Israel's genocidal attacks, which are killing hundreds of Palestinians a day, including some 160 children, have expanded to shelling the remaining hospitals in Gaza.
When I have read of other genocides, I couldn’t get my head around how the non-oppressed people in those areas just went about their days as staggering numbers of people were slaughtered.
Now, in a surreal America, I have come to realize that there are people around me who have espoused the corporate media’s euphemisms that are essentially saying, “No need for concern, these are ‘other.’ “
I will be going to another protest in Newark, NJ on Monday to bear witness , to scream my horrified frustration and remember that I am not alone in my thinking that other is illusion.
Once again I keep internally murmuring the mantra I read in one of the comments in response to another of your searing truth telling articles: “Your words break my heart every time I read them, but I must read them to hold onto my humanity."
My greatest comfort, if I may call it that, during this time of hell unfolding, is reading the passionate, uncompromising voice of the remarkable truth-teller that is Chris Hedges. Mr. Hedges, thank you for ever priming my intellect with information and context while, at the same time, expressing the deep feelings that are trapped in my helpless heart.
who will write the Palestinian SHOAH ? _ i remember sitting through the 9 hours of Landsman's movie with pictures of countless empty train tracks. We knew where they were headed and who was in the cars. These were the Polish Jews who were headed towards their final destination and who would never survive the war let alone return to their homes.
What I still remember was the horror I felt at watching the smirks on the faces of their Polish neighbors who, when asked by Landsman if they knew why their neighbors were dragged out of their homes with only the clothes on their backs, they denied that they had any idea of what was going on. But if they weren't coming back, their houses were available for a non-Jew Pole to live in.
To think that there are the descendents of these same Jews living the life of Riley in Tel Aviv while one half hour away, another genocide is taking place is so horrific that my mind can hardly go there. I iread Chris and listen to Norman Finklestein because I can't turn away from the horror of what is being done to the Palestinians with the support of my own government.
Strong writing and the deaths of innocent humans are on the hands of Biden and Netanyahu. This a War Crime.........drag the perpetrators to the Criminal Court in The Hague!
Things are changing in Europe but not fast enough.
I’ve been waiting for your first report from the Middle East and right off the bat it’s more horrific than I can imagine. But of course I can’t imagine it as I have had a fairly sheltered life at 68 years old. I never served in any military as the Vietnam War ended just as I graduated high school. So I personally don’t know the horror of war up close and personal. Only how Hollywood portrays them which to my sensitive self is horrific enough. I say all this because as always your writing and speaking has a way of truly bringing the horror of war to another level of feeling. And this first one hits my heart and shatters it yet again ever deeply. I can barely imagine the rage of the Palestinian people having endured what they have for the last 70+ years at the hand of Israel. And after decades of near starvation and generational homes being destroyed by ILLEGAL settlers what happened on October 7th was inevitable. I cannot judge what took place that day as I do not know that kind of rage. And all those years the world stood by and let it happen, with the country of my birth enabling it all the way. A country that prattles endlessly about human rights. What a god damned crock of shit. After all the great USA was founded on genocide and slavery. And nothing about that has changed over the years other than exporting such know how around the world. In my own way I feel like a Palestinian trapped in a country hell bent on destroying life on earth through endless wars and exponential climate change. I know it’s not the same and certainly no where to the same extant but there is a connection between the two. I also realize I am powerless to stop all the sociopaths who lust for war and the money it brings them. Mainstream media has rotted the brains of the citizens who lap up propaganda like kids on candy. Voting is a useless exercise as both brands of the corporate uni-party are war mongers on steroids. I see little hope for the future of humanity to say nothing of the flora and fauna we will take with us. Others may disagree and the future will unfold as it does. But getting back to this post like I said at the beginning, what Hedges describes is unimaginable to me given my personal history, but in its own way enrages me to know that a nation like Israel has been given a free pass to destroy a people by the so-called “civilized” world led by the violence loving USA. I detest the country of my birth and all who proclaim how fucking exceptional it is. It is not. Israel and the USA (governments) are akin to the hound from Hades running rampant frothing at the mouth with rabies killing consumed by madness and ought to be treated by the world as such. And one last thing as Hedges mentioned it: International Law. What the hell is all that about. What does that even mean in any real sense. Just more nonsense espoused by that human rights exceptional nation to elevate its violence above everyone else. And it certainly has never applied to countries like the USA and Israel.
I feel like my face is turning into Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream.
It's a privilege to read your writings, Chris. I spread them as far and wide as I can. This one is going to the editors-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Hamilton Spectator and Waterloo Region Record for their complicity, along with our government's, is breathtaking.
Re Mr. Fish. There are no words. Probably millions of words spoken/written about this carnage. No need for any of them after seeing this. The power of art: that's why artists are some of the first victims of fascism....
"We are not hated for our values. We are hated because we have no values. We are hated because rules only apply to others. Not to us. We are hated because we have abrogated to ourselves the right to carry out indiscriminate slaughter. We are hated because we are heartless and cruel. We are hated because we are hypocrites, talking about protecting civilians, the rule of law and humanitarianism while extinguishing the lives of hundreds of people in Gaza a day, including 160 children."
The truth is incontrovertible and was so before this massacre began yet much of the world stood behind these forces mandating experimental mRNA transfections with claims it was about saving lives and the genocide it is causing especially to the young is denied by the same presstitute media that makes apologies for Israel carpet bombing civilians & hospitals. These killers all kill endlessly.
A friend of mine, a senior investigative reporter, had been a war correspondent. He described his experiences as knowing you have no way to defend yourself, seeing constant suffering and death, the seemingly random destruction such that you and the the people around you could always be next to get blown apart. It shatters the soul (psyche,) becoming permanent PTSD. Years later, a sudden loud noise, a bright flash, the sounds of airplanes overhead will trigger uncontrollable body shaking and intense fear.
What happens when millions of people, including little children in their formative years, face the same for decades with no relief whatsoever? As the Wobblies say "an injury to one is an injury to all." Do unto others as you would have them do unto you--that's the responsible, very real, very human basis for all actions, foreign and domestic. Not bloodless abstract "policies."
Thank you Chris. I’m thankful for your talent in putting this horror into words. I find I’m struck speechless, paralyzed witnessing the horror and shocked at the western government response. The mask is off and the heartlessness, cruelty and inhumanity is clear. Biden will be remembered as the cruelest president, as will the other leaders following him like sheep. It is disgusting.
And the media coverage here in Canada is horrible.
I truly cannot comprehend the level of barbarism at display here from Israel & Co for the last 30 days. Of course I've seen barbarism coming from them over the last 30 years ( ever since I've became aware of the occupation of Palestine) but not to this level!
the glee for dead children?
The continues calls to wipe Gaza off the map?
The general islamophobia?
The suggestion that Palestinians are nothing but " human animals "
The calls from US politicians to " level the place "
US representative saying " there are no innocent Palestinians"
"...the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, stated, unambiguously, ‘I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly’ "
and this:
" Sara Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s Wife, went even further than Yoav Gallant, hoping for ‘a very big revenge’, and adding, ‘I don’t call them human animals because that would be insulting to animals.’… "
I have never doubted that Israel has a right to exist. Even though I knew Gaza was an open air prison. It is obvious now that Israel should not exist. It's leaders are the WORST people on the planet!! People who enjoy slaughtering babies. Babies whose crime was being born arab.
Absolutely barbaric. What has happened. I hate war, but this is beyond belief. So much for rules, scholars, etc., it all means nothing. Why is this going on? We have been told what was going to happen, where are our glorious Politicians! They are now revealed for what they are? Ignorant, bought and paid for , interested in saving their ill gotten gains, somdepraved. The world
When I have read of other genocides, I couldn’t get my head around how the non-oppressed people in those areas just went about their days as staggering numbers of people were slaughtered.
Now, in a surreal America, I have come to realize that there are people around me who have espoused the corporate media’s euphemisms that are essentially saying, “No need for concern, these are ‘other.’ “
I will be going to another protest in Newark, NJ on Monday to bear witness , to scream my horrified frustration and remember that I am not alone in my thinking that other is illusion.
Once again I keep internally murmuring the mantra I read in one of the comments in response to another of your searing truth telling articles: “Your words break my heart every time I read them, but I must read them to hold onto my humanity."
My greatest comfort, if I may call it that, during this time of hell unfolding, is reading the passionate, uncompromising voice of the remarkable truth-teller that is Chris Hedges. Mr. Hedges, thank you for ever priming my intellect with information and context while, at the same time, expressing the deep feelings that are trapped in my helpless heart.
who will write the Palestinian SHOAH ? _ i remember sitting through the 9 hours of Landsman's movie with pictures of countless empty train tracks. We knew where they were headed and who was in the cars. These were the Polish Jews who were headed towards their final destination and who would never survive the war let alone return to their homes.
What I still remember was the horror I felt at watching the smirks on the faces of their Polish neighbors who, when asked by Landsman if they knew why their neighbors were dragged out of their homes with only the clothes on their backs, they denied that they had any idea of what was going on. But if they weren't coming back, their houses were available for a non-Jew Pole to live in.
To think that there are the descendents of these same Jews living the life of Riley in Tel Aviv while one half hour away, another genocide is taking place is so horrific that my mind can hardly go there. I iread Chris and listen to Norman Finklestein because I can't turn away from the horror of what is being done to the Palestinians with the support of my own government.
Strong writing and the deaths of innocent humans are on the hands of Biden and Netanyahu. This a War Crime.........drag the perpetrators to the Criminal Court in The Hague!
Things are changing in Europe but not fast enough.
I’ve been waiting for your first report from the Middle East and right off the bat it’s more horrific than I can imagine. But of course I can’t imagine it as I have had a fairly sheltered life at 68 years old. I never served in any military as the Vietnam War ended just as I graduated high school. So I personally don’t know the horror of war up close and personal. Only how Hollywood portrays them which to my sensitive self is horrific enough. I say all this because as always your writing and speaking has a way of truly bringing the horror of war to another level of feeling. And this first one hits my heart and shatters it yet again ever deeply. I can barely imagine the rage of the Palestinian people having endured what they have for the last 70+ years at the hand of Israel. And after decades of near starvation and generational homes being destroyed by ILLEGAL settlers what happened on October 7th was inevitable. I cannot judge what took place that day as I do not know that kind of rage. And all those years the world stood by and let it happen, with the country of my birth enabling it all the way. A country that prattles endlessly about human rights. What a god damned crock of shit. After all the great USA was founded on genocide and slavery. And nothing about that has changed over the years other than exporting such know how around the world. In my own way I feel like a Palestinian trapped in a country hell bent on destroying life on earth through endless wars and exponential climate change. I know it’s not the same and certainly no where to the same extant but there is a connection between the two. I also realize I am powerless to stop all the sociopaths who lust for war and the money it brings them. Mainstream media has rotted the brains of the citizens who lap up propaganda like kids on candy. Voting is a useless exercise as both brands of the corporate uni-party are war mongers on steroids. I see little hope for the future of humanity to say nothing of the flora and fauna we will take with us. Others may disagree and the future will unfold as it does. But getting back to this post like I said at the beginning, what Hedges describes is unimaginable to me given my personal history, but in its own way enrages me to know that a nation like Israel has been given a free pass to destroy a people by the so-called “civilized” world led by the violence loving USA. I detest the country of my birth and all who proclaim how fucking exceptional it is. It is not. Israel and the USA (governments) are akin to the hound from Hades running rampant frothing at the mouth with rabies killing consumed by madness and ought to be treated by the world as such. And one last thing as Hedges mentioned it: International Law. What the hell is all that about. What does that even mean in any real sense. Just more nonsense espoused by that human rights exceptional nation to elevate its violence above everyone else. And it certainly has never applied to countries like the USA and Israel.
I feel like my face is turning into Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream.
It's a privilege to read your writings, Chris. I spread them as far and wide as I can. This one is going to the editors-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Hamilton Spectator and Waterloo Region Record for their complicity, along with our government's, is breathtaking.
Re Mr. Fish. There are no words. Probably millions of words spoken/written about this carnage. No need for any of them after seeing this. The power of art: that's why artists are some of the first victims of fascism....
"We are not hated for our values. We are hated because we have no values. We are hated because rules only apply to others. Not to us. We are hated because we have abrogated to ourselves the right to carry out indiscriminate slaughter. We are hated because we are heartless and cruel. We are hated because we are hypocrites, talking about protecting civilians, the rule of law and humanitarianism while extinguishing the lives of hundreds of people in Gaza a day, including 160 children."
The truth is incontrovertible and was so before this massacre began yet much of the world stood behind these forces mandating experimental mRNA transfections with claims it was about saving lives and the genocide it is causing especially to the young is denied by the same presstitute media that makes apologies for Israel carpet bombing civilians & hospitals. These killers all kill endlessly.
Permanent PTSD
A friend of mine, a senior investigative reporter, had been a war correspondent. He described his experiences as knowing you have no way to defend yourself, seeing constant suffering and death, the seemingly random destruction such that you and the the people around you could always be next to get blown apart. It shatters the soul (psyche,) becoming permanent PTSD. Years later, a sudden loud noise, a bright flash, the sounds of airplanes overhead will trigger uncontrollable body shaking and intense fear.
What happens when millions of people, including little children in their formative years, face the same for decades with no relief whatsoever? As the Wobblies say "an injury to one is an injury to all." Do unto others as you would have them do unto you--that's the responsible, very real, very human basis for all actions, foreign and domestic. Not bloodless abstract "policies."
Israel is an abomination on the earth. I as so sorry that Iran and Hezbollah haven't leveled Israel.
Thank you Chris. I’m thankful for your talent in putting this horror into words. I find I’m struck speechless, paralyzed witnessing the horror and shocked at the western government response. The mask is off and the heartlessness, cruelty and inhumanity is clear. Biden will be remembered as the cruelest president, as will the other leaders following him like sheep. It is disgusting.
And the media coverage here in Canada is horrible.
Thank you.
I truly cannot comprehend the level of barbarism at display here from Israel & Co for the last 30 days. Of course I've seen barbarism coming from them over the last 30 years ( ever since I've became aware of the occupation of Palestine) but not to this level!
the glee for dead children?
The continues calls to wipe Gaza off the map?
The general islamophobia?
The suggestion that Palestinians are nothing but " human animals "
The calls from US politicians to " level the place "
US representative saying " there are no innocent Palestinians"
Who/what does does this sound like?
"...the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, stated, unambiguously, ‘I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly’ "
and this:
" Sara Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s Wife, went even further than Yoav Gallant, hoping for ‘a very big revenge’, and adding, ‘I don’t call them human animals because that would be insulting to animals.’… "
Counterpunch 11/10
Paul Street quoting Andy Worthington
I have never doubted that Israel has a right to exist. Even though I knew Gaza was an open air prison. It is obvious now that Israel should not exist. It's leaders are the WORST people on the planet!! People who enjoy slaughtering babies. Babies whose crime was being born arab.
Absolutely barbaric. What has happened. I hate war, but this is beyond belief. So much for rules, scholars, etc., it all means nothing. Why is this going on? We have been told what was going to happen, where are our glorious Politicians! They are now revealed for what they are? Ignorant, bought and paid for , interested in saving their ill gotten gains, somdepraved. The world
Note, if Israel is shelling hospitals, and the claim is largely a lie, it is because they are being used by Hamas terrorists to hide.
Once Hamas is wiped off the face of the earth, then we can get back to having a reasonable conversation about Palestinian future.
It is not good that the antisemites raising their hate again are also supporting terrorism.