I agree with this essay. In the short term Israel may be successful in suppressing Palestinian resistance but in the long term through a combination of internal and external factors Israel as we known it will collapse and disappear. A racist, apartheid state that engages in genocide and ettnic cleansing is digging its own grave and will eventually collapse. The sad thing is that in the process many innocent people both Palestinian and Israeli will be hurt.
I appreciate the great work that Chris Hedges is doing in keeping the public aware of the tragic events that are occurring in Gaza. He is one of the most courageous, outstanding journalists of our times!
The Palestinians were not antisemetic and they were tolerant of the Jewish settlers that first came. It was the Jewish settlers during the nakba that were intolerant and caused the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians which continues today in Gaza. Israel is digging its own grave in Gaza and it is going to eventually collapse!
It is not just younger Jews who are fed up with Israel. I am Jewish and 73. I cannot stand the state of Israel and never have. Stealing land from others is horrible enough, but killing those people when they object to being stolen from is even worse. I grew up hearing that Jews were god's chosen people, and that's the real problem. Zionists really do believe they're better than anyone else and can do as they like because of it. I have a really close friend who is 71, Jewish, and has the same disregard for Israel that I do. I for one hope to live long enough to see Israel gone from the map. "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." While this phrase most emphatically does not mean that all zionists should be killed, it most certainly means that the bastard state of Israel should be.
The recent death of Henry Kissinger brought to light once again his famous quote: “As a Jew, I have to wonder: we’ve been hated persecuted and chased around the globe for millennia. There must be a reason.”
The paradox of the Jewish people is that among the brilliant and wonderful people of the group are also some of the most awful. Israel reflects a concentration of the awful. The majority of Israeli adults support the genocide, while Finklestein and Miko Peled are ostracized.
I see no future for the State of Israel. I just don’t think the world will put up with it. We can only hope that it can transform peacefully into a real democracy, a real home for its entire indigenous population, from the river to the sea.
To what extent does the revelation of Israel’s disrespect for international human rights reflect anything new, and what forces might emerge to compel the accountability to which this post alludes?
Put another way, does the increasingly vast recognition of Israel’s wanton criminality shift the equation beyond the long established baseline? Both Tel Aviv and Washington have long thumbed their noses at the international community, as well as institutions that enforce its commitments, like the International Criminal Court.
To the extent Israel will ever face accountability going forward, it will have to come from institutions and voices that have been less engaged in the past. I wrote a few weeks ago about the critical importance of organized labor in the United States, which has recently discovered its own grassroots power, but seemingly not yet the broader meaning of solidarity beyond the interests of union members. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/we-the-people-can-unplug-the-war
Afraid this course is set. For how many decades has the State of Israel gotten away with acts that no other nation, except the US, could? Mystique, indeed. The US lost its mystique and its moorings after 9/11, and we continue to pay a price for that fiasco; the same will hold for Israel after this spasm of murderous retribution ends. Many, many voices down the decades have warned, as Hannah Arendt did 75 years ago, that the presence of Arabs in Palestine can’t be altered, except perhaps by the decision of a totalitarian state and implemented by ruthless force.
The recent vote by the UN General Assembly demonstrates how isolated the US and Israel are on the world stage. The governments of both countries appear to be filled with such enormous arrogance that they are incapable of any form of compassion.
I wonder if Israel will now only attract the worst of people, the worst of visitors, the worst of business partners, the worst of Jewish settlers.
I find it hard to fathom that anti-Zionist Jews could abide living or visiting there ever again, given all that has been done in the name of Judaism and Israel.
I wish Israel economic failure. To suffer life hardships as a consequence of their own choice and determination to hate. To have the next generation of Israelis turn against their elders as they reject their difficult lives and abolish the state of Israel as it is today, and make reparations to the Palestinian people.
I agree that Israel is destroying itself along with Gaza. They have turned their enemies into global heroes. I don't know if Hamas was smart enough to achieve this outcome, but if they were, then they have surpassed their wildest dreams. Is the current Israeli government as stupid as they seem? They are blinded by their own hatred and fear. I cannot weep for them. My tears are all for the Palestinians and their children. If I earned enough money to pay taxes, I would refuse to pay a dime until my government stopped giving my money to Israel. All I can do is protest and give what I can to help the victims of this genocide.
1. The United States is a colonial settler regime and seems to be here for the foreseeable future.
2. "apparently escaped their captors and approached Israeli forces with their shirts off, waving a white flag and calling out for help in Hebrew is not only tragic, but a glimpse of Israel’s rules of engagement in Gaza. These rules are — kill anything that moves."
This blows up the idea that the killing would stop if only Hamas would throw themselves on the mercy of their tormentors.
The Israel apartheid appears as a kaleidoscope of hypocrisy, another symptom of our civilization’s dysfunction. If we aren’t consumed by nuclear war, this era will be known to history first and foremost for the Climate Breakdown, and the response, or lack of response, by the powerful people and groups in our world. Your point is well taken about Biden; he’s probably lost the young progressives by his unconditional support of Israel… it’s hard to believe he would make this misstep, which could throw us under the control of the fascists.
Chris Hedges always brilliant and one of the most eloquent speakers on Social Justice movements and the world beyond America. 51% of Americans 18-25 that believe in the "death of Israel" and a Palestinian state led by Hamas (Harvard Harris poll). 85% of Americans overall approve of Israel. The young receive their information exclusively from the Internet and their peers and heavily influenced by Black Liberation movements and BLM exct. and not legacy media and less propagandized than the general American public. I have hope for the future dire as the present seems. Palestine exposed the lies, the propaganda, the war machine and it will bleed into social movements and ultimately the demise of US and maybe even immoral power and economic structures. Thank you Hedges for your always precise moral compass and courageous speech. For anyone who has not watched Hedges address Gaza Genocide https://youtu.be/ly6lfhOxTe0?si=gxkV9eRowIMA5xMM
While Chris is likely right about the long term death of Israel.......the fact remains that the world is helpless in front of whatever conflict the United States of America chooses to support....from VietNam to Cambodia, from Nicaragua to El Salvador ,Guatemala and Panama, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria.... the wars raged against the poor people of the world (falsely labelled wars against communism) have been the ugly signposts of my life.
In my 70's now and working as hard as I can against climate change and the fossil fuel cartels...I see American proxy wars as Petro Wars, American militarism as a consequence of the bloody Petro dollar.......and I grieve for all our children, past present and as yet to be born.
We don't give most of them a chance........and the ugly rhetoric we spin to justify our inaction, and callous indifference has made religion, or spirituality of any kind, for me, a cruel joke.
Were we a free people, a spiritual people, a people who loved life....and saw in other people's children the same divine spark as we experience in our own children....these wars would not be possible. We would all be in the street.........refusing to comply with civil society expectations until the murders ended....and the murderers were brought to justice.
These genocidal wars may spell the end of Empire....some sweet day....but they bring back none of the beautiful possibilities dying now...and not just in Gaza.....but dying now, because civil society is shown to be utterly helpless.........and too often, indifferent.
Shame on All of Us that we allow genocide to continue....and again, not only in Gaza.
What Chris says may be true in the long run, but right now, there are lives on the line. I firmly believe that trying to undo the sins of the nation state within the confines of the nation-state construct will lead to more death and destruction. Along with saving lives, part of what I want to do is to encourage more of us to think about new ways to think and act on this issue.
There must be a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, not with Palestinians suffering under oppressive conditions, but as a place where all live with peace and equality. It is time for Pope Francis to do more than talk. He must go to Gaza and make a stand for peace and freedom.
I agree with this essay. In the short term Israel may be successful in suppressing Palestinian resistance but in the long term through a combination of internal and external factors Israel as we known it will collapse and disappear. A racist, apartheid state that engages in genocide and ettnic cleansing is digging its own grave and will eventually collapse. The sad thing is that in the process many innocent people both Palestinian and Israeli will be hurt.
I appreciate the great work that Chris Hedges is doing in keeping the public aware of the tragic events that are occurring in Gaza. He is one of the most courageous, outstanding journalists of our times!
The Palestinians were not antisemetic and they were tolerant of the Jewish settlers that first came. It was the Jewish settlers during the nakba that were intolerant and caused the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians which continues today in Gaza. Israel is digging its own grave in Gaza and it is going to eventually collapse!
It is not just younger Jews who are fed up with Israel. I am Jewish and 73. I cannot stand the state of Israel and never have. Stealing land from others is horrible enough, but killing those people when they object to being stolen from is even worse. I grew up hearing that Jews were god's chosen people, and that's the real problem. Zionists really do believe they're better than anyone else and can do as they like because of it. I have a really close friend who is 71, Jewish, and has the same disregard for Israel that I do. I for one hope to live long enough to see Israel gone from the map. "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." While this phrase most emphatically does not mean that all zionists should be killed, it most certainly means that the bastard state of Israel should be.
The recent death of Henry Kissinger brought to light once again his famous quote: “As a Jew, I have to wonder: we’ve been hated persecuted and chased around the globe for millennia. There must be a reason.”
The paradox of the Jewish people is that among the brilliant and wonderful people of the group are also some of the most awful. Israel reflects a concentration of the awful. The majority of Israeli adults support the genocide, while Finklestein and Miko Peled are ostracized.
I see no future for the State of Israel. I just don’t think the world will put up with it. We can only hope that it can transform peacefully into a real democracy, a real home for its entire indigenous population, from the river to the sea.
To what extent does the revelation of Israel’s disrespect for international human rights reflect anything new, and what forces might emerge to compel the accountability to which this post alludes?
Put another way, does the increasingly vast recognition of Israel’s wanton criminality shift the equation beyond the long established baseline? Both Tel Aviv and Washington have long thumbed their noses at the international community, as well as institutions that enforce its commitments, like the International Criminal Court.
To the extent Israel will ever face accountability going forward, it will have to come from institutions and voices that have been less engaged in the past. I wrote a few weeks ago about the critical importance of organized labor in the United States, which has recently discovered its own grassroots power, but seemingly not yet the broader meaning of solidarity beyond the interests of union members. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/we-the-people-can-unplug-the-war
Afraid this course is set. For how many decades has the State of Israel gotten away with acts that no other nation, except the US, could? Mystique, indeed. The US lost its mystique and its moorings after 9/11, and we continue to pay a price for that fiasco; the same will hold for Israel after this spasm of murderous retribution ends. Many, many voices down the decades have warned, as Hannah Arendt did 75 years ago, that the presence of Arabs in Palestine can’t be altered, except perhaps by the decision of a totalitarian state and implemented by ruthless force.
The recent vote by the UN General Assembly demonstrates how isolated the US and Israel are on the world stage. The governments of both countries appear to be filled with such enormous arrogance that they are incapable of any form of compassion.
I wonder if Israel will now only attract the worst of people, the worst of visitors, the worst of business partners, the worst of Jewish settlers.
I find it hard to fathom that anti-Zionist Jews could abide living or visiting there ever again, given all that has been done in the name of Judaism and Israel.
I wish Israel economic failure. To suffer life hardships as a consequence of their own choice and determination to hate. To have the next generation of Israelis turn against their elders as they reject their difficult lives and abolish the state of Israel as it is today, and make reparations to the Palestinian people.
I wish the same for the U.S.
I agree that Israel is destroying itself along with Gaza. They have turned their enemies into global heroes. I don't know if Hamas was smart enough to achieve this outcome, but if they were, then they have surpassed their wildest dreams. Is the current Israeli government as stupid as they seem? They are blinded by their own hatred and fear. I cannot weep for them. My tears are all for the Palestinians and their children. If I earned enough money to pay taxes, I would refuse to pay a dime until my government stopped giving my money to Israel. All I can do is protest and give what I can to help the victims of this genocide.
1. The United States is a colonial settler regime and seems to be here for the foreseeable future.
2. "apparently escaped their captors and approached Israeli forces with their shirts off, waving a white flag and calling out for help in Hebrew is not only tragic, but a glimpse of Israel’s rules of engagement in Gaza. These rules are — kill anything that moves."
This blows up the idea that the killing would stop if only Hamas would throw themselves on the mercy of their tormentors.
The Israel apartheid appears as a kaleidoscope of hypocrisy, another symptom of our civilization’s dysfunction. If we aren’t consumed by nuclear war, this era will be known to history first and foremost for the Climate Breakdown, and the response, or lack of response, by the powerful people and groups in our world. Your point is well taken about Biden; he’s probably lost the young progressives by his unconditional support of Israel… it’s hard to believe he would make this misstep, which could throw us under the control of the fascists.
Chris Hedges always brilliant and one of the most eloquent speakers on Social Justice movements and the world beyond America. 51% of Americans 18-25 that believe in the "death of Israel" and a Palestinian state led by Hamas (Harvard Harris poll). 85% of Americans overall approve of Israel. The young receive their information exclusively from the Internet and their peers and heavily influenced by Black Liberation movements and BLM exct. and not legacy media and less propagandized than the general American public. I have hope for the future dire as the present seems. Palestine exposed the lies, the propaganda, the war machine and it will bleed into social movements and ultimately the demise of US and maybe even immoral power and economic structures. Thank you Hedges for your always precise moral compass and courageous speech. For anyone who has not watched Hedges address Gaza Genocide https://youtu.be/ly6lfhOxTe0?si=gxkV9eRowIMA5xMM
Get enraged and then ready to cry.
While Chris is likely right about the long term death of Israel.......the fact remains that the world is helpless in front of whatever conflict the United States of America chooses to support....from VietNam to Cambodia, from Nicaragua to El Salvador ,Guatemala and Panama, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria.... the wars raged against the poor people of the world (falsely labelled wars against communism) have been the ugly signposts of my life.
In my 70's now and working as hard as I can against climate change and the fossil fuel cartels...I see American proxy wars as Petro Wars, American militarism as a consequence of the bloody Petro dollar.......and I grieve for all our children, past present and as yet to be born.
We don't give most of them a chance........and the ugly rhetoric we spin to justify our inaction, and callous indifference has made religion, or spirituality of any kind, for me, a cruel joke.
Were we a free people, a spiritual people, a people who loved life....and saw in other people's children the same divine spark as we experience in our own children....these wars would not be possible. We would all be in the street.........refusing to comply with civil society expectations until the murders ended....and the murderers were brought to justice.
These genocidal wars may spell the end of Empire....some sweet day....but they bring back none of the beautiful possibilities dying now...and not just in Gaza.....but dying now, because civil society is shown to be utterly helpless.........and too often, indifferent.
Shame on All of Us that we allow genocide to continue....and again, not only in Gaza.
What Chris says may be true in the long run, but right now, there are lives on the line. I firmly believe that trying to undo the sins of the nation state within the confines of the nation-state construct will lead to more death and destruction. Along with saving lives, part of what I want to do is to encourage more of us to think about new ways to think and act on this issue.
There must be a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, not with Palestinians suffering under oppressive conditions, but as a place where all live with peace and equality. It is time for Pope Francis to do more than talk. He must go to Gaza and make a stand for peace and freedom.
Please sign the petition and share widely.
https://chng.it/CRQ7qw4Gzn
Two more petitions:
Codepink:
https://www.codepink.org/cnngaza?utm_campaign=12_15_pali_update_alert_3&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink
Ceasefire Now
https://www.change.org/p/sign-and-share-this-urgent-petition-calling-for-a-ceasefirenow-in-gaza-and-israel
These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.
For a neuropolitical perspective on the Death of Isreal and the US:
https://meyerja.substack.com/p/a-measure-of-democracy
The United States is also, increasingly, a pariah state.