I have received the below linked letter from We Stand With Israel.com. I have signed it and urge my readers to sign it as well. The democratic state of Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the world, and more and more people are becoming intimidated from expressing their support-like Stevie Wonder. The letter expresses opposition to Israel-boycott efforts. If you agree with me, please sign it and send it to your friends and contacts.
http://www.westandforisrael.com/
20 comments:
Israel needs to clean up its act if it expects continued support from the U.S. Our leaders and voters have been VERY patient with Israel, but the Israeli government is not entitled to a blank check.
I might add that, here in Milwaukee, at the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation tournament, hosted by Clara Muhammed School, the first place team trophies in the K3, K5, and K12 divisions were all won by Golda Meir Elementary School. Both schools won a number of individual trophies, as did a sometime chess student of mine from St. Monica's. Oh, and some of the students at Golda Meir had Arabic names, as well as several appearing to be of significant African descent.
That's how we do things in Milwaukee.
Yes, I have been reading about Milwaukee over the past couple of years. Great success.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4313925,00.html
You see Gary. The whole world (except for like 9) is united in standing up against Israeli thuggery and apartheid.
Anonymous,
Another boycott-so what?
Thuggery? Like launching rockets into schoolyards from Gaza? Like the Fogel family massacre-you know, slitting the throats of infants in their cribs? Let me ask you a question: Suppose Cuba was launching missiles into Miami-what would the US do? Negotiate?
Don't talk to me about thuggery. And as for apartheid, you don't know much about S Africa, and what real apartheid was, do you?
Another ignorant dummy too ashamed or cowardly to affix his name to his dumb comments.
PS to Anonymous,
Feast your eyes on some real apartheid (Courtesy of Arab Lesbians against hate blog)
http://arablesbiansagainsthate.blogspot.com/2012/11/saudi-arabia-real-apartheid-state.html
It used to be said that comfortable American leftists were always ready to support the national liberation movement furthest away from home. In the same vein, Gary has become a real fan of gay rights, as far from the U.S. as possible.
Whatever the sins of Israel, it is not practicing apartheid, South Africa style. It is encroaching on lands it has no right to, and making it more and more difficult to achieve a peaceful resolution. We should refuse to fund them, until they cease pursuing policies that make a commitment to Israel more and more expensive. No point in throwing money into a rathole. Israel doesn't have to be a rathole, but with the current smug arrogance in their policies, and their supporters, it could become one.
@ Sairlys and Anonymous
You both are typical bullies who take your rhetoric out on a very small country, that is merely a dot in an ocean of an Islamic Middle East and North Africa. Check your world map for a refresher. Although very small, this very successful and peace loving country, has suffered many attacks by the Arab world and continues to be attacked by Hamas rockets. The U.N. has also become a bully in this sense. Islamists have moved to bully Israel with "Divestment" movements. But it is astonishing that this divestment is also a sham, because the Islamists have not thrown their cell phones away with the Israeli technology making them smart phones. Remember, Israel removed itself from Gaza, in the name of peace, only to be continually rocketed by Hamas. With this in mind, Israel will not be bullied into a false peace, without it being recognized as a Jewish State. Here lies the problem. The Islamic States in the Middle East will not recognize isreal as a Jewish State, so the negotiations will most likely not be successful. The U.N. still does not understand this concept.
Squid
Siarlys,
The lands you are referring to are disputed lands to this day. I believe that includes Judea and Samaria.
Siarlys,
Yes, I am a fan of gay rights and more so as time goes by-including right here in the US. I simply don't agree with gay marriage, so in some eyes that makes me a homophobe.
I just don't get it that the gay lobby here in the US is so wrapped up in gay marriage, but cares nothing about gays being hanged in Iran.
Who are the hypocrites, here, Siarlys?
Sometimes you get people on this blog asking you why you're not dealing with this issue or that issue. I never have a problem with it, because it's your blog to deal with the issues that you care about.
American feminist and gay groups are about fixing the problems in THIS country. No doubt there are international groups that address what's going on in the Muslim world.
You wondering why they don't deal with the issues with Islam is the same as that one guy a while ago asking why you didn't deal with racism against black people. (I think that's what it was...hopefully you know what I mean. The point is, it was irrelevant.)
I'm not part of the gay rights movement, Gary, so I can't speak for it. I'm actually kind of indifferent, although I object to hanging, more often than not.
When you say the land is "disputed," please define the dispute. European Zionists moved to what the Romans called "Palestina" by permission of the Ottoman Sultan, then by permission of the British government, then in the teeth of a British blockade, and formed a nation by decision of the United Nations to PARTITION the Former British Mandate of Palestine.
Anonymous,
Well, then I guess our concern about issues involving clear violations of human rights should stop at our borders.
As to dealing with cases of racism against black people, I am perfectly willing to do that. However, I often disagree with people like Sharpton, Jackson, NAACP on what is really racism. The last criticism was that I didn't post a story on a black couple who are leaving Orange County because of harassment. As reported, the case is outrageous, but I can't be expected to pick up every single story out there.
" As reported, the case is outrageous, but I can't be expected to pick up every single story out there."
Of course you can't. My point is that you have a particular set of things that you focus on in your blog, and you can't be expected to cover everything. These particular groups have limited their focus just as you have. It's the same thing.
I don't know that I have any expertise in any area, and that is most certainly the case here.
Howsomever,if my understanding of what at least some of the "disputed areas" (to inlcude the Golan Hights??) are is correct (and it admittedly might not be), it seems to me that they were won/conquered/occupied by Israel by force of arms in one/several wars.
If that is in fact the case, why then are we not expected, among other things, to return Texas and a large chunk of the Southwest to Mexico (as groups in both Mexico and here at home occasionally clamor for), or cede back the 13 original colonies to England??
Guess I just don't get it. I am confident that Siarlys (or someone)will bring me up to speed on this, no??
Elwood,
Look how borders changed after WW I and II. I can think of German cities like Koenigsberg (now Russia), Stettin (now Poland)as well as East Prussia. Should we entertain claims for Germany to get those areas back? How about Strasbourg (France). That was a disputed territory. Danzig was a disputed territory (Poland won out. memel/Klaipeda was a disputed territory. Lithuania won out.)
Gary, the difference is that Germany started both World Wars.
The Arabs/Palestinians are innocent. They did not ask for any of this conflict. The only crime the Palestinians have committed is living on a piece of land that Jews want and believe their "God" gave to them.
Be honest with yourself, and you will see the truth in the previous quote I referenced:
"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English and France to the French".
- Mahatma Gandhi
Anonymous,
It is clearly a complicated issue with two groups of people with historical claims to the land. Keep in mind, there were always some Jews in the region .Would it not have been better if the Arabs had agreed to the 1948 UN plan? They chose war instead. After the 67 war, the Palestininas resorted to terro against innocents-including Americans. That is when they lost any support I might have had.
"Would it not have been better if the Arabs had agreed to the 1948 UN plan?"
The 1947 UN plan for the Partition of PALESTINE???
Gary, would you allow the UN or the even the US Government to partition your home so a homeless family can live in it?
If not, why do the Arabs have to give up any of their land and homesteads to appease Zionism?
Gary, a series of undisputed facts is not my "side of the dispute." You have reduced yourself to arguing like the twelve year old who told his science teacher, "My opinion is as good as yours." Indeed it is - and neither is worth much at all. However, your grasp of facts is woefully deficient.
Yes, non-European Jews were driven out of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq... how does this negate the right of people to self-government as to land they currently live on? The 1948 war was launched by the kings of Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and the ruling clique of Syria, not by the Arab neighbors of the kibbutzim. As a result of that war, Israel has a much larger share of the land than it was originally awarded. That should suffice for the additional immigration.
When you attempt to establish collective responsibility of all Arabs to pay the price for any act byvany Arabs, you logically justify any Arab attacking any Jew, anywhere in the world, for what some Israeli did to some Arab's third cousin.
Is that any basis for civilized existence?
Ted has a point: Jordan and Egypt did take and occupy portions of Palestine that were designated for a Palestinian Arab state. In 1967, Israel could have claimed to have liberated Palestine from foreign occupation, and sponsored the independent Palestinian state. But its failure to do so no more extinguishes Palestinian rights than did Jordanian, and, Egyptian occupation.
Finally, NOBODY gets to wholesale evict current occupants of any land because 2000 years ago my ancestors lived or ruled here. Shall we give Ohio back to the Shawnee and Miami? Send the Anglo Saxons back to Germany, returning Britain to the Celts? By the same token, Israelis can't be expected to remove wholesale from where they now live. But they can't have the whole ball of wax.
Post a Comment