Remembering the USS Liberty

Two members of JWPF attended the annual Chelsea, Michigan, Memorial Day parade and carried two signs: One augmented Donald Trump’s call, “America First, Not Israel”, and the other “Remember the USS Liberty”. As an old Army Jeep made it down the parade route, its elderly military occupants pointed to the Liberty sign and mouthed “Thank you.”

Q: When is Extreme Jewish Chauvinism not Zionism?

A: When Orthodox Jews of the Hasidic Satmar Dynasty invade and occupy an AMERICAN town and mirror an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank. For all those who keep trying to “educate” this writer into “say[ing] ‘Zionists’, not Jews’” this presents a conundrum as vexing as the Beth Israel conundrum we wrote about in our last report.

Kiryas Joel is the name by which this Jewish (not Zionist, because it doesn’t exist in Palestine) community goes by. OK to call ‘em Jews and not Zionists? Two JWPF member traveled to this insular, unfriendly community this week and were joined by two other activists from upstate New York. As this writer understands the situation, a group of New York City Jews (not Zionists) wanted more Lebensraum (living space) so they purchased land in the 1970’s and incorporated themselves in the Village of Kiryas Joel (literally, the village of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum). These Hasidic Jews (not Zionists) now wish to annex more land and some locals are organizing themselves to prevent this annexation.

The anger this insular community has generated is described well in an op-ed from Suburbanites.com – “The Lower Hudson Valley’s independent voice”:

“The KJ Annexation is not in the public interest. It’s in a purely misplaced sell-interest that puts segregation ahead of the assimilation by our ancestry in this country. It puts religion above good government. It puts the will of a politically connected few above the interests of the many. And it contorts the facts in such a way to smear every resident of New York that opposes such egregious activity as “Anti-Semitic”.

It’s time for the hatred to stop, and time for the leadership of Kiryas Joel to end it. By continuing this course of action, they put themselves on a collision course with others that has no positive outcome for their own cause.”

Enter Preserve Hudson Valley folks

Our small contingent was met by Emily, one of the directors of Preserve Hudson Valley, and talked about the environmental impact these Jews (not Zionists, ok, you get it) have made on their town of Monroe, from which KJ was formed. One example was the pollution caused by excessive amounts of salt used in the KJ chicken processing plant. The salt removes blood from the chickens in accordance to the dietary requirements of this Hasidic community, and the dumping of this salt has contaminated the water table of the town.

If there was ever a group that needed your donations, PHV is one. They are standing against this current attempt at annexation by the Jews () of Kiryas Joel. According to their web site, KJ wants to annex 500 more acres of land upon which, according to calculations by PHV, will add 50,000 more residents. Emily explained that additional tracts of land along the NY-17 corridor are being purchased for similar villages.

Comments?

May 28: 6 vigilers
June 4: 5 vigilers
June 11: 6 vigilers

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This report dedicated to the memory of Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe, and Hedy Epstein

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Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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