Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to US Congress on July 24, 2024 was uniformly hailed by all Congresspersons present, with one lone exception, Rashida Tlaib.
True, Ingrid, many legislators were absent that day, which does make a statement, though nowhere near as forceful a statement as attending the event and standing in defiance.
It takes great courage to stand alone, I would know after doing so for 10 years in the fire department. I bet she hated having to stand up so her sign could even be read amongst the sea of weenies (pun intended). This is exactly why I stopped voting in 2008 when I could no longer play a rigged game. I'm clearly non-binary in politics. Thank you for writing about this, Ned.
When I was a child, a family friend, who was a Holocaust Survivor, told me her opinion of Israel.
She and her husband arrived in Israel after WW2 with just the clothes on their backs, each with suitcase in hand.
They thought they were moving to a Jewish paradise.
They quickly found out this was not the case.
The Israelis were treating the indigenous people exactly as the Nazis had treated the Jews.
Taking their land, killing their leaders, exiling them to the desert and elsewhere.
Systematically taking everything away from the Palestinians. Installing a caste system:
White Ashkenazi Jews on top; brown Jews, the Sephardim, the Jews of the Bible, a distant second; Arabs, a distant third.
Making their lives a living hell.
All resistance was futile.
And forcing new refugees to take up arms against the Palestinians, poor people who had almost nothing to begin with, and were otherwise always at a grave disadvantage to the Israelis.
She said it was Nazi Germany, all over again.
That oppression was wrong when the Nazis did it to the Jews, and it was more wrong when Jews did it to the Palestinians.
God never gave Jewish people the right to put their boot on anyone's neck.
That sort of thing is not Judaism.
Two wrongs don't make it right.
*********
Zionism is a racist ideology, a riff on Manifest Destiny.
A tactic white people utilize to justify their oppression of non-white peoples.
Wow, Catherine, what a powerful testament. Such stories rarely get told in our era of total narrative management. We are instead presented with a tightly woven fabrication that modern day Israel is a most moral nation.
there were also several absentees I think. Someone posted them,
Around half of Congress' Democrats skip Netanyahu speech
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/24/half-house-senate-democrats-boycott-netanyahu
I prominently remember Pelosi. From the Republicans, only Massie was named.
True, Ingrid, many legislators were absent that day, which does make a statement, though nowhere near as forceful a statement as attending the event and standing in defiance.
I watched it and it was absolutely sickening...with only one person showing any courage: Rashida Tlaib.
It takes great courage to stand alone, I would know after doing so for 10 years in the fire department. I bet she hated having to stand up so her sign could even be read amongst the sea of weenies (pun intended). This is exactly why I stopped voting in 2008 when I could no longer play a rigged game. I'm clearly non-binary in politics. Thank you for writing about this, Ned.
You recognize the courage, Laila, because you embody the courage, having stood your ground for ten years against an entrench hierarchy.
When I was a child, a family friend, who was a Holocaust Survivor, told me her opinion of Israel.
She and her husband arrived in Israel after WW2 with just the clothes on their backs, each with suitcase in hand.
They thought they were moving to a Jewish paradise.
They quickly found out this was not the case.
The Israelis were treating the indigenous people exactly as the Nazis had treated the Jews.
Taking their land, killing their leaders, exiling them to the desert and elsewhere.
Systematically taking everything away from the Palestinians. Installing a caste system:
White Ashkenazi Jews on top; brown Jews, the Sephardim, the Jews of the Bible, a distant second; Arabs, a distant third.
Making their lives a living hell.
All resistance was futile.
And forcing new refugees to take up arms against the Palestinians, poor people who had almost nothing to begin with, and were otherwise always at a grave disadvantage to the Israelis.
She said it was Nazi Germany, all over again.
That oppression was wrong when the Nazis did it to the Jews, and it was more wrong when Jews did it to the Palestinians.
God never gave Jewish people the right to put their boot on anyone's neck.
That sort of thing is not Judaism.
Two wrongs don't make it right.
*********
Zionism is a racist ideology, a riff on Manifest Destiny.
A tactic white people utilize to justify their oppression of non-white peoples.
And the United States government supports this.
Against the will of the people.
For 76 years now.
Israel is America's North Korea.
Alloyed to Nazism.
Wow, Catherine, what a powerful testament. Such stories rarely get told in our era of total narrative management. We are instead presented with a tightly woven fabrication that modern day Israel is a most moral nation.
Zionist Israel.
A moral nation.
This type of irony is grimly funny.
;)