Unhinged Lunatics and Their Enablers

Were you watching Lawrence O’Donnell the night of September 9, 2016? Donald Trump had just said  “If Iranian boats ‘make gestures’ at us, they’ll be “shot out of the water”. On his show that evening, Lawrence O’Donnell responded “(A) reasonable person would listen to that and say, no reasonable human being could ever mean that. The trouble is an unhinged mad man just said it into a microphone during his presidential campaign in public within the last two months of a campaign where the trying to convince the American voters that he should be the commander in chief. It’s in the week of the commander in chief forum and this unhinged lunatic says if people in their little boats make gestures to anyone on our destroyers, they will be shot out of the water thereby initiating an act of war against Iran. How do we know that this lunatic doesn’t mean every word of this?

As you know, one goal of the BDS movement is to end Israel’s violations of the human rights of Palestinians. Mitchell Plitnick, former director of the US Office of B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and former co-director of Jewish Voice for Peace. has written a powerful thought article Connecting Palestinian Rights To U.S. Civil Rights. He concludes: A white supremacist murdered Jews in a synagogue in an unprecedented attack. The White House is run by a man who himself has repeatedly shown his disdain for Jews and his tolerance, if not agreement, with white supremacy. As the Jewish state of Israel drifts further and further into a nationalist and anti-democratic reality, and report after report confirms the danger white supremacy represents, the Senate is attacking the First Amendment in order to undermine a non-violent boycott movement. Men and women of color stand accused of anti-Semitism for defending a people who have had no rights under Israeli rule for over half a century. That isn’t sustainable. The times are changing for liberals and progressives in the United States. Support for the rights and protection of Jews will need to be reconciled with the inalienable rights of Palestinians. And if the Palestinian cause can be connected to the cause of civil rights in the United States, there might finally be enough pressure to change U.S. policy—and ultimately Israeli policy as well.”

Speaking of unhinged lunatics, here is the latest report on the fanatic Jewish zealots  “As attacks by Jewish settlers surge, Israel stays silent - A gang of a dozen or so armed Jewish settlers descended from a hilltop outpost to the Palestinian village below and opened fire, witnesses said. Israeli soldiers arrived, and instead of stopping the settlers, the witnesses said, they stood by or clashed with the villagers. In the melee, Hamdy Naasan, 38, a Palestinian father of four, was shot and killed….While Palestinian and United Nations officials have condemned the violence — Nickolay Mladenov, the UN envoy to the Middle East, described the shooting in al-Mughayyir as “shocking and unacceptable” — Israel’s right-wing government has remained conspicuously silent, wary of alienating settlers and other potential supporters in an election year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is seeking a fifth term, is vying with other right-wing rivals for the settlers’ support. He is facing bribery investigations and his strongest political challenge in years.”

And, in reaction to this murder by these unhinged lunatics and 50 years of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, here is the reaction of the United States Senate. In a procedural vote on S.1, the unconstitutional anti-BDS bill  these senators, most of them “PEPs”  (Progressive Except on Palestine) voted against human and civil rights and justice for all to undermine this non-violent boycott movement: Blumenthal (D-CT) - Cardin (D-MD) - Casey (D-PA) - Coons (D-DE) - Duckworth (D-IL) - Hassan (D-NH) - Klobuchar (D-MN) - Markey (D-MA) - Menendez (D-NJ) - Schumer (D-NY) - Stabenow (D-MI) - Tester (D-MT) - Warner (D-VA) - Whitehouse (D-RI) - Wyden (D-OR). However, as a sign of optimism, these senators, some of them candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2020, had the spine and the courage the others lacked to vote against the bill   Baldwin (D-WI) - Booker (D-NJ) - Brown (D-OH) - Carper (D-DE) - Durbin (D-IL) - Feinstein (D-CA) - Gillibrand (D-NY) - Harris (D-CA) - Heinrich (D-NM) - Hirono (D-HI) - Kaine (D-VA) - Leahy (D-VT) - Merkley (D-OR) - Murphy (D-CT) - Peters (D-MI) - Reed (D-RI) - Sanders (I-VT) -Schatz (D-HI) - Shaheen (D-NH) - Udall (D-NM) - Van Hollen (D-MD) - Warren (D-MA)

What about other Democratic politicians, not senators? Here is a headline from yesterday’s Boston Globe. Prominent Democrats Form Pro-Israel Group to Counter Skepticism on the Left .  “Several prominent veteran Democrats, alarmed by the party’s drift from its long-standing alignment with Israel, are starting a new political group that will try to counter the rising skepticism on the left toward the Jewish state by supporting lawmakers and candidates in 2020 who stand unwaveringly with the country. With polls showing that liberals and younger voters are increasingly less sympathetic to Israel, and a handful of vocal supporters of Palestinian rights arriving in Congress, the new group — the Democratic Majority for Israel — is planning to wage a campaign to remind elected officials about what they call the party’s shared values and interests with one of the United States’ strongest allies. “Most Democrats are strongly pro-Israel, and we want to keep it that way,” said Mark Mellman, the group’s president and a longtime Democratic pollster. “There are a few discordant voices, but we want to make sure that what’s a very small problem doesn’t metastasize into a bigger problem.” The group, whose board includes former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and a former Clinton administration housing secretary, Henry Cisernos, will create a political action committee later this year and may engage in Democratic primaries, Mellman said.

“A few discordant voices”? Is he referring to the 22 Democratic United States Senators?

I have a great deal of respect for Jennifer Granholm. When I was the Public Interest Adviser at Harvard Law School, Jennifer was one of the students who would always make herself available to sit on panels I put together to encourage other students to pursue careers in public interest and public service. This week I emailed her material referring to my support for BDS and including the news article about the murder of a Palestinian by a Jewish Israeli “squatter” (illegal resident) and a link to the Michelle Alexander article with a request that she reconsider her decision to sit on that board.

Finally, in an interview he gave to Fox News (no relation)  Robert Kraft says Trump was “working very hard to serve the best interests of the country.”

With that in mind, if you care, good luck to your team, whether it’s the Los Angeles Rams or, as a close friend calls them, the New England Trumpettes.