Thank you, Caitlin, for your faith in young people and the future of a more connected world. One of your most inspiring and thought-provoking posts, in my opinion.
Thank you on calling out Zelensky! I always thought that the entire proxy war in Ukraine was started to fulfill Hillary Clinton's massive ego which also allowed Rachel Maddow to keep up the Putin lie.
Agree re Ukraine. Legacy media has consistently failed to address Putin’s support for the ‘indivisibility of security’ even if only for the purpose of tearing down his argument. But as far as I can see, Putin’s argument is on point; one state’s security cannot be obtained at the expense of another state’s security.
Ukraine (or EU for that matter) cannot gain security by compromising Russia’s security. Zelenskyy’s failure was to allow Ukraine to be used by the West to try and bleed and thus weaken Russia.
I get grief from evangelicals, especially if they believe in the 'end times' theology, the 'rapture', 'premillenialism' etc. .. which many US Christians do. They think they have to buy into 'Israel' because of the Old Testament, prophecy fulfilment, etc.
There is no telling what it is in them that blinds them to the glaringly obvious evil and immorality of the genocide in Gaza, but we are where we are, and if an ad hominem argument is the only thing that will make them start to think ..
I usually say something like: 'In the Old Testament / Jewish Bible, from at least the time of Samuel, the leaders of Israel are being denounced by the prophets. For most of that time, the question is "Which Israel" .. which is the true Israel .. is it the Israel of a corrupt government, corrupt kings, is it the northern kingdom of Samaria or the southern kingdom of Judah?" The idea that the Old Testament gives a blanket ok to whoever happens to be king / president / war leader of the state depends entirely on ignoring the Old Testament.'
It's not going to work often, but I've seen it work. I've seen the 'Oh', moment, the flicker of a light coming on. At that point, sometimes, you can start to appeal to basic human decency.
Good for you. We need every possible approach to deal with this moral blindness. I think I want to know what any of these so-called Christians think Satan could make them do that would be more evil than getting them to support genocide.
You are wasting your breath. If a person's eschatology is so shallow and transactional that they can't discern the obvious contradiction, they just don't want to. You can have a polite intellectual conversation around the associated merits of pre vs post or amillenailism. But you can't have a polite conversation with someone when the objective reality is as blatantly evil as the situation in Gaza. To argue in good faith we have to be able to at least agree on the initial starting point of the person we are arguing with, if its to be in good faith. Someone that is able to reject reality, insert or interpret truth in a way that fundamentally fails to respect the validity of all life, you have no framework to even begin the debate.
Throughout most of human history we have seen that often, mostly, resolution is not reached through reason or logical persuasion. That's why the world has been defined by war and atrocities of one people or group against another. For some reason, maybe because of the intentional illusion created to pacify the masses, we have forgotten that. Those in control have not. They use the many tools at thier disposal, to include laws and media, to shape the narrative, and crush dissent.
Violence may not be the course we would choose, but the leaders in power know that modern people are reluctant, afraid of the implications of direct action..so can be cowed into wringing their hands as their lords and masters do what they want. Attention will likely fade, people will revert to the partisan games with democracies illusion of choice.
Again, not saying force is the only answer, its just been the one most employed.
"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor."
Some revolutions come at gunpoint, for sure; 'successful' is harder to measure. But regime change comes more often from peaceful protest.. Check the research by Chenoweth et. al. Peaceful protest is consistently more effective than violent.
The Trotsky line at Brest Litovsk, which you seem to be alluding to, is about power: Obviously closely related to revolution, which is often carried out by force, but Trotsky was speaking as the representative of a regime that had already consolidated control. He was talking about international relations, not internal revolution.
I'm in Scotland. Violent revolution well in our past. Plenty of us out on the streets in favour of Independence from England, but sadly we haven't made it to 3.5% yet. Pitchforks did fine at Bannockburn, but they weren't up to it at Culloden.
Oddly enough, I am reading I Kings at the moment. I have read it many times before, but reading it in 2025 is somewhat different from reading 20 or 10 years ago - at least for me, because of what is happening in Gaza, but also among a lot of my Christian friends.
And on the subject of evangelicals, it is worth remembering that a lot of evangelicals are not into Zionism. John Stott, arguably the most influential evangelical in the UK in the 20th century, said that "Political Zionism and Christian Zionism are anathema to Christian faith."
I heard and read John Stott in the 70s. Certainly one of the most important English evangelicals of his time. But how representative, I'm not so sure. Yes in UCCF / Inter Varsity circles (I'm a former UCCF staffer) less so in working class nonconformist settings (like the one I knew before uni).
There are two issues, though, to qualify what you say about evangelicals and Zionism: first, those who identify as evangelical in the US are overwhelmingly into dispensationalism. There is data on that one. Second, and this is just my impression: I was brought up on a kind of 'twin pillars' form of evangelicalism, which was common to Anglican / university / low-church settings: one pillar being the authority of scripture, the other being penal substitution .. itself resting on a 'biblical' base. I've been around evangelicals from the 70s to now and my impression is that evangelicals now overwhelmingly focus on penal substition and the notion of biblical authority has dropped away. I know fellowships where penal substition and a kind of Keswick spirituality is claimed as biblical, but there is very little exposure to the full extent of the biblical text, and a positive antipathy to any critical thinking about it. I'm sure John Stott, Jim Packer et. al. would be horrified by it, but that's what I now most often encounter. There always was an anti-intellectual streak in evangelicalism, but it's become the norm in the UK, and even more aggressively so in the US.
In my experience UK evangelicals decry US evangelicalism but have no clue how similar evangelicalism actually is either side of the Atlantic. You only have to look at the personalities, from Billy Graham onward, through to James Dobson and John Piper to Pete Greig, and at the publishing houses, and at the headline issues .. homosexuality, 'pro-life', etc. All transatlantic.
This will all seem irrelevant, I guess, to those who never knew the ecosystem, but for those of us who grew up in it, this stuff is pretty critical. And much as we might dislike him, Bannon is right, that culture is upstream of politics, and for many people theology is upstream of culture.
Well, John Stott thought for himself, so I guess he can't have been very representative. But yes - he obviously was influential in UCCF circles - which would explain why IVP published Stephen Sizer.
" . . . my impression is that evangelicals now overwhelmingly focus on penal substition and the notion of biblical authority has dropped away." Interesting comment. I'm guessing that it hasn't dropped away much in UCCF - but it is certainly true that for many people, theology is downstream of culture. (I am guessing that you meant to write downstream.) So I guess the question is "Whatever happened to evangelical theology?"
No, I meant upstream. The more Luddite the theology the worse the pollution downstream.
Whatever happened to evangelical theology is still a good question. There will always be slivers of light, but I think on the one hand there's the theobros / Reformed attack dogs, and on the other hand .. probably there are a lot of hands. It's a long time since David wrote that book.
UCCF is not what it was. I recall a Council strategy weekend in the mid 80s with a few of the older generation still around, Oliver Barclay and one or two older than him. They could recall the early ethos of trying to reclaim the universities intellectually. We all knew that was long gone. CUs were about evangelism. A few years later KLICE (Kirby Lang Institute for Christian Ethics) .. a UCCF-founded institution, detached from UCCF when UCCF refused to publicise KLICE events on the grounds that thinking theologically about ethics wasn't really what they wanted to encourage. Tyndale detached about the same time. So that's pretty clear-cut evidence of dumbing down. And now UCCF has its own scandals, HR abuses rather than sexual, which is some comfort .. they have a long, long track record of treating staff appallingly.
But we've drifted a long way from Caitlin's post and maybe should avoid a UCCF rabbit-hole.
Sometimes it does feel like we fell down the rabbit hole into an alternate reality, but then the photos and articles and videos from Gaza start coming through our social media streams and true reality beckons. I'm glad you have hope that life will find a way and have hope in the younger generations, but don't count us oldsters out. We're out there in the streets, sometimes being arrested for carrying signs deemed to be supportive of a "terrorist organization". We all need to be in this together! Free Palestine--free the world from tyranny!
Caitlin, your response to Freeman's question of "I have quite a few friends/people in my life who somehow are against the occupation and genocide while also being for Israel" also applies to the U.S. perfectly.
Too many Americans think of America as "Alternate Reality America" that exists in a parallel universe at the geographic location of actual real-life America, but never became a racist, genocide-supporting, slavery-supporting, exploitative and regime-changing terrorist entity that has profited off the labor of others (its own people and the global South).
The U.S and the U.S. Empire - through its system of Capitalism (which includes settler-colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism, and more) is only what it is today because of this global exploitation of humans and the planet, producing ever-more profits and wealth for the 0.1% while enslaving the rest of humanity (wage slavery, debt bondage, etc.) and relegating them to be subservient and dependent on the 0.1% for their survival).
I gained a small sliver of hope from your previous article where you said that we’ll win this. But it’s so difficult to hold on to it when I see the news coming out from Gaza everyday. I have faith that all these atrocities cannot last, but it’s still feels good to have somebody else have the confidence to also say this.
I also get grief from these pro-genocide supporters who claim sympathy but say things like “well if only the Palestinians had agreed to the last seven offers of statehood” or another one “if only they had released the hostages things wouldn’t have gone this far” or “maybe they shouldn’t start something they can’t win” and you know it’s all in bad faith and I feel like pulling my hair out
I believe that I have been fooled, or rather misinformed.
The formation of Israel seems to come from the Christian Zionist movement, who outnumber the Jewish Zionists by 20-30 to 1.
This group are the Evangelists, who carry the belief that the formation of Israel and the return of Jews to the land is a prophesy that must be fulfilled to allow the next step to take place.
"It doesn't mean anything to his (Netanyahu) Jewish constituents, but it does to those who believe the Bible is coming true. Christian Zionism – it predicated on the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people. They've been returned to the land in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah is going to return soon. But there will be a war, a final war, an Armageddon, and it will be pitting Israel and its allies against the Arab world, against the communists, against those who have a different worldview to that of Israel.".
If this is the case, then the hatred of Israel and its actions must be broadened to include the fucking religious evangelist lunatics. These are spread around Europe and the US.
There is a lot to unpack here.
It would explain why Israel is constantly poking its neighbours to cause tensions, why the US drops bombs on Iran and invaded Iraq.
Peace is simply not an option. The Zionists DO NOT WANT PEACE. They want to create the conditions for Armageddon. A final destructive war of the Christian western whites against the rest.
All to bring on the second coming.
All through the ages there has been killing and devastation because of religious beliefs and the hope for eternal life.
Could it really be the case that a bunch of misguided buttholes interpreting the rantings of ignorant power mongers 2,000 years ago, are prepared to destroy us?
If this is more than just a conspiracy theory, which I really hope it is, then the power base of the Zionists, namely the Evangelical Christian Zionists needs to be called out.
The beginnings of Zionism were in the 16th century in England, called the Restoration, and promulgated by such religious fanatics as the Puritans. This informed many elements of the British upper classes, which greatly facilitated the rise of political Zionism in the latter part of the 19th century.
This goes some way in explaining the importance and centrality of Christians to the Zionist project. For some reason they are often disarticulated when discussing Zionism and Zionist history.
Puritans have a central role in Aaron Good’s “Empire and the Deep State “ series. They have become the majority of the Anglo-American Oligarchy that controls the US government.
Thank you this. Yes, beauty is important even in the midst of chaos, even if we just have to imagine it.
The internet opened a lot of doorways. I and others were against Zionism and wars in the Sixties. Listened to U-Thant speak at the UN at the UN school graduation ceremony. So much hope adn the atmosphere was electric - at least for me. But there was no internet and it was soon forgotten and regular for many had to go on. Now the world ahs seen the pictures and many. many have woken up. Even if people cannot do anything physically, just the energy for the Palestinians and against genocide carries weight.
Youtube is getting better in allowing podcasters but comments are still heavily deleted or shadow banned on this subject.
Inge Hanson, I also remember a time that at the UN - mostly the newly decolonised countries with some great human beings as their leaders - who tried to equate zionism with racism but failed. Most western countries together with the US wouldn't allow it.
Netanyahu's Alternate Reality is the creation of a Greater Israel. If the Genocide in Gaza was not the nadir of Israel, imagine what depths the pariah state of Israel will reach when it levels Gaza completely and occupies lands in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Whatever happened to the three court cases Netanyahu was scheduled to be cross-examined, cases 1000, 2000 and 4000? Anyone know?
His war on Gaza happened while he was PM during war the courts have to wait their turn, disgusting as that is, that is why he will keep it going as long as possible and keep lying through his rotten teeth.
He cares not one whit about Palestinian deaths so long as it keeps him out of prison. And that means bringing in fascist ministers, murderers, maiming snipers of the IOF, flattening homes, farms, schools, universities, hospitals and the false reputation of the rapist IOF.
Along with Alternate Reality Israel is the peculiar notion of the Mordor like menace that nestles close by or possibly even underneath. Just as the Zionists have some odd vision of themselves as a kind of Semitic version of The Knights of the Round Table, they have this Utterly Satanic Other which inevitably ends up infecting the whole of reality.
One typically pathological twitterer spoke about this fabulous Hamas underground network of tunnels in which EVERY SINGLE BUILDING IN GAZA stands atop a subterranean tunnel scheme that dwarves the New York underground!
This is the root of that compulsively reiterated claim about Hamas hiding behind every Palestinian child. Perhaps even the new born babies have miniature Hamas submarines injected into their blood?
Cf. Also those intensely detailed pornographic musings on what Hamas did to the Israelis on Oct 7 – with the sexual assault of every conceivable orifice, tendons cut, babies raped, beheaded and microwaved, possibly all at the same time etc.
Thank you Caitlin : ) Always educating, I love you and Tim not just what you do for me but what you do for the world. Being a positive force is countering the negative work of evil. From your writings, I do one thing for the New Palestine everyday. Much love and many hugs to you both, and the community of beautiful people you have brought together.
Your reply to Timothy on YouTube who asked, “Why do you not support Zelensky?” needs to be repeated and repeated and publicized wide and far. So many people are unaware of how it is a proxy war and the information in your links hasn't been widely reported by mainstream media.
Thanks to Caitlin and Tim for the truth about Ukraine/Zelensky.
John Cosmo don't wait for the mainstream media to own up to their distorted narrative
- not only of Israel - but of Ukraine as well. As you mention it is a proxy war right from the start. Zelensky's antecedents are dubious. A mere puppet of NATO/US after they had a coup against the former president.
Putin and Russia are not only fighting a war against Ukraine but the West and US. We can speculate or listen to sane intellects as to the motive. It is to diminish Russia thus preventing it from being an ally to China - for the coming war with China.
You are excellent on the topic of Palestine and the fight against the fascists. Your stance on Ukraine is pure BS propaganda crap. Your figures quoted are a propagandists dream. Do you get a salary for your pro russia propaganda BS? Shame. Arrest the ICC indicated war mongering coward and criminal now! Long live Ukraine. The war ICC indicated mongering coward and thug just murdered more Ukrainian civilians last night. The Russian gangsters are scum
Russia should not have invaded, but NATO and the U.S. have for years been intentionally goading then to do it to have an excuse to use the Ukrainians to fight a proxy war against Russia. This is a well-known, non-imperialistic, proper, factual analysis. Take the emotion out of it to see it clearly, supported by the facts.
Thank you, Caitlin, for your faith in young people and the future of a more connected world. One of your most inspiring and thought-provoking posts, in my opinion.
Agreed. It's hard to keep positive but this post certainly helps.
Thank you on calling out Zelensky! I always thought that the entire proxy war in Ukraine was started to fulfill Hillary Clinton's massive ego which also allowed Rachel Maddow to keep up the Putin lie.
So true my friend, and they told us what their plan was.
Why not move to russia then? Blah blah blah. FO
Agree re Ukraine. Legacy media has consistently failed to address Putin’s support for the ‘indivisibility of security’ even if only for the purpose of tearing down his argument. But as far as I can see, Putin’s argument is on point; one state’s security cannot be obtained at the expense of another state’s security.
Ukraine (or EU for that matter) cannot gain security by compromising Russia’s security. Zelenskyy’s failure was to allow Ukraine to be used by the West to try and bleed and thus weaken Russia.
Long live Palestine!
I get grief from evangelicals, especially if they believe in the 'end times' theology, the 'rapture', 'premillenialism' etc. .. which many US Christians do. They think they have to buy into 'Israel' because of the Old Testament, prophecy fulfilment, etc.
There is no telling what it is in them that blinds them to the glaringly obvious evil and immorality of the genocide in Gaza, but we are where we are, and if an ad hominem argument is the only thing that will make them start to think ..
I usually say something like: 'In the Old Testament / Jewish Bible, from at least the time of Samuel, the leaders of Israel are being denounced by the prophets. For most of that time, the question is "Which Israel" .. which is the true Israel .. is it the Israel of a corrupt government, corrupt kings, is it the northern kingdom of Samaria or the southern kingdom of Judah?" The idea that the Old Testament gives a blanket ok to whoever happens to be king / president / war leader of the state depends entirely on ignoring the Old Testament.'
It's not going to work often, but I've seen it work. I've seen the 'Oh', moment, the flicker of a light coming on. At that point, sometimes, you can start to appeal to basic human decency.
God, please save me from your followers, all of them.
Ok. Propagandist Muppet 🤮.
Good for you. We need every possible approach to deal with this moral blindness. I think I want to know what any of these so-called Christians think Satan could make them do that would be more evil than getting them to support genocide.
You might enjoy learning from Kayse Malone a scholar on Christian Zionism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIo0AdCMMSs
thanks, that looks really interesting
You are wasting your breath. If a person's eschatology is so shallow and transactional that they can't discern the obvious contradiction, they just don't want to. You can have a polite intellectual conversation around the associated merits of pre vs post or amillenailism. But you can't have a polite conversation with someone when the objective reality is as blatantly evil as the situation in Gaza. To argue in good faith we have to be able to at least agree on the initial starting point of the person we are arguing with, if its to be in good faith. Someone that is able to reject reality, insert or interpret truth in a way that fundamentally fails to respect the validity of all life, you have no framework to even begin the debate.
Throughout most of human history we have seen that often, mostly, resolution is not reached through reason or logical persuasion. That's why the world has been defined by war and atrocities of one people or group against another. For some reason, maybe because of the intentional illusion created to pacify the masses, we have forgotten that. Those in control have not. They use the many tools at thier disposal, to include laws and media, to shape the narrative, and crush dissent.
Violence may not be the course we would choose, but the leaders in power know that modern people are reluctant, afraid of the implications of direct action..so can be cowed into wringing their hands as their lords and masters do what they want. Attention will likely fade, people will revert to the partisan games with democracies illusion of choice.
Again, not saying force is the only answer, its just been the one most employed.
"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor."
Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
Agree, Bodhi.
Successful revolutions come from the barrel of a gun (or a guillotine).
Some revolutions come at gunpoint, for sure; 'successful' is harder to measure. But regime change comes more often from peaceful protest.. Check the research by Chenoweth et. al. Peaceful protest is consistently more effective than violent.
The Trotsky line at Brest Litovsk, which you seem to be alluding to, is about power: Obviously closely related to revolution, which is often carried out by force, but Trotsky was speaking as the representative of a regime that had already consolidated control. He was talking about international relations, not internal revolution.
Hi Harry
American Revolution?
French?
Iranian?
How’d peaceful demonstrations work for Palestinians in the past?
Don’t know where you abide, Harry, but as an Amerikkkan I’m very well armed and ready to roll.
As a horse owner, I can loan you a pitchfork, though 🙂
Chenoweth's stuff is meticulously, exhaustively researched. Worth a look. This is her introducing it in a Guardian piece a few years ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/01/worried-american-democracy-study-activist-techniques
I'm in Scotland. Violent revolution well in our past. Plenty of us out on the streets in favour of Independence from England, but sadly we haven't made it to 3.5% yet. Pitchforks did fine at Bannockburn, but they weren't up to it at Culloden.
Harry, very “Smart” to demonstrate for independence from England! 😉
Everyone I know who’s visited Bonnie Scotland loves your country and your people (whiskey as well!)
Oddly enough, I am reading I Kings at the moment. I have read it many times before, but reading it in 2025 is somewhat different from reading 20 or 10 years ago - at least for me, because of what is happening in Gaza, but also among a lot of my Christian friends.
And on the subject of evangelicals, it is worth remembering that a lot of evangelicals are not into Zionism. John Stott, arguably the most influential evangelical in the UK in the 20th century, said that "Political Zionism and Christian Zionism are anathema to Christian faith."
I heard and read John Stott in the 70s. Certainly one of the most important English evangelicals of his time. But how representative, I'm not so sure. Yes in UCCF / Inter Varsity circles (I'm a former UCCF staffer) less so in working class nonconformist settings (like the one I knew before uni).
There are two issues, though, to qualify what you say about evangelicals and Zionism: first, those who identify as evangelical in the US are overwhelmingly into dispensationalism. There is data on that one. Second, and this is just my impression: I was brought up on a kind of 'twin pillars' form of evangelicalism, which was common to Anglican / university / low-church settings: one pillar being the authority of scripture, the other being penal substitution .. itself resting on a 'biblical' base. I've been around evangelicals from the 70s to now and my impression is that evangelicals now overwhelmingly focus on penal substition and the notion of biblical authority has dropped away. I know fellowships where penal substition and a kind of Keswick spirituality is claimed as biblical, but there is very little exposure to the full extent of the biblical text, and a positive antipathy to any critical thinking about it. I'm sure John Stott, Jim Packer et. al. would be horrified by it, but that's what I now most often encounter. There always was an anti-intellectual streak in evangelicalism, but it's become the norm in the UK, and even more aggressively so in the US.
In my experience UK evangelicals decry US evangelicalism but have no clue how similar evangelicalism actually is either side of the Atlantic. You only have to look at the personalities, from Billy Graham onward, through to James Dobson and John Piper to Pete Greig, and at the publishing houses, and at the headline issues .. homosexuality, 'pro-life', etc. All transatlantic.
This will all seem irrelevant, I guess, to those who never knew the ecosystem, but for those of us who grew up in it, this stuff is pretty critical. And much as we might dislike him, Bannon is right, that culture is upstream of politics, and for many people theology is upstream of culture.
Well, John Stott thought for himself, so I guess he can't have been very representative. But yes - he obviously was influential in UCCF circles - which would explain why IVP published Stephen Sizer.
" . . . my impression is that evangelicals now overwhelmingly focus on penal substition and the notion of biblical authority has dropped away." Interesting comment. I'm guessing that it hasn't dropped away much in UCCF - but it is certainly true that for many people, theology is downstream of culture. (I am guessing that you meant to write downstream.) So I guess the question is "Whatever happened to evangelical theology?"
By the way, what do you think of David F. Wells?
No, I meant upstream. The more Luddite the theology the worse the pollution downstream.
Whatever happened to evangelical theology is still a good question. There will always be slivers of light, but I think on the one hand there's the theobros / Reformed attack dogs, and on the other hand .. probably there are a lot of hands. It's a long time since David wrote that book.
UCCF is not what it was. I recall a Council strategy weekend in the mid 80s with a few of the older generation still around, Oliver Barclay and one or two older than him. They could recall the early ethos of trying to reclaim the universities intellectually. We all knew that was long gone. CUs were about evangelism. A few years later KLICE (Kirby Lang Institute for Christian Ethics) .. a UCCF-founded institution, detached from UCCF when UCCF refused to publicise KLICE events on the grounds that thinking theologically about ethics wasn't really what they wanted to encourage. Tyndale detached about the same time. So that's pretty clear-cut evidence of dumbing down. And now UCCF has its own scandals, HR abuses rather than sexual, which is some comfort .. they have a long, long track record of treating staff appallingly.
But we've drifted a long way from Caitlin's post and maybe should avoid a UCCF rabbit-hole.
Ahhh. I see what you mean by upstream.
And yes, I am sure enough has been said about UCCF.
Sometimes it does feel like we fell down the rabbit hole into an alternate reality, but then the photos and articles and videos from Gaza start coming through our social media streams and true reality beckons. I'm glad you have hope that life will find a way and have hope in the younger generations, but don't count us oldsters out. We're out there in the streets, sometimes being arrested for carrying signs deemed to be supportive of a "terrorist organization". We all need to be in this together! Free Palestine--free the world from tyranny!
Pretend that Russia were to have committed one tenth the atrocities Israel openly and proudly commits on a daily basis....
We will share a coffee in the New Palestine my friend :) We can help rebuild.
I look forward to it! May it come soon!
Caitlin, your response to Freeman's question of "I have quite a few friends/people in my life who somehow are against the occupation and genocide while also being for Israel" also applies to the U.S. perfectly.
Too many Americans think of America as "Alternate Reality America" that exists in a parallel universe at the geographic location of actual real-life America, but never became a racist, genocide-supporting, slavery-supporting, exploitative and regime-changing terrorist entity that has profited off the labor of others (its own people and the global South).
The U.S and the U.S. Empire - through its system of Capitalism (which includes settler-colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism, and more) is only what it is today because of this global exploitation of humans and the planet, producing ever-more profits and wealth for the 0.1% while enslaving the rest of humanity (wage slavery, debt bondage, etc.) and relegating them to be subservient and dependent on the 0.1% for their survival).
A GLOBAL REVOLUTION is long overdue...
I walk with you in that revolution my friend.
I gained a small sliver of hope from your previous article where you said that we’ll win this. But it’s so difficult to hold on to it when I see the news coming out from Gaza everyday. I have faith that all these atrocities cannot last, but it’s still feels good to have somebody else have the confidence to also say this.
I also get grief from these pro-genocide supporters who claim sympathy but say things like “well if only the Palestinians had agreed to the last seven offers of statehood” or another one “if only they had released the hostages things wouldn’t have gone this far” or “maybe they shouldn’t start something they can’t win” and you know it’s all in bad faith and I feel like pulling my hair out
And don't forget the, "If only Hamas wasn't stealing all the aid there wouldn't be a famine in Gaza".
Spunty
I just got that line from my US congressbitch.
I believe that I have been fooled, or rather misinformed.
The formation of Israel seems to come from the Christian Zionist movement, who outnumber the Jewish Zionists by 20-30 to 1.
This group are the Evangelists, who carry the belief that the formation of Israel and the return of Jews to the land is a prophesy that must be fulfilled to allow the next step to take place.
"It doesn't mean anything to his (Netanyahu) Jewish constituents, but it does to those who believe the Bible is coming true. Christian Zionism – it predicated on the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people. They've been returned to the land in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah is going to return soon. But there will be a war, a final war, an Armageddon, and it will be pitting Israel and its allies against the Arab world, against the communists, against those who have a different worldview to that of Israel.".
If this is the case, then the hatred of Israel and its actions must be broadened to include the fucking religious evangelist lunatics. These are spread around Europe and the US.
There is a lot to unpack here.
It would explain why Israel is constantly poking its neighbours to cause tensions, why the US drops bombs on Iran and invaded Iraq.
Peace is simply not an option. The Zionists DO NOT WANT PEACE. They want to create the conditions for Armageddon. A final destructive war of the Christian western whites against the rest.
All to bring on the second coming.
All through the ages there has been killing and devastation because of religious beliefs and the hope for eternal life.
Could it really be the case that a bunch of misguided buttholes interpreting the rantings of ignorant power mongers 2,000 years ago, are prepared to destroy us?
If this is more than just a conspiracy theory, which I really hope it is, then the power base of the Zionists, namely the Evangelical Christian Zionists needs to be called out.
Jewish or Christian Zionist? It doesn't matter. A Zionist of any stripe is still a genocidal shitstain.
It matters because it explains what they are doing, where it is heading and what can be done about it.
Condemning it does not lead to a solution. The Zionists don't care, they are on a religious mission.
The beginnings of Zionism were in the 16th century in England, called the Restoration, and promulgated by such religious fanatics as the Puritans. This informed many elements of the British upper classes, which greatly facilitated the rise of political Zionism in the latter part of the 19th century.
This goes some way in explaining the importance and centrality of Christians to the Zionist project. For some reason they are often disarticulated when discussing Zionism and Zionist history.
Puritans have a central role in Aaron Good’s “Empire and the Deep State “ series. They have become the majority of the Anglo-American Oligarchy that controls the US government.
Surely, Richard Parker sane people wouldn't believe a fantasy, a horror fairy tale, such as this....!
Unless... the ruling classes are using it for their power grabbing ways to hoodwink the masses into submission.
That is why activist writers like Caitlin says "wake up people!"
I think you might enjoy a Christian Zionist scholar Kayse Malone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIo0AdCMMSs
Thank you this. Yes, beauty is important even in the midst of chaos, even if we just have to imagine it.
The internet opened a lot of doorways. I and others were against Zionism and wars in the Sixties. Listened to U-Thant speak at the UN at the UN school graduation ceremony. So much hope adn the atmosphere was electric - at least for me. But there was no internet and it was soon forgotten and regular for many had to go on. Now the world ahs seen the pictures and many. many have woken up. Even if people cannot do anything physically, just the energy for the Palestinians and against genocide carries weight.
Youtube is getting better in allowing podcasters but comments are still heavily deleted or shadow banned on this subject.
Inge Hanson, I also remember a time that at the UN - mostly the newly decolonised countries with some great human beings as their leaders - who tried to equate zionism with racism but failed. Most western countries together with the US wouldn't allow it.
Netanyahu's Alternate Reality is the creation of a Greater Israel. If the Genocide in Gaza was not the nadir of Israel, imagine what depths the pariah state of Israel will reach when it levels Gaza completely and occupies lands in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Whatever happened to the three court cases Netanyahu was scheduled to be cross-examined, cases 1000, 2000 and 4000? Anyone know?
His war on Gaza happened while he was PM during war the courts have to wait their turn, disgusting as that is, that is why he will keep it going as long as possible and keep lying through his rotten teeth.
He cares not one whit about Palestinian deaths so long as it keeps him out of prison. And that means bringing in fascist ministers, murderers, maiming snipers of the IOF, flattening homes, farms, schools, universities, hospitals and the false reputation of the rapist IOF.
"I still have hope because of the Palestinians." Amen, truth worthy of all my relations here.
I'd also add Ansar Allah and the people of Yemen, who are not even directly affected.
Yes, the world owes them for being the best of what humans could be. I love you.
Along with Alternate Reality Israel is the peculiar notion of the Mordor like menace that nestles close by or possibly even underneath. Just as the Zionists have some odd vision of themselves as a kind of Semitic version of The Knights of the Round Table, they have this Utterly Satanic Other which inevitably ends up infecting the whole of reality.
One typically pathological twitterer spoke about this fabulous Hamas underground network of tunnels in which EVERY SINGLE BUILDING IN GAZA stands atop a subterranean tunnel scheme that dwarves the New York underground!
This is the root of that compulsively reiterated claim about Hamas hiding behind every Palestinian child. Perhaps even the new born babies have miniature Hamas submarines injected into their blood?
Cf. Also those intensely detailed pornographic musings on what Hamas did to the Israelis on Oct 7 – with the sexual assault of every conceivable orifice, tendons cut, babies raped, beheaded and microwaved, possibly all at the same time etc.
Such is the psychopathology of Zionism.
Thank you Caitlin : ) Always educating, I love you and Tim not just what you do for me but what you do for the world. Being a positive force is countering the negative work of evil. From your writings, I do one thing for the New Palestine everyday. Much love and many hugs to you both, and the community of beautiful people you have brought together.
Your reply to Timothy on YouTube who asked, “Why do you not support Zelensky?” needs to be repeated and repeated and publicized wide and far. So many people are unaware of how it is a proxy war and the information in your links hasn't been widely reported by mainstream media.
Thanks to Caitlin and Tim for the truth about Ukraine/Zelensky.
John Cosmo don't wait for the mainstream media to own up to their distorted narrative
- not only of Israel - but of Ukraine as well. As you mention it is a proxy war right from the start. Zelensky's antecedents are dubious. A mere puppet of NATO/US after they had a coup against the former president.
Putin and Russia are not only fighting a war against Ukraine but the West and US. We can speculate or listen to sane intellects as to the motive. It is to diminish Russia thus preventing it from being an ally to China - for the coming war with China.
You are excellent on the topic of Palestine and the fight against the fascists. Your stance on Ukraine is pure BS propaganda crap. Your figures quoted are a propagandists dream. Do you get a salary for your pro russia propaganda BS? Shame. Arrest the ICC indicated war mongering coward and criminal now! Long live Ukraine. The war ICC indicated mongering coward and thug just murdered more Ukrainian civilians last night. The Russian gangsters are scum
Russia should not have invaded, but NATO and the U.S. have for years been intentionally goading then to do it to have an excuse to use the Ukrainians to fight a proxy war against Russia. This is a well-known, non-imperialistic, proper, factual analysis. Take the emotion out of it to see it clearly, supported by the facts.
“…it could be like the thriving East Asian state of ZimZam, or whatever…”
Nearly died laughing.