The United States and Israel Go Together Real Bad.

The United States and Israel Go Together Real Bad.

[00:00:00] In its 20 year long war in Afghanistan, the United States of America committed numerous atrocities, some which the U. S. government admitted to and some that they deny. They would go on to call all of these actions A necessary part of war. Officials have used that same language with respect to Israel's onslaught of violence against Palestine and Gaza and the West Bank.

It's a necessary part of war. These are the chances you take when you start a war. There is an acceptable loss of life. There is acceptable violence. There is acceptable loss of even soldier, military life. There will be arrests, there will be bombings, there will be blood, [00:01:00] there will be blood. It is all very necessary, they would say. But it is the people who are supporting these tactics who have been silent. In the face of this genocide and ethnic cleansing that is most surprising. I've got some explaining to do. Let's get into it. Hey everyone, welcome back for a new episode of Ayanna Explains It All, the podcast hosted by me, Ayana Fakhir, a black Muslim lady [00:02:00] lawyer who has an opinion on everything.

In case you haven't noticed, if you look back at all the episodes of this podcast, you will see that yes, I talk about everything. And lately, what has been on my mind has been the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in Palestine. I know. I know. Yeah. Um, Ayana explains it all is available on multiple different streaming platforms.

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 I'm recording this on Saturday, October 28th, 2023. And before I, um, came to record this episode, I was in the movie theater for a good three hours and some change watching. Uh, just an incredibly brilliant film called The Killers of Flower Moon and it's directed by Martin Scorsese and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro and a host of other actors, plenty of native American actors, which I love. I love that I get to live in [00:04:00] a time where I can watch a movie where the native American characters are played by actual native Americans and not, um, John Wayne in dark face makeup. Can you imagine a lot of people lived in that time? A lot of those people are dead now, but a lot of people lived in, in a time where native American.

Characters were not played by Native Americans or Puerto Rican characters weren't played by Puerto Ricans, Asian characters, Japanese, Chinese characters were played by white people. We live in a time where not only can you have Native Americans playing that portraying Native Americans, but you can also have them tell their stories and the killers of flower moon.

The story is. Exceptionally more important than the film, but the film makes you feel that story. Like it I felt it was so intense for me. I mean, you know, I'm an empathetic person It was so [00:05:00] intense for me that I immediately when the movie was over I had to get up and leave the theater and go in my car and I was just sitting there and I was crying a Little bit because I'm a wimp but also watching the main character Molly She was being tortured to death by her husband, her white husband, because he wanted her land rights.

This is what the movie was about. These evil white people who were poisoning and just flat out murdering the Osage people for their land rights. They lived on land that was wealthy with oil and the land was just being passed down from family member to family member. So they were just killing multiple members of families.

And collecting insurance money on them and then getting their land rights and just [00:06:00] sitting on the land and claiming that land for themselves that was Osage land and watching her being tortured she ultimately did not die.

The story that's being told is her story. Mostly, but just watching her and watching how she, you know, gathers the strength. Even in her sickness, in her illness to advocate for her people in Washington, because frankly, nobody was paying attention. All of these Osage were dying mysteriously and no one gave a shit.

No one gave a care because Native Americans, they weren't as important as white people. They were, they had, they were marrying white people, making babies with white people, but they were still not as important as white people to other white people, right? They were still just things to be used and killed.[00:07:00]

They would call them, you know, friend and ally, but behind their back would call them savages and think that they needed to be murdered and made extinct so that the white man can come in and take over their land. And this is something that happens. This has, this is colonialism. Right? This is white supremacy.

This is colonialism. This was, you know, still part of that whole bullshit manifest destiny of, you know, making a world, a land from shore to shore, Christian, making it a Christian nation, making, making the U. S. a Christian nation, making it a Christian land. It was their destiny to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific and just make this entire country.

There's the white people, right? And I mean, that is essentially what has happened. The reason for. What is happening in Palestine and Israel, because some white people [00:08:00] decided that the Jews should have a homeland and that the homeland they would have would be land that people were already living on, living and breathing and working and, and marrying and procreating, and that there was nothing they could do about it.

And so what did those people do? Well, they fought back. They fought back as they should, as they fucking should, and, and, and what I'm seeing now is people not understanding, understanding that like intelligent people, people who I respected, thinking that this all started in 2023, thinking that the conflict started in 2023, thinking that it all started because Hamas invaded a music festival in Israel on October 7th, 2023.

No, honey. No. Oh, no. Please don't do that to yourself. Don't make yourself out to be a [00:09:00] fool by thinking this started this year. Absolutely not. And it's people who are number one, ignoring what's happening or number two saying, well, what can I do? I'm just a little person here in my little people, my little people house and my little family, and it has nothing to do with me.

And I'm just going to pray for people. No, it's not. It's not enough anymore. It's gone beyond what can I do? All I can do is pray. You have to be, as we saw during the protest after the murder of George Floyd, you have to be actively anti racist. You have to be actively anti genocide. You have to be actively anti ethnic cleansing.

You, you, there's no longer, you can no longer afford to just sit by and watch things happen because they will continue to happen [00:10:00] and you will keep saying, what can I do? There's nothing I can do. What if somebody saw you laying down in the road bleeding to death and their hands were full with groceries and they said, well, my hands are full.

There's nothing I can do. What can I do? What can I do? You can be actively helping, you can help, just like I've seen, I've seen groups of Jewish people flooding the U. S. Capitol, flooding, uh, the streets of New York, who are saying, not in our name, we don't want genocide committed in our name, you could say that, you could say, I am against genocide, people, people, particularly particularly traditionally.

Liberals, people who are, you know, open and not everybody for everybody. Oh, racism is bad and prejudice is bad. And we're feminists and we're pro women and we're pro black blah, blah, blah, [00:11:00] blah, full of shit. Because when their feet are held to the fire, when They have to make a choice.

They're going to choose what they have an interest in. And a lot of people are afraid to say they are anti genocide, that they are anti ethnic cleansing, that they are anti apartheid, they're anti whatever is happening. They're afraid to say it because they don't want to lose their jobs. They don't want to lose their social media campaigns.

They don't want to lose their scholarships. They don't want to be suspended from whatever fucking club they belong to that makes you anti racist. Pledge allegiance to a man in a fucking hat or something. They don't want to lose that. They don't want to lose friends. They don't want to be seen as anti Semitic.

And let me just say for the record, because I'm so sick of this. Anti Semitism, Semitism, Semitic, Arabs are Semitic people. Okay. Arabs, Jews, [00:12:00] Christians even are Semitic people. That means they were indigenous to that particular region. And there are a list of languages, Hebrew, uh, Aramaic, Arabic. It's not just Jewish people.

When you're anti Semitic, you're not just a bigot against Jewish people. But it has become this thing that only gets to happen to Jewish people. And we have to accept it. I don't have to accept it. I know what anti Semitism is. And I am not an anti Semite. I don't hate Jewish people. Absolutely not.

Couldn't be further from the fucking truth.

I save hate for very specific group of people. I save hate for oppressors. I hate oppressors. I hate oppression. I hate oppressors because God [00:13:00] hates them. God hates oppression. It is. And injustice, it is unjust, it is wrong, and until it is corrected, until it is rooted out, until it is gone, you cannot have peace.

So all of these people, all of these liberals who are calling for a ceasefire now, for what? Israel has already said that a ceasefire is, is, is not going to benefit them because Hamas will still exist and they don't like Hamas and Hamas kidnapped their people. And Hamas, I mean, ceasefire for what? They don't got, they don't have anything.

You're not looking at people who have, um, tanks and ships and fucking, uh, bombs and shit that you're not, that's not what you're looking at. [00:14:00] A ceasefire for them would be you getting off their fucking land, would be you taking your fences and your cameras and your settlements and getting the fuck on.

That would be a ceasefire for them. A ceasefire for the Palestinians would be you leaving them the fuck alone. And let me just say, listen, I asked one of my friends to listen to my podcast and provide some feedback. And I, I, I don't know if I warned him, maybe I did warn him that I cuss a little bit. He was surprised.

He was, he was surprised by how coolly and calmly I can come to this microphone and cuss somebody clean out. I save it. I save it for very special occasions though. I'm not doing this all the time, but I'm, I'm, these particular topics I get so worked up. [00:15:00] I get worked up and then. And the F bombs just start flying.

So if you hear one and it bothers you, please understand. Number one, I don't care.

I don't, I do not. However, I do want to get my message across and I feel like, you know, if you're cussing, people stop listening because for some reason those words, Ooh, they just burn their brain. But I do have things to say. And I really want you all to listen because you're not going to hear this perspective anywhere else.

You're not going to hear a black Muslim lady lawyer anywhere else talking about being anti genocide and anti apartheid and anti ethnic cleansing. And I remember the first time. I actually declared that I was for Palestine. I remember the exact moment I was in constitutional law. It was my second year of law school and it was a [00:16:00] couple weeks, maybe after 9 11, maybe like one or two weeks like that time after 9 11 was so prickly for me as a Muslim in America because you know, you have to, you have to condemn terrorism, Ayanna.

You have to condemn it. You have to say that what happened was wrong and they were forcing all of the, um, You know, just forcing all of the Muslim groups in the US to come out against terrorism. You have to say it's wrong. Just like they're telling Palestinians that they have to condemn Hamas and they have to condemn what happened, uh, to the, the, the people at the music festival and you have to condemn the hostages, but no one is telling Israel.

That they have to condemn their continuous bombing campaign against Palestine. Nobody's telling Israel that. Nobody, when, you know, Bibi gets on TV and his right wing officials get on TV, and supporters of Israel [00:17:00] get on TV, they don't, they're not asked first, Do you condemn the bombing of the Palestinians on this year, and this year, and this year, and this year, and this year, because it's been going on since the 1940s.

Didn't go out on, they've been fighting long before the 1940s. Because Jewish groups had been landing in Palestine since the early 1900s. They started fighting in the 1940s and then it got worse after 1948 when Harry S. Truman decided that he wanted to, uh, officially become the official godfather of Israel and declare Israel as a state.

He was the first to do so, and he just happened to be a U. S. president. He also happened to be an anti Semite. He also happened to be, um, a bigoted asshole when it came to Jewish people, and he used to make jokes about them, him and his wife and their friends, and he would make jokes about all kinds of ethnic [00:18:00] groups, but because he did this thing that everyone loves, that everybody, millions and millions of people were so happy about, you can just overlook that.

It's one of those, well, You take the good with the bad. It didn't matter that he was a bigot and an anti Semite, didn't matter because he wanted what was best for the Jewish people. And yeah, they had served the people who were alive, who survived World War II, who made it out of Europe. Yeah. They had survived some pretty fucking disgusting, awful, inhumane things, terrible, terrible things, barbaric things.

Nobody should have to go through that, but there are people going through it. There are people going through it and it's at the hands of Israel. The nation state that the world had to give to the Jews because they promised them a homeland. It wasn't God who promised it to them. No, it was the United Nations.[00:19:00]

They wanted the survivors, the Jewish immigrants to have a home. They felt guilty and they needed to feel guilty because the United States knew what the fuck was happening in Europe. They didn't want to get involved. They knew they knew. But these other nations, France, France is a fucking colonizer, I don't know, Italy's a colonizer, England, the colonizer, they're all colonizers who have gone all over the world colonizing shit, making problems, creating genocide campaigns all over the world.

They wanted to help the Jews. All of the other groups that they had ruined. All had countries, so why not give the Jews countries? Why not give them a country? Unfortunately, there were people already living on it. Living, breathing, working, marrying, procreating, going to [00:20:00] school, having their own lives. And the United Nations, under the leadership of the United States of America, plopped these people down, moved the Arabs off their land.

Of course, they compensated them, so it was, it was okay because they paid them.

And thus began, thus began, the long and continuing saga. of the United States involvement with Palestine and Israel goes all the way back to Harry Truman. Since Harry Truman, each U. S. president has had some dealing, some major dealings, a major involvement with Israel and Palestine and trying to help Israel.

or bring peace to that region, or trying to stop the settlements, much to their detriment. [00:21:00] One thing you don't want to do as a U. S. president is go against Israel. U. S. presidents learned early that you don't want to do that because you will lose the support of very important, very powerful political action committees.

In the United States, you will lose the Jewish vote as if to say they're monolithic, as if to say all Jews are in support of what Israel is doing. That can't be farther from the truth. They are not plenty of Jews who are not, but this isn't, this isn't about Jews and Muslims, Jews and Arabs. No, there are Israelis who are Arab.

There are Israelis who are Christian. They just want to live. They don't want to be involved in all this warshit and this genocide. They don't want to be involved in killing. They don't want to be killed. [00:22:00] Israel is bombing churches. Israel is bombing refugee camps and hospitals. Israel is bombing apartment complexes and homes.

In the meantime, in the last couple years, they're pushing more and more Palestinians out of their homes and just giving them. To Israeli citizens, just giving them, people are walking right off fucking planes going into a house that somebody is already living in and they're, the people living there are getting kicked out and here it is, this Israeli has their new brand new home, fully furnished, probably got food still cooking on the damn stove.

How is this right? And no one, no liberal, especially has been able to answer for me this question. Why Israel gets to exist and Palestine doesn't. [00:23:00] Why did it go from the big nation of Palestine to a two state? Of Palestine and Israel to now, Israel has completely, almost completely taken over all of Palestine.

And there's just that little strip, the Gaza strip and the West Bank. But Palestine isn't even a nation, according to them, Palestine doesn't exist. Palestinians don't exist because there is no Palestine. How is there an Israel, but there's no Palestine. How, how, and all of these do good. We're on our, our nation's soil and we're fighting for the rights of women and we're fighting for the rights of children.

All these do good liberals who are standing by Joe Biden, who are afraid to criticize Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They cannot answer why it is okay for [00:24:00] this to happen.

You know, if you ask them what they'll say, well, Hamas needs to just give up those hostages and then this will stop. No, it will not stop. It is because these campaigns, these bombing campaigns are going on, the apartheid is going on, the genocide is going on, that Hamas was even able to think that this was a way to get Israel off of their fucking land.

They felt compelled to fight back. They felt compelled to fight back and maybe you disagree with how they fought. I certainly don't find it very endearing that they kidnap people. No, I don't. I think that's but you can't tell people who are. who have a foot on their neck, who see their homes being bombed and taken away from them.

You can't look at them and say, [00:25:00] no, maybe you don't want to do that. Maybe you don't want to, you know, kill people at a festival and kidnap people, you know, when their people are killed every month, month after month, year after year after year. When a high percentage of the children born and living in Palestine, in Gaza, have PTSD babies with PTSD,

but then you look at the shores of the United States, and you see the same thing happening in the United States in the inner cities of the United States where children have PTSD from Palestine. Watching police brutality from watching, um, gang violence, gun violence, PTSD from all manner and sources from abuse from neglect.

And people are still unwilling [00:26:00] to call a thing a thing. They're scared to say that what is going on is not right. They're scared to admit that what they've done all this time, the work that they've done has not been enough. Because they're continuing to elect politicians who are not for the people, who say they are for the people, who say they're going to do things for the people.

And then when they get into office, they realize, oh, maybe it's kind of hard to do things for people. It's hard because only half of the country wants anything done for the people. And then the other half just sits around scratching their ass, blaming the other half because nothing gets done. And yes, I am a liberal.

I am a liberal. I'm a Democrat. I vote Democrat. I did vote for Biden in 2020. You know why? Cause I didn't want Donald Trump to be president anymore. Not because I love Joe Biden. I think it's great. [00:27:00] That Joe Biden is the reason that my student loans were forgiven. Hey, thanks. I don't have to pay for law school until I'm 80.

But we, if you're, if you had been paying attention, I feel like for some reason, liberals are just now learning that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is in the pocket of Israel. Like all the presidents before him, he's had to have some dealing with Israel

if the U S didn't want Israel to exist, Israel would not exist. And that is the truth. That is the truth. But then again, if you don't support Israel, you think you're going to get elected president and you don't show some support for Israel.

You are wrong. You are wrong. And I need people to understand this because every candidate, every candidate who wants to be elected president [00:28:00] of the United States. We'll have to confirm, swear their allegiance to continuing to help Israel. Israel essentially has a direct line to the Pentagon. We're always providing them with money for arms, munitions, always.

We're funding their current genocide campaign against Palestine. Whether you want to admit it or not, that is exactly what we are doing. We've been funding all of their bombing campaigns against Palestine. If it wasn't for us, they wouldn't have half of the munitions that they have. They wouldn't be as powerful.

The IDF would not be as powerful as it is if it was not for the United States. That is the truth. So all of you liberals who are coming out and saying, I can't believe Joe Biden would do this. Genocide Joe. [00:29:00] Oh my god. Stop it. Because it was genocide Obama, and it was genocide Bush, and it was genocide Clinton, and it was genocide Herbert Walker Bush before that, and it was genocide Reagan, and it was genocide Carter.

Well, maybe not Carter. Carter was actually, uh, Carter was a peacemaker, which is why he did not do well either. He was a peacemaker. Genocide Nixon? Definitely genocide Truman.

But it's like, this is new information for you people. I don't, I don't get how you don't know. I remember when I was, you know, I was, it was during the primaries. And I was trying to figure out who I was going to vote for. Elizabeth Warren was my candidate. That's who I voted for. I still wish she had become president.

A lot of people wish Bernie Sanders had become president. [00:30:00] They did not. They are in the Senate, which is still great. But I remember I was like, okay, I want to choose between. Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris and I saw a picture of Kamala Harris after she had met with APEC and APEC is the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, which is one of the most powerful political action committees in the United States.

She had met with them, took a picture, you know, reassured them when I become president, the United States will continue to support Israel. And I was like, fuck that. I'm not voting for her. I'm not voting for her. And Joe Biden ultimately became the winner of the Democratic nominee and he became president.

I voted for him. Yes, I did. I voted for him and, and Vice President Harris. But I'm sometimes, sometimes. [00:31:00] A thing you love can hurt you. And a lot of people are hurt right now. A lot of people are hurt because they're seeing what the United States is doing, what the United States is funding, but what they don't understand is that it has always been this way.

This is not new. People, please. This is not new. This is not new. We are the reason Israel exists. We are the reason Israel exists. We are the reason Israel exists. We are the reason Israel exists.

We are the reason Israel did not get demolished during the Arab Israeli war. Us. The United States, Richard Nixon stepped in to help to provide munitions to Israel so that because their losses were mounting so that they would not lose. And when Egypt invaded [00:32:00] Israel, Jimmy Carter stepped in to broker a peace deal.

And he was hated for it. He was hated for it because the United States isn't supposed to do that. The United States isn't supposed to try to make peace. The United States isn't supposed to be against Israel. And anytime a president came out and said, Hey, you guys need to slow down. Like when Herbert Walker Bush, George Bush came out and said he was against the settlements.

You know what happened? He lost the support of the AIPAC. He lost a lot of the Jewish vote. And when Obama came out against the settlements, he was criticized heavily for that. Imagine, imagine coming out against people being pushed off their land, being anti apartheid, and people are upset, people are mad.[00:33:00]

People are mad.

I'm mad. I'm upset. I am upset. And why, why am I upset? Why is a black Muslim woman who is living in the suburbs of Northeast Ohio upset about what's happening to Palestine? It's because, not just, not just because it's awful, terrible, it's genocide. But those are my people. Those are my people. Those are my people.

Those are my people.

Most of those people belong to my um, uh,

and when one part of the um, uh, is hurting, one part of the Islamic community is hurting. The entire community is hurting. The entire community is hurting. You don't get to attack [00:34:00] one part of our um, uh, And expect that we're not going to be upset, be angry, come out against it.

How are you seeing entire lineages being wiped from earth and you're doing nothing about it. How are you watching entire generations of people being wiped from this earth and doing nothing about it?

How are you watching an entire culture, an entire ethnicity? being wiped from this earth and you're doing nothing about it. How are you saying that people who speak out against it are wrong? How are you saying that people who speak out against the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians are wrong when you have done nothing to show that you are anti genocide, to show that you are anti [00:35:00] apartheid, to show that you are anti killing?

You are the one who is wrong.

Why are you silent when people are being starved, had their access to food cut off, had their access to water cut off, had their internet access cut? They have no electricity. They have no lifeline to the outside world. They are running low on medical supplies so that people who need medical assistance are not able to receive it because the.

Aid trucks are being kept at the borders and not allowed in to Gaza. Why are you silent? Why? Why are you silent? Why is it perhaps because the same thing happens here in the United States? Say for instance, when someone goes to jail. This is a prime example. [00:36:00] When someone goes to jail, they are usually given meager, meager amenities.

They are essentially denied proper nutrition, proper food. They are told that they have to pay to make phone calls. They are told that they have to pay for any extra, if they want any kind of extra food outside of what the prison or the jail serves them, they have to pay for it. And in the state that I live in, prisoners have to pay for their medical care.

They also have to work and give all of the money that they earn from their job to the state. If they earn any money at all, I'm talking about you, Louisiana. Why are you silent? Is it because foreign policy and domestic [00:37:00] policy are now blurred? You cannot tell the difference between what you do at home and what is being done abroad.

You approve of it at home, and so you approve of it abroad. You cannot be seen as condemning what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank when you don't condemn it on your own shores.

What is happening in Palestine against the Palestinians is wrong. It's always been wrong. United Nations has said to you, Israel, give these people back their land, get off of their land. This is apartheid. You need to stop. Every time an international organization has come out and said that, you know what happens.

Israel does not give a fuck. They don't listen. They don't care because they have the backing, the support of one of [00:38:00] the most powerful nations on earth, the United States of America. They don't have to listen. They don't have to care that they're killing babies.

One of the most disgusting, one of the most disgusting things I've seen. The man was carrying the body parts of his child in bags. He had the head in one bag and other body parts in another bag. He was carrying them into the tent where they were putting all of the, where they were doing the identifications of the bodies and people who were, when family would come and identify them.

He was just, he was in shock. He couldn't believe it. He was in shock and I'm watching this man carries carrying his. Child, and he's carrying his child in bags. And [00:39:00] there are people who will watch this and go, Oh well, well he should, did he come out against Hamas? He should condemn Hamas. He should tell Hamas to let those hostages go.

This is all Hamas's fault. They shouldn't, they shouldn't have kidnapped those people. They shouldn't have done what they did. What about what you have been doing Israel? What about what you have been doing? Why do you get to exist? But Palestine doesn't. Why? Why? No one has been able to answer that for me.

And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm sick. I am sick. I am sick of all of the people who are suddenly. Realizing that the United States has been funding this apartheid and genocide all these years, and it's not the only place where we're doing it. And it certainly is not the first time the United [00:40:00] States has funded genocide.

It isn't. This is our legacy. This is the legacy of the United States, if you want to know the truth. It's not, you know, home of the free, land of the brave. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's genocide. This is, this is our brand. Genocide is our brand. Put that in a fucking car commercial. Genocide is our brand.

That's what we do.

And then, you know, uh, uh, Biden gets on TV and he's like, well, we dispute the number of deaths that are coming out. The Palestine, we dispute that number. There's over 7, 000 people who have been killed since, since, uh, October 7th. Over 7, 000. He disputes the numbers, probably because it's inconvenient for him.

He wants it to be more like maybe a hundred and then they go, well, this is what happens when you [00:41:00] wage war. What war did a baby wage? Dead babies, dead babies. Since you all seem to care about beheaded babies that were actually never beheaded, never happened. You care about those babies that don't exist. As opposed to these actual babies over here who do exist, who are being murdered, murdered babies, blood is on your hands.

It's on all of our hands because our taxpayer dollars are paying for this. And instead of coming out against it, many of us are choosing to. Just stay out of it. It's none of my business, or finding some excuse, any excuse you all can find to not be involved, any excuse.

But there are people who are, who are saying they're not going to vote for Joe Biden in 2024, but they already [00:42:00] voted for him in 2020. He has not become a different person. He's the same person. The man you voted for in 2020 is the same person who's running for president in 2024.

So why are you changing your mind? You already voted for him. You already approved the policies. You approved the policies when you voted for Obama and Clinton. You approved the policies, uh, when you voted for Hillary Clinton because she would have done the same fucking thing. You've been approving the policies, now all of a sudden, Uh huh, I'm not voting.

I'm not voting for Joe Biden. I'm not voting. This is why I don't vote. And let me tell you something, you, you, I don't vote motherfuckers. Listen. Listen, you are doing your communities a disservice. You are doing yourselves a disservice. How is it that you let a city, a state, a country tax the fuck out of you and you don't [00:43:00] hold them accountable?

Your vote is holding them accountable. That's accountability right there. Your vote is your voice against for or against the job that they've done. They're taxing you and you're not letting them know how you feel about the job that they're doing. And nevermind if you, you need the courts for some reason, say you don't vote.

Okay. What about the courts? At least where I'm from, the judges are elected. The judges are elected. They're not appointed. So when you go to court, when you go to divorce court, child support court. When you go, you have a civil case, you have a car accident, those judges are there because people voted to have them there.

Those people deciding your fate, they, they are there because people [00:44:00] voted to have them in those positions. The prosecutor, juvenile court judges. They are in those positions because the people voted to have them in those positions. So when you all complain that judgments are unfair, sentences are unfair, arrests are unfair, guess who also gets elected?

The county sheriff, the county sheriff. Guess who also gets elected where I live at the county council. They run the county jail, a place where thousands of people. In this area, end up in that horrible, wretched county jail where there seems for some reason to be a death every couple of weeks,

but you don't vote. This is a result of you not voting. People [00:45:00] you don't approve of are doing a job that affects you in your community, but you're not voting. You're not letting them know how upset you are, how displeased you are, or maybe you're satisfied. Maybe you're happy, but a lot of you are upset. I hear it all the time.

I hear it all the time. A lot of you are very upset, but you're not doing anything about it. It sucks. It sucks that people believe they are powerless because you don't like the outcome sometimes of it. of an election. You decide that you're not going to vote because you can't control the narrative because what really is happening is you don't understand how government works.

I'm not talking about politics. I'm talking about government. These are two different things. You don't understand how government works, so you don't understand how your vote matters, why your vote matters, and so you don't vote. But then because you don't vote, [00:46:00] people get into power who are anti you, who are anti your community, and that upsets you.

You're upset. I know when I get upset, I do something about what I'm upset about. I don't just sit in my anger. Hell no. I turn my anger into action. I turn my anger into action. I'm not just gonna sit on my ass. I never do. I don't have that luxury. I, have I mentioned that I'm a black Muslim lady? I don't have the luxury of sitting on my ass and doing nothing.

The black community is hurting. The Islamic community is hurting.

I don't have the luxury of just sitting back and going, You know what? I ain't got nothing to do with me. I'm happy here in my little home with my kids. [00:47:00] My job. I'm just gonna turn off the news and just... Maybe I'll paint something. Maybe I, um, could do some yard work. A lot of, a lot of you are doing this and it's very upsetting.

But I understand I can't do anything about it. I can only control myself. All I can do is not be like you. I don't know how people are actively doing nothing,

but when something pops off that affects them, oh, they want the entire world, the entire, everybody on earth to come and help them and be a voice for them. Oh, no, it ain't got nothing to do with me. What if I said that to you? What if we said that when, uh, we were watching that video of George Floyd being murdered by [00:48:00] Minneapolis police?

Oh, I ain't got nothing to do with me. What if we said that? I know some people who said it. I didn't watch that and go, that has nothing to do with me. No, I was incensed. I was disgusted. I wanted to fight. I was willing to do anything. You have to be willing you all living here, living on earth.

You no longer have the luxury living on earth in 2023. You no longer have the luxury of doing nothing. You can't afford it. You cannot afford it. We cannot afford it. We need each other. There is no way you can look and see a man carrying body parts of his child in plastic bags and go, You know, I'm totally unaffected.

How can you be unaffected by that? There are children screaming and crying. Video after [00:49:00] video. Like, I don't want to keep watching this, but I feel like if I don't, I'm going to forget. Because it's easy for us to forget to write. It's easy for us to move on to the next big news story. We just had a mass shooting in Maine in the United States and 18 people were murdered.

And the shooter ultimately committed suicide. But something like that happens. Something major happens. And we forget because a lot of us cannot compartmentalize. We can't hold space for all of these different things and manage them in our head. One story replaces another and another and another replaces that one and then another comes in and replace and we have forgotten and then we look up and we go, is that still going on?

 I'm very, I'm disappointed, but I am not surprised. I'm not surprised. This, this is the, the legacy of the United States. [00:50:00] This is what the U. S. presidents have done time and time and time and time again. This is what they do. This is what the United States does. Ronald Reagan was the most pro Israel president this country had ever seen.

And people love the fuck out of Reagan. Republicans love the fuck out of Reagan. He destroyed the black community, but he was pro Israel. So he was loved.

So I, I, I get why people don't want to vote for Biden, but you already did. And then you vote for these representatives who continue to authorize aid and help for Israel. I got an email from the office of representative Chantel Brown. She's my, uh, representative for, for my area. [00:51:00] And it was, take this survey to send a message to Chantel Brown about what issues you think Congress should be addressing.

Select as many as you like. And I'm looking at the list, I'm like, okay, yeah, education, mm hmm. Yeah. Food insecurity. Yeah. Stop aid to Israel the fuck. How did that get on there? I'm sorry. What? What? Why should my Congress care about providing aid to Israel? Why should that be a goal? Why should that be a concern of my United States Congress?

I don't see the Sudan on there. I don't see the Congo. I don't see any, I don't see, um, help for Chinese [00:52:00] Muslims. There's a genocide campaign against Chinese Muslims. I don't see that on there. Why is aid to Israel a concern for my Congress, my United States Congress? There was a section where you could put other and I put in aid to Palestine.

 There are people who are pro Palestine, who are anti Jew, absolutely. I'm not one of those people. There are people who are pro Israel, who are anti Arab, who are anti Muslim. They're Islamophobes. There are people who are using this fight Because they don't like Jews, and this is their excuse to get off some, uh, bigoted jokes and prejudice against Jews.

And there are people who are using this fight because they don't like Muslims, they don't like Arabs. And they can [00:53:00] finally, they can use this to go, Aha, see, they're bad people. See, see, look. Here's my cartoon, my political cartoon that says that if that's you, you have a problem. Don't use other people's pain to become a bigot.

Don't become the thing that you hate. Do not become the thing that you hate. Do not become the thing that you hate. I hate Israel because of what they've done to Palestine, because of what the they are doing to Palestinians, because of what they continue to do to these people. Because of the genocide because of the apartheid, my hatred, my hatred of Israel has nothing to do with Jews.

Nothing. Not that I need to convince you. Not that I care to convince you. But I feel like when people are steeped in pain, they simply stop listening to [00:54:00] reason.

They cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be negotiated with. You cannot convince them of anything because all they see is pain and blood and red. That's it. If you want to live in a nation where people are being bombed every day just so you can live there, how are you comfortable with yourself? How do you live with yourself?

Why does Israel get to exist and Palestine doesn't? When you can answer that for me, thoughtfully, honestly, then we can talk until then. Well, there's nothing else for me to say. What is happening needs to stop. The genocide needs to stop. The apartheid needs to stop. If you want [00:55:00] the violence to stop, if you want peace, there first has to be justice.

There will be no peace until there is justice. And justice sees Israel leaving Palestine, Palestine becoming a nation, Palestinians living and breathing on their own land, in their own homes. That's justice. And until that happens, you will not have peace. You don't deserve peace unless there is justice.

And this has been Ayana Explains It All, brought to you by Facts, Figures, and Enlightenment. Take care. [00:56:00]