Children of Gaza - by Mr. Fish Dear child. It is past midnight. I am flying at hundreds of miles an hour in the darkness, thousands of feet over the Atlantic Ocean. I am traveling to Egypt. I will go to the border of Gaza at Rafah. I go because of you.
Chris, Your voice is a glimmer of light in all the darkness we face these days. I hope and pray you stay safe while bearing witness to the horror inflicted upon the children (and the adults) in Palestine. Your words break my heart every time I read them, but I must read them to hold onto my humanity. Thank you for all you do.
This made me cry again. For the horror of genocide in broad daylight the world stands with Palestine. Anyone not filled with tears for the children and innocents slaughtered has no humanity.
Very heartfelt and well written. Those poor babies and children in Gaza being slaughtered by two of the most powerful militaries in the world--the U.S. and Israel. It is perverse, gross, and evil! God damn!
This is one of the very most empathetic and poignant essays of values-based journalism i've ever read over the past 50+ years of deeply reading about various injustices. Thank you, Rev. Chris. 🙏💜
(And thank you for your years of ethical veganism and speaking out for that other, massive population of hyper-vulnerable sentient beings, the hundreds of billions of animal persons who suffer unimaginable pain and atrocities every hour of their lives, on the land and in the waters, because of human madness and callousness.)
Thank you, Mr. Hedges, for helping humanize the plight of Gazans living under the Israeli genocide, and revealing for your readers what so many of your colleagues in "journalism" actively work to obscure. I've cited your posts in some of my own recent columns, including one last week recalling that genocide is, unfortunately, entirely on brand for the United States. Too many Americans forget how recent was the genocide of indigenous Americans. It seems our nation has learned less from its own history than we wish. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/indigenous-lives-matter-from-north
This is such a deeply moving and empathetic piece of writing, so powerful and all the better for the simple, direct language. I confess it moved me close to tears, and that's fairly unusual. I'm a retired psychiatrist, ethnically, culturally Jewish but atheist and strongly anti-Zionist, ongoing events again demonstrating how much Zionism was always the wrong answer to centuries of European Jewish persecution. Neither Palestinians nor Jews will be free until the state structure of Zionism is dismantled. That dream seems so unrealisable now but other unrealisable dreams in the past have been fulfilled when people realised they were the only way to resolve disputes. It seems right now the only just solution to the problem is the single -- *secular* -- democratic state for all its citizens, with freedom of -- and freedom from -- religion, be it fundamentalist theocratic Islam or Judaism. The attempted "final", oh dear, "solution" of the current fascist Israeli government is no lasting solution at all. It will lead only to more frustration, anger and violence. Freedom for Palestinians, and REAL freedom too for Jews!
Beautifully written and truly captures every emotion that they are experiencing. How sad for them, how sad for us all. This letter should be shown to all, but we know that will never be, but for those who pay attention we appreciate you so please never stop. Thank you for all you do Chris, you are the truth, and the light in this very dark world.
Thank you for going to Rafah. Thank you for writing this. It made me cry.
I was in Cairo October 7th (coincidence) and also a week later. These were events that shook Egyptians to the core.
I can't go right now. Most of us are unable to help the way you do. I would love to be able to. Thank you again. You expressed succinctly what many of us think and feel. Thank you for all you do.
This letter made me cry. I feel the same way as a protestor in my small Western city- helpless but feeling the imperative as a fellow human to speak out. Thank you Chris for reminding us of the need to bear witness and not simply to go about our daily lives as if genocide is another mass shooting or robbery.
Thanks Chris. Too bad the MSM media and the NY Times will not print the ugly truth! Has Zionist fascism taken over the world through the USA? I only see sheer hate in the dead eyes of IDF spokesman and politicians. With insane hasbara from Bloody Blinken who even had the audacity to say "2 State solution" with Hamas crushed and Gaza disarmed. Not much to say about the West Bank pogroms or daily Kristallnacht's against the unarmed Palestinian's and the Hill Top Youth Brown Shirts! Butcher Biden the Chicken Hawk has ALWAYS hated Palestinian's and Arabs, like the rest of the Neo Con, Neo Liberal PNAC fascists. Sadly I saw on Al Jazeera today the journalist who tore off his helmet and vest in defiance, rage and the hopelessness of never ending bombing, was murdered yesterday under IDF bombs. ( sorry I will post his name latter). Stay safe Chris. Your voice is needed for humanity. Maybe as a witness to war crimes in the Hague! ( I know not much of a chance for that).
This makes me weep. Heart hurting. For the children on whom the brutish Israelis are raining terror wounds deep into the psyches of these dear innocents and their families if they manage to survive. And tears also fall witnessing my own country’s depravity. Actively supporting these Israeli coarsened psychopaths. Biden and his morally blind neoconservative hawks til -the- end triplets - Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland. Appallingly inferior to the historical moment that will forever announce the USA’s moral stuntedness. So within so without. A selfish gaming bullying entity inside its borders controlled by the corporate and Fat Rich, a mindset wholly absent service to life itself. Where people are viewed solely as profit opportunities. And doing their damnedest not to pay a dime to the community (taxes) yet use its infrastructure and schools. The corporate mindset is that of the user. Defiling the public trust it creates systems (medical, insurance, legislative, war complex) that further scourge communities with armies of lobbyists to restrict and minimize the public good (universal healthcare, not for profit prisons, free public college university and trades education, mega climate amelioration efforts, etc). So this morally deficient anti-life corporatized mindset intent on power and profit is that of our mediocre Biden Administration on vivid display in its subservience to abysmal Israeli dictation. So within so without. Our backside in full view of the world. This will become a marker of the USA’s decline.
Thank you, Chris Hedges. I've followed your work and humanity for some time, now, since college days and now... we are all getting old and this issue continues to be tragic and confounding. I just read another sanctimonious testimony from "the other side" that gave no acknowledgement toward the suffering on the other side... It's astounding, the depths of that victimhood, the narcissism, the insistence that the other side IS evil despite the lack of material power - violence - in comparison. I get that this is the depth of the Trauma that has been created over decades, centuries. But there is a toxic mental illness at work that desires to master the tools of Death and Destruction to this degree and rationalize it away by one's own trauma committed by previous events, previous actors. In fact, it is Anti-Western because it does NOT hold individuals responsible for their own acts of criminality, and instead, engages in collective punishment in a stark tribal framework. Irony of ironies. Ta Nehisi Coates - a newcomer to this issue, for which he says he is working hard at making up for his own ignorance - was just talking about how it had not occurred to him that someone would ever get "the wrong message" from the Holocaust, but now he sees it. He referenced MLK's insights into how embracing violence so tightly would corrupt the soul, and in turn, how profound an insight it is that Nonviolence is such a critical path - without qualifiers. Without ifs/ands/buts. That there is a difference in recognizing how you are caught in the Cycle of Suffering, the Cycle of Violence, which contrasts with getting "the wrong message" which is the idea that one must get the Power, and once gotten, then holding onto that Power is what keeps you safe, rather than seeing the Cycle of Violence that you are trapped in. These kids... To stop the Cycle of Hate, the rest of us must bypass the grownups and do what we can to extend the message of Love to the kids. Help them know that despite what is happening, the World does not hate them, just a select group of Grownups who are trapped in their own toxic cycles... (with the help of a lot of prominent American intellectuals, some I get, some I don't, but the Vehemence displayed on the pages of the NYTimes is so ugly, unkind, and unbecoming of what should be an advanced and magnanimous civilization ... like, I get it about Brett Stephens, he's not very modern in his thinking, but I do NOT get what is going on in Nick Kristof's head with his "faux humanistic apologist I only see terrorism on one side" pseudo-wise uncle unbalanced hot takes... my GenZ child thinks he's right wing "OK Boomer"... And who woulda thought it's good-ol' smug T Friedman who has a clear view of Reality these days...!) Whatevs. You, Chris Hedges, remain the true Humanist after all these wretched decades.
Chris, Your voice is a glimmer of light in all the darkness we face these days. I hope and pray you stay safe while bearing witness to the horror inflicted upon the children (and the adults) in Palestine. Your words break my heart every time I read them, but I must read them to hold onto my humanity. Thank you for all you do.
This made me cry again. For the horror of genocide in broad daylight the world stands with Palestine. Anyone not filled with tears for the children and innocents slaughtered has no humanity.
Thanks for going Chris. Your love is contagious. Keep it alive. Be safe.
Lol
Very heartfelt and well written. Those poor babies and children in Gaza being slaughtered by two of the most powerful militaries in the world--the U.S. and Israel. It is perverse, gross, and evil! God damn!
This is one of the very most empathetic and poignant essays of values-based journalism i've ever read over the past 50+ years of deeply reading about various injustices. Thank you, Rev. Chris. 🙏💜
(And thank you for your years of ethical veganism and speaking out for that other, massive population of hyper-vulnerable sentient beings, the hundreds of billions of animal persons who suffer unimaginable pain and atrocities every hour of their lives, on the land and in the waters, because of human madness and callousness.)
Thank you, Mr. Hedges, for helping humanize the plight of Gazans living under the Israeli genocide, and revealing for your readers what so many of your colleagues in "journalism" actively work to obscure. I've cited your posts in some of my own recent columns, including one last week recalling that genocide is, unfortunately, entirely on brand for the United States. Too many Americans forget how recent was the genocide of indigenous Americans. It seems our nation has learned less from its own history than we wish. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/indigenous-lives-matter-from-north
You be careful over there!
It Shouldn't Hurt to be a Child
This is such a deeply moving and empathetic piece of writing, so powerful and all the better for the simple, direct language. I confess it moved me close to tears, and that's fairly unusual. I'm a retired psychiatrist, ethnically, culturally Jewish but atheist and strongly anti-Zionist, ongoing events again demonstrating how much Zionism was always the wrong answer to centuries of European Jewish persecution. Neither Palestinians nor Jews will be free until the state structure of Zionism is dismantled. That dream seems so unrealisable now but other unrealisable dreams in the past have been fulfilled when people realised they were the only way to resolve disputes. It seems right now the only just solution to the problem is the single -- *secular* -- democratic state for all its citizens, with freedom of -- and freedom from -- religion, be it fundamentalist theocratic Islam or Judaism. The attempted "final", oh dear, "solution" of the current fascist Israeli government is no lasting solution at all. It will lead only to more frustration, anger and violence. Freedom for Palestinians, and REAL freedom too for Jews!
Beautifully written and truly captures every emotion that they are experiencing. How sad for them, how sad for us all. This letter should be shown to all, but we know that will never be, but for those who pay attention we appreciate you so please never stop. Thank you for all you do Chris, you are the truth, and the light in this very dark world.
Thank you for going to Rafah. Thank you for writing this. It made me cry.
I was in Cairo October 7th (coincidence) and also a week later. These were events that shook Egyptians to the core.
I can't go right now. Most of us are unable to help the way you do. I would love to be able to. Thank you again. You expressed succinctly what many of us think and feel. Thank you for all you do.
This letter made me cry. I feel the same way as a protestor in my small Western city- helpless but feeling the imperative as a fellow human to speak out. Thank you Chris for reminding us of the need to bear witness and not simply to go about our daily lives as if genocide is another mass shooting or robbery.
Thanks Chris. Too bad the MSM media and the NY Times will not print the ugly truth! Has Zionist fascism taken over the world through the USA? I only see sheer hate in the dead eyes of IDF spokesman and politicians. With insane hasbara from Bloody Blinken who even had the audacity to say "2 State solution" with Hamas crushed and Gaza disarmed. Not much to say about the West Bank pogroms or daily Kristallnacht's against the unarmed Palestinian's and the Hill Top Youth Brown Shirts! Butcher Biden the Chicken Hawk has ALWAYS hated Palestinian's and Arabs, like the rest of the Neo Con, Neo Liberal PNAC fascists. Sadly I saw on Al Jazeera today the journalist who tore off his helmet and vest in defiance, rage and the hopelessness of never ending bombing, was murdered yesterday under IDF bombs. ( sorry I will post his name latter). Stay safe Chris. Your voice is needed for humanity. Maybe as a witness to war crimes in the Hague! ( I know not much of a chance for that).
This makes me weep. Heart hurting. For the children on whom the brutish Israelis are raining terror wounds deep into the psyches of these dear innocents and their families if they manage to survive. And tears also fall witnessing my own country’s depravity. Actively supporting these Israeli coarsened psychopaths. Biden and his morally blind neoconservative hawks til -the- end triplets - Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland. Appallingly inferior to the historical moment that will forever announce the USA’s moral stuntedness. So within so without. A selfish gaming bullying entity inside its borders controlled by the corporate and Fat Rich, a mindset wholly absent service to life itself. Where people are viewed solely as profit opportunities. And doing their damnedest not to pay a dime to the community (taxes) yet use its infrastructure and schools. The corporate mindset is that of the user. Defiling the public trust it creates systems (medical, insurance, legislative, war complex) that further scourge communities with armies of lobbyists to restrict and minimize the public good (universal healthcare, not for profit prisons, free public college university and trades education, mega climate amelioration efforts, etc). So this morally deficient anti-life corporatized mindset intent on power and profit is that of our mediocre Biden Administration on vivid display in its subservience to abysmal Israeli dictation. So within so without. Our backside in full view of the world. This will become a marker of the USA’s decline.
You put a scared little face onto what horror is unfolding
Netanyahu is and has been a war criminal - just like the USA
It’s shameful and heartbreaking
God speed to you brave warrior with a pen
Thank you, Chris Hedges. I've followed your work and humanity for some time, now, since college days and now... we are all getting old and this issue continues to be tragic and confounding. I just read another sanctimonious testimony from "the other side" that gave no acknowledgement toward the suffering on the other side... It's astounding, the depths of that victimhood, the narcissism, the insistence that the other side IS evil despite the lack of material power - violence - in comparison. I get that this is the depth of the Trauma that has been created over decades, centuries. But there is a toxic mental illness at work that desires to master the tools of Death and Destruction to this degree and rationalize it away by one's own trauma committed by previous events, previous actors. In fact, it is Anti-Western because it does NOT hold individuals responsible for their own acts of criminality, and instead, engages in collective punishment in a stark tribal framework. Irony of ironies. Ta Nehisi Coates - a newcomer to this issue, for which he says he is working hard at making up for his own ignorance - was just talking about how it had not occurred to him that someone would ever get "the wrong message" from the Holocaust, but now he sees it. He referenced MLK's insights into how embracing violence so tightly would corrupt the soul, and in turn, how profound an insight it is that Nonviolence is such a critical path - without qualifiers. Without ifs/ands/buts. That there is a difference in recognizing how you are caught in the Cycle of Suffering, the Cycle of Violence, which contrasts with getting "the wrong message" which is the idea that one must get the Power, and once gotten, then holding onto that Power is what keeps you safe, rather than seeing the Cycle of Violence that you are trapped in. These kids... To stop the Cycle of Hate, the rest of us must bypass the grownups and do what we can to extend the message of Love to the kids. Help them know that despite what is happening, the World does not hate them, just a select group of Grownups who are trapped in their own toxic cycles... (with the help of a lot of prominent American intellectuals, some I get, some I don't, but the Vehemence displayed on the pages of the NYTimes is so ugly, unkind, and unbecoming of what should be an advanced and magnanimous civilization ... like, I get it about Brett Stephens, he's not very modern in his thinking, but I do NOT get what is going on in Nick Kristof's head with his "faux humanistic apologist I only see terrorism on one side" pseudo-wise uncle unbalanced hot takes... my GenZ child thinks he's right wing "OK Boomer"... And who woulda thought it's good-ol' smug T Friedman who has a clear view of Reality these days...!) Whatevs. You, Chris Hedges, remain the true Humanist after all these wretched decades.