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.
Better than what? Finding comfort in great, sincere writing that expresses what I am already thinking and feeling? Your comment, besides being unnecessary advice, shows an inability to accurately comprehend what you read. My comment did not indicate that anyone is doing my thinking for me.
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.
JC could make a good argument if he would limit it to the current Israeli govt. and the US cabinet neocons as supporting a de facto Jewish fundamentalism. Instead, he just asserts "all Jews" type claims. That's gross bigotry. Scroll down to his reprehensible "joke" about the difference between "a Jew" and "a Proud Boy." I called him out for that nastiness...or Naziness.
I am sensitive to the claim of anti semetism when Israel is criticized . But these statements about Jews in general which have no basis in fact are insulting and anti semetic.
They're more than insulting; they're deeply bigoted. And worse yet--all too similar to those used as justification for violent persecution and destruction. I'm shocked at the vehemence of so many of the remarks on this thread, especially by this person. Although knowing some history, guess I shouldn't be. Leftists can be as illogical and prejudiced as the extreme right. It bothered me so much I decided to call them out rather than ignore them as I usually do.
I rarely accuse anyone of anti-Semitism in these discussions, because so often what they are expressing is simply horror at and hatred of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. But this time around - and I am sick in bed, so I have time to indulge in these to-and-fro's - I have to say, Mr. Carver, that you are expressing outright anti-Semitism in your statement. Jews can embrace bigotry. Many do. But many don't. One of the wonderful organizations now developing out of the Israel nightmare is A Jewish Voice for Peace, and there are a couple others whose names I'm blocking on. "Not in My Name," I think, is another group. For a nuanced review of Jewish opinions on Israel see https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/05/21/u-s-jews-have-widely-differing-views-on-israel/
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.
It is true that the Bible claims that God commanded the Israelites to exterminate every single Canaanite (except, Rahab and her household, I guess), but it is as much an error to claim that such bloodlust is inherent in Judaism as it is to claim that various retrograde passages in the Quran are inherent in Islam or that Christians approve of incest because Peter called Lot a righteous man.
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.
Do recall, Peter, that The NYT wouldn't allow Chris to write honestly about Gaza, Israel, and the Middle East, so he left and went independent. But sure, send his speech on. However, I sent it to a terrific editor of a terrific publication to which I've contributed and he apologized, saying that he doesn't listen to stuff, he has to spend all his time reading and preparing the next edition of his publication. IT WOULD BE GOOD TO HAVE THE SPEECH ON GENOCIDE IN TRANSCRIPT. MAYBE I'LL UNDERTAKE IT. BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SEND IT TO CHRIS.
Thanks, Peter. I'm transcribing the speech. I'd like to know what others in this list think. I mean, it's a STUPENDOUS speech - better than anything he has written, however good his writing is. In the absence of Noam Chomsky who is 95 years old and apparently not well, we must depend on Chris, Norman Finkelstein, and voices including Hanan Ashrawi and other Palestinian commentators.
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.
When we analyse the motives of the other tribe, we easily come to the conclusion that all the available evidence proves that the other tribe has the most sinister motives. For example, as in the post above, the other tribe is not in favour of vaccination to save live but really wants to comit genocide.
Don't we have to find a way to get beyond this tribalism? Maybe it could help to start thinking again about the economic interests of corporate power. It is possible to take seriously the evidence that vaccination works and to oppose the power of corporate pharma. It is also possible to analyse the war in the middle east from the point of view of who is profiting from it financially. One can trace the flow of money. The picture that emerges is quite different from the tribalistic theater presented to us by mainstream media.
For me it's a simple matter of unforgivable trillions spent for "high tech" warfare w billions more laundered through Hollywood to sell thrill & skill of elite teams w uber spiffy gear & geek squads in rooms of monitors yet carpet bombing Palestine is deemed anything but mass murder to anyone with a pair of eyes. Covid was a great warm up for the propaganda & censorship complex that explains how Wall Street's Blue Blooded Nazis got people to stand with them last time; they owned media then too.
Never again is now. From childhood it bewildered me how so many could be silent or rationalize the unthinkable. Now it haunts me in real time and I still do not understand but go where there are feet in the street to document resistance. <3
So no Pogo moment of clarity for you, no "we have seen the enemy and he is us." For you, the Reagan view--seen one redwood, seen 'em all. Seen one "Abrahamic," seen 'em all as identical and deserving of extinction as to blame for everything you dislike, an excuse for your own intense hatred. Never mind nuances like the Eastern Orthodox never had "original sin." Or The growing percentage of SNRs (spiritual, not religious.) Or the fact that a large percentage of indigenous peoples of the Americas are Christian. Or Christian as modified by Native beliefs. Should they all be wiped away, too? Or are they just stupid for interpreting deep personal experiences as theistic in some sense? I'm sure you know ever so much more than we benighted BIPOC.
"Little." So you're in the same camp as Trump who said the same of DeSantis? Plus argument by assertion (personal opinion offered as infallible) and deflection. Classic logical fallacies; because they're rampant online, philosophers have compiled easy to find lists. Check them out.
Horrible humans are in every group, every chapter of history and the big difference is how much power some have. Religion has nothing to do with it because most teach universal values and respect for life & all subject to crackpot fringe who cite religion as justification for war. The Roman Catholic Church has its own dark legacy reaching right to today w child abuse scandals buried for decades so spare me any ancient text to explain a killing machine run w partnership of Wall Street & Washington for over a century.
Cahokia was likely not a model of egalitarian peace, what with the human sacrifices and all. A better example would be Hopewell. Gobekli Tepe is interesting because evidence from that site and others like it seriously interrupt the assumptions, including Marxist theories of historical determinism, that civilization (cities) came after agriculture. And if you're going to hold up these alternatives as exemplary, then you cannot ignore their their spiritual foundations.
This comment has nothing to do w/ what I said immediately above. "Abrahamists" is an illogical and bigoted blanket condemnation of millions. Billions actually, if Christianity and Islam are included. You are so blinded by hate that you refuse to see differences--the mark of a bigot. As someone from a Native American reservation (my avatar is my own artwork, BTW) it would be easy to hate and blame all white people. Especially white men--still the most violent people on Earth. Don't lecture me about genocide given your own link to historical responsibility. Nor, per your own "logic," are you exempt.
No apologies needed for different views politely expressed it's how the world should be. They are killing for the planned Ben-Gurion Canal to control shipping lanes w Nord Stream future for Suez Canal and gas fields under Gaza. You credit them too much to be motivated by any religious belief warped or otherwise.. it's ruthless exploitative colonialism and it will have blow-back because the whole world is watching especially the victims of US Wars and coups over decades. Israel acts w the blessings & funds from Washington who own this too.
Religion is not an area of depth for me but tracking Washington-Wall Street cabal is a long suit and they're evil w no respect for living things or humans just more power and fortunes.
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 see Mrs. Bibi didn’t go so far as to call them “vermin”. That would bring unpleasant memories of men clicking their heels and saluting. Not that the present day executioners bombing Gaza have anything in common with them, of course.
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
I am Jewish. I spit on Israel. Antizionism is not antisemitism, even though evil men and women would like fools to believe. they are. The more people Israel kills, the better Hamas looks. It is not a crime for oppressed people to throw off their oppressors. If it is a crime to kill Israeli babies, then it is also a crime to kill Palestinian babies. What Israel is doing is disgusting. If it is okay to cause awful devastation in retaliation for civilian deaths, then I will be satisfied when Tel Aviv looks like Gaza City.
To blame everyone in Israel Is the same polarized either/or logic of with us/against us we're all good/they're all bad used by the Israel right wing. I knew a lobbyist in WA state who was a Jewish WWII vet. He met a woman who'd survived a death camp but had no living family and nowhere to go so he married her. Their son, an atty, went "home" to Israel where he defends the rights of Arab Israelis and Palestinians. And he married one.
No, it is NOT "exactly like." Your either/or logic, a form of with/us against us, is even more extreme than the version used by D. Anderson I argued against above. The Nazi logic is "all Jews bad" and yours is "all Jews good." As if Jewish people (and/or Israelis,) by your definition infallible, cannot ever do wrong and so critics must be deluded if not outright evil.
Who said I said all Jews are good or bad? I do think that Israel is a much better country for the benefit of the world than is the tribe of backward Arab Muslims that want to kill Jews as part of their religion and culture.
I do see common bad in those that tacitly and explicitly support the destruction of Israel and it is very, very, very clear that their position is anti-Jew. Even those that claim they are Jewish, self-loathing and tribal destruction are common maladies of the malcontent.
And note that if the Palestinians where not terrorists or supporters of terrorism, I would be all over criticism of Israel for not doing more to help better the lives of Palestinians. Just think how that would work... peaceful Palestinians that don't celebrate the terrorist murder of Jews... with the rest of the world united in admonishing Israel for not helping those otherwise helpless backward people barely evolved from their camel and sheep herding nomadic existance.
"I do see common bad..." Which is exactly the bifurcation either/or so typical of polarized political thinking. Then that little dig "tribal" "barely evolved." Terms applicable to inferiors, like sub-Sarahan Africans, the indigenous people of the Americas, and indigenous Australians. But never to white Europeans, who are "ethnicities" and "civilized." And "self-hating" is a charge used among Jewish people, but that's a complex issue based on subjectivity--are there precise standards by which to judge? And who gets to determine what's valid? Or is it just another way to denigrate and condemn anyone you disagree with?
The problem is the envy of these people that cannot maintain perspective that what they have today is better than what they would have without that given to them by the hand that they constantly bite.
I REALLY dislike the weakness in people that measure their satisfaction relative to what others have. And I REALLY, REALLY dislike it when those same people start dreaming of killing those people that have more with some twisted expectation that it will make their miserable lives better. WTF do Palestinians think will happen if Israel leaves? They will loot the remaining assets until they are depleted and then be even more miserable. Just look at the upper northern border of the West Bank. Do a Google Earth satellite view. Just north of the border is fertile farm land that Israelis are tending. Just south are few farms and land that isn't producing. The difference in the quality of the land along the border is zero.
If they reform to be peaceful and honest and hard working they would attract international investment. But you know why Egypt will not allow them into their country? Because Egypt knows that they are backward and corrupt people that will lower the quality of life for Egyptians.
So then because in most Native American languages the Tribal name translates to "the People," implying others aren't, we all should be condemned as exclusionary. There are two thousand years of interpretative writings, like Talmud, where the learned often disagreed. As well as mystical aspects like kabbalah--which had a huge effect on Renaissance philosophers. Why, then, insist on your tunnel vision and then demand all Jews be so labelled? Kahane was banned, which U.S. domestic bigots haven't been. As for the precise role of Scriptural code in the lives of the country and current government, I haven't interviewed a random and representative sample, so I don't know. And you, as a white American, must be considered responsible for both the current U.S. government and its historical roots in genocide.
Jews occupied that land before the Muslims. The formation of Israel was literally in response to WWII attempted genocide of Jews… to provide that land where Jews would be safe from threats of extermination… a threat that they had been cursed with throughout history.
Anti Zionism is to purge them from that land so they would face the same threat of extermination. So, yes it is materially equivalent. And you know it to be so.
Chris, to his credit, seems to support free speech even that speech against his strongly held beliefs. Some people are stuck in a bubble of hate and don't recognize that the most of the rest of the world sees their bubble as dark and evil while inside the bubble people think they are the light of righteousness. We saw this same in 1930s Germany.
The good news is that the terrorist murders from Hamas brought out the rats to spew their hate outside of their bubble for the rest to see.
That is why I am a free speech absolutist... need to see the rats.
I appreciate the efforts of all the free speech absolutists. They are doing sth right. But they are also missing sth.
All our problems, not only war, also rising inequality, climate change, biodiversity loss, homelessness, opiate crisis, diabetes, obesity, health care, declining life expectancy, water scarcity, air pollution, forever chemicals, microplastics, student debts, medical debt, consumer debt, poverty, payday loans, rising inequality, non-disclosure agreements, junk fees, corporate personhood, limited liability, bankruptcy laws that favour big businesses over orindary people, government and corporate surveillance, the military industrial complex, campaign financing, corruption, no-knock warrants, warrantless searches, militarization of the police, mass incarceration, algorithms hunting people, ... the list goes on ... all our problems are collective action problems.
Do you think free speech absolutism is going to help us solve any problem? Isn't absolutism in general one of the reasons why we are stuck?
Wow. That is quite a list. Seems like you got your education in professional cynicism and malcontentedness. It must be almost debilitating to never see any of that full part of the glass. I feel for ya.
Now, let's say that I agree with some of your list as being priorities for improvement and just the state of humanity that will never get much better because, you know, humans in their natural state tend to all be narcissistic, greedy and focus on self before anything else... especially the secular leftists type in all my worldly experience.
The irony here is that the people like you that keep up the activism industry over this list... THEY KEEP VOTING FOR THE POWER THAT PERPETUATES THE LIST!
Now, climate change is just something that happens. I assume you are talking about "climate crisis" or "anthropocentric global warming"... both a cult myth luxury virtue signaling belief of the globalist corporatocracy and life-meaning-challenged upper class. Ironically it this cult belief responsible for many of the other things on your list.
But freedom of speech is needed if we are going to solve any of these real problems (not the fake ones). You did leave off terrorism. I guess that is a good thing on your list?
My profession is in the helping solve many of the problems on your list. My focus is to improve the economy in labor surplus areas and rural areas and to work on education reform. My belief is that enhancing and multiplying the number of paths that people can take to have a reasonable economic life is the key to solving many, if not most, of the problems on your list. Unfortunately climate crisis along with many other elite left worldview beliefs and demands, put tremendous headwinds against that progress.
There has been this ongoing ubiquitous debate over big vs small... central control vs distributed autonomy. My left friends want the former, but it has proved disastrous for a couple of reasons. One is that the bureaucracy does the Shirky Principle... becomes nothing but incompetent to create the messes that justify its existence. Second... is that power corrupts.
The fix is self-empowerment, distributed control/autonomy to the individual, the family, the community, etc... and copious paths of equal opportunity that allow more people to earn their own economic self-sufficiency. And all of this needs a base of moral cultural norms that standard modern Judea-Christian values have provided before the leftists radicals decided we need to shed those things and go secular and our moral head is the universities instead of the church.
This does not fix everything, but it fixes so many things that the other problems can get the attention needed.
Not at all malcontent. Is your family inviting your to Thanksgiving, or is the world too colonial and failed Westernism for you to make nice? Do I remember correctly, you are Canadian?
The funny thing is all your good life brought to you by those things you protest to destroy. Maybe if you gave everything away and lived in a communal hemp yut powered by sunlight and wind while surviving on sustainable tuber and rodents... might you have some credibility here. But I am guessing your CCR don't allow that in your gated exclusive community.
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."
Lmao
What pt are you trying to make?
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.
Learning to think for oneself is better.
Better than what? Finding comfort in great, sincere writing that expresses what I am already thinking and feeling? Your comment, besides being unnecessary advice, shows an inability to accurately comprehend what you read. My comment did not indicate that anyone is doing my thinking for me.
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.
You are completely wrong concerning your knowledge of Judiasm. You are going beyond criticizing Israel and Judiasm. You are stating all kinds of lies!
JC could make a good argument if he would limit it to the current Israeli govt. and the US cabinet neocons as supporting a de facto Jewish fundamentalism. Instead, he just asserts "all Jews" type claims. That's gross bigotry. Scroll down to his reprehensible "joke" about the difference between "a Jew" and "a Proud Boy." I called him out for that nastiness...or Naziness.
I am sensitive to the claim of anti semetism when Israel is criticized . But these statements about Jews in general which have no basis in fact are insulting and anti semetic.
They're more than insulting; they're deeply bigoted. And worse yet--all too similar to those used as justification for violent persecution and destruction. I'm shocked at the vehemence of so many of the remarks on this thread, especially by this person. Although knowing some history, guess I shouldn't be. Leftists can be as illogical and prejudiced as the extreme right. It bothered me so much I decided to call them out rather than ignore them as I usually do.
I rarely accuse anyone of anti-Semitism in these discussions, because so often what they are expressing is simply horror at and hatred of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. But this time around - and I am sick in bed, so I have time to indulge in these to-and-fro's - I have to say, Mr. Carver, that you are expressing outright anti-Semitism in your statement. Jews can embrace bigotry. Many do. But many don't. One of the wonderful organizations now developing out of the Israel nightmare is A Jewish Voice for Peace, and there are a couple others whose names I'm blocking on. "Not in My Name," I think, is another group. For a nuanced review of Jewish opinions on Israel see https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/05/21/u-s-jews-have-widely-differing-views-on-israel/
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.
Sadly I fear Biden will get away with the murder of innocents....------he has always been a war monger.
Lmao. Based on your writing style, I doubt you're an attorney with any international law expertise.
It is true that the Bible claims that God commanded the Israelites to exterminate every single Canaanite (except, Rahab and her household, I guess), but it is as much an error to claim that such bloodlust is inherent in Judaism as it is to claim that various retrograde passages in the Quran are inherent in Islam or that Christians approve of incest because Peter called Lot a righteous man.
This is wrong and anti semetic.
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.
Do recall, Peter, that The NYT wouldn't allow Chris to write honestly about Gaza, Israel, and the Middle East, so he left and went independent. But sure, send his speech on. However, I sent it to a terrific editor of a terrific publication to which I've contributed and he apologized, saying that he doesn't listen to stuff, he has to spend all his time reading and preparing the next edition of his publication. IT WOULD BE GOOD TO HAVE THE SPEECH ON GENOCIDE IN TRANSCRIPT. MAYBE I'LL UNDERTAKE IT. BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SEND IT TO CHRIS.
Thanks, Peter. I'm transcribing the speech. I'd like to know what others in this list think. I mean, it's a STUPENDOUS speech - better than anything he has written, however good his writing is. In the absence of Noam Chomsky who is 95 years old and apparently not well, we must depend on Chris, Norman Finkelstein, and voices including Hanan Ashrawi and other Palestinian commentators.
Low self esteem like this requires professional help
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.
When we analyse the motives of the other tribe, we easily come to the conclusion that all the available evidence proves that the other tribe has the most sinister motives. For example, as in the post above, the other tribe is not in favour of vaccination to save live but really wants to comit genocide.
Don't we have to find a way to get beyond this tribalism? Maybe it could help to start thinking again about the economic interests of corporate power. It is possible to take seriously the evidence that vaccination works and to oppose the power of corporate pharma. It is also possible to analyse the war in the middle east from the point of view of who is profiting from it financially. One can trace the flow of money. The picture that emerges is quite different from the tribalistic theater presented to us by mainstream media.
For me it's a simple matter of unforgivable trillions spent for "high tech" warfare w billions more laundered through Hollywood to sell thrill & skill of elite teams w uber spiffy gear & geek squads in rooms of monitors yet carpet bombing Palestine is deemed anything but mass murder to anyone with a pair of eyes. Covid was a great warm up for the propaganda & censorship complex that explains how Wall Street's Blue Blooded Nazis got people to stand with them last time; they owned media then too.
Never again is now. From childhood it bewildered me how so many could be silent or rationalize the unthinkable. Now it haunts me in real time and I still do not understand but go where there are feet in the street to document resistance. <3
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pameladrew/albums/72177720312606618/with/53324842329/
Yes, Dorothy, I nod my head in agreement with your words
So well reasoned. As for bringing up Turtle Island, please apply your curses to yourself, white guy. We Natives don't need more hate around us.
So no Pogo moment of clarity for you, no "we have seen the enemy and he is us." For you, the Reagan view--seen one redwood, seen 'em all. Seen one "Abrahamic," seen 'em all as identical and deserving of extinction as to blame for everything you dislike, an excuse for your own intense hatred. Never mind nuances like the Eastern Orthodox never had "original sin." Or The growing percentage of SNRs (spiritual, not religious.) Or the fact that a large percentage of indigenous peoples of the Americas are Christian. Or Christian as modified by Native beliefs. Should they all be wiped away, too? Or are they just stupid for interpreting deep personal experiences as theistic in some sense? I'm sure you know ever so much more than we benighted BIPOC.
"Little." So you're in the same camp as Trump who said the same of DeSantis? Plus argument by assertion (personal opinion offered as infallible) and deflection. Classic logical fallacies; because they're rampant online, philosophers have compiled easy to find lists. Check them out.
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This is anti semetic. You do not know what you are talking about.
Horrible humans are in every group, every chapter of history and the big difference is how much power some have. Religion has nothing to do with it because most teach universal values and respect for life & all subject to crackpot fringe who cite religion as justification for war. The Roman Catholic Church has its own dark legacy reaching right to today w child abuse scandals buried for decades so spare me any ancient text to explain a killing machine run w partnership of Wall Street & Washington for over a century.
yawn!
Cahokia was likely not a model of egalitarian peace, what with the human sacrifices and all. A better example would be Hopewell. Gobekli Tepe is interesting because evidence from that site and others like it seriously interrupt the assumptions, including Marxist theories of historical determinism, that civilization (cities) came after agriculture. And if you're going to hold up these alternatives as exemplary, then you cannot ignore their their spiritual foundations.
This comment has nothing to do w/ what I said immediately above. "Abrahamists" is an illogical and bigoted blanket condemnation of millions. Billions actually, if Christianity and Islam are included. You are so blinded by hate that you refuse to see differences--the mark of a bigot. As someone from a Native American reservation (my avatar is my own artwork, BTW) it would be easy to hate and blame all white people. Especially white men--still the most violent people on Earth. Don't lecture me about genocide given your own link to historical responsibility. Nor, per your own "logic," are you exempt.
No apologies needed for different views politely expressed it's how the world should be. They are killing for the planned Ben-Gurion Canal to control shipping lanes w Nord Stream future for Suez Canal and gas fields under Gaza. You credit them too much to be motivated by any religious belief warped or otherwise.. it's ruthless exploitative colonialism and it will have blow-back because the whole world is watching especially the victims of US Wars and coups over decades. Israel acts w the blessings & funds from Washington who own this too.
Religion is not an area of depth for me but tracking Washington-Wall Street cabal is a long suit and they're evil w no respect for living things or humans just more power and fortunes.
In my eyes evil is a personality and individuals can use any excuse to justify it.
This is incorrect and anti semetic.
Your statements are anti semetic!
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.
Now there is some rank Jew hating.
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"
Seems that way, especially after I found out that killing women and children is definitely recommended in Judaism warfare ethics.
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 see Mrs. Bibi didn’t go so far as to call them “vermin”. That would bring unpleasant memories of men clicking their heels and saluting. Not that the present day executioners bombing Gaza have anything in common with them, of course.
Sure. I think you must be off some meds to make a comment like that and not satire.
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.
I am Jewish. I spit on Israel. Antizionism is not antisemitism, even though evil men and women would like fools to believe. they are. The more people Israel kills, the better Hamas looks. It is not a crime for oppressed people to throw off their oppressors. If it is a crime to kill Israeli babies, then it is also a crime to kill Palestinian babies. What Israel is doing is disgusting. If it is okay to cause awful devastation in retaliation for civilian deaths, then I will be satisfied when Tel Aviv looks like Gaza City.
To blame everyone in Israel Is the same polarized either/or logic of with us/against us we're all good/they're all bad used by the Israel right wing. I knew a lobbyist in WA state who was a Jewish WWII vet. He met a woman who'd survived a death camp but had no living family and nowhere to go so he married her. Their son, an atty, went "home" to Israel where he defends the rights of Arab Israelis and Palestinians. And he married one.
Hi Jew hater. Thanks for showing your red stripe.
Yeah. You hate. It is all over your words.
This is is exactly the same as written in 1930s Germany.
Anti Zionism is exactly antisemitism. Those claiming it know it, comrade.
No, it is NOT "exactly like." Your either/or logic, a form of with/us against us, is even more extreme than the version used by D. Anderson I argued against above. The Nazi logic is "all Jews bad" and yours is "all Jews good." As if Jewish people (and/or Israelis,) by your definition infallible, cannot ever do wrong and so critics must be deluded if not outright evil.
Who said I said all Jews are good or bad? I do think that Israel is a much better country for the benefit of the world than is the tribe of backward Arab Muslims that want to kill Jews as part of their religion and culture.
I do see common bad in those that tacitly and explicitly support the destruction of Israel and it is very, very, very clear that their position is anti-Jew. Even those that claim they are Jewish, self-loathing and tribal destruction are common maladies of the malcontent.
And note that if the Palestinians where not terrorists or supporters of terrorism, I would be all over criticism of Israel for not doing more to help better the lives of Palestinians. Just think how that would work... peaceful Palestinians that don't celebrate the terrorist murder of Jews... with the rest of the world united in admonishing Israel for not helping those otherwise helpless backward people barely evolved from their camel and sheep herding nomadic existance.
"I do see common bad..." Which is exactly the bifurcation either/or so typical of polarized political thinking. Then that little dig "tribal" "barely evolved." Terms applicable to inferiors, like sub-Sarahan Africans, the indigenous people of the Americas, and indigenous Australians. But never to white Europeans, who are "ethnicities" and "civilized." And "self-hating" is a charge used among Jewish people, but that's a complex issue based on subjectivity--are there precise standards by which to judge? And who gets to determine what's valid? Or is it just another way to denigrate and condemn anyone you disagree with?
The problem is the envy of these people that cannot maintain perspective that what they have today is better than what they would have without that given to them by the hand that they constantly bite.
I REALLY dislike the weakness in people that measure their satisfaction relative to what others have. And I REALLY, REALLY dislike it when those same people start dreaming of killing those people that have more with some twisted expectation that it will make their miserable lives better. WTF do Palestinians think will happen if Israel leaves? They will loot the remaining assets until they are depleted and then be even more miserable. Just look at the upper northern border of the West Bank. Do a Google Earth satellite view. Just north of the border is fertile farm land that Israelis are tending. Just south are few farms and land that isn't producing. The difference in the quality of the land along the border is zero.
If they reform to be peaceful and honest and hard working they would attract international investment. But you know why Egypt will not allow them into their country? Because Egypt knows that they are backward and corrupt people that will lower the quality of life for Egyptians.
So then because in most Native American languages the Tribal name translates to "the People," implying others aren't, we all should be condemned as exclusionary. There are two thousand years of interpretative writings, like Talmud, where the learned often disagreed. As well as mystical aspects like kabbalah--which had a huge effect on Renaissance philosophers. Why, then, insist on your tunnel vision and then demand all Jews be so labelled? Kahane was banned, which U.S. domestic bigots haven't been. As for the precise role of Scriptural code in the lives of the country and current government, I haven't interviewed a random and representative sample, so I don't know. And you, as a white American, must be considered responsible for both the current U.S. government and its historical roots in genocide.
Is antizionism logically equivalent to antisemitism? No. Is it materially equivalent? No.
You are merely shilling Israel's propaganda line in an attempt to "justify" its genocidal campaign against Palestinians.
Jews occupied that land before the Muslims. The formation of Israel was literally in response to WWII attempted genocide of Jews… to provide that land where Jews would be safe from threats of extermination… a threat that they had been cursed with throughout history.
Anti Zionism is to purge them from that land so they would face the same threat of extermination. So, yes it is materially equivalent. And you know it to be so.
Frank. You have ben reading propaganda.
Hamas has been used twice before by Israel.
Netanyahu knew what was happening.
I sure as hell wish you would go to sleep and stop trolling. Your not going to distort Hedges words here no matter how hard you try.!
I was wondering whether this post was a deliberate provocation and it seems it is: https://socialmisfit.substack.com/p/cancel-culture-on-substack
Looks like he wants to be cancelled so that he can blame the author.
Chris, to his credit, seems to support free speech even that speech against his strongly held beliefs. Some people are stuck in a bubble of hate and don't recognize that the most of the rest of the world sees their bubble as dark and evil while inside the bubble people think they are the light of righteousness. We saw this same in 1930s Germany.
The good news is that the terrorist murders from Hamas brought out the rats to spew their hate outside of their bubble for the rest to see.
That is why I am a free speech absolutist... need to see the rats.
I appreciate the efforts of all the free speech absolutists. They are doing sth right. But they are also missing sth.
All our problems, not only war, also rising inequality, climate change, biodiversity loss, homelessness, opiate crisis, diabetes, obesity, health care, declining life expectancy, water scarcity, air pollution, forever chemicals, microplastics, student debts, medical debt, consumer debt, poverty, payday loans, rising inequality, non-disclosure agreements, junk fees, corporate personhood, limited liability, bankruptcy laws that favour big businesses over orindary people, government and corporate surveillance, the military industrial complex, campaign financing, corruption, no-knock warrants, warrantless searches, militarization of the police, mass incarceration, algorithms hunting people, ... the list goes on ... all our problems are collective action problems.
Do you think free speech absolutism is going to help us solve any problem? Isn't absolutism in general one of the reasons why we are stuck?
Wow. That is quite a list. Seems like you got your education in professional cynicism and malcontentedness. It must be almost debilitating to never see any of that full part of the glass. I feel for ya.
Now, let's say that I agree with some of your list as being priorities for improvement and just the state of humanity that will never get much better because, you know, humans in their natural state tend to all be narcissistic, greedy and focus on self before anything else... especially the secular leftists type in all my worldly experience.
The irony here is that the people like you that keep up the activism industry over this list... THEY KEEP VOTING FOR THE POWER THAT PERPETUATES THE LIST!
Now, climate change is just something that happens. I assume you are talking about "climate crisis" or "anthropocentric global warming"... both a cult myth luxury virtue signaling belief of the globalist corporatocracy and life-meaning-challenged upper class. Ironically it this cult belief responsible for many of the other things on your list.
But freedom of speech is needed if we are going to solve any of these real problems (not the fake ones). You did leave off terrorism. I guess that is a good thing on your list?
Feel free to add to the list.
My question was: Why can we not agree on a problem that we might want to solve collectively?
The tone of your email is not the one of somebody who is interested in getting together to solve a problem.
Btw, I agree with you that voting is not going to solve the problems.
My profession is in the helping solve many of the problems on your list. My focus is to improve the economy in labor surplus areas and rural areas and to work on education reform. My belief is that enhancing and multiplying the number of paths that people can take to have a reasonable economic life is the key to solving many, if not most, of the problems on your list. Unfortunately climate crisis along with many other elite left worldview beliefs and demands, put tremendous headwinds against that progress.
There has been this ongoing ubiquitous debate over big vs small... central control vs distributed autonomy. My left friends want the former, but it has proved disastrous for a couple of reasons. One is that the bureaucracy does the Shirky Principle... becomes nothing but incompetent to create the messes that justify its existence. Second... is that power corrupts.
The fix is self-empowerment, distributed control/autonomy to the individual, the family, the community, etc... and copious paths of equal opportunity that allow more people to earn their own economic self-sufficiency. And all of this needs a base of moral cultural norms that standard modern Judea-Christian values have provided before the leftists radicals decided we need to shed those things and go secular and our moral head is the universities instead of the church.
This does not fix everything, but it fixes so many things that the other problems can get the attention needed.
LOL. No worries about that. When will you buy the next globalist fear porn about global cooling? You cultists are a hoot.
Not at all malcontent. Is your family inviting your to Thanksgiving, or is the world too colonial and failed Westernism for you to make nice? Do I remember correctly, you are Canadian?
The funny thing is all your good life brought to you by those things you protest to destroy. Maybe if you gave everything away and lived in a communal hemp yut powered by sunlight and wind while surviving on sustainable tuber and rodents... might you have some credibility here. But I am guessing your CCR don't allow that in your gated exclusive community.