Tuvia....the murder of civilians is an horrendous war crime and Hamas' attack on civilians and taking hostages is a blow against humanity. However, truth and honesty must be brought to the table before this latest explosion of killings by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as the response of the Israeli Defense Force and police before this conflagration explodes beyond its already awful dimensions. I am an American Jew living and working in China the last 13 years. I have firsthand knowledge and experience living in this Surveillance State with its elaborate security systems and sophisticated propaganda entities and networks and policies. In my time here, I have trained career and life design counselors, developed self-discovery software in English and Mandarin and done my best to bring greater understanding between the Chinese and American people. I have seen the attitudes of Chinese people continue to be positive about many things American but their attitudes towards Israel and Israelis shift to the negative. As an Israeli of substantial intelligence you are surely more than aware of the human rights disaster Zionism has brought to the Palestinian people. My bookshelves are filled with the books of Israeli Jews who have had the courage to face the reality of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Christians and Muslims even before official Israeli independence in 1948. No one of conscience can deny the apartheid system that has grown up with the ascension of the Israeli state, a kind of democracy with millions of second class and third class citizens based on their ethnicity. I have never been a supporter of a two state solution and have, even at the ripe old age of 80 supported a single state where the rights of all citizens are equal under the law and the right of return of the millions of Palestinian refugees are guaranteed. I am well aware of the often regressive social attitudes of theocrats in both the Muslim and Jewish communities who refuse to live with others of different religious or no religious affiliation. Complexities and nuances abound but there is no substitute for human equality and the kindness and caring that flow from that position. Gaza has been an open air prison of both Israel and Egypt since at least 2005. The explosion of hatred and barbarity by Hamas is a mirror image of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians.
Dr. Schwartz’s comments, though well-reasoned from his perspective, fail to appreciate our people’s tenuous continued existence. The fact that there’s no easy solution is not then a basis for saying 活该 to Israel over orchestrated wanton murders by those who are continuing a multimillennial tradition to exterminate us. If your comments were meant somehow to rationalize the CCP’s self-serving reporting, perhaps you are striving to assure your own credibility among the relevant officials of the Surveillance State - another facile euphemism for the totalitarian state China is.
Todd, your vicious aspersions about my trying to gain favor from the "relevant officials of the Surveillance State" say much about who you are. You don't know me and have no idea about my lifelong work since age 17 for human rights all over this sorry world. It's a cheap shot on behalf of your own genocidal agenda. I am and have been an outspoken supporter of a single state solution where the rights of all citizens, secular, observant Jewish, Christian, Muslim as well as Bedouins and Druze and any others are secured and racism is a violation of the law. While there is no doubt that our Jewish "tribe" has been subjected to terriboule and lethal pogroms and discrimination over the last 2000 or more years, we are surely not the only victims of horrific racism. Native Americans, Mayans, Armenians, African slaves and more ethnic groups than you can shake a stick at have been victimized by those with the ability to dominate and exploit. Personally, I find it sickening that my "tribe" has devolved into a neofascist force subjecting the Palestinians to inhuman conditions for decades. It violates the Jewish ethical values I was raised on.
Brian, I hardly have a genocidal agenda, and that accusation is unfounded. I am a human rights attorney for many Chinese clients, as well as a litigator for various Chinese corporations. Frankly, I don't believe there is much hope to resolving this or other conflicts on this planet, and my novel, G88, is a look at how some might ponder a real solution, beyond the usual approaches, to this endless human dilemma. Nonetheless, I am beyond offended by your analysis, especially at this moment. Yes, Israel has deep problems; the prejudices against Sephardim by Ashkenazim are enough to be upsetting, without even looking further. However, for American Jews sitting comfortably in America, China and wherever else, there exists no right to justify the madness that caused the wanton murders that can only be likened to pogroms, and no quarter can be given to rationalizing it, no matter from you or others, no matter what the agenda. The spirit of such murders is only a step away from total genocide, and if you have grandchildren, please be very afraid of that fact, as I am.
to forum+2a2123&n8o&otjnb&60078a7e2c0968466a41d460f46cabb2815291df7941b20b572c6fb1eea49ab9
Dear Todd.....you and I would well to take a step back from our previous comments as I suspect we are much closer in our views than our original exchanges suggest. I am more than appalled, indeed physically sickened to have seen the videos of the slaughter of so many innocents by the Hamas forces that burst out of Gaza last Saturday. There is NO excuse for the wanton killing of civilians and nothing I have said should anyone find endorsement for that savagery. Like so many others, I struggle to try to find a way forward in the face of such continuing madness and cruelty. I believe you and I would find much to share and agree on should we ever find ourselves sitting across from each other over coffee or drinks. In all my adult life I have sat in comfort. Like you, we human rights advocates always live every day with the knowledge that humans are a dreadfully stupid and destructive species with all the arrogance and little of the wisdom necessary for there to be peace and harmony. Toxic domination is the signature of so many of our species and ours is the species that dominates this lonely planet.
I believe we have found each other at this inflection point in history for a reason. My hat is off to you for your work on behalf of Chinese people on human rights issues. If you live here in China perhaps we can more easily find a way to have that drink. I am in Guiyang in southwestern China and you? I have a penetrating article by Andrew Tanner that I would like to share with you. My email address is drbrianschwartz@gmail.com should you be interested in corresponding. I would appreciate that opportunity. I retract my angry remarks directed against you after your not very kind remarks directed at me in your first broadside.
First of all, let me say that I am from Singapore and despite having a Chinese name, have nothing to do with and do not support China's treatment of minorities, it's own Han people (sometimes) and it's land-grabs within Asia (definitely). However I find Dr Schwartz's argument balanced - neither Israel nor Palestine has clean hands and responding to civilian slaughter with more civilian slaughter does not seem a way forward to anything except mutual assured destruction. I can't see how his argument could be some attempt to score points and saying so is simply distracting us from the points he is making, sorry.
Li Ming, thank you for your pointed truth telling regarding the futile use of even more violence in the tragic Middle East continued ugliness. I in no way rationalize anything the CCP propaganda in the Global Times is doing. Mr. Platek seems to separate me from my ethnic heritage, German and Ukrainian Jewish with great grandparents and grandparents having immigrated to the USA in 1870 and 1906 respectively. Palestinians and Jews lived harmoniously together in the multimillenia he references and it is only during the rise of Zionism that Palestinians have had to pay for the evil sins of the Nazi Germans and their allies. Israel is stolen land, pure and simple, and done so with the aid of especially the USA, UK and even France. It is a lingering colonialism that has ultimately caused the latest outbreak of significant violence. We should not forget the daily violence and humiliation and looting Palestinians are subjected to by the IDF, Israeli police and genocidal Zionist settlers. There is abundant documented evidence by the UN and international human rights organizations to support that conclusion.
Brian, enough said. You are an ardent anti-Zionist and content living in diaspora. Your position is clear. Perhaps we can debate the point over a bottle of 五粮液 someday...
Dear Brian, These are the times that try men’s souls. I am currently in Athens, Georgia and Flushing, Queens, and if I’m fortunate enough to get a visa, I’ll be back in China in 2024 for that drink. I would be honored to keep in touch with you. You didn’t, by any chance, go to Stuyvesant, did you?
Hello Todd, I just wanted to point out that this comment was not a response to Dr. Schwartz, so perhaps he has not/will not see this. Hope you have a wonderful day and that y'all two manage to get that drink.
Tuvia....the murder of civilians is an horrendous war crime and Hamas' attack on civilians and taking hostages is a blow against humanity. However, truth and honesty must be brought to the table before this latest explosion of killings by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as the response of the Israeli Defense Force and police before this conflagration explodes beyond its already awful dimensions. I am an American Jew living and working in China the last 13 years. I have firsthand knowledge and experience living in this Surveillance State with its elaborate security systems and sophisticated propaganda entities and networks and policies. In my time here, I have trained career and life design counselors, developed self-discovery software in English and Mandarin and done my best to bring greater understanding between the Chinese and American people. I have seen the attitudes of Chinese people continue to be positive about many things American but their attitudes towards Israel and Israelis shift to the negative. As an Israeli of substantial intelligence you are surely more than aware of the human rights disaster Zionism has brought to the Palestinian people. My bookshelves are filled with the books of Israeli Jews who have had the courage to face the reality of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Christians and Muslims even before official Israeli independence in 1948. No one of conscience can deny the apartheid system that has grown up with the ascension of the Israeli state, a kind of democracy with millions of second class and third class citizens based on their ethnicity. I have never been a supporter of a two state solution and have, even at the ripe old age of 80 supported a single state where the rights of all citizens are equal under the law and the right of return of the millions of Palestinian refugees are guaranteed. I am well aware of the often regressive social attitudes of theocrats in both the Muslim and Jewish communities who refuse to live with others of different religious or no religious affiliation. Complexities and nuances abound but there is no substitute for human equality and the kindness and caring that flow from that position. Gaza has been an open air prison of both Israel and Egypt since at least 2005. The explosion of hatred and barbarity by Hamas is a mirror image of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians.
Dr. Schwartz’s comments, though well-reasoned from his perspective, fail to appreciate our people’s tenuous continued existence. The fact that there’s no easy solution is not then a basis for saying 活该 to Israel over orchestrated wanton murders by those who are continuing a multimillennial tradition to exterminate us. If your comments were meant somehow to rationalize the CCP’s self-serving reporting, perhaps you are striving to assure your own credibility among the relevant officials of the Surveillance State - another facile euphemism for the totalitarian state China is.
Todd, your vicious aspersions about my trying to gain favor from the "relevant officials of the Surveillance State" say much about who you are. You don't know me and have no idea about my lifelong work since age 17 for human rights all over this sorry world. It's a cheap shot on behalf of your own genocidal agenda. I am and have been an outspoken supporter of a single state solution where the rights of all citizens, secular, observant Jewish, Christian, Muslim as well as Bedouins and Druze and any others are secured and racism is a violation of the law. While there is no doubt that our Jewish "tribe" has been subjected to terriboule and lethal pogroms and discrimination over the last 2000 or more years, we are surely not the only victims of horrific racism. Native Americans, Mayans, Armenians, African slaves and more ethnic groups than you can shake a stick at have been victimized by those with the ability to dominate and exploit. Personally, I find it sickening that my "tribe" has devolved into a neofascist force subjecting the Palestinians to inhuman conditions for decades. It violates the Jewish ethical values I was raised on.
Brian, I hardly have a genocidal agenda, and that accusation is unfounded. I am a human rights attorney for many Chinese clients, as well as a litigator for various Chinese corporations. Frankly, I don't believe there is much hope to resolving this or other conflicts on this planet, and my novel, G88, is a look at how some might ponder a real solution, beyond the usual approaches, to this endless human dilemma. Nonetheless, I am beyond offended by your analysis, especially at this moment. Yes, Israel has deep problems; the prejudices against Sephardim by Ashkenazim are enough to be upsetting, without even looking further. However, for American Jews sitting comfortably in America, China and wherever else, there exists no right to justify the madness that caused the wanton murders that can only be likened to pogroms, and no quarter can be given to rationalizing it, no matter from you or others, no matter what the agenda. The spirit of such murders is only a step away from total genocide, and if you have grandchildren, please be very afraid of that fact, as I am.
Brian Schwartz <drbrianschwartz@gmail.com>
12:45 PM (1 minute ago)
to forum+2a2123&n8o&otjnb&60078a7e2c0968466a41d460f46cabb2815291df7941b20b572c6fb1eea49ab9
Dear Todd.....you and I would well to take a step back from our previous comments as I suspect we are much closer in our views than our original exchanges suggest. I am more than appalled, indeed physically sickened to have seen the videos of the slaughter of so many innocents by the Hamas forces that burst out of Gaza last Saturday. There is NO excuse for the wanton killing of civilians and nothing I have said should anyone find endorsement for that savagery. Like so many others, I struggle to try to find a way forward in the face of such continuing madness and cruelty. I believe you and I would find much to share and agree on should we ever find ourselves sitting across from each other over coffee or drinks. In all my adult life I have sat in comfort. Like you, we human rights advocates always live every day with the knowledge that humans are a dreadfully stupid and destructive species with all the arrogance and little of the wisdom necessary for there to be peace and harmony. Toxic domination is the signature of so many of our species and ours is the species that dominates this lonely planet.
I believe we have found each other at this inflection point in history for a reason. My hat is off to you for your work on behalf of Chinese people on human rights issues. If you live here in China perhaps we can more easily find a way to have that drink. I am in Guiyang in southwestern China and you? I have a penetrating article by Andrew Tanner that I would like to share with you. My email address is drbrianschwartz@gmail.com should you be interested in corresponding. I would appreciate that opportunity. I retract my angry remarks directed against you after your not very kind remarks directed at me in your first broadside.
Kind regards,
Brian
--
First of all, let me say that I am from Singapore and despite having a Chinese name, have nothing to do with and do not support China's treatment of minorities, it's own Han people (sometimes) and it's land-grabs within Asia (definitely). However I find Dr Schwartz's argument balanced - neither Israel nor Palestine has clean hands and responding to civilian slaughter with more civilian slaughter does not seem a way forward to anything except mutual assured destruction. I can't see how his argument could be some attempt to score points and saying so is simply distracting us from the points he is making, sorry.
Li Ming, thank you for your pointed truth telling regarding the futile use of even more violence in the tragic Middle East continued ugliness. I in no way rationalize anything the CCP propaganda in the Global Times is doing. Mr. Platek seems to separate me from my ethnic heritage, German and Ukrainian Jewish with great grandparents and grandparents having immigrated to the USA in 1870 and 1906 respectively. Palestinians and Jews lived harmoniously together in the multimillenia he references and it is only during the rise of Zionism that Palestinians have had to pay for the evil sins of the Nazi Germans and their allies. Israel is stolen land, pure and simple, and done so with the aid of especially the USA, UK and even France. It is a lingering colonialism that has ultimately caused the latest outbreak of significant violence. We should not forget the daily violence and humiliation and looting Palestinians are subjected to by the IDF, Israeli police and genocidal Zionist settlers. There is abundant documented evidence by the UN and international human rights organizations to support that conclusion.
Brian, enough said. You are an ardent anti-Zionist and content living in diaspora. Your position is clear. Perhaps we can debate the point over a bottle of 五粮液 someday...
对不起，李先生，你不是犹太人，根本不了解。
Dear Brian, These are the times that try men’s souls. I am currently in Athens, Georgia and Flushing, Queens, and if I’m fortunate enough to get a visa, I’ll be back in China in 2024 for that drink. I would be honored to keep in touch with you. You didn’t, by any chance, go to Stuyvesant, did you?
Hello Todd, I just wanted to point out that this comment was not a response to Dr. Schwartz, so perhaps he has not/will not see this. Hope you have a wonderful day and that y'all two manage to get that drink.
Next time I’m in Guiyang…will you be joining?
I appreciate the offer, though unfortunately I am stuck in the USA for quite a while now, don't think I would be able to catch y'all in time, haha...