Sunday, November 12, 2023

The meaning of the above word is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews.

I am very angry at the press, especially the press in America and some western countries, for labeling anyone protesting the plight of the Palestinians, as they are being bombarded into oblivion by the nation of Israel, as anti-Semitic. All the students, all the people who stand up and say stop, stop killing innocent men, women and children, all these protesters are anti-Semitic? In other words, Israel has the right to kill as many people as possible, in whatever manner they see fit, because they were attacked by Hamas, and no one should complain! The fourteen hundred Israelis killed justify the killings of more than ten thousand Palestinians, half of them children, and the rest of us should remain mum!

I have always supported Israel, through Menahem Begin and his fight with Arafat and the PLO, even after they went into Lebanon and destroyed the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila and massacred up to 3,500 civilians! I supported them in most of their efforts to remain a state in the middle of their Arab cousins. I turned a blind eye to their illegal occupation of territory that belonged to the Palestinians, until it became indefensible to do so! Both the right-wing Likud founded in 1973 by Begin and Ariel Sharon, and the left-to-centre Labor Party are guilty of condoning this illegal land grab, with little or no consequence.

Of course, a lot of my support came from my religious upbringing, that the Jews were the chosen people! Well, my reasoning was that because they were God’s chosen, then what they were doing had to be right. I was much younger then, and believed all that superstitious nonsense that I have long since freed myself of. I have since come to realize the grave injustices that the Palestinians are suffering, and for what? Being in the right place at the wrong time?

I will never apologize for feeling empathy for Palestinians and anger at the way their lives are being treated as lesser. Their deaths aren’t as meaningful and as tragic as are Jewish deaths. A lot of the protesters, all over the world, are also Jewish. Does that make us who believe that all lives matter anti-Semitic, or does it mean that we hate Jews and Israel? No, man, that is total nonsense; and it’s a way, I believe, to muzzle us from criticizing the brutality of Netanyahu and his far-right-wing band of criminals and racists whom he depends on to keep him in power!

Life isn’t fair for too many people, but at this moment it is especially very unfair to the Palestinians. People all over the world are seeing the way retribution is being meted out, being rained down upon the innocent and the guilty, mostly on the innocent, with barely a peep from those in authority, who could stop this unnecessary bloodshed if they really wanted to, by hook or by crook. Even the way in which the war is being covered shows how journalists are reporting with the fear that they might be labeled as anti-Semites. This is all so untenable, so disgustingly unfair.

Some lives matter more than others, and that is very sad. I hope that the world keeps on protesting until the indiscriminate bombings stop, and there is some end to the terror being experienced by innocent children, who will grow up scared and angry and will seek revenge or atonement or justice!

You can protest because you see the suffering of a defenseless people. That does not make us anti-Semitic, it makes us human beings! Even the Pope is calling for a halt in the bombings; maybe he’s also an anti-Semite! I really believe that term is being used to silence us from criticizing a government that doesn’t recognize the value of Palestinian lives. The government, not the people of Israel; they too, have seen enough suffering! Peace.

Glen