Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Palestinian American and "Gen Z granddaughter of Nakba survivors," ran to represent Illinois’ Ninth District in Congress. First time at anything like this. In addition to Palestine, she spoke about what also matters to Americans, such as health care, housing, the "'Have-mores' taking more from the 'have-less' economy," and more. In other words, the type of voice needed in Congress. She came in second in a three-way race to be the Democratic primary winner, besting one Zionist, and coming close to doing the same to the "Israel lite" candidate, enough so to put AIPAC in a panic. By all rights she should have trounced both of them, but to borrow from Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with the Illinois Ninth"?
49-year-old Mass. Rep. Seth Moulton is challenging 79-year-old and longtime Mass. Sen. Ed Markey to be the Dem's candidate in November, claiming it's time for new leaders in the party, that a "thank you" be given to the gerontocracy as new blood steps in. I wanted to see what's behind this challenge, is it justified, is it genuine? So I attended two of Moulton's campaign events to learn more.
First event - I asked him, "Opensecrets.org says you took in $43,000 from AIPAC last campaign cycle, this gonna continue?" Also, "We recently passed the $1+ trillion per year threshold in wasting money on the Pentagon, with billions of that going to Israel, while the American Society of Civil Engineers gives an overall grade of only a 'C' for infrastructure in this country, with many subcategories of that getting only a 'D+'. Is this craziness gonna continue?"
To the first question he responded that he gave that money back; to the second he started off by saying "of course we have to continue support for Israel" and then quickly shifted to an erroneous example of Pentagon waste by citing the Air Force's A-10 ground attack aircraft, which is actually "very good for the money," if such a term can be used in military spending, it's well-designed, rugged, not steeped in finicky technology, and gets the job done. Pilots and ground crew love it, the generals hate it because it isn't fancy, sophisticated, and packed with "gee, wow!" features, that often don't work.
He mistook his example for the F-35, the most expensive "weapons system" (to date) on the order of a projected $1.5 trillion over its service life, with an operational readiness rate of only 20% because it's tough to keep up with all its design and software problems.
So this boner of a mistake from a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, but he gave the impression - though not a definite answer - that military spending had to be dealt with (how's that for a euphemism?).
Second event - Seeing as I wasn't satisfied with his answers first time around, I figured I'd make another attempt to see where things stood exactly. This time I said, "I'm not out to gig you (he remembered me from the first time just a coupla weeks prior) but I need some clarification. A) What is your understanding of the Nakba, and how would it affect your decisions in office should you be successful in November, and B) Where do you stand on Pentagon spending now crossing $1 trillion per year and there are almost daily reports of problems on the 'T' (the Boston area public transit system). By the way, I'm still kicking myself for not saying that Markey voted "No" on that Pentagon budget.
Without hesitation he said, "Let me take your second question first," which he did, by saying, "First off I want to see our troops get paid." Not only an almost full 180-degree reversal from what he said at the first event, but also a disingenuous, faux, "thank you for your service" bit of horseshit that told me this guy's a phony. But he was deft as politicians so often are, he babbled on until he used up what he felt was the sufficient amount of time and then moved on to the next questioner, completely ignoring my implicit question about support for Israel. So he answered it by not answering it.
All this is by way of an example underscoring your question, "Why isn’t it having a bigger effect in elections?" I just don't know. My only surmise so far is that this country has been so bludgeoned since 9/11 not only by terrorism used as an excuse to put Americans on edge, to expand the national security state, to lead to more unjustified, aggressive military actions, to boost Pentagon spending, to give tax breaks to the already-rich, to gut the safety net, to tick off items on the Right's political agenda as seen in the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025," and not to be minimized is the narrative about Israel that has been fed to us since well before Leon Uris' "Exodus," that as a people we are just left numb and dumb. And it's only natural that for the most part, that would be reflected in those who are elected to our "representative government."
Thanks for your incessant remarks about the pseudo-state called "Israel". My brother joined the U.S. Foreign Service in late 1966, and he wrote me a letter a year later in which he called "Israel" "the bastard state in action." This letter of his probably was inspired by "Israel's" attack on the USS Liberty ship in 1967. It took me many years after that to understand enough more about "Israel" to know why he became anti-Israel so early in his life. I have studied the various definitions available on the Internet of "Israel", "semitic", etc., and I admit to being a total anti-Zionist but not anti-semitic. Semitic refers to ethnicity, which means DNA and not anything historic or political. Wikipedia's definition is this:
Of or pertaining to a subdivision of Afroasiatic Semitic languages: Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, Syriac, Tigrigna etc.
Of or pertaining to the Semites; of or pertaining to one or more Semitic peoples.
(biblical) Of or pertaining to the descendants of Shem, the eldest of three sons of Noah.
(in particular) Of or pertaining to the Israeli, Jewish, or Hebrew people.
Of or pertaining to any of the religions which originated among the Semites; Abrahamic.
The history of what is today called "Israel" is quite sordid. This territory has been conquered and controlled by various groups of marauding and land-seizing peoples for thousands of years, such as the original Jews. Their earliest provable residency in this part of the world is set by historians as the reign of King Hezekiah's from 716 B.C. to 687 B.C. There is nothing mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible whose date is provable through archeology before 716 B.C. No King David, patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, no Methuselah, no worldwide flood, no Adam or Eve, etc. Everything involving human history is myth from Genesis 1:1 to 716 B.C. Whichever people had enough military strength conquered "Palestine" and ruled there until another more powerful people conquered them and began ruling Palestine until it was their turned to be conquered and replaced by the next conquering army. Anyone who thinks that "God gave the land of Palestine" to Jewish people for all eternity needs to read a lot more widely. I would suggest reading the Wikipedia articles on Zionism, Palestine, Israel, Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Theodore Herzl, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn's most recently published book Two Hundred Years Together.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
From New York City we are leading the change electing Zoran as Mayor and tonight three anti-genocide candidates for Congress smeared by AIPAC but endorsed by Zoran won primaries!
Great question. I love how you raise practical questions. My theory is that so many people do not still know about what's happening; they probably think there is a ceasefire even. we may be congratulating each other that so many now knows, but many more don't.
There are a number of reasons Americans are reluctant to say or do anything that doesn't support Israel, particularly older people like me who have had the propaganda steadily fed us our entire lives.
> Knowing of the holocaust and being reminded of it steadily over a lifetime makes any mention of Israel that is not positive feel like it might be antisemitism (Israel/the ADL mines the holocaust for all it is worth). Holocaust education is now required by law in many states no later than 8th grade.
> Having seen plays and movies and TV shows and reading books with the plot or the characters either having some connection to the holocaust or providing a way to touch on it in a way that promotes pity and sympathy for all Jews, Israelis included.
> Knowing neighbors and friends who are Jews and fearing to offend them if Israel is even mentioned, this without having the courage to ask these people their own view on Israel. Having such neighbors and friends visit Israel (NOT the occupied territory) and return to talk of how "they are just like us" and holding the line against terror.
> Knowing of people who have spoken out against Israel and paid a heavy price by taking intense heat from Zionists while receiving no support from anyone because of the intimidation,
> Driving by synagogues with large Jewish National Fund signs displaying the American and Israeli flags with the caption "TOGETHER FOR GOOD". This is no longer a factor as every one of these signs has disappeared. One cannot pair liberty and justice for all with ethnic supremacy, the hypocrisy of that now very clear, yet only one synagogue that I know of has come out in support of LJ4A and against Zionism, some are openly supporting Israel, but most are in hiding likely due to a riven congregation
Per Gideon Levy, Golda Meir once said, "after the holocaust, Jews can do anything" and Israel has proven her correct. Israelis clearly believe that the holocaust makes anything Israel does defensive and anything the Palestinians do mindless terrorism because of hatred of Jews. We know this is a false fanatic view placed into the minds of every new generation of Israelis (the eager and joyful behavior of the IDF in Gaza proves it so) and too many American Jews.
The members of Jewish Voice for Peace show that this rat in the skull can be expelled with a sense of common humanity overcoming tribalism, but JVP members are a minority courageously opposing Israel, a state of hate most of whose residents feel righteous and mistreated no matter what atrocities Israel commits. It is imperative that US support of Israel end. We are moving down that path but far too slowly.
Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Palestinian American and "Gen Z granddaughter of Nakba survivors," ran to represent Illinois’ Ninth District in Congress. First time at anything like this. In addition to Palestine, she spoke about what also matters to Americans, such as health care, housing, the "'Have-mores' taking more from the 'have-less' economy," and more. In other words, the type of voice needed in Congress. She came in second in a three-way race to be the Democratic primary winner, besting one Zionist, and coming close to doing the same to the "Israel lite" candidate, enough so to put AIPAC in a panic. By all rights she should have trounced both of them, but to borrow from Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with the Illinois Ninth"?
49-year-old Mass. Rep. Seth Moulton is challenging 79-year-old and longtime Mass. Sen. Ed Markey to be the Dem's candidate in November, claiming it's time for new leaders in the party, that a "thank you" be given to the gerontocracy as new blood steps in. I wanted to see what's behind this challenge, is it justified, is it genuine? So I attended two of Moulton's campaign events to learn more.
First event - I asked him, "Opensecrets.org says you took in $43,000 from AIPAC last campaign cycle, this gonna continue?" Also, "We recently passed the $1+ trillion per year threshold in wasting money on the Pentagon, with billions of that going to Israel, while the American Society of Civil Engineers gives an overall grade of only a 'C' for infrastructure in this country, with many subcategories of that getting only a 'D+'. Is this craziness gonna continue?"
To the first question he responded that he gave that money back; to the second he started off by saying "of course we have to continue support for Israel" and then quickly shifted to an erroneous example of Pentagon waste by citing the Air Force's A-10 ground attack aircraft, which is actually "very good for the money," if such a term can be used in military spending, it's well-designed, rugged, not steeped in finicky technology, and gets the job done. Pilots and ground crew love it, the generals hate it because it isn't fancy, sophisticated, and packed with "gee, wow!" features, that often don't work.
He mistook his example for the F-35, the most expensive "weapons system" (to date) on the order of a projected $1.5 trillion over its service life, with an operational readiness rate of only 20% because it's tough to keep up with all its design and software problems.
So this boner of a mistake from a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, but he gave the impression - though not a definite answer - that military spending had to be dealt with (how's that for a euphemism?).
Second event - Seeing as I wasn't satisfied with his answers first time around, I figured I'd make another attempt to see where things stood exactly. This time I said, "I'm not out to gig you (he remembered me from the first time just a coupla weeks prior) but I need some clarification. A) What is your understanding of the Nakba, and how would it affect your decisions in office should you be successful in November, and B) Where do you stand on Pentagon spending now crossing $1 trillion per year and there are almost daily reports of problems on the 'T' (the Boston area public transit system). By the way, I'm still kicking myself for not saying that Markey voted "No" on that Pentagon budget.
Without hesitation he said, "Let me take your second question first," which he did, by saying, "First off I want to see our troops get paid." Not only an almost full 180-degree reversal from what he said at the first event, but also a disingenuous, faux, "thank you for your service" bit of horseshit that told me this guy's a phony. But he was deft as politicians so often are, he babbled on until he used up what he felt was the sufficient amount of time and then moved on to the next questioner, completely ignoring my implicit question about support for Israel. So he answered it by not answering it.
All this is by way of an example underscoring your question, "Why isn’t it having a bigger effect in elections?" I just don't know. My only surmise so far is that this country has been so bludgeoned since 9/11 not only by terrorism used as an excuse to put Americans on edge, to expand the national security state, to lead to more unjustified, aggressive military actions, to boost Pentagon spending, to give tax breaks to the already-rich, to gut the safety net, to tick off items on the Right's political agenda as seen in the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025," and not to be minimized is the narrative about Israel that has been fed to us since well before Leon Uris' "Exodus," that as a people we are just left numb and dumb. And it's only natural that for the most part, that would be reflected in those who are elected to our "representative government."
Good luck with that.
Thanks for your incessant remarks about the pseudo-state called "Israel". My brother joined the U.S. Foreign Service in late 1966, and he wrote me a letter a year later in which he called "Israel" "the bastard state in action." This letter of his probably was inspired by "Israel's" attack on the USS Liberty ship in 1967. It took me many years after that to understand enough more about "Israel" to know why he became anti-Israel so early in his life. I have studied the various definitions available on the Internet of "Israel", "semitic", etc., and I admit to being a total anti-Zionist but not anti-semitic. Semitic refers to ethnicity, which means DNA and not anything historic or political. Wikipedia's definition is this:
Of or pertaining to a subdivision of Afroasiatic Semitic languages: Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, Syriac, Tigrigna etc.
Of or pertaining to the Semites; of or pertaining to one or more Semitic peoples.
(biblical) Of or pertaining to the descendants of Shem, the eldest of three sons of Noah.
(in particular) Of or pertaining to the Israeli, Jewish, or Hebrew people.
Of or pertaining to any of the religions which originated among the Semites; Abrahamic.
The history of what is today called "Israel" is quite sordid. This territory has been conquered and controlled by various groups of marauding and land-seizing peoples for thousands of years, such as the original Jews. Their earliest provable residency in this part of the world is set by historians as the reign of King Hezekiah's from 716 B.C. to 687 B.C. There is nothing mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible whose date is provable through archeology before 716 B.C. No King David, patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, no Methuselah, no worldwide flood, no Adam or Eve, etc. Everything involving human history is myth from Genesis 1:1 to 716 B.C. Whichever people had enough military strength conquered "Palestine" and ruled there until another more powerful people conquered them and began ruling Palestine until it was their turned to be conquered and replaced by the next conquering army. Anyone who thinks that "God gave the land of Palestine" to Jewish people for all eternity needs to read a lot more widely. I would suggest reading the Wikipedia articles on Zionism, Palestine, Israel, Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Theodore Herzl, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn's most recently published book Two Hundred Years Together.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Find out what they’re doing here:
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org
The least we can do is donate to help them:
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
From New York City we are leading the change electing Zoran as Mayor and tonight three anti-genocide candidates for Congress smeared by AIPAC but endorsed by Zoran won primaries!
Great question. I love how you raise practical questions. My theory is that so many people do not still know about what's happening; they probably think there is a ceasefire even. we may be congratulating each other that so many now knows, but many more don't.
There are a number of reasons Americans are reluctant to say or do anything that doesn't support Israel, particularly older people like me who have had the propaganda steadily fed us our entire lives.
> Knowing of the holocaust and being reminded of it steadily over a lifetime makes any mention of Israel that is not positive feel like it might be antisemitism (Israel/the ADL mines the holocaust for all it is worth). Holocaust education is now required by law in many states no later than 8th grade.
> Having seen plays and movies and TV shows and reading books with the plot or the characters either having some connection to the holocaust or providing a way to touch on it in a way that promotes pity and sympathy for all Jews, Israelis included.
> Knowing neighbors and friends who are Jews and fearing to offend them if Israel is even mentioned, this without having the courage to ask these people their own view on Israel. Having such neighbors and friends visit Israel (NOT the occupied territory) and return to talk of how "they are just like us" and holding the line against terror.
> Knowing of people who have spoken out against Israel and paid a heavy price by taking intense heat from Zionists while receiving no support from anyone because of the intimidation,
> Driving by synagogues with large Jewish National Fund signs displaying the American and Israeli flags with the caption "TOGETHER FOR GOOD". This is no longer a factor as every one of these signs has disappeared. One cannot pair liberty and justice for all with ethnic supremacy, the hypocrisy of that now very clear, yet only one synagogue that I know of has come out in support of LJ4A and against Zionism, some are openly supporting Israel, but most are in hiding likely due to a riven congregation
Per Gideon Levy, Golda Meir once said, "after the holocaust, Jews can do anything" and Israel has proven her correct. Israelis clearly believe that the holocaust makes anything Israel does defensive and anything the Palestinians do mindless terrorism because of hatred of Jews. We know this is a false fanatic view placed into the minds of every new generation of Israelis (the eager and joyful behavior of the IDF in Gaza proves it so) and too many American Jews.
The members of Jewish Voice for Peace show that this rat in the skull can be expelled with a sense of common humanity overcoming tribalism, but JVP members are a minority courageously opposing Israel, a state of hate most of whose residents feel righteous and mistreated no matter what atrocities Israel commits. It is imperative that US support of Israel end. We are moving down that path but far too slowly.