I have some news from Chuck for you, followed by a bit of a rant from myself.
-- [Chuck] A 14 year old girl has won $25,000 for her invention of a solar powered water jug that purifies dirty water. The young winner is "America's Top Young Scientist," and judges were stunned by the sustainability and cost effectiveness of her design.
-- [Chuck] While World Toilet Day sounds like something that would be a laughing matter in many countries, for millions of people around the world, it is no joke. A serious lack of toilet facilities causes waste to flow back into drinking water, which is the major cause of diarrhea in children (which is also one of the main reasons for their deaths.) Have a look here to find out more.
-- [Chuck] The Keystone XL Pipeline is still being built, regardless of the massive concerns surrounding the pipeline and the company building it. Now, those fighting back against it are headed to Washington DC, and you can help.
-- [Chuck] What is happening in Gaza is a travesty. A blot on the slide of the World. It is horrifying. Here, Chris Hedges writes why the Elite aren't worried about Gaza, because if things keep going the way they are, we'll all be Gazans.
And that leads me to what I want to talk to you all about today. Gaza and Israel. Or as it used to be referred to, Palestine and Israel. If you don't like those terms, that's fine. Use whatever you want.
Anyway. I read on CNN today that Americans favor Israel over Gaza in this battle almost 4 to 1. That got me thinking. Most people don't have any idea what is actually going on in either area, yet they choose Israel anyway. I've taken the time to go beyond the media and read stories from both sides, as well as talking to people I know from the countries surrounding the fight.
My wife told me about the article on CNN. She was disgusted. "Americans are so stupid sometimes!" She lamented to me. "Why don't they actually look at what's happening instead of just doing what they're told?!" I could not disagree with her. But in this case, it isn't ignorance that is holding Americans back from learning the truth. It's fear. Fear of what? Fear of a word. A label. Fear of being called something no one wants to be called.
"ANTI-SEMITE!"
My father is Jewish. (Judeo-Christian, technically, but he's still Jewish.) My history is Romani, from Poland, Italy, Germany, and Egypt. I know the Jews have been persecuted for a long time, and I firmly believe that they should be able to be safe and without fear in practicing their religion and at all other times. No one should be targeting Jews with hate crimes, or saying that the Jews are in charge of some massive conspiracy theory to take over the world's finances or stuff like that. That's ridiculous, and no one should ever have to face that.
However.
I side with Gaza. And people are angry at me for it. People call me an anti-Semite. They say I'm like Hitler. My great grandmother was born in a town called Vlenski, Poland. Go look it up. Did you look? It's not there. It doesn't exist. Why? Because Hitler wiped the town off the map. Now you tell me again that I'm like Hitler. You tell me again that disagreeing with someone's government somehow means that you think those people should be killed. That's fucking stupid and you know it.
I am allowed to disagree with the Israeli government without hating the Israeli people. The citizens of Israel have pretty much NOTHING TO DO with what their government is doing!!! Just like the citizens of Gaza have pretty much NOTHING TO DO with the "terrorism" their government (or terrorist groups, depending on who you ask) is doing!!! I write terrorism in quotes, because I believe that the rockets on both sides could and should be considered terrorism.
So. Some terrorists or government agents (don't know which) in Gaza are shooting rockets at Israel. Israel responds by shooting down the rockets. Does Israel have a right to defend itself? Absolutely. Does defending yourself mean "You fire two rockets, I fire 80 at the homes of the people in your area?" No. No it doesn't.
The Israeli Defense says that their rockets are extremely accurate with pinpoint systems, yet somehow civilians are getting killed while they sleep in their homes. I watched a reporter on RT yesterday ask an Israeli Defense Minister how that was happening if the rockets were so precise. His response shocked the reporter as much as it did me. He tried to claim that the Gazan government was herding civilians into buildings they knew would be attacked in order to make it look like Israel was targeting homes. He said that the Gazan government was willingly killing its own citizens to make them look bad. Do you realize how ridiculous that is? The reporter and I both had the same incredulous look on our faces. These people were sleeping in their homes when they were bombed, injured, and in some cases killed, yet the Israeli Defense Minister wants us to believe that Gazan officials figured out which building was going to be bombed, then went and got people to put in that building before it happened.
So, yesterday a friend of mine from Algeria posted something on Facebook, and I'm going to copy and paste it here. I looked up the majority of the facts here, and the ones I looked at are all accurate. This may be difficult for some of you to look at or believe. This also only shows one side of the story, but it is just as important of a side as the one the Corporate Media shows you.
Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United
Nations Security Council resolutions ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism) ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East created millions of refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United Nations diplomat assassinated ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered the assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime minister ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship, the USS Liberty, in international waters, killing 34 and wounding 171 American sailors ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified documents from USA and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the American president grant Pollard a full pardon ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What Middle East country allows American Jewish murderers to flee to its country to escape punishment in the United States and refuses to extradite them once in their custody ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What Middle East country preaches against hate yet builds a shrine and a memorial for a murderer who killed 29 Palestinians while they prayed in their Mosque ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the United States , according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East deliberately targeted a civilian U.N. Refugee Camp in Qana , Lebanon and killed 103 innocent men, women, and especially children ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by U.S. vetoes ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives more than one-third of all U.S. aid to the world yet is the 16th richest country in the world ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives U.S. weapons for free and then sells the technology to the Republic of China even at the objections of the U.S. ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely insults the American people by having its Prime Minister address the United States Congress and lecturing them like children on why they have no right to reduce foreign aid ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East had its Prime Minister announce to his staff not to worry about what the United States says because "We control America ?"
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East was cited by Amnesty International for demolishing more than 4000 innocent Palestinian homes as a means of ethnic cleansing ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East has just recently used a weapon of mass destruction, a one-ton smart bomb, dropping it in the center of a highly populated area killing 15 civilians including 9 children ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely kills young Palestinian children for no reason other than throwing stones at armored vehicles, bulldozers, or tanks ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East signed the Oslo Accords promising to halt any new Jewish Settlement construction, but instead, has built more than 270 new settlements since the signing ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East has assassinated more than 100 political officials of its opponent in the last 2 years while killing hundreds of civilians in the process, including dozens of children ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East regularly violates the Geneva Convention by imposing collective punishment on entire towns, villages, and camps, for the acts of a few, and even goes as far as demolishing entire villages while people are still in their homes ?
Answer: Israel .
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism) ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East created millions of refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United Nations diplomat assassinated ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered the assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime minister ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship, the USS Liberty, in international waters, killing 34 and wounding 171 American sailors ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified documents from USA and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the American president grant Pollard a full pardon ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What Middle East country allows American Jewish murderers to flee to its country to escape punishment in the United States and refuses to extradite them once in their custody ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What Middle East country preaches against hate yet builds a shrine and a memorial for a murderer who killed 29 Palestinians while they prayed in their Mosque ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the United States , according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East deliberately targeted a civilian U.N. Refugee Camp in Qana , Lebanon and killed 103 innocent men, women, and especially children ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by U.S. vetoes ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives more than one-third of all U.S. aid to the world yet is the 16th richest country in the world ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives U.S. weapons for free and then sells the technology to the Republic of China even at the objections of the U.S. ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely insults the American people by having its Prime Minister address the United States Congress and lecturing them like children on why they have no right to reduce foreign aid ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East had its Prime Minister announce to his staff not to worry about what the United States says because "We control America ?"
Answer: Israel .
Question: What country in the Middle East was cited by Amnesty International for demolishing more than 4000 innocent Palestinian homes as a means of ethnic cleansing ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East has just recently used a weapon of mass destruction, a one-ton smart bomb, dropping it in the center of a highly populated area killing 15 civilians including 9 children ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely kills young Palestinian children for no reason other than throwing stones at armored vehicles, bulldozers, or tanks ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East signed the Oslo Accords promising to halt any new Jewish Settlement construction, but instead, has built more than 270 new settlements since the signing ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East has assassinated more than 100 political officials of its opponent in the last 2 years while killing hundreds of civilians in the process, including dozens of children ?
Answer: Israel .
Question: Which country in the Middle East regularly violates the Geneva Convention by imposing collective punishment on entire towns, villages, and camps, for the acts of a few, and even goes as far as demolishing entire villages while people are still in their homes ?
Answer: Israel .
If you disagree with me about this, that's fine. We all have a right to our opinions. I just feel that it is important to see the other side of an argument before you choose to believe what you are told to believe. I also feel that it is important to remind people that disagreeing with someone does not mean you hate them, or even dislike them. If I dislike the Russian government, does that mean I hate the Russian people? Of course not. What about the governments of Syria? Does disagreeing with them make me an Islamophobe? Not even close. So why is it that disagreeing with the Israeli government makes you an anti-Semite? The honest answer to that is that it doesn't, but the people in power want you to feel that it does. It's kind of the same sort of problem that people who dislike President Obama's policies have. Some people are willing to call them racist because they don't like his economic ideas. Is that right? Not at all. Is that what happens? Of course. It's a logical fallacy to distract from the actual issue at hand.
***Solidarity to all***
Kitty --- elvishbutterfly@hotmail.com
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