From Brian Eno, "Today I saw a picture of a weeping Palestinian man holding a plastic carrier bag of meat. It was his son. He'd been shredded (the hospital's word) by an Israeli missile attack -- apparently using their fab new weapon, flechette bombs. You probably know what those are -- hundreds of small steel darts packed around explosive which tear the flesh off humans. The boy was Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra. He was 4 years old."
There is an obscenity being perpetrated on the Palestinian people as I write this essay. And please don't obscure it with talk of Hamas and its intentions. I'm writing clear-eyed about the inhumanity involved here. It is similar to other obscenities committed by our species on other members of our species. It's like the obscenity of apartheid in South Africa some years back. Or the obscenity of the elimination of indigenous people and theft of their lands right here at home. Or the obscenity of Warsaw ghettos where Jews were gathered together in limited space without sufficient resources to survive; followed by an even greater one designed to exterminate the entire Jewish people. Much like what's happening in Gaza as you read this essay.
But this obscenity is characterized by a strange inversion. In this case, the victims of one the greatest obscenities of our times is the perpetrator. The purveyor of destruction to property, to vital services necessary for survival, indiscriminate killing of men, woman and children because they are Palestinians,.
Yet when we hear about what's happening, we are left with an impression that there is a kind of symmetry. You know, the Israelis are just protecting themselves from Hamas and its rockets.
The latest fatality figures that I can find as I write this are over 1800 Palestinians and 64 Israelis killed. This is what happens when you pit the fourth most powerful military in the world against $800 homemade, unguided rockets, sticks and stones.
This is not symmetry. This is extermination. Extermination with the help of over 3 billion American taxpayer dollars per year.
Last Sunday morning I attended a presentation from an expert on this situation in the Mideast. And I wondered why the preponderance of facts never get the light of day. Mostly, I wondered why I felt so uncertain about this situation.
Then I found this on the Internet: "There is a reason for this enhancement of the PR skills of Israeli spokesmen. Going by what they say, the playbook they are using is a professional, well-researched and confidential study on how to influence the media and public opinion in America and Europe. Written by the expert Republican pollster and political strategist Dr. Frank Luntz, the study was commissioned five years ago by a group called The Israel Project, with offices in the US and Israel, for use by those "who are on the front lines of fighting the media war for Israel".
Just like everything else in America, we are being sold a point of view, marketed into believing that "our only ally in the Mideast, Israel," is just protecting itself from these medieval Palestinian attacks on its homelands. Homelands that are being taken from the Palestinians on a day by day basis. Don't believe me. Take the time to view a map of Gaza that shows the Israeli settlements. And then consider that they are surrounded by concrete security walls that cut what's left of Gaza into isolated islands of Palestinians with no access to the outside or each other.
Please don't confuse my point. I do believe Israel has a right to exist and protect itself, but not to exterminate an entire people in the process. By exterminate, I mean take their property, blockade their resources, lock them into ghettos, and bomb them into oblivion. Sounds like the Warsaw ghetto all over again, to me. This time the Warsaw victims are the perpetrators.
The tragic reality is that the Jewish people, a people who have been ostracized, persecuted and vilified for centuries, are now providing ammunition for the ever present, mindless anti-Semitism in the world.
In the final analysis, I fear the world will forget the monumental contributions made to humanity by the Jewish people and remember them for these obscenities committed in the name of the Israeli government.
Robert DeFilippis
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