts (2015). P.S. We're also honored to have Benji as our official #BecauseWe'veRead discussant! Tune in to Instagram live at 11am CST Sunday, April 29th to join the conversation as we discuss Assata Shakur's autobiography!  

http://www.joojooazad.com/2018/04/challenging-gun-violence-means-challenging-militarism-globally.html

[cfijerusalem]

HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION REWARDS TERRORIST LAWYER

Muhammad Alyan (second from L) and his prize for his award-winning argument (photo via jewishpress.com, “New Low: French Consulate in Jerusalem Awards ‘Human Rights’ Prize to Terrorist’s Proud Father” by Hana Levi Julian).

You know how the Bible warns against calling evil good, and good evil (Isaiah 5:20)? Well, one European group just blatantly defied that admonition.

On Sunday, the Geneva-based International Institute for Human Rights and Peace and the Caen Memorial for Peace presented a “human rights” award to Palestinian Arab lawyer Mohammed Alyan.

Alyan was honored for his legal representation three years ago of the wife of one of the terrorists involved in the synagogue massacre in Jerusalem. In that attack, terrorist Ghassan Abu Jamal and his accomplice shot, stabbed and beheaded four Jewish rabbis at worship before also gunning down one of the responding police officers.

When questioned by police, Jamal’s wife, Nadia, expressed support for the massacre and revealed that she had prior knowledge of her husband’s bloody plans. She was subsequently stripped of Israeli residency and lost the health care that Israeli taxpayers had previously covered for her and her family. Nadia insisted her human rights had been violated, and Alyan jumped to her defense. That in itself makes Alyan more villain than hero. But that’s not where the story ends. 

Alyan is also the father of Bahaa Alyan, one of two terrorists responsible for the October 2015 attack on a Jerusalem commuter bus, during which three Israelis were mercilessly murdered.

Beyond the fact that Alyan raised a son capable of committing such atrocities, a year later, in 2016, he was arrested for publicly praising his son’s heinous actions during lectures at local elementary schools.

Alyan is actively trying to encourage future generations of Palestinian Arabs to follow in his son’s footsteps by murdering Israeli Jews. And the Europeans reward him as a “champion of peace and human rights.”

ARAB WOMAN TELLS TRUTH ABOUT ISRAEL

A Times of Israel journalist writes: “I first met Boshra Khalaila in the Spring of 2010, at the Ministry of Public Diplomacy’s offices in Jerusalem. She was 24 at the time. Like me, she’d been alarmed by the public relations debacle that followed the Gaza flotilla incident and had somehow found her way to the Ministry’s hastily set-up situation room, to volunteer her time and do damage control, in Arabic.

“I next saw her last January at the first preparatory meeting for the Faces of Israel program, which I have previously written about. She had again volunteered to defend her country and taken time off work to drive from Jerusalem, where she lives, to Tel Aviv for the preparatory sessions, a ritual she would have to repeat often. I was sent to California as part of that program. Boshra’s destination was South Africa – during Israel Apartheid Week.

“In South Africa, she traveled to both Johannesburg and Cape Town, lecturing at four large university events that included a serious round of follow-up work – public discussions, five radio interviews, and a host of newspaper interviews.

“Boshra, a secular, independent and patriotic Israeli Arab woman, defies stereotypes. She grew up in a liberal home in the Arab village of Deir Hana, in the Galilee. Her first contact with Jewish Israelis came at the age of 18, when she enrolled in Haifa University. There, she had to speak Hebrew for the first time. And it is there that she started to develop her political conscience and her attachment to the State of Israel.

“‘I am married and doing a master’s degree [in Tel Aviv]. I am a liberal, free woman, with all the rights that I could enjoy. I compare myself to other women my age in Jordan, the territories, Egypt, any Arab country. They don’t have the rights that I have: freedom of expression, the right to vote. They are forced into marriage at a young age, and religious head covering, despite their own convictions. With me it’s the opposite; I have everything.’”

On one occasion, we sat down for an interview in the lobby of a Tel Aviv hotel. My first question to Boshra was why she feels the need to speak up for Israel so publicly – something that most Jews don’t even feel compelled to do. She answered me in perfect Hebrew: ‘To sacrifice myself for the country that I live in and that gives me rights, that’s a natural price.’

Boshra (R) with “Faces of Israel” participants in S. Africa  (via timesofisrael.com; “Telling Israel like it is — in Arabic” by Philippe Assouline).

“Boshra was part of a team of five people, including another Israeli Arab and a Druze, who were sent to South Africa with Faces of Israel during Israel Apartheid Week. Like us, Boshra and her team had to deal with widespread ignorance about Israel, compounded by a campaign of demonization waged by pro-Palestinian students. Unlike us, she could counter the anti-Israel Middle Eastern students as an Arab herself, in Arabic.

“[The pro-Palestinian students in Johannesburg] had built fake barriers and put up all kinds of slogans demonizing Israel and accusing it of Apartheid, of being a child murderer and the like. There were awful pictures, pictures with dead children, [it was] really terrible.”

“Boshra and her team were generally not welcome. They didn’t even know that there was such a thing as Israeli Arabs. They accused us of being Jews. Some people were hostile, they told us ‘get out,’ ‘we don’t want to hear from you.’ [Some] were even more unwilling to talk to me because I am Arab and was seen as a traitor, but this was only a small part of their group. Others, thankfully, came to listen; they were open-minded about it.”

“Boshra and her team delivered a number of lectures, told their personal stories, dialogued with students and gave interviews. “You want to defend yourself from people that tell the world that [Jews and Arabs] travel on different buses and study at different schools and that there is segregation,” she said. “That just isn’t true: I study in the same educational institutions, ride the same buses, shop in the same supermarkets. Everything that they say is absolutely false. And I do feel that I belong to my country.”

Hoping to give South Africans a glimpse of her everyday life as an Arab citizen of Israel, Boshra instead found herself publicly debating politics with a Palestinian PhD student from Gaza, in Arabic.

“This is what I told him in front of everyone; I spoke in Arabic, and I was translated: ‘I don’t enjoy it when soldiers attack and mothers and babies end up getting killed or injured. It’s hard. But the same is true for Netivot and Sderot, when Kassam rockets hit and, God forbid, someone is killed, it is very hard. On both sides there are mothers and it is hard. I want the Palestinian people to have a country. It’s a natural right.

That said, there are all kinds of conflicts within the Palestinian authority, mainly with Hamas, that prevent progress toward a peaceful settlement for the state of Israel and that is unfortunate.” She added, “If there is any Apartheid – in the sense of flagrant injustice – in the world, it is what is happening in Syria. Thousands of people murdered…the number of dead doesn’t even come close here.”

Thinking back to my experience in California, I assumed that her message would fall on deaf ears. But she surprised me:

“Most of the talks ended with a handshake and a hug. To me this says it all. I have to say that it was important that I wasn’t there representing the government of Israel. It was surprising for them to see that I was a simple person, defending my country for the rights that I have and not speaking on behalf of the government. It came across as very genuine. For them, this was huge – to be able to listen to someone who is not from the government, including for the pro-Palestinian students. When you tell them you are a student and not a government spokesman, they no longer see you as an enemy.”

Boshra’s appearances on campus made waves, and, among her many radio appearances, she was interviewed by an Islamic, Arabic-language radio station in Johannesburg. The interviewer, a religious Saudi man, asked her questions which revealed a disheartening level of ignorance about Israel, the most over-scrutinized and documented country in the world – an ignorance that is unfortunately all too common.

“He asked why Israel doesn’t let Muslims pray or go to Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem; why only Jews are allowed to pray [in the State of Israel]. I told them that in my own small village in the Galilee there are not only one but two mosques and two imams who both get a monthly salary from the state. The interviewer was in shock. I added that I could go pray at Al Aqsa mosque at will, freely. Sure, sometimes there are security concerns and they limit entrance temporarily, but that’s it.”

Thousands of Palestinians pray outside Al-Aqsa Mosque, atop the Temple Mount (by Sliman Khader/FLASH90).

The host was receptive to Boshra’s story and as the conversation turned to the rights of Arabs in Israel, her assertiveness grew. “I said to him: ‘In Saudi Arabia, can a woman drive a car?’ He said no. I said: ‘I can.’ And he was silent. I asked: ‘Can a woman in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia meet a man and get to know him before getting married or is she just forced into marriage at a young age?’ He said no, she can’t. I said: ‘I can.’ And I would answer his questions with my own questions…and each time he would be stunned silent.”

Boshra went on to correct other popular misconceptions that the host had, including ideas about the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. She informed him about the supplies that Israel provides to the strip on a monthly basis, and she reminded him that Egypt also enforces the embargo. She asked him why it was Israel and not Egypt, an Arab county, which provided for the territory’s necessities? “He was speechless. He was often speechless during our interview.”

“The host’s silence, and the reception she got from many if not all of the Arab students that she met, stood in stark contrast to my experience at Berkeley. Boshra’s interviewer, a religious Saudi, was more receptive to new facts than the “liberal” Ivy league students that I faced. “He saw me; I spoke Arabic, I was liberal and secular. This made him quite open-minded, actually.” [The Times of Israel article, by Philippe Assouline.]

“LORD, who...may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless...who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander...and casts no slur on others...who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind...Whoever does these things will never be shaken” (Psalm 15:1-5).

In Messiah, Lonnie C. Mings

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Phyllis Chesler

On Monday, a J Street and Democrat party operative posted a piece at her Substack. I am choosing not to name her or to link to the piece because I don’t want even more people to read it. The piece is titled in this way: “Elie Wiesel on indifference. A child killed in Gaza every 15 minutes. Two mothers every hour. Seven women every two hours. Are you OK with that?”

READ MORE: History Isn’t All Black and White. Just Look at Israel.

The piece then proceeds to trot out a series of mainly fake news talking points about the deaths of women and children in Gaza, hour by hour, day by day. How many J Streeters have expressed similar moral outrage about the much larger body counts in Ukraine (an estimated 30,457 civilians and 31,000 combatants, or 61,500 all together) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (an estimated 5 to 6 million civilian deaths thus far)? We cannot trust the estimates of civilian and/or combatant deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, China, North Korea, Sudan, Somalia, and so on.

To the best of my knowledge, few J Street–style journalists have presented the much larger body count in Ukraine and warned us against being indifferent to it — at least, not again and again, day after day.

The above-mentioned Substack piece is in gruesome lockstep with the New York Times, which, on the very same day, had five full pages of photos of murdered Gazans, all identified by age, name, and profession. In the paper’s pages, murdered Israelis rarely appear, nor do the many hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis. They remain nameless and faceless, as do the Israeli hostages who’ve been hidden in Gaza for five months while they’ve been beaten, raped, tortured, starved, and murdered.

I sometimes wonder whether both the New York Times and J Street are on the Hamas/Iran payroll, whether they are simply funded by Soros — or whether they are true-believing Jew haters. One damning piece of evidence that they are Jew haters is their refusal to acknowledge Hamas’ complicity in civilian deaths. Hamas doesn’t just hide behind civilians when they are available; Hamas operates and maneuvers mostly in civilian areas, a clear violation of international law. Given this, and despite Israel’s almost suicidal efforts to prevent civilian deaths, J Street argues that Israel has no right to fight back against those trying to destroy them. (READ MORE from Phyllis Chesler: Silence of the Feminist Lambs: Not a Word on Hamas Horrors)

The piece up at Substack essentially dares to turn Elie Wiesel’s moral authority into a sock puppet in order to use his Holocaust-era perspective to condemn Israel and to warn us against our own “indifference” to Gazan civilian suffering. What Wiesel said, however, was far more relevant than the phrase quoted at Substack. Please allow me to quote from an interview given by him to Merle Hoffman in 1991, as reported in On the Issues magazine (full disclosure: I was the magazine’s editor at large at the time):

HOFFMAN: You have been severely criticized for not condemning Israel about the intifada. What is your current position on the Palestinian situation? WIESEL: I have been criticized for many things… Yes, I refuse to systematically condemn Israel. H: For anything? W: There are certain red lines that I will not cross. If I had known at the time that Israel was involved in torturing I would have spoken out, but it was too late. When I found out, a commission had already been formed and justice prevailed, but I don’t feel I have the right to apply public pressure on Israel. H: But you have the moral authority. W: But what if I’m wrong? H: Can’t you afford to be wrong? W: Yes, but only if I pay the price. What if I am wrong and they pay the price? What if I apply such pressure on a decision and that decision may bring disaster or at least tragedy to Israel? Do I have the right to do this? It is their children who will pay the price, not mine. I do go to Israel and speak to the leaders there[.] I can say what I feel. But here, especially here, I have no right to speak out publicly…. I am offended when I see Jewish intellectuals who all of a sudden remember their Jewishness only to use that Jewishness to attack Israel. These are men and women who have never done anything for Israel [and] all of a sudden they remember they are Jews.

I hope and pray that J Streeters and Democratic Party operatives pay attention to these words of Weisel as well as to those they manipulate in order to condemn Israel.