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by Don Keelan
A change is currently taking place in Vermont, and it is not limited to the foliage extravaganza. Here is a partial list of conversions throughout Vermont.
Where houses of worship once stood, concert halls and community centers now stand. Closed public schools have been turned into housing. Vermont motels, once a major staple of the tourist industry, are now shelters for folks who would otherwise be living on the street or in their cars.
Once thriving factories, closed and abandoned for decades, are being transformed into housing as well. And it will not be long before the once-thriving factory outlet stores, now vacant for some time, will also be considered for housing or professional office space.
The sites that once were thriving college campuses, seven by last count, are now being considered for summer music retreats, five-star resorts, or, as in Poultney, an evangelical seminary.
A most noticeable change can be seen on a drive on Vt. Route 7, from Pownal to Burlington. What was once bucolic farmland, punctuated by black-and-white cows, has morphed into acres upon acres of solar arrays. Change is taking place; the operative word, often expressed, is repurposing, which in most cases accomplishes a positive transformation.
Then, a not-so-positive change is taking place in Vermont that is invisible on a daily basis: the repudiation of America’s long-reliable ally in the Middle East, Israel.
A recently formed group, the Vermont People’s Arms Embargo, wrote a letter to the Manchester Journal and called on Vermonters to boycott 35 Vermont manufacturing companies that trade with Israel. Several are long-established Vermont companies, namely, Global Foundries (formerly IBM), Pratt & Whitney, General Dynamics, GE Aerospace, Burlington Engineering, and OnLogic.
The VPAE goal is to prevent these manufacturing companies from sending equipment to Israel in order to prevent Israel from carrying out further genocide (their term) in Gaza against the Palestinian people.
Prior to and subsequent to the October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel by the terrorist group Hamas, legitimate criticisms were warranted towards Israel’s political and military leaders. Most notably, the uncontrolled settlements in the West Bank, buying political influence in the U.S., and the questionable authoritarian governance of the peaceful citizens of Gaza. One should feel free to express their feelings on such matters, including leveling criticism at the UK, France, or the U.S.
Expressing one’s feelings towards one’s own country does not make one anti-American, and likewise, when leveled towards Israel, should not be described as being antisemitic.
However, to accuse Israel of genocide is outrageous. Genocide, by definition and by UN standards, is the eradication of a population. Israel’s goal is not the extermination of the Palestinian people. It is, however, committed to eliminating the terrorist threesome, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, the militant proxies of Iran. The latter is and has since 1948 been committed to “wiping Israel off the map.”
Last month, I met Rabbi Michael Cohen. Rabbi Cohen is Rabbi Emeritus of the Israel Congregation of Manchester, Vermont. For over 30 years, he has been involved with, and more recently served as the Director of Community Relations at the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies in Israel. The Rabbi was preparing to leave for the Institute’s kibbutz for a 15-month stay.
The Arava Institute “is an environmental and academic institution in the Middle East, dedicated to preparing future leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and around the world to cooperatively solve the regional and global challenges of our time.”
I have known the Rabbi for over 30 years, and he would not be involved with Israel if genocide committed by Israel towards the people of Palestine was its goal. The companies singled out by VPAE to be boycotted would, it is safe to say, not be selling their products to a country that was committed to genocide.
Instead, our state and the national elections are a well-orchestrated effort by Iran to bring down Israel—if not by barrages of missiles, then by waging a propaganda war within Israel’s long-time ally.
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Categories: Commentary
Excellent points, well said. Thank you, Don. It’s refreshing to see someone point out the meaning of “genocide” and how the term does not apply to Israel’s self-defensive actions against Iran-sponsored Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis—terrorist groups commuting and advocating for true genocide.
Correction: “commuting” should be “committing.”
I was rushing out the door to go vote—perhaps a waste of time in this Democrat-infested state.
And if we don’t wake the heck up and push back against this agenda, our cathedrals will be turned into mosques.
It still irks them that David can fling a rock at Goliath.
Yes, things have changed… It’s possible to quibble over the term genocide, but it’s not possible to deny war crimes are perpetrated by the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank nearly every day. They target emergency vehicles, hospitals, doctors and journalists, attack civilians attempting to reach food and water distribution centers; these constitute war crimes. The new documentary “NAZA” makes this implicitly clear. If IDF intel personnel determine a perceived target is at home, they target the apartment, the building, the neighborhood, oblivious to civilian deaths, or NAZA, a euphemism for collateral damage; ie non-combatant families, children, civilians. 500 NAZA are acceptable, meaning there’s no limit. Not to mention the brutality occurring in the West Bank where Palestinians are intimidated and attacked, their land increasingly encroached upon. Genocides begin where war crimes are committed. Do not whitewash what is happening there, and how the USA enables it.
Sorry honey defending yourself from being attacked is exactly what they should do. Are you a useful idiot or indoctrinated fool or just a Marxist?
Never have I seen more breathtaking and irresponsible inaccuracies in one comment.
You state that the IMF targets emergency vehicles, hospitals, doctors, journalists, and citizens, etc. What you don’t seem to know—or seem interested in ignoring—is that Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists hide rockets and other weapons in emergency vehicles, hospitals, mosques, and homes. They uncaringly use civilians, including women and children, as shields, knowing that Israel will hesitate to target them and knowing that impressionable know-nothings and useful idiots will whine about Israel slaughtering non-combatants in an act of “genocide” if a civilian is hurt or killed. They know they are leading hair-trigger left-leaning simps by the nose, and will keep up this charade as long as they can hoodwink and whip up support from people like you who have not scratched the surface and know nothing about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, Israel goes out of its way to warn civilians of an impending attack, clearing apartments that they know house terrorists. This is not the behavior of an army intent on genocide, impervious, as you say, to civilian deaths.
If it’s brutality and war crimes you want to condemn, look no farther than the actions of Hamas before, during, and after October 7, 2023. These thugs have one goal: kill as many Jews as they can, and this means men, women, and children. This is genocide pure and simple. They want to push Jews “from the river to the sea.” What does that mean? It means they want to wipe out the Jews, every one of them. Israel, on the other hand, wants only to destroy the hyenas that have relentlessly attacked them for decades. Israel wants peace, but it cannot have peace if it is under constant attack—rockets from above and tunnels from below. Make no mistake, if Hamas dropped their weapons today and decided to live in harmony with Israel, there would peace tomorrow. The burden and responsibility for every drop of bloodshed in Gaza lie wholly with Hamas and the so-called Palestinian people who support them. Don’t fall for the lie that Israel is the one committing genocide. The truth is that Israel is the one fighting to stop it—for its very existence.
Correction: “IMF” should be “IDF” (of course)
Hey Frank, instead of leaving a patronizing, insult-laden post why don’t you try to refute some of the assertions made by Tina in hers?
“Instead, our state and the national elections are a well-orchestrated effort by Iran to bring down Israel.” Not sure I follow. IRAN is administering the US elections?
Meanwhile, no mention of the fact that 90% of the politicians in Washington get funding from the lobbying arm of a foreign nation that can’t be named. If that’s not “election interference,” I don’t know what is.