[Peace-discuss] Protest Israel's invasion of Gaza plus

Sat Jul 19 12:02:38 EDT 2014

My editorial contribution to the NG goes as follows:

This is in response to Charles Krauthammer’s “People are
used to shield Gaza weapons,” (July 18), and the most recent violent symptoms
of oppression and struggle in Israeli-occupied Palestine.

There was a time when such a scurrilous column would have provoked
my outrage. It is no different in spirit than an attack that Goebbels, the Nazi
propaganda minister, might have made on the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw
Ghetto during World War II. What occurs in Gaza and on the West Bank are—violent
or non-violent—acts of resistance against Israel’s concerted effort since 1967
to eliminate the possibility of Palestinians acquiring rights that we take
largely for granted. Krauthammer responds to Palestinian aspirations by
essentially defining them as sub-human.

Yet most readers—especially Jews—now see Krauthammer’s virulence
for what it is, in terms of the Fox News agenda. The next steps are for Jews to
understand that Jewish nationalism, embodied in Israel’s behavior, contradicts the
universal respect for human rights that most believe is at the core of our
beliefs; and for Americans to understand that our government’s crucial support
for Israeli hyper-militarism and its depravities is consistent with violent U.S.
global hegemony.

Jewish children of my age grew up in an idealistic political
environment of the black struggle for civil rights. They now grow up in a toxic
environment that rationalizes the killing of Palestinian children. But that is
being challenged by voices that invoke the examples of biblical prophets and
their challenges to illegitimate political authority.

On Saturday, July 19, 2014 9:47 AM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

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>On Jul 18, 2014, at 9:17 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
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>This Sunday, between 2:00pm to 4:00pm at our usual spot Neil and Church St, downtown Champaign. 
>>AWARE will provide signs. Hope you all can make it. 
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>I've sent the following missive. --CGE
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>Editor, Champaign-Ubana News Gazette:
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>Who is responsible  for the Israeli military assault on Gaza? Many can be blamed for  Israel’s committing what the Nuremberg Tribunal called “the supreme international crime - launching aggressive war” - but the final responsibility lies with the American President.
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>Without the support - economic, military, political, and diplomatic - that the US government provides, Israel’s crimes would not be possible. 
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>But the US does not provide this support because of undue influence from the  government of Israel or the Israel lobby. The US government supports Israel - and its oppression of Palestinians - because Israel is America’s “stationary aircraft carrier” in the Mideast. 
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>Most Americans think of US war in the Mideast as beginning after 9/11/2001, with the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but in fact our government has been killing people in the Mideast since the Second World War to secure control of what the US State Department called then “the world’s greatest material prize,” Mideast gas and oil. 
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>The US government demands not just access to Mideast energy resources but control of them, because a strangle-hold over world energy flows gives the US the advantage over its economic rivals in Europe and Asia, notably Germany and China.
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>Obama fails to stop the killing - as he could, with a word - because it’s been the policy of all US administrations for two generations to allow the Israelis to continue their oppression of the Palestinians so long as Israel supports and participates in the crimes of its US master.
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>--C. G. Estabrook
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