Happy Hanukkah, Celeste. What has transpired on our college campuses over the past year should concern everyone of all backgrounds and faiths. It would now seem antisemitism and racism has been given a green light by the academic, liberal elite. That’s right, a wink and a nod to those harassing, humiliating, bullying and assaulting Jewish students. Can one imagine if this despicable behavior was happening to black students, perpetrated by white students in the south, or anywhere for that matter? Clearly, the American liberal left machine is looking the other way and is too weak and timid, even cowardly in calling this out.
All fair minded people want peace, prosperity and goodwill for the Palestinian people. Why then do they continue to empower a criminal, gangster organization like Hamas and Hezbollah by allowing rule over their respective societies? Both have abysmal human rights history with those unlucky enough to be under their tyranny. Women, children and gays, especially have suffered terribly under these terrorists, masquerading as governments within their failed state.
May almighty God bless all people, of all faiths in 2025. May light prevail over darkness, and freedom over tyranny.
This is all ideology driven. During the Antifada of the late 1980's, I recall vividly that university liberals, professors, stood for just the opposite. In fact, their indifference to the innocent Palestinian was itself vile. Including here at UCSB. I witnessed.
Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to one and all. While this is a binary salutation the solution to the problems in the Middle East are not. We should have compassion for Christian’s , Jews and Muslims. I have my personal biases and do not believe litigating the past century plus of who did what to who will solve the issue. I do believe the following however, if the anti Israel militants laid down their arms there would be peace and if the Israelis laid down theirs, there would be no Israel. Peace!
Aw, c'mon Pat, be fair: The Israelis are not "trying to exterminate the Palestinians." They are definitely trying to exterminate Hamas, which is of course trying to exterminate all Jews and Israel itself. Hamas, after its horrific deeds on October 7, left Israelis no choice. What would you have done if it were your family that was butchered? I don't think "turning the other cheek" would have come to mind.
Jim, I agree that 'turning the other cheek' was not a reasonable option. But the extreme heavy hand the Israelis are using will only guarantee future generations of Hamas.
Israel knew about the plans for the Oct. 7 attack at least months in advance. Somehow, the border was not monitored that day. Hmmm.... Whistleblowers in the IDF have spoken out on this. Why were many killed on Oct. 7 killed from helicopters? That could only have been done by the IDF itself. Are you familiar with the Hannibal Option? In a society of laws, if you want to claim Israel is justified to respond due to Oct. 7, then you need to address the role Israel played in those events and the debunked misinformation Israel planted in Western media such as 40 decapitated babies and gang rapes. These stories had to be retracted for lack of substantiation. Only con artists or fools continue to repeat them. (There were no babies thrown from incubators in the lead up to the first US was on Iraq. There is no evidence Gaddafi handed out viagra so his troops could mass rape. Baseless, graphic stories are planted and repeated by a docile media to soften up the western populations for the latest war. Be ready for this as the deep state prepares for war on Iran. And know that when you repeat these unsubstantiated claims, those who love war thank you.)
What about before Oct. 7? History did not start on Oct. 7, 2023. Was Israel justified in creating refugees that fled into in Gaza in 1948, taking over control in 1967, claiming to leave in 2005 but retaining control over all points of entry to Gaza which was put under siege restricting food and medicine after the people voted the wrong way, as Hillary Clinton said, in 2006? Was Israel justified in its repeated bombings of Gaza, or "mowing the lawn" as they call it there? Under international law, Hamas would have a right to attack military targets of the entity occupying them. To the extent civilians were targeted, that would be wrong, but does that justify targeting and besieging millions of civilians in response? Not in any moral universe.
BTW, now that Syria has fallen and the US is backing a derivative of Al Qaeda in Syria, is it not time to relook at the claims about 9/11. Did Al Qaeda have the ability to defeat the US air defenses that day? Do office fires have enough heat to bring down steel frame buildings? How did building 7 fall into its own footprint at nearly freefall speed? Who wrote the PATRIOT Act and how was it created and passed so quickly? Who were the PNAC crowd of Neocons who said we needed a "new Pearl Harbor" type attack to enable the use of the US military to remake the middle east?
Aimee, let’s not forget a passenger airplane supposedly striking the Pentagon on 9/11, which we were never shown evidence of.
The Pentagon is the global command center of the US military. It is protected from submarine launched hypersonic nuclear missiles but a passenger airplane piloted by terrorists were able to strike it?
Deeply troubled by this. Our western collective guilt over the holocaust is real. What happened was beyond my contemplation, even in the darkest hours.
However In founding the Jewish state, were the Arab nations invovled? I fear not. I fear our guilt allowed the west to make a choice for the region with out any consultation. Add to that the terrorism used in the forming of the State of israel, well then there is a fertile ground for all the wars in the intervening years. Couple that with the present Israeli behaviour, then I loose almost all sympathy for the Zionist cause.
My family have have been in close and very healthy business relationship with an Israeli company. Israel needs to change its behaviour.
I don't agree. I think it is wiser, even for the sake of Jews, if we focus on Christ now more than ever and think of the besieged Palestinian Christians and the engineered suffering they face this Christmas. Their suffering has been funded and armed by our government with our tax dollars. And that is only possible because of deceived people like you who slander those who speak up against this and fail to hear the truth of their claims and concerns and do your due diligence to research the conflict. (Millions of people across our country have been protesting these Zionist neocon policies for years. Who among them is a Hitler supporter? Not the organizers. Maybe one fringe person here or there, but how do you know they are even sincere and not provocateurs? It is completely dishonest to claim the protestors openly celebrate Hitler's killing of Jews. Who tells you these things?)
While you claim we have been ignoring our Jewish community members, the opposite is true. In the US, we have been flooded with the Jewish perspective in psychology, sociology, history and literature for decades in academia and the entertainment and news media has also been biased toward Judaism and Zionism. Secularism was a Jewish movement meant to remove Christianity from our schools and public square in a country that is majority Christian and founded on Christian morality. If the only effect of this bias was to welcome and include Jews, I would celebrate it. But the down side is we have undercut the moral foundation of our society and we see the dark fruits of that trend all around us. Endless wars, addiction, divorce, abortion, drag queen story hour, trans men in women's prisons...
By the power of a very persistent and detail oriented pro-Israel lobby, we have been lured into slaughtering millions for the biased, vengeful and greedy without limit Zionist movement at a cost to our treasury in the trillions. We can't afford this financially, but neither can we afford this spiritually. We have been watching as 2.2 million Palestinians are subjected to draconian siege conditions and regular bombardment targeting all infrastructure. Yet, who among us speaks up? Which of our political leaders in congress did not lavish praise on Netanyahu, who is at the helm of this latest most grisly phase of the war crime called Israel that is nothing more than the theft of a country out from under its native people? Is Netanyahu our king? It sure looked like it. We have allowed bias and ignorance to enable genocide in Gaza, but also in the neocon wars that Jewish supremacists in our deep state have managed to get our country to undertake in Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, now Syria and next wanting Iran. It is up to us to not let our love for our Jewish family members, friends and neighbors to be turned into a weapon against morality, justice and basic decency.
It is moral to stand up for the vulnerable and oppressed. But in order to know who that is in any given situation, you need to examine the facts from all sides, not only hear from one side. Do you know what the Nakba is? The massacres at Deir Yassin and Tantura, for example? The village Files? Plan Dalet? The bombing of the King David Hotel? The Zionist terror gangs called Hagganah, Irgun and Stern? Jabotinsky's "Iron Wall" essay? The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty? If you never learn about these things, did they not happen? No, that is not how the world works. In order to make peace among men, we need to understand the roots of conflict and call for solutions that honor the dignity of all, not just the group that disproportionately has influence over our news and learning.
As a mother, I completely understand you wanting to protect your beloved son. I feel the same way for my children. While it is wrong to allow a bias for our own children to lead us to be unjust against others, such as the Palestinians, I would like you to look deeper and see if it is not also in your son's best interests to help us find a solution that respects the dignity of all instead of one that values Jews over Christians. To me, that is a firmer ground to leave to your son and all our children and that was the message of Christ who came to bring peace to all men, so this is why I feel that focusing on the true meaning of Christmas is what our country needs to do now more than ever, for the sake of your son and all of our children.
Jim, my own deep dive into the current activities of the IDF in Gaza support the genocide thesis. I reckon billions agree.
Also, that the military state of tiny Israel needed hours to arrive on the scene on October 7 makes no sense. Particularly in light of the fact that Israel had been forewarned of the 10/7 attack by multiple sources.
My take: October 7 was a False Flag operation to justify the genocide of the Palestinians.
God made a promise to Abraham as he packed his tents and headed toward what is now called Israel
“ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you will all the families of the earth be blessed”
In spite of all the problems and persecution of the descendants of Abraham, God has kept His promise. The fulfillment of the blessing of all the families of the earth came true, as predicted in amazing detail, with the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, Gods son. This is the primary theme of human history. As Christians, we should bless the Jews, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. People may think they can get away with picking on God’s chosen people, but they obviously have not read to the end of the book.
Aimee, there is only one race of people ("race" for lack of another word) who has persistently been persecuted, including genocide, throughout history. Jews. They are always the scapegoat. Anti-Semitism is a plague, an evil that defies understanding and continues. And that it persists, is flourishing indeed, 80 years after the slaughter of six million, incomprensible. Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people. Read the Bible. There you will find historical documentation within the sacred text. Ideological lockstep drives the anti-Semitic dialogue on American campuses. I will light my candle tomorrow evening at dusk. I hope my fellow Americans of all faiths will do likewise.
Talmudic Judaism has based a lot of their religion on marking their persecutions and celebrating harm to others, so it may seem to members of that community that they are more persecuted than others. And even as this is no way to systematically examine the truth of your claim, it may be true. However, what I do not often see among Jews and other non-Jews who have internalized Jewish exceptionalism is a willingness to consider why it might be the case. As the expression goes, if I get kicked out of 109 bars, I might start wondering if I am doing something unjust or unreasonable that leads to that result.
For example, we are told Jews were expelled from Spain five hundred years ago. Jews seem to revel in intergenerational grudges, so there are Jews who have appealed for (and I hear won) citizenship to Spain as a result of being a descendant from those who were expelled. But why were they expelled? Did they participate in a war against the Catholics and lose? Was it uncommon for opponents to be exiled at that time? Were there less just behaviors toward defeated opponents at that time? On this very weak claim, Jews invoke the right to "return" to Spain.
You try to claim because the Bible says Jews once lived there two thousand years ago, then anyone claiming to be a Jew today can then go steal the land out from under the current occupants and take over. Even the homes and orchards of Palestinians can be just taken over without a second thought by a Jew, no need to even compensate for this theft. (And that same Bible says "thou shall not steal, but we will leave that for another time.)
Meanwhile, Palestinians who are still alive after being pushed out of their homeland by the terror campaign waged to make way for the Jewish supremacist state of Israel in 1948 and for it to expand in 1967 are not allowed to return. This isn't some stretch of a claim for their ancestors or co-religionists experienced centuries ago. Many experienced this directly, yet somehow we are supposed to think it is fine for Jews to expect this kind of "rights" but never anyone else. This kind of narcissism on the part of a nation that enables people to justify double standards like this egregious one I mention above is at least part of what creates conflict between Jews and other groups.
In order to prevent future conflicts, and there are many many Jews who agree with me in saying this, we need to stop Israel from engaging in such egregious inhumane and unjustifiable behavior that it leads to much larger scale reactions than the one Israel helped along on Oct. 7. If you want Jews to be safe in Israel and elsewhere in the world as I do, then you need to help end the double standard and evil oppression that leads to resistance and resentment. Putting 2.2 million people in a death camp in Gaza and then saying "we are the victims" as the state that claims to be the one Jewish state is doing, is dangerous not only for Palestinians, but also for Jews.
I say let's all get educated on the silenced realities of this issue and speak up so that this can change and everyone can have peace and security. Of course the most famous Jew did have a very good answer for how to end conflict. That is why He is called the prince of peace. I will be celebrating Him tomorrow. And even for those who are not Christian, He is still an otherworldly brilliant person. You may just want to consider the wisdom He shared that people are still centering their lives around two thousand years later.
Celeste would it be impolite for me to mention that 65 million of my fellow Orthodox Christians were tortured to death by largely Jewish Bolsheviks between 1918 - 1957?
“According to the (primary) data furnished by the Soviet Press, out of 556 important functionaries of the Bolshevik State, there were in 1918-1919, 17 Russians, 2 Ukrainians, 11 Armenians, 35 Letts, 15 Germans, 1 Hungarian, 10 Georgians, 3 Poles, 3 Finns, 1 Czech, 1 Karaim, 457 Jews.”
From “The Rulers of Russia” by Father Denis Fahey (p. 6)
92% of the main Gulag Commandants between 1918 - 1940 were Jewish.
Anti- semitism was punishable by death under the Bolsheviks.
Like Hitler, the Bolsheviks were financed by international Jewish bankers,
It goes beyond the Israel/Palestine issue: it's also the fact that Leftist hate White people, (even though most of the Leftists are White) and see that the *only* reason Blacks and Hispanics are down economically and education-wise is because of "systemic racism".
The Leftist way of thinking is simple: "People Of Color" are helpless victims in their eyes, and all their demographical ills are because Whites keep them down, although ironically, they are correct-to a point, that point being that it's the Leftists who for the past few decades, through their policies of welfare, "bilingual education", and multiculturalism/D.E.I. have so lowered any expectations of them, that inevitably, failure results. Now, if someone who is part of their New World Plan (my emphasis) rejects that label by studying hard, waiting until getting married BEFORE having kids, making the effort to stay married, and doesn't play to the narrative of the semi-literate, angry, self-destructive (think "rap 'artists' " and their message of misogyny and violence) they are called "Uncle Tom", "vendepatrias" (literally, one who sells out their fatherland) or the old yore of "acting White". How does this tie into anti-Semitism? Here is how: Despite the fact that Jews have been kicked to the curb for centuries in every horrible imaginable way, it is hard-wired into their culture to get educated, assimilate, and develop their minds to the top of their ability. And since Jews are seen overall as being White (despite the fact that many of them are much darker than the Leftist Whites who deride them) they are seen as a sub-thread of the already-oppressive White demographic, yet usually out-perform their gentile peers financially, creatively, and academically. Without such high, exacting standards, we might still be dying of polio, and who knows how many other diseases. Their contributions to science, art, music, literature, engineering, and most basically, medicine, are disproportionally high compared to the major demographics in the U.S., yet they are the target of resentment.
When one drags out the annoyingly-inaccurate catch phrase of "White privilege" while also going on their anti-Semitic rants, I say to them "What 'privilege' were the Jews given in the U.S.? They were mocked, terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan, often saw the word "restricted" in many public establishments, and ostracized by the overall racial climate of the day, AND were instrumental in the Civil Rights movement" So again, why this resentment toward them? Because they, like Asians, Nigerians, and other recently-arrived non-Whites who have achieved disproportionally in the U.S. know that education, strong families, and knowing that literacy is the biggest weapon against your oppressors, which is why slaveowners forbade teaching a slave to read and write. Simply put, Jews, despite all they have endured not just in this country, but throughout time, have endured, and Leftists hate the concept of merit, and overcoming, and college campuses are breeding grounds of Leftist hate--toward everyone, especially themselves.
I agree with you. Thank you for your response following a thread that includes shocking responses, apologists for hate, intolerence, and hustification for the annihilation of Israel and Jews everywhere. I was appalled.
Isn't it ironic that Germany is so consumed by guilt over the atrocities committed by the Nazis that they deal with that guilt by wanting to show the world how tolerant they are by opening up their borders and inviting in the radical aspect of Muslim culture, which at its core, hates Jews? Such is the "logic" of Leftist thinking.
Celeste, this was another eye opener, as most of your posts, and Bonnie's are. I love the local subjects posted here. And yours is mega-local for me because I know your son Eric. In fact I share a life experience that I put in my top five most awful of my life. Years later, when I tell people about it.
Might be ten years ago when Eric and I were both members of Santa Barbara Outrigger club. We participated in a race called the Rig Run. (Look offshore, four miles out to the four oil rigs) that is the halfway point. Five miles out and five back. On this day it was 95 degrees on the beach. We were in the third boat, meaning like in the days of kickball we were the last to be picked. The leftovers.
I was seated in the back, while Eric was in the middle, the engine room. But by being in the third boat we were pretty much the rejects. . . in holiday spirit, like Rudolph and from the Island of Misfits.
It was the worst race! Hot temps and we were so far back, not DFL but close to it. (DFL=Dead "inappropriate term" Last)
Saving grace was our coach Juanie that had a gigantic cooler full of Tecates at the beach when we finished.
And if Dickens could say, "It was the best of times, it was the worse of times."
Happy Hanukkah, Christmas, and for me, Winter Solstice.
Thank you, Dan, for this personal posting. First, it was cleansing to read following the previous anti-Semitic responses to the article. I was shocked, actually, and I am generally thick-skinned. But then your outrigger story, the rejects, the wonderful coach awaiting your return. (And, you finished the race!) It's now 8:47 on Christmas Eve. Eric never told me that story and we share most things.I'm glad I am hearing it now, in this post, in a quiet house. I can certainly commiserate. As a kid, I had no athletic ability. When they would select teams for softball, I was the last. Running laps in PE, there was Celeste playing caboose. Maybe it toughened me up for the big game -- LIFE. More of us could do with a bit of bruising. There's much to be said for being last place to the finish. Winning is easy. It's staying the course -- inspite of the fact that you lost before you started -- that builds one's character. Happy Jule, Dan.
Miss Barber, first of all happy Hanukkah. You know I’m well into my 70s and in all that time, to the present I still don’t understand the hatred toward the Jewish people or the Palestinians. I don’t understand their hatred of each other. As for racism, it’s been alive and well. Most of the time hidden away, people had to hide their true colors, but Pandora’s box was opened in 2016, when people were given the green light to show all their bigotry.
Imagine the fear black mothers have every day when their children are targeted just for the color of their skin.
Merry Christmas, Happy, Hanukkah, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanzaa, to all.
Happy Hanukkah, Celeste. What has transpired on our college campuses over the past year should concern everyone of all backgrounds and faiths. It would now seem antisemitism and racism has been given a green light by the academic, liberal elite. That’s right, a wink and a nod to those harassing, humiliating, bullying and assaulting Jewish students. Can one imagine if this despicable behavior was happening to black students, perpetrated by white students in the south, or anywhere for that matter? Clearly, the American liberal left machine is looking the other way and is too weak and timid, even cowardly in calling this out.
All fair minded people want peace, prosperity and goodwill for the Palestinian people. Why then do they continue to empower a criminal, gangster organization like Hamas and Hezbollah by allowing rule over their respective societies? Both have abysmal human rights history with those unlucky enough to be under their tyranny. Women, children and gays, especially have suffered terribly under these terrorists, masquerading as governments within their failed state.
May almighty God bless all people, of all faiths in 2025. May light prevail over darkness, and freedom over tyranny.
This is all ideology driven. During the Antifada of the late 1980's, I recall vividly that university liberals, professors, stood for just the opposite. In fact, their indifference to the innocent Palestinian was itself vile. Including here at UCSB. I witnessed.
Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to one and all. While this is a binary salutation the solution to the problems in the Middle East are not. We should have compassion for Christian’s , Jews and Muslims. I have my personal biases and do not believe litigating the past century plus of who did what to who will solve the issue. I do believe the following however, if the anti Israel militants laid down their arms there would be peace and if the Israelis laid down theirs, there would be no Israel. Peace!
The way the Israelis are trying to exterminate the Palestinians is reminiscent of nothing so much as the Holocaust.
Aw, c'mon Pat, be fair: The Israelis are not "trying to exterminate the Palestinians." They are definitely trying to exterminate Hamas, which is of course trying to exterminate all Jews and Israel itself. Hamas, after its horrific deeds on October 7, left Israelis no choice. What would you have done if it were your family that was butchered? I don't think "turning the other cheek" would have come to mind.
Jim, I agree that 'turning the other cheek' was not a reasonable option. But the extreme heavy hand the Israelis are using will only guarantee future generations of Hamas.
Israel knew about the plans for the Oct. 7 attack at least months in advance. Somehow, the border was not monitored that day. Hmmm.... Whistleblowers in the IDF have spoken out on this. Why were many killed on Oct. 7 killed from helicopters? That could only have been done by the IDF itself. Are you familiar with the Hannibal Option? In a society of laws, if you want to claim Israel is justified to respond due to Oct. 7, then you need to address the role Israel played in those events and the debunked misinformation Israel planted in Western media such as 40 decapitated babies and gang rapes. These stories had to be retracted for lack of substantiation. Only con artists or fools continue to repeat them. (There were no babies thrown from incubators in the lead up to the first US was on Iraq. There is no evidence Gaddafi handed out viagra so his troops could mass rape. Baseless, graphic stories are planted and repeated by a docile media to soften up the western populations for the latest war. Be ready for this as the deep state prepares for war on Iran. And know that when you repeat these unsubstantiated claims, those who love war thank you.)
What about before Oct. 7? History did not start on Oct. 7, 2023. Was Israel justified in creating refugees that fled into in Gaza in 1948, taking over control in 1967, claiming to leave in 2005 but retaining control over all points of entry to Gaza which was put under siege restricting food and medicine after the people voted the wrong way, as Hillary Clinton said, in 2006? Was Israel justified in its repeated bombings of Gaza, or "mowing the lawn" as they call it there? Under international law, Hamas would have a right to attack military targets of the entity occupying them. To the extent civilians were targeted, that would be wrong, but does that justify targeting and besieging millions of civilians in response? Not in any moral universe.
BTW, now that Syria has fallen and the US is backing a derivative of Al Qaeda in Syria, is it not time to relook at the claims about 9/11. Did Al Qaeda have the ability to defeat the US air defenses that day? Do office fires have enough heat to bring down steel frame buildings? How did building 7 fall into its own footprint at nearly freefall speed? Who wrote the PATRIOT Act and how was it created and passed so quickly? Who were the PNAC crowd of Neocons who said we needed a "new Pearl Harbor" type attack to enable the use of the US military to remake the middle east?
Aimee, let’s not forget a passenger airplane supposedly striking the Pentagon on 9/11, which we were never shown evidence of.
The Pentagon is the global command center of the US military. It is protected from submarine launched hypersonic nuclear missiles but a passenger airplane piloted by terrorists were able to strike it?
The neutral concept of irredentism needs more exploration.
This page has sunken to a new low to applaud genocide in Palestine on the eve of Christ's birth. Nice going, Celeste.
Deeply troubled by this. Our western collective guilt over the holocaust is real. What happened was beyond my contemplation, even in the darkest hours.
However In founding the Jewish state, were the Arab nations invovled? I fear not. I fear our guilt allowed the west to make a choice for the region with out any consultation. Add to that the terrorism used in the forming of the State of israel, well then there is a fertile ground for all the wars in the intervening years. Couple that with the present Israeli behaviour, then I loose almost all sympathy for the Zionist cause.
My family have have been in close and very healthy business relationship with an Israeli company. Israel needs to change its behaviour.
I don't agree. I think it is wiser, even for the sake of Jews, if we focus on Christ now more than ever and think of the besieged Palestinian Christians and the engineered suffering they face this Christmas. Their suffering has been funded and armed by our government with our tax dollars. And that is only possible because of deceived people like you who slander those who speak up against this and fail to hear the truth of their claims and concerns and do your due diligence to research the conflict. (Millions of people across our country have been protesting these Zionist neocon policies for years. Who among them is a Hitler supporter? Not the organizers. Maybe one fringe person here or there, but how do you know they are even sincere and not provocateurs? It is completely dishonest to claim the protestors openly celebrate Hitler's killing of Jews. Who tells you these things?)
While you claim we have been ignoring our Jewish community members, the opposite is true. In the US, we have been flooded with the Jewish perspective in psychology, sociology, history and literature for decades in academia and the entertainment and news media has also been biased toward Judaism and Zionism. Secularism was a Jewish movement meant to remove Christianity from our schools and public square in a country that is majority Christian and founded on Christian morality. If the only effect of this bias was to welcome and include Jews, I would celebrate it. But the down side is we have undercut the moral foundation of our society and we see the dark fruits of that trend all around us. Endless wars, addiction, divorce, abortion, drag queen story hour, trans men in women's prisons...
By the power of a very persistent and detail oriented pro-Israel lobby, we have been lured into slaughtering millions for the biased, vengeful and greedy without limit Zionist movement at a cost to our treasury in the trillions. We can't afford this financially, but neither can we afford this spiritually. We have been watching as 2.2 million Palestinians are subjected to draconian siege conditions and regular bombardment targeting all infrastructure. Yet, who among us speaks up? Which of our political leaders in congress did not lavish praise on Netanyahu, who is at the helm of this latest most grisly phase of the war crime called Israel that is nothing more than the theft of a country out from under its native people? Is Netanyahu our king? It sure looked like it. We have allowed bias and ignorance to enable genocide in Gaza, but also in the neocon wars that Jewish supremacists in our deep state have managed to get our country to undertake in Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, now Syria and next wanting Iran. It is up to us to not let our love for our Jewish family members, friends and neighbors to be turned into a weapon against morality, justice and basic decency.
It is moral to stand up for the vulnerable and oppressed. But in order to know who that is in any given situation, you need to examine the facts from all sides, not only hear from one side. Do you know what the Nakba is? The massacres at Deir Yassin and Tantura, for example? The village Files? Plan Dalet? The bombing of the King David Hotel? The Zionist terror gangs called Hagganah, Irgun and Stern? Jabotinsky's "Iron Wall" essay? The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty? If you never learn about these things, did they not happen? No, that is not how the world works. In order to make peace among men, we need to understand the roots of conflict and call for solutions that honor the dignity of all, not just the group that disproportionately has influence over our news and learning.
As a mother, I completely understand you wanting to protect your beloved son. I feel the same way for my children. While it is wrong to allow a bias for our own children to lead us to be unjust against others, such as the Palestinians, I would like you to look deeper and see if it is not also in your son's best interests to help us find a solution that respects the dignity of all instead of one that values Jews over Christians. To me, that is a firmer ground to leave to your son and all our children and that was the message of Christ who came to bring peace to all men, so this is why I feel that focusing on the true meaning of Christmas is what our country needs to do now more than ever, for the sake of your son and all of our children.
Jim, my own deep dive into the current activities of the IDF in Gaza support the genocide thesis. I reckon billions agree.
Also, that the military state of tiny Israel needed hours to arrive on the scene on October 7 makes no sense. Particularly in light of the fact that Israel had been forewarned of the 10/7 attack by multiple sources.
My take: October 7 was a False Flag operation to justify the genocide of the Palestinians.
May the Light of Christmas, and peace and goodwill shine upon you, Constantine.
God made a promise to Abraham as he packed his tents and headed toward what is now called Israel
“ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you will all the families of the earth be blessed”
In spite of all the problems and persecution of the descendants of Abraham, God has kept His promise. The fulfillment of the blessing of all the families of the earth came true, as predicted in amazing detail, with the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, Gods son. This is the primary theme of human history. As Christians, we should bless the Jews, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. People may think they can get away with picking on God’s chosen people, but they obviously have not read to the end of the book.
You're an MD and you support genocide? If you were a Christian, you'd stand against this.
Aimee, there is only one race of people ("race" for lack of another word) who has persistently been persecuted, including genocide, throughout history. Jews. They are always the scapegoat. Anti-Semitism is a plague, an evil that defies understanding and continues. And that it persists, is flourishing indeed, 80 years after the slaughter of six million, incomprensible. Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people. Read the Bible. There you will find historical documentation within the sacred text. Ideological lockstep drives the anti-Semitic dialogue on American campuses. I will light my candle tomorrow evening at dusk. I hope my fellow Americans of all faiths will do likewise.
Talmudic Judaism has based a lot of their religion on marking their persecutions and celebrating harm to others, so it may seem to members of that community that they are more persecuted than others. And even as this is no way to systematically examine the truth of your claim, it may be true. However, what I do not often see among Jews and other non-Jews who have internalized Jewish exceptionalism is a willingness to consider why it might be the case. As the expression goes, if I get kicked out of 109 bars, I might start wondering if I am doing something unjust or unreasonable that leads to that result.
For example, we are told Jews were expelled from Spain five hundred years ago. Jews seem to revel in intergenerational grudges, so there are Jews who have appealed for (and I hear won) citizenship to Spain as a result of being a descendant from those who were expelled. But why were they expelled? Did they participate in a war against the Catholics and lose? Was it uncommon for opponents to be exiled at that time? Were there less just behaviors toward defeated opponents at that time? On this very weak claim, Jews invoke the right to "return" to Spain.
You try to claim because the Bible says Jews once lived there two thousand years ago, then anyone claiming to be a Jew today can then go steal the land out from under the current occupants and take over. Even the homes and orchards of Palestinians can be just taken over without a second thought by a Jew, no need to even compensate for this theft. (And that same Bible says "thou shall not steal, but we will leave that for another time.)
Meanwhile, Palestinians who are still alive after being pushed out of their homeland by the terror campaign waged to make way for the Jewish supremacist state of Israel in 1948 and for it to expand in 1967 are not allowed to return. This isn't some stretch of a claim for their ancestors or co-religionists experienced centuries ago. Many experienced this directly, yet somehow we are supposed to think it is fine for Jews to expect this kind of "rights" but never anyone else. This kind of narcissism on the part of a nation that enables people to justify double standards like this egregious one I mention above is at least part of what creates conflict between Jews and other groups.
In order to prevent future conflicts, and there are many many Jews who agree with me in saying this, we need to stop Israel from engaging in such egregious inhumane and unjustifiable behavior that it leads to much larger scale reactions than the one Israel helped along on Oct. 7. If you want Jews to be safe in Israel and elsewhere in the world as I do, then you need to help end the double standard and evil oppression that leads to resistance and resentment. Putting 2.2 million people in a death camp in Gaza and then saying "we are the victims" as the state that claims to be the one Jewish state is doing, is dangerous not only for Palestinians, but also for Jews.
I say let's all get educated on the silenced realities of this issue and speak up so that this can change and everyone can have peace and security. Of course the most famous Jew did have a very good answer for how to end conflict. That is why He is called the prince of peace. I will be celebrating Him tomorrow. And even for those who are not Christian, He is still an otherworldly brilliant person. You may just want to consider the wisdom He shared that people are still centering their lives around two thousand years later.
Celeste would it be impolite for me to mention that 65 million of my fellow Orthodox Christians were tortured to death by largely Jewish Bolsheviks between 1918 - 1957?
“According to the (primary) data furnished by the Soviet Press, out of 556 important functionaries of the Bolshevik State, there were in 1918-1919, 17 Russians, 2 Ukrainians, 11 Armenians, 35 Letts, 15 Germans, 1 Hungarian, 10 Georgians, 3 Poles, 3 Finns, 1 Czech, 1 Karaim, 457 Jews.”
From “The Rulers of Russia” by Father Denis Fahey (p. 6)
92% of the main Gulag Commandants between 1918 - 1940 were Jewish.
Anti- semitism was punishable by death under the Bolsheviks.
Like Hitler, the Bolsheviks were financed by international Jewish bankers,
https://archive.org/details/the-rulers-of-russia-american-edition-by-rev-denis-fahey_202301/page/6/mode/1up?view=theater
It goes beyond the Israel/Palestine issue: it's also the fact that Leftist hate White people, (even though most of the Leftists are White) and see that the *only* reason Blacks and Hispanics are down economically and education-wise is because of "systemic racism".
The Leftist way of thinking is simple: "People Of Color" are helpless victims in their eyes, and all their demographical ills are because Whites keep them down, although ironically, they are correct-to a point, that point being that it's the Leftists who for the past few decades, through their policies of welfare, "bilingual education", and multiculturalism/D.E.I. have so lowered any expectations of them, that inevitably, failure results. Now, if someone who is part of their New World Plan (my emphasis) rejects that label by studying hard, waiting until getting married BEFORE having kids, making the effort to stay married, and doesn't play to the narrative of the semi-literate, angry, self-destructive (think "rap 'artists' " and their message of misogyny and violence) they are called "Uncle Tom", "vendepatrias" (literally, one who sells out their fatherland) or the old yore of "acting White". How does this tie into anti-Semitism? Here is how: Despite the fact that Jews have been kicked to the curb for centuries in every horrible imaginable way, it is hard-wired into their culture to get educated, assimilate, and develop their minds to the top of their ability. And since Jews are seen overall as being White (despite the fact that many of them are much darker than the Leftist Whites who deride them) they are seen as a sub-thread of the already-oppressive White demographic, yet usually out-perform their gentile peers financially, creatively, and academically. Without such high, exacting standards, we might still be dying of polio, and who knows how many other diseases. Their contributions to science, art, music, literature, engineering, and most basically, medicine, are disproportionally high compared to the major demographics in the U.S., yet they are the target of resentment.
When one drags out the annoyingly-inaccurate catch phrase of "White privilege" while also going on their anti-Semitic rants, I say to them "What 'privilege' were the Jews given in the U.S.? They were mocked, terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan, often saw the word "restricted" in many public establishments, and ostracized by the overall racial climate of the day, AND were instrumental in the Civil Rights movement" So again, why this resentment toward them? Because they, like Asians, Nigerians, and other recently-arrived non-Whites who have achieved disproportionally in the U.S. know that education, strong families, and knowing that literacy is the biggest weapon against your oppressors, which is why slaveowners forbade teaching a slave to read and write. Simply put, Jews, despite all they have endured not just in this country, but throughout time, have endured, and Leftists hate the concept of merit, and overcoming, and college campuses are breeding grounds of Leftist hate--toward everyone, especially themselves.
I agree with you. Thank you for your response following a thread that includes shocking responses, apologists for hate, intolerence, and hustification for the annihilation of Israel and Jews everywhere. I was appalled.
Isn't it ironic that Germany is so consumed by guilt over the atrocities committed by the Nazis that they deal with that guilt by wanting to show the world how tolerant they are by opening up their borders and inviting in the radical aspect of Muslim culture, which at its core, hates Jews? Such is the "logic" of Leftist thinking.
Thomas and Pat.
You just don’t understand the minds of the radical Islamist.
They would kill you in a second if they ever had the chance.
Merry Christmas!
Celeste, this was another eye opener, as most of your posts, and Bonnie's are. I love the local subjects posted here. And yours is mega-local for me because I know your son Eric. In fact I share a life experience that I put in my top five most awful of my life. Years later, when I tell people about it.
Might be ten years ago when Eric and I were both members of Santa Barbara Outrigger club. We participated in a race called the Rig Run. (Look offshore, four miles out to the four oil rigs) that is the halfway point. Five miles out and five back. On this day it was 95 degrees on the beach. We were in the third boat, meaning like in the days of kickball we were the last to be picked. The leftovers.
I was seated in the back, while Eric was in the middle, the engine room. But by being in the third boat we were pretty much the rejects. . . in holiday spirit, like Rudolph and from the Island of Misfits.
It was the worst race! Hot temps and we were so far back, not DFL but close to it. (DFL=Dead "inappropriate term" Last)
Saving grace was our coach Juanie that had a gigantic cooler full of Tecates at the beach when we finished.
And if Dickens could say, "It was the best of times, it was the worse of times."
Happy Hanukkah, Christmas, and for me, Winter Solstice.
Thank you, Dan, for this personal posting. First, it was cleansing to read following the previous anti-Semitic responses to the article. I was shocked, actually, and I am generally thick-skinned. But then your outrigger story, the rejects, the wonderful coach awaiting your return. (And, you finished the race!) It's now 8:47 on Christmas Eve. Eric never told me that story and we share most things.I'm glad I am hearing it now, in this post, in a quiet house. I can certainly commiserate. As a kid, I had no athletic ability. When they would select teams for softball, I was the last. Running laps in PE, there was Celeste playing caboose. Maybe it toughened me up for the big game -- LIFE. More of us could do with a bit of bruising. There's much to be said for being last place to the finish. Winning is easy. It's staying the course -- inspite of the fact that you lost before you started -- that builds one's character. Happy Jule, Dan.
Miss Barber, first of all happy Hanukkah. You know I’m well into my 70s and in all that time, to the present I still don’t understand the hatred toward the Jewish people or the Palestinians. I don’t understand their hatred of each other. As for racism, it’s been alive and well. Most of the time hidden away, people had to hide their true colors, but Pandora’s box was opened in 2016, when people were given the green light to show all their bigotry.
Imagine the fear black mothers have every day when their children are targeted just for the color of their skin.
Merry Christmas, Happy, Hanukkah, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanzaa, to all.