I lived in South Africa during the apartheid years, which was chicken feed compared to what the Israelis are doing. The blacks were used as cheap labour (instituted by the British) and so allowed to survive, although by the skin of their teeth.
In the late 1890s, Zionists were open about 'colonising' Palestine. And if you consider that at the same time the West was in the "scramble for Africa" (1884 Berlin Conference) , then one can get the parallels with Britain at the same time reaching and founding the city to be Nairobi and encouraging British subjects to colonise Kenya.
Thus Europeans and white US Jews saw no issue with evicting the 'natives' from Palestinian fertile lands (but had no interest then in the rocky hills of the 'West Bank).
In the case of Kenya, by the 1950s the Settlers of the 'White Highlands' were losing ground to the resurgent native inhabitants leading to independence in 1963, while in Palestine the Zionist state of Israel was oblivious to the changes in the Zeitgeist and pushing into Sinai and by 1967 occupied all of Palestine.
Nation states are established and exist by killing people who refuse their rule. All of them.
Israel is a giant experiment that proves this point. For centuries Jews were blameless as they were subjected to Inquisitions, confiscation, pogroms, prejudice, displacements, torture, and a genocidal Holocaust - all at the hands of various nation states. But within years of getting their OWN nation state, they now subject others to displacements, torture, prejudice, confiscation, and genocide. Nation states are such an evil instrument of human control, that even Jews are not immune to abject moral corruption by them.
huh, tom fuller? today is 21st april 2024, and your comment from the fall of last year just appeared in my inbox this morning. not being apprised of what you are referring to, your comment is a nescient one. if it's about dictionaries, yes, i have buried myself in them since the age of 5, particularly ones related to science and technology. i am an 82-yr-old retired marine, lacustrine, riverine, and estuarine invertebrate zoologist, not an historian. to what 'historical' evidence are you referring that shaped your comment? in what context is that evidence related to my comments and in what manner or aspect is that evidence relevant to jonathan cook's supernal article?
And Netanyahu actually empowered Hamas, didn't he, in order to divide and the rule the Palestinians, or so that diabolical crook seemed to think. Something the genocide and ethnic cleansing-supporting western media ignore, of course
Great insight into the settler-colonial state. Thanks, Jonathan.
I read this after reading your latest piece on the nauseating Jonathan Freedland. He makes my skin crawl.
Anyway I wrote a few paragraphs on the US as mentor to Israel on colonising and hope you don't mind me re pasting it below where it might be more apposite:
PS:
"Yes, it lives with a degree of insecurity – the price it pays, as do all settler-colonial societies until they 'finish the job'"
And they could seek no better advice and support than from the ghouls who run the US. There's not space here other than to remind people what the Europeans did to the indigenous population there as they moved West like colonies of ants: no immunity to European diseases assisted them but then we have the previously mentioned "Trail of Tears in the 1830s to the mass slaughtering of millions upon millions of buffalo in the last quarter of the nineteenth century deliberately, thus targeting Native Americans' food supply and forcing them onto reservations. They ''finished the job" enough to live in no fear whatsoever from those whose land they stole.
They then disseminated endless films from Hollywood throughout the twentieth century, featuring the likes of John Wayne killing "savages" etc. This ideology of good v bad permeates Western brains from childhood playing cowboys v Indians and so on.
I write this not to stain the names of the many brave Americans (and Jews) who continue to push back against Zionism, but to point out that the numerous strategies employed by those who took over America means Israel couldn't have a better sponsor.
Many people are waking up to the nonsense we in the West have grown up with. The internet, new technologies, international travel and so on mean more people can see the deceitful myths of Western virtue we've been fed.
This mass of humanity must increasingly form a tidal wave and stop this relatively small group of Western-led, international psychopaths from operating. Overthrow them. Prevent them from allowing Palestinian Genocide to continue but also from increasingly imprisoning us all in a world the likes of H.G. Wells, Alduous Huxley and George Orwell have already warned us about.
I don't know how you can keep up with these post and still maintain your composure. The Line by line truth just hurts me to the point of looking for the nearest hole in the ground. I am sick to the core at this continual destruction and murder done by people and the insane ones cheering it on. Hopeless, helpless? I don't really want to just give up though because these criminals need to be brought to justice and there needs to be an end to this nightmare so I will keep reading and do what I can to help stop the madness (which isn't much) as long as you keep telling the truth.
It’s hard to be heard when minds find solace in out of context facts rather than the larger perspective of truth. Still; we must try with the approach that works to be heard…
Not sure that South Africa has moved away from apartheid. I stand to be corrected but it seems like the wealthy white ruling class have incorporated the black political class.
Understanding the theme of this article is why saying that you oppose all violence and therefore writing off Hamas doesn't lead anywhere other than complicity with our ruling class and its complicity with genocide. To oppose our ruling elite on this is not to condone Hamas regardless of what you or I think of their actions, it is to stand with those who are being oppressed with the support of our own ruling elite, be it Tory or Labour. At a time of an intense media blitz supporting the current massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, of which The Guardian is just one source, the PSC demonstrations in London and the various other demonstrations set the lie to unanimous support for apartheid Israel. What we can do to oppose the oppression and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine is actively oppose our own government's support of Israel.
please deign to read my other comments on this site, 'almost home', about hamas and its inchoate funding by the israeli govt. i and many of my consociates have long agonized over the relentless decimating of the palestinian people by zionists who have endlessly, inexorably run amok w/ impunity... to the point that palestinian refugees are suicidal... just as you and i would be under a verisimilitude of circumstances. i understand you have your own perspectives and experiences from which you have drawn your conclusions. i suspect mine have been stark divarications from yours, having volunteered in palestinian refugee camps, as have our children, for decades... all during our years in the HK of jordan, egypt, lebanon, syria, the golan heights, and, of course, palestine. i am now 82 years old, and nothing has changed except to induce more suicidal behaviours among palestinians, more deterioration of their hopeless circumstances, and more utter despair. i have lived and worked in 37 different countries since my 1st contract in japan in 1962, and i can unequivocally asseverate that nothing i have experienced in all those decades leads me to feel such intense levels of anguish and hopelessness as i do for our palestinian victims of such egregious levels of hatred and violence against them as they have endured by the israelis and their power-elite patrons in the US, UK, and europe.
my unmitigated, unwavering, categoric, unalloyed gratitude for your understanding, empathy and support, 'ingamarie'. [you can deduce why my profs invariably denounced me for being a tiresome, adjective-obsessed wordsmith].
no, it does not, 'almost home'. the hamas charter, divulgated in 1987, pronounces that: “There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Je haad.” In the 2017 version of its charter, Hamas claimed to reject the “persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds.” PLEASE ALSO NOTE THE 2 DEFINITIONS OF 'JE HAAD: "a struggle or battle against the enemies of Islam. the arabic word also refers to "the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin." nowhere in the hamas charter, especially in the most recent 2017 version, is the death, murder, genocide, or killing of any kind promulgated. it is defined as a struggle against one's enemies, or resistance against one's oppressors... a categorically comprehensible position for a besieged and beleaguered group of people. the word has been transmogrified by israel and its US/UK/european patrons. over our professional lifetimes as environmental consultants, our family has lived in many islam-practicing countries: the hashemite kingdom of jordan, egypt, malaysia, indonesia, oman, bahrain, brunei, bangladesh... as well as worked among muslim minorities in nepal, cambodia, sierra leone, the philippines, and morocco. several of our bantlings [all grown now] became fluent in arabic. our son firth still is.
I lived in South Africa during the apartheid years, which was chicken feed compared to what the Israelis are doing. The blacks were used as cheap labour (instituted by the British) and so allowed to survive, although by the skin of their teeth.
In the late 1890s, Zionists were open about 'colonising' Palestine. And if you consider that at the same time the West was in the "scramble for Africa" (1884 Berlin Conference) , then one can get the parallels with Britain at the same time reaching and founding the city to be Nairobi and encouraging British subjects to colonise Kenya.
Thus Europeans and white US Jews saw no issue with evicting the 'natives' from Palestinian fertile lands (but had no interest then in the rocky hills of the 'West Bank).
In the case of Kenya, by the 1950s the Settlers of the 'White Highlands' were losing ground to the resurgent native inhabitants leading to independence in 1963, while in Palestine the Zionist state of Israel was oblivious to the changes in the Zeitgeist and pushing into Sinai and by 1967 occupied all of Palestine.
Nation states are established and exist by killing people who refuse their rule. All of them.
Israel is a giant experiment that proves this point. For centuries Jews were blameless as they were subjected to Inquisitions, confiscation, pogroms, prejudice, displacements, torture, and a genocidal Holocaust - all at the hands of various nation states. But within years of getting their OWN nation state, they now subject others to displacements, torture, prejudice, confiscation, and genocide. Nation states are such an evil instrument of human control, that even Jews are not immune to abject moral corruption by them.
huh, tom fuller? today is 21st april 2024, and your comment from the fall of last year just appeared in my inbox this morning. not being apprised of what you are referring to, your comment is a nescient one. if it's about dictionaries, yes, i have buried myself in them since the age of 5, particularly ones related to science and technology. i am an 82-yr-old retired marine, lacustrine, riverine, and estuarine invertebrate zoologist, not an historian. to what 'historical' evidence are you referring that shaped your comment? in what context is that evidence related to my comments and in what manner or aspect is that evidence relevant to jonathan cook's supernal article?
And Netanyahu actually empowered Hamas, didn't he, in order to divide and the rule the Palestinians, or so that diabolical crook seemed to think. Something the genocide and ethnic cleansing-supporting western media ignore, of course
Great insight into the settler-colonial state. Thanks, Jonathan.
I read this after reading your latest piece on the nauseating Jonathan Freedland. He makes my skin crawl.
Anyway I wrote a few paragraphs on the US as mentor to Israel on colonising and hope you don't mind me re pasting it below where it might be more apposite:
PS:
"Yes, it lives with a degree of insecurity – the price it pays, as do all settler-colonial societies until they 'finish the job'"
And they could seek no better advice and support than from the ghouls who run the US. There's not space here other than to remind people what the Europeans did to the indigenous population there as they moved West like colonies of ants: no immunity to European diseases assisted them but then we have the previously mentioned "Trail of Tears in the 1830s to the mass slaughtering of millions upon millions of buffalo in the last quarter of the nineteenth century deliberately, thus targeting Native Americans' food supply and forcing them onto reservations. They ''finished the job" enough to live in no fear whatsoever from those whose land they stole.
They then disseminated endless films from Hollywood throughout the twentieth century, featuring the likes of John Wayne killing "savages" etc. This ideology of good v bad permeates Western brains from childhood playing cowboys v Indians and so on.
I write this not to stain the names of the many brave Americans (and Jews) who continue to push back against Zionism, but to point out that the numerous strategies employed by those who took over America means Israel couldn't have a better sponsor.
Many people are waking up to the nonsense we in the West have grown up with. The internet, new technologies, international travel and so on mean more people can see the deceitful myths of Western virtue we've been fed.
This mass of humanity must increasingly form a tidal wave and stop this relatively small group of Western-led, international psychopaths from operating. Overthrow them. Prevent them from allowing Palestinian Genocide to continue but also from increasingly imprisoning us all in a world the likes of H.G. Wells, Alduous Huxley and George Orwell have already warned us about.
I don't know how you can keep up with these post and still maintain your composure. The Line by line truth just hurts me to the point of looking for the nearest hole in the ground. I am sick to the core at this continual destruction and murder done by people and the insane ones cheering it on. Hopeless, helpless? I don't really want to just give up though because these criminals need to be brought to justice and there needs to be an end to this nightmare so I will keep reading and do what I can to help stop the madness (which isn't much) as long as you keep telling the truth.
‘Silence is complicity’
It’s hard to be heard when minds find solace in out of context facts rather than the larger perspective of truth. Still; we must try with the approach that works to be heard…
Not sure that South Africa has moved away from apartheid. I stand to be corrected but it seems like the wealthy white ruling class have incorporated the black political class.
Understanding the theme of this article is why saying that you oppose all violence and therefore writing off Hamas doesn't lead anywhere other than complicity with our ruling class and its complicity with genocide. To oppose our ruling elite on this is not to condone Hamas regardless of what you or I think of their actions, it is to stand with those who are being oppressed with the support of our own ruling elite, be it Tory or Labour. At a time of an intense media blitz supporting the current massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, of which The Guardian is just one source, the PSC demonstrations in London and the various other demonstrations set the lie to unanimous support for apartheid Israel. What we can do to oppose the oppression and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine is actively oppose our own government's support of Israel.
from a consociate global nomad, your comments are valued.
appreciate your equiponderent comment, von.
please deign to read my other comments on this site, 'almost home', about hamas and its inchoate funding by the israeli govt. i and many of my consociates have long agonized over the relentless decimating of the palestinian people by zionists who have endlessly, inexorably run amok w/ impunity... to the point that palestinian refugees are suicidal... just as you and i would be under a verisimilitude of circumstances. i understand you have your own perspectives and experiences from which you have drawn your conclusions. i suspect mine have been stark divarications from yours, having volunteered in palestinian refugee camps, as have our children, for decades... all during our years in the HK of jordan, egypt, lebanon, syria, the golan heights, and, of course, palestine. i am now 82 years old, and nothing has changed except to induce more suicidal behaviours among palestinians, more deterioration of their hopeless circumstances, and more utter despair. i have lived and worked in 37 different countries since my 1st contract in japan in 1962, and i can unequivocally asseverate that nothing i have experienced in all those decades leads me to feel such intense levels of anguish and hopelessness as i do for our palestinian victims of such egregious levels of hatred and violence against them as they have endured by the israelis and their power-elite patrons in the US, UK, and europe.
my unmitigated, unwavering, categoric, unalloyed gratitude for your understanding, empathy and support, 'ingamarie'. [you can deduce why my profs invariably denounced me for being a tiresome, adjective-obsessed wordsmith].
no, it does not, 'almost home'. the hamas charter, divulgated in 1987, pronounces that: “There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Je haad.” In the 2017 version of its charter, Hamas claimed to reject the “persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds.” PLEASE ALSO NOTE THE 2 DEFINITIONS OF 'JE HAAD: "a struggle or battle against the enemies of Islam. the arabic word also refers to "the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin." nowhere in the hamas charter, especially in the most recent 2017 version, is the death, murder, genocide, or killing of any kind promulgated. it is defined as a struggle against one's enemies, or resistance against one's oppressors... a categorically comprehensible position for a besieged and beleaguered group of people. the word has been transmogrified by israel and its US/UK/european patrons. over our professional lifetimes as environmental consultants, our family has lived in many islam-practicing countries: the hashemite kingdom of jordan, egypt, malaysia, indonesia, oman, bahrain, brunei, bangladesh... as well as worked among muslim minorities in nepal, cambodia, sierra leone, the philippines, and morocco. several of our bantlings [all grown now] became fluent in arabic. our son firth still is.
As usual, very well said, and penetrating insights. Thank you.
Ireland has been the £aboraTory for these p£antation genocides and jU$tifications for almost the full mi££ennia£ reich of the Brutish Vampire.
The p£anetary consumption needs arresting.
Mobilise.