Source |
Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
HEO/GED
May 1 2024
Oh, but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you anymore
You keep on saying, "Go slow"
Go slow
Nina Simone
Mississippi Goddamn
The US House of Representatives voted today on the Antisemitism Awareness Act and
passed it 320 to 91 with 70 Democrats and 21 Republicans voting against
the bill. This bill has been criticised for basing the legislation on the
definition of anti-Semitism put forward by the International Holocaust
Remembrance Alliance, which conflates anti-Semitism with criticism of the state
of Israel. The bill now heads to the US Senate. The bill mandates the
Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
definition of antisemitism, which classifies most anti-Zionism as anti-semitic.
Here are some of the aspects of the bill that I came across:
Calling for aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of
a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about
Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective -such as, especially but not
exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling
the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing
committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by
non-Jews
Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of
the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany
and its supporters and accomplices during World War Il (the Holocaust)
Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or
exaggerating the Holocaust.
Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or
to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own
nations.
Denying the Jewish people their right to self determination, e.g., by claiming
that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or
demanded of any other democratic nation.
Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims
of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
Anti-semitic acts are criminal when they are so defined by law (for example,
denial of the
Holocaust or distribution of anti-semitic materials in some countries).
Without a doubt, the bill does point to clear examples of anti-semitism, or
more accurately hatred toward Jews as Arabs also are Semites. I recall in my
youth the term Arab Jews being quite common but then the state of Israel was
only 20 years old.
But defending Jews is not the purpose of this legislation, defending Israel is.
This is a very dangerous piece of legislation as it equates criticism of the
actions of a nation state with attacks on a people because of their religious
beliefs.
Is criticizing the historical English and British subjugation and genocidal war
on the Irish people racist toward the English? Not all Germans were
Nazis. Is criticizing or referring to Nazis as racist anti-German? Zionism, is
inherently a racist ideology and is not and should not be confused with
Judaism. One is a political formation the other a religion, Zionism is barely
150 years old. Millions of Jews are anti-Zionist. Read Roger Silverman’s article on Zionism here.
And Mondoweiss: Zionism must be exposedand discredited
Katie Halper of the Katie Halper Show on You Tube writes on X, formerly Twitter:
“This Bill is an abomination and anti-semetic in itself because it
perpetuates the dual loyalty trope that all Jews are a monolith who support the
state of Israel. Truly repulsive stuff.” Katie Halper on You Tube.
“I can’t totally speak to their intent,” Morriah Kaplan, strategic director
at IfNotNow, which is focused on
opposing the Israeli occupation, said of the organizations backing the
definition, “but these are not people I trust to go after antisemitism.” Jewish Forward 1-26-21.
Jerry Nadler, the informal dean of the congressional Jewish Caucus, voted against the measure, “Speech
that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute unlawful
discrimination……The bill sweeps too broadly.” he said.
Meanwhile the big business press in the US is playing the anti-semitism card to
the hilt, “As antisemitism has surged to record levels since Hamas’ attack
on October 7, 2023, many Jews feel Israel requires more support now than ever –
as a refuge for Jews, who have long been an oppressed minority.” CNN reports on May 1st as hundreds of
students are being beaten, attacked and arrested by US security forces.
The reality is that the movement against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and decades
long ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is to a large part led by young Jews.
This is certainly the case in the US. We now have young Palestinian children
thanking the US students for their support. Are we supposed to think that they
don’t know many of them are Jews. I have an Arab friend from Yemen who refers
to Jews as “our cousins” and I have never heard an anti-semitic word out
of him but I have heard him curse the Israelis.
Naturally, the overwhelmingly Gentile US bourgeois is supporting the
legislation along with their conservative Jewish colleagues. Their interests
are under threat if the Zionist regime is weakened, it’s the only ally US
imperialism can rely on in this important part of the world.
This is the crux of the matter and that’s what drives the US rogue regime and
the US Congress to support the genocide.
I have long been an opponent of some Jewish Americans who are too complacent in
the view that Jews are safe here from the events that occurred in Europe that
led to the Holocaust. But I think it is a bit of a stretch to consider Jews an
oppressed minority in the US but that doesn’t mean they can’t become one.
Zionism and the actions of the Zionist regime in Israel increases the likely of
such a development.
Conservative Jewish groups like the ADL and others are supportive of the
legislation but other Jewish groups not to mention the ACLU have opposed it on
the grounds that it is a barrier to free speech, First Amendment rights and the
right to criticize a nation state.
It is important to remember that the largest Zionist group in the US is right
wing or Evangelical Christians, and the US body politic is populated with them.
However, this move to conflate Judaism with Zionism is a political strategy
taken by US imperialism to defend its settler colony in the Middle East and the
Christian right are a useful ally here as they are driven by biblical
prophecy.
The heroic sacrifices the Palestinian people have made in their struggle
against occupation, Apartheid and genocide has transformed the situation in
Palestine and the world’s perception of events. The endless meetings, talks
about a Palestinian state and US guarantees of it at some nebulous point in
time are shown now for what they really were: lies, lies and more lies. Decades
of cruelty.
The Palestinians struggle has done more damage to the Zionist regime than
decades of diplomacy. It has created a nightmare but Palestinians have been
living that nightmare with no end in sight for 76 years. The Zionists have
already lost the war. I watched this
video today and had to listen to the many Americans who are settlers in
Israel and live on stolen land or in houses built on demolished Palestinian
ones.
The state of Israel was created by the British and western capital as a
foothold in the region after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 and
also as a way of ridding Europe of its centuries old “Jewish problem.”
Only after the betrayal of Stalinism and the horror of the Holocaust did the
concept of Palestine as a home for Europe’s Jews gain any traction at all and
they too are victims on that basis. It was Christian Europe that tried to
exterminate Jews, not Arabs or Muslims.
There is a genuine danger here of a wider conflict but the main players are
driven by the laws of the capitalist system. The US is under threat from all
sides. It is losing in the competition with China. It has lost the Ukraine
conflict after spending billions of US taxpayers' money and now its most
important proxy in the Middle East that has received untold billions in money
and weapons of mass destruction, is losing the battle for influence in the oil
rich region.
In the long run, and time is running out, capitalism cannot solve this crisis
and there will be more war, more fragmentation and chaos as global capitalism
comes apart at the seams. Perhaps the most threatening of all is climate
catastrophe which threatens human life as we know it. Only united action by the
global working class, the formation of a global federation of democratic
socialist states based on economic cooperation in harmony with nature not
opposed to it, can show a way out. That is not utopian, it is necessary if we
are not to be another one of those ancient civilizations that never made it.
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