One Jew to Another Jew (and Others)

Writing from a fellow Jew – with my responses – mine italicized

Shared from my cousin’s post. This Is exactly correct when It comes to Jews and Israel.

“You Say We Run the Banks — A Modern Jewish Response”

Adapted by Jeff Kaminsky from the original work by Joshua Hoffman.

———————————————

You say we run the banks.

You say we control Hollywood.

You say we dominate the media.

You say we have too much influence, too much power, too much pride.

But you never ask how or why.

So let me tell you.

We were banned from owning land, so we learned to live by our minds.

We were blocked from trade guilds and professions, so we became merchants, scholars, doctors, and lawyers.

Our commitment to education didn’t come from privilege — it came from necessity. From exclusion. From survival.

Obviously: “run the banks”, “control Hollywood”, “dominate the media” – are directly Anti-Semitic.

When we were barred from universities, we built our own yeshivot. The Torah became our moral anchor. The Talmud, our intellectual training ground. When we were mocked for being “bookish,” we made knowledge our defense. The insult became our armor.

Who is this “we” you are referencing? We, Jews, are a much more diverse People than your words seem to imply! Many of our U.S. “Founding Fathers” (sic) said a lot of great things. They also frequently owned slaves, and were hypocritical racist, classist, misogynist, privileged white men. During the pre-World War II period, young Jewish men were often stereotyped as (basically non-white) brutish (if anything), not as intellectuals. Max Baer (1909-1959), a noted boxer, is one example (bio info in general see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Baer_(boxer) Barney Ross (born: Dov-Ber Rosofsky) (1909-1967), a contemporary of Baer, was another Jewish boxer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Ross). After Ross’s father was shot to death in a robbery, and his mother’s subsequent mental collapse:
“Dov became vindictive towards everything and turned his back on the orthodox religion of his father. He began running around with local toughs (including another wayward Jewish ghetto kid, the future Jack Ruby), developing into a street brawler, thief and money runner; he was even employed by Al Capone.” (source listed above).

Hank Greenberg (1911-1986), differed from Ross and Baer in multiple ways. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Greenberg) Greenberg grew up in a middle class family. He turned down the New York Yankees’ offer in 1929 (not wanting to have to compete with Lou Gehrig at first base) and went to New York University on an athletic scholarship. After his playing career was over, he was a baseball executive. He was widely recognized as an American athletic star (the most noted one until Sandy Koufax (born 24 years later) and lived into his 70’s.

In medieval Europe, Christians were forbidden by the Church to lend money with interest. But kings still needed loans, and someone had to do the collecting. So they turned to the Jews - already despised, already othered. We became money lenders not by ambition, but by force. Then we were hated for it.

In America, we were shut out of “respectable” jobs. So we went west and helped invent Hollywood not to brainwash, but to dream. To tell stories. To make magic.

When Ivy League schools capped Jewish admissions, we founded Brandeis. When hospitals wouldn’t hire Jewish doctors, we built Cedars-Sinai.

When law firms closed their doors, we opened Skadden and Wachtell. We weren’t trying to dominate — we were just trying to live.

I want to push-back on this “we” from another side. There have been many noted Jews in academia, work in Hollywood on film production and similar, as you have noted. Many Jews, however, don’t “make it big” in a wide variety of ways. When they do “make it big”, it’s not always in good ways either. Wikipedia lists under “Jewish American Mobsters” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_American_mobsters) far, far more than Meyer Lansky.

A Pew Research Study, published in 2016, (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/10/11/how-income-varies-among-u-s-religious-groups/ ) found that Jewish households had a significantly higher percentage of $100,000+ vs. the 2^nd highest group – 44% vs. 36% . Digging deeper into the numbers, it is apparent that on average Jewish families have substantially higher incomes than Catholic and Muslim families, but that there substantial percentages of working/lower and lower-middle class households. The summary in the study also noted that the higher income religions correlated with higher education levels.

We were expelled from Spain. Massacred in Poland. Hanged in Iran. Lynched in Georgia. Bombed in Germany. And yet, we survived. We learned. We remembered.

Jews were expelled from Spain – because they were Jewish and refused to convert to Catholicism particularly proximate to the late 1400’s. Denying the horrific death totals in Poland as a result of the German People’s following Adolf Hitler’s leadership is absurd. This was a devastating emotional trauma for Jewry worldwide!

I presume that “Hanged in Iran” relates to the 2024 execution of Arvin Ghahremani. A Voice of America writing, published after the hanging (https://www.voanews.com/a/new-details-emerge-in-iran-s-first-execution-of-jewish-minority-member-in-30-years/7854788.html ) indicated the following relevant information: 1. The Jewish population in Iran is approximately 9,000 out of a total population of 89 million people, 2. The most recent execution of a Jew in Iran prior to the noted 2024 killing was in February, 1994, 3. Prior to the noted 1994 execution, “ Prior to that, Iran executed two other Jews — Habib Elghanian and Avraham Boruchim, in 1979 and 1980, respectively, at the start of its Islamic Revolution.” (same source)

A BBC writing of January 7, 2025 (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced8qw8q62jo) noted:

“At least 901 people were reportedly executed in Iran last year, including about 40 in a single week in December, according to the UN human rights chief.” “The total is the highest recorded in nine years and marks a 6% increase from 2023, when 853 people were executed.” Noting that 31 (a new high) women were executed in 2024, and 19 of these were for “murder” the report stated that:

”They included, Leila Ghaemi, who IHR said had strangled her husband after she came home one day to find him and his friends raping her young daughter.” ”A separate report from Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights group, said that more than half of those executed last year were from Iran's ethnic minorities, including 183 Kurds.” “Iran accounted for 74% of all recorded executions worldwide in 2023, according to the human rights group Amnesty International.”

There is no question that the Iranian Government is brutal to its people, particularly in terms of putting them to death. It seems that executing a total of four individual Jews (1979, 1980, 1994, and 2024) over 45 years does NOT show a clear lack of “safety” within Iran for Jews, because they are Jewish.

It is challenging to evaluate “lynched in Georgia” and “bombed in Germany”, not understanding what specifically is being referred to.

In general I would note that if one substituted the word: “Black Person” for “Jew” in virtually all that has been referenced by the original writer, it would be much, much more visible. The deaths of Black People historically have been ignored far, far more in the U.S. in contrast to the death of Jews. What is particularly scary in 2025, as I write this, is the silence about how the word “Anti-Semitism” is being weaponized by Donald Trump and the Republicans (and some Democrats). Such people frequently equate criticism of the Israeli Government and the U.S. support of Israel with Anti-Semitism. Taking on noted Universities such as Columbia University and Harvard University, including gross invasions of privacy is seeking to divide all of us who are not white, male, Christian and quite wealthy from each other.

In 1948, the world watched as nearly a million Jews were expelled or fled from Arab lands. Their homes, businesses, and synagogues were seized or burned. There were no refugee camps, no UN agencies, no worldwide calls for justice. No “right of return” for the Jews of Baghdad, Aleppo, Tripoli.

I question the narrative stated above with respect to Baghdad specifically. I will specifically reference Avi Shlaim’s: Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew . I will limit my quotes from my review of the book which is readable at: https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/10/three-worlds-avi-shlaim.html . vi

Avi Shlaim was born on October 31, 1945 in Baghdad to a wealthy Jewish Family. The following quotes are from Wikipedia:

”In 1951, during Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, Shlaim's family, along with most of Iraq's Jews, registered to emigrate to Israel and forfeit their Iraqi citizenship. The family lost all of their property and emigrated to Israel.^[4]

Shlaim grew up in Ramat Gan. He left Israel for England at the age of 16 to study at a Jewish school.^[4][5] He returned to Israel in 1964 to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, then moved back to England in 1966 to read history at Jesus College, Cambridge

He married the great-granddaughter of David Lloyd George, who was the British prime minister at the time of the Balfour Declaration. He has lived in the United Kingdom since 1966, and holds dual British and Israeli nationality.^[9]

His academic interest in the history of Israel began in 1982, when Israeli government archives about the 1948 Arab–Israeli War were opened, an interest that deepened when he became a fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, in 1987.^[4]

Writing in the Spectator, Shlaim called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "proponent of the doctrine of permanent conflict," describing his policies as an attempt to preclude a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Palestinians.

Now quotes from Three Worlds:

Under the Ottoman Empire the Jews had the status of a protected minority with the same rights and obligations as the other minorities. Although Islam was the official religion of the empire, Islamic law was not imposed on the non-Muslim communities. The Jews flourished under the pluralist system...

In Europe, by contrast, the Jews were the minority seen above all as the 'other' and therefore constructed as a problem. ...

Unlike Europe, the Middle East did not have a 'Jewish Question' - antisemitism was a European malady that later infected the Middle East. ...

Iraq's Jews did not live in ghettos, nor did they experience the violent repression, persecution and genocide that marred European history.

p.13

In Israel my mother reminisced nostalgically about the wonderful Muslim friends we had in Bagdad and the happy times we spent with them. Among the qualities she singled out for praise were their many acts of selfless kindness and their unswerving loyalty even when the popular tied turned against the Jews. One day I asked her whether we had any Zionist friends. My question took her by surprise. "No!" she replied emphatically. 'Zionism is an Ashkenazi thing. It had nothing to do with us!' p.106

One day, during a visit to Israel in 2017, almost by accident, I came across potentially credible evidence that the Mossad l'Aliyah Bet (the Yishuv's unit that handled illegal immigration to Palestine), and the Zionist underground in Iraq were behind the Baghdad bombings. p.115

That the five bombs played some part in persuading the Jews of Iraq to emigrate to Israel is beyond dispute. The big question is who planted the bombs? ,,, three of the five bombs were the work of the Zionist underground in Baghdad. ... The person who was responsible for three of the bombs was Yusef Ibrahim Basri, a 28 year-old Baghdadi Jew, a lawyer by profession, a socialist, an ardent Jewish nationalist and a member of Hashura, the military wing of Hatenua, the movement. p.131

The actual experience of the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi immigrants fell way short of the Zionist myth. p.170

At the airport, they were sprayed with DDT pesticides to disinfect them as if they were animals. This was a deeply humiliating experience. ,,, Housing in the ma'abarot consisted of tents or corrugated iron shacks, with primitive washing and cooking facilities. The living conditions were squalid and unsanitary. ... Bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals were reduced to begging for such casual work in order to feed their families. The freedom of the inmates of the transit camps was severely limited. Some camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by policemen. p.171

My paternal-great-grandfather, who I was named after, was a wealthy (East Prussian) German owner of banks (https://jewsineastprussia.de/catalog-konigsberg-05/ ) My grandfather (pictured in the children’s picture in the lower left corner at age 7 in 1892)’s younger-sister Esther (Marx) Agnon was the wife on Israel’s first Nobel Laureate (shared the prize in Literature in 1966). His second oldest son Alexander Marx received his PhD at The University of Koenigsberg in 1903 and was recruited immediately as the Chief Librarian and History Professor at The Jewish Theological Seminary (NYC – by Columbia University).

My father’s family were privileged, well-educated, initially wealthy Jews.

My maternal-grandfather Max Kesten sent money from NYC to help bring his younger siblings and his wife’s siblings from near the Russian-Polish border (on both sides of it). My mother spoke solely Yiddish until she entered public school in Alphabet City in Lower Manhattan. Her father worked well in excess of 12 hour days, except for just before Shabbos (the Sabbath) began on Fridays, and no more work until Sunday mornings.

My (now deceased) younger brother Daniel Marx was a Chasidic-Orthodox Jew. His primary roommate after our uncle moved out as he grew quite elderly was an Orthodox Jew, whose spouse was in Israel. His background was (East) Indian and he looked no different than others from India.

Judaism is a religion. The creation of the (modern) State of Israel significantly began through the Zionist Movement in the 1890’s. Until the end of World War I, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1917, while World War I was continuing The Balfour Declaration was issued, where the British Government promised that a Jewish State would be established.

It is unclear to me what write Britain had to choose/promise land that did not belong to them to anyone. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 separated much of the Middle East into lands controlled by Britain and France. Spain, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands no longer had empires, though residual effects of their colonization persist to the present.

The most insightful and thoughtful statement I know of from this time period came from a reactionary, San Francisco Jewish Congressman (he was most horrible probably to the Chinese-Americans) named Julius Kahn – who was quoted:

“In March 1919, on the eve of the post World War I Paris Peace Conference, ‘Julius Kahn, the German-born Jewish congressman from San Francisco, delivered to President Wilson “A Statement to the Peace Conference” endorsed by 299 Jews. …[T]he document denounced the Zionists for attempting to segregate Jews and to reverse the historical trend toward emancipation.’ Its signers ‘objected to the creation of a distinctly Jewish state in Palestine’ not only because they feared it would jeopardize the status of Jews like themselves in the home countries, but because they found it ‘contrary “to the principles of democracy’ to elevate Jewish immigrants over Palestine’s Muslim and Christian native inhabitants. They explicitly denied ‘the existence of ethnic ties among Jews’ and ‘asserted their wish not to see Palestine “either now or at any time in the future’ become a Jewish state.’ They petitioned instead for Palestine to be ‘made into an independent , free, and democratic state that would not recognize any distinctions of creed, race, or ethnic descent among its citizens.’ “ (18) (p. xii)

Original source: Stories of Personal Transformation: RECLAIMNG JUDAISM From ZIONISM, edited by Carolyn L Karcher

A relevant (honest – and accurate – and troubling) perspective was put forth by Ze-ev Jabotinsky – most simply explained as follows:

” Jabotinsky left the mainstream Zionist movement in 1923 due to differences of opinion between him and its chairman, Chaim Weizmann, establishing a new revisionist party called Alliance of Revisionists-Zionists and its Zionist youth paramilitary organization Betar.^[33]

His new party demanded that the mainstream Zionist movement recognize as its stated objective the establishment of a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan River. His main goal was to establish, with the help of the British Empire, a modern Jewish state in which equality of rights for its Arab minority were upheld.^{[citation needed]} He maintained, however, that this could only be achieved through force, and condemned the "vegetarians" and "peace mongers" in mainstream Zionism who believed that this could be achieved peacefully.^[34] “

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze%27ev_Jabotinsky#:~:text=During%20the%20pogroms%2C%20he%20organized%20self-defence%20units%20in,Another%20slogan%20was%2C%20%22Jewish%20youth%2C%20learn%20to%20shoot%21%22

Resistance to Zionism began and escalated following World War I. Great Britain was as “honest” a mediator/controller with Palestine as it was with India, where the people of the Hindu religion were told that the Muslim religion fellow residents were basically their enemy and only the British to be effective at protecting their rights (with similar words told to the people of the Muslim (religious faith).

The key factors differentiating Palestine from India were that: 1. Britain + Europe as a whole had a “Jewish Problem” - in that significant numbers of Jews spoke out against the religious/royalty based oppressions of the vast majority of the population – and Palestine was seen as a key pathway to eliminating “the problem” – Anti-Semitic and Colonialist to the core, 2. A small number of prominent Jews had significant influence in British leadership – and saw a win/win strategy in supporting a Jewish State as well as 3. Palestinian leadership – was largely feudal “owners” of most of the land/ several notable key families – who controlled the wealth of the land, 4. There was no history of a “modern state” of Palestine – no vision from the past – nor really a clear one for the future.

You say we’re tribal. But we tried to integrate. We changed our names. Straightened our curls.

Abandoned our faith. But every time we tried to disappear, you reminded us who we were.

So we turned inward. We leaned on each other. Built synagogues when yours were closed to us. Built hospitals when we weren’t welcomed in yours. Built advocacy groups to defend ourselves when no one

else would. And when no country would have us — we built our own.

As Jews, we have had widely varying approaches to “integration”, “name changes” and similar that you describe above. Contrary to your narrative, we’ve not been united in our – perspectives going back a long, long time.

I mentioned Julius Kahn already, dating from 1919.

https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/from-albert-einstein-to-noam-chomsky-famous-jews-who-have-opposed-israel/ = a listing dated August 12, 2014 – listing quotes and individuals and what they said.

Hajo Meyer – continued his work – opposing a Zionist – Israel to within a few weeks of his death at age 90 in 2014 – see: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/last-interview-auschwitz-survivor-urged-palestinians-not-give-their-fight .

Meyer – was an Auschwitz survivor – who saw the hypocrisy of opposing the Palestinian People. His words from the 1980’s onward particularly – connect the Genocide the Nazi’s eerily – to what has transpired since October 7, 2023. Reading quotes of his words, one might think they were from post-October 7^th – over 9 years after his death.

Then came October 7, 2023. You say you hate Israel because of its policies. Because of land. Because of borders.

But on October 7, 2023, Hamas didn’t target soldiers. They didn’t storm checkpoints or military

outposts. They raped women. They beheaded babies. They burned families alive. They slaughtered civilians in their homes, bomb shelters, and at a music festival.

It was the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And as our dead lay unburied, the world didn’t mourn with us — it rallied against us. College students held “Glory to the Martyrs” signs. Protesters waved swastikas in Sydney. “Gas the Jews” was graffitied in Berlin. Jewish students were barricaded inside libraries in New York. MIT

students were blocked from class. At Harvard, they were told to remove their Stars of David for safety. All while our hostages were still bleeding in tunnels.

So no — this isn’t about borders. You hated us before 1948. Before the State of Israel existed. Before a single border was drawn.

What you hate is that the Jew now has power. A flag. A standing army. A government. A home.

You preferred us weak. Wandering. Apologizing. Dependent on your pity or permission to live.

Israel Is Not a Gift. It Is a necessity.

We didn’t colonize the land — we returned to it. Jews have lived in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and

Tiberias for over 3,000 years. We prayed toward Zion for centuries. We spoke Hebrew while the world

told us to forget. We made the desert bloom. We drained swamps, planted forests, revived a lost language. We welcomed Holocaust survivors, Russian refuseniks, and Ethiopian Jews airlifted from famine. We built a nation while surrounded by enemies, embargoed by the world, and haunted by the ashes of Auschwitz. Israel was not built because of the Holocaust. It was built because of 2,000 years of exile, genocide, and betrayal — and it is the only insurance policy against the next one.

Never Again is not a slogan. It’s the Iron Dome. It’s the F-35. It’s the 18-year-old girl in olive green

standing guard so toddlers in Sderot can sleep.

Why the Double Standard?

When Russia invaded Ukraine, the world cried out. Blue and yellow flags adorned every profile.

Weapons, refugee aid, solidarity — all rightly offered.

But when Hamas burned Israeli children alive, we were told to “de-escalate.” When we defend our cities, we’re called monsters. When we bury our dead, you protest our grief. Why? Peace Is Possible. We’ve Tried. You say Jews are foreigners in the Middle East. But the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan disagree.

The Abraham Accords proved peace isn’t just possible — it’s real.

Israel sends aid to Syrian earthquake victims. Arab doctors and lawmakers serve in the Israeli Knesset. We seek coexistence. You chant “From the river to the sea.” We chose life. You chant death.

So yes — Israel is strong now. And thank God for that. Because a powerless Jew is a dead Jew. And history taught us: no king, no pope, no president will

save us. We don’t want to dominate. We just want to live. Freely. Proudly. Unapologetically.

You don’t have to like us.

You don’t have to agree with us.

But never again will you decide whether we’re allowed to exist.

I don’t hate!

I don’t hate Israel!

I hate what is done to the Palestinian People.

I am not going to waste my time responding to most of the statements you’ve made in your lengthy concluding statement.

As one of eight, male co-founders of Men Stopping Rape, Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin, USA - in 1983 – I do not take words like “rape” lightly. I learned over 40 years ago to trust the words of the survivor, rather than the alleged rapist unless there is compelling contradictory evidence (which is rare).

2.4kShares

“Israeli authorities have admitted that no allegations of rape or sexual assault have been filed from the 7 October cross-border infiltration by Palestinian resistance factions, despite extensive investigations.

Moran Gaz, a former lead prosecutor in Israel’s Southern District Prosecutor’s Office and member of Team 7.10, disclosed the findings in an interview with Ynet. The team is responsible for cases involving captured Palestinians linked to the attacks.

Gaz stated that her department has found no evidence of sexual violence. “In the end, we don’t have any complainants. What was presented in the media compared to what will eventually come together will be entirely different,” she said.

Moreover, women’s rights organisations contacted by her office also reported no cases brought to their attention. “We approached women’s rights organisations and asked for cooperation. They told us that no one had approached them,” Gaz added.

Israel’s unsubstantiated claims of mass rape by Palestinian resistance fighters have dominated global headlines, but similar accusations by Palestinians against Israeli occupation forces have received minimal attention.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250106-no-rape-allegations-filed-from-7-october-reaveals-israeli-prosecutor/ - Dated January 6, 2025

A 2024 – writing – is less conclusive than above, but questions a lot of the previously stated narrative of the rapes of Israeli Jews – see:

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-sexual-violence-zaka-ca7905bf9520b1e646f86d72cdf03244

Another writing talks of both clear abuses (unjustified killings of civilians) while noting the falsity of reports such as deliberate killing of babies – see:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/21/october-7-forensic-analysis-shows-hamas-abuses-many-false-israeli-claims

The core issue of the attack by Hamas in the first place is much clearer and simpler. Hamas didn’t realize that its crossing the border into Israel would have as little initial resistance as it had. Hamas is not a “state” or “country” in the normative sense of the word. Israel has controlled entrance and exiting from Gaza (its “territory”) dating to it becoming a territory controlled by Israel. There is a naval blockage – from the water. There is no working airport and Hamas has no air force.

According to UNRWA, it must secure an additional $60 million by June to continue providing food to more than one million Palestine refugees in Gaza, including some 620,000 “abject poor” who cannot cover their basic food needs and are surviving on $1.6 per day. The funds are also needed to cover the severely challenged 390,000 “absolute poor”, who survive on about $3.5 per day.

UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions and financial support, which has been outpaced by growing needs.

From fewer than 80,000 Palestine refugees in Gaza receiving social assistance in 2000, today over one million people need urgent food aid to get through their day.

“This is a near ten-fold increase caused by the blockade that led to the closure of Gaza and its disastrous impact on the local economy, the successive conflicts that razed entire neighborhoods and public infrastructure to the ground, and the ongoing internal Palestinian political crisis that started in 2007 with the arrival of Hamas to power in Gaza,” said Matthias Schmale, Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza.

UNRWA is also confronted with an increased demand for services resulting from a growing number of registered Palestine refugees.

Moreover, the tragic death of 195 Palestinians – including 14 UNRWA students and the long-lasting physical and psychological injuries of 29,000 people during year-long demonstrations, known as the ‘Great March of Return’ – come after three devastating conflicts since 2009 that, combined, left at least 3,790 dead and more than 17,000 injured.

A 2017 UN report predicted that by 2020, Gaza would be unlivable.

Today, with over 53 per cent of Gazans unemployed and more than one million dependent upon quarterly UNRWA food handouts, UN agencies and remittances from abroad are all that stand between Gaza and total collapse.

MAY 13, 2019 - https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038401

If Hamas had focused its (limited) weaponry upon an Israeli military target – directly – it would have resulted in an immediate response – which would have resulted in the immediate death of most, if not all of its combatants. The weaponry that Israel has is immense.

Hamas – had – and has two basic choices:

1. Surrender – a key loss

2. Resist

It continues to resist – against overwhelming odds. The U.S. continues to block meaningful United Nations actions. Within the U.N. there is increased resistance to the U.S. position in support of Israel. U.S. taxpayers pay the money which largely goes to U.S. weapons makers and other sources of military support – which benefits the shareholders. Defense spending – does not help most of us 99% of the time!

People are Afraid! October 7, 2023 was the first time that Israel People – realized how vulnerable they are! There fears and anger have built up greatly since then! A more than token number of “Christians” believe that even something as extreme as a nuclear war breaking out with Israel – “nuking” Iran – can bring on the “return of Jesus” – totally denying the realities of nuclear warfare and how it may destroy the entire earth!

The FEAR will not go away, until there is a just peace!

A Just Peace will not be possible until – MEANINGFUL negotiations are possible!

One Can’t – have Meaningful Negotiations – by Deciding WHOM one will Negotiate with!

Killing – as is going on every day now – will only bring more Killing – more resistance and More Fear!

(It may delay the Resistance, but it won’t stop it!) (It is likely to be more virulent the more the attacks continue.)

Israeli’s are dying – in Gaza many, if not most days – in smaller numbers than the Gazan People (of course).

Israel’s Economy is in Shamble-s! Its citizen’s army – hasn’t had a break since October 7^th.

You can pretend that you don’t see – the mass killings – but the videos – including one’s taken by Israeli Jews – don’t lie!

The Hostages – those still alive – are less and less likely to survive – day-by-day!

Seeking Peace – is Scary!

Not Seeking Peace is Not a Viable Option!

What should the End Solution – for a Just Peace Be!

This isn’t 100% clear!

Prior – to October 7^th – a prevailing plurality at least of Palestinian People probably sought – a single – Palestinian State – a Democratic State – which would recognize the rights of all – more like a “parliamentary” system – than a – “winner takes all” as we often have in the U.S.

Increasingly – it seems that a “Two State” or “Two State Like” solution – seems more sought by Palestinian People – because they increasingly no longer trust that they can safely live within a “single country” together.

There can be no lasting Peace as long as the U.S. continues sending Billions of Dollars in support of The Assault. Calling it a “war” is a false narrative. It is comparable to France attacking Monaco – the odds – the power is so strongly on one side.

The United Nations could be a source of – building trust – but not as it has been operating – with the U.S – particularly.

Israel – is a reality! Inevitably – IF Israel feels – in “ULTIMATE” danger – where its survival is greatly at risk – it will use its Nuclear Weaponry- and that likely will end – this planet! There also is Nowhere for most of the Israeli People to leave for – their home is Israel.

Compromise – is only possible – with Trust Building – with sharing and talking with! There are good examples within the Middle East at a Micro-Level at least.

“Combatants for Peace, nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes, is an extraordinary bi-national group of former enemy combatants - Israelis and Palestinians - working together during an ongoing armed conflict. Faced with the devastation and escalating violence of October 7th and the war in Gaza, the very core of the movement must face great challenges and show that there is another way. The first question they have to face is their own belief…is this possible?”

https://thereisanotherwayfilm.com/ = documentary film – out now – in the U.S.

WE CAN CONTINUE TO EITHER TALK – AND LISTEN ONLY TO THOSE WHO AGREE WITH US/ – TALK ALSO AT OTHERS – WHO DON’T AGREE WITH US!

SEEK DEEP LISTENING AND DIALOGUE! WE CAN HEAR EACH OTHER – LEARN FROM EACH OTHER AND MORE!

The latter is my preferred Path!

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SUGGESTED RESOURCES

Hamas

Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance - Tareq Baconi

https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/02/hamas-contained-tareq-baconis-excellent.html

Hamas: From Resistance To Regime – Paola Caridi

https://themarkaz.org/inside-hamas-from-resistance-to-regime/

Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters - Helena Cobban and