675 Jewish Right openly canvasses Genocide of Palestinians

Jewish Right openly canvasses Genocide of Palestinians

This newsletter is at
http://mailstar.net/bulletins/140820-b2446-Gaza-Genocide.rtf

Newsletter published on 20 August 2014

(1) Holocaust terminology is the Problem - by Peter Myers, August 20, 2014
(2) Jewish Right openly canvasses Genocide of Palestinians
(3) Reprint of Yochanan Gordon’s “When Genocide is Permissible” (Updated)
(4) Download the original webpage from the Internet Archive - Peter Myers
(5) Deputy Speaker of the Knesset calls for ethnic cleansing in Gaza
(6) Deputy Speaker of Knesset calls for concentration camps in Gaza,
annihilation of population
(7) After 3000 years, we learn that Jews are just like everyone else -
MJ Rosenberg
(8) A vengeful, vindictive Tribe: Jewish Hate of Arabs - Haaretz Editorial
(9) Palestinians returning home find Israeli troops left faeces & graffiti
(10) Elie Wiesel plays the Holocaust trump card in Gaza
(11) Dutch Man who saved Jews during Nazi Holocaust returns his Medal
(12) Letter to Foxman: Just because you own Congress doesn't give Israel
a free hand to commit war crimes
(13) 1 shot, 2 Kills: Where was the ADL when these T-Shirts hit the streets?
(14) Petras: Right Zionists defend Israeli Genocide, Left Zionists
confuse its critics
(15) The Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza, by Fidel Castro
(16) Gaza: How to Kill a Palestinian (2009)
(17) Gaza 2009: Calls to Wipe the Palestinians Out

(1) Holocaust terminology is the Problem - by Peter Myers, August 20, 2014

Thankfully, Left Jews like MJ Rosenberg, Max Blumenthal and Philip Weiss
have exposed the Genocidal mentality of the Jewish Right.

But what explains it? How can the Jewish Right advocate Genocide of
Palestinians, given the constant media bombardment about the Nazi Holocaust?

The key seems to be in one little word: the word "The". That little word
facilitates a particularist interpretation.

The Jewish Right do not see it having a universal meaning about what
people do each other - all people, any people, including themselves,
with lessons for us all.

Instead, they mentally file the Nazi Holocaust under the heading
"Anti-Semitism" - meaning, the millenia-long persecution of Jews by
non-Jews. The lessons are all one-way, the re-education is for non-Jews,
by Jews.

Norman Finklestein saw this semantic issue as key to the Holocaust
Industry. That's why he refused to use the term "The Holocaust", but
insisted on bundling the word "Holocaust" with some qualifier - eg "The
Nazi Holocaust" - implying one among many.

Yochanan Gordon's article When Genocide is Permissible has been deleted
from the 5 Towns Jewish Times
website.

But the original webpage is still at the Internet Archive.

Be quick, and save it to your computer now:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140801162830/http://5tjt.com/when-genocide-is-permissible/

(2) Jewish Right openly canvasses Genocide of Palestinians

From: MJ Rosenberg <mjrosenberg1881@outlook.com> Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2014
23:18:29 +0000 Subject: Suddenly, Genocide Is On The Table

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=855aabd7ccd7a77e987004677&id=4125b2c91a&e=f5b90cb53d
http://mjayrosenberg.com/

The following piece by journalist David Sheen,
(http://religiondispatches.org/author/david_sheen/) a Canadian living in
Israel since 1999. appears in Religious Dispatches,
(http://religiondispatches.org/violent-genocidal-anti-palestinian-rhetoric-moving-to-us/)
a blog published by the Annenberg School of Journalism at University of
Southern California. I am sending it out because we need to start paying
attention to the ugly racism, including calls for genocide, that have
been emanating from within the right wing of the Israeli and the
American Jewish community. We all hear Jews talking about the hate
within segments of the Muslim community directed toward Jews. Too few
recognize that our ultras are no different. We just ignore them and
pretend they don't signify anything about us. They do. And now,
suddenly, following the revolting Gaza campaign, genocide is actually
being discussed, including by a top Israeli official. We can't ignore
this, especially when these threats emanate from the same sector of
Jewish and Israeli life that incited the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. These
people are our Hamas or maybe our ISIS. We can't pretend they don't exist.

*****

Earlier this week the Times of Israel published a post, written by
American Yochanan Gordon, titled "When Genocide is Permissible," which
concludes with the following question:

If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to
achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then
permissible to achieve those responsible goals?

Last week, the man gunning for the top spot at the Anti-Defamation
League, New York University senior fellow Thane Rosenbaum
(http://online.wsj.com/articles/thane-rosenbaum-civilian-casualties-in-gaza-1405970362)
, authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal legitimizing Israel's
killing of civilians, telling Palestinians in Gaza that, because a
plurality of their voting-age population voted for the political wing of
Hamas in national elections eight years ago, "you forfeit your right to
be called civilians... you have wittingly made yourself targets."

On Monday, the president of the New York Board of Rabbis, David-Seth
Kirshner (http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/israel-leader-rabbis.html) made
this same assertion at a pro-Israel rally of 10,000 people a few blocks
from the UN (which had just issued a statement
(http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/sc11494.doc.htm) expressing
concern over "the deteriorating situation). In a video posted to
Youtube, he is heard saying: "When you are part of an election process
that asks for [Hamas]... you are complicit and you are not a civilian
casualty." Kirshner then proclaimed that the Israeli army is "the most
moral army in the history of civilization." [...]

For decades, most mainstream Jewish leaders outside of Israel have
publicly supported the military adventures of the Israeli government,
regardless of the Palestinian death toll. But they have at least paid
lip-service to the sanctity of human life and expressed regret for the
souls lost on both sides. As Israel's latest assault on Gaza enters its
fourth week, however, we are witnessing a significant rhetorical departure.

Yet as reprehensible as remarks from American Jewish leaders have been,
the dehumanizing discourse among political and religious leaders in
Israel--where I live and work--has for years been moving toward the
grotesque.

The images that have emerged from the Gaza Strip over the past three
weeks of Israel's assault, and the fact that the vast majority of those
killed have been Palestinian civilians-including three hundred
children--should fill any decent human being with revulsion, regardless
of which side they support.

But Israeli leaders have begun to speak openly of their disdain for the
lives of Palestinian civilians, damning them to death along with the
militants in their midst.

Anti-Arab racist rhetoric is common in Israeli politics. Recent comments
by a Member of Knesset and whip of the religious Jewish Home party - key
members of Prime Minister Netanyahu's governing coalition - were
especially heinous. In a Facebook post published a month ago, Ayelet
Shaked
(http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-lawmakers-call-genocide-palestinians-gets-thousands-facebook-likes)
advocated for the killing of "the entire Palestinian people... including
its elderly and its women... otherwise, more little snakes will be raised."

This week Israel's most popular online news source, Ynetnews, published
an op-ed by a rabbi citing Biblical passages
(http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4550979,00.html) as a
rationale for extending the bloodshed in Gaza.

The statements of Ovadia Yosef, whose recent passing was met with
flattering memorials
(http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/10/08/rabbi-ovadia-yosef-was-no-spiritual-leader/)
both in Israel and the US, are legendary. The former Chief Rabbi of
Israel and spiritual leader of many Middle Eastern Jews, said, among
other things, that Palestinians "should perish from the world
(http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/shas-spiritual-leader-abbas-and-palestinians-should-perish-1.310800)
" and that "it is forbidden to be merciful to them"; of non-Jews in
general, he declared that "Goyim were born only to serve us.
(http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2012/12/20/jerusalem-posts-self-censorship-protects-israeli-racism/)
" Despite comments like these, his funeral last October was the largest
in the country's history
(http://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-closes-down-for-rabbi-ovadia-yosefs-funeral/)
, with 800,000 Israelis attending.

In the past month, Rabbi Noam Perel, head of Bnei Akiva, the largest
Jewish religious youth group
(http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/02/bnei-akiva-israel-palestine_n_5551749.html)
in the world, called for the mass-murder of Palestinians and for their
foreskins to be scalped and brought back as trophies, alluding to an
episode in the Book of Samuel; and a Jerusalem city councillor,
(http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-calls-palestinian-blood-ring-fever-pitch/13578)
in charge of security, encouraged a crowd to mimic the Biblical
character of Phineas (Pinchas in Hebrew), who murdered a fellow
Israelite and his Midianite lover for the "crime" of miscegenation:

I am calling out to all the Pinchases that are here ... Moses didn't
act, Pinchas acted ... every one of us has a mission ... The Rebbe, who
is here with us, expects us to commit acts of Pinchas.

Mere hours after these incidents of incitement, a group of Israeli Jews,
including the grandson of the chief of the Jerusalem rabbinical court
(http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/07/06/breaking-news-leader-of-terror-murder-cell-follower-of-shas-and-beitar-jerusalem/)
, kidnapped a Palestinian teen, beat him and forced him to drink
gasoline, before burning him to death
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_murder_of_Mohammed_Abu_Khdeir)
from the inside out. When Israeli security forces finally caught and
interrogated them, the group referenced the story of Phineas
(http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/.premium-1.2379877) . They also
mentioned the Biblical injunction to kill all Amalekites, an ancient
people who no longer exist, but whose legacy is often attributed to
Israel's enemy de jure.

None of these leaders were dismissed from their posts or censured in any
way for making these harsh, cruel statement. No surprise then that other
Israeli religious officials joined the genocidal chorus. One local chief
rabbi ruled that bombing Palestinian civilians
(http://972mag.com/nstt_feeditem/israeli-rabbi-its-okay-to-kill-innocent-civilians-and-destroy-gaza/)
is permissible, while another, considered a "liberal" by Israeli
standards, declared the assault on Gaza to be a holy war
(http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/solidarity-through-action/) mandated by
the Torah-one which must be merciless.

These blood-curdling statements, while anathema to many, are made with
impunity in Israel because there is widespread support-or at least
toleration-among the Jewish population. The statements are not confined
to religious sectors of society, but are also flourishing on social
media platforms, where average Israelis call for Palestinians to be
ethnically-cleansed
(http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/terrifying-tweets-israeli.html) . In the
streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, groups of Israeli Jews
led by anti-miscegenationist activists march through town chanting
(http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/jerusalem-lynch-mobs-attack-palestinians-after-israeli-teens-funerals)
"Death to Arabs!" and "Death to leftists!," assaulting anyone who fits
the bill.

Until Israel's most recent assault on Gaza, Jewish leaders who publicly
advocated meting out death to Palestinian civilians were forced to
confine their remarks to Hebrew. With Operation Protective Edge,
however, a watershed has been breached, with both Israelis and American
Jews now permitting themselves to call for the killing of defenseless
Palestinians without shame.

Describing this week's pro-Israel rally at which Rabbi David-Seth
Kirshner declared open season on Gazans for voting for Hamas, the
Forward's Hody Nemes wrote
(http://forward.com/articles/203080/american-jews-rally-mostly-to-israels-side-as-gaza/)
:

The pro-Israel rally was organized
(https://www.facebook.com/events/1444696342461954/) by UJA-Federation of
New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and other
groups, and had the backing of nearly the entire organized Jewish
community, including the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements. A
crowd estimated at close to 10,000 people, including numerous
politicians, attended the rally, dwarfing the protests against Israel's
operation.

With the mainstream American Jewish leadership firmly in support
(http://forward.com/articles/203080/american-jews-rally-mostly-to-israels-side-as-gaza/)
of the current military operation there is little pressure for the
Israeli government to end the carnage-or for the U.S. government to
pressure it to do so.

{superfluous extensions have been removed from some of the above links -
Peter M.}

(3) Reprint of Yochanan Gordon’s “When Genocide is Permissible” (Updated)

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/yochanan-genocide-permissible.html

Mondoweiss Editors on August 1, 2014

Earlier today the Times of Israel published the article “When Genocide
is Permissible” by Yochanan Gordon. They have since taken it down but we
are republishing it here as representative of part of the discourse in
the American Jewish community. According to Gordon’s bio at the Times of
Israel his father is the founder of The Five Towns Jewish Times in
Nassau County, NY which is “committed to showing the best of our
Orthodox Jewish community, while reflecting reality.” The article is
still posted there. <http://5tjt.com/when-genocide-is-permissible>

Update:

The article has been taken off the The Five Towns Jewish Times website
with this explanation:

An article that was posted earlier today on our website dealt with the
question of genocide in a most irresponsible fashion. We reject any such
notion or discussion associated with even entertaining the possibility
of such an unacceptable idea.

The piece should have been rejected out of hand by editors but escaped
their proper attention. We reject such a suggestion unequivocally and
apologize for the error.

Gordon has reportedly ended his twitter account, citing security
concerns. He has now also issued an apology for the article, but he
doesn’t seem to get it:

I wish to express deep regret and beg forgiveness for an article I
authored which was posted on 5TJT.com, Times of Israel and was tweeted
and shared the world over.

I never intended to call to harm any people although my words may have
conveyed that message.

With that said I pray and hope for a quick peaceful end to the
hostilities and that all people learn to coexist with each other in
creating a better world for us all.

When Genocide is Permissible

by Yochanan Gordon

Judging by the numbers of casualties on both sides in this almost
one-month old war one would be led to the conclusion that Israel has
resorted to disproportionate means in fighting a far less- capable
enemy. That is as far as what meets the eye. But, it’s now obvious that
the US and the UN are completely out of touch with the nature of this
foe and are therefore not qualified to dictate or enforce the rules of
this war – because when it comes to terror there is much more than meets
the eye.

I wasn’t aware of this, but it seems that the nature of warfare has
undergone a major shift over the years. Where wars were usually waged to
defeat the opposing side, today it seems – and judging by the number of
foul calls it would indicate – that today’s wars are fought to a draw. I
mean, whoever heard of a timeout in war? An NBA Basketball game allows
six timeouts for each team during the course of a game, but last I
checked this is a war! We are at war with an enemy whose charter calls
for the annihilation of our people. Nothing, then, can be considered
disproportionate when we are fighting for our very right to live.

The sad reality is that Israel gets it, but its hands are being tied by
world leaders who over the past six years have insisted they are such
good friends with the Jewish state, that they know more regarding its
interests than even they do. But there’s going to have to come a time
where Israel feels threatened enough where it has no other choice but to
defy international warnings – because this is life or death.

Most of the reports coming from Gazan officials and leaders since the
start of this operation have been either largely exaggerated or patently
false. The truth is, it’s not their fault, falsehood and deceit is part
of the very fabric of who they are and that will never change. Still
however, despite their propensity to lie, when your enemy tells you that
they are bent on your destruction you believe them. Similarly, when
Khaled Meshal declares that no physical damage to Gaza will dampen their
morale or weaken their resolve – they have to be believed. Our sage
Gedalia the son of Achikam was given intelligence that Yishmael Ben
Nesanyah was plotting to kill him. However, in his piety or rather
naiveté Gedalia dismissed the report as a random act of gossip and paid
no attention to it. To this day, the day following Rosh Hashana is
commemorated as a fast day in the memory of Gedalia who was killed in
cold blood on the second day of Rosh Hashana during the meal. They say
the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over.
History is there to teach us lessons and the lesson here is that when
your enemy swears to destroy you – you take him seriously.

Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel
celebrates life. What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of
this nature other than obliterate them completely?

News anchors such as those from CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera have not missed
an opportunity to point out the majority of innocent civilians who have
lost their lives as a result of this war. But anyone who lives with
rocket launchers installed or terror tunnels burrowed in or around the
vicinity of their home cannot be considered an innocent civilian. If
you’ll counter, that Hamas has been seen abusing civilians who have
attempted to leave their homes in response to Israeli warnings to leave
– well then, your beginning to come to terms with the nature of this
enemy which should automatically cause the rules of standard warfare to
be suspended.

Everyone agrees that Israel has the right to defend itself as well as
the right to exercise that right. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has
declared it, Obama and Kerry have clearly stated that no one could be
expected to sit idle as thousands of rockets rain down on the heads of
its citizens, placing them in clear and present danger. It seems then
that the only point of contention is regarding the measure of punishment
meted out in this situation.

I will conclude with a question for all the humanitarians out there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly stated at the outset of this
incursion that his objective is to restore a sustainable quiet for the
citizens of Israel. We have already established that it is the
responsibility of every government to ensure the safety and security of
its people. If political leaders and military experts determine that the
only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is
it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?

(4) Download the original webpage from the Internet Archive - Peter Myers

The original webpage has been deleted.

But it's still at the Internet Archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140801162830/http://5tjt.com/when-genocide-is-permissible/

Be quick, and save it to your computer now.

When Genocide is Permissible

by Yochanan Gordon

5 Towns Jewish Times

August 1, 2014

(5) Deputy Speaker of the Knesset calls for ethnic cleansing in Gaza

Part 2: Andrew Sullivan On Israeli Calls For Genocide

  MJ Rosenberg<mjrosenberg1881@outlook.com> 6 August 2014 09:43

http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=855aabd7ccd7a77e987004677&id=0faa293081&e=f5b90cb53d

I had meant to include this in the previous post. It is from the
indispensable Andrew Sullivan and describes the proposal made by the #3
man in the Knesset for concentration camps in Gaza:

Sullivan:

What is one to make of the fact that the deputy speaker of the Knesset
has called for ethnic cleansing in Gaza?

He’s not an obscure blogger for the Times of Israel. He is a luminary of
the Likud – a man who got 23 percent of the vote in a contest for the
Likud Party leadership. He was appointed to his current high position by
Benjamin Netanyahu. And this is his proposal for Gaza:

{quote}
a) The IDF [Israeli army] shall designate certain open areas on the
Sinai border, adjacent to the sea, in which the civilian population will
be concentrated, far from the built-up areas that are used for launches
and tunneling. In these areas, tent encampments will be established,
until relevant emigration destinations are determined. The supply of
electricity and water to the formerly populated areas will be disconnected.

b) The formerly populated areas will be shelled with maximum fire power.
The entire civilian and military infrastructure of Hamas, its means of
communication and of logistics, will be destroyed entirely, down to
their foundations.

c) The IDF will divide the Gaza Strip laterally and crosswise,
significantly expand the corridors, occupy commanding positions, and
exterminate nests of resistance, in the event that any should remain.
{endquote}

You read that right. There will be temporary “camps” where the Gaza
population will be “concentrated”; they will be expelled with subsidies;
basic supplies of water and electricity will be cut off for those who
remain. The war-time ethics he recommends are: “Woe to the evildoer, and
woe to his neighbor.” He backs the “annihiliation” of Hamas and all
their supporters. His strategic goal is to “turn Gaza into Jaffa, a
flourishing Israeli city with a minimum number of hostile civilians.”
(Modern Jaffa, of course, was built on the ethnic cleansing of most of
its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948.)

The usual response to this kind of thing among the lockstep pro-Israel
community is that it is a tiny fringe opinion. And I can only hope
they’re right. But what concerns me is that this racist, genocidal bigot
was appointed deputy speaker of the Knesset by the current prime
minister. What concerns me are the statements of Ayelet Shaked, the
telegenic young protege of Naftali Bennett, who is touted as a future
prime minister. This is from a Facebook post she wrote the day before
the gruesome lynching of an Arab teen who was forced to drink gasoline
and then burned to death by Jewish extremists. Note that her call for
war came before any Hamas rocket was fired:

{quote}
Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he
could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their
blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of
the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should
follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should
the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more
little snakes will be raised there.
{endquote}

(6) Deputy Speaker of Knesset calls for concentration camps in Gaza,
annihilation of population

From: "Kristoffer Larsson krislarsson@gmail.com [kl-updates]"
(kl-updates-noreply@yahoogroups.com) Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 23:33:09 +0200

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2715466/Israeli-official-calls-concentration-camps-Gaza-conquest-entire-Gaza-Strip-annihilation-fighting-forces-supporters.html

Israeli official calls for concentration camps in Gaza and 'the conquest
of the entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting forces and
their supporters'

  * Moshe Feiglin is Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset * He posted
the message on his Facebook page at the weekend * Plan includes shipping
the people living in Gaza across the world * IDF would 'exterminate
nests of resistance' as part of his plan * The Gaza war has left more
than 1,800 Palestinians dead

By JILL REILLY

PUBLISHED: 12:09 GMT, 4 August 2014 | UPDATED: 17:54 GMT, 4 August 2014

An Israeli official has called for concentration camps in Gaza and ‘the
conquest of the entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting
forces and their supporters’.

Moshe Feiglin, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset and member of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, posted the
inflammatory message on his Facebook page at the weekend.

He lays out a detailed plan for the destruction of Gaza - which includes
shipping its residents across the world - in a letter he addressed to
the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The message, which received more than 2,000 likes on his page, lists
four action points which he wants to be enforced as soon as possible.

Feiglin details the first one as 'defining the enemy' and states: 'The
strategic enemy is extremist Arab Islam in all its varieties, from Iran
to Gaza, which seeks to annihilate Israel in its entirety. The immediate
enemy is Hamas. (Not the tunnels, not the rockets, but Hamas.)'

He says another important part of his plan is the 'conquest of the
entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting forces and their
supporters.' Moshe Feiglin is Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset and
member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu¿s ruling Likud Party, and
posted the message on his Facebook page at the weekend +6

Moshe Feiglin is Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset and member of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, and posted the
message on his Facebook page at the weekend He lays out a detailed plan
for the destruction of Gaza - which includes shipping its residents
across the world - in a letter he addressed to the Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu +6

He lays out a detailed plan for the destruction of Gaza - which includes
shipping its residents across the world - in a letter he addressed to
the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Gaza war, now in its fourth week, has left more than 1,800
Palestinians dead.

Feiglin details how he wants the Israeli PM 'to turn Gaza into Jaffa, a
flourishing Israeli city with a minimum number of hostile civilians.'

In 1948 Jaffa was a Palestinian town but there was an exodus of most of
its Arab population when it fell to the fledgling Israeli army and
right-wing Jewish militias.

In the letter he expresses his desire for the IDF to find areas on the
Sinai border to establish 'tent encampments...until relevant emigration
destinations are determined.'

He says that the supply of electricity and water to the Gaza would be
disconnected before being 'shelled with maximum fire power.'

Feiglin states: 'The strategic enemy is extremist Arab Islam in all its
varieties, from Iran to Gaza, which seeks to annihilate Israel in its
entirety. The immediate enemy is Hamas. (Not the tunnels, not the
rockets, but Hamas.)'

Feiglin explains how the IDF would then 'exterminate nests of
resistance, in the event that any should remain.' Establish 'tent
encampments...until relevant emigration destinations are determined'

Part of his plan includes shipping the people living in Gaza across the
world.

He says to encourage the movement those who willingly agree to emigrate
will be given 'a generous economic support package.'

But those who resist leaving their home will be required to publicly
sign a declaration of loyalty to Israel, and receive a blue ID card
similar to that of the Arabs of East Jerusalem.

Then Israeli law will be extended to cover the entire Gaza Strip and
'the city of Gaza and its suburbs will be rebuilt as true Israeli
touristic and commercial cities.'

A second Gaza ceasefire collapsed in just six minutes this morning after
an Israeli F16 jet destroyed a house in a beach-side refugee camp,
killing an eight-year-old girl and wounding dozens.

Israel announced the temporary ceasefire to facilitate the entry of
humanitarian aid and allow some of the hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians displaced by an almost four-week-old war to go home.

Hamas said it would not be observing the truce, and warned people to
exercise extreme caution when venturing out onto the streets after
earlier temporary ceasefire arrangements collapsed into a frenzy of
bloodshed.

Feiglin’s Facebook page is verifiable as it is linked from his official
page on the Knesset website.

(7) After 3000 years, we learn that Jews are just like everyone else -
MJ Rosenberg

  MJ Rosenberg<mjrosenberg1881@outlook.com>

21 July 2014 06:36
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=855aabd7ccd7a77e987004677&id=9677762034&e=f5b90cb53d

Three Cheers For Team Israel!

by MJ Rosenberg

I am not especially bothered by rightwingers who defend Israel's
indefensible onslaught against Gaza. Rightwingers who supported the
Vietnam war (if they were around then) or the Iraq war, the people who
want to go to war with Russia now. I get that. Rightwingers (think John
McCain) like war and view it as sport; their side is always right.

But progressive Jews (and most Jews are progressives or, at least,
liberal Democrats) aren't like that. They dominated the anti-Vietnam war
movement. They opposed the Iraq war. They never bought into Cold War
rhetoric (which is why Joe McCarthy disproportionately targeted Jews
when he was going after "Reds.").

So what's happened? Why are Jews running off to support this war "like
lemmings going to a Barbra Streisand concert," as one correspondent put
it to me. What's going on?

It's simple. Most Jews, apparently, are as chauvinistic as every other
ethnic group.

If they saw any other army (including the U.S. army) doing to kids what
the Israeli army is doing, they would be appalled at the monstrous cruelty.

But it's apparently okay when Jews are doing it, even buying into
obscene propaganda (like something out of Berlin in 1942) that
Palestinians are, in Netanyahu's words, using "telegenically-dead
Palestinians for their cause. They want– the more dead the better."

Imagine believing that Palestinians are picking out beautiful babies to
die to advance their cause.

It's obscene and too moronic for Jews to believe. But, check the social
media, many do. (The idea actually came from Charles Krauthammer, of
course. Netanyahu just borrowed it).

So, after 3000 years, we learn that Jews are just like everyone else.
All those centuries when our ancestors condemned the "goyim" (I hate the
term but that is the term they used) for acting like barbarians, we
learn that under the right conditions, we behave the same way. So much
for all our Holocaust lessons about how the world was silent in the face
of the horrors inflicted on us.

We are the same. Not all of us, not those of us (and there are many) who
hate this war and oppose it. But the rest, the ones like Barney Frank
who, a life-long opponent of all war, is an ardent supporter of this
one. Why? Because he's Jewish and must root for the home team.
{http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/defensive-kornacki-ganging.html}

3000 years and it's come to this "I can't cry for those dead kids. Go
Blue (and White)."

I keep wondering if this is all some test that God is administering to
Jews. How will Jews behave when the shoe is on the other foot?

Now he knows.

(8) A vengeful, vindictive Tribe: Jewish Hate of Arabs - Haaretz Editorial

http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.603451
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.603451
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39025.htm

Jewish Hate of Arabs Proves: Israel Must Undergo Cultural Revolution:

Without a revolution based on humanist values, the Jewish tribe will not
be worthy of its own state.

Haaretz Editorial

July 7, 2014

There are no words to describe the horror allegedly done by six Jews to
Mohammed Abu Khdeir of Shoafat. Although a gag order bars publication of
details of the terrible murder and the identities of its alleged
perpetrators, the account of Abu Khdeir's family -- according to which
the boy was burned alive -- would horrify any mortal. Anyone who is not
satisfied with this description, can view the horror movie in which
members of Israel's Border Police are seen brutally beating Tariq Abu
Khdeir, the murder victim's 15-year-old cousin.

The Israel Police was quick to label the murderers "Jewish extremists,"
meaning they aren't part of the herd, they are outliers, "wild weeds."
This is the police's way of trying to justify a sin, to "make the vermin
kosher." But the vermin is huge, and many-legged. It has embraced the
soldiers and other young Israelis who overran the social media networks
with calls for revenge and with hatred for Arabs. The vermin was
welcomed by Knesset members, rabbis and public figures who demanded
revenge. Nor did it skip over the prime minister, who declared
"Vengeance for the blood of a small child, Satan has not yet created."

Abu Khdeir's murderers are not "Jewish extremists." They are the
descendants and builders of a culture of hate and vengeance that is
nurtured and fertilized by the guides of "the Jewish state": Those for
whom every Arab is a bitter enemy, simply because they are Arab; those
who were silent at the Beitar Jerusalem games when the team's fans
shouted "death to Arabs" at Arab players; those who call for cleansing
the state of its Arab minority, or at least to drive them out of the
homes and cities of the Jews.

No less responsible for the murder are those who did not halt, with an
iron hand, violence by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians,
and who failed to investigate complaints "due to lack of public
interest." The term "Jewish extremists" actually seems more appropriate
for the small Jewish minority that is still horrified by these acts of
violence and murder. But they too recognize, unfortunately, that they
belong to a vengeful, vindictive Jewish tribe whose license to
perpetrate horrors is based on the horrors that were done to it.

Prosecuting the murderers is no longer sufficient. There must be a
cultural revolution in Israel. Its political leaders and military
officers must recognize this injustice and right it. They must begin
raising the next generation, at least, on humanist values, and foster a
tolerant public discourse. Without these, the Jewish tribe will not be
worthy of its own state.

(9) Palestinians returning home find Israeli troops left faeces & graffiti

Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:17:47 +0100 From: Martin Webster
<martinwebstir@virginmedia.com>

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/palestinians-return-home-israeli-troops-faeces-graffit

The Guardian - Thursday 7th August 2014

Palestinians returning home find Israeli troops left faeces and venomous
graffiti

Ahmed Owedat also found soldiers had thrown his TVs, fridge, and
computers from upstairs windows and slashed furniture

by Harriet Sherwood in Burij

When Ahmed Owedat returned to his home 18 days after Israeli soldiers
took it over in the middle of the night, he was greeted with an
overpowering stench.

He picked through the wreckage of his possessions thrown from upstairs
windows to find that the departing troops had left a number of messages.
One came from piles of faeces on his tiled floors and in wastepaper
baskets, and a plastic bottle filled with urine.

If that was not clear enough, the words "Fuck Hamas" had been carved
into a concrete wall in the staircase. "Burn Gaza
<<http://www.theguardian.com/world/gaza>http://www.theguardian.com/world/gaza>
down" and "Good Arab = dead Arab" were engraved on a coffee table. The
star of David was drawn in blue in a bedroom.

"I have scrubbed the floors three times today and three times
yesterday," said Owedat, 52, as he surveyed the damage, which included
four televisions, a fridge, a clock and several computers tossed out of
windows, shredded curtains and slashed soft furnishings.

A handful of plastic chairs had their seats ripped open, through which
the occupying soldiers defecated, he said. Gaping holes had been blown
in four ground-floor external walls, and there was damage from shelling
to the top floor. There, in the living room, diagrams had been drawn on
the walls, showing buildings and palm trees in the village, with figures
that Owedat thought represented their distance from the border.

"I have no money to fix this," he said, claiming that his life savings
of $10,000 (£6,000) were missing from his apartment. But at least it
could be repaired, he acknowledged, gesturing through the broken glass
at a wasteland stretching towards the Israel-Gaza border 3km away.
"Every house between here and there has been destroyed."

His family of 13 fled their home after seeing troops and tanks advancing
at 1am on 20 July, two days into the Israeli ground invasion. Several
times, during the short-lived ceasefires in the following two weeks,
they attempted to return only to find Israeli troops in their home
instructing them to keep away.

The Israel Defence Forces did not respond to a request for comment.

Half an hour's drive north, a similar picture was found at Beit Hanoun
girls' school, taken over by the IDF following the ground operation.
Broken glass and rubble littered the floors and stairs. Tables and desks
were covered in the abandoned detritus of an occupying army: hardened
bread rolls, empty tins of hummus, desiccated olives, cans of energy
drinks, bullet casings. Flies buzzed around the rotting food.

Here too, said the school's caretaker, Fayez, who didn't want to give
his full name, soldiers had defecated in bins and cardboard boxes, and
urinated in water bottles. "You will be fucked here" and "Don't forget
it's time for you to die" were chalked in English on blackboards.

Here, Hamas had struck back. After the troops pulled out,
counter-graffiti was sprayed on the walls, referring to Hamas's militant
wing, Qassam brigades. "Qassam's army will crush you – dogs" and "Israel
will be defeated".

The 1,250 pupils at the school will, it is hoped, never see either set
of venomous messages. Workers began the marathon cleanup operation this
week but, said Fayez, "it will take at least a month to fix". The
academic year is due to begin in a little over two weeks.

(10) Elie Wiesel plays the Holocaust trump card in Gaza

From: "Kristoffer Larsson krislarsson@gmail.com [kl-updates]" Date: Wed,
06 Aug 2014 18:41:19 +0200 Subject: [kl-updates] Elie Wiesel plays the
Holocaust trump card in Gaza

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/wiesel-holocaust-trump.html

Marc H. Ellis on August 4, 2014 34

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it does. I’m not thinking
about the actual war in Gaza – that’s bad enough.

It’s the Jewish civil war over Israel, a civil war that includes both
sides appealing to non-Jews and American foreign policy.

Of course, it’s also about the Holocaust, that vast swathe of
traumatized Jewish identity that keeps breaking open even as Israel’s
occupation regime and war machine go haywire.

The veterans of Holocaust discourse are older now, all in their
eighties, but periodically they’re trotted out to support Israel –
especially when there isn’t any viable way of doing so.

Call it the Holocaust trump card. Elie Wiesels wild.

Elie Wiesel can’t help himself. If he hasn’t debased himself and his
cause enough on the subject of Israel in recent years, his latest is a
stunner.

Teaming up with Shmuley Boteach, a rabbi whose book on Kosher sex made a
splash some years ago and has been gaming right ever since, Wiesel has
just penned a paid statement making the rounds of major newspapers and
other media outlets.

Wiesel’s theme? “Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,000 years ago. Now it’s
Hamas’ turn.”

The theme is a play on God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. With Israel’s
invasion of Gaza, God’s last minute decision to let Isaac live doesn’t
work at all.

The press release lays out Wiesel’s campaign:

  New York, NY August 1, 2014 – In a stirring advertising campaign
organized by Rabbi Shmuley’s organization, This World: The Values
Network, which seeks to disseminate universal Jewish values in politics,
media, and culture as well as defend the State of Israel, Nobel Peace
Laureate, Elie Wiesel, invokes the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of
Isaac to frame the modern conflict between Israel and Hamas.

  Wiesel states that though Abraham lifts his knife to sacrifice his own
son Isaac, his hand is stayed by God’s own command, thereby rejecting
child sacrifice forever. He added that, “Jews rejected child sacrifice
3500 years ago. Now it’s Hamas’ turn.” Prof. Wiesel argues that while
the suffering of those in Gaza is immense and a true tragedy, the blame
lies solely with Hamas who use children as human shields and stores
rockets and ammunitions in nurseries, schools, hospitals, and family homes.

Wiesel’s autobiographical classic, Night, has been read by millions.
It’s required reading for vast numbers of American school children.
Night’s new translation even received Oprah’s seal of approval.
Bt_Bd4iCAAATfNK

(Click to enlarge)

But the Jewish establishment doesn’t seem to get it. Playing the
Holocaust trump card isn’t working anymore. Few respond to their
Holocaust pleadings as they did almost reflexively decades ago.

Call if cognitive dissonance – using Jewish suffering as a rallying call
while Jews causing suffering to others in the name of that suffering is
too confusing for most folks. Say the Holocaust and people think Gaza.
It isn’t a comparison. It’s a deep revulsion to violence in the name of
innocents suffering.

The problem is the news that keeps coming from Israel. Israel’s bombing
of residential areas, hospitals and UN schools and shelters is
international news. In Gaza, even after Israel’s proclaimed
“withdrawal,” the death toll mounts. Among the dead are children
sacrificed for Israel’s obvious goal – to deny Palestinians statehood,
their political and human rights, which include the right to resist
occupation.

The question for Elie Wiesel and the Jewish establishment is not about
Abraham’s binding of Isaac – a treasure trove for interpreters of all
types – but how many Palestinians children in Gaza will be sacrificed on
the altar of Israel’s national security.

If God stayed Abraham’s knife, who will stay Israel’s? About Marc H. Ellis

Marc H. Ellis is retired Director and Professor of Jewish Studies at
Baylor University and author of Future of the Prophetic: Israel's
Ancient Wisdom Re-Presented.

(11) Dutch Man who saved Jews during Nazi Holocaust returns his Medal

From: "Kristoffer Larsson krislarsson@gmail.com [kl-updates]" Date: Sat,
16 Aug 2014 13:16:09 +0200 Subject: [kl-updates] Dutch Man Who Saved
Jews During the Holocaust Returns His Medal

http://forward.com/articles/204170/dutch-man-who-saved-jews-during-the-holocaust-retu

Dutch Man Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust Returns His Medal

Henk Zanoli Objects To Israel's Actions in Gaza

By JTA

Published August 15, 2014.

A Dutch man who risked his life to save a Jew during the Holocaust gave
back a medal he received for his actions in order to protest Israel’s
actions in Gaza.

Henk Zanoli, 91, returned his medal to the Israeli embassy in The Hague
after a member of his family died in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the
Haaretz daily reported Friday.

Zanoli and his mother were recognized by the State of Israel and its
Holocaust commemoration authority, Yad Vashem, in 2011 for hiding a
Jewish child in their home from 1943 to 1945.

A great-niece of Zanoli is a Dutch diplomat whose husband was born in
the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Last month an Israeli bomb
killed several members of his family, Haaretz reported.

“It is particularly shocking and tragic that today, four generations on,
our family is faced with the murder of our kin in Gaza. Murder carried
out by the State of Israel,” Zanoli wrote in a letter to the embassy
explaining his decision to return the medal. “For me to hold on to the
honour granted by the State of Israel, under these circumstances, will
be both an insult to the memory of my courageous mother who risked her
life,” and to relatives in mourning in Gaza, he added.


(12) Letter to Foxman: Just because you own Congress doesn't give Israel
a free hand to commit war crimes

From: "bgjdavid@aol.com [ReportersNotebook]" Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2014
17:13:48 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Send a message to Congress

Mr. Foxman,

Instead of bribing the U.S. Congress like you always do whenever you
want them to pass more resolutions to prevent the rise in anti-Semitism,
why don't you take more logical steps? You need to condemn Israel's
constant bombing of innocent men, women, and especially children
resulting in thousands of deaths. This alone is a major factor in the
rise in anti-Semitism. Can't you get that through your thick head? Just
because you own Congress doesn't give Israel a free hand to commit war
crimes whenever they please. I'm sure you will be successful in getting
our corrupt Congress to protect Israel by passing such resolutions but
the world knows better and sees right through you. If you want to stop
this rise in anti-Semitism then it's time you focus your attention on
Israel and not the U.S. Congress. Do you think Americans are stupid?
Wake up and see the light.

Brigadier General, retired, James J. David

(13) 1 shot, 2 Kills: Where was the ADL when these T-Shirts hit the streets?

From: "bgjdavid@aol.com [ReportersNotebook]"

Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:17:19 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 1 shot, 2 Kills

{Comment (Brigadier David)}
This is the Israeli Army that the United States gives $3.4 billion a
year. What arroagance! These are the kind of things that promote
anti-Semitism and these are the kind of things that the Anti-Defamation
League should be focusing on, not on pushing our Congress to enact
resolutions to criminalize such hate. You need to focus on the source of
such hate, and the below acts are exactly where such source comes from.
Where was the ADL when these T-Shirts hit the streets?
{end Comment}

http://news.sky.com/story/678761/israeli-army-t-shirts-mock-gaza-killings

Israeli Army T-Shirts Mock Gaza Killings (2009)

3:45pm UK, Friday 20 March 2009 By Dominic Waghorn

The Israeli army is at the centre of a second controversy over the moral
conduct of its soldiers in as many days.

The revelations centre on t-shirt designs made for soldiers that make
light of shooting pregnant Palestinian mothers and children and include
images of dead babies and destroyed mosques.

The t-shirts were printed for Israeli soldiers at the end of periods of
deployment or training courses and were discovered by Israeli newspaper
Haaretz.

One, printed for a platoon of Israeli snipers depicts an armed
Palestinian pregnant women caught in the crosshairs of a rifle, with the
disturbing caption in English: "1 shot 2 kills".

Another depicts a child carrying a gun also in the centre of a target.

"The smaller, the harder," read the words on the t-shirt.

According to a soldier interviewed by the newspaper, the message has a
double meaning: "It's a kid, so you've got a little more of a problem,
morally and also the target is smaller."

Another shows an Israeli soldier blowing up a mosque and reads "Only God
forgives".

Above a ninja figure, yet another shirt bears the slogan "Won't chill
until I confirm a kill".

The revelations, coming so soon after Israel's offensive in Gaza in
which hundreds of civilians were killed - many of them women and
children - are causing outrage.

Perhaps the most shocking design shows a Palestinian mother weeping next
to her dead baby's grave, also in the crosshairs of a rifle.

It suggests it would have been better if the child had never been born,
with the slogan "Better use Durex".

The controversy follows more revelations by other soldiers about abuses
and the shooting of civilians during Israel's offensive during the Gaza
offensive.

Ex-soldier and campaigner with Breaking The Silence, Michael Maniken,
told Sky News Online this week's revelations suggest a pattern of
immoral conduct in the army.

"The army keeps on saying we're talking about a few rotten apples but it
seems the army doesn't understand there's a norm in this kind of
action," he explained.

"We're hearing about this time and time again and the army seems
disconnected from reality."

A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) told Sky News Online,
the t-shirts were printed on the private initiative of the soldiers and
their designs "are not in accordance with IDF values and are simply
tasteless. This type of humour is unacceptable and should be condemned".

(14) Petras: Right Zionists defend Israeli Genocide, Left Zionists
confuse its critics

From: "Ken Freeland diogenesquest@gmail.com [shamireaders]"
<shamireaders@yahoogroups.com> Subject: [shamireaders] James Petras -
Israeli Genocide and its Willing Accomplices

Israeli Genocide and its Willing Accomplices

James Petras

August 11, 2014

http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=1998

Introduction

Outside of Israel and its organized supporters in the major Zionist
organizations, world public opinion and most experts in international
law see the Jewish State’s invasion of Gaza and its systematic attack on
civilians and basic infrastructure as a crime against humanity.

The purpose of this essay is 4-fold: 1. To identify the nature of the
crime – the genocidal character of the armed assault and the sequence
leading up to it; 2. To identify the direct perpetrators of the war
crimes and their domestic and international accomplices; 3. To explain
the ties binding leaders, policymakers, propagandists, accomplices and
followers, including their ideologies, material interests and
organizational structure which make these crimes not only possible, but
met so far with impunity and 4. To identify the larger imperial
interests with which Israel allies with the US, and in pursuit of which,
the Gaza assault is a horrifying dress rehearsal.

The ‘Morality’ of Prison Guards in a Genocidal State

Policymakers in the genocidal state run a highly militarized society
where citizens and soldiers, criminals and professionals, torturers and
sociopaths can and do coexist within the same person. Cold rationality
is harnessed to mass murder, technology to massive devastation ,
language to euphemisms and executioners parade themselves as victims
(and vice versa). Moral precepts become debased and supplanted by the
ethics of mass murder. Moralists, rabbis and ethical philosophers all
join to bless the bombs dropped on hospitals and schools and homes and
all living things – even the dead and buried do not rest in peace when
the cemeteries are bombed.

Rulers, imbued with a genocidal vision, see only military objectives –
an oppressed people do not exist - all human existence and institutions
in the target areas are to be demolished. The destruction of human life,
of Palestinian daily existence has become the ultimate goal of this
obscene operation.

The practical decision to exterminate Palestinians was conscious,
planned and pursued with implacable resolve at the very top and carried
out with savage enthusiasm by Israel’s ‘citizen army’.

The unfolding of this deadly plan began with what appeared a ‘generous’
peace offer. In 2004, Israel’s war criminal Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon
‘granted’ the Palestinians self-government in Gaza and in August 2005
withdrew a few thousand Jewish settlers and their Israeli ground troops.
The consequence of this benevolence: Over 1.4 million Palestinians were
to be locked and crowded into the most densely open air prison in the
world: the largest ghetto in history. This was a sickening reminder of
the Nazi roundup of Polish Jews herding them into the Warsaw ghetto . .
. where they too were granted ‘self-government’. Once the Jewish
settlers were removed (and paid up to $300,000 per family
‘compensation’), Israel’s military closed all of Gaza’s entrances and
exits. Land, sea and airspace were blockaded and total control imposed
on the entrance of food, medicine, school books and the exit of
Palestinians for medical treatment, university studies, normal travel
and commerce of any kind. This mirrored the Nazi policy toward those
trapped in the Warsaw ghetto. Palestinian farmers were shot tending
their fields, acts of brutality reminiscent of the Nazi starvation
blockade of Leningrad… And the world was appalled!

Gaza and the Ghetto were first set up to be open-air prison camps . . .
temporary measures to mask the real plans. Gaza’s young population had
grown to over 1.8 million entrapped human beings by 2014. Obviously, if
the Gazans could not travel, farm, fish and trade by normal means, they
would dig tunnels for supplies and fight against their relegation to the
status of caged animals by the Israeli state. The next steps after the
successful enclosure would be systematic and pre-meditated: the
Zionists, like the Nazis, launched total war against the inevitable acts
of resistance by the oppressed. They sent planes, tanks, missiles and
bombs to level populated areas, especially neighborhoods where young
fighters rose up to resist this unendurable cruelty. The heroic young
fighters of Gaza, like their Warsaw predecessors, resisted their
totalitarian enemies time and again. Meanwhile, the vast majority of
Israeli Jews cheered the devastation while claiming to be the victims
and young overseas Jews volunteered to join the IDF in its slaughter of
the Palestinians, just as the German population celebrated, along with
the overseas German Bund, their leaders’ totalitarian crimes. Their
responses were almost identical although in different times and places:
Chosen People and Arians of the world have united against what they both
termed ‘terrorists’ claiming their tunnels will become their graves!

In line with this super race mythology, Israel’s killing machine is
really most effective at murdering unarmed civilians-- invalids who
cannot run, doctors who stay to care for the wounded and mothers and
children in their flimsy shelters-- and rather pathetic when it
confronts face to face determined armed resistance fighters. As of
8/6/14 the Israeli Air Force, Navy and artillery slaughtered 1,594
Palestinian civilians –via long distance high tech warfare -compared to
3 civilians in Israel (one Bedouin, one Thai farm worker and an Israeli
Jew), a mind-boggling ratio of over 1,500 Palestinian civilians to one
of the ‘Chosen’. But when it came to ‘ground fighting’, 64 Israeli
soldiers were killed compared to 281 Palestinian partisans, a 4.4 to 1
ratio. Despite all the Israeli air cover support and high tech
protective gear, the Israelis took heavy military casualties when their
invasion came down to a more level fighting field where poorly equipped
partisans are willing to die for their homes and liberation.

The War Criminals: Who are They and What are their Crimes

Clearly the commanding officers of the Israeli armed forces, the
self-styled Israel Defense Forces, who are responsible for the
systematic land, aerial and maritime attacks on civilians, hospitals,
schools, refugee sanctuaries are first in line for the war crimes
docket. They should be joined by Israeli military strategists and policy
makers who systematically and criminally targeted homes, neighborhoods,
water purification and sewage plants, electrical grids and power plants
in a deliberate planned effort to destroy any possibility of normal
daily existence for almost 2 million Palestinians: They have committed
grave Crimes against Humanity, according to the Geneva Conventions and
legal standards established at Nuremburg. There is eye-witness testimony
and documentation showing middle and lower rank soldiers engaged in
wanton shootings of school children, shoppers and mothers with babies
fleeing combat zones. War crimes prosecutions cannot be confined merely
to a few dozen senior officers – these crimes were committed at all
level of the IDF.

Political leaders and policymakers, starting with Prime Minister
Benyamin Netanyahu and his Cabinet, leading Party and Knesset members,
who were the prime movers in launching the blitz against Gaza and
justified the massive civilian killings, clearly should be at the center
of any International War Crimes Tribunal.

But what about the Israeli public, the great mass of Israeli Jews, who
view themselves as morally above world public opinion despite a
near-universal revulsion over Israel’s crimes? More than 90% of Israeli
Jews gave unstinting support to the ongoing blood bath, knowing, indeed
cheering daily from grandstands erected on hills overlooking Gaza, the
criminal consequences of their support – they also are an essential part
of this criminal enterprise. They celebrated the carnage and they
violently attacked the few Israelis who openly questioned this ‘war’.
Israelis have no claim to ‘innocent ignorance’; they cannot call this a
“tragic conflict between two peoples”. No Israeli can absolve himself by
claiming ignorance of the nature of the crimes committed in their name –
nor do they want to claim ignorance! The majority of informed Israeli
Jews demanded this war from the beginning, many joining racist marches
with banners and chants demanding ‘Death to Arabs’! They wear their
endorsement of the Gaza holocaust as a badge of honor. Ninety percent of
the Jewish citizens in Israel rejected any humanitarian ceasefire:
Newspaper columnists and the vast majority of letter writers in the
daily press argued openly for extermination! Self-declared war criminals
are feted as Israeli heroes by their overseas brethren who hasten to
endorse or even join the slaughter. Gidon Levy, Haaretz’s lonely
dissident journalist, is spat upon in all the fashionable cafes and has
to take his coffee at home now.

What can be said about the ‘moralists’, the famous chief rabbis, who
have no qualms in piously urging on the mass slaughter: is there a High
Court of Religious Authority to hold these “holy men” accountable for
their incitement of war crimes? What about the worldwide network of
international Zionist organizations who secure billions of dollars of
the murderous arms shipments from the corrupt and craven US Congress and
Executive? Are they not accomplices to genocide before and after the fact?

However, it is a blatant, conscious lie and fabrication to claim, like
some phony critics on the ‘Left’, that ‘America shares responsibility’
for the Israel’s crimes against Gaza. Who asked the American people to
endorse this slaughter? When did the American people organize a “lobby”
to buy Congressional votes? Did the American people organize
multi-million dollar fundraisers at the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria where
Republican and Democratic elected leaders pledged to give an additional
$225 million dollars in missiles and tanks to Israel, to resupply its
arsenal used up in razing thousands of homes and obliterating entire
families in Gaza? Any serious researcher, who has looked at American
domestic politics, knows that the Presidents of the 52 Major American
(sic) Jewish Organizations are complicit in Israel’s terror bombings of
Gaza. And polls show that a majority of young Americans sympathize with
the rights of the Palestinians…

Is there any clause in the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal proceedings
which can bring charges against the overseas accomplices to war crimes?
What about prominent leftist academics and ‘progressive’ journalists who
cover-up for the overseas accomplices by falsely accusing “America” (and
implying the American people) in this slaughter?

The Ties that Bind

We have identified a chain linking Israel’s political elite, military
command and the mass of the Israeli public directly to war crimes and
genocide with the active material complicity of overseas Zionist
organizations. They act as one cohesive force plunging forward into the
blood and gore of total war against the Palestinians – the original
inhabitants and rightful owners of what is now called ‘Israel’.

The question arises: What unites them in this horrible undertaking? What
moral blindness so afflicts them that they ignore the bookshelves
cluttered with the writings and humanist teachings of Spinoza, Kant,
Babel, or Buber? Are these tribal loyalties derived from Old Testament
tales of vengeance and infanticide? Are these expressions of an
ethno-religious fanaticism linked to the quest for a regional empire and
plunder?

Racist ideology and its virulent expression both from high office and
the “Jewish Street” are wide-spread and open. Degrading Palestinians,
while claiming to be a superior race above the laws of the rest of the
world, serves to justify all crimes against the people of Gaza. Near and
far, this expression of “collective Jewish identity and solidarity”,
based on ethnic-religious superiority always threatened by hostile,
inferior ‘native’ people, accounts for the unflinching support by top
Hollywood moguls, Ivy League professors, French intellectuals, British
peers and prominent investment Wall Street bankers.

Ideological affinities and ethno-religious loyalties aside, many Israeli
Jews also have a major, material stake in robbing and expelling the
people of Palestine: Seized Palestinian lands result in new cheap
subsidized housing, swimming pools for Jews only, developments on lands
where olive groves once flourished and extended families had lived and
died. Middle and working class Jews obtain free housing; real estate
speculators seize choice ocean front properties for luxury condos and
tourist destinations. Building contractors secure lucrative construction
contracts from the state. Pillage forms an important material basis for
Israel’s high standard of living, many times higher than that of
Palestinians, much higher that that of Israel’s non-Jewish population
and higher even than the Americans who have been forced to subsidize the
‘Jewish State’ for almost 50 years.

Equally important, Israel’s assault on Gaza serves as a testing ground
for its weapons of mass destruction and its anti-missile Dome. In this
regard, the slaughter in Gaza serves as a dress rehearsal (and a graphic
warning) for new wars across the region in association with the US and
its clients. NSA analyst Edward Snowden’s latest documents reveal that
Israel works in tandem with the US throughout North Africa, the Middle
East, The Persian Gulf, South Asia and Islamic countries in choosing
targets and making war plans... Greater Israel is no longer the crackpot
dream of Jewish visionaries: it is underway and its bloody beginnings in
Gaza foreshadow bigger and bloodier wars against humanity in the future.

Conclusion

Israel’s total war against Gaza has provoked condemnation from millions
of people around the world, greater outrage at their crimes against
humanity, and calls for an international war crimes tribunal. If such a
tribunal were to be convoked, the question arises of how wide the net
should be cast – where to draw the line between leaders, soldiers,
masses and complicit overseas supporters, all implicated to one degree
or another? How many ‘willing accomplices’ to mass murder should be
investigated and tried?

The rising horror and indignation has isolated Israel from the greater
majority of mankind, including from thousands of Jews - but it has
hardened its leaders and aroused its powerful core of influential
supporters, especially in the US.

Bitter-enders, in their luxurious suites, are on the counter-offensive.
Leading Hollywood producers denounce the morally outraged actors who
have dared to criticize Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, labeling them
‘anti-Semites’ and threatening them with a lifetime of blacklists from
any further work in ‘film or on stage’. Powerful Zionist organizations,
not only secure US opposition to any UN Security Council resolution
condemning Israeli war crimes, but unanimous (100%) Congressional and
White House approval and an ‘emergency allocation’ of over $250 million
tax-payer dollars’ to re-supply Israel with the bombs and missiles it
had dropped on the people of Gaza. The hardliners, who speak for the
Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations, have not
relented in their support for Israel’s carnage even in the face of
hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marching around the world to
support the rights of the people of Palestine. The hardliners openly
flaunt their blind support for Israel’s war crimes. These fanatics are
convinced that every critic of Israel’s war crimes, Christian, Muslim,
Hindu, Jew or atheist, is an anti-Semite, a pervert or terrorist to be
censored or crushed! Inside the Zionist bunker there is an iron-fisted
reinforcement of loyalty to Israel, while outside, there is the smooth
outpouring of propaganda which minimize Israel’s war crimes and vehement
denials of overseas complicity with genocide.

Epilogue: A Dialogue between Zionists

The Right Zionist says to the Left, “Crimes at the service of Greater
Israel are virtues.” The Left replies “There are crimes but America is
ultimately responsible”.

A shrewd old Zionist observer comments with approval: “It’s our division
of labor: the Right Zionists defend Israel and the Left Zionists confuse
its critics.”

(15) The Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza, by Fidel Castro

From: "Kristoffer Larsson krislarsson@gmail.com [kl-updates]" Date: Tue,
12 Aug 2014 13:23:38 +0200

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/11/the-palestinian-holocaust-in-gaza/

AUGUST 11, 2014

The Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza

by FIDEL CASTRO

I think that a new, repugnant form of fascism is emerging with notable
strength, at this time in human history when more that seven billion
inhabitants are struggling for their survival.

None of these circumstances have anything to do with the creation of the
Roman Empire, around 2,400 years ago, or with the U.S. empire which, in
this region only 200 years ago, was described by Simón Bolívar who
exclaimed, “…the United States appears to be destined by providence to
plague America with misery in the name of liberty.” England was the
first true colonial power to use its dominion over a large part of
Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, North America, and many
Caribbean islands, in the first half of the 20th century.

On this occasion I will not talk about the wars and crimes committed by
the United States empire over more than 100 years, but will only state
what it wanted to do to Cuba, what it has done to many other countries
in the world, and only served to prove that “A just idea in the depth of
a cave is stronger than an army.”

History is much more complicated than everything I have said, but that
is the was it is, in broad strokes, as the inhabitants of Palestine
know, and it is likewise logical that the modern communications media
reflect the news which arrives daily, as has occurred with the shameful,
criminal war in the Gaza Strip, a piece of land where the population
lives in what remains of what was independent Palestine only 50 years ago.

The French agency AFP reported August 2, “The war between the Islamist
Palestinian movement Hamas and Israel has caused the deaths of close to
1,800 Palestinians,… the destruction of thousands of homes, and ruined
an economy which was already weakened,” although it does not indicate,
of course, who initiated the terrible war.

Added later, “… As of Saturday at midday the Israeli offensive had
killed 1,712 Palestinians and injured 8,900. The United Nations was able
to verify the identities of 1,117 dead, in their majority civilians …
UNICEF counted at least 296 dead minors.”

“The United Nations estimates …some 58,900 persons homeless in the Gaza
Strip.”

“Ten of the 32 hospitals were closed and another 11 damaged.”

“This Palestinian enclave of 362 km2 does not have the infrastructure
needed for 1.8 million inhabitants, above all in terms of the provision
of electricity and water.”

“According to the IMF, the rate of unemployment surpasses 40% in the
Gaza Strip, territory subjected to an Israeli blockade since 2006. In
2000, unemployment was 20%, and in 2011, 30%. More than 70% of the
population depends on humanitarian aid during normal periods, according
to Gisha.

The Israeli government declared a humanitarian truce in Gaza at 07:00
GMT on Monday, nevertheless within a few hours, it broke the truce
attacking a house, injuring 30 persons, in their majority women and
children, and an eight-year-old girl died.

In the dawn hours of this same day, 10 Palestinians died as a result of
Israeli attacks in all of Gaza and the number of Palestinians murdered
has already increased to 2,000.

The killing has reached the point that, “French Minister of Foreign
Affairs Laurent Fabius stated this Monday that Israel’s right to
security does not justify the massacre of civilians taking place.”

The Nazi genocide of Jews outraged all the earth’s peoples. Why does
this government believe that the world will be insensitive to the
macabre genocide which today is being perpetuated against the
Palestinian people? Perhaps it is expected that the complicity of the
U.S. empire in this shameful massacre will be ignored?

The human species is living in an unprecedented stage of history. A
crash between military planes or warships which are closely watched, or
other similar events could unleash a conflict with the use of
sophisticated, modern weapons, which could become the last known
adventure of Homo sapiens.

There are events which reflect the almost total inability of the United
States to face the world’s current problems. It can be stated that there
is no government in this country, no Senate, no Congress, CIA or
Pentagon which will determine the final outcome. It is truly sad that
this should happen when the dangers are so great, but the opportunities
to move forward are great as well.

When the great patriotic war took place, Russian citizens defended their
country like Spartans, underestimating them was the worse error made by
the United States and Europe. Their closest allies, the Chinese, who
like the Russians achieved their victory on the basis of the same
principles, constitute today the earth’s most dynamic economic force.
Countries want yuan and not dollars to acquire goods and technology, and
increased trade.

New, indispensable forces have emerged. Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa – establishing links with Latin America and the majority of
countries in the Caribbean and Africa struggling for development –
constitute the forces which in our era are willing to collaborate with
the rest of the world’s countries, without excluding the United States,
Europe or Japan.

Blaming the Russian Federation for the in-flight destruction of the
Malaysian airplane is a stunning oversimplification. Not Vladímir Putin,
nor Serguéi Lavrov, Russia’s minister of Foreign Relations, or any other
leader of this government would ever come up with such nonsense.

Twenty-six million Russians died in the defense of their homeland
against the Nazis. Chinese combatants, men and women, inheritors of a
millennial culture, are people of uncommon intelligence and an
invincible spirit of struggle. Xi Jinping is one of the strongest and
most capable revolutionary leaders I have met in my life.

Fidel Castro’s column appears in Granma.

(16) Gaza: How to Kill a Palestinian (2009)

  Rabbi: "Gazans Aren't Innocent, Dont Risk Soldiers"
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdrgleGA_-E"

"http://www.alternet.org/story/119372/"

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/01/29/how-to-kill-a-palestinian

How to Kill a Palestinian

January 29th, 2009

Dr. Elias Akleh

Commenting on the latest Israeli one-directional onslaught against the
Palestinians of Gaza Strip, the Israeli 10th TV channel has disclosed
that the Israeli genocidal forces had used half of its air force and had
launched at least 2500 air raids against Gaza Strip. The television
military correspondent stated that the Israeli warplanes had dropped
more than a thousand tons of explosives, including white phosphorous and
DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bombs, during three weeks on the
virtually unarmed densely populated 360 square Kilometers Strip. He
added that the shells fired by tanks, artillery, gunboats, and infantry
were not included in those fired by the air force.

After a whole week of continuous air bombardments Israel sent in its
elite foot soldiers; 30,000 of them, and called in 10,000 of its
reservists. Armed with the latest weapons of mass murder, covered with
an umbrella of free reigning air force, and accompanied with raining
shells of heavy artilleries, they drove their tanks into the civilian
towns murdering civilians and destroying every structure in their path.

Living outside of Gaza one cannot fully understand the barbarity of this
genocide especially when the Western media had barely covered any of its
atrocity. To gain a slight idea of its enormity one should remember
that, during the 6-days war of 1967, this same Israeli army was
distributed on four fronts; Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, and Lebanese,
and it was fighting regular armies. Now the whole brunt of this army is
concentrated on a small strip against unarmed and untrained civilian
population.

Latest official count was 1350 murdered, 40% of them were children, and
5300 were injured; mutilated and amputated. It was reported that 80% of
the injured were the victims of burning phosphorous bombs. More dead are
being discovered under the rebels, and many seriously injured are
expected later on to die.

Israeli tanks had left several city blocks completely destroyed without
any homes or structure standing. The tanks shelled homes and apartment
towers. Due to the small size of Gaza Strip Palestinians had to build
vertically. Many apartment towers went up 15-20 stories high with each
story containing 6-8 apartments. A total of 20,000 buildings were
completely or partially burnt and damaged. The UN has reported that more
than 50,000 Palestinians are left homeless and are now crowded into 50
emergency shelters. An estimated of 50,000 more are living with
relatives and in tents they erected on the ruins of their homes.

The Israeli bombardment targeted everything in Gaza including government
buildings, police headquarters, banks and business offices, the main
university, 67 schools sheltering civilians, shopping centers and market
places, factories, water, sewer, and electricity infrastructures,
private homes and apartment towers and charity organizations. Farms,
including their animals, were also targeted and hundreds of acres of
crops and fruit groves were incinerated. Religious buildings, where
civilians usually seek shelter, were specifically targeted. Israeli
fighter planes had completely destroyed 41 mosques, and partially
damaged 51 others. One church was also targeted. Even cemeteries were
not spared; 5 of them were bombed.

Although the Israeli army was given the exact GPS co-ordinates of every
UN structure, as asserted by Christopher Gunness, the UNRWA spokesman,
Israeli F-16 planes had repeatedly dropped phosphorous bombed on UN
schools knowing very well that hundreds of civilians had taken shelter
there. At least 45 children and women were burnt and murdered there.

The UN headquarters in Gaza City was also hit with three, not just one,
phosphorous bombs burning tons of humanitarian aid and food stuff. The
fire kept on burning for three days. UN-flagged humanitarian convoy was
also shelled killing one driver.

Medical centers and paramedics were not spared. The Red Crescent Al-Quds
hospital in Tal el-Hawa neighborhood was hit by Israeli shells and
caught on fire. Other two hospitals; Al-Wafa and Al-Fata hospitals, were
also shelled, leading the World Health Organization to express its deep
concern about the serious implications of such bombardments. 16 other
smaller health clinics and 16 ambulances were also damaged. Medics were
targeted and prevented from helping the injured. Ten of them, including
two doctors, were murdered.

Media centers were particularly targeted. Local and international news
reporters were prevented from entering Gaza. Those, who were able to
enter, were directly targeted. The Al-Shuruq office tower housing
several international and Arab media outlets was directly hit. Two
cameramen working for Abu Dhabi TV were injured, while the offices of
Reuters News Agency, Fox TV, Sky, and Al-Arabiya TV offices were
damaged. Another raid had damaged the headquarter offices of Al-Resala
newspaper.

Similar to all their previous wars the Israeli soldiers had committed
massacres against Palestinian unarmed civilians. They have used
internationally banned weapons such as phosphorous bombs, DIME, and
depleted uranium, as reported by international physicians, eyewitnesses,
and military experts. Israeli soldiers had mutilated the bodies of their
victims to instill terror in the hearts of people hoping they will leave
Gaza. Israeli soldiers herded many families in one building using them
as human shield, and then later on bombed the building on top of them.
They shot civilians, mainly children, directly and at point blank. The
bodies of some children were found shot several times; as many as 18
bullets in the body of a 12 years old girl, and 12 bullets in the body
of her 2 years old sister.

Israeli soldiers had wiped off whole Palestinian families. Al-Samuni
family lost 11 members, Abu Aisha family lost 6, Batran family lost 6,
al-Rayyan family lost 15 and al-Balousha family lost 5 sisters. Other
families, too many to mention here, were either murdered or incinerated
by the phosphorous bombs. The Israeli army has been carrying out a
deliberate indiscriminate mass murder. During the first Intifada, 1987 –
1993, they murdered 1162 Palestinians. During the second Intifada, 2001-
2006, they murdered 5500 Palestinians. Now, in a short period of three
weeks, they murdered 1350 Palestinians.

This onslaught is a holocaust since the many tons of phosphorous bombs,
dropped on Gaza cities, had burnt civilians to the bones, burnt their
homes and buildings, and burnt their fields and crops. This is the
holocaust that the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai, had
threatened Palestinians with when he stated: “the more Qassam fire
intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon
themselves a bigger shoah (holocaust) because we will use all our might
to defend ourselves.”

One cannot help but wonder how could a group of people, who claim to be
the victims of a holocaust, commit another holocaust against another
nation. What is it that feeds, perpetuates and intensifies this Judaic
genocidal spirit although all Arabs, including Palestinians, had offered
these Zionist Jews many agreements of coexistence, peace and security?
The answer comes through their media outlets, through the words of their
scholarly educators, and through the teachings of their Rabbis.

“All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even
their beasts” cries the religious opinion of Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, the
director of the long-established Tsomet Religious Institute. He wrote
that Palestinians are like the nation of Amalekites, who attacked the
Israelite tribes led by Moses on their way to Jerusalem. He stated that
the Lord sent down in the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill
the Amalekites, and that this ruling is known in Jewish jurisprudence.

The Torah states: “Annihilate the Amalekites from the beginning to the
end. Kill them and wrest them from their possessions. Show them no
mercy. Kill continuously, one after the other. Leave no child, plant, or
tree. Kill their beasts, from camels to donkeys.” Rosen stated that
Amalekites are not a particular race, but rather all those who hate and
oppose the Jews; Christians and Muslims.

Many leading Israeli Rabbis support Rosen’s views. Israel’s former
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu advocated carpet bombing of Gaza
stating that “there is absolutely no moral prohibition against the
indiscriminate killing of civilians during massive military offensive on
Gaza” (The Jerusalem Post, 30 May, 2007). His son Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu
amplified his father’s genocidal call stating: “if they don’t stop after
we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand, then we must kill 10,000 and
even a million”

Many Rabbis had argued that Palestinians in Gaza are not innocent
civilians and that during war time it is not individuals but nations the
Israelis are fighting. (It seems that Hitler had adopted this Telmudic
teaching when he persecuted all European Jews)

Israeli educators, scholars, and politicians, openly, advocate the
annihilation of all Palestinians. Dr. Nachum Rakover, a legal scholar,
opined “They voted for killers and sent them to kill us. To call them
(civilians) innocent is a tragic comedy… civilians are partners of the
killers” Eli Yeshai, Israeli official in the Orthodox Shas party argued
that “extermination of the enemy is sanctioned by the Torah” Many other
politicians called for the need for “wiping off Gaza from the face of
earth”, and “annihilating of every moving thing there.” The right-wing
Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman proposed nuking Gaza following the
US example when it dropped the atomic bomb on Japan during WWII.

This “ideology of annihilation” is by no means a minority opinion in
Israel, but represents a mainstream in the Jews of Israel as well as
Jews in the West (US). The popular attitude is “if it was right by God
to order us to commit genocide during Biblical time, why can’t it be
right to commit genocide now. Has God changed his mind?” Indeed Judaic
god is a racist genocidal god.

Watch and listen here to an example of how Israeli Jews are brainwashed
and indoctrinated into the ideology of annihilation by their rabbis and
scholars through Israeli media. Watch Max Blumenthal’s videotape of a
group of messianic Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch exhibit this
ideology in NYC in January 11, 2009.

The Israeli spokesman, Nachman Abramovic demonized Palestinian children
stating “They may look young to you, but these people are terrorists at
heart. Don’t look at their deceptively innocent faces, try to think of
the demons inside each of them … I am absolutely certain these people
would grow to be evil terrorists if we allowed them to grow… would you
allow them to grow to kill your children or finish them off right now? …
honost and moral people ought to differentiate between true humans and
human animals. We do kill human animals and we do so unapologetically.
Besides who in the West is in a position to lecture us on killing human
animals. After all, whose hands are clean?”

Human animal mentioned by Abramovic refers to the Judaic religious
belief that Jews are Gods chosen people; the elite and the pure-blooded,
while all others (non-Jews, Goyims, gentiles) are animal souls
incarnated into human bodies to serve the Jews. Killing a human animal
is just a sport like hunting deer or birds.

Another Israeli spokeswoman, Tzipora Menache, stated that she was not
worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might
have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel. She said
“You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we
control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House.
You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in
a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they
(Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we
control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America you
can criticize God, but you can’t criticize Israel”

(17) Gaza 2009: Calls to Wipe the Palestinians Out

http://www.alternet.org/story/119372/

AlterNet / By Max Blumenthal

Pro-Israel Rally Attended by Big-Time NY Dems Descends into Calls for
'Wiping Out' Palestinians

Attendants of a rally joined by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Gov. David
Paterson in support of Israel's attacks on Gaza went far beyond the pale.

January 12, 2009

On January 11, an estimated 10,000 people rallied in front of the
Israeli consulate in midtown New York in support of Israel’s attack on
the Gaza Strip. The rally, which was organized by UJA-Federation of New
York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York in
cooperation with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, featured speeches by New York’s most senior lawmakers.
While the crowd was riled to righteous anger by speeches about Hamas
evildoers, the event was a festive affair that began and ended with
singing and joyous dancing.

Sen. Chuck Schumer highlighted Israel’s supposed humanitarian methods of
warfare by pointing to its text messaging of certain Gaza Strip
residents urging them to vacate their homes before Israeli forces bombed
them. “What other country would do that?” Schumer shouted from the
podium. Gov. David Paterson appeared on stage wearing one of the red
hats distributed to demonstrators as symbols of the red alerts some
residents of Israel endure when Palestinian groups fire rockets their
way. Paterson cited the many Qasam rockets that have fallen on Israel as
a justification for the country’s operations in Gaza, a military assault
that has resulted in over 800 casualties and thousands of injuries.

Then Paterson highlighted the anti-Semitism that has followed in the
wake of Israel’s attack on Gaza, highlighting the beating of a teen-age
girl in France. “This kind of anger and hatred spreads like a disease,”
Paterson said, “and one thing I've always pointed out is there's no
place for hate in the Empire State.”

But hatred was plentiful at the rally Paterson addressed. Right in front
of the stage, a man held a banner reading, “Islam Is A Death Cult.”
Rally attendees described the people of Gaza to me as a “cancer,” called
for Israel to “wipe them all out,” insisting, “They are forcing us to
kill their children in order to defend our own children.” A young woman
told me, “Those who die are suffering God’s wrath.” “They are not
distinguishing between civilians and military, so why should we?” said a
member of the group of messianic Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch group
that flocked to the rally.

No one I spoke to could seem to find any circumstance in which they
would begin to question Israel’s war. No number of civilian deaths, no
displays of extreme suffering -- nothing could deter their enthusiasm
for attacking one of the most vulnerable populations in the world with
the world’s most advanced weaponry. There are no limits, no matter what
Israel does, no matter how it does it.

The rally made me think of a passage in “ The Holocaust Is Over, We Must
Rise From Its Ashes,” a powerful new book by former Israeli Knesset
speaker and Jewish National Fund chairman Avraham Burg:

  “If you are a bad person, a whining enemy or a strong-arm occupier,
you are not my brother, even if you are circumcised, observe the
Sabbath, and do mitzvahs. If your scarf covers every hair on your head
for modest, you give alms and do charity, but what is under your scarf
is dedicated to the sanctity of Jewish land, taking precedence over the
sanctity of human life, whosever life that is, then your are not my
sister. You might be my enemy. A good Arab or a righteous gentile will
be a brother or sister to me. A wicked man, even of Jewish descent, is
my adversary, and I would stand on the other side of the barricade and
fight him to the end.”

This newsletter is at
http://mailstar.net/bulletins/140820-b2446-Gaza-Genocide.rtf