Possibly of interest (as I'm on Yanis V.'s email list):
Brian Eno’s & Yanis Varoufakis’ Open Letter to the Judges of the ICC, on the anniversary of 7th October: Act now or International Law withers forever.
7th October 2024
Dear Judges of the International Criminal Court,
When we heard in January that the Court on which you sit had decided to hear the case concerning the situation in Israel-Palestine, we were encouraged. Humanity needs an International Criminal Court that upholds the rule of law and is prepared to investigate the most serious allegations of violations of international law.
Today, on 7 October 2024, exactly one year after the start of the latest and most brutal phase of the seventy-six-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we feel the need to address you directly. Not only because of the increasing cruelty of what is happening west of the Jordan River, but also because of the dangerous precedent that would be set if a state could operate so far outside the international consensus of acceptable behaviour in times of conflict. Unless such violations are sanctioned by a court such as yours, states will carry out war crimes with greater impunity in the future.
For it is now beyond dispute: Israel’s Government has set out to eliminate systematically every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza. We have already seen:
1. The most intensive bombing of a densely populated urban area in living memory
2. The most deliberate starvation of a population since the Second World War
3. The systematic destruction of health facilities
4. An unprecedented number of journalists and UN personnel killed.
The Israeli government has attacked schools, universities, libraries, archives, cultural centres, heritage sites, mosques and churches. Professors and teachers have been killed, along with their students and often their entire families. Meanwhile, under the cover of the Gaza conflict, Israeli settlers, protected by IDF soldiers, are evicting Palestinians from their ancestral homeland in direct violation of every principle of international law.
These are not merely violations by a government. The international community has no reason to expect that a change of government will bring the Israeli state back into the fold of international law. On 19 July 2024 the International Court of Justice ruled as unlawful Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Five days later, the Israeli Knesset voted 65-9 to ignore the ICJ ruling and provocatively described the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as part of “the Land of Israel”. To prove further its contempt for international law and the institutions humanity created after the Second World War to support it, last Wednesday Israel’s government banned UN Secretary General Guterres from entering the country.
So here is the question: When can we expect indictments from your Court?
Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the bleakest chapter of a tragedy that our generation will be answerable for to future generations. Today humanity needs more than ever a court like yours, where impartial legal minds from around the world can reach consensus on standards of legal conduct in war and its aftermath. Your role is vital, and we implore you to act immediately.
"The biggest insult to the memory of the Holocaust is not denying it, but using it as an excuse to justify the genocide of the Palestinian people." - Norman Finkelstein
"In this 21st century I learned that international law does not exist."
Very true, especially when the 'tribal psychpaths' with power, $$ and military might only see one solution to their way of thinking, that being genocide of all others in their way.
Many thousands of us who protest and protest over this last year clearly are doing what we can do to let the Palestinians know we care and love every single one of them.
But after watching Al Jazeera's recent documentary yesterday, I must say that my deepest sympathy flows to the Gazan mothers who've lost their sons; their agony is so palpable. And just when I thought I couldn't be shocked any more thoroughly by Israeli barbarity, the story of anal rape of a Palestinian prisoner by a dog sent my anger to new heights, my spirits to new depths, those clever Israeli scientists apparently synthesizing female canine pheromone for a IDF captain to spray onto the naked butt of the prisoner to induce the male dog's coitus. Tell me again: who are the subhumans in this struggle?
I am beseeching all of you to stop devolving this discourse. I am Palestinian. I have been an activist my entire life. I have studied my entire life. I am cautioning anyone who devolves into hating an entire religion on the basis of zionism, to please attempt to educate yourselves.
Zionism is racism.
Judaism is not Zionism.
Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism; it never has.
The reason I delineate between white jews and brown and Black jews is because the religion does so, and the founders and perpetrators of zionism do so. And, because brown and Black jews are not the issue.
Zionism was founded on white supremacy.
Palestinian jews, Arab jews, Ethiopian jews, are second- and third-class citizens.
Zionist israel was created for white jews and white jews only. Other jews are merely tolerated.
This is racism. Pure and simple.
Please resist and rise above the religious condemnation. Find a way to elevate your own understanding to refine your language to uplift the Palestinian issue, which has been, with their current colonizers, constant oppression and murder and annihilation and sterilization and and and ad nauseam since the late 1800s. Just the current european colonial regime.
Please rise above the unbridled hatred and cruelty spewed by so many members of the white israeli masses. Please rise above the rhetoric and don't fall into a mirror image of this white supremacist settler-colonial mindset. Be better. If you point at all jews then you are agreeing that disinformation is sanctioned and mirroring the vile behavior of the white supremacist zionist entity.
I grew up being scared of white jews. I confess I still struggle not to be scared of white jews. I have to fight against this every day. It took meeting some white jews who demonstrated that there are white jews who are anti-zionist and pro-Palestinian.
Please find a way to express your views while honoring that everyone here, who has the benefit of reading Caitlin's brilliant and unrelenting honesty, are not your enemy.
I believe we are all capable of rising above. Please try.
"To them you are nothing more than a doll to act pleasant around them and to pat them on the back and kiss their feet so they feel better and feel moral. You are a lamb to the slaughter and a zoo animal to them."
Have you ever met a Palestinian woman? Seriously? You don't know anything about me. I'm only 5'2" but a Tazmanian Devil's got nothing on me when I'm defending the people I love.
______________________________
Having had my reactionary mouth spew, I read your post again and I realize you're possibly Moroccan, Tunisian, or Algerian, and possibly Amazigh.
Regional experiences are different, and my lense, when speaking of Zionism, and being in the US, is focused on that. I will say that my experiences with brown and Black jews has been very different from yours. I do know that those who have been conscripted, and are being conscripted, to fight are barely tolerated. They are now being used as the new human shield, the majority of them refugees. Refugees killing refugees at the behest of the zionists. Once jews of color go to the occupied territories and believe they'll be treated like israeli citizens... well, it's easy to blame the religion, but my experience has been that it's zionism that is the culprit. And you don't have to be jewish to be a zionist. Our deranged puppeteer president actually announced he was zionist, like a good little minion.
I feel and know your anger, rage, to the brink of insanity more than a few times in my life. But I refuse to allow myself to sink to that low level of the zionist mindset, because that way lies true and thorough madness.
Respectfully. How about total support, lock stock and barrel.
Now there is the biggest crime of all because without US involvement, it would end tomorrow.
A statement or two or a visit from the Pope might have helped as well.
As they sit there in their plush offices in Washington, from the demented President down, they think that this action which they have endorsed will add to their strength and influence in the world, when it is all over. How naive. Sooner or later we will see even the US puppets in Western countries, the majority of such countries, turn their back on the USA and its hegemonic objectives and non-stop power plays.
There is not a single empire that has survived, the latest before WWII being the British with almost all of its colonies having turned the page and discarded the once arrogant dictates of the "Crown" and become independent. Of course, there are so many others like the now very feeble Australia, the 'follow the leader' Canada, UK and New Zealand as examples, still dipping itheir lids to an archaic Royalty, with Governor's-General filling the role of British mouthpieces and passing on the wishes / demands of a master, "well past its due date". So they then chose to become a subservient little state under the control of the arrogant USA, so enjoying the very worst of both worlds. US bases here, there and everywhere, spying on the world from an Australian located US-controlled operation, allowing the transit in and out of B-52 bombers possible armed with nuclear weapons and ready to engage as a junior puppet in any war that the likes of Biden or his mirror image replacement will require, yes, even to taking up arms to give the genocidal Israelis a small dose of credibility. History repeats itself.
"Just yell, Biden. We'll be there" as they were when they needed support in those hegemonic activities in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and who knows how many others.
How the once respected and potentially worthy states have fallen. History repeating itself, as it does.
Finally, if there is anyone in a position of influence in those United States, in stopping the supply of your aircraft, weapons, bombs and dollars and then getting to hell out of the Middle East, this would be good news for all.
Israel, on its stolen Palestinian lands, needs to pass into history as an inhumane and hated state, a 21st century version of The Third Reich with similar values of power and arrogance, performing the same dirty deeds of death for millions.
The world does not need States like Israel and all they represent.
And there you have it. The moron that cannot tell a Jew from a Zionist.
So long as one can say "Christian terrorism at its finest" at the same time and with the same conviction, Im good with it. For me the line is crossed when some dirt bag implies that all Jews are somehow evil, but all Christians (or some other arbitrary group) are good upstanding planetary citizens.
I don't live in the Middle East but in the UK . It is widely believed here that being a progressive Muslim means that I have no strong beliefs and so am "safe" . Thus I am expected to be very pro-Israel because that would be 'normal' and ok . I have had the most surprising hostilty to my refusal to eat pork - perhaps because 'progressive' has the meaning of not causing trouble ? Muslim law allows us to defend ourselves and our families . But most Christians clain to be pacifist - except !
But many Jewish people who are far away from the Middle East will express pride in Israel's success even tho' they never wanted to live there and do not officially approve of genocide etc.!
They absolutely are. They're indoctrinated into Zionism the same way people are indoctrinated into Christianity. It starts in childhood. Hate has to be taught. You cannot be a Jewish Zionist. Zionism is the antithesis of Judaism.
It is precisely because they are zionists. I see it as a collective mental illness. They have been given carte blanche to do whatever they want with no consequences. Not just the military, but settlers. It is like Lord of the Flies.
They have this blinding hatred of people who've been presented as perverted caricatures, groomed to hate them, carefully constructed by zionism, and apartheid means they rarely even come into contact with Palestinians, like they're the fabled chupacabra or something.
It's otherworldly and I do consider zionists in israel to be collectively criminally insane. Imagine being told it's your god-given right to do whatever you want and you not only don't suffer consequences, your acts of sadistic barbarism are condoned, even celebrated.
I notice western media headlines are all "1st anniversary of Hamas attack on Israel. and not: "Hamas strikes back against 75 years of brutal occupation, terror, arbitrary murder of thousands of innocent civilians, and illegal theft of land."
Thank you Caitlin, many of us agree with you, my sympathy lies is with the thousands of Palestinian children murdered by Israel and as every day passes the body count grows. Cry for Palestine and Lebanon not Israel.
In the manufactured, hypocritical and nauseous din that passes for sympathy for those Israelis killed on October 7th and expressed by anyone other than those who really loved the victims I too say “I reject your synthesised, formalised expression of national victimhood which is as false as Netanyahu’s claims to want to free the hostages, as false as any claims that the attack was not a deliberate, planned contrivance to justify the kind of barbarism that was both intended by US-supported Israeli forces and which has come to pass”.
Thank you Caitlin for your magnificent expression of outrage against this Israeli barbarism, magnificent in both its scope, its detail and its focus, its powerful sense of injustice both against the perpetrators in Palestine and their stupid, monstruous, deluded backers elsewhere in the West.
And thank you Caitlin for giving me a worthy ‘hook’ and opportunity to hang my own outrage on relieved in some tiny way that I am not alone in perceiving this dark, dark history in its true light. To us it is the tiniest of recompense for knowing we at least hold to the truth on such a bleak day for humanity.
Sadly these fine words you said, will not ever come out of the mouths of any U.S. politician, not even their faux progressives, and certainly not from the mouths of the cowards that pass for “leaders” in their vassal states.
Sadly, Gandhis and Mother Teresa's or Mandelas aren't on the menus of humanity's politicians. Moreover, any astute politician knows what counts... as in MONEY, MONEY, and then, MONEY. In the final analysis,, even though Caitlin's words in this post resonate in every pore of my body, the power of MONEY still rules everything, and politicians know it. If Money wasn't the key to contemporary survival, the military industry would not be the principal source of the world's worst atrocities.
"You don’t need to be a saint to stand against genocide as a national leader"... Maybe, but I mentioned MONEY as the prime motivator of human survival. Please involve MONEY if you address "national leaders" 'in your response. The power of the IDF comes from its money factory, the U.S. When addressing anything that involves the power of MONEY, I would be pleasantly surprised to know that any politician can do anything about anything without it... saints notwithstanding...
"No “money” is not what motivates humans." I'm a pragmatic sort. I've seen what happens to people with no money, and it isn't pretty, nor comfortable lying on park benches in the middle of winter. Maybe on planet 'Klonda', but on Earth no money means nada of anything, unless you happen to be living on a tropical island where sea food just jumps out of the water to feed the locals. Where I live, middle of winter means minus 40 below on bad days... zero on good ones... want some pictures... I got plenty... with some people frozen to death inside their tent.... although no pictures of that scene.... "family privacy" according to the law... Try the great outdoors in a Canadian winter and let me know if you would pay rent to get warm... ... and paying rents means MONEY.. the universal survival tool.
BRICS should happen faster, please, and I say this as an American. Only when the world stops propping up the dollar as the leading reserve currency will the madness stop. The US will have to repudiate its debt, since it won't be able to inflate it away, try as it might, and it can never be paid back. Once they've defaulted, it's pretty much over. Meanwhile, there are 50 free and independent States in this so-called union and they should all start acting like it.
Well, they've seemingly tried, although I think the inflation we've seen to date is garden-variety government-growth-covering inflation and not the hyperinflation that would be necessary to cover the debt. The hyperinflation would necessarily lead to the crack-up boom. This won't happen as long as the Fed wants to pretend it has any political independence whatsoever.
The U.S. cannot dominate single handedly other big countries.
However the U.S. is and will remain a major country with a large economy and large population that is has proven to be willing to impoverish and suppress. Snowden already exposed they have the machinery in place to implement what’s needed to run a police state of expolited people.
Oh and they are already squeezing abd suppressing Europeans remotely. Richard Medhurst and Sarah Wilkerson on terrorism charges in the UK. Anti gencide and climate protesters imprisoned in the UK.
This is their road forward.
Also people have understood they are slowly building their version of the GDR-era anti-fascist wall. Except this will be a wall to keep out anti fascists.
I understand not sympathising with the nation of Israel, but I do believe in having compassion for their traumatized inhabitants who lost loved ones, whose loved ones are still being held as hostages, whether dead or alive. These same inhabitants are traumatised constantly by their own government and used, as all cult members are, to further the nefarious aims of the cult leaders.
On October 6th, 7th, and 8th, there will be virtual gatherings each day at 2:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM Jerusalem Time to honor those lost and envision a future of justice, peace, and safety for all.
In these gatherings, we will create a space to process grief, address the oppressive systems that perpetuate profound suffering, and foster a shared vision of reconciliation, justice, and collective liberation.
The gatherings will be facilitated by Nonviolence International, Parents Circle Families Forum/American Friends of Parents Circle Families Forum, and Combatants for Peace/American Friends of Combatants for Peace.
On an individual basis, I DO have sympathy for the people and families murdered or devastated by these criminal acts - whether Palestinians or Israelis or Lebanese or U.N. workers or anyone else.
As far as Israel as a country, I have never seen such evil so openly displayed - from the murder of Rachel Corrie by a bulldozer in 2003, to the pager explosions in Lebanon this year, to the absolute genocide of the residents of Gaza and the West Bank. I find it totally disgusting that the U.S. government continues to support such atrocities.
Possibly of interest (as I'm on Yanis V.'s email list):
Brian Eno’s & Yanis Varoufakis’ Open Letter to the Judges of the ICC, on the anniversary of 7th October: Act now or International Law withers forever.
7th October 2024
Dear Judges of the International Criminal Court,
When we heard in January that the Court on which you sit had decided to hear the case concerning the situation in Israel-Palestine, we were encouraged. Humanity needs an International Criminal Court that upholds the rule of law and is prepared to investigate the most serious allegations of violations of international law.
Today, on 7 October 2024, exactly one year after the start of the latest and most brutal phase of the seventy-six-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we feel the need to address you directly. Not only because of the increasing cruelty of what is happening west of the Jordan River, but also because of the dangerous precedent that would be set if a state could operate so far outside the international consensus of acceptable behaviour in times of conflict. Unless such violations are sanctioned by a court such as yours, states will carry out war crimes with greater impunity in the future.
For it is now beyond dispute: Israel’s Government has set out to eliminate systematically every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza. We have already seen:
1. The most intensive bombing of a densely populated urban area in living memory
2. The most deliberate starvation of a population since the Second World War
3. The systematic destruction of health facilities
4. An unprecedented number of journalists and UN personnel killed.
The Israeli government has attacked schools, universities, libraries, archives, cultural centres, heritage sites, mosques and churches. Professors and teachers have been killed, along with their students and often their entire families. Meanwhile, under the cover of the Gaza conflict, Israeli settlers, protected by IDF soldiers, are evicting Palestinians from their ancestral homeland in direct violation of every principle of international law.
These are not merely violations by a government. The international community has no reason to expect that a change of government will bring the Israeli state back into the fold of international law. On 19 July 2024 the International Court of Justice ruled as unlawful Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Five days later, the Israeli Knesset voted 65-9 to ignore the ICJ ruling and provocatively described the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as part of “the Land of Israel”. To prove further its contempt for international law and the institutions humanity created after the Second World War to support it, last Wednesday Israel’s government banned UN Secretary General Guterres from entering the country.
So here is the question: When can we expect indictments from your Court?
Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the bleakest chapter of a tragedy that our generation will be answerable for to future generations. Today humanity needs more than ever a court like yours, where impartial legal minds from around the world can reach consensus on standards of legal conduct in war and its aftermath. Your role is vital, and we implore you to act immediately.
Thank you
Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis
If you want to endorse our letter (anonymously also, if that’s your preference), please click here. http://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=26ca2d85f62b708684549ba7137bf4a51741680168b14a1f4d9d5f4ac54db71f&blog_id=132216091&post_id=25486&user_id=15757768&subs_id=6639698&signature=b05800f5b2171b174539c68af9391a58&email_name=new-post&user_email=freeyourmindinsc@yahoo.com&encoded_url=aHR0cHM6Ly9pLmRpZW0yNS5vcmcvZW4vYW5zd2Vycy9uZXc/Zm9ybV9pZD03MzE
For a pdf copy of this letter, click here. http://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=ded4f3acc82bb728f869bd40a3557f70d6328103b9febd422f52232c6e17cf09&blog_id=132216091&post_id=25486&user_id=15757768&subs_id=6639698&signature=c9f329df664a49d90a44a78a6ae2567c&email_name=new-post&user_email=freeyourmindinsc@yahoo.com&encoded_url=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueWFuaXN2YXJvdWZha2lzLmV1L3dwLWNvbnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fkcy8yMDI0LzEwL0Vuby1WYXJvdWZha2lzLWxldHRlci10by10aGUtanVkZ2VzLW9mLXRoZS1JbnRlcm5hdGlvbmFsLUNyaW1pbmFsLUNvdXJ0LnBkZg=
For Brian Eno's post, click here. (link did not work, sorry)
"The biggest insult to the memory of the Holocaust is not denying it, but using it as an excuse to justify the genocide of the Palestinian people." - Norman Finkelstein
It is almost like the west is still trying to "make amends" for the Holocaust? How does one do this by continuing to promote genocide?
Apparently, by calling it "self defense".
if the foundation of something is built on un-truths, then the resultant structure will not hold up to inspection...
Norman is as usual right.
In this 21st century I learned that international law does not exist.
"In this 21st century I learned that international law does not exist."
Very true, especially when the 'tribal psychpaths' with power, $$ and military might only see one solution to their way of thinking, that being genocide of all others in their way.
...(W)hich is everyone [for the PsTB believe we're all "in the (so-called) way"].
I imagine then, that you ascertained that international outlaws do...
(as a necessary corollary)
it exists but is not well-enforced
perhaps the ICJ has the most power
Thank you Steven Yates for sharing. Glad that Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis are with us.
Links don't work, it seems. Will keep trying.
Try the links on here: https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2024/10/07/brian-enos-yanis-varoufakis-open-letter-to-the-judges-of-the-icc-on-the-anniversary-of-7th-october-act-now-or-international-law-withers-forever/
Done. Thank you for the link.😢☮️🇵🇸
This one worked. Thank you, Steven.
Many thousands of us who protest and protest over this last year clearly are doing what we can do to let the Palestinians know we care and love every single one of them.
Israel with their barbarity should NOT exist.
This is Oct 7th 2024. Not medieval times.
But after watching Al Jazeera's recent documentary yesterday, I must say that my deepest sympathy flows to the Gazan mothers who've lost their sons; their agony is so palpable. And just when I thought I couldn't be shocked any more thoroughly by Israeli barbarity, the story of anal rape of a Palestinian prisoner by a dog sent my anger to new heights, my spirits to new depths, those clever Israeli scientists apparently synthesizing female canine pheromone for a IDF captain to spray onto the naked butt of the prisoner to induce the male dog's coitus. Tell me again: who are the subhumans in this struggle?
Yes.
I am fighting depression as so many others are I think!
'they' want you depressed.
OF course!
I am beseeching all of you to stop devolving this discourse. I am Palestinian. I have been an activist my entire life. I have studied my entire life. I am cautioning anyone who devolves into hating an entire religion on the basis of zionism, to please attempt to educate yourselves.
Zionism is racism.
Judaism is not Zionism.
Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism; it never has.
The reason I delineate between white jews and brown and Black jews is because the religion does so, and the founders and perpetrators of zionism do so. And, because brown and Black jews are not the issue.
Zionism was founded on white supremacy.
Palestinian jews, Arab jews, Ethiopian jews, are second- and third-class citizens.
Zionist israel was created for white jews and white jews only. Other jews are merely tolerated.
This is racism. Pure and simple.
Please resist and rise above the religious condemnation. Find a way to elevate your own understanding to refine your language to uplift the Palestinian issue, which has been, with their current colonizers, constant oppression and murder and annihilation and sterilization and and and ad nauseam since the late 1800s. Just the current european colonial regime.
Please rise above the unbridled hatred and cruelty spewed by so many members of the white israeli masses. Please rise above the rhetoric and don't fall into a mirror image of this white supremacist settler-colonial mindset. Be better. If you point at all jews then you are agreeing that disinformation is sanctioned and mirroring the vile behavior of the white supremacist zionist entity.
I grew up being scared of white jews. I confess I still struggle not to be scared of white jews. I have to fight against this every day. It took meeting some white jews who demonstrated that there are white jews who are anti-zionist and pro-Palestinian.
Please find a way to express your views while honoring that everyone here, who has the benefit of reading Caitlin's brilliant and unrelenting honesty, are not your enemy.
I believe we are all capable of rising above. Please try.
👏👏
"To them you are nothing more than a doll to act pleasant around them and to pat them on the back and kiss their feet so they feel better and feel moral. You are a lamb to the slaughter and a zoo animal to them."
Have you ever met a Palestinian woman? Seriously? You don't know anything about me. I'm only 5'2" but a Tazmanian Devil's got nothing on me when I'm defending the people I love.
______________________________
Having had my reactionary mouth spew, I read your post again and I realize you're possibly Moroccan, Tunisian, or Algerian, and possibly Amazigh.
Regional experiences are different, and my lense, when speaking of Zionism, and being in the US, is focused on that. I will say that my experiences with brown and Black jews has been very different from yours. I do know that those who have been conscripted, and are being conscripted, to fight are barely tolerated. They are now being used as the new human shield, the majority of them refugees. Refugees killing refugees at the behest of the zionists. Once jews of color go to the occupied territories and believe they'll be treated like israeli citizens... well, it's easy to blame the religion, but my experience has been that it's zionism that is the culprit. And you don't have to be jewish to be a zionist. Our deranged puppeteer president actually announced he was zionist, like a good little minion.
I feel and know your anger, rage, to the brink of insanity more than a few times in my life. But I refuse to allow myself to sink to that low level of the zionist mindset, because that way lies true and thorough madness.
Yes.
Barbarism reign supreme amongst the Zionists and our so-called leaders who allow this to go on.
"Allow", JennyStokes?
Respectfully. How about total support, lock stock and barrel.
Now there is the biggest crime of all because without US involvement, it would end tomorrow.
A statement or two or a visit from the Pope might have helped as well.
As they sit there in their plush offices in Washington, from the demented President down, they think that this action which they have endorsed will add to their strength and influence in the world, when it is all over. How naive. Sooner or later we will see even the US puppets in Western countries, the majority of such countries, turn their back on the USA and its hegemonic objectives and non-stop power plays.
There is not a single empire that has survived, the latest before WWII being the British with almost all of its colonies having turned the page and discarded the once arrogant dictates of the "Crown" and become independent. Of course, there are so many others like the now very feeble Australia, the 'follow the leader' Canada, UK and New Zealand as examples, still dipping itheir lids to an archaic Royalty, with Governor's-General filling the role of British mouthpieces and passing on the wishes / demands of a master, "well past its due date". So they then chose to become a subservient little state under the control of the arrogant USA, so enjoying the very worst of both worlds. US bases here, there and everywhere, spying on the world from an Australian located US-controlled operation, allowing the transit in and out of B-52 bombers possible armed with nuclear weapons and ready to engage as a junior puppet in any war that the likes of Biden or his mirror image replacement will require, yes, even to taking up arms to give the genocidal Israelis a small dose of credibility. History repeats itself.
"Just yell, Biden. We'll be there" as they were when they needed support in those hegemonic activities in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and who knows how many others.
How the once respected and potentially worthy states have fallen. History repeating itself, as it does.
Finally, if there is anyone in a position of influence in those United States, in stopping the supply of your aircraft, weapons, bombs and dollars and then getting to hell out of the Middle East, this would be good news for all.
Israel, on its stolen Palestinian lands, needs to pass into history as an inhumane and hated state, a 21st century version of The Third Reich with similar values of power and arrogance, performing the same dirty deeds of death for millions.
The world does not need States like Israel and all they represent.
"Jewish terrorism at its finest."
And there you have it. The moron that cannot tell a Jew from a Zionist.
So long as one can say "Christian terrorism at its finest" at the same time and with the same conviction, Im good with it. For me the line is crossed when some dirt bag implies that all Jews are somehow evil, but all Christians (or some other arbitrary group) are good upstanding planetary citizens.
and yes, there is plenty Christian terrorism in the world.
I don't live in the Middle East but in the UK . It is widely believed here that being a progressive Muslim means that I have no strong beliefs and so am "safe" . Thus I am expected to be very pro-Israel because that would be 'normal' and ok . I have had the most surprising hostilty to my refusal to eat pork - perhaps because 'progressive' has the meaning of not causing trouble ? Muslim law allows us to defend ourselves and our families . But most Christians clain to be pacifist - except !
But many Jewish people who are far away from the Middle East will express pride in Israel's success even tho' they never wanted to live there and do not officially approve of genocide etc.!
Then they are Zionists.
Indeed but Zionists act as if they have a right to demand support from other Jews even if they do not agree with the Z. project .
That does not follow , logically . I don't think illogic is ok in political discussions !
They are ZIONISTS.
no. They are Judeo-Nazis, in the words of Yeshayahu Leibowitz.
*Zionist.
*Zionist. Fixed it for you.
70% of the Israeli people polled are in favor of the Gaza massacre. I don’t believe every one of them are Zionists.
I understand your point not to condemn every Jew. But many Jews are supporting the goals.
They absolutely are. They're indoctrinated into Zionism the same way people are indoctrinated into Christianity. It starts in childhood. Hate has to be taught. You cannot be a Jewish Zionist. Zionism is the antithesis of Judaism.
It is precisely because they are zionists. I see it as a collective mental illness. They have been given carte blanche to do whatever they want with no consequences. Not just the military, but settlers. It is like Lord of the Flies.
They have this blinding hatred of people who've been presented as perverted caricatures, groomed to hate them, carefully constructed by zionism, and apartheid means they rarely even come into contact with Palestinians, like they're the fabled chupacabra or something.
It's otherworldly and I do consider zionists in israel to be collectively criminally insane. Imagine being told it's your god-given right to do whatever you want and you not only don't suffer consequences, your acts of sadistic barbarism are condoned, even celebrated.
Reminiscent of the Roman Empire isn't it. Perhaps Frederico Fellini needs to make a new movie.
This is worse than mediaeval times . And deliberately so .
I notice western media headlines are all "1st anniversary of Hamas attack on Israel. and not: "Hamas strikes back against 75 years of brutal occupation, terror, arbitrary murder of thousands of innocent civilians, and illegal theft of land."
Yep. Once again the corporate media is telling us once again the Israel is the victim and not the perpetrator. F that!
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Thank you Caitlin, many of us agree with you, my sympathy lies is with the thousands of Palestinian children murdered by Israel and as every day passes the body count grows. Cry for Palestine and Lebanon not Israel.
In the manufactured, hypocritical and nauseous din that passes for sympathy for those Israelis killed on October 7th and expressed by anyone other than those who really loved the victims I too say “I reject your synthesised, formalised expression of national victimhood which is as false as Netanyahu’s claims to want to free the hostages, as false as any claims that the attack was not a deliberate, planned contrivance to justify the kind of barbarism that was both intended by US-supported Israeli forces and which has come to pass”.
Thank you Caitlin for your magnificent expression of outrage against this Israeli barbarism, magnificent in both its scope, its detail and its focus, its powerful sense of injustice both against the perpetrators in Palestine and their stupid, monstruous, deluded backers elsewhere in the West.
And thank you Caitlin for giving me a worthy ‘hook’ and opportunity to hang my own outrage on relieved in some tiny way that I am not alone in perceiving this dark, dark history in its true light. To us it is the tiniest of recompense for knowing we at least hold to the truth on such a bleak day for humanity.
Well said David.
Sadly these fine words you said, will not ever come out of the mouths of any U.S. politician, not even their faux progressives, and certainly not from the mouths of the cowards that pass for “leaders” in their vassal states.
Sadly, Gandhis and Mother Teresa's or Mandelas aren't on the menus of humanity's politicians. Moreover, any astute politician knows what counts... as in MONEY, MONEY, and then, MONEY. In the final analysis,, even though Caitlin's words in this post resonate in every pore of my body, the power of MONEY still rules everything, and politicians know it. If Money wasn't the key to contemporary survival, the military industry would not be the principal source of the world's worst atrocities.
You don’t need to be a saint to stand against genocide as a national leader actually. Nor even international law.
All you need to do is follow your OWN national laws.
They don’t. They break their own laws:
https://www.propublica.org/article/gaza-palestine-israel-blocked-humanitarian-aid-blinken
This is organised crime. Transnational organised crime.
Klonda,,
"You don’t need to be a saint to stand against genocide as a national leader"... Maybe, but I mentioned MONEY as the prime motivator of human survival. Please involve MONEY if you address "national leaders" 'in your response. The power of the IDF comes from its money factory, the U.S. When addressing anything that involves the power of MONEY, I would be pleasantly surprised to know that any politician can do anything about anything without it... saints notwithstanding...
Youre defaulting to well-debunked myths about human societies.
But that’s wrong:
https://mronline.org/2024/09/21/ancient-settlements-show-that-commoning-is-natural-for-humans-not-selfishness-and-competition/
No “money” is not what motivates humans. That right there is a table of the way neoliberalism debases human existence.
And no you don’t need to be a “saint” to avoid handing swords to a crazed maniac. You just need to be: human.
Klonda,
"No “money” is not what motivates humans." I'm a pragmatic sort. I've seen what happens to people with no money, and it isn't pretty, nor comfortable lying on park benches in the middle of winter. Maybe on planet 'Klonda', but on Earth no money means nada of anything, unless you happen to be living on a tropical island where sea food just jumps out of the water to feed the locals. Where I live, middle of winter means minus 40 below on bad days... zero on good ones... want some pictures... I got plenty... with some people frozen to death inside their tent.... although no pictures of that scene.... "family privacy" according to the law... Try the great outdoors in a Canadian winter and let me know if you would pay rent to get warm... ... and paying rents means MONEY.. the universal survival tool.
“ I've seen what happens to people with no money, and it isn't pretty,…”
Someone like Blinken is born rich. A neo baby. It’s not money it’s perverse neoliberal values that you are assuming and he was taught from birth.
The same is true of all these politicians. Biden was rich several decades ago.
This is just mass murder as an expression of dedication to neoliberalism and neocolonialism - that’s what Zionism is. Not “money”.
USA won't be able to supply weapons for much longer...............already China is divesting from US dollar.
BRICS is happening.
BRICS should happen faster, please, and I say this as an American. Only when the world stops propping up the dollar as the leading reserve currency will the madness stop. The US will have to repudiate its debt, since it won't be able to inflate it away, try as it might, and it can never be paid back. Once they've defaulted, it's pretty much over. Meanwhile, there are 50 free and independent States in this so-called union and they should all start acting like it.
I read today that Japan is beginning to divest itself of US Treasury Bonds.
The world IS waking up.
Why can't they inflate it away?
Well, they've seemingly tried, although I think the inflation we've seen to date is garden-variety government-growth-covering inflation and not the hyperinflation that would be necessary to cover the debt. The hyperinflation would necessarily lead to the crack-up boom. This won't happen as long as the Fed wants to pretend it has any political independence whatsoever.
You’re oversimplifying.
The U.S. cannot dominate single handedly other big countries.
However the U.S. is and will remain a major country with a large economy and large population that is has proven to be willing to impoverish and suppress. Snowden already exposed they have the machinery in place to implement what’s needed to run a police state of expolited people.
Oh and they are already squeezing abd suppressing Europeans remotely. Richard Medhurst and Sarah Wilkerson on terrorism charges in the UK. Anti gencide and climate protesters imprisoned in the UK.
This is their road forward.
Also people have understood they are slowly building their version of the GDR-era anti-fascist wall. Except this will be a wall to keep out anti fascists.
More like keeping the tax-slaves INSIDE the walls.
Americans are being exterminated as well.
Do hope so JennyStokes.
I condemn israel
The inhumanity of our world has been laid bare this past year. Even with constant livestreamed evidence of Israel's genocide, it continues...
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I understand not sympathising with the nation of Israel, but I do believe in having compassion for their traumatized inhabitants who lost loved ones, whose loved ones are still being held as hostages, whether dead or alive. These same inhabitants are traumatised constantly by their own government and used, as all cult members are, to further the nefarious aims of the cult leaders.
On October 6th, 7th, and 8th, there will be virtual gatherings each day at 2:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM Jerusalem Time to honor those lost and envision a future of justice, peace, and safety for all.
In these gatherings, we will create a space to process grief, address the oppressive systems that perpetuate profound suffering, and foster a shared vision of reconciliation, justice, and collective liberation.
The gatherings will be facilitated by Nonviolence International, Parents Circle Families Forum/American Friends of Parents Circle Families Forum, and Combatants for Peace/American Friends of Combatants for Peace.
https://www.afcfp.org/upcomingevents
Fuck I'm so tired of sanctimonious New Age bullshit. Only war will liberate West Asia from Israhell and we all know it.
On an individual basis, I DO have sympathy for the people and families murdered or devastated by these criminal acts - whether Palestinians or Israelis or Lebanese or U.N. workers or anyone else.
As far as Israel as a country, I have never seen such evil so openly displayed - from the murder of Rachel Corrie by a bulldozer in 2003, to the pager explosions in Lebanon this year, to the absolute genocide of the residents of Gaza and the West Bank. I find it totally disgusting that the U.S. government continues to support such atrocities.
An eye for 10,000 eyes is a blasphemy against all of Nature. Genocide is the greatest of all human evils. Never forget.
Could not have said it better, thank you Caitlin.
Well said.
Amen.
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