All posts by Roger Straw

Editor, owner, publisher of The Benicia Independent
Hamas, Israel, Palestine

Gaza, My Lost Home

There are no sides in this war. There is only mourning.

[Note from BenIndy contributor Roger Straw: The article by Yasmine Mohammed below is moving, sad, and most likely prophetic – a must read. As of this writing, the New York Times reports that residents in the north of Gaza are abandoning their homes and fleeing south under threat of an Israeli ground invasion. “The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Friday that airstrikes had killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded 200 others who were attempting to flee northern Gaza by car on a main highway. And an ongoing siege pushed Gaza’s medical system to the brink of collapse.” The article below was distributed by a Benicia friend who is Jewish. Another friend read it and commented, “Innocent people are innocent, regardless of their nationality or religion. Terrorists and war criminals should be held accountable, regardless of what flag they commit their crimes under. I’m terrified that we are witnessing the beginning of genocide against Palestinians. I so hope that is not the case.” Do read on….]

Gaza, My Lost Home – There are no sides in this war. There is only mourning.

Tablet, by Yasmine Mohammed, October 11, 2023

Palestinian women harvest olives in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, two days before Hamas’ attack on Israel | YOUSEF MASOUD/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

My father lived his whole life with the hope that there might be a peaceful two-state solution. He spent his last years making YouTube videos on the topic and telling anyone who would listen about his family’s olive groves in Gaza. I am actually kind of relieved that he left this earth before he had to watch Hamas slaughter his dream on video, for all the world to see. Hamas has ensured that there will be no more Palestine, and no more hope for an independent state.

People send flippant messages to me asking “are you pro-Israel or pro-Palestine,” as if we are all watching a football match. Are you wearing a blue jersey or red? I am wearing neither. I am in black. I am in mourning for the lost Israeli and Palestinian lives. I am in mourning for the Palestine that could have been. With a gorgeous waterfront overlooking the Mediterranean Sea that was recently made safe to swim in, with fertile soil that once sustained ancient olive groves. With land rich with resources for success.

It also had the funding. Generous governments, corporations, nonprofits, and individuals have been flooding the area with billions of dollars for decades. But instead of focusing on a potential tourist industry or building hospitals and schools and helping the Gazan people thrive on the land, the area was overrun by terrorists.

The world knows Hamas now as terrorists who have committed depraved atrocities that would even make ISIS blush. But the people of Gaza already knew them. They have been suffering in relative silence under these monsters for years. Anytime a Gazan dares to raise their voice in criticism, their throat is slit immediately, making it brutally obvious that it’s best to keep quiet. Even those who hated Hamas chanted their allegiance to them loudly, in fear of their lives and their family’s lives.

Fellow Islamic regimes like Iran and Afghanistan are reveling in the rivers of Israeli blood. They do not see Jewish people as humans. They see them as things that need to be eradicated, as per the Hadith by their Prophet Muhammad which instructs them that Muslims must kill Jews until not one Jew is standing. Even the rocks and the trees will work with the Muslims against Jews, Muhammad teaches, calling out, “Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me! Come kill him!”

Even in Egypt, a supposedly more progressive Muslim majority country, a police officer took it upon himself to murder two Israeli tourists who were visiting ancient ruins in Alexandria. He killed their guide too, who was probably trying to protect them. The tourist industry has been relatively nonexistent in Egypt due first to the revolution and then the pandemic. Now the country is suffering greatly under soaring inflation that is threatening lives daily. And yet, killing Jews was more important.

I never shared my father’s optimism. I never could imagine the two states living side by side. The past 75 years have been delaying the inevitable. These two Abrahamic faiths hate each other, and the only way there could have ever been hope is if both groups progressed beyond their ancient books. But both sides did the opposite. Israel has been pulled further and further into the Orthodox right wing and Gaza has become more and more extremist, electing terrorists who follow a literal interpretation of the ancient scriptures. There could have been hope 70 years ago, when Israel was being founded by secular hippies and terrorists had not yet overrun Gaza, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time now, and the mercury has been rising for decades.

Almost all of my father’s family is scattered across the globe, like most Palestinians. There are second and third generations being born in the diaspora with no connection to the land anymore. This is not new for the Middle East: Jewish people with roots in every country from Algeria to Yemen have been all but eradicated from their homelands; Egypt has very few people remaining from the hundreds of thousands who once thrived there. Hopefully a few Gazans will remain in Gaza. Maybe someday they’ll be able to live on their homeland without fear.

I have never been to Gaza, and my children have never been to Gaza. Maybe my grandchildren might go one day and read a plaque on some ancient monument that describes how this used to be the land of a people who called themselves Palestinians. They had a rich culture. Delicious food. Beautiful, bright clothing. Now they do not have a homeland anymore because they chose violence over peace. Despite the abundance of olive branches in Gaza, they chose to extend a knife instead.

A human rights campaigner, Yasmine Mohammed advocates for the rights of women living within Muslim majority countries, as well as those who struggle under religious fundamentalism anywhere. She is the author of Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam and the President of the nonprofit organization Free Hearts Free Minds.

Hamas, Israel, Palestine

Among American Jews, ‘You See a Lot of Broken Spirits’ After Attacks

A community with diverse views and opinions on Israel appeared to be largely united in shock and anger at the violence by Hamas.

Some Jewish leaders in the United States said the attack on Israel by Hamas had brought a sense, at least for now, of unity. Credit…Irynka Hromotska for The New York Times

 

New York Times, by Jenna Russell, Eliza Fawcett, Vik Jolly and Robert Chiarito, October 9, 2023

The deadly attacks and kidnappings in Israel this weekend shocked Jews across the United States, leading to tightened security at American synagogues, the cancellation of some holiday celebrations and a sense of horror and helplessness amid concern for relatives and fears of more violence to come.

The brutal assault by Hamas, which killed more than 900 Israelis and prompted retaliatory strikes that have killed nearly 700 Palestinians, comes amid a disturbing stream of antisemitic speech and attacks in the United States and globally, which have put synagogues and Jewish institutions on edge.

“You see a lot of broken spirits wandering around right now,” said Jonathan Celestino, 26, an employee of the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center in Chicago, “because so many people are hurt, scared and concerned.”

The small but diverse Jewish community in America — numbering about 7.5 million in 2020, or 2.4 percent of the U.S. population — has long been polarized over how to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In more recent months, American Jews have also been split over the far-right Israeli government’s push to limit judicial authority.

But many Jewish leaders said the targeted killing of hundreds of civilians by Hamas and the threats to kill kidnapped hostages had brought a sense, at least for now, of unity.

At Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a Reform synagogue, Rabbi Rachel Timoner has long criticized the Israeli government and its occupation of Palestinian territories. Just weeks ago, she recalled in an interview on Monday, she delivered a Rosh Hashana sermon that described loyalty to Israel as “standing with Israelis against this government.” It drew a standing ovation, she said.

But an hour before she was set to deliver another sermon on Saturday morning, reports emerged of the attack by Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls Gaza. She quickly understood, in the midst of her horror, what her message must be.

“Now is a time to stand unequivocally with Israel and Israelis,” she recalled telling her congregants, “and to say to our Israeli family that we are grieving with them, and we are praying now that Israel will defeat Hamas.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for Chabad, a global network of strictly observant Jewish congregations, said he was celebrating the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah in Brooklyn on Saturday with visitors from Israel — some of whom had to travel home and report for military duty after the attacks.

He said it was a time for Jews to “double down on being Jewish,” and pray and light candles for Israel.

Prayer was a response across the country, including at a vigil on Monday evening in Providence, R.I., where Stephanie Hague, chief policy officer at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, said it felt like one small way to show support for Israel.

For many Jews, the distress of the attacks was heightened by connections to friends, relatives or colleagues in Israel, some still missing or unaccounted for on Monday. Credit…Irynka Hromotska for The New York Times

“It feels like one of the only things we can do,” she said. “It feels like we’re so far away.”

In Los Angeles on Sunday night, a vigil drew some 2,000 people to the Stephen Wise Temple, where attendees gripped each other’s shoulders, hugged and swayed to music in the cavernous worship hall. There was applause when speakers reminded them to stay strong and support Israel, including monetarily.

A handful of attendees cloaked themselves in the Israeli flag as the evening drew to a close.

“The people here, they want to help,” said Miriam Zlotolow, 78, a retiree who immigrated to the United States from Israel when she was 21. “They want to draw strength from each other.”

For many Jews, the distress was heightened by connections to friends, relatives or colleagues in Israel, some still missing or unaccounted for on Monday.

Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, described obsessively watching the news in recent days while keeping in constant contact with friends in Israel. “I know any number of people whose kids have been mobilized and who spent nights in safe houses, who’ve lost friends or have had friends kidnapped,” he said.

Like others, he said he feared what lay ahead, and the likelihood that the toll would grow. “As a human being, and as a rabbi, the last thing I want to see is innocents dying for the decisions of their leaders,” he said.

At Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., a school founded by American Jews, the mood was solemn on Monday, said Ronald Liebowitz, the university’s president, who spent part of the day roaming the campus and talking to students. Many were grieving on behalf of a well-known emeritus professor, Ilan Troen, whose daughter and son-in-law were killed in the attack while protecting their 16-year-old son, who survived.

While he is preparing for the possibility of growing tension between campus groups that hold opposing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Liebowitz said he sensed the usual campus debates had been placed on hold.

“Politics, at least here, seem to be set aside for now,” he said, adding: “No one I know is looking at those issues of politics now. They’re looking at the savagery of these attacks.”

Anna Betts contributed reporting.

Jenna Russell is The Times’s New England bureau chief, based in Boston.

Eliza Fawcett is a reporter for the National desk and a member of the 2022-2023 New York Times fellowship class.

Hamas, Israel, Palestine

Palestinian Americans, Dismayed by Violence, Say Historical Context Is Being Overlooked

After Hamas attacked Israel, some U.S. Palestinians said that American politicians and news outlets ignored underlying causes and took Israel’s side.

Supporters of Palestinians at a demonstration in New York on Sunday. Credit…Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

New York Times, by Mitch Smith, Lauren McCarthy, Ernesto Londoño and Miriam Jordan, October 12, 2023

As news spread over the weekend that gunmen from Hamas, the Palestinian faction that governs the Gaza Strip, had killed hundreds and taken hostages in a surprise attack on Israel, Zarefah Baroud watched in horror from Seattle.

Ms. Baroud, a doctoral student and activist who is Palestinian American, said she felt deep sadness for the Israelis who were killed and kidnapped. And she was immediately worried that those killings would be “used to justify genocide” against Palestinians.

On Monday, Ms. Baroud managed to reach a younger cousin in Gaza. In an exchange of painful text messages, she learned that her aunt and five cousins, ages 9 to 18, had been killed in a retaliatory airstrike.

“Virtually every year there is a bombing campaign, but I’ve never heard my family talk as hopelessly about the situation,” said Ms. Baroud, 24, who faulted Israel for the escalation in hostilities. “There is nowhere to hide.”

Palestinians in the United States have long grappled with the complicated history of their ancestral home and the foreign policy of their adopted one. Many have parents or grandparents who left the Middle East decades ago when the modern Israeli state was founded. Their families found refuge and built new lives in America, starting businesses, joining mosques or churches, enjoying a sense of freedom and stability.

But all that time, their new country has remained a proud ally of Israel’s government, which many Palestinians see as an oppressive, occupying force.

“I cannot understand the double standard of this country,” said Zein Rimawi, a Palestinian who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and lives in New York City, where he founded a mosque. Mr. Rimawi said he was troubled by the way U.S. leaders were supportive of Ukraine’s fight against Russia, yet, in his view, unable to understand the perspective of Palestinians.

In interviews with more than a dozen Palestinian Americans, many said they were saddened by the violence against civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, and hoped for a peaceful resolution. But many said that the underlying causes of the conflict could be traced to the policies of Israel and the United States, and decades of Palestinians being denied freedom of movement and basic rights.

Gaza residents have long endured food and medicine shortages, crumbling infrastructure, soaring joblessness and outbreaks of violence that have killed thousands of people. The expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which complicates the possibility of a two-state solution, has enraged Palestinians.

Several Palestinian Americans said they were frustrated by the bipartisan rush by U.S. politicians to support Israel, and by the way the conflict had been covered in American news outlets. Over the last few days, some have organized protests across the country that have included blistering critiques of Israel and calls to “free Palestine,” even amid criticism that such gatherings are tone-deaf.

“We have to have a memory that’s longer than 24 hours,” said Muhammad Sankari, an organizer with the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine, which helped arrange a protest on Sunday outside that city’s Israeli consulate. “There’s 75 years of the occupation of Palestine.”

Clashes over the land date back to biblical times. The establishment of the modern Israeli state in 1948 on land that had been occupied by Britain led to a decades-long conflict over land and statehood for Palestinians.

More than two million Palestinians live in Gaza, a strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea whose borders are tightly controlled by Israel and Egypt. Since 2007, Gaza has been governed by Hamas, which the United States and European Union have labeled a terrorist organization.

More than 170,000 people in the United States identified as having Palestinian heritage in the 2020 census. Other census data shows that a majority of Palestinians in the country are American-born. Among those who immigrated, more than half have been in the country for at least two decades.

Within the Palestinian community, the census figures are considered to be a significant undercount given longstanding challenges in tallying the number of Americans of Middle Eastern and North African descent.

Though Palestinians live across the country, they are concentrated in a handful of large metropolitan areas.

In Anaheim, Calif., a district known as Little Arabia was revitalized with shops and restaurants by immigrants from the Middle East, including Palestinians. Last year in Paterson, N.J., part of Main Street was renamed “Palestine Way.” In a stretch of suburban Chicago that some refer to as Little Palestine, store names are listed in both Arabic and English, bakeries sell the Middle Eastern cookie maamoul and the soccer stadium hosts an annual Palestine Fest.

In the days since Israel began a counteroffensive to the terrorist attacks, health officials in Gaza said that 1,400 Palestinians had been killed and more than 6,200 others had been wounded. Officials said that more than 1,200 people in Israel had been killed, and an estimated 150 abducted.

Essa Masoud, a Staten Island resident who owns a halal grocery store, said his reaction to the war was “mostly regret.”

“Regret that this is happening; regret that people from both sides are getting killed,” said Mr. Masoud, whose parents were Palestinian immigrants, and who has family living in Jerusalem.

Still, the gulf between U.S. foreign policy and the views of many Palestinians has been on sharp display in recent days as protesters gather in American cities to speak against Israel’s government and voice support for Palestinian civilians bracing for counterattacks.

Most American officials, even those leery of the rightward shift of Israel’s government, have loudly defended Israel in recent days. President Biden called the attack against Israel “pure unadulterated evil.” Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and a Republican presidential candidate, said, “Israel needs our help in this battle of good vs. evil.”

And in New York, where supporters of Palestinians and Israelis held dueling rallies in Times Square, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called the gathering by Palestinians “abhorrent and morally repugnant.”

A Palestinian flag was raised from a car’s sunroof in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Credit…Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times

Sumaya Awad, a Palestinian American writer and activist living in New York City, said responses like those were shocking.

“These statements are really dehumanizing us,” she said, “and telling us that our lives are not worth anything.” In the eyes of those officials, she added, “we are never the victim, we are always the aggressor.”

The attacks by gunmen from Hamas galvanized this country’s Jewish community, which includes about 7.5 million people. Though American Jews hold a range of views about the Israeli government and U.S. politics, they were largely united in shock and anger at Hamas, with many voicing fear about the safety of friends or relatives in Israel. As of Thursday, at least 25 American citizens were known to have died in the violence, with others among the hostages.

Rabbi Nancy Kasten, who leads an interfaith group in Dallas, said she sympathized with the challenges facing Palestinians and believed Israel’s government had long committed human rights violations. But she rejected the idea that Israel’s policies justified or prompted Hamas to attack and kill last weekend.

“I don’t think that the occupation caused Hamas to do this,” said Rabbi Kasten, who said she visited Palestinian territories regularly. “I don’t think Hamas has Palestinian liberation in mind at all.”

The bipartisan rush to voice unwavering support for Israel was disappointing but not surprising, said Abdelnasser Rashid, an Illinois state representative from suburban Chicago who is Palestinian American.

Mr. Rashid, a Democrat who spent part of his childhood in the West Bank — a territory on Israel’s eastern border that’s home to some three million Palestinians — said he was visiting family there this year when Israeli settlers attacked the village where he was staying. He said his relatives, who made it through uninjured, barricaded inside a home as they listened to gunshots outside.

“We have to have a real reckoning with Israeli government policies that got us to this point and the American government policies that got us to this point,” Mr. Rashid said. He said that “we should condemn any attacks on innocent civilians” but added that “this did not start on Saturday.”

Palestinian Americans are a diverse group. They include both Muslims and Christians, recent arrivals and those whose families have been in the United States for generations. Some described a new wave of activism among younger Palestinian Americans, who have organized on college campuses and made common cause with Black Lives Matter organizers. Others sought to distance themselves from the actions of Hamas.

The Palestinian American Club in Bridgeview, Ill. Credit…Akilah Townsend for The New York Times

Many U.S. Palestinians interviewed said they were reluctant to speak out on the unfolding situation. Several people declined to be interviewed, citing fear of legal and professional backlash, distrust of the American news media or concern that they could place loved ones at risk overseas. In recent days, the police in some U.S. cities have stepped up security around synagogues and mosques.

“It’s impossible to say anything and not receive harsh criticism or anger,” said Aziza Hasan, a Palestinian American who is the executive director of a group that seeks to forge ties between Jewish and Muslim people in Los Angeles.

Ameen Hakim, a Palestinian American who lives in Brooklyn, said he was born in Jordan as a refugee after his parents, who were from Nazareth, fled their homeland. He was one of several Palestinians who shared complicated opinions about the war — horror at the loss of life, anger about the underlying conditions, hope for a more sustainable solution.

“We’re glad the Palestinians’ story is back on the surface,” Mr. Hakim said, and “we pray that the killing will stop, from both parties.”

Mr. Hakim said he also hoped Western countries would help enforce a cease-fire. “Otherwise,” he said, “it would be continuous, continuous suffering.”

Ms. Baroud, the graduate student in Seattle whose relatives were killed in Gaza, said she had traveled there for the first time last year. She had hoped to pray at the grave of the grandmother she was named after. When she could not find her grandmother’s headstone at the refugee camp cemetery where she was buried, she asked a camp administrator for help.

His answer was crushing, she said. He told her that so many people were dying that workers needed to replace older headstones with new ones. “So it’s not there anymore,” she said.

Robert Chiarito and Robert Gebeloff contributed reporting.

Mitch Smith covers the Midwest and the Great Plains. Since joining The Times in 2014, he has written extensively about gun violence, oil pipelines, state-level politics and the national debate over police tactics. He is based in Chicago.

Lauren McCarthy, a planning editor for live coverage at The Times, is on temporary assignment as a breaking-news reporter.

Ernesto Londoño is a national correspondent based in the Midwest who keeps a close eye on drug use and counternarcotics policy in the United States.

Miriam Jordan reports from the grassroots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States. Before joining The Times, she covered immigration at the Wall Street Journal and was a correspondent in Brazil, India, Hong Kong and Israel.

Hamas, Israel, Palestine

Reasoned analysis while suffering the passions of war

Israel and Palestine – Why was I slow to respond?

By Roger Straw, Benicia, October 12, 2023

Roger Straw, former publisher and editor, The Benicia Independent

Context: I came of age as an anti-war activist in the U.S. during the Vietnam war. I embraced the history of Ghandi, leading a walk that ultimately overcame British occupation. I was crushed in my youth at the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., who advocated non-violent action and the gradual view of an arc bending to justice. I championed the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. And I have Jewish relatives and friends, and have long supported the post-holocaust establishment of the independent democratic state of Israel.

But when Ukraine was invaded by Russia, I eagerly, quickly, and continuously to this day supported sending arms and standing strong with the people of Ukraine under violent siege.

So why was I slow to jump in with President Biden and Vice President Harris and seemingly every other leader and respectable voice in the U.S., including our many news commentators with their continuous coverage of the horrors, followed by the legitimate outrage and grief and resolve of Israeli families and governing parties?

Well… I was slow, but not untouched. First of all, I am aware, shocked and outraged at the brutality of Hamas’ Saturday assault in towns east of Gaza. The heartless murders, assaults and kidnappings are in no way justified.

So after five war-torn days had passed, I wrote yesterday in an email to friends, “The terror and brutality has to be shown and known, and when it is brought “home” by a friend or relative, it becomes more deeply understood and felt. We are in fact ALL relatives, one world, a human family, albeit now beset by a murderous outlaw clan in our midst. Hamas is a truly uncivilized and genocidal regime, and must be stopped. I am lost in shock and sympathy, and fearful of what is yet to come.”

But it took me five days! What’s wrong with me? Or is it just me?

I really think it’s more than just me. A reasonable and reasoning part of me was considering the complicated historic nature of events in Israel and Palestine, and the historic and current failures of political leadership in Israel and the several Palestinian territories.

My reservations are like those of many who hope against hope for a non-violent and lasting solution to peace in the Middle East – and elsewhere.

“Hope against hope” is a rich concept, centered in a clear understanding of the injustice that surrounds us, and the longstanding corruption that invades and infects our world, and yet continues faithfully working for solutions based in loving kindness and the dream for harmony, respect, peace, freedom and justice for all.

As my small way of promoting hope in today’s grave circumstances, I would encourage the reading of these two rich perspectives from authoritative sources at the New York Times:

    • Palestinian Americans, Dismayed by Violence, Say Historical Context Is Being Overlooked, New York Times, by Mitch Smith, Lauren McCarthy, Ernesto Londoño and Miriam Jordan
      • EXCERPT: The bipartisan rush to voice unwavering support for Israel was disappointing but not surprising, said Abdelnasser Rashid, an Illinois state representative from suburban Chicago who is Palestinian American. “We have to have a real reckoning with Israeli government policies that got us to this point and the American government policies that got us to this point,” Mr. Rashid said. He said that “we should condemn any attacks on innocent civilians” but added that “this did not start on Saturday.”
    • Among American Jews, ‘You See a Lot of Broken Spirits’ After Attacks, New York Times, by Jenna Russell, Eliza Fawcett, Vik Jolly and Robert Chiarito
      • EXCERPT: The small but diverse Jewish community in America — numbering about 7.5 million in 2020, or 2.4 percent of the U.S. population — has long been polarized over how to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In more recent months, American Jews have also been split over the far-right Israeli government’s push to limit judicial authority. But many Jewish leaders said the targeted killing of hundreds of civilians by Hamas and the threats to kill kidnapped hostages had brought a sense, at least for now, of unity.

Roger Straw
Former publisher and editor, The Benicia Independent