Bernie Sanders’ Criticism Of Israel Is Radical

I am sorely disappointed in Obama on this particular issue, "On Gaza, the Obama administration never publicly urged Israel to negotiate with Hamas, even as former Israeli security chiefs did. And Obama effectively endorsed Israel’s position that Palestinians should not be allowed to hold elections because Hamas might win."  

President Bush also fucked up the peace process by not including duly elected Hamas into the conference, what an arrogance!  If we had included Hamas in that dialogue, we probably would have peace today.  Here is the piece I wrote, in 2007 and it is no different than reaching out to N. Korea.   http://peaceforisrael.blogspot.com/2007/11/annapolis-peace-conference.html 

Mike Ghouse

Israel Palestine Dialogue

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Bernie Sanders’ Criticism Of Israel Is Radical. And He’s Taking It Mainstream

Peter BeinartJune 11, 2018 Getty Images

Not many in the media are noticing, which is understandable given the burden of keeping up with Donald Trump, but in the shadow of Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, Bernie Sanders is dramatically challenging Beltway discourse on Israel.

In 2020, when Sanders likely runs for president, and journalists begin paying attention, they’re going to be shocked. The Israeli government and the American Jewish establishment will be scared out of their minds.

Last month, Sanders crossed one of the red lines demarcating politically acceptable Washington discourse about Israel. He organized the first letter written by multiple senators criticizing Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Then, last week, he raced past that line again with a video that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen from an American senator.

To understand how radical Sanders’ video is, it’s worth remembering how liberal Democrats like Barack Obama, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton talked about Israel and the Palestinians as recently as two years ago. While Obama, Kerry and Clinton did sometimes criticize Israeli policy, they generally did so in the language of Israeli self-interest, not of Palestinian human rights. Israeli settlement policy was bad for Israel, they argued because it threatened Israel’s future as a democratic Jewish state.

On Gaza, the Obama administration never publicly urged Israel to negotiate with Hamas, even as former Israeli security chiefs did. And Obama effectively endorsed Israel’s position that Palestinians should not be allowed to hold elections because Hamas might win. (This despite the fact that Israeli parties that oppose the two-state solution — among them, Likud — run in Israeli elections all the time).

American Jews Have Abandoned Gaza — And The Truth

Peter BeinartApril 26, 2018

When Gaza came up in a 2016 Democratic primary debate, Clinton placed the blame for its people’s suffering exclusively on Hamas. “Remember,” she declared, “Israel left Gaza. They took out all the Israelis. They turned the keys over to the Palestinian people. And what happened? Hamas took over Gaza. So instead of having a thriving economy with the kind of opportunities that the children of the Palestinians deserve, we have a terrorist haven that is getting more and more rockets shipped in from Iran and elsewhere.” Her comments, which are demonstrably false, could easily have come from Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz.

Contrast that with the video Sanders released last week. (It’s the third he’s released on Gaza since April). For starters, it consists entirely of interviews with Palestinians in Gaza. That alone is extraordinary. Palestinians in Gaza are almost never included in the debates on American TV. Palestinians are rarely invited to hold public briefings on Capitol Hill, and when they are, it’s hugely controversial.

In his video, Sanders lets Palestinians from Gaza speak for themselves. And they say things American politicians simply don’t say. Again and again, the speakers, who are not politicians but rather academics, students and journalists, call Gaza a “prison.” They talk about having only four hours of electricity per day. In one comic-tragic moment, the lights go on behind a young woman while she is speaking. She notes that the power has just returned after being off for 16 hours. Then it flickers off again.

What Israelis Hear When You Say There Was A ‘Massacre’ In Gaza

Shoshanna Keats JaskollApril 3, 2018

A professor of political science notes that his family hasn’t left Gaza in more than twenty years. A young man says his “biggest dream is to travel from Gaza for one time in my life. To see how life is from outside the walls of the prison.” He later comments that many of his friends have contemplated suicide: “They cannot continue to live without any types of hope.” A young woman says, “I want the situation to change to where I feel like an equal human being to Israelis.”

By allowing ordinary Palestinians to describe their plight, Sanders’ video allows Americans to see the Great Return March as the product not of blind hatred of Israel but of a quintessentially human desire for a better life. “This protest,” says the professor, “was designed and orchestrated by young, independent and frustrated Palestinians who were sick, tired and exhausted of their living conditions.”

And by allowing ordinary Palestinians to speak for themselves, the video shows how dehumanizing it is to describe the people protesting Israel’s blockade as mere pawns of, or “human shields” for, Hamas. Brilliantly, Sanders’ video shows clips of American pundits blaming Hamas for the protests, and then lets Palestinians in Gaza do something they can rarely do on American television: respond.

“I’m talking with you. I’m not Hamas,” exclaims one man.

“It’s a big lie to say that Hamas is pushing Palestinian children and Palestinian women in the front line,” says the Palestinian professor.

“The majority of the people are not following Hamas,” insists the young man. “They are just participating peacefully because they just want to be free.”

Criticizing Hamas is both legitimate and necessary. But Sanders’ video shows how the media’s obsession with Hamas obscures the human causes of Palestinian protest, and the human consequences of Israel’s brutal response.

“The right question to ask is not whether there is someone asking them to go to the fence,” argues a young woman. “The right question is what is driving these people to walk up to the fence. What kinds of conditions would drive someone to risk their lives knowing that there are snipers who are willing to shoot them?”

And when you look at her, you imagine being that desperate yourself.

For decades, the conventional wisdom has held that a video like Sanders’, which focuses without equivocation or apology on Palestinian human rights, is political suicide. But that conventional wisdom has rarely been tested. Democratic politicians and foreign policy experts are so accustomed to self-censorship that AIPAC and its allies rarely have to make an example of them. They make an example of themselves.

Sanders is betting that the political ground has shifted. In a sense, he’s doing in the Democratic Party what Trump has done inside the GOP. For years, polls showed that ordinary Republicans were moving away from their party’s elite on trade and immigration. But until Trump, no Republican presidential frontrunner had been sufficiently unconventional and sufficiently unafraid to put that proposition to the test.

That’s what Sanders is doing on Israel. He knows that Netanyahu’s opposition to the two state solution, and his support for the Iraq War, and his battles with Barack Obama, and his bromance with Trump, have deeply eroded support for Israel among African Americans, progressives and the young. He knows that his likely 2020 competitors are moving left on issue after issue—from health care to college tuition to the minimum wage—in an effort to keep pace with a Democratic base that has been radicalized by the financial crisis, stagnant wages, failed wars and Donald Trump. But he knows that when it comes to Israel, those competitors are constrained by their fears of the American Jewish establishment.

Bernie Sanders, who now stands a better chance of becoming president than any Jew in American history, is not afraid. And, as a result, over the next two years he just might alter the American debate over Israel in ways we have not witnessed in decades.

Perhaps the courage of the protesters in Gaza is proving contagious after all.

Read more: https://forward.com/opinion/402885/bernie-sanders-criticism-of-israel-is-radical-and-hes-taking-it-mainstream/

American Jews Have Abandoned Gaza, and the Truth

American Jews have difficult times, in many ways, they are like Muslims, fear what the rogues among them will say to them. You and I both have been in Public, and we know what the rogue Muslims say when we take the right stand. I have endured quite a lot of abuse from a handful of Muslims and Jews alike... who had lost all sense of justice; they will be left behind. 

We need to help our Jewish friends to come through this, and most of them are like Muslims - and want to be a just people.

I had a friend's son stay with me for a week while he was serving as an intern at capitol hill, he was a Jewish kid, he has been to Israel, and served there.. but most people come back conditioned believing their propaganda, this kid did not buy into it. He saw what was wrong was wrong and what was right was right.

I am hopeful, the Jews who follow Judaism will finally win for their stand on Justice

Mike Ghouse
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by Peter Beinart
Courtesy - Forward 

 American Jews Have Abandoned Gaza — And The Truth
Read more: https://forward.com/opinion/399738/american-jews-have-abandoned-gaza-and-the-truth/


What Israelis Hear when you say there was a Massacre in Gaza 
https://forward.com/opinion/398107/what-israelis-hear-when-you-say-there-was-a-massacre-in-gaza/?attribution=articles-article-related-1-headline

Bernie Sanders Criticism of Israel is Radical. And he is taking it Mainstream.

https://forward.com/opinion/402885/bernie-sanders-criticism-of-israel-is-radical-and-hes-taking-it-mainstream/

Israeli army edits video of Palestinian medic

Israeli army edits video of Palestinian medic its troops shot dead to misleadingly show she was 'human shield for Hamas'

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-protests-latest-idf-condemned-edited-video-angel-of-mercy-medic-razan-al-najjar-a8389611.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1528481898

Nikki Haley is a Nuisance!

As an American, I am pissed off at Nikki, the shameless American Ambassador to the United Nations. If other nations hate us, you can see why? She is the reason for my country to be resented around the world. She is also one of the three reasons why the Israeli government is hated and Isolated by the world; the other two are Netanyahu and Trump.

I boldly stand with Israel, Jews, and Judaism. It’s been my stance since I came into public life some 25 years ago, but not at the cost of Justice to the Palestinians. Justice is justice! If we screw one to support the other, our integrity becomes questionable and it is not justice by any means. Ultimately, injustice to one is an injustice to all as Martin Luther King had said, it will envelop even the ones who consider themselves more privileged than the Palestinians. In the end, everyone suffers and lives in apprehensions.
Look at the world record since the United Nations came into being. All the justice-oriented nations, 95% of them, have supported the resolutions for a just settlement for the Palestinians. Who violates them all the times? It is the leadership of Israel, not the Israelis or Jews, but the crooked leadership. Check out the violations.

On the issue of illegal settlements, forceful occupation, daily oppression, ethnic cleansing (not the Israelis, but the leaders) of the Palestinians. It is doing to Palestinians what was done to them during Holocaust.

192 Nations of the world voted one way, and about five nations went against it, and the US invariably vetoes such resolutions. It amounts to slapping in the face of the 192 countries, why would they not resent Israel or even us?

In this embarrassing video, On top of that, she has the balls to tell other nations that she will know who did not support her, screw her, ten countries voted against, and then she Vetoes it in behalf of us, the Americans?

Did we give her that Permission? Even the moderate Jewish Americans don’t like to see resentment built towards Israel, their eternal home. Average humans want peace, extremists like Nikki wants chaos.

Her actions will increase resentment towards Israel and the United States, and the right wingers conveniently label it as Anti-Semitism, which it is not. It is an utter disregard for the 95% of the nations and is not Anti-Semitism.

Who is she pleasing? I am sure the moderate Israelis are laughing out loud at her stupidity.
Several videos have been removed from Facebook, if you have any in regards to this vote, please share

HOLOCAUST AND THE MUSLIM GUY

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/holocaust-and-the-muslim-_b_4629509.html

Video:

Most Americans do not see another point of view; this site hopes to provide different points of view that make sense. My passion is to open people’s hearts and minds towards fellow beings.

The op-ed by Tariq AlMaeena reflects what most people around see, a good piece indeed. 

Thanks to the American and British Jews, who have always stood up for social Justice and living in harmony with others. However, the pied pipers have misled Jews in Israel to have them focus on their security needs over the sense of righteousness while the Palestinian leadership has done the same. A few American Jews don’t see and don’t want to believe what is going on in Israel; they don’t see the ethnic cleansing and atrocities against Palestinian children and women, and inhumane treatment of fellow beings. What kind of humans would the Israelis and Palestinians be?

If the younger generation wakes up from the ill-will and hatred, they will ask the creeps and blame the leadership of both nations, if they wanted to pass their problem to the next generation? The future Israelis may ask Netanyahu if he was doing to Palestinians what was done to them?

Please note, I am not an expert on Holocaust, but have organized 13 Annual events on Holocaust and Genocides, perhaps the only non-Jewish person to have done that. I must add that the word Holocaust is specifically used to refer to the Jewish Holocaust during World War II, all other are classified as Genocides. 

Mike Ghouse
www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com 

Courtesy - Gulf News

A perpetual holocaust in Gaza

American democracy is turning a blind eye to Israeli apartheid of Palestine

By Tariq A. Al Maeena,Special to Gulf News

Published: 17:46 June 2, 2018

A holocaust is defined as a systematic and mass slaughter of a people, generally based on their ethnicity. And that is precisely what is being rained on the people of Gaza. They have been systematically slaughtered in cold blood in carefully administered increments by the mightily armed Israeli Forces. The killing of Palestinian civilians goes on every day but in numbers not to draw excessive attention or international condemnation. It is a holocaust nevertheless as it singles out a people based on their ethnicity and targets them for destruction.

It is unfortunate that the United States, a country that proudly promotes its democratic principles has made every excuse to shield the Israeli killing machine on the world stage by continuously shifting the blame on the Palestinians. They are blamed for resisting violence against them, against bullets bringing down their families by the numbers, by evictions and watching their homes bulldozed and by imprisonment of their women and children. This also includes mass bombings on civilian targets by the Israeli air force against a defenceless people.

It’s not very difficult to understand US support as most media in that country is historically tolerant, sympathetic and encouraging of all Israeli actions against what are the legal occupants of the land. American democracy is turning a blind eye to Israeli apartheid of Palestine.

Many US politicians owe their seats to massive underhanded donations and support by American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) whose mission statement is to help and facilitate only Israeli-sympathetic politicians in key areas. There have been recorded instances in the past when a brave American politician went against this stranglehold, only to find himself or herself quickly booted out of office by intensified and coordinated lobbying against him.

The mainstream media by and large provides a completely one-sided bias against Palestinians, and if I were a resident of Gaza, I should not expect God-fearing Americans to rise up and notice the ongoing holocaust in the 21st century and come to my rescue. The majority of Americans cannot be blamed as they are prudently kept ignorant of the real realities on the ground in the Middle East and who the real bad guys are.

Even Hollywood gives Israel the assistance it needs to carry out their vicious plans as Arabs are generally portrayed as being either evil or terrorists out to destroy the western world. For an American whose knowledge of the outside world is limited to a two-minute clip on TV that shows Palestinians in bad light or Hollywood with its own flair, there lies no hope for democratic justice from the Americans.

US government figures proudly and publicly embrace values dictated by AIPAC or Israel, publicly touting their support and administration for Israel. Even in the UN where one would expect some semblance of fairness, such values have vanished. Recently when the Security Council was holding an emergency meeting to discuss the violence in Gaza. Israeli forces killed at least 103 Palestinians protesting along the border fence, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. That number included several children, one of whom was just 8 months old. More than 3,100 others were wounded. The US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley walked out of the meeting when the Palestinian envoy began to speak, just hours after she praised Israel for acting with “restraint” in handling the protests in Gaza.

More recently she said that the United States will “unquestionably veto” a UN draft resolution calling for the protection of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, on the eve of a Security Council vote on Friday. Haley described the proposition put forward by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries as a “grossly one-sided approach that is morally bankrupt and would only serve to undermine ongoing efforts toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.” What seems to be morally bankrupt and obvious in this case is Nikki Haley’s conscience and the poor image of American democracy that she projects.

So is there any hope for the Palestinians from this ongoing holocaust by an intervention of American politicians? Very recently, 76 brave members of the US Congress sent a letter to the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu urging his government to abandon plans to demolish the Palestinian village of Susya in South Hebron. This demolition was to further expand illegal Israeli colonies in the area.

The letter added that “The forcible eviction of Palestinian communities and the expansion of colonies in areas of the West Bank which would become part of a future Palestinian state, abandon our two countries’ shared values of justice and respect for human rights. These actions unilaterally change facts on the ground and jeopardise the prospects for a two-state solution.” What was refreshing was that a number of Jewish lawmakers with conscience signed the letter, making it “the most significant criticism of settlement expansion ever by Congress”.

Perhaps this is just a start, albeit a small one. For the despairing Palestinians, this may just buy them some hope to hang on to.

Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. You can follow him on Twitter: @talmaeena

Israel Palestine Conflict - a refreshed summary

Please review the following summary and share your differences and support for a possible solution in the comment section. If we want sustainable solutions, we have to include the views of all people affected by the decisions. No matter how powerful we are, we cannot impose our solutions on others. Indeed, we are more responsible for the continuance of the conflict than Israelis and the Palestinians.

We recklessly meddled in handling this conflict, and shame on all the three peoples (American, Palestinian and Israelis) to keep passing the buck to the next generation. Shame on us for giving apprehension, insecurities, and injustice to the new generation. What will they think of us? Gutless, useless people that who kept blaming each other rather than finding solutions?  Maybe they should sue us all for screwing up their lives, maybe it will be a paradigm to hold the politician-criminals for not forging and nurturing harmony. We need a drastic change in our policies. A few links are included at the bottom to ponder.

A summary of the issues;

Israel Palestine conflict is not going on for thousands of years, it is new, and began with the Balfour declaration in 1917. For the Jewish immigrants, mainly the survivors of the Holocaust, it was a battle for survival, and for the Palestinians, it was a battle to live in their own homes against forcible evictions.

The leadership of the western nations had the arrogance to believe that their solutions were the best and imposed it on others. They were rooted in disrespect for the culture of other people. Even though they talked about equal rights, deep down they believed they are more privileged than the others.

The Colonist left a mess while departing from their colonies. They did that with India and Pakistan, and they have done it in the Middle East. We cannot blame them after 70 years; we have to blame the current regimes that are aggravating the conflicts and passing the misery on to the next generation.

I support Israel and a homeland for Jews; who have been deprived of the sense of security throughout their history. The Jewish people, in general, want nothing but safety, but their political leadership is doing everything to keep them from having it. It is wrong for the administration of Israel to do unto Palestinians, what was done to them.

Security to Israelis and justice to the Palestinians are interdependent, and one will not happen without the other.

Jews have a need to be understood and be acknowledged for their eternal security needs, not the military, but mental security where they can put their guards down and live their lives in peace, and without apprehension or fear of the others. 

Palestinians have a need to be understood. They have suffered immeasurably, no human should be stripped of his or her hope and dignity; hope to have a family, work and own a house and call a place their homeland. We (Americans and Israelis) have stripped them of their basic human rights.  

As Americans, we need to be above reproach and seek justice for one and all. We need a Martin Luther King kind of individual to free us from the suppressed guilt we would be carrying in our hearts and minds towards both the people.

The policies of the current Israeli leadership will continue to be a source of insecurities for Israelis in the long haul unless Israel is willing to cleanse the land with the Palestinians, which they have attempted repeatedly but subtly. What they did in Gaza is shameful and the greater shame is our (US) silence. 

This week the UN passed the resolutions to void the Jerusalem as Capital of Israel. 128 nations including our allies and only seven countries reluctantly voted against it, since they live off our aid. Over the last 70 years, 95% of the community of nations vote one way, and about 4% of countries vote the other way, and usually, our representative in the United Nations vetoes that vote. It is like slapping in the face of 190 some nations and letting them know that their vote is worthless. It results in resentment towards America, and Israel for getting away with injustice.  That resentment is wrongfully called Anti-Semitism. We must condemn real Anti-Semitism with all our hearts, minds and might, but not the resentment.

Israel is isolated in the community of nations and national put up with it because of her ally United States, she cannot stand on her own until there is regime change.  Israeli can win the world if they obey the international laws, not build the settlement and remove that tear down that damned wall. On the other hand, Palestinians can win in the community of nations if they can stop sending their useless rockets into Israel. They have suffered, some more suffering from non-violence will make it easy for them their freedom and justice. It is sad both sides are raising abnormal humans, who are bloodthirsty and revengeful. 

What can we do?

The most important thing to do is to welcome a bold conversation and listen to each other's point of view without interruptions. If we can gather up the courage to listen to the crap from both sides, and when they exhaust it all, human side of their issues will come to the fore which we can handle.

Peace should not be dictated to the weak, it should be earned by treating them as equals. It is in the interests of Israel to seek long-term security.  We need to quit blaming the Palestinians for their rockets, and understand that they live in open prisons, they cannot go to a hospital, the children harassed, their homes are forcibly taken and bulldozed, their land is taken, and settlements are built in violation of all civility. If the United States gave the Palestinians 3 Billion dollars worth of bombers and tanks a year,  they would not be throwing rocks at the Israeli soldiers or sending useless rockets into Israeli civilian townships. 

What can they do, the world did not do anything for them for 70 years but blame. The only thing they can do is throw rocks at the oppressors or commit suicide as the proud Jewish people did at Masada. As Americans we need to respect human dignity, whether Palestinians “behave” or not, we have the responsibility to do the right thing. Injustice to one will create ripples and affect all of us one way or the other.

Secondly, we need to demand that parties sit down and come out with a solution, we have that right, and we should tie our $3 billion a year donation to Israel to bring peace. If you cannot make peace, you don’t get our support. I hope we value righteousness over politics. The dominant party is always in the position to negotiate peace provided they don’t look down upon the weak. Both the American and Israeli leaders need to shelve the arrogance of superiority over the Palestinians, if we can treat, feel and act as equals, all of us will have peace and security. That is the bottom line.

Finally, we need to hold a conference, and I will be happy to organize one to find solutions. We are competent people, and we can do it. I am a part of Israeli Palestinian Federation and have written extensively on the topic at http://www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com

I suggest that we ask Netanyahu and Abbas to visit at least a dozen children a week of the other populations, look them in their eyes and promise them, that they can hope for a better future and assure them that they are not their villains.

We need to take a firm stand on one state or two state solutions, if it is one state, we the people who stand for human rights, need to encourage it to be an authentic democracy and not  give more privileges to one group over the other, that is not democracy and will not survive in the long haul anyway. 

Mighty empires can crush the weak for a short term; in the long run, everyone goes down the tube. We cannot rob anyone and live with a good conscience.

Finally, what will we answer our Grandchildren for passing the problem to them? I am sure they will ask if we did not dare to do so.

Religious Scriptures are a part of the problem

Part of the issue of the Israel Palestine conflict is based on misinterpreted sacred scriptures, and the other parts of the equation are security and justice.

All of us have reduced God’s wisdom to be bigoted, discriminative, and partial. Is this our God? Jesus is not going to hurry up and come down on the earth until the Israeli politicians kill all the Jews and Muslims. The Son of God is not in the business of terrorizing people. What kind of promise is that where God rewards massacring of the people? What kind of God is that who rejects others and accepts only one religion? These are serious flaws in our understanding of religions for thousands of years; it is time to correct these errors in our understanding of the Just God.

Is this God happy that we have killed 58 people in Gaza in the latest bout of ethnic cleansing, wounded hundreds, and continue to shoot the unarmed? Is this what Jesus wants to come down on the earth again, on the blood of the Palestinians? 

Take a look at the following misinterpretations of the verses, and let me know if God could have said something like that. May I suggest you to say what is right, rather than pleasing a ‘few’ Pastors, Imams, Rabbis, Pundits or religious men.

A few Jews believe that they are the chosen people. A few Christians believe Jesus’ arrival will wipe out everyone but Christianity. A few Muslims think Islam is the only religion acceptable to God. A few Hindus, Sikhs and others have similar arrogant attitudes that they are the best, scientific or the oldest and wisest. Indeed, none of the religions are wrong; the flaw is in our understanding.

God is not a little guy; God is the creator. Should we reduce his words of wisdom to the narrow, exclusive claims as in above?

Knock off Religion from Israel Palestine Conflict

As we start applying common sense to understand the deeper meaning of these verses, maybe we can knock off the religious aspect from the conflict and focus on the land aspect, which may be more comfortable. No one is more privileged than others, and no one is more than equal.
Religions are always used and abused to suit one’s greed. Indeed, all of us have reduced God’s wisdom to be bigoted, discriminative, and partial. Is this really our God?

As we chose representatives to govern us on our terms, we need to appoint a reformatted God that cares for every human and guide us.

Thanks to America, more and more religions are moving towards their central values, which are a common denominator of beneficence, and thanks to each group for chiseling out the fluff. America will eventually have its own version of Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Shinto, Paganism, Zoroastrianism, Tao, Dao, Wicca, and others. Judaism and Christianity have already established reformed versions, others are working on it. I clearly see that.

The author is President of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Increase in Anti-Semitism is the doing of Netanyahu and Trump
israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2018/06/anti-semitism-is-augmented-by-netanyahu.html

Nikki Haley is the new Nuisance in the Middle East Process http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2018/06/nikki-haley-is-nuisance.html

Holocaust and the Muslim Guy 
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/holocaust-and-the-muslim-_b_4629509.html#es_share_ended

Standing up for Jews - need to update the work since 2012
http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/02/standing-up-with-jews.html

To be Jewish is to be just, their security needs stripped them of justice 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WA2NlDU-LM

What do we do at the Center for Pluralism

Pluralism is an attitude of “Respecting the otherness of others” and “accepting the God-given the uniqueness of each one of us.” You are who you are, and I am who I am, neither one of us has to compromise the uniqueness of our faith, race, culture, nationality, and language.

Our purpose is to acknowledge the differences and live with least conflicts. Pluralism News is the weekly publication of the Center for Pluralism. You can access this anytime through www.PluralismNews.com. We will be happy to speak to your congregation, students, friends. We can conduct a workshop in building a cohesive community, workplace or society. Pluralism does not mean compromise or appeasement; it is simply a development of an attitude for living with others with least conflicts. Please email to Mike@CenterforPluralism.com

Mike Ghouse
Center for Pluralism
Washington, DC
(214) 325-1916- Cell
(202) 290-3560 -Office

Mike@CenterforPluralism.com
www.CenterforPluralism.com
www.PluralismNews.com

Israeli Army Investigates Death Of Razan al-Najjar, Palestinian Paramedic Killed In Gaza

Thousands are mourning after Palestinian paramedic Razan al-Najjar was reportedly killed by an Israeli sniper


https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/2081577511873728/

Anti-Semitism is augmented by Netanyahu and Trump; Jerusalem decision is half baked.

First Published at Huffington Post https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anti-semitism-is-augmented-by-netanyahu-and-trump-jerusalem_us_5a2a6ea9e4b0d7c3f26221b6

The problems in families, communities, and countries persist because good people do not speak out against what is wrong.

The people on the extreme right know only one thing; destroy the other rather than have a dialogue and resolve the conflict.  When God created the life, he produced two varieties; animals and humans. He gave horns, fangs, and paws to the animals to fight out the other with a vengeance and get what they want, whereas humans were endowed with the ability to dialogue and resolve their conflicts.

Facts don’t matter to them and common sense is not in their genes, but they attract the afraid and disillusioned ones by confidently offering them false hopes. The poor souls latch on to them. 

Years ago, a Catholic Nun on Tim Russet’s show “Meet the Press” had made a powerful statement. She said bullies give confidence to the frightened people with passion and give outlandish assurances, whereas the sane people hesitate in making outlandish statements. So, she argued that moderate people should continue to speak the truth with reason, passion, and conviction to give confidence to the people and do the right thing.

Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Homophobia, Xenophobia and other phobias are crutches of the short-sighted ones among us. I have a good record of standing against Anti-Semitism and will continue to do my share of educating the public about the ills of these phobias. Please do read “Holocaust and the Muslim Guy” in Huffington post and “Standing up with Jews” at Standing up for others.com or just Google ‘Judaism Mike Ghouse.’

Now, the rise of this monstrous evil of Anti-Semitism can be squarely attributed to Prime Minister Netanyahu.  He should be held accountable for the long-term insecurities heaped on the people of Israel. Let me share the information in simple terms while my extensive research article is in the making.

 Anti-Semitism is a wrong label in most cases; it is resentment born out of a violation of international treaties by the Israeli government. Please separate Judaism, Jews, Israel and the Israeli Government, the world has no problem whatsoever with the first three but resent the 4th one.

Check the history of voting at the United Nations; usually, it is 94% of the world against 6% supporting Israelis Government’s ruthless policies, and the blind supporters are United States, UK, Spain Italy and a few others.  Rarely has been a time where more than ten nations have voted in favor of Israeli Government’s policies.  By the way for the blind among us, the ones opposing the policies are people of all continents, faiths, and races.

On November 30, 2017, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to disavow Israeli ties to Jerusalem as part of six anti-Israel resolutions it approved on Thursday in New York. The vote was 151 in favor and six against, with nine abstentions.

Now tell me, why 151 Nations of the world should not resent Israeli government’s policies for going against the wishes of the community of the nations. This is not Anti-Semitism but pure resentment for disregarding the resolutions of the world body.

 Why would they not resent America for supporting such wrongdoing? The Palestinian men and women are being dragged out of their homes and forcefully thrown out of their lands. No sane human being in the world will love that brutality and oppression. Humans are designed to seek justice, and injustice will always be hated.  

The AIPAC was needed when Israel was weak, and her Arab neighbors were out to destroy her, but they went too far and lost any sense of justice and started doing to Palestinians what was wrongfully done to them over centuries.  One wrong does not make the other wrong right.

 I firmly stand in my support for Israel’s right to exist, but do not support its right to bully the Palestinians, grab their lands and deny them a homeland. The sadistic men may enjoy bullying and be beating up the powerless, but in the long haul they are guaranteeing insecurity to Israel and nurture Anti-Semitism around the world making Jews more insecure even here in America.   

Look at the Iran Nuclear Deal, a good deal for Israel as it prevents Iran from making nuclear weapons. Seven Nations signed the treaty and wanted to stand by Israel, but what does Netanyahu do? Belligerently goes against it to appease his funders and some of the right-leaning American Congressmen even honor him over our President? Traitors!

United Nations Security Council 2334, which passed Dec. 23, 2016, by a vote of 14-0 with the U.S. abstaining, describes Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. This situation has happened for the first time.   Trump was going against a President’s decision, why was he not called a backstabber?

If there is an increase in Anti-Semitism, all of us should condemn it with ferocity but should know that injustice to one is an injustice to all as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr has uttered.   However, we need to hold Netanyahu accountable for the resentment he has generated in the psyche of 151 nations and all the justice-seeking people in the world. It is not Anti-Semitism; it is pure resentment for Netanyahu’s policies.

Trump has added fuel to the fire, what was the need to create the Jerusalem controversy? It is ridiculous timing. He has reignited chaos in the Middle East causing Israelis to live in apprehension. Does he realize that Jews live intentions when they travel overseas? Trump has double down on that now. Now the people of 151 Nations have reason to resent Israel even more and hate America too. We are a nation of good people run by the evil government and need to speak up and make the government of the people again. 

The following video is about recognizing Israel and Palestine; it was made in 2015 and just released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFEvKrgdbNM

What would have been an ideal situation is to tie the relocation of US Embassy to Jerusalem with the immediate stopping of the illegal settlements?  Just because they have the military might, they should not act like bullies. Israel’s security hinges on Justice to the Palestinians, one would not happen without the other happening. Our policy should be based on Security to Israelis with Justice to the Palestinians, and if we take that stand there will be peace in Middle East and American leadership would be respected for justness and eventually it is good for Israel, good for Palestinians and good for America.

Pope Frances has urged the community of nations to honor the UN position on Jerusalem, and of course, the right-leaning men in Israel and America do not respect such a great man. Power to them is being bullies and not civility.

 hope the good people of Israel and Jews around the world will drown the negative voices with their sane voices for the sake of long-term security of Israel and justice for the Palestinians.

Mike Ghouse is committed to working towards building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on the Political, religious, cultural and societal and human rights issues of the day. He is the President of Center for Pluralism and can be reached at www.CenterforPluralism.com.