Truman to Trump

What sickens me the most is that from Truman to Trump, every American president has chosen to ignore this blatant injustice and the American news media has chosen to look the other way






by Thomas Are

( November 28, 2018, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) From Truman to Trump, we have never had an American president to speak with integrity when calling for peace in the Middle East.

What was it? Eleven minutes? And Truman was falling all over himself to be the first national president to “recognize” the new state of Israel. Never mind the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had their homes, freedom and livelihood taken from them by force. Truman celebrated “peace” in Israel.

Even a child will shout, “It’s not fair,” when forced to accept tranquility without regard to justice. When Donald Trump casually announced Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, totally ignoring the historic, emotional and religious claims of Jerusalem as their national capital, even children will respond, “It’s not fair.”

Not only that. It is not going to work. In spite of what Trump and Netanyahu wish, Palestinians are not going to just disappear. Even with the more than three billion dollars a year the U.S. sends to Israel to enforce the repression of Palestinian rights, international law and human conscience is caught in a bind facing the unlawful occupation and oppression of another people.

Let us be honest, at least with ourselves. The United States has never been an “honest broker” when it comes to Israel. From Truman to Trump, we have acted more like Israel’s defense attorney while ignoring the endless building of more and more settlement in the West Bank and Israel’s repeated bombardment of Gaza, including the destruction of sewage treatment plants, rendering what little water they have undrinkable.

In the meantime, Israeli snipers are firing live ammunition into crowds of unarmed demonstrators at the border, having already killed hundreds and wounded thousands.

What sickens me the most is that from Truman to Trump, every American president has chosen to ignore this blatant injustice and the American news media has chosen to look the other way.