3/16/06-- Three years after Rachel Corrie's murder by IDF..
Today this essay will be an attempt to show solidarity with Rachel Corrie's unfinished struggle against Israel's apartheid policy and also provide further info on why Zionist policies in Israel/Palestine is detrimental for both Jewish and Palestinian peoples. In fact, the only beneficiaries of the apartheid Zionist state of Israel may well be a small group of religious fundamentalists and certain wealthy corporate executives. Certainly not the Jewish people, as the current myths claim..
Certain Zionist supporters will describe Norman Finkelstein as a Holocaust denier. One disadvantage of imc free speech media is that obvious fallacies need to be corrected, not deleted. However, in correcting a fallacy additional info can be provided to reintroduce Finkelstein's ideas to the readers..
Norman Finkelstein is known for several books (The Holocaust Industry) that explain how the Nazi Holocaust against Jewish people was used as propaganda ammo by Zionist supporters to justify the relocation of Jews to the apartheid state of Zionist Israel. He never denies that the Nazi Holocaust existed, he simply explains that the Nazi Holocaust is being used as political manipulation to support Zionist causes (relocation and resettlement of Jewish diaspora to Palestine/Israel)..
To further understand what Finkelstein is saying, a visit to his website may help clarify..
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/content.php?pg=3 Since the beginning of Zionist Israel, sacrifices of human life were made to ensure the creation of the Zionist state. Some of the earliest sacrifices were not only Palestinians, but the Jewish people themselves who Israel was supposedly built for. Here is a site that shows a letter written by Rabbi Weissmandel to Zionist leaders in the US, who had considerable influence to prevent the Nazi slaughter of European Jews from reaching epidemic proportions. However, the Zionist leaders in the US choose not to speak out against the Nazi Holocaust, citing the creation of Zionist Israel as the number one priority..
"Pleas to rescue Jews in the Holocaust
ignored by Zionist leaders
The following message about bombing concentration camps and railways, was an exhibit in the Kasztner libel case in Israel during the 1950's. It was sent by Rabbi Michael B. Weissmandel, an organizer for rescue activities operating in the quisling Nazi state of Slovakia. It provides shocking and disturbing evidence of how the Zionist leadership ignored the growing evidence of mass murder and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against Europe's Jews"
--->
"In answer to this, Rabbi Shonfeld quotes the Zionist leader Yitzhak Greenbaum, who, after the war, stated:
"When they asked me, couldn't you give money out of the United Jewish Appeal funds for the rescue of Jews in Europe, I said, 'NO!' and I say again 'NO!' . . . one should resist this wave which pushes the Zionist activities to secondary importance."
During the Kasztner case, Menachem Bader of the Jewish Agency was asked "Did you receive this letter from Rabbi Weissmandel?" He answered: "Letters like this came to us every day".
"
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/pleasignored.html Several decades after the defeat of the Nazi regime in Germany the relocation and resettlement of European and Russian Jewish communities to Israel was continuing in full force, despite a decline in anti-Semitism in Europe and Russia. Even today this frantic drive of resettlement continues, largely funded by right wing Christian Zionist religious sects in the US, with outspoken leaders like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell at the helm. These televangelists use the corporate media bullhorn of Christian Broadcasting Network, 700 Club and other cable networks to plead and beg for financial contributions from hardworking yet easily mislead Americans who reside in the Bible belt states. These financial contributions are used to promote continued resettlement of Jewish peoples from the former Soviet Union to the Zionist State of Israel. The right wing Christian Zionists portray themselves as the protecters of the Jews, yet if their message is further explored, there may be a more sinister goal behind their cheerful smiles and helping hands..
This from an article review about the recent Christian Zionist conservative's book "Left Behind" that portrays the vengeful return of Christ and "Armageddon", "Rapture", etc....
"The Brutal Christ of the Armageddonites
Religious fanaticism in American foreign policy"
by Jon Basil Utley
"In addition to their focus on Revelation, American fundamentalists of the "dispensationalist" variety stress the vengeful God of the Old Testament. They believe that nearly all of humanity (including Jews who don't convert) will be "left behind" to die horrible deaths, after which Christ will establish a thousand-year reign of paradise on earth.
Arab, Egyptian, Armenian, and other Middle Eastern Christians interfere with their thesis, so the Armageddonites try to hide their existence. Pat Robertson's 700 Club, for instance, refused to show a segment about Christian Arabs."
full article found here;
http://www.antiwar.com/utley/?articleid=8588 other info on Christian Zionists found here;
Challenging Christian Zionism;
http://www.christianzionism.org/ On this third year anniversary of the murder of Rachel Corrie by an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer, this author is sending out a request to all Palestinian (Hamas, Fatah, etc..) Jewish (Jews for Peace, etc..), Christian, secular, agnostic, etc.. and other peace activist collectives to put aside differences and focus their protest energy on collapsing the ill gotten financial empires of religious right fundamentalist Christian Zionists (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, etc..) and their neo-conservative quisling puppets (AIPAC, Wolfowitz, Feith, etc..) who would sooner watch the Jews (and Palestinians) returned to the ovens of genocide than lose any of their status and power shared with the petroleum profit obsessed imperialist Bush regime..
Could the "Battle of Armageddon" portrayed by the Christian Zionists be codespeak for an upcoming nuclear conflict over securing control of the Middle East's petroleum deposits??
Currently the nuclear weapons buildup is greatest in the US and Israel. Even Israeli citizens have spoken out against the dangers presented to Israelis, Palestinians, and others by the presence of Israel's nuclear weapons in the Negev desert. Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu remains under house arrest in Israel following his 18 years of incarceration for speaking out about the dangers of Israel's nuclear weapons program..
Please help remove the Israeli government's gag on Vanunu's message of peace and abolition of nuclear weapons;
http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/ Here in the US the Dept. of Energy and US military remain unable to deal with the tremendous build-up of nuclear waste, and the ever increasing rush of stockpiling nuclear weapons stateside. The homeland of the Western Shoshone people (Newe Sogobia) was taken from them via eminent domain by the US military for nuclear weapons testing despite the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1862 that granted the Shoshone their land. To add insult to injury, Bechtel Nevada plans to store the nuclear waste in Newe Sogobia's seismically active Yucca Mountain. Of course it is no problem for the Bush regime to point the finger at Iran's nuclear program, for US, hypocrisy is an understatement..
http://www.shundahai.org/yucca_mt.html What would the benefit of a militarized Israeli state be to the petroleum corporations (ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, British Petroleum/Shell/Amaco, ConocoPhillips, etc..) interested in "securing" the remaining petroleum deposits in the Middle East??
Is Israel's role a militarized colonial outpost serving US economic interests, primarily multinational petroleum corporations??
Maybe now is the time for a culture change, eh??
http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php Another facet of the right-wing Christian Zionist fundamentalist worldview is their disregard for the ecosystem. A recent article in Earth Island Journal describes the role of the conservative Christians in promoting a rapid and complete consumption of the Earth's natural resources. This indicates that their view of Armageddon's Battle is approaching rapidly..
"The new Manifest Destiny: Christian Dominionists work with the anti-environmental right-wing to use up the Earth’s resources as quickly as possible."
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/new_articles.cfm?articleID=1020&journalID=86 There are two ways for Christians to interpret the Bible, one being that people are stewards and caretakers of the Earth's diverse ecosystems, the opposing view (held by Christian right-wing) that people are given dominion of the Earth's ecosystems and only for the purpose of converting the biodiversity into inanimate objects for profit and consumption. The sooner the natural resources are used up, the sooner Armageddon will approach..
Interpretation by Christian right on natural disasters made worse by corporate exploitation/destruction of ecosystems (petroleum/auto corp influenced global warming spawned Katrina's severe storm surges, corporate sprawl development influences destruction of "sponge-like" wetlands, influenced flooding of New Orleans, etc..) encourage misinformed people to buy into their "Armageddon" theory of "The End of the World"..
In reality if people treated their surrounding ecosystem with some greater degree of respect, caring and love, the Earth could support the human population for many millenia in the future. Providing (instead of preventing access to) people with safe birth control and reducing poverty (stems from corporate influenced economic inequality) would reduce the "overpopulation" problem to non-existence, especially if the far greater threat of Western resource overconsumption is reduced..
Thank you Rachel Corrie for giving your energy and time, may we all remember your courage and continue the struggle for peace and justice in Palestine (and worldwide) where you left us three years ago..
olive branch