The right wing supporters of apartheid Israel can chalk up another victory. The American Jewish Committee, ADL, in concert with right-wing Indian American groups, such as the Hindu American Foundation, effectively forced the resignation of Arun Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi) as the director of the Institute for Nonviolence at the University of Rochester. It is tragic that great humanitarians like Gandhi can be effectively silenced by these radical groups. Gandhi merits vigorous support for his commendable role in promoting non-violence and religious tolerance.
The American Jewish Lobby has been responsible for tilting US support for Israel which has received hundreds of billions of dollars in military and economic aid. This aid has been used to subjugate the Palestinians who have had their land stolen and thousands of their people killed in a systematic effort to ethnically cleanse them from their ancestral lands. Palestinians refugees are imprisoned in ghettoes and are subjected to daily harassment by IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) who make their lives a living hell. A growing number of IDF soldiers have been so appalled by the utter brutality inflicted on the hapless Palestinians that they have gone public to expose the dark deeds of the Israeli military. Google to ‘IDF soldiers breaking the silence’, to learn more about this growing movement. Also, to gain a sense of the terror inflicted on young Palestinians, Google to ‘If Americans Knew’. Arun Gandhi’s ‘crime’ was to urge Israel to make peace with its neighbors and not resort to ‘weapons and bombs’. It is ironic that the US remains silent on Israel’s huge stockpile of WMD’s and continues to fund its war machine. This has fueled much of the rage in the Arab world and compromised the security of both the US and Israel.
Arun Gandhi is but the latest victim of pro-Israeli right wing groups. Earlier, President Carter encountered viscous attacks in response to the publication of his book ‘Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid’. Carter was accused of anti-Semitism and being a “Jew-hater” because he likened Israel’s polices in the Occupied Territories to South Africa’s apartheid regime. Another recent victim is Professor Finkelstein (son of holocaust survivors) and a vigorous critic of Israel’s apartheid policies. Finkelstein was denied tenure because of his outspoken views. To learn more about the sinister impact of the powerful Israeli lobby, I urge readers to obtain a copy The Israel Lobby, by Stephen Walt (Harvard) and John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago). Finally, the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, had it exactly right when he stated in 1946 that Jewish settlers "have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism.”
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