thank you, sir for an incredible interview. I could not help cry alongside you. It's a nightmare to see America supporting this genocide and mass murder ... evil pure evil. Many of my colleagues and friends are cheering it on if you can believe such I can't wrap my head around it. it makes me wonder about who I've been friends with all these decades who are these people??? joe w
Since you took pains to triple qualify your description of Israeli actions in Gaza, can you please elucidate the difference you see between "evil" and "pure evil" actions ?
I understood. The grammatical oversight is of no concern...and irrelevant to my question. To rephrase my question; Why is it important to you to emphasize the actions of Israel in Gaza as "pure evil" rather than, simply, "evil"?
How about "pure fuckling evil" - do you understand THAT - as in -killing thousands of defenseless people whose land you have stolen and occupied for 75 years.
John, you are quite right, and there is no need to argue with someone who needs to hide behind a moniker. Facts proving the Palestinian genocide continue to accumulate by the hour. Israeli and our leadership will have to pay for it but for now they are already signed in to the annals of infamy. I will not vote for any politician that chants the mantra "Israel has the right to self-defense" It is like if they were telling me the home invaders that you fought off had the right to self-defense. Yes, sometimes we have to use a clearer language for those with understanding impairment and I will say to them: our morals and politics are a fucking mess.
First of all...I've paid for and legally own all the land I occupy. Second, you need to learn how to spell. Lastly, religious dogma (however butchered you apply it) plays no part in the possibility of legally prosecuting a case of genocide.
Thank you Chris Hedges and Atef Abu Saif. The wrenching of my soul is impossible to describe. I've been acutely aware of 'conditions' in Palestine for many decades. It is a horror...
I was once in email contact with a Palestinian woman who was a stunning artist. Her art often depicted dreams of living in a place of total peace, even though there were scenes of conflict occurring in the deep background. It captured the viewer like no other art I've ever seen. Her last email stated she had "been moved" to an encampment in Gaza. I'm quite sure she did not survive for very long.
As long as weapons are made available to the Israeli State, the horror will continue. I am ashamed to be an American...
I noticed early in this attack on Gaza (I refuse to call it a war) the Palestinians no matter how upset or how old or young they are don’t call for vengeance or an attack of the Israeli’s I know Israel was attacked on October 7, but in general, the people don’t talk about violence against Israeli’s That’s the biggest of many lies. Netanyahu claims that Israeles are victims, and the world lets them get away with it. The lies are the least of what they let them get away with. I’m completely against violence, but I wonder what all These weapons are for⁉️ in America the weapons manufactures and our government tell us it’s to protect us. It appears they’re not telling the truth‼️
I have seen nothing in our main stream media about these torture camps nor the descriptions of torture methods given by Palestinian prisoners who are eventually released.
Here is the testimony of Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, who himself was jailed by Israel for seven months without charge. “We were subjected to severe torture, and my little finger was broken. I was repeatedly subjected to hitting on the head, causing bleeding multiple times. There was almost daily torture in the Israeli prisons. When prisoners’ cells were raided daily, they were severely beaten every day. We say this with full certainty, and we lived through it with great bitterness.” …
Here is the testimony of Palestinian attorney Khaled Mahajneh, who was the first lawyer to visit Sde Teiman. “The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo.”
(Note: Broken fingers are serious injuries to surgeons who take care to protect their hands from any injury. And the signature torture injury is an amputated limb because they were so tightly handcuffed for so long.)
There is a leitmotif that runs throughout Atef Abu Saif’s description of his life experience. That leitmotif is the question, “Why?” Thus a newly arrived inmate in a Nazi concentration camp asked, regarding a guard’s pointlessly cruel act, “Why did you do that?” The guard’s reply was, “There is no why here.”
In the course of this interview, CH offered to AAS a rational explanation for what AAS has suffered all his life, namely the political motivations responsible for the destruction inflicted by “settler colonial projects.” AAS demurred: “Yeah. Theoretically, you can understand” the crimes of the Israelis, but “They’re doing it with joy and pleasure.” Furthermore, he asked, “why do you kill a poet?” He continued, the poet Rafeet Alareer was “a person who always wanted to seek to live in peace, who always wanted to write about love, but he didn’t find love to write about it.”
Among the comments on this interview with AAS, many are responses to Frank Lee’s comments. Some of these responses are quite hostile, some offer strong rebuttals, and some offer strong but sympathetic rebuttals. Other comments on this interview offer, as CH did, rational explanations of the historical origins of the situation in Gaza. Others offer heartbroken sympathy for AAS’s suffering. Others offer severe criticism of Western governments. All these comments are entirely reasonable, or at least understandable.
But AAS understands something that no one else has. He understands what the Nazi concentration camp guard understood: “There is no why here.” AAS understands that Israeli society, both political and civil, has descended into the depth of nihilism where there is no why.
The political and social disease we call “fascism” or “totalitarianism,” which is not a political ideology but a society-wide mental disease, is founded on a symbiotic bond between the population and a leader who is on the severe end of the narcissistic personality disorder spectrum, with extreme levels of sadism and malignancy, and an analizing personality. “Malignancy” refers to the fact that the leader is supremely and maliciously destructive, and “analizing” to the even more advanced pathological condition of wanting to turn everything in the universe into excrement. Thus soldiers will smear excrement on the walls of homes they have despoiled—as the January 6 insurrectionists smeared excrement on the walls of the United States Capitol. Similarly, the Israeli government has just disclosed that it sanctions the mass rape, including particularly the mass anal rape, of Palestinian captives by Israeli soldiers. These expressions of mass psychosis express the depth of human depravity, the ne plus ultra of nihilism, the ultimate triumph of what Freud called the death instinct.
CH and the commenters on the interview respond to this nihilism in various ways, as described above. But only AAS addresses the heart of the issue, which Coleridge (referring to Shakespeare’s Iago) called “motiveless malignity.” Only AAS responds to this nihilistic motiveless malignity, which has warped everything in his life that he loves, with a heart informed by love and compassion. Compassion is not the same as sympathy or pity, but something immeasurably more profound. A Buddhist nun who had been tortured was asked what her greatest fear had been while she was being tortured. She replied, “The fear that I would lose compassion for my torturers.” Who among us has evinced a capacity for such profound compassion, or the desire to attain such compassion? But such love and compassion are the only possible basis for the regeneration of the human race. As the poet W.H. Auden famously wrote, “We must love one another or die.”
The disease of fascism, whose cure requires such love and compassion, is a mental disease, a form of mass psychosis, and a contagious plague. Whatever historical etiology or form any particular instance of fascism may have, it is always nihilistic. But while it always spreads to a great many people and causes widespread death and destruction, it does not always proceed to the ultimate end of total destruction. In 2024 the human race possesses the technological means to fully enact its death wish, not in only one way but in either of two, global ecocide or the global mass annihilation that nuclear war would cause. The human race is now extremely close to committing mass suicide in one of these two ways, but it insists on remaining in a state of denial about it, because the prospect is too overwhelming for it to face like serious adults. As the poet T.S. Eliot famously wrote, “human kind / Cannot bear very much reality.” We pretend to ourselves that we are muddling through, proceeding as usual from one disaster to another.
It is essential to recognize that while the entire US population does not suffer from the mass psychosis of fascism, as do the thirty-five percent or so who support Trump, the rest of the population is indeed infected with a secondary case of that mass psychosis. If a psychiatrist spends a day in a ward of a mental institution, by the end of the day he doesn’t know who is sane and who is crazy, him or them. It is impossible to dwell in a psychologically diseased social environment without contracting at least a secondary case of that psychopathology. Thus we have all internalized some degree of the nihilism spread throughout American society by Trump. That is why so many responses to American and Israeli fascism are so inadequate.
Atef Abu Saif, in contrast, having lived all his life with the consequences of the mass psychosis of Israel, has, like the Buddhist nun, learned to resist succumbing to the secondary mass psychosis of fascism, and learned instead to somehow miraculously fill its void abyss with human plenitude.
This is a reply to WWII’s two replies to my original comment.
Your first reply to my comment was not, as it presented itself as being, a good-faith request for “evidence.” It was a malicious quibble. That the January 6 insurrectionists smeared excrement in the US Capitol was widely reported at the time by major news outlets both on the web and on television. Anyone who was following the events of that time in detail would have known about it. If you had had a serious, good-faith concern about whether it occurred, then you would have researched the matter yourself, which you could have done as easily as querying me. If your concern had been serious and in good faith, then after I extended you the courtesy of supplying three citations from a sixty-second search, you would not have responded to these citations by flagrantly misrepresenting them in order to devalue them with a nasty, childish taunt. If you still had honest doubts about the fact, you would have researched the matter further yourself.
Your bad-faith request for “evidence,” a devious device for setting me up for a malicious response, calls to mind a remark by the poet William Blake: “The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a self-evident thing is a Knave.” I supplied the citations to you despite the fact, as I observed then, that your request was “odd. ” Your subsequent behavior has shown that I should never have responded to your not merely odd, but in fact inappropriate, request. You have taught me that it is necessary to be self-protective about getting trolled.
The question remains, why did you select a trivial, non-essential element from my lengthy original comment to query me about? As Freud says, there are no accidents in psychological life. The element you selected concerns smearing excrement on the walls of the US Capitol. By asking me to respond to what turned out to be your malicious quibble, you gained the ability to respond to me with a vicious, lying devaluation that would be read by others. That is, it enabled you to smear excrement on my original comment—just as the January 6 insurrectionists smeared excrement in the US Capitol. Furthermore, you knew that in order to cope with the vast quantity of material on the internet, readers tend to scan comments, including the replies to them, in order to select the comments they will read. You knew that anyone seeing your vicious devaluation of my original comment might well be disinclined to read my comment, since according to you it was based on a bad “joke.” You did succeed in sort-of misleading a reader who agreed with my essential point: Julio Santo “Nobody” wrote, “I don’t need any other evidence. IMO the rioters symbolically pooped on democracy.”
Why did you have the need to smear excrement on my original comment? That you did so means you have an analizing character pathology: you are given to practicing anal aggression against other people. Your unconscious is fully aware of your character trait, but it is unacceptable to your conscious self. When you read about this character pathology in my original comment, you unconsciously recognized yourself. Therefore you had to prevent the painful and threatening awareness of this character trait of yours from rising into consciousness; you had to put yourself into a state of denial about it. Therefore you pointlessly questioned a trivial part of my original comment, though it was a widely-reported fact, and then lied to discredit the evidence I supplied for it. This unconscious and absurdly circuitous symbolic ritual enabled you to practice denial of your own character trait. In order to deny that you practice anal aggression, you needed to practice anal aggression.
Someone who engages in this kind of behavior does so fundamentally because he envies the ability of other people to experience happiness by “living well and working well” (to use a phrase of Freud’s). To engage in this kind of defensive aggression is both destructive and futile, both anti-social and self-defeating. It does nothing to relieve the feelings of worthlessness, self-loathing, hatred, rage, and so forth that inspire it. To the contrary, it only tightens the screws on one’s own unhappiness.
Please believe me when I say that I sincerely wish you the best, and hope that in future years you will be able to find your way out of the labyrinth of unhappiness you appear to be lost in.
You will understand, however, that I must request that you not address any more replies to me. I will not respond.
don't bother with this troll / hasbara - they are only here to create confusion - they know dam well what you wrote and are fucking with you and anyone else that sees the Israelis as the murderers they are. Ignore the troll.
Thank you, Mr. Ressler. I now see from WWII’s additional remarks in this thread, to you and to Julio Santos “Nobody,” that WWII is suffering from such severe psychological problems that there is nothing to be said to him here. I have ignored posts from trolls in the past, but the trolling was obvious and direct. With WWII, I got sucked down a rabbit hole before I knew what was happening. In addition, it is remarkable how one can find oneself emotionally upset by a stranger’s rage long before one is aware that one is upset, especially when their rage is somewhat controlled on their outside and very much out of control on their inside. Your counsel is helpful and reassuring.
You provided no links. That's most likely because they don't exist. I have yet to see one photo of rioter's excrement smeared on halls of Capital Hill. If it's so ubiquitous in terms of public knowledge and evidence, then I challenge you to link to a single one.
Sure, I've heard plenty of innuendos from from unnamed Schumer "staffers" claiming such--but no photos. If this is such a salient "fact" worthy of being repeated in your post, Alexander, then surely you should be able to provide evidence for it. You don't. Nor does anyone else. , In fact, I've even read an account of Jan. 6th by heavily partisan Pennsylvania representative Madeline Dean who posts an article titled "Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection a year later: Congress members reveal details of their escape" dated Jan. 04, 2022. Mind you, this is an allegedly well educated person with a law degree that would surely be schooled in the importance of evidence. Yet she provides none for her overly sensational account--- even with her smart phone admittedly in hand during most of the incident. She writes (note the first hand reference): “I was on the phone with my family from the time they told us to put the gas masks on,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. The article goes on to post the sensational "feces smeared" account in her article, but interestingly, it is written in the third person an attributed to not one, but an array of reporters identified as Charles Stile, Candy Woodall, Jo Ciavaglia, Kathryne Rubright, Dustin Racioppi, Jim Martin, Chris McKenna and Joseph Spector, USA TODAY NETWORKS. Why doesn't Ms. Dean write the account of seeing "feces smeared" walls herself? Why does she attribute that to the propaganda outlet USA TODAY NETWORKS? I suppose her M.O. safety in numbers...and vagary. That's appears to be the legal education coming out in her. Anyhow, the "NETWORK" writes on the above referenced post:
"She didn’t feel safe at any point that day, not even when they were cleared to return to the ransacked House floor and vote to certify the presidential election. She passed shattered glass, splintered wood, feces smeared on the Capitol walls that Dean had always found “gorgeous” and “stately.”
A mere 2 days before posting an alleged "recall" of those Jan. 6th events in the first person, Ms. Dean wrote in a post titled "Rep. Madeleine Dean: I had hoped the tragedy of Jan. 6 would bring us together. I was wrong." she writes:
"The lies that stormed the Capitol remain a threat to our democracy." ---Madeleine Dean
Yes, they do, Ms. Dean. However, most of those lies appear to remain on behalf of our own government and its propaganda mouthpieces--not protesters of the 2022 Presidential Election.
It seems odd that you chose the passage you did to reply to. It seems odd that you needed to ask for evidence, and couldn’t look it up yourself. Below are citations for three news reports of the fact cited in the passage, which were instantly produced by an Internet search for the salient phrase.
International business times
DNA Test on Poop Smeared in Capitol Hallways? Theory Surfaces as Search For Rioters Begins
By Parwinder Sandhu
Updated January 9, 2021 21:35 +08
New York Post
Rioters left feces, urine in hallways and offices during mobbing of US Capitol
By
Social Links for
Carl Campanile and
Social Links for
Yaron Steinbuch
Published Jan. 8, 2021
Updated June 30, 2021
Vox
Whiteness is at the core of the insurrection
The answer to how the Capitol riots happened is right in front of us.
Of course you don't; your not interested in evidence in the first place. However, you're entitled to your opinion--but what a travesty. There is no evidence that an insurrection took place on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capital. The only evidence of what took place was a soccer riot. One that, in my opinion, developed out a level of frustration with voting suppression and fraud that took place during the 2020 election. This was a result of and illegal Plandemic lock down associated with unconstitutional executive State government actions issued under false states of emergencies-- that lasted nearly 3 years. No state of emergency should last 3 yrs! That fact, in itself, identifies a problem that has gone, to this day, unaddressed. The fact that the public (much less Congress) is not investigating why that was-- is also a major travesty. If you look at the facts, there were plenty of affidavits in various U.S. States attesting to alleged voter fraud--actually brought on by the introduction of series of question state laws (taking advantage of Plandemic early on) that broadened absentee voting rights. The most absurd one being that no affidavit for signature of absentee voter was required. In my opinion, this aspect of (formerly illegal) voting, opened the door widely for voter fraud. I heard many affadavits -- read aloud on the radio in real time--asserting such by Pennsylvanians. Much of these had to do with voting irregularities...in particular with voter suppression and the counting of absentee ballots that were incomplete or irregular (unverifiable dating, illegible names, or apparent duplicates). In fact, I experienced voter suppression myself at my poll location whereby I was initially denied entry into polling location due to the fact that I was not wearing a face covering. Only after presenting the exact language of the executive order document demonstrating that the polling agent was "misinterpreting" existing law (and that had to be to a superior) was I finally allowed to enter and vote. Had I not been prepared and persistent in the rule of law, I would have been disenfranchised that day. For the record, I have a witness to this clear act of voter suppression. All of these Pennsylvanian affidavits (along with other states like Georgia, Mich., Arizona, etc.) were buried at he highest level of courts: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/election_law/litigation/
despite being considered to have merit by lower courts. In many cases the appeal rulings at the State level were NOT issued by a majority. Further, in many cases, the ultimate reason for dismissal were vague and obtuse... and only given after judicial conference in private---which doesn't appear to represent public and transparent justice to me. They were all dismissed hat out of hand. In almost every case no public jury (to my knowledge) was allowed to hear the facts. That's even more than incredible. Based on this evidence, I can only assume the courts were instructed at the highest levels to bury all instances (which I believe was unprecedented in terms of number of affidavits filed) of voter irregularly for fear of having to dismiss the validity of a president elect and risk having the U.S. election process--long considered a bastion of Democracy-- being rooted out for the corrupt process it really is. THIS appears to be the genesis of the soccer riot that occurred on Jan. 6th.--not the intent of insurrection (one only has to note the display of U.S. Flags during Jan. 6th soccer riot--which anyone has to admit as being incongruous for any "insurectionist" to carry the flag of a government you're attempting to overthrow). In my opinion, the U.S. Congress has done nothing since to quell those fact based voting irregularities and suspicions. Their only response is instill fear by locking up anyone in attendance or that questions their narrative of events. That narrative included claiming that unarmed soccer rioters killed police that day (when, in fact, it was only armed police that killed a rioter--Ashli Babbit--that day). So, more than your swallowing of propaganda, Julio, and the spreading of misinformation (alongside Alexander Chimin with his anal fixations)--the electorate allowing a partisan Congress to generate and attempt to cement this ridiculous propaganda is the biggest travesty here.
"However, you're entitled to your opinion--but what a travesty." Thank you, WWII, for the entitlement, now I see that you are not only extremely nice but a genius too. Thank you very very much!
Mr. Santos, thank you for your support in dealing with WWII. If I had immediately recognized him as a troll, I would of course never have replied to him. Unfortunately he is not merely a troll, he is so deeply invested in Trump-psychosis conspiracy theories, both emotionally and cognitively, that he is behaving like a sociopath. In contrast, it seems that some, or perhaps nearly all, Trumpers do act like normal, sane people and good citizens apart from their delusory political opinions. Let us hope that WWII’s sociopathic behavior is only verbal, and that his psychotic detachment from reality is only temporary. BTW—You’re quite funny.
Atef Abu Saif: Thank-you for speaking with Chris Hedges - to try and allow us some sense of the living nightmare through which you and the remaining members of your family are living. Of the Zionist inhumanity - your description of walking - heads forward - with your boy - so as not to attract the attention of the possible death-deliverer sitting atop his tanks as the waves of displaced grief-stricken human beings filed past. I remember reading the earlier report of you with your niece Wissum. I am writing from Australia - I was in Egypt earlier this year - already then five months+ the genocide and destruction had been going - just a few hundred km from where I was in Alexandria and in Cairo - speaking with people - the incomprehensibility of what the Zionists with the US, the UK - with support from my own land - politicians well-and-truly bribed by the Zionist lobbies here - supplying weaponry/components to Israel - how could they? We will long remember this interview. Again سحوكران
In my opinion, all this tragedy could have been avoided if the Zionists had not weaponized discredited biblical myths about ancient Palestine and convinced the European Jews that they were the rightful owners of Palestine for being descendants of the original inhabitants of that land given to them by God, when it appears that they really are the descendants of the Khazars, a Turkish nation of the Caucasus that converted to Judaism in the eighth century and was later forced to move westward.
Following I'm quoting Israeli history professor at the University of Tell Aviv Shlomo Sand who wrote the bestselling book in Israel "The Invention of the Jewish People":
"The conclusion accepted by a majority of the new archaeologists and Bible scholars was that there never was a great united monarchy and that King Solomon never had grand palaces in which he housed his 700 wives and 300 concubines. The fact that the Bible does not name this large empire strengthens this conclusion. It was late writers who invented and glorified a mighty United Kingdom, established by the grace of the single deity. Their rich and distinctive imagination also produced the famous stories about the creation of the world and the terrible flood, the wanderings of the forefathers and Jacob’s struggle with the angel, the exodus from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, the conquest of Canaan and the miraculous stopping of the sun in Gibeon. The central myths about the primeval origin of a marvelous nation that emerged from the desert, conquered a spacious land and built a glorious kingdom were a boon for rising Jewish nationalism and Zionist colonization. For a century they provided textual fuel of canonical quality that energized a complex politics of identity and territorial expansion demanding self-justification and considerable sacrifice. Troublesome archaeologists and Bible scholars, in Israel and abroad, undermined these myths, which by the end of the twentieth century seemed about to be relegated to the status of fiction, with an unbridgeable gulf gaping between them and real history. But although Israeli society was no longer so engaged, and no longer so in need of the historical legitimation that had supported its creation and its very existence, it still had difficulty accepting the new findings, and the public obstinately resisted the change in the direction of research."
Yes, today many of the biblical stories are recognized as myths by most informed people except for those religious folks enslaved by their addiction to delusions. Some years ago, NOVA produced a great documentary showing those archeological and bible scholars' newest findings: "The Bible's Buried Secrets, Beyond Fact of Fiction".
About the Khazars origin, Israeli professor of history Ilan Pappe writes in his book "Ten Myths About Israel" the following:
"There are those who would like to question whether the Jews who settled in Palestine as Zionists in the aftermath of 1918 were really the descendants of the Jews who had been exiled by Rome 2,000 years ago. It began with popular doubts cast by Arthur Koestler (1905–83), who wrote The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) in which he advanced the theory that the Jewish settlers were descended from the Khazars...
Israeli scientists have ever since tried to prove that there is a genetic connection between the Jews of Roman Palestine and those of present-day Israel. Nevertheless, the debate continues today....
In the particular case of the claims of nineteenth-century Zionism, it is not the historical accuracy of those claims that matters. What matters is not whether the present Jews in Israel are the authentic descendants of those who lived in the Roman era, but rather the state of Israel’s insistence that it represents all the Jews in the world and that everything it does is for their sake and on their behalf. Until 1967, this claim was very helpful for the state of Israel. Jews around the world, in particular in the United States, became its main supporters whenever its policies were questioned. In many respects, this is still the case in the United States today. However, even there, as well as in other Jewish communities, this clear association is nowadays challenged."
Of course, true findings about the origins of any nation are always contested everywhere, after all:
"A Nation … is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbors." —Karl Deutsch, Nationality and Its Alternatives, 1969
Agreed, my America, like any other country, is united by common lies about their origins, and hatred of its Neighbours. About the Khazars, it seems it was the best kept secret by the Zionists although it has been a known fact much before the publication of "The thirteen tribe". The first time I knew it was when I read the book "Facts Are Facts' which contains a letter of Jewish American BENJAMIN H. FREEDMAN to Dr. Goldstein dated October 10, 1954" There Mr. Freedman tells in detail the whole history:
"In the 1st century B.C., the Khazars invaded eastern Europe from their homeland in Asia... Prior to the 10th century the Khazar Kingdom had already been reduced by Russian conquests to an area of about 800,000 square miles. (see map). As you will observe on this map reproduced from the Jewish Encyclopedia the territory of the Khazar in the 10th century was still by far the largest of any in Europe. The population of the Kingdom was made up for the most part of Khazars with the addition of the remnants of the populations of the 25 peaceful agricultural nations had inhabited this approximate 1,000,000 square miles... The Khazars were not “Semites.” They were an Asiatic Mongoloid nation. They are classified by modern, anthropologists as Turco-Finns racially. From time immemorial the homeland of the Khazars was in the heart of Asia. They were a very warlike nation... In a comparatively short period the Khazars established the largest and most powerful kingdom in Europe, and probably the wealthiest also. The Khazars were a pagan nation when they invaded eastern Europe. Their religious worship was a mixture of phallic worship and other forms of idolatrous worship practiced in Asia by pagan nations. This form of worship continued until the 7th century. The vile forms of sexual excesses indulged in by the Khazars as their form of religious worship produced a degree of moral degeneracy the Khazar’s king could not endure. In the 7th century King Bulan, ruler at that time of the Khazar Kingdom, decided to abolish the practice of phallic worship and other forms of idolatrous worship and make one of the three monotheistic religions, about which he knew very little, the new state religion. After a historic session with representatives of the three monotheistic religions King Bulan decided against Christianity and Islam and selected as the future state religion of the religious worship then known as “Talmudism,” and now known and practiced as “Judaism.” This event is well documented in history. King Bulan and his 4000 feudal nobles were promptly converted by rabbis imported from Babylonia for that event. Phallic worship and other forms of idolatry were thereafter forbidden. The Khazar kings invited large numbers of rabbis to come and open synagogues and schools to instruct the population in the new form of religious worship. It was now the state religion. The converted Khazars were the first population of so-called or self-styled “Jews” in eastern Europe... After the conversion of King Bulan none but a so-called or self-styled “Jew” could occupy the Khazar throne..."
Chris thank you for these journalistic high-standard interviews, I watched the David Hearst interview first. Full of perspectives we seldom get from our Western media.
The disingenuous and inaccurate use of the word "genocide" in describing the Israeli war against Hamas destroys all credibility for any writing on the topic.
the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group
exactly which part of the definition are you contesting isn't in play and hence is "disingenuous and inaccurate"?
"large number" perhaps? if so, what's "large" to you? what's the minimum number of Palestinians that need to be killed or persecuted before it's acceptable for it to be labelled a genocide? Notice the "or persecuted" in the definition. Killing is not a requirement for the label to apply.
or maybe "deliberate" or "with the aim of destroying that nation or group"? if so, read the rhetoric from Israeli's themselves: https://www.israelquotes.com/
but language is a powerful tool, and should be wielded in a way that allows understanding. The first step in that understanding is to accept usage. The definition of words depends on common agreement. So, while anyone has the right to define words in their own way, it’s far more useful to accept the common meanings, and save personal ones for your poetry.
Naw. Words have distinctive meaning. That fact can lead to wins in legal cases over those that misuse or mis-define words. The federal register is full of words that are meant to have distinct meaning. We have dictionaries for a reason.
Genocide: "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group."
Israel justifiably destroying Hamas is not that.
If you and Chris where honest about this, you would both admit that it Hamas, Hezbollah, Israel and much of the Muslim middle east that dreams of genocide of Israeli people. But then it might be that you too want that. Maybe you are a Hamas supporter. Then that makes you a terrorist too... and more accurately responsible for real genocide.
Frank, calling people on the site who disagree with you a terrorist is unacceptable. You were warned before about making personal attacks on commentators and will not be removed.
IMHO way more pernicious. Intended to do harm--by asserting any questioning of official propaganda is proof the dissenter is an enemy. Which justifies counterattacks, no matter false, illogical, or vicious. If it were a simple matter of not knowing, the tone wouldn't be so nasty.
Fully agreed. This has been evident for a long time, and I didn't want to say what everyone knows. Actually, I wonder if this individual is actually a real person or rather the result of some kind of computer bug implanted by a political organization. I would like to know if the management of this site can investigate the source of the participants.
You claim "words have a distinct meaning" then proceed to disprove your own case.
To begin with, if words were so clearly defined, particularly in law, then few cases would ever be brought to court. By "federal register" I presume you mean the CFRs--if you think they (and their state versions) are clear, spend some time reading them.
You use the dictionary definition of genocide. Fine. But then you slip in several logical fallacies. 1.) Argument by assertion--you simply claim The Truth without any evidence.
2.) Leaping to a conclusion--as if the dictionary definition proves Israel is not committing genocide. It doesn't. Is Israel exempt a priori? Besides, there is ample evidence that they are doing so as presented on this site for months.
3.) The single sentence 3rd paragraph has three errors in logic. That Israel is "justified"--why? In everything everywhere at all times? Also implies that merely evoking the name Hamas is carte blanche for any action taken, no matter how horrific. And appears to equate all Palestinians with Hamas. If so, then destroying Palestinians, including children, whether randomly or deliberately, is the same as destroying Hamas, so no problem. Except that it is...
4.) The most egregious example of ad hominem I've ever seen on this site. If someone cannot present a good case or rebuttal, they stoop to attacking the presenter. Like in the '30s or '50s how labor organizers were declared to be Communists by corporate officials. Not only character assassination, but also deflection away from the real issue of fairness for workers. Supporting the organizers often meant the charge of "maybe you're a Communist, too!" This warped "logic" was disgusting, shameful, and vicious then and it still is.
Mr Lee. Persons who react as you have reacted are deeply sick in their hearts and souls. Your dialog is that of an insane person. Have a nice eternity...
I've agreed with him on other issues, primarily about the working class. Both of us deeply resent the elitism of the D party and how we blue collar people are often talked down to by liberal intellectuals. As if it were a shock to consider that some of us might actually read, write, and think. Plus the lack of objections when we're seriously demeaned by phrases like "a basket of deplorables."
That said, I cannot fathom why he refuses to see the similarities between the oppression of labor and the attacks on Gaza. That's why I made the analogy between what he said about Chris and how labor organizers were attacked ad hominem in the '30s and '50s.
I get your point, but disagree with any equivalents regarding political oppression of labor organizations and the maiming of civilian life in Palestine. Labor organizations still had freedom of movement away from the oppressors. Civil populations in Gaza are existing in barbed wire prison camps. They are left to starve to death or await rape and murder. There are vast differences...
I none the less, appreciate your comment. Best regards.
I'm just reading statements to-day suggesting the number of dead in Gaza lies somewhere between 200,000 and in the next month or two 600,000. That's genocide Frank. Genocide!
I agree Tooran is just making a personal attack--and usually I'd jump on this as unfair. But maybe it was meant as a calling out, dark humor. Since you're fond of dictionary definitions, look up the word //irony.// Because your reply to Sera and obliquely to Chris is blatant ad hominem.
I just did. The definition of "irony" cites the recent example of Anthony Blinken railing against the legitimacy a Venezuelan government running fair elections as he masquerades about as a significant member of a U.S. administration installed under the same (if not more so) questionable circumstances.
Why of course! Blinken's standard reference is the Carroll Looking Glass dictionary (neocon NRSV edition): "When I use a word...it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less." All the more so since these Ivy Ds are by definition (theirs) our intellectual and administrative class superiors. They should never be questioned by inferiors such as working class nobodies like me and other ignorant malcontents.
Since ignorance is bliss (such is the goal of public education these days), the ignorant wouldn't be the malcontents. So whether you're ignorant or informed, your duty default (particularly if one wishes to achieve a functioning republic) as a citizen is to always question authority.
This interview has left me in tears. Wassam's story is one of the most harrowing things that I have ever read. What's wrong with these people? They are behaving in a way that makes me doubt if they are fully human. The words of Macbeth come to mind - "I have supped full of horrors." And the West continues to stand by and watch it happen. I'm not the first to say that I've never seen anything as bad as this in my lifetime. How much longer?
thank you, sir for an incredible interview. I could not help cry alongside you. It's a nightmare to see America supporting this genocide and mass murder ... evil pure evil. Many of my colleagues and friends are cheering it on if you can believe such I can't wrap my head around it. it makes me wonder about who I've been friends with all these decades who are these people??? joe w
Since you took pains to triple qualify your description of Israeli actions in Gaza, can you please elucidate the difference you see between "evil" and "pure evil" actions ?
was voice texting? It left out a comma.
evil, pure evil.
I understood. The grammatical oversight is of no concern...and irrelevant to my question. To rephrase my question; Why is it important to you to emphasize the actions of Israel in Gaza as "pure evil" rather than, simply, "evil"?
How about "pure fuckling evil" - do you understand THAT - as in -killing thousands of defenseless people whose land you have stolen and occupied for 75 years.
John, you are quite right, and there is no need to argue with someone who needs to hide behind a moniker. Facts proving the Palestinian genocide continue to accumulate by the hour. Israeli and our leadership will have to pay for it but for now they are already signed in to the annals of infamy. I will not vote for any politician that chants the mantra "Israel has the right to self-defense" It is like if they were telling me the home invaders that you fought off had the right to self-defense. Yes, sometimes we have to use a clearer language for those with understanding impairment and I will say to them: our morals and politics are a fucking mess.
First of all...I've paid for and legally own all the land I occupy. Second, you need to learn how to spell. Lastly, religious dogma (however butchered you apply it) plays no part in the possibility of legally prosecuting a case of genocide.
Thank you Chris Hedges and Atef Abu Saif. The wrenching of my soul is impossible to describe. I've been acutely aware of 'conditions' in Palestine for many decades. It is a horror...
I was once in email contact with a Palestinian woman who was a stunning artist. Her art often depicted dreams of living in a place of total peace, even though there were scenes of conflict occurring in the deep background. It captured the viewer like no other art I've ever seen. Her last email stated she had "been moved" to an encampment in Gaza. I'm quite sure she did not survive for very long.
As long as weapons are made available to the Israeli State, the horror will continue. I am ashamed to be an American...
BRAVO and thank you. And a bit of good news: TWO unsuccessful US-led coups – in Georgia and Venezuela (read Parampil’s new book – Corporate Coups)
Georgia Averts Coup by US-Backed War Criminal Group – Jul 31
https://youtu.be/paLzJaHOUYs?si=s36TH5mOLl9wgHOo
Thank you❣️so moving, and important.
I noticed early in this attack on Gaza (I refuse to call it a war) the Palestinians no matter how upset or how old or young they are don’t call for vengeance or an attack of the Israeli’s I know Israel was attacked on October 7, but in general, the people don’t talk about violence against Israeli’s That’s the biggest of many lies. Netanyahu claims that Israeles are victims, and the world lets them get away with it. The lies are the least of what they let them get away with. I’m completely against violence, but I wonder what all These weapons are for⁉️ in America the weapons manufactures and our government tell us it’s to protect us. It appears they’re not telling the truth‼️
Thank you very much Chris, for everything you represent to us who can still feel.
Also, thank you for allowing your guest to speak without limiting their time, after they have been silenced by ovewhelming brutallity!
We need to hear people who need to speak, even when we have to pause so many times to sob uncontrollably.
Palestinians Tortured in Israeli Prison Camps
I have seen nothing in our main stream media about these torture camps nor the descriptions of torture methods given by Palestinian prisoners who are eventually released.
Here is the testimony of Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, who himself was jailed by Israel for seven months without charge. “We were subjected to severe torture, and my little finger was broken. I was repeatedly subjected to hitting on the head, causing bleeding multiple times. There was almost daily torture in the Israeli prisons. When prisoners’ cells were raided daily, they were severely beaten every day. We say this with full certainty, and we lived through it with great bitterness.” …
Here is the testimony of Palestinian attorney Khaled Mahajneh, who was the first lawyer to visit Sde Teiman. “The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo.”
(Note: Broken fingers are serious injuries to surgeons who take care to protect their hands from any injury. And the signature torture injury is an amputated limb because they were so tightly handcuffed for so long.)
Here are the links:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/1/israel_gaza_palestinian_prisoners_torture
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/opt/20240731-Thematic-report-Detention-context-Gaza-hostilities.pdfontext-Gaza-hostilities.pdf
https://zeteo.com/p/rioting-for-the-right-to-rape-palestinians
https://zeteo.com/p/israel-sde-teiman-prisoners-palestinians-torture?r=16l6m&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://www.972mag.com/sde-teiman-beit-lid-protests-detainees/
And Caitlin Johnstone just wrote about the latest Biden - Netanyahu meeting:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/promoting-peace-and-stability-in?r=16l6m&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
There is a leitmotif that runs throughout Atef Abu Saif’s description of his life experience. That leitmotif is the question, “Why?” Thus a newly arrived inmate in a Nazi concentration camp asked, regarding a guard’s pointlessly cruel act, “Why did you do that?” The guard’s reply was, “There is no why here.”
In the course of this interview, CH offered to AAS a rational explanation for what AAS has suffered all his life, namely the political motivations responsible for the destruction inflicted by “settler colonial projects.” AAS demurred: “Yeah. Theoretically, you can understand” the crimes of the Israelis, but “They’re doing it with joy and pleasure.” Furthermore, he asked, “why do you kill a poet?” He continued, the poet Rafeet Alareer was “a person who always wanted to seek to live in peace, who always wanted to write about love, but he didn’t find love to write about it.”
Among the comments on this interview with AAS, many are responses to Frank Lee’s comments. Some of these responses are quite hostile, some offer strong rebuttals, and some offer strong but sympathetic rebuttals. Other comments on this interview offer, as CH did, rational explanations of the historical origins of the situation in Gaza. Others offer heartbroken sympathy for AAS’s suffering. Others offer severe criticism of Western governments. All these comments are entirely reasonable, or at least understandable.
But AAS understands something that no one else has. He understands what the Nazi concentration camp guard understood: “There is no why here.” AAS understands that Israeli society, both political and civil, has descended into the depth of nihilism where there is no why.
The political and social disease we call “fascism” or “totalitarianism,” which is not a political ideology but a society-wide mental disease, is founded on a symbiotic bond between the population and a leader who is on the severe end of the narcissistic personality disorder spectrum, with extreme levels of sadism and malignancy, and an analizing personality. “Malignancy” refers to the fact that the leader is supremely and maliciously destructive, and “analizing” to the even more advanced pathological condition of wanting to turn everything in the universe into excrement. Thus soldiers will smear excrement on the walls of homes they have despoiled—as the January 6 insurrectionists smeared excrement on the walls of the United States Capitol. Similarly, the Israeli government has just disclosed that it sanctions the mass rape, including particularly the mass anal rape, of Palestinian captives by Israeli soldiers. These expressions of mass psychosis express the depth of human depravity, the ne plus ultra of nihilism, the ultimate triumph of what Freud called the death instinct.
CH and the commenters on the interview respond to this nihilism in various ways, as described above. But only AAS addresses the heart of the issue, which Coleridge (referring to Shakespeare’s Iago) called “motiveless malignity.” Only AAS responds to this nihilistic motiveless malignity, which has warped everything in his life that he loves, with a heart informed by love and compassion. Compassion is not the same as sympathy or pity, but something immeasurably more profound. A Buddhist nun who had been tortured was asked what her greatest fear had been while she was being tortured. She replied, “The fear that I would lose compassion for my torturers.” Who among us has evinced a capacity for such profound compassion, or the desire to attain such compassion? But such love and compassion are the only possible basis for the regeneration of the human race. As the poet W.H. Auden famously wrote, “We must love one another or die.”
The disease of fascism, whose cure requires such love and compassion, is a mental disease, a form of mass psychosis, and a contagious plague. Whatever historical etiology or form any particular instance of fascism may have, it is always nihilistic. But while it always spreads to a great many people and causes widespread death and destruction, it does not always proceed to the ultimate end of total destruction. In 2024 the human race possesses the technological means to fully enact its death wish, not in only one way but in either of two, global ecocide or the global mass annihilation that nuclear war would cause. The human race is now extremely close to committing mass suicide in one of these two ways, but it insists on remaining in a state of denial about it, because the prospect is too overwhelming for it to face like serious adults. As the poet T.S. Eliot famously wrote, “human kind / Cannot bear very much reality.” We pretend to ourselves that we are muddling through, proceeding as usual from one disaster to another.
It is essential to recognize that while the entire US population does not suffer from the mass psychosis of fascism, as do the thirty-five percent or so who support Trump, the rest of the population is indeed infected with a secondary case of that mass psychosis. If a psychiatrist spends a day in a ward of a mental institution, by the end of the day he doesn’t know who is sane and who is crazy, him or them. It is impossible to dwell in a psychologically diseased social environment without contracting at least a secondary case of that psychopathology. Thus we have all internalized some degree of the nihilism spread throughout American society by Trump. That is why so many responses to American and Israeli fascism are so inadequate.
Atef Abu Saif, in contrast, having lived all his life with the consequences of the mass psychosis of Israel, has, like the Buddhist nun, learned to resist succumbing to the secondary mass psychosis of fascism, and learned instead to somehow miraculously fill its void abyss with human plenitude.
Social media accounts by Vox and propaganda reports from the New York Post (that's the best you got?) citing "unnamed sources". What a joke.
This is a reply to WWII’s two replies to my original comment.
Your first reply to my comment was not, as it presented itself as being, a good-faith request for “evidence.” It was a malicious quibble. That the January 6 insurrectionists smeared excrement in the US Capitol was widely reported at the time by major news outlets both on the web and on television. Anyone who was following the events of that time in detail would have known about it. If you had had a serious, good-faith concern about whether it occurred, then you would have researched the matter yourself, which you could have done as easily as querying me. If your concern had been serious and in good faith, then after I extended you the courtesy of supplying three citations from a sixty-second search, you would not have responded to these citations by flagrantly misrepresenting them in order to devalue them with a nasty, childish taunt. If you still had honest doubts about the fact, you would have researched the matter further yourself.
Your bad-faith request for “evidence,” a devious device for setting me up for a malicious response, calls to mind a remark by the poet William Blake: “The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a self-evident thing is a Knave.” I supplied the citations to you despite the fact, as I observed then, that your request was “odd. ” Your subsequent behavior has shown that I should never have responded to your not merely odd, but in fact inappropriate, request. You have taught me that it is necessary to be self-protective about getting trolled.
The question remains, why did you select a trivial, non-essential element from my lengthy original comment to query me about? As Freud says, there are no accidents in psychological life. The element you selected concerns smearing excrement on the walls of the US Capitol. By asking me to respond to what turned out to be your malicious quibble, you gained the ability to respond to me with a vicious, lying devaluation that would be read by others. That is, it enabled you to smear excrement on my original comment—just as the January 6 insurrectionists smeared excrement in the US Capitol. Furthermore, you knew that in order to cope with the vast quantity of material on the internet, readers tend to scan comments, including the replies to them, in order to select the comments they will read. You knew that anyone seeing your vicious devaluation of my original comment might well be disinclined to read my comment, since according to you it was based on a bad “joke.” You did succeed in sort-of misleading a reader who agreed with my essential point: Julio Santo “Nobody” wrote, “I don’t need any other evidence. IMO the rioters symbolically pooped on democracy.”
Why did you have the need to smear excrement on my original comment? That you did so means you have an analizing character pathology: you are given to practicing anal aggression against other people. Your unconscious is fully aware of your character trait, but it is unacceptable to your conscious self. When you read about this character pathology in my original comment, you unconsciously recognized yourself. Therefore you had to prevent the painful and threatening awareness of this character trait of yours from rising into consciousness; you had to put yourself into a state of denial about it. Therefore you pointlessly questioned a trivial part of my original comment, though it was a widely-reported fact, and then lied to discredit the evidence I supplied for it. This unconscious and absurdly circuitous symbolic ritual enabled you to practice denial of your own character trait. In order to deny that you practice anal aggression, you needed to practice anal aggression.
Someone who engages in this kind of behavior does so fundamentally because he envies the ability of other people to experience happiness by “living well and working well” (to use a phrase of Freud’s). To engage in this kind of defensive aggression is both destructive and futile, both anti-social and self-defeating. It does nothing to relieve the feelings of worthlessness, self-loathing, hatred, rage, and so forth that inspire it. To the contrary, it only tightens the screws on one’s own unhappiness.
Please believe me when I say that I sincerely wish you the best, and hope that in future years you will be able to find your way out of the labyrinth of unhappiness you appear to be lost in.
You will understand, however, that I must request that you not address any more replies to me. I will not respond.
don't bother with this troll / hasbara - they are only here to create confusion - they know dam well what you wrote and are fucking with you and anyone else that sees the Israelis as the murderers they are. Ignore the troll.
Thank you, Mr. Ressler. I now see from WWII’s additional remarks in this thread, to you and to Julio Santos “Nobody,” that WWII is suffering from such severe psychological problems that there is nothing to be said to him here. I have ignored posts from trolls in the past, but the trolling was obvious and direct. With WWII, I got sucked down a rabbit hole before I knew what was happening. In addition, it is remarkable how one can find oneself emotionally upset by a stranger’s rage long before one is aware that one is upset, especially when their rage is somewhat controlled on their outside and very much out of control on their inside. Your counsel is helpful and reassuring.
@Alexander-
You provided no links. That's most likely because they don't exist. I have yet to see one photo of rioter's excrement smeared on halls of Capital Hill. If it's so ubiquitous in terms of public knowledge and evidence, then I challenge you to link to a single one.
Sure, I've heard plenty of innuendos from from unnamed Schumer "staffers" claiming such--but no photos. If this is such a salient "fact" worthy of being repeated in your post, Alexander, then surely you should be able to provide evidence for it. You don't. Nor does anyone else. , In fact, I've even read an account of Jan. 6th by heavily partisan Pennsylvania representative Madeline Dean who posts an article titled "Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection a year later: Congress members reveal details of their escape" dated Jan. 04, 2022. Mind you, this is an allegedly well educated person with a law degree that would surely be schooled in the importance of evidence. Yet she provides none for her overly sensational account--- even with her smart phone admittedly in hand during most of the incident. She writes (note the first hand reference): “I was on the phone with my family from the time they told us to put the gas masks on,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. The article goes on to post the sensational "feces smeared" account in her article, but interestingly, it is written in the third person an attributed to not one, but an array of reporters identified as Charles Stile, Candy Woodall, Jo Ciavaglia, Kathryne Rubright, Dustin Racioppi, Jim Martin, Chris McKenna and Joseph Spector, USA TODAY NETWORKS. Why doesn't Ms. Dean write the account of seeing "feces smeared" walls herself? Why does she attribute that to the propaganda outlet USA TODAY NETWORKS? I suppose her M.O. safety in numbers...and vagary. That's appears to be the legal education coming out in her. Anyhow, the "NETWORK" writes on the above referenced post:
"She didn’t feel safe at any point that day, not even when they were cleared to return to the ransacked House floor and vote to certify the presidential election. She passed shattered glass, splintered wood, feces smeared on the Capitol walls that Dean had always found “gorgeous” and “stately.”
A mere 2 days before posting an alleged "recall" of those Jan. 6th events in the first person, Ms. Dean wrote in a post titled "Rep. Madeleine Dean: I had hoped the tragedy of Jan. 6 would bring us together. I was wrong." she writes:
"The lies that stormed the Capitol remain a threat to our democracy." ---Madeleine Dean
Yes, they do, Ms. Dean. However, most of those lies appear to remain on behalf of our own government and its propaganda mouthpieces--not protesters of the 2022 Presidential Election.
Go away hasbara - adios
I don't plan on going anywhere. With all due respect, Ressler-- piss up a rope.
"as the January 6 insurrectionists smeared excrement on the walls of the United States Capitol." ---Alexander Chimes
Care to cite evidence for your assertion(s)?
It seems odd that you chose the passage you did to reply to. It seems odd that you needed to ask for evidence, and couldn’t look it up yourself. Below are citations for three news reports of the fact cited in the passage, which were instantly produced by an Internet search for the salient phrase.
International business times
DNA Test on Poop Smeared in Capitol Hallways? Theory Surfaces as Search For Rioters Begins
By Parwinder Sandhu
Updated January 9, 2021 21:35 +08
New York Post
Rioters left feces, urine in hallways and offices during mobbing of US Capitol
By
Social Links for
Carl Campanile and
Social Links for
Yaron Steinbuch
Published Jan. 8, 2021
Updated June 30, 2021
Vox
Whiteness is at the core of the insurrection
The answer to how the Capitol riots happened is right in front of us.
by Fabiola Cineas
Jan 8, 2021 at 3:40 PM PST
I don't need any other evidence. IMO the rioters symbolically pooped on democracy.
Of course you don't; your not interested in evidence in the first place. However, you're entitled to your opinion--but what a travesty. There is no evidence that an insurrection took place on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capital. The only evidence of what took place was a soccer riot. One that, in my opinion, developed out a level of frustration with voting suppression and fraud that took place during the 2020 election. This was a result of and illegal Plandemic lock down associated with unconstitutional executive State government actions issued under false states of emergencies-- that lasted nearly 3 years. No state of emergency should last 3 yrs! That fact, in itself, identifies a problem that has gone, to this day, unaddressed. The fact that the public (much less Congress) is not investigating why that was-- is also a major travesty. If you look at the facts, there were plenty of affidavits in various U.S. States attesting to alleged voter fraud--actually brought on by the introduction of series of question state laws (taking advantage of Plandemic early on) that broadened absentee voting rights. The most absurd one being that no affidavit for signature of absentee voter was required. In my opinion, this aspect of (formerly illegal) voting, opened the door widely for voter fraud. I heard many affadavits -- read aloud on the radio in real time--asserting such by Pennsylvanians. Much of these had to do with voting irregularities...in particular with voter suppression and the counting of absentee ballots that were incomplete or irregular (unverifiable dating, illegible names, or apparent duplicates). In fact, I experienced voter suppression myself at my poll location whereby I was initially denied entry into polling location due to the fact that I was not wearing a face covering. Only after presenting the exact language of the executive order document demonstrating that the polling agent was "misinterpreting" existing law (and that had to be to a superior) was I finally allowed to enter and vote. Had I not been prepared and persistent in the rule of law, I would have been disenfranchised that day. For the record, I have a witness to this clear act of voter suppression. All of these Pennsylvanian affidavits (along with other states like Georgia, Mich., Arizona, etc.) were buried at he highest level of courts: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/election_law/litigation/
despite being considered to have merit by lower courts. In many cases the appeal rulings at the State level were NOT issued by a majority. Further, in many cases, the ultimate reason for dismissal were vague and obtuse... and only given after judicial conference in private---which doesn't appear to represent public and transparent justice to me. They were all dismissed hat out of hand. In almost every case no public jury (to my knowledge) was allowed to hear the facts. That's even more than incredible. Based on this evidence, I can only assume the courts were instructed at the highest levels to bury all instances (which I believe was unprecedented in terms of number of affidavits filed) of voter irregularly for fear of having to dismiss the validity of a president elect and risk having the U.S. election process--long considered a bastion of Democracy-- being rooted out for the corrupt process it really is. THIS appears to be the genesis of the soccer riot that occurred on Jan. 6th.--not the intent of insurrection (one only has to note the display of U.S. Flags during Jan. 6th soccer riot--which anyone has to admit as being incongruous for any "insurectionist" to carry the flag of a government you're attempting to overthrow). In my opinion, the U.S. Congress has done nothing since to quell those fact based voting irregularities and suspicions. Their only response is instill fear by locking up anyone in attendance or that questions their narrative of events. That narrative included claiming that unarmed soccer rioters killed police that day (when, in fact, it was only armed police that killed a rioter--Ashli Babbit--that day). So, more than your swallowing of propaganda, Julio, and the spreading of misinformation (alongside Alexander Chimin with his anal fixations)--the electorate allowing a partisan Congress to generate and attempt to cement this ridiculous propaganda is the biggest travesty here.
"However, you're entitled to your opinion--but what a travesty." Thank you, WWII, for the entitlement, now I see that you are not only extremely nice but a genius too. Thank you very very much!
Mr. Santos, thank you for your support in dealing with WWII. If I had immediately recognized him as a troll, I would of course never have replied to him. Unfortunately he is not merely a troll, he is so deeply invested in Trump-psychosis conspiracy theories, both emotionally and cognitively, that he is behaving like a sociopath. In contrast, it seems that some, or perhaps nearly all, Trumpers do act like normal, sane people and good citizens apart from their delusory political opinions. Let us hope that WWII’s sociopathic behavior is only verbal, and that his psychotic detachment from reality is only temporary. BTW—You’re quite funny.
Atef Abu Saif: Thank-you for speaking with Chris Hedges - to try and allow us some sense of the living nightmare through which you and the remaining members of your family are living. Of the Zionist inhumanity - your description of walking - heads forward - with your boy - so as not to attract the attention of the possible death-deliverer sitting atop his tanks as the waves of displaced grief-stricken human beings filed past. I remember reading the earlier report of you with your niece Wissum. I am writing from Australia - I was in Egypt earlier this year - already then five months+ the genocide and destruction had been going - just a few hundred km from where I was in Alexandria and in Cairo - speaking with people - the incomprehensibility of what the Zionists with the US, the UK - with support from my own land - politicians well-and-truly bribed by the Zionist lobbies here - supplying weaponry/components to Israel - how could they? We will long remember this interview. Again سحوكران
In my opinion, all this tragedy could have been avoided if the Zionists had not weaponized discredited biblical myths about ancient Palestine and convinced the European Jews that they were the rightful owners of Palestine for being descendants of the original inhabitants of that land given to them by God, when it appears that they really are the descendants of the Khazars, a Turkish nation of the Caucasus that converted to Judaism in the eighth century and was later forced to move westward.
Following I'm quoting Israeli history professor at the University of Tell Aviv Shlomo Sand who wrote the bestselling book in Israel "The Invention of the Jewish People":
"The conclusion accepted by a majority of the new archaeologists and Bible scholars was that there never was a great united monarchy and that King Solomon never had grand palaces in which he housed his 700 wives and 300 concubines. The fact that the Bible does not name this large empire strengthens this conclusion. It was late writers who invented and glorified a mighty United Kingdom, established by the grace of the single deity. Their rich and distinctive imagination also produced the famous stories about the creation of the world and the terrible flood, the wanderings of the forefathers and Jacob’s struggle with the angel, the exodus from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, the conquest of Canaan and the miraculous stopping of the sun in Gibeon. The central myths about the primeval origin of a marvelous nation that emerged from the desert, conquered a spacious land and built a glorious kingdom were a boon for rising Jewish nationalism and Zionist colonization. For a century they provided textual fuel of canonical quality that energized a complex politics of identity and territorial expansion demanding self-justification and considerable sacrifice. Troublesome archaeologists and Bible scholars, in Israel and abroad, undermined these myths, which by the end of the twentieth century seemed about to be relegated to the status of fiction, with an unbridgeable gulf gaping between them and real history. But although Israeli society was no longer so engaged, and no longer so in need of the historical legitimation that had supported its creation and its very existence, it still had difficulty accepting the new findings, and the public obstinately resisted the change in the direction of research."
Absolutely spot on. I was alerted to this book a decade or more ago by one of my former students in Japan. The truth.
Yes, today many of the biblical stories are recognized as myths by most informed people except for those religious folks enslaved by their addiction to delusions. Some years ago, NOVA produced a great documentary showing those archeological and bible scholars' newest findings: "The Bible's Buried Secrets, Beyond Fact of Fiction".
About the Khazars origin, Israeli professor of history Ilan Pappe writes in his book "Ten Myths About Israel" the following:
"There are those who would like to question whether the Jews who settled in Palestine as Zionists in the aftermath of 1918 were really the descendants of the Jews who had been exiled by Rome 2,000 years ago. It began with popular doubts cast by Arthur Koestler (1905–83), who wrote The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) in which he advanced the theory that the Jewish settlers were descended from the Khazars...
Israeli scientists have ever since tried to prove that there is a genetic connection between the Jews of Roman Palestine and those of present-day Israel. Nevertheless, the debate continues today....
In the particular case of the claims of nineteenth-century Zionism, it is not the historical accuracy of those claims that matters. What matters is not whether the present Jews in Israel are the authentic descendants of those who lived in the Roman era, but rather the state of Israel’s insistence that it represents all the Jews in the world and that everything it does is for their sake and on their behalf. Until 1967, this claim was very helpful for the state of Israel. Jews around the world, in particular in the United States, became its main supporters whenever its policies were questioned. In many respects, this is still the case in the United States today. However, even there, as well as in other Jewish communities, this clear association is nowadays challenged."
Of course, true findings about the origins of any nation are always contested everywhere, after all:
"A Nation … is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbors." —Karl Deutsch, Nationality and Its Alternatives, 1969
The Ilan Pappé and Karl Deutsch references are pure gold, JS. Thank-you.
Agreed, my America, like any other country, is united by common lies about their origins, and hatred of its Neighbours. About the Khazars, it seems it was the best kept secret by the Zionists although it has been a known fact much before the publication of "The thirteen tribe". The first time I knew it was when I read the book "Facts Are Facts' which contains a letter of Jewish American BENJAMIN H. FREEDMAN to Dr. Goldstein dated October 10, 1954" There Mr. Freedman tells in detail the whole history:
"In the 1st century B.C., the Khazars invaded eastern Europe from their homeland in Asia... Prior to the 10th century the Khazar Kingdom had already been reduced by Russian conquests to an area of about 800,000 square miles. (see map). As you will observe on this map reproduced from the Jewish Encyclopedia the territory of the Khazar in the 10th century was still by far the largest of any in Europe. The population of the Kingdom was made up for the most part of Khazars with the addition of the remnants of the populations of the 25 peaceful agricultural nations had inhabited this approximate 1,000,000 square miles... The Khazars were not “Semites.” They were an Asiatic Mongoloid nation. They are classified by modern, anthropologists as Turco-Finns racially. From time immemorial the homeland of the Khazars was in the heart of Asia. They were a very warlike nation... In a comparatively short period the Khazars established the largest and most powerful kingdom in Europe, and probably the wealthiest also. The Khazars were a pagan nation when they invaded eastern Europe. Their religious worship was a mixture of phallic worship and other forms of idolatrous worship practiced in Asia by pagan nations. This form of worship continued until the 7th century. The vile forms of sexual excesses indulged in by the Khazars as their form of religious worship produced a degree of moral degeneracy the Khazar’s king could not endure. In the 7th century King Bulan, ruler at that time of the Khazar Kingdom, decided to abolish the practice of phallic worship and other forms of idolatrous worship and make one of the three monotheistic religions, about which he knew very little, the new state religion. After a historic session with representatives of the three monotheistic religions King Bulan decided against Christianity and Islam and selected as the future state religion of the religious worship then known as “Talmudism,” and now known and practiced as “Judaism.” This event is well documented in history. King Bulan and his 4000 feudal nobles were promptly converted by rabbis imported from Babylonia for that event. Phallic worship and other forms of idolatry were thereafter forbidden. The Khazar kings invited large numbers of rabbis to come and open synagogues and schools to instruct the population in the new form of religious worship. It was now the state religion. The converted Khazars were the first population of so-called or self-styled “Jews” in eastern Europe... After the conversion of King Bulan none but a so-called or self-styled “Jew” could occupy the Khazar throne..."
Chris thank you for these journalistic high-standard interviews, I watched the David Hearst interview first. Full of perspectives we seldom get from our Western media.
The disingenuous and inaccurate use of the word "genocide" in describing the Israeli war against Hamas destroys all credibility for any writing on the topic.
genocide | ˈjenəˌsīd |
noun
the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group
exactly which part of the definition are you contesting isn't in play and hence is "disingenuous and inaccurate"?
"large number" perhaps? if so, what's "large" to you? what's the minimum number of Palestinians that need to be killed or persecuted before it's acceptable for it to be labelled a genocide? Notice the "or persecuted" in the definition. Killing is not a requirement for the label to apply.
or maybe "deliberate" or "with the aim of destroying that nation or group"? if so, read the rhetoric from Israeli's themselves: https://www.israelquotes.com/
Thank you for the link.
I see you are a poet. I love poetry,
but language is a powerful tool, and should be wielded in a way that allows understanding. The first step in that understanding is to accept usage. The definition of words depends on common agreement. So, while anyone has the right to define words in their own way, it’s far more useful to accept the common meanings, and save personal ones for your poetry.
Naw. Words have distinctive meaning. That fact can lead to wins in legal cases over those that misuse or mis-define words. The federal register is full of words that are meant to have distinct meaning. We have dictionaries for a reason.
Genocide: "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group."
Israel justifiably destroying Hamas is not that.
If you and Chris where honest about this, you would both admit that it Hamas, Hezbollah, Israel and much of the Muslim middle east that dreams of genocide of Israeli people. But then it might be that you too want that. Maybe you are a Hamas supporter. Then that makes you a terrorist too... and more accurately responsible for real genocide.
Frank, calling people on the site who disagree with you a terrorist is unacceptable. You were warned before about making personal attacks on commentators and will not be removed.
I believe the problem is absolute ignorance.
IMHO way more pernicious. Intended to do harm--by asserting any questioning of official propaganda is proof the dissenter is an enemy. Which justifies counterattacks, no matter false, illogical, or vicious. If it were a simple matter of not knowing, the tone wouldn't be so nasty.
Fully agreed. This has been evident for a long time, and I didn't want to say what everyone knows. Actually, I wonder if this individual is actually a real person or rather the result of some kind of computer bug implanted by a political organization. I would like to know if the management of this site can investigate the source of the participants.
You claim "words have a distinct meaning" then proceed to disprove your own case.
To begin with, if words were so clearly defined, particularly in law, then few cases would ever be brought to court. By "federal register" I presume you mean the CFRs--if you think they (and their state versions) are clear, spend some time reading them.
You use the dictionary definition of genocide. Fine. But then you slip in several logical fallacies. 1.) Argument by assertion--you simply claim The Truth without any evidence.
2.) Leaping to a conclusion--as if the dictionary definition proves Israel is not committing genocide. It doesn't. Is Israel exempt a priori? Besides, there is ample evidence that they are doing so as presented on this site for months.
3.) The single sentence 3rd paragraph has three errors in logic. That Israel is "justified"--why? In everything everywhere at all times? Also implies that merely evoking the name Hamas is carte blanche for any action taken, no matter how horrific. And appears to equate all Palestinians with Hamas. If so, then destroying Palestinians, including children, whether randomly or deliberately, is the same as destroying Hamas, so no problem. Except that it is...
4.) The most egregious example of ad hominem I've ever seen on this site. If someone cannot present a good case or rebuttal, they stoop to attacking the presenter. Like in the '30s or '50s how labor organizers were declared to be Communists by corporate officials. Not only character assassination, but also deflection away from the real issue of fairness for workers. Supporting the organizers often meant the charge of "maybe you're a Communist, too!" This warped "logic" was disgusting, shameful, and vicious then and it still is.
Mr Lee. Persons who react as you have reacted are deeply sick in their hearts and souls. Your dialog is that of an insane person. Have a nice eternity...
I've agreed with him on other issues, primarily about the working class. Both of us deeply resent the elitism of the D party and how we blue collar people are often talked down to by liberal intellectuals. As if it were a shock to consider that some of us might actually read, write, and think. Plus the lack of objections when we're seriously demeaned by phrases like "a basket of deplorables."
That said, I cannot fathom why he refuses to see the similarities between the oppression of labor and the attacks on Gaza. That's why I made the analogy between what he said about Chris and how labor organizers were attacked ad hominem in the '30s and '50s.
I get your point, but disagree with any equivalents regarding political oppression of labor organizations and the maiming of civilian life in Palestine. Labor organizations still had freedom of movement away from the oppressors. Civil populations in Gaza are existing in barbed wire prison camps. They are left to starve to death or await rape and murder. There are vast differences...
I none the less, appreciate your comment. Best regards.
I understand the reality is certainly not equal. The idea was to compare the logic involved in terms he might relate to.
Frank - you are a monster - a Zionist monster. Humanity resides not within you.
I'm just reading statements to-day suggesting the number of dead in Gaza lies somewhere between 200,000 and in the next month or two 600,000. That's genocide Frank. Genocide!
Do you have brain, or out of it?
Do you have something useful to say, or just personal attacks?
I agree Tooran is just making a personal attack--and usually I'd jump on this as unfair. But maybe it was meant as a calling out, dark humor. Since you're fond of dictionary definitions, look up the word //irony.// Because your reply to Sera and obliquely to Chris is blatant ad hominem.
I just did. The definition of "irony" cites the recent example of Anthony Blinken railing against the legitimacy a Venezuelan government running fair elections as he masquerades about as a significant member of a U.S. administration installed under the same (if not more so) questionable circumstances.
Why of course! Blinken's standard reference is the Carroll Looking Glass dictionary (neocon NRSV edition): "When I use a word...it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less." All the more so since these Ivy Ds are by definition (theirs) our intellectual and administrative class superiors. They should never be questioned by inferiors such as working class nobodies like me and other ignorant malcontents.
Since ignorance is bliss (such is the goal of public education these days), the ignorant wouldn't be the malcontents. So whether you're ignorant or informed, your duty default (particularly if one wishes to achieve a functioning republic) as a citizen is to always question authority.
This interview has left me in tears. Wassam's story is one of the most harrowing things that I have ever read. What's wrong with these people? They are behaving in a way that makes me doubt if they are fully human. The words of Macbeth come to mind - "I have supped full of horrors." And the West continues to stand by and watch it happen. I'm not the first to say that I've never seen anything as bad as this in my lifetime. How much longer?