Israel is openly carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Yet, just as happened with the first Nakba in 1948, Israel's lies and deceptions dominate the West’s media and political narrative
I don't agree with all of Jonathan's language. In particular the assertions regarding the now popular left wing trope of "settler colonialism". I think the settlement of Jews in Palestine is a very different issue from the settlement (to use the language of the Left) of "white" people in "black" countries (eg, settlers from Britain in Australia 100 years ago), or indeed from the settlement of "black" people in "white" countries, such as has happened with the recent settlement of persons from India and the Caribbean in modern Britain.
With respect to Israel and Zionism, there is a very strong religious and ideological aspect to this which isn't present in the other cases.
It's worth also saying that the majority of "white" settlers are not and were not ideological colonialists. Most of them were poor people looking to build a new and more prosperous life for themselves in these "black" (to use the language of the Left) countries.
PS: I do not identify as belonging to the political Left or the political Right.
You are setting the record straight and remind us to use the correct language to define the issues. Our media will do just the opposite and lull us into complaisance.
I don't agree with all of Jonathan's language, particularly the use of the popular (and in my opinion false) trope of "settler colonialism". As is the case with many Leftist tropes it is an assertion that (so-called) "white" people are always oppressors of (so-called) "black" people. I don't think that this is a fair representation of the complex realities of human activities in the modern world.
PS: I don't identify as belonging to the political Left or to the political Right.
Settler colonialism is not necessarily about white or black people. Palestinians are the original population in the Holy Land and Zionists came in, mostly from the end of the 19th century on and tried to take over. They want the land, not the people, so ethnic cleansing and massacres are a way to clear the land to settle there. Possibly, like in the US or Canada, you'll end up with a multiethnic state.
I have had ferocious verbal battles with small time Zionists in my various groups on WhatsApp. I freed myself from religious support for Israel during the 1st Intifada and the more I looked the worse it got. They no longer post supportive Zionist rubbish on my groups because I take them head-on and no Zionist can face the truth. We are watching the Genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza in real time. May God have mercy on us all.
"Settler colonialism’s mission is always the same: to replace the native population."
Okay. I'm going to say something that will upset some people here. Possibly including the author.
Please, if you want to respond do so without being abusive and without making personal remarks.
The problem is not that there are Jews in Palestine. the problem is that they violently oppress the Palestinians.
There are many thousands of people in the UK who are very unhappy about the many hundreds of migrants coming to southern England on boats. The Left (which I know the author belongs to) is very happy about this and seeks to welcome as many of these people and more to the UK. Those who feel unhappy about it feel they are being invaded by a hostile group of outsiders, mostly male in the boats, who come to England as economic migrants, but who claim asylum. And if their applications to stay are rejected they are generally ignored. We don't know who these people are.
There are parts of the UK that no longer resemble England as it once was. In my city parts of it resemble streets in India and Pakistan. Now that's fine. I'm not racist and nor am I Islamphobic.
However, this, I would suggest represents a replacement of an ethnic population (British and Christian) with a settler population that is clearly happy to take over large parts of British cities.
I don't have a problem with people deciding to live overseas. And I would argue that - whatever the wrongs of the past - and clearly the state of Israel has committed many great wrongs. There is no doubting that. Whatever the wrongs of the past the state of Israel is now established.
The problem is not that there are Jews in Palestine. The problem is that they violently oppress the Palestinians and take their land without consent. Remember, many British people do not consent to being colonised by migrants from overseas.
Food for thought. I will probably not read any responses as I fear that some may be abusive.
In a sense the problem in the middle east is based on Jewish ethnocentrism (and supremacy) and a "Promised Land". Once they become the chosen people they never amalgamated again. Once they were given a land they could never share it or give it up.
Whether or not they should give up their beliefs, prophecies and supremacies is difficult to know. These things may not be wrong in themselves. (Beliefs are not crimes.) But it causes a paralysis in western traditional christian nations because of our shared heritage.
Correct in every word! Israel is a catastrophe for Palestinians and humankind! Playing along with them, shipping express weapons deliveries like US and Germany ( ten fold after Oct. 7 !), sticking to complicit language, even making it illegal to protest as a single person in the streets- Germany again- are the western powers, the 'good people', the only ones who could stop the massacre!
Three days ago in Berlin, an older lady, jewish, German/Israeli, was arrested by police as she stood alone in the street, holding her sign: "As a Jew, israeli/ German: Stop the Genocide in Gaza!" - Scholz remains casual. The German media are properly trained to suppress Palestinian stories, using solely an israeli perspective! The suffering of Palestinians is not an issue, israel and its welfare are the only issues. They find the most irrelevant topics to discuss, faking news coverage, to fill the schedule. BDS is illegal. Pro Palestine expressions and demonstrations are illegal.
Germans are probably the least informed people on the planet about israel/Palestine, due to the obedient media, with orders from up high to stay quiet.
It's utterly perverse and disgusting to behold every day of the massacre in Gaza, 45 days now, when you know from outside the country what kind of hell is going on in Gaza!
I swear, I will slam Zionist Israel and Germany until the end of my earthly days! ( The US is already long gone down as the biggest terrorist state on the planet!)
Helpless....watching good people killed, children with smashed feet, 47 journalists killed to keep israeli crimes in the shadows...all I do every day is write, though my eyes can't take it.....
-------- THE MEDIA MAKE IT ALL POSSIBLE ! --------
not blind: COMPLICIT! as another reader has pointed out, the relevant issue of the drilling permits already granted to UK/S companies means that the game plan of genocide is the COMMON GOAL being carried out irt for all to witness.
I am not now, nor have I ever been a 9/11 Truther, but it is obvious that the neocons used 9/11 to get the so-called Patriot Act and the Second War On Iraq.
I am similarly agnostic on whether October 7 was planned or permitted by the Netanyahu regime, but they and their American thugs and European buttbois sure are using it.
A well founded description. Maybe out of this Katharsis comes this time some sobering lesson. A few topics you mentioned reminded me on Norman Rose’s book,”A senseless War”, he wrote many years ago. In this context I think also Edward Saiid’s “The End of the Peaceprocess”, where he years ago described the inbuilt failiures of the Oslo Peace Agreement from the perspective of a law maker.
Well said. The 'Friends of Israel' movement has been working away for decades to promote unquestioning support for Zionism. They have established branches in all major political parties and elsewhere - there's even a 'Christian Friends of Israel'. They usually see to it that each party leader is a member. The message is always the same: a 'two state solution'. Over the decades it has been very clear that this is simply apartheid, and that the Palestinian 'reservations' are only temporary until Israel is ready to clear them too. Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. The only possible end to this is the establishment of a single Palestine where people of all religions and ethnicities can live in equality, peace and justice. The idea that a racist Israel can be a 'safe haven' for Jews is a lie, because violence can only lead to more violence.
Also disturbing and worth mentioning is the lengths governments and institutions are going to in order to silence any pro Palestine voice - I recently read such in Intercept around US colleges. But of course it is far from happening only in the US! Rules quietly being changed without going through the usual committee processes - nameless bodies of authority suddenly appearing - the grubby religion of profit at the centre of it all.
I don't agree with all of Jonathan's language. In particular the assertions regarding the now popular left wing trope of "settler colonialism". I think the settlement of Jews in Palestine is a very different issue from the settlement (to use the language of the Left) of "white" people in "black" countries (eg, settlers from Britain in Australia 100 years ago), or indeed from the settlement of "black" people in "white" countries, such as has happened with the recent settlement of persons from India and the Caribbean in modern Britain.
With respect to Israel and Zionism, there is a very strong religious and ideological aspect to this which isn't present in the other cases.
It's worth also saying that the majority of "white" settlers are not and were not ideological colonialists. Most of them were poor people looking to build a new and more prosperous life for themselves in these "black" (to use the language of the Left) countries.
PS: I do not identify as belonging to the political Left or the political Right.
You are setting the record straight and remind us to use the correct language to define the issues. Our media will do just the opposite and lull us into complaisance.
I don't agree with all of Jonathan's language, particularly the use of the popular (and in my opinion false) trope of "settler colonialism". As is the case with many Leftist tropes it is an assertion that (so-called) "white" people are always oppressors of (so-called) "black" people. I don't think that this is a fair representation of the complex realities of human activities in the modern world.
PS: I don't identify as belonging to the political Left or to the political Right.
Settler colonialism is not necessarily about white or black people. Palestinians are the original population in the Holy Land and Zionists came in, mostly from the end of the 19th century on and tried to take over. They want the land, not the people, so ethnic cleansing and massacres are a way to clear the land to settle there. Possibly, like in the US or Canada, you'll end up with a multiethnic state.
I have had ferocious verbal battles with small time Zionists in my various groups on WhatsApp. I freed myself from religious support for Israel during the 1st Intifada and the more I looked the worse it got. They no longer post supportive Zionist rubbish on my groups because I take them head-on and no Zionist can face the truth. We are watching the Genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza in real time. May God have mercy on us all.
So Israel is taking advantage of this moment to “finish the job”. Let's not mince words - Israel is attempting to carry out THE FINAL SOLUTION
"Settler colonialism’s mission is always the same: to replace the native population."
Okay. I'm going to say something that will upset some people here. Possibly including the author.
Please, if you want to respond do so without being abusive and without making personal remarks.
The problem is not that there are Jews in Palestine. the problem is that they violently oppress the Palestinians.
There are many thousands of people in the UK who are very unhappy about the many hundreds of migrants coming to southern England on boats. The Left (which I know the author belongs to) is very happy about this and seeks to welcome as many of these people and more to the UK. Those who feel unhappy about it feel they are being invaded by a hostile group of outsiders, mostly male in the boats, who come to England as economic migrants, but who claim asylum. And if their applications to stay are rejected they are generally ignored. We don't know who these people are.
There are parts of the UK that no longer resemble England as it once was. In my city parts of it resemble streets in India and Pakistan. Now that's fine. I'm not racist and nor am I Islamphobic.
However, this, I would suggest represents a replacement of an ethnic population (British and Christian) with a settler population that is clearly happy to take over large parts of British cities.
I don't have a problem with people deciding to live overseas. And I would argue that - whatever the wrongs of the past - and clearly the state of Israel has committed many great wrongs. There is no doubting that. Whatever the wrongs of the past the state of Israel is now established.
The problem is not that there are Jews in Palestine. The problem is that they violently oppress the Palestinians and take their land without consent. Remember, many British people do not consent to being colonised by migrants from overseas.
Food for thought. I will probably not read any responses as I fear that some may be abusive.
I don’t know where to begin with your points so I won’t!
In a sense the problem in the middle east is based on Jewish ethnocentrism (and supremacy) and a "Promised Land". Once they become the chosen people they never amalgamated again. Once they were given a land they could never share it or give it up.
Whether or not they should give up their beliefs, prophecies and supremacies is difficult to know. These things may not be wrong in themselves. (Beliefs are not crimes.) But it causes a paralysis in western traditional christian nations because of our shared heritage.
Correct in every word! Israel is a catastrophe for Palestinians and humankind! Playing along with them, shipping express weapons deliveries like US and Germany ( ten fold after Oct. 7 !), sticking to complicit language, even making it illegal to protest as a single person in the streets- Germany again- are the western powers, the 'good people', the only ones who could stop the massacre!
Three days ago in Berlin, an older lady, jewish, German/Israeli, was arrested by police as she stood alone in the street, holding her sign: "As a Jew, israeli/ German: Stop the Genocide in Gaza!" - Scholz remains casual. The German media are properly trained to suppress Palestinian stories, using solely an israeli perspective! The suffering of Palestinians is not an issue, israel and its welfare are the only issues. They find the most irrelevant topics to discuss, faking news coverage, to fill the schedule. BDS is illegal. Pro Palestine expressions and demonstrations are illegal.
Germans are probably the least informed people on the planet about israel/Palestine, due to the obedient media, with orders from up high to stay quiet.
It's utterly perverse and disgusting to behold every day of the massacre in Gaza, 45 days now, when you know from outside the country what kind of hell is going on in Gaza!
I swear, I will slam Zionist Israel and Germany until the end of my earthly days! ( The US is already long gone down as the biggest terrorist state on the planet!)
Helpless....watching good people killed, children with smashed feet, 47 journalists killed to keep israeli crimes in the shadows...all I do every day is write, though my eyes can't take it.....
-------- THE MEDIA MAKE IT ALL POSSIBLE ! --------
We are and have been lied to for so long in so many different ways.
not blind: COMPLICIT! as another reader has pointed out, the relevant issue of the drilling permits already granted to UK/S companies means that the game plan of genocide is the COMMON GOAL being carried out irt for all to witness.
Marcus Garvey "When all else fails to organize the people, conditions will."
Israel is bU$y creating those conditions, globally.
Black people will never know themselves until their back is against the wall-Marcus Garvey.
I’d like to think Marcus Garvey’s prophecy applies to all people witnessing the atrocity committed by Israel.
The monstrosity in plain sight in Gaza (and elsewhere for those paying attention) is becoming a litmus test for humanity itself.
Israel's apologists and $ponsors are £arg€ly flunKKKing that test.
It hasn't been so in-your-face since the media were reined in after exposing the Vietnam realities.
Pop music has largely been sanitised into pap muzaKKK in the interim. You might hear Ramona on the radio, but never Masters of War.
I am not now, nor have I ever been a 9/11 Truther, but it is obvious that the neocons used 9/11 to get the so-called Patriot Act and the Second War On Iraq.
I am similarly agnostic on whether October 7 was planned or permitted by the Netanyahu regime, but they and their American thugs and European buttbois sure are using it.
I learn so much here, and it is devastating that the crimes of the past are still happening today.
A well founded description. Maybe out of this Katharsis comes this time some sobering lesson. A few topics you mentioned reminded me on Norman Rose’s book,”A senseless War”, he wrote many years ago. In this context I think also Edward Saiid’s “The End of the Peaceprocess”, where he years ago described the inbuilt failiures of the Oslo Peace Agreement from the perspective of a law maker.
Thank you Jonathan.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I’ve been on this train since 67’, 68’, 69’........
Was just a boy then.
Even a little kid can see right from wrong.
Sure hope this is a breakthrough.
Gettin’ old.
Runnin’ outa time.
I’d like to see what I’ve been waitin’ to see.
You’re an amazing dude.
"The reality*
Fill in the blank___________
*I can't make sense of it*
Well said. The 'Friends of Israel' movement has been working away for decades to promote unquestioning support for Zionism. They have established branches in all major political parties and elsewhere - there's even a 'Christian Friends of Israel'. They usually see to it that each party leader is a member. The message is always the same: a 'two state solution'. Over the decades it has been very clear that this is simply apartheid, and that the Palestinian 'reservations' are only temporary until Israel is ready to clear them too. Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. The only possible end to this is the establishment of a single Palestine where people of all religions and ethnicities can live in equality, peace and justice. The idea that a racist Israel can be a 'safe haven' for Jews is a lie, because violence can only lead to more violence.
Also disturbing and worth mentioning is the lengths governments and institutions are going to in order to silence any pro Palestine voice - I recently read such in Intercept around US colleges. But of course it is far from happening only in the US! Rules quietly being changed without going through the usual committee processes - nameless bodies of authority suddenly appearing - the grubby religion of profit at the centre of it all.