I truly hope this indictment of so many strikes home, whether tomorrow or half a century from today. I fear too many will simply make excuses. I hope someone or a group will keep track of the guilty and never stop seeking justice.
Thank you for articulating how I have been feeling! Even as I have become estranged from several beloved family members for my stand on Israel’s apartheid and occupation, and even though I have been writing and calling my congressman exploring them to stop funding this genocide, and even though I have donated every extra dollar I possible can to the cause of a free Palestine, I still feel
guilty of not doing enough! So now I, indeed all of us who are seething and exhausted, must step up our activism to ensure that this sick mixture of money and politics does not be prevail during this delicate (some would say crumbling) ceasefire.
Wow! Qasim-powerful letter. I used to have so much sympathy for Jewish people whose families had lost so much during the Holocaust. Now I feel so much antipathy towards Israel, and many others who allowed all the killing and injustices to continue.
The "peace" won't last. Israel will claim something Hamas does has violated their agreement. We will never hear the Palestinian side of the story. But this will be Netanyahu's excuse to the world and even his own people to continue with genocide.
He won't get them all. New members of Hamas are being made daily.
War and murder have been the path of the middle east for millennia. In our lifetime Jimmy Carter made a deal--and here we are today. Trump brags he has made a "deal," and I guarantee it will end up in the same trashcan with Carter's.
No one ever wins. Only the innocent continue to suffer. Some of it comes from outside sources, but much of it is self-inflicted by "warrior" classes in the middle east that think their manhood is tied to violence.
I am not a Palestinian, an Arab, or a Muslim, and yet I have always seen this as genocide rather than about Israeli defense, because I lived in the Middle East and North Africa, and have studied the history of that part of the world. This is just a continuation of the nakba, on a more terrible scale. It also totally reminds me of the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the U.S. as they have been forced into reservations and killed. Or the Jews in Nazi Europe. I am so horrified and disgusted by the actions of the U.S. and other countries who have aided in this apartheid and genocide. I don’t know how the leaders of this regime can sleep at night. And this latest “peace process” is just a photo op for the orange man, one which he thinks will still get him a Nobel Prize. He can’t get over his hatred of the idea that a black former President got the Prize and he can’t. Makes me ill, all of it. Thank you for using your platform to call this stuff out.w
Your comparison of the Palestinian genocide to the eradication of indigenous tribes by European colonizers and their U.S. descendants is something I've thought about. It seems to me, one of the reasons there has been such knee-jerk, unthinking, unwavering bipartisan support for Israel since its founding, even as the rest of the world voices criticism and condemnation, is - there is a parallel between our two countries. Caucasian colonizers claiming a land and determining to occupy and control all of it, necessitating the elimination of the people who were already there, for centuries if not millenia. The far right Likud party and their fundamentalist religious coalition partners in their government are enacting their own version of Manifest Destiny. In both instances, the new arrivals don't want to coexist with the population already occupying the land they decended on. They want it ALL, exclusively for themselves. And in both instances, the occupiers cite divine approbation - God wants the superior white invaders to claim their rightful property.
Anything for a buck. It is infuriating that architects of this naqba are suddenly finding it expedient to denounce murder and genocide, even as they continue sending Israel materiel to support this abomination.
Qasim, I feel embarrassed for my country's response to this atrocity. The people who had/have the power to do something about these things let us all down. It's very demoralizing. I'm not a religious man, but I hope that these people are received into their God's loving arms in peace forever. They did not deserve any of this.
As hard as it always is to read about the massacre of Palestinians, I appreciate this newsletter. It tells the truth and speaks with compassion. That may be the two most valuable things left to us now. Thank you for your witness and your courage.
I am not a person in power but I have a tiny Facebook 'zine so I took this seriously: Why did I stay relatively silent? And I was never fully silent. I complained about settler misbehavior, & Netanyahu's crimes.
But I was restrained by Hamas's endless brutality, & my recollection that Netanyahu's early electoral successes came because his frightening sternness gave Israelis respite from bombings of civilians.
I was also restrained by the way activists described the motto "From the River to the Sea" as about Palestinian freedom when it is also used ... you never knew which use was intended ... as a slogan for removal of Israelis from Israel -- another genocide.
When both sides prefer genocide against the other, it is hard to raise your voice with confidence! Any movement that denies this complexity makes the situation harder to navigate for those of us who are trying to act out of good will.
And that is an important part of the truth of these times. We don't get to deny that both sides sought genocide here.
Only one side however had the full armor of America backing up their genocidal desires; that is the shame that we as Americans must bear.
Tactically, yes. This is where Americans have so much leverage that we can be judged for not using it. But the appalling nature of some of the goals, & the crimes, on both sides are the real "key point," if we seek resolution.
☮️
I truly hope this indictment of so many strikes home, whether tomorrow or half a century from today. I fear too many will simply make excuses. I hope someone or a group will keep track of the guilty and never stop seeking justice.
Thank you for articulating how I have been feeling! Even as I have become estranged from several beloved family members for my stand on Israel’s apartheid and occupation, and even though I have been writing and calling my congressman exploring them to stop funding this genocide, and even though I have donated every extra dollar I possible can to the cause of a free Palestine, I still feel
guilty of not doing enough! So now I, indeed all of us who are seething and exhausted, must step up our activism to ensure that this sick mixture of money and politics does not be prevail during this delicate (some would say crumbling) ceasefire.
Brilliant
Wow! Qasim-powerful letter. I used to have so much sympathy for Jewish people whose families had lost so much during the Holocaust. Now I feel so much antipathy towards Israel, and many others who allowed all the killing and injustices to continue.
The "peace" won't last. Israel will claim something Hamas does has violated their agreement. We will never hear the Palestinian side of the story. But this will be Netanyahu's excuse to the world and even his own people to continue with genocide.
He won't get them all. New members of Hamas are being made daily.
War and murder have been the path of the middle east for millennia. In our lifetime Jimmy Carter made a deal--and here we are today. Trump brags he has made a "deal," and I guarantee it will end up in the same trashcan with Carter's.
No one ever wins. Only the innocent continue to suffer. Some of it comes from outside sources, but much of it is self-inflicted by "warrior" classes in the middle east that think their manhood is tied to violence.
out.
I am not a Palestinian, an Arab, or a Muslim, and yet I have always seen this as genocide rather than about Israeli defense, because I lived in the Middle East and North Africa, and have studied the history of that part of the world. This is just a continuation of the nakba, on a more terrible scale. It also totally reminds me of the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the U.S. as they have been forced into reservations and killed. Or the Jews in Nazi Europe. I am so horrified and disgusted by the actions of the U.S. and other countries who have aided in this apartheid and genocide. I don’t know how the leaders of this regime can sleep at night. And this latest “peace process” is just a photo op for the orange man, one which he thinks will still get him a Nobel Prize. He can’t get over his hatred of the idea that a black former President got the Prize and he can’t. Makes me ill, all of it. Thank you for using your platform to call this stuff out.w
Your comparison of the Palestinian genocide to the eradication of indigenous tribes by European colonizers and their U.S. descendants is something I've thought about. It seems to me, one of the reasons there has been such knee-jerk, unthinking, unwavering bipartisan support for Israel since its founding, even as the rest of the world voices criticism and condemnation, is - there is a parallel between our two countries. Caucasian colonizers claiming a land and determining to occupy and control all of it, necessitating the elimination of the people who were already there, for centuries if not millenia. The far right Likud party and their fundamentalist religious coalition partners in their government are enacting their own version of Manifest Destiny. In both instances, the new arrivals don't want to coexist with the population already occupying the land they decended on. They want it ALL, exclusively for themselves. And in both instances, the occupiers cite divine approbation - God wants the superior white invaders to claim their rightful property.
Foreign travel is lethal to prejudice.
-- Mark Twain
My heart is heavy. Prayers going up to you and your people and my people. It wasn't worth any of this. 'Berta
Anything for a buck. It is infuriating that architects of this naqba are suddenly finding it expedient to denounce murder and genocide, even as they continue sending Israel materiel to support this abomination.
Qasim, I feel embarrassed for my country's response to this atrocity. The people who had/have the power to do something about these things let us all down. It's very demoralizing. I'm not a religious man, but I hope that these people are received into their God's loving arms in peace forever. They did not deserve any of this.
Thank you for this. For anyone who hasn't read Omar El Akkad's book, I highly recommend it.
Powerful!
As hard as it always is to read about the massacre of Palestinians, I appreciate this newsletter. It tells the truth and speaks with compassion. That may be the two most valuable things left to us now. Thank you for your witness and your courage.
The word human needs a redefinition,
I am not a person in power but I have a tiny Facebook 'zine so I took this seriously: Why did I stay relatively silent? And I was never fully silent. I complained about settler misbehavior, & Netanyahu's crimes.
But I was restrained by Hamas's endless brutality, & my recollection that Netanyahu's early electoral successes came because his frightening sternness gave Israelis respite from bombings of civilians.
I was also restrained by the way activists described the motto "From the River to the Sea" as about Palestinian freedom when it is also used ... you never knew which use was intended ... as a slogan for removal of Israelis from Israel -- another genocide.
When both sides prefer genocide against the other, it is hard to raise your voice with confidence! Any movement that denies this complexity makes the situation harder to navigate for those of us who are trying to act out of good will.
And that is an important part of the truth of these times. We don't get to deny that both sides sought genocide here.
Only one side however had the full armor of America backing up their genocidal desires; that is the shame that we as Americans must bear.
"Only one side however had the full armor of America backing up their genocidal desires; that is the shame that we as Americans must bear."
This is the key point that we need to be clear about.
Tactically, yes. This is where Americans have so much leverage that we can be judged for not using it. But the appalling nature of some of the goals, & the crimes, on both sides are the real "key point," if we seek resolution.