VETERANS ISSUES AND THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

VETERANS AND JEWS AT OPPOSITES?

LOS ANGELES VETERANS "CONSERVANCY" MISLEADS MEMBERS

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER

photo: g duff/Cambridge, UK 2009

The first thing I told Rob Rosebrock when he approached VT for support was to turn to the Jewish war veterans and Jews in the local community for support.  Half my familiy are Jews and most of my friends.  In a country where millions of Christians embraced Fascism under Bush, I was raised to expect Jews to stand by the poor and abused and to be the last people duped into backing tyrants.

Then I looked thru the roster of the Los Angeles Veterans Park Conservancy and found it to be a largely Jewish organization with many prominent members known for community involvement and social responsibility.  How in the name of g-d did someone manage to get them involved in a "ripoff" of veteran land?

I am one of those folks who drags their kids to Dachau on spring break instead of Aruba.  I make sure they know, they remember.  If you want to know who financed Hitler or ran Auschwitz, you only have to look to the older generation of the Republican party.  Has a generation of Jews been educated in a basement somewhere? 

Veterans groups like the American Legion have a long history of anti-semitism but we arent them, we are progressive, racially and religiously diverse and American.  The term "conservative" and "anti-semite" had always meant the same thing to Jews, and rightly so.  That’s someone else, not us. 

When Sam Fox, prominent Jewish leader, donated $50,000 to smear John Kerry and was awarded an ambassadorship in return, many of us were shocked. 

Without Jews there may have never been a civil rights movement.  Without Jews, no child labor law would ever have been passed, no environmental protection legislation, little that is good and decent that has been done in America over the last hundred years could have happened without Jews.

Jews were openly discriminated against in the US until more recently than anyone cares to admit.  Excluded from, not only country clubs, but hotels, resorts and even many communities, Jews fought prejudice and learned to side with the abused and neglected.

Now we are faced with veterans in wheel chairs fighting wealthy Jews.  Unless the world has changed that much, a possibility, this defies logic.

How can people whose background and beliefs should, normally, have them in the streets at the side of the veterans, fighting off police thugs be involved in stealing land? 

Is there something about living in Brentwood that make people channel OJ Simpson?

After 2 years of conflict, more and more serious each week, nobody can claim ignorance of the injustice or how serious the moral issues are.  Local residents wanted a park and ended up spearheading

Do we write off the Jewish community in America as another part of the "neocon" totalitarian right?

There would be few tragedies more serious than this.

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

• Gordon’s Archives:  2008-2015
• Gordon’s Archives:  2016-2022