Jewish Voices Against Genocide

I am blessed with many Jewish friends, and have been cautious about raising my voice in criticism of Israel, because I know that many of them identify with that nation.  

But, considering that the disproportionate power that Israel has in that region, the reality that this power comes directly from the United States ---and the reckless, often inhumane way in which they employ it, it has been hard to not scream in rage.  

It is gratifying to hear that many of the most outspoken voices calling attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza are Jewish, including American Jews, it is time now (if not long ago) that we add our voices to that chorus.  

This Israeli woman is courageous, and correct, in her characterization of what is going on there.  

It is indispensable that Jewish voices take a lead in expressions of outrage, in order to draw a clear, bold line between themselves and the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity.

Churchill is often credited with the phrase, "History is written by the victors".  That might be better phrased as "History is written by the survivors".  The world is unfamiliar with the history of the Punic Wars, from the perspective of the Carthaginians.  And we have had few sources to learn the perspective of the indigenous people of North America of their conquest by European settlers.  

It is an all-too familiar story; a group of Europeans leave to find a new home; whether to escape religious intolerance, establish their own religious intolerance, to escape oppression, or to write their own new chapter in history.  When they 'discover' their new home, the people who already live there are seen as obstacles, to either be removed, slaughtered, or placed on reservations - which tend to not be on the best land, and shrink over time, or if resources are found on the rez.  If the indigenous people find the conditions intolerable, and rebel, they are labeled ''renegades', or 'terrorists', and whatever actions they take when they 'go off the reservation', are treated as though that's where the trouble began.  Often these actions are used as a justification to steal even more of their land, leaving them in even more dire circumstances - and to characterize them as more savage, and less deserving of even the substandard conditions that drove them to that desperation. 

The choices for indigenous people are the slow-motion genocide of privation and starvation, or the more rapid genocide that follows acting in rebellion.