From CNN: Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denied the existence of a Palestinian people or nationhood over the weekend, prompting a rebuke from the United States just weeks after calling for a Palestinian town to be “erased.” Smotrich, a Jewish nationalist, argued that the idea of Palestinian nationhood was invented in the past century in response to the Zionist movement to found modern-day Israel. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/middleeast/israel-smotrich-palestinians-intl/index.html

This you just have to read to believe. Most Americans tend to view causes of disenfranchised peoples in other countries as something we may try to help with when we have the time, but not of major import to us. Considering the amount of problems we have here at home now, that may be a legitimate stance. The only problem with it is that the United States is the primary ally and supporter of Israel, especially over the last 30 years as more and more countries call for boycotting the country for their severe mistreatment and human rights abuses of the Palestinian people.

Oftentimes it’s only the United States that blocks major UN resolutions against Israel when the rest of the world signs them. Which makes Israel’s violations of human rights laws America’s violations. What Israel does, the United States automatically supports due to this alliance — even though someone from the American government always steps up and speaks out against, as in this case.

But those are just words. The truth is the United States has done nothing over the last 80 years in the face of even the worst human rights abuses by Israelis. Just as with America’s alliance with the Saudis, at some point the American people need to decide which side they are on and which ideologies they stand for: human dignity, freedom and Justice? Or barbarous fascism and apartheid?

It’s one of the first things one hears from people around the world when traveling —how on earth can Americans claim they stand for freedom and democracy in light of their support for Israel or Saudi Arabia? No one in the world who has taken up the noble cause of the displaced Palestinian people agrees with the more radical views of Hamas and others about “Israel needs to be destroyed”. That’s a fallacious distraction some use to try to justify their goal of eradicating Palestinians out of existence.

And that right there might be one of the most shocking realities of our current world: many Israelis and Jews all over the world don’t hide their desire to see every last Palestinian dead. If you ask them about the conflict, they’ll readily say something to that effect to you. The first time someone said it to me, about 25 years ago, I was shocked. Until I heard it a second and third and fourth time. It lies in stark contrast with their desire to have the atrocities of WW II against their own people to be remembered and never repeated.

To be fair to current facts the most ardent supporters of the Palestinian cause are Jews who live in Israel. The strongest base of anti-Israel apartheid state views and tactics are in Israel founded by Jews who are intelligent and compassionate minded people. There’s just not a lot of them compared to the immoral majority there who’d like to wipe out the Palestinians.

Regardless, the real issue for us here in the US is how long will we allow the American government to keep supporting these tyrannical nations in our name just because it serves some financial or militarily strategic goals?