Listen, what I’m going to say next, I’ve said any number of times and in all kinds of different ways, but it bears saying again, and again, and again, until the world gets it. Because I’m not the only one saying it.
If I was, I’d be very wary of being seen as some-one who just repeats a screwball idea that no-one can take seriously.
The point is, people can, and do, take it seriously for all manner of reasons: those who think I’m wrong, and who are frankly insulting about it because they are themselves genuinely screwball; and those who agree with me, in their millions, because they have been saying the same thing over and over again, for many many years – THEY take it seriously. So I’m going to say it here, as my first mention of it on RAS.TALKING.
Here it is:
I am a Jew, but I most strongly oppose Israel in its genocidal campaign against the whole people of Palestine, which is DISGUISED as an attack on a single so-called ‘terrorist’ group, Hamas, but which it very clearly ISN’T.
It’s very clearly GENOCIDE.
And I, like countless other Jews, far more Jews than Israel, the newsmedia or the governments backing Israel want you to know about, they want nothing to do with any state, ANY state, regardless of religion or politics, which commits genocidal mass-murder. To our mind, it is not just WRONG for Israel to claim that it is representing all Jews everywhere, it is FANTASTICALLY INSULTING.
Especially as that claim is routinely followed up by the continuous whine that anybody professing to be a Jew who opposes Israel’s Zionism is either not really Jewish or is mentally-ill.
You’ve heard it:
‘These Jews are traitors to the Jewish people; they hate the Jewish state of Israel because they clearly hate themselves for being Jewish,’
You know the type of thing.
But of course, WE are NOT the antisemites here. Israel is ONE HUGE LUMP of antisemitism, as it does its best to discredit Jews for BEING JEWS, because according to their understanding of what it means to be a Jew, they speak out AGAINST what Israel is doing, on basic principle.
And Israel won’t stand for that. So it slanders, and libels, and denigrates. In short, it lies.
And I am one of those Jews Israel lies about. They want to HUMILIATE me before the eyes of the world because of my lack of the proper Jewish spirit. But I promise, ‘humiliated’ is the LAST thing I feel.
However, that’s not the whole of it.
The idea that Jews should ever want to emulate the actions of the WORST ENEMY that Jews ever had, the very idea that the answer to having genocide committed against US – I speak, of course, of Hitler’s Final Solution, the Holocaust – the idea that the answer to THAT is to commit a genocide OF OUR OWN, well, that is surely UNTHINKABLE.
Except that it isn’t, not since 1948.
The simple slogan, ‘Never Again’ meant something once, that no genocide should ever be allowed to happen again, to any-one, anywhere, not just to Jews.
But NOW what is happening? What has been happening in Palestine for THE LAST SEVENTY-EIGHT YEARS, and what is happening most apallingly EVEN AS I’M MAKING THIS VIDEO?
A powerful army, a powerful airforce, amongst the most powerful on earth, being ordered, for REALLY DEVIOUS reasons, to MURDER the people of Gaza, the POWERLESS people of Gaza,by striking at them hard and with great force, using every kind of modern military hardware, in vast quantities, killing and wounding in the most disgustingly atrocious and cruel ways men, women, children, destroying families, destroying communities, the whole environment, driving people away from their homelands – yes, THEIRS, not ours – THEIR homelands causing fear, misery and grief on a scale beyond the ability of any of us who have not experienced it to fully imagine.
And the SO-CALLED ‘SETTLERS’ on the West Bank: I say ‘so-called’ because what they ACTUALLY ARE, are invaders, thieves, TERRORISTS, the REAL terrorists in this vile annexation, driving the Palestinians off their lands and out of their homes using any and every kind of intimidation, however ruinous, however violent; assault, eviction, bulldozing of properties, destruction of farmlands, false imprisonment; and all with the help of the IDF, – Israeli Defense Force – or maybe that should be IGF – Israeli Gangland Enforcers – all because they are Jews and have their rights.
Their RIGHTS! Being Jews entitles them to do this! Why? Why would any Jew WANT to do this? AND why would any Jew who does NOT live in Israel and has no intention of ever living in Israel go along with the idea of a whole society being eliminated just to make room – better, to make Lebensraum – for Jews? It’s a NONSENSE, a tragic NONSENSE.
You’ve noticed I’m not talking about Hamas. Not today. Hamas presents us all with huge problems and these need to be addressed honestly. But my message TODAY is that nothing they have done – NOTHING the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE has ever done, has EVER justified, CAN ever justify the horrors being visited upon them by a viciously authoritarian and racist state.
And this is a Jew saying that, a proud Jew, who has learnt lessons from the history of the Jewish people, as have those whom I am sided with.
Very different lessons to those the Zionists have learnt.
The chief of those lessons is that compassion, courtesy, generosity and humility are the four cornerstones of good character, and that every action you take should be defined by one or more of these qualities.
Just one quote, from Hillel the Elder, when it was demanded of him that he explain the meaning of the Torah in just a few words.
He said: ‘That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the entire Torah, and the rest is its commentary. Now go and study.’
That sums up why I, a proud Jew, am also proud to be one of the millions of voices, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, who stand against Israel. We all share one quality: we are ALL HUMAN and ALL FEEL THE HORRIFIC BITTERNESS that anybody with ANY HUMANITY IN THEM MUST feel when they see what is happening in Israel and Palestine.
Hillel’s simple but truthful teaching means NOTHING to the Israeli Zionists for whom ZEALOTRY, CRUELTY and RUTHLESSNESS have become the watchwords. What gives them any credence or credibility in this world? NOTHING!
I’ve got more to say about the Isreali genocide, not least about why it’s happening. After all, I did raise that question a moment ago. It surely demands an answer so I’ll do my best to give one, just not now. So to one and all, SHALOM.