Our leading humanitarian and civic institutions, including major medical institutions, refuse to denounce Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This exposes their hypocrisy and complicity.
Saying democracy "may well" be dead carries the exact same weight as saying it "may not be" dead. This perpetual fence straddling (for what reason I find hard to fathom) is what, in my opinion, is a large contributing factor of how we got to where we are at (90 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday clock)s in the first place.
The 'circus' has been running for what...............2yrs?
It seems that when a new President gets in he/she has about 6 months to actually do some work before then 'circus' begins again. Then there is the mid-terms! What the fuck is this Democracy?
I live in Europe mostly I would say we manage our elections quite well BUT I don't expect this to last.
The only thing to stop this 'absurdity' in the US is for people to turn off their TeeVee's and don't vote.
The sooner the US dissolves into Civil War the better for all of us. I have many American friends who understand this.
Did you mean UNCIVIL war? The power of reasoning is bigger than the power of guns. I believe this is a lesson that all countries have learned the hard way though it is forgotten too often.
"The power of reasoning is bigger than the power of guns."
I would say that events have shown the opposite to be the case. The sociopaths who run things are unimpressed by our cleverness, our word games, our tightly reasoned arguments, by facts, logic, evidence or morality, as long as they have force on their side, as long as the cops and army will shoot when ordered to do so.
It's like trying to reason with a schoolyard bully. Truly, this never grows old:
"A WOLF, meeting with a lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea, which should justify to the lamb himself, his right to eat him.
He then addressed him: Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.
Indeed, bleated the lamb in a mournful tone of voice: I was not then born.
Then said the wolf: You feed in my pasture.
No, good sir, replied the lamb: I have not yet tasted grass.
Again said the wolf: You drink of my well.
No, exclaimed the lamb: I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me.
Upon which the wolf seized him and ate him up, saying: Well! I won't remain supper-less, even though you refute every one of my imputations.
Moral: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust."
You are right feral Finster, no reasoning with the beast will do it, but using reasoning to cut his appetite will. If we started boycotts and mass demonstrations and civil disobedience the fascist would be ready to reason rather than facing losses in their businesses.
Yes Jenny, not too many today but whenever we manage to get rid of the bribed politicians surely their minds will be opened to reason. And IMHO this is less traumatic than an un-civil war.
Dear Julio. I do understand what you are saying. It's too late.
Americans have treated democracy as though it was 'blessed' on them.
People shopped till they dropped and forgot about voting.
While you were all happy thinking Democracy was fantastic millions of people have died in the US never-ending wars..
IF you want to look at History (forgetting the Middle East)go straight to S. America. El Salvador. Guatemala. Panama. Chile. Honduras. Mexico. Columbia.
Why do you think there are so many immigrants on your border?
USA has usurped each Country. Why.
Money and minerals/control.
The US is nothing but a veinous Capitalist country.
Capitalism is ugly and that is why Europe is full of immigrants from Africa and Asia. Democracy is failing everywhere and here in USA we have never fully enjoyed it but the most probable result of the start of a civil war would be that almost immediately there would be a coup the stat lead by the Christian right. Besides any revolution in our countries where the government has created such surveillance power and control of the internet and drones, there are not chances to win.
"The deans of U.S. medical schools and leading medical organizations, especially the American Medical Association (AMA) have joined the ranks of universities, law schools, churches and the media to turn their backs on the Palestinians. The AMA shut down a debate on a ceasefire resolution among its members and has called for “medical neutrality,” although it abandoned “medical neutrality” to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."
AMA is a lobbying group beholden to Pharma who helped punish and revoke certifications for MDs who offered therapeutics to treat the flu named Covid-19 or those who objected to experimental mRNA transfections for healthy humans. They and their academic lackeys are a death cult we've seen in operation for decades. To cast them as akin to the support staff at Auschwitz is not a stretch of the imagination. Cowards and liars content with a system of dying for profits.
What's the old quote, when people tell you who they are, believe them. Heartless killers & complicit are the denizens of our medical mafia with Harvard continuing its tradition from 1934 when they conspired with GE, Westinghouse & Monsanto to hide the carcinogenic effects of PCBs and morph to diagnostics & treatments instead. Dying for Proifit is America's legacy.
Chris: You are one whom history will revere for telling the truth. Thank you for being faithful to your journalistic integrity in this time where selling out has become the new national sport.
I disagree. The national sport is: cashing in. In Hedges case, most of his interviews (not unlike most journalists these days) involve peddling a new book seeking to indoctrinate the isolated reader rather than discussing a collectivist path forward or anything resembling a critique of possible activism involving the masses.
In my opinion. the act of promoting books that aim to inform about our sad economic and moral situation is by itself and act of activism. Besides, only authors that receive monetary support from the fascists don't have to "peddle" their works.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and I respect you couching it as such. However, "aim to inform about our sad economic and moral situation" appears to be a subjective and slippery slope. If you're peddling that opinion, then you're also inherently opening yourself up to the legitimacy that a fascist regime (that may support State sponsored authors) also inform their subjects about sad economic and moral situations fought for by activists that the fascist State may be against.
For the above reasons, writing and selling books should not be construed as activism. Just consider the root word of the term for a moment. You would then see that activism should involve some form of "act". Acts, by definition, cannot be perceived as opinion.
I believe Rosa Parks was an activist--and a hero. She sat in a seat that she felt she had a right to sit in. Her ACT defied an opinion of others. Now, had she continued to sit in the designated seating area for "coloreds" and decided it would be better to sell a book lamenting to others that she felt her civil rights were being violated---and that they should change their opinions on where she be allowed to sit-- then I believe she wouldn't have qualified as an activist. She probably would have just been another disgruntled citizen that failed to change the course of history. Rosa Parks changed the course of American history, not just her own history by writing a book. In this manner, activists can become heroes. Think about all the Marvel characters that are considered heroes. Do they sit around writing books about what they should do? No. They do it. They ACT. Being an activist is risky business. Writing a book? Hardly.
State sponsored authors when describing our situation have no other option than lying about it. Only truly independent authors have the freedom to speak up. "Act" is among other things to give lectures, teach at the jails, participate in demonstrations. I believe that ideas are more influential than anything else.
Again, your opinion on state sponsored authors having to only lie when writing a book amounts to pure conjecture; so is your idea of "truly independent" authors. I challenge you to prove your assertion.
I agree with you that lecturing and participating in demonstrations can be activism. Teaching in jail, nope. Nor is lecturing at any teaching institution.
However, our debate here was about book writing and shilling. You've only succeeded in changing the subject. In fact, your statement about ideas being more influential than anything else is just a continuation of that "dead fish" response. Of course ideas are influential. Virtually everything is based on an idea. So what.
Yes, the subject is about book writing and shilling and my impression was that you were disappointed with Mr. Hedges for earning money from his books. And my answer continues being that the "peddling" is a necessity for authors who don't receive wages from interest groups.
I don't believe it is required to prove the self-defined role of a hired author who is not willing to break the rules of his employment.
The leaders of "our leading humanitarian and civic institutions" like their sinecures and comfy lifestyles and they fear retribution.
This is the same reason that the only ones to offer concrete help to Gaza are the Houthis, for, unlike their Gulfie brethren, they have no megarich leaders to be sanctioned, no western assets to be seized, no western toys to be taken away and consequently, no fucks to give.
Thank you Chris, just when I think we hit rock bottom in the hell WE inflict on Palestinians, another lower level o evil appears. Vote NO on Genocide Joe. You can not vote for lesser Genocide, sorry, you are not off the hook voting for possible lesser Genocide. Stein/West 24.
Israel, the USA,the Universities and Medical business complicit European countries will never be able to wash the stain their murder and suffering they are perpetrating upon the heroic resistance of the people of Gaza., whom I celebrate.
The Axis of Resistance, along with the Palestine JOR have known since long ago that they Stand Alone against the 'Crusader/Client' Zionist Entity. They also know that only a prolonged, attritional, Guerrilla War that Kicks out the Occupier... only such a thing will yield Concrete Results.
International bodies (civic, humanitarian, medical, etc.) failed long ago. & that is precisely why the Organic Resistance of the People of Palestine exists & they alone can bring Sound Victory.
The ICJ court has specifically advised Israel not to continue practices that can perpetrate genocide. Obviously, cutting off aid would be a violation of that finding and could result in a call for sanctions until the practice ceases.
But the US wasn't a party to the genocide case and it is the US and its Western allies that are pumping up the starvations of the Gazan's. In effect, the US government is carrying out an Israeli policy while protecting Israel from violating the findings of the ICJ.
There of course are other actions that the IDF is doing that violate the ICJ findings but at least as to this one Israel can say they haven't taken any steps toward the starvation of the Palestinians. (They didn't have to, we did it for them.)
Some might question whether our government would do this? Just go back to the report of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 and the subsequent cover up by our government. In that case 34 American sailers were killed and over 100 seriously wounded. They were all ordered to remain silent.
The U.S. IS Israel. The U.S./Britain CREATED Israel (cloaked in the Zionist dream - a ready made traumatized and primed population). From the start the U.S., President after President, has trained, supplied and used Israelis for "U.S./Western/Corporate Interests." Oil and Resources and Power over the entire Middle East/Africa. The U.S. is not "carrying out an Israeli policy," the Israelis are carrying out U.S. Imperial Colonial policy (fabricated and inflamed as "ethnic"and "religious") planned since the beginning of the 1900's. Like Britain before us, we supply them with billions upon billions in brutal sophisticated weapons ("Aid") yearly like any other U.S. military base - without that they would collapse. And the Powers That Be in this Country and Allies, have long since been bought and long since lost any shred of moral conscience.
The unimaginable suffering of the trapped Gazan men, women and children and likewise the Yemenis, so unspeakably painful to read about and see day after day after day, are not only the horrific result, but I also pray that their tragic martyrdom will be STOPPED by the waking up of a tidal wave of moral human beings around the world who say ENOUGH in every possible way they/we can!!!! Thank you Chris for your incredible, heartbreaking service to this end.
Yes, the U.S. is, in effect, a party to the genocide case because the U.S. is a signator of the Genocide Convention (1948 and re-ratified in 1988). Therefore it has a duty to prevent Genocide whenever it is made aware of the circumstances. The recent ICJ ruling has made the U.S. abundantly clear of the "plausibility" of genocide taking place in Gaza. That box has been clearly and unalterably checked.
Is the U.S. providing diplomatic cover for the case of Palestinian genocide at the hands of the IDF. Of course. But the U.S. is not controlling all food supplies into Gaza. The Israelis are (and have been for many years) continuing to contribute to the starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza. They continue to restrict the flow of goods into Gaza whether food is from UNRWA or otherwise (Egypt, Qatar, etc.). You must be on another planet to refute this continued humanitarian right/genocide violation.
The reason for the support to Israel from our leaders is the bribes they receive. The following is just the beginning of an extensive list provided by Open Secrets:
...particularly given that the fact that the U.S. is supplying weapons to Israel when the ICJ just issued a preliminary statement concluding that there is currently a "plausible genocide" being committed by Israel against the Palestinians population in Gaza?
And we allow these statements to be issued with no response from the American people. All fence sitters.
This is, yet another, prime example of the fence sitting that (indeed, almost the entire world) folks are currently taking with regard to criminal military events in the world. Its like the world is perfectly content imagining these events as merely another episode of the Twilight Zone. The top members of the Biden and Netanyahu Administration should, according to all legal and political conventions, be sitting in the docks of an international tribunal facing the most heinous charges of war crimes against humanity.
With all due respect, most of the US public is ignorant of the situation in Gaza. Most folks couldn't name their two Senators in Congress if their life depended on it. However, I agree that, of the folks that do know of the situation (IMO-- 40% of the population) 90% would support a cease fire. I believe there are currently zero Senators-- that represent those 40% --that will publicly agree with their constittuents. The question is: What do you do about that in the immediate term (as the unfolding genocide and famine is a "time is of the essence" type issue)?
Thank you for always speaking truth to power, Chris!
Is it possible that this post is actually too charitable? I’m grateful that it describes the failure to protect human rights as one stretching beyond individuals in power to highlight the culpability of institutions.
But even an institutional critique might indulge the hypocrisy of a government that claims to respect human rights while systematically degrading them across the world. In other words, it seems to me that the genocide in Gaza exposes not only the complicity of US officials, and any number of institutions, but ultimately the very notion of democracy in America. I wrote about this late last year in one among a series of posts examining the genocide and its implications. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-genocide-in-gaza-is-a-test-of
I’ll be publishing my latest post later today. It will examine recent comments by Nancy Pelosi equating supporters of a cease-fire with foreign agents and inviting FBI scrutiny of continuing protests. I ran for Congress from 2018-22 to challenge Pelosi because of her long record of supporting authoritarianism. Anyone surprised by it might recognize the failure of media institutions to promote the transparency and accountability to which they are ethically committed. Failures of media institutions is a consistent theme of my writing, and Pelosi has often benefitted from them. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/they-call-that-news
In any case, the idea that Pelosi “has forgotten who she is fighting against” may be too charitable by a mile. It in no way explains, for instance, how she has spent 30 years filling her pockets at the public’s expense by engaging an insider trading practices that would be illegal for anyone else outside of Congress.
Those who willfully choose to remain ignorant and those who deny, minimize, or fail to publically take a moral stand are as complicit in genocide as those national leaders who provide the perpetrators with arms and munitions, financial aid, and political support. I will be forever ashamed of the United States support for genocide.
There must be a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in order to comply with the ICJ ruling. 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.
Looks like we owe Mel Gibson an apology. (Being facetious. Repeat, BEING FACETIOUS!) Seriously--and this is an incredibly serious subject--I think one of the most unfortunate side-effects of this humanitarian disaster is that it will encourage anti-Semitism. People will start thinking that anyone who's Jewish supports this genocide, which just isn't true.
What do you think Gabor and Aaron Mate, Medea Benjamin, Naomi Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, have been doing? Just as Jewish people were instrumental in our civil rights movement, so are they at the forefront of the resistance in this country to this genocide and injustice in Palestine.
I've recently become aware that there are those in Israel who want this madness stopped. But it's really dangerous for them to speak up in Israel. Here in the U S, people who speak up for Palestinian rights are accused of anti-semitism, they can lose careers, jobs (note what happened to Harvard's president). To go onto the streets of Israel in support of Palestine can cost you your life. So the message is being suppressed. But the Israeli peace movement does exist. They've just got to be super careful, because it is so dangerous.
If the Jews were, as you say, instrumental in the U.S.'s civil rights movement on the North American continent back in the 1960's (which could have cost you your life then) then there is no excuse for Jews not to be supporting the civil rights of Palestinians in the Middle East right now.
Of the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964 for trying to help register African Americans, two were Jewish.
I don't think you appreciate how dangerous it is for Jews in Israel to speak up in defense of Palestinians right now. Speaking up for Palestine in Israel will get you hurt, or killed. Do you have the courage to do that? I don't.
Unfortunately, yes. If opposition to zionism is ipso facto antisemitism as so often claimed by zionists, then by the same token, all Jews everywhere would be responsible for Israel's crimes.
This of course is absurd, just as I don't consider all Americans equally culpable for America's many crimes.
We the people can do what we can to step in where our governments have failed. Please make a contribution, and a strong statement showing that we will do what our government won't:
Chris, I'm deeply grateful for your many years of profoundly meaningful and moving lectures and writings. The following is a letter I sent to a few US Congressional representatives...
Subject: Biden’s “Bigger” Big Lies
Dear Congressman,
For years we’ve been astonished at how Maga Americans still believe Trump’s Big Lies. But when Biden’s “Bigger” Big Lies are even more horrifying and undeniable, many of ‘the astonished’ fall in line and fall shamefully silent, even in the very face of massive atrocities in Gaza. Even our ‘seemingly reasonable’ political leaders accept the lies of Netanyahu’s extremism and by calling it “defense of Israel” he aggressively promotes insane claims that entire populations of innocents deserve their mass slaughter! By complicitly supporting the indiscriminate wielding of limitless death and destruction against defenseless thousands of young and old, our political leaders lose all credibility and are forever shamed, for failing the gravest of constitutional and moral responsibilities.
Ever since Trump’s life-long practice of pathologically chronic lying became a national and global threat, the constant refrain of astonished disbelief at Maga Believers was a mainstay; of most mainstream media pundits, and of Democratic Party representatives and supporters. And now under Biden, after a brief hopeful belief in better political and moral policies, we see that same pathological psychology at work in the deadly denials of real genocide in Gaza, as leaders cling to life-long lies about our own real history of brutal middle east politics. Any thoughtful observer fears the evil harms and threats unleashed, especially by Big Lies. Our histories and our present, proves we rightly fear how these lies quickly become dangerous and even horrifying when they absorb and nurture our myths of superiority in the realms of politics, race, class and culture.
Recently in a new peak denial of the non-stop massacre in Gaza, 210 congress members, including over 62 Democrats, signed a formal letter expressing “disgust” with the formal accusation of genocide as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.” Even willful ignorance wouldn’t explain how even California representatives Adam Schifff and Josh Harder could be guilty of joining that shameful letter’s complete denial of the realities South Africa accurately and factually described?
Biden’s life-long blindness in areas of foreign policy, will leave him with a permanent legacy of squandering the historic opportunity to lead in a rescue of both Gaza and Israel, from big lies, from cultures of racism, and from war profiteering pressures. So instead, same as with Trump, we again have the day-to-day psychological dread of white house politics, but now from Biden’s Bigger Bloodier Big Lies.
Dear Congressman please explain your decision to add your signature to the infamous Smith/Manning denial letter. And please help to immediately stop the continuing genocidal carnage of tens of thousands in Gaza, by at least acknowledging it.
Can we count the ways our governments have shattered social contracts to which we are all supposed to be signators?
Have Western governments lost their legitimacy to govern?
Why do we bother voting for presidents, prime ministers and chancellors when regardless of out come more war is assured?
Because democracy as it actually is practiced is basically an exercise in passing the buck.
The people who really run things themselves rarely run for office (e.g. Robert Moses), and often are not even formally in the government.
So very true, politicians are just pimping for the power brokers that own them. Anything resembling democracy in the West may well be dead.
Saying democracy "may well" be dead carries the exact same weight as saying it "may not be" dead. This perpetual fence straddling (for what reason I find hard to fathom) is what, in my opinion, is a large contributing factor of how we got to where we are at (90 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday clock)s in the first place.
Its still an open question depending on the will to undertake real change, and history is very cyclical.
More fence straddling. The weather is cyclical. History is cyclical only if you don't learn from your mistakes.
The 'circus' has been running for what...............2yrs?
It seems that when a new President gets in he/she has about 6 months to actually do some work before then 'circus' begins again. Then there is the mid-terms! What the fuck is this Democracy?
I live in Europe mostly I would say we manage our elections quite well BUT I don't expect this to last.
The only thing to stop this 'absurdity' in the US is for people to turn off their TeeVee's and don't vote.
The sooner the US dissolves into Civil War the better for all of us. I have many American friends who understand this.
Did you mean UNCIVIL war? The power of reasoning is bigger than the power of guns. I believe this is a lesson that all countries have learned the hard way though it is forgotten too often.
"The power of reasoning is bigger than the power of guns."
I would say that events have shown the opposite to be the case. The sociopaths who run things are unimpressed by our cleverness, our word games, our tightly reasoned arguments, by facts, logic, evidence or morality, as long as they have force on their side, as long as the cops and army will shoot when ordered to do so.
It's like trying to reason with a schoolyard bully. Truly, this never grows old:
"A WOLF, meeting with a lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea, which should justify to the lamb himself, his right to eat him.
He then addressed him: Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.
Indeed, bleated the lamb in a mournful tone of voice: I was not then born.
Then said the wolf: You feed in my pasture.
No, good sir, replied the lamb: I have not yet tasted grass.
Again said the wolf: You drink of my well.
No, exclaimed the lamb: I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me.
Upon which the wolf seized him and ate him up, saying: Well! I won't remain supper-less, even though you refute every one of my imputations.
Moral: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust."
You are right feral Finster, no reasoning with the beast will do it, but using reasoning to cut his appetite will. If we started boycotts and mass demonstrations and civil disobedience the fascist would be ready to reason rather than facing losses in their businesses.
"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." - Jay Gould
Hello Julio.
I certainly agree with you with regard to the 'power of reasoning" but I don't see anyone to reason with?
Yes Jenny, not too many today but whenever we manage to get rid of the bribed politicians surely their minds will be opened to reason. And IMHO this is less traumatic than an un-civil war.
Dear Julio. I do understand what you are saying. It's too late.
Americans have treated democracy as though it was 'blessed' on them.
People shopped till they dropped and forgot about voting.
While you were all happy thinking Democracy was fantastic millions of people have died in the US never-ending wars..
IF you want to look at History (forgetting the Middle East)go straight to S. America. El Salvador. Guatemala. Panama. Chile. Honduras. Mexico. Columbia.
Why do you think there are so many immigrants on your border?
USA has usurped each Country. Why.
Money and minerals/control.
The US is nothing but a veinous Capitalist country.
Capitalism is ugly and that is why Europe is full of immigrants from Africa and Asia. Democracy is failing everywhere and here in USA we have never fully enjoyed it but the most probable result of the start of a civil war would be that almost immediately there would be a coup the stat lead by the Christian right. Besides any revolution in our countries where the government has created such surveillance power and control of the internet and drones, there are not chances to win.
"The deans of U.S. medical schools and leading medical organizations, especially the American Medical Association (AMA) have joined the ranks of universities, law schools, churches and the media to turn their backs on the Palestinians. The AMA shut down a debate on a ceasefire resolution among its members and has called for “medical neutrality,” although it abandoned “medical neutrality” to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."
AMA is a lobbying group beholden to Pharma who helped punish and revoke certifications for MDs who offered therapeutics to treat the flu named Covid-19 or those who objected to experimental mRNA transfections for healthy humans. They and their academic lackeys are a death cult we've seen in operation for decades. To cast them as akin to the support staff at Auschwitz is not a stretch of the imagination. Cowards and liars content with a system of dying for profits.
What's the old quote, when people tell you who they are, believe them. Heartless killers & complicit are the denizens of our medical mafia with Harvard continuing its tradition from 1934 when they conspired with GE, Westinghouse & Monsanto to hide the carcinogenic effects of PCBs and morph to diagnostics & treatments instead. Dying for Proifit is America's legacy.
Absolutely perfectly outlined ...100% AGREE
Chris: You are one whom history will revere for telling the truth. Thank you for being faithful to your journalistic integrity in this time where selling out has become the new national sport.
Indeed.
I disagree. The national sport is: cashing in. In Hedges case, most of his interviews (not unlike most journalists these days) involve peddling a new book seeking to indoctrinate the isolated reader rather than discussing a collectivist path forward or anything resembling a critique of possible activism involving the masses.
In my opinion. the act of promoting books that aim to inform about our sad economic and moral situation is by itself and act of activism. Besides, only authors that receive monetary support from the fascists don't have to "peddle" their works.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and I respect you couching it as such. However, "aim to inform about our sad economic and moral situation" appears to be a subjective and slippery slope. If you're peddling that opinion, then you're also inherently opening yourself up to the legitimacy that a fascist regime (that may support State sponsored authors) also inform their subjects about sad economic and moral situations fought for by activists that the fascist State may be against.
For the above reasons, writing and selling books should not be construed as activism. Just consider the root word of the term for a moment. You would then see that activism should involve some form of "act". Acts, by definition, cannot be perceived as opinion.
I believe Rosa Parks was an activist--and a hero. She sat in a seat that she felt she had a right to sit in. Her ACT defied an opinion of others. Now, had she continued to sit in the designated seating area for "coloreds" and decided it would be better to sell a book lamenting to others that she felt her civil rights were being violated---and that they should change their opinions on where she be allowed to sit-- then I believe she wouldn't have qualified as an activist. She probably would have just been another disgruntled citizen that failed to change the course of history. Rosa Parks changed the course of American history, not just her own history by writing a book. In this manner, activists can become heroes. Think about all the Marvel characters that are considered heroes. Do they sit around writing books about what they should do? No. They do it. They ACT. Being an activist is risky business. Writing a book? Hardly.
State sponsored authors when describing our situation have no other option than lying about it. Only truly independent authors have the freedom to speak up. "Act" is among other things to give lectures, teach at the jails, participate in demonstrations. I believe that ideas are more influential than anything else.
Again, your opinion on state sponsored authors having to only lie when writing a book amounts to pure conjecture; so is your idea of "truly independent" authors. I challenge you to prove your assertion.
I agree with you that lecturing and participating in demonstrations can be activism. Teaching in jail, nope. Nor is lecturing at any teaching institution.
However, our debate here was about book writing and shilling. You've only succeeded in changing the subject. In fact, your statement about ideas being more influential than anything else is just a continuation of that "dead fish" response. Of course ideas are influential. Virtually everything is based on an idea. So what.
Yes, the subject is about book writing and shilling and my impression was that you were disappointed with Mr. Hedges for earning money from his books. And my answer continues being that the "peddling" is a necessity for authors who don't receive wages from interest groups.
I don't believe it is required to prove the self-defined role of a hired author who is not willing to break the rules of his employment.
The leaders of "our leading humanitarian and civic institutions" like their sinecures and comfy lifestyles and they fear retribution.
This is the same reason that the only ones to offer concrete help to Gaza are the Houthis, for, unlike their Gulfie brethren, they have no megarich leaders to be sanctioned, no western assets to be seized, no western toys to be taken away and consequently, no fucks to give.
Thank you Chris, just when I think we hit rock bottom in the hell WE inflict on Palestinians, another lower level o evil appears. Vote NO on Genocide Joe. You can not vote for lesser Genocide, sorry, you are not off the hook voting for possible lesser Genocide. Stein/West 24.
DO not vote or vote for a 3rd party!
The Green party.
Israel, the USA,the Universities and Medical business complicit European countries will never be able to wash the stain their murder and suffering they are perpetrating upon the heroic resistance of the people of Gaza., whom I celebrate.
The Axis of Resistance, along with the Palestine JOR have known since long ago that they Stand Alone against the 'Crusader/Client' Zionist Entity. They also know that only a prolonged, attritional, Guerrilla War that Kicks out the Occupier... only such a thing will yield Concrete Results.
International bodies (civic, humanitarian, medical, etc.) failed long ago. & that is precisely why the Organic Resistance of the People of Palestine exists & they alone can bring Sound Victory.
(For those interested)
If you wish to read (& listen!) to more of My commentary, here is my Main Stack:
https://thefallofthewest.substack.com
Thank You Kindly to everyone!
The ICJ court has specifically advised Israel not to continue practices that can perpetrate genocide. Obviously, cutting off aid would be a violation of that finding and could result in a call for sanctions until the practice ceases.
But the US wasn't a party to the genocide case and it is the US and its Western allies that are pumping up the starvations of the Gazan's. In effect, the US government is carrying out an Israeli policy while protecting Israel from violating the findings of the ICJ.
There of course are other actions that the IDF is doing that violate the ICJ findings but at least as to this one Israel can say they haven't taken any steps toward the starvation of the Palestinians. (They didn't have to, we did it for them.)
Some might question whether our government would do this? Just go back to the report of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 and the subsequent cover up by our government. In that case 34 American sailers were killed and over 100 seriously wounded. They were all ordered to remain silent.
The U.S. IS Israel. The U.S./Britain CREATED Israel (cloaked in the Zionist dream - a ready made traumatized and primed population). From the start the U.S., President after President, has trained, supplied and used Israelis for "U.S./Western/Corporate Interests." Oil and Resources and Power over the entire Middle East/Africa. The U.S. is not "carrying out an Israeli policy," the Israelis are carrying out U.S. Imperial Colonial policy (fabricated and inflamed as "ethnic"and "religious") planned since the beginning of the 1900's. Like Britain before us, we supply them with billions upon billions in brutal sophisticated weapons ("Aid") yearly like any other U.S. military base - without that they would collapse. And the Powers That Be in this Country and Allies, have long since been bought and long since lost any shred of moral conscience.
The unimaginable suffering of the trapped Gazan men, women and children and likewise the Yemenis, so unspeakably painful to read about and see day after day after day, are not only the horrific result, but I also pray that their tragic martyrdom will be STOPPED by the waking up of a tidal wave of moral human beings around the world who say ENOUGH in every possible way they/we can!!!! Thank you Chris for your incredible, heartbreaking service to this end.
Yes, the U.S. is, in effect, a party to the genocide case because the U.S. is a signator of the Genocide Convention (1948 and re-ratified in 1988). Therefore it has a duty to prevent Genocide whenever it is made aware of the circumstances. The recent ICJ ruling has made the U.S. abundantly clear of the "plausibility" of genocide taking place in Gaza. That box has been clearly and unalterably checked.
Is the U.S. providing diplomatic cover for the case of Palestinian genocide at the hands of the IDF. Of course. But the U.S. is not controlling all food supplies into Gaza. The Israelis are (and have been for many years) continuing to contribute to the starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza. They continue to restrict the flow of goods into Gaza whether food is from UNRWA or otherwise (Egypt, Qatar, etc.). You must be on another planet to refute this continued humanitarian right/genocide violation.
The reason for the support to Israel from our leaders is the bribes they receive. The following is just the beginning of an extensive list provided by Open Secrets:
Money from Pro-Israel to US Senators, 1990-2024
Senator State Amount
Biden, Joe (D) $4,346,264
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) New Jersey $2,483,205
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) New York $2,358,112
Kirk, Mark (R-IL) Illinois $2,294,469
Lieberman, Joe (D-CT) Connecticut $1,996,274
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) Kentucky $1,953,160
Schumer, Charles E (D-NY) New York $1,725,324
McCain, John (R-AZ) Arizona $1,491,366
Cruz, Ted (R-TX) Texas $1,299,194
Wyden, Ron (D-OR) Oregon $1,279,376
Levin, Carl (D-MI) Michigan $1,245,913
Perdue, David (R-GA) Georgia $1,136,541
Durbin, Dick (D-IL) Illinois $1,126,020
Specter, Arlen (D-PA) Pennsylvania $1,071,745
Feingold, Russ (D-WI) Wisconsin $1,035,266
Rubio, Marco (R-FL) Florida $1,012,263
Graham, Lindsey (R-SC) South Carolina $1,000,580
Romney, Mitt (R-UT) Utah $975,993
Warnock, Raphael (D-GA) Georgia $928,796
Cardin, Ben (D-MD) Maryland $913,485
Nelson, Bill (D-FL) Florida $859,095
Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI) Michigan $840,482
Landrieu, Mary L (D-LA) Louisiana
And RFK, Jr. has to pause and wonder when asked, “Does Israel have too much influence on US foreign policy?”🤮
Thank you for this
Does anyone else find it particularly strange and irrational for Mr. Biden to have stated yesterday https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-says-he-has-decided-how-respond-attack-us-troops-jordan-2024-01-30/ ---with regard to questions about responding to Iran: "I do hold ... them responsible in the sense that they're supplying the weapons" to those who carried out the attacks."
Really?
...particularly given that the fact that the U.S. is supplying weapons to Israel when the ICJ just issued a preliminary statement concluding that there is currently a "plausible genocide" being committed by Israel against the Palestinians population in Gaza?
And we allow these statements to be issued with no response from the American people. All fence sitters.
This is, yet another, prime example of the fence sitting that (indeed, almost the entire world) folks are currently taking with regard to criminal military events in the world. Its like the world is perfectly content imagining these events as merely another episode of the Twilight Zone. The top members of the Biden and Netanyahu Administration should, according to all legal and political conventions, be sitting in the docks of an international tribunal facing the most heinous charges of war crimes against humanity.
Keep in mind, the world, including 90 percent of US public, are for a ceasefire. It is the politicians who are not listening to the people
With all due respect, most of the US public is ignorant of the situation in Gaza. Most folks couldn't name their two Senators in Congress if their life depended on it. However, I agree that, of the folks that do know of the situation (IMO-- 40% of the population) 90% would support a cease fire. I believe there are currently zero Senators-- that represent those 40% --that will publicly agree with their constittuents. The question is: What do you do about that in the immediate term (as the unfolding genocide and famine is a "time is of the essence" type issue)?
Thank you for always speaking truth to power, Chris!
Is it possible that this post is actually too charitable? I’m grateful that it describes the failure to protect human rights as one stretching beyond individuals in power to highlight the culpability of institutions.
But even an institutional critique might indulge the hypocrisy of a government that claims to respect human rights while systematically degrading them across the world. In other words, it seems to me that the genocide in Gaza exposes not only the complicity of US officials, and any number of institutions, but ultimately the very notion of democracy in America. I wrote about this late last year in one among a series of posts examining the genocide and its implications. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-genocide-in-gaza-is-a-test-of
I’ll be publishing my latest post later today. It will examine recent comments by Nancy Pelosi equating supporters of a cease-fire with foreign agents and inviting FBI scrutiny of continuing protests. I ran for Congress from 2018-22 to challenge Pelosi because of her long record of supporting authoritarianism. Anyone surprised by it might recognize the failure of media institutions to promote the transparency and accountability to which they are ethically committed. Failures of media institutions is a consistent theme of my writing, and Pelosi has often benefitted from them. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/they-call-that-news
In my opinion Pelosi seems to have 'lost the plot.' She has been in politics too long and has forgotten who she is fighting against.
You’re not wrong that Pelosi has been in politics too long, although that particular angle might overlook the overarching point related to accountability. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/neither-mcconnell-freezing-nor-biden
In any case, the idea that Pelosi “has forgotten who she is fighting against” may be too charitable by a mile. It in no way explains, for instance, how she has spent 30 years filling her pockets at the public’s expense by engaging an insider trading practices that would be illegal for anyone else outside of Congress.
To the extent Pelosi’s history of smearing her opponents and critics, ducking debates, and relying on complicit journalists to cultivate a cult of personality might be unfamiliar, this might be informative: https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/democratic-icon-nancy-pelosi-accuses
Yes I new this about her playing Wall street and frankly I was not one f her admirers.
Those who willfully choose to remain ignorant and those who deny, minimize, or fail to publically take a moral stand are as complicit in genocide as those national leaders who provide the perpetrators with arms and munitions, financial aid, and political support. I will be forever ashamed of the United States support for genocide.
There must be a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in order to comply with the ICJ ruling. 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
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-cease
firenow-in-gaza-and-israel
These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.
Looks like we owe Mel Gibson an apology. (Being facetious. Repeat, BEING FACETIOUS!) Seriously--and this is an incredibly serious subject--I think one of the most unfortunate side-effects of this humanitarian disaster is that it will encourage anti-Semitism. People will start thinking that anyone who's Jewish supports this genocide, which just isn't true.
Yes I agree but until the Jewish people REALLY start speaking out they are complicit.
What do you think Gabor and Aaron Mate, Medea Benjamin, Naomi Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, have been doing? Just as Jewish people were instrumental in our civil rights movement, so are they at the forefront of the resistance in this country to this genocide and injustice in Palestine.
I know there are voices and I know all these people BUT please tell me where are the Israeli's on the street speaking out on genocide?
I've recently become aware that there are those in Israel who want this madness stopped. But it's really dangerous for them to speak up in Israel. Here in the U S, people who speak up for Palestinian rights are accused of anti-semitism, they can lose careers, jobs (note what happened to Harvard's president). To go onto the streets of Israel in support of Palestine can cost you your life. So the message is being suppressed. But the Israeli peace movement does exist. They've just got to be super careful, because it is so dangerous.
If the Jews were, as you say, instrumental in the U.S.'s civil rights movement on the North American continent back in the 1960's (which could have cost you your life then) then there is no excuse for Jews not to be supporting the civil rights of Palestinians in the Middle East right now.
Of the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964 for trying to help register African Americans, two were Jewish.
I don't think you appreciate how dangerous it is for Jews in Israel to speak up in defense of Palestinians right now. Speaking up for Palestine in Israel will get you hurt, or killed. Do you have the courage to do that? I don't.
Unfortunately, yes. If opposition to zionism is ipso facto antisemitism as so often claimed by zionists, then by the same token, all Jews everywhere would be responsible for Israel's crimes.
This of course is absurd, just as I don't consider all Americans equally culpable for America's many crimes.
We the people can do what we can to step in where our governments have failed. Please make a contribution, and a strong statement showing that we will do what our government won't:
https://www.unrwausa.org/donate
Thank you Joy.
Thank you Chris Hedges, once again.
Chris, I'm deeply grateful for your many years of profoundly meaningful and moving lectures and writings. The following is a letter I sent to a few US Congressional representatives...
Subject: Biden’s “Bigger” Big Lies
Dear Congressman,
For years we’ve been astonished at how Maga Americans still believe Trump’s Big Lies. But when Biden’s “Bigger” Big Lies are even more horrifying and undeniable, many of ‘the astonished’ fall in line and fall shamefully silent, even in the very face of massive atrocities in Gaza. Even our ‘seemingly reasonable’ political leaders accept the lies of Netanyahu’s extremism and by calling it “defense of Israel” he aggressively promotes insane claims that entire populations of innocents deserve their mass slaughter! By complicitly supporting the indiscriminate wielding of limitless death and destruction against defenseless thousands of young and old, our political leaders lose all credibility and are forever shamed, for failing the gravest of constitutional and moral responsibilities.
Ever since Trump’s life-long practice of pathologically chronic lying became a national and global threat, the constant refrain of astonished disbelief at Maga Believers was a mainstay; of most mainstream media pundits, and of Democratic Party representatives and supporters. And now under Biden, after a brief hopeful belief in better political and moral policies, we see that same pathological psychology at work in the deadly denials of real genocide in Gaza, as leaders cling to life-long lies about our own real history of brutal middle east politics. Any thoughtful observer fears the evil harms and threats unleashed, especially by Big Lies. Our histories and our present, proves we rightly fear how these lies quickly become dangerous and even horrifying when they absorb and nurture our myths of superiority in the realms of politics, race, class and culture.
Recently in a new peak denial of the non-stop massacre in Gaza, 210 congress members, including over 62 Democrats, signed a formal letter expressing “disgust” with the formal accusation of genocide as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.” Even willful ignorance wouldn’t explain how even California representatives Adam Schifff and Josh Harder could be guilty of joining that shameful letter’s complete denial of the realities South Africa accurately and factually described?
Biden’s life-long blindness in areas of foreign policy, will leave him with a permanent legacy of squandering the historic opportunity to lead in a rescue of both Gaza and Israel, from big lies, from cultures of racism, and from war profiteering pressures. So instead, same as with Trump, we again have the day-to-day psychological dread of white house politics, but now from Biden’s Bigger Bloodier Big Lies.
Dear Congressman please explain your decision to add your signature to the infamous Smith/Manning denial letter. And please help to immediately stop the continuing genocidal carnage of tens of thousands in Gaza, by at least acknowledging it.
Respectfully & sadly submitted,
Richard Savini
Beautiful letter. Please let us know if you receive any clear response from your congressmen other than the trite propaganda for their campaigns.