1. Although the Jews were obviously aligned against the Nazis, it's unfair of R.F.K. to conclude that the Jews were "on the side of the Allies" completely. That’s because, in 1947-48, during the War of Independence, the Jews kicked the British and Palestinians off Israeli land, at the same time.
2. While R.F.K. was correct that the 1947 United Nations
Partition Plan for Palestine would have given the Arabs four-fifths of the
land, most of that land was desert. That plan was not unfair to the Jews; that
deal offered Jews plenty of good land.
3. R.F.K. said the Arabs kicked Jews out (which is true),
but also that the Jews didn’t kick all the Arabs out. The reason Israel didn't
kick the Arabs out, in 1947-48, is because there were (and still are) so many
Arabs there, that they couldn't possibly kick them all out. The Israelis did,
however, make significant efforts to kick them out, including forcing 700,000
Arabs out in 1947-48, including “driving them into the sea” and onto boats, in
an event known to Arabs as the nakba (“catastrophe”). The phrase
“driving them into the sea” is now used against Arabs, to stoke fears that they
will destroy Israeli civilization.
4. R.F.K. rightfully says "Palestinian children are
taught that it's okay to kill Jews". That’s true, but R.F.K. failed to mention
that: 1) Palestinians have been under siege for nearly four generations, so
they don’t need to be taught racist attitudes in order to find out who is
responsible for bombing and imprisoning them; and 2) plenty of Israeli children
are taught that it's okay to kill Arabs. Abby Martin can confirm just how many
Israelis think it’s not only fine to kill Arabs, and many even seem to think
that it is a laughing matter.
5. R.F.K. rightfully criticized the killing of individual
Jewish people by Palestinians. But he neglected to mention that a reason why
Palestinians kill individual Jews, instead of bombing Israeli military targets
(to comport with the rules of war), is because choosing Israeli military
targets would be insane, due to the totally disparate levels of military
technology and capability possessed by the two sides. Taking out an Israeli
military base would get Arabs carpet-bombed. It would be a self-genocide
mission.
6. R.F.K. said that it is wrong to bomb non-military
targets, but he also admitted that Israel has a policy that they will dig under
sites being used as Palestinian militant positions. The reason why Palestinians
take refuge in schools, mosques, and hospitals, is not because they are trying
to make their children and sick people into human shields. It is because they
are praying that the Israelis will not be so inhumane as to resort to bombing
them even in their schools, mosques, and hospitals. A person only looks like a
human shield if you're already willing to shoot at him. It is regrettable that
the Arabs keep munitions in these places, but that is what is necessary for
their self-defense, because the Israelis are willing to bomb any and all
locations which could ever potentially be used for “military purposes” (i.e.,
self-defense).
7. R.F.K. claimed that “Gaza isn't occupied; it's under
self-rule". That is not true. In 2006, Hamas won elections in Gaza, after being encouraged by the Israelis to run in Palestinian Authority elections. Then the Israelis prevented those Hamas members from taking their oaths of office and their seats, and now considers Hamas a terrorist organization. That is not what self-rule looks like. Also, Gaza is surrounded by a fortified perimeter with
razor-wire-topped fences and guard towers. Snipers with the I.D.F. (Israeli Defense Forces) will often shoot at children who come "too close" to those perimeter fences. And Gaza is not allowed sea access, because it’s
under blockade. And it’s rarely allowed access to Egypt over land. So it is pretty much
an isolated country, like North Korea. No country can be sovereign or self-sufficient which has practically no contact with the outside world. The fact that Israeli troops are not patrolling Gazan streets, does not make the Gaza Strip any less "occupied".
8. When asked about the Gaza Strip, R.F.K. said "Why doesn't Jordan open itself up to
the Palestinians?". Jordan is not
connected to Gaza. Jordan opening itself up, would only help the people in the
West Bank; it would not help anybody in Gaza.
9. R.F.K. argued that Arabs can visit the Temple Mount, but
Jews are not allowed to, therefore Arabs have more rights. That is not true,
because: 1) The Jordanian Islamic Waqf owns that site, and it's allowed to set
the rules; 2) Jews obey those rules because there are Arab as well as Judaic
rules in place which are designed to protect the holiest sites from being trod
on by the wrong people at the wrong times; and 3) a group of radical rabbis (associated
with Machon Ha’Mikdash and the Temple Mount Faithful movement) ascended
the Temple Mount illegally in the early 90s.
10. R.F.K. seems to be trying to imply - without saying it
directly - that the Arabs do not recognize the right of Jews to exist. But the
Arab nations only reject the rights of Jews to exist as a state. Israel as a
people (i.e., the Jewish people) has a right to exist. But Israel as a
state (i.e., the Zionist imperialist Israeli statist government) does
not have an inherent right to exist. Nations only have a right to exist if they
do not start too many wars with their neighbors. Israel started all but like
two of the wars they've been involved in. States do not have the right to
exist. They are based on legitimized violence, and monopoly. If "the Arabs
won't negotiate", then it’s because they are being forced to accept
Israeli statehood, so no real free negotiation is possible, because one of the
terms is non-negotiable. It wouldn’t be a huge challenge to get the Arabs to
recognize the rights of Jews as a religion, a people, and a nation, because the
Jews are those things, and they will always be those things. But there’s no
need to intimidate the Arabs into endorsing a form of imperialist statehood
that implicitly claims all the world’s Jews as its potential members, even if
they have never visited the land. Jews believe they are protected by G-d, not
by a king or a military. There is no need for a “Jewish state”, and various
rabbis - such as Yoel and Moshe Teitelbaum, Yaakov Shapiro, Yisroel Dovid
Weiss, and Elnahan Beck - have argued that the idea of Jewish sovereignty,
without properly ordained rabbinic courts (Sanhedrin), is antithetical
to Jewish teachings (specifically, the story of King Saul in the Book of
Solomon). According to traditional “ultra-Orthodox” Jews, the Temple Mount is
not supposed to be completely open to all Jews, until all people miraculously
attain complete knowledge of G-d and His word, and join together in worship of YHWH.
Secular liberal Jews who oppose Israeli apartheid do not make this argument,
but it is true.
11. R.F.K. said “Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians
everything they wanted." That is not true because the Palestinians wanted
Israel to stop being a state, and Barak did not offer the Palestinians this
option. By the way, this is the same Ehud Barak who hung out with Jeffrey
Epstein. And R.F.K. allegedly flew on the Lolita Express on February 17th and
27th, 1994.
[Post-Script / Author's Note:
To see a video of Max Blumenthal debunking of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s talking points, on The Jimmy Dore Show, click on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCcVvp0eBaQ
To read my commentary regarding several potential solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict, click on the link below, to read my August 2020 article "Why I Support Autonomy, But Not Statehood, for Palestinians":
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-i-support-autonomy-for-palestinians.html]
Written and published on August 3rd, 2023.
Post-Script / Author's Note written and added on August 7th, 2023.
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