American-Israeli Politics: Where Bullying is Called Self-Defense

“And I stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel as it defends itself against this shocking violence.” Senator Cory Booker

“Israel is entitled to take the steps necessary to protect itself from destructive rocket attacks from Hamas that are aimed at all Israeli civilians, regardless of their religion,” said Senator Charles Schumer

"We support Israel's right to self-defense.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

It was General William Tecumseh Sherman, whom after conducting his devastating campaign against Georgia’s civilian population and burning the city of Atlanta, who said, “War is Hell.” This statement is likely the most concise and appropriate description of war recorded in modern history since the publication of Carl von Clausewitz's great military-theoretical classic On War published in the 1873.  I despise war and the carnage it results in regardless of the factions involved. But what is next in line that I personally find as upsetting, is the cosmetic over simplification used by many, often the oppressor in these exercise, to sanitize what is barbaric brutality in its purest form.

The recent re-start of the incessant military engagement between Israel and Gaza (one that has been going on since 1949), has reared its ugly head again. And as usual, the result is the same, the mass slaughter of mostly innocent civilians, mainly women and children, which outside of newspeak, resembles ethnic cleansing more than a military engagement. However, as noted in the opening quotes, it is the retro chic position of the moment to describe Israel’s actions as SELF-DEFENSE. This misappropriation of the term SELF-DEFENSE defeats reason, logic and any operational definition used in the past to define this action.

By definition, a noun, self-defense refers to the use of reasonable force to protect oneself or members of the family from bodily harm from the attack of an aggressor, if the defender has reason to believe they are in danger. Consequently, the force used in self-defense may be sufficient for protection from said perceived harm such to stop any danger from attack, but cannot be an excuse to continue the attack or the use of excessive force. Thus self-defense cannot include killing or great bodily harm to defend property or collective forms of punishment.

The present actions of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) do not meet any of the aforementioned operational definitions.  Even under the purview of “Just War Theory”, which asserts military personnel must take careful aim at his military target and away from nonmilitary targets, and one cannot kill civilians simply because he finds them between himself and his enemies. Simply not to intend the deaths of civilians is not the pragmatic objective in this sense, but rather paramount is to save civilian lives even if it means risking soldiers’ lives.

What is obviated from the discussion is that self-defense means that if the people of a nation are suffering aggression, oppression, or genocide, and are themselves capable of stopping it, they are morally entitled to respond militarily.  Unfortunately Israel cannot claim this position, given that aggression from another nation can only be described in self-defense if it is a last resort, which historically we hasn’t been the case (2012, 2008, etc.). In addition, the self-defense notion under the assumption of military action being a last resort cannot be met also because every other conceivable avenue outside of using military force has not been tried. Moreover, the kidnaping and murder of three innocent individuals, usually a police action cannot be perceived as a last resort or the impetus to start aggressive military action. But when these standards are not met, the result is Gaza: an innocent populous is the victim of a catastrophic attack

Another point of contention is that self-defense is virtuous and practical. What Israel is practicing is more like a George Zimmerman style of self-defense. Instead of self-defense, the actions of Israel are more akin to bullying. Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullies intend to harm their targets and usually are continuous and sustained. This means that they (bullies) target their victims multiple times, frequently with the same act over and over. More importantly is that the bully intends to harm the target.

I say this because the assertion of self-defense avoids the historical reality of colonial occupation of Gaza by Israel which prevents effort on behalf of the Palestinians living in what has been described as an open air prison, the ability and human right to establish a proper, free society. If Israel was trying to avoid civilian deaths, they would and could, but this is not their desire. They are possessed with an evil dogma of annihilation similar to that we saw in South Africa during apartheid. Their objective is to destroy and kill all who are in the way of their imperialistic desire to control and occupy all of Gaza, inclusive of it rich natural gas and oil reserves. For example, it is a well-known fact that The IDF calculates the number of calories Gaza's civilian population needs to just survive on a daily basis and transports foods into Gaza accordingly. This is not self-defense, it is bullying with the objective to occupy territory accordingly break up the will and lands of the Palestinian people. Ironically, it closely the plan of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of ethnic cleansing, for Hitler. And anyone that cannot accept this, I’m cool, but facts are facts: Soweto 1976 is no different than Gaza 2014.

Since the 1990s, Israel has repeatedly failed to meet and even broke all of the conditions outlined in documented agreements with both parties.  They continue to play this shell game that gives them the privilege to ignore the natural human rights that Palestinians have like all other peoples in the world.  There is an aggression of the worse kind: one that indicates they will always be against a two-state solution, while knowing this is what the majority of Palestinians have agreed with and desire. They should just admit they desire to ethnic cleanse Gaza, and take thier oil and natural gas.

The Beyoncé Effect and the Re-Negrofication of Black America

Recently I have been thinking, that I am glad South African apartheid was gone before Alicia Keyes, Rihanna & Beyoncé were born because I really believe that they would have performed there just to get a check.  Now I am not holding the aforementioned to the platitudes of others like Stevie Wonder or an AliceWalker or MayaAngelou, who in their youth and currently were more conscious and global than the three cited previously, but I am questioning how lost one has to be to take a stance against nations and regimes that treat people like cattle?

 

Recently I just learned that Beyoncé has just informed the world that she will be performing in Israel in this year on June 15. Now I am certain that many who have been hammered and for lack of a better word Beyonceified, do not see this as a big deal.  But I would also speculate that the same folk were not even around let alone born when Apartheid was alive and well in South Africa.

We should all be aware of the issues that presently and historically confront Palestinians, in particular children whom are frequently used as targets while walking to school by West Bank settlers and the Israeli military.  This I hope is a given, but what I am more concerned with, which is rarely addressed, is the manner in which Blacks and Africans are treated in Israel.

Over the past few years, the Israel government, under the panoply of Zionism and the desire for a pure Jewish state, have been rounding up Africans and placing them in detention camps they way Hitler rounded up Jews and placed them in concentration camps. The only reason why, is because they are black and Africa and politicians openly state this to the public. The official policy is to treat them as animals in the exact same fashion South African Whites treated blacks during apartheid and this is not an over statement. This short film can show you in images what my words will never be able to convey.

Africans in Israel are frequently attacked violently in the streets of Israel and there homes, apartments and businesses are often the targets of arson and fire bombings, just like blacks were targeted in the South in the United States during the 1960s. But the Israel government even takes it back to the way in which the United States treated many black women and force sterilize African women in Israel today without their knowledge or permission. Just a few weeks ago, CCTV recorded an Assailant caught beating an African refugee at Tel Aviv port for no apparent reason.

I would go on, but my goal is not to belabor but rather question how could a person not realize that playing in Israel is giving tacit support and approval to an apartheid regime, the same way such was during Apartheid in South Africa?  I really do wonder what many of the entertainers of this generation think (if they think at all) about what they do and what their actions represent. Whether it is Nicki Minaj defacing Malcom X or Lil Wayne denigrating Emmett Till, or Yo Gotti taking the classic ‘I AM A MAN” sign used in the Memphis garbage strikes in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and changing it to “I AM A GANGSTER.”

Albeit consequential, I have decided to call this the Beyoncé effect. She is no different than any of the other examples have mentioned, it just so happen she is the latest to show her ignorance regarding how blacks outside of New York and Houston are being treated today. It is this Beyoncé effect, in my opinion that is causing the re-Negrofication of Black America. And by re-Negrofication I mean the dumbing down of a community to the extent where being informed, well read and supportive of proactive self-determination is a worthless morality when compared to the dollar bill. Re-negrofication takes effort because as Benjamin Franklin said, "We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."  

Israel: Like Apartheid and 1960s South, If You Black You called Nigger and Beat Too

Maybe it is me but it strikes me as strange that first, all we hear about with respect to civil and human rights being violated pertains to Syria and there is no mention of Sudan, and two that for some reason the Obama Administration, the Congress and mainstream media has been extremely hush hush about Israel. Whether it involves the $1 billion for Israeli missile projects the US House of Representatives allocated for the 2013 fiscal year for Israel’s missile systems via the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee appropriated USD 947 million for the Iron Dome, “David's Sling” and a long-range Arrow missile program; or how recent actions of the Zionist nations, in both statement and action are reminiscent of Apartheid and the southern United States circa 1960s. The prior in addition to the $5billion a year that Israel already receives in grants and don’t have to pay back.

This is very disturbing to me in particular when our politicians want to jump around and turn up about being ready to protect human rights in Syria, yet seem to have money for Israel and not the millions of American citizens suffering at home. Not to forget all the time proclaiming we should stand for what is just around the world as the preeminent nation state in the world but say nothing when Jews call Africans nigger and beat them violently like the righteous citizens of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi did to African Americans. Susan Rice even has the audacity to get on her high horse suggesting action in Syria will never even mentioning the Sudan or what African immigrants are suffering under the rule of the world’s only Zionist state.

In the predominately black neighborhood of Hatikva large groups of nationalist protesters who are vehemently open against African migrants have instigated a reign of terror similar to Nazi and KKK hate groups of past around the world. The Jewish protesters claim the Africans are responsible for a rise in crime, and were holding signs that read "This is not Africa" and "Stop talking, start expelling". They even yelled "Blacks out!" and "Send the Sudanese back to Sudan".

The mob set fires and smashed the windows of shops owned by Eritrean migrants, threw rocks at them and violently beat up Africans walking through the streets. According to one Nigerian witness, "A group of about 10 or 15 boys stopped one black kid cycling on his bike. They pulled him off and were punching and kicking him in his head. The police just stood and watched until it got really out of control." The even beat women carrying their infants and stopped buses to search for African passengers.

The United States gives more military aid to Israel than to any other country, although there is really not in the national interests of the United States or any net strategic advantage to the U.S. in sending weapons to Israel when compared to spending the same amount of money on improvements at home. Why is the question because the state of Israel and Zionism is the antithesis of democracy? Factually speaking, Zionism is a racist political philosophy in the same vein as Nazism, and Apartheid. As a nation, the daily actions often consist of those we once saw in South Africa. These include millions of non-Jews who are under curfew and blockade, starving and brutalized, in the Middle East's only colonized state. This is not a wild exaggeration when we study the writings and speeches of racist Vladamir Jabotinsky, father of revisionist Zionism.

Zionism like racism espouses an independent and sovereign Jewish state, in a land where there is no Jewish majority and exists only insofar as it has been allowed to expelled the people of Palestine from their homes, although it is against their basic human right guaranteed by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meaning it is impossible for such to be a democratic principle when only one community and people benefit from such and not others. I can say this with ease being a logically thinking person since facts demonstrate that Zionism absolutely requires that Palestinians and even Africans, as non-Jews, were forced to leave in 1948 and never be allowed to return - blatant racism.

What these recent attacks on Africans show are that all who are not Jewish in a Zionist state will be confronted with considerable discrimination. It is even more lucid and totally obvious the force behind the policies of the present and all past Israeli governments in Israel and in the occupied lands was designed and implemented to assure the predominance of Jews over other racial-ethnic groups. For when a powerful nation like Israel that “kills hundreds of civilians from another ethnic group; confiscates their land; builds vast housing complexes on that land for the exclusive use of its own nationals” and does not offer equal protection to non Jews, that is not democracy but racist.

What has just happened and continues today, without any major media news coverage is racism at its worse. In particular when speakers at such events include prominent politicians, like Knesset ministers Miri Regev, Danny Danon, Yari Lev

in and Michael Ben-Ari. Ms Regev during here address to the crowd even described African immigrants as a "cancer in our society". Danny Danon, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, wrote in a Facebook status later the same evening: "Israel is at war. An enemy state of infiltrators was established in Israel, and its capital is south Tel Aviv."

There are around 60,000 African asylum seekers in Israel, most from Eritrea and Sudan. Although she did not retract her statements, Ms Regev stated "Israel should adopt the US protocol of returning infiltrators to the border within 72 hours ... Jews and Israelis are scared of living in their country," she said although only non-Jews were the objects of violence. Mr. Danon's desires to deport the city's African residents “to detention facilities and remove Africans from population centers".

Obama and Susan Rice cannot turn a blind eye to this as well as the average American citizen. Fromm my perspective, I cannot have a disdain for what is going on in Syria without have the same bad taste for Israel and their treatment of Africans or the massive deaths occurring daily in the Sudan (more than Syria). Racism and xenophobia are huge problems in Israel society that we ignore as a nation. We should hold Israel’s feet to the flame as we do other nations, making them abide by the 1951 UN Refugees convention since Israel is one of the signatory nations. If we do not, we will at least learn something, that In Israel if you are black, the call you nigger too and beat you like the KKK and white citizens councils did across the South in America.