Web Letters | The Nation

Pirates in yarmulkes

We have all seen the real Israel. Israel is willing to commit piracy in international waters to limit the food supplies going to the Palestinian people. They are willing to commit murder in the open to cover the trail of blood on Israel's hands. We all now know that apartheid in the West Bank and Gaza are real. Israel is murdering Palestinian people in an effort to hold down the population. The indigenous Palestinian population will overtake the transplanted and indigenous Jewish population in Israel in just a few years. Israel's solution to this is the same as the once-loathed South African regime's during the '60s, '70s and '80s; separate, starve, jail and murder the population so they cannot have children.

Separate and jail: Israel knows that if they keep enough Palestinian men behind bars their wives cannot have children because of their devotion to their religion, just as under apartheid. They routinely deport indigenous Palestinians out of the country without their families, separating husbands and wives.

Starve: Israel stops shipments of produce, medicine, and other supplies from coming in and going out of the West Bank and Gaza, in many cases until they spoil and/or are of little economic value. The piracy by Israel on the high seas is just an example that got our attention; this is happening every day in the West Bank and Gaza at over 500 check points and with an illegal blockade.

Murder: There is a 40 percent infant and maternal mortality rate at Israeli checkpoints on the West Bank and Gaza. Soldiers refuse to allow women to move through checkpoints to get to hospitals that are sometimes within sight of where their newborns die. Palestinian mothers die in outrageous numbers at these very same checkpoints in childbirth. Israel has an unstated policy of murder of Palestinians around the world, whenever and where ever they want, in complete disregard of international law and the criminal laws of the countries in which they operate.

1.We must stop sending foreign aid to Israel to the tune of $10 billion a year between military and civilian aid.

2.We must not allow Israel to commit murder against our laws on our soil.

3.We must investigate the original acts of piracy by Israel, the theft of hundreds of kilos of plutonium on a French ship in the Mediterranean and the killing and wounding of hundreds of United States sailors on the USS Liberty in 1967.

4.We must stop the constant spying of Israeli secret service on the United States. Israeli spies in jail now in the United States amount to more spies than all other ethnic or country groups combined. Helen Thomas was not incorrect, just vilified by the Pro-Israeli lobby, the strongest lobby in the United States.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Since the 1995 census, Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has counted the population in two ways: by religion (Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, and unclassified) and by population group ("Jews and Others" and the "Arab Population"). "Jews and Others" includes Jews, non-Arab Christians, and those not classified by religion. In 2003, there were 5,446,800 people counted in the "Jews and Others" group, of whom 5,165,400 were Jewish, 254,600 were "religion unclassified," and 26,700 were non-Arab Christians. Within the "Jews and Others" group, 65 percent (3.54 million) were born in Israel and 35 percent (1.9 million) were born in a foreign country. Of those born in Israel, about one-third (31 percent) are the children of an Israeli-born father. The former Soviet Union is the country of origin for nearly half of the foreign-born "Jews and Others" in Israel; the non-Jewish family members of a Soviet Jew are included in the "religion unclassified" or "non-Arab Christian" portion of this population group. Other significant countries of origin for "Jews and Others" include Morocco, Romania, North America (mainly the US), Iraq, Ethiopia, and Poland....

Sorry, but these people are imprinting themselves on a indigenous population of Palestinians that were born there. The Palestinians are still having more children, so the immigration policy of "right of return" for Israel is not working to keep Israel Jewish. They have resorted to other unstated policies like apartheid toward this end. Starving out Gaza is just part of this policy. Helen Thomas spoke her opinion, which is not wrong, it is just something others don't want to hear.

Exceptions to international condemnation of the Israeli raid

Dear friends, You write that "condemnation of the [Israeli] raid [on the Gaza flotilla] was overwhelming, with the shameful exception of the US government." Alas, this wasn't the only exception. Another was Canada, which under the current government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, outdoes all its predecessors, and probably most US administrations, in its uncritical support of Israel. At the time of the raid, Netanyahu was in Ottawa being wined and dined by Harper, and cut his visit short to hurry home to deal with the crisis. Harper expressed regret over the Gaza disaster, regretting especially that it interrupted Netanyahu's visit and all their pleasant discussions.

Declaration of Paris

Indefensible? Hardly. The Declaration of Paris (1856) established the parameters under international law of a blockade of a belligerent state (which Gaza plainly is, under Hamas's rule). The blockade must be formally proclaimed, promptly established, enforced and effective. Israel meets all these criteria—especially as to effectiveness, which is the reason that its abrogation is sought.

Turkey's predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, signed on to this declaration; thus, in providing assistance to break the blockade it is acting contrary to its current international law agreements.

By the way, one of the first invocations of the Declaration of Paris was by Abraham Lincoln, when in 1861 he ordered unilaterally a blockade of over 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline to prohibit entry of all goods, supllies and arms, especially to interdict the civilian cotton trade, which otherwise provided cash to the Confederacy. In the end, the blockade is critical in limiting Hamas's flow of weapons. But it is not illegal nor contrary to international law.

Sorry, it is about anti-Semitism. Specifically, yours.

How frustrating it is for some people when Jews refuse to act out their assigned role and die quietly! You may pretend that this is about your concern for Gaza or human rights, or occupation, but the very notion of insisting that Israel allow large, uninspected deliveries to Hamas (an organization dedicated to, and actively working towards, the destruction of the "Zionist entity") would be funny if it were not so morally depraved. The blockade should be lifted when Hamas decides to end its war against the Jews—and not a moment before. Were I a citizen of Israel, and were I to learn that my government had allowed a shipload of supplies to dock at a Hamas-controlled port without taking any measures to stop it, I would be furious beyond description (as would you, no doubt, at the thought of rockets raining down on your childrens' schools, while your elected leaders bowed to the international pressure of anti-Semites and sycophants eager to please their friends in the "Arab street"). And all the hypocritical, self-righteous, high dudgeon of the Jew-hating scribblers at The Nation would not change that in the slightest. You should be ashamed—if any of you were capable of that.

I love you completely until...

I love you completely until you forget to mention the reason for the blockade is that Hamas promised to wipe Israel off the map just a very short while ago and the blockade in that respect has worked. They retreated slightly from that statement? How many times have we been told that statements obtained under extreme duress don't hold? I do not know the true level of poverty and misery the Gaza people endure, this and bloodshed and loss of life can only cause more hatred. I know that it is possible to live quite nicely without cell phones, but considering the trust level and security of knowing that people are alive and well, it makes sense that people would want to grant them that access to the rest of civilization.

I think we need to create a small Eden for all those folks who either believe there is a better life in death and those people who believe that death will torture them through the living outside of themselves and so are willing to take their other half with them into eternal silence. These I would please first. This would be my attempt at a marvelous domino effect. Oh, yes, they would be in prison, of course, without power to harm themselves or anyone else. I would require them to nurture the Earth and plant their own food and collect their own water and filter it if necessary. I would focus and use the experience as a model for the next group of energy/chemically misguided. The Roach Syndrome I will call the next one. The wealthy people who buy their health and well-being should be required to build a perfect world for the unskilled and minimally skilled work force and to learn how to detect certain hazards and limit risk for all of society by averting ill health and growing anger.

No one can be completely happy without their health. They can not create a new world without destroying this one in the process when using certain methods. Wake up and live, please, there is no better world or place. We do not ask you to forget. We do not ask you to forgive. We ask that you breathe your most noble breath. The mind cannot live without the heart, as the heart cannot live alone unless contained within a whole body containing a universal mind.