I’m tired. I’m just ready to give in. It’s been a week of high anxiety and low blows. It started with the shocking finality of a brother’s death—in reality a blessed release to eternal comfort for Tony, yet a gut wrenchingly sad void for us. Beyond this personal tumult rages the object of my non-professional political pointer—the war in Lebanon, of which I’d previously written from opposing viewpoints.
There is a string of meaning in Tony’s life, death and the events in the Middle East that exposes a higher truth. First, in Tony’s eulogy I stated the two themes of my life with him that jumped out. One, that love is truly a choice…and one we MUST make if we desire the happiest most fulfilled life for all. See, Tony had some innate characteristics that defied convention. Through these traits I learned to forego judgment, empathize more and love no matter what. This also enabled me to FEEL outside of the box, and thus, feel outside of my own perspective and comfort zone, which is the pre-requisite for empathy.
The second theme is the importance of humor no matter how dark the circumstances. The pre-requisite for enabling this humor to enter our lives is humility, the same ingredient that allows us to see our selves and our situation objectively. It allows us to literally laugh at ourselves when that scenario is called for.
His funeral brought together many people from a variety of backgrounds. There were Jewish, Christian, Muslim and I’m sure agnostic and atheist all present—and all united in the shared spirit of love and compassion. By sheer coincidence I had learned from my Jewish friend about a mother-in-law whose parents were killed during the Holocaust in Nazi concentration camps. She was a teen and escaped only by her cunning and suffering of various humilities.
He proved—graphically and emphatically—that the holocaust is NOT a distant memory. It is recent and real. He also proffered another slant on Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. First, he truly believes the Arabs, through Hamas and Hezbollah, really DO want to wipe out Israel. He also pointed to news reports and analysis that say this whole thing is really a power play for Iran to try and take control of the region, that there is struggle between Shiite (Iran, Syria) and Sunni Islam (Saudi, Egypt, Jordan), and by having Hezbollah successfully withstand Israel, leave them (Shiite) able to brag that they are the real protector and voice of Islam. Beyond that, such fundamentalists want to impose their religion by force on the rest of the world.
Apparently there is AGAIN virulent anti-Semitism in France, which is indication of a similar sentiment throughout Europe. This makes the recent memory of the Holocaust a very relevant reminder of the absolute necessity of a JEWISH homeland. Thus, the right of return for Palestinians admittedly done wrong by their expulsion in 1947-48, is not acceptable, for eventually they would outnumber the Jewish citizens and possibly vote to deny any more Jewish people in. WHERE WOULD THE NEWLY PERSECUTED JEWISH EVACUEES BE THEN?! It is a legitimate concern, friends, a legitimate concern.
At our mercy meal I spoke to a Palestinian immigrant friend, who was one of those thrown off their land. He came in 1951; his father was killed over there. The method of eviction was similar to the Lebanese situation now, except there were more men on the ground with weapons ruthlessly used against the defenseless native population with the certain intent to kill or create fear enough to make them flee. The ironic thing is that he said the vast majority back then were Christian Palestinians, most of whom have left leaving it predominantly Muslim.
Back to my Jewish friend who perceptively noted that the Palestinians are the new Jews. He then asks, “Why are they living in tents with all the surrounding Arab territory that could easily accommodate them?” He answers: because the Arab nations WANT IT THAT WAY! They want that festering sore in order to help bring about their real goal of destroying Israel. He truly, truly admits that there were injustices done early on, and even now, the killing of innocents is atrocious. But their very survival depends on rooting out the Hezbollah who hide amongst those innocents.
Even he admits that the deaths are too much and too damaging for Israel to continue and that they must have a ground invasion to truly control the Hezbollah, or negotiate some ending. He sees the bombing as I do: inappropriate and counter-productive.
Whew. I’m back to the beginning. The lessons of Tony Vision clear the path to peace. ONE, should all concerned choose to Love, practice EMPATHY, they would see that everybody is right in this conflict. TWO, using humor or in this case, HUMILITY, would have them conclude that the blood won’t dry until each of them says, “we’re sorry, we’re wrong.”
Richard F. Dawahare 7/30/06
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
A View from an Israeli’s Shoe
I can’t sleep. So I feel called to take a second look, really the 102nd look, at this Israeli/Palestinian situation this time by putting myself in the skin of a Jewish person. Not the superhuman “above-the-fray” person that exists mostly in the realm of spiritual idealism, but the human one, the feeling one, the one that’s about like me.
Okay, so now I am of a race, a culture that only 60 years ago was subject to the worst atrocity imaginable. Solely because of a trait over which I have no control—my blood, my ancestry—I was sought out for extermination. I was helpless, powerless, feebly and futilely consumed by the hate-filled bestiality of perverted humanity.
For centuries prior at different times and places, my forbears were similarly despised, falsely blamed, chased, burned at the stake or otherwise degraded on account of this same ethnicity.
But the holocaust made manifest the millennia of abuse known only through the history books. There are survivors, there are pictures and there are indescribable shudders of horror that anything like this could ever possibly happen again. God forbid we, me, my people—or any other strain of humanity—be so defenseless, so vulnerable to this treatment. By GOD’S will, by all that is true and just this should not, WILL NOT, happen again.
I begin to see that strength and self-reliance are crucial to preventing even the possibility of this occurring again. A safe land is the first step, a bastion of freedom for all—yes, especially of my race—who wish to come, or if the situation ever demanded—must come. And to insure protection against this past suffering I, we, will do anything. Hopefully, we can do it all with consistent justice and in accord to our highest nature, but when necessary we will do anything—ANYTHING—to insure our safety.
Yes, my people may have committed some acts against our highest nature that in other eras we would have decried, and yes, we may be doing them now. But the sin of these actions PALE in comparison to the sin done to us and to what we will prevent from ever occurring again. If we ever go down again it will never be from being weak, unprepared or unguarded. And who could blame us.
So in Israel, with help from others sure, but by OUR hands, by OUR will, have we forged this new land, this new security. Others in the region still seek our destruction; try as we might to get along. Why can’t they see, why can’t they feel, why can’t they empathize? Regardless, if they can’t and won’t refrain from harming us, we must stand ready to insure our safety. For this we have armed, we have trained, we have girded ourselves--boys, girls, men, women. Ourselves alone, for who stood up for us before, and on whom can we depend again? No one but ourselves, alone.
------------------------------
When I step back into my own skin I see it and understand it, and by damn, before I let anything like what happened before I’ll commit--or allow others in my behalf to commit--about ANY lesser atrocities.
And that is part of the tragedy, for if I can’t see more perspective—in this case that I/we are not endangered as we were for centuries before--then our actions that we think so essential to our preservation will on the contrary build resentment to our people and possibly, ironically, lead to a renewal of contempt against us—based only on blood and ancestry, yet again.
As I’ve long said—the situation is one where everybody is right. But the blood won’t dry till we (both sides) say we’re wrong.
Respectfully, Rfd 7/25/06
Okay, so now I am of a race, a culture that only 60 years ago was subject to the worst atrocity imaginable. Solely because of a trait over which I have no control—my blood, my ancestry—I was sought out for extermination. I was helpless, powerless, feebly and futilely consumed by the hate-filled bestiality of perverted humanity.
For centuries prior at different times and places, my forbears were similarly despised, falsely blamed, chased, burned at the stake or otherwise degraded on account of this same ethnicity.
But the holocaust made manifest the millennia of abuse known only through the history books. There are survivors, there are pictures and there are indescribable shudders of horror that anything like this could ever possibly happen again. God forbid we, me, my people—or any other strain of humanity—be so defenseless, so vulnerable to this treatment. By GOD’S will, by all that is true and just this should not, WILL NOT, happen again.
I begin to see that strength and self-reliance are crucial to preventing even the possibility of this occurring again. A safe land is the first step, a bastion of freedom for all—yes, especially of my race—who wish to come, or if the situation ever demanded—must come. And to insure protection against this past suffering I, we, will do anything. Hopefully, we can do it all with consistent justice and in accord to our highest nature, but when necessary we will do anything—ANYTHING—to insure our safety.
Yes, my people may have committed some acts against our highest nature that in other eras we would have decried, and yes, we may be doing them now. But the sin of these actions PALE in comparison to the sin done to us and to what we will prevent from ever occurring again. If we ever go down again it will never be from being weak, unprepared or unguarded. And who could blame us.
So in Israel, with help from others sure, but by OUR hands, by OUR will, have we forged this new land, this new security. Others in the region still seek our destruction; try as we might to get along. Why can’t they see, why can’t they feel, why can’t they empathize? Regardless, if they can’t and won’t refrain from harming us, we must stand ready to insure our safety. For this we have armed, we have trained, we have girded ourselves--boys, girls, men, women. Ourselves alone, for who stood up for us before, and on whom can we depend again? No one but ourselves, alone.
------------------------------
When I step back into my own skin I see it and understand it, and by damn, before I let anything like what happened before I’ll commit--or allow others in my behalf to commit--about ANY lesser atrocities.
And that is part of the tragedy, for if I can’t see more perspective—in this case that I/we are not endangered as we were for centuries before--then our actions that we think so essential to our preservation will on the contrary build resentment to our people and possibly, ironically, lead to a renewal of contempt against us—based only on blood and ancestry, yet again.
As I’ve long said—the situation is one where everybody is right. But the blood won’t dry till we (both sides) say we’re wrong.
Respectfully, Rfd 7/25/06
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Beyond Israeli Propaganda: Jewish leaders cry ‘Emet’ (Truth)
“Rich, your family is from Lebanon originally, isn’t it? This must be killing you,” a friend asked in church this morning. “Yes, all my grandparents are from there[1]. And yes, it is difficult.”
Israel’s invasion is very problematic for me, and not nearly because Lebanon/Syria is the land of my forebears and where relatives still live. In fact, just as I was sitting down to write this my paternal cousin called, and then she initiated a three-way call with her daughter who is now in Beirut. I just spoke to her and her fiancé, who by coincidence is a distant cousin on my mother’s side.
But Israel’s terrorism on the Lebanese is troubling regardless of any personal connection I may have, for injustice is injustice no matter on whom it is visited. And while the perception may be that one with such ties can never be objective I should not let the potential charge “oh he’s just a homer” prevent my search for the highest truth and my standing upon that lofty perch.
On the contrary, I shudder to speak contrarily about Israel. I have longed believed in the necessity of some kind of Jewish homeland, especially in view of the Holocaust. Yet the roots of today’s conflict were sewn in the very creation of Israel by the eviction of nearly 1,000,000 Palestinians from lands they called home for over 2000 years.
Indeed, a review of today’s headlines show that Israel is using nearly identical methods to those in 1947-48 by attacking defenseless Lebanon, where Israel has driven 500,000 from their homes. 500,000. FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND. And why? Because, Israel says, Hezbollah captured 2 Israeli officers.
Is Israel really serious that their reason for killing innocent Lebanese children and destroying its infrastructure—bridges, airports, water, power, communications systems-- is that Hezbollah arrested a couple of their soldiers, when Israel has arrested many hundred times more in a tit-for-tat exercise that has been going on for years?
Not a chance. Israel has long planned this invasion, and typical of “might makes right” military machines, they have used lies, and politically appealing cover to justify this outrage.
What’s at play is much more sinister. Naseer Aruri, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massuchusetts, Dartmouth and author of Dishonest Broker, America’s Role in Israel and Palestine, said that by its invasion Israel seeks “…to forestall a diplomatic solution based on two states, for which Hamas has been more than ready.”
Professor Aruri cited Hamas’ Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s recent peace initiative that appeared in a Washington Post op-ed piece. “And it seems whenever Israel is threatened with a ceasefire or a peace offensive, it bombs its way out of a diplomatic settlement.”
And this is the nut. For all their stated desire for a Palestinian state Israel has sabotaged its creation by building settlements, conducting terror raids, building walls, depriving Palestinians of power, water and economic livelihood and laying down such a thick carpet of anti-Palestinian propaganda that American’s continue to support the billions we give Israel each and every year.
Of course Israel has the right to exist. Palestinians readily accept this, yet they insist on the same for them. As Haniyeh said, “We want what Americans enjoy—democratic rights, economic sovereignty and justice.” And until now, and ever since 1948 this has been denied to them by Israel’s defiance of not only International law but Judaism’s historic moral code.
The world does not need my protestations of Israeli intransigence. It can get all it would ever need from Jewish leaders themselves, who see in Israel a state acting ostensibly on their behalf, yet behaving so contrarily to their ancient moral code:
1) “How tragic that in our own time the very state established by Jews in the aftermath of this evil (the Nazi Holocaust) has become a place where racialism, religious discrimination, militarism and injustice prevail; and that Israel itself has become a pariah state within the world community. Events taking place today are all too reminiscent of the pogroms from which our own forefathers fled two and three generations ago -- but this time those in authority are Jews and the victims are Moslems and Christian Palestinians.”[2] [18 prominent Jews endorsed this ad in The Nation, calling for American Jews to “dissociate from Israel.” They expressed concern that "the close identification in the public mind between Israel and Jews -- an equation vigorously fostered by both the Zionist movement and the American Jewish lobby, which has come under its control -- threatens to stigmatize Jews everywhere."
2) Rabbi Reuben Slonim: “Today we Jews are losing [the] humanism and universalism of Judaism, all for the sake of Jewish statehood. We love Israel, and so we should, but we are so blinded by that love that we are willing to pay a prohibitive price for it. We condone acts we would declare unconscionable anywhere else in the world: nuclear weapons are wrong but necessary for Israel; apartheid is wrong, but for the sake of Israel's survival we will tolerate it; human rights are critical, but not for the Palestinians; we have a right to a state but Palestinians do not. Our racism towards Arabs would be regarded as anti-Semitism if others spoke of us in the same light. In all things we need to remember that the Jewish people and the Jewish state are but instruments, not ends in themselves; that what is good for the world is good for the Jews, not what is good for the Jews is good for the world; that the ultimate goal of the Jew, if he be truly Jewish, is to serve humanity.”[3]
3) Reb Binyomin, a prominent writer, strongly criticized actions that occurred during the creation of the Jewish state. In 1953 he wrote: "After the State of Israel was established, I began receiving news about the terrible things perpetrated both during and after the Israeli-Arab war. I did not recognize my own people for the changes which had occurred in their spirit. The acts of brutality were not the worst because those might have been explained somehow . . . Far more terrible was the benevolent attitude towards these acts on the part of public opinion. I had never imagined that such could be the spiritual and moral countenance of Israel. . .”[4]
4) Nathan Chofshi A Jewish settler who witnessed the birth of the Jewish state and did not like what he saw. In a 1959 reply to a rabbi who "parroted" the official version of the Palestinian exodus from Israel, he bore witness to the campaign to expel the Palestinian population: "We came and turned the Arabs into tragic refugees. And still we dare slander and malign them, to besmirch their name; instead of being deeply ashamed of what we did, and trying to undo some of the evil we committed, we justify our terrible acts and even attempt to glorify them.”[5]
5) One of the leading Israeli anti-Zionists today is concentration-camp survivor Israel Shahak, who currently heads the Israeli League for Civil and Human Rights. Shahak believes that "the State of Israel is a racist state: “In this state people are discriminated against, in the most permanent and legal way and in the most important areas of life, only because of their origin.”[6]
6) Israel Shahak again: “I would say the only human response to Holocaust is to try not to be like Nazis, in word or in deed. What brought the Holocaust was the racist attitude towards Jews, the division of German society into Jews and non-Jews on grounds of race. This is exactly the same thing that is happening in Israel.”[7]
7) Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other Jewish leaders in a letter to the NY Times: “The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.”[8]
8) “A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (The New York Times), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants—240 men, women, and children—and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem.Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party. Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model. During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.”[9]
We should not be surprised at a reality that is so different from that which our government and media present to us. Every reference by Israel, by our government and our media to the Palestinians calls them “terrorists.”
Lost in our media’s constant referral to Palestinians as “terrorists” lays the true nature of Israel, long buried in the dead sea of propaganda. This nature was first described by none other than Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other Jewish leaders in a December 4, 1948 letter to the New York Times. They condemned the emergence of what was to become the dominant political force in Israeli politics, the “freedom party,” led by Menachem Begin.
They said Begin’s party was “closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization.”
Then, a warning that has tragically been ignored ever since: “Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.”
Instead of heeding this advice America has given $160 BILLION over the last 50 years to the Israeli war machine. Every failure of peace is automatically blamed on the Palestinians. All events are sold from the perspective of an Israel built upon the corrupt foundation Dr. Einstein and others so courageously warned about.
The problems in the Middle East are primarily of Israel’s own making. To achieve peace they must:
1) END THE OCCUPATION;
2) Follow UN Resolution 242[10], and the more than 70 others that condemn Israeli behavior, its unlawful land grabs and their oppression of the Palestinian “refugees”;
3) Follow The Commission on Human Rights[11] directive to “desist from all forms of violation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories; to respect the bases of international law, the principles of international humanitarian law, its international commitments and the agreements it signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization; to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem as a basic condition for achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.”
Remove the thorn to calm the lion.
Respectfully, Richard F. Dawahare 7/23/06
PS Many of the quotations are from an article by Edward C. Corrigan, Jewish Criticism of Zionism, http://libaware.economads.com/jewcritzion.php
[1] My maternal grandparents were Lebanese (although I remember my grandmother saying she was born in Bethlehem) and my paternal grandparents from Syria. But prior to WWI this was all “Syria” and was controlled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. My paternal great-grandfather was the Christian mayor of a small Syrian village. The Turks were killing all such non-Muslim leaders and killed him. My great-grandmother hid my grandfather in a well, as the Turks were looking for his oldest son to kill as well. He got out and emigrated to the US as a young teenager, meeting his wife in NY and settling in Jenkins, Ky. My maternal great-grandfather and others were conscripted in the Ottoman army. Many of the next generation came to America to avoid reaching a similar fate.
[2] "Time to Dissociate from Israel," The Nation, February 13, 1988, p. 19.
[3] Reuben Slonim, Grand to be an Orphan (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company, 1983), p. 175.
[4] Hans Kohn, "Zion and the Jewish National Idea," The Menorah Journal, Autumn-Winter 1958, p. 42.
[5] Jewish Newsletter, 9 February 1959, cited in Gilmour, p. 74.
[6] Israel Shahak, "The Racist Nature of Zionism and the Zionistic State of Israel," The Link, Winter 1975-1976, p. 10. For an example of the work of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights see Report on the Violation of Human Rights in the Territories during the Uprising, 1988 (Tel Aviv: The Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, 1988).
[7] Charles Glass, "Jews Against Zionism: Israeli Jewish Anti-Zionism," Journal of Palestine Studies, Autumn 1975/ Winter 1976, p. 77.
[8] Isadore Abramowitz, Albert Einstein et al, “New Palestine Party,” New York Times, Dec. 4, 1948; ProQuest Historical newspapers the New York Times (1851-2003) pg. 12.
[9] Albert Einstein, et al ibid.
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Security_Council_Resolution_242
[11] http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord2001/vol3/israelchr.htm
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Who’s a Terrorist in the Middle East?
This site encompasses my personal philosophy of peace, so I reject forceful, violent means such as Hezbollah or Hamas use as well as the thorn inducing their actions, the violent conflict-initiating means Israel used to take land belonging to the Palestinians.
Yet this site also stands for truth, as best as we can define this often nebulous term. So it is fair and just to ask: just who is a terrorist, especially in the Middle East? If one honestly addresses the roots of the conflict in the Middle East one will find “terrorism” all around, starting with Israeli Zionists. In 1948 their terroristic “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut) led by Menachem Begin, massacred the Arab village, Deir Yassin. Such terrorism continues this week with Israel’s horrid invasion in Lebanon, not made any less illegal by calling it a defensive response to Hezbollah.
Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt et al in a letter to the NY Times (see below) accurately described the terrorist nature of the violent machine that was to control Israel. They said it was “a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”
Those bands of Zionists massacred many defenseless Palestinian villages, which for hundreds of years had lived under Ottoman rule, and for at least 1500 of years before were home to native Arabs AND Jews (though a much smaller percentage). 750,000 to a million of the Arabs, the Palestinians, fled their homes at the gunpoint of Israeli terrorist guns.
That dislocation, that injustice, that crime against humanity is the root cause for all the problems in the Israeli/Palestinian/Hezbollah/Hamas/Syria conflict today. (With Iran, there is the additional layer of American subversion of internal politics for control of oil).
The further loss of territory in 1967, and later still, the many strategic Palestinian lands taken from them by the Israeli settlers—ALL illegal under numerous UN regulations—further entrench and strengthen those roots of discord.
Remove the thorn and the lion stops roaring. At the least: Israel--remove all illegal settlements, follow all UN resolutions, and there will be no Hamas or Hezbollah.
I personally know Palestinians chased by gunpoint from their homes. Even they—with this emotional experience fresh in their mind—accept the right of Israel to exist. They do not support the violent means, what we call the “terrorism” of those trying to right the wrong. Yet they yearn for justice, for re-compense. Others want their land back taken since 1967 or 1980 or 1990 or 2000.
Without at least this level of justice, forget it. There will be much worse catastrophes there, and because of that, all over the world.
Then it won’t matter whom you call “terrorist.”
PS Now we know why Israel wants nukes and all the military might they have. It’s the same reason Lebanon needs it (to prevent such Israeli monstrosities as occurred this week and in the 1980’s). It’s why Iran and Syria want it. Why should one country have it and not another? Oh, because they are countries that support “terrorists” namely, the unorthodox defenders of a cause that is just—the reclamation of illegally taken lands by Israel with the support of the United States. Might makes right when it’s wearing the right colors, and when there’s so much more of it than on the side that opposes it.
PPS A logical retort from the “other side” to a question in a recent Louisville Courier-Journal editorial Terrorist provocation, “Those who have clucked about a "disproportionate" Israeli response might ask themselves what government anywhere would accept such murderous provocations without delivering a powerful response” would be “what group of people could remain passively submissive to the initiators of murderous provocations?”
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1948 letter of protest against Israeli 'fascists', 'terrorists'
A Letter To The EditorHANNAH ARENDT, ALBERT EINSTEIN, et alThe New York Times, 2 December 1948Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine. The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit.It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents. Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.Attack on Arab VillageA shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (The New York Times), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants—240 men, women, and children—and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem.Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party. Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model. During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.Discrepancies SeenThe discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a “Leader State” is the goal.In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.[signed]Isidore Abramowitz, Hannah Arendt, Abraham Brick, Rabbi Jessurun Cardozo, Albert Einstein, Herman Eisen, M.D., Hayim Fineman, M. Gallen, M.D., H.H. Harris, Zelig S. Harris, Sidney Hook, Fred Karush, Bruria Kaufman, Irma L. Lindheim, Nachman Maisel, Seymour Melman, Myer D. Mendelson, M.D., Harry M. Oslinsky, Samuel Pitlick, Fritz Rohrlich, Louis P. Rocker, Ruth Sagis, Itzhak Sankowsky, I.J. Shoenberg, Samuel Shuman, M. Singer, Irma Wolfe, Stefan Wolfe.—New York, Dec. 2, 1948
Yet this site also stands for truth, as best as we can define this often nebulous term. So it is fair and just to ask: just who is a terrorist, especially in the Middle East? If one honestly addresses the roots of the conflict in the Middle East one will find “terrorism” all around, starting with Israeli Zionists. In 1948 their terroristic “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut) led by Menachem Begin, massacred the Arab village, Deir Yassin. Such terrorism continues this week with Israel’s horrid invasion in Lebanon, not made any less illegal by calling it a defensive response to Hezbollah.
Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt et al in a letter to the NY Times (see below) accurately described the terrorist nature of the violent machine that was to control Israel. They said it was “a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”
Those bands of Zionists massacred many defenseless Palestinian villages, which for hundreds of years had lived under Ottoman rule, and for at least 1500 of years before were home to native Arabs AND Jews (though a much smaller percentage). 750,000 to a million of the Arabs, the Palestinians, fled their homes at the gunpoint of Israeli terrorist guns.
That dislocation, that injustice, that crime against humanity is the root cause for all the problems in the Israeli/Palestinian/Hezbollah/Hamas/Syria conflict today. (With Iran, there is the additional layer of American subversion of internal politics for control of oil).
The further loss of territory in 1967, and later still, the many strategic Palestinian lands taken from them by the Israeli settlers—ALL illegal under numerous UN regulations—further entrench and strengthen those roots of discord.
Remove the thorn and the lion stops roaring. At the least: Israel--remove all illegal settlements, follow all UN resolutions, and there will be no Hamas or Hezbollah.
I personally know Palestinians chased by gunpoint from their homes. Even they—with this emotional experience fresh in their mind—accept the right of Israel to exist. They do not support the violent means, what we call the “terrorism” of those trying to right the wrong. Yet they yearn for justice, for re-compense. Others want their land back taken since 1967 or 1980 or 1990 or 2000.
Without at least this level of justice, forget it. There will be much worse catastrophes there, and because of that, all over the world.
Then it won’t matter whom you call “terrorist.”
PS Now we know why Israel wants nukes and all the military might they have. It’s the same reason Lebanon needs it (to prevent such Israeli monstrosities as occurred this week and in the 1980’s). It’s why Iran and Syria want it. Why should one country have it and not another? Oh, because they are countries that support “terrorists” namely, the unorthodox defenders of a cause that is just—the reclamation of illegally taken lands by Israel with the support of the United States. Might makes right when it’s wearing the right colors, and when there’s so much more of it than on the side that opposes it.
PPS A logical retort from the “other side” to a question in a recent Louisville Courier-Journal editorial Terrorist provocation, “Those who have clucked about a "disproportionate" Israeli response might ask themselves what government anywhere would accept such murderous provocations without delivering a powerful response” would be “what group of people could remain passively submissive to the initiators of murderous provocations?”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1948 letter of protest against Israeli 'fascists', 'terrorists'
A Letter To The EditorHANNAH ARENDT, ALBERT EINSTEIN, et alThe New York Times, 2 December 1948Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine. The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit.It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents. Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.Attack on Arab VillageA shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (The New York Times), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants—240 men, women, and children—and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem.Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party. Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model. During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.Discrepancies SeenThe discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a “Leader State” is the goal.In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.[signed]Isidore Abramowitz, Hannah Arendt, Abraham Brick, Rabbi Jessurun Cardozo, Albert Einstein, Herman Eisen, M.D., Hayim Fineman, M. Gallen, M.D., H.H. Harris, Zelig S. Harris, Sidney Hook, Fred Karush, Bruria Kaufman, Irma L. Lindheim, Nachman Maisel, Seymour Melman, Myer D. Mendelson, M.D., Harry M. Oslinsky, Samuel Pitlick, Fritz Rohrlich, Louis P. Rocker, Ruth Sagis, Itzhak Sankowsky, I.J. Shoenberg, Samuel Shuman, M. Singer, Irma Wolfe, Stefan Wolfe.—New York, Dec. 2, 1948
Friday, July 14, 2006
“Heil Schicklgruber!”? Depressingly, No
The big black swastika beckoned, like a satanic siren willing me to it. I’ve had William Shirer’s epic “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” for some years, but by happenstance ran across the thick 1000+-page tome as I was leaving to visit an ailing brother in Florida.
I must’ve read and heard about Hitler, the Nazi’s, the Holocaust, WWI, the Versailles Treaty, Mein Kampf, WWII ,etc., etc., 3500 times*. Actually thought I knew most of the origins of how such an evil monstrosity as Hitler could come to power. Yet such is the improbable magnitude of Hitler’s rise, his spell on a nation, and the horrors that followed, that I can almost never get enough of reading about, trying to understand the real truth about, how this came to be.
So I lugged the thick book on the flights to Ft. Lauderdale and delved into it.
Mr. Shirer digs deep, to Hitler’s grandparents, to his upbringing with a domineering civil servant father who pooh poohed Hitler’s interest in art, his bohemian poverty in Vienna as a young teen, his failure to get into the Art Academy, living with the outcasts, reading, and filling his mind with the anti-Semitic lies (as well as books of all kind) that he would take for truth as the cause of the poverty, the division of the Germanic peoples-- his brethren of superior Aryan blood--with divine right to rule, and to rule with the Nietzschian iron fist, then his joining the German Army in WWI, his meritorious service until their surrender, which surrender Hitler, the industrial corporate and military elite ordered then falsely blamed on the “November Criminals,” the combination of the forward thinking political leaders who sought a new democratic German Republic, and who were back-stabbed by the military leaders, who wanted to run the show along with the old monarchy and industrial elite.
He then follows Hitler’s accidental arrival at the German Worker’s Party meeting where about 17 showed up, this the future Nazi party, which a shrewd, calculating and hard working Hitler would, over the next 10 years, forge into the beast it would become. He did it scientifically, learning from past failures, that any new political movement must get the approval of traditional power centers, like the military, the monarchy, the industrial elite, in order to get the masses to buy in. He learned from the failed Beer Hall Putsch, that force would not work, that he must succeed through the Constitutional way—the VOTE. He learned the psychology of controlling the masses, of propaganda, and he was tenacious in sticking with his vision.
While there were many twists and turns that would have prevented Hitler’s ascent, there are two that stick out:
1) His father, Alois, was an illegitimate child who for his first 39 years bore his mother’s name, SCHICKLGRUBER. While the probable father, Johann Hiedler (later changed to Hitler), married the mother 5 years after Alois was born, he never legitimized him. After the mother (Hitler’s grandmother, Anna) died Johann disappeared for 30 years. Then, at 84, he resurfaced to testify before a notary in the presence of three witnesses that he was the father of Alois Schicklgruber, probably to help him get a share of an uncle’s inheritance. The parish priest scratched out Alois Schicklgruber and put in Alois Hitler, the father who 13 years later sired Adolf…Hitler, not Schiklgruber.
We must understand, as Shirer says just how important this last minute name change was to history. “There may not be much or anything in a name, but I have heard Germans speculate whether Hitler could have become the master of Germany had he been known to the world as Schicklgruber. It has a slightly comic sound as it rolls off the tongue of a South German… 'Heil Schicklgruber!’? It is a little difficult to imagine.”
2) The Great Depression. By the late 1920’s the new Democracy in Germany was finally starting to work. Inflation and the Versailles Treaty dictates were both easing, people started working, saving and living well. Then, the Great Depression hit and wiped it all out. Like everywhere else, but probably even worse in Germany because of its debts, the economy tanked. This alone provided the opportunity for Hitler and his Nazis to ply with propaganda upon a susceptible, suffering people their destiny to rule as a superior German race, and blame the current democratic republic, the Jews and internationalism (as opposed to strident German First and ONLY nationalism) as the scapegoats preventing their rise.
And I’m only 100 pages through.
*I actually worked this out: from the time I first heard of him, oh about 12 years old, then studied in earnest at 16-17, I figure I must have thought, read, mused, or analyzed this situation AT LEAST twice a week. I am now 51, 51-17=34, 34 X 52 x 2 = 3536. Is this manic on my part? May be, yet all that transpired is still so hard to believe…even harder that something equivalent could ever occur again—that it more than intrigues me, it re-awakens that old adage: humanity that does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it.
I must’ve read and heard about Hitler, the Nazi’s, the Holocaust, WWI, the Versailles Treaty, Mein Kampf, WWII ,etc., etc., 3500 times*. Actually thought I knew most of the origins of how such an evil monstrosity as Hitler could come to power. Yet such is the improbable magnitude of Hitler’s rise, his spell on a nation, and the horrors that followed, that I can almost never get enough of reading about, trying to understand the real truth about, how this came to be.
So I lugged the thick book on the flights to Ft. Lauderdale and delved into it.
Mr. Shirer digs deep, to Hitler’s grandparents, to his upbringing with a domineering civil servant father who pooh poohed Hitler’s interest in art, his bohemian poverty in Vienna as a young teen, his failure to get into the Art Academy, living with the outcasts, reading, and filling his mind with the anti-Semitic lies (as well as books of all kind) that he would take for truth as the cause of the poverty, the division of the Germanic peoples-- his brethren of superior Aryan blood--with divine right to rule, and to rule with the Nietzschian iron fist, then his joining the German Army in WWI, his meritorious service until their surrender, which surrender Hitler, the industrial corporate and military elite ordered then falsely blamed on the “November Criminals,” the combination of the forward thinking political leaders who sought a new democratic German Republic, and who were back-stabbed by the military leaders, who wanted to run the show along with the old monarchy and industrial elite.
He then follows Hitler’s accidental arrival at the German Worker’s Party meeting where about 17 showed up, this the future Nazi party, which a shrewd, calculating and hard working Hitler would, over the next 10 years, forge into the beast it would become. He did it scientifically, learning from past failures, that any new political movement must get the approval of traditional power centers, like the military, the monarchy, the industrial elite, in order to get the masses to buy in. He learned from the failed Beer Hall Putsch, that force would not work, that he must succeed through the Constitutional way—the VOTE. He learned the psychology of controlling the masses, of propaganda, and he was tenacious in sticking with his vision.
While there were many twists and turns that would have prevented Hitler’s ascent, there are two that stick out:
1) His father, Alois, was an illegitimate child who for his first 39 years bore his mother’s name, SCHICKLGRUBER. While the probable father, Johann Hiedler (later changed to Hitler), married the mother 5 years after Alois was born, he never legitimized him. After the mother (Hitler’s grandmother, Anna) died Johann disappeared for 30 years. Then, at 84, he resurfaced to testify before a notary in the presence of three witnesses that he was the father of Alois Schicklgruber, probably to help him get a share of an uncle’s inheritance. The parish priest scratched out Alois Schicklgruber and put in Alois Hitler, the father who 13 years later sired Adolf…Hitler, not Schiklgruber.
We must understand, as Shirer says just how important this last minute name change was to history. “There may not be much or anything in a name, but I have heard Germans speculate whether Hitler could have become the master of Germany had he been known to the world as Schicklgruber. It has a slightly comic sound as it rolls off the tongue of a South German… 'Heil Schicklgruber!’? It is a little difficult to imagine.”
2) The Great Depression. By the late 1920’s the new Democracy in Germany was finally starting to work. Inflation and the Versailles Treaty dictates were both easing, people started working, saving and living well. Then, the Great Depression hit and wiped it all out. Like everywhere else, but probably even worse in Germany because of its debts, the economy tanked. This alone provided the opportunity for Hitler and his Nazis to ply with propaganda upon a susceptible, suffering people their destiny to rule as a superior German race, and blame the current democratic republic, the Jews and internationalism (as opposed to strident German First and ONLY nationalism) as the scapegoats preventing their rise.
And I’m only 100 pages through.
*I actually worked this out: from the time I first heard of him, oh about 12 years old, then studied in earnest at 16-17, I figure I must have thought, read, mused, or analyzed this situation AT LEAST twice a week. I am now 51, 51-17=34, 34 X 52 x 2 = 3536. Is this manic on my part? May be, yet all that transpired is still so hard to believe…even harder that something equivalent could ever occur again—that it more than intrigues me, it re-awakens that old adage: humanity that does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Another Political OUTRAGE!
10 kids die DAILY from GUNS yet 188 Republicans and 42 Democrats killed a trigger lock mandate that would save them. Our lawmakers have once again sold out to the special interests that fund this bribery. That is, they vote the way the interest group wants to the exclusion* of the greater public interest (in this case FOR the gun lobby and AGAINST innocent children) and thereby get money and power in return.
[*This is the key part of the equation that makes such vote-peddling rise to the “bribery” level. There are undoubtedly examples where the public interest position dovetails with the moneyed one, but this is clearly not one of them].
Sure both parties are guilty; but for the past 25 years it’s been pretty much a Republican show, and they have received the lion’s share of the political grease, perhaps 75% to 25% in keeping with the famous Enron donation percentage. But why quibble, this blatant abuse is a key reason that so many Americans: 1) distrust our political system, b) hold those running it in such low esteem and c) refuse to vote in elections that they view as an exercise in futility.
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, the Colorado Republican who made this proposal, said that locks on weapons don’t prevent the slaughter of children, they only make "personal protection more costly." In a piece of convoluted logic that is totally ignore the facts, she continued, "Many things around the home are dangerous when used without proper instructions or supervision. But it is not the government's job or responsibility to mandate every conceivable protective mechanism imaginable."
So tamper-proof aspirin bottles are well within government’s rightful sphere of consumer protection, but GUNS are not?!
If this wolves-guarding-the-henhouse system of ours is “democracy” then why kill so many Americans and Iraqis to force same upon them?
Rfd 7/10/06
PS This is NOT a gun-banning argument. I would stand by the NRA should a real threat materialize to ban guns. But reasonable restrictions, safety measures, etc. that better protect the public are just and right. They are not the “give ‘em an inch they’ll take a mile” step to gun elimination.
[*This is the key part of the equation that makes such vote-peddling rise to the “bribery” level. There are undoubtedly examples where the public interest position dovetails with the moneyed one, but this is clearly not one of them].
Sure both parties are guilty; but for the past 25 years it’s been pretty much a Republican show, and they have received the lion’s share of the political grease, perhaps 75% to 25% in keeping with the famous Enron donation percentage. But why quibble, this blatant abuse is a key reason that so many Americans: 1) distrust our political system, b) hold those running it in such low esteem and c) refuse to vote in elections that they view as an exercise in futility.
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, the Colorado Republican who made this proposal, said that locks on weapons don’t prevent the slaughter of children, they only make "personal protection more costly." In a piece of convoluted logic that is totally ignore the facts, she continued, "Many things around the home are dangerous when used without proper instructions or supervision. But it is not the government's job or responsibility to mandate every conceivable protective mechanism imaginable."
So tamper-proof aspirin bottles are well within government’s rightful sphere of consumer protection, but GUNS are not?!
If this wolves-guarding-the-henhouse system of ours is “democracy” then why kill so many Americans and Iraqis to force same upon them?
Rfd 7/10/06
PS This is NOT a gun-banning argument. I would stand by the NRA should a real threat materialize to ban guns. But reasonable restrictions, safety measures, etc. that better protect the public are just and right. They are not the “give ‘em an inch they’ll take a mile” step to gun elimination.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
How Horses Schtup
So Phil, what does the “LF” mean by the $60,000?” I asked. “That means you must pay the money when the mare (the female horse) has a foal (a baby horse) and it stands on its legs.” Phil (not his real name) was showing me the horse farm’s brochure, which was top drawer, high-glossed perfection, the kind where you can see you fingerprints. Beautiful Bluegrass sunsets, white fences and…horses. Spectacular!
I began to wonder about this horse breeding business in a way I never really thought of before—the mechanics of how they get the stallions to “perform” so many times. (Phil said the studs went at it practically non-stop).
“Hmm, so do they have to ‘stimulate’ the stallions?”
“No, they’re pretty much ready.”
“Well, is there much of a courtship, I mean, is the female just as ready to, uh, copulate?”
“First we put a ‘teaser’ in there with a mare to see if she’s ready to mate.”
“A teaser?”
“Yeah, we bring another male in the breeding barn and see if the mare is receptive.”
“And then you take the ‘teaser’ horse out and bring the stallion in?”
“Right.”
“Hmmm, sounds cruel to the teaser horse. I mean, you get him all hot and bothered and then just yank him out. Do you get him a…substitute mare, a concubine, some kind of magazine at least?”
“Nah, they just go back to the field. Ernie is my favorite; he’s been at it a long time. He’s real cool, knows what to expect.”
“Okay, when you bring the stallion in to do his thing what’s that like?”
“Well, we have the barn, with padded walls, and put the mare and stallion in there together.”
“So-o-o-o, how long does it take for the parties to, uh, what, make love? Mount? Do it? Is there any foreplay, any romance? Do you have posters, soft music, hay-scented fragrances or anything to help get them in the mood?”
“Nah, it’s pretty much horse-rape, the stud just goes after her. Sometimes she’s easy, sometimes not. It’s over pretty quick.”
And that’s how future Derby winners are made, as well as the thousands more that just eat grass and look good in the fields and farms of our beloved Bluegrass.
Rfd 7/8/06
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Devaluing America On the Third of July
It’s a real shame that on the eve of the Fourth of July, wherein we celebrate our nation’s highest ideals, our top political leaders attack them. Yesterday, Senators Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Lindsay Graham attacked the Supreme Court for insisting that our government follow not only its own laws (the Uniform Code of Military Justice), but also those of a binding legal treaty to which we have long been a signatory, the Geneva Accords.
Instead these Senators, along with President Bush, would have us try our military prisoners in secret courts, unilaterally developed by the president, which deny even the smallest amount of due process. It is so bad, so unfair that even the military lawyers object to the rank injustice. The accused have no right to be present for the trial or to see all the evidence against them. It is so bad that not a single case has been tried.
As Justice Stephen G. Breyer said, "Where, as here, no emergency prevents consultation with Congress, judicial insistence upon that consultation does not weaken our Nation's ability to deal with danger. To the contrary, that insistence strengthens the Nation's ability to determine -- through democratic means -- how best to do so.”
McConnell is concerned that American servicemen could potentially be accused of war crimes. But that is what treaties are all about. We therefore do unto others what we want, and through the treaties expect, in return. What McConnell demands violates fundamental fairness as well as national and international law, and as such is truly contrary to the spirit of the American ideals bequeathed by our forefathers.
And if you accept McCain’s argument that the decision “is somewhat of a departure…of people who are stateless terrorists” then you reject the very notion that we are in a war at all, for a state of war demands a concrete declaration against a defined other state. He, and Bush, cannot have it both ways.
Either we are at war, which Bush has declared since 9/11, wherein all prisoners are due the protections of our own law, the UCMJ, and the Geneva Accords, or we are not at war, and those prisoners are treated instead as common criminals in international courts of law.
It is anti-American to denigrate our inherent values and diminish our system of justice. Bush was wrong to have done so all this time. That is what the Supreme Court has said. Yet our leading Senators persist in making America less than America.
This, on the eve of the Fourth.
Rfd 7.4.06
Instead these Senators, along with President Bush, would have us try our military prisoners in secret courts, unilaterally developed by the president, which deny even the smallest amount of due process. It is so bad, so unfair that even the military lawyers object to the rank injustice. The accused have no right to be present for the trial or to see all the evidence against them. It is so bad that not a single case has been tried.
As Justice Stephen G. Breyer said, "Where, as here, no emergency prevents consultation with Congress, judicial insistence upon that consultation does not weaken our Nation's ability to deal with danger. To the contrary, that insistence strengthens the Nation's ability to determine -- through democratic means -- how best to do so.”
McConnell is concerned that American servicemen could potentially be accused of war crimes. But that is what treaties are all about. We therefore do unto others what we want, and through the treaties expect, in return. What McConnell demands violates fundamental fairness as well as national and international law, and as such is truly contrary to the spirit of the American ideals bequeathed by our forefathers.
And if you accept McCain’s argument that the decision “is somewhat of a departure…of people who are stateless terrorists” then you reject the very notion that we are in a war at all, for a state of war demands a concrete declaration against a defined other state. He, and Bush, cannot have it both ways.
Either we are at war, which Bush has declared since 9/11, wherein all prisoners are due the protections of our own law, the UCMJ, and the Geneva Accords, or we are not at war, and those prisoners are treated instead as common criminals in international courts of law.
It is anti-American to denigrate our inherent values and diminish our system of justice. Bush was wrong to have done so all this time. That is what the Supreme Court has said. Yet our leading Senators persist in making America less than America.
This, on the eve of the Fourth.
Rfd 7.4.06
Sunday, July 02, 2006
A Response to a letter criticizing Senator Mitch McConnell on his vote against the anti-flag burning amendment.
With all respect I must risk your wrath as I know how you feel, but I must be truthful. This is the ONE, and about the only issue, upon which I agree with Senator McConnell. Think about it: the flag stands for the premise of FREEDOM, even to burn it to express one's displeasure with the government, the state or whatever one associates with the flag.
Is it a contemptible exercise? YES!! Is it dis-respectful? YES!! Does it fulfill ANY of Rotary's Four Way tests? NO!
Yet, that is what the flag stands for--the freedom to express an opinion in such distasteful means. And you know what--there are hardly ANY incidents of flag burning anyway---zilch, none. This issue is repeatedly brought forth by politicians seeking to rile the emotionalism of voters they hope will vote for them. There simply IS no problem of flag burning and even if there were, that would mean there are some serious problems in the country that must be addressed. Better to allow such venting than to squelch free speech, driving it underground to fester and ferment.
Another factor--an especially vital one to those who trumpet the Ten Commandments--is that to seek this kind of protection for a piece of cloth, the FLAG, is to IDOLIZE that object, thus VIOLATING THE SECOND COMMANDMENT..."Make unto thee no graven image..."
Rather than skewer McConnell look at the motives of those pushing this red herring amendment non-issue.
Sincerely, Richard
ps. I can and do criticize McConnell on his many votes against the greater public interest and FOR private/corporate greed. He represents much of what is wrong with our political system and with the ever increasing concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few, at the expense of the many.
----- Original Message -----
Is it a contemptible exercise? YES!! Is it dis-respectful? YES!! Does it fulfill ANY of Rotary's Four Way tests? NO!
Yet, that is what the flag stands for--the freedom to express an opinion in such distasteful means. And you know what--there are hardly ANY incidents of flag burning anyway---zilch, none. This issue is repeatedly brought forth by politicians seeking to rile the emotionalism of voters they hope will vote for them. There simply IS no problem of flag burning and even if there were, that would mean there are some serious problems in the country that must be addressed. Better to allow such venting than to squelch free speech, driving it underground to fester and ferment.
Another factor--an especially vital one to those who trumpet the Ten Commandments--is that to seek this kind of protection for a piece of cloth, the FLAG, is to IDOLIZE that object, thus VIOLATING THE SECOND COMMANDMENT..."Make unto thee no graven image..."
Rather than skewer McConnell look at the motives of those pushing this red herring amendment non-issue.
Sincerely, Richard
ps. I can and do criticize McConnell on his many votes against the greater public interest and FOR private/corporate greed. He represents much of what is wrong with our political system and with the ever increasing concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few, at the expense of the many.
----- Original Message -----
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