Which Side Are You On? — Florence Reese v. Hitler and the Nazis
From 20th century exemplars of Evil to capital "K" Kitsch: Hitler and the Nazis have been tragically transformed by the loudest stewards of Holocaust Memory. Zionists are live-streaming, even burlesquing, their own genocide against premature Palestinian infants in their incubators. Beset refugees, barely sheltered, are being incinerated well within Israel's designated "safe zones." The genocidal attitude of the Netanyahu regime is that Gaza itself is a terrorist organization.
Add lurid social psychology to the general mayhem: for, less than 2% of Israelis, supposed keepers of the “Never Again” flame, believe that excessive force is being used against Gaza’s civilian population. And of course Joe Biden’s endless prevaricating legal cover for the IDF facilitates its continuous blasting of humanitarian aid convoys. Now, nobody’s asking me, but such an absolute gutting of the Holocaust's ethical substance imperils Jewish safety — well, everywhere. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, in large measure thanks to Israel's incessant message that it stands in for Jewishness per se.
Translation: "Every time we massacre children, we are affirming mainstream Jewish values." I realize that it's unfair to expect a group like Jewish Voice for Peace to correct that lie. And yet, JVP has courageously stood against the… Democratic Party Faithful...?
A whopping 87% of the same Biden constituents who think he's doing "a good job” generally also approve of his arming Israel, the world’s fourth most powerful military, against a starved ethnic group. That particular instance of public approval reveals Ride-or-Die Democrats for the bonafide psychos and moral imbeciles they are. Alas, always and everywhere, Dems will see in themselves the sole bulwark against that hackneyed Greater Evil, currently embodied by Donald Trump's presence in the election. Alright then, let’s sweep aside the Dems' capacity for engaging in banana republic schemes to imprison/banish Mr. Trump from the electoral arena. Instead, we must return to the Crime of all Crimes and remind ourselves that Democrats vote for genocide, while maintaining their ideological certainty... "We are Lesser Evil-ism at its finest." As Israel systematically starves Gaza's million or so little ones, the American President starves ours by doubling, yes DOUBLING, child poverty in one year; and, speaking of Youth, Biden looks upon anti-genocide protests with disdain, blithely labeling student protesters —
“Anti-Semitic.”
This weaponized language is itself a form of anti-Semitic politics, hurting Jewish life in too many ways to catalogue. Israel’s settler colonial violence and U.S. Imperium are knotted and gnarled, apparently impossible to separate. Why else would free speech be so triggering to academic administrators across the nation? Twitchy, undemocratic responses at Columbia and other strife-torn universities — a twisted combination of police crackdowns and campus shutdowns — seem wildly disproportionate even on this occasion. Students and teachers suspended and arrested for attempting to disrupt support for Israel’s colossal outrages against Gaza — the question obtains, just how illegal is the speech our scholars are using?
During his own long lost student days, Juan Gonzalez helped organize the famous Columbia uprising of 1968. He reminds us now that he and his fellow suspendees were still granted hearings. A simple due process (“or the rudiments of it”) preceded any disciplinary action taken by the school. Rumors of anti-Semitism have thus far squelched meaningful debate between Mr. Gonzalez’s activist heirs — Jews prominent among them— and our mainstream press.
Where are the investigations, both internal to the relevant academic institutions in this dispute and, more broadly, among legacy media outlets satisfied with innuendo? Our commentators have leaned, and leaned hard, into the inevitable and swift condemnation surrounding any speech opposing American Imperium. 69% of Israel’s imported weapons come from the United States. One phone call from President Joe Biden would end the Holy Land’s stated goal to further destroy Palestinian life. Virtually in his sleep, he could apply the diplomatic brakes to the creation and continual maintenance of famine in Gaza, which persists amidst Israel’s relentless attacks against — ghosts? — nigh every hospital, university, bakery and refugee camp wiped out. Casualties include anonymous hundreds discovered in mass graves, scenes reminiscent of that earlier, un-televised genocide.
"We’re up against it," as our Thirties forebears used to say.
The activist Florence Reece's 1931 anthem asked the question: "Which side are you on?" Reece was rallying support for oppressed Americans, striking mine workers in Harlan County, Kentucky. Those of us who care about the indigenous population of historical Palestine are asking for justice, which requires that we pick a side — and if Joe Biden’s choice is clearly wrong, then we are in no way compelled to follow his chronically sick example.
By Daniel Riccuito