Speak Up Peace!

By Roy D. Follendore III

April 7, 2002

In just three months, it will be the 60th anniversary of the German destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. The Getto was surrounded by German tanks and troops. The Jews held out for three months from July to September 1942, by throwing themselves at their enemy. The 300,000 men, women and children who survived were taken to the concentration camp called Treblenkia where they were executed or they were forced to work in death camps until they died. After all of this, it did not destroy the will of the Jews. It only strengthen their resolve to survive. It is impossible to understand why the leadership of Israel would believe that less than that measure, in exactly such a military situation 60 years later, can destroy the will of the Palestinians.

This unequal attack by the German Reich on a civilian population defined the Nazi military objectives. There should be no doubt that what killed the Jews in World War II was not merely a German named Hitler, it was the German culture and their desire for more power and wealth that created the ideal of the destruction of Polish Jews. The German people were told that the very existence of the German people and State of Germany was at stake by allowing the existence of a specific religious culture and race that consistently destroyed the German ideals and objectives. The 19th century Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz described war as a "continuation of politics (Politik) by other means." The destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto was merely a continuation of German State politics.

On this day we now see a reversal. It is Jews that are constantly being told by propaganda that their existence is at stake. It is the Jewish State of Israel's soldiers who are in the tanks surrounding the Ghettos they created years ago. It is the Israeli soldier who is being told to obey orders. But it is the individual Jew who is shooting down people in the streets trying to find food and water. It is the individual Jew who is not allowing wounded to go to hospitals. It is the individual Jew who is driving the bulldozer over homes with frightened women and children inside.

From a cultural perspective what is happening on this day was inevitable. All people of all races are neither inherently good nor bad. A soldier is a soldier. Hate is hate. The individual Jewish soldier is just as capable of committing the atrocities of German soldiers of the then Third Reich as the German soldier would have been of attacking the Palestinians just as the Israeli's are doing today. We should not expect any soldier to be different, though we must.

Someone must make a decision to stop these attacks. This must start with a single individual. Terrorism can not defeat terrorism. If there is one good that has come from all of this, it is that the idea that Jews and their religious government are different has been unveiled to the world. Jews, like members of all religions are not merely the innocents who are acted upon, they are the actors, the perpetrators, and the guilty as well. For every innocent home they now destroy, the Israeli's are immorally justifying the destruction of the homes of their own innocents.

Like the average German, this writer believes that the average Jew and Palestinian are fundamentally good people. It is about time that these good human beings of the State of Israel quit hiding behind their political veil of anti-Semitism and get the message. The inclusion of people with different beliefs and cultures is important to the success of any political process. The view from the rest of this planet is that the State of Israel has become a state of paranoia. Ancient religious and cultural customs and traditions can become nothing more than excuses for being bad neighbors. It is time for moderates to come together and claim their rightful control of the politics of Israel.

It is time for Israel to accept this lesson from the history of its fathers and mothers. What makes us good can not separate us from humanity. Rather, it is evil which allows us to take what seems the easy path where we become the image of our worst enemy.

Please remember the 60th anniversary of the German destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland.

Speak up for Peace!

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