PUTNEY-Steven K-Brooks responded to my letter defending the integrity of Jewish Voice for Peace by alleging that the organization "parrots Hamas."
He contends that the comparison I made to Mandela's peaceful transition away from apartheid in South Africa was wrong.
And he dismissed my reference to the Torah, which advocates "no truth, no justice, no peace." I cited the Torah as a guide to understanding the International Court of Justice's ruling that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
What K-Brooks does not appear to know is that, like Hamas, the African National Congress (ANC) and Mandela were labeled as terrorists until he led the country out of apartheid into peace.
The former "terrorist" was elected president and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. As in Israel, the U.S. sided with Afrikaner apartheid to the end.
K-Brooks doubts that I have ever studied the Torah. I doubt that he has either. But I did spend 30 years teaching in a predominately Jewish school. A number of my students were Israeli.
Today, many of my friends are anti-Zionist American Jews who strongly oppose the Israeli genocide. Some have engaged in civil disobedience, including several months ago in New York City when protesters blocked the Holland Tunnel and several bridges.
My takeaway from the horrific attacks on Gaza is that the supporters of Israel, there and here, have been reduced to defending the indefensible.
It is not that we critics are bent on "delegitimizing Israel," as they claim. Israel is doing a pretty good job of delegitimizing itself, with the whole world watching.
We just want a permanent ceasefire, now.
So the question becomes: How can we explain the aberrant psychology of those who still defend the Israeli genocide?
Tom Segev is a respected Israeli New Historian - a group of people who have challenged traditional narratives about the history of Israel - whose father was killed in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Segev wrote that in order to understand Israeli politics, one must see the two kinds of Holocaust fears.
First, many Israelis have genuine fears. But second, there are many who cynically manipulate Holocaust fears for political purposes. In Hebrew this is known as hasbara - propaganda.
When the American historian Norman Finkelstein wrote The Holocaust Industry, an effort to explain this sort of manipulation, he was fired from his teaching position at DePaul University in Chicago. American Zionists have power.
The Commons in Brattleboro has done an exceptional job providing a forum for free speech on the conflict in Gaza. People have had the opportunity to exhaustively air the facts, and assert their values.
But in closing, I would like to add one issue that has not been reported.
In 2006 there was a legislative election held throughout Palestine, in the West Bank as well as Gaza, in which candidates from Hamas defeated those from the governing party in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority.
Former president Jimmy Carter was there to monitor the election and certify that it was conducted democratically and fairly.
It was not that the voters loved Hamas, but that they were sick of the corruption of the Palestinian Authority, which they saw as collaborating with Israel's oppressive military occupation. Carter said he hoped Hamas would be given a chance to govern.
What followed has been underreported, to say the least.
In 2007, U.S. general Keith Dayton worked as a "security coordinator" with Hamas opponent Muhammed Dahlan in an attempt to overthrow Hamas leaders in Gaza. They underestimated Hamas, and Hamas fighters defeated Dahlan's militias.
Soon after, Israel imposed an economic blockade on Gaza, and the rest is history - right up to Oct. 7, 2023.
Thomas Hill
Putney
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at voices@commonsnews.org.