To: Here & Now Subscribers
From: Jerry Verlin, Editor (jverlin1234@verizon.net)
Subj: Here & Now #1253, 1/26/25
WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: What would Hillel say if others ARE standing up for us, but we’re not standing up for ourselves? Ponder with me.
Speak Up, Grassroots U.S. Jews: Influential Others ARE For Us
Hillel is remembered for warning us that if we’re not for ourselves, others will not be for us. What would he say to the situation where others, indeed influential American officials, ARE strongly publicly for us, but we’re not strongly backing them up?
Consider headlines on a few influential folks these days in the news:
“[Just confirmed Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth Called on Muslims To Stop Denying Jewish Connection to Temple Mount”
Israel365News, 11/15/24
“[Just sworn-in Secretary of State] Rubio Vows Pro-Israel Moves, Including Lifting Sanctions on Israelis”
JNS, 1/16/25
“Trump’s UN Envoy Elise Stefanik Says Israel Has Biblical Rights to Judea and Samaria”
Jewish Press, 1/22/25
“Huckabee as Envoy to Israel Spells End of Two-State Solution”
New York Magazine, 12/2/24
So What’s Required of Us?
What’s required of us grassroots American Jews? In short, to publicly back up these prominent pro-Israel American public officials in Israel policy-influencing positions. Specifically,
*** When these American leaders speak out against Jewish homeland-delegitimizing pejoratives, we must not just stop parroting these put-downs ourselves, but insistently use correct terms – e.g., Judea-Samaria, not “West Bank”; apply sovereignty not “annexation” [taking over another country’s land]; Jewish communities, not “occupied Palestinian territory Jewish settlements” – ourselves.
*** When these American leaders challenge the canard that it’s Israel that’s causing excessive civilian casualties, we must loudly cite the QED lengths to which Israel goes to minimize urban fighting civilian casualties.
*** And when these American leaders publicly champion our Jewish people’s homeland claim to the land of Israel in its entirety, we ourselves must not call Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem – three times native Jewish state capital, restored population majority since Ottoman times – “disputed,” or even that the perilous 1949 ceasefire lines (expressly declared in their defining document not to be international borders) are Israel’s “sovereign borders.”
Jewish Homeland Delegitimizing Pejoratives
Can you back up what Mike Huckabee told Israel National News, 11/15/24, Mike Huckabee to Arutz Sheva: There Is No ‘Occupation,’ It is the ‘Promised Land’:
“…. To the question of whether he intends to be more careful on the issue of Judea and Samaria, which is viewed as controversial in the world, Huckabee replied, ‘I can’t be what I’m not. I can’t say something I don’t believe. As you well know, I’ve never been willing to use the term ‘West Bank.’ There is no such thing. I speak of Judea and Samaria. I tell people there is no ‘occupation.’ It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham. A lot of the terms that maybe the media would use, even the people who are against Israel would use, are not terms that I employ, because I want to use terms that are time immemorial, and those are the terms like ‘Promised Land’ and ‘Judea and Samaria.’ ….” [emphasis added]
Canard of Excessive Civilian Casualties
What now Secretary of State Rubio was referring to in that quotation above about “lifting sanctions on Israelis” was the Biden administration’s imposing them on “settler violence,” in utter disregard that this occurs, not in a vacuum (to borrow a phrase), but in the context of vastly greater Palestinian Authority “pay-for-slay” slaughter of Israeli civilians.
But there was an even more pointed U.S. governmental fueling of the “genocide” canard when then Speaker Pelosi, in public disregard of her governmental job description to preside over Israeli PM Netanyahu’s speech to the Joint Session of Congress, boycotted that speech, in which Bibi said:
“I suggest you listen to Colonel John Spencer. John Spencer is head of urban warfare studies at West Point. He studied every major urban conflict, I was going to say in modern history, he corrected me. No, in history. Israel, he said, has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history and beyond what international law requires. That’s why despite all the lies you’ve heard, the war in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatant casualties in the history of urban warfare.” [emphasis added]
Not satisfied with fueling the “genocide” canard by absenting herself from Bibi’s speech forcefully refuting it, Pelosi charged after meeting him afterwards:
“‘I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does so matters,’ she told reporters following the meeting, saying she discussed with Netanyahu ‘the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.’” [emphasis added a little]
We now have American public officials opposing sanctioning “settlers” while ignoring Palestinian Authority “pay-for-slay,” and not fueling “genocide” howls. We must stand with them.
Ripping From Israel Historic Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria
Can you agree with Huckabee in that INN article on this?
“The only negative things that I’ve seen at all have been from those from whom you’d expect it – from the very far left and typically in the media, who thought that some of my previous positions and/or statements, particularly regarding the two-state solution, which I don’t believe is legit – that troubled some of the people from the far left, but it is what it is. It’s a position I’ve held for many years, and, frankly, it’s a position that Donald Trump has held and I expect that he will continue to.” [emphasis added]
And Hegseth on this? Jewish Press, 11/13/24, Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Said 2-State Solution Was ‘Effectively Dead’:
“President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday night appointed Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and author with robust military experience to serve as his Secretary of Defense. Hegseth, an Evangelical Christian, called the two-state solution ‘lip service’ and ‘effectively dead.’” [emphasis added]
That Jewish Press article also said that in interviewing Netanyahu last March, Hegseth “lamented the calls in the media for the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
A Way for Us Grassroots to Speak Up
If you feel Hillel’s looking over your shoulder, consider joining me in this. We’re including in the now in-the-works website for my book a pro-Israel U.S. Jewish grassroots’ voices forum, unrestricted to the policy positions of an organization. We need a couple more bloggers. You’ll just email me postings when the spirit moves you and I’ll post in your name, and monitor comments for abuse. Ok, if bloggings not in you, regularly comment on what we post. Details soon.
Regards,
