Benefit of the Doubt

As a U.S. veteran, I have always given the benefit of the doubt to my country. The millions killed in Korea and Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s just could have been the fault of US weapons makers, eager to trade body counts for corporate profits.

And then there were the millions slaughtered in the misguided U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Like the previous conflicts, the invasions were all based on dirty little lies about defending our country or spreading freedom to the Third World.

But America's unrelenting butchery in Gaza has nothing left to cover its war crimes. The Palestinian children are dying with no food, no water and no shelter from the storm. The empire has decided it needs these human sacrifices for some arcane geopolitical advantage. And the savagery is now going into its second year.

We are finally coming to realize that the empire and its grubby, bloodstained ally, Israel, are the true impediments to world peace. Most countries already know this, judging by the huge numbers of UN member states that castigate the US and Israel for their ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Only the American people stand in the way of the worst genocide since the Third Reich. It is a simple choice: demand an end to our country's mass murdering of children or become part of it. Insist that our venal Congress stop accepting millions in Israeli bribes, blood money that supports this most grotesque of all apartheid colonies.

Fred Nagel
8 Clay Ct.
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845 430 4676

Common antisemitic words

Joe Sacco War On Gaza

Common antisemitic words and phrases to watch out for:

"NAKBA" Because it implies that Israel has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians forever. It's only been 75 years.

"HOLY LAND" Because it describes several religions in this region, when we know that only Jewish people are allowed.

"HOME DEMOLITIONS" Because everyone knows that only Israel is bulldozing houses in Israel/Palestine. There must be other countries doing a lot of bulldozing that are being routinely overlooked.

"APARTHEID" Because it suggests that Israel is a racist country. In fact, only Jimmy Carter and a few human rights organizations use this word. And they only use it because they are antisemites.

"WAR CRIMES" Because it brings to mind two million people starving and dying in Gaza. Its use at colleges will make some Jewish students sad and even upset.

"ISRAEL LOBBY" Because it implies that Israel bribes the US Congress. Congress takes boatloads of money from the oil lobby, the weapons makers, and the pharmaceuticals. Why is Israel being singled out?

"ONE STATE OR TWO STATE SOLUTIONS" Because Israel has been dead set against either solution for a very long time. Even asking this question is another sign of being an antisemite.

"FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE" Because the Israel Lobby says this is antisemitic. What gives people the right to put "Palestine" and "free" in the same sentence?

"GENOCIDE" Because everyone already knows that the IDF is slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinians. Can't people get off Israel's back!

Fred Nagel

 

Trail Of Tears

Joe Sacco War On Gaza

 Trail Of Tears

Bodily feelings sometimes go away, but always return with a bit more urgency. Like hunger, you can forget it for a while, but it invariably comes back stronger. That is what the children learn, as they are slowly starved to death by the US/Israel death machine.

I find that as I immerse myself in day to day events, this slaughter is always waiting to come back to me. Could the country I love be starving children to death by the thousands? By the tens of thousands? Their spindly arms and legs have that Buchenwald look. I can't bear the images that wait for me to close my eyes.

Once the children behind barbed wire fences appear to me, my mind starts a desperate search. Could my own country be murdering children like this? Could our own churches and synagogues be cheering on the extermination? Did we catch this endless warfare and charnel house slaughter from the Nazis?

Both political parties want this butchery. All the money we have is going into more bombs and planes. We can't get enough of it. We wave our flags, heedless of what our country is really doing. We sing "God Bless America," as if we had the right to ask our lord to celebrate the holocaust of this century.

Are we incapable of empathy? Is this life but a trail of tears, the name given to our very own ethnic cleansing and annihilation of the Cherokee Nation? Who on earth can protect the Palestinians from the barbarians?

Fred Nagel

The Moral Issue Of Our Time

 

Palestinian artist Mohammad Sabaaneh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Moral Issue Of Our Time

America's genocide in Gaza will someday come back to haunt us all. Generations to come will describe the empire that talked about human rights and freedom, while it slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians, and starved their children.

For proof of American's war crimes and crimes against humanity, historians need only look at last week's shameful events. As a parting gift to Israel, Genocide Joe is sending another 8 billion in bombs and missiles to get the job done faster. This while the House of Representatives is writing up a plan to sanction the International Criminal Court for its attempts to end the butchery.

To be honest, our Congress is awash in Zionist bribes. A quick look at opensecrets.org reveals the tens of thousands going to almost every member of this unscrupulous and venal institution. For 2024 the Israel Lobby spent twice as much on bribes than even the weapons makers.

As many of us know, our government represents the interests of the billionaire elites rather than the workers of this country. They don't care about our own children, much less about the wandering hoards of Palestinian youths, crying about their murdered parents and looking for a piece of bread.

Our news media suffers from the same affliction. It is owned by the billionaires, just like Congress and our president. That leaves only us to resist the American genocide of the Palestinian people. It is the moral issue of our time, the true measure of our humanity.

Fred Nagel

My uncle liberated Dachau

My uncle liberated Dachau at the end of WW II. After four years of combat, he had lost much of his emotional response to anything, a classic case of PTSD. Only once he did talk about the Dachau survivors and how hard it was to keep them alive. They were nothing but skin and bones.

My uncle was proud of what he did there. His army had done the right thing, and brought an end to the Third Reich and its nightmare of exterminations. At least he had that to comfort himself for all those years in a foxhole. He was on the right side of history.

How different our world is from his. Now the US is arming and funding an actual genocide in Gaza. Hoards of Palestinian children roam their cratered world, just looking for something to eat. They could be from Dachau, emaciated skeletons of their former selves. By the tens of thousands these Palestinian children bear witness to how our nation has gone from savior of the innocent to executioner.

My uncle wouldn't have believed it possible, that his beloved country could have turned into a champion of apartheid and genocide. He wouldn't have understood how the Israel Lobby was allowed to spend 36 million on the last election, much more than the "contributions" of even the US weapons makers (OpenSecrets.org). He would find himself adrift in a world where money can buy one's soul. Where "never again" is a quaint reminder of a forgotten time.  

Fred Nagel

Trail of Tears

Bodily feelings sometimes go away, but always return with a bit more urgency. Like hunger, you can forget it for a while, but it invariably comes back stronger. That is what the children learn, as they are slowly starved to death by the US/Israel death machine.

I find that as I immerse myself in day to day events, this slaughter is always waiting to come back to me. Could the country I love be starving children to death by the thousands? By the tens of thousands? Their spindly arms and legs have that Buchenwald look. I can't bear the images that wait for me to close my eyes.

Once the children behind barbed wire fences appear to me, my mind starts a desperate search. Could my own country be murdering children like this? Could our own churches and synagogues be cheering on the extermination? Did we catch this endless warfare and charnel house slaughter from the Nazis?

Both political parties want this butchery. All the money we have is going into more bombs and planes. We can't get enough of it. We wave our flags, heedless of what our country is really doing. We sing "God Bless America," as if we had the right to ask our lord to celebrate the holocaust of this century.

Are we incapable of empathy? Is this life but a trail of tears, the name given to our very own ethnic cleansing and annihilation of the Cherokee Nation? Who on earth can protect the Palestinians from the barbarians?

The Gift of Thrice Promised Land

We are so aware of the powerful Israel Lobby and its money machine that we overlook the many ways that Jews have been used and abused by both England and the United States. Going all the way back to the Balfour Declaration, we find that England had a habit of promising Palestine to several nations and peoples at the same time. There was the promise made in 1915 to give Arabs independence from the Ottoman Empire (called the Hussein-McMahon correspondence). And then there was a separate agreement with the French in 1916 that guaranteed Palestine would be under international control, and the rest split between the two Western powers (called the Sykes-Picot agreement). England made all three agreements without ever consulting the indigenous inhabitants of the region.

How big a gift was this thrice promised land of Palestine to the Jews? It was already owned and occupied by millions of Palestinian people. To make the area an all Jewish state would take decades of ethnic cleansing and slaughter, something that would eventually make Israel a pariah state in the rest of the world. A kinder, more reasonable solution would have been to let Jews immigrate to English speaking countries where there was plenty of room. But of course, England and the US did not want the millions of desperate Jewish refugees who needed a home. Giving Palestine to the Jews ensured that they wouldn't be clambering to get into England and America.

Probably the most important reason for the creation of Israel is the oil fields that surround our militarized colony in the Middle East. Not only did England and the US avoid a huge influx of Jews, but these redirected immigrants would make up a military base to extend Western control over these vast oil fields. Israel would do the dirty work of empire without staining the reputation of English speaking countries.

It wasn't long before both England and the US began see another benefit to the creation of the state of Israel. The Jewish Holocaust was a potent symbol and could be used in many ways. Even the Western support of Israel's ethnic cleansing and genocide could be made virtuous by referring to the Holocaust. How could anyone dare to criticize Israel/US foreign policy if it were done in the name of Jewish suffering?

In addition, charges of antisemitism have become the weapon of choice in England and the US for ending any criticism of the US Empire and its unholy alliance with Israel. If you are a college teacher who condemns Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity, why you must be an antisemite! If you are a student chanting "Free Palestine," why you must hate Jews. Our Congress is falling all over itself to make any criticism of Israel illegal, and these laws are a  particularly dangerous assault on our First Amendment freedom of speech.  

But the use of the Holocaust and antisemitism for political gain cheapens and debases Jewish history and Jewish culture. Who will respect these terms when they are used to justify an ongoing genocide? Who will be left to fight real antisemitism? Certainly not the 36 million Christian Zionists in America, whose thinly veiled antisemitism should be a concern to us all.

These supposed allies of Zionism are intent on pushing all Jews into the Holy Land where they can either convert to Christianity or be slaughtered. Only when Jews have been ethnically cleansed from the rest of the world, will sweet Jesus appear and save all Christians from the carnage awaiting Jewish unbelievers. Is this "final solution" any better than the plan offered by the insane leaders of the Third Reich? In fact, is it really any different?

Will the creation of Israel prove to be the second catastrophe visited on the Jewish people by Western imperialism?  

-Fred Nagel