WE'RE CONSTANTLY REMINDED OF KHASHOGGY BUT NOT SHIREEN ......NOR FROM GHISLAIN MAXWELL

 

Dear Friends,

In virtually every incident, Israel's first step has been to routinely, "buy time", typically by converting any accusation against it, as though it should be positioned in a "state of doubt".  

(And to, consequently, give time to its "Israel-supporters" to prepare their typically reflexed responses).

And it is easy for them to do, since over decades, our media and propaganda machine behind it, have deceptively converted our name from being "Palestinian" to a two syllable word, "Palestinian-terrorists". Consequently, when Israel "reflexively" claims that the shooter was most likely a "Palestinian", the typical readers in the West subconsciously convert it and understand it to be, "Palestinian terrorist".  And their conclusion? "Yes, of course, How can the shooter be anyone else, but a Palestinian terrorist"?

It is like Russia's attempt to call Ukraine's regime as being "Nazi". It would be like every time a Ukrainian is killed, Russia would accuse Ukrainian defenders of being responsible for the murder because of their chaotic behavior and indiscriminate shooting. It is like Russia accusing Ukrainians of stepping into an area that is "Disputed territory", etc, etc.

And people forget, or don't even realize, that only a year ago when Palestinian people in Gaza demonstrated for many weeks at the border area demanding that Israel let them return to their homes and farms and properties in Israel from which they were forcefully evicted and terrorized to flee, Israeli snipers were aiming at the  heads/necks and legs murdering and maiming hundreds of Palestinian "civilians" (the word "our" media correctly but also selectively uses to describe the Ukranians murdered by Russians military). 

Please read the article, below, by James Zogby, a Lebanese-American.

Awad

I am Furious

Washington Watch
May 13, 2022

Dr. James J. Zogby ©

President

Arab American Institute

The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh has left me furious. Furious that a wonderful woman journalist has been taken from the world. Furious because of the predictable way Israel has responded to this tragedy. And furious at the US for its failure to take a principled stand to ensure that the truth is known about Shireen’s death and there’s accountability for it.

Much has already been written about Shireen. She’s an American citizen and a journalist who for the past 25 years has been reporting from Palestinian lands. She wasn’t just a journalist, she was a storyteller who, like other greats in her profession, was able to get “under the skin” of an event to lay bare its human drama. Where Palestinian officials failed, she succeeded.

Shireen endeavored to bring to life the stories of individuals and families bearing up under the indignity, pain, and injustice of the occupation. Because of that, she posed a greater danger to the Israelis than any gunman ever could. She threatened their dehumanizing narrative that reduced Palestinians to faceless objects.

In this context, it was revealing that the Israeli military spokesperson described Shireen and her colleague, Ali Samodi, who was shot in the back, as being “armed with cameras, if you will permit me to say so.” That is what good journalists do — they arm themselves with cameras and laptops. They witness events as they happen and tell stories so that readers and viewers can understand the human drama that is unfolding. It appears that Israel finds this profoundly — even existentially — threatening. Why else would they have killed 20 Palestinian journalists since 2001 (according to the Committee to Protect Journalists)?

The Israeli response to Shireen’s killing has been predictable. Their hasbara (propaganda) machinery went into overdrive doing what they have always done — a combination of denying, lying, and obfuscating what may have happened.

Even before the military investigated the killing, the early Israeli response was that they were “looking into the possibility that journalists were injured, possibly by Palestinian gunfire.” Another spokesperson added: “I don’t think we killed her…if we indeed killed her, we’ll take responsibility, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.” While this effort at deflection was taking place, the Israelis took another tack claiming that they had offered to conduct a joint investigation with the Palestinians — while even the Israeli press was noting that no such offer had been made. After reading press reports of this “joint investigation” the Palestinians rejected the “offer” saying “no one approached us and no one offered anything…Whoever wants a joint investigation knows who to turn to.” This led an Israeli minister to suggest that the Palestinian refusal was “perhaps to cover up the truth.” 

The effort to obfuscate and deflect blame was also in evidence in an Israeli Foreign Ministry tweet which read: “Palestinian terrorists, firing indiscriminately, are likely to have hit…Shireen Abu Aqla.” While Prime Minister Bennett added, “Our forces from the IDF returned fire as accurately, carefully, and responsibly as possible. Sadly…Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the exchange.”

To create further confusion, the Israelis offered a video which they claimed showed the direction from which the bullets may have been fired by Palestinians. An Israeli human rights group using satellite maps debunked this claim by showing that it was impossible for Palestinian gunmen, given where they were located, to have fired through walls and around corners and hit Shireen and Ali.

To answer why the Israelis engage in such a relentless effort to obfuscate, we need only look at an article that appeared in the Israeli press the day after Shireen’s killing. Written by the Israeli general who had been in charge of the division that was responsible for killing 12-year-old Muhammad Al-Durrah in 2000.  That killing was captured on camera and the image of a little boy being shielded by his father amidst a hail of bullets became iconic. In the article, the general confesses that he erred in immediately accepting responsibility, noting that in the days that followed other “explanations” were posited —including positing that it was all a hoax staged by the Palestinians to besmirch the good name of the Israeli military. The lesson he learned was to not admit to anything up front. Instead, wait until you have talking points that can muddy the waters for the Israeli public and Israel’s supporters abroad.

This is the approach suggested by the famous Marx Brothers’ comedic line: “Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?” And it’s been used by the Israelis from the very beginning — e.g. “Palestinians weren’t expelled from their homes in 1948.  Arab armies called on them to leave” — despite all historical evidence to the contrary. It might be a lie, but if it’s plausible enough to convince or confuse the Israeli public and Israel’s supporters in the international community, then use it.

Finally, there’s the equally frustratingly predictable US response to Shireen’s killing that was in evidence at the State Department briefing the day of the killing. The spokesperson opened with: “We are absolutely heartbroken to learn of the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh…We send our deepest condolences…and strongly condemn her killing as we do the killing of journalists around the world…We call for an immediate and thorough and full investigation and full accountability. Investigating attacks on independent media and prosecuting those responsible are of paramount importance.”

That resolve, however, faded under intense questioning by the journalists present at the press session. While insisting that the investigation be full and thorough and that there be accountability, the spokesperson resorted to the usual deflections. When reporters pointed to instances where Israel either exonerated itself or only offered a slap on the wrist to its forces who had been found guilty of atrocities, the spokesperson would only reaffirm that the US had full confidence in Israel’s ability to investigate itself.

The US refusal to hold Israel to the same standard it insists upon for other countries is upsetting. More so in this case because Shireen is a journalist and a US citizen. In the more than four decades that I’ve been bringing cases of US citizens who’ve been killed, arrested without charge, tortured, had properties confiscated, or been denied entry, the US response has been the same: expressions of concern; quietly discussing the matter with the Israelis; and then doing nothing, as the issue is forgotten.

The result is that Israel operates with a sense of impunity and Palestinians are left defenseless. In the case of Palestinian Americans, the message sent is that to the Israelis and to our own government our US citizenship offers no special protection. And so, I’m furious. 

COLLAPSE .......

China says it will work with Russia to promote "Real Democracy" I wish they'd include Donald Trump with them, he might prove quite inspirational, and maybe few others like Orban of Hungary, Erdogan of Turkey and most autocracies/theocracies of the world, like Iran, Saudi, Israel and few others. 

All this at a moment when few can deny that this country is experiencing a deep crisis, depression, addiction, suicide, extreme wealth inequality, more difficult to attain medical and health treatment including medicine prices and monopoles, education and its availability in adequate forms for the public sectors, all made worse by Covid 19, the rash of mass killings, the effects of too many individual guns and high military and assault machine guns in too many individual hands. (Over 400 million pieces already existing in America). 

As well as a general political malaise, fueled by a total divide from an old inherited conservative and religious ideology, countering a more liberal, 21st century international ideology. More concentrated especially within the younger and better educated and more democratic populations, deserting fascism, and dictatorships, whether theocratic or secular, not to forget the greatest of our curses "Racism", and finally the spectacle of war, produced by all sorts of adventures all around, finally culminating by the Putin's war in Ukraine, and the threat of yet another one in the China sea. 

Altogether producing an omnipresent and universal anxiety, reigning in the back-ground, all of which lead to more economic instability, poverty, exploitation, undermining resilience and resistance world wide, destroying the general hope of a stable and more prosperous unified glob. 

Just by being a little more observant and looking around all over, we can all begin to notice something profoundly disturbing happening to our world, it's the same feeling that led in a sense to world wars one and two, to a situation of cold war or an in between semi cold and hot war. Our civilization all over is beginning again to start collapsing and it's visibly failing, our economic systems are not functioning well anymore, our social policies and fair equality of wealth distribution are left behind and being neglected, even refused under different parroted arguments. 

But surely they are all united under few general headings; greed, and concentrated power, and winner takes all, superiority and supremacy of the few, etc...etc.... Israel is a clear leader and joins many of the world entities with these attributes.  Food, water, energy, money, state welfare, climate change, selfishness, major immigration shifts, how many crises can a civilization take ?? Are we really facing an inevitable civilizational collapse ?? Are we really living through a pre collapse era, by witnessing failures of all kinds, pushing all our basic systems to start shattering and breaking. 

The real source of distrust, many Americans feel toward the establishment and government, being it Democrats or Republicans, presently being played and manipulated by Republicans, this distrust comes from some chronic ailments, manifested by four decades of near stagnant wages to all but the highest echelon of the corporate world, widening inequalities, a clearly alarming shrinking middle-class, an ever more concentration of wealth at the very top, and growing corruption in the form of campaign cash and bribes from the wealthy and the corporate world, leading to an almost total stagnation of governance and some very nuanced legislations, always to favor the few very rich and powerful. 

     My as always, many thanks to all, stay safe and well.                  

IDEOLOGIZING MASSACERS ......

 

The Uvalde (West Texas) elementary school should not have happened , 21 people including 19 children and 2 teachers were murdered in cold blood by a young gunman yesterday, their death are incomprehensible, they should not have lost their lives. Little kids, massacred, few days after another massacre, after another, after another, and the response from half of American politicians; Nothing. 

America is not defined by the worst of its citizens, of course not, but it must not pretend that they are not part of its rooted fabrics. And they are shaping the image of America and what it is, in some awful, terrible way, they and the weapons they use, are for sure a solid part of the American culture, and it's not to say that Americans have to accept it. Americans need to push, fight and speak out, and do everything they can to move the country in a better direction. 

Americans love and cherish their freedom, their constitutional rights, even now when it is harder every day to do so, with mass killings occurring on daily bases around the country, and most are vulgar and cheep, driven by mostly white young people, whose hearts and minds are fully polluted and poisoned by racist ideologies, by practically legitimizing the killing of not fully perceived as equal or legitimate white original citizens, so Blacks, Latinos, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Asians and or any other ethnic minority in America. 

The next major test in choosing these ugly patterns and directives will be in November's rapidly approaching mid-term elections, and opening the way for the next presidential elections in 2024. When everything the country stands for ,  and the fundamental rights of millions of Americans will be on the ballots. 

The teenager who murdered 19 elementary young students and their 2 teachers in Texas few days ago, the one who murdered several black people in Buffalo, the guy who drove 9 hrs. to kill Latinos in El Paso, the man who gunned down Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, the one who shot and killed 9 people at a bible study in South Carolina, and many, many more, they all share the same convictions of "Great Replacement" and it is their duty to kill indiscriminately all non fully belonging real white Americans. 

American history include a long and bloody trail of that kind of violence, since its conception. But, and to be honest, these acts of brutality and racism, are not the whole story, American history is also a story of people of all walks of life, coming together, melting in the great pot of what the country is really all about, totally countering the idea that this country belongs to any particular group more than any other other sharing its common goals. 

No one is more American, or more patriotic and loyal to America on account of their skin color or their religion or their ethnic original background. No one should be discriminated against for where they were born or who they love, or who they believe in or don't believe in. America is living at a time when so many unprincipled people are set to divide the country for power, profit, or blind ideological and religious demagogy. 

 These are specifically the days when Americans need each other the most, to face existential future dilemmas, whether political, economical or existential climatic on world levels. Those are the days to be grateful that there are so many Americans who have made firm commitments to making a difference, to recommit to the idea of the true American way, they're committed to save the country. 

As always, my many thanks for your time, stay safe and well.