I am completely blown away by the quality, the truth, the courage, the integrity, the decency, the brilliance, and the fullness of your description of what has happened. What have we become? What is MY legacy as an 81 year old Jewish grandmother and great grandmother, if the truth is not told! We have blinded ourselves to the monstrousness of Netanyahu, all of us who have somehow missed the point. I despair over ICE and the deportations of Trump and Kristi Noem— but I have not thought clearly enough about Gaza. Your research and your analysis and your writing are a gift that overwhelms with the truth. Martin, I am so grateful to you I cannot say. All the parts of what you have written are like a SCREAM in the night. Thank you.
WOW Jill, I simply can’t tell you how much your words mean to me. The love of my life sat with me this morning and said, I have seen pain in your eyes that I have never seen before, 45 years of being together brings an ability to feel unspoken grief.
I am so glad the words conveyed what you felt, especially as a Jewish woman. For all the hurt I know the piece conveys, you have made an old man happy today my friend
You are extraordinary. And I confess to being the one who wrote and irritated you, rightfully, querying you about, essentially, asking if you would take history into consideration. Forgive me. Really it’s a magnificent piece of work. I wish I could know you.
No no, not all of us. Enough of us, however, to despair about the state of consciousness in a humanity that ought to be celebrating the awesomeness of this species. We are the only one not operating on instinct, whereby the only one that can affect the creation which includes our own survival.
We have to stop identifying as sinners supplicating to an external god for salvation, but we need to see ourselves as divine creatures in a sacred universe who are here to take care of Earth. You could see the inhumanity that's in play as forcing us to do what we need to do, which is to get ourselves on a more evolved path for even sticking around, let alone to get to the cooperative, caring world we are capable of creating.
Martin, I am not stalking you, but to whom else could I address my conflicts and torments? In addition, I can’t imagine how you have the time to answer all the correspondence you must receive, and I am adding to that burden. But there is no one else to whom one can go, to be trusted to understand both sides. So I am giving two links that perhaps you can read and comment on in your spare time. Forgive me, but the conflict is very painful and confusing.
This is being posted on Substack which makes me think I misunderstood Substack’s “mission”. I am sickened and horrified by her posts.
My second post, which I like—I know Abe Socher and subscribe to his really fine “Jewish Journal”—which I think would be a very good source for you—makes both valid legal points and describes a powerful reason for the difficulty of relinquishing support for Israel (as central to one’s heart, as a Jew—before—if there is a before— all this horror.
Well I don’t know how to go from the this to the link without losing this letter, so I will send the Socher link along withal.
Again, thank you for taking the time, if you have the time.
Jill, I fear this is the world we now inhabit. The Jew hatred and Islamophobia are one and the same when it comes to toxicity in our civil discourse.
The Bible, the Quran and Torah are of another age and much like the U.S. constitution are the perpetual victim of interpretation. Man has learned that ancient texts can be twisted to fit any campaign of persecution in the name of religion.
This breaks down into one simple question. Is it right to starve innocent children or bomb the innocent. We can discuss acceptable collateral damage all day long but the reality is that the Israeli philosophy is kill one of us and we will kill 20 of you.
Murder is a criminal act for which there can be no justification. I don’t care who is perpetrating it, IT IS WRONG, and that is my position.
We cannot place the entire responsibility for this genocide on BB Netanyahu alone, the people of Israel could’ve stopped this a long time ago, the government of the US could’ve stopped this a long time ago
BB didn't become a murderer because of Trump (who is evil). He has been looking for an excuse to drive the Palestinians out. Netanyahu was evil long before Trump gained political power.
And to be 'fair' to him lots of past Israeli leaders were just as evil.
Like Trump it is not about one man, it is about those people who are eager and willing to support the evil. Who see it as their duty to carry out evil.
Israel as a state started with a people who had suffered immense wrong and evil. Over time it has chosen to become that which tried to eradicate it. Their understandable fear and need to protect themselves somehow morphed into a need to kill and eradicate others.
Some in the Israeli government have even called themselves the master race.
It is not confined to any one race or religion. The perennial problem of humanity appears to be people like that gaining power and carrying out their evil.
Thank you, Martin, for saying what millions have been thinking. The goodwill that Israel received from the Holocaust has been used up and replaced by horror. Protesting against the starvation of Gazans is not anti-Semitism or anti-Israel. It is anti-Netanyahu and pro-humanity. I am anti-Trump and pro-American, pro-democracy and pro-human rights. There is no contradiction in these beliefs.
“The world will do nothing. They never stand together. We’ve seen it time and again — global powers, paralysed by their own interests, will not risk even a sliver of discomfort to protect the innocent. They will release statements, call for restraint, and hold meaningless summits, but they will never act. The suffering of Gaza is met with the same hollow diplomacy that failed Rwanda, Syria, Yemen — always too late, always too careful. History will record not only the crimes of those who committed atrocities, but also the silence of those who watched and did nothing.”
I couldn’t agree more with your powerful piece. Shame on the Israelis who support this genocide. And I’m very sorry for those who are appalled. Don’t be intimidated- even the IDF is losing reservists who have become refuseniks.
History will remember you as a courageous voice for truth. Your words reflect the purity of your soul and the true spirit of justice that lives within the heart of the Jewish people.
ALOHA.. WE BECOME IT.. IF THIS KEEPS ON..... WE'RE NO BETTER THEN PEOPLE WHO DO IT TO OTHERS... “Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power.”
Thank you. We are many whose lives testify to the absolute fact that the "truth matters". Thank heaven (and technology) we can find a global community to speak out for the silenced, and to hear and encourage one another.
Long may our bond remain Stephanie. Yesterday I lost nearly 750 subscribers for telling the truth. It matters not to me if I lost every subscriber, truth is not for sale.
Thank you for this information. It is such a fraught area of the world and hard to understand the underlying history, feelings and actions leading up to this awful situation
That sounds like excusing what is happening. Before Israel colonized Palestine both Arabs and Jews lived there in peace. It's the politics of the state of Israel that is the problem. No one expects Israel to cease to exist, they could all live in harmony if everyone were treated equally.
Understood. I’ve always wanted to give Israel the benefit of the doubt but I loathe Netanyahu and understood he was using this aggression to distract from his internal problems (sounds very familiar…), but did not realize how widespread this view of Palestine was. Was hoping it was not so widespread. The rot ( around the world ) goes deep.
Thank you for calling it out. I will add my voice.
Thank you so much Martin for your insightful and measured critique of Palestine’s tragic past, present and probably its future. I’d like to share my perspective as seen through the lens of family history. My great uncle who grew up in Egypt (his father, my Irish great grandfather, was an engineer on the first Aswan dam & stayed on to become Minister of Irrigation & Agriculture and then during WWI was the British government’s Undersecretary of State in Egypt) knew Lawrence of Arabia well - he was his liaison with the British Ministry of Military Intelligence in Cairo. They were both fluent in Arabic and shared a similar vision of creating a balanced Arab region to be founded on recognition of the tribal nature of the Middle East which was often seen as out of line with the British & French colonial policies of the time. Like Lawrence, my great uncle was not anti-Zionist and accepted the rights of Jews to create a homeland. However, during his long life, he watched in dismay how the Palestinians became the forgotten people as the world turned, and continues to turn, a blind eye to their plight. In 1962 when I was 12, he took me up to London to see the film Lawrence of Arabia and when it ended, he asked me to wait while he composed himself. I looked at his face as the lights came up and saw that he had been weeping and on the way back to his home in Surrey, he explained how sickened he was at the world’s distortion of what Lawrence and men like him had tried to help create, and he even predicted what the future might hold for the Middle East and lived to see many of the tragedies that unfolded. I am grateful though that he is not alive to witness the total decimation of Palestine today and how the a cynical world continues to tune out - an historical position that the West has maintained since the WWI. I am not without compassion for Israelis either as I am married to a Jew whose family suffered a 90% loss during WWII. But the few family members and friends who still reside in Israel have been, like us here in Canada, devastated by the path the Israeli government has taken - two friends have actually left and gone back to England. As a mother, grandmother and just as a human being, I die a little bit every day when watching the news. The memory of my great uncle’s tears now co-mingling with mine but do little to ease my feelings of helplessness. But it is voices like yours that bring the truth that is so necessary and thank you for your voice.
Thank you so much for you moving and valuable contribution to the conversation. We are navigating deeply challenging times in which collectively we need to say enough is enough.
I hate how this issue lumps all Jews into one camp. That’s like saying all Christian’s are followers of Trump. I get messages after I post anti Netanyahu messages. Saying things like it’s not a genocide and what I see in the news is propaganda. That’s equivalent to saying treblinka was a hoax.
I am completely blown away by the quality, the truth, the courage, the integrity, the decency, the brilliance, and the fullness of your description of what has happened. What have we become? What is MY legacy as an 81 year old Jewish grandmother and great grandmother, if the truth is not told! We have blinded ourselves to the monstrousness of Netanyahu, all of us who have somehow missed the point. I despair over ICE and the deportations of Trump and Kristi Noem— but I have not thought clearly enough about Gaza. Your research and your analysis and your writing are a gift that overwhelms with the truth. Martin, I am so grateful to you I cannot say. All the parts of what you have written are like a SCREAM in the night. Thank you.
Jill Brotman
WOW Jill, I simply can’t tell you how much your words mean to me. The love of my life sat with me this morning and said, I have seen pain in your eyes that I have never seen before, 45 years of being together brings an ability to feel unspoken grief.
I am so glad the words conveyed what you felt, especially as a Jewish woman. For all the hurt I know the piece conveys, you have made an old man happy today my friend
Martin ❤️
You are extraordinary. And I confess to being the one who wrote and irritated you, rightfully, querying you about, essentially, asking if you would take history into consideration. Forgive me. Really it’s a magnificent piece of work. I wish I could know you.
No no, not all of us. Enough of us, however, to despair about the state of consciousness in a humanity that ought to be celebrating the awesomeness of this species. We are the only one not operating on instinct, whereby the only one that can affect the creation which includes our own survival.
We have to stop identifying as sinners supplicating to an external god for salvation, but we need to see ourselves as divine creatures in a sacred universe who are here to take care of Earth. You could see the inhumanity that's in play as forcing us to do what we need to do, which is to get ourselves on a more evolved path for even sticking around, let alone to get to the cooperative, caring world we are capable of creating.
Martin, I am not stalking you, but to whom else could I address my conflicts and torments? In addition, I can’t imagine how you have the time to answer all the correspondence you must receive, and I am adding to that burden. But there is no one else to whom one can go, to be trusted to understand both sides. So I am giving two links that perhaps you can read and comment on in your spare time. Forgive me, but the conflict is very painful and confusing.
https://open.substack.com/pub/debarelli/p/why-i-dislike-jews-lots-of-rabbi?r=512ll&utm_medium=ios
This is being posted on Substack which makes me think I misunderstood Substack’s “mission”. I am sickened and horrified by her posts.
My second post, which I like—I know Abe Socher and subscribe to his really fine “Jewish Journal”—which I think would be a very good source for you—makes both valid legal points and describes a powerful reason for the difficulty of relinquishing support for Israel (as central to one’s heart, as a Jew—before—if there is a before— all this horror.
Well I don’t know how to go from the this to the link without losing this letter, so I will send the Socher link along withal.
Again, thank you for taking the time, if you have the time.
Jill
Jill, I fear this is the world we now inhabit. The Jew hatred and Islamophobia are one and the same when it comes to toxicity in our civil discourse.
The Bible, the Quran and Torah are of another age and much like the U.S. constitution are the perpetual victim of interpretation. Man has learned that ancient texts can be twisted to fit any campaign of persecution in the name of religion.
This breaks down into one simple question. Is it right to starve innocent children or bomb the innocent. We can discuss acceptable collateral damage all day long but the reality is that the Israeli philosophy is kill one of us and we will kill 20 of you.
Murder is a criminal act for which there can be no justification. I don’t care who is perpetrating it, IT IS WRONG, and that is my position.
Here’s the second link from the Jewish Review . .
https://open.substack.com/pub/jewishreviewofbooks/p/uclas-6-million-dollar-mistake?r=512ll&utm_medium=ios
Please tell me which Martin …. I want to read his article too!
https://open.substack.com/pub/politicsusa46/p/gaza-will-be-the-stain-on-the-soul?r=54ihjc&utm_medium=ios
Martin McSweeney (I think). It’s the four part piece about Gaza and Israel at Truth Matters.
I’m Jewish and I’m appalled and horrified with BB. It’s like he drank the blood of Trump
We cannot place the entire responsibility for this genocide on BB Netanyahu alone, the people of Israel could’ve stopped this a long time ago, the government of the US could’ve stopped this a long time ago
Very very true. Europe is complicit too
BB didn't become a murderer because of Trump (who is evil). He has been looking for an excuse to drive the Palestinians out. Netanyahu was evil long before Trump gained political power.
And to be 'fair' to him lots of past Israeli leaders were just as evil.
Like Trump it is not about one man, it is about those people who are eager and willing to support the evil. Who see it as their duty to carry out evil.
Israel as a state started with a people who had suffered immense wrong and evil. Over time it has chosen to become that which tried to eradicate it. Their understandable fear and need to protect themselves somehow morphed into a need to kill and eradicate others.
Some in the Israeli government have even called themselves the master race.
It is not confined to any one race or religion. The perennial problem of humanity appears to be people like that gaining power and carrying out their evil.
Thank you, Martin, for saying what millions have been thinking. The goodwill that Israel received from the Holocaust has been used up and replaced by horror. Protesting against the starvation of Gazans is not anti-Semitism or anti-Israel. It is anti-Netanyahu and pro-humanity. I am anti-Trump and pro-American, pro-democracy and pro-human rights. There is no contradiction in these beliefs.
Sometimes difficult truths have to be told.
“The world will do nothing. They never stand together. We’ve seen it time and again — global powers, paralysed by their own interests, will not risk even a sliver of discomfort to protect the innocent. They will release statements, call for restraint, and hold meaningless summits, but they will never act. The suffering of Gaza is met with the same hollow diplomacy that failed Rwanda, Syria, Yemen — always too late, always too careful. History will record not only the crimes of those who committed atrocities, but also the silence of those who watched and did nothing.”
I fear you are right my friend
One word echoes in my consciousness: DAI !
pronounced “die,” but Hebrew for “ENOUGH!”
You are so right. We have the luxury of trading insults in the luxury of our homes. Gaza people are starving or getting killed.
Israel is treating Palestinians like victims of the Holocaust…….
We must stop supporting Israel. Show this to Trump. Resurrect USAID. Get food to GAZA!! These pictures should be all over the news!
Support Ukraine. 🇺🇦🇺🇦 WIN the war! Save democracy! Beat Russia!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Or even ... support Gaza and actively oppose (militarily) any further killings g of children by Israel.
I couldn’t agree more with your powerful piece. Shame on the Israelis who support this genocide. And I’m very sorry for those who are appalled. Don’t be intimidated- even the IDF is losing reservists who have become refuseniks.
I truly appreciate the very apparent work that you put into this.
History will remember you as a courageous voice for truth. Your words reflect the purity of your soul and the true spirit of justice that lives within the heart of the Jewish people.
I will cherish your kind words
ALOHA.. WE BECOME IT.. IF THIS KEEPS ON..... WE'RE NO BETTER THEN PEOPLE WHO DO IT TO OTHERS... “Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power.”
Thank you. We are many whose lives testify to the absolute fact that the "truth matters". Thank heaven (and technology) we can find a global community to speak out for the silenced, and to hear and encourage one another.
Long may our bond remain Stephanie. Yesterday I lost nearly 750 subscribers for telling the truth. It matters not to me if I lost every subscriber, truth is not for sale.
Amen!
Thank you for this information. It is such a fraught area of the world and hard to understand the underlying history, feelings and actions leading up to this awful situation
That sounds like excusing what is happening. Before Israel colonized Palestine both Arabs and Jews lived there in peace. It's the politics of the state of Israel that is the problem. No one expects Israel to cease to exist, they could all live in harmony if everyone were treated equally.
Understood. I’ve always wanted to give Israel the benefit of the doubt but I loathe Netanyahu and understood he was using this aggression to distract from his internal problems (sounds very familiar…), but did not realize how widespread this view of Palestine was. Was hoping it was not so widespread. The rot ( around the world ) goes deep.
Thank you for calling it out. I will add my voice.
Thank you so much Martin for your insightful and measured critique of Palestine’s tragic past, present and probably its future. I’d like to share my perspective as seen through the lens of family history. My great uncle who grew up in Egypt (his father, my Irish great grandfather, was an engineer on the first Aswan dam & stayed on to become Minister of Irrigation & Agriculture and then during WWI was the British government’s Undersecretary of State in Egypt) knew Lawrence of Arabia well - he was his liaison with the British Ministry of Military Intelligence in Cairo. They were both fluent in Arabic and shared a similar vision of creating a balanced Arab region to be founded on recognition of the tribal nature of the Middle East which was often seen as out of line with the British & French colonial policies of the time. Like Lawrence, my great uncle was not anti-Zionist and accepted the rights of Jews to create a homeland. However, during his long life, he watched in dismay how the Palestinians became the forgotten people as the world turned, and continues to turn, a blind eye to their plight. In 1962 when I was 12, he took me up to London to see the film Lawrence of Arabia and when it ended, he asked me to wait while he composed himself. I looked at his face as the lights came up and saw that he had been weeping and on the way back to his home in Surrey, he explained how sickened he was at the world’s distortion of what Lawrence and men like him had tried to help create, and he even predicted what the future might hold for the Middle East and lived to see many of the tragedies that unfolded. I am grateful though that he is not alive to witness the total decimation of Palestine today and how the a cynical world continues to tune out - an historical position that the West has maintained since the WWI. I am not without compassion for Israelis either as I am married to a Jew whose family suffered a 90% loss during WWII. But the few family members and friends who still reside in Israel have been, like us here in Canada, devastated by the path the Israeli government has taken - two friends have actually left and gone back to England. As a mother, grandmother and just as a human being, I die a little bit every day when watching the news. The memory of my great uncle’s tears now co-mingling with mine but do little to ease my feelings of helplessness. But it is voices like yours that bring the truth that is so necessary and thank you for your voice.
Thank you so much for you moving and valuable contribution to the conversation. We are navigating deeply challenging times in which collectively we need to say enough is enough.
Wow that was a very interesting post about your family history thanks.
I hate how this issue lumps all Jews into one camp. That’s like saying all Christian’s are followers of Trump. I get messages after I post anti Netanyahu messages. Saying things like it’s not a genocide and what I see in the news is propaganda. That’s equivalent to saying treblinka was a hoax.