Out of Sight, Out of Mind - by Mr. Fish The indiscriminate shootings of Israelis by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance organizations, the kidnapping of civilians, the barrage of rockets into Israel, drone attacks on a variety of targets from tanks to automated machine gun nests, are the familiar language of the Israeli occupier. Israel has spoken this blood-soaked language of violence to the Palestinians since Zionist militias seized more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, destroyed some 530 Palestinian villages and cities and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in more than 70 massacres. Some 750,000
Thank you Mr Hedges! So true ... the cruel punishment that will follow now, without mercy and without reactions (see the statement of the White House).
And especially for this: “To be a Jew means always being with the oppressed and never the oppressors,” Edelman said. (I read a lot about the 'treatment' of Jews and others by the 3rd Reich - born in Austria - and had a long time to think about the HORROR of it, I never ran into information about Mr Edelman - WHAT A POWERFUL STATEMENT - I wish we all could see it like this!!)
There is no reason for us to continue to support Israel as a terrorist organization. Yes, we go against Hamas and other organizations in the ME for fighting back against terrorism that even we have been a part of, just for politics and money, saying those people and organizations are bad forces against peace, but what does that say about everything we have gotten involved with since Korea, for wrong reasons with nothing really to win, and we haven't won anything despite all the people we have lost and those who come home with problems but the government, especially the Veterans Administration just denies, and we just keep on doing it. So who is the real terrorist, here?
What an effing crock. I bet Israelis having previously adopted this victim virtue signaling luxury belief are regretting it now. A murderous terrorist is a murderous terrorist. There is zero explanation or justification.
Hamas targets Israeli citizens and then runs and hides behind Palestinian citizens. If you are incapable of admitting that and understanding the difference, then you have no credibility commenting on the situation.
The people that fought in the Warsaw ghetto Uprsing are a moral compasses that Israelis should take note of. In particular may I suggest Mordechai Anielewicz. Give the Palestinians a chance. Give Peace a chance.
The Israeli govt. has now cut off the already undrinkable water supply (water treatment facilities are routinely bombed by the Israelis in Gaza--a war crime) of 2.3 million Gazans. No water for the sick, elderly, children, babies, or anyone... I hate using the word "genocide,"but look at what's being done...
Israeli General Matti Peled, as related by his son Miko in "The General's Son" came to essentially the same conclusions as Leibowitz, rejecting Zionism and predicting the effects of occupation. Both father and son espouse[d] the single secular state, recognizing that religious autocracy can never be democratic.
I hope Chris would comment on the response I got from my Jewish friend after she read this article:-
“This is historically inaccurate and is spewed repeatedly by anti semitics. There was no ethnic cleaning and no occupation by Zionist. Ironically the cleansing was by the Arabs in 1948 when they expelled all Jews.”
This is why our world is so divisive. Everyone has their own version of the facts. I have no idea where she gets her information from but if you hear something enough times it becomes your reality. Trump and his MAGA followers are a testament to this fact.
As LBJ said about the race riots "what did you expect after having your foot on their neck for hundreds years"? Dying a humiliating slow death by a thousand cuts means you have nothing to lose. So much for IDF Col. Eitan's description of the future Gaza "they will be drugged roaches in a bottle". The bottle has been broken by Samoud steadfastness!
I understand totally why this finally happened. Now that it has, there are lots of questions:
1. This looks at first blush like a failure of Israeli Intelligence. Was it really? Or was the idea hatched to let it happen, in order to accomplish the genocide that Netenyahu has clearly threatened and, as Chris has stated, has already begun?
2. Of course, the US would have to sign onto the genocidal response, which the Zionist/ US propaganda machine has, basically, already done. The ahistorical and ludicrous ‘unprovoked’ meme has been relentlessly used in every response I have seen come out of our inverse-totalitarian blob. So fast, one has to wonder about the possibility of prior knowledge of the ‘sneak’ attack amongst our elites, which would have had to have come from Israeli intelligence.
3. Making no assumption about whether this attack was truly a surprise to Israeli authorities, once the ‘shock and awe’ part of the operation was complete, what is Hamas’ strategy going forward? It may have expected a revolt to organically occur in the West Bank. If that has happened in a major way, I haven’t heard about it. West Bank Palestinians have a far more difficult position given the chopped-up nature of the places in which they now live, and their subjugation not only by Israel, but also the Palestinian Authority, which long since has been an Israeli cat’s paw. If Hamas counted on this, it was overly optimistic
4. Was it counting on Syria, Lebanon or Hezbollah joining in? Syria and Lebanon are so weak they cannot even defend themselves from Israeli depradations, made possible, of course, by the power and might of the US Empire. Will Hezbollah do something? So far, it is hanging back.
5. What about Iran? Given the geography, it would have a very difficult time doing anything except showering Israel with missiles, which seems very unlikely UNLESS Israel proceeds with its genocide, as announced by Netenyahu. Was that the idea behind the Hamas sneak attack? Or is it the desired result of the Israeli response to an attack it knew was coming, in order that its long-desired destruction and genocide of Iran, after such an intervention by Iran to prevent the Israeli genocide in Gaza, might finally proceed with US approval?
6. Iran is now a Russian and Chinese ally. Do the denizens of the great court of the US Empire, which includes the denizens of Israel, suppose that Russia and, to a lesser extent, China, would not respond to these events in kind, or close enough to ‘in kind’ to take the situation well past the brink, given the almost certain US reaction to THEIR reactions?
There is a theory out there that World War III has already begun. It just didn’t start with an omnicidal thermonuclear exchange, as many of us, including myself, thought it would begin. And end. As the great satirist Tom Lehrer expected, in an hour and a half. We are working up to it, slowly. Given that a permanent Cuban Missile Crisis has apparently been created just in the Ukraine-centered conflict alone, it seems to me those theorists are correct. World War III HAS begun. It is just a matter of time before the omnicidal thermonuclear exchange that will end it. The events that are the subject of Chris’ essay and the responses to it have, I am afraid, shortened that time considerably.
Truth is the most basic of common goods. As the late senator and professor Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, everyone is entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.
When we accept lies as facts, or illogic as logic, we lose the shared reality necessary to tackle our common problems. We become powerless.
Slaughtering civilians intentionally is the definition of terrorism and inexcusable for any reason. I don’t agree with Israeli policy but do you really believe they intentionally target civilians? Do they have rogue soldiers that commit atrocities? Sadly yes. To equate this appalling massacre with anything the Israelis have done is immoral. I appreciate Chris Hedges but reaching for some type of moral explanation in the face of this event is a mistake.
OK. So I have many relatives in Israel, and, at one time, many years ago, it was Israel, right or wrong.
In the Torah God prohibited the destruction of the fruit trees of a conquered people, so when the first thousand year old olive grove was destroyed by the Israeli forces because the grove belonged to a Palestinian, I thought, yeah, that's it. Fine to murder people, right? After all, it's war. Done all the time. But the thousand year old olive grove? That's a crime. Unforgivable.
Thank you Mr Hedges! So true ... the cruel punishment that will follow now, without mercy and without reactions (see the statement of the White House).
And especially for this: “To be a Jew means always being with the oppressed and never the oppressors,” Edelman said. (I read a lot about the 'treatment' of Jews and others by the 3rd Reich - born in Austria - and had a long time to think about the HORROR of it, I never ran into information about Mr Edelman - WHAT A POWERFUL STATEMENT - I wish we all could see it like this!!)
Thank you Chris Hedges. Violence begets violence, always. My heart breaks for the children raised under the shadow of hatred
There is no reason for us to continue to support Israel as a terrorist organization. Yes, we go against Hamas and other organizations in the ME for fighting back against terrorism that even we have been a part of, just for politics and money, saying those people and organizations are bad forces against peace, but what does that say about everything we have gotten involved with since Korea, for wrong reasons with nothing really to win, and we haven't won anything despite all the people we have lost and those who come home with problems but the government, especially the Veterans Administration just denies, and we just keep on doing it. So who is the real terrorist, here?
Thank you, Chris, for another angry and eloquent evisceration of the corrupt, violent, greedy overlords of the earth.
What an effing crock. I bet Israelis having previously adopted this victim virtue signaling luxury belief are regretting it now. A murderous terrorist is a murderous terrorist. There is zero explanation or justification.
Hamas targets Israeli citizens and then runs and hides behind Palestinian citizens. If you are incapable of admitting that and understanding the difference, then you have no credibility commenting on the situation.
The people that fought in the Warsaw ghetto Uprsing are a moral compasses that Israelis should take note of. In particular may I suggest Mordechai Anielewicz. Give the Palestinians a chance. Give Peace a chance.
The Israeli govt. has now cut off the already undrinkable water supply (water treatment facilities are routinely bombed by the Israelis in Gaza--a war crime) of 2.3 million Gazans. No water for the sick, elderly, children, babies, or anyone... I hate using the word "genocide,"but look at what's being done...
Israeli General Matti Peled, as related by his son Miko in "The General's Son" came to essentially the same conclusions as Leibowitz, rejecting Zionism and predicting the effects of occupation. Both father and son espouse[d] the single secular state, recognizing that religious autocracy can never be democratic.
I hope Chris would comment on the response I got from my Jewish friend after she read this article:-
“This is historically inaccurate and is spewed repeatedly by anti semitics. There was no ethnic cleaning and no occupation by Zionist. Ironically the cleansing was by the Arabs in 1948 when they expelled all Jews.”
This is why our world is so divisive. Everyone has their own version of the facts. I have no idea where she gets her information from but if you hear something enough times it becomes your reality. Trump and his MAGA followers are a testament to this fact.
As LBJ said about the race riots "what did you expect after having your foot on their neck for hundreds years"? Dying a humiliating slow death by a thousand cuts means you have nothing to lose. So much for IDF Col. Eitan's description of the future Gaza "they will be drugged roaches in a bottle". The bottle has been broken by Samoud steadfastness!
I understand totally why this finally happened. Now that it has, there are lots of questions:
1. This looks at first blush like a failure of Israeli Intelligence. Was it really? Or was the idea hatched to let it happen, in order to accomplish the genocide that Netenyahu has clearly threatened and, as Chris has stated, has already begun?
2. Of course, the US would have to sign onto the genocidal response, which the Zionist/ US propaganda machine has, basically, already done. The ahistorical and ludicrous ‘unprovoked’ meme has been relentlessly used in every response I have seen come out of our inverse-totalitarian blob. So fast, one has to wonder about the possibility of prior knowledge of the ‘sneak’ attack amongst our elites, which would have had to have come from Israeli intelligence.
3. Making no assumption about whether this attack was truly a surprise to Israeli authorities, once the ‘shock and awe’ part of the operation was complete, what is Hamas’ strategy going forward? It may have expected a revolt to organically occur in the West Bank. If that has happened in a major way, I haven’t heard about it. West Bank Palestinians have a far more difficult position given the chopped-up nature of the places in which they now live, and their subjugation not only by Israel, but also the Palestinian Authority, which long since has been an Israeli cat’s paw. If Hamas counted on this, it was overly optimistic
4. Was it counting on Syria, Lebanon or Hezbollah joining in? Syria and Lebanon are so weak they cannot even defend themselves from Israeli depradations, made possible, of course, by the power and might of the US Empire. Will Hezbollah do something? So far, it is hanging back.
5. What about Iran? Given the geography, it would have a very difficult time doing anything except showering Israel with missiles, which seems very unlikely UNLESS Israel proceeds with its genocide, as announced by Netenyahu. Was that the idea behind the Hamas sneak attack? Or is it the desired result of the Israeli response to an attack it knew was coming, in order that its long-desired destruction and genocide of Iran, after such an intervention by Iran to prevent the Israeli genocide in Gaza, might finally proceed with US approval?
6. Iran is now a Russian and Chinese ally. Do the denizens of the great court of the US Empire, which includes the denizens of Israel, suppose that Russia and, to a lesser extent, China, would not respond to these events in kind, or close enough to ‘in kind’ to take the situation well past the brink, given the almost certain US reaction to THEIR reactions?
There is a theory out there that World War III has already begun. It just didn’t start with an omnicidal thermonuclear exchange, as many of us, including myself, thought it would begin. And end. As the great satirist Tom Lehrer expected, in an hour and a half. We are working up to it, slowly. Given that a permanent Cuban Missile Crisis has apparently been created just in the Ukraine-centered conflict alone, it seems to me those theorists are correct. World War III HAS begun. It is just a matter of time before the omnicidal thermonuclear exchange that will end it. The events that are the subject of Chris’ essay and the responses to it have, I am afraid, shortened that time considerably.
The terror Israel inflicts is the terror it will get.
That's succinctly it, sir.
This is not going to end well. Matter of fact, I think it's just the beginning of anothet christian holy war against the Muslim world population.
Truth is the most basic of common goods. As the late senator and professor Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, everyone is entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.
When we accept lies as facts, or illogic as logic, we lose the shared reality necessary to tackle our common problems. We become powerless.
Slaughtering civilians intentionally is the definition of terrorism and inexcusable for any reason. I don’t agree with Israeli policy but do you really believe they intentionally target civilians? Do they have rogue soldiers that commit atrocities? Sadly yes. To equate this appalling massacre with anything the Israelis have done is immoral. I appreciate Chris Hedges but reaching for some type of moral explanation in the face of this event is a mistake.
OK. So I have many relatives in Israel, and, at one time, many years ago, it was Israel, right or wrong.
In the Torah God prohibited the destruction of the fruit trees of a conquered people, so when the first thousand year old olive grove was destroyed by the Israeli forces because the grove belonged to a Palestinian, I thought, yeah, that's it. Fine to murder people, right? After all, it's war. Done all the time. But the thousand year old olive grove? That's a crime. Unforgivable.