Israel is not only decimating Gaza with airstrikes but employing the oldest and cruelest weapon of war — starvation. Israel’s message, on the eve of a ground invasion, is clear. Leave Gaza or Die.
So grateful that you are covering this with integrity and hard truths, it’s imperative that you continue to be the most proactive voice for people who are being dehumanized
“Critics are being marginalized. Palestinian commentators brought on to speak during live newscasts say that those channels have failed to share the segments online as they normally do. A few days after the Hamas attack on Israel, MSNBC, viewers noticed that three of the network's most prominent hosts, Mehdi Hassan, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi had their shows taken off the air. MSNBC said that changes to its programming were coincidental - the result of a shift to more live coverage of the war. But there was not so much as a tweet from any of the three journalists sidelined, which was uncharacteristic of them and quite telling. All three of the hosts are Muslim and have been critical of Israel. The idea that it's even remotely controversial to call what Israel imposed on Palestinians a form of apartheid is laughable. Their absence from the airwaves, even if temporary, deprives the network’s viewers of some informed points of view different ones. What that does, is it excludes a critical perspective from this conversation.”
This is only one example of many that totally falsifies what it actually happening in our media. Near the end of the program is this note. “Edward Said died 20 years ago – the Palestinian writer best known for his book Orientalism. He wrote that ‘Muslims and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists. The western media presents crude caricatures of the Islamic world that makes the region vulnerable to military aggression.’”
I start my mornings watch DemocracyNow! and then Aljazeera English Live on YouTube.
Yes, AlJazeera is one of the media outlets I watch, to get another view on things, along with some other media streams...I don't just listen to one voice about anything. I learned that a long time ago, from my military experience and my natural curiosity about things anyway, and I've gotten a lot from people I knew back in the day from various countries that employed the old Hawk missile system I maintained during my Army years, while they were training on the system at Ft. Bliss, TX. Now I am glad to have the opportunity to see things from various viewpoints and then bring it all together to figure out the truth. I have long said that I got what to believe from the horse's mouth, not the other end...
We are all Palestinians now. What is happening in Gaza will eventually happen to all of us as the USA and Israel are showing the way of our future. In the midst of ongoing climate collapse, wars are endlessly fueled by the USA in an effort to keep its “economy” afloat. One would think the world would manage to gather together to deal with the climate issue. But no. Humans apparently will NEVER get beyond their war mongering madness. My heart goes out to all those in Gaza and all around the world that have been dealt death blows by the USA and its endless weaponry sold and doled out on a daily basis for many decades if not centuries now. Enjoy what remaining years we have left. Be kind to those around you for that is all that truly matters in the end. I leave you with the following quote:
“When the power of Love overcomes the Love of power, the world will know peace.”— Jimi Hendrix
"will eventually happen"? What are you talking about?
It's already taken place in the U.S.; albeit on a smaller scale. One prime example is in Washington D.C.--May 2019--when the U.S. State Dept cut all electricity and water to the Venezuelan Embassy while it was being lawfully occupied by guests of the Venezualen Government and after Maduro embassy officials left due to bank accounts and assets being illegally frozen. Secrete service and D.C. police wouldn't let any food or water be supplied to guests. Sound familiar? Sure, it was much smaller atrocity compared to what's happening in Gaza, but the premise is the same. In fact, some supporters of the occupiers (including a Vietnam vet in his 70's) on the street were beaten to pulp with D.C. police and bystanders looking on in consent. Well, why not? Police eventually raided the embassy (looked like a ground offensive to me) and illegally whisked the occupants off to jail. The entire ordeal was totally illegal by any national or international measure. Yet the general U.S. citizenry barely registered a peep in protest. No charges against authorities or public utility providers were lodged by anybody, including the Venezuelan embassy. Again, sound familiar? Folks are so compliant--as they are now with the collective retribution and, indeed, genocide taking place right now in Gaza. I guess these atrocities have to descend on them directly in order for it to hit home. It's like a child that has to touch a hot stove to see if it will burn rather than be told of the consequences. I suppose most people just never mature in their capacity for abstract thought. Could also be a by product of willfully allowing governmental and corporate predictive programming to set in; trading their civil rights for convenience and entertainment. Child like consumers trained to think it's a "good deal' by social media elites (who strangely don't monetarily charge for their "service") and never question the Faustian bargain in the slightest. Unbelievable, yes. But happening to you now; not in the future.
Thanks for your reply. I must point out that you left out a few critical words that I wrote. Namely you left out: “to all of us.” Yes there are some isolated examples, one of which you noted and I remember well. Flint Michigan is another example. My post was suggesting that in the future “all of us” will become Palestinians as things collapse and the powers that be let us all suffer and die, protecting themselves with their armed police state as long as they can. That massive suffering hasn’t happened yet as far too many citizens have engorged themselves on the massive propaganda fed them daily to have any clue what wicked things are coming their way. But it’s coming. You do raise a good point how such things are happening in the here and now albeit in a smaller scale than what awaits. Once again thanks for your reply.
I agree. I'm just an average person that tries to stay informed, so I'm hardly an activist, but I'm still stunned by how unconcerned so many Americans are about the state of the country, and yes, the bad things headed our way. Listen to ProPublica's podcast "We Don't Talk About Leonard" which is all about Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network now called Teneo. The long game they've played is unbelievable, and most of it has happened under the radar. Lots of money and religious zeal and of course, intolerance. They'll have control of the state and federal judiciary and of course already have the Supreme Court, so game's pretty much over when they come to power. And they plan to undo everything: they're well on their way with abortion, but also birth control, gay marriage/rights, etc.
To be sure, it won't be all of us. As Eric Blair wrote back in 1944, there will always be the exception whereby "some are more equal than others". Those "some" must exist and stand in contrast to the oppressed in order to fuel the oppression.
Thank you, Chris, for being a real journalist. The US MSM have simply become stenographers for the US government. They might as well bundle up USG press releases, staple them together and call them a newspaper. The EU is just as bad. I think it's ironic that we used to mock the likes of Pravda, Izvestia, and Tass as government mouthpieces and we call the US president the leader of the free world. What a joke! All the US/UK/ EU MSM are just government mouthpieces and pretty much all of the world is free except for those countries under the control of the United States.
But we're standing with Israel because they're the "good guy", the "victim"...! Yeah, OK, whatever. Yes, as I have said, I wish Hamas would have targeted Israeli industrial sites and military rather than the civilian areas, but then again, what has Israel been doing all this time to the Palestinians...brings the question to me: "What do you expect to happen..."?
Personally it's been a painful week of soul-searching for me, though my guess is that I'm not alone. Chris and his newsletter have really helped me realize that all of this Israel-Hamas War is a US-financed PR snow job for Israel and the defense industry. It's profoundly embarrassing to admit how thoroughly I've been willing to believe the US-Isaeli lies, or to at least consider them. To confirm the statistics that Chris cites, about 98% of the $3+billion in aid to Israel last year went to the military. When I see these photos of the ridiculously deluded, video game-macho fake men, the self-described warriors of the IDF, whose enemy is a starving and near weaponless or significantly less-armed (due to Israel's super strict embargoes) group of captive civilians (they are literally fenced in), half of whom are children, I keep thinking of that scene in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones encounters the Arab with the sword. After a few moments of arrogant bemusement, he shoots and kills the guy. And walks away the hero of course. Now I get it. Never really was a fan, but I'll never watch a Steven Spielberg movie again.
The Iron Dome is only maybe 10% effective in stopping Hamas missiles. It is however 100% effective in directing large sums of money to the missile manufacturer.
Behind his "Aw'shucks, just a working-class Irish boy from Scranton with a heart of gold and compassion from here to forever" pitch, Biden is a monster.
I subscribe to Robert Reich, and he had a newsletter just this Friday extolling the virtue of Biden's leadership, what he did in Israel, good for him for urging Israel to exercise restraint, etc. I was flabbergasted. So, so few voices that really tell it like it is. Chris is one of them. I've outgrown many friends and acquaintances, too. It's painful.
It comes as no surprise that Bibi Netanyahu and his Likud advocates hate the Palestians; and have hated the Palestinians for decades. This is more than Hamas. It is about punishing and decimating an entire population of Arabs. Joseph R. Biden has given Israel free rein in this. Israel sees that as an endorsement for their slaughter.
The US has a history of perpetrating holocausts or supporting holocausts committed by other countries, so it is not surprising what is happening now. Seeing Biden hug Netanyahu and the US support for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, starvation and dehydration killing, men women children and babies makes me sick. Israel and the US has lost whatever soul it every had. This behavior will lead to major blowback through internal and external forces which is going to eventually lead to the collapse of Israel and the US. We are seeing it already happening in both the US and Israel.
And which holocausts has the US government supported?
Of course we can outline the genocide of the Native Americans from the landing of Christopher Columbus to the United States Indian Wars after the Civil War.
Which other holocausts are you referring to?
I suppose it depends on your definition of genocide.
Perhaps you will add the Vietnam war up through 1975 and the Iraq war begun in 2003; however, that I don't think that many individuals would agree with that conflation.
Would you consider China's treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide?
What about the Armenians at the hands of the Turks?
I think Mao holds that distinction. Around 50 million dead between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. This was achieved in a little more than 20 years whereas the depredations of European expansion took about 500 years.
Many genocides which occurred during the transition from hunter gathers to agriculturalists are pretty much unrecorded.
Our slavish obedience to Israel's long-term ethnic cleansing strategy is among the greatest threats to our "national security". Exactly the opposite of the drumbeat coming from these odious spokespeople at DOD, DOS, and WH and their media echo chamber, all of whom insist we must be permanently attached to Israel or we're doomed.
The US government is incapable of learning. It's in a perpetual state of infancy.
From bin Laden's Letter to America:
"As for the first question: Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:
(1) Because you attacked us and continue to attack us.
Mr. Hedges, I appreciate your truth telling, but reading this article leaves me feeling more hopeless than before. It feels like we can either look forward to a World War or the total destruction of the Palestinian people. Either choice is despicable.
As a Palestinian American, I've been following the news on every platform looking for glimmers of hope that this time it will be different. This time, people will see and speak up for the Palestinians. I've been heartened by the world wide protests and the increased visibility of the horrors Palestinians face at the hands of a Genocidal Israel. At the same time, I am dismayed that Western governments and Israel's Hasbara machinery are escalating their tactics to punish any and all that speak up.
Is there any hope that a third option will emerge, that Western leaders will realize that the people of the world have had a enough of their Imperial destruction, and that they'd do better to back track and look for a more diplomatic approach?
BDS demands from citizens thru education, like South Africa, and making Israel a pariah state that it is and the despicable, morally decrepit and repugnant nakedly exposed genocidal imperialism, exposed of Israel and the USA, to more people.
And spiritually -always a necessity in horrors like this for any lasting, real peace, - a truth and reconciliation process.
BDS 100%, but did I understand you correctly? Does BDS demand spirituality? If so, double agreement. Spirituality our great gift from evolution is required but not a badly understood religion.
Spirituality is required for truth and reconciliation. I’ll tell you a story about what happened in South Africa in the T and R process. A woman faced the policeman that killed her son both were black. Of course. she said to him “you killed my son. I have no son. I need a son. I want you to be my son.“ He burst into tears and said “OK.“ As far as I know to this day, that relationship has lasted. in my world, only a power greater than ourselves can engender that in the human race, and only the Holy Spirit or whatever you wanna call it can inspire that to happen among humans. The minister who was there, told us in his lecture “you think you know forgiveness? let me tell you. You don’t know forgiveness until you could be like that woman.“ on a practical level, The people in the Middle East are enough alike. Yea, are humans enough really to be able for this to happen.
Beautiful story, Bernadene, that attitude is what we need everywhere. I called it human spirit other than that is animal behaviour. I think that in the Levant the truly monotheistic religions (Islam and Judaism) don't believe in a Holy Spirit but certainly they need to behave as humans.
Agree that an attitude of we are all in this human experiment together is what we need. Divide and conquer is what we have and it’s killing us every one.
Thank you for sharing what information you have about the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. I am deeply disappointed in the approach the Biden Administration is taking to this issue, though I am not the least bit surprised. Over the years, I've watched innumerable American administrations offer unconditional support to multiple Israeli governments engaged in the brutal oppression of the Palestinians. Quite frankly, I am sickened by it.
Isn't the motif of this process of obliteration of the Gazens by the bosses of government (Netyanahu and Biden) analogous to that of corporate bosses in their execution (of their attitude, purpose and intent) of corporate take overs of other corporations? Minus metal, high tech weaponry and physical killing? In my long years here on earth I've witnessed an attitudinal change among the (mis)leadership and the citizenry which seems to coincide with the diversity, strategic-ness and highly focussed corporate actions to dominate all structures of governance including the Fourth Estate subsequent to the Powell Memorandum. The sharp contrast between the Kennedy/LBJ years in attitudes by the leadership class and the citizenry leads me to ask - What force has been sufficiently strong to effect such changes?
“as morally bankrupt and as complicit in genocide as those who witnessed the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and did nothing.”
My father escaped Germany in a milk crate in 1938. His father lost his life in a slave camp.
I don’t like to use this quote too often, but he, and others, believed that if the Jews had not been the target of Hitler, they would have been his most enthusiastic allies.
This is not specific to Jews, but can be witnessed throughout history in the structure of genocidal movements. Some sort of meta-Milgram experiment, you might call it. It’s just not that hard to find people willing to carry out-and rationalize-horrific acts.
The Milgram experiment - and many real world examples - remains damning evidence of how assumed "authority figures" can manipulate ordinary people to do evil things. When our "leaders" are morally vacuous and exclusively self-interested, the adage Question Authority is paramount.
My own experiment is to look at bumper stickers and benefit from their wisdom. Here is one: "Whoever makes you believe absurdities will make you commit atrocities later"
My view is that the power elites cause the wars and the people get swept up in their ambitions. In the case of HAMAS is it really fighting for the Palestinians or is it hoping for a goal that is beyond reach (destruction of Israel)?
Then the Palestinians are doomed, because all those props supplied by the US will remain. And WWIII is virtually certain. Then we all die. That is what US world domination has led us to.
So grateful that you are covering this with integrity and hard truths, it’s imperative that you continue to be the most proactive voice for people who are being dehumanized
I have been appalled at the coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict given by U.S. main stream media. This morning Aljazeera English’s Listening Post explained just how bad the censorship really is. The 26 minute VIDEO can be found here: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2023/10/22/israel-gaza-genocidal-rhetoric-and-the-fog-of-war Here is just one notable example of censorship.
“Critics are being marginalized. Palestinian commentators brought on to speak during live newscasts say that those channels have failed to share the segments online as they normally do. A few days after the Hamas attack on Israel, MSNBC, viewers noticed that three of the network's most prominent hosts, Mehdi Hassan, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi had their shows taken off the air. MSNBC said that changes to its programming were coincidental - the result of a shift to more live coverage of the war. But there was not so much as a tweet from any of the three journalists sidelined, which was uncharacteristic of them and quite telling. All three of the hosts are Muslim and have been critical of Israel. The idea that it's even remotely controversial to call what Israel imposed on Palestinians a form of apartheid is laughable. Their absence from the airwaves, even if temporary, deprives the network’s viewers of some informed points of view different ones. What that does, is it excludes a critical perspective from this conversation.”
This is only one example of many that totally falsifies what it actually happening in our media. Near the end of the program is this note. “Edward Said died 20 years ago – the Palestinian writer best known for his book Orientalism. He wrote that ‘Muslims and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists. The western media presents crude caricatures of the Islamic world that makes the region vulnerable to military aggression.’”
I start my mornings watch DemocracyNow! and then Aljazeera English Live on YouTube.
Yes, AlJazeera is one of the media outlets I watch, to get another view on things, along with some other media streams...I don't just listen to one voice about anything. I learned that a long time ago, from my military experience and my natural curiosity about things anyway, and I've gotten a lot from people I knew back in the day from various countries that employed the old Hawk missile system I maintained during my Army years, while they were training on the system at Ft. Bliss, TX. Now I am glad to have the opportunity to see things from various viewpoints and then bring it all together to figure out the truth. I have long said that I got what to believe from the horse's mouth, not the other end...
We are all Palestinians now. What is happening in Gaza will eventually happen to all of us as the USA and Israel are showing the way of our future. In the midst of ongoing climate collapse, wars are endlessly fueled by the USA in an effort to keep its “economy” afloat. One would think the world would manage to gather together to deal with the climate issue. But no. Humans apparently will NEVER get beyond their war mongering madness. My heart goes out to all those in Gaza and all around the world that have been dealt death blows by the USA and its endless weaponry sold and doled out on a daily basis for many decades if not centuries now. Enjoy what remaining years we have left. Be kind to those around you for that is all that truly matters in the end. I leave you with the following quote:
“When the power of Love overcomes the Love of power, the world will know peace.”— Jimi Hendrix
"will eventually happen"? What are you talking about?
It's already taken place in the U.S.; albeit on a smaller scale. One prime example is in Washington D.C.--May 2019--when the U.S. State Dept cut all electricity and water to the Venezuelan Embassy while it was being lawfully occupied by guests of the Venezualen Government and after Maduro embassy officials left due to bank accounts and assets being illegally frozen. Secrete service and D.C. police wouldn't let any food or water be supplied to guests. Sound familiar? Sure, it was much smaller atrocity compared to what's happening in Gaza, but the premise is the same. In fact, some supporters of the occupiers (including a Vietnam vet in his 70's) on the street were beaten to pulp with D.C. police and bystanders looking on in consent. Well, why not? Police eventually raided the embassy (looked like a ground offensive to me) and illegally whisked the occupants off to jail. The entire ordeal was totally illegal by any national or international measure. Yet the general U.S. citizenry barely registered a peep in protest. No charges against authorities or public utility providers were lodged by anybody, including the Venezuelan embassy. Again, sound familiar? Folks are so compliant--as they are now with the collective retribution and, indeed, genocide taking place right now in Gaza. I guess these atrocities have to descend on them directly in order for it to hit home. It's like a child that has to touch a hot stove to see if it will burn rather than be told of the consequences. I suppose most people just never mature in their capacity for abstract thought. Could also be a by product of willfully allowing governmental and corporate predictive programming to set in; trading their civil rights for convenience and entertainment. Child like consumers trained to think it's a "good deal' by social media elites (who strangely don't monetarily charge for their "service") and never question the Faustian bargain in the slightest. Unbelievable, yes. But happening to you now; not in the future.
Thanks for your reply. I must point out that you left out a few critical words that I wrote. Namely you left out: “to all of us.” Yes there are some isolated examples, one of which you noted and I remember well. Flint Michigan is another example. My post was suggesting that in the future “all of us” will become Palestinians as things collapse and the powers that be let us all suffer and die, protecting themselves with their armed police state as long as they can. That massive suffering hasn’t happened yet as far too many citizens have engorged themselves on the massive propaganda fed them daily to have any clue what wicked things are coming their way. But it’s coming. You do raise a good point how such things are happening in the here and now albeit in a smaller scale than what awaits. Once again thanks for your reply.
I agree. I'm just an average person that tries to stay informed, so I'm hardly an activist, but I'm still stunned by how unconcerned so many Americans are about the state of the country, and yes, the bad things headed our way. Listen to ProPublica's podcast "We Don't Talk About Leonard" which is all about Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network now called Teneo. The long game they've played is unbelievable, and most of it has happened under the radar. Lots of money and religious zeal and of course, intolerance. They'll have control of the state and federal judiciary and of course already have the Supreme Court, so game's pretty much over when they come to power. And they plan to undo everything: they're well on their way with abortion, but also birth control, gay marriage/rights, etc.
To be sure, it won't be all of us. As Eric Blair wrote back in 1944, there will always be the exception whereby "some are more equal than others". Those "some" must exist and stand in contrast to the oppressed in order to fuel the oppression.
"There will be no hiding place from the power of Creation" -- Bob Marley
Thank you Chris. Thank you for your unflinching support of the truth.
Thank you, Chris, for being a real journalist. The US MSM have simply become stenographers for the US government. They might as well bundle up USG press releases, staple them together and call them a newspaper. The EU is just as bad. I think it's ironic that we used to mock the likes of Pravda, Izvestia, and Tass as government mouthpieces and we call the US president the leader of the free world. What a joke! All the US/UK/ EU MSM are just government mouthpieces and pretty much all of the world is free except for those countries under the control of the United States.
"we call the US president the leader of the free world."
I haven't heard that for a long time. Nowadays its "rules based order."
But we're standing with Israel because they're the "good guy", the "victim"...! Yeah, OK, whatever. Yes, as I have said, I wish Hamas would have targeted Israeli industrial sites and military rather than the civilian areas, but then again, what has Israel been doing all this time to the Palestinians...brings the question to me: "What do you expect to happen..."?
Personally it's been a painful week of soul-searching for me, though my guess is that I'm not alone. Chris and his newsletter have really helped me realize that all of this Israel-Hamas War is a US-financed PR snow job for Israel and the defense industry. It's profoundly embarrassing to admit how thoroughly I've been willing to believe the US-Isaeli lies, or to at least consider them. To confirm the statistics that Chris cites, about 98% of the $3+billion in aid to Israel last year went to the military. When I see these photos of the ridiculously deluded, video game-macho fake men, the self-described warriors of the IDF, whose enemy is a starving and near weaponless or significantly less-armed (due to Israel's super strict embargoes) group of captive civilians (they are literally fenced in), half of whom are children, I keep thinking of that scene in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones encounters the Arab with the sword. After a few moments of arrogant bemusement, he shoots and kills the guy. And walks away the hero of course. Now I get it. Never really was a fan, but I'll never watch a Steven Spielberg movie again.
The Iron Dome is only maybe 10% effective in stopping Hamas missiles. It is however 100% effective in directing large sums of money to the missile manufacturer.
Behind his "Aw'shucks, just a working-class Irish boy from Scranton with a heart of gold and compassion from here to forever" pitch, Biden is a monster.
I subscribe to Robert Reich, and he had a newsletter just this Friday extolling the virtue of Biden's leadership, what he did in Israel, good for him for urging Israel to exercise restraint, etc. I was flabbergasted. So, so few voices that really tell it like it is. Chris is one of them. I've outgrown many friends and acquaintances, too. It's painful.
It comes as no surprise that Bibi Netanyahu and his Likud advocates hate the Palestians; and have hated the Palestinians for decades. This is more than Hamas. It is about punishing and decimating an entire population of Arabs. Joseph R. Biden has given Israel free rein in this. Israel sees that as an endorsement for their slaughter.
The US has a history of perpetrating holocausts or supporting holocausts committed by other countries, so it is not surprising what is happening now. Seeing Biden hug Netanyahu and the US support for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, starvation and dehydration killing, men women children and babies makes me sick. Israel and the US has lost whatever soul it every had. This behavior will lead to major blowback through internal and external forces which is going to eventually lead to the collapse of Israel and the US. We are seeing it already happening in both the US and Israel.
And which holocausts has the US government supported?
Of course we can outline the genocide of the Native Americans from the landing of Christopher Columbus to the United States Indian Wars after the Civil War.
Which other holocausts are you referring to?
I suppose it depends on your definition of genocide.
Perhaps you will add the Vietnam war up through 1975 and the Iraq war begun in 2003; however, that I don't think that many individuals would agree with that conflation.
Would you consider China's treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide?
What about the Armenians at the hands of the Turks?
Oh?
https://science1arts2and3politics.substack.com/p/a-richter-scale-of-catastrophes
I think Mao holds that distinction. Around 50 million dead between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. This was achieved in a little more than 20 years whereas the depredations of European expansion took about 500 years.
Many genocides which occurred during the transition from hunter gathers to agriculturalists are pretty much unrecorded.
Our slavish obedience to Israel's long-term ethnic cleansing strategy is among the greatest threats to our "national security". Exactly the opposite of the drumbeat coming from these odious spokespeople at DOD, DOS, and WH and their media echo chamber, all of whom insist we must be permanently attached to Israel or we're doomed.
The US government is incapable of learning. It's in a perpetual state of infancy.
From bin Laden's Letter to America:
"As for the first question: Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:
(1) Because you attacked us and continue to attack us.
a) You attacked us in Palestine:"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver
check the bible while your at it, equating Zionism w Judaism is part of the problem you are contributing to.
Mr. Hedges, I appreciate your truth telling, but reading this article leaves me feeling more hopeless than before. It feels like we can either look forward to a World War or the total destruction of the Palestinian people. Either choice is despicable.
As a Palestinian American, I've been following the news on every platform looking for glimmers of hope that this time it will be different. This time, people will see and speak up for the Palestinians. I've been heartened by the world wide protests and the increased visibility of the horrors Palestinians face at the hands of a Genocidal Israel. At the same time, I am dismayed that Western governments and Israel's Hasbara machinery are escalating their tactics to punish any and all that speak up.
Is there any hope that a third option will emerge, that Western leaders will realize that the people of the world have had a enough of their Imperial destruction, and that they'd do better to back track and look for a more diplomatic approach?
BDS demands from citizens thru education, like South Africa, and making Israel a pariah state that it is and the despicable, morally decrepit and repugnant nakedly exposed genocidal imperialism, exposed of Israel and the USA, to more people.
And spiritually -always a necessity in horrors like this for any lasting, real peace, - a truth and reconciliation process.
BDS 100%, but did I understand you correctly? Does BDS demand spirituality? If so, double agreement. Spirituality our great gift from evolution is required but not a badly understood religion.
Spirituality is required for truth and reconciliation. I’ll tell you a story about what happened in South Africa in the T and R process. A woman faced the policeman that killed her son both were black. Of course. she said to him “you killed my son. I have no son. I need a son. I want you to be my son.“ He burst into tears and said “OK.“ As far as I know to this day, that relationship has lasted. in my world, only a power greater than ourselves can engender that in the human race, and only the Holy Spirit or whatever you wanna call it can inspire that to happen among humans. The minister who was there, told us in his lecture “you think you know forgiveness? let me tell you. You don’t know forgiveness until you could be like that woman.“ on a practical level, The people in the Middle East are enough alike. Yea, are humans enough really to be able for this to happen.
Beautiful story, Bernadene, that attitude is what we need everywhere. I called it human spirit other than that is animal behaviour. I think that in the Levant the truly monotheistic religions (Islam and Judaism) don't believe in a Holy Spirit but certainly they need to behave as humans.
Agree that an attitude of we are all in this human experiment together is what we need. Divide and conquer is what we have and it’s killing us every one.
Thank you for sharing what information you have about the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. I am deeply disappointed in the approach the Biden Administration is taking to this issue, though I am not the least bit surprised. Over the years, I've watched innumerable American administrations offer unconditional support to multiple Israeli governments engaged in the brutal oppression of the Palestinians. Quite frankly, I am sickened by it.
Isn't the motif of this process of obliteration of the Gazens by the bosses of government (Netyanahu and Biden) analogous to that of corporate bosses in their execution (of their attitude, purpose and intent) of corporate take overs of other corporations? Minus metal, high tech weaponry and physical killing? In my long years here on earth I've witnessed an attitudinal change among the (mis)leadership and the citizenry which seems to coincide with the diversity, strategic-ness and highly focussed corporate actions to dominate all structures of governance including the Fourth Estate subsequent to the Powell Memorandum. The sharp contrast between the Kennedy/LBJ years in attitudes by the leadership class and the citizenry leads me to ask - What force has been sufficiently strong to effect such changes?
Organized money. As FDR said....
“as morally bankrupt and as complicit in genocide as those who witnessed the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and did nothing.”
My father escaped Germany in a milk crate in 1938. His father lost his life in a slave camp.
I don’t like to use this quote too often, but he, and others, believed that if the Jews had not been the target of Hitler, they would have been his most enthusiastic allies.
This is not specific to Jews, but can be witnessed throughout history in the structure of genocidal movements. Some sort of meta-Milgram experiment, you might call it. It’s just not that hard to find people willing to carry out-and rationalize-horrific acts.
The Milgram experiment - and many real world examples - remains damning evidence of how assumed "authority figures" can manipulate ordinary people to do evil things. When our "leaders" are morally vacuous and exclusively self-interested, the adage Question Authority is paramount.
The findings of Milgram experiment apply to all power elites throughout history.
My own experiment is to look at bumper stickers and benefit from their wisdom. Here is one: "Whoever makes you believe absurdities will make you commit atrocities later"
My view is that the power elites cause the wars and the people get swept up in their ambitions. In the case of HAMAS is it really fighting for the Palestinians or is it hoping for a goal that is beyond reach (destruction of Israel)?
According to Gore Vidal, Cristopher Isherwood reminded a Zionist that the Nazis killed over 300,000 homosexuals, and others, as well.
“But what is that compared to six million?” Said the Jewish man.
Isherwood held a beat, then replied: “What are you, in real estate?”
Then the Palestinians are doomed, because all those props supplied by the US will remain. And WWIII is virtually certain. Then we all die. That is what US world domination has led us to.
A very real possibility, I think.
How can these great articles be tweeted for the world to read? Does anybody know?
Mr Hedges already has an "X" (titter) account,where you can follow his work.
Thnx Steve, I wasn’t sure paid subscription articles would be posted on Twitter