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Off My Rocker
By Tommi Halvorsen Gatlin
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Last June, my column addressed the Holocaust, unspeakable evil perpetrated on Jews and others by Adolph Hitler and his Nazi thugs in the 1930s and ’40s.
Generically, a holocaust, according to Miriam Webster online, is a “mass slaughter of people.” During the Holocaust, 6 million Jews were horribly annihilated — about two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.
My column also told of a present-day anti-Semitic movement, escalating even in America, where the Statue of Liberty still holds high her torch “enlightening the world,” according to the National Park Service.
But are only certain people groups to enjoy freedom’s blessings? Besides that being inhumane, how can any American not understand that if one group is denied liberty, we all may one day join the “club?” We’ve already come too close — more than once.
Nevertheless, I suggest there are growing indications America’s once again part way down the slippery slope of lethal discrimination. The civil liberties of Jewish people, and those who support them, are being assailed, often by fellow Americans. College students, professors and others have been harassed for supporting Israel, and merely expressing opinions opposed by anti-Israel zealots has resulted in censure, and worse, as I noted in June.
A shocking one-third of American college students supported a global “Boycott, Divestment and Sanction” movement against Israel, at the time, according to a survey by Ipsos global market research and public opinion firm.
Proponents promote boycotts against Israel through economic and political pressures and encouraging businesses to withdraw their investments from there, and other countries to sanction (penalize) Israel.
“It is a long-term project created by anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activists that is designed with one purpose: to delegitimize and destroy the State of Israel. To delegitimize the Jewish people. To delegitimize those non-Jewish people that stand with Israel,” said Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice.
Now in case you missed it, the Obama administration had a Christmas/Hanukkah surprise for the world. On Friday, Dec. 23, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding a halt to Israeli “settlements in occupied Palestinian territory” in Judea, Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem. “Settlements” mean Israeli cities and even the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Jews’ most sacred site, as well as other sites precious to Christians.
The resolution could have been vetoed, as the United States has done numerous times, by any of the permanent Security Council members: the U.S., France, Britain, Russia or China.
President Obama directed a veto of a similar resolution in 2011. But this time, the U.S. even abstained from voting.
As rarely happens, last Christmas and Hanukkah were both on Sunday, Dec. 25. Sundown every Friday also begins the Jewish Sabbath. So the resolution seemed a bit like a “sucker punch” to Jews and Christians alike.
Israel, which became an independent state in 1948, traces its history in the area back thousands of years and is the only Democratic nation in the Middle East.
Hitler’s rise to power in the early 1930s spurred an increase of Jewish immigration from Europe to Israel. The anti-Jewish and anti-British Palestine Arab Party was founded in 1935, attacking Jews all over Palestine, says the History of Israel website. Arabs and Nazis formed an alliance, as did Israel and Britain.
In 1947, the U.N. decided to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Jews accepted the plan; the Arabs rejected it, continuing to attack Jewish communities. In 1948, the U.N. recognized Israel as a nation in its own right.
Arabs formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964 to “liberate Palestine” from Jews labeled “Zionists.”
In 1967, Arab forces threatened to attack Israel, which then struck first, defeating Egypt, Jordan and Syria in six days. The U.N. still wanted peace negotiated … which the Arabs still rejected.
Today, there is still no Palestinian nation.
NOW WHAT?
The U.N. says current Israeli “settlements” in Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, are a “flagrant violation” of international law. The same day the Security Council resolution passed, the U.N. General Assembly approved nearly $140,000 in funding to create a database of companies doing business with Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem, enabling boycotts of those companies.
“Israel’s hand has been extended in peace to its neighbors from day one,” its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Dec. 28, but the Palestinians continue to reject it. They just want Israel gone, he said.
But still Israelis pray, and work, for peace, Netanyahu said, “despite the Palestinian’s walking away from peace and peace offers time and time again.” He wonders though, “how can you make peace with someone who rejects your very existence?”
Netanyahu also recalled Obama’s words when the U.S. vetoed the 2011 resolution: “Peace is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations. If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now.”
Yet, Netanyahu said, he has “absolutely incontestable evidence” that the United States actually “organized, advanced and brought this resolution to the Security Council.” The information will be shared with America’s incoming president, he noted.
Not all Americans have turned their backs on Israel, though. On Jan. 5, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 342-80 to reprove the United Nations for passing the Security Council resolution. Many are hoping the Senate follows suit.
Tommi Halvorsen Gatlin is a retired reporter, who still contributes to The Vidette. Contact her by emailing the editor at editor@thevidette.com
