It's About Humanity!!!

The bullies of nationalism and Zionism have ruled the roost far too long in this nation. It’s time for Americans and American Jews to separate the state of Israel from the religion of Judaism.
Israel and the U.S. have been linked together far too long without serious questioning of roles they play in the blood arenas of world violence. Both countries would like to be seen as morally superior when in fact both are the most violent and morally bankrupt nations since the days of the Third Reich.
Yes, there it is….the comparison with the Nazis that will label this as anti-Semitic for all who refuse to see the true distinction between the opposition of overt Zionism and nationalism and anti-Semitics.
But truly this isn’t about Zionists or nationalists as much as it’s about humanity. That’s right, humans are dying and they’re dying with far too much frequency because of American arms and support of friends with large stockpiles of arms.
This is about seeing children dead from bombs manufactured in the U.S... This is about brutal forces of artillery and jets killing old men and women, babies and school kids time after time in the guise of self protection and freedom.
We have madmen in control of two nations that represent themselves as the beacons of liberty. They think little about tearing the heart out of the freedom of poor and oppressed people if it means profit or more power.
The histories of Israel and the U.S. have become so enmeshed many think of Israel as the 51st state. The trail of blood leading from Korea to Vietnam to Lebanon to Palestine to Iraq and Afghanistan should appall Americans and Israelis but the blood keeps flowing.
Since September 11, 2001 George W. Bush has been given carte blanche by Americans so afraid they have willingly given up free elections and their own Bill of Rights. And George W. Bush has consistently looked the other way as the Israeli government has slaughtered and bullied its way throughout Palestine and the surrounding territories.
Bush’s deference to Israel’s brutality should be no surprise since every politician running for election quivers in fear of harming their relationship with the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC). The fact that four of Bush’s closest advisors were once cabinet members of an Israeli premier is another reason we shouldn’t be surprised at his failure in leadership toward confronting the rampant abuses of Israeli power toward their perceived enemies.
The irony of a wall, much like the walls of Warsaw’s ghetto, being built around the ghettoes of Palestinian refugee camps is a sad legacy to those who survived the camps of the Third Reich. The mass punishment of entire families and towns to create compliance and cause fear is classic tactics of fascists – and American operatives ranging from El Salvador’s death squads to the secret police of the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein.
The cries of “never again” ring hollow as the victims and their progeny have now become the perpetrators. There is justified anger and outrage whenever a suicide bomber kills innocent people. Bombings and acts of terrorism toward unknown and innocent populations are reprehensible.
The memory of David Ben Gurion, Rabin, Begin and Dayan using acts of terrorism to help establish the state of Israel seems conveniently forgotten. The war crimes of the Stern Gang, Irgun Gang and Haganah may have happened long ago but their legacy remains firmly intact in the continued use of force and terror by the military of Israel. The subject of Dayr Yasin’s ethnic cleansing never comes up in the discussions of terrorism.
Desmond Tutu remarked in 2002, “But you know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic, as if the Palestinians were not Semitic. I am not even anti-white, despite the madness of that group. And how did it come about that Israel was collaborating with the apartheid government on security measures? “
“People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust.”
“Injustice and oppression will never prevail. Those who are powerful have to remember the litmus test that God gives to the powerful: what is your treatment of the poor, the hungry, the voiceless? And on the basis of that, God passes judgment.”
Yes, this is a question of morality and humanity. Today in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon American weapon systems will take the son or daughter of a family in the continued orgy of blood.
Today Israeli and American forces will be responsible for the lives of an infant suckling at a mother’s breast. They will make the decision to kill a child on the way to school. Today, the old man limping on the dusty road will be at their mercy.
Today in Beirut and Haifa rockets and artillery will be exchanged. It will alter the course of the lives of innocent families. Only body parts will remain of humans wanting to live in peace. The bedrooms and kitchens of the homes where they lived are rubble because peaceful means can’t be used to settle disputes.
My grandfather came to America with his family fleeing the pogroms of the Russian government. As German Jews they were displaced from the land they share-cropped. They were told to leave or perish.
I wonder if the disruption of my grandfather’s life was much different than what Palestinians have faced since the 1930’s and 40’s. Sadly it is the people of my grandfather creating pogroms and erecting walls to ghettoize an oppressed people.
There continues to be apologists for the racist policies of Israel and the U.S. but the arguments of “self defense” and “freedom” ring false and hypocritical. The truth is Israel with American sanction plans on “cleansing” opposition from the indigenous peoples of Palestine. That plan has always been in place.
Just prior to the British conquest of Palestine, Chaim Weizmann wrote describing the indigenous Palestinians:
"[the indigenous population was akin to] the rocks of Judea, as obstacles that had to be cleared on a difficult path."
Moshe Dayan, one of the early founders of the Haganah and the Israeli Defense Force, wrote in 1955:"The only method that proved effective, not justified or moral but effective, when Arabs plant mines on our side [in retaliation]. If we try to search for the [particular] Arab [who planted mines], it has no value. But if we harass the nearby village . . . then the population there comes out against the [infiltrators] . . . and the Egyptian Government and the Transjordan Government are [driven] to prevent such incidents because their prestige is [assailed], as the Jews have opened fire, and they are unready to begin a war . . . the method of collective punishment so far has proved effective."
We must question what’s changed since that time. Unfortunately the weapons have become devastatingly more powerful. And always lurking in the shadows are nuclear weapons of both the U.S. and Israel. The madmen of these countries seem every bit as reckless as the one they vilify in North Korea.
Already depleted uranium is utilized in the weapon systems of the U.S... Continued development of tactical nuclear weapons remains an option of Bush and his cronies. No doubt they will gladly share with their friends in Israel.
Already depleted uranium has begun to take a toll on the populations where it’s been used. The radioactive path leads from Iraq, Croatia, Serbia, Afghanistan and once again Iraq. Ten-fold increases in birth defects and childhood cancers are evidence of the deadly epidemic still to come. Symptoms of radiation poisoning have started to appear all along the path.
Few Gulf War I veterans perished in the actual combat. An estimated ten thousand are dead today. Gulf War Syndrome has claimed over two hundred thousand in disabilities and continued illness. Studies have been done that show the major factor in the syndrome is depleted uranium.
Again, however, the real issue is the dead little girl held in her mother’s arms following the bombing of her neighborhood. The real issue is the American soldier missing both legs following the detonation of an explosive device by the vehicle he rode in.
The real story is a return of terror and disregard for life in Beirut. The real story is killing of young Palestinians throwing rocks at extremely well armed soldiers of Israel.
When does the blood flow stop and sanity return? Given the words of alleged leaders of the world’s governments, the answer is “never”. Sanity and absolute power don’t mix. Greed and power are the antithesis of peace and justice…..and sanity.
Back in the days of Vietnam there was a song, Universal Soldier, sang by several artists but made popular by Donovan. The words of the song talk about the unthinking soldiers following orders of “leaders”. It tells us the orders come “from here and there” and everywhere and “comes from you and me…and brother can’t you see, we’ll never find the end of war this way?”
And brothers and sisters it falls upon all of us to bring an end to the killing. Veterans who fell prey to the lies are needed now more than ever to testify against the madness. Parents and family members are needed to question the sacrifices of children for immoral and unworthy causes.
We surely must say never again. In doing so it seems the forgotten dead of wars past and the victims of all genocides must be remembered and honored. We must put an end to the violence of war and against one another. It seems we have to begin with the children who will hopefully have a world to live in when we, the adults are gone.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW
USMC- Vietnam combat veteran
December 1967-Feb 1969