Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Dangerously hot topic: When do Zionists stop being Jews?

 

Dangerously hot topic: When do Zionists stop being Jews?

     Of course I believe in free speech and the First Amendment.  It is the very basis of what America is all about.  Whenever anything gets censored here, a little piece of America dies.  And in this spirit, I will even defend Zionists' right to put up giant billboards here in Berkeley that boldly declare "You don't need to go to law school to know that anti-Zionism is antisemitism".  However, I surely would hate to live in the apartment building that faces that sign.

      So.  What is that sign all about?  Recently some minor Los Angeles newspaper had erroneously reported that the U.C. Berkeley law school had established a "No-Jews-Allowed" zone.  The article later was proved false but you know how these things go.  False stories sometimes take on a life of their own, right? 

     In any case, perhaps it is finally time to take a closer look at this dangerously hot topic.  Are Jews and Zionists the same thing -- or are they different?  When is a Jew not a Zionist?  When is a Zionist not a Jew?  "When Zionists break the Ten Commandments and piss Moses off!" 

     Moses knew a lot about The Law -- and he didn't even have to go to law school to learn it.  And Hillel the Elder also cited another Golden Rule for Jews to live by:  "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself and treat them just as you treat your own citizens." 
[Leviticus 19:34]

      When corrupt oligarchs like Netanyahu steal, covet, hold grudges, bear false witness and kill, does that still make them Jewish?  Good grief, I hope not!

PS:  Most Americans these days live in what Scott Ritter calls our "cocoon of comfort".  However, once that cocoon of comfort goes away (and it will -- the Federal Reserve and the Evil Globalist Bastards will make sure of that!) and we too are living like Palestinians in Gaza, then you can bet your bottom dollar that Americans, like the impoverished Palestinians, will also start getting pissed off.

PPS:  What I really can't understand is how that creepy war-mongering corrupt oligarch Netanyahu managed to get re-elected after he sold every Jew in Israel down the river to Pfizer -- at the price of how many billion pieces of silver?  Apparently it was enough dinero to buy his re-election (again).

PPPS:  A few years ago, I toured what was left of a gutted Palestinian village, cruelly and violently destroyed by Zionists back in 1948 -- ironically on Halloween night.  Lots of tricks, no treats.  Totally scary!  However, for the Christians and Muslims living in that tragically-doomed village, it turned out to be a Day of the Dead.  Here's my story:

       On the day before Halloween, I was driven out through the countryside on the far side of Hadera and then up into the mountains, finally arriving at a hilltop somewhere near the Lebanese border.  Lots of trees.  Nice view.  “Oh, look!  There’s a cow!  There’s a bunch of cows!”  We had arrived at our destination –- the site of a former Palestinian village that had been destroyed in 1948.  I looked around but couldn’t see nothing but trees and grass and cows.

       “Some of the original inhabitants of the village will be meeting us here today,” said an Israeli man who had come up with us.  He, like many other Israelis, strongly objected to the drunken use of force by the IDF -- and he, like many other Israelis, has made a point of learning some of the true history of what had gone on way back then.  “This is one of over 500 Palestinian villages that were destroyed by the Zionist army back around 1948-49.”  Wow.  They certainly did a good job on this one!  There was nothing left but stones -- and cows.

       “All record of what the Palestinians call the Nakba – the Catastrophe — are absent from Israeli school curricula, from most history and geography books and even from maps of Israel itself.  The sites of the old Palestinian villages have even been erased and re-named on all of the maps.  And even today there is no official Israeli recognition or commemoration — let alone apology — for the Nakba.”

       We got out and walked around the land where the village used to be.  There was nothing left of the village except a lot of scattered stones.  Another bunch of cows appeared as we walked down a dirt road.  Photo op!  Except that these cows had horns.  Big horns.  Lots of horns.

       “In the Zionist collective memory,” continued my Israeli friend, “the Palestine of 1948 was a ‘A land without people for a people without a land’.  Yet the place where Israel was founded was never empty.  This land was home to almost one million Palestinians living in over 700 villages and cities, most of which were depopulated and then re-named in the period during and immediately following 1948.”  Now all there is here are cows.  And cow poop.  Oops.

       It was a peaceful afternoon in the country.  We walked up the path to the top of another hill.  Terrific view — almost like the Sierra Nevada foothills near Auburn and the California gold rush country on the way to Lake Tahoe.   

     “Here is an old fortress that was bombed by the Israeli air force back in 1949.  99% of the houses were still standing in 1950 but the Israeli army returned and blew up everything that was left.  You are now standing on the site of the elementary school and the high school.  The village used to make its living by growing bees and harvesting honey.”  Not any more.  Nothing was left.  It looked like even the bees had left town.

       “And here is the Muslim cemetery and across the road is the Christian cemetery, dating back from the time of the Crusades.”  Now a small stone building was all that was left.  “This used to be the minister’s home.  For hundreds of years, Muslims and Christians had lived — mostly — in peace in this village.  And over there was the village pool and the village green.”

       On that day in 1950 when the rest of the villagers had been driven away by the occupying Israeli army, one family had been down in the fields during the seizure and occupation of the village.  “When they came back and one of their boys had a wound that he had gotten while farming, the Israeli soldiers said that it must have come from resisting the invasion so the soldiers tortured him and killed him.  His parents were too scared to even come out of the trees in order to collect his body.  The rest of the surviving villagers had run and hidden in their olive orchards but after a few days without food, two old men went back to the village to try to get supplies from their homes.  They were shot.”

       The Israeli army wanted to hide any evidence of destroying the village. “But they were stupid. They left all the stones.”

       Then somehow we got into a discussion of eye-wear and I gave my famous “glasses as accessories” speech.  “Nobody manufactures yellow glasses,” I lamented.  “Do I have to do everything myself?  Now I have to manufacture glasses too?”

       Then we toddled off to what was left of the village church.  I met an Arab-Israeli man there who was also touring the ruins and he told me his story.  “My grandfather was a Palestinian and he had a very high regard for education.  When I was a boy, he made each of his grandchildren learn a different language.  Unfortunately I got stuck learning English,” he joked.  “The others learned French, German, Spanish and Chinese.”  Chinese?  “Yes but unfortunately the only textbook he had was Chinese to English so he was forced to learn English too.”

       Apparently when the Israeli soldiers stormed the village back in 1950, they confronted the headman, who was a Christian.  “Why are you defending these Muslims,” the Israeli commander asked and the headman answered that, “in this one moment, we now are all belonging to the same religion -- and it is God, not us, who will sort out who is good and who is bad.”

       The air today smelled of pine trees.  There were stone blocks everywhere.  Thousands of them.  One of the villagers who had survived the massacre and who had come back for the day spoke to us.  “Every year since the Nakba, those of us who are left feel so empty inside.  The horrible violence seemed so senseless.  It has split our bodies and minds.  Our bodies stand here 57 years later but our souls are still back in our village, so long ago, in this beautiful place.  And no matter what the Israeli history books say, this village did once exist.”  That man survived.  And he remembers.

       “We thought at first that we might be allowed to come back to our village,” said the man.  Who could blame him for wanting to come back.  This place was -- and is -- beautiful.  “Other villages took us in but then they too were destroyed.  But we will never give up our dream of someday coming back here, back to our home.”

       Apparently after 1950, this village was declared to be a “military area” and so the villagers were never allowed to return.  And even today, even with all the trees and the cows, this village is still labeled a “military zone”.

       Apparently there is another village that is suing to get their land back.  “And we want our land back too.  You can see how holy this place is.  It’s not only what you see with your eyes now -- but beyond, to the future.  We all must remember that we are standing in front of God.  And every Palestinian must remember that somewhere he has a village.” 

       Strange that even now the original villagers aren’t allowed to come back.

       The sun was beginning to set so we walked back to the bus and started the long drive back to Jerusalem –- not long in terms of driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles or nothing, but long in terms of driving through Israel.  Now we can eat?  I’m ready.  This morning's chocolate bar is long gone.

       Nope, no dinner for us.  We stopped at a truck stop and bought junk food.  “I’ve got bad news,” said our guide.  “We were supposed to meet with Jeff Halper from ICAHD tonight but he is stuck in an airport in Canada.”  Our guide was really upset.  I was disappointed too.  Halper is an Israeli who is very influential in the fight to stop Palestinian home demolitions in East Jerusalem, is an expert in this field and has written several excellent books on the subject.  But just then our bus rounded a curve and we suddenly saw the Mediterranean Sea spread out before us –- with the sun glowing all red and glorious as it slipped down toward the watery horizon.  Magnificent.  I almost forgot about food!


Resources:

Palestine Hijacked is a new book explaining all kinds of propaganda plots to discredit Palestine:  New history challenges Israel’s hold on western imagination


Scott Ritter man-splains why America has screwed up world peace bigtime -- from then until now:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLU0vFAUQs&t=229s
 
 

Here's a draft of the cover of my new book, due out in April!
 
 
Here's the infamous billboard:









 
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