<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[&#8216;Israel synonymous with&nbsp;Judaism?&#8217;]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div id="divNewsDetail">
<div id="divNewsDatetime">PressTV &#8211; Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:4PM</div>
<div id="divNewsByline">Interview with Kenneth O &#8216;Keefe &#8211; former US marine and anti-war activist, Gaza</div>
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<div id="divImageDesc">A file photo shows Ken O&#8217;Keefe, beaten by Israeli forces following the attack on the Gaza-bound aid convy.</div>
<div id="divLead">Kenneth  O&#8217;Keefe a former US marine turned soldier of peace, witnessed firsthand  the Israeli attack, international waters, on the flagship of Gaza-bound  Freedom Flotilla, the Mavi Marmara.</div>
<p>O&#8217;Keefe known about live in the impoverished Gaza Strip, after  living there for seven years helping some of the 800,000 innocent  children under daily Israeli siege.</p>
<p>But he is not the story, he is a messenger.</p>
<p><strong>PressTV:</strong> In regard to the destruction of the Shepherd hotel  in Jerusalem al Qods, symbolic for its heritage value of pre-dating the  creation of Israel and demolished for the purpose of building  Jewish-only apartments, some are saying that this is part of Israel&#8217;s  ethnic cleansing policy against Palestinians. What are your thoughts  about this?</p>
<p><strong>Ken O&#8217;Keefe:</strong> I think we&#8217;ve reached a point long ago where it  is impossible to deny the fact that the Israeli government is not only  racist, but literally crazy, insane, psychotic and capable of anything.</p>
<p>As I sit here today in Gaza I can tell you a 65-year-old farmer was  shot dead tending to his crops on his land next to the wall in which  people are shot on a regular basis.</p>
<p>We have very serious rumblings from the Israeli government about  continuing operation Cast Lead and actually launching a second attack.</p>
<p>This is very, very serious and I think we&#8217;ve reached a point now &#8211;  How much more attention are we going to pay to what Israel is doing  while letting our governments &#8212; the governments I feel the most disgust  and shame for; the EU governments, the American government, all the  western governments…</p>
<p>Let us talk about the 25 billion Euros a year in trade that the EU  continues to do with Israel while it spouts pretty words that have no  substance at all.</p>
<p>If the EU wanted to stop the settlement building, it could stop its  relationship with Israel and it would cripple the Israeli economy; same  goes for the American people.</p>
<p>What are we doing? We talk a lot, but what are we doing? Our  government continues to &#8216;give&#8217; over 3 billion dollars worth of aid to  the richest country in the Middle East; arming that nation &#8211; a racist  apartheid vicious nasty psychotic nation with the weapons that it uses  to do things that … for instance, the Awajah family that I visited this  week &#8212; the Awajah family that lost six members of their family all in  one day because a white phosphorus bomb blew up in their home. One of  their daughters, a four year old, turned into a big piece of charcoal &#8211;  in an instant!</p>
<p>A father was killed; lives were destroyed; families destroyed &#8211; this  happens on a regular basis and what does the EU do? It talks and it  does nothing. The United States, what does it do? It hardly talks, but  it certainly doesn&#8217;t do anything but arm Israel.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sick and tired of people accepting this. It&#8217;s time for general  strikes; it&#8217;s time for all unions, everyone, to stand with the  Palestinian people.</p>
<p>Your cause is their cause and vice versa. It&#8217;s time for us to unite  across the spectrum because the governments and the UN do nothing.</p>
<p><strong>PressTV:</strong> You talked about how the EU should stop doing  business with Israel and the billions of dollars that they do. Have  there been any strikes taken in regards to the boycott divestment and  sanction movements in terms of not having money going into Israel&#8217;s  pocket? Have there been any advances here?</p>
<p><strong>Ken O&#8217;Keefe:</strong> There&#8217;s no question that that has had some  impact, but when you&#8217;ve got the US taxpayers flipping the bill for the  Israelis every year to the tune of 3 billion plus dollars; when you&#8217;ve  got the EU doing what they&#8217;re doing, it&#8217;s hard to compete with that.</p>
<p>There is also a blood diamond trade that continues in Israel &#8211;  massive amounts of money being made by the blood of Africans who are  continuing to pull diamonds out of the ground so that the Israeli state,  the criminal state that it is, can continue to make ungodly amounts of  money and all of this is very difficult to compete with in terms of  boycott divestment &#8211; It&#8217;s just not doing enough to stop what&#8217;s happening  here on a regular basis.</p>
<p>And that leads me to my next issue which is, let us lay blame and  responsibility accordingly here, I want to ask all the Jewish people of  this world, I want to ask you: Does Israel represent you?</p>
<p>Is Israel synonymous with Judaism? Because if Israel is synonymous  with Judaism, then you as a people are a threat to every ounce of  decency and humanity that exists&#8230;</p>
<p>Just like the so-called decent Germans who did not speak out and do  what they needed to do to prevent the rise of Hitler. It is now on you,  the Jewish people of the world to speak up now and condemn all of these  acts of racism, of mass murder that the Israeli state that purports to  represent you to speak out now. You have a special burden.</p>
<p><strong>PressTV:</strong> The Russell Tribunal on Palestine had some very good  topics that are covered and reference of course to the companies that  do business with Israel, which you also talked about under the EU trade  dealings. How can that be stopped, since the only negotiating power  seems to be that of the bulldozers when that steel comes down and breaks  buildings such as it did with the Shepherd hotel?</p>
<p><strong>Ken O&#8217;Keefe:</strong> I believe that the only way to solve this  problem is when the power of people is fully exerted and that those of  us with conscious actually act in unison, intelligently, and fearlessly.</p>
<p>We had some example of that back in May of last year on the Mavi  Marmara. The people on that ship exhibited the greatest of strength and  quality, which I think are the example of what we need to be.</p>
<p>We have every right to defend ourselves on that ship as we would  defend our own children. And the children of Gaza, 800,000 plus of them  are being violated in the most obscene of ways every single day.</p>
<p>I want every American and every European to think about the bombs  dropping here and think your child wetting themselves uncontrollable,  screaming in terror and running underneath the bed, crying and  absolutely helpless with no thoughts of the future .</p>
<p>I want you to think of your child that way because there are  literally hundreds of thousands of children that way here and it&#8217;s you  who is paying for it so those of us who actually have a conscience and  still have a brain that we can use. We need to act in unison.</p>
<p>In parting I&#8217;ll say that I think we are our own worst enemies so often in the anti-war movement and what not.</p>
<p>We have so many games, and so much politics and so much stuff that  we&#8217;re playing, it really is tragic. I hope that we do finally unite. I&#8217;m  working on a plan with a fantastic group of people and that plan will  be announced in the next month. And in life or death I want to see this  plan happen because I know that if we carry out this plan we will  shatter the blockade of Gaza. It will be over &#8212; one way or the other.</p>
<p>And we will liberate Palestine, if we as people exert our power. But that&#8217;s the real question: Are we going to do it or not?</p>
<p>SC/ZHD</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159717.html">PressTV &#8211; &#8216;Israel synonymous with Judaism?&#8217;</a>.</p>
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