Shame on the United States Senate and the Hypocritical PEP's!!!!!

Yesterday the United States Senate passed S.1, the unconstitutional anti-BDS bill a vote of 77-23. Here are the Democratic senators (some are PEP’s – Progressive Except for Palestine) who believe that those who support BDS deserve to be punished for doing so:

Bennet (D-CO);  Blumenthal (D-CT); Cantwell (D-WA); Cardin (D-MD); Casey (D-PA); Coons (D-DE); Cortez Masto (D-NV); Duckworth (D-IL); Hassan (D-NH);Jones (D-AL); Klobuchar (D-MN); Manchin (D-WV); Menendez (D-NJ); Murray (D-WA); Peters (D-MI); Rosen (D-NV); Schumer (D-NY); Sinema (D-AZ); Smith (D-MN); Stabenow (D-MI); Tester (D-MT); Warner (D-VA);  Whitehouse (D-RI); Wyden (D-OR)

The 77 members the United States Senate are now on record as saying that my abbreviated list below of Israel’s violations of the international human rights of Palestinians (a few of the reasons I support BDS) do not reach a sufficient level of concern for United States citizens to be allowed to pressure Israel into ending them. This Senate continues to cement its place on the wrong side of history as its supports, encourages and blesses Israel’s cruelty and brutality:   

The illegal occupation of the West Bank which began in 1967.  On November 22, 1967, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242 noting its charter commits states to renounce the acquisition of territories and then saying compliance requires “Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” Israel has been in violation of the United Nations Charter Article 2 and Resolution 242 for 50 years as of this past June 10. It is the longest violation in the world.;

The illegal settlements beginning in early September, 1967, when Prime Minister Levi Eshkol approved the first settlement in the West Bank by Jewish Israelis, Kfar Etzion , despite the opinion of Legal Counsel to the Foreign Ministry, Theodor Meron, who wrote unequivocally, "My conclusion is that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention"; i.e., “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”. As of 2017, there are now 123 settlements where approximately 350,000 Jewish Israeli squatters live in government subsidized or privately financed settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land plus 200,000 squatters in East Jerusalem under Israel’s unrecognized claim of annexation. West Bank’s squatters are citizens of Israel, live under its civil code, and have full Israeli voting rights while its 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians live in 100% segregated communities under military law;

The killing and injuring over 100,000 Palestinians; including the recent murder by Israeli settlers of a Palestinian father of four during a raid on the al-Mughayyir village in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah on Saturday night. Palestinian officials and local media outlets reported that a group of Israeli settlers raided the village under the protection of armed Israeli soldiers — a common occurrence in areas of the West Bank located close to settlements. There has been an increase of hate crimes by Jewish squatters by 69% in 2018 over 2017;

The torturing of over 10,000 Palestinians;

The unequal access to water, restricting the availability of water for the Palestinian population while providing ample water to squatters for irrigation and pools;

The theft of Palestinian land, - using extrajudicial process to now control 60% of the West Bank;

The destruction of homes (almost 50,000) since 1967 (2% for security reasons); 

The building a wall 85% in the West Bank, separating Palestinians from lands and schools;

The construction of apartheid roads in the West Bank where travel by Palestinians is prohibited;

The destruction of 800,000 olive trees (equal to destroying all the trees in Central Park 33 times), the source of income for many Palestinians;  

The establishment of two separate legal systems - one (military) law for Palestinians and another (Israeli) law for squatters as well as failing to enforce criminal laws against squatters for killing Palestinians while punishing Palestinians for minor infractions;  

The restriction of movement by creating numerous checkpoints, most not for security purpose but simply to harass and humiliate Palestinians by waiting in long lines to enter Israel for work or medical treatment or to get from one West Bank town to another for family or business reasons;

The placement in administrative detention thousands of Palestinians for prolonged periods of time, without informing them of charges and/or without trial, 446 as of July 2014;

The four invasions of choice by Israel into Gaza since 2006, using excessive force (which some believe amounts to war crimes), including in 2014 in which over 2000 Palestinians, mostly women and children and two-thirds civilians, were killed and over 96,000 houses and structures were destroyed or damaged and, most recently the murders of 210 Palestinians and the wounding of 1800 in the Gaza Strip in the six month March of Return beginning with the Passover Massacre on March 30, 2018 as Palestinians  protested along the fence with Israel demanding their right to return to the homes and land their families were expelled from 70 years ago;

The 3 year old uber-malicious Canary Mission, an online blacklist that smears students & faculty critical of Israeli state policies, writes distorted descriptions about them & tells prospective employers not to hire them;

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officially ceasing all assistance to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Since he took office, President Trump has slashed some $500 million in US aid to Palestinians, leaving many organizations and aid programs strapped for cash;

The announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that he would be expelling the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), an international observatory task force that monitors Israeli human rights violations in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron; 

Identification with racists like Roseanne Barr who said “settlers are the pioneers at the forefront of the State of Israel” and compared BDS to a Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses: while in Jerusalem she was accompanied by Culture Minister Miri Regev whose admiration for Barr was on open display. The two also share the trait of being racist loudmouths: Regev has called African refugees a “cancer” and openly stated that she is “happy to be a fascist”.

Shame on the United States Senate and the hypocritical PEP's!!!!!

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.

Thoughts On the Ongoing Massacres in Gaza - July 2018

Not- so- good afternoon

BOSTON GLOBE July 20. 2018

Just hours after Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that Israel is gearing up to launch a "large and painful military operation" in Gaza that would rival Operation Protective Edge—a 2014 assault that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians—the Israeli military carried out "wide-scale" airstrikes and deployed tanks against “militant sites across Gaza on Friday following weekly anti-occupation protests along the border fence”.

WHY?

BOSTON GLOBE July 22, 2018

“Even after last week’s cease-fire ended the fiercest exchange of rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes since the 2014 war, incendiary kites and balloons continued to float from Gaza into Israel, setting off damaging fires to farmlands.”

That is what it says. Gazans continued to release incendiary kites and balloons from Gaza into Israel, which were said to have set “off damaging fires to farmlands”.

You heard it right. Israel carried out wide-ranging airstrikes and deployed tanks against (so it is said) “militant sites” because Palestinians, during their ongoing protest against intolerable living conditions had resorted to releasing incendiary kites and balloons.

Let me repeat that. Israel carried out wide-ranging airstrikes and deployed tanks against (so it is said) “militant sites” because Palestinians, during their ongoing protest against intolerable living conditions had resorted to releasing incendiary kites and balloons.

For some, this picture (by Carlin) is worth many articles describing the ongoing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.

First, Israel converts de facto apartheid into de jure apartheid by enacting the Nation-State law.

Then it continues to massacre, and make life intolerable for, Palestinians in order to effect ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Gaza and in Israel.

Israel’s end-game for decades, its only goal, is, not a just peace or two-states but a West Bank with no Palestinians that can be annexed legally to Israel.  

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded to the ongoing massacre of Palestinians by Israel, saying “he was ‘gravely concerned” about the escalation and called on both sides to step back from the prospect of another devastating conflict adding  “Any further escalation will endanger the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike, deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and undermine current efforts to improve livelihoods.”

Yes. He called on “both sides” to step back.

You can be certain that his “whining” will be totally ineffective in pressuring Israel to end its 40 year brutal oppression.

Then there is the role of the United States in supporting the ongoing decade of massacres in Gaza.

The airstrikes began to slam Gaza just hours after Israeli soldiers gunned down at least three Palestinians during anti-occupation demonstrations. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says one of its soldiers was killed by retaliatory gunfire from the Palestinians. "Palestinian defense forces fired back at Israeli snipers who have been murdering Palestinian men, women, and children for weeks," noted journalist Ali Abunimah. Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, added: "Israeli snipers shoot and kill scores of unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, including kids, then calls it self-defense. When a Palestinian sniper fires at one Israeli soldier, Israel bombs Gaza with F-16s and preps for all out war." "Israel has been planning another war on Gaza for some time. They recently conducted exercises, declared Friday as an ultimatum day, and the Americans to wrote a WaPo oped to open the Israeli propaganda campaign," Munayyer noted, referring to an opinion piece co-authored by White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, which blames Hamas for Israel's brutal decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory. "Seems Israel is hell bent on war, again," Munayyer added.  Israel’s bombardment of Gaza comes just days after Israel further intensified its collective punishment of the Palestinian people by imposing "genocidal" trade restrictions on the occupied territory. As Common Dreams reported, Israel's legislature also approved a bill this week that enshrines "apartheid into law" and makes the 1.8 million Arabs living in Israel second-class citizens. COMMON DREAMS July 20, 2018

Kushner’s op-ed, the kind of truly fake news the MSM spews in the United States, is another example of the Israel propaganda campaign exposed in Occupation of the American Mind.

Israel’s brutal oppression began when …… 1948?, 1967?

And in 1987 when Israel brutally repressed a Palestinian attempt to opposed the occupation and the settlements, one consequence was the founding of Hamas in 1987

Here are excerpts from Wikipedia on Hamas and the First Intifada.

Hamas was founded in 1987,^[17][18] soon after the First Intifada broke out. The First Intifada or First Palestinian Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.^[6] The uprising lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference in 1991, though some date its conclusion to 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords.^[7] The uprising began on 9 December,^[8] in the Jabalia refugee camp after an Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF) truck collided with a civilian car, killing four Palestinians.^[9][10][11] In the wake of the incident, a protest movement arose, involving a two-fold strategy of resistance and civil disobedience,^[12] consisting of general strikes, boycotts of Israeli Civil Administration institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, an economic boycott consisting of refusal to work in Israeli settlements on Israeli products, refusal to pay taxes, refusal to drive Palestinian cars with Israeli licenses, graffiti, barricading,^[13][14] and widespread throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails at the IDF and its infrastructure within the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel, deploying some 80,000 soldiers and initially firing live rounds, killed a large number of Palestinians. In the first 13 months, 332 Palestinians and 12 Israelis were killed.^[15] Given the high proportion of children, youths and civilians killed, it then adopted a policy of 'might, power, and beatings,' namely "breaking Palestinians' bones".^[15][16] The global diffusion of images of soldiers beating adolescents with clubs then led to the adoption of firing semi-lethal plastic bullets.^[15] In the intifada's first year, Israeli security forces killed 311 Palestinians, of which 53 were under the age of 17.^[15] Over the first two years, according to Save the Children, an estimated 7% of all Palestinians under 18 years of age suffered injuries from shootings, beatings, or tear gas.^[16] Over six years the IDF killed an estimated 1,162–1,204^[17] Palestinians. Between 23,600–29,900 Palestinian children required medical treatment from IDF beatings in the first 2 years.^[18]

So, Israel was, in a way, the founder of Hamas.

And a few years earlier, Israel similarly founded Hezbollah, a consequence of Israel’s invasion of, and massacres in, Lebanon.

With all that in mind, it is inconceivable to me that anyone concerned with peace and justice would oppose the non-violent BDS movement.

Strong global action is required and needed to end Israel’s massacres, to end its occupations, to close its settlements and to establish one democratic state with equal rights for all.

The Long Overdue Shunning of Alan Dershowitz

Here is a column of mine that was published in the August 9, 2018, issue of the Marblehead Reporter.

The Long Overdue Shunning of Alan Dershowitz

Shunning is quite a valuable tool and, of course, is being quite effectively used against Donald Trump. The shunning of Alan Dershowitz by summer residents of Martha’s Vineyard, however, is long overdue. He reacted to this by saying “I stand by my principles”. By that, I think he means fighting for civil rights.

That might sound good to some in the United States. But if you are a Palestinian, you might shun him because of his decades long opposition to their civil and human rights.  

Dershowitz seems to be quite selective in which US presidents he supports. While Donald Trump is his new BFF, he has constantly attacked Jimmy Carter. Ten years ago, on May 1, 2008, I posted on my blog “Dershowitz’s Despicable Smear of Jimmy Carter” in response to an article by Dershowitz “Jimmy Carter for Sale” which would have made Joseph McCarthy proud. He begins by alleging “recent disclosures of Carter’s …. connections to Arab oil money” and says that one of these connections is an “unredeemable anti-Semite” who funds a think tank which hosted a speaker that called Jews “the enemies of all nations”. He then connects Carter to receiving funds from an anti-Israel bank. With that he then attacks Carter as having “dirty money”, being “complicit in evil”, “dependent on Arab oil money” having “deception bordering on corruption” and concludes that ”His real integrity is extraordinarily low”.

Below are excerpts from Dershowitz's Despicable Smear of Jimmy Carter dated May 1, 2008

Alan Dershowitz is, by all accounts, a brilliant lawyer and an extraordinarily effective advocate for many individuals, organizations and causes – one of them being the Government of Israel.

CURRENT NOTE – another is Donald Trump – “Alan Dershowitz picked a bad week to defend President Trump. Nonetheless there was the famed former Harvard Law professor Wednesday night, sitting on the stage at the Katharine Cornell Theater on Martha’s Vineyard, arguing that a special counsel should not have been appointed to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia. A polite, somewhat subdued, crowd turned out to hear Dershowitz, who is a longtime summer resident, tell the gathering why he defends the man so despised by many on the island.” Boston Globe July 19, 2018

Here is his conclusion about Jimmy Carter, “He is no better than so many former American politicians who, after leaving public life, sell themselves to the highest bidder and become lobbyists for despicable causes.”

What would justify Alan Dershowitz devoting such time and effort to personally attacking Jimmy Carter? What “despicable cause” has Jimmy Carter been lobbying for?

Not his work in … “Havana so that I could speak directly to the Cuban people about democracy and human rights.” Page 250, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”. 

Here’s a clue “Three of the most honest, fair and peaceful of our elections have been in Palestine.” Page 250

Jimmy Carter has become the most respected prominent individual openly critical of the policies of the Government of Israel vis-à-vis the Palestinians. He has put in decades working for a “just” peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He has even been talking to everyone about “the terrible plight of the Palestinians” Page 251;

He talks about three options available to the Government of Israel – one of them being “A system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. This is the policy now being followed.” Page 215;

CURRENT NOTE - “now” includes July 19, 2018 – “Israel passed early Thursday a controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and asserts that "the realization of the right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people," sparking outrage from Israel's Arab community and provoking concern from the international community.” Ha’aretz July 19, 2018

Alan Dershowitz is a symbol of those who support peace, justice, love, fairness, human rights, and dignity and equality for all unless they are Palestinians.  Herre’s a few values of Judaism embodied by the work of Jimmy Carter and opposed by Alan Dershowitz when the subject is the Palestinians: Exodus 22:20-21 - You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt;”  Deuteronomy XVI, 18:20 – “Justice, Justice shalt thou follow.” 

But I do think that his article is symbolic of what is happening in what is fortunately an increasing smaller segment of the Jewish community - those who agree with any action taken by the Government of Israel. As more and more people in this country and around the world become aware of the injustices and human rights violations being carried out by that government, these tribal nationalistic oriented individuals and their organizations are likely to ramp up the volume and intensity of their personal attacks on, and verbal persecution of, those who criticize the Government of Israel.

Dershowitz ..  hopes to divert our attention from any recommendations Jimmy Carter proposes that might bring appropriate pressure on the Government of Israel to negotiate in good faith for a “just” peace.

… while Alan Dershowitz is not a public official who, after leaving public life, sold himself to the highest bidder, he is, in my opinion, actually the one who is a “lobbyist for a despicable cause” – support for the Government of Israel as it continues the occupation and deprives millions of Palestinians of their basic rights and freedoms.

The shunning of Alan Dershowitz, as I said, is long overdue.

To read the entire post and the attack article by Dershowitz on Jimmy Carter, go to  http://judaismandisrael.blogspot.com/2008/05/dershowitzs-despiciable-smear-of-jimmy.html

PLEASE READ THIS WARNING FROM GEORGE ORWELL - THERE IS STILL TIME

THERE IS STILL TIME

By Ronald W. Fox

IN 1949 GEORGE ORWELL WROTE “1984” AND FORESAW THE DYSTOPIAS OF 2018

I find it difficult to put into a few words the contempt I have for Donald Trump and Israel’s “Prince of Darkness”, or, as I referred to him recently, “Net and Yahoo”.  The words, corrupt, immoral, unjust, venal and barbaric just don’t capture their essence. I have read a number of excellent articles that attempt to condemn them.  But, as I mentioned in a previous email, I was, and have finished, reading 1984 by George Orwell. This book, published in 1949, is a remarkable warning to us today. 

As Erich Fromm says in the Afterword, here is one option:

feeling there is still time, and by responding with greater clarity and greater courage.

Here are excerpts from the book and an excerpt from the Afterword by Erich Fromm published in 1981.

“WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

“If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated.

“It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism .. and even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evil invariably escaped their notice.

“DOUBLETHINK means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of DOUBLETHINK he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. .. DOUBLETHINK lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty… “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word DOUBLETHINK it is necessary to exercise DOUBLETHINK. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of DOUBLETHINK one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth … “Whatever the Party holds to be the truth IS the truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.

(Note – I wrote here on the page “Trump and Nunes”)

“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power

“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but MORE merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy — everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”

Erich Fromm in the Afterword refers to 1984 as a “negative utopia” which asks, “can human nature be changed in such a way that man will forget his longing for freedom, for dignity, for integrity, for love – that is to say, can man forget that he is human?” Or does human nature have a dynamism which will react to the violation of these basic human needs by attempting to change an inhuman society into a human one.  .. (Orwell) assumes that man has an intense striving for love, for justice, for truth, for solidarity … the basic question which Orwell raises is whether there is any such thing as “truth”. “Reality”, so the ruling party holds, “is not external”. Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else …whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth”’ …  Certainly Orwell’s picture is exceedingly depressing,  .. One can react to this picture in two ways: either by becoming more hopeless and resigned, or by feeling there is still time, and by responding with greater clarity and greater courage.”

THERE IS STILL TIME!!!

We are witnessing a situation analogous to that described in 1984. We have Big Brothers here and in Israel. We have The Party – Republicans here and Likud there.

We have an attempt to alter the truth in the United States with Donald Trump lying thousands of times and Republicans cravenly hiding their heads in the sand.

In Israel we have Hasbara – lies after lies intended to (and in the past successful) convince unprincipled and doublethinking politicians (Republicans AND Democrats) in the United States that brutal Israeli oppressors are simply protecting themselves and that Palestinian women, children and men seeking to end the stamping on their faces are terrorists.

 

Further, Israel’s 30 year Hasbara campaign (doublethink) is described in a powerful post Hasbara is Dead from Philip Weiss: “Hasbara has died. The Israeli effort to “explain” its actions to the world– that era is over. Israel has given up trying to explain itself to fair-minded people. Because the fair-minded have all made up their minds; the slaughter in Gaza has seen to that. And Israel doesn’t think they are fair anyway. No, its explanations are reserved now for the hard-core supporters. The hasbara is pure propaganda, aimed at rallying the base. And everyone else is tuning out.” This propaganda has been revealed and shredded in the  movie Occupation of the American Mind which can be viewed free.

In 1984 Winston is tortured as he is reeducated, learns the art of “doublethink” and finally believes that two plus two is 5. Reminds me of one of my favorite education songs that I used to play during the 1980’s for 1L’s at Harvard Law School in the six-session seminar I presented during their first three months before the law school began to funnel them to large law firms at high salaries so they could repay the law schools for the excessive cost to attend.

The disservice law schools did to women students continues today as women are still encouraged to take BigLaw positions when the law schools have known for decades about the mistreatment and abuse that lies ahead for women. 

(To me this song written by Harry Chapin, Flowers are Red, is a vivid explanation of the defects in most elementary, post-high school and graduate education – learning how to be a lemming).

Will we all soon believe that there were more people at Trump’s inauguration than in any other inauguration in history?

Winston’s experience in Oceania makes Offred’s life in Gilead seem like Mary Poppins’ work as a nanny or Maria’s position working for the Von Trapp family.

THERE IS STILL TIME!!!

For what? Possibly the only solution. Last year, there was a movement for a National General Strike . Perhaps it was too soon in 2017. The organizers were prescient.  They saw what was coming.

To combat apartheid and oppression in Israel, support for the BDS movement is essential. Soon everyone will understand that the only solution that combines peace with justice is one democratic state with equal rights for all.

THERE IS STILL TIME.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing." - Edmund Burke.

IT DID HAPPEN HERE

It Did Happen Here

Ronald W. Fox

April 20, 2039

Tomorrow is my 100^th birthday.  The key to my home in the village of Marblehead, Massachusetts, hangs on my wall. I wonder who lives there now. Someday I hope that my descendants will again be able to return to my house and live there.

Was it really just 19 years ago that the 2020 election was canceled? The then current United States President declared himself Czar Donald 1.

Soon, thereafter, he appointed Pastor John Hagee as Minister of Racial Health. Every member of the Jewish community should have been alarmed knowing since Hagee has referred to Hitler as a half-breed Jewish descendant of Esau and says the disobedience of Jews to God gave rise to their persecution for centuries.

Many of the leaders of the Jewish community were silent or urged caution knowing that Hagee was a huuuuge supporter of Israel (because the bible says that when Israel is invaded by Russians and Muslims, God will destroy them, the Messiah will return, those who believe in Jesus will be taken to heaven and those who don’t (me and my family) will be Left Behind as the world is destroyed in a global conflagration).

Within weeks after Minister Hagee declared New England to be the White Anglo Christian Keystone Outpost (WACKO), Jewish organizations armed themselves and fought valiantly but were overcome by Hagee’s militia.

The violence and brutality of his militia forced us to flee our homes, but we were able to take refuge in northern Maine where we were quickly surrounded. Soon thereafter with funding supplied by Mexico and equipment provided by Caterpillar, a wall was built and we were trapped. The area became known as the Aroostook Zionist Action Grant (AZAG) Strip.

Soon thereafter we began to organize politically and militarily to fight against the Czar. With support, advice and guidance from Jimmy Carter, we held an election for delegates to the newly formed Hebrew Aid Members Armed Society (HAMAS) with Risay Tafara as our first president.  Upon hearing that there was an attempt to establish a democracy within WACKO, Czar Donald 1 immediately imposed a blockade of the entire AZAG Strip.

Within a few months we were no longer able to obtain sufficient water, electricity, food, medical supplies, building supplies or any other of the necessities of daily living.

Despite our pleas to the UN and the EU, nothing happened to alleviate our plight.  On top of that, the Czar had negotiated with the new Canadian Prime Minister, Unjustin Falsedoe, to extend the blockade along the Canadian border.

While I was worried about throwing out my back, I worked with others in the “Marbleheaders” Unit to dig a tunnel into Saint-Pamphile in an attempt to find and bring back bread and eggs. Sadly, Hagee’s militia found the tunnel and destroyed it.

We continued to fight back by building hurling potatoes over the wall but our resistance was met with attacks from helicopters, missiles, drones and armored vehicles.

Unemployment reached 80%.  Children were suffering from malnutrition. On rare occasions, some were able to exit through one of the checkpoints connecting us with WACKO. The process was time-consuming and humiliating. In some instances, pregnant women lost their children because of the time consumed trying to enter WACKO on their way to the Boston No Abortion Hospital Complex. 

We were also extremely upset when one our high school graduates with 1550 on her SAT’s and a full scholarship to Bowdoin College was not granted permission to leave AZAG. When she complained, two of the militia tore her from her parents and took her crying hysterically to a former brig in Portsmouth, Gilead, oops, I mean New Hampshire.

Finally, in late 2038, with AZAG no longer being inhabitable, we had had enough. We called for a peaceful protest at the Danforth Checkpoint.

All went well until someone catapulted strawberries causing a rash on the nose of one of Hagee’s militia. 

At that point Hagee’s militia began firing through the checkpoint fence, killing 30 and injuring 1400 men, women and children.

A New York Times reporter, Christian White, interviewed members of Hagee’s militia and concluded they had acted in self-defense. Another reporter, Roland Hedley, formerly of Doonesbury reporter (see attached report from him) but now with Fox News, suggested there might be two sides to the story and that this might be a case of apartheid and possible ethnic cleansing but the NYT quickly reassigned him to Myanmar.

Minister Hagee promised a full investigation.

Czar Donald 1 applauded Hagee’s militia for their restraint and Hagee’s commitment to peace with justice.

The majority leader of the US House, Donald Trump, Jr., from the newly formed Nationalist Party, also praised Hagee’s militia and asked “How would you feel, what would you do, if thousands of terrorists stormed your wall.”

How WOULD you feel? What WOULD you do? 

P.S. Please don’t try to send me a birthday card. Hagee prohibits all mail for fear that it might contain coded terror messages and won’t allow us to connect to Net and Yahoo.