Israel’s razing of Gaza is not only about ethnic cleansing. It is about the erasure of a people, a culture and a history that expose the lies used to justify the Israeli state.
Of course. The Israeli answer is "So, what does anyone propose to do about it?"
At the same time, pretend that Russia were doing one tenth of the atrocities that Israel commits every day in broad daylight. Imagine the international howls of outrage.
There are plenty of international howls of outrage but none are willing to actually intervene and stop the atrocities. The "coalition of the willing" was able to drive Iraq out of Kuwait and back into its own borders. The same could have been done in Ukraine two years ago and the war would be over. It's too late for Gaza.
I'm not condoning the war in Ukraine, just explaining why I have to disagree with you. The history of the origins of this invitation to the next and last war goes back to 1990, when then-Secy of State James Baker promised Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not extend "one inch eastward" as an assurance of Russian security concerns in exchange for the unification of Germany.
That promise held until 1994 when Clinton tried to finesse a dodgy deal that enraged Yeltsin, see https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nato-75-russia-programs/2021-11-24/nato-expansion-budapest-blow-1994. Skipping over A LOT since then until the Russian invasion in Feb. 2022, but pausing to emphasize the coup engineered by then-Assistant Secy of State "Toria" Nuland against the democratically elected Viktor Yanukovych (see https://truthout.org/articles/the-ukraine-mess-that-nuland-made/), there has been nothing but relentless provocation by the nut cases in this country to put pressure on Russia, despite repeated protests from Russian leaders to "Knock it off, you bastards, we had a deal!"
Well things got to the point with plans to extend NATO into Ukraine that Putin said, "Пошел ты, хватит уже! [Fornicate you, enough is enough!]" and everyone in this country is duped into wearing Ukrainian flag pins on their lapels. I mean, what would Jesus do?
I never understood why Gorbachev simply took America's word for it, and that's what he did, since there was no confirmation beyond a promise. So Bill Clinton felt free to establish 3 more NATO states during his tenure, and it was a downward slide from there. When it's 2014 you have the US under Obama and the neocon, cohorts in his administration like Nuland, like Clinton, pushing to implement a coup in Ukraine,. Also the Minsk accords as Merkel said were never to be implemented. I think the US agenda was very clear from the beginning, and Russia was given no choice. As Biden said, Putin has got to go and that had been our intention throughout the 21 century.
I think Gorbachev was sincere in his quest for something better for his country, his people, he could see the destruction wreaked by communism, and sought integration into the west to remedy that, and assure peace in Europe.
Of course rather than see the substance of what Gorbachev was seeking, the rectal orifices in this country saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of him. And Putin was very much angered over this, that Gorbachev should be so trusting of the Americans and the West. Can't say I blame him. It should be noted that along the way to the present debacle, Putin did propose various European security arrangements involving Russia, including at one time even Russia becoming a member of NATO, but seeing as this made eminent sense, of course all of these proposals were either rejected or not listened to by the buffoons running (into the ground) this country.
I don't disagree with you at all, just saying he was rather naive to think we would keep our promise, or that we were to be trusted. We are forever victims which we have used to justify our wars, our carnage, and no one plays this game better then Israel.
We're on the same page, maybe I'm in league with Gorbachev's sentiment, that political leaders can, should act in the interests of the well being of their people, or to look at it from a somewhat different perspective, opportunities for peace (and prosperity) - don't we hear a lot about that? - should be at least listened to, examined, possibly embraced when they do come along?
Instead we wind up with knee-jerk rejections, or subterfuges such as those practiced by Zionist bastard Richard Perle to scuttle a nuclear weapons elimination deal between Reagan and Gorbachev. It used to be "all roads lead to Rome." Now it's Tel Aviv (or is it now, illegally, Jerusalem?).
I recently said the same thing to someone on this site, and think he really wanted to believe the relationship between the US and Russia was now strong enough that it could be trusted.
Were NATO actually in the conflict the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction would have prevailed because the nuclear asymmetry would have been removed.
Thank you! Thank you for pointing out the HYPOCRISY in the comments, essays, interviews. I'm beyond disgusted and now "walking away" from discussions about Ukraine. A few times, as I was listening, I substituted "Palestinians" for "Ukrainians." JARRING. I moved on to another to another podcast.
Here's a summary: Russia=Ukraine: worst evil in the world. Russia VERY bad. Savages. Ukrainians are suffering and dying. STOP, Russia. GET OUT NOW. End the war. Give Ukrainians back THEIR land.
Israyhell=Palestine...”by the way," (IF the genocide is even mentioned, it usually “feels” like an afterthought), unfortunate but had to be done, Israyhell has a right to protect itself (🐃💩), October 7 (more 🤞💩), endlessly justifying using the word "GENOCIDE," its awful but when’s the next weapons shipment, let’s invite nutty yahoo to fete him to another audience, justifications galore tortuously explaining WHY the land BELONGS TO JEWS.
We *ARE* Nazis...let me count the ways...we deserve to collapse. Dad ❤️....I am SO SORRY ...
I do think that our funding the genocide in Israel states we are implementing this genocide as well, and are equal partners in crime with Israel. The control AIPAC has over our political establishment has got to go, before we lose our souls all together.
History will not forgive these savage criminals, no matter what. They can erase peoples, culture and any remnants of truth, if any left, but they can't erase the history of truth. Shameless, opportunist, cruel, hungry for resources, slaves of power- the west is exposed to the world. Change takes long time and people of the world are watching, some are trying to stop these atrocities. Future generations of Palestinians will live with this trauma carrying it in their genes for long. We are living in times of cruelty inflicted by the superpowers, who have become beasts. In what words would they be recorded in history! beasts in the guise of human? Hungry for the blood of their own lot!
I started to vomit when I learned that Israel would raze a centuries-old Palestinian village, pave, build over it, maybe hebraize the Arabic name, but otherwise make sure that the place, its people, its culture, its bit of humanity, never existed. Arrogance, self-entitlement and -aggrandizement come to mind, but still don't adequately describe the wretchedness. Just who do they think they are?
Israel bringing about its own destruction? All for that, the sooner the better, but need it entail that of others?
America and basically most European states are in complicity with this genocide, support it and are guilty as well, and they will never make the reality of that go away.
"But I believe that the outrage that has caused the final unmasking of Israel around the world will soon show in the polls of the world."
I hope that proves the case, but the reach, the depth, the ruthlessness of the United States and Israel are hard to buck. Just one example among countless ones, Mossad got something on Richard Goldstone or a family member to get him to retract his authoritative, thoroughly documented report.
And it goes much further back, even to Israel screwing around behind the scenes in the development of the 1947 Partition Plan, and in securing the UN vote in 1948. This is a thoroughly wicked bunch at play on the world stage.
Julio, it's taken me a l-o-n-g time to find honest, reliable, authoritative sites for news and information. Alan Macleod and Mint Press News is one of my more recently acquired sources, and although of necessity require some devotion of time, he and rest of the Mint Press contributors are excellent. You should further search on their site for Macleod's pieces on the infiltration of Israel into the U.S. media (CNN, CBS, MSNBC, NBC, others, it's frightening) and the Israeli takeover of the SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs) at Columbia, the very same place from which Mahmoud Khalil was graduated and then illegally apprehended after being targeted by Betar, Campus Watch, other of Miriam Adelson's pet campus surveillance projects.
".... but now we are living in a different world of internet and social media and people don't eat those lies so easily as before and that is why I'm still optimistic."
Your point is well taken, I hope it will prove true, I'm just more cynical, skeptical, feeling this is going to be a long, ugly, no-holds-barred fight.
Israel will destroy not only itself. Their nukes will be the end of us all. Eventually they will be “forced “ to use them. Karma may be a myth, but actions have consequences. We are all Gazans to Zionists!
The overriding problem arising from these Israeli State's actions, apart from the deaths, destruction and sufferings, is the complete lack of international physical involvement and activating prevention, and so what could be, or what nation could be/will be next in the firing line? Perhaps Jo Public would like to consider that one, and have regard to what efforts their own Governments are takin to ensure nothing like it can be replicated, just as we have always been assured after Nuremberg that it couldn't.
This pursuit of a truly genocidal intent is bound to be copied elsewhere, in the same manner as the Israeli State have taken the intent and actions of the Nazis of the 1930's/40's.
In the same way that nazism was never completely eradicated in Germany, perhaps these Israeli State actors are the modern day offspring of their forefathers and mothers elsewhere in the world?
The member states of The Hague Group fully recognize that any of them could be the next target of imperial aggression, as stated in an open letter about Gaza by Colombia’s president. The letter was published in the Guardian in July. Sorry I don’t have a link, but if you’re interested, you should be able to find it.
Sorry for all you've lost personally, Chris. This powerful line about Israel could just as easily be written about the U.S.: "If Israelis confront these lies, it threatens an existential crisis. It forces them to rethink who they are. Most prefer the comfort of illusion. The desire to believe is more powerful than the desire to see."
Thank God for your truth-telling. Thank God for your memories and your courage to speak them, to establish the reality of mundane details, such as your shoes on a rack, and a daily tea ritual held with an old friend. Relics, whether it is the knuckle bone of a saint or a plastic hotel key tag, anchor stories that should be remembered. Thank you for recording those stories.
Thank you for cataloging the existence of those structures within whose shadows those stories took place. They stood for centuries, and were demolished in minutes by waves of hatred and vengeance, two elements which always eventually destroy their perpetrators. It is the nature of waves to recoil on themselves. As long as Israel ruminates and self-identifies with the rancor of victimhood, it will spiral downward into the dust and chaos it has visited upon the people whose place on earth was usurped. The stories that will be told of the state of Israel and how it reacted—acted out and re-enacted evil upon evil—will not be noble ones.
What I hope and trust will grow in strength and ultimately endure is the response of individuals who call Israel home, whose consciousness of what is good, just, and creative lead them to take to the streets to protest what they know innately to be wrong. My heart goes out to them as well as to the Palestinians suffering in Gaza. My prayers as a Christian cover my siblings, my fellow “people of the book.” May we all find our center.
Thank you once again, Chris Hedges, for piercing the fog of the mainstream corporate news media’s lies and dissembling about the history of and recent events in Gaza and Palestine. (Including those of your former employer, The New York Times.)
Those Arab nations sitting on their hands while the Palestinians are being murdered will live to regret their inaction, because Israel will not stop expanding until they are all engulfed.
One of my mother’s friends was a French Jewish holocaust survivor. I babysat her son. She pinched my cheeks together to help me get my “vous’s” right! I am gutted by this and have to literally “vet” my Jewish friends by asking if they think this is a crime. Horrible but true. I try to follow the BDS lists and I look to see if anything I buy is Israeli. I will not go to a favorite Israeli restaurant or see movies by Jewish directors or go near a synagogue. I remember years ago, in a NYT op-ed a Jewish writer wrote that Israel cannot forever stand alone surrounded by countries that hate it. Look at a map. See how tiny Israel is. As we weaken as an empire our taste for propping up this illegal settlement will, I hope, flag.
I know. It seems irrational. My Senator Sheldon Whitehouse D Rhode Island is bought and sold by AIPAC. He has consistently ok shoveling more and more money and military assistance to Israel. I have written him letters and called him to no avail. I was just trying to express my discomfort with Israel and the Jews that support this. The Jews have always led on social justice and I was trying to explain ( poorly) how the supporters are distancing and isolating themselves. I noticed a subtle shift in myself.
Yes, I was troubled to learn if Whitehouse’s history with respect to Israel, especially because he’s been good at summarizing and critiquing the treasonous decisions of the Supreme Court that have paved the way to fascism. However, Whitehouse was one of the 26 Democrats who recently voted to ban the sale of offensive weapons to Israel. This doesn’t excuse his past. What it does, though, is highlight the importance of our keeping up the pressure on our politicians. This means not voting for those who continue to support the genocide, and letting them know we won’t, loudly and often.
Lemkin's definition of genocide involved much more than the physical destruction of an ethnic group. Through time, his original definition has been detrimentally narrowed in focus. To Lemkin, genocide could be simply the destruction of culture, language, religion, "national feelings". In other words, the collective "assassination of memory". Because culture, language, religion, etc. ARE the means of ethnic memory.
This is why, for example, indigenous peoples of the new world were not allowed to speak their own languages, not allowed to practice their own religions, etc. It's a genocidal methodology.
Lemkin (1945):
"As Von Rundstedt has suggested the term does not necessarily signify mass killings although it may mean that. More often it [Genocide] refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight. The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion. It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity. When these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort. "
Of course. The Israeli answer is "So, what does anyone propose to do about it?"
At the same time, pretend that Russia were doing one tenth of the atrocities that Israel commits every day in broad daylight. Imagine the international howls of outrage.
There are plenty of international howls of outrage but none are willing to actually intervene and stop the atrocities. The "coalition of the willing" was able to drive Iraq out of Kuwait and back into its own borders. The same could have been done in Ukraine two years ago and the war would be over. It's too late for Gaza.
I'm not condoning the war in Ukraine, just explaining why I have to disagree with you. The history of the origins of this invitation to the next and last war goes back to 1990, when then-Secy of State James Baker promised Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not extend "one inch eastward" as an assurance of Russian security concerns in exchange for the unification of Germany.
That promise held until 1994 when Clinton tried to finesse a dodgy deal that enraged Yeltsin, see https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nato-75-russia-programs/2021-11-24/nato-expansion-budapest-blow-1994. Skipping over A LOT since then until the Russian invasion in Feb. 2022, but pausing to emphasize the coup engineered by then-Assistant Secy of State "Toria" Nuland against the democratically elected Viktor Yanukovych (see https://truthout.org/articles/the-ukraine-mess-that-nuland-made/), there has been nothing but relentless provocation by the nut cases in this country to put pressure on Russia, despite repeated protests from Russian leaders to "Knock it off, you bastards, we had a deal!"
Well things got to the point with plans to extend NATO into Ukraine that Putin said, "Пошел ты, хватит уже! [Fornicate you, enough is enough!]" and everyone in this country is duped into wearing Ukrainian flag pins on their lapels. I mean, what would Jesus do?
I never understood why Gorbachev simply took America's word for it, and that's what he did, since there was no confirmation beyond a promise. So Bill Clinton felt free to establish 3 more NATO states during his tenure, and it was a downward slide from there. When it's 2014 you have the US under Obama and the neocon, cohorts in his administration like Nuland, like Clinton, pushing to implement a coup in Ukraine,. Also the Minsk accords as Merkel said were never to be implemented. I think the US agenda was very clear from the beginning, and Russia was given no choice. As Biden said, Putin has got to go and that had been our intention throughout the 21 century.
I think Gorbachev was sincere in his quest for something better for his country, his people, he could see the destruction wreaked by communism, and sought integration into the west to remedy that, and assure peace in Europe.
Of course rather than see the substance of what Gorbachev was seeking, the rectal orifices in this country saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of him. And Putin was very much angered over this, that Gorbachev should be so trusting of the Americans and the West. Can't say I blame him. It should be noted that along the way to the present debacle, Putin did propose various European security arrangements involving Russia, including at one time even Russia becoming a member of NATO, but seeing as this made eminent sense, of course all of these proposals were either rejected or not listened to by the buffoons running (into the ground) this country.
I don't disagree with you at all, just saying he was rather naive to think we would keep our promise, or that we were to be trusted. We are forever victims which we have used to justify our wars, our carnage, and no one plays this game better then Israel.
We're on the same page, maybe I'm in league with Gorbachev's sentiment, that political leaders can, should act in the interests of the well being of their people, or to look at it from a somewhat different perspective, opportunities for peace (and prosperity) - don't we hear a lot about that? - should be at least listened to, examined, possibly embraced when they do come along?
Instead we wind up with knee-jerk rejections, or subterfuges such as those practiced by Zionist bastard Richard Perle to scuttle a nuclear weapons elimination deal between Reagan and Gorbachev. It used to be "all roads lead to Rome." Now it's Tel Aviv (or is it now, illegally, Jerusalem?).
"I never understood why Gorbachev simply took America's word for it, and that's what he did, since there was no confirmation beyond a promise. "
Because he wanted to believe.
I recently said the same thing to someone on this site, and think he really wanted to believe the relationship between the US and Russia was now strong enough that it could be trusted.
LOL, NATO is talking still about WWIII over Ukraine.
Cute how you declare Gaza a fait accompli, oh well, nothing to be done.
Were NATO actually in the conflict the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction would have prevailed because the nuclear asymmetry would have been removed.
Huh wut?
Thank you! Thank you for pointing out the HYPOCRISY in the comments, essays, interviews. I'm beyond disgusted and now "walking away" from discussions about Ukraine. A few times, as I was listening, I substituted "Palestinians" for "Ukrainians." JARRING. I moved on to another to another podcast.
Here's a summary: Russia=Ukraine: worst evil in the world. Russia VERY bad. Savages. Ukrainians are suffering and dying. STOP, Russia. GET OUT NOW. End the war. Give Ukrainians back THEIR land.
Israyhell=Palestine...”by the way," (IF the genocide is even mentioned, it usually “feels” like an afterthought), unfortunate but had to be done, Israyhell has a right to protect itself (🐃💩), October 7 (more 🤞💩), endlessly justifying using the word "GENOCIDE," its awful but when’s the next weapons shipment, let’s invite nutty yahoo to fete him to another audience, justifications galore tortuously explaining WHY the land BELONGS TO JEWS.
We *ARE* Nazis...let me count the ways...we deserve to collapse. Dad ❤️....I am SO SORRY ...
Sorry for the rant. I'm an empath.
Israel is committing genocide.
The U.S. is funding it.
Silence is complicity.
The US is not only funding that genocide but furnishing arms, ISR and bombing any other country that gets in the way.
I do think that our funding the genocide in Israel states we are implementing this genocide as well, and are equal partners in crime with Israel. The control AIPAC has over our political establishment has got to go, before we lose our souls all together.
History will not forgive these savage criminals, no matter what. They can erase peoples, culture and any remnants of truth, if any left, but they can't erase the history of truth. Shameless, opportunist, cruel, hungry for resources, slaves of power- the west is exposed to the world. Change takes long time and people of the world are watching, some are trying to stop these atrocities. Future generations of Palestinians will live with this trauma carrying it in their genes for long. We are living in times of cruelty inflicted by the superpowers, who have become beasts. In what words would they be recorded in history! beasts in the guise of human? Hungry for the blood of their own lot!
Please please please be right...🤞
"History is a mortal threat to Israel."
I started to vomit when I learned that Israel would raze a centuries-old Palestinian village, pave, build over it, maybe hebraize the Arabic name, but otherwise make sure that the place, its people, its culture, its bit of humanity, never existed. Arrogance, self-entitlement and -aggrandizement come to mind, but still don't adequately describe the wretchedness. Just who do they think they are?
Israel bringing about its own destruction? All for that, the sooner the better, but need it entail that of others?
America and basically most European states are in complicity with this genocide, support it and are guilty as well, and they will never make the reality of that go away.
"But I believe that the outrage that has caused the final unmasking of Israel around the world will soon show in the polls of the world."
I hope that proves the case, but the reach, the depth, the ruthlessness of the United States and Israel are hard to buck. Just one example among countless ones, Mossad got something on Richard Goldstone or a family member to get him to retract his authoritative, thoroughly documented report.
And it goes much further back, even to Israel screwing around behind the scenes in the development of the 1947 Partition Plan, and in securing the UN vote in 1948. This is a thoroughly wicked bunch at play on the world stage.
I just received this, to underscore my point see this https://www.mintpressnews.com/israels-biggest-us-donor-now-owns-cbs/290347/, it ain't gonna be easy.
Julio, it's taken me a l-o-n-g time to find honest, reliable, authoritative sites for news and information. Alan Macleod and Mint Press News is one of my more recently acquired sources, and although of necessity require some devotion of time, he and rest of the Mint Press contributors are excellent. You should further search on their site for Macleod's pieces on the infiltration of Israel into the U.S. media (CNN, CBS, MSNBC, NBC, others, it's frightening) and the Israeli takeover of the SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs) at Columbia, the very same place from which Mahmoud Khalil was graduated and then illegally apprehended after being targeted by Betar, Campus Watch, other of Miriam Adelson's pet campus surveillance projects.
They are not only ignoring the truth, they are making damn sure that truth tellers are punished.
".... but now we are living in a different world of internet and social media and people don't eat those lies so easily as before and that is why I'm still optimistic."
Your point is well taken, I hope it will prove true, I'm just more cynical, skeptical, feeling this is going to be a long, ugly, no-holds-barred fight.
Excellent. I've been waiting for someone to say this.
Israel will destroy not only itself. Their nukes will be the end of us all. Eventually they will be “forced “ to use them. Karma may be a myth, but actions have consequences. We are all Gazans to Zionists!
The overriding problem arising from these Israeli State's actions, apart from the deaths, destruction and sufferings, is the complete lack of international physical involvement and activating prevention, and so what could be, or what nation could be/will be next in the firing line? Perhaps Jo Public would like to consider that one, and have regard to what efforts their own Governments are takin to ensure nothing like it can be replicated, just as we have always been assured after Nuremberg that it couldn't.
This pursuit of a truly genocidal intent is bound to be copied elsewhere, in the same manner as the Israeli State have taken the intent and actions of the Nazis of the 1930's/40's.
In the same way that nazism was never completely eradicated in Germany, perhaps these Israeli State actors are the modern day offspring of their forefathers and mothers elsewhere in the world?
The member states of The Hague Group fully recognize that any of them could be the next target of imperial aggression, as stated in an open letter about Gaza by Colombia’s president. The letter was published in the Guardian in July. Sorry I don’t have a link, but if you’re interested, you should be able to find it.
Trenchant and truthful as always, Chris! Brilliant! And Fish's "Beelzebibi" is perfect for the piece!
Sorry for all you've lost personally, Chris. This powerful line about Israel could just as easily be written about the U.S.: "If Israelis confront these lies, it threatens an existential crisis. It forces them to rethink who they are. Most prefer the comfort of illusion. The desire to believe is more powerful than the desire to see."
That sounds like humans in general.
Thank God for your truth-telling. Thank God for your memories and your courage to speak them, to establish the reality of mundane details, such as your shoes on a rack, and a daily tea ritual held with an old friend. Relics, whether it is the knuckle bone of a saint or a plastic hotel key tag, anchor stories that should be remembered. Thank you for recording those stories.
Thank you for cataloging the existence of those structures within whose shadows those stories took place. They stood for centuries, and were demolished in minutes by waves of hatred and vengeance, two elements which always eventually destroy their perpetrators. It is the nature of waves to recoil on themselves. As long as Israel ruminates and self-identifies with the rancor of victimhood, it will spiral downward into the dust and chaos it has visited upon the people whose place on earth was usurped. The stories that will be told of the state of Israel and how it reacted—acted out and re-enacted evil upon evil—will not be noble ones.
What I hope and trust will grow in strength and ultimately endure is the response of individuals who call Israel home, whose consciousness of what is good, just, and creative lead them to take to the streets to protest what they know innately to be wrong. My heart goes out to them as well as to the Palestinians suffering in Gaza. My prayers as a Christian cover my siblings, my fellow “people of the book.” May we all find our center.
We need genocide museums, just like holocaust museums.
August 22, 2025
Thank you once again, Chris Hedges, for piercing the fog of the mainstream corporate news media’s lies and dissembling about the history of and recent events in Gaza and Palestine. (Including those of your former employer, The New York Times.)
Those Arab nations sitting on their hands while the Palestinians are being murdered will live to regret their inaction, because Israel will not stop expanding until they are all engulfed.
Is-Real-Estate is the Golden Calf of Materialism swiping morality off the Shelves with What Can Be Bought replacing God with Got.
One of my mother’s friends was a French Jewish holocaust survivor. I babysat her son. She pinched my cheeks together to help me get my “vous’s” right! I am gutted by this and have to literally “vet” my Jewish friends by asking if they think this is a crime. Horrible but true. I try to follow the BDS lists and I look to see if anything I buy is Israeli. I will not go to a favorite Israeli restaurant or see movies by Jewish directors or go near a synagogue. I remember years ago, in a NYT op-ed a Jewish writer wrote that Israel cannot forever stand alone surrounded by countries that hate it. Look at a map. See how tiny Israel is. As we weaken as an empire our taste for propping up this illegal settlement will, I hope, flag.
I know. It seems irrational. My Senator Sheldon Whitehouse D Rhode Island is bought and sold by AIPAC. He has consistently ok shoveling more and more money and military assistance to Israel. I have written him letters and called him to no avail. I was just trying to express my discomfort with Israel and the Jews that support this. The Jews have always led on social justice and I was trying to explain ( poorly) how the supporters are distancing and isolating themselves. I noticed a subtle shift in myself.
Yes, I was troubled to learn if Whitehouse’s history with respect to Israel, especially because he’s been good at summarizing and critiquing the treasonous decisions of the Supreme Court that have paved the way to fascism. However, Whitehouse was one of the 26 Democrats who recently voted to ban the sale of offensive weapons to Israel. This doesn’t excuse his past. What it does, though, is highlight the importance of our keeping up the pressure on our politicians. This means not voting for those who continue to support the genocide, and letting them know we won’t, loudly and often.
And it is giving fuel to antisemitism which is on the increase.
Lemkin's definition of genocide involved much more than the physical destruction of an ethnic group. Through time, his original definition has been detrimentally narrowed in focus. To Lemkin, genocide could be simply the destruction of culture, language, religion, "national feelings". In other words, the collective "assassination of memory". Because culture, language, religion, etc. ARE the means of ethnic memory.
This is why, for example, indigenous peoples of the new world were not allowed to speak their own languages, not allowed to practice their own religions, etc. It's a genocidal methodology.
Lemkin (1945):
"As Von Rundstedt has suggested the term does not necessarily signify mass killings although it may mean that. More often it [Genocide] refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight. The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion. It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity. When these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort. "