Well folks, this is going to be a long one. Today is 08/16/2019 and yesterday congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were both barred from visiting Israel and Palestine/the west bank. The excuse was that they support what is known as the BDS movement, which stands for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement which works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law. Most of you didn't know what the BDS movement was or even had an idea what those initials stood for before now, did you? We all knew the first word was boycott but we never usually find enough information on it to understand.
Also, I used the word apartheid in the title to this post. According to the dictionary, apartheid is:
apartheid [ uh-pahrt-hahyt, -heyt, uh-pahr-tahyt, -teyt ]
noun
1. (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid former policy of segregating and economically and politically oppressing the nonwhite population.
2. any system or practice that separates people according to color, ethnicity, caste, etc.
First, we have to have some history;
In the early 1940s, World War 2 was over. Germany had tried to eradicate the Jews that lived in Germany, under the leadership of Adolph Hitler. Some people today liken Donald Trump to Hitler in his demonization of minorities, but I will use that as an analogy for now, that is a whole different blog post. So, anyway, the Germans still hated the Jews and you could try to get them to understand that racism and xenophobia is wrong but they had been herd poisoned and once people who are racist have become infected with that hate, getting them to change is almost impossible because, as one activist once said, "It is impossible to penetrate that level of ignorance."
So, the United States of America, feeling very righteous and just, decided to move the German Jews to someone else's country. The rest of the world wondered why they didn't move them to, say, the desert areas in the Southwest where there was still room and no one lived. Most Americans agreed with this idea except most Americans, like the majority of countries in the world, agreed that this was a good idea. But like halfway houses to help people get sober and learn to live a descent life in society, Americans all agree that it's a good idea, "...as long as you don't put them in MY NEIGHBORHOOD."
The United States government, pretending to believe in the mythology about Jews in the bible, decided to look into the cities described in the bible, as if it was a history book instead of legends and literature about the history of Ancient Egypt. As the famous comedian, Lewis Black has said, "Just think, the Jews were wandering in the desert for forty years, following Moses and when they finally reached the promised land of milk and honey, God said, "No, you can't come in!" Boy, that's a leader I want to follow!"
Now, this is what we know, according to Wikipedia, the history of Moses is -
"..Moses (/ˈmoʊzɪz, -zɪs/)[ was a prophet according to the teachings of the Abrahamic religions. Scholarly consensus sees Moses as a legendary figure and not a historical person, while retaining the possibility that a Moses-like figure existed.
According to the Hebrew Bible, he was adopted by an Egyptian princess, and later in life became the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver, to whom the authorship of the Torah, or acquisition of the Torah from Heaven, is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ, lit. "Moses our Teacher"), he is the most important prophet in Judaism. He is also an important prophet in Christianity, Islam, the Bahá'í Faith, and a number of other Abrahamic religions.
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might ally themselves with Egypt's enemies. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Through the Pharaoh's daughter (identified as Queen Bithia in the Midrash), the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slavemaster (because the slavemaster was smiting a Hebrew), Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered The Angel of the Lord, speaking to him from within a burning bush on Mount Horeb (which he regarded as the Mountain of God).
God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak eloquently, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo.
Also, I used the word apartheid in the title to this post. According to the dictionary, apartheid is:
apartheid [ uh-pahrt-hahyt, -heyt, uh-pahr-tahyt, -teyt ]
noun
1. (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid former policy of segregating and economically and politically oppressing the nonwhite population.
2. any system or practice that separates people according to color, ethnicity, caste, etc.
First, we have to have some history;
In the early 1940s, World War 2 was over. Germany had tried to eradicate the Jews that lived in Germany, under the leadership of Adolph Hitler. Some people today liken Donald Trump to Hitler in his demonization of minorities, but I will use that as an analogy for now, that is a whole different blog post. So, anyway, the Germans still hated the Jews and you could try to get them to understand that racism and xenophobia is wrong but they had been herd poisoned and once people who are racist have become infected with that hate, getting them to change is almost impossible because, as one activist once said, "It is impossible to penetrate that level of ignorance."
So, the United States of America, feeling very righteous and just, decided to move the German Jews to someone else's country. The rest of the world wondered why they didn't move them to, say, the desert areas in the Southwest where there was still room and no one lived. Most Americans agreed with this idea except most Americans, like the majority of countries in the world, agreed that this was a good idea. But like halfway houses to help people get sober and learn to live a descent life in society, Americans all agree that it's a good idea, "...as long as you don't put them in MY NEIGHBORHOOD."
The United States government, pretending to believe in the mythology about Jews in the bible, decided to look into the cities described in the bible, as if it was a history book instead of legends and literature about the history of Ancient Egypt. As the famous comedian, Lewis Black has said, "Just think, the Jews were wandering in the desert for forty years, following Moses and when they finally reached the promised land of milk and honey, God said, "No, you can't come in!" Boy, that's a leader I want to follow!"
Now, this is what we know, according to Wikipedia, the history of Moses is -
"..Moses (/ˈmoʊzɪz, -zɪs/)[ was a prophet according to the teachings of the Abrahamic religions. Scholarly consensus sees Moses as a legendary figure and not a historical person, while retaining the possibility that a Moses-like figure existed.
According to the Hebrew Bible, he was adopted by an Egyptian princess, and later in life became the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver, to whom the authorship of the Torah, or acquisition of the Torah from Heaven, is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ, lit. "Moses our Teacher"), he is the most important prophet in Judaism. He is also an important prophet in Christianity, Islam, the Bahá'í Faith, and a number of other Abrahamic religions.
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might ally themselves with Egypt's enemies. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Through the Pharaoh's daughter (identified as Queen Bithia in the Midrash), the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slavemaster (because the slavemaster was smiting a Hebrew), Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered The Angel of the Lord, speaking to him from within a burning bush on Mount Horeb (which he regarded as the Mountain of God).
God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak eloquently, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo.
Now, according to the Hasidic Jews (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasidic_Judaism) God told the Jews of that time that they were not to have their own homeland and were to assimilate among the world's people. Why do I consider them the definitive experts on Judaism? Because like the Franciscan Monks of Catholicism, the Hassidic Rabbis are considered the scholars of the Jewish faith. They call what Israel is doing now, Zionism. This term anti-Semitic is used by many to smear anyone who opposes Zionism (the taking over by the Jews that Hitler warned of.).
When the U.S. decided to put the Jews into a homeland (that according to their religion is anti-Jewish scripture) they decided to put them in a land called Palestine.
(Do you understand now why, during television debates for either party, expecting a candidate to explain this all it's complexity in 45 seconds or less, is insane?)
Now, when Israel was established it was a small area. Since then they have been doing what our congress calls 'annexing' (Taking over someone else's land, which is ok for Israel, In the eyes of the U.S., because of the support of lobbies like AIPAC, but evil, when Putin does it.)
Here is a map of Israel when it was first established and what it is now. They treat the Palestinians, whose land they are on, as if they are, to quote Netanyahu, "Animals who deserve to be pushed into the sea." In areas where this is no West Bank, Palestinians and Israelis get along, live among each other, without problems. It is only Netanyahu's Zionist policies, who even AIPAC condemns as anti human rights, that is the problem..."
So, when the BDS movement says it is opposed to Zionism, I agree. On a level of human rights, they are just wrong. I will give you my analogy for anyone who is opposed, ideologically, to what I am saying. If for instance, Mexico decided to take back land in the Southwest United States and when we opposed that, Russia or China started giving them 38 billion dollars a year in military support, we would be outraged. If those countries started giving them military hardware in the form of tanks, battleships, and planes that they no longer used but still wanted to keep manufacturing for profit, then, we would have the same situation that we are in with Israel. Why do we give them approximately $4,000,000 A DAY in tax payer money? That is right, four million dollars a DAY, as if they were new and needing to become established, like subsidies we give to the oil companies who make billions in profit. We do that because lobbies like AIPAC and others give our congressmen millions of dollars in campaign contributions when, if other countries got caught doing this, our news media would call it what it is, bribery and corruption.
When Ilhan Omar got in trouble for exposing that extreme trouble for exposing that when she asked why she should have a loyalty to another country because of lobbies and said, "It's all about the Benjamins, Baby!" she was exposing everyone in congress who accepts money from AIPAC and thee other pro-Israel lobbies (there are several of them).
Democrats are supposed to be the party of the people and not corrupt like the fascist Republicans, not just slightly less shitty than the GOP. Democratic leadership, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi quickly ran to an AIPAC convention to assure them that we, as a nation, support them. Ask yourself, did you know how much money we give them and that they are paid to be a bully in the Middle East in our behalf? Think about that amount of money, four million dollars a day, and if it was used here for Infrastructure, Healthcare, homelessness, jobs, education, etc.
Are you really pissed off, yet? If not, now ask yourself, why don't our mainstream media sources scream their heads off about this? This is why. They used to be owned by 50 different families that were conservative, liberal, and in between. NOW they are owned by 6 different conservatives.
Now you know that Fox News may be a bunch of liars who are paid to influence our elections by keeping us divided but that they are not the only ones lying to you.
Remember, when someone from the mainstream media asks presidential candidates, "How would you handle things in the middle east?" that this is a way to attack them because this situation that I have compressed into this small space is just having to do with the politics of the relationship of Israel and the United States. You can be assured if some news man asks that, he is attacking a candidate who only has less than a minute to explain it.
Citation for Hassidic Jews opposing Zionism: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg9jPp8vRjI >
Citation for Democratic Leadership at AIPAC < https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/25/steny-hoyer-condemned-shameful-and-unhinged-aipac-speech >
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