title:  Dem Rep. Hits One Of Our Most Hypocritical Allies HARD With A Single, Potent Word
text: There are things that, with all the excitement going on at both the RNC and the DNC, are getting overlooked right now. However, Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) spoke on one such issue that needs much closer attention: That of illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. Johnson has a choice word for the settlers, and it s bang-on target: There has been a steady [stream of Israeli settlers], almost like termites can get into a residence and eat before you know that you ve been eaten up and you fall in on yourself. And they are. For the past several decades, Israel has been eating up Palestinian land and treating Palestinian citizens like subjects and much worse while their leader, Bibi Netanyahu, says Israel must occupy all the land in order to ensure their own safety. There s no regard for the people already living there. Termites stream in and eat the wood of our houses. Israelis stream in and eat the houses of Palestinians.  An apt description if there ever was one.Johnson went on to say: You see one home after another being appropriated by Jewish people who come in to claim that land just because somebody did not spend the night there.The home their [Palestinian] ancestors lived in for generations becomes an Israeli home and a flag goes up. The Palestinians are barred from flying flags in their own neighborhoods. Nobody in the U.S. would tolerate being told they can t fly the American flag. Nobody. But we ll gladly call a country that does this, and so much more with glee, an  ally.  Disgusting.Why is this so important right now? Don t we have more important things to worry about?The answer to those questions is, yes and no. It isn t just important because we re busy supporting an apartheid state, or because of Israel s gross human rights violations. It isn t just because we shouldn t support them if we re going to call ourselves the bastion of freedom we think we are. It s also because our support of Israel has poisoned many of our leaders to the point where they actually want to criminalize freedom of expression.The BDS movement, which stands for Boycott, Divest and Sanction, is under attack here because of our blind love for Israel. Staunch supporters of Israel have been quietly criminalizing that movement, despite the fact that this very same thing helped bring about an end to apartheid in South Africa.Boycotts are also a staple of American protest. Yet the pro-Israel crowd would destroy freedom of expression in dogged support of an ally that maybe shouldn t be an ally. Staunch defenders of the Constitution would tear up the First Amendment before denouncing Israel. It s sick.Israel uses us. Sure, some may say that we need them for intelligence on more hostile Middle Eastern nations (when a lot of our support is because of Sheldon Adelson, his money, and AIPAC), so we send billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment to them, for which we the taxpayers are on the hook, and pretend not to see their relentless and violent crawl across Palestine.We wouldn t turn a blind eye to termites  relentless crawl through the structures of our houses, though.Ben Cohen, of The Daily Banter, put it just as perfectly as Rep. Johnson when he said: Israelis routinely claim that they have to defend themselves against Palestinian attacks. But occupying someone else s land is an attack itself, so it is impossible to defend yourself if you are the person attacking. So can we please stop pretending Israel is being attacked? As of March, half of Israeli Jews actually supported ethnic cleansing. We have white supremacists here that support the same thing. We fought a war in Bosnia over ethnic cleansing. It s only something we must stop when we hear calls for ethnic cleansing coming from people and places we don t like. Israel? They ve brainwashed us into thinking they re always the victim.Our growing problem with Islamophobia isn t helping, either.Going into the final stretch of this election cycle, Israel isn t just a distant foreign policy issue   something to be dealt with, maybe, after the new president and Congress take office in January. Israel s atrocious and disgusting policies toward Palestine impact us in a direct way, because our support of them could cost us our own freedom. At least we have some leaders here who understand that.Featured image by Alex Wong/Getty Images