129 Comments
Oct 26, 2023·edited Oct 26, 2023

This is so, so well stated.

Erdogan has just called Israel's bombardment of Gaza "mental illness."

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Lula in Brazil straight up called it genocide.

Israeli apologists seethe.

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Many children experience trauma, terrible things happen to them, and true there are those who will grow up and inflict it on others, but the majority do not. They may suffer from the trauma, need psychological counseling, but the majority do not become abusers. I make no excuses for Israel, since she seems to be perpetrating what she constantly reminds you of, which is the abuse of others perpetrated on Jews, yet she repeatedly inflicts it on Palestinians. I agree with you that she is committing genocide she was quick to take that road in 48 in the NAKBA. To me the US is continuously using it's power to inflict devastation on a world wide level, either covertly, or in everyone's face with its many excuses and lie. Hard to understand why Americans are blinded to our many atrocities. However it does seem to be a pattern that has traveled with us from our "Chimpness" right up to being human. We never really got out of the jungle.

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I'd simply say that we are governed by sociopaths.

Israel apologists' arguments eventually boil down to "might is right" but only when they have the whip hand.

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I agree, you have to be soulless to commit the kinds of atrocities those in political power are willing to do. It'a unfortunate so many see them as normal.

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To be fair, most of the human Great Leaders of history were basically sociopaths. Machiavelli caused such controversy because he said the quiet part out loud, because he described how the real world actually works, how rulers actually rule, not the glib rationalizations put out by smirking courtiers who can barely keep a straight face.

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I first learned about evolution in school and learned that our closest ancestors were chimps, and I do love them, but they can be violent, and of course there can be lots of violence in reaching alpha chimp status, and they are too often combative with other groups of chimps. Not pleasant to learn but did make history more understandable.

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I think that Christianity and maybe other religions are responsible for many problems. Each religion preaches that they are "the way". "Spare the rod and spoil the child". "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". There are a lot of people who really believe that stuff so they smack their kids around and take revenge when they deem it "necessary"

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I do think people will use religion to justify their abuse, and those in positions of religious power have done so as well. It was a papal bull that allowed those that came to the America's the thumbs up to abuse the indigenous people, that is, not christian do anything you want, and their land is our land.

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The problem isn't Christianity, monotheism or whatever. It's humans.

I can find plenty of examples of human savagery that don't involve a Bible, and I can find examples with Bibles-a-plenty.

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Religion is not the only problem, but it is a problem and, right now in the US, it is a big problem. The issues with people's sexual choices seem to me to be based in religious values. Books are banned. Abortion is banned. Healthcare for trans kids is banned. As far as I can see these things are happening because humans interpret their religion, mostly the Christian religion in our society, to mean that some sexual choices are evil. Humans are the problem in the ways that they interpret their religions.

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I don't recall the Soviet Union being overly Christian, but try telling the local commissar that you needed "trans healthcare" and what you'll get is a one-way ticket to a mental institution or a labor camp.

Mostly all this does is tell me who one sees as one's enemy.

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founding

From single cell ameba through 'Chimpness' to hominid to homo sapiens there have always been small elements of negative separateness which evolutionary pressures have dealt with as not being the fittest to survive .We are here because of that process.And hopefully evolutionary tendency towards survival tending cooperation against harmful full-on competition will bring us into the area of survivable socialism. A third of the world is already tending that way;another third neutral, ith the final third acting like capitalist separatists. The future would still have an hopeful element if it were not for capitalist caused fossil fuelled looming catastrophic climate change. When I was a kid my mother said to me 'Look little Jack if you don't know always hope for the best. And so I do, but a bit tentatively.

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At the time my biology teacher was talking about chimps, she also brought up bonobos. They were kissers and I remember thinking to bad we didn't evolve from them and if I remember correctly we are more genetically connected to them. Too bad mother nature didn't come up with a better plan. I think when the human species were wonders and then farmers, and little to any hierarchy things were pretty good.

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founding

Don't blame it on mother nature rather blame it on father patriarchy.

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Okay!!!!!!!!

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Ritual child abuse in the form of unanaesthetised 8 day old babies undergoing circumcision, in other words having their genitals agonisingly mutilated, has consequences. Those consequences can be found in Cluster B personality disorders (qv.) evidenced in later life. If a whole tribe share the same damaged mental basement then unhinged elders can and do mercilessly exploit this to promote delusions of grandeur amongst the tribe and that's been going on for a long long time. There ought to be a law against ritual child abuse...

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If circumcision has resulted in personality disorders for those circumcised, then is there a tidy explanation for why those who were not circumcised develop similar disorders? I wonder if it might be the system of patriarchy.

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I expect it's more a case of being more susceptible to the Cluster B disorders after such a hideous barbaric trauma. There's also a case for actual psychos arriving via the nature rather than the nurture route. I believe also there are toxic patriarchs AND matriarchs.

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The opposite or solution to the patriarchy is NOT the matriarchy

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While the statement is correct, Erdogan too could reflect on how his government handles Kurds seeking self determination. It’s not genocidal bombardment on the Israeli level. But is also mental.

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Point well taken, but at least he's speaking out. The entire world community needs to say NO More to Israel. Never Again. Better yet, make them clean up their mess, to the extent that is possible.

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I have seen the mental state of Israeli society (or at least those who support the genocide) as being described as a form of Paranoid Schizophrenic Delusion.

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RemovedOct 27, 2023·edited Oct 27, 2023
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I think you are stereotyping Jews and Israelis and that's never good and may be antisemitic. Yes there are some extreme Zionists who are like that: impossible to hold a reasonable and reasoned debate with them on the subject of Palestine but you must remember that they don't represent all Israelis and certainly not all Jews.

I do believe that Israeli society at large is dysfunctional in a way that denies the reality of the occupation and is quite paranoid in character. However we know that there are Israelis who are horrified at what their government is doing to the Palestinians: people like Jeff Halper, Illan Pappe, Miko Peled, Gideon Levy and Amira Haass - these brave people will be at the heart of a new Israel/Palestine when eventually a new truly democratic and modern state is formed that has equal rights for all and a written Constitution. Of course there will need to be a Truth and Reconciliation process, as there was in South Africa when the apartheid government fell, which would involve compensation for the indigenous Palestinians and a recognition of their UN Mandated Right of Return.

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RemovedOct 27, 2023·edited Oct 27, 2023
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I haven't had much recent contact with Jews recently, but one of my Jewish American colleagues subjected me to a vehement rant about my Ukraine sceptical stance as I had the temerity to mention the problem with Nazi elements such as Right Sector and Azov battalion in Ukraine. He insisted (ridiculously, in my view) that nazism was worse in Russia, assuming that I was blindly supportive of Russia. His voice was continuously raised, talking over me the whole time. I avoided any discussion of current events after that because I knew there would be no chance of a reasonable one. Impossible to have a civilised conversation with him although he was a Berkely graduate. I was shocked by his agitation. If I had attempted to discuss Gaza with him, he would have rapidly gone into a fierce rant. I have not seen any current Israeli representatives in the media who have discussed Gaza in a balanced or reasonable way. Of course, the Israeli opposition would be more likely to be so because they can acknowledge the problems with the current status quo.

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Progress occurs one hypocritical step at a time, mate. Good point, though.

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Progress occurs by wilfully abandoning previously held beliefs - and moving on to act in concert with new beliefs.

Not by just talk - that’s just hypocrisy in a cycle to nowhere.

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that could apply to many colonialist governments. Canada, France, Britain, the US and......

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Those are Israel’s partners in Eurocolonialism.

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Whoever still has a bit of humanity left in them and whose heart hasn't been completely corrupted by the nonstop lies and propaganda of the supremacist Zionist PR campaign, I urge you to watch this amazing and shocking documentary (one of the best I've seen) that shows in depth and details the PROFOUND CRUELTY AND INHUMANITY AND SUPREMACY of the Zionist Apartheid machine and ideology (much worse that even the South Aftican Apartheid, and when it comss to the profoundly cruel settlers, it is literally bordering on Nazism), AND what can be done about this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3psMGQE0iW4

Please do watch this. Incredibly important.

PS. And before anyone cries outthe ususal "you're an antisemite".. I'm Jewish and stand firmly against Zionist cruelty inhumanity and supremacy, and against Zionism's century-long brutal ruthless project of dispossesion, theft, dehumanization and ersasure of the local people in Palestine.

Fascist supremacist Zionism is the POLAR OPPOSITE of Judaism and of any human decency.

.

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Yes a lot of kids suffer terrible trauma then grow up to be adults who can never fully become adults unless they have help in some way.

To watch Biden/Macron/von der Layen and others speaking out and supporting Israel in this genocide makes matters worse. They are supposed to be the adults.

Here in France we have not been allowed to protest but I understand this 'dictum' has been over-ruled by the Justice Department.

I see hundreds of people in the streets protesting in the US.....good. Lets keep it going.

Elections are coming up in the US and Joe Biden should think more carefully.

Lets make it a worldwide protest.

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From Shimaa, one of the daughters in the family we used to send money to in Gaza:

“Please stop the war on Gaza.. We are dying.

May God curse Biden and Netanyahu.”

Our hearts are breaking for our dear, helpless friends. Such insanity.

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Oct 26, 2023·edited Oct 26, 2023

As for us being scared Children in Adult's bodies, maybe that's why Christ Jesus the Jew said speaking to Jews, 'Verily I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In his 1st speech as Speaker, Mike Johnson said he will restore HOPE.

There are no guarantees the new Speaker of the House will see it, and most House Representatives do not accept anything in their embedded Office email systems other than from their own Constituents.

As a Canadian, I had employ some subterfuge to find a City, Street address and ZIP Code in his 4th Congressional District in Louisiana to send this Message his Office acknowledged receiving online.

You never know if you don't at least try!

Representative Johnson,

Congratulations on your elevation to the Speaker-ship of the House.

It would be good if Hope is restored under your Leadership, especially for the Innocent Palestinian Civilians of Gaza with NO Hope and NOTHING left to lose after 16 YEARS of the Jewish control of the Gaza Ghetto and BIGGEST Concentration Camp in This World.

The World can see on TV the Israeli MASSACRE of INNOCENT Gaza CIVILIANS, Women, Children and BABIES.

And now abides Faith, Hope, Love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13:13

The Angel's Greeting to the shepherds that 1st Christmas Eve was, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL people.

Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth Peace, Good Will toward men.'

The problem Speaker Johnson, is the great Joy and Peace on Earth comes ONLY if men ON EARTH practice Good Will toward men and act on it.

You will be doing God's WILL if you are a Living Example of that Good Will in practice.

Peace,

Ray Joseph Cormier

Ottawa-Hull, CanaDa

www.rayjc.com

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"other than from their own Constituents" Not so much.

The ears are only bent for listening to "Sources of Funding". Everyone else gets shunted to spam while auto-response sends out boilerplate schlock.

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Russian, Chinese veto shoots down US resolution on war on Gaza

Russia labeled the US draft resolution as a "license" for "Israel" to proceed with a ground invasion in Gaza.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/russian-chinese-veto-shoots-down-us-resolution-on-war-on-gaz

Scott Ritter : “The last thing he needs or wants or desires is [for] people to honestly reflect on it. Because something horrible happened on October 7, I think we are all in agreement about that. Whether you believe that Hamas had a right to rise up and attack Israeli military targets, that's a separate debate. I happen to believe they should be able to do that. But there's no carte blanche ever for anybody to kill innocent civilians, and a lot of innocent Israeli civilians were killed. And I think it's imperative that Israel, like the United States after 9/11, instead of saying ‘we must exact our revenge’, to sit there and say, ‘how did this happen? Why did this happen and how can we prevent it from happening again?’ But in order to answer that question, you have to define the problem. Israel doesn't want to have that discussion, Netanyahu doesn't want to have that discussion, because the answer is: he is the problem. The right-wing policies of Israel is the problem. Zionism might be the problem.”

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231024/scott-ritter-israel-failing-in-global-pr-campaign-to-demonize-hamas-1114455922.html

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The clear clear mind of Scott Ritter. Thank you.

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As a matter of fact, “Modern storytelling” was never about “the Virtuous Protagonist vs Villainous Antagonist model”. That is called fairy tales or journalist-stenographers’ tales. Modern storytelling is Dostoevsky, Balzac, Faulkner and many other great modernist writers 😎

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A believable story villain thinks that he's the hero.

A really believable villain actually sort of has a point.

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Oct 26, 2023·edited Oct 26, 2023

And Henry James who gave us the Jamesian storytelling formula of "the sane one surrounded by insane others." The man of spirit surrounded by envious Philistines, the harmless one (Ahimsa) surrounded by (dealing with) perpetrating others. Or the conscious one defending herself from less conscious others. Or the deep one surrounded by shallow others, the individuated dealing with the unevolved...etc. We could consider rival ideologies in this light as characters in a story...like the religions of the 10 Commandments (which includes Islam) dealing with the fanatical credo that commands followers to chop off perceived offenders' body parts and slaughter the infidel in order to earn sexual perks in Paradise...

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Only in academia. The popular story tellers, the ones that reach the most people, make the most money and set the zeitgeist —most notably Hollywood movies, TV a sitcoms and news, and airplane novels—have always been about the “white hat beating the black hat”. In fact it was one of the lesser complaints of the Civil Rights workers—that “black” was a pejorative and meant evil.

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I agree with that one. And even older stories (from Greek myths to Shakespeare) are not as dumbly black-and-white as Caitlin makes them out to be. It's a bit of a strawman that Caitlin is criticising, really.

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Waking up to a new healthy world would be good. It would be good to take a deep breath and relax without fear or anger or resentment.

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It’s within your reach and everyone’s reach. You just have to do the work. On yourself.

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That may well be.

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Some humans are sociopaths. They aren't evil because they're evil, they're just supremely rational power-hungry and selfish hedonists.

Ayn Rand heroes without all the romanticism honor gobbletygook cover talk.

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Thank you again, Caitlin.

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Divide and conquer. It always work$.

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Knowing that main stream media is a propaganda machine to indoctrinate lies and division drives a new awareness. Access to alternative media and a heightened skepticism of main stream media’s role as the “divide and conquer” tool to indoctrinate the people is helping to awaken. Ironically, the people most traditionally “educated” at colleges in Coastal cities in America that read the New York Times and watch CNN and other main stream channels have an elite attitude that they know more than the “peasants” or blue collar people. These “ erudite”, so they think, are harder to WAKE up! They do NOT want to hear other views of atrocities of the war agenda. They have their Ukraine flags out - and have literally no clue the suffering that their ignorance and brain washing is causing. How do we reach the brain-washed????Waking more up to the reality of the Evil war empire is the key to peace. Many just do not know and only will listen to main stream sources of news - as all other sources have been labeled conspiracy theorists or racist white extremists.... rather than awakened people that are aware to the Empire of Lies....

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Yes and... it's not about "maybe we'll just wake up someday"... there are actual strategies available to break the cycle of violence. As someone who was severely abused as a child and became an abuser, there is absolutely a way to break our patterns of behavior - here's a little taste of my story beginning with a long quote from Rabbi Alan Lew:

https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/break-the-endless-cycle-of-violence/

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I completely agree. Thanks for all you do to raise awareness. ❤️

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I'm starting to beleive this is deliberate genocide of the Jews. Hate crimes have increaser over 350% since this unfolded. To be Jewish anywhere in NYC right now is akin to wearing a bullseyes on your back.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cooper-union-barricades-jewish-students-in-library-as-pro-palestine-protest-turns-violent/ar-AA1iSCF2

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Didn't we hear about a similar purported surge in hate crimes against Asians a few years back?

Since the number of such hate crimes was practically zero,.it didn't take much to create evidence of a "surge".

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You raise an excellent and legitimate point - but it really is happening here! There is an enormous population of both - Jews and Palestinians. I can't believe the level of ignorance (ramifications around the world) which is why I am starting to beleive it's deliberate and intentional. Even if there were a cease fire tomorrow the damage has been done. We live in a completely lawless society that was already filled hatred and anger. This is arson - someone lit this fire!

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/world/2023/10/26/nj-palestinians-worried-threats-israel-war/71171389007/?utm_source=therecord-dailybriefing-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailybriefing-headline-stack&utm_term=hero&utm_content=pnjm-bergen-nletter65

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I have long thought that Zionist demands for special pleading have created more antisemitism than all the morons ever to post drivel on the internet.

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Totally agree!!

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Has nothing to do with Jewish and everything to do with Zionism.

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Why not join Jewish Voices for Peace and go to their protests in NYC? Then you’ll have a good reason for being attacked—that you are an anti-Zionist Jew.

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The only ones who need to worry right now about genocide are the Palestinians. The Jews have been perpetrators of genocide (Lenin and Stalin's Russia, Armenia) before and they are at it again now. Of course, there will be reasonable Jews who are not zionist zealots who get caught up in the backlash.

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I do not disagree one iota BUT there are hate crimes against the Jews being carried out all over the world right now and I expect things to get a lot worse. It's happening in Canada, Florida and New York just to name a few. I think anything or anywhere that has the propensity for a large gathering is a target. It's not about terrorists per se - but the asshole that believes everything mainstream media is spewing and then takes the law into their own hands. You cannot tell me they did not factor this in when decided to invade Gaza! There's close to a million Jews in Florida alone. You have now turned all of this into targets. I don't think you can turn it back either!

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That is indeed very unfortunate, and I do not condone any crimes against people on the basis of their race, whatever crimes they believe certain governments or representatives are doing. I do believe that too many innocent civilians are being killed in Gaza and that we have to get beyond endless tit for tat and work out a solution so that apartheid can end for Palestinian people in a one-state solution with equal rights for ALL.

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Absolutely!!! There are no words to describe any of this! It is beyond unfathomable!! For years I have been saying there is no regard for human life anymore! It's sickening and barbaric.

I had been a huge supporter of RFK Jr. but became very disenchanted when he began focusing on peace and solidarity rather then the corruption and malfeasance. Now I don't know anymore! Someone must stand up and put an end to this constant ongoing carnage of human life! This situation is huge - you are absolutely looking at WWIII. They've set the entire world ablaze.

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Lenin's government was over 80% Jewish. Solzhenitsyn knew about the oppression from Soviet Jewish apparatchiks and experienced it as did millions of ethnic Russian victims of the tyranny. Was the mass murder of millions during the soviet regime a conspiracy? Well, it happened and Jewish soviet politicians were undeniably involved. This is not a slur on all Jewish Russians at the time as not all of them supported it. Nothing to do with anti-semitism in the same way as highlighting Netanyahu's genocidal intent in Gaza is not anti-semitic. Jews can be pro communism, anti-communism or pro-zionist or anti-zionist. History is full of conspiracy going back thousands of years. For example, Israel owes its existence to secret agreements and undertakings. That weapons of mass destruction pretext was based on false reports and that conspiracy is now even out in the mainstream. Politics is vulgar, base and underhand. Were the murders of two sitting presidents in the USA raw, vulgar, base conspiratorially created acts? Enough of the conspiracy phobia and the politesse about it - history is steeped in it. Is it really so difficult to believe that politicians and political groups conspire to achieve their aims?

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Fair enough. I will look into the Latvian aspect. I also acknowledge that ethnic Russians were involved in the slaughter of their own kind because of their sheer numbers. I think I have been guilty of allowing myself to get sucked into the false binary over Israel because there are international forces at work here and, as ever, geopolitically, a chess game is being played, which involves the sacrifice of pawns, in this case. peaceful civilian Palestinians and Israelis for a strategic aim.

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Only 350%?

I'd add a few more zeros, there's plenty of room.

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Oct 26, 2023·edited Oct 26, 2023

That was the purpose of the Hamas/Iranian assault.

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Someday is NOW! This madness must STOP NOW! NO ONE IS SAFE! Leadership needs to be changed in Israel, US, Britain, France, Canada, any country that supports this utter insanity!

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Western MSM and Politicians constantly hype Israel has the Right to defend itself, but they never, ever hype the other half of the dynamic.

By International Law, not the US Rules based order the US dictates, Palestinians have EVERY RIGHT to Resist and Fight the illegal Israeli OCCUPATION of Palestine.

Naturally the US, CanaDa and Europeans, following the Israeli Line, will not see the Palestinian struggle for FREEDOM from the Jewish controlled Gaza Ghetto and BIGGEST Concentration Camp in the World and are labelled as Terrorists.

Israel protests too much because the UN Secretary-General spoke the Truth when he said October 7 didn't happen in a Vacuum

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