Howdy Emerson's Letter to the Editor: “Silent no longer” in the Sunday, March 4, 2012, Times-Standard presents a valid argument to the contrary. Because of the current meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu his concerns are relevant today. The Jerusalem Post reports that the importance of this strategic meeting is detailed in their mutual country's need to be "masters of their own fate."
Silent no longer
When I heard President Obama say, as he did on Feb. 5th regarding actions against Iran, that the U.S. will “march in lockstep with Israel,” I became extremely concerned. Lockstep is a military term, and Obama knows it. According to my dictionary, when referring to politicians it means, “in perfect or rigid, often mindless conformity or unison.” Come to think of it, rigid and mindless is an apt description of our government's blind support -- political and financial ($30 billion just in military aid in the next 10 years) -- of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land, unrelenting violence toward Palestinian Christians and Muslims, and now perhaps an unprovoked attack on Iran.
Israeli leaders and our media would have us believe that Israel is the innocent victim of endless attacks. The truth is the opposite -- Israel has the fourth-largest military in the world -- is the only nuclear power that has never allowed inspections -- and is far more powerful than all surrounding nations. The facts on the ground are these: endless mortar fire, military incursions and drone attacks from Israel into Gaza; daily sniper fire from the settlements towards Palestinian farmers in the West Bank; Palestinian homes regularly bulldozed in East Jerusalem to make room for Jewish only settlements; hundreds, including children, jailed without charge or trial; Palestinian land and water regularly stolen for illegal settlements. These are acts of a violent military aggressor, not a victim. Such policies and actions do not make Israel safe. Our “lockstep” support makes neither the U.S. nor Israel safe.
I have avoided speaking out on this topic for fear of the names I may be called. Such avoidance amounts to tacit agreement with the apartheid policies of Israel and the unquestioning compliance of my own government. My silence does not make Israel safe. My silence does not make the U.S. safe. I can no longer remain silent.What he says here is well worth repeating, reading and thinking about. Many Americans believe, if the support for Republican presidential bluster is believable, that war is the ultimate panacea. Of course, this is the way of all sociopathic bullies as they enforce their "right" to dominate.
A good update to what Mr. Emerson writes is today's article from Glenn Greenwald: Obama, Iran and preventive war - Who are the real sociopathic “chickenhawks”? Those gutless wonders that speak out.
[UPDATE :: Thursday, March 8, 2012]
Mr. Emerson had it right when he said "silence" amounts to a tacit agreement. Even though the uninformed, propagandized misanthropist believers rise out of their crypts to rant and rave. Sure enough, one appeared in Wednesday, March 7, 2012, Letter to the Editor: "Letter misguided on Israel" - Notice Barbara Carnam's deliberate insult. The least she could do was spell the man's name right.
In response to Howdy Epperson [sic] (”No Longer Silent,” March 4, Times-Standard):
You certainly are no longer silent, but I wonder about the point of your letter. Are you trying to keep Israel safe from protecting itself from the shelling from the Gaza strip that Israel vacated and left to the Palestinians? Are you keeping our country safe by distancing itself from the Jewish state so as to avoid the displeasure of the neighboring Arab countries, or from the moral disdain of all of the countries of the world that cede land in hopes of peace?
I can see why you stayed silent for so long, as your appalling misinterpretation of the facts does leave you open to being called names, but probably not the ones that you imagined.Israel's record since inception is self-defining - The so-called State of Israel is without legitimacy. Their subjugation of the Palestinian people can not change that reality no matter how many Jew-worshiping Americans try to make it so.
Barbara Carnam
Fieldbrook
--Joe
Since a child in the late fifties, my biggest fear was the radio-active dust blowing up to us from Nevada. The next 50 years of fear mongering was just desert after the main course. One thing I did learn was to be a bit of a war profiteer. When the long predicted life ending bright flash comes I doubt it will be on an empty stomach.
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