Richard Evers describes himself as "of Jewish heritage but not of faith or belief."
BRATTLEBORO-I'm bound to offend some readers here, but I feel compelled to speak out publicly about a very loaded issue that I wish someone had addressed head-on, but they haven't, so I feel it's up to me.
People have told me after I'd written or said something critical of Israel, "Well, you can say that because you're Jewish, but I can't, because if I did, I'd risk being called 'antisemitic.'"
I'm going further than that now.
Lissa Weinmann ["Cuba's crisis is our crisis," Viewpoint, Nov. 6] noted that recently, the United Nations General Assembly - i.e., representatives of the entire family of nations on planet Earth - "voted overwhelmingly to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The vote in the 193-member world body was 187–2. Only the U.S. and Israel voted against the resolution. It was the 32nd time the world had pushed back on the cruel and illegal policy […]."
Just stop and think about that.
The world of nations in its entirety voting to end the vengeance of one persistently ruthless bully, with only that bully and its equally callous sidekick standing in opposition.
Yet, is it really all that surprising that the United States and Israel should stand shoulder to shoulder to continue torturing Cuba?
The two countries are birds of a feather - or, more accurately, partners in crime, when you think about the thousands and thousands of huge, lethal and incredibly destructive bombs we've supplied free to Israel over the past 14 months.
Truth be told, it's just the latest in the sordid history of the great, mighty U.S. attacking and brutalizing smaller, weaker peoples since the end of World War II. It's what led Martin Luther King Jr. to call the government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" in his 1967 speech, "Beyond Vietnam," though you'll be hard-pressed to hear that on MLK day this January.
Just a partial list, not in chronological order, includes:
• Vietnam, of course - a tiny country where the U.S. dropped more bombs than in all of World War II, killing over two million people, as opposed to U.S. losses of about 50,000.
• Panama: Anyone remember how we bombed and incinerated many Panamanians when we decided to violently remove our puppet operative, Noriega?
• There was our covert support of the military coup overthrowing the elected president of Chile which resulted in the disappearance, death, and torture of thousands.
• The attempted U.S. invasion (and now embargo) of Cuba as well as multiple attempts to assassinate Castro.
• Our attempts in the '80s to violently overthrow the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua as well as our support of dictators who ordered the murder and torture of untold numbers of their citizens - not only in Nicaragua, but also in Guatemala and El Salvador. Israel, incidentally, also provided deadly counterinsurgency advice to both of the latter and, I believe, sold weapons to them as well, the way they did in their long, sordid relationship with the all-white South African government.
• Oh, and don't forget our invasion and "liberation" of big, bad Grenada, including the execution of their revolutionary/reformist president, Maurice Bishop
• More recently, our merciless, ongoing and deadly embargo of Venezuela and the Maduro regime (for what?) that has resulted in literally millions of its desperate inhabitants fleeing the country and ending up at our southern border.
• And, of course, Afghanistan, where we accomplished practically nothing except to kill a lot of people and add a couple of trillion - that's 2,000 billion dollars! - to our national debt, the interest on which will surely haunt and burden our descendants. But we care little about their future. That's just who we are and what we do.
• And finally (never finally), the unspeakably horrific, unnecessary invasion and destruction of Iraq - which Israel has bombed and attacked as well.
This last, I would remind both younger and forgetful readers, sparked the largest protest demonstrations in world history - both in major European cities as well as all over the U.S. - even bigger than the ones during Vietnam that brought down Lyndon Johnson.
I remember thinking about President George W. Bush at the time, "He can't do this!" But he damn sure did, with the approval of both Congress and the press, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, which all went along for the ride.
In short, despite all the rhetoric we've heard about freedom and democracy this election season, since the end of World War II, "dominance," "assassination," and "destruction" might truly be called the defining attributes of both the U.S. and Israel.
* * *
Still, readers might be wondering, "I've heard this kind of left-wing critique of U.S., and Israeli violence before. What makes him think that's going to cause ire among locals in this deep-blue part of the state?"
Well, I've cited those huge, earlier demonstrations in order to contrast them to the pitiful lack thereof during this latest chapter of our colonialist bestiary: the bombing and terrorizing of the entire Palestinian people.
Let's face it: aside from Arab-Americans, there's only been a few Black organizations - notably the NAACP and leaders of the Black AME (African Methodist Episcopal) church; a relative handful of college students (now mostly intimidated and silenced); and a brave but relatively small number of young, activist Jews - like Jewish Voice for Peace - who have been pushing back against the Zionist onslaught, crying out, "Not in our name!"
By contrast, I haven't heard of one - not one - national Jewish organization or association of rabbis or synagogues (3,700 total in the U.S., according to Google) compelled and outraged enough to stand up publicly to demand, "Enough! Enough vengeance, enough killing. Stop. Enough!"
* * *
I was brought up in a very secular household so my siblings and I had no religious training or indoctrination. But what I did learn about - and got drilled into me at home - was the concept of "a good German."
Thanks to the foresight of his father, my Opa, whom I never knew, my late, dear father escaped Germany at 17 in 1933, when Jews still could get out (if they had the resources), even if they had to leave their money and property - and relatives who refused to go - behind.
Growing up, I may not have learned any Hebrew prayers, but I sure knew what "a good German" meant: those who, in the face of horror right in front of them, looked the other way and remained silent.
And that's what I think a majority of American Jews seem to be doing, even to this day, after over a year of relentless revenge and destruction: deliberately looking the other way and keeping their mouths shut.
Let's be real: They're actually worse than the Germans of the 1930s, because the latter risked imprisonment, torture, and death if they objected to the genocide of Jews, whereas American Jews, thankfully, are in no such danger for publicly calling out Zionist atrocities.
And at the risk of further offense, let me put it even more bluntly: for many of them, apparently tens of thousands of dead, Palestinian civilians, including so many children, are nothing but the necessary collateral damage and price of doing business in order to ensure Jewish supremacy in the region.
If it were otherwise and Jews were being killed en masse, would they not be howling (like me!), in protest to this nightmare?
But no; this evil does not appear to be of very great concern to them. Rather, for too many, their sense of being uniquely chosen by God and their tribal self-obsession with past victimhood appears to trump any and all other human suffering.
To those in the U.S., including here in southern Vermont - whose repeatedly default to "Oct. 6," "It's us or them," and "Never again!" as both a defense and justification for this tsunami of violence and retribution - many of whom might indeed continue to use those same phrases even if Israel were to drop a nuclear bomb on Teheran - I have a simple, two-word rejoinder: Bernie Sanders.
Truly the "Moses of the Senate" and my north star, he's the brave, principled, shining example of a Jew putting justice and common decency ahead of primitive, blind, tribal loyalty. A politician who has an enlightened sense of right and wrong, and is not intimidated or afraid to call out the latter when he sees it.
As most readers know, citing American law (remember that?), he has called repeatedly for an arms embargo on Israel until it agrees to stop the bombing and allow enough aid trucks to enter Gaza to provide both medical supplies and enough food to end the ghastly, inhuman starvation of an entire population.
And though I've never heard him say it, I would hazard to guess that he believes that American Jews - whose lobbyists keep stoking the fires of the U.S. war machine that enables Israel's worst, fanatical, racist instincts - have, on the contrary, a unique burden and responsibility to speak out and push back against this insane war and insist on a real, lasting, and not duplicitous, humiliating peace. One that recognizes the rights and past injuries done to the native Palestinians who have, in truth, been violently displaced, attacked, and oppressed since 1948.
* * *
It's too late now, but had a significant portion of the Jewish community - including organizations representing observant, religious Jews - done so this past year, it might have provided enough cover for both Biden and Harris to demand a ceasefire or face a cutoff of arms.
And by doing so, it would have acknowledged key segments of the fragile, Democratic coalition like Blacks and Arab Americans concerned with Palestinian lives and self-determination.
But they didn't.
I believe that represents nothing less than a catastrophic failure of conscience.
In their tribal fealty to Israel, they kept silent, refusing to speak out, and now - witness the inevitable rise in antisemitism on both sides of the Atlantic, not to mention in the Middle East - we shall be reaping the whirlwind.
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