Is Islamophobia the New Anti-Semitism?
The Problem the Boston Globe has with Muslims
Video: "If I Wasn't Muslim" (See http://tinyurl.com/skpkn)
Joachim Martillo & Karin Friedemann
January 12, 2007
For several years the news media have reported increasing numbers of controversies involving Muslim communities throughout the USA as well as in Europe. Recently, Representative Goode and US Holocaust Museum Memorial Museum Council member Dennis Prager objected to US Representative Ellison's use of a Quran during the congressional oath-taking ceremony. Since Ellison's election, Goode and many other politicians and pundits have been demanding changes in immigration law to decrease or to stop the immigration of Muslims to the USA as if the Ellison's ancestors have not been residing in the territory of the USA since the eighteenth century. Such proposals constitute an unsubtle statement that Muslims have no place in America. Muslims seem to us somewhat exotic, and are therefore easy to stereotype. Dumping on Muslims is fun, cheap, and easy.The unwillingness of American and Western societies in general to confront naked Islamophobic incitement recalls so many pathological actions associated with the development of modern anti-Semitism in Central and Eastern Europe that we Americans must ask ourselves whether Islamophobia is the New Anti-Semitism.Unabashed Islamophobe Robert Spencer (http://www.jihadwatch.org/spencer/), who has strong associations with Neocon organizations and leaders, routinely mischaracterizes Islamic religion and cultures. The title of his book, Islam Unveiled, is strongly reminiscent of Eisenmenger's classic anti-Jewish text entitled Entdecktes Judentum (Judaism Unmasked). He recently visited Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts at the invitation of this synagogue's Israel Action Forum in order to assist in the ongoing defamation of the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB). (See "Report on Robert Spencer and the Boston Anti-Islamic Controversy" by Joachim Martillo: http://tinyurl.com/yx7xqz.)Other scribblers of anti-Islamic screeds have begun to cast Muslim owned and managed businesses like the Islamic Development Bank, from which the ISB obtained a mortgage, in the role of sinister malevolent entities just as nineteenth and twentieth century anti-Semites used to depict Jewish owned and managed financial institutions like the Rothschild or Bleichroeder banks as forces of darkness and exploitation. The Globe ran two perfect examples of such anti-Semitism on January 10, 2007: "The Boston mosque's Saudi connection" by Jeff Jacoby (http://tinyurl.com/ykv6h9) and "Saudi bank’s role in mosque is questioned" by Charles A. Radin and Stephen Kurkjian (http://tinyurl.com/y6o7yd).The analogy between contemporary Islamophobia and classical anti-Semitism is not merely literary. Most Globe readers probably analogized the anti-Mosque confrontation described in reporter Colin Nickerson’s Jan. 9 front page Boston Globe article, “As a mosque rises, a dispute flares in Berlin,” (http://tinyurl.com/y5yjz8) with the Roxbury Mosque conflict. The article uses classic anti-Semitic verbal tactics to make Islamophobia appear as a virtuous activity. The headline cites the Syrian-born Arab studies specialist Bassam Tibi with an Otto Weininger-esque quotation: "Europeans have used tolerance as the excuse for not confronting intolerance." One hopes that the author has taken Professor Tibi's words out of context, for he is certainly out of his field. Germans simply are not known for being particularly tolerant and have a strong history of racist violence and bigotry, which continues to this day. As if there were no history of decades of expressions of anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish hatred in Germany, Nickerson defines traditional German bigotry as a new willingness to confront Muslims.The problem in the Globe's coverage of Muslims arises from the continuous stream of poisonous accusations and insinuations provided by pro-Israel advocacy organizations like the David Project (http://www.davidproject.org) and its affiliates. Like many other US newspapers the Boston Globe is giving license to journalists, who found their entry level jobs at the ethnic Jewish press or who are otherwise enmeshed with the organized Jewish community, to repeat talking points and press releases circulated on the Internet by people like David Project founder Charles Jacobs when a good reporter would be doing serious investigative journalism or at least fact-checking.As the cost of the Israeli-American alliance becomes more obvious, the David Project and similar Israel advocacy organizations are finding it more and more difficult to control discourse or to win debates about US Middle East policy. From the standpoint of the David Project, it makes much more sense to marginalize, to demonize, and to delegitimize Muslims in order to deflect criticism, than to engage in a debate with the American public that it is likely to lose.In the Jan. 10 Boston Globe, reporters Charles Radin and Stephen Kurjian raised questions about the funding of the Roxbury mosque project. Again. The funding of the Roxbury mosque is not only not news; it's old news. The Islamic Society of Boston (ISB, http://www.isboston.com) has simply obtained a loan to finance construction of its Islamic center just as many Americans do when they build their homes. The libelers casting suspicion on the ISB for [gasp!] getting a mortgage, are counting on members of the American public to be unaware that banks are multinational corporations. When you get a loan from Citibank, a lot of that money comes from the United Arab Emirates. Such cash flow is normal. The ISB is limited in its choice of mortgage providers because it must obtain a loan that conforms to Islamic law. The ISB already submitted their financial information to the Globe and to the David Project but the Globe refused to print the clarifications. An apology would have been in order.The Globe willfully chose to create a fake story even while it had the facts. What is the reason? Subverting American news media is an important aspect of the David Project's self-declared mission ("diminishing the impact of Israel's detractors"). We have looked at the court filings and personal defamation suits directed at the David Project and friends. There is evidence to support the contention that various news media including the Boston Herald and Fox News, have conspired with the David Project in a campaign to make us fear the mosque.We that have followed the demonization of the Islamic Society of Boston by the David Project, Charles Jacobs, and his motley crew of anti-Arab anti-Muslim true believers are tired of the harassment of our friends and neighbors by bigoted, malicious know-nothings. The ISB is by any standard a completely apolitical faith organization, whose members are very nice people as anyone can learn by attending one of the ISB's public dinners. The members of the ISB, its directors and staff are completely law-abiding American citizens. The ISB has never even made any public statements on Israel. The ISB unlike many Boston-area synagogues and Jewish community centers only flies the American flag.
Debates on foreign policy have no relevance to the Roxbury Mosque controversy except that Charles Jacobs is coordinating various pro-Israel organizations to defame American Muslims. Conspiracy to deprive American citizens of their Constitutional rights to assemble freely to worship is a federal crime. It is an indication of the power of the Israel Lobby and the level of moral corruption to which the USA has sunk under the Bush administration that Charles Jacobs and his co-conspirators have not been indicted. If the American political leadership does not have the courage to stand up to those that try to normalize Islamophobia, our democracy will be lost because the enemies of freedom will not stop with American Muslims.
It is time for the Israel advocacy propagandists to be scrutinized. We have looked at their public filings, and the David Project appears to be at the center of a network of connections among power brokers in Boston-area academia, in the Massachusetts Republican Party and in the Massachusetts Democratic Party as well as in the local real estate and financial industries. (For details see http://members.aol.com/ThorsProvoni/mosque.htm.) This type of non-transparent para-organization (friends of friends) among the powers that be can easily develop into a threat to American democracy and become a mechanism to deprive groups of American citizens of their legal protections.
By suppressing public debate on important issues, Israel advocates put all Americans at risk of financial disaster or worse as policy makers more loyal to Israel than to the US manipulate America into waging pointless wars instead of engaging in a civil dialogue with the rest of the world on matters of worldwide concern. Well, guess what! There is no constitutional requirement for Americans whether Muslim or non-Muslim to love Israel. The Boston news media and the FBI should be investigating the David Project, which is the genuine threat to America.
Afterword
Jan. 12, 2007 the Boston Globe published a Reuters article ("Islam urged to accept Enlightenment", see http://tinyurl.com/yjlafz), whose Islamophobic innuendo duplicates classic 18th and 19th century exhortations from Judeophobes and anti-Semites that Jews must assimilate enlightened Christian values.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Ahmadinejad is Right
Ahmadinejad is doing the right thing to point out the Jewish issues. Any time you make an anti-Israel statement the Jews are going to be told by all the Jewish organizations to "feel attacked" in order to use this fear for fundraising. You can't let their little hissy fit stop you from exposing them. They will always misquote and demonize anyone who speaks against their domination. The Jews want to bomb Iran. So there is no point in pretending that "if only he had said the right thing about the Holocaust," that Jews would have another attitude towards the Iranians. Whenever a PalestineSolidarity Conference takes place in the US, the media is filled with lies and distortions regarding what the conference is about, and invariably a team of rabbis will fill the newspapers with op-eds decrying the conference organizers for "hate." Threatened with an Iraq-style war by the US Jews, Ahmadinejad has nothing to lose. He saw from Saddam's example that if you comply with weapons inspectors and act submissive and politically correct, your country will be irradiated. So therefore he is trying a different tactic, that of being abrasive and mirroring Jewish offensive practices. Do you realize how many Nakba Denial conferences and Anti-Muslim genocide incitement conferences the Jewish organizations hold per year in the United States? Iran did nothing but hold an academic conference. The only tactic that has ever worked against slanderers is to point the finger back at them. Ahmadinejad is going on a media offensive - and this conference was widely applauded throughout theMiddle East - because he knows that being defensive and cooperative with Jews never works. Since no one has tried this "be offensive as possible" media tactic yet, Ahmadinejad is willing togive creativity a chance to stop a war. I hope to God he succeeds.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The End of Time Arguments Spread Fear
The End of Time Arguments Spread Fear
By Maria Hussain (aka Karin Friedemann)
Al-Jazeerah.info, May 15, 2004
At the recent Anti-Semitism Conference in Berlin, Yehuda Bauer, an Israeli official raised the spectre of a “totalitarian, radical Islamist ideology” based on the widespread Zionist belief that Muslim fundamentalists are ready for a second genocide of the Jewish people. It is rather ironic that the Israelis are appealing to the Germans for help, the very nation that got them into this mess. Transfer of funds from Nazi Germany in the 1930s made the Jewish State possible. Presumably, getting the Jews out of Germany was part of Hitler’s Final Solution. The idea that the State of Israel could ever provide security to Jewish persons is absurd given that Israel is Hitler’s baby. Why the Jews still to this day seem determined to bring about Hitler’s Final Solution upon themselves as some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy is worth asking. The creation of a Jewish gathering place and the subsequent efficiency of its obliteration would suffice as reason for Hitler’s funding of the State.
When confronted with their injustices, Semitists will invariably attempt to divert attention to the threat of Islamic anti-Semitism as the common enemy of mankind. This may seem like an irrational conclusion to anyone who has ever spoken with Arabs. The idea that Arabs want to exterminate all Jews can only be the subconscious projection of the Jewish obsession with exterminating Arabs. They assume the hatred to be mutual, but it is not. Arabs are the most secular and the most willing to compromise of all the Muslims. The terror Jews suffer at the dread of Arab vengeance is a comical expression of the repressed Jewish conscience. I believe the Arabs would consent to a non-Zionist, secular state in all of historical Palestine. I have never heard any public calls for collective punishment or expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land coming from any Palestinian organization, whether leftist or Islamist. The fear that Arabs want to drive Jews into the sea is something you only hear from Jews. The Jews’ attempt to criminalize Jihad is nothing more than a racist denial of the Arabs’ right to self-defense.
The Semitists’ terror of Islamic justice has blinded them to the reality of the threat they do not see. While it is untrue that Arabs wish to annihilate the Jews, there are perhaps hundreds of millions of people around the world who would simply call it God’s Justice. Since the assumptions promoted by anti-Islamic scholars are made from inferences based on Quranic verses quoted out of context and interpreted in ways that Muslims do not interpret them, it is not clear that these “scholars” are even aware of the vast body of Islamic literature attributed to the Prophet Mohammed that includes the entire Armegeddon scenario including the Mehdi, the return of Jesus the Messiah, the defeat of the Anti-Christ in Jerusalem, and the last genocide of the Jews at God’s command. The Islamic scholar, Maududi threw out this entire collection of ahadith as “unsound” fabrications and these prophecies are not taught as part of the core of Islamic teachings. However, they are widely circulated and accepted as truth by the mainstream of South Asian Muslim culture. Arabs are actually far less likely to await the liberation of Palestine by an Islamic army from Afghanistan waving black flags led by a Saudi Arabian war hero, but this hope, based on sayings attributed to Mohammed, seems to be a major part of the global Islamist coalition’s recruiting propaganda. The Zionists are largely unaware of it. They are still distracted by the idea of 70 virgins in paradise.
The Zionist belief in the ingathering of Jews in the Land of Israel was the adoption and subversion of the Biblical Revelations in the New Testament. The belief that Jews were physically expelled by the Romans from the Holy Land 2000 years ago is also borrowed from Christian theology. The Quranic mentions of Israelite claims on Palestine hold that the story of the Promised Land is a promise fulfilled. There is no further promise. Any future ingathering of Jews refers to the ingathering of every nation and tribe at the Day of Judgement after the Last Day, when we all will be called to judgement.
But the fundamentalist Christians, the fundamentalist Jews, and the fundamentalist Muslims are united in this idea that there has to be some military show-down between the Jewish Messiah and Jesus. Some of our useless passivity results from a feeling of inevitability based on the belief that all has been written. Is the Great Battle between Jesus and Dajjal a fundamental Islamic belief?
This entire world war is based on false assumptions based on messianistic expectations. If we entertain the possibility that the ahadith (the Prophet's sayings) related to the second coming of Jesus are borrowed from Christianity, and we limit our Islamic belief to what is clearly established in the Holy Quran and the “sound” ahadith, then there is no reason to think that the future of the world could not have a happy ending. There is no final destruction of the Jews and Christians and loss of Dhimmi status. All the Islamic laws requiring the just treatment of conquered minorities still hold.
There is nothing in the core of Islamic teachings that says that the future of our world is reduced to a final showdown between good and evil. In fact, this superstition is related to Zoroastrianism. The Quranic descriptions of the Last Days of the earth are more based in astronomy than politics. They seem to imply a gradual slowing down of the earths’ rotation to the point where gravity disappears and everything on earth goes flying off into space. This nightmare scenario makes nuclear armegeddon seem pretty mild in comparison. The idea that the destruction of Masjid Al Aqsa is inevitable, or that the Gog and Magog will use up all the water in the Sea of Galilee -- are these things we should accept? Have we been allowing these madmen to take over the Middle East because we have been sold into Freemasonic conspiracy theories? The idea that Muslims will defeat the Zionist World Order and establish a global Islamic order led by Jesus is not actually central to the Islamic religion. Given that we want peace for the sake of the children more than we need to base our decisions on these questionable ahadith, it may be wise for the Muslims to entertain the possibility that we may be giving the Jews far more credit than they deserve. Sure, they would love to be the priesthood of the New World Order. But their power is only that which we attribute to them. We can also just laugh at them.
Let us face the facts. Even the most sincere Muslims among us are not equipped to turn the situation around. Only Allah can help us, and we have to beg Him to show us how to build a sustainable society. But the devil is like a snake which eats its own tail. Evil sows the seeds of its own destruction. We can use our energy to create alternatives rather than just fighting bad guys all the time. Let us then stop waiting for the Messiah because there is a very real chance that all these End Time Islamic oral traditions were planted by Ismailis during the British Empire as a way of frightening Muslims into accepting the idea of an all-powerful world government led by Jews. The vast majority of Muslims are traumatized by violence or the fear of violence. This prophetic literature makes them fall into a black hole of helpless terror that stunts their effectiveness personally and collectively because death seems the only option. Either we can die as pathetic victims or we can die as men, fighting for the sake of Allah. There is a way out of this trap. There is an Islamic loophole.
If we stop believing in the supernatural powers of Jews, we no longer need to take for granted that the Zionists will forever strive to rebuild the Temple of Solomon, nor do we need to believe in the awesome Pharonic powers of Israel. It is enough for us to heed the Quranic warning against witchcraft and emulate the noble character of the Islamic King Solomon who was so merciful that he avoided stepping on ants. It may be that we can use the great minds that Allah gave us in order to establish a just society which protects the weak. Whether it’s a secular and multi-cultural nation with an Islamic majority, or it’s an Islamic state with political bodies representing minority communities who conduct their own internal affairs, we can do this. If we forget about the End Time prophecies and concentrate on the Lowest Common Denominator that we can all agree on, that we hold it as self-evident that all men were created equal; we could start from there. Naturally, there are mighty men with terrible weapons who will stand in the way of the success of convincing Jews to give up their neurotic superiority complexes. These people will have to be fought and defeated. But we can fight injustice with a sense of inner peace -- not revenge. We can use our intellectual capabilities and our inner faith to build a society that is sustainable.
It could be true that the end of the world is at hand. But God’s time is different than human time. It is all too convenient to believe that a Messiah is coming to solve all our problems. The fact is, the Messiah has already come and he is now sitting at the Right Hand of the Lord. He is going to pray for his followers on the Day of Judgement but that is all we know for sure. It could be that there are many many centuries that we must struggle through before we reach the climactic end of all of humanity’s efforts. Even the End Time prophecies state that on the Last Day, if you have a sapling in your hand you should plant it. We are not allowed to give up hope. This is because we never know if this could just be one of many trials from our Lord.
We have tried the path of unrestrained materialism and it has gotten us into a bad place. We have tried the path of unrestrained idealism and it has not gotten us out of that bad place. Since we have all tried so hard and still failed, perhaps we should try something else. We all need each other because we all want the same thing. It is easy to die but it is harder to live free. And yet that is what we have to find a way how to do. The Path lies within our hearts and leads to the Source of all that is. There is no Islam or peace without free will and mutual respect. We all need to find the courage to ask questions, to let go of opinions, and have faith in the ultimate goodness of destiny. I believe we will find that when we give ourselves the freedom to know and to strive for what we really want, it will still be Islam that we want: the best possible interpretation of Islam as a balanced holistic circle that cherishes all life and recognizes no human master.
By Maria Hussain (aka Karin Friedemann)
Al-Jazeerah.info, May 15, 2004
At the recent Anti-Semitism Conference in Berlin, Yehuda Bauer, an Israeli official raised the spectre of a “totalitarian, radical Islamist ideology” based on the widespread Zionist belief that Muslim fundamentalists are ready for a second genocide of the Jewish people. It is rather ironic that the Israelis are appealing to the Germans for help, the very nation that got them into this mess. Transfer of funds from Nazi Germany in the 1930s made the Jewish State possible. Presumably, getting the Jews out of Germany was part of Hitler’s Final Solution. The idea that the State of Israel could ever provide security to Jewish persons is absurd given that Israel is Hitler’s baby. Why the Jews still to this day seem determined to bring about Hitler’s Final Solution upon themselves as some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy is worth asking. The creation of a Jewish gathering place and the subsequent efficiency of its obliteration would suffice as reason for Hitler’s funding of the State.
When confronted with their injustices, Semitists will invariably attempt to divert attention to the threat of Islamic anti-Semitism as the common enemy of mankind. This may seem like an irrational conclusion to anyone who has ever spoken with Arabs. The idea that Arabs want to exterminate all Jews can only be the subconscious projection of the Jewish obsession with exterminating Arabs. They assume the hatred to be mutual, but it is not. Arabs are the most secular and the most willing to compromise of all the Muslims. The terror Jews suffer at the dread of Arab vengeance is a comical expression of the repressed Jewish conscience. I believe the Arabs would consent to a non-Zionist, secular state in all of historical Palestine. I have never heard any public calls for collective punishment or expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land coming from any Palestinian organization, whether leftist or Islamist. The fear that Arabs want to drive Jews into the sea is something you only hear from Jews. The Jews’ attempt to criminalize Jihad is nothing more than a racist denial of the Arabs’ right to self-defense.
The Semitists’ terror of Islamic justice has blinded them to the reality of the threat they do not see. While it is untrue that Arabs wish to annihilate the Jews, there are perhaps hundreds of millions of people around the world who would simply call it God’s Justice. Since the assumptions promoted by anti-Islamic scholars are made from inferences based on Quranic verses quoted out of context and interpreted in ways that Muslims do not interpret them, it is not clear that these “scholars” are even aware of the vast body of Islamic literature attributed to the Prophet Mohammed that includes the entire Armegeddon scenario including the Mehdi, the return of Jesus the Messiah, the defeat of the Anti-Christ in Jerusalem, and the last genocide of the Jews at God’s command. The Islamic scholar, Maududi threw out this entire collection of ahadith as “unsound” fabrications and these prophecies are not taught as part of the core of Islamic teachings. However, they are widely circulated and accepted as truth by the mainstream of South Asian Muslim culture. Arabs are actually far less likely to await the liberation of Palestine by an Islamic army from Afghanistan waving black flags led by a Saudi Arabian war hero, but this hope, based on sayings attributed to Mohammed, seems to be a major part of the global Islamist coalition’s recruiting propaganda. The Zionists are largely unaware of it. They are still distracted by the idea of 70 virgins in paradise.
The Zionist belief in the ingathering of Jews in the Land of Israel was the adoption and subversion of the Biblical Revelations in the New Testament. The belief that Jews were physically expelled by the Romans from the Holy Land 2000 years ago is also borrowed from Christian theology. The Quranic mentions of Israelite claims on Palestine hold that the story of the Promised Land is a promise fulfilled. There is no further promise. Any future ingathering of Jews refers to the ingathering of every nation and tribe at the Day of Judgement after the Last Day, when we all will be called to judgement.
But the fundamentalist Christians, the fundamentalist Jews, and the fundamentalist Muslims are united in this idea that there has to be some military show-down between the Jewish Messiah and Jesus. Some of our useless passivity results from a feeling of inevitability based on the belief that all has been written. Is the Great Battle between Jesus and Dajjal a fundamental Islamic belief?
This entire world war is based on false assumptions based on messianistic expectations. If we entertain the possibility that the ahadith (the Prophet's sayings) related to the second coming of Jesus are borrowed from Christianity, and we limit our Islamic belief to what is clearly established in the Holy Quran and the “sound” ahadith, then there is no reason to think that the future of the world could not have a happy ending. There is no final destruction of the Jews and Christians and loss of Dhimmi status. All the Islamic laws requiring the just treatment of conquered minorities still hold.
There is nothing in the core of Islamic teachings that says that the future of our world is reduced to a final showdown between good and evil. In fact, this superstition is related to Zoroastrianism. The Quranic descriptions of the Last Days of the earth are more based in astronomy than politics. They seem to imply a gradual slowing down of the earths’ rotation to the point where gravity disappears and everything on earth goes flying off into space. This nightmare scenario makes nuclear armegeddon seem pretty mild in comparison. The idea that the destruction of Masjid Al Aqsa is inevitable, or that the Gog and Magog will use up all the water in the Sea of Galilee -- are these things we should accept? Have we been allowing these madmen to take over the Middle East because we have been sold into Freemasonic conspiracy theories? The idea that Muslims will defeat the Zionist World Order and establish a global Islamic order led by Jesus is not actually central to the Islamic religion. Given that we want peace for the sake of the children more than we need to base our decisions on these questionable ahadith, it may be wise for the Muslims to entertain the possibility that we may be giving the Jews far more credit than they deserve. Sure, they would love to be the priesthood of the New World Order. But their power is only that which we attribute to them. We can also just laugh at them.
Let us face the facts. Even the most sincere Muslims among us are not equipped to turn the situation around. Only Allah can help us, and we have to beg Him to show us how to build a sustainable society. But the devil is like a snake which eats its own tail. Evil sows the seeds of its own destruction. We can use our energy to create alternatives rather than just fighting bad guys all the time. Let us then stop waiting for the Messiah because there is a very real chance that all these End Time Islamic oral traditions were planted by Ismailis during the British Empire as a way of frightening Muslims into accepting the idea of an all-powerful world government led by Jews. The vast majority of Muslims are traumatized by violence or the fear of violence. This prophetic literature makes them fall into a black hole of helpless terror that stunts their effectiveness personally and collectively because death seems the only option. Either we can die as pathetic victims or we can die as men, fighting for the sake of Allah. There is a way out of this trap. There is an Islamic loophole.
If we stop believing in the supernatural powers of Jews, we no longer need to take for granted that the Zionists will forever strive to rebuild the Temple of Solomon, nor do we need to believe in the awesome Pharonic powers of Israel. It is enough for us to heed the Quranic warning against witchcraft and emulate the noble character of the Islamic King Solomon who was so merciful that he avoided stepping on ants. It may be that we can use the great minds that Allah gave us in order to establish a just society which protects the weak. Whether it’s a secular and multi-cultural nation with an Islamic majority, or it’s an Islamic state with political bodies representing minority communities who conduct their own internal affairs, we can do this. If we forget about the End Time prophecies and concentrate on the Lowest Common Denominator that we can all agree on, that we hold it as self-evident that all men were created equal; we could start from there. Naturally, there are mighty men with terrible weapons who will stand in the way of the success of convincing Jews to give up their neurotic superiority complexes. These people will have to be fought and defeated. But we can fight injustice with a sense of inner peace -- not revenge. We can use our intellectual capabilities and our inner faith to build a society that is sustainable.
It could be true that the end of the world is at hand. But God’s time is different than human time. It is all too convenient to believe that a Messiah is coming to solve all our problems. The fact is, the Messiah has already come and he is now sitting at the Right Hand of the Lord. He is going to pray for his followers on the Day of Judgement but that is all we know for sure. It could be that there are many many centuries that we must struggle through before we reach the climactic end of all of humanity’s efforts. Even the End Time prophecies state that on the Last Day, if you have a sapling in your hand you should plant it. We are not allowed to give up hope. This is because we never know if this could just be one of many trials from our Lord.
We have tried the path of unrestrained materialism and it has gotten us into a bad place. We have tried the path of unrestrained idealism and it has not gotten us out of that bad place. Since we have all tried so hard and still failed, perhaps we should try something else. We all need each other because we all want the same thing. It is easy to die but it is harder to live free. And yet that is what we have to find a way how to do. The Path lies within our hearts and leads to the Source of all that is. There is no Islam or peace without free will and mutual respect. We all need to find the courage to ask questions, to let go of opinions, and have faith in the ultimate goodness of destiny. I believe we will find that when we give ourselves the freedom to know and to strive for what we really want, it will still be Islam that we want: the best possible interpretation of Islam as a balanced holistic circle that cherishes all life and recognizes no human master.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Picking American Pockets For Israel
Recruiting American Jews for Israel
by Karin Friedemann and Joachim Martillo
2005-10-15
http://bridgenews.org/news/americanjews
The U.S. government funds Israel's ongoing program to remove the native population of Palestine, primarily Muslims and Christians, and supplant them with European-American Jewish colonists. Our tax dollars facilitate this ethnic cleansing and colonization of Occupied Palestine.
Why do seemingly normal, middle class Jewish American families take part in genocidal ethnic cleansing? While some sick individuals might get a "thrill" from moving into property stolen from a family expelled from their home at gunpoint by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), our observations indicate that funand profit serve as the primary motivation for relocating to Occupied Palestine.
The Israeli government offers American Jews subsidized mortgages at interest rates far lower than anything available to non-Jews. The subsidies are funded by Israeli bonds and underwritten by U.S. loan guarantees. The new mortgage holders are allowed to sink their credit card debts into Israeli mortgages valued in shekels, which are practically guaranteed to depreciate relative to the dollar. (See http://www.tehilla.com/homes). While these "ethically challenged" American Jews stay in Israel, they are offered free Hebrew classes and living expenses for up to oneyear, paid by the Israeli government.
The cost of "doing business" with Israel is not only financial but moral. The system creates suburban sprawl in the Holy Land, environmental devastation and mass homelessness of the original, rightful non-Jewish property owners. Most Palestinians under Israeli government control are not citizens and have no rights under Israeli law. Lands to which the Jewish Agency holds title are only leased or deeded under conditions that prevent transfer or use by non-Jews. Such discrimination would be illegal in the USA.
The Israeli government organizes the eviction (nishul) of Palestinians (usually uncompensated) through transfers of the land to specialized organizations like the Jewish Agency or the Israel Lands Authority (ILA), or Israel discovers military or security requirements that "necessitate" the transfer of property from Palestinians to the Army. Eventually, the ILA develops the stolen land to create or expand Jews-Only settlements. The contractors employed by the ILA and its helper organizations build the homes and necessary infrastructure. They are typically connected to government and military officials and all profit tremendously from the US-financed plunder and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.
Local travel agents often double as recruiters and real estate brokers for Israel. American Jews willing to relocate to stolen properties arenot usually subject to credit checks when they seek an Israeli mortgage because the Israeli government subordinates its fiscal responsibility to the goal of overwhelming the Palestinians demographically. Most American olim (immigrants) do not settle permanently in OccupiedPalestine. They live there for a couple of years and then sell theirhouse when the value goes up and come back debt free. They enjoy a nice vacation and make a profit as well.
Here's how it works: Jewish aliyah (immigration to Israel) organizations engage in ongoing campaigns to recruit American Jews. They advertise in the Jewish media, through Jewish run travel agencies, and on college campuses. Suppose you are an American Jew with $60,000 in educational or credit card debt. You might attend a class at the local Jewish Community Center or take part in some organized pro-Israel activity. At some point you will meet an official or semi-official shaliah (recruiter/emissary) who will explain the deal to you.
1. You can purchase a home, with no down payment, in a new settlement with a subsidized mortgage of up to $300,000. You will only pay interest (usually 3% or less) on half the mortgage. The other half is interest-free. You can buy a new house for $100,000 - comparable toa $750,000 house in Brookline, MA.
2. Say you have a $60,000 debt, are paying $2,000 a month rent and you owe another $1000 in various loan payments and other expenses. You can get a $160,000 mortgage in Israel for less than $400/month. Try getting that from Fannie Mae!
3. You and your family get free health insurance. Can't get that in America!
4. The Israeli government will pay your living expenses for at least 6 months. What a deal!
5. You get Israeli citizenship and all the rights the nativepopulation does not have.
6. Settlers in the more recently ethnically cleansed Occupied Territories get lower tax rates and other special benefits than those settling in "Israel Proper."
7. Qualified individuals may receive free plane tickets to Israel from organizations like Birthright Israel.
8. You can apply for an additional $5,000 - $25,000 stipend from organizations like Nefesh b'Nefesh (Soul to Soul - i.e. Jewish souls)
You should be able to live for one year without working, at which point your home has accrued in value as the settlement has expanded and amenities have improved. You should be able to sell your home at a profit, pay off your debt and return to the USA debt free. Once back home you will be strongly encouraged to contribute generously to your local Congressmen. Doesn't it sound like payback for the pleasant vacation and good fortune made possible by the U.S. government simplybecause you are Jewish?
by Karin Friedemann and Joachim Martillo
2005-10-15
http://bridgenews.org/news/americanjews
The U.S. government funds Israel's ongoing program to remove the native population of Palestine, primarily Muslims and Christians, and supplant them with European-American Jewish colonists. Our tax dollars facilitate this ethnic cleansing and colonization of Occupied Palestine.
Why do seemingly normal, middle class Jewish American families take part in genocidal ethnic cleansing? While some sick individuals might get a "thrill" from moving into property stolen from a family expelled from their home at gunpoint by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), our observations indicate that funand profit serve as the primary motivation for relocating to Occupied Palestine.
The Israeli government offers American Jews subsidized mortgages at interest rates far lower than anything available to non-Jews. The subsidies are funded by Israeli bonds and underwritten by U.S. loan guarantees. The new mortgage holders are allowed to sink their credit card debts into Israeli mortgages valued in shekels, which are practically guaranteed to depreciate relative to the dollar. (See http://www.tehilla.com/homes). While these "ethically challenged" American Jews stay in Israel, they are offered free Hebrew classes and living expenses for up to oneyear, paid by the Israeli government.
The cost of "doing business" with Israel is not only financial but moral. The system creates suburban sprawl in the Holy Land, environmental devastation and mass homelessness of the original, rightful non-Jewish property owners. Most Palestinians under Israeli government control are not citizens and have no rights under Israeli law. Lands to which the Jewish Agency holds title are only leased or deeded under conditions that prevent transfer or use by non-Jews. Such discrimination would be illegal in the USA.
The Israeli government organizes the eviction (nishul) of Palestinians (usually uncompensated) through transfers of the land to specialized organizations like the Jewish Agency or the Israel Lands Authority (ILA), or Israel discovers military or security requirements that "necessitate" the transfer of property from Palestinians to the Army. Eventually, the ILA develops the stolen land to create or expand Jews-Only settlements. The contractors employed by the ILA and its helper organizations build the homes and necessary infrastructure. They are typically connected to government and military officials and all profit tremendously from the US-financed plunder and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.
Local travel agents often double as recruiters and real estate brokers for Israel. American Jews willing to relocate to stolen properties arenot usually subject to credit checks when they seek an Israeli mortgage because the Israeli government subordinates its fiscal responsibility to the goal of overwhelming the Palestinians demographically. Most American olim (immigrants) do not settle permanently in OccupiedPalestine. They live there for a couple of years and then sell theirhouse when the value goes up and come back debt free. They enjoy a nice vacation and make a profit as well.
Here's how it works: Jewish aliyah (immigration to Israel) organizations engage in ongoing campaigns to recruit American Jews. They advertise in the Jewish media, through Jewish run travel agencies, and on college campuses. Suppose you are an American Jew with $60,000 in educational or credit card debt. You might attend a class at the local Jewish Community Center or take part in some organized pro-Israel activity. At some point you will meet an official or semi-official shaliah (recruiter/emissary) who will explain the deal to you.
1. You can purchase a home, with no down payment, in a new settlement with a subsidized mortgage of up to $300,000. You will only pay interest (usually 3% or less) on half the mortgage. The other half is interest-free. You can buy a new house for $100,000 - comparable toa $750,000 house in Brookline, MA.
2. Say you have a $60,000 debt, are paying $2,000 a month rent and you owe another $1000 in various loan payments and other expenses. You can get a $160,000 mortgage in Israel for less than $400/month. Try getting that from Fannie Mae!
3. You and your family get free health insurance. Can't get that in America!
4. The Israeli government will pay your living expenses for at least 6 months. What a deal!
5. You get Israeli citizenship and all the rights the nativepopulation does not have.
6. Settlers in the more recently ethnically cleansed Occupied Territories get lower tax rates and other special benefits than those settling in "Israel Proper."
7. Qualified individuals may receive free plane tickets to Israel from organizations like Birthright Israel.
8. You can apply for an additional $5,000 - $25,000 stipend from organizations like Nefesh b'Nefesh (Soul to Soul - i.e. Jewish souls)
You should be able to live for one year without working, at which point your home has accrued in value as the settlement has expanded and amenities have improved. You should be able to sell your home at a profit, pay off your debt and return to the USA debt free. Once back home you will be strongly encouraged to contribute generously to your local Congressmen. Doesn't it sound like payback for the pleasant vacation and good fortune made possible by the U.S. government simplybecause you are Jewish?
ADL's "Interfaith" Enmeshment
Christians being fed self-hatred by the ADL
ADL's "Interfaith" Enmeshment
by Karin Friedemann with Joachim Martillo
12/12/05
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/47184/index.php
===
Report on: "New Direction" Sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League --Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 9:30 a.m. in Lower Level McKim A. In keeping with the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II documentof 1965 that set Catholic-Jewish relations in a new direction, this interfaith, interactive workshop will focus on helping Christian religious educators to prevent the "fires of hate" both inside and outside the classroom. This workshop will be presented by the NewDirections project, a Catholic-Jewish educational initiative co-sponsored by the New England Region of the Anti-Defamation League and the Office of Religious Education of the Archdiocese of Boston.
===
My husband and I took part in the above Catholic Jewish discussionat the Boston Public Library of Nostra Aetate and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) Exhibition "Fighting the Fires ofHate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings" that was hosted at theCopley Square Public Library in Boston. Nostra Aetate is Pope Paul VI's major declaration that summarizes the relationship of the Catholic Church to non-Christian religions. He issued it Oct. 28, 1965. (*) This document refers to the Jewish people. The term Jewish people comes from Zionist ideology and is unknown in Catholic theology. In the past, Catholic documents employed terms like communitas iudaica (Jewish community) or occasionally natio judaica (Jewish brotherhood -- I know it looks like Jewish nation, but the Latin texts refer to shoemakers as anatio, and I consider the closest modern English usage to be phrases like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers). The use of Zionist terminology in the Nostra Aetate leads one to suspect that key parts of the proclamation itself were written bythe ADL or other American Zionists and simply translated into Latin.
By employing such terminology, the Catholic Church accepts the Zionist conceptualization of an unchanging Jewish ethno-nationalgroup (Volk) that has existed from time immemorial and that maintains blood-and-soil historic rights to Palestine. This primordialist essentialism is the exact Zionist counterpart of theGerman Nazi idea of an unchanging German people that has existed from time immemorial and that maintains blood-and-soil historic rights to places where German peoples (including ancient Teutonicand Germanic tribes) live or have lived in the past even if no or very few modern Germans have lived there in recent times.
Jewish groups tend to construe Pope John Paul II's 1998 affirmation of "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah" as an apology for inadequacies of Catholic response to the Holocaust. In reality thedocument is ambiguous on the issue of the Church's responsibility.(**) One really must ask for what should the Church be expressing contritition. At the time when German Catholics were resisting Hitler, the Zionists entered into an extensive collaboration with the German Nazis. While leading Polish Catholics politicians were considering a preemptive strike against Germany after Hindenberg appointed Hitler Chancellor, Zionist ethnic Ashkenazim worked toundermine the worldwide boycott of Germany under the Haaverah Agreement, which supplied the Zionists with necessary capital in their program to murder Arab Palestine. Hitler facilitated the Zionist acquisition of the necessary capital to expand racist Zionist settlements in Palestine, then ruled by the British. The Haaverah Agreement also transfered the extensive property holdings of the German Colony in Palestine to the Zionist Jewish NationalFund. Until 1938 the German Nazi party maintained Jewish adjunct organizations in which German Jews were active.
American Jews generally skip over such shameful elements of the history of the1930s. Zionists want the rest of the world to treat the mass murder of Jews during WW2 as a unique unspeakable event in order to drownout the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians against them. Now that Soviet archives have become available, we now can state withstrong grounds that 1920s and 1930s Soviet crimes, in which Soviet ethnic Ashkenazim played a leading role, were far worse than the crimes of Nazi Germany.
The ADL loves the Nostra Aetate because it deplores hatred of Jewswithout qualification. Of course, ethnic Ashkenazim have been widely hated throughout the century and will become even more hated in the21st century, but they reap what they have sown. From a Christian standpoint one could argue that hatred against anyone is wrong anytime, but the papal declaration effectively gives Jews a license to commit any atrocity because the Church would according to the plain meaning of the text condemn any animosity toward Jews as amanifestation of unforgivable "anti-Semitism" even if widespread Jewish or ethnic Ashkenazi misdeeds were provoking the reactions of hate and anger. It is a mistakefor the Catholic Church to pander them in documents like Nostra Aetate. The past few years, the Zionist lobby groups have been pouring huge amounts of money into cash-poor Christian organizations in order toenmesh them as accomplices to the genocide of Palestinians. Many if not most of the Catholics attending this discussion had been flown in from other cities for a nice tourist vacation in Boston.
TheADL's general purpose for inviting Christians to participate inthese interfaith discussions is to promote Zionism among Christians and to make Christians hesitant about divesting from Israel for fear of offending "Jewish sensitivities." This was evident as I spoke to the woman who represented the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. While she was willing to blame the Germans as a whole for the Holocaust, she was unwilling to blame the ADL as an organization for its workto ban books and undermine the Constitution in America, for fear of "stereotyping Jews," even though the ADL was instrumental in lobbying for the Patriot Act.
While Pope John Paul publicly apologized for historical Catholic anti-Jewish sentiment, no Jewish leader has ever expressed regret for the slander of the Virgin Mary that exists in the Talmud. It is actually very confusing to try to understand the Jewish outrage atbeing blamed for killing Christ because the Talmud takes theposition that the Sanhedrin was right to kill him. Jews react in the same way to open discussions of such scriptural polemic as they do to any debate of the Zionist theft of Palestine. They become offended and fling accusations of "hate speech" when anyone tries to refer to the meticulous Zionist planning of the genocide of the native Palestinian population as is documented even in Zionist archives, by Zionist writers and in Zionist newspapers.
There is no evidence that the Catholic Church's new friendship with the Zionists is sincerely returned. Ethnic Ashkenazim have generally treated Nostra Aetate with contempt, and Goldhagen, a prominent racist ethnic Ashkenazi pseudo-scholar, effectively stated in AMoral Reckoning : The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair that the Catholic Church couldonly show true contrition by completely subordinating itself toZionism.
It was painful to watch sincere Christians being humiliated for their beliefs by Ashkenazi Americans, who are using the Catholic tendency towards repentance even for things they had nothing to do with, to promote their own opportunistic political agenda which includes wiping out the oldest Christian community in the world in Palestine. While Catholic teachings encourage penitence and sensitivity to the feelings of others, ethnic Ashkenazim never apologize for anything, but feign moral superiority while talking down to the Catholics.
INTERFAITH DISCUSSION OR ZIONIST INDOCTRINATION?
The discussion program was carefully crafted and aimed at encouraging the Catholic school system to incorporate the ADL's fictional Holocaust propaganda in their curriculum. The program began as the ADL discussion leader, Naomi Tovim, introduced theTalmud as the book of Jewish law and mentioned that Catholics had ahistory of burning this book. She of course did not mention what was in that book that may have offended Catholics, nor did she mention that Catholics at various points of history burned a lot of books, not limiting themselves to the Talmud. Bringing up the Catholic Church's alleged "anti-Semitism" as an introduction to the historically unrelated Nazi book burnings was in accord with the traditional ethnic Ashkenazi anti-Catholic polemic, which assigns collective guilt to all Christians for letting the Holocaust happen. This anti-Christian bigotry is sometimes given a scholarly veneer inthe works of racist ethnic Ashkenazi pseudo-scholars like Hyam Maccoby. In this polemic, Auschwitz is inherent in Christianity from the first composition of the Gospels. As a result of indoctrinationwith such nonsense American Jews reacted with outrage to MelGibson's film "The Passion."
The anti-Christian polemic never addresses the question why the Catholic Church for 1000 years after Constantine permitted the existence of successful Jewish communitiesin Catholic regions, without forcing them to convert, even thoughthe Catholic Church executed Protestants and other "heretics." Yes, the Catholic church has railed at the Talmud and burned it now and then. Yet the burning of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah by local Rabbis, who considered Maimonides' writings to be heretical, preceded the first Talmud burning by Catholics in Provence. This was followed by occasional burning of the Talmud in Italy for about 100 years because some Catholic scholars claimed that the modern Jewswere not practicing the same form of Judaism practiced by the ancient Judeans (as Jewish Karaite scholars then and now would also claim). The Catholic church at that time period did not have much more tolerance of Jewish heresy than it had of Christian heresy. The last Talmud burning took place in Poland in the context of political clashes between Jewish Frankists and anti-Frankists.
After the shaming of the Catholics for Talmud burning, the Catholic discussion leader, Celena Sirois, sent the group to tour the "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibition, which was completely empty of historical content, for in terms of killing authors and banning books by ethnic Ashkenazim in the Soviet Union of the same time period was orders of magnitude worse than Nazi Germany. Obscuring the facts about the Soviet Union serves the purposes of ethnic Ashkenazi Americans, who want to create a collective victim-status stereotype of Jews to cover up the racist criminal behavior of some Jews.
In the Soviet Union during the 20s and 30s ethnic Ashkenazim dominated the policies of book banning, collectivization,and alienization. These policies resulted in massive internal deportations and murders that totaled at least 8 million non-Jews. While ethnic Ashkenazim try to seize a moral high ground by collectively blaming all Germans for the acts of a tiny minority and by accusing all non-Jews of inadequate reactions to German Nazi anti-Semitism, the vast majority of ethnic Ashkenazim do not apply similar standards to themselves. They do not blame themselves collectively for Soviet crimes made possible by their ethnic group. While large numbers of Germans condemned German Nazis for anti-Jewish actions during the 30s, ethnic Ashkenazi Americans identify at 90% levels with Zionist Israel, a modern nation state that commits very similar or worse crimes against the native Palestinian population. It is hard to identify any human population on theplanet more hypocritical or racist than ethnic Ashkenazi Americans.
The traveling US Holocaust Memorial Museum "Fighting the Fires ofHate" Library exhibit was an expensive photo gallery complete with video clips demonizing Germans for their censorship and public burning of literature that Hitler found offensive. No mention was made that Hitler did not burn books written by Jews who promoted theZionist idea of "the Jewish people." There was no mention of the excellent relations between Zionists and German Nazis from 1933-1938, a time period that Hannah Arendt has called the Zionist phase of German Nazism. There was no suggestion that not all Germans were Nazis. In short, the message was simple. "Jews are innocent victims. Germans are evil incarnate. America to the rescue!" A little anti-Islamic bigotry was thrown in for spice with an out-of-contextreference to Salman Rushdie.
The exhibit glorified American Jewish protests against the German Nazis even as it neglected the extensive principled calls by German Americans like Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for American opposition to Nazi Germany. The exhibit was not a statement against book burning in general, or they could have given examples of literature which had been banned or burned in America, and how aboutthe recent US bombing of the oldest library of the world in Baghdad?Since most people have little historical knowledge, this exhibit serves to create the idea that the Jews are the defenders of American free speech. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Holocaust propaganda serves to shield the most privileged group inAmerica from just criticism of many of its members and of itscollective conduct, especially as relates to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the destruction of America's Constitutional liberties. The "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibit was a very stylish finger-pointing exercise to distract public attention from the fact that in our times, the ADL was one of the biggest lobbies pushing for the Patriot Act, which monitors the reading history of library patrons. Zionist organizations are heavily involved with Homeland Security and the State of Israel. They use book banning and far worse methods to squelch criticism of Israel. While there is no limit to the amount of hate speech against Muslims or Christians that is tolerated now in the western world, the mere suggestion that Muslims and Christians should have equal rights with Jews in the Holy Land, or that the Hollywood version of the Holocaust is not entirely accurate, have in recent times resulted in the deportation, imprisonment, and even assassination of the speakers, writers, or publishers, and in the banning of their books or films because ofZionist pressure on western governments to abandon the principle of freedom of expression. Therefore it was extremely ironic that theADL was using this library exhibit to present itself as America'sally in the fight against intellectual censorship.
After viewing the "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibit we returnedto the Conference room but we were not given a chance to brainstorm as a group about our personal impressions. We did not get a chance to reflect how the issue of book burnings might apply to our times. I found it very interesting the subtle way the Catholic schoolteachers were encouraged to absorb the historical propaganda and then guided away from rational thought on the matter. Without any logical transition, the topic shifted to the concept of faith education. The ADL leader read a portion of the Jewish Sabbath Amidah prayer that refers to "our God and the God of our fathers."Then we read a commentary by the Baal Shem Tov (the Besht), the founder of Hassidism that explains the phrase as classifying two separate approaches to religion. The "our God" approach requires searching analysis while "the God of our fathers" is based intradition and in following the practices and beliefs of our parentsand grandparents. The Besht argues that neither approach is sufficient for strong faith and that the two beliefs must be combined.
The ADL's pre-approved discussion question was, "How doesthe Ba'al Shem Tov's observation about faith formation apply to religious education?" However, they lost control of the discussion after my husband mentioned that the Besht was addressing the basic question of knowledge and faith and they had left out of his discussion two of the tools identified by medieval Jewish scholars to determine truth. Saadya Gaon lists four basis tools: the senses, logical reasoning, reliable tradition and "intrinsic insight or empathy." Saadyah Gaon considers that knowledge that it is better to do good than to do ill as an example of intrinsic insight. My husband suggested that the group consider the question, "How would you feel if you were a Palestinian and someone stole your country, murdered your family and bulldozed your home?" The ADL leader then became flustered and told us that we were not to discuss that topic.
The ADL and Zionists in general want Christians to accept thetraditional but incorrect belief that modern Eastern European Ashkenazim are physical descendants of ancient Judeans and Galileans of Palestine. Christians who believe such primordialist nonsense often consider the theft of Palestine from the native population by racist ethnic Ashkenazim to have been a legitimate action even though it contradicts Christian ethics and international law. Yet, the ADL and Zionists in general worry that connecting modernRabbinical Jews with ancient Galileans and Judeans is lnked with the traditional conceptualization of Jews as Christ-killers. Because of fear of this linkage the ADL tried to ban screen representations ofthe suffering and crucifixion of Christ even though they form the core of Christian theology. Thus, Zionists want Catholics to maintain flawed primordialist beliefs about modern ethnic Ashkenazimbut only if such traditional beliefs ("the God of our fathers"approach) are combined with the dispensation that Nostra Aetate (supposed to be a result of searching analysis by Catholic theologians) gives to modern ethnic Ashkenazim to commit atrocitieswith impunity. Zionists want Christians to accept essentialist primordialist Zionist ideology as long as Christianity drops all doctrine that assigns permanent pariah status for Jews.
After synthesizing Christian Zionism from Nostra Aetate with traditional Catholic beliefs, the program then focused on the presentation of modern Jews as marginal people in the "Fires ofHate" exhibition. We read the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke10:25-37), which had no clear connection to the exhibition topic. A man is mugged by robbers and brigands, but the Priest and the Levitedo not help him. Yet the Samaritan, who comes from a marginal despised group, helps the victim without a second thought. The intended result was a zero-intellectual content lesson thatconnected Catholics and Jews in a bond of mutual agreement not to discuss the elephant in the room.
While it is normal in Jewish theological tradition to discuss religion in the absence of any ethical considerations, this is not true for Christianity. Usually Christians strive to apply the lessons to themselves and current issues. "What would Jesus do?" So here, not only were the Christians being fed self-hatred by the ADL, and encouraged to do penance and apologize to Jews for something that was not their fault, and made to accept the Jewish lack ofapology for their historical anti-Gentile polemic, and encouraged to remain silent and not come to the defense of Palestinian Christians and Muslims being ethnically cleansed from the Holy Land out of respect for their Jewish friends' feelings, but they were being taught a whole new way of looking at scripture: discussion ofreligious texts in a way that completely avoids the topic. In short, Christians were not only made to feel guilty for believing in their own religion, but encouraged to give up their religion.
The "NewDirection" Catholic Jewish discussion provided yet another example of the pervasiveness and thoroughness of the nation-wide program to indoctrinate Americans with Zionist ideology. The next ADL pre-approved discussion question related to the Good Samaritan was, "What might this text say about what you saw inthe "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibit?" However, because of my husband's previous comment about the Palestinians, the ADL leaderwas afraid to go around the room with this question as she had with the first question. So she only allowed one brief comment.
Then it ended with the last discussion question, "What do you imagine the victim will think, say and do when he wakes up and finds out he's been helped by a Samaritan?" In a subtle way, American Catholics were going to be asked to come to the rescue of the Jews by supporting and financing the continued existence of the marginal despised country of Israel. Since the ADL leader had failed to lead the group where she was trying to lead them, because it was obvious that every one of the Catholics sympathized with the plight of thePalestinians, the last question was answered in many different ways, and the group discussion ended without the group having come to any clear conclusions.
Because of the success of a single pro-Palestine comment in undermining an expensive Zionist indoctrination interfaith effort, I strongly encourage all supporters of human rights to attend these interfaith discussions to add their two cents to the discussion.
(*) Zionists tend to focus most on the following two paragraphs (not contiguous in the text) of Nostra Aetate or We Remember. The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants andthe law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), theSon of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people. Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
AUTHORITATIVE LATIN TEXT
Semper quoque prae oculis habet Ecclesia verba Apostoli Pauli decognatis eius, „quorum adoptio est filiorum et gloria et testamentumet legislatio et obsequium et promissa, quorum patres et ex quibusest Christus secundum carnem" (Rom. 9, 4-5), filius Mariae Virginis.Recordatur etiam ex populo iudaico natos esse Apostolos, Ecclesiaefundamenta et columnas, atque plurimos illos discipulos, quiEvangelium Christi mundo annuntiaverunt.Praeterea, Ecclesia, quae omnes persecutiones in quosvis hominesreprobat, memor communis cum Iudaeis patrimonii, nec rationibuspoliticis sed religiosa caritate evangelica impulsa, odia,persecutiones, antisemitismi manifestationes, quovis tempore et aquibusvis in Iudaeos habita, deplorat.
(**) Pope John Paul II stated in March 1998, It is my fervent hope that the document: We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, which the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews has prepared under [Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy's] direction, will indeed help to heal the wounds of past misunderstandings and injustices. May it enable memory to play its necessary part in the process of shaping a future in which the unspeakable iniquity of the Shoah will never again be possible. May the Lord of history guide the efforts of Catholics and Jews and all men and women of good willas they work together for a world of true respect for the life and dignity of every human being, for all have been created in the imageand likeness of God.
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ADL's "Interfaith" Enmeshment
by Karin Friedemann with Joachim Martillo
12/12/05
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/47184/index.php
===
Report on: "New Direction" Sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League --Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 9:30 a.m. in Lower Level McKim A. In keeping with the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II documentof 1965 that set Catholic-Jewish relations in a new direction, this interfaith, interactive workshop will focus on helping Christian religious educators to prevent the "fires of hate" both inside and outside the classroom. This workshop will be presented by the NewDirections project, a Catholic-Jewish educational initiative co-sponsored by the New England Region of the Anti-Defamation League and the Office of Religious Education of the Archdiocese of Boston.
===
My husband and I took part in the above Catholic Jewish discussionat the Boston Public Library of Nostra Aetate and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) Exhibition "Fighting the Fires ofHate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings" that was hosted at theCopley Square Public Library in Boston. Nostra Aetate is Pope Paul VI's major declaration that summarizes the relationship of the Catholic Church to non-Christian religions. He issued it Oct. 28, 1965. (*) This document refers to the Jewish people. The term Jewish people comes from Zionist ideology and is unknown in Catholic theology. In the past, Catholic documents employed terms like communitas iudaica (Jewish community) or occasionally natio judaica (Jewish brotherhood -- I know it looks like Jewish nation, but the Latin texts refer to shoemakers as anatio, and I consider the closest modern English usage to be phrases like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers). The use of Zionist terminology in the Nostra Aetate leads one to suspect that key parts of the proclamation itself were written bythe ADL or other American Zionists and simply translated into Latin.
By employing such terminology, the Catholic Church accepts the Zionist conceptualization of an unchanging Jewish ethno-nationalgroup (Volk) that has existed from time immemorial and that maintains blood-and-soil historic rights to Palestine. This primordialist essentialism is the exact Zionist counterpart of theGerman Nazi idea of an unchanging German people that has existed from time immemorial and that maintains blood-and-soil historic rights to places where German peoples (including ancient Teutonicand Germanic tribes) live or have lived in the past even if no or very few modern Germans have lived there in recent times.
Jewish groups tend to construe Pope John Paul II's 1998 affirmation of "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah" as an apology for inadequacies of Catholic response to the Holocaust. In reality thedocument is ambiguous on the issue of the Church's responsibility.(**) One really must ask for what should the Church be expressing contritition. At the time when German Catholics were resisting Hitler, the Zionists entered into an extensive collaboration with the German Nazis. While leading Polish Catholics politicians were considering a preemptive strike against Germany after Hindenberg appointed Hitler Chancellor, Zionist ethnic Ashkenazim worked toundermine the worldwide boycott of Germany under the Haaverah Agreement, which supplied the Zionists with necessary capital in their program to murder Arab Palestine. Hitler facilitated the Zionist acquisition of the necessary capital to expand racist Zionist settlements in Palestine, then ruled by the British. The Haaverah Agreement also transfered the extensive property holdings of the German Colony in Palestine to the Zionist Jewish NationalFund. Until 1938 the German Nazi party maintained Jewish adjunct organizations in which German Jews were active.
American Jews generally skip over such shameful elements of the history of the1930s. Zionists want the rest of the world to treat the mass murder of Jews during WW2 as a unique unspeakable event in order to drownout the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians against them. Now that Soviet archives have become available, we now can state withstrong grounds that 1920s and 1930s Soviet crimes, in which Soviet ethnic Ashkenazim played a leading role, were far worse than the crimes of Nazi Germany.
The ADL loves the Nostra Aetate because it deplores hatred of Jewswithout qualification. Of course, ethnic Ashkenazim have been widely hated throughout the century and will become even more hated in the21st century, but they reap what they have sown. From a Christian standpoint one could argue that hatred against anyone is wrong anytime, but the papal declaration effectively gives Jews a license to commit any atrocity because the Church would according to the plain meaning of the text condemn any animosity toward Jews as amanifestation of unforgivable "anti-Semitism" even if widespread Jewish or ethnic Ashkenazi misdeeds were provoking the reactions of hate and anger. It is a mistakefor the Catholic Church to pander them in documents like Nostra Aetate. The past few years, the Zionist lobby groups have been pouring huge amounts of money into cash-poor Christian organizations in order toenmesh them as accomplices to the genocide of Palestinians. Many if not most of the Catholics attending this discussion had been flown in from other cities for a nice tourist vacation in Boston.
TheADL's general purpose for inviting Christians to participate inthese interfaith discussions is to promote Zionism among Christians and to make Christians hesitant about divesting from Israel for fear of offending "Jewish sensitivities." This was evident as I spoke to the woman who represented the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. While she was willing to blame the Germans as a whole for the Holocaust, she was unwilling to blame the ADL as an organization for its workto ban books and undermine the Constitution in America, for fear of "stereotyping Jews," even though the ADL was instrumental in lobbying for the Patriot Act.
While Pope John Paul publicly apologized for historical Catholic anti-Jewish sentiment, no Jewish leader has ever expressed regret for the slander of the Virgin Mary that exists in the Talmud. It is actually very confusing to try to understand the Jewish outrage atbeing blamed for killing Christ because the Talmud takes theposition that the Sanhedrin was right to kill him. Jews react in the same way to open discussions of such scriptural polemic as they do to any debate of the Zionist theft of Palestine. They become offended and fling accusations of "hate speech" when anyone tries to refer to the meticulous Zionist planning of the genocide of the native Palestinian population as is documented even in Zionist archives, by Zionist writers and in Zionist newspapers.
There is no evidence that the Catholic Church's new friendship with the Zionists is sincerely returned. Ethnic Ashkenazim have generally treated Nostra Aetate with contempt, and Goldhagen, a prominent racist ethnic Ashkenazi pseudo-scholar, effectively stated in AMoral Reckoning : The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair that the Catholic Church couldonly show true contrition by completely subordinating itself toZionism.
It was painful to watch sincere Christians being humiliated for their beliefs by Ashkenazi Americans, who are using the Catholic tendency towards repentance even for things they had nothing to do with, to promote their own opportunistic political agenda which includes wiping out the oldest Christian community in the world in Palestine. While Catholic teachings encourage penitence and sensitivity to the feelings of others, ethnic Ashkenazim never apologize for anything, but feign moral superiority while talking down to the Catholics.
INTERFAITH DISCUSSION OR ZIONIST INDOCTRINATION?
The discussion program was carefully crafted and aimed at encouraging the Catholic school system to incorporate the ADL's fictional Holocaust propaganda in their curriculum. The program began as the ADL discussion leader, Naomi Tovim, introduced theTalmud as the book of Jewish law and mentioned that Catholics had ahistory of burning this book. She of course did not mention what was in that book that may have offended Catholics, nor did she mention that Catholics at various points of history burned a lot of books, not limiting themselves to the Talmud. Bringing up the Catholic Church's alleged "anti-Semitism" as an introduction to the historically unrelated Nazi book burnings was in accord with the traditional ethnic Ashkenazi anti-Catholic polemic, which assigns collective guilt to all Christians for letting the Holocaust happen. This anti-Christian bigotry is sometimes given a scholarly veneer inthe works of racist ethnic Ashkenazi pseudo-scholars like Hyam Maccoby. In this polemic, Auschwitz is inherent in Christianity from the first composition of the Gospels. As a result of indoctrinationwith such nonsense American Jews reacted with outrage to MelGibson's film "The Passion."
The anti-Christian polemic never addresses the question why the Catholic Church for 1000 years after Constantine permitted the existence of successful Jewish communitiesin Catholic regions, without forcing them to convert, even thoughthe Catholic Church executed Protestants and other "heretics." Yes, the Catholic church has railed at the Talmud and burned it now and then. Yet the burning of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah by local Rabbis, who considered Maimonides' writings to be heretical, preceded the first Talmud burning by Catholics in Provence. This was followed by occasional burning of the Talmud in Italy for about 100 years because some Catholic scholars claimed that the modern Jewswere not practicing the same form of Judaism practiced by the ancient Judeans (as Jewish Karaite scholars then and now would also claim). The Catholic church at that time period did not have much more tolerance of Jewish heresy than it had of Christian heresy. The last Talmud burning took place in Poland in the context of political clashes between Jewish Frankists and anti-Frankists.
After the shaming of the Catholics for Talmud burning, the Catholic discussion leader, Celena Sirois, sent the group to tour the "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibition, which was completely empty of historical content, for in terms of killing authors and banning books by ethnic Ashkenazim in the Soviet Union of the same time period was orders of magnitude worse than Nazi Germany. Obscuring the facts about the Soviet Union serves the purposes of ethnic Ashkenazi Americans, who want to create a collective victim-status stereotype of Jews to cover up the racist criminal behavior of some Jews.
In the Soviet Union during the 20s and 30s ethnic Ashkenazim dominated the policies of book banning, collectivization,and alienization. These policies resulted in massive internal deportations and murders that totaled at least 8 million non-Jews. While ethnic Ashkenazim try to seize a moral high ground by collectively blaming all Germans for the acts of a tiny minority and by accusing all non-Jews of inadequate reactions to German Nazi anti-Semitism, the vast majority of ethnic Ashkenazim do not apply similar standards to themselves. They do not blame themselves collectively for Soviet crimes made possible by their ethnic group. While large numbers of Germans condemned German Nazis for anti-Jewish actions during the 30s, ethnic Ashkenazi Americans identify at 90% levels with Zionist Israel, a modern nation state that commits very similar or worse crimes against the native Palestinian population. It is hard to identify any human population on theplanet more hypocritical or racist than ethnic Ashkenazi Americans.
The traveling US Holocaust Memorial Museum "Fighting the Fires ofHate" Library exhibit was an expensive photo gallery complete with video clips demonizing Germans for their censorship and public burning of literature that Hitler found offensive. No mention was made that Hitler did not burn books written by Jews who promoted theZionist idea of "the Jewish people." There was no mention of the excellent relations between Zionists and German Nazis from 1933-1938, a time period that Hannah Arendt has called the Zionist phase of German Nazism. There was no suggestion that not all Germans were Nazis. In short, the message was simple. "Jews are innocent victims. Germans are evil incarnate. America to the rescue!" A little anti-Islamic bigotry was thrown in for spice with an out-of-contextreference to Salman Rushdie.
The exhibit glorified American Jewish protests against the German Nazis even as it neglected the extensive principled calls by German Americans like Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for American opposition to Nazi Germany. The exhibit was not a statement against book burning in general, or they could have given examples of literature which had been banned or burned in America, and how aboutthe recent US bombing of the oldest library of the world in Baghdad?Since most people have little historical knowledge, this exhibit serves to create the idea that the Jews are the defenders of American free speech. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Holocaust propaganda serves to shield the most privileged group inAmerica from just criticism of many of its members and of itscollective conduct, especially as relates to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the destruction of America's Constitutional liberties. The "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibit was a very stylish finger-pointing exercise to distract public attention from the fact that in our times, the ADL was one of the biggest lobbies pushing for the Patriot Act, which monitors the reading history of library patrons. Zionist organizations are heavily involved with Homeland Security and the State of Israel. They use book banning and far worse methods to squelch criticism of Israel. While there is no limit to the amount of hate speech against Muslims or Christians that is tolerated now in the western world, the mere suggestion that Muslims and Christians should have equal rights with Jews in the Holy Land, or that the Hollywood version of the Holocaust is not entirely accurate, have in recent times resulted in the deportation, imprisonment, and even assassination of the speakers, writers, or publishers, and in the banning of their books or films because ofZionist pressure on western governments to abandon the principle of freedom of expression. Therefore it was extremely ironic that theADL was using this library exhibit to present itself as America'sally in the fight against intellectual censorship.
After viewing the "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibit we returnedto the Conference room but we were not given a chance to brainstorm as a group about our personal impressions. We did not get a chance to reflect how the issue of book burnings might apply to our times. I found it very interesting the subtle way the Catholic schoolteachers were encouraged to absorb the historical propaganda and then guided away from rational thought on the matter. Without any logical transition, the topic shifted to the concept of faith education. The ADL leader read a portion of the Jewish Sabbath Amidah prayer that refers to "our God and the God of our fathers."Then we read a commentary by the Baal Shem Tov (the Besht), the founder of Hassidism that explains the phrase as classifying two separate approaches to religion. The "our God" approach requires searching analysis while "the God of our fathers" is based intradition and in following the practices and beliefs of our parentsand grandparents. The Besht argues that neither approach is sufficient for strong faith and that the two beliefs must be combined.
The ADL's pre-approved discussion question was, "How doesthe Ba'al Shem Tov's observation about faith formation apply to religious education?" However, they lost control of the discussion after my husband mentioned that the Besht was addressing the basic question of knowledge and faith and they had left out of his discussion two of the tools identified by medieval Jewish scholars to determine truth. Saadya Gaon lists four basis tools: the senses, logical reasoning, reliable tradition and "intrinsic insight or empathy." Saadyah Gaon considers that knowledge that it is better to do good than to do ill as an example of intrinsic insight. My husband suggested that the group consider the question, "How would you feel if you were a Palestinian and someone stole your country, murdered your family and bulldozed your home?" The ADL leader then became flustered and told us that we were not to discuss that topic.
The ADL and Zionists in general want Christians to accept thetraditional but incorrect belief that modern Eastern European Ashkenazim are physical descendants of ancient Judeans and Galileans of Palestine. Christians who believe such primordialist nonsense often consider the theft of Palestine from the native population by racist ethnic Ashkenazim to have been a legitimate action even though it contradicts Christian ethics and international law. Yet, the ADL and Zionists in general worry that connecting modernRabbinical Jews with ancient Galileans and Judeans is lnked with the traditional conceptualization of Jews as Christ-killers. Because of fear of this linkage the ADL tried to ban screen representations ofthe suffering and crucifixion of Christ even though they form the core of Christian theology. Thus, Zionists want Catholics to maintain flawed primordialist beliefs about modern ethnic Ashkenazimbut only if such traditional beliefs ("the God of our fathers"approach) are combined with the dispensation that Nostra Aetate (supposed to be a result of searching analysis by Catholic theologians) gives to modern ethnic Ashkenazim to commit atrocitieswith impunity. Zionists want Christians to accept essentialist primordialist Zionist ideology as long as Christianity drops all doctrine that assigns permanent pariah status for Jews.
After synthesizing Christian Zionism from Nostra Aetate with traditional Catholic beliefs, the program then focused on the presentation of modern Jews as marginal people in the "Fires ofHate" exhibition. We read the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke10:25-37), which had no clear connection to the exhibition topic. A man is mugged by robbers and brigands, but the Priest and the Levitedo not help him. Yet the Samaritan, who comes from a marginal despised group, helps the victim without a second thought. The intended result was a zero-intellectual content lesson thatconnected Catholics and Jews in a bond of mutual agreement not to discuss the elephant in the room.
While it is normal in Jewish theological tradition to discuss religion in the absence of any ethical considerations, this is not true for Christianity. Usually Christians strive to apply the lessons to themselves and current issues. "What would Jesus do?" So here, not only were the Christians being fed self-hatred by the ADL, and encouraged to do penance and apologize to Jews for something that was not their fault, and made to accept the Jewish lack ofapology for their historical anti-Gentile polemic, and encouraged to remain silent and not come to the defense of Palestinian Christians and Muslims being ethnically cleansed from the Holy Land out of respect for their Jewish friends' feelings, but they were being taught a whole new way of looking at scripture: discussion ofreligious texts in a way that completely avoids the topic. In short, Christians were not only made to feel guilty for believing in their own religion, but encouraged to give up their religion.
The "NewDirection" Catholic Jewish discussion provided yet another example of the pervasiveness and thoroughness of the nation-wide program to indoctrinate Americans with Zionist ideology. The next ADL pre-approved discussion question related to the Good Samaritan was, "What might this text say about what you saw inthe "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibit?" However, because of my husband's previous comment about the Palestinians, the ADL leaderwas afraid to go around the room with this question as she had with the first question. So she only allowed one brief comment.
Then it ended with the last discussion question, "What do you imagine the victim will think, say and do when he wakes up and finds out he's been helped by a Samaritan?" In a subtle way, American Catholics were going to be asked to come to the rescue of the Jews by supporting and financing the continued existence of the marginal despised country of Israel. Since the ADL leader had failed to lead the group where she was trying to lead them, because it was obvious that every one of the Catholics sympathized with the plight of thePalestinians, the last question was answered in many different ways, and the group discussion ended without the group having come to any clear conclusions.
Because of the success of a single pro-Palestine comment in undermining an expensive Zionist indoctrination interfaith effort, I strongly encourage all supporters of human rights to attend these interfaith discussions to add their two cents to the discussion.
(*) Zionists tend to focus most on the following two paragraphs (not contiguous in the text) of Nostra Aetate or We Remember. The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants andthe law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), theSon of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people. Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
AUTHORITATIVE LATIN TEXT
Semper quoque prae oculis habet Ecclesia verba Apostoli Pauli decognatis eius, „quorum adoptio est filiorum et gloria et testamentumet legislatio et obsequium et promissa, quorum patres et ex quibusest Christus secundum carnem" (Rom. 9, 4-5), filius Mariae Virginis.Recordatur etiam ex populo iudaico natos esse Apostolos, Ecclesiaefundamenta et columnas, atque plurimos illos discipulos, quiEvangelium Christi mundo annuntiaverunt.Praeterea, Ecclesia, quae omnes persecutiones in quosvis hominesreprobat, memor communis cum Iudaeis patrimonii, nec rationibuspoliticis sed religiosa caritate evangelica impulsa, odia,persecutiones, antisemitismi manifestationes, quovis tempore et aquibusvis in Iudaeos habita, deplorat.
(**) Pope John Paul II stated in March 1998, It is my fervent hope that the document: We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, which the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews has prepared under [Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy's] direction, will indeed help to heal the wounds of past misunderstandings and injustices. May it enable memory to play its necessary part in the process of shaping a future in which the unspeakable iniquity of the Shoah will never again be possible. May the Lord of history guide the efforts of Catholics and Jews and all men and women of good willas they work together for a world of true respect for the life and dignity of every human being, for all have been created in the imageand likeness of God.
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Our Parents Sent Us to War
Our Parents Sent Us to War
by Karin riedemann
This is written in response to Stan Goff's article "The Case of HasanAkbar" [ www.counterpunch.org/goff05022005.html ] in which he repeatedly asserted that he did not condone Hasan Akbar's killing of two US soldiers. I was put off by his obscene moralizing and wrote to him that were I in Akbar's shoes I would have done the same thing, and when I am president I will put Hasan Akbar on a postage stamp. His response was, "My son is in Iraq, and I will not encourage him to draw a death penalty… Mass action will defeat the empire." Look at this. He is moralizing about Hasan Akbar and yet he is unwilling to accept any responsibility for his son's morals. I suggested a mass action againstparents who allow their children to murder Muslims. He responded by calling me stupid and I quote, "Go back to your fucking sandbox."
A lot of aging leftists like to blame the war on George W. Bush and invite us to march in the streets. To quote Stan Goff, "Mass action will defeat the empire." Will protesting stop the war? Everyone with a brain already knows that marching on Washington will not even disturb George W. Bush's breakfast. In fact, by causing havoc on thestreets we actually distract the public's attention from the real crimes taking place. AIPAC lobbying Congress to bomb this or that country. Halliburton stealing our tax money and putting it in their pockets.
The fact is, I can't control George Bush. But I can teach my son the difference between right and wrong. He knows who the bad guys are. He won't volunteer to die for George Bush but I would encourage him to die for freedom. In Stan Goff's case, he is an ex-military man who turned anti-war. How is it that his insights failed to reach his son? I have talked to (and been insulted by) other parents who claimed to be anti-war, anti-Zionist, what have you, and yet allow their children to display flags on their property. How is it that the wisdom of these parents fails to reach their children? Why are they in Iraq?
My grandfather was drafted at gunpoint and sent to Stalingrad byHitler, where he was probably tortured to death in a Soviet concentration camp. In any case no one ever heard from him again. He cannot be blamed since he had no choice. But Americans are not yet forced to join the army. In the case of extreme poverty, one can perhaps understand and forgive. But this kid has a father who cares about him, an anti-war father, no less, and yet he chose to kill Muslims rather than listen to his father. Why did he feel that his financial independence was worth more than his father's opinion?
My mother taught me that it is better to be killed than to kill. My personal philosophy was modified when a bunch of skinheads pounded a hippy friend's head on the sidewalk while his friends stood around chanting "Peace, peace." There is a time to chant "peace" and there isa time to kick someone's ass. Right now the Iraqis have every right to kick American soldiers out of Iraq. I am willing to accept violence within the guidelines outlined in the Quran, where it says you have the right to fight in certain circumstances, for example if your life and property is threatened.
The Prophet Mohammed said that the army of the anti-Christ would becomposed of bastard children led by the Jews. Does this really meanthe servants of Evil have no fathers? Or does it mean that theysomehow got disconnected from their fathers? The sad thing is, most Americans encourage their children to leave the house at age eighteen. I was made to feel very ashamed for sponging off my parents. By contrast, Muslim parents beg their children not to leave them.
Could there be any connection between American kids' willingness to kill for money and the way they were raised? Could there be any connection between Muslim kids' willingness to die for justice and the way they were raised? Could there be any connection between the feeling that kids get that their parents do not want them and the fact that theyare willing to join the military rather than live with their parents?
Mr. Goff dismissed my insights as "simplistic moralizing standards" –and yet the truth is very simple. Folks, stop blaming the war on George the Imbecile. He is just a pawn. We are at war because we allowed our country to be taken over by Zionists and other opportunists. We refused to take responsibility for our country. We refused responsibility for our children's actions. At core, we are at war because we failed our children. Our children with all their faults need us to provide them with a warm family atmosphere or else they will be sucked away from our embrace by military recruiters.
by Karin riedemann
This is written in response to Stan Goff's article "The Case of HasanAkbar" [ www.counterpunch.org/goff05022005.html ] in which he repeatedly asserted that he did not condone Hasan Akbar's killing of two US soldiers. I was put off by his obscene moralizing and wrote to him that were I in Akbar's shoes I would have done the same thing, and when I am president I will put Hasan Akbar on a postage stamp. His response was, "My son is in Iraq, and I will not encourage him to draw a death penalty… Mass action will defeat the empire." Look at this. He is moralizing about Hasan Akbar and yet he is unwilling to accept any responsibility for his son's morals. I suggested a mass action againstparents who allow their children to murder Muslims. He responded by calling me stupid and I quote, "Go back to your fucking sandbox."
A lot of aging leftists like to blame the war on George W. Bush and invite us to march in the streets. To quote Stan Goff, "Mass action will defeat the empire." Will protesting stop the war? Everyone with a brain already knows that marching on Washington will not even disturb George W. Bush's breakfast. In fact, by causing havoc on thestreets we actually distract the public's attention from the real crimes taking place. AIPAC lobbying Congress to bomb this or that country. Halliburton stealing our tax money and putting it in their pockets.
The fact is, I can't control George Bush. But I can teach my son the difference between right and wrong. He knows who the bad guys are. He won't volunteer to die for George Bush but I would encourage him to die for freedom. In Stan Goff's case, he is an ex-military man who turned anti-war. How is it that his insights failed to reach his son? I have talked to (and been insulted by) other parents who claimed to be anti-war, anti-Zionist, what have you, and yet allow their children to display flags on their property. How is it that the wisdom of these parents fails to reach their children? Why are they in Iraq?
My grandfather was drafted at gunpoint and sent to Stalingrad byHitler, where he was probably tortured to death in a Soviet concentration camp. In any case no one ever heard from him again. He cannot be blamed since he had no choice. But Americans are not yet forced to join the army. In the case of extreme poverty, one can perhaps understand and forgive. But this kid has a father who cares about him, an anti-war father, no less, and yet he chose to kill Muslims rather than listen to his father. Why did he feel that his financial independence was worth more than his father's opinion?
My mother taught me that it is better to be killed than to kill. My personal philosophy was modified when a bunch of skinheads pounded a hippy friend's head on the sidewalk while his friends stood around chanting "Peace, peace." There is a time to chant "peace" and there isa time to kick someone's ass. Right now the Iraqis have every right to kick American soldiers out of Iraq. I am willing to accept violence within the guidelines outlined in the Quran, where it says you have the right to fight in certain circumstances, for example if your life and property is threatened.
The Prophet Mohammed said that the army of the anti-Christ would becomposed of bastard children led by the Jews. Does this really meanthe servants of Evil have no fathers? Or does it mean that theysomehow got disconnected from their fathers? The sad thing is, most Americans encourage their children to leave the house at age eighteen. I was made to feel very ashamed for sponging off my parents. By contrast, Muslim parents beg their children not to leave them.
Could there be any connection between American kids' willingness to kill for money and the way they were raised? Could there be any connection between Muslim kids' willingness to die for justice and the way they were raised? Could there be any connection between the feeling that kids get that their parents do not want them and the fact that theyare willing to join the military rather than live with their parents?
Mr. Goff dismissed my insights as "simplistic moralizing standards" –and yet the truth is very simple. Folks, stop blaming the war on George the Imbecile. He is just a pawn. We are at war because we allowed our country to be taken over by Zionists and other opportunists. We refused to take responsibility for our country. We refused responsibility for our children's actions. At core, we are at war because we failed our children. Our children with all their faults need us to provide them with a warm family atmosphere or else they will be sucked away from our embrace by military recruiters.
America Died in Somerville
America Died in Somerville
12/9/04
Jewish organizations have actually used their personal leverage to force public funds to be used for irresponsible investments benefitting certain Jewish Americans.
Somerville City Council's Treason Against America
Informal report by Karin Friedemann
Boston, MA
12/10/04
Somerville lost the divestment resolution last night. It was a stunning defeat. Somehow the Jewish lobby got a total turnaround from all but one on the City Council in support of divestment to all but one against divestment. The Zionist "baffle them with bullshit" tactic worked. They made the Aldermen feel totally inadequate to separate fact from fiction. They made the City Council feel like it was not their place to protect the Somerville's public funds frombeing embezzled by Israel. Hopefully the moral cowards will be voted out of office. But don't count on it. America died its death this week in Somerville, which was once a freedom stronghold in the United States.
The Zionists put out all their heavy hitmen to defeat Somerville - a small town - so they are more desperate than is obvious. Despitetheir success at intimidating the Aldermen and Alderwomen into submission, it was surprisingly clear that all the arguments the Zionists were using were not only intellectually bankrupt but also absurdly outdated. Despite their victory, the Zionists looked downright uncomfortable with their success, whether they were avoiding eye contact or sneering. Their eyes were empty, their hearts cold as ice. They had died. It's over for them in America. No one can consider any Israel supporteras fellow Americans anymore.
The most obvious thing gleaned from my observation last night was the overwhelming lack of shame with which the Jewish organizations of the Boston area openly used their power to undermine American democracy when the majority of Somerville residents polled supported divestment. Somerville City Council actually acted against Somerville interests. With the knowledge that investing in Israel means investing in ethnic cleansing, the decision to then continue to use public funds for controversial money-making projects - knowing that a rather large percentage of Somerville is deeply opposed to these projects -the responsible thing would be to avoid controversial investments; not to force the public to invest against their will. The public has no obligation to invest in Israel. The public has the right to be informed about Israeli war crimes and to withdraw their funds. Jewish organizations have actually used their personal leverage to force public funds to be used for irresponsible investments benefitting certain Jewish Americans.
Update:
Thu Jan 12, 2006
Somerville: Pro-Israel Candidate Defeated
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/message/5017
Anti-Divestment Candidate Soundly Defeated in Somerville
www.divestmentproject.org
In a stunning defeat for anti-divestment forces in Somerville, the avidly anti-divestment candidate E. Moroney was soundly defeated in the only head-to-head match for elected office that Somerville has seen in two years. SDP (Somervillle Divestment Project) protested publicly Moroney's campaign last December (see photos). Moroney lost 62 % to 38 % to Denise Provost - a candidate whose campaign was suppported by many SDP members. Moroney's Website said that "Elizabeth Moroney strongly opposes attempts to require Somerville or the Commonwealth to divest of Israeli Bonds. (an error - the bonds are called Israel Bonds ). Somerville needs more local aid not a foreign policy".
Apparently Somerville citizens disagree. Moroney's stance on divestment distinguished her from Denise Provost -a well known progressive candidate who supports human rights for all people. In response to Moroney stance on divestment, SDP pointed out in a publicly distributed flyer that Somerville already has a foreign policy by investing in Israel. SDP calls for divestment from Israel bonds and companies that support the human rights violations. Moroney was supported by Steve Grossman a well known zionist who opposes human rights for Palestinians.
Thanks to the work of SDP, divestment became a hot issue in Somerviile over the last two years. Today's result indicates that candidates who do not oppose divestment can win citywide in Somerville. Recently, an entire region of Norway voted to boycott Israel, and a city in the Basque region of Spain, have boosted the international pressure for human rights for Palestinians. The defeat of Moroney echos the support for divestment that exists in Somerville. SDP continues to advocate for divestment in Somerville.
Anti-divestment supporters, such as Steve Grossman, supported Moroney with cash and hoped to defeat Denise Provost. They were not successful. Let's look forward to a year where Israel will be pressured andeventually forced to recognize the human rights of Palestinians. The world community is losing patience with Israel. It is simply not acceptable for Israel to carryout racist policies against and apartheid against Palestinians.
Divest Now !
R. Francis for SDP
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12/9/04
Jewish organizations have actually used their personal leverage to force public funds to be used for irresponsible investments benefitting certain Jewish Americans.
Somerville City Council's Treason Against America
Informal report by Karin Friedemann
Boston, MA
12/10/04
Somerville lost the divestment resolution last night. It was a stunning defeat. Somehow the Jewish lobby got a total turnaround from all but one on the City Council in support of divestment to all but one against divestment. The Zionist "baffle them with bullshit" tactic worked. They made the Aldermen feel totally inadequate to separate fact from fiction. They made the City Council feel like it was not their place to protect the Somerville's public funds frombeing embezzled by Israel. Hopefully the moral cowards will be voted out of office. But don't count on it. America died its death this week in Somerville, which was once a freedom stronghold in the United States.
The Zionists put out all their heavy hitmen to defeat Somerville - a small town - so they are more desperate than is obvious. Despitetheir success at intimidating the Aldermen and Alderwomen into submission, it was surprisingly clear that all the arguments the Zionists were using were not only intellectually bankrupt but also absurdly outdated. Despite their victory, the Zionists looked downright uncomfortable with their success, whether they were avoiding eye contact or sneering. Their eyes were empty, their hearts cold as ice. They had died. It's over for them in America. No one can consider any Israel supporteras fellow Americans anymore.
The most obvious thing gleaned from my observation last night was the overwhelming lack of shame with which the Jewish organizations of the Boston area openly used their power to undermine American democracy when the majority of Somerville residents polled supported divestment. Somerville City Council actually acted against Somerville interests. With the knowledge that investing in Israel means investing in ethnic cleansing, the decision to then continue to use public funds for controversial money-making projects - knowing that a rather large percentage of Somerville is deeply opposed to these projects -the responsible thing would be to avoid controversial investments; not to force the public to invest against their will. The public has no obligation to invest in Israel. The public has the right to be informed about Israeli war crimes and to withdraw their funds. Jewish organizations have actually used their personal leverage to force public funds to be used for irresponsible investments benefitting certain Jewish Americans.
Update:
Thu Jan 12, 2006
Somerville: Pro-Israel Candidate Defeated
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/message/5017
Anti-Divestment Candidate Soundly Defeated in Somerville
www.divestmentproject.org
In a stunning defeat for anti-divestment forces in Somerville, the avidly anti-divestment candidate E. Moroney was soundly defeated in the only head-to-head match for elected office that Somerville has seen in two years. SDP (Somervillle Divestment Project) protested publicly Moroney's campaign last December (see photos). Moroney lost 62 % to 38 % to Denise Provost - a candidate whose campaign was suppported by many SDP members. Moroney's Website said that "Elizabeth Moroney strongly opposes attempts to require Somerville or the Commonwealth to divest of Israeli Bonds. (an error - the bonds are called Israel Bonds ). Somerville needs more local aid not a foreign policy".
Apparently Somerville citizens disagree. Moroney's stance on divestment distinguished her from Denise Provost -a well known progressive candidate who supports human rights for all people. In response to Moroney stance on divestment, SDP pointed out in a publicly distributed flyer that Somerville already has a foreign policy by investing in Israel. SDP calls for divestment from Israel bonds and companies that support the human rights violations. Moroney was supported by Steve Grossman a well known zionist who opposes human rights for Palestinians.
Thanks to the work of SDP, divestment became a hot issue in Somerviile over the last two years. Today's result indicates that candidates who do not oppose divestment can win citywide in Somerville. Recently, an entire region of Norway voted to boycott Israel, and a city in the Basque region of Spain, have boosted the international pressure for human rights for Palestinians. The defeat of Moroney echos the support for divestment that exists in Somerville. SDP continues to advocate for divestment in Somerville.
Anti-divestment supporters, such as Steve Grossman, supported Moroney with cash and hoped to defeat Denise Provost. They were not successful. Let's look forward to a year where Israel will be pressured andeventually forced to recognize the human rights of Palestinians. The world community is losing patience with Israel. It is simply not acceptable for Israel to carryout racist policies against and apartheid against Palestinians.
Divest Now !
R. Francis for SDP
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Sunday, December 18, 2005
Hate Incited in Somerville
Hate-mongers do not represent Somerville residents.
Hate Incited in Somerville
Karin Friedemann, Boston, MA
Saturday, August 6, 2005
An unknown person scrawled "KILL ALL ARABS" on an electricity pole
down the street from the Broken Yolk cafe. This expression of
genocidal racism is unusual in Somerville. While the majority of
Somerville residents support equal rights for Muslims, Christians and Jews in America and in the Holy Land, a small minority believes in the existence of an exclusively Jewish State funded by American tax dollars. Very worrying is the fact that Somerville city employees' 401K plans are invested in Israel - a scam perhaps explained by the gifts the mayor of Somerville received from the Jewish Lobby.
Despite Israel's ongoing human rights violations including the
bulldozing of Palestinian Muslim and Christian homes, Somerville city employees are not even given the option to opt out of their personal investments in these Israel bonds which are continually losing value. This irresponsible investment has lost the city a lot of money.
The hate crime committed in Somerville is a wake-up call to the city of Somerville not to let pro-Israel advocates dictate the use of Somerville public money to line their own pockets.
Genocidal racists do not represent Somerville. It's time to divest now.
Hate Incited in Somerville
Karin Friedemann, Boston, MA
Saturday, August 6, 2005
An unknown person scrawled "KILL ALL ARABS" on an electricity pole
down the street from the Broken Yolk cafe. This expression of
genocidal racism is unusual in Somerville. While the majority of
Somerville residents support equal rights for Muslims, Christians and Jews in America and in the Holy Land, a small minority believes in the existence of an exclusively Jewish State funded by American tax dollars. Very worrying is the fact that Somerville city employees' 401K plans are invested in Israel - a scam perhaps explained by the gifts the mayor of Somerville received from the Jewish Lobby.
Despite Israel's ongoing human rights violations including the
bulldozing of Palestinian Muslim and Christian homes, Somerville city employees are not even given the option to opt out of their personal investments in these Israel bonds which are continually losing value. This irresponsible investment has lost the city a lot of money.
The hate crime committed in Somerville is a wake-up call to the city of Somerville not to let pro-Israel advocates dictate the use of Somerville public money to line their own pockets.
Genocidal racists do not represent Somerville. It's time to divest now.
Boston NeoCons to Wiretap Mosques
Boston NeoCons to Wiretap Mosques
by Karin Friedemann
Sept. 16, 2005
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/41763/index.php
The Pro-Israel lobby gave MA Governor Romney payola. Now he is
revoking the Constitution to help Israel spy on American Muslims.
Boston Jewish groups were given $2.1 million of US tax money to "beef up security."
They used some of this money to give the governor and several mayors free trips to Israel. Now our elected officials are accepting strategy from neocon advisors to spy on Muslim Americans.
In order to fight against being wiretapped, the local community must do more than protest. They must pinpoint and prosecute those
individuals and organizations involved in the treasonous advising of our elected officials to drop the Constitution. The treasonous Neocons want to go after American Muslims simply because the Jewish
organizations don't agree with them on certain issues. The decision to give Homeland Security to Israeli security companies has all to do with the Israel Lobby funneling public money into private pockets.
Boston Zionist organizations have millions of dollars but what they don't have is public support. They have successfully controlled the "slant" of any discussion about Muslims but they cannot stop
Somerville from divesting from Israel. Less than 5% of Somerville supports Israel's US-subsidized existence. 70% strongly support the divestment ballot petition up for vote in 2007.
Will the Boston Jewish organizations destroy all that America stands for? Wll the Boston Muslim community stand up and defend America alongside their neighbors? If you want to help the Muslims you have to help America get rid of these subversive pro-Israel fanatics trashing democracy.
I am sure that there is no question in anyone's mind that bulldozing Palestinian homes, bombing Iraq and Afghanistan, the
normalization of torture, sending tax money to Israel instead of
repairing New Orlean's levee before the hurricane hit, wiretapping
American mosques, etc are pure evil. But Somerville has made the
neocons vulnerable. A handful of Americans can take their country back one city at a time. Please make the decision to help Somerville Divestment Project defeat the pro-Israel lobby one day this week. Or talk to your church or synagogue encouraging them to boycott Israel.
You don't have to be a citizen or a Somerville resident
to help. See divestmentproject.org for info
by Karin Friedemann
Sept. 16, 2005
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/41763/index.php
The Pro-Israel lobby gave MA Governor Romney payola. Now he is
revoking the Constitution to help Israel spy on American Muslims.
Boston Jewish groups were given $2.1 million of US tax money to "beef up security."
They used some of this money to give the governor and several mayors free trips to Israel. Now our elected officials are accepting strategy from neocon advisors to spy on Muslim Americans.
In order to fight against being wiretapped, the local community must do more than protest. They must pinpoint and prosecute those
individuals and organizations involved in the treasonous advising of our elected officials to drop the Constitution. The treasonous Neocons want to go after American Muslims simply because the Jewish
organizations don't agree with them on certain issues. The decision to give Homeland Security to Israeli security companies has all to do with the Israel Lobby funneling public money into private pockets.
Boston Zionist organizations have millions of dollars but what they don't have is public support. They have successfully controlled the "slant" of any discussion about Muslims but they cannot stop
Somerville from divesting from Israel. Less than 5% of Somerville supports Israel's US-subsidized existence. 70% strongly support the divestment ballot petition up for vote in 2007.
Will the Boston Jewish organizations destroy all that America stands for? Wll the Boston Muslim community stand up and defend America alongside their neighbors? If you want to help the Muslims you have to help America get rid of these subversive pro-Israel fanatics trashing democracy.
I am sure that there is no question in anyone's mind that bulldozing Palestinian homes, bombing Iraq and Afghanistan, the
normalization of torture, sending tax money to Israel instead of
repairing New Orlean's levee before the hurricane hit, wiretapping
American mosques, etc are pure evil. But Somerville has made the
neocons vulnerable. A handful of Americans can take their country back one city at a time. Please make the decision to help Somerville Divestment Project defeat the pro-Israel lobby one day this week. Or talk to your church or synagogue encouraging them to boycott Israel.
You don't have to be a citizen or a Somerville resident
to help. See divestmentproject.org for info
Friday, December 16, 2005
Flowers of Galilee: Book Review
Flowers of Galilee: Book Review
The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Volume 21 Fall 2004 Number 4, pp. 124-126Book
Review Flowers of Galilee: The Collected Essays of Israel Shamir
By Israel Shamir
Tempe, Arizona: Dandelion Books, 2004. 304 pages.
Flowers of Galilee breaks new ground in modern political discourse.This book recommends a democratic one-state solution in all of historical Palestine and the return of the Palestinians to rebuildtheir villages. The beautiful front cover painting by SuleimanMansour of Jerusalem lovingly depicts a Palestinian family, childrenseated on a donkey, walking past a hill covered with olive trees.Similarly, Israel Shamir's essays portray the peaceful, pastorallandscape of the Holy Land and the humanity of its inhabitants,juxtaposed against the ugliness and inhumanity of Jewish racism.These thought-provoking essays, written in Jaffa during the al-AqsaIntifada in 2001-2, call for Jews to leave their sense ofexclusivity and plead for human equality.
The author, a Russian immigrant to Israel in 1969, followed his meditations to their inevitable conclusion, renounced Judaism, and was baptized in thePalestinian Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. A brilliant storytellerwith a vast knowedge of history, he discusses current events andtheir global implications with brutal honesty and tenderness. His clear insights and lyrical use of language to illustrate social, religious, and political complexities make him the Khalil Gibran ofour time.
An important chapter, "The Last Action Heroes," memorializes theSpring 2002 siege of Bethlehem. The Israeli army surrounded 40 monksand priests and 200 Palestinians seeking refuge in the Church ofNativity. For a month, "people starved...the stench of corpses andof infected wounds filled the old church" (p. 63). The UN didnothing, but a few International Solidarity Movement activists fromAmerica and Europe, including the author's son, broke the siege. Onegroup distracted the soldiers while the others rushed into thechurch's gates, brought food and water, and helped negotiate asurrender.Shamir deconstructs the legal fictions of the state of Israel andthe elusive Palestinian state: "
Israelis who would like to live inpeace with their Palestinian neighbors...cannot counteract the raw muscle of the American Jewish leadership" (p.179). He furtherdissects the Jewish Holocaust cult and other Zionist public relations tactics. He exposes the two-state solution as a politicalbluff, calls on the world to cut off aid to Israel, and admonishes the Muslim world for indulging in usury. Shamir strives to free Gentiles from both their fear and adorationof Jews. He searches into the material successes of world Jewry, the Jewish rejection of Jesus, and the global applications of Jewish ideology, resulting in the mass immigrations of refugees into Europe from war zones and the destruction of local cultures.
The Left and the Right, he believes, are like the two legs of a human being: They must work together to counteract the uprooting and homogenizing forces of the global elite, whom he calls Mammonites. The author debunks the myth of Islamic terror, pointing to the anti-Gentile polemic embedded in Jewish discourse. He demystifies the threat of "anti-Semitism" as a control mechanism to keep good Jews from confronting those Jewish leaders responsible for promoting war and policies of economic inequality. He points out that the political position of a "moderate" Jew is alarmingly similar to Nazism.
Shamir explains "Jewishness" as a destructive concept of "separateness and privilege" based on the "two-tier approach of ingroup-outgroup" (p. 263). He sees Jewish chauvinism as threatening not only Palestinians but the entire world, because of the Jewish control over public opinion and policy. His philosophical analysis of Judeo-American power is illuminating. Shamir pays tribute to former US Representative Cynthia McKinney,who stands out as a politician who refused to be disloyal to America. Her defeat by Jews who organized Republican voters to vote Democratic in order to unseat her sounded the death knell of American democracy.
Jews used black Americans to open the doors to the elite positions formerly held only by white Christians. Once the Jews were in, the author explains, they closed the doors to blacks. Jewish equal rights activists were steered into Zionism and became enemies to those blacks who rejected Jewish supremacy. The book concludes with the author's personal peace treaty with the Arabs: "As for me, Syrian children may come and swim in the Sea of Galilee, and children of Palestine are welcome to the amusement parks of Tel Aviv...The refugees of Gaza may come back to the fields they owned before 1948, and deal directly with the few old Polish Jews who 'privatized' the lands. Keep me out of it."
He tells Sharon: "General, if you want war, please wage it personally" (p.296).The author presents a compelling argument to the native Palestiniansto accept him as their brother and let him live in their beautiful land as a neighbor, with their permission and blessing. Every chapter maintains an inspiring certainty of humanity's victory over evil. I would have liked to learn more about his own pesonal transformation from someone who watched his Israeli army buddies shoot unarmed prisoners to someone that courageously withstands vilification to champion human rights for all.
Flowers of Galilee is a romantic discourse on Palestine that lacksnative Palestinian voices; however, it provides sincere and wise counsel. The author recommends neutralizing the invader through assimilation. He dreams of a world in which the descendants of Jews and Palestinians will be able to live as equals, intermarry, and create a new race of people. Shamir's proposal is consistent withIslamic tradition and is the only viable option for a lasting peacein the Middle East.
Karin M. Friedemann, EditorWorld View News Service
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns
The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Volume 21 Fall 2004 Number 4, pp. 124-126Book
Review Flowers of Galilee: The Collected Essays of Israel Shamir
By Israel Shamir
Tempe, Arizona: Dandelion Books, 2004. 304 pages.
Flowers of Galilee breaks new ground in modern political discourse.This book recommends a democratic one-state solution in all of historical Palestine and the return of the Palestinians to rebuildtheir villages. The beautiful front cover painting by SuleimanMansour of Jerusalem lovingly depicts a Palestinian family, childrenseated on a donkey, walking past a hill covered with olive trees.Similarly, Israel Shamir's essays portray the peaceful, pastorallandscape of the Holy Land and the humanity of its inhabitants,juxtaposed against the ugliness and inhumanity of Jewish racism.These thought-provoking essays, written in Jaffa during the al-AqsaIntifada in 2001-2, call for Jews to leave their sense ofexclusivity and plead for human equality.
The author, a Russian immigrant to Israel in 1969, followed his meditations to their inevitable conclusion, renounced Judaism, and was baptized in thePalestinian Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. A brilliant storytellerwith a vast knowedge of history, he discusses current events andtheir global implications with brutal honesty and tenderness. His clear insights and lyrical use of language to illustrate social, religious, and political complexities make him the Khalil Gibran ofour time.
An important chapter, "The Last Action Heroes," memorializes theSpring 2002 siege of Bethlehem. The Israeli army surrounded 40 monksand priests and 200 Palestinians seeking refuge in the Church ofNativity. For a month, "people starved...the stench of corpses andof infected wounds filled the old church" (p. 63). The UN didnothing, but a few International Solidarity Movement activists fromAmerica and Europe, including the author's son, broke the siege. Onegroup distracted the soldiers while the others rushed into thechurch's gates, brought food and water, and helped negotiate asurrender.Shamir deconstructs the legal fictions of the state of Israel andthe elusive Palestinian state: "
Israelis who would like to live inpeace with their Palestinian neighbors...cannot counteract the raw muscle of the American Jewish leadership" (p.179). He furtherdissects the Jewish Holocaust cult and other Zionist public relations tactics. He exposes the two-state solution as a politicalbluff, calls on the world to cut off aid to Israel, and admonishes the Muslim world for indulging in usury. Shamir strives to free Gentiles from both their fear and adorationof Jews. He searches into the material successes of world Jewry, the Jewish rejection of Jesus, and the global applications of Jewish ideology, resulting in the mass immigrations of refugees into Europe from war zones and the destruction of local cultures.
The Left and the Right, he believes, are like the two legs of a human being: They must work together to counteract the uprooting and homogenizing forces of the global elite, whom he calls Mammonites. The author debunks the myth of Islamic terror, pointing to the anti-Gentile polemic embedded in Jewish discourse. He demystifies the threat of "anti-Semitism" as a control mechanism to keep good Jews from confronting those Jewish leaders responsible for promoting war and policies of economic inequality. He points out that the political position of a "moderate" Jew is alarmingly similar to Nazism.
Shamir explains "Jewishness" as a destructive concept of "separateness and privilege" based on the "two-tier approach of ingroup-outgroup" (p. 263). He sees Jewish chauvinism as threatening not only Palestinians but the entire world, because of the Jewish control over public opinion and policy. His philosophical analysis of Judeo-American power is illuminating. Shamir pays tribute to former US Representative Cynthia McKinney,who stands out as a politician who refused to be disloyal to America. Her defeat by Jews who organized Republican voters to vote Democratic in order to unseat her sounded the death knell of American democracy.
Jews used black Americans to open the doors to the elite positions formerly held only by white Christians. Once the Jews were in, the author explains, they closed the doors to blacks. Jewish equal rights activists were steered into Zionism and became enemies to those blacks who rejected Jewish supremacy. The book concludes with the author's personal peace treaty with the Arabs: "As for me, Syrian children may come and swim in the Sea of Galilee, and children of Palestine are welcome to the amusement parks of Tel Aviv...The refugees of Gaza may come back to the fields they owned before 1948, and deal directly with the few old Polish Jews who 'privatized' the lands. Keep me out of it."
He tells Sharon: "General, if you want war, please wage it personally" (p.296).The author presents a compelling argument to the native Palestiniansto accept him as their brother and let him live in their beautiful land as a neighbor, with their permission and blessing. Every chapter maintains an inspiring certainty of humanity's victory over evil. I would have liked to learn more about his own pesonal transformation from someone who watched his Israeli army buddies shoot unarmed prisoners to someone that courageously withstands vilification to champion human rights for all.
Flowers of Galilee is a romantic discourse on Palestine that lacksnative Palestinian voices; however, it provides sincere and wise counsel. The author recommends neutralizing the invader through assimilation. He dreams of a world in which the descendants of Jews and Palestinians will be able to live as equals, intermarry, and create a new race of people. Shamir's proposal is consistent withIslamic tradition and is the only viable option for a lasting peacein the Middle East.
Karin M. Friedemann, EditorWorld View News Service
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns
My One and Only Love
My One and Only Love
Gilad Atzmon
London, England: Saqi Books, 2005. 239 pagesBook
Review by Karin Friedemann
http://www.gilad.co.uk
A comical narrative of Zionist espionage and intrigue, "My One andOnly Love" is a psychological and political commentary on thepersonal conflict between being true to one's heart and being loyalto "The Jews." This book is about basing one's life on Zionist liesto the point where a moment of truth and love is perceived asmadness. Gilad Atzmon makes fun of famous Zionist historicalfigures, events and propaganda techniques while exploring themystery of what it means to be a Jew. This genuinely entertainingbook illustrates many ironies of Jewish existence, in particular theopportunistic use of Jewish suffering to promote the State of Israel.
Danny Zilber is a world-famous trumpet player who, despite livingthe glamorous life, remains innocent. His band is not only wildlypopular but is part of a secret Zionist plot to protect a Nazi warcriminal while they profit off German guilt feelings. His boss,Avrum Shtil believes that any dastardly deed is justified for thesake of propagating the Zionist cause. When Danny falls head overheels in love with a mysterious German woman, his boss sees in historment a chance to make mega-bucks. He prefers glorifying Danny'sdespair to divulging the lady's identity. At first, Danny's careeris enhanced by the pain of unfulfilled desire as his music becomesincreasingly soulful. Yet the intense and prolonged suffering isunsustainable. Human nature demands that one connect with humanityand be real. As the web of lies becomes increasingly transparent,one must either give up the Zionist cause or self-destruct.
It will be much to the relief of his female admirers that GiladAtzmon's portrayal of women is maturing. In his first book, "A Guideto the Perplexed," the most exciting woman was a plastic blow-updoll. Here we find Danny drawn to the mystery lady's "intelligentand gentle eyes." While the previous protagonist's heart wascompletely shut down, Danny consciously suffers feelings ofunbearable pain and emptiness from his inability to truly love andbe loved. It hurts, but it is progress. An emerging sense ofpersonal integrity still shields itself behind a wall of sarcasm.Danny's refusal to see the cause of his pain results in the loss ofhis soul. Danny is not fully conscious of the extent to which hismanager is willing to hurt, mislead, and use him for profit, but hiswillingness to believe Avrum's deceptions turns Danny's life into aperpetual hell.
Asking God to liberate him from his self-inflictedmisery never even crosses his mind. As the author demonstrates, a Jew prefers to self-destruct rather than to repent, acceptforgiveness, and henceforth lead an honest life. The Jewishexperience is a state of exile from one's true self, the separationof the soul from God.Is there a way for Jews to transcend their spiritual exile, achieveinner peace, and stop hurting other people? Although no one in thebook has the courage to go through with it, "My One and Only Love"sheds some light on The Way: Danny's love for the mysterious German woman leads him for a briefmoment to transcend apparent reality and become like Jesus walkingover the water. He no longer has any interest in objectifying Germans as targets of manipulation. Danny's secret desire to have an authentic personal relationship with a German person reveals the keyto personal salvation. Learning to love one's enemy is what isrequired for the spiritual redemption of the Jews. Danny attains aninner state of harmony and ecstasy which his Zionist boss dismissesas a psychotic delusion.
The problem with becoming Christ-like isthat you will be crucified. Danny's one and only love is a lie. While it is ironic that Danny's true self is accidentally unleashedby a lie, he is ultimately destroyed by an even deeper lie. In the end, this book was frustrating. Not a single character was redeemed. They were all Zionist scum who deserved to be utterly destroyed, but Atzmon played a nasty trick on us by making us like them and feel bad for them. Those who once experienced a moment of truth yet failed to reject Zionism suffered a far worse end than those who were simply evil and enjoyed being evil.
Nevertheless, we emerge with the knowledge by which we can save ourselves from a similar fate. Life always leads you to truth if you let it. Even if all we can see are kaleidoscope distortions of lies upon lies, the intuitive grasp of the patterns within the patterns can serve as our escape route if we actually want to be free.
Gilad Atzmon
London, England: Saqi Books, 2005. 239 pagesBook
Review by Karin Friedemann
http://www.gilad.co.uk
A comical narrative of Zionist espionage and intrigue, "My One andOnly Love" is a psychological and political commentary on thepersonal conflict between being true to one's heart and being loyalto "The Jews." This book is about basing one's life on Zionist liesto the point where a moment of truth and love is perceived asmadness. Gilad Atzmon makes fun of famous Zionist historicalfigures, events and propaganda techniques while exploring themystery of what it means to be a Jew. This genuinely entertainingbook illustrates many ironies of Jewish existence, in particular theopportunistic use of Jewish suffering to promote the State of Israel.
Danny Zilber is a world-famous trumpet player who, despite livingthe glamorous life, remains innocent. His band is not only wildlypopular but is part of a secret Zionist plot to protect a Nazi warcriminal while they profit off German guilt feelings. His boss,Avrum Shtil believes that any dastardly deed is justified for thesake of propagating the Zionist cause. When Danny falls head overheels in love with a mysterious German woman, his boss sees in historment a chance to make mega-bucks. He prefers glorifying Danny'sdespair to divulging the lady's identity. At first, Danny's careeris enhanced by the pain of unfulfilled desire as his music becomesincreasingly soulful. Yet the intense and prolonged suffering isunsustainable. Human nature demands that one connect with humanityand be real. As the web of lies becomes increasingly transparent,one must either give up the Zionist cause or self-destruct.
It will be much to the relief of his female admirers that GiladAtzmon's portrayal of women is maturing. In his first book, "A Guideto the Perplexed," the most exciting woman was a plastic blow-updoll. Here we find Danny drawn to the mystery lady's "intelligentand gentle eyes." While the previous protagonist's heart wascompletely shut down, Danny consciously suffers feelings ofunbearable pain and emptiness from his inability to truly love andbe loved. It hurts, but it is progress. An emerging sense ofpersonal integrity still shields itself behind a wall of sarcasm.Danny's refusal to see the cause of his pain results in the loss ofhis soul. Danny is not fully conscious of the extent to which hismanager is willing to hurt, mislead, and use him for profit, but hiswillingness to believe Avrum's deceptions turns Danny's life into aperpetual hell.
Asking God to liberate him from his self-inflictedmisery never even crosses his mind. As the author demonstrates, a Jew prefers to self-destruct rather than to repent, acceptforgiveness, and henceforth lead an honest life. The Jewishexperience is a state of exile from one's true self, the separationof the soul from God.Is there a way for Jews to transcend their spiritual exile, achieveinner peace, and stop hurting other people? Although no one in thebook has the courage to go through with it, "My One and Only Love"sheds some light on The Way: Danny's love for the mysterious German woman leads him for a briefmoment to transcend apparent reality and become like Jesus walkingover the water. He no longer has any interest in objectifying Germans as targets of manipulation. Danny's secret desire to have an authentic personal relationship with a German person reveals the keyto personal salvation. Learning to love one's enemy is what isrequired for the spiritual redemption of the Jews. Danny attains aninner state of harmony and ecstasy which his Zionist boss dismissesas a psychotic delusion.
The problem with becoming Christ-like isthat you will be crucified. Danny's one and only love is a lie. While it is ironic that Danny's true self is accidentally unleashedby a lie, he is ultimately destroyed by an even deeper lie. In the end, this book was frustrating. Not a single character was redeemed. They were all Zionist scum who deserved to be utterly destroyed, but Atzmon played a nasty trick on us by making us like them and feel bad for them. Those who once experienced a moment of truth yet failed to reject Zionism suffered a far worse end than those who were simply evil and enjoyed being evil.
Nevertheless, we emerge with the knowledge by which we can save ourselves from a similar fate. Life always leads you to truth if you let it. Even if all we can see are kaleidoscope distortions of lies upon lies, the intuitive grasp of the patterns within the patterns can serve as our escape route if we actually want to be free.
Time to Change Tactics
Time to Change Tactics
by Karin Friedemann
Getting Americans and the politicians to understand that invading Iraqis bad for US is probably the only way to get this movement into the mainstream and away from the leftist progressive fringes of society. I advocate a turn-around in rhetoric. The group of people responsiblefor the Iraq war are the Israel-Firsters. Instead of trying to makeAmericans care about Arabs - too hard - we need to increase their awareness that the Jewish Lobby is the enemy of all traditionalAmericans. Especially since activists can destroy the movement if they dwell upon who the good guys are (there are various opinions), we should concentrate on what we can all agree on: The Jewish Lobby is undermining American democracy. The Jewish Lobby needs to be stopped. That's the only way to stop the wars. I would suggest a public rhetoric campaign against all Jewish lobbyists suggesting prison. On campus, target the Israel advocacy groups. Smear them. Make it social suicide to participate with Hillel or other pro-Israel student organizations training future lobbyists. The pro-Israel lobby operates on every level of American society.
This year they are introducing Holocaust Mythology in the public school curriculum starting in Pre-K. There are plenty of ways to address this problem in PTA meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and other mundane ways. Causing a huge stir at a "MLK" school assembly will create a lot more word-of-mouth grassroots pressure than a protest in DC which doesn't even get discussed. In each small town, pro-peace people need to identify the Zionist individuals who are pushing Holocaust curriculum in the local schools. As soon as you start circulating a petition, all their Zionist supporters will come out of the woodwork. Every town has a web of Jewish groups that work together to undermine American democracy to promote their personal interests. Once you know who the participating individuals are, then you will be able to protest directly to these local people who are personally responsible for pushing Americans to die for Israeli interests. You probably know where they live. If Americans started talking to their neighbors we could stop this war.
by Karin Friedemann
Getting Americans and the politicians to understand that invading Iraqis bad for US is probably the only way to get this movement into the mainstream and away from the leftist progressive fringes of society. I advocate a turn-around in rhetoric. The group of people responsiblefor the Iraq war are the Israel-Firsters. Instead of trying to makeAmericans care about Arabs - too hard - we need to increase their awareness that the Jewish Lobby is the enemy of all traditionalAmericans. Especially since activists can destroy the movement if they dwell upon who the good guys are (there are various opinions), we should concentrate on what we can all agree on: The Jewish Lobby is undermining American democracy. The Jewish Lobby needs to be stopped. That's the only way to stop the wars. I would suggest a public rhetoric campaign against all Jewish lobbyists suggesting prison. On campus, target the Israel advocacy groups. Smear them. Make it social suicide to participate with Hillel or other pro-Israel student organizations training future lobbyists. The pro-Israel lobby operates on every level of American society.
This year they are introducing Holocaust Mythology in the public school curriculum starting in Pre-K. There are plenty of ways to address this problem in PTA meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and other mundane ways. Causing a huge stir at a "MLK" school assembly will create a lot more word-of-mouth grassroots pressure than a protest in DC which doesn't even get discussed. In each small town, pro-peace people need to identify the Zionist individuals who are pushing Holocaust curriculum in the local schools. As soon as you start circulating a petition, all their Zionist supporters will come out of the woodwork. Every town has a web of Jewish groups that work together to undermine American democracy to promote their personal interests. Once you know who the participating individuals are, then you will be able to protest directly to these local people who are personally responsible for pushing Americans to die for Israeli interests. You probably know where they live. If Americans started talking to their neighbors we could stop this war.
Disengaging America from the Israel Lobby
Disengaging America from the Israel Lobby
By Karin Friedemannumm
With the deep enmeshment of Israeli agents in the United Statespolitical spectrum, and the dependency of our economy on American armssales to Zionist organized crime in the Holy Land, the Sudan, andaround the world, the Israel Lobby is nothing less than a scam forbillions of dollars of capital investments. Most Americans are awarethat the behavior of the US-supplied Israeli military puts allAmericans at risk of retaliation. But the real crime begins rightunder our noses here in America by bankers and real estate agents.American Jews wishing to flee from their credit card debts are buyingup stolen property in Palestine at super-low mortgage rates availableto Jews Only. They are using American tax money to pay the IDF toforce the non-Jewish Palestinian rightful owners to vacate theproperty, after which they bulldoze the olive trees and buildsuburban-style condos for American and European Jews with lumbersupplied by Home Depot. This is done using full-scale militaryequipment supplied and paid for by the United States.Israel Advocates are holding public meetings in towns around Americaencouraging Jews to "make Awliyah" and to send their teenagers to IDFsummer camp to learn how to become terrorists. Are American lawenforcement officials investigating this organized crime networkoperating in full daylight? To nip Zionist enmeshment and recruitmentin the bud, American law enforcement officials should attend all thePro-Israel training workshops that take place on US soil to promotethe subversion of all our basic democratic institutions. The UnitedStates has no choice but to investigate and prosecute those Americancitizens who are involved in promoting the existence of the State ofIsrael. Our free press, our justice system, and our democracy aredependent upon the separation of American from Israeli interests.It is vital for Americans to disentangle itself from Zionist argumentsand loopholes. The argument that Jews should get to keep what theystole because they've been sitting on the stolen property for so manyyears is not a legal argument. America stands for equal rights, andthat means property rights, residency rights and other legal norms. Ifwe care about our rights, we must always and without compromise stressthe property rights of all Palestinians. Not just the property stolenin `67 but also `48 has to be returned to its rightful owners, asGermany returned homes stolen from the Jews to their descendents. AllIsraelis, not just some, are legally obligated to voluntarily vacatethe stolen property their families inhabit - now! International lawdoes not suggest that they are entitled to any compensation nor arethey guaranteed citizenship.If the United States cannot divest itself from Israel, we have nochoice but to dismantle the State of Israel and take away everyone'spassports (just like has been done to a lot of other countries). Newpassports can then be issued for the Islamic Republic of Israel, orwhatever they democratically decide to call it. Stateless Palestinianrefugees must be given first priority to obtain passports. Applicantswould be subject to a background check to disqualify any IDF soldiersthat engaged in anti-Palestinian activity, pro-AIPAC lobbyists, andwhoever else the Palestinian leadership wants to disqualify. Thedecision belongs in the hands of the Palestinian people which Israelisthey can live with and which Israelis need to go back to Brooklyn.
By Karin Friedemannumm
With the deep enmeshment of Israeli agents in the United Statespolitical spectrum, and the dependency of our economy on American armssales to Zionist organized crime in the Holy Land, the Sudan, andaround the world, the Israel Lobby is nothing less than a scam forbillions of dollars of capital investments. Most Americans are awarethat the behavior of the US-supplied Israeli military puts allAmericans at risk of retaliation. But the real crime begins rightunder our noses here in America by bankers and real estate agents.American Jews wishing to flee from their credit card debts are buyingup stolen property in Palestine at super-low mortgage rates availableto Jews Only. They are using American tax money to pay the IDF toforce the non-Jewish Palestinian rightful owners to vacate theproperty, after which they bulldoze the olive trees and buildsuburban-style condos for American and European Jews with lumbersupplied by Home Depot. This is done using full-scale militaryequipment supplied and paid for by the United States.Israel Advocates are holding public meetings in towns around Americaencouraging Jews to "make Awliyah" and to send their teenagers to IDFsummer camp to learn how to become terrorists. Are American lawenforcement officials investigating this organized crime networkoperating in full daylight? To nip Zionist enmeshment and recruitmentin the bud, American law enforcement officials should attend all thePro-Israel training workshops that take place on US soil to promotethe subversion of all our basic democratic institutions. The UnitedStates has no choice but to investigate and prosecute those Americancitizens who are involved in promoting the existence of the State ofIsrael. Our free press, our justice system, and our democracy aredependent upon the separation of American from Israeli interests.It is vital for Americans to disentangle itself from Zionist argumentsand loopholes. The argument that Jews should get to keep what theystole because they've been sitting on the stolen property for so manyyears is not a legal argument. America stands for equal rights, andthat means property rights, residency rights and other legal norms. Ifwe care about our rights, we must always and without compromise stressthe property rights of all Palestinians. Not just the property stolenin `67 but also `48 has to be returned to its rightful owners, asGermany returned homes stolen from the Jews to their descendents. AllIsraelis, not just some, are legally obligated to voluntarily vacatethe stolen property their families inhabit - now! International lawdoes not suggest that they are entitled to any compensation nor arethey guaranteed citizenship.If the United States cannot divest itself from Israel, we have nochoice but to dismantle the State of Israel and take away everyone'spassports (just like has been done to a lot of other countries). Newpassports can then be issued for the Islamic Republic of Israel, orwhatever they democratically decide to call it. Stateless Palestinianrefugees must be given first priority to obtain passports. Applicantswould be subject to a background check to disqualify any IDF soldiersthat engaged in anti-Palestinian activity, pro-AIPAC lobbyists, andwhoever else the Palestinian leadership wants to disqualify. Thedecision belongs in the hands of the Palestinian people which Israelisthey can live with and which Israelis need to go back to Brooklyn.
"Israel" Out of Somerville!
The JCRC in Boston Wants Somerville to Pay For Israel.
Israel Out of Somerville!
By Karin Friedemann
24 Aug 2005
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/40637/index.php
Israel lobbyists, determined to prevent Americans from having a say inwhere their tax money goes, have targeted the City of Somerville. Now,Somerville voters are taking their democracy back. Thousands ofSomerville residents signed the Divestment ballot petition while thecorrupt mayor took his free trip to Israel. The Somerville DivestmentProject represents all loyal Americans whether Republican,Libertarian, Democrat, or Green-Rainbow. Divestment is not aboutdictating foreign policy. Divestment is the act of cuttingSomerville's financial losses. The City of Somerville has noobligation to pay for Israel's existence.The Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston used payola andpolitical pressure to manipulate Somerville's elected officials torenounce their previous pro-Divestment 9-2 vote that represented thepublic will. JCRC machinations brought the Israeli ambassador MeirShlomo to Somerville City Hall to patronize us with a hypocriticallecture on justice and democracy. Why is the State of Israel sodesperate for Somerville's measly investments? They are quite possiblyspending more money trying to defeat the widely popular Divestmentballot petition than they are even getting from Somerville. Israel isscared of a little town like Somerville, Massachusetts because thistown has a strong anti-racist and anti-slavery tradition. There aremany Irish here, who naturally sympathize with Palestinians since theytoo suffered under a military occupation and a racist policy tosupplant the native population with immigrant colonial settlers. Tofind out what you can do to support Somerville Divestment, seewww.divestmentproject.org .The Israel lobby works on two levels. The "public relations" wing ofthe Jewish State used Tikkun, a pseudo-liberal Zionist opinionmagazine to discourage "progressive" Jews from supporting theirneighbors' attempts to pressure Israel to stop human rights abuses.Hayyim Feldman invented false claims about the purpose of theSomerville Divestment Project in order to make a dishonest argument indefense of the two-state solution, which is totally irrelevant to theissue of Divestment, while "Somerville Middle East Justice" engaged inmore insidious slander and manipulation tactics. Israel supporters areadvised on their website to "be vague" and talk about "peacefulcoexistence" when they speak with Aldermen. They are further advisedto thank one elected official for silencing the discussion on theJewish theft of Palestinian lands, the bulldozing of Palestinianhomes, and the 25-foot Wall between Jews and Gentiles Israel isbuilding with Somerville's money. The website is decorated with photosof Ariel Sharon. The Boston Israel Lobby's use of the words "peace"and "justice" are just public relations gimmicks. They cover up aviolent genocidal racist ideology, an agenda which is totallyinappropriate for Somerville.Insider communications reveal that the Anti-Divestment coalition wasformed in defense of the Israeli military and police. They campaignfor unqualified support for Ariel Sharon's atrocities. Israel'scrimes are ongoing, and have included bombing the Church of theNativity where Christ was born, according to Christians. The Israeliarmy murdered the bell-ringer. On the "Somerville Coalition for MiddleEast Peace" website, Palestinians are not considered legally definedhuman beings. This omission reflects a racial supremacist philosophywith which the City of Somerville should not associate itself.Somerville needs to separate its interests from what the JCRC inBoston thinks is "wrong for Somerville." In the past, slavers thoughtthey knew what was best for Somerville, but Somerville was united inits effort to defeat slavery and racism. Today, Somerville is unitedin its effort to defeat Zionist racism. The Israel Lobby does notrepresent the people of Somerville. No one should have specialprivileges, not in the Holy Land, and not in Somerville."The JCRC wants YOU to pay for Israel" campaign involves Cable TV anda $30 million budget. The Jewish Community Relations Council ofGreater Boston has employed several full-time staff members toundermine democracy specifically in Somerville. None of these peoplelive in Somerville. They are Farrah Raskin, Marjorie Polster andRachel Glazer. Rachel Glazer of Brookline is the program coordinator.Their goal is to impose "special rights" for the Israeli Lobby overSomerville voters. This group works with the Combined JewishPhilanthropies of Greater Boston, the central fundraising and planningarm of Boston's Jewish community. Mark Niedergang (which means"downfall" in German), in charge of collecting grant applications forthe Brookline-Brighton Jewish Community Fund Committee, happens tolive in Somerville, on Conwell Street. An employee of the CJP, he isamong those responsible for bringing virtually unlimited amounts ofcash into the pro-Israel campaign to undermine Somerville's democracy.Somerville voters have the right to divest from Israel. Somervilleneeds to take back its democracy. The pro-Israel lobby is planning tointimidate voters at the upcoming special election. They expect theCity of Somerville unconditionally and eternally to finance Israel'sexistence. Now is the time for the Green-Rainbow party to run acandidate against Mayor Curtatone. Mayor Curtatone is currently beinginvestigated on ethics violations for accepting gifts from theAmerican Jewish Congress, an organization openly taking sides on anactive issue in front of the Board of Aldermen. How dare the BostonIsrael Lobby use the Somerville City logo as part of their campaign tosilence Somerville taxpayers? They want to finance war criminal ArielSharon with Somerville's money? Who are these people who want to letIsrael get away with human rights violations? Are we safe with themliving among us? What if they want to murder our family and steal ourhouse? What if they get a Caterpillar bulldozer to root out non-Jewsfrom Somerville? These are the kind of racists we are dealing withhere. They not only want to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing inthe Holy Land, but they want to do it with your money. Sorry, no!TALKING POINTS1) Somerville is not divided. Somerville is virtually united againstthe shady investments in Israel bonds. The only people disturbing thepeace are the Israel lobbyists from Boston who want to interfere withSomerville's decisions on where their tax money should be invested.More and more people are in favor of Divestment, and just this weekthe Lutherans came on board. In Somerville, the Aldermen were 9 to 2in favor of divestment until the Israel lobby used its tremendousfinancial resources to confuse the issues. Their actions includedbribing the mayor and bringing an Israeli diplomat to City Hall tointerfere with the local decision making process.2) Investing in Israel against the public's will is taxation withoutrepresentation by a foreign government! Divesting from Israel meanssteering clear of all possible bias. The issue of Divestment isseparate from the question of whether or not Israel has a right toexist. Few Americans would shed many tears at the abolition ofZionism, but Divestment is the decision to take a neutral stance. Isupport Switzerland's right to exist, but I don't think Somervilleneeds to pay for Switzerland. The real issue is that Israel is alosing investment. Somerville residents don't want to invest in acontroversial foreign agenda. Why not invest in public transportation?3) A few corrupt officials within the Somerville government havesingled out Israel as a country that gets free perks from Somervilletaxpayers. The Irish are not sending our tax money to Ireland. TheSaudis are not sending our tax money to Saudi Arabia. Why shouldSomerville have to invest in Israel? The JCRC and CJP made privateagreements with Somerville public officials without the consent of thelocal population, and now Israel is getting involved in localpolitics. Why is Somerville being pressured to invest in a foreignproject and why are voters being forcibly discouraged from openlydiscussing the matter?
Israel Out of Somerville!
By Karin Friedemann
24 Aug 2005
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/40637/index.php
Israel lobbyists, determined to prevent Americans from having a say inwhere their tax money goes, have targeted the City of Somerville. Now,Somerville voters are taking their democracy back. Thousands ofSomerville residents signed the Divestment ballot petition while thecorrupt mayor took his free trip to Israel. The Somerville DivestmentProject represents all loyal Americans whether Republican,Libertarian, Democrat, or Green-Rainbow. Divestment is not aboutdictating foreign policy. Divestment is the act of cuttingSomerville's financial losses. The City of Somerville has noobligation to pay for Israel's existence.The Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston used payola andpolitical pressure to manipulate Somerville's elected officials torenounce their previous pro-Divestment 9-2 vote that represented thepublic will. JCRC machinations brought the Israeli ambassador MeirShlomo to Somerville City Hall to patronize us with a hypocriticallecture on justice and democracy. Why is the State of Israel sodesperate for Somerville's measly investments? They are quite possiblyspending more money trying to defeat the widely popular Divestmentballot petition than they are even getting from Somerville. Israel isscared of a little town like Somerville, Massachusetts because thistown has a strong anti-racist and anti-slavery tradition. There aremany Irish here, who naturally sympathize with Palestinians since theytoo suffered under a military occupation and a racist policy tosupplant the native population with immigrant colonial settlers. Tofind out what you can do to support Somerville Divestment, seewww.divestmentproject.org .The Israel lobby works on two levels. The "public relations" wing ofthe Jewish State used Tikkun, a pseudo-liberal Zionist opinionmagazine to discourage "progressive" Jews from supporting theirneighbors' attempts to pressure Israel to stop human rights abuses.Hayyim Feldman invented false claims about the purpose of theSomerville Divestment Project in order to make a dishonest argument indefense of the two-state solution, which is totally irrelevant to theissue of Divestment, while "Somerville Middle East Justice" engaged inmore insidious slander and manipulation tactics. Israel supporters areadvised on their website to "be vague" and talk about "peacefulcoexistence" when they speak with Aldermen. They are further advisedto thank one elected official for silencing the discussion on theJewish theft of Palestinian lands, the bulldozing of Palestinianhomes, and the 25-foot Wall between Jews and Gentiles Israel isbuilding with Somerville's money. The website is decorated with photosof Ariel Sharon. The Boston Israel Lobby's use of the words "peace"and "justice" are just public relations gimmicks. They cover up aviolent genocidal racist ideology, an agenda which is totallyinappropriate for Somerville.Insider communications reveal that the Anti-Divestment coalition wasformed in defense of the Israeli military and police. They campaignfor unqualified support for Ariel Sharon's atrocities. Israel'scrimes are ongoing, and have included bombing the Church of theNativity where Christ was born, according to Christians. The Israeliarmy murdered the bell-ringer. On the "Somerville Coalition for MiddleEast Peace" website, Palestinians are not considered legally definedhuman beings. This omission reflects a racial supremacist philosophywith which the City of Somerville should not associate itself.Somerville needs to separate its interests from what the JCRC inBoston thinks is "wrong for Somerville." In the past, slavers thoughtthey knew what was best for Somerville, but Somerville was united inits effort to defeat slavery and racism. Today, Somerville is unitedin its effort to defeat Zionist racism. The Israel Lobby does notrepresent the people of Somerville. No one should have specialprivileges, not in the Holy Land, and not in Somerville."The JCRC wants YOU to pay for Israel" campaign involves Cable TV anda $30 million budget. The Jewish Community Relations Council ofGreater Boston has employed several full-time staff members toundermine democracy specifically in Somerville. None of these peoplelive in Somerville. They are Farrah Raskin, Marjorie Polster andRachel Glazer. Rachel Glazer of Brookline is the program coordinator.Their goal is to impose "special rights" for the Israeli Lobby overSomerville voters. This group works with the Combined JewishPhilanthropies of Greater Boston, the central fundraising and planningarm of Boston's Jewish community. Mark Niedergang (which means"downfall" in German), in charge of collecting grant applications forthe Brookline-Brighton Jewish Community Fund Committee, happens tolive in Somerville, on Conwell Street. An employee of the CJP, he isamong those responsible for bringing virtually unlimited amounts ofcash into the pro-Israel campaign to undermine Somerville's democracy.Somerville voters have the right to divest from Israel. Somervilleneeds to take back its democracy. The pro-Israel lobby is planning tointimidate voters at the upcoming special election. They expect theCity of Somerville unconditionally and eternally to finance Israel'sexistence. Now is the time for the Green-Rainbow party to run acandidate against Mayor Curtatone. Mayor Curtatone is currently beinginvestigated on ethics violations for accepting gifts from theAmerican Jewish Congress, an organization openly taking sides on anactive issue in front of the Board of Aldermen. How dare the BostonIsrael Lobby use the Somerville City logo as part of their campaign tosilence Somerville taxpayers? They want to finance war criminal ArielSharon with Somerville's money? Who are these people who want to letIsrael get away with human rights violations? Are we safe with themliving among us? What if they want to murder our family and steal ourhouse? What if they get a Caterpillar bulldozer to root out non-Jewsfrom Somerville? These are the kind of racists we are dealing withhere. They not only want to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing inthe Holy Land, but they want to do it with your money. Sorry, no!TALKING POINTS1) Somerville is not divided. Somerville is virtually united againstthe shady investments in Israel bonds. The only people disturbing thepeace are the Israel lobbyists from Boston who want to interfere withSomerville's decisions on where their tax money should be invested.More and more people are in favor of Divestment, and just this weekthe Lutherans came on board. In Somerville, the Aldermen were 9 to 2in favor of divestment until the Israel lobby used its tremendousfinancial resources to confuse the issues. Their actions includedbribing the mayor and bringing an Israeli diplomat to City Hall tointerfere with the local decision making process.2) Investing in Israel against the public's will is taxation withoutrepresentation by a foreign government! Divesting from Israel meanssteering clear of all possible bias. The issue of Divestment isseparate from the question of whether or not Israel has a right toexist. Few Americans would shed many tears at the abolition ofZionism, but Divestment is the decision to take a neutral stance. Isupport Switzerland's right to exist, but I don't think Somervilleneeds to pay for Switzerland. The real issue is that Israel is alosing investment. Somerville residents don't want to invest in acontroversial foreign agenda. Why not invest in public transportation?3) A few corrupt officials within the Somerville government havesingled out Israel as a country that gets free perks from Somervilletaxpayers. The Irish are not sending our tax money to Ireland. TheSaudis are not sending our tax money to Saudi Arabia. Why shouldSomerville have to invest in Israel? The JCRC and CJP made privateagreements with Somerville public officials without the consent of thelocal population, and now Israel is getting involved in localpolitics. Why is Somerville being pressured to invest in a foreignproject and why are voters being forcibly discouraged from openlydiscussing the matter?
No taxation without representation!
Why Zionism and Libertarianism Don't Mix
1. "No taxation by a foreign government without representation " is a basic Libertarian principle. The taxation currently endured by US > taxpayers far exceeds the taxation by the British that led to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. Zionist organizations do everything possible, including imprisonment, book banning, and worse, to prevent Americans from openly discussing the fact that they are being taxed against their will. This includes the Patriot Act, Homeland Security abuses, and other erosion of civil liberties. It also includes lawsuits to prevent the question of Israel investments from getting on the ballot. It also includes Zionists bribing elected public officials with free trips to Israel to gain their support for Israel - even against the will of the majority of their consituents!
2. "Respect of Property Rights" is a basic Libertarian principle. Palestinian Christians and Muslims are forced out of their homes, shot or made homeless to clear the area for development into Jews-Only condo complexes connected by Jews-Only roads. The American and > European Jews who move into this stolen property are participating in a racist organized crime network, and they are benefitting from extra-low mortgage rates subsidized by American and European taxpayers. Zionism is nothing less than a criminal ideology.
The US has acknowledged the injustice involved in colonizing America at the expense of the native population. In our time, though there are economic disparities, Native Americans have US citizenship and are able to buy and sell property just like anyone else. This is not true of millions of Palestinian refugees who are denied Israeli passports even while living under Israeli martial law and occupation. It is also > not true in Israel, where Jews cannot sell to Arabs. It is even against the law for sympathetic Jews to return the stolen property that they currently "own" to the original, rightful owners, whether they were forced off the property in 1948, 1967, or more recently.
3. "Avoiding foreign military interventions" is a basic Libertarian principle. The Zionist lobby and Israeli pressure created false > intelligence to mislead America into the Iraq war. AIPAC tried, so far unsuccessfully, to pressure the US to bomb Iran, a country which has not threatened America. (I got the AIPAC mailing that said "Call your Congressman and tell him we want the US to bomb Iran!")
4. "American self-interest" is a basic Libertarian principle. Obeying the Israel lobby is against American self-interest. The US military officers warned Bush Jr that obeying the Zionist pressure to invade several countries at once could mean the end of America. Bush decided to let America commit suicide, economically and politically, for the sake of Israel.
5. "Loyalty to America" is a basic Libertarian principle. Zionist activists are traitors who should be stripped of their US citizenship and sent to Guantanamo for interrogation.
6. "Live and Let Live" is a basic Libertarian principle. Obviously, financing Israel at the expense of America, and at the expense of basic American values, victimizes all Americans at the expense of a very small sub-group of the population, in addition to creating worldwide anti-American hostility, which puts all Americans at risk of terrorist retaliations.
I could go on, but you get the basic idea.
Karin Friedemann
1. "No taxation by a foreign government without representation " is a basic Libertarian principle. The taxation currently endured by US > taxpayers far exceeds the taxation by the British that led to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. Zionist organizations do everything possible, including imprisonment, book banning, and worse, to prevent Americans from openly discussing the fact that they are being taxed against their will. This includes the Patriot Act, Homeland Security abuses, and other erosion of civil liberties. It also includes lawsuits to prevent the question of Israel investments from getting on the ballot. It also includes Zionists bribing elected public officials with free trips to Israel to gain their support for Israel - even against the will of the majority of their consituents!
2. "Respect of Property Rights" is a basic Libertarian principle. Palestinian Christians and Muslims are forced out of their homes, shot or made homeless to clear the area for development into Jews-Only condo complexes connected by Jews-Only roads. The American and > European Jews who move into this stolen property are participating in a racist organized crime network, and they are benefitting from extra-low mortgage rates subsidized by American and European taxpayers. Zionism is nothing less than a criminal ideology.
The US has acknowledged the injustice involved in colonizing America at the expense of the native population. In our time, though there are economic disparities, Native Americans have US citizenship and are able to buy and sell property just like anyone else. This is not true of millions of Palestinian refugees who are denied Israeli passports even while living under Israeli martial law and occupation. It is also > not true in Israel, where Jews cannot sell to Arabs. It is even against the law for sympathetic Jews to return the stolen property that they currently "own" to the original, rightful owners, whether they were forced off the property in 1948, 1967, or more recently.
3. "Avoiding foreign military interventions" is a basic Libertarian principle. The Zionist lobby and Israeli pressure created false > intelligence to mislead America into the Iraq war. AIPAC tried, so far unsuccessfully, to pressure the US to bomb Iran, a country which has not threatened America. (I got the AIPAC mailing that said "Call your Congressman and tell him we want the US to bomb Iran!")
4. "American self-interest" is a basic Libertarian principle. Obeying the Israel lobby is against American self-interest. The US military officers warned Bush Jr that obeying the Zionist pressure to invade several countries at once could mean the end of America. Bush decided to let America commit suicide, economically and politically, for the sake of Israel.
5. "Loyalty to America" is a basic Libertarian principle. Zionist activists are traitors who should be stripped of their US citizenship and sent to Guantanamo for interrogation.
6. "Live and Let Live" is a basic Libertarian principle. Obviously, financing Israel at the expense of America, and at the expense of basic American values, victimizes all Americans at the expense of a very small sub-group of the population, in addition to creating worldwide anti-American hostility, which puts all Americans at risk of terrorist retaliations.
I could go on, but you get the basic idea.
Karin Friedemann
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