Category: 2023

Did you hear that Other Than the Continuously Distressing news about Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian Soccer Team, despite their heartbreaking circumstances, made it to Kuwait where they played against Australia? That was heartening to hear, even though they lost! Sadly, a few of the players could not get out of Gaza due to the Horrid Circumstances. Nevertheless, one cannot but be awed by the Resilience of the Palestinian People! Samidoon, in spite and despite all that we have been going through for the past seventy-five years of a Cruel and Illegal Occupation! Moreover, the Vengeful Targeting of Palestinian soccer players’ legs by Israeli Snipers in previous confrontations has been well-known, documented, and Never to Be Forgotten like so much in our tragic history!

That tragic history since October 7th. has been generally dismissed and rendered inconsequential to Israel’s War of Vengeance. It is as if the horrific event of that day happened in a vacuum. Huh? Moreover, Biden’s Op-ed in the New York Times in which he likened Israel’s war in defense of its Democracy to Ukraine’s war in defense of theirs is Utter Nonsense! How can Anyone Compare Ukraine to Gaza where over 15,000 Palestinians have been Killed? 5000 children Murdered? Thousands Maimed? Many more thousands Traumatized? More than Two Million+ Uprooted? Over 50 Journalists targeted and blown away, and over 18 incarcerated because Netanyahu doesn’t want any Witnesses to his crimes?? Cutting off Internet Services? Not allowing any Foreign Journalists Into Gaza, not for their Protection, but, again, to prevent them from Witnessing the Unimaginably Utter Destruction and Horror? It was Shocking to read what Biden said! Moreover, he likened Putin to Hamas! Seriously? And, I question, although war-mongering Biden seems not to, whether Putin has been subjugating, incarcerating, annexing, confiscating, oppressing, illegally occupying, demolishing property and defying UN Resolutions in Ukraine for seventy-five plus long years? Really Biden? Really? I, and Millions of Palestinians are Witnesses to all that Israeli Governments have been doing. We saw our grandparents, parents and ourselves suffer the grave consequences of Israel’s Aggression. How can I have confidence in the President’s stated Aspirational Goals in that Op-ed, or Anything else that he says even as he is adhering to Trump’s Abraham Accords – not that these ill-advised Accords will do anything except screw the Palestinian People! In any case, barely had the ink dried on his Op-ed when Netanyahu continued his bombing and killing of civilians in Gaza, as well as in the West Bank (where over 200+ Palestinians have been killed only since October 7th) thumbing his nose, as he always does, at Biden and the Whole World and turning all International Laws on their sorry heads! However, I have heard/read enough opinion pieces/speeches in my eighty-year-old lifetime to be very well aware that Words! Words! Words! beautifully sounding as they may be rarely translate to Actual Tangible Facts On The Ground, and I am in no mood for Biden’s Appeasing Words and promises of Negotiations leading to a two-state solution. All this talk while Israeli Extremists build more Illegal Settlements!  How’s that for Defiance in your face, Biden? Moreover, I have heard all Biden’s words so many times before! Wasn’t it Shamir who said (paraphrasing): “They want Negotiations? We can Negotiate for Years to come!” This rings especially so since Oslo and my own activism for  many years in Negotiations and Peace that ended up only with more Distress for Palestinians! So, No, I do not believe Any US President from Either Party, because, at the end of the day their Hypocritical Foreign Policies are practically the same!

Right before we were struck with the Catastrophe in Gaza I had started reading: The 1619 Project Created (I loved that choice of a word!) by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It was the Wrong Amazing and Very Hard to Read book at this already depressing time! I found myself – a usually voracious reader – barely able to go through a few pages before I sunk deeper and deeper into depression, anger and bewilderment as to how Colonialism has always used the same Subjugating, Intimidating, Illegal and Inhumane tactics, and how similar the sad and infuriating experience of Slavery in the US is to the sad and infuriating Palestinian experience! Do the Cruel Colonists read the same Draconian Playbook? Still, The 1619 Project is an invaluable book! Of course, it has been Banned by the Extremist Right in this country, because rather than come to terms with their Colonist Past (as well as its continuing Present, I should say!) they simply want to white-wash it and pretend it didn’t happen that way! How Heinous when there are still Humans Alive who can attest to that Horrible History! It is the same for us Palestinians. Netanyahu and all previous Israeli Governments have re-written our History; appropriated aspects of our Culture; convinced the World that we were mere Interlopers on Their Promised Land; that We are the Aggressors and Terrorists and They are the Victims when it is Totally the other way around; that we are Cockroaches, Animals and Inferior! Masters of Propaganda, Lies and Deceit! However, many of us are still alive to bear Witness to the Ethnic Cleansing and Uprooting that we have endured, and are still to this very day enduring! Total Injustice, and pretty much the same scenario that Black Americans have had to put up with – and still are in numerous respects – since 1619!

Nevertheless despite the Sorrow and after Absorbing a little bit of what has been happening since October 7, I realize that the Fundamental Message Biden has been conveying to the Middle East, to Russia and to China in particular, as well as to Black Americans, Indigenous Americans or Otherwise – is that the White Colonist Enterprise will Prevail No Matter The Cost. This is why the US supports Any and All Authoritarian Regimes who Promise Allegiance and Unfettered Access to Resources for this Enterprise. To confirm this, both the Ukrainian President and some Israeli Government Officials echoed each other’s slogans that they are not only fighting for themselves, but for the Whole World, for Democracy and Civilization – nauseating! – and, in that process, for Suppressing Any Legitimate Resistance to Human Rights Abuses and Any Aspirations for Real Freedom and Democracy. Pathetic Hypocrisy, Double-standards and Racism Galore!

As for the Corporate Media Schmucks: they did not allow their viewers to see the footage of the Israeli Hostages warmly waving goodbye to their Captors, and thanking them for having been treated well despite the horrid circumstances. Moreover, they all looked quite well! Again, Racism, Hypocrisy and Propaganda hyping only what they Choose and not the Reality! Never that! Schmucks!

Meanwhile, the US, Western World Leaders and their Racist Organizations will continue to spit out more Vacuous Words; while Valiant Protestors continue marching; while Palestinians continue to be Sacrificed, and, while the Israeli Government “frees” 150 Palestinian Prisoners in exchange for Israeli Hostages only to incarcerate thousands more only since October 7th; and while Netanyahu and his Extremists persevere in their Continuously Distressing Evil, Hateful and Cruel Vengeance! Meanwhile: Samidoon!

Why am I so damn tired? I wake up, have a little something to eat, shower, make my bed, and then shuffle around the house like I’m walking in a fog, heavy with grief, laden with agony. irritable, distracted. Am I sick? A virus? No, I realize. It is the Damn News, the Carnage, the Pain, the Trauma, the Political Leadership that has not an ounce of Wisdom; not even an awareness of the blasted history that we continue repeating century after the other; not a scintilla of anything beyond their narrow, evil vision of this world, and how they can bully their immoral way with their military solutions in order to prevail. How do we Fix all these Catastrophes here, there and everywhere? Wars are eliciting a revulsion amongst Human Beings as Military Power seems to be the only Solution to Any and All disputes, which in the end cannot but lead except to our self-destruction! No exaggeration!

And what has Worthless Blinken’s Shuttling amongst the Middle East Capitals achieve after he met with the Ineffective Arab Leaders who, as usual, came too late to the table on which the Innocent Civilians of Gaza, of the West Bank, and the Equally Innocent Hostages were being Sacrificed? Are they and Biden/Blinken in cahoots with Netanyahu as they allow him more space and time to continue with his Pure Evil Vengeful, Criminal Rampage and Collective Punishment while he defies every call for a Ceasefire, thumbing his nose at the whole world as he continues this Vicious Genocide? Meanwhile, the US, the EU, NATO and all their decrepit Institutions continue dragging their feet on calling for an Immediate Ceasefire to halt the dastardly massacres that Innocent Civilians continue to pay for with their blood and treasure! It is beyond belief, comprehension or any logic. Are they angling for a Regional War while professing otherwise? Oh, What a Catastrophe!

And, yes, I am mouthing off and ranting as usual, and I know that I have many failures, that I have made some bad decisions in my life, that I have occasionally exhibited stupid behavior, however, I am making choices only on my behalf, or my family’s. I have not assigned myself the role of President, or Political Leader of any sort. I am not making bloody decisions on behalf of entire populations, or holding their welfare in my incapable hands. Simply looking at what our Politics in the US (as well as many other countries) have become, with Extremists on the Right scheming on how they will take us back to the Dark Ages should be enough, over and above everything else, to scare the living daylights out of us, as Biden continues the trajectory of our endless wars! Frightful situation!

Only the Delusional would have expected anything but a very strong retaliation from Israel. Nevertheless, none of us foresaw the sheer Grotesque Horror of this response. It is absolutely psychotic! And, only the Gullible would believe that all those ammunitions displayed by the IDF are what the Hamas Unit had when they invaded Israel, and, only the Gullible would believe that the IDF had bombed over 2000 military Hamas installations! Inflated Numbers, Propaganda and Lies that all their Spinning cannot erase, such as the real Live Images of an entire population moving South for the safety that Israel promised and were being bombed? How is that acceptable? Unfortunately, the United Nations, as well as all such International Organizations, are a Tool of Western Arrogant, Colonial, Racist Power. This has been proven on numerous occasions. As a recent example: the General Assembly voted on lifting the draconian embargo on Cuba. 187 countries were in support, the Two that were Not were the US and Israel. Why? For what Corrupt Reason? What more proof does one need, as the record on Palestine proves, how No UN Resolution was ever applied on Israel while being exerted on Iraq, Libya, Cuba, Venezuela and on and on and on. Horrid, Infuriating, Hypocritical and Depraved!

The BBC, while still fairer than the US Corporate Media schmucks, seems to have been scolded by the Israeli Propaganda Machine. Example: they used to say: “Hamas.” However, after the Opportunistic, Vacuous Rishi Sunak met with Israel’s President who told him in no uncertain terms that the BBC should call them “Terrorists” they Qualified the term by saying: Hamas, designated by the US, UK and Others as a Terrorist Organization. They also used to say: Palestinian Health Ministry. That, too, has changed to: Hamas-run Health Ministry casting aspersions, like Biden, on the validity of the death numbers – which, it seems too late that the White House is trying to walk back! At the end of the day, the BBC, as they have historically been, are Racist, Colonist, Cowards! I blame myself for wanting to believe that things can change when there seems to be no chance that they will!

Meanwhile, King Charles was in Kenya apologizing for the British Empire’s role in the massacre and dehumanizing treatment of the Kenyan People by his colonist country. Other European Leaders have also apologized to their previous colonies. But, shouldn’t Charles be apologizing to the Palestinian People for his family’s Major role in causing Our Catastrophe? Shouldn’t he be most pro-active on this and maybe Atone just a little bit for the Injustice that Palestinians were subjected to? The Pain and Trauma of My Grandparents, my Parents, and Myself included? Ignoble Colonist and Racist!!

Why am I, and our Whole World, so Tired and Exhausted by the State of our Affairs? Because it is very sad to realize that You and I are nothing but Cogs in the Machinations of the Political Planet, that We should just be Grateful for the Crumbs that are thrown our way now and then, while Politicians make the Wrong Decisions regarding our lives rendering us, in reality, Powerless! The Millions of Protestors and Demonstrations taking place across the World are not deterring the Merciless, Relentless Bombardment of Gaza and its Innocent Civilians. Even some Jews are Horrified, as are some White Americans, many of whom had barely an idea of the Palestinian Nakba. The entire Global South is Horrified! However, most Black Americans know better. As an example, on November 2nd. Democracy Now interviewed the Renowned Author Ta-Nehisi Coates who attended the Palestine Festival of Literature in NY recently. One of his books is: The Water Dancer, which I read and whose every page I loved. Speaking of Gaza, he mentioned how moved he was when he visited Palestine and realized how the Palestinian People were being subjected to the same Jim Crow segregation, subjugation, oppression, murders and inequality that Black Americans were subjected to. Another Moral and Ethical Human Being. Admirable! There are many others too, such as Craig Mokhiber, Director of the NY office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who resigned and accused the hypocritical UN of its failure to act regarding the Textbook Example of the Genocide in Gaza, saying that the UN had acted when it was Myanmar, Rwanda and Bosnia, but not Gaza. Why the hell not? Simply heartbreaking!

Oh, What A Catastrophe!