Editor,
UNM student Sam Ryu fallaciously claims that Americans who criticize Israel are “supporting or thinking about seditious activities in order to overthrow the constitutional republic and replace it with a form of socialism.” Speaking of mental issues, what is Sam even talking about?
It is not anti-Semitic to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or the racist, discriminatory and apartheid policies of the nation of Israel. For 67 years, Israel has been wiping Palestine off the map with every new settlement. The United States has given over $200 billion to Israel over the last six decades. Yet Ryu slags leftists, saying, “There is a difference between a self-made man and a parasite.”
It was recently reported that Israel was spying on U.S.-Iranian talks and using the intel to lobby Republicans in Congress. After the Sept. 11 attacks, it was reported that hundreds of Israel spies were detained in the homeland, apparently tracking al-Qaeda. Carl Cameron from Fox News reported on the Israeli spy ring, quoting a U.S. official, “Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It’s classified information.” On that horrific black Tuesday morning, several of these Israeli spies were arrested in Queens, New York, after videotaping the Twin Towers attack, while celebrating and dancing.
After the attacks, Israel lobbied the United States to attack Iraq, Syria and Iran. Netanyahu claimed, “If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.” There was no intelligence failure regarding WMD and Iraq’s ties to 9/11.
The neoconservatives in the Pentagon created the Office of Special Plans to bypass the Central Intelligence Agency. With the help of the Israeli Mossad, intelligence was manufactured to fit the preemptive Iraq War policy. Netanyahu was quoted in 2008, “We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq,” Ma’ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events “swung American public opinion in our favor.”
I don’t believe 9/11 was a false flag operation, but it was clearly one of the best things that ever happened to Dick Cheney, neo-conservatives and Israel.
Where is this socialist utopia engineered by Barack Obama that Sam is referring to? If the ACA aka Obamacare is socialism, wouldn’t it include a single-payer public option guaranteeing universal health insurance coverage to every American citizen? Do all Americans have access to free universal child care, universal paid sick leave and universal free college educations?
The 1 percent and Wall Street have really suffered under this socialist American president. On Jan. 20, 2009, the stock market plunged 332 points to 7,949, suffering its worst inauguration day in American history. Yet today, the Dow is around 17,976. If Obama’s a socialist, then he’s the worst socialist in history.
The number of public sector government employees has plunged under Obama, even though most Americans, especially those on the right, believe government has grown. Most Americans also believe the deficit has risen, even though the deficit has plummeted from 10 percent of GDP in 2009 to 2 percent of GDP in 2014, the largest drop since World War II.
Human racism isn’t some fabricated version of reality of people who smoke marijuana, as Ryu claims. Why does the Grand Old White Party (which is 95 percent white) pretend racism doesn’t exist? It will always exist. The reason that a record number of people remain on public assistance like welfare or food stamps is that we just emerged from the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression. American wages have been stagnant for the last 30 years.
Yet, during this same time, corporate profits have hit new records year after year after year.
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The best way to get Americans off food stamps and welfare is to give them a decent wage. The spiraling rise and inflation of health care costs from employer-based health insurance is one reason wages have remained stagnant while American hard work and productivity have soared. Is human greed the fatal flaw of modern American capitalism? The GOP wants to turn this country into Walmart with low-wage jobs and no benefits.
Just because someone doesn’t support Israel, doesn’t mean they support Iran or Hamas. Ryu claims that the left supports the implementation of Sharia law. Sharia law has more in common with Christian law than it does with progressive ideologies, including nullifying women’s reproductive rights and an irrational fear of the “evil gays.”
Ryu claims leftists are seditiously trying to overthrow our constitutional republic, but it’s the Republican Party that actually seems to have forgotten we live in a republic. Republicanism asserts that human beings have unalienable rights that cannot be voted away by a majority of voters, uh like voting to ban monogamous same-sex marriage. Human beings have rights; ideas like Islam or Christianity do not have any special rights.
The GOP has not been factually or intellectually well served in their closed information loop and powerful echo chamber during these last six years. This country needs a strong conservative movement to stand up against liberal hubris and overreach, and vice versa. At some point Americans need to learn to put the interests of the United States, ahead of those of Israel, or the Republican or Democrat parties. #CountryFirst
Sincerely,
Brian Fejer
UNM alumnus
