As I reflect on the year 2023, I feel compelled to address some uncomfortable realities reflected in our lives today. In the Middle East, growing up in America with a ‘Judeo-Christian’ background, I was taught to support the Jewish government in Israel. We were led to believe that Arabs, were equated with Muslims, and they were responsible for constant turmoil in the region.
We were told that Jewish people had a biblical right to the land after facing horrific persecution in many countries. We were told that giving them their own homeland, after the atrocities of the Holocaust, was the only humane solution. We were never told that to accomplish this, millions of Palestinians were forcibly displaced with military material support of the United States, Britain, and Russia.
Arab Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes and became refugees overnight. They were pushed to the border of neighboring Arab nations (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan). They were not welcomed with open arms. The Palestinian people were sold out by the world community. They remain a marginalized and martyred people to this day.
These surrounding nations chose war with Israel, which came at the expense of the Palestinian people, who remain marginalized to this day. What we now know is that racist right-wing policies control Israeli political leadership. We know that these policies are as brutally imposed on the Palestinians as the ‘South African Apartheid’ rule was imposed on Blacks in that country. Zionist settlers settle on Palestinian land in the West Bank, supported by ‘Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)’ and who terrorize the newly displaced families at will.
Protestors, many women, and children, are then imprisoned in military prisons, without adjudication, for as long as the military chooses to hold them. Many of the women claimed they were raped when released, and the children are beaten, because they have no rights and no one in the ‘Zionists’ Israeli leadership cares about justice for them. That is why the reaction of the current Netanyahu-led government can unleash its military forces on Gaza without any regard for the totality of destruction and deaths of over 20,000 innocent citizens.
I hear that Palestinian Americans are angry at Biden for pledging support to Israel after the October attacks by Hamas. But I have not heard these same people condemn the leaders of Hamas, who knew the level of retribution the Zionists would inflict. Some Hamas leaders merely stated that Gazans are martyrs in the ongoing struggles against Israel. In reality, Hamas is just as brutal in the way they impose their rule as any other governing entity that is not interested in making life better for their people.
How can we tell? Hamas built a network of tunnels under the city. They place soldiers and armaments underneath all structures of civic life such as schools, hospitals, churches, and commerce. Gaza was described as an open-air prison where more than 2 million people were forced to exist within a land mass less than 150 square miles.
Finally, we didn’t realize that many of those stealing land from Palestinians in the West Bank are American and European settlers who have worked to paint themselves as victims over the last 50 years. They paint themselves as the sufferers of Arab aggression when in reality it is them who have stolen the land and displaced the Palestinians, much the same way Europeans did to the indigenous peoples of the United States, Australia, Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, etc.
There is reporting that several members of the coalition that elected Biden are upset with him because he supports Israel. The list includes Palestinian Americans in Midwest battleground states, Blacks, and the youth vote. Here is what these groups miss. Biden’s hands are tied to a point. First, there was a massive intelligence failure by Netanyahu’s administration. They actually had the information and plans for the October 7th attack from many sources including Egyptian Intelligence sources.
Netanyahu had developed a coalition with the ‘Zionist’ right-wing in hopes of stripping power from the judicial system. In return for this partnership, the Zionists were given a free hand in the West Bank to crack down on Palestinians there. This plan was slowed when 100’s of thousands took to the streets to protest the move, including members of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Once Hamas carried out its attack, Netanyahu jumped at the chance to distract from his issues. Like Trump in the U.S., he can only stave off trials and prison if he remains in office. Biden has no leverage to challenge Netanyahu publicly at the moment. If he does, he will hand a huge stick to the MAGA movement to secure support for Trump.
The unfortunate thing is that Trump has already stated that he will impose policies that any Palestinians protesting here in support of Hamas or against Israel will be arrested and deported if he is reelected. Blacks choosing not to vote for Biden we continue to see more states move to suppress their access to voting. Women will see more states implement total abortion bans. Men will see more stringent child support laws.
No matter how you cut it, this shortsighted view would get Trump elected. MAGA Congressmembers and Senators were advocating turning Gaza into a parking lot. They advocated bombing the hell out of a state that invites total genocide for Gaza.
However, if Biden wins, and Democrats also control the House and the Senate by a decisive margin, they will have the leverage to help secure a better future for Palestinians provided they can build a stable governing body. No matter what, Trump and the GOP are not on the side of the Palestinians.
Minority groups all over the country need to be aware of how they are being duped by the White Christian Nationalists and the New Apostolic Reformation movements. These ‘Christofascists’ have become the heart of the MAGA movement. They are deep undercover in the evangelistic church. They play the victim role claiming to be persecuted for their worship when people reject having their beliefs imposed on them.
They feel persecuted because they believe they cannot openly condemn abortion, same-sex marriages, LGBTQ, or that most Americans don’t like Trump who the Christofascists now say he is chosen by god. Christofascists feel persecuted because they cannot spread hate. But now, Trump and the New Apostolic Reformation feel emboldened to spread hate and division through their religious views.
Hispanics and Black evangelicals are particularly susceptible to this form of indoctrination. Recently a Black minister and GOP state Representative said on the floor of his legislature that (paraphrasing) Trans people are demonic aliens and his belief in god says they must be condemned. Hispanics in Uvalde Texas, where the school massacre took place by a young man using an assault weapon, voted by 82% to reelect the governor there.
But what population of Texans are having their access to the vote suppressed? Hispanic and Blacks.
One of the comments I frequently hear, even on MSNBC, is that Democrats need to get their message out. They don’t message the way the GOP does. Part of that comment is true, Democrats don’t use hate, lies, gaslighting, and fear to communicate their agenda. Why? Because the GOP has no agenda other than to divide the people while they steal the bulk of the wealth. That is the purpose of their messaging.
But there aren’t many liberal media outlets that are commercially viable. Most Christofascists get their news from FOX and pro-Trump media outlets. Those outlets make money. MSNBC is the only cable network that leans liberal in its primetime programming. CNN is more inclined to both sides what they report and sources like the New York Times, The Washington Post, and local media will not report against Trump as critically as they report news on Biden.
It’s not that Democrats get the messaging wrong. They have a much broader agenda and fewer outlets to accurately and truthfully report what they do. All the others gaslight. Democrats depend on a growing number of social media platforms to report the news like The Meidas Touch Network, The Hopium Chronicles, The Michael Moore: Substack, and a host of alternative outlets.
While the mainstream news (Legacy Media) outlets continue to report breathlessly on poll after poll about Trump beating Biden in 2024, let’s remember, none of the polls indicated a Trump loss in 2020 nor the Democrats winning the Senate majority in 2022. Instead, the polls indicated the GOP would win 60 plus House seats and 2 Senate seats in a ‘Red Wave’ of Conservatism.
Still today the ‘Legacy Media’ refuses to report the accomplishments of Biden’s years in office. They tell us how we feel, even when we are doing well. One minute they complain about gas prices, but they ignore reporting on the profits of the companies that generate the gas. They report on inflated prices of food, commodities, and housing, but they ignore reporting on the ‘Greedflation’ that is behind the price inflations.
MAGA Republicans now want to shut down the government hoping to hurt the economy ahead of the election. They are counting on ‘Legacy Media’ to frame the story in a way that hurts Biden’s chance for reelection. Read the articles I have included beneath each comment section.
Finally, while the media hypes Nikki Haley’s movement in Iowa and New Hampshire, ahead of Ron DeSantis their interest is misplaced. Those are two states with very low minority populations. She could win those states and lose her own state, South Carolina, to Trump.
She has lost the support of a significant number of Black Republicans because she could not bring herself to say ‘Slavery was the cause of the Civil War.’
A Reasonable Point of View 