African American Perspective on Gaza -

An African American perspective answers two major questions about Gaza
www.IsraelpalestineDialogue.com URL - http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2014/08/african-american-perspective-on-gaza.html


I am up at 3:00 AM, a piece by Ali Rizvi in Huffington Post was haunting me since yesterday, I had to find the answers for two of his questions, “If Israel withdrew from the occupied territories tomorrow, all in one go -- and went back to the 1967 borders -- and gave the Palestinians East Jerusalem -- do you honestly think Hamas wouldn't find something else to pick a fight about? “ The answer is no, and I am writing a full piece on dealing with Hamas.

The second question comes from this, “But Gaza makes Muslims around the world, both Sunni and Shia, speak up in a way they never do otherwise (700 deaths). Bashar al-Assad has killed over 180,000 Syrians, mostly Muslim, in two years -- more than the number killed in Palestine in two decades. Thousands of Muslims in Iraq and Syria have been killed by ISIS in the last two months. Tens of thousands have been killed by the Taliban. Half a million black Muslims were killed by Arab Muslims in Sudan. The list goes on.”

The above statement is  a fodder to the ones on Netanyahu's side (Jews and Judaism are on the right path and standing up for righteousness), and eager to shout:   Anti-Semitism.  

Why do Muslims in general get riled up against Israel?  The answer is in the following quotes by Britney Cooper in Salon. The article follows my commentary.

“Israel’s origin story has had deep and profound meaning for African-Americans and our ongoing freedom struggle. And conservative evangelical preachers generally don’t invite their congregants to consider how the Israelites’ ethnic cleansing of the Canaanites squares with our moral outrage against the murder of innocent people. “

“In prior centuries, European powers constructed ideas of a savage Indigenous other and a benighted animalistic African other to justify the plunder and enslavement of the places where these people lived. Indigenous people and West Africans were not a threat, except if their land was what you wanted.”

“Coming from a people who have had religious texts used to justify the slaughter and oppression of my people, I cannot abide the use of religiously grounded identities to justify the mistreatment of another group of people.”

Muslims have done the same thing, they have mistreated the minorities, not to this extent, but shamefully they have.  This is what makes me believe that it is not religion, as it is the case with tyrants in every religion. Which religious group that had the power or majority has not done it?

And finally this, “Still, black people know what it means to live under the shadow of limited resources, constant surveillance, random acts of state-based violence that go unpunished, and fear of violence from people who look like you, because those people have become the most severe victims of systematic privation and the desperation and nihilism and, yes, violence, it breeds.”

I was thinking – a majority of the world, well let me say, the absolute majority of world,  that is 97% of nations of the world have opposed Israeli siege, occupation and the settlers, the United Nations has passed many resolutions to this effect, which were all violated. There is anger in the world, because they cannot do anything when the United States is blatantly supporting  Israel to continue doing what it is doing; violations of UN resolutions and human rights. This anger is expressed in demonstrations against the powerful bullies, because that is about what they can do.

This phenomenon also answers why Muslims around the world are rallying up for Palestinians.  Even if they live in Muslim majority nations, they experience oppression and harassment by the dictators, religious police and monarchs, and see themselves in the mirror of Palestinians. Like the African Americans with, “unchecked policing, nonexistent economic opportunity, mass incarceration.” The Muslims around the world relate with this and empathize with the Palestinians. And this is the same reason the entire world besides Muslims are demonstrating and protesting against. It is not against Jews, Judaism or Israel, but it is against the apartheid mindset,” you are inferior and your life has no meaning to me and I can kill you like dogs (the colonialist in Australia have actually said this).”

Netanyahu and the right-wing leaders of Israel and the sheepish Senators who unanimously encouraged Israel to continue to pound with justifications and more funding are responsible for the deaths of Civilians on both sides of the divide.  They should have made these rascals sit down and talk, and not leave until they agree, instead of blowing money on more weapons but continued insecurities and injustices.  Barack Obama was a big hope for the world, all the powerless and the minorities of the world cried with joy on November 4, 2008, he was a hope for the minority, the weak and the powerless. What a disappointment he is!  He could not stand up for the powerless and for the human rights. Shame on him!  You blame the woman who is raped instead of the rapist?   All these men must be held responsible for the rise in Antisemitism and have weakened the security of Israel further.

These men have devalued America in the eyes of the people, and it is not too late to fix it, not sure what can be done, but we have to do something. Any ideas besides suing these men? 

Salon Article, "I was wrong about Gaza: Why we can no longer ignore the horrors in Palestine" by Brittney Cooper at Salon.com

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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. 


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I was wrong about Gaza: Why we can no longer ignore the horrors in Palestine

I tried to limit my exposure to the bombings and screams. But here's why being black in America made me think twice http://www.salon.com/2014/08/05/i_was_wrong_about_gaza_why_we_can_no_longer_ignore_the_horrors_in_palestine/

Brittney Cooper

 

Palestinians run for cover during clashes with Israeli soldiers following a protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Aug. 1, 2014. (Credit: AP/Majdi Mohammed)

Over the last few weeks, as the stories of rocket launches, bombings, screams and pictures of babies with their heads blown off have filtered out of Gaza, I have tried to limit my exposure to such horrors. Those are the privileges of living in the West, the ability to turn off the world by turning off one’s TV and bypassing articles in ones news feed.

I commenced this turning off of horrors after being bombarded this summer with story after story of police brutality in the U.S. – of a California Highway Patrolman pummeling 51-year-old Marlene Pinnock in the face for walking on the shoulder of a Los Angeles freeway; of the NYPD choking Eric Garner to death; of Brooklyn police officers putting another pregnant woman in a chokehold, and dragging a naked grandmother out of her home; of Renisha McBride’s character being placed on trial beside that of her killer, Theodore Wafer.

It sometimes feels too much to bear. To be black in America, even when you are rich, is to live in constant awareness that you have little protection against violence, either from desperate people in your own neighborhoods or from police who see you as a body to protect themselves from rather than a citizen worthy of protection.

What does any of this have to do with the struggles of Palestinians in Gaza?

Everything. First, we have a black president, who is commander in chief of a pro-Israel state. And black people are generally not into publicly and vocally criticizing Barack Obama, despite plenty of privately whispered reservations around kitchen tables and in barber shops and beauty shops. Second, African-Americans are disproportionately evangelical Christians, and evangelical Christianity, with its love of the story of Moses leading the Israelites (almost) to the Promised Land, is rooted in a kind of conservative theology that justifies a pro-Israel position. When President Obama was elected to office, many considered him to be the progenitor of the new “Joshua Generation,” who having thrown off the Mosaic tropes of older models of black leadership, which characterized everyone from Harriet Tubman to MLK, was now poised to actually lead the nation into the “promised land.”

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Israel’s origin story has had deep and profound meaning for African-Americans and our ongoing freedom struggle. And conservative evangelical preachers generally don’t invite their congregants to consider how the Israelites’ ethnic cleansing of the Canaanites squares with our moral outrage against the murder of innocent people. That’s not especially surprising in white evangelical churches, given how bound up white evangelicalism is with the Western colonial project. But it always gives me pause in black churches, when preachers (my own pastor being an exception, thankfully) take this text as the subject of a sermon, with no sense of irony.

As a black person attuned to the processes of colonization, slavery and apartheid that built the West on the backs of black and indigenous people, I cannot help seeing these acts of war and terror as interconnected. There is no way to morally justify the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. Therefore, I must redirect my outrage from organized resistance groups or “terrorists” toward the powerful nations that make people vulnerable to these militant extremist groups.

I place the term “terrorist” in scare quotes not because the violence and terror that Palestinians and some Israelis are enduring isn’t real but rather because the social construction of the “terrorist” performs important political work in justifying our political interests. In prior centuries, European powers constructed ideas of a savage Indigenous other and a benighted animalistic African other to justify the plunder and enslavement of the places where these people lived. Indigenous people and West Africans were not a threat, except if their land was what you wanted.

Sept. 11, 2001, became a significant touch point in a much longer U.S. project of constructing the “terrorist” as an identity that justifies escalating levels of state-based violence that kills far more civilians than armed militants. Given this long history of creating enemies that justify our political aims, while claiming that the enemies themselves necessitated the political aims, we should be suspicious of these constructions.
We can be suspicious of the construction of the terrorist as a political figure and still condemn the violence committed by militant extremist groups like Hamas. We can be suspicious of the myth of the black male criminal, which drives so much of social policy in the U.S., and still decry and disavow violent criminal activity that devastates communities. We can be suspicious of the practices of surveillance and policing that constrict the lives of African-Americans, Latinos and Arab Americans in the U.S. and still call the police when we are in danger.

What I am advocating is for us not to do as I did when the first pictures of this latest round of violence filtered out of Palestine. We cannot close our eyes and make the devastation and injustice go away. We have to look clearly. We have to begin to think about the processes that breed militancy and resistance.
Coming from a people who have had religious texts used to justify the slaughter and oppression of my people, I cannot abide the use of religiously grounded identities to justify the mistreatment of another group of people. Like the members of Jewish Voice for Peace, I believe that I can retain my religious identifications and reject some of the politics that go along with them.

So though I am Christian, I choose to approach my engagements with the Bible with what liberation and womanist theologians call a “hermeneutic of suspicion.” I invite others with similar histories and identifications to do the same.

Having come from people who have risen up, rioted and rebelled against oppressive state forces that confined us to land, restricted our movement and denied our humanity, I resist the urge to characterize all forms of resistance as terror. Especially, if we will not first be honest about the colonization and apartheid that fomented these acts of rebellion.

I recognize that what begins as resistance can devolve into terror, particularly the terrorizing of women and children, and this is especially true of nationalist movements. In this regard, Hamas deserves our strict and sure scrutiny.

On this score, I agree with Morehouse professor Marc Lamont Hill, who said that we must begin “not from the place of Palestinian resistance, but from the place of Israeli occupation.” Like him, I’m not pro-Hamas, but rather anti-occupation. Moreover, I know that our advocacy for Palestine will not necessarily improve the conditions of black Palestinians who live there under the shadow of racism.

Still, black people know what it means to live under the shadow of limited resources, constant surveillance, random acts of state-based violence that go unpunished, and fear of violence from people who look like you, because those people have become the most severe victims of systematic privation and the desperation and nihilism and, yes, violence, it breeds.

The same kind of nuance, the same hermeneutic of suspicion, the same ethic of care, that frames our understanding of black suffering and violence – unchecked policing, nonexistent economic opportunity, mass incarceration — in this political moment in the U.S. should frame our understanding of Gaza’s relationship to Israel. America’s sordid history of settler colonialism, slavery, mass incarceration and other racially driven social ills teaches us a lot about why our country identifies with Israel and it teaches us everything we need to know about why we shouldn’t.

Brittney Cooper is a contributing writer at Salon, and teaches Women's and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers. Follow her on Twitter at @professorcrunk.

Israel Palestine 101 - Jewish Voice for Peace

The following video comes from Jewish Voice for Peace, which has a similar call as mine - Security for Jews and Justice for the Palestinians. The site claims, "Watch this short, historically accurate animated introduction to Israel-Palestine 101" - 

I believe Miko Peled's history has a slight variation in its narration of history, the Palestinians did not accept the mandate because a majority of the living population were given a small piece of land, where as the majority of the land was given to the a minority Jews.  However, between Miko Peled's history and this, varies on the Arab invasion. 

Here is Mike Peled's version at: http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/11/miko-peleds-video-israeli-generals-son.html
 

Indeed, my understanding of the entire conflict is laid out in my article, http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-achieve-security-for-israel-and.html

Here is the version by Jewish voice for peace.

http://israelpalestine101.org/ 

 

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place and standing up for others as an activist. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him.

5 Lies the Media Keeps Repeating About Gaza

This piece has hit some big readership at Huffington post. My goal at this blog is to present different sensible views. If you do not wish to see a different point of view, please do not read further. Thank you. Mike Ghouse

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-baddar/5-lies-the-media-keeps-re_b_2160239.html

As Israel continues to pound Gaza, the Palestinian death toll of the latest round of violence has crossed the 100 mark. Thus far, the American media has given Israeli officials and spokespersons a free pass to shape the narrative of this conflict with falsehoods. Here are the top 5 lies the media doesn't challenge about the crisis in Gaza:

1. Israel Was Forced to Respond to Rockets to Defend Its Citizens

CNN, like many other American outlets, chose to begin the story of the latest round of violence in Gaza on November 10th, when 4 Israeli soldiers were wounded by Palestinian fire, and the IDF "retaliated" by killing several Palestinians. But just two days before, a 13 year old Palestinian boy was killed in an Israeli military incursion into Gaza (among other fatalities in preceding days). Is there any reason why those couldn't be the starting point of the "cycle of violence"? The bias was even more blatant in 2008/09, when Israel's massive assault on Gaza (which killed 1400+ Palestinians) was cast as self-defense, even though it was acknowledged in passing that Israel was the party that broke the ceasefire agreement in place at the time. Are the Palestinians not entitled to self-defense? And if indiscriminate Palestinian rocket fire is not an acceptable response to Israeli violence (which it absolutely isn't), how can indiscriminate Israeli bombings of Gaza ever be acceptable? And why is the broader context, the fact that Gaza remains under Israeli blockade and military control, overlooked?

2. Israel Tries to Avoid Civilian Casualties

It must be aggravating for Israel's propagandists when high-ranking political officials slip and get off the sanitized/approved message for public consumption. Yesterday, Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the "goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages." Not to be outdone, Gilad Sharon, son of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, said "we need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza." If you're thinking this is just rhetoric, consider the fact that, according to Amnesty International, Israel "flattened... busy neighborhoods" into "moonscapes" during its last major assault on Gaza in 2008/09. And it wasn't just human rights organizations that were exposing Israeli war crimes in Gaza, but Israeli soldiers whose conscience could not bear to remain silent about the atrocities they had committed were also coming forward.
If, for some odd reason, you cannot decide whether it is official Israeli spokespersons or soldiers of conscience and human rights investigators who are telling the truth, consider this question: If Hamas has only managed to kill 3 people despite being bent on killing civilians with thousands of indiscriminate rockets, how has Israel managed to kill several dozen Palestinian civilians when it is using sophisticated precision weapons to avoid civilian casualties? In just one Israeli attack yesterday, Israel killed more Palestinian civilians in a matter of minutes than the total number of all Israelis killed by rocket fire from Gaza over the last 3 years. The truth is exposed by the utter disregard for civilian life we see in practice, reaffirmed by testimonies and investigative evidence.

3. This Is About Security

If Israel's main objective were indeed to end the rocket fire from Gaza, all it had to do was accept the truce offered by the Palestinian factions before the Jabari assassination. And if the blockade of Gaza was just about keeping weapons from coming in, why are Palestinian exports from Gaza not allowed out? Why were food items ever restricted? The truth is, this isn't about security; it's about punishing the population of Gaza for domestic Israeli political consumption. When Gilad Sharon recommended the decimation of Gaza, he justified it by saying "the residents of Gaza are not innocent, they elected Hamas." Sharon may find this posturing to be rewarding in some circles, but it's actually the very same logic used by terrorists to attack civilians in democracies. Are Israeli civilians considered legitimate targets of violence because they elected right wing Israeli leaders who commit atrocities against the Palestinians? Of course not, and only a broken moral compass can keep this principle from consistently applying to Palestinian civilians as well.

4. Hamas Is the Problem

Between their religious right-wing domestic agenda, and their refusal to renounce violence against civilians, I'm most certainly no fan of Hamas. But whenever you hear Israel try to scapegoat Hamas for the crisis in Gaza, there are two things to consider. First, Hamas hasn't only showed preparedness to have a truce with Israel if Israel ended its attacks on Gaza, but has also suggested (though with mixed signals) that it is open to a two-state solution. Second, and more importantly, Hamas didn't come to power until 2006/07. Between 1993 and 2006 (13 years), Israel had the more moderate, peaceful, and pliant Palestinian authority (which recognizes Israel and renounces violence) to deal with as a partner for peace. What did Israel do? Did it make peace? Or did it continue to occupy Palestinian land, violate Palestinian rights, and usurp Palestinian resources? What strengthened Hamas and other extremists in Palestine is precisely the moderates' failure to secure any Palestinian rights through cooperation and negotiations. The truth is entirely inverted here: it is Israel's escalating violations of Palestinian rights which strengthen the extremists. 

5. There is a Military Solution to this Conflict

This is not the first time, and probably not the last, that Israel has engaged in a military campaign to pummel its opponents into submission. But are we any closer to ending this conflict today after decades of violence? The answer is a resounding no. After the 2006 war in Lebanon, Hezbollah emerged stronger. After the 2009 war on Gaza, Hamas remained in power and maintained possession of thousands of rockets. Israel's military superiority, while indeed impressive (thanks to $30 billion in U.S. military aid this decade), is not stronger than the Palestinian will to live in dignity. The way to end the firing of rockets in the short term is to agree to a truce and end the blockade of Gaza. The way to resolve the entire conflict in the long term is to end Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and allow the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination. We're probably close to a ceasefire agreement to end this round of violence. The real challenge is ending the Israeli occupation for long-term peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.

Miko Peled's Video- An Israeli General's son

Miko Peled's Video- An Israeli General's son
URL: http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/11/miko-peleds-video-israeli-generals-son.html

Miko Peled is son of Israel’s General Matti Peled, a champion of Palestinian rights. Those of you who genuinely seek to understand the complexity of Israel Palestine issue, I recommend this video on YouTube Video 1:08:31 Minutes.

Please do not assume that Jews and Muslims are anti-each other, they are not; a few are. This is good educational material for those few Jews who do not believe in human rights, but control the masses through their frightening propaganda. I am reviewing similar educational material for those few Palestinians who do not believe in human rights and use their own propaganda, and post it here on this site.  

The Palestinian right is no different than the Israeli right. They constantly blame each other and are eager to show off their muscle power, without giving a crap about long term security for Israel and justice for Palestinians, so their children can live in a better world.

To be a peace maker is to acknowledge the prejudices and conflicts, know that a few individuals drive the agenda for the whole populace, and it is usually not the will of the people. We need to hold the temptation to justify the actions of one over the other.

To be a peacemaker, we need to be free from bias, hate and ill-will, and we need to be at peace with ourselves to find peace for others.

Miko touches on Anti-Semitism at the tail end of the video. It has been my experience as well, and I will include that experience in my upcoming book, so we all can learn the little things that can cause us to fall and avoid it.  I thank God for putting me through the tests of withstanding endless harassment through emails, phone calls, and unleashing a few tormentors to exasperate me on social media. The right-wingers wanted to push me to say stupid things, so they can nail me as an “anti-Semite” and bring an end to my little peacemaking efforts.

They failed miserably, I am no anti-Semite, and prejudice is not in my blood stream. Most of you may not experience this, as you have not dealt with deeper issues beyond hello, how are you.  It’s just not the right wing Jews, the right wing Muslims have said ugly things to me for commemorating the annual Holocaust event in Dallas, a few even called me that I will not be a Muslim. I am sure most of the peacemakers out there, regardless of their religious affiliations have experienced this. We all can share and learn to stay firm and not be prejudiced, for our own heart.

I look up to Muhammad, Jesus, Gandhi, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Nanak, MLK and those guys, who are my role models. Nothing they did was for their gain; it was all for the benefit of humanity. Likewise, I have nothing to gain from anything I do, zip, nada, nothing.  I just wish to see people get along and willing to bear some abuse and humiliation in the process for the common good. This paragraph is for Miko, and all of you out there who are unselfishly serving humanity without discrimination. Keep it doing, it is the right thing to do.

Miko Peled’s presentation is fairly identical to my understanding. We have used a similar language with one exception; separating the right wingers on Jewish and Muslim side from the common people.  He speaks clearly and I relate with him, there is no malice or hatred in his language but facts. Indeed, he is a true representation of what Judaism is all about; fixing the world to be just and I hope to be a true representation of Islam, to be a just and fair with my own short comings.

At this time, I do not support the idea of one state for Israelis and Palestinians. Although I come from a nation that was split on religious lines, a major geopolitical mistake of India and Pakistan,   as mentioned in the video and the facts out there - the Jewish and Muslim children are indoctrinated that it is ok to kill the others and both invoke religion to suit their right wing agenda.

No religion puts life above religion, particularly these two; Judaism and Islam, yet they abuse their religion, enough of us need to speak out against Imams and Rabbis abusing and misquoting religion. Once the two states operate, the focus ought to be education and bring a new generation without hate, then they can form a confederation along the lines recommended in Israel Palestine confederation. At the end of the day, we all need to be fed and live a normal life where we don’t have to live in apprehension or fear of the other.

Please watch the following video and share, this is one of the best things you can do. I will share the other perspective as well. Hold your judgment; until you hear both sides, I will post the other video in a few days.

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YouTube Video 1:08:31 Minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TOaxAckFCuQ

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace making, foreign policy, Islam, Israel, India,  interfaith, and cohesion at work place or social settings. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national local TV, Radio and Print Media, and is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him.