I Write About Israel All The Time Because I Have To, Not Because I Want To
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
So Israel held a bunch of Palestinians in concentration camps without charge just for being Palestinian, and then they not only starved and tortured them but actually made them wear a Star of David on their prison garments. But remember kids, it’s evil and wrong to compare Israel to Nazi Germany — no matter how cartoonishly blatant they make the similarities.
❖
According to an Israeli media report, last May IDF troops strapped explosives to the neck of an 80 year-old Palestinian man in Gaza and used him as a human shield for hours. They then shot and killed him and his wife.
When the Gaza holocaust first started I used to read headlines like this and go “Holy shit that must be an exaggeration,” and then I’d read up on it and go “Fuck, nope, that’s exactly what happened.” Now I read them and sigh and just sort of wilt inside.
❖
People who are medically evacuated from Gaza are reportedly being forced to sign paperwork at exiting checkpoints saying they cannot return to the enclave. This revelation comes shortly after Doctors Without Borders informed us that Israeli forces have been entering hospitals in Gaza and methodically destroying all the medical equipment inside them. This is a cold, calculated move to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
❖
Someone accused me of being “obsessed with Israel” yesterday and it just blew my mind. Civil rights are being destroyed throughout the west to defend a state that’s committing genocide and ethnic cleansing with western backing, and we’re not meant to talk about that state and the things it’s doing? Huh?
I mean, do people think I like writing about this sleazy apartheid state all the time? Does it look like I enjoy it? Do you think it’s been fun having to look at videos of children with their guts ripped out by western-supplied weapons and getting called a Nazi when I say it’s wrong? Yeah man that shit’s like crack to me. I’m obsessed with it.
I’m not “obsessed” with Israel. I hate writing about Israel. I wish I never had to think about it. Israel just happens to be the focal point of the worst things that are happening in the world right now, all with the backing of the western empire I live under. I can’t just not talk about this; if I didn’t I’d be a shitty person. This is obvious to anyone with a working mind and a healthy heart.
❖
Israel apologists conflate all Jews with the actions of the state of Israel. They will deny that they do this, but they indisputably do. That is the message they are circulating when they accuse anyone who criticizes Israel’s actions of hating all Jews. They create antisemitism.
❖
Trump says he wants to mutually denuclearize with Russia and China and negotiate a mutual 50 percent cut to the military budget of all three nations. These would both be wonderful new developments. And, I’ll believe it when I see it. As always, ignore their words. Watch their actions.
❖
I’m harder on people who get close to the truth and then swerve than I am on people who are just completely asleep. Anarchists who wind up supporting NATO. Conspiracy analysts who wind up supporting Trump. Socialists who wind up supporting Democrats. These half-awake sleepwalkers annoy me in ways the average fully asleep member of the public does not, because they’re forming their dopey worldviews based on a lot more information.
I wouldn’t be mad at a blind person for knocking over my things, but someone who has one working eye and stumbles around wearing two eyepatches is just being a douchebag. They’re like a man who pulled his head out of his ass, looked around, and then knowingly re-inserted it.
❖
Someone recently tried to tell me that the “jury is still out” on Trump’s actions regarding Israel, because maybe he’ll wind up being not so bad on the issue. This is nonsense. The jury isn’t out on Trump regarding Israel. He’s sending Israel weapons while it’s murdering people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
These are not things Trump might do. These are not things Trump is saying he will do. These are things Trump is doing. Presently. Even if you choose to believe his ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza are actually brilliant 9-D chess maneuvers secretly designed to free Palestine and achieve peace (and they absolutely are not), you have to ignore hard material actions you are seeing right now right in front of your face in order to believe the jury is still out. You also have to ignore the fact that Trump has publicly admitted to being bought and controlled by the Adelsons.
There are arguments to be made that in terms of hard material facts on the ground so far Trump was the lesser evil on Israel, but there are no arguments to be made that he isn’t still very evil. The jury is not out on that. The jury is very much in.
And it doesn’t actually matter if Trump winds up being less destructive than Biden on Palestine. The election has been over for months. Trump is the president now. Biden is completely irrelevant. There is no excuse for defending the depraved actions of the president of the world’s most powerful and destructive nation.
The experience of talking to Trump supporters about Trump’s Israel sycophancy is identical to the experience of talking to Biden supporters about Biden’s Israel sycophancy. It’s exactly the same. These partisan livestock will make excuses for literally anything.
_________________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. If you’d prefer to listen to audio of these articles, you can subscribe to them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or YouTube. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
How can we not write about what Israel is doing, and the way western governments are supporting Israel?
I can't understand how people don't know or care about this.
A lot of us write a lot about Israel because its colonial genocide in the slaughterhouse of Occupied Palestine ranks as one of the greatest crimes in history and given the lack of guts and will by our Governments or mainstream media to challenge it, there is no other choice but citizen journalism.