On April 9 in 1865 Confederate General Lee raised the white flag and surrendered to Union General Grant at Appomattox, though the fighting continued until other rebel forces surrendered and President Johnson declared the end of the Civil War on Aug. 20th, 1866. It was the end of the most terrible conflict and the most shameful age in American history, and it is a conflict we have not yet won and an original sin we have not yet expiated and redeemed.
Nor is the enemy of our humanity and of all humankind yet defeated in final Reckoning, for its figurehead Traitor Trump now runs in our Presidential election in hope of recapturing the state to enact vengeance on his enemies, evade responsibility for his many crimes, and complete his mission of the subversion of our democracy, the re-enslavement of Black Americans and white supremacist terror, and the dehumanization and commodification of women as chattel slaves and patriarchal-theocratic sexual terror.
This we must resist to the last, as Chamberlain held the line at Gettysburg and Sherman demonstrated how to answer white supremacist terror on his March Through Georgia.
We must not wait for the moment of our destruction; we must bring the fight to the enemy, and purge them from among us.
Of this epochal event I wrote in my post of last year:
In joyous echo of this historic triumph we also celebrate the return to the legislature of Tennessee by acclamation of the people of the magnificent Justin Jones, who with his fellow Representative Pearson placed their lives in the balance with those of the victims and survivors of gun violence and white supremacist terror in challenging the plutocratic gun lobby which provides the preconditions of mass murder as an organization of racist terror.
That the people stood with them in return and brought the machine of death and elite hegemony to a standstill is the most hopeful thing I have witnessed in electoral American politics in a long time.
The tide may have just turned in America from tyranny to democracy.
There is now a possibility, fractional and delicate as a candle in the darkness, bearing our hope of liberty and equality into an unknown future, of avoiding a second Civil War.
This too I celebrate, in fear and loathing as Hunter S. Thompson unforgettably described America’s inversion of our founding ideals by the powerful.
At one hundred fifty eight years remove, the meaning of the Civil War as the Second American Revolution is clear, as is the necessity of ceaseless and ongoing revolutionary struggle to achieve and maintain a free society of equals.
We celebrate the victory of equality over slavery and solidarity over division, of liberty over the tyranny of aristocratic and capitalist elites and of love over hate. On this day we the people, created equal and endowed with inalienable human rights, triumphed over the most terrible obscenity and injustice to ever rear its monstrous head in our nation; a human trafficking syndicate which declared itself a nation.
We must never cease to search out and destroy the legacies of slavery, racism, and hierarchies and ideologies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness. To be an American is to believe that no one is better than any other by condition of birth. Those who cannot affirm this principle merit only exile and revocation of citizenship, for they have chosen to deny membership in our society.
The Black Lives Matter protests and George Floyd trial electrified the world in part because an endemic and pervasive evil is finally being called to a reckoning. Police must be stripped of their immunity from prosecution for racial violence, but this is only the beginning. We must eradicate and enact restitution for the legacy of slavery and white supremacist terror, of systemic and structural racism in our society, of inequalities and injustices which create and maintain hierarchies of belonging and otherness and hegemonies of elite wealth, power, and privilege.
From the iconography of our public spaces in the place names and monuments to the stories we tell about ourselves in our history, whose stories are told and who owns the narratives of our identities, to the equal share of decision making power which defines democracy and the equal share in the benefits of membership in our society to which we must aspire, America is emerging from the shadows of a past which we drag behind us like an invisible reptilian tail to discover the limitless possibilities of becoming human.
This is only the beginning of our story; let us dream great dreams into which we can grow.
Chamberlain’s Charge on Little Round Top – “Gettysburg”
Chamberlain’s Speech “In the end, we’re fighting for each other”
Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered
Now is the hour of rapture and terror, for in the path of the Totality we are destroyed and recreated, liberated from our history and free to become as we ourselves choose.
Among the limitless possibilities of becoming human, who do you want to become?
From this moment forward, be your best and most true self, and perform this dream upon the stage of the world without fear or regard for the limits of the Forbidden as defined by others, authorized identities, or sanctioned ideas of virtue, for all of these are strategies of subjugation and theft of the soul by those who would enslave us through falsification, commodification, and dehumanization.
Choose wisely, for as Kurt Vonnegut teaches us in Mother Night; “We become who we pretend to be.”
Embrace the Chaos and the wrath of the Devourers of Frost and Old Night as they shadow our world, consume untruths, and bring transformative rebirth and metamorphosis as liberation and Awakening.
Such events do not herald the end of the world, despite the madness of those who now gather in hope of being obliterated by a cannibal god in the Rapture in echo of Savoranola’s Bonfire of the Vanities of 1497 and the mass hysteria of the First Millenium, when many in Europe burned all their worldly possessions and awoke the next day to renounce faith in the lies, hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness, and systems of unequal power which had betrayed and ruined them.
No, my friends; the trauma of life disruptive events is balanced by the liberation of new beginnings, just as the terror of our nothingness may be balanced with the joy of total freedom.
In a universe without imposed order, authority, being, meaning, or value, we are free to create all of these in our own image or abandon them like the toys of childhood, broken and lost among the carcasses of forgotten idols and tyrants, for order appropriates and there is no just authority.
As written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in the poem Ozymandias:
“I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
As I wrote on the occasion of a previous eclipse, in a time of great darkness and little hope, in my post of October 13 2023, Our World Is Destroyed and Recreated in This Ritual of the Black Sun Wherein Our Humanity Is Eclipsed By the Legacies of Our History; As the season of Halloween is signaled tomorrow by the new moon, it opens with a solar eclipse and the Ritual of the Black Sun as symbolized despair, abjection, grief, and fear, illuminated with great beauty and horror in Stanton Marlin’s study of the alchemical works of Jung in The Black Sun: the alchemy and art of darkness, William Blake’s Book of Urizen, and Julia Kristeva’s Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia, my three primary references on this subject.
And this ritual of transformative rebirth occurs in the wake of the war crimes and atrocities of the Hamas terror attack on Israel, which now conclusively from plans and orders found on its slain perpetrators includes the planned mass murders and abduction of school children,
There are two possible replies to an event of this kind, which disrupts and fractures systems of order on the positive side and violates our humanity as degradation and dehumanization on the negative like a Janus coin of mirror reversals; with fear and its mad children rage and violence, or with love and its praxis as compassion and mercy.
To bring harm or healing, enforcement of virtue and the tyranny and terror of wars of imperial dominion and conquest and the centralization of power to authority and carceral states of force and control, or solidarity as guarantors of each others universal human rights and democracy as co owners of the state in a free society of equals.
If we choose war in this moment, and America sends military aid to Israel as a sponsor and collaborator in the genocide of the Palestinians in retribution for this vast war crime and atrocity perpetrated by Hamas to fasten their political control of the people of Gaza, the Age of Tyrants has begun.
If we choose peace and send humanitarian aid both to the people of Israel and of Gaza in the war of annihilation which is coming as Netanyahu gathers his forces to invade, we may yet have a chance for a future democracy to emerge in the region and globally as a United Humankind.
Our best chance to heal the legacies of our history and reunite the peoples of Israel and Palestine is if they turn their backs on those who claim to act in their name, both Netanyahu’s regime and that of Hamas, and refuse to kill each other in service to the power of those who would enslave us.
Let us send no armies to enforce virtue, and bring healing to the flaws of our humanity and the brokenness of the world.
As written by Sahar Vardi in The Times of Israel, in an article entitled Dual loyalty: It’s so hard to have humanity here. It’s exhausting, and it feels like time after time the world is just asking you to let go; “We on the left are often accused of dual loyalty. And on days like this, I really feel it. Even if loyal isn’t exactly the right word here, as I’ll explain, the sentiment is right.
In Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market this morning, a street musician sang “Am Yisrael Chai” in a mournful register. The market itself was nearly empty and a woman was talking to her friend about her regular vegetable seller who was not allowed to come and open shop today. All stalls owned by Arabs are closed.
On a street in the Rehavia neighborhood, families get out of two cars. Most of them were already crying, the rest with an indescribable sadness in their eyes, as they knock softly on the door of one of the houses. Family of someone who died? Of someone kidnapped?
You open a video of a sanitation worker who was beaten in the city center because he is Arab and try not to avert your gaze.
“Dual loyalty” is seeing both this and that with tears in your eyes.
It’s that moment when you talk to a friend who doesn’t know whether their relatives are dead or kidnapped and what they should even hope for, and to see the helplessness, the fear, the deep pain. And a moment later, it’s talking to a friend from Gaza who can only say that every night is now the scariest night of his life; that he calculates his chances, and those of his daughters, of waking up alive the next morning.
“Dual loyalty” is feeling the heartbreak of this and also of that.
It is to hold this moment between the heartbreak and pain and shock over the total destruction of Nir Oz and to think about all the people there, and at the same time, to feel the horror over the impending total destruction of Shuja’iyya and to think about all the people there.
It’s feeling the urge to donate blood and organize food packages for the south, and also to be in the West Bank village of Susia when settlers shoot any shepherd who dares to leave the village.
Loyalty may not be the right word. It’s dual pain, dual heartbreak, care, love. It is to hold everyone’s humanity. And it’s hard. It’s so hard to have humanity here. It’s exhausting, and it feels like time after time the world is just asking you to let go. It’s so much easier to “choose a side” – it almost doesn’t matter which side, just choose, and stick to it, and at least reduce the amount of pain you hold. At least feel part of a group and less alone in all this.
As if that’s really an option. As if we don’t understand that our pains are intertwined. That there is no solution only for the pain of Ofakim without a solution for the pain of Khan Yunis. And we know it and recite it, and feel the pain of it all over and over again.”
As written by Mordecai Martin in Anti Racism Daily, in an article entitled How do I both condemn Hamas and support Israeli and Palestinian people?; “I started paying attention in earnest to Israel/Palestine politics when I went to study Hebrew on an Israeli kibbutz in 2005 before conducting religious study in Jerusalem for two years. I know deeply that Israel and Palestine are real places with real people, not a religious fantasy, political football, or exotic destination. I am sharing this response to hopefully get us closer to a world without violence in the Holy Land, where my fellow Jews are safely and happily living wherever they like, including in Palestine, and where the Palestinian people are doing likewise. It is an ambitious goal. I don’t really know if I believe my writing will have that outcome.
But I will not begin with certain common cliches.
I do not think it is necessary (or true) to say that I believe that the state of Israel, a state consisting primarily of Jews organized under the principles of Zionism, has any right to exist in the Holy Land. I don’t think that’s necessary to say because the Zionist state of Israel EXISTS regardless of my beliefs.
I do not have to assert Jews’ right to self-determination. That right was exercised with the creation of the state of Israel. As an anti-Zionist Jew, I believe that the creation of a Zionist state that legally dispossesses Palestinian people was disastrous morally, culturally, and religiously. I spend my time in the Jewish community urging divestment from such a state.
I do not think I have to condemn the murder of civilians by Hamas militants before considering condemnation of the murder of civilians by the colonial Israeli army. The universal condemnation of civilian deaths, regardless of the victims’ nationality, should be a given for us all, as it is for international law. International law is also clear that decolonization, including by armed struggle, is legitimate and that apartheid systems are not.
There are also things I find necessary to say very clearly.
We must take away the ability to kill civilians from any and all military actors, including Hamas and the Israeli army.
I believe in the safety and well-being of all Jews, even those I disagree with. Because of my political beliefs, I am often accused in bad faith of not desiring safety for Jews.
It’s necessary to say, “Free Palestine.” Palestinians, the people who have lived on the Holy Land from time immemorial, were forcibly removed from their homes for Jewish settlement. Palestinians are not free. They can not move about their country thanks to restrictions enforced by the Israeli army. They are dying the shocking deaths of those who live under apartheid. I demand their freedom and sovereignty in their land. Who do I demand it from? The only entity that currently claims political power, claims to represent my Jewishness, and receives the carte-blanche support of the United States government: the Israeli state.
Many, many people hold space for both the victims of attacks by Hamas militants and the suffering civilians of Gaza. No one worth listening to says the human heart can only mourn for some but not others, that it’s only sad when Jews die, or only sad when Palestinians die. What we are really having a conversation about is the future of the Holy Land, whether it will grant democratic rights to all its residents, and what to do about the ongoing violence between the various parties that hope to benefit financially, politically, ideologically, from their “side” coming out on top.”
Yet hope remains for transformative change, the fall of theocratic regimes and the emergence of secular democracy free from the legacies of our history, a history which in the bifurcated and fragmented states and national identities of the region divides one people into Israelis and Palestinians through fascisms of blood, faith, and soil in service to the power of tyrants and elite hegemonies of wealth, power, and privilege, systems of oppression which are our true enemies.
A massive people’s protest movement has erupted both locally and globally, and this gives me hope that we may yet escape the Age of Tyrants, which I predict will unfold as six to eight centuries of totalitarian empires and wars of dominion ending with the extinction of humankind; with 92 to 98 percent probability.
But the chance to salvage something of our humanity and our civilization of democracy and universal human rights does exist, however fragile and unlikely, if we can unite and act in solidarity as each other’s liberators and guarantors of a free society of equals.
As written by Alex Lantier in the World Socialist Web Site of the Fourth International, in an article entitled Mass protests erupt internationally against Israeli war on Gaza; “A week after Palestinians initiated an armed uprising against Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, protests are erupting internationally against Israel’s war on Gaza.
The fascistic regime of Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to flee Gaza City and go south, along roads bombed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Israel—which has now cut off Gaza’s water, fuel and electricity, and whose leaders call the Palestinians “human animals”—is targeting the Palestinians for genocide.
As the scale of the crimes committed by the Israeli regime and its NATO allies has become clear, protests have erupted around the world in bold disobedience of media denunciations of Palestinians, police intimidation and protest bans.
The most significant demonstration Friday took place in New York City, where thousands rallied to oppose the onslaught against Palestine, in open defiance of the unrelenting pro-Israel propaganda of the entire American political establishment and corporate media. In the center of world imperialism, home to the largest Jewish population of any American city, masses of people—including over 1,000 Jews—expressed their revulsion with the unfolding crimes in Gaza.
Other protests on Friday involving hundreds of people were held in Pittsburgh, Portland and Washington D.C., with larger demonstrations planned across the US this weekend. Despite the efforts of the media and politicians to demonize all protests against Israel’s policies as “antisemitic” and to isolate those feeling sympathy for the Palestinians, opposition is building among workers and youth of all backgrounds. A 2021 poll found that one-quarter of American Jews consider Israel to be an “apartheid state” hostile to the Palestinians, a figure that will only continue to grow.
Thousands also took to the streets in London once again on Friday, defying similar propaganda and threats from the British media and political establishment.
A series of larger demonstrations also swept across the Middle East, involving hundreds of thousands of people. In Jordan, mass protests in Amman demanded the opening of Jordan’s border with the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Protesting crowds marched on the border with Israel, only to be turned back by Jordanian police.
Large protests took place in Sanaa and Tehran. In Cairo, tens of thousands rallied outside the Al Azhar Mosque, chanting “Free Palestine.” Thousands defied a state ban to march in support of Gaza in Tunis. In Iraq, a country that has lost over one million lives after decades of US-led sanctions, war and occupation since the 1991 Gulf War, hundreds of thousands marched in Baghdad.
Protesters in the Middle East are effectively opposing not only the Israeli regime, but also their own governments, which have betrayed the Palestinians for decades. The Arab bourgeoisie’s role is exemplified by the treachery of the Egyptian military dictatorship. Having signed a treaty with Israel in 1978, Egypt has now closed its borders to Palestinians trying to flee Gaza.
In Israel itself, despite the ultra-reactionary political atmosphere fostered by Netanyahu’s government, which has now been joined by the official opposition, there is explosive discontent. Millions joined protests earlier this year against Netanyahu’s attempt to undermine the independence of the judiciary. The attack on the judiciary, as a letter titled “Elephant in the Room” from 3,000 predominantly Jewish intellectuals made clear, is intimately tied up with the conditions that led to the Hamas uprising.
The letter states:
(There is a) direct link between Israel’s recent attack on the judiciary and its illegal occupation of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Palestinian people lack almost all basic rights, including the right to vote and protest. They face constant violence: this year alone, Israeli forces have killed over 190 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and demolished over 590 structures. Settler vigilantes burn, loot, and kill with impunity. …
There cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid, as Israeli legal experts have described it. Indeed, the ultimate purpose of the judicial overhaul is to tighten restrictions on Gaza, deprive Palestinians of equal rights both beyond the Green Line and within it, annex more land, and ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population.
All the major imperialist powers stand exposed by their support for Netanyahu and his war on the Palestinians. On Sunday, October 8, the heads of state of France, Italy, Germany, Britain and the United States pledged “steadfast and united support to the State of Israel,” and an “unequivocal condemnation of Hamas.” At a press conference in Qatar on Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken doubled down in condoning Israeli crimes.
Asked by a reporter if Israel is “retaliating in a fury” and whether the US supports this, Blinken replied with total hypocrisy and double-talk: “What Israel is doing is not retaliation. What Israel is doing is defending the lives of its people. … I think any country faced with what Israel has suffered would likely do the same thing.”
What message are the NATO powers sending? They aim to create on a global scale a new era of imperialist colonial rule. They brook no resistance to the Israeli state’s illegal, 16-year blockade of Gaza, its denial of food and medicine to the impoverished enclave, and its targeted assassinations of Gaza residents. If this united front of imperialist gangsters were to sum up its policy toward the Palestinian people in one phrase, it would be: “Slaves you were, and slaves you remain.”
In a video released Friday, which has gone almost entirely unreported in the Western media, Hamas official Basim Naim summarized the background of Israeli oppression, which led to the October 7 rebellion.
He said:
We are speaking about a 75-year-old occupation that neglected and ignored all political and legal means to settle the conflict, where the Israeli enemy continued their policy of denial of the Palestinian people’s existence and their national rights. We have repeatedly warned during the past few months and years that the situation on the ground was not sustainable and that the explosion was only a matter of time.
We have warned repeatedly about the Israeli continued violations in Al-Aqsa Mosque and their attempt to change its status quo in an apparent plan to divide the holy mosque spatially and temporally. We have also warned about the state terrorism implemented by the fascist settlers across the occupied West Bank. We have warned about the forceful expulsion of our people from Jerusalem. We have also warned about the systematic crimes against our prisoners, including women and children, in Israeli jails.
And lastly, we have warned about the Israeli siege on Gaza for more than 17 years, which is a war crime that turned Gaza into the biggest open-air prison on earth, where a whole generation has lost all kind of hopes. But unfortunately, no one listened to these warnings, and the international community, especially the Western countries, continue to give Israel the cover at all levels to continue committing its crimes.
In prosecuting their war against Gaza, the Israeli government and Western imperialist powers aim to obliterate this historical background and numb the population with wall-to-wall atrocity propaganda.
While the deaths of Israeli civilians are undoubtedly tragic, the violence that took place occurred in the context of a massively oppressed people rebelling against a heavily armed oppressor. Even if one were to accept all the accounts of Palestinian violence, it only raises the question—what could lead to such violence?
History judges differently the violence of a population rising up against oppression and the calculated resort to mass murder by capitalist state machines armed with vast military and financial resources. The imperialists have always claimed that the resistance of the oppressed to colonialism justifies their savage retribution. In exacting this retribution, they have always portrayed the oppressed as savages and murderers.
In 1899, the Boxers revolted against the division of China into imperialist spheres of influence. Citing the Boxers’ killings of Christian missionaries and their seizure of foreign property, eight imperialist powers sent armies to sack Beijing and massacre the Boxers. Mounting conflicts between these powers over the division of the spoils in China led ultimately to the bloody Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s, which cost nearly 20 million lives, provoking the 1949 revolution that ended colonial rule over China.
In 1904, the Herero people in Namibia rose up against German colonial rule, killing more than 100 German settlers. The German army responded by carrying out the first genocide of the 20th century against the Herero, forcing them into deserts where they died of thirst, or imprisoning them in death camps prefiguring the extermination camps of the Nazi regime. In 2015, German officials formally acknowledged the genocide and offered a state apology.
Netanyahu’s regime and its imperialist allies are resorting to similar methods against Gaza. However, the great anti-colonial struggles of the 20th century that broke out after the Russian revolutions of 1905 and October 1917 did not take place in vain. Among masses of workers and youth internationally, Netanyahu’s barbaric methods provoke outrage. This opposition will grow as the monumental scale of the crimes being planned and committed against Gaza become evident to ever broader layers of workers and youth throughout the world.
The NATO powers’ other justification for backing Netanyahu’s crimes—that they are defending Jews and opposing antisemitism—is collapsing. In reality, they are supporting Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians in a close alliance with political descendants of the forces that carried out the Holocaust.
As the capitalist ruling elites plunge into barbarism, a mass movement is emerging in the international working class. Protests against imperialism and Zionism are erupting amid mounting global struggles of the working class. Strikes against exploitation, austerity, inflation and police violence shook all the major imperialist powers this year and will intensify in the weeks and months ahead.
The liberation of Palestine is only possible in the context of the growth of a powerful socialist movement of the international working class, including within Israel itself. This will create the conditions for the overthrow of Zionist chauvinism and the unity of Palestinian and Israeli workers. The struggle against the war in Gaza must acquire a clear, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist character, mobilizing the working class in a struggle for socialism across Palestine and the Middle East and internationally.”
In juxtaposition with this internationalist and revolutionary lens of vision are forces of reaction born of fear and trauma weaponized in service to power, the siren call of armed might and retribution as a form of security, but security is an illusion, and only love can reconcile these conflicted identities of Israeli and Palestinian and heal the systems of division and unequal power which are at the heart of this war which threatens to swallow us all.
As written by Yuval Noah Harari in The Guardian, in an article entitled Israelis and Palestinians are facing their moment of greatest danger since 1948: There is still a slim chance of peace if wiser counsels prevail and other major powers intervene in a coalition of the willing; “Israel has just experienced the worst day in its history. More Israeli civilians have been slaughtered in a single day than all the civilians and soldiers Israel lost in the 1956 Sinai war, the 1967 six-day war and the 2006 second Lebanon war combined. The stories and images coming out of the area occupied by Hamas are horrific. Many of my own friends and family members have suffered unspeakable atrocities. This means the Palestinians, too, are now facing immense danger. The most powerful country in the Middle East is livid with pain, fear and anger. I do not have either the knowledge or moral authority to speak about how things look from the Palestinian perspective. But in the moment of Israel’s greatest pain, I would like to issue a warning about how things look from the Israeli side of the fence.
Politics often works like a scientific experiment, conducted on millions of people with few ethical limitations. You try something – whether increasing the welfare budget, electing a populist president or making a peace offer – witness the results, and decide whether to proceed further down that particular path; or you reverse course and try something else. This is how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has unfolded for decades: by trial and error.
During the 1990s Oslo peace process, Israel gave peace a chance. I know that from the viewpoint of Palestinians and some outside observers, Israeli peace offers were insufficient and arrogant, but it was still the most generous offer Israel has ever made. During that peace process, Israel handed partial control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority. The outcome for Israelis was the worst terror campaign they had experienced until then. Israelis are still haunted by memories of daily life in the early 2000s, with buses and restaurants bombed every day. That terror campaign killed not only hundreds of Israeli civilians, but also the peace process and the Israeli left. Maybe Israel’s peace offer wasn’t generous enough. But was terrorism the only possible response?
After the failure of the peace process, Israel’s next experiment in Gaza was disengagement. In the mid-2000s, Israel unilaterally retreated from the entire Gaza Strip, dismantled all settlements there and returned to the internationally recognised pre-1967 border. True, it continued to impose a partial blockade on the Gaza Strip and to occupy the West Bank. But the withdrawal from Gaza was still a very significant Israeli step, and Israelis waited anxiously to see what the result of that experiment would be. The remnants of the Israeli left hoped that the Palestinians would make an honest attempt to turn Gaza into a prosperous and peaceful city state, a Middle Eastern Singapore, showing to the world and to the Israeli right what the Palestinians could do when given the opportunity to govern themselves.
Sure, it is difficult to build a Singapore under a partial blockade. But an honest attempt could still have been made, in which case there would have been greater pressure on the Israeli government from both foreign powers and the Israeli public to remove the blockade from Gaza and to reach an honourable deal about the West Bank as well. Instead, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and turned it into a terrorist base from which repeated attacks were launched on Israeli civilians. Another experiment ended in failure.
This completely discredited the remnants of the Israeli left, and brought to power Benjamin Netanyahu and his hawkish governments. Netanyahu pioneered another experiment. Since peaceful coexistence had failed, he adopted a policy of violent coexistence. Israel and Hamas traded blows on a weekly basis and almost every year there was a major military operation, but for a decade and a half, Israeli civilians could go on living within a few hundred metres from Hamas bases on the other side of the fence. Even Israel’s messianic zealots showed little zeal to reconquer the Gaza Strip, and even rightwingers hoped that the responsibilities involved in ruling more than 2 million people would gradually moderate Hamas.
Indeed, many on the Israeli right saw Hamas as a better partner than the Palestinian Authority. This was because Israeli hawks wanted to go on controlling the West Bank, and feared a peace deal. Hamas seemed to offer the Israeli right the best of all worlds: relieving Israel of the need to govern the Gaza Strip, without making any peace offers that might dislocate Israeli control of the West Bank. The day of horror Israel has just experienced signals the end of the Netanyahu experiment in violent coexistence.
So what comes next? No one knows for sure, but some voices in Israel are veering towards reconquering the Gaza Strip or bombing it to rubble. The result of such policy could be the worst humanitarian crisis the region has experienced since 1948. Especially if Hezbollah and Palestinian forces in the West Bank join the fray, the death toll could reach many thousands, with millions more driven from their homes. On both sides of the fence, there are religious fanatics fixated on divine promises and the 1948 war. Palestinians dream of reversing the outcome of that war. Jewish zealots like the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich have warned even Arab citizens of Israel that “you are here by mistake because Ben-Gurion [Israel’s first prime minister] didn’t finish the job in ’48 and didn’t kick you out”; 2023 could enable fanatics on both sides to pursue their religious fantasies, and re-stage the 1948 war with a vengeance.
Even if things don’t go to such extremes, the current conflict is likely to put the last nail in the coffin of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The kibbutzim along the Gaza border have been socialist communes and some of the most tenacious bastions of the Israeli left. I know people from those kibbutzim who, after years of almost daily rocket attacks from Gaza, still clung to the hope of peace, as if to a religious cult. These kibbutzim have just been obliterated, and some of the last peaceniks are either murdered, burying their loved ones, or held hostage in Gaza. For example, Vivian Silver, a peace activist from Kibbutz Be’eri who for years has been transporting ailing Gazans to Israeli hospitals, is missing and likely held hostage in Gaza.
What has already happened cannot be undone. The dead cannot be brought back to life, and the personal traumas will never completely heal. But we must prevent further escalation. Many of the forces in the region are currently led by irresponsible religious fanatics. External forces must therefore intervene to deescalate the conflict. Anyone who wishes for peace must unequivocally condemn the Hamas atrocities, put pressure on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all the hostages , and help deter Hezbollah and Iran from intervening. This would give Israelis a bit of breathing space and a tiny ray of hope.
Second, a coalition of the willing – ranging from the US and the EU to Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority – should take responsibility for the Gaza Strip away from Hamas, rebuild Gaza and simultaneously completely disarm Hamas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip.
There are only slim chances that these steps will be realised. But after the recent horrors, most Israelis don’t think they can live with anything less.”
Hebrew
3 באוקטובר 2023 העולם שלנו נהרס ונברא מחדש בטקס הזה של השמש השחורה שבו האנושות שלנו מואפלת על ידי מורשת ההיסטוריה שלנו
כאשר עונת ליל כל הקדושים מאותתת מחר על ידי הירח החדש, היא נפתחת בליקוי חמה ובטקס השמש השחורה כמסמל ייאוש, עצב, צער ופחד, מואר ביופי ובאימה רב במחקרו של סטנטון מרלין על האלכימיה. עבודות של יונג בשמש השחורה:
האלכימיה ואמנות החושך, ספר אוריזן של ויליאם בלייק והשמש השחורה של ג’וליה קריסטבה: דיכאון ומלנכוליה, שלושת ההתייחסויות העיקריות שלי בנושא זה.
והטקס הזה של לידה מחדש טרנספורמטיבית מתרחש בעקבות פשעי המלחמה והזוועות של מתקפת הטרור של חמאס על ישראל, שכעת, באופן סופי מתוכניות וצווים מצאו את מבצעיה ההרוגים, כולל רציחות המוניות מתוכננות וחטיפת ילדי בית ספר,
ישנן שתי תשובות אפשריות לאירוע מסוג זה, המשבש ושבר מערכות סדר בצד החיובי ומפר את האנושיות שלנו כהשפלה ודה-הומניזציה על השלילי כמו מטבע יאנוס של היפוכי מראה; עם הפחד והילדים המטורפים שלו זעם ואלימות, או עם אהבה ומעשיה כחמלה ורחמים.
להביא נזק או ריפוי, אכיפת מידות טובות ועריצות ואימת מלחמות של שליטה וכיבוש אימפריאלית וריכוז הכוח לסמכות ולמדינות קרסראליות של כוח ושליטה, או סולידריות כערבים זה לזה זכויות אדם אוניברסליות ודמוקרטיה כשיתוף פעולה. בעלי המדינה בחברה חופשית של שווים.
אם נבחר במלחמה ברגע זה, ואמריקה תשלח סיוע צבאי לישראל כנותנת חסות ומשתפת פעולה ברצח העם של הפלסטינים כנקמה על פשע המלחמה והזוועות העצום הזה שביצע חמאס כדי להדק את שליטתם הפוליטית בתושבי עזה, עידן הרודנים החל.
אם נבחר בשלום ונשלח סיוע הומניטארי הן לעם ישראל והן לעזה במלחמת ההשמדה המתקרבת כשנתניהו אוסף את כוחותיו לפלישה, אולי עוד תהיה לנו סיכוי לדמוקרטיה עתידית שתקום באזור ובעולם. כמין אנושי מאוחד.
לכוחם של אלה שישעבדו אותנו.
אל לנו לשלוח צבאות לאכוף מידות טובות, ולהביא רפואה לפגמי האנושיות שלנו ולשברון העולם.
Arabic
13 أكتوبر 2023 يتم تدمير عالمنا وإعادة إنشائه في طقوس الشمس السوداء هذه حيث تحجب إنسانيتنا تراث تاريخنا
نظرًا لأن موسم عيد الهالوين يُشير غدًا إلى القمر الجديد، فإنه يبدأ بكسوف الشمس وطقوس الشمس السوداء التي ترمز إلى اليأس والذل والحزن والخوف، مضاءة بجمال ورعب عظيمين في دراسة ستانتون مارلين للكيمياء. أعمال يونغ في الشمس السوداء:
الكيمياء وفن الظلام، وكتاب أوريزن لوليام بليك، وكتاب جوليا كريستيفا الشمس السوداء: الاكتئاب والكآبة، مراجعي الأساسية الثلاثة حول هذا الموضوع.
وتحدث طقوس النهضة التحويلية هذه في أعقاب جرائم الحرب والفظائع التي ارتكبتها حماس في هجومها الإرهابي على إسرائيل، والذي وجد الآن بشكل قاطع من الخطط والأوامر أن مرتكبي القتلى يشملون عمليات القتل الجماعي المخطط لها واختطاف أطفال المدارس،
هناك إجابتان محتملتان لحدث من هذا النوع، الذي يعطل ويكسر أنظمة النظام على الجانب الإيجابي وينتهك إنسانيتنا باعتباره تدهورًا وتجريدًا من الإنسانية على الجانب السلبي مثل عملة يانوس ذات الانعكاسات المرآة؛ بالخوف وأطفاله المجانين الغضب والعنف، أو بالحب وممارساته كالرحمة والرحمة.
لجلب الضرر أو الشفاء، وإنفاذ الفضيلة والطغيان والإرهاب من خلال حروب السيطرة والغزو الإمبريالي ومركزية السلطة في أيدي السلطة والدول الجهنمية للقوة والسيطرة، أو التضامن كضامنين لحقوق الإنسان العالمية والديمقراطية كشريكين مشتركين. أصحاب الدولة في مجتمع حر متساوين.
إذا اخترنا الحرب في هذه اللحظة، وأرسلت أمريكا مساعدات عسكرية إلى إسرائيل باعتبارها راعية ومتعاونة في الإبادة الجماعية للفلسطينيين انتقاما لجريمة الحرب الهائلة والفظائع التي ارتكبتها حماس لإحكام سيطرتها السياسية على شعب غزة، لقد بدأ عصر الطغاة.
إذا اخترنا السلام وأرسلنا المساعدات الإنسانية إلى شعب إسرائيل وقطاع غزة في حرب الإبادة القادمة بينما يجمع نتنياهو قواته للغزو، فقد تكون لدينا فرصة لظهور ديمقراطية مستقبلية في المنطقة والعالم. كبشرية موحدة.
إن أفضل فرصة لدينا لشفاء إرث تاريخنا وإعادة توحيد شعبي إسرائيل وفلسطين هي أن يديروا ظهورهم لأولئك الذين يزعمون أنهم يتصرفون باسمهم، سواء نظام نتنياهو أو نظام حماس، وأن يرفضوا قتل بعضهم البعض في الخدمة. إلى قوة أولئك الذين يستعبدوننا.
دعونا لا نرسل جيوشًا لفرض الفضيلة، وشفاء عيوب إنسانيتنا وانكسارات العالم.
In six months of Israel’s war of genocide and ethnic cleansing, both the state of Israel and the American Empire of which it is a proxy have become delegitimized and begun to unravel as complicity in crimes against humanity shadow our authority, and like the British Empire which fell with the repression of Gandhi’s Salt Tax Protest we lose the moral high ground and are left with mere force and control as brutality and state terror, which crumble to nothing when challenged by disobedience and disbelief.
There is a stain of cruelty on our shining armor, and it now stands exposed to the witness of history.
This I celebrate as a victory for all humankind, and a lever of change in liberation struggle for both Israeli and Palestinian peoples, though the cost in human life is unimaginably horrific and an atrocity beyond comprehension for which its perpetrators on all sides must one day face a Reckoning.
There are no good guys in this story, but sadly there are many innocent who bear the true costs of this war, for nearly all its victims have been noncombatants and civilian women and children, war crimes against all ideas of human rights. Our humanity is among the greatest of such costs; the degradation of who we are.
Why was such a war begun by Hamas, and waged by Israel as genocide and ethnic cleansing? Because Israelis and Palestinians were forging a new identity together as one people united as guarantors of each other’s universal human rights, which threatened the narratives of victimization, division, and national identity by which authority centralizes and enforces power, on both sides of this conflict and generally.
Netanyahu’s colonialist-imperial settler regime, subverted and corrupted by fascisms of blood, faith, and soil into a mirror image of the death camps Israel was long ago intended to protect us all from, collaborated with elements of Hamas and with an unknown third party in the design and operation of the October 7 atrocities.
In this there is nothing new; Israel, Hamas, and countless other entities have for generations now multiply infiltrated each other, and Israel has a recon unit which specializes in impersonating Islamic jihadists and committing atrocities against actual Islamic groups to sow division and prevent the people they are Occupying from creating a united front. On October 7, this Byzantine system of alliances and rivalries sabotaged itself and exploded in horrific violence and detestable crimes, much like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off World War One.
I say again; IDF and Israeli intelligence agencies have been infiltrated by more than one enemy, which worked to create October 7, and unrelated to this Israel created its own network within Hamas which planned October 7 as a just cause of war and a pretext for the Final Solution of the Palestinians.
Some of the Israeli hostages, though not all, are now captives of IDF soldiers masquerading as jihadists in quasi-independent networks within Hamas. This is why Netanyahu is not pursuing the rescue of hostages, nor even the capture of their abductors; it is by design in service to genocide and imperial conquest and dominion.
All of this is made complex, relative, and ambiguous in geopolitical terms because Iran, which controls five nations including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, and her international nonstate organization Hezbollah, reacted immediately with solidarity of action with the people of Palestine, which accelerated Israel’s timetable for the conquest of the whole Middle East in retaliation, and because Russia is Iran’s partner in the Assad regime of Syria, transformed a seventy year old regional sectarian conflict into a theatre of World War Three.
Where does this leave us now?
Humankind must choose between theocratic tyranny and secular democracy, imperial conquest and dominion and the sovereignty and independence of all nations and all human beings, between equality and subjugation to elite hegemonies of wealth, power, and privilege, and between fear and love.
Who do we want to become, we humans; masters and slaves, or a free society of equals?
The United Nations as our first world government and an emergent United Humankind must now act swiftly and decisively to bring respect for our universal human rights to the rogue state of Israel, and help her peoples to reimagine and transform their nation.
America has been made complicit in genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by our colony and proxy Israel, evils we must own as ours and take responsibility for, immediately in opening the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid and enforcing a total ceasefire, and ongoing in bringing regime change to Israel, a Reckoning to her war criminals, and restorative justice to her victims.
Gaza is in ruins and must be totally rebuilt; reparations and reconciliation process will consume a generation and define the ideas of Israel and Palestine for a century. Israel will never live this down and if Netanyahu’s criminal regime is not purged and a true democracy founded from the ashes of Zionism, the name of Israel will become a cautionary tale whispered in the darkness.
One people divided by history, Israel and Palestine; I hope that one day they may awaken from the lies of those who would enslave them, and become a free society of equals who are each other’s guarantors of our universal human rights.
ISRAEL RESPONDS TO HAMAS CRIMES BY ORDERING MASS WAR CRIMES IN GAZA: Years of impunity for Israeli crimes against civilians have bred a culture of disregard for international law./ The Intercept
أبريل 2024 الأمور تتداعى: ستة أشهر من الحرب في غزة
خلال ستة أشهر من حرب الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي التي شنتها إسرائيل، أصبحت كل من دولة إسرائيل والإمبراطورية الأمريكية التي تعمل بالوكالة عنها، غير شرعيتين وبدأتا في الانهيار حيث ظل التواطؤ في جرائم ضد الإنسانية يخيم على سلطتنا، ومثلما حدث مع الإمبراطورية البريطانية التي فعندما سقطنا مع قمع احتجاج غاندي على ضريبة الملح، فقدنا المكانة الأخلاقية العالية ولم يبق لنا سوى القوة والسيطرة مثل الوحشية وإرهاب الدولة، اللذين ينهاران إلى لا شيء عندما يتحدىهما العصيان والكفر.
إن هناك وصمة عار من القسوة على درعنا اللامع، وهي الآن مكشوفة أمام شهادة التاريخ.
إنني أحتفل بهذا باعتباره انتصارًا للبشرية جمعاء، ورافعة تغيير في النضال من أجل التحرير لكل من الشعبين الإسرائيلي والفلسطيني، على الرغم من أن التكلفة في حياة الإنسان مروعة بشكل لا يمكن تصوره وفظاعة تفوق الفهم يجب على مرتكبيها من جميع الأطراف أن يواجهوها يومًا ما. حساب.
لا يوجد أشخاص أخيار في هذه القصة، ولكن للأسف هناك العديد من الأبرياء الذين يتحملون التكاليف الحقيقية لهذه الحرب، لأن جميع ضحاياها تقريبًا كانوا من غير المقاتلين والمدنيين من النساء والأطفال، وهي جرائم حرب ضد جميع أفكار حقوق الإنسان. إن إنسانيتنا هي من بين أعظم هذه التكاليف؛ تدهور من نحن.
لماذا بدأت حماس حرباً كهذه، وشنّتها إسرائيل باعتبارها إبادة جماعية وتطهيراً عرقياً؟ لأن الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين كانوا يشكلون هوية جديدة معًا كشعب واحد متحد كضامنين لحقوق الإنسان العالمية لكل منهما، الأمر الذي هدد روايات الإيذاء والانقسام والهوية الوطنية التي من خلالها تقوم السلطة بمركزية السلطة وفرضها، على جانبي هذا الصراع و عمومًا.
إن نظام نتنياهو الاستيطاني الاستعماري الإمبراطوري، الذي تم تخريبه وإفساده بواسطة فاشية الدم والإيمان والتربة، وتحويله إلى صورة مرآة لمعسكرات الموت التي كانت إسرائيل تهدف منذ فترة طويلة إلى حمايتنا منها جميعاً، تعاون مع عناصر من حماس ومع طرف ثالث غير معروف في إسرائيل. تصميم وتنفيذ فظائع 7 أكتوبر.
وليس هناك جديد في هذا؛ لقد تسللت إسرائيل وحماس وعدد لا يحصى من الكيانات الأخرى على مدى أجيال إلى بعضها البعض، ولدى إسرائيل وحدة استطلاع متخصصة في انتحال شخصية الجهاديين الإسلاميين وارتكاب الفظائع ضد الجماعات الإسلامية الفعلية لزرع الفرقة ومنع الشعب الذي تحتله من إنشاء دولة موحدة. أمام. في 7 أكتوبر، خرب هذا النظام البيزنطي من التحالفات والمنافسات نفسه وانفجر في أعمال عنف مروعة وجرائم مقيتة، مثلما أدى اغتيال فرانز فرديناند إلى إشعال الحرب العالمية الأولى.
أقول مرة أخرى؛ لقد تم اختراق جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي وأجهزة المخابرات الإسرائيلية من قبل أكثر من عدو عمل على خلق 7 أكتوبر، وبعيداً عن ذلك أنشأت إسرائيل شبكتها الخاصة داخل حماس التي خططت لـ 7 أكتوبر كسبب عادل للحرب وذريعة للحل النهائي للقضية الفلسطينية. الفلسطينيين.
بعض الرهائن الإسرائيليين، ولكن ليس جميعهم، أصبحوا الآن أسرى لدى جنود من جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي يتنكرون في هيئة جهاديين في شبكات شبه مستقلة داخل حماس. ولهذا السبب لا يسعى نتنياهو إلى إنقاذ الرهائن، ولا حتى القبض على خاطفيهم؛ إنه عن قصد خدمة للإبادة الجماعية والغزو والهيمنة الإمبراطورية.
كل هذا أصبح معقداً ونسبياً وغامضاً من الناحية الجيوسياسية لأن إيران، التي تسيطر على خمس دول بما في ذلك العراق ولبنان وسوريا واليمن، ومنظمتها الدولية غير الحكومية حزب الله، ردت على الفور بالتضامن مع الشعب الفلسطيني. الأمر الذي أدى إلى تسريع الجدول الزمني لإسرائيل لغزو الشرق الأوسط بأكمله انتقاما، ولأن روسيا شريك إيران في نظام الأسد في سوريا، فقد حول الصراع الطائفي الإقليمي المستمر منذ سبعين عاما إلى مسرح للحرب العالمية الثالثة.
أين يتركنا هذا الآن؟
يجب على البشرية أن تختار بين الطغيان الثيوقراطي والديمقراطية العلمانية، والغزو الإمبراطوري والسيطرة وسيادة واستقلال جميع الأمم وجميع البشر، وبين المساواة والخضوع لهيمنة النخبة من الثروة والسلطة والامتياز، وبين الخوف والحب.
من نريد أن نصبح نحن البشر؟ السادة والعبيد أم مجتمع حر متساوٍ؟
يجب على الأمم المتحدة، باعتبارها أول حكومة عالمية لنا والبشرية المتحدة الناشئة، أن تتصرف الآن بسرعة وحسم لجلب الاحترام لحقوقنا الإنسانية العالمية إلى دولة إسرائيل المارقة، ومساعدة شعبها على إعادة تصور أمتهم وتحويلها.
لقد أصبحت أمريكا متواطئة في الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي وجرائم الحرب والجرائم ضد الإنسانية من قبل مستعمرتنا ووكيلنا إسرائيل، وهي شرور يجب أن نعتبرها شرورنا ونتحمل المسؤولية عنها، فور فتح الحصار الإسرائيلي للمساعدات الإنسانية وفرض وقف كامل لإطلاق النار. ، ومستمرة في تغيير النظام في إسرائيل، ومحاسبة مجرمي الحرب، وتحقيق العدالة التصالحية لضحاياها.
إن غزة في حالة خراب ويجب إعادة بنائها بالكامل؛ الجبر
وسوف تستهلك عملية المصالحة جيلاً كاملاً وستحدد أفكار إسرائيل وفلسطين لمدة قرن من الزمان. لن تتخلى إسرائيل عن هذا الأمر أبدًا، وإذا لم يتم تطهير نظام نتنياهو الإجرامي وتأسيس ديمقراطية حقيقية على رماد الصهيونية، فإن اسم إسرائيل سيصبح حكاية تحذيرية تهمس في الظلام.
شعب واحد قسمه التاريخ، إسرائيل وفلسطين؛ آمل أن يستيقظوا ذات يوم من أكاذيب أولئك الذين يريدون استعبادهم، وأن يصبحوا مجتمعًا حرًا من متساوين الذين يضمن كل منهم الآخر حقوق الإنسان العالمية.
Hebrew
7 באפריל 2024 דברים מתפרקים: שישה חודשים של מלחמה בעזה
בשישה חודשים של מלחמת רצח העם והטיהור האתני של ישראל, הן מדינת ישראל והן האימפריה האמריקנית שהיא נציגתה הפכו לדה-לגיטימציה והחלו להיפרם כששותפות לפשעים נגד האנושות מצילה על סמכותנו, וכמו האימפריה הבריטית אשר נפל עם הדיכוי של מחאת מס המלח של גנדי, אנו מאבדים את הקרקע המוסרית ונשארים עם כוח ושליטה בלבד כאכזריות וטרור ממלכתי, שמתפוררים לכלום כאשר מאותגרים על ידי אי ציות ואי אמון.
יש כתם של אכזריות על השריון הבוהק שלנו, והוא עומד כעת חשוף לעד ההיסטוריה.
את זה אני חוגג כניצחון לכל המין האנושי, וכמנוף של שינוי במאבק השחרור עבור עמים ישראלים ופלסטינים כאחד, אף על פי שהמחיר בחיי אדם הוא איום בצורה בלתי נתפסת וזוועה מעבר להבנה שבגינה ייאלצו מבצעיה מכל הצדדים להתמודד יום אחד. חשבון.
אין בחורים טובים בסיפור הזה, אבל למרבה הצער יש הרבה חפים מפשע שנושאים את המחיר האמיתי של המלחמה הזו, שכן כמעט כל קורבנותיה היו לא לוחמים ונשים וילדים אזרחיים, פשעי מלחמה נגד כל הרעיונות של זכויות אדם. האנושיות שלנו היא בין העלויות הגדולות ביותר; השפלה של מי שאנחנו.
מדוע החלה מלחמה כזו על ידי חמאס, וניהלה ישראל כרצח עם וטיהור אתני? מכיוון שישראלים ופלסטינים יצרו יחד זהות חדשה כעם אחד המאוחד כערבים זה לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות של זה, מה שאיים על הנרטיבים של קורבנות, פילוג וזהות לאומית שבאמצעותם הסמכות מרכזת ואוכפת את הכוח, משני הצדדים של הסכסוך הזה. בדרך כלל.
משטר המתנחלים הקולוניאליסטי-אימפריאלי של נתניהו, שהושחת והושחת על ידי פשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה לתמונת מראה של מחנות ההשמדה שישראל נועדה מזמן להגן על כולנו מפני, שיתף פעולה עם גורמי חמאס ועם צד שלישי לא ידוע. התכנון והתפעול של הזוועות ב-7 באוקטובר.
בזה אין שום דבר חדש; ישראל, חמאס ואינספור גופים אחרים הסתננו במשך דורות רבים זה לזה, ולישראל יש יחידת סיור המתמחה בהתחזות לג’יהאדיסטים איסלאמיים ובביצוע מעשי זוועה נגד קבוצות איסלאמיות בפועל כדי לזרוע פילוג ולמנוע מהעם שהם כובשים ליצור איחוד מאוחד. חֲזִית. ב-7 באוקטובר, המערכת הביזנטית הזו של בריתות ויריבויות חיבלה בעצמה והתפוצצה באלימות איומה ופשעים מתועבים, ממש כמו ההתנקשות בפרנץ פרדיננד שהחלה את מלחמת העולם הראשונה.
אני אומר שוב; לצה”ל ולסוכנויות המודיעין הישראליות הסתננו יותר מאויב אחד, שפעל ליצירת ה-7 באוקטובר, וללא קשר לכך ישראל יצרה רשת משלה בתוך חמאס שתכננה את ה-7 באוקטובר כעילה צודקת למלחמה ועילה לפתרון הסופי של הפלסטינים.
חלק מבני הערובה הישראלים, אם כי לא כולם, שבויים כעת של חיילי צה”ל המתחזות לג’יהאדיסטים ברשתות מעין עצמאיות בתוך חמאס. זו הסיבה שנתניהו לא רודף אחר חילוץ בני ערובה, ואפילו לא לכידת חוטפיהם; זה מתוכנן בשירות רצח עם וכיבוש אימפריאלי ושליטה.
כל זה נעשה מורכב, יחסי ומעורפל במונחים גיאופוליטיים מכיוון שאיראן, השולטת בחמש מדינות כולל עיראק, לבנון, סוריה ותימן, והארגון הבינלאומי הלא-מדינתי שלה חיזבאללה, הגיבה מיד בסולידריות של פעולה עם העם הפלסטיני. מה שהאיץ את לוח הזמנים של ישראל לכיבוש המזרח התיכון כולו כנקמה, ומכיוון שרוסיה היא שותפתה של איראן במשטר אסד בסוריה, הפך סכסוך עדתי אזורי בן שבעים שנה לתיאטרון של מלחמת העולם השלישית.
איפה זה משאיר אותנו עכשיו?
על המין האנושי לבחור בין עריצות תיאוקרטית ודמוקרטיה חילונית, כיבוש ושליטה אימפריאלית לבין ריבונות ועצמאות של כל העמים וכל בני האדם, בין שוויון וכפיפות להגמוניות עילית של עושר, כוח וזכות, ובין פחד ואהבה.
למי אנחנו רוצים להיות, אנחנו בני האדם; אדונים ועבדים, או חברה חופשית של שווים?
האומות המאוחדות כממשלת העולם הראשונה שלנו והמין האנושי המאוחד המתהווה חייבות כעת לפעול במהירות ובנחישות כדי להביא כבוד לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו למדינת ישראל הנוכלת, ולעזור לעמיה לדמיין מחדש ולשנות את האומה שלהם.
אמריקה נעשתה שותפה לרצח עם, טיהור אתני, פשעי מלחמה ופשעים נגד האנושות על ידי המושבה שלנו וישראל, הרשעים שאנו חייבים להיות שלנו ולקחת אחריות עליהם, מיד בפתיחת המצור הישראלי של סיוע הומניטרי ואכיפת הפסקת אש מוחלטת , ומתמשכת בהבאת שינוי המשטר לישראל, התחשבנות לפושעי המלחמה שלה, וצדק מחזיר לקורבנותיה.
עזה בהריסות ויש לבנות אותה מחדש לחלוטין; פיצוי
תהליך הפיוס ותכלס דור ויגדיר את הרעיונות של ישראל ופלסטין במשך מאה שנה. ישראל לעולם לא תחיה זאת, ואם משטר הפשע של נתניהו לא יטהר ודמוקרטיה אמיתית תקום מאפר הציונות, שמה של ישראל יהפוך לסיפור אזהרה שנלחש בחושך. עם אחד מחולק לפי היסטוריה, ישראל ופלסטין; אני מקווה שיום אחד הם יתעוררו מהשקרים של אלה שישעבדו אותם, ויהפכו לחברה חופשית של שווים שהם ערבים זה לזה לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו
In the bombing of a consulate Israel now becomes an outlaw nation which abandons diplomatic immunity as a principle of international law, both a demonstration of power as terror which seeks to isolate Palestine from support in the campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide which has been ongoing since October 7 and a generalization of the conflict as a strategy of imperial conquest and dominion of the whole region.
And why not, as America has not enacted Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanction nor sent a fleet to smash the blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, nor destroyed the planes, tanks, artillery, and other means of committing war crimes, nor charged Netanyahu and his conspirators with crimes against humanity and called for regime change, instead has sent war materiel and obstructed the United Nations from doing any of this or from sending a peacekeeping force?
Genocide Joe has made us all complicit in the crimes of Israel; genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and America has abandoned the idea of our universal human rights.
This new act of disruption and fracture of the international order was made possible by grand gesture of immunity made by Biden on the day of the attack, shaking hands of the largest weapons deal with Israel since the start of the Gaza War; including fifty new F-15 jets, thirty AIM-120 missiles, and precision bombing kits worth about 180 billion dollars total. Biden has betrayed us, speaking of peace in public and plotting war in secret.
As the Cheerleaders For Change phrase it in their splendid chant; Genocide Joe has got to go.
The world now begins a race to the bottom of our degradation and dehumanization, as one by one the candles of our humanity flicker and go dark. A century from now no one will remember or imagine that might does not make right, or that we humans were ever more than masters and slaves.
And this we must Resist, beyond hope of victory or even survival.
As written by Patrick Wintour in The Guardian, in an article entitled Iran vows revenge after two generals killed in Israeli strike on Syria consulate:
Several people killed in airstrike, including Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy; “Iran has vowed revenge after Israeli war planes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least 11 people, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Iran’s leaders in Tehran described the targeting of a diplomatic mission late on Monday as unprecedented and promised a harsh response.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people were killed in the attack.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said: “We consider this aggression to have violated all diplomatic norms and international treaties.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has completely lost his mental balance due to the successive failures in Gaza and his failure to achieve his Zionist goals.”
Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, said Iran’s response to the strike would be “at the same magnitude and harshness”.
He said the consulate in the Syrian capital had been hit by six missiles launched by F-35 jets. Bodies were still being identified in the rubble, he said.
Akbari, who had been working at the nearby embassy, vowed Iran would continue to support Palestinians in Gaza, and had no fear of the Israeli government. But the attack represents a test for Iran, which will feel the need to respond while it remains keen to avoid dragging itself into an open all-out conflict with Israel.
Videos broadcast on Iranian state TV showed smoke rising from rubble of a building that had been completely flattened. An Iranian flag hung from a pole in front of the debris. Nearby cars had been damaged by falling masonry.
Israel has mounted successive strikes on Iranian and Syrian military leaders in Lebanon and Syria since before the latest conflict in Gaza, but this was one of the most audacious.
Monday afternoon’s strike removed a key figure in Iran’s military hierarchy. Zahedi commanded units from the al-Quds force – the Guards’ clandestine foreign intelligence and paramilitary wing – in Lebanon and Syria and would have been a critical figure in Tehran’s relationship with Hezbollah and Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.
Zahedi would have been at the heart of the supply of Iranian-made missiles to Hezbollah, and had had sanctions imposed on him by the US as long ago as 2010.
Previously, he had been head of Iran’s air force and ground forces, as well as playing a role in crushing protests in Iran in 2019.
Syria’s foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, visited the scene of Monday’s attack and vowed that Israeli forces will not be able to damage relations between Iran and Syria.
The strike follows a marked increase in violence between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanon boundary since Hamas’s 7 October attack, as well as the resumption of violent attacks by Iranian-backed militia on US and Israeli positions in Iraq.
Last Friday, Israeli strikes in Syria killed 53 people, including 38 soldiers and seven members of Hezbollah, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the monitor said.
Some saw the strike as a response to a drone, apparently launched from Iraq, which struck a building in a naval base in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat early on Monday morning. But Zahedi would have been on Israel’s assassination list for some time.
Israel as a rule does not comment on its assassination strikes, but Iranian media made no attempt to hide the loss of such a senior figure.
Last year, Israel killed Sayed Reza Musawi, the IGRC head of logistics in the Levant.
The US said it was aware of the reports of the attacks on the Iranian diplomatic mission but had no comment to make. The UN said it was very worried by the reports but would comment fully later.
Ali Vaez, senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said: “In Syria, Israel has conducted numerous strikes, focusing especially on weapons transfers. Directly targeting IRGC personnel did occur, but more as an exception than the rule. Today’s strike is significant both for the individuals killed and the location.”
The longer-term significance of the incident may lie in Iran regarding the airstrike as an attack on Iranian soil, which would represent an escalation.
Tehran is likely to be closely monitoring the US response and for any signs President Joe Biden approved of the attack – or if he was simply notified when it began. The US has classified the al-Quds force as a terrorist force, but US diplomats have been working hard to avoid the Gaza war escalating into a wider conflict directly between Iran and Israel.”
The assassinations of Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Gen Haji Rahimi, and Brig Gen Hossein Amirollah are not unique as war crimes in which America has been made complicit at the orders of Genocide Joe Biden, and echo a dark history which includes our assassination of Salvador Allende of Chile and attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro of Cuba and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo.
As I wrote in my post of August 2 2022, America Answers Terror and Death With Terror and Death: A Comparative Study of Three Assassinations; Biden stands before the stage of the world and the witness of history, and proclaims with vainglorious pride that he has commanded the assassination of an enemy of the state long toothless and irrelevant to any active threat, a Great White Hunter displaying the head of the monstrous beast he has slain for us all, and sees nothing shameful or profoundly wrong in this.
To be clear, I am no friend of theocracy, nor of any system which violates the principle of a secular state. Who stands between each of us and the Infinite serves neither.
One cannot dispute that Zawahiri was an enemy of America, of democracy, of our universal human rights, and of all humankind; nor that our policy of assassinating inconvenient persons, even those who are evil and the authors of atrocities and terrorist crimes, is a tacit renouncement of the principles of fair and equal justice under the law and of our universal human rights on which America and other democracies are founded, possibly even a public admission that all our ideals are lies, and that to those who hold power in America only fear and power have meaning and are real.
Before what court was he tried? And where is the line of difference between the President of the United States ordering the assassination of an enemy of the state and the policeman who murders a Black citizen with impunity for no reason other than to terrorize the Black community and enforce systemic white supremacy?
The psychopathy of power and the recursive forces of fear, authority, and force birth carceral states as embodied violence. This, friends, is a truth we must own if we are ever to find an escape from it.
Why have we assassinated the author of 911, but not the author of the January 6 Insurrection? Here the boundary of membership and otherness becomes determinative, and it is useful to compare this extrajudicial murder with President Biden’s previous display of vengeance and terror as political theatre, and with the war crime with which Our Clown of Terror, Traitor Trump destabilized the democracy movement throughout the Middle East.
As I wrote in my post of February 4 2022, A Stain of Cruelty: the Assassination of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi; To paraphrase the line from Hamlet and Star Trek in season one, episode 13, The Conscience of the King; There’s a stain of cruelty on your armor, President Biden.
We have answered terror and death with terror and death, and this is both tragic and shameful. Force cannot answer force, nor heal the flaws of our humanity.
As written for CNN by Barbara Starr, Oren Liebermann, Jeremy Herb and Eyad Kourdi; “It was the biggest US raid in the country since the 2019 operation that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Biden spoke from the White House Thursday morning to announce that the operation had taken “a major terrorist leader off the battlefield.”
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room. “Knowing that terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid at a much a greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike.”
Now and then Biden reminds us all that he was among the principal collaborators in Bush’s invasion of Iraq as imperial conquest and colonial plunder to seize the strategic resource of oil by which America maintains a global hegemony of wealth, power, and privilege, an addiction which will result in the extinction of humankind as a species, and in the authorization through the Patriot Act of a carceral state of brutal force and pervasive surveillance and thought control exceeded only by Xin Jinping’s holocaust of the Uighurs of Xinjiang, which has enabled the most massive theft of our freedoms in our history, including the McCarthy era, and the most bizarre and reprehensible regime of torture, most infamous in the crimes against humanity perpetrated at Guantanamo and other secret prisons for political enemies of the regime and its oligarchic, plutocratic, and corporate robber baron paymasters, including even the grisly hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials.
Once again our heroes and champions are proven to have feet of clay, and I mourn the failure of moral vision and addiction to power and the use of force and violence of President Biden, our government, and America as a guarantor of universal human rights and a beacon of hope to the world.
On this day and all too often, the Promethean Fire of the Torch of Liberty which illuminates the gates of our nation in New York Harbor did not reach across the wild seas to foreign shores. This is a great tragedy, and it is a tragedy which is ours and for which we must answer.
The deaths of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and his family as a consequence of America’s raid on his home, not an arrest for crimes provable in a court of law but political assassinations, are rightly being compared in the media to the assassination of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by Trump. This situates Biden and Trump on an equal level of criminal amorality and state terror.
Before the stage of the world and history, it also generates moral equivalence between ISIS and America, as our enemies intend by their provocations as a strategy of delegitimation of a regime. I use this myself as a democracy activist, for the art of revolution is about claiming the moral high ground and the delegitimation of authority and seizing control of the narrative.
Sending armies and police to enforce virtue through violence and repression is not only evil, it is also stupid; for it plays into the hands of the enemy. As Shakespeare teaches us in Henry V; “When lenity and cruelty play for kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.”
There are still notable differences between Biden and Trump, and between the goals, values, and ideals of Democrats and Republicans, madness and treason among them. But today those differences became suddenly and horrifically more narrow, and I fear we will need more than the eye of a needle as a window to a better future.
As written in my post of October 28 2019, Trump and al-Baghdadi: Parallel Lives and Reflections; The personal and historical forces which create tyrants and monsters among us have been a lifelong study of mine, aspects of a curiosity regarding the origins and nature of evil born of primary childhood traumas in the Bloody Thursday massacre ordered by Ronald Reagan against a student peace protest in Berkeley 1969 when I was nine and my near execution in Brazil at the age of fourteen defending street children from police bounty hunters, which echoes those of Maurice Blanchot in June 1944 by the Nazis and Dostoevsky’s in 1849 by Czarist police, informed by Jerzy Kosinski’s novel The Painted Bird and focused by the classic study of Adolf Hitler from his speeches and writings, The Psychopathic God by Robert G. L. Waite, both of which I read during high school. Thus I became fascinated by the intersections of literature, philosophy, history, and psychology, and chose the origins of evil as my lifelong field of study.
As the world celebrates the death of al-Baghdadi, both tyrant and monster, and Trump claims credit in this the sole victory of his administration, as if for the trophy head of some dangerous beast shot by a guide while enjoying cocktails at the hunting camp, it may be interesting to compare the parallel lives, methods, and goals of Trump and al-Baghdadi.
A full psychological and historical study of Trump and al-Baghdadi as figures of fascist terror and madness on a global political scale in the context of civilizational conflicts would require a book of Biblical proportions and thesis-level scholarship such as Waite’s brilliant work on Hitler. Here I note only some of the obvious alignments and congruences; both Trump and al-Baghdadi are megalomaniacs and psychopaths who seized power through manipulation of those who perceived themselves as victims and readily dehumanized others to change their status, using disruption of norms and a reimagination of reality through lies and misdirects to shape history, and enacted regimes of state terror and campaigns of religious and ethnic cleansing and of patriarchal misogyny and sexual violence against women.
Of Trump we have a cornucopia of information; Dr Justin Frank’s book Trump on the Couch and The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President by Bandy X. Lee are excellent resources, particularly illuminating on Trump’s erotic relationship with his daughter, the fantasies of violence and power which are rooted in his childhood relationship with his tyrannical and abusive father, and his inability to love or empathize with others as a result of his abandonment by his mother.
Pathological lies, poor impulse control, and grandiose fantasies and delusions complete the picture of a narcissistic personality and psychopathic predator. Trump cannot distinguish truth from lies and delusions; his madness and childlike feeble mindedness, the tantrums and psychotic rages, the bullying and narcissism of a spoiled brat, does not however absolve him of responsibility for his actions, or those of the treasonous cabal of sex predators and fascists he has gathered around him.
How Trump’s particular madness is expressed in our national policy is a horror which can described with precision; his fear of contamination and faecal fixation translate into his signature campaign against nonwhite others and a policy of ethnic cleansing and racist state terror, his misogyny into a patriarchal wave of legal disempowerment of women’s reproductive rights, his fragile ego, identity confusion, and need for attention into a governance of Nuremberg-like rallies, the cultivation of despicable autocrats, and the obsessive vengeance against anyone who refuses to offer adoration and submission.
Above all what unites Trump, Hitler, and al-Baghdadi, as monsters and tyrants who reflect one another and as parallel figures and historical forces is the theory of politics as Theatre of Cruelty and government as performance art.
For their performances of leadership as clowns of terror and madness provide mirror opposite images of the reign of the Roman Emperor described with wit and guile by Antonin Artaud in his great novel Heliogabalus; or, the Crowned Anarchist, a figure who disrupted norms as an agent of change and chaos to transform an inert and ossified society, whereas Trump and al-Baghdadi have acted as partners in reaction to return us to a theocratic civilization of priest-kings from before the invention of democracy.
Here I signpost that normally when I use the word civilization I am not doing so in the archeological sense, but refer to a specific history now shared by us all born in the Trial of Socrates, the Forum of Athens, and the deimos as a self-questioning system in which all citizens are equal co-owners of the state and guarantors of each other’s rights.
Trump cannot distinguish truth from lies and delusions; his madness and childlike feeble mindedness, the tantrums and psychotic rages, the bullying and narcissism of a spoiled brat, does not however absolve him of responsibility for his actions, or those of the treasonous cabal of sex predators and fascists he has gathered around him.
Trump claims to have killed his dark reflection and shadow self by his spurious arrogation of a victory won by our intelligence and military services; but history will always see this second face behind his mask, a secret twin he bears into eternity, a face of power and twisted desires unrestrained by the laws and values of a democratic civilization and a free society of equals: the face of Trump’s heart of darkness, al-Baghdadi.
So I wrote on October 28 2019; and so I must write now of Biden’s secret face and heart of darkness, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, linked now for eternity as figures of terror, murderous retribution, and cruelty.
State terror and imperialism has met sectarian terror as organizations of institutionalized violence and power; we can only hope now that they will recognize their twin image in the mirror of death which war and acts of force and violence confront us with, and walk away from the precipice which threatens to consume us all.
As Ken Kesey said in his historic speech to a peace protest against the war in Vietnam recorded in Tom Wolfe’s novel The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; “The way to end war is just walk away and say fuck it. Just walk away and say fuck it.”
Iran vows revenge after two generals killed in Israeli strike on Syria consulate
5 באפריל 2024 ישראל היא עכשיו עם מחוץ לחוק: מקרה של הפצצת הקונסוליה
בהפצצת קונסוליה ישראל הופכת כעת לאומה מחוץ לחוק המוותרת על החסינות הדיפלומטית כעיקרון של המשפט הבינלאומי, הן הפגנת כוח וטרור השואפת לבודד את פלסטין מתמיכה במסע הטיהור האתני ורצח העם הנמשך מאז. 7 באוקטובר והכללה של הסכסוך כאסטרטגיה של כיבוש אימפריאלי ושליטת האזור כולו.
ולמה לא, שכן אמריקה לא חוקקה חרם, הסרה וסנקציה ולא שלחה צי לנפץ את המצור של הסיוע ההומניטרי לעזה, ולא השמידה את המטוסים, הטנקים, הארטילריה ואמצעים אחרים לביצוע פשעי מלחמה, ולא האשימה את נתניהו ו הקושרים שלו עם פשעים נגד האנושות וקראו לשינוי משטר, במקום זאת שלח חומר מלחמה ומפריע לאומות המאוחדות לעשות כל זה או לשלוח כוח שמירת שלום?
רצח העם ג’ו גרם לכולנו להיות שותפים לפשעי ישראל; רצח עם, טיהור אתני, פשעי מלחמה ופשעים נגד האנושות, ואמריקה נטשה את הרעיון של זכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו.
המעשה החדש הזה של שיבוש ושבר של הסדר הבינלאומי התאפשר בזכות מחווה גדולה של חסינות שעשה ביידן ביום התקיפה, כשהוא לוחץ ידיים לעסקת הנשק הגדולה ביותר עם ישראל מאז תחילת מלחמת עזה; כולל חמישים מטוסי F-15 חדשים, שלושים טילי AIM-120 וערכות הפצצה מדויקות בשווי של כ-180 מיליארד דולר בסך הכל. ביידן בגד בנו, דיבר על שלום בפומבי ותכנן מלחמה בסתר.
כפי שה-Cherleaders For Change מנסחים זאת בפזמון הנהדר שלהם; רצח העם ג’ו חייב ללכת.
העולם מתחיל כעת במירוץ אל תחתית ההשפלה והדה-הומניזציה שלנו, כאשר נרות האנושות שלנו מרצדים וחושכים בזה אחר זה. בעוד מאה שנה אף אחד לא יזכור או ידמיין שכוח לא מתקן, או שאנחנו, בני האדם, היינו אי פעם יותר מאדונים ועבדים.
ולכך עלינו להתנגד, מעבר לתקווה לניצחון או אפילו הישרדות.
כפי שכתב פטריק ווינטור ב”גרדיאן”, במאמר שכותרתו איראן נשבעת נקמה לאחר שני גנרלים שנהרגו במתקפה ישראלית על הקונסוליה בסוריה:
כמה בני אדם נהרגו בתקיפה אווירית, בהם מפקד חיל משמרות המהפכה מוחמד רזא זהדי וסגנו; “איראן נשבעה נקמה לאחר שמטוסי מלחמה ישראלים הרסו את הקונסוליה האיראנית בדמשק, והרגו לפחות 11 בני אדם, כולל מפקד בכיר בכוח אל-קודס של משמרות המהפכה האיראניים (IRGC).
מנהיגי איראן בטהרן תיארו את הכוונה של נציגות דיפלומטית מאוחרת ביום שני כחסרת תקדים והבטיחו תגובה חריפה.
איראן אמרה כי כמה דיפלומטים ותיקים נהרגו לצד תת-גנר מוחמד רזא זהדי וסגנו של זהדי, הגנרל חאג’י רחימי. עוד נמסר כי בין הנפגעים תת-גנר חוסיין עמירולה, ראש המטה הכללי של כוח אל-קודס בסוריה ובלבנון.
מרכז המעקב הסורי לזכויות אדם, שבסיסו בבריטניה, אמר כי 11 בני אדם נהרגו בתקיפה.
שר החוץ של איראן, חוסיין אמיר-עבדולהיאן, אמר: “אנו רואים בתוקפנות זו הפרה את כל הנורמות הדיפלומטיות והאמנות הבינלאומיות.
בנימין נתניהו איבד לחלוטין את שיווי המשקל הנפשי בשל הכישלונות הרצופים בעזה וכישלונו בהשגת מטרותיו הציוניות”.
שגריר איראן בסוריה, חוסיין אכברי, אמר כי תגובתה של איראן לתקיפה תהיה “באותה עוצמה ובאותה חומרה”.
לדבריו, הקונסוליה בבירת סוריה נפגעה משישה טילים ששוגרו על ידי מטוסי F-35. גופות עדיין זוהו בהריסות, אמר.
אכברי, שעבד בשגרירות הסמוכה, נשבע שאיראן תמשיך לתמוך בפלסטינים בעזה, ולא היה לו חשש מממשלת ישראל. אבל התקיפה מייצגת מבחן עבור איראן, שתרגיש צורך להגיב בזמן שהיא עדיין להוטה להימנע מלגרור את עצמה לסכסוך גלוי גלוי עם ישראל.
סרטונים ששודרו בטלוויזיה הממלכתית האיראנית הראו עשן עולה מהריסות של בניין ששוטח לחלוטין. דגל איראני היה תלוי על עמוד מול ההריסות. מכוניות סמוכות ניזוקו מנפילת בנייה.
ישראל ביצעה תקיפות רצופות על מנהיגי צבא איראניים וסוריים בלבנון ובסוריה מלפני העימות האחרון בעזה, אך זו הייתה אחת הנועזים ביותר.
התקיפה של יום שני אחר הצהריים הסירה דמות מפתח בהיררכיה הצבאית של איראן. זהדי פיקד על יחידות מכוח אל-קודס – המודיעין החשאי והזרוע החצי-צבאית של המשמר – בלבנון ובסוריה והיה דמות קריטית ביחסיה של טהראן עם חיזבאללה ונשיא סוריה, בשאר אל-אסד.
זהדי היה בליבה של אספקת הטילים מתוצרת איראן לחיזבאללה, והיו לו סנקציות שהטילה עליו ארה”ב כבר ב-2010.
בעבר הוא היה ראש חיל האוויר והגרוב של איראן
וחות שנייה, כמו גם תפקיד בריסוק ההפגנות באיראן ב-2019.
שר החוץ של סוריה, פייסל מקדאד, ביקר בזירת התקיפה ביום שני ונשבע כי הכוחות הישראליים לא יוכלו לפגוע ביחסים בין איראן לסוריה.
התקיפה באה בעקבות עלייה ניכרת באלימות בין ישראל לחיזבאללה על גבול ישראל-לבנון מאז התקפת חמאס ב-7 באוקטובר, כמו גם חידוש ההתקפות האלימות של מיליציה הנתמכת על ידי איראן על עמדות ארה”ב וישראל בעיראק.
ביום שישי האחרון, תקיפות ישראליות בסוריה נהרגו 53 בני אדם, בהם 38 חיילים ושבעה חברי חיזבאללה, כך דיווח מרכז המעקב הסורי לזכויות אדם. זה היה המספר הגבוה ביותר של צבא סוריה בתקיפות ישראליות מאז החלה מלחמת ישראל-חמאס באוקטובר, אמר המוניטור.
היו שראו את התקיפה כתגובה למזל”ט, ששוגר ככל הנראה מעיראק, שפגע בבניין בבסיס חיל הים בעיר הדרומית ביותר בישראל, אילת, מוקדם בבוקר יום שני. אבל זהדי היה ברשימת החיסולים של ישראל זמן מה.
ישראל ככלל לא מתייחסת למתקפות ההתנקשות שלה, אבל התקשורת האיראנית לא עשתה ניסיון להסתיר את אובדן של דמות כה בכירה.
בשנה שעברה, ישראל הרגה את סייד רזא מוסאווי, ראש הלוגיסטיקה של ה-IGRC בלבנט.
ארה”ב אמרה שהיא מודעת לדיווחים על ההתקפות על הנציגות הדיפלומטית האיראנית, אך אין לה שום תגובה. האו”ם אמר כי הוא מודאג מאוד מהדיווחים, אך יגיב במלואו מאוחר יותר.
עלי ועז, יועץ בכיר בקבוצת המשבר הבינלאומית, אמר: “בסוריה ביצעה ישראל תקיפות רבות, תוך התמקדות במיוחד בהעברת נשק. התמקדות ישירה באנשי משמרות המהפכה אמנם התרחשה, אבל יותר כחריג מהכלל. השביתה של היום היא משמעותית הן עבור ההרוגים והן עבור המקום”.
המשמעות ארוכת הטווח של התקרית עשויה להיות באיראן בנוגע לתקיפה האווירית כמתקפה על אדמת איראן, שתייצג הסלמה.
טהראן צפויה לעקוב מקרוב אחר תגובת ארה”ב ולכל סימן שהנשיא ג’ו ביידן אישר את המתקפה – או אם פשוט הודיעו לו כשהחלה. ארה”ב סיווגה את כוח אל-קודס ככוח טרור, אך דיפלומטים אמריקאים עבדו קשה כדי למנוע את הסלמה של מלחמת עזה לסכסוך רחב יותר ישירות בין איראן לישראל”.
ההתנקשויות של המח”ט מוחמד רזא זהדי, הגנרל חאג’י רחימי והתא”ל חוסיין אמירולה אינם ייחודיים כפשעי מלחמה שבהם אמריקה נעשתה שותפה בהוראת רצח העם ג’ו ביידן, ומהדהדת היסטוריה אפלה הכוללת את ההתנקשות בסלבדור. אלנדה מצ’ילה וניסיונות התנקשות בפידל קסטרו מקובה ופטריס לומומבה מקונגו.
כפי שכתבתי בפוסט שלי מ-2 באוגוסט 2022, אמריקה עונה על טרור ומוות עם טרור ומוות: מחקר השוואתי של שלוש התנקשויות; ביידן עומד מול בימת העולם ועד ההיסטוריה, ומצהיר בגאווה תהילה שהוא פיקד על התנקשות באויב המדינה מזמן חסר שיניים ולא רלוונטי לכל איום פעיל, צייד לבן גדול שמציג את ראשם של המפלצתיים חיה שהוא הרג למען כולנו, ואינו רואה בכך שום דבר מביש או פסול עמוק.
שיהיה ברור, אני לא חבר של התיאוקרטיה, וגם לא של שום מערכת שמפרה את העיקרון של מדינה חילונית. מי שעומד בין כל אחד מאתנו לבין האינסופי אינו משרת אף אחד מהם.
אי אפשר לערער על כך שזאואהירי היה אויב של אמריקה, של הדמוקרטיה, של זכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו ושל כל המין האנושי; וגם לא שהמדיניות שלנו של התנקשות באנשים לא נוחים, אפילו אלה שהם רשעים ומחברי הזוועות ופשעי הטרור, היא ויתור בשתיקה על עקרונות הצדק ההוגן והשוויוני על פי החוק ושל זכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו שעליהן אמריקה ומדינות דמוקרטיות אחרות. מבוססים, אולי אפילו הודאה פומבית שכל האידיאלים שלנו הם שקרים, ושלמי שמחזיקים בשלטון באמריקה רק לפחד ולכוח יש משמעות והם אמיתיים.
לפני איזה בית משפט הוא נשפט? והיכן קו ההבדל בין נשיא ארצות הברית המורה על התנקשות באויב המדינה לבין השוטר הרוצח אזרח שחור ללא כל סיבה אחרת מלבד להטיל אימה על הקהילה השחורה ולאכוף עליונות לבנה מערכתית?
הפסיכופתיה של הכוח והכוחות הרקורסיבים של פחד, סמכות ומצבי לידה כפויים כאלימות מגולמת. זו, חברים, אמת שעלינו להחזיק בה אם אי פעם נצליח למצוא מפלט ממנה.
מדוע רצחנו את מחבר 911, אך לא את מחבר המרד של 6 בינואר? כאן הגבול של החברות והאחרות הופך להיות קובע, ומועיל להשוות את הרצח החוץ-משפטי הזה עם תצוגת הנקמה והטרור הקודמת של הנשיא ביידן כתיאטרון פוליטי, ועם פשע המלחמה שבעזרתו ליצן הטרור שלנו, הבוגד טראמפ ערער את תנועת הדמוקרטיה. ברחבי המזרח התיכון.
כפי שכתבתי בפוסט שלי בפברואר
רוארי 4 2022, כתם של אכזריות: ההתנקשות באבו איברהים אל-האשימי אל-קוריישי; בפרפראזה על השורה מהמלט ומסע בין כוכבים בעונה הראשונה, פרק 13, מצפון המלך; יש כתם של אכזריות על השריון שלך, הנשיא ביידן.
ענינו לטרור ולמוות בטרור ובמוות, וזה טרגי ומביש כאחד. כוח לא יכול לענות על כוח, ולא לרפא את הפגמים של האנושיות שלנו.
כפי שכתבו ל-CNN ברברה סטאר, אורן ליברמן, ג’רמי הרב ואיאד קורדי; “זו הייתה הפשיטה האמריקאית הגדולה ביותר במדינה מאז המבצע ב-2019 שהרג את מנהיג דאעש אבו בכר אל-בגדאדי.
ביידן דיבר מהבית הלבן ביום חמישי בבוקר כדי להודיע שהמבצע הוציא “מנהיג טרור מרכזי משדה הקרב”.
“בזכות האומץ של חיילינו, מנהיג הטרור הנורא הזה אינו עוד”, אמר ביידן מחדר רוזוולט. “בידוע שהמחבל בחר להקיף את עצמו במשפחות, כולל ילדים, בחרנו להמשיך בפשיטה של כוחות מיוחדים תוך סיכון הרבה יותר גדול לאנשינו, במקום לכוון אותו בתקיפה אווירית”.
מדי פעם ביידן מזכיר לכולנו שהוא היה בין משתפי הפעולה העיקריים בפלישה של בוש לעיראק ככיבוש אימפריאלי וכגזל קולוניאלי כדי לתפוס את המשאב האסטרטגי של הנפט שבאמצעותו אמריקה שומרת על הגמוניה עולמית של עושר, כוח וזכות, התמכרות אשר יגרום להכחדת המין האנושי כמין, ובאישור באמצעות חוק הפטריוט של מצב קרסראלי של כוח אכזרי ומעקב ושליטה מקיפה על המחשבה שחורגה רק על ידי שואת האויגורים של שינג’יאנג של שין ג’ינפינג, שאיפשרה את המסיביות ביותר. גניבת חירויותינו בהיסטוריה שלנו, לרבות עידן מקארתי, ומשטר העינויים המוזר והנתעב ביותר, הידוע לשמצה ביותר בפשעים נגד האנושות שבוצעו בגואנטנמו ובבתי כלא סודיים אחרים לאויבים הפוליטיים של המשטר והאוליגרכיים, הפלוטוקרטיים שלו. שודדי תאגידים ברון שכר, כולל אפילו ההיסטריה הנוראה של משפטי המכשפות של סאלם.
שוב הוכח שהגיבורים והאלופים שלנו הם בעלי רגלי חימר, ואני מתאבל על כישלון החזון המוסרי וההתמכרות לשלטון והשימוש בכוח ובאלימות של הנשיא ביידן, ממשלתנו ואמריקה כערובה לזכויות אדם אוניברסליות. מגדלור של תקווה לעולם.
ביום זה ולעתים קרובות מדי, האש הפרומתאית של לפיד החירות המאירה את שערי האומה שלנו בנמל ניו יורק לא הגיעה אל מעבר לים הפראי אל חופים זרים. זו טרגדיה גדולה, וזו טרגדיה שהיא שלנו ועליה עלינו לענות.
מותם של אבו איברהים אל-האשימי אל-קוריישי ומשפחתו כתוצאה מהפשיטה של אמריקה על ביתו, לא מעצר על פשעים שניתן להוכיח בבית משפט אלא התנקשויות פוליטיות, מושווים בצדק בתקשורת לרצח של אבו בכר אל בגדדי מאת טראמפ. זה מציב את ביידן וטראמפ ברמה שווה של מוסריות פלילית וטרור מדינה.
לפני שלב העולם וההיסטוריה, זה גם מייצר שוויון מוסרי בין דאעש לאמריקה, כפי שאויבינו מתכוונים בפרובוקציות שלהם כאסטרטגיה של דה-לגיטימציה של משטר. אני משתמש בזה בעצמי כפעיל דמוקרטיה, שכן אמנות המהפכה עוסקת בתביעת הרמה המוסרית, דה-לגיטימציה של סמכות ותפיסת השליטה בנרטיב.
לשלוח צבאות ומשטרה לאכוף מידות טובות באמצעות אלימות ודיכוי זה לא רק רוע, זה גם טיפשי; כי זה משחק לידי האויב. כפי שמלמד אותנו שייקספיר בהנרי החמישי; “כשקלילות ואכזריות משחקים עבור הממלכה, הגיימר העדין יותר הוא המנצח הכי מהר.”
עדיין יש הבדלים בולטים בין ביידן לטראמפ, ובין המטרות, הערכים והאידיאלים של הדמוקרטים והרפובליקנים, טירוף ובגידה ביניהם. אבל היום ההבדלים האלה הפכו פתאום ומחרידים יותר, ואני חושש שנצטרך יותר מאשר עין המחט כחלון לעתיד טוב יותר.
כפי שנכתב בפוסט שלי מ-28 באוקטובר 2019, טראמפ ואל-בגדדי: חיים מקבילים והרהורים; הכוחות האישיים וההיסטוריים שיוצרים רודנים ומפלצות בינינו היו מחקר שלי לכל החיים, היבטים של סקרנות לגבי מקורות וטבעו של הרוע שנולד מטראומות ילדות ראשוניות בטבח של יום חמישי הדמים שהורה רונלד רייגן נגד מחאת שלום סטודנטים בברקלי 1969 כשהייתי בת תשע וכמעט הוצאתי להורג בברזיל בגיל ארבע עשרה כשהם מגינים על ילדי רחוב מפני ציידי ראשים משטרתיים, מה שמהדהד את אלה של מוריס בלאנשו ביוני 1944 על ידי הנאצים ודוסטויבסקי ב-1849 על ידי המשטרה הצארית, על ידי יז’י קוסינסקי. הרומן “הציפור המצוירת” והתמקד במחקר הקלאסי של אדולף היטלר מנאומיו וכתביו, “האל הפסיכופתי” מאת רוברט ג.ל. ווייט, שאת שניהם קראתי במהלך התיכון. כך הוקסמתי מהצמתים של ספרות, פילוסופיה, היסטוריה ועמ’
פסיכולוגיה, ובחרתי במקורות הרוע כתחום המחקר שלי לכל החיים.
בעוד העולם חוגג את מותו של אל-בגדאדי, עריץ ומפלצת כאחד, וטראמפ טוען בזאת לזכותו את הניצחון היחיד של ממשלו, כאילו עבור ראש הגביע של איזו חיה מסוכנת שנורה על ידי מדריך בזמן שנהנה מקוקטיילים במחנה הציד , אולי יהיה מעניין להשוות את חייהם, השיטות והמטרות המקבילות של טראמפ ואל-בגדדי.
מחקר פסיכולוגי והיסטורי מלא של טראמפ ואל-בגדאדי כדמויות של טרור וטירוף פאשיסטי בקנה מידה פוליטי עולמי בהקשר של סכסוכים ציוויליזציוניים ידרוש ספר בעל פרופורציות תנ”כיות ומחקר ברמת התזה כמו עבודתו המבריקה של ווייט על היטלר. כאן אני מציין רק חלק מההתאמות וההתאמות הברורות; גם טראמפ וגם אל-בגדאדי הם מגלומנים ופסיכופתים שתפסו את השלטון באמצעות מניפולציה של מי שתפסו עצמם כקורבנות ועשו דה-הומניזציה של אחרים כדי לשנות את מעמדם, תוך שימוש בשיבוש נורמות ודמיון מחדש של המציאות באמצעות שקרים והפניות מוטעות כדי לעצב את ההיסטוריה, וחוקק. משטרים של טרור ממלכתי ומסעות טיהור דתי ואתני ושל שנאת נשים פטריארכלית ואלימות מינית נגד נשים.
של טראמפ יש לנו שפע של מידע; ספרו של ד”ר ג’סטין פרנק “טראמפ על הספה והמקרה המסוכן של דונלד טראמפ: 27 פסיכיאטרים ומומחי בריאות הנפש להעריך נשיא מאת בנדי אקס. לי הם משאבים מצוינים, המאירים במיוחד את מערכת היחסים האירוטית של טראמפ עם בתו, את הפנטזיות של אלימות וכוח. אשר נטועים ביחסי ילדותו עם אביו העריץ והמתעלל, ובחוסר יכולתו לאהוב או להזדהות עם אחרים כתוצאה מנטישתו על ידי אמו.
שקרים פתולוגיים, שליטה לקויה בדחפים ופנטזיות ואשליות גרנדיוזיות משלימים את התמונה של אישיות נרקיסיסטית וטורף פסיכופטי. טראמפ אינו יכול להבחין בין אמת לשקרים והזיות; הטירוף שלו וחוסר הדעת הילדותי שלו, התקפי הזעם והזעמים הפסיכוטיים, הבריונות והנרקיסיזם של פרחח מפונק, לא פוטרים אותו מאחריות למעשיו, או לאלה של החבורת הבוגדנית של טורפי מין ופשיסטים שאסף סביבו.
איך הטירוף המיוחד של טראמפ בא לידי ביטוי במדיניות הלאומית שלנו הוא זוועה שאפשר לתאר בדיוק; הפחד שלו מזיהום וקיבוע צואה מתורגמים למסע החתימה שלו נגד אחרים שאינם לבנים ולמדיניות של טיהור אתני וטרור מדינתי גזעני, מיזוגניה שלו לגל פטריארכלי של ביטול סמכות משפטי של זכויות הרבייה של נשים, האגו השברירי שלו, בלבול הזהות והצורך שלו תשומת לב לממשל של עצרות דמויות נירנברג, טיפוח אוטוקרטים נתעבים, ונקמה אובססיבית נגד כל מי שמסרב להציע הערצה וכניעה.
מעל לכל מה שמאחד את טראמפ, היטלר ואל-בגדדי, כמפלצות ורודנים המשקפים זה את זה וכדמויות מקבילות וכוחות היסטוריים, היא התיאוריה של הפוליטיקה כתיאטרון האכזריות והממשל כאמנות מיצג.
על ביצועי המנהיגות שלהם כליצנים של אימה וטירוף מספקים תמונות מנוגדות של שלטונו של הקיסר הרומי המתואר בשנינות ובערמה על ידי אנטונין ארטו ברומן הגדול שלו הליוגבאלוס; או, האנרכיסט המוכתר, דמות ששיבשה את הנורמות כסוכן של שינוי וכאוס כדי לשנות חברה אינרטית ומאובנת, בעוד שטראמפ ואל-בגדדי פעלו כשותפים בתגובה כדי להחזיר אותנו לציוויליזציה תיאוקרטית של מלכי כוהנים. לפני המצאת הדמוקרטיה.
כאן אני מסמן שבדרך כלל כשאני משתמש במילה ציוויליזציה אני לא עושה זאת במובן הארכיאולוגי, אלא מתייחס להיסטוריה ספציפית המשותפת כעת לכולנו שנולדו במשפט סוקרטס, בפורום אתונה והדימוס כעצמי. -מערכת תשאול בה כל האזרחים הם בעלים משותפים שווים של המדינה וערבים זה לזכויותיו של זה.
טראמפ אינו יכול להבחין בין אמת לשקרים והזיות; הטירוף שלו וחוסר הדעת הילדותי שלו, התקפי הזעם והזעמים הפסיכוטיים, הבריונות והנרקיסיזם של פרחח מפונק, לא פוטרים אותו מאחריות למעשיו, או לאלה של החבורת הבוגדנית של טורפי מין ופשיסטים שאסף סביבו.
טראמפ טוען שהרג את בבואתו האפלה ואת עצמי הצל שלו על ידי התנשאות מזויפת שלו על ניצחון שזכו בו שירותי המודיעין והצבא שלנו; אבל ההיסטוריה תמיד תראה את הפנים השניות האלה מאחורי המסכה שלו, תאום סודי שהוא נושא לנצח, פנים של כוח ותשוקות מעוותות ללא מעצורים על ידי החוקים והערכים של ציוויליזציה דמוקרטית וחברה חופשית של שווים: פני לבו של טראמפ חושך, אל-בגדדי.
אז כתבתי ב-28 באוקטובר 2019; ולכן אני חייב לכתוב עכשיו על פניו הסודיות של ביידן ולב החושך, אבו איברהים אל-האשימי אל-קורישי, המקושר כעת לנצח כדמויות של טרור, גמול רצחני,
אכזריות.
הטרור הממלכתי והאימפריאליזם פגשו את הטרור העדתי כארגונים של אלימות וכוח ממוסדים; אנחנו יכולים רק לקוות עכשיו שהם יזהו את דמותם התאומה בראי המוות שמלחמה ומעשי כוח ואלימות מתמודדים איתה, ויתרחקו מהתהום שמאיים לכלות את כולנו.
כפי שאמר קן קסי בנאומו ההיסטורי למחאת שלום נגד המלחמה בווייטנאם שתועד ברומן של טום וולף The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; “הדרך לסיים את המלחמה היא פשוט להתרחק ולהגיד לעזאזל. פשוט תסתלק ותגיד תזדיין.”
Arabic
5 أبريل 2024 إسرائيل الآن دولة خارجة عن القانون: قضية تفجير القنصلية
وبقصف القنصلية، أصبحت إسرائيل الآن دولة خارجة عن القانون تتخلى عن الحصانة الدبلوماسية كمبدأ من مبادئ القانون الدولي، وكلاهما استعراض للقوة وإرهاب يسعى إلى عزل فلسطين عن الدعم في حملة التطهير العرقي والإبادة الجماعية المستمرة منذ ذلك الحين. 7 أكتوبر وتعميم الصراع كاستراتيجية للغزو الإمبراطوري والسيطرة على المنطقة بأكملها.
ولماذا لا، فأميركا لم تسن قانون المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات وفرض العقوبات، ولم ترسل أسطولاً لتحطيم الحصار المفروض على المساعدات الإنسانية لغزة، ولم تدمر الطائرات والدبابات والمدفعية وغيرها من وسائل ارتكاب جرائم حرب، ولم تتهم نتنياهو وإسرائيل؟ المتآمرين عليه بارتكاب جرائم ضد الإنسانية ودعا إلى تغيير النظام، وبدلا من ذلك أرسل معدات حربية وعرقل الأمم المتحدة من القيام بأي من هذا أو من إرسال قوة لحفظ السلام؟
لقد جعلتنا الإبادة الجماعية جو جميعنا متواطئين في جرائم إسرائيل؛ الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي وجرائم الحرب والجرائم ضد الإنسانية، وقد تخلت أمريكا عن فكرة حقوق الإنسان العالمية.
أصبح هذا العمل الجديد من التعطيل والكسر في النظام الدولي ممكنًا بفضل لفتة الحصانة الكبرى التي قدمها بايدن يوم الهجوم، حيث مصافحة أكبر صفقة أسلحة مع إسرائيل منذ بداية حرب غزة؛ بما في ذلك خمسون طائرة جديدة من طراز F-15 وثلاثين صاروخًا من طراز AIM-120 وأدوات قصف دقيقة تبلغ قيمتها الإجمالية حوالي 180 مليار دولار. لقد خاننا بايدن، إذ تحدث عن السلام علناً وخطط للحرب سراً.
وكما عبرت منظمة “المشجعون من أجل التغيير” عن ذلك في أنشودة رائعة؛ الإبادة الجماعية جو يجب أن تذهب.
يبدأ العالم الآن في سباق نحو قاع انحطاطنا وتجريدنا من إنسانيتنا، حيث تومض شموع إنسانيتنا واحدة تلو الأخرى وتنطفئ. وبعد قرن من الآن لن يتذكر أو يتخيل أحد أن القوة لا تصنع الحق، أو أننا نحن البشر كنا أكثر من مجرد أسياد وعبيد.
وهذا يجب علينا أن نقاومه، بما يتجاوز الأمل في النصر أو حتى البقاء.
وكما كتب باتريك وينتور في صحيفة الغارديان، في مقال بعنوان إيران تتعهد بالانتقام بعد مقتل جنرالين في الغارة الإسرائيلية على القنصلية السورية:
قُتل عدة أشخاص في غارة جوية، من بينهم قائد الحرس الثوري محمد رضا زاهدي ونائبه؛ توعدت إيران بالانتقام بعد أن دمرت الطائرات الحربية الإسرائيلية القنصلية الإيرانية في دمشق، مما أسفر عن مقتل 11 شخصًا على الأقل، من بينهم قائد كبير في قوة القدس التابعة للحرس الثوري الإيراني.
ووصف زعماء إيران في طهران استهداف البعثة الدبلوماسية في وقت متأخر من يوم الاثنين بأنه غير مسبوق وتوعدوا برد قاس.
وقالت إيران إن العديد من الدبلوماسيين الذين خدموا لفترة طويلة قتلوا إلى جانب العميد محمد رضا زاهدي ونائب زاهدي الجنرال حاج رحيمي. كما أفادت الأنباء أن العميد حسين أمير الله، رئيس أركان قوة القدس في سوريا ولبنان، كان من بين الضحايا.
وقال المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان، ومقره المملكة المتحدة، إن 11 شخصا قتلوا في الهجوم.
وقال وزير الخارجية الإيراني حسين أمير عبد اللهيان: “نعتبر هذا العدوان انتهاكا لجميع الأعراف الدبلوماسية والمعاهدات الدولية.
وأضاف أن “بنيامين نتنياهو فقد توازنه العقلي تماما بسبب الإخفاقات المتتالية في غزة وفشله في تحقيق أهدافه الصهيونية”.
وقال سفير إيران لدى سوريا، حسين أكبري، إن رد إيران على الضربة سيكون “بنفس الحجم والقسوة”.
وأضاف أن القنصلية في العاصمة السورية تعرضت لقصف بستة صواريخ أطلقتها طائرات إف-35. وأضاف أنه لا يزال يتم التعرف على الجثث تحت الأنقاض.
وتعهد أكبري، الذي كان يعمل في السفارة القريبة، بأن إيران ستواصل دعم الفلسطينيين في غزة، ولم يكن لديه أي خوف من الحكومة الإسرائيلية. لكن الهجوم يمثل اختبارا لإيران، التي ستشعر بالحاجة إلى الرد بينما تظل حريصة على تجنب جر نفسها إلى صراع مفتوح شامل مع إسرائيل.
وأظهرت مقاطع فيديو بثها التلفزيون الرسمي الإيراني دخانا يتصاعد من أنقاض مبنى سوي بالأرض بالكامل. وعلم إيراني معلق على عمود أمام الأنقاض. وتضررت السيارات القريبة بسبب سقوط البناء.
وشنت إسرائيل ضربات متتالية على القادة العسكريين الإيرانيين والسوريين في لبنان وسوريا منذ ما قبل الصراع الأخير في غزة، لكن هذه كانت واحدة من أكثر الهجمات جرأة.
وأطاحت الضربة التي وقعت بعد ظهر يوم الاثنين بشخصية رئيسية في التسلسل الهرمي العسكري الإيراني. تولى زاهدي قيادة وحدات من فيلق القدس – المخابرات الخارجية السرية للحرس الثوري والجناح شبه العسكري – في لبنان وسوريا، وكان من الممكن أن يكون شخصية حاسمة في علاقة طهران مع حزب الله والرئيس السوري بشار الأسد.
وكان من الممكن أن يكون زاهدي في قلب عملية إمداد حزب الله بالصواريخ الإيرانية الصنع، وقد فرضت عليه الولايات المتحدة عقوبات منذ عام 2010.
وفي السابق، كان يشغل منصب رئيس القوات الجوية الإيرانية والمجموعة
لقوات الثانية، فضلاً عن لعب دور في سحق الاحتجاجات في إيران عام 2019.
وزار وزير الخارجية السوري، فيصل مقداد، موقع هجوم يوم الاثنين وتعهد بأن القوات الإسرائيلية لن تكون قادرة على الإضرار بالعلاقات بين إيران وسوريا.
وتأتي الغارة في أعقاب زيادة ملحوظة في أعمال العنف بين إسرائيل وحزب الله على الحدود الإسرائيلية اللبنانية منذ هجوم حماس في 7 أكتوبر، بالإضافة إلى استئناف الهجمات العنيفة التي تشنها الميليشيات المدعومة من إيران على المواقع الأمريكية والإسرائيلية في العراق.
وأفاد المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان أن الغارات الإسرائيلية في سوريا، الجمعة الماضي، أسفرت عن مقتل 53 شخصا، بينهم 38 جنديا وسبعة أعضاء في حزب الله. وقال المرصد إن هذا هو أعلى عدد من القتلى في صفوف الجيش السوري في الضربات الإسرائيلية منذ بدء الحرب بين إسرائيل وحماس في أكتوبر.
ورأى البعض أن الغارة كانت ردا على طائرة بدون طيار، أطلقت على ما يبدو من العراق، وضربت مبنى في قاعدة بحرية في مدينة إيلات بأقصى جنوب إسرائيل في وقت مبكر من صباح الاثنين. لكن زاهدي كان سيظل على قائمة الاغتيالات الإسرائيلية لبعض الوقت.
وكقاعدة عامة، لا تعلق إسرائيل على عمليات الاغتيال التي تقوم بها، لكن وسائل الإعلام الإيرانية لم تحاول إخفاء فقدان مثل هذه الشخصية البارزة.
وفي العام الماضي، قتلت إسرائيل سيد رضا الموسوي، رئيس الخدمات اللوجستية للحرس الدولي في بلاد الشام.
وقالت الولايات المتحدة إنها على علم بالتقارير المتعلقة بالهجمات على البعثة الدبلوماسية الإيرانية، لكن ليس لديها أي تعليق. وقالت الأمم المتحدة إنها تشعر بقلق بالغ إزاء هذه التقارير لكنها ستعلق بشكل كامل في وقت لاحق.
وقال علي فايز، كبير المستشارين في مجموعة الأزمات الدولية: “في سوريا، نفذت إسرائيل العديد من الضربات، مع التركيز بشكل خاص على نقل الأسلحة. لقد حدث استهداف مباشر لأفراد الحرس الثوري الإيراني، ولكن باعتباره استثناءً وليس قاعدة. ضربة اليوم مهمة سواء بالنسبة للأفراد الذين قتلوا أو للموقع”.
قد تكمن أهمية الحادث على المدى الطويل في اعتبار إيران للغارة الجوية هجومًا على الأراضي الإيرانية، وهو ما قد يمثل تصعيدًا.
ومن المرجح أن تراقب طهران عن كثب الرد الأمريكي وتراقب أي علامات على موافقة الرئيس جو بايدن على الهجوم – أو إذا تم إخطاره ببساطة عندما بدأ. وقد صنفت الولايات المتحدة فيلق القدس كقوة إرهابية، لكن الدبلوماسيين الأمريكيين كانوا يعملون بجد لتجنب تصعيد حرب غزة إلى صراع أوسع نطاقا مباشرة بين إيران وإسرائيل.
إن اغتيالات العميد محمد رضا زاهدي، والجنرال حاج رحيمي، والعميد حسين أمير الله ليست فريدة من نوعها باعتبارها جرائم حرب أصبحت أمريكا متواطئة فيها بأوامر من الإبادة الجماعية جو بايدن، وتعكس تاريخًا مظلمًا يتضمن اغتيالنا للسلفادور. أليندي رئيس تشيلي ومحاولات اغتيال فيدل كاسترو من كوبا وباتريس لومومبا من الكونغو.
وكما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 2 أغسطس 2022، أمريكا ترد على الإرهاب والموت بالإرهاب والموت: دراسة مقارنة لثلاثة اغتيالات؛ يقف بايدن أمام مسرح العالم وشاهد التاريخ، ويعلن بفخر متعجرف أنه أمر باغتيال عدو للدولة بلا أسنان منذ فترة طويلة ولا علاقة له بأي تهديد نشط، وهو صياد أبيض عظيم يعرض رأس الوحشي. الوحش الذي ذبحه من أجلنا جميعًا، ولا يرى شيئًا مخزيًا أو خطأً كبيرًا في هذا.
لكي أكون واضحا، أنا لست صديقا للثيوقراطية، ولا لأي نظام ينتهك مبدأ الدولة العلمانية. من يقف بين كل واحد منا وبين اللانهائي لا يخدم أيًا منهما.
لا يستطيع أحد أن يجادل في أن الظواهري كان عدواً لأميركا، والديمقراطية، وحقوق الإنسان العالمية، والبشرية جمعاء. ولا أن سياستنا المتمثلة في اغتيال الأشخاص المزعجين، حتى أولئك الأشرار ومرتكبي الفظائع والجرائم الإرهابية، هي تخلي ضمني عن مبادئ العدالة العادلة والمتساوية بموجب القانون وحقوق الإنسان العالمية التي ترتكز عليها أمريكا والديمقراطيات الأخرى. تم تأسيسها، وربما حتى اعترافًا علنيًا بأن كل مُثُلنا هي أكاذيب، وأن أولئك الذين يمسكون بالسلطة في أمريكا فقط الخوف والقوة لهما معنى وحقيقتان.
أمام أي محكمة تمت محاكمته؟ وأين هو خط الاختلاف بين رئيس الولايات المتحدة الذي يأمر باغتيال عدو للدولة والشرطي الذي يقتل مواطنًا أسود مع الإفلات من العقاب دون سبب سوى إرهاب مجتمع السود وفرض التفوق الأبيض المنهجي؟
إن سيكوباتية السلطة وقوى الخوف والسلطة والولادة القسرية المتكررة هي حالات عنف مجسدة. هذه حقيقة، أيها الأصدقاء، يجب أن نعترف بها إذا أردنا أن نجد مهربًا منها.
لماذا اغتالنا مؤلف 911 ولم نقتل مؤلف انتفاضة 6 يناير؟ وهنا تصبح حدود العضوية والغيرية حاسمة، ومن المفيد مقارنة هذا القتل خارج نطاق القانون مع عرض الرئيس بايدن السابق للانتقام والإرهاب كمسرح سياسي، ومع جريمة الحرب التي قام بها مهرج الإرهاب، الخائن ترامب، بزعزعة استقرار الحركة الديمقراطية. في جميع أنحاء الشرق الأوسط.
كما كتبت في رسالتي في فبراير
4 يناير 2022، وصمة عار القسوة: اغتيال أبو إبراهيم الهاشمي القريشي؛ لإعادة صياغة السطر من هاملت وستار تريك في الموسم الأول، الحلقة 13، ضمير الملك؛ هناك وصمة عار على درعك أيها الرئيس بايدن.
لقد رددنا على الإرهاب والموت بالإرهاب والموت، وهذا أمر مأساوي ومخجل في نفس الوقت. القوة لا يمكنها الرد على القوة، ولا معالجة عيوب إنسانيتنا.
كما كتب لشبكة سي إن إن بقلم باربرا ستار وأورين ليبرمان وجيريمي هيرب وإياد كردي؛ “كانت هذه أكبر غارة أمريكية في البلاد منذ عملية 2019 التي قتلت زعيم داعش أبو بكر البغدادي.
وتحدث بايدن من البيت الأبيض صباح الخميس ليعلن أن العملية أخرجت “زعيمًا إرهابيًا كبيرًا من ساحة المعركة”.
وقال بايدن من قاعة روزفلت: “بفضل شجاعة قواتنا، لم يعد هذا الزعيم الإرهابي الرهيب موجودا”. وأضاف: “مع العلم أن الإرهابي اختار أن يحيط نفسه بالعائلات، بما في ذلك الأطفال، فقد اخترنا مواصلة غارة القوات الخاصة مع مخاطر أكبر بكثير على شعبنا بدلاً من استهدافه بضربة جوية”.
بين الحين والآخر يذكرنا بايدن جميعًا بأنه كان من بين المتعاونين الرئيسيين في غزو بوش للعراق باعتباره غزوًا إمبرياليًا ونهبًا استعماريًا للاستيلاء على المورد الاستراتيجي للنفط الذي تحافظ أمريكا من خلاله على الهيمنة العالمية على الثروة والقوة والامتيازات، وهو الإدمان الذي لا يطاق. سيؤدي إلى انقراض الجنس البشري كنوع، وفي التصريح من خلال القانون الوطني بحالة جهنمية من القوة الوحشية والمراقبة الشاملة والسيطرة على الفكر، والتي لم تتجاوزها سوى محرقة شين جين بينغ للأويغور في شينجيانغ، والتي مكنت سرقة حرياتنا في تاريخنا، بما في ذلك عهد مكارثي، ونظام التعذيب الأكثر غرابة واستهجانًا، والأكثر شهرة في الجرائم ضد الإنسانية التي ارتكبت في غوانتانامو والسجون السرية الأخرى للأعداء السياسيين للنظام وحكم القلة والبلوتوقراطيين والسياسيين. سارقي الشركات البارونات، بما في ذلك حتى الهستيريا المروعة لمحاكمات ساحرة سالم.
مرة أخرى، أثبت أبطالنا وأبطالنا أن أقدامهم من طين، وإنني أشعر بالأسى على فشل الرؤية الأخلاقية والإدمان على السلطة واستخدام القوة والعنف من قبل الرئيس بايدن وحكومتنا وأمريكا كضامن لحقوق الإنسان العالمية. منارة أمل للعالم.
في هذا اليوم، وفي كثير من الأحيان، لم تصل نار شعلة الحرية البروميثيانية، التي تضيء أبواب أمتنا في ميناء نيويورك، عبر البحار البرية إلى الشواطئ الأجنبية. وهذه مأساة كبيرة، وهي مأساة لنا، ويجب علينا الرد عليها.
إن مقتل أبو إبراهيم الهاشمي القرشي وعائلته نتيجة الغارة الأمريكية على منزله، وليس الاعتقال بسبب جرائم يمكن إثباتها في محكمة قانونية، بل الاغتيالات السياسية، يتم مقارنتها بحق في وسائل الإعلام باغتيال سيدنا عيسى. أبو بكر البغدادي على يد ترامب. وهذا يضع بايدن وترامب على مستوى متساوٍ من اللاأخلاقية الإجرامية وإرهاب الدولة.
كما أنها تولد أمام مرحلة العالم والتاريخ تكافؤاً أخلاقياً بين داعش وأمريكا، كما يقصد أعداؤنا باستفزازاتهم استراتيجية نزع شرعية النظام. أنا أستخدم هذا بنفسي كناشط ديمقراطي، لأن فن الثورة يدور حول المطالبة بالأرضية الأخلاقية العالية ونزع شرعية السلطة والسيطرة على السرد.
إن إرسال الجيوش والشرطة لفرض الفضيلة من خلال العنف والقمع ليس شرًا فحسب، بل إنه غبي أيضًا؛ لأنه يلعب في أيدي العدو. وكما يعلمنا شكسبير في هنري الخامس؛ “عندما يلعب التسامح والقسوة لصالح المملكة، فإن اللاعب اللطيف هو الفائز الأسرع.”
ولا تزال هناك اختلافات ملحوظة بين بايدن وترامب، وبين أهداف وقيم ومُثُل الديمقراطيين والجمهوريين، وبينهم الجنون والخيانة. لكن اليوم أصبحت تلك الاختلافات فجأة وبشكل مروع أكثر ضيقا، وأخشى أن نحتاج إلى أكثر من ثقب الإبرة كنافذة لمستقبل أفضل.
كما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 28 أكتوبر 2019، ترامب والبغدادي: حياة وتأملات متوازية؛ إن القوى الشخصية والتاريخية التي تخلق الطغاة والوحوش بيننا كانت بمثابة دراسة مدى الحياة لي، وجوانب من الفضول فيما يتعلق بأصول وطبيعة الشر الناتج عن صدمات الطفولة الأولية في مذبحة الخميس الدامي التي أمر بها رونالد ريغان ضد احتجاج طلابي من أجل السلام. في بيركلي عام 1969 عندما كنت في التاسعة من عمري، وكنت على وشك الإعدام في البرازيل عندما كنت في الرابعة عشرة من عمري عندما كنت أدافع عن أطفال الشوارع من صائدي الجوائز من الشرطة، وهو ما يشبه أعمال موريس بلانشو في يونيو 1944 على يد النازيين ودوستويفسكي في عام 1849 على يد الشرطة القيصرية، بناءً على معلومات من جيرزي كوسينسكي. رواية الطائر الملون والتي تركز على الدراسة الكلاسيكية لأدولف هتلر من خطاباته وكتاباته، الإله السيكوباتي لروبرت جي إل وايت، وكلاهما قرأتهما خلال المدرسة الثانوية. وهكذا أصبحت مفتونًا بتقاطعات الأدب والفلسفة والتاريخ والص
علم النفس، واخترت أصول الشر كمجال دراستي مدى الحياة.
وبينما يحتفل العالم بمقتل البغدادي، الطاغية والوحش، ويدعي ترامب أن الفضل في هذا هو النصر الوحيد لإدارته، كما لو كان ذلك من أجل رأس حيوان خطير أطلق عليه مرشد سياحي النار بينما كان يستمتع بالكوكتيلات في معسكر الصيد. قد يكون من المثير للاهتمام مقارنة الحياة والأساليب والأهداف المتوازية لترامب والبغدادي.
إن الدراسة النفسية والتاريخية الكاملة لترامب والبغدادي كشخصيتين للإرهاب الفاشي والجنون على نطاق سياسي عالمي في سياق الصراعات الحضارية سوف تتطلب كتابا ذا أبعاد توراتية ومنح دراسية على مستوى الأطروحات مثل عمل وايت الرائع عن هتلر. وأشير هنا فقط إلى بعض الاصطفافات والتطابقات الواضحة؛ كل من ترامب والبغدادي مصابان بجنون العظمة ومرضى نفسيين، وقد استولوا على السلطة من خلال التلاعب بأولئك الذين اعتبروا أنفسهم ضحايا وقاموا بسهولة بتجريد الآخرين من إنسانيتهم لتغيير وضعهم، وذلك باستخدام تعطيل الأعراف وإعادة تصور الواقع من خلال الأكاذيب والتضليل لتشكيل التاريخ. أنظمة إرهاب الدولة وحملات التطهير الديني والعرقي وكراهية النساء الأبوية والعنف الجنسي ضد المرأة.
لدينا وفرة من المعلومات عن ترامب. يعد كتاب الدكتور جاستن فرانك “ترامب على الأريكة والحالة الخطيرة لدونالد ترامب: 27 طبيبًا نفسيًا وخبراء في الصحة العقلية يقيمون رئيسًا” بقلم باندي إكس لي، موارد ممتازة، ولا سيما تسليط الضوء على علاقة ترامب المثيرة مع ابنته، وأوهام العنف والسلطة والتي ترجع جذورها إلى علاقة طفولته مع والده المستبد والمسيء، وعدم قدرته على حب الآخرين أو التعاطف معهم نتيجة تخلي والدته عنه.
الأكاذيب المرضية، وضعف السيطرة على الانفعالات، والأوهام والأوهام العظيمة تكمل صورة الشخصية النرجسية والمفترس السيكوباتي. ولا يستطيع ترامب التمييز بين الحقيقة والأكاذيب والأوهام؛ إن جنونه وعقله الطفولي الضعيف، ونوبات الغضب والغضب الذهاني، وتنمر ونرجسية الطفل المدلل، لا يعفيه من المسؤولية عن أفعاله، أو أفعال العصابة الخائنة من المفترسين الجنسيين والفاشيين الذين جمعهم حوله.
إن الطريقة التي يتم بها التعبير عن جنون ترامب الخاص في سياستنا الوطنية هي رعب يمكن وصفه بدقة؛ يُترجم خوفه من التلوث وتثبيت البراز إلى حملته المميزة ضد الآخرين غير البيض وسياسة التطهير العرقي وإرهاب الدولة العنصري، وتحول كرهه للنساء إلى موجة أبوية من الحرمان القانوني من الحقوق الإنجابية للمرأة، وغروره الهش، وارتباك الهوية، والحاجة إلى الانتباه إلى حكم المسيرات الشبيهة بنورمبرغ، وزراعة المستبدين الحقيرين، والانتقام المهووس ضد أي شخص يرفض تقديم العبادة والخضوع.
قبل كل شيء، ما يوحد ترامب وهتلر والبغدادي، كوحوش وطغاة يعكسون بعضهم البعض وكشخصيات متوازية وقوى تاريخية، هو نظرية السياسة كمسرح للقسوة والحكومة كفن أداء.
لأدائهم القيادي كمهرجين الرعب والجنون يقدمون صورًا معاكسة لعهد الإمبراطور الروماني الذي وصفه أنتونين أرتو بذكاء ومكر في روايته العظيمة هيليوغابالوس؛ أو، الفوضوي المتوج، الشخصية التي عطلت الأعراف كعامل للتغيير والفوضى لتحويل مجتمع خامل ومتحجر، في حين عمل ترامب والبغدادي كشركاء في رد الفعل لإعادتنا إلى حضارة ثيوقراطية للملوك الكهنة من قبل اختراع الديمقراطية.
هنا أشير إلى أنه عندما أستخدم كلمة الحضارة، فإنني لا أفعل ذلك بالمعنى الأثري، ولكني أشير إلى تاريخ محدد نتقاسمه الآن جميعًا ولدنا في محاكمة سقراط، ومنتدى أثينا، والديموس كذات. – نظام المساءلة الذي يكون فيه جميع المواطنين مالكين متساوين للدولة وضامنين لحقوق بعضهم البعض.
ولا يستطيع ترامب التمييز بين الحقيقة والأكاذيب والأوهام؛ إن جنونه وعقله الطفولي الضعيف، ونوبات الغضب والغضب الذهاني، وتنمر ونرجسية الطفل المدلل، لا يعفيه من المسؤولية عن أفعاله، أو أفعال العصابة الخائنة من المفترسين الجنسيين والفاشيين الذين جمعهم حوله.
يزعم ترامب أنه قتل صورته المظلمة وظله الذاتي من خلال ادعاءه الكاذب بالنصر الذي حققته استخباراتنا وأجهزتنا العسكرية؛ لكن التاريخ سيشهد دائمًا هذا الوجه الثاني خلف قناعه، وهو التوأم السري الذي يحمله إلى الأبد، وجه السلطة والرغبات الملتوية غير المقيدة بقوانين وقيم الحضارة الديمقراطية والمجتمع الحر المتساوي: وجه قلب ترامب. الظلام يا البغدادي.
لذلك كتبت بتاريخ 28 أكتوبر 2019؛ ولذلك يجب أن أكتب الآن عن وجه بايدن السري وقلب الظلام، أبو إبراهيم الهاشمي القريشي، المرتبط الآن إلى الأبد كشخصيات إرهاب، وانتقام قاتل،
والقسوة.
لقد واجه إرهاب الدولة والإمبريالية الإرهاب الطائفي كمنظمات للعنف المؤسسي والسلطة؛ ولا يسعنا الآن إلا أن نأمل أن يتعرفوا على صورتهم التوأم في مرآة الموت التي تواجهنا بها الحرب وأعمال القوة والعنف، وأن يبتعدوا عن الهاوية التي تهدد باستهلاكنا جميعًا. وكما قال كين كيسي في خطابه التاريخي أمام مظاهرة سلمية ضد الحرب في فيتنام والمسجل في رواية توم وولف “اختبار حمض التبريد الكهربائي”؛ “إن الطريقة لإنهاء الحرب هي مجرد الابتعاد والقول اللعنة عليها. فقط ابتعد وقل اللعنة
This night the gates of infinity are opened, letting angelic and demonic figures of our true selves and possibilities of becoming human through; wishes may come true, visions be realized, the flaws of our humanity and the brokenness of the world find healing in our defining and inherent human powers of faith, hope, and love.
On this night over one thousand four hundred years ago a man looked into the future and made it real, to use the phrase from the film The Great and Powerful Oz, or believed an impossible thing and set it free to become so in Lewis Carroll’s terms and the famous line in Tim Burton’s film Alice in Wonderland. Both reference the event celebrated tonight throughout the Islamic world as a tidal change and Defining Moment of humankind, which finds echo in the idea of the alam al mythal, the Logos in the Bible, the Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism, Coleridge’s Primary Imagination, and Jung’s collective unconscious. In such ideologies we are negative spaces of ideal forms within the Unseen, ourselves and our reality transforms of messages which unfold into actualities; as in Yoda’s line which paraphrases Einstein; “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.”
If true, we can know nothing directly about the Reality which creates and interpenetrates us, for we are its shadows, or so Plato describes in the Allegory of the Cave; yet poetic vision and metaphorical truth allow us to escape the limits of our form. Holy Quran is a record of one such journey, a reimagination of Abrahamic faith which unfolded for the Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him, over twenty three years of conversations with the being of illumination which manifested to him as Jibril.
Any origin story which founds a new religion defines its meaning and is also a negotiated truth and a ground of struggle for those who claim it and each other as their own, and the story of the Message is no exception, having been argued and fought over ever since, but for myself what is most important is the Message as an event and a thing in itself and not its claims and interpretations; the emergence of transpersonal consciousness as transcendence, vision, and Awakening.
For with poetic vision we may win freedom from the limits of our form, birth new futures and ways of being human together, and create and define ourselves anew.
As I wrote in my post of March 21 2023, On Poetic Vision as Reimagination and Transformation of Our Possibilities of Becoming Human; Here in five acts as in a theatrical performance of myself do I offer my thoughts on Poetry Day.
Act One
A definition of terms, or What is Poetry?
First before all must be the true names of things.
Words matter. They can divide us, and they can unite us. Words can exalt and defile; they can shape our images and possibilities of becoming human and create or limit the worlds to which we can aspire, they can replace stones we hurl at one another and heal the pathology of our disconnectedness.
Always treasure words, for they represent the kinds of thoughts we are able to have and harbour imaginal creative power. We bear them forward as memories, histories, identities, like the shells of fantastic sea creatures; sounds which are analogies of form or what Gaston Bachelard called coquilles au parole.
So also do they bear us forward, and await their moment of wakefulness as seeds of becoming.
Act Two
Being an Apology for my digressive ars poetica; my writing style is idiosyncratic and strange, but so am I.
Once I sailed on the Lake of Dreams, was wooed by Beauty but claimed by Vision; and in such visions I fell into a sea of words, images, songs, histories, layered and interconnected with one another like a web of reflections and the echoes of voices lost in time, a wilderness of mirrors which capture and distort and extend ourselves infinitely in all directions.
Here is a shadow self of our histories which we drag around behind ourselves like an invisible reptilian tale and tail, legacies from which we must emerge to create ourselves anew and those which we cannot abandon without losing who we are.
Here my intertexts are manifest, seize and shake me with tumultuous voices and untrustworthy purposes, for where do our histories end and we begin?
We cannot escape each other, my shadows and I.
Act Three
An offering, ephemeral as memories borne by perfume and soaring on the wind, up into the gaps of reality through the gates of our dreams, to the Infinite, free from the flags of our skin, of which only echoes and reflections remain, etched upon our histories by the lightning of illumination to balance against the terror of our nothingness.
Sounds and Echoes
Once there was a sound
Without a shell to echo it
Not the vast roar and thunder
Of the sea
And her moonstruck tides
Chaos and the birth of universes
Undulating with the splendor of life
In all our thousands of myriads
Limitless possibilities of becoming
Dance with the Impossible in rapture and terror
Hope and despair, faith in each other as solidarity of action
Versus the pathology of our disconnectedness
And the lightning shatters us with fracture and disruption,
Sublimes the chasms of darkness we are lost in
A negation which is also a gift
Opening spaces of free creative play
Such is the embrace of death as liberation
From the limits of our form,
The flaws of our humanity,
And the brokenness of the world.
We escape the spirals of our shell
Soar among celestial spheres
Become exalted and defiled
Free and nameless as wild things
I am sound and echo
Abandoning the shell I have sung myself free from
Where am I now?
Act Four
Manifestoes of Action; poetry as revolutionary struggle.
As I wrote in my post of October 14 2021, On Art as Poetic Vision, Transgression, Seizure of Power, Reimagination, and Transformation: a Manifesto; Why do I write?
I offer here a manifesto of art as poetic vision, reimagination and transformation in the contexts of the performance of identities and in the guerilla theatre of political action and revolutionary struggle.
Art is transgressive when it challenges and violates our ideas of normality and the tyranny of other people’s ideas of virtue, it is a seizure of power and refusal to submit to authorized identities which confers freedom and autonomy through becoming self-created and self-owned, Unconquered and beyond subjugation by force and control, and it is poetic vision as Surrealist reimagination and transformation when it depicts and guides our passage through the labyrinth of time, history, memory, and the falsification of our captured and distorted images in the wilderness of mirrors, lies, and illusions, to enact our rapture and exaltation, our transcendence into realms of dream and of vision wherein rules do not apply and when it seizes us with truths immanent in nature and written in our flesh.
All true art defiles and exalts, sublimes us with rapture and terror before the Infinite and the secret truths of ourselves.
Art is intended to question and transform the rules and substance of human being, meaning, and value; to discover within the boundaries and interfaces, the silent and empty places of change and the limitless adaptive potential of systems, of unknowns, disconnects, misaligned juxtaposition and strange angles of view, new possibilities of becoming human.
As we learn from John Cage in music, Harold Pinter in theatre, and Piet Mondrian in art, it is the blank spaces which define and order meaning; and in history it is the silenced and erased voices to which we must listen most carefully, for here the emptiness speaks to us of secret power and of the key functions and relationships which authority must conceal to maintain its hegemony over us.
This free space of play, of the unknown as unclaimed space and the adaptive potential of a system, whose boundaries like the known shores on our maps of becoming human frame the range of choices and act as authorized identities and an intrinsic limit on freedom as future possibilities, remains outside and beyond all limits and systems of knowledge, like Gödel’s Theorem; no matter how much we learn and shift the boundaries of the known universe, the Infinite remains as vast as before, conserving ignorance.
If so the task of becoming human involves Bringing the Chaos; reimagination and transformation, the violation of normalities and transgression of boundaries of the Forbidden to free us of the tyranny of other people’s ideas of virtue and of authorized identities, to create limitless possibilities of becoming human as seizures of power.
Order appropriates; Chaos autonomizes.
We are what Gaston Bachelard called shells of speech, coquilles au parole, bearers of stories as memory, history, and identity, shaped by the passage of time and our interdependence with each other as prochronisms or the histories expressed in our forms of how we solved problems of adaptation and change.
Are we not the stories we tell about ourselves, to ourselves and to one another?
Can we not then change and transform ourselves with our stories through reimagination and poetic vision, as new and beautiful things freed from the legacies of our histories and the limits of other people’s ideas of virtue, beauty, and truth?
Let us seize the stories of which we are made, and become glorious.
As I wrote in my post of August 24 2020, The Transformative Power of Art: a Manifesto; The transformative power of art, its ability to reframe our ideas about self and other, to shift boundaries, reassign values, reclaim history and identity from silence, erasure, marginalization, and the authorization of inequalities of power and divisions of exclusionary otherness; these are among the vital functions which make art a primary human and social activity.
Art as poetic vision precedes and parallels politics as a means of changing our civilization and the possibilities of human being, meaning, and value; it represents a power held by autonomous individuals and communities against the tyranny of state force and control. Politics is a social art which is primary to our interdependent human nature and processes of becoming human. Through our words, images, and performance we can question, mock, expose, and challenge authority and incite, provoke, and disturb others in bringing transformational change to the systems and structures within which we are embedded, and I hope liberate us from them.
Art is life, for it involves us personally and directly in processes of adaptive growth and in renegotiation of our social contracts and relationships with others, both personal and political, and informs and motivates the performance of our identities.
If we are caught in a rigged game, we must change the rules and terms of struggle. “Rules are made to be broken” to paraphrase General MacArthur; order destabilized, authority delegitimized, traditional systems and structures interrogated, limits transgressed, force and control resisted and abandoned, and new truths forged and possibilities of becoming human discovered.
We must question, expose, mock, subvert, transgress, and challenge authority whenever it comes to claim us. For there is no just authority.
Let us seize control of our own narrative and representation, of our memory, history, and identity.
Let us be unconquered, masterless, and free.
Let us be bringers of chaos, joy, transformation, and revolution.
As I wrote in my post of December 30 2021, The Year in Review; Herein I write as a sacred calling to pursue the truth, and in the role Foucault described as a truth teller in reference to parrhesia and the four primary duties of a citizen; to question authority, expose authority, mock authority, and challenge authority.
During my years as a Forensics teacher and debate coach, I began the first day of each new year with a demonstration of purpose. On my desk I would place a solid base with the words; “This is a fulcrum”. Across it I would set a teeter totter saying; “It balances a lever.” And finally; “When your parents ask you what you’re learning in Forensics, tell them you’re learning to become a fulcrum, and change the balance of power in the world.” Such is my hope now for us all.
Truth telling as an ars poetica is about the regenerative and transformational power of truth in the sense that Keats used when he spoke of beauty, “I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination—What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth—whether it existed before or not—for I have the same Idea of all our Passions as of Love they are all in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty.” Or as Rumi teaches us; “Let the Beauty that you love be what you do.”
But truth telling is also about poetic vision as reimagination and transformation; to dream an impossible thing and make it real, as Alice teaches us when recounting the Six Impossible Things in her battle with the Jabberwocky. On the way to fight a dragon, and seeing it for the first terrible time, Alice remarks to the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s beautiful film; “That’s impossible.”
To which the Hatter says, “Only if you believe it is.”
“Sometimes, I believe in six impossible things before breakfast.”
“That is an excellent practice, but just now, you really might want to focus on the Jabberwocky.”
Just so.
Act Four
A benediction
May yours be days of glory and of freedom, of luminous transgressions and the exaltation of the unconquerable human spirit, of truthtelling and revelation, of the performance of unauthorized identities as guerilla theatre and of communal celebrations of our diversity and the limitless possibilities of human being, meaning, and value, of the ecstatic rapture and vision of living beyond all boundaries, in which nothing is Forbidden.
In the end all that matters is what we do with our fear and how we use our power; do something beautiful with yours.
Act Five
A coda in the form of a reading list; the Message of Islam and Its Poetry
The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary, by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
The Illuminated Hafiz: Love Poems for the Journey to Light
by Hafez, Michael Green (Illustrator), Saliha Green (Illustrator), Nancy Barton (Editor), Omid Safi (Foreword), Coleman Barks (Translator), Robert Bly (Translator), Peter Booth (Translator), Meher Baba (Translator)
Suhrawardi: The Shape of Light, by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi, Tosun Bayrak (Preface), Shaykh Muhammad Sadiq Naqshbandi Erzinjani (Afterword), Hadrat Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani (Foreword)
Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes, by Fakhruddin Iraqi, William C. Chittick (Translator), Peter Wilson (Goodreads Author) (Translator), Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Foreword)
The Four Last Great Sufi Master Poets: Selected Poems, by Paul Smith (Translator), Shah Latif, Nazir Akbarabadi, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Muhammad Iqbal
6 أبريل 2024 ليلة القدر مبارك: ليلة مبهجة برؤية شعرية وإعادة تخيل وتحويل إمكانياتنا اللانهائية في أن نصبح إنسانًا
في هذه الليلة ، تفتح أبواب اللانهاية ، مما يسمح لأشكال ملائكية وشيطانية من ذواتنا الحقيقية وإمكانيات أن نصبح بشرًا ؛ قد تتحقق الأمنيات ، وتتحقق الرؤى ، وتجد عيوب إنسانيتنا وانكسار العالم الشفاء في قوتنا المميزة للإيمان والرجاء والمحبة.
في هذه الليلة منذ أكثر من ألف وأربعمائة عام ، نظر رجل إلى المستقبل وجعله حقيقيًا ، باستخدام العبارة المأخوذة من فيلم The Great and Powerful Oz ، أو صدق شيئًا مستحيلًا وحرره ليصبح كذلك وفقًا لشروط لويس كارول. والخط الشهير في فيلم تيم بيرتون أليس في بلاد العجائب. يشير كلاهما إلى الحدث الذي تم الاحتفال به الليلة في جميع أنحاء العالم الإسلامي باعتباره تغييرًا مدًا للجزر وتحديد اللحظة للبشرية ، والتي تجد صدى في فكرة علم الميثال ، والشعارات في الكتاب المقدس ، وباردو في البوذية التبتية ، ومخيلة كوليردج الأولية ، وفكرة يونغ. اللاوعي الجماعي. في مثل هذه الأيديولوجيات نحن فضاءات سلبية لأشكال مثالية داخل الغيب ، يحولنا نحن وواقعنا الرسائل التي تتكشف إلى حقائق ؛ كما في سطر يودا الذي يعيد صياغة آينشتاين ؛ “كائنات مضيئة هي نحن، وليس هذا الأمر الخام.”
إذا كان هذا صحيحًا ، فلا يمكننا معرفة أي شيء بشكل مباشر عن الواقع الذي يخلقنا ويخترقنا ، لأننا ظلاله ، أو هكذا وصف أفلاطون في قصة الكهف ؛ ومع ذلك ، فإن الرؤية الشعرية والحقيقة المجازية تسمح لنا بالتهرب من حدود شكلنا. القرآن الكريم هو سجل لواحدة من هذه الرحلات ، إعادة تصور للإيمان الإبراهيمي الذي انكشف للنبي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم ، على مدى ثلاث وعشرين عامًا من الأحاديث مع كينونة النور التي تجلت له على أنها جبريل.
أي قصة أصل تؤسس دينًا جديدًا تحدد معناها وهي أيضًا حقيقة متفاوض عليها وأرضًا للنضال لمن يدعيها ويطالب كل منهم الآخر بكونه ملكًا له ، وقصة الرسالة ليست استثناءً ، حيث تم الجدل والنزاع حولها. منذ ذلك الحين ، ولكن الأمر الأكثر أهمية بالنسبة لي هو الرسالة كحدث وشيء في حد ذاته وليس ادعاءاتها وتفسيراتها ؛ ظهور الوعي العابر للشخص باعتباره السمو والصحوة.
لأنه من خلال الرؤية الشعرية قد نربح الحرية من حدود شكلنا ، ونولد مستقبلًا جديدًا وطرقًا لكوننا بشرًا معًا ، ونخلق ونعرف أنفسنا من جديد.
كما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 21 مارس 2023 ، حول الرؤية الشعرية كإعادة تخيل وتحويل لإمكانياتنا في أن نصبح بشرًا ؛ هنا في خمسة أعمال كما في أداء مسرحي لنفسي ، أقدم أفكاري في يوم الشعر.
فعل واحد
تعريف للمصطلحات أو ما هو الشعر؟
أولا وقبل كل شيء يجب أن تكون الأسماء الحقيقية للأشياء.
الكلمات مهمة. يمكنهم تقسيمنا ، ويمكنهم توحيدنا. يمكن للكلمات أن تمجد وتدنس. يمكنهم تشكيل صورنا وإمكانياتنا في أن نصبح بشرًا وإنشاء عوالم نطمح إليها أو تقييدها ، ويمكنهم استبدال الحجارة التي نرميها على بعضنا البعض وعلاج أمراض انفصالنا.
كنز الكلمات دائمًا ، لأنها تمثل أنواع الأفكار التي يمكننا امتلاكها وإيواء قوة إبداعية خيالية. نتحملها إلى الأمام كذكريات وتواريخ وهويات ، مثل أصداف مخلوقات بحرية رائعة ؛ الأصوات التي هي تشبيه بالشكل أو ما أسماه غاستون باشيلارد coquilles au parole.
هكذا هم أيضًا يدفعوننا إلى الأمام ، وينتظرون لحظة يقظتهم كبذور للصيرورة.
الفصل الثاني
كونه اعتذارًا عن استطرادي ars poetica ؛ أسلوبي في الكتابة خاص وغريب ، لكن أنا كذلك.
بمجرد أن أبحرت في بحيرة الأحلام ، استغلت بيوتي لكن فيجن تطالب بها ؛ وفي مثل هذه الرؤى سقطت في بحر من الكلمات والصور والأغاني والتاريخ ، متعدد الطبقات ومتشابك مع بعضها البعض مثل شبكة من الانعكاسات وأصداء الأصوات المفقودة في الوقت المناسب ، برية من المرايا التي تلتقط أنفسنا وتشوهنا وتوسعنا إلى ما لا نهاية. في جميع الاتجاهات.
إليكم ظل ذاتي لتاريخنا نتجول فيه وراء أنفسنا مثل حكاية ذيل الزواحف غير المرئية ، والموروثات التي يجب أن نخرج منها لنخلق أنفسنا من جديد وتلك التي لا يمكننا التخلي عنها دون أن نفقد من نحن.
هنا تظهر نصوصي البينية ، تشدني وتهزني بأصوات صاخبة وأغراض غير جديرة بالثقة ، إلى أين ينتهي تاريخنا ونبدأ؟
لا يمكننا الهروب من بعضنا البعض ، أنا وظلي.
الفصل الثالث
عرض ، سريع الزوال كذكريات يحملها العطر ومتصاعدًا في الريح ، يصل إلى فجوات الواقع عبر بوابات أحلامنا ، إلى اللانهائي ، الخالي من أعلام بشرتنا ، التي لم يبق منها سوى أصداء وانعكاسات محفورة عليها تاريخنا من خلال برق التنوير لتحقيق التوازن ضد رعب العدم لدينا.
اصوات وصدى
ذات مرة كان هناك صوت
بدون قذيفة لترددها
لا الهدير الهائل والرعد
التابع
وموجات المد والجزر لها
الفوضى وولادة الأكوان
متموجة بروعة الحياة
في كل ما لدينا من آلاف الملايين
احتمالات لا حدود لها في أن تصبح
الرقص مع المستحيل في نشوة الطرب والرعب
الأمل واليأس ، الإيمان ببعضنا البعض كتضامن للعمل
مقابل علم أمراض انفصالنا
والبرق يحطمنا بالكسر والاضطراب ،
يسمو فجوات الظلام التي ضلنا فيها
نفي وهو أيضًا عطية
فتح مساحات للعب الإبداعي الحر
هذا هو اعتناق الموت كتحرير
من حدود شكلنا ،
عيوب إنسانيتنا ،
وانكسار العالم.
نهرب من حلزونات قوقعتنا
حلق بين الأجرام السماوية
تعظموا ودنسوا
حرة ومجهولة مثل الأشياء البرية
أنا سليم وصدى
تركت القشرة التي غنيت نفسي منها
اين انا الأن؟
الفصل الرابع
بيان العمل ؛ الشعر كنضال ثوري.
كما كتبت في مقالتي في 14 أكتوبر 2021 ، حول الفن كرؤية شعرية ، والتعدي ، والاستيلاء على السلطة ، وإعادة التخيل ، والتحول: بيان ؛ لماذا أكتب؟
أقدم هنا بيانًا للفن كرؤية شعرية ، وإعادة تخيل وتحويل في سياقات أداء الهويات وفي مسرح حرب العصابات للعمل السياسي والنضال الثوري.
يعتبر الفن عدوانيًا عندما يتحدى وينتهك أفكارنا عن الحياة الطبيعية واستبداد أفكار الآخرين عن الفضيلة ، إنه استيلاء على السلطة ورفض الخضوع للهويات المرخصة التي تمنح الحرية والاستقلالية من خلال أن تصبح ذاتية الإنشاء ومملوكة للذات ، لا يُقهر ويتجاوز القهر بالقوة والسيطرة ، وهو رؤية شعرية كإعادة تخيل وتغيير سريالي عندما يصور ويوجه مرورنا عبر متاهة الزمن والتاريخ والذاكرة وتزوير صورنا الملتقطة والمشوهة في برية المرايا والأكاذيب والأوهام ، لتفعيل نشوة الاختطاف والتمجيد ، وتجاوزنا في عوالم الحلم والرؤية حيث لا تنطبق القواعد ، وعندما تصطادنا بالحقائق الجوهرية في الطبيعة والمكتوبة في جسدنا.
كل الفن الحقيقي ينجس ويمجد ، يسلّخنا بالنشوة والرعب أمام الحقائق اللامحدودة والسرية لأنفسنا.
يهدف الفن إلى التشكيك في قواعد وجوهر الإنسان ومعناه وقيمته وتغييرها ؛ لاكتشاف داخل الحدود والواجهات ، أماكن التغيير الصامتة والفارغة وإمكانات التكيف اللامحدودة للأنظمة ، والمجهول ، والانفصال ، والتجاور المنحرف وزوايا الرؤية الغريبة ، وإمكانيات جديدة للتحول إلى إنسان.
كما نتعلم من جون كيج في الموسيقى ، وهارولد بينتر في المسرح ، وبيت موندريان في الفن ، فإن المساحات الفارغة هي التي تحدد المعنى وترتبها ؛ وفي التاريخ ، يجب أن نستمع إلى الأصوات التي تم إسكاتها ومحوها بعناية ، لأن الفراغ هنا يتحدث إلينا عن القوة السرية والوظائف والعلاقات الرئيسية التي يجب أن تخفيها السلطة للحفاظ على هيمنتها علينا.
مساحة اللعب الحرة هذه ، للمجهول على أنها مساحة غير مُطالب بها وإمكانات تكيفية لنظام ، حدوده مثل الشواطئ المعروفة على خرائطنا في أن تصبح إنسانًا تشكل إطارًا لمجموعة الخيارات وتعمل كهويات مصرح بها وحدود جوهرية للحرية كمستقبل الاحتمالات ، تظل خارج وخارج كل حدود وأنظمة المعرفة ، مثل نظرية جوديل ؛ بغض النظر عن مقدار ما تعلمناه ونغير حدود الكون المعروف ، فإن اللانهائي يظل شاسعًا كما كان من قبل ، مما يحافظ على الجهل.
إذا كان الأمر كذلك ، فإن مهمة أن تصبح إنسانًا تتضمن جلب الفوضى ؛ إعادة التخيل والتحول ، وانتهاك الأمور الطبيعية وتجاوز حدود المحظور لتحريرنا من استبداد أفكار الآخرين حول الفضيلة والهويات المرخصة ، وخلق إمكانيات لا حدود لها لتصبح بشرًا مثل الاستيلاء على السلطة.
ترتيب يخصص ؛ الفوضى تستقل.
نحن ما أسماه غاستون باشيلارد أصداف الكلام ، وحمل المشروط ، وحاملي القصص كذاكرة ، وتاريخ ، وهوية ، شكلنا بمرور الوقت وترابطنا مع بعضنا البعض على شكل استباقيات أو تواريخ يتم التعبير عنها في أشكالنا عن كيفية حلنا. مشاكل التكيف والتغيير.
ألسنا القصص التي نرويها عن أنفسنا وعن أنفسنا وعن بعضنا البعض؟
لا يمكننا بعد ذلك تغيير وتحويل أنفسنا بقصصنا من خلال إعادة تخيل ورؤية شعرية ، كأشياء جديدة وجميلة تحررت من تراث تاريخنا وحدود أفكار الآخرين عن الفضيلة والجمال والحقيقة؟
دعونا نغتنم القصص التي صنعناها ، ونصبح مجيدًا.
كما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 24 أغسطس 2020 ، القوة التحويلية للفن: بيان ؛ القوة التحويلية للفن ، وقدرته على إعادة صياغة أفكارنا عن الذات والآخر ، لتغيير الحدود ، وإعادة تعيين القيم ، واستعادة التاريخ والهوية من الصمت ، والمحو ، والتهميش ، وإجازة عدم المساواة
أفعال القوة وتقسيمات الآخر الإقصائي ؛ هذه من بين الوظائف الحيوية التي تجعل الفن نشاطًا إنسانيًا واجتماعيًا أساسيًا.
الفن كرؤية شعرية يسبق السياسة ويوازيها كوسيلة لتغيير حضارتنا وإمكانيات الإنسان والمعنى والقيمة ؛ إنه يمثل سلطة يمتلكها أفراد ومجتمعات مستقلة ضد استبداد قوة الدولة وسيطرتها. السياسة هي فن اجتماعي أساسي لطبيعتنا البشرية المترابطة وعمليات التحول إلى إنسان. من خلال كلماتنا وصورنا وأدائنا يمكننا التشكيك في السلطة والاستهزاء بها وفضحها وتحديها والتحريض على الآخرين وإثارتهم وإزعاجهم في إحداث تغيير تحويلي في الأنظمة والهياكل التي نترسخ فيها ، وآمل أن نحررنا منها.
الفن هو الحياة ، لأنه يشركنا بشكل شخصي ومباشر في عمليات النمو التكيفي وفي إعادة التفاوض بشأن عقودنا الاجتماعية وعلاقاتنا مع الآخرين ، على الصعيدين الشخصي والسياسي ، ويعلمنا ويحفز أداء هوياتنا.
إذا وقعنا في لعبة مزورة ، يجب علينا تغيير قواعد وشروط النضال. “تم وضع القواعد ليتم كسرها” لإعادة صياغة الجنرال ماك آرثر ؛ زعزعة استقرار النظام ، ونزع شرعية السلطة ، واستجواب الأنظمة والهياكل التقليدية ، وتجاوز الحدود ، ومقاومة القوة والسيطرة والتخلي عنها ، وتزوير الحقائق الجديدة ، واكتشاف احتمالات التحول إلى إنسان.
يجب علينا أن نشكك في السلطة ونكشفها ونهزأ بها ونخربها ونتجاوزها ونتحدىها عندما يتعلق الأمر بمطالبتنا. لأنه لا توجد سلطة عادلة.
دعونا نتحكم في سردنا وتمثيلنا وذاكرتنا وتاريخنا وهويتنا.
دعونا نكون غير مهزومين ، بلا إتقان ، وأحرار.
دعونا نكون قادرين على الفوضى والفرح والتحول والثورة.
كما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 30 كانون الأول (ديسمبر) 2021 ، The Year in Review ؛ أكتب هنا كدعوة مقدسة للسعي وراء الحقيقة ، وفي الدور الذي وصفه فوكو بأنه راوي الحقيقة في إشارة إلى الحس والواجبات الأساسية الأربعة للمواطن ؛ للتشكيك في السلطة ، وكشف السلطة ، والتحايل على السلطة ، وتحدي السلطة.
خلال سنوات عملي كمدرس للطب الشرعي ومدرب للمناظرات ، بدأت في اليوم الأول من كل عام جديد بإظهار الهدف. على مكتبي كنت أضع قاعدة صلبة بالكلمات ؛ “هذه نقطة ارتكاز”. عبرها كنت أضع ترنحًا يتأرجح قائلاً ؛ “إنه يوازن بين رافعة.” وأخيراً “عندما يسألك والداك عما تتعلمه في الطب الشرعي ، أخبرهم أنك تتعلم أن تصبح نقطة ارتكاز وتغيير ميزان القوى في العالم.” هذا هو أملي الآن لنا جميعًا.
إن قول الحقيقة كقصة شعرية تدور حول القوة التجديدية والتحويلية للحقيقة بالمعنى الذي استخدمه كيتس عندما تحدث عن الجمال ، “أنا متأكد من قداسة عواطف القلب وحقيقة الخيال – ما هو الخيال يعتبر أن الجمال يجب أن يكون حقًا – سواء كان موجودًا من قبل أم لا – لأن لدي نفس فكرة كل عواطفنا كما في الحب ، فكلها في سامية ، وخلاقة في جمالها الأساسي. ” أو كما يعلمنا الرومي. “دع الجمال الذي تحبه يكون ما تفعله.”
لكن قول الحقيقة يتعلق أيضًا بالرؤية الشعرية باعتبارها إعادة تخيل وتحويل ؛ أن نحلم بشيء مستحيل ونجعله حقيقيًا ، كما تعلمنا أليس عند سرد الأشياء الستة المستحيلة في معركتها مع Jabberwocky. في طريقها لمحاربة تنين ، ورؤيته لأول مرة مروعة ، تشير أليس إلى ماد هاتر في فيلم تيم بيرتون الجميل ؛ “هذا مستحيل.”
الذي يقول له حتر ، “فقط إذا كنت تؤمن بذلك”.
“في بعض الأحيان ، أؤمن بستة أشياء مستحيلة قبل الإفطار.”
“هذه ممارسة ممتازة ، ولكن الآن فقط ، قد ترغب حقًا في التركيز على Jabberwocky.”
هكذا فقط.
الفصل الرابع
دعاء
أتمنى أن تكون أيامك أيام مجد وحرية ، وتجاوزات مضيئة ، وتمجيد للروح البشرية التي لا تُقهر ، وقول الحقيقة والوحي ، وأداء هويات غير مصرح بها كمسرح حرب العصابات والاحتفالات الجماعية بتنوعنا والإمكانيات اللامحدودة للإنسان معنى وقيمة نشوة النشوة ورؤية العيش خارج كل الحدود ، حيث لا شيء ممنوع.
في النهاية كل ما يهم هو ما نفعله بخوفنا وكيف نستخدم قوتنا ؛ افعل شيئًا جميلًا معك.
On this anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King by agents of the American government, we re-evaluate how we can honor the truths he revealed and bore witness to, and bring meaning to the sacrifices of our martyred sacred dead.
For myself and possibly for us all, the meaning of this as a signifier of our shared history which binds us together as a nation has been forever changed by its connection with one of the most important trials in American history, which links Martin Luther King with George Floyd and with every Black American murdered, tortured, re-enslaved as prison labor, and marginalized, silenced, and erased by the carceral state and its forces of repression and white supremacist terror.
How can we bear forward his message and live the truth he taught us?
America watched aghast and hypnotized at the litany of evils exposed by the George Floyd trial, our shock, grief, and rage at the complicity of our police in racist violence comparable to that of the Nuremberg Trial, as a secret truth becomes horrifyingly clear; our America, our government and its institutions and structures, and our broader sociocultural systems which form their context, has become the enemy America was founded to defend us from.
And while this national reckoning plays out, the Party of Treason enacts laws to silence the voices of the people with vote suppression in a panicked and last-ditch effort to maintain an elite hegemony of white power and privilege, and the killology of the police proceeds unimpeded.
A Kafka-esque absurdity of the trial of George Floyd’s murderer, a policeman whose family name gave us the word chauvinism, is the claim of the defense that the authorization of kneeling on the breathing passage of handcuffed prisoners in the official training manual of the police absolves police of murder in its use. It is instead damning proof of institutional torture and murder, and all police officers who have accepted employment under the direction of a torture and murder manual are complicit in its crimes, as are all bureaucrats, administrators, and elected officials who have with these rules and procedures authorized and legitimized a culture of racist killology and sciences of death and terror.
Our police are a cult of death, a criminal syndicate, and an instrument of white supremacist terror.
Within our police, criminal syndicates and networks of white supremacist infiltration rule our cities in feudal dominion, acting from within the shield of immunity which has made police an unaccountable and independent force of repression of dissent, racist violence, and state terror since the origins of police forces in slavecatching and the founding of the carceral state as a system for the re-enslavement of Black citizens as prison labor.
Abolition and disarmament of the police, prison abolition and justice system reform, and control of gun violence are three linked issues of racial justice and equality, which we can honor the memory of Martin Luther King in action to achieve.
Let this be the last year in which the police and other forces of state terror and tyranny can assassinate and murder our citizens with authorized immunity as instruments of elite wealth, power, and privilege.
Who bears arms bears death, and who does so with badges and the authorization of the state as its enforcers of inequality and tyranny also bears terror.
Choose life, and a free society of equals.
As I wrote in my post of April 4 2020, America’s Racist Death Squads: How Prosecutors and the Police Enact Ethnic Cleansing; On this the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, iconic figure of liberty and Gandhian nonviolent resistance, my thoughts turn to the distance we have yet to go to achieve his dream of a just society undivided by race.
There is no betrayal of public trust more terrible than that of those with whom we entrust our security and justice; police shootings, the unchecked power of the Prosecutor’s office in the re-enslavement of Black citizens as prison labor, and a racialized system of justice designed to enact white supremacist terror and ethnic cleansing runs on and on, undisturbed by mass protests and national political action.
The school to prison pipeline itself is prejudicial and an innate public harm, corrupting and subverting key institutions of public service into a malign shadow state through the counterinsurgency model of policing, which enculturates officers to respond to any disturbances of civil order as if all criminals were terrorists.
By such means has our vast bureaucracy of courts, police, Homeland Security, and other assets armed with guns and legal writs been turned from the cause of our protection from unequal power to that of our subjugation to it, from a guarantor of our democracy and equality to an instrument of state terror, and to the insidious, pervasive, and endemic evil of the re-enslavement of our Black citizens.
Fast on the heels of the two week Israeli orgy of destruction of al Shifa hospital with its brutal murders, rapes, and torture of both doctors and patients, comes the twin horrors of Israel’s bombing of the World Central Kitchen food convoy and deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers and the bombing of a foreign consulate.
This is Israel’s response to our victorious Red Sea Campaign of counter-blockade versus the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which was a total failure for them both in military and political terms despite American drone bombings of liberation forces sites in Yemen.
Here Genocide Joe tried and failed to kill us in defense of Israel’s blockade and policy of using famine and denial of medical aide in this campaign of genocide and ethnic cleaning of Palestine.
This makes Biden the second American President who has tried to kill me personally, though Reagan was only Governor of California when he ordered the police to open fire on the students protesting the Occupation of Palestine and the University’s investments in Israel, Bloody Thursday May 15 1969 in People’s Park Berkeley.
Though the American airstrikes on our drone launch sites did nothing whatever to discourage us and destroyed abandoned and unmanned locations (you didn’t think I’d use the same trick twice now did you?), one did blow up a shed where some lads had stored the spray paints they’d been using to decorate the local urinals with images of Biden and Netanyahu. We know who the enemy is.
And because the enemies of humanity could not silence us and others who stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine as guarantors of our universal human rights, enemies who speak with the only language they understand, that of terror, cruelty, dehumanization, erasure, and brutal repression of dissent, they murdered a convoy of humanitarian aid workers bringing food to starving children. This was by design, and had the intended effect as World Central Kitchen has withdrawn from Gaza.
Where did Israel learn the use of such terror?
From Hitler and Franco, who tested and codified their new model of conquest named Total War and characterized by crimes against civilian populations in the destruction of Guernica, and both the Spanish Civil War and all the horrors that came afterward.
O Israel, is this how you bring Tikkun Olam, Repair of the World?
America, is this how we stand in solidarity and liberation struggle with the “huddled masses yearning to be free”?
As written by Sam Jones in The Guardian, in an article entitled Gaza aid convoy strike: what happened and who were the victims? Seven World Central Kitchen workers died after a strike on their vehicle in Deir al-Balah; “What do we know about what happened outside the Deir al-Balah warehouse in Gaza?
Seven aid workers trying to deliver much-needed food to Gaza were killed in an Israeli strike in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday night. The Israeli government confirmed its military had carried out “an unintended strike”, hours after World Central Kitchen (WCK), an international charity that has brought hundreds of tonnes of food aid into Gaza, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were responsible.
WCK said the workers – three Britons, a Palestinian, a US-Canadian dual citizen, a Pole and an Australian – had been travelling in two armoured cars bearing the charity’s logo, and a “soft-skin vehicle”.
“Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” the charity said in a statement.
Israeli defence sources told Haaretz that the aid workers’ vehicles had been hit three times by missiles fired from a drone because of erroneous suspicions that a terrorist was travelling with the convoy.
Haaretz also reported that some of the passengers left their vehicle after it was hit by the first missile and climbed into another car, which was then hit by a second missile. The third car in the convoy, which approached to pick up the occupants of the second car, was hit by a third missile. The strike killed all of the WCK workers in the convoy.
WCK has paused its operations in the region while it decides on future activities.
Who were the victims?
The Guardian understands two of the three British aid workers to be James Henderson, 33, from Penryn, Cornwall, and John Chapman, 57, who was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. The BBC reported the third Briton as James Kirby.
The Australian government named one of those killed as Zomi Frankcom, a 43-year-old Melbourne-born aid worker. It said it confirmed her death with “overwhelming sadness”, adding that “her tireless work to improve the lives of others should never have cost Ms Frankcom her own”.
Frankcom’s family described her as “a kind, selfless and outstanding human being [who] travelled the world helping others in their time of need”.
The Polish victim was named by the country’s foreign minister as Damian Sobol.
“Our brave compatriot, Damian Sobol from the city of Przemyśl helped those in need in Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis is taking place,” Radosław Sikorski said in a video published on X.
“He was killed in an attack for which the Israeli army claimed responsibility,” Sikorski added, saying he would hold a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz.
Saif Issam Abu Taha, 25, was identified by relatives and hospital workers as the Palestinian aid worker killed.
His brother, Ahmed Abu Taha, confirmed he had worked for World Central Kitchen as a driver since the beginning of the year. “He was a dedicated young man,” his brother said.
Another brother described Taha to the New York Times as an enterprising man who spoke good English and had worked in his father’s business.
The last time he saw his brother, he told the newspaper, he and others were so excited to about getting to unload the desperately needed food, it was “like they were going to a wedding.”
On Tuesday, WCK named US-Canada dual citizen Jacob Flickinger as the final member of the group who was killed in the attack.
What is World Central Kitchen and what has it been doing in Gaza?
WCK was founded by a Spanish-American chef, José Andrés, in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It has since grown into a global charity that has provided food to refugees at the US border as well as working in Venezuela and Ukraine.
Over the past few weeks, WCK has brought about 600 tonnes of food and aid to northern Gaza using a maritime aid corridor that was opened last month. The charity says it has so far provided Palestinians facing starvation with more than 43m meals that have been delivered by land, air and sea.
How bad is the aid situation for Palestinians in Gaza?
At the end of February, the UN said at least 576,000 people in Gaza – a quarter of its population – were “one step away from famine”. In mid-March, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification – a group that includes the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization – said 1.1 million people, half of Gaza’s population, were facing famine.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s top relief coordinator, said on X at the time: “The international community should hang its head in shame for failing to stop it … We know that once a famine is declared, it is way too late.”
Aid agencies’ efforts to get humanitarian assistance to where it is most needed have been severely hampered by a combination of logistical obstacles, a breakdown of public order and lengthy bureaucracy imposed by Israel. The number of aid trucks entering the territory by land over the past five months has been far below the 500 a day that entered before the war.
How have people reacted?
In a statement on Tuesday, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “Unfortunately over the last day there was a tragic incident of an unintended strike of our forces on innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” He continued: “This happens in wartime. We are thoroughly looking into it … and will do everything to ensure it does not happen again.”
The IDF said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident”.
Andrés said he was heartbroken by his colleagues’ death and called on the Israeli government to “stop this indiscriminate killing … [and] stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon”.
The British government summoned the Israeli ambassador over the deaths, which the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said were “completely unacceptable”.
Cameron added: “Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure safety of aid workers on the ground.”
The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the death of any aid worker was “outrageous and unacceptable” and said the government was seeking “a thorough and expeditious review” as well as “full accountability for these deaths” from the Israeli government.
The Polish foreign ministry expressed its condolences to Sobol’s family, adding: “Poland does not agree to the lack of compliance with international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said American diplomats had already spoken to the Israeli government and urged “a swift, thorough and impartial investigation to understand exactly what happened”.
Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, said she had been “horrified” to hear of the deaths, which included a dual Canadian-US citizen.
“Canada expects full accountability for these killings and we will convey this to the Israeli government directly,” she said. “Strikes on humanitarian personnel are absolutely unacceptable.”
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was appalled by the deaths and called on the Israeli government to “clarify the circumstances of this brutal attack as soon as possible”.
As written by Bethan McKernan in The Guardian, in an article entitled Israel accused of targeting aid convoy ‘car by car’ as pressure grows over Gaza tactics; “Israel is facing mounting international pressure to justify its conduct in the war in Gaza as the bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a drone attack were repatriated to their families.
Seven members of World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed when a drone repeatedly hit their convoy of three cars, which were clearly identified as belonging to the charity, after it left an aid warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Monday night.
WCK’s founder, the chef José Andrés, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had targeted the convoy “systematically, car by car”, even though they were in touch with WCK and were aware of the aid workers’ movements.
“This was not a bad luck situation where, ‘oops’, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” he told Reuters. “Even if we were not in coordination with the IDF, no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians.”
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the IDF have apologised for the killings, and said that an investigation was under way. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Tuesday that Israel would open a “joint situation room” with international groups to enable better coordination of aid distribution.
The circumstances surrounding the killings have renewed scrutiny of Israel’s targeting methods and decision-making process in ordering air and drone strikes. According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the convoy did not contain any suspected militants and had been travelling along a route pre-approved and coordinated with the Israeli military.
More than 200 aid workers in the territory have been killed in nearly six months of conflict, along with scores of medical staff, journalists and civil response workers. The Guardian reported on Wednesday that IDF officials had permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed in “dumb” bomb strikes targeting even low-level Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants, based on what intelligence sources said was an AI-driven system that in many cases risked “attacking by mistake”.
The Palestinian death toll in the conflict reached 33,000 people on Wednesday, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. With many bodies still trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the true figure is likely to be higher.
WCK named the seven victims as the Palestinian driver Saif Issam Abu Taha, 25; Britons John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, who were working for the charity’s security team; and aid workers Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43, an Australian national; Jacob Flickinger, 33, a dual American-Canadian citizen; and Damian Sobol, 35, a Polish national.
Abu Taha’s remains were handed over to his family for burial in Gaza on Wednesday, and the other bodies were driven into Egypt through the Rafah crossing, now the Palestinian territory’s sole connection to the outside world, to be flown home.
The victims’ governments, as well as Palestinian officials and Spain, Andrés’s birthplace, have demanded a full and transparent investigation, with some voicing particular anger at Netanyahu’s explanation that “this happens in wartime’’.
All of the foreign victims come from countries friendly to Israel. WCK also deployed teams to help thousands of displaced Israelis in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted, triggering the war.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called Netanyahu’s remarks “unacceptable and insufficient”. He said: “We are awaiting a much stronger and more detailed clarification, after which we’ll see what action to take.”
Poland is understood to have launched its own investigation into Sobol’s death. Donald Tusk, the country’s prime minister, addressed Netanyahu and Yacov Livne, the Israeli ambassador to Poland, in a post on X, which said: “The vast majority of Poles showed full solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack (on Oct 7).
“Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test. The tragic attack on volunteers and your [Netanyahu’s] reaction arouse understandable anger.”
Joe Biden, who has provided strong diplomatic and military backing for Israel’s offensive, also offered a stern rebuke on Tuesday. The US president told reporters Israel had not done enough to protect aid workers and civilians.
US rhetoric on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has strengthened of late, but critics say Biden has opted not to use Washington’s leverage as Israel’s principal arms supplier and most important international ally to bring it to the negotiating table, or get it to increase the flow of aid to the territory’s desperate population of 2.3 million.
Famine is “projected and imminent” in the northern half of Gaza, a UN-backed report said last month, and according to Oxfam the number of people facing catastrophic levels of hunger across the territory as a whole has nearly doubled since December.
At least 27 children have died of malnutrition, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Getting assistance to where it is needed most, particularly the northern half of the territory, has been made difficult by damaged roads, a lack of fuel, a breakdown of public order and what aid agencies have described as unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles imposed by Israel. The number of aid trucks entering the territory by land over the past six months has been far below the 500 a day that entered before the conflict.
The UN said on Wednesday it had suspended movements at night in Gaza for at least 48 hours to evaluate security issues after the killing of the WCK staff.
Israel has barred Unrwa, the main UN agency in Gaza, from making deliveries to the north after claiming several of its employees were involved in the Hamas attack that triggered the war. Other aid groups say sending truck convoys north has been too dangerous because of the military’s failure to ensure safe passage.
Negotiations intended to establish a second truce and the release of the remaining hostages have faltered repeatedly since a week-long ceasefire at the end of November.
The UN’s human rights council is expected to consider a draft resolution on Friday calling for an arms embargo on Israel, citing the “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”. If adopted, it would mark the first time that the body has taken a position on the war.”
And this is not merely one atrocity among countless others wherein the idea of our universal human rights is degraded and subverted by state terror and tyranny, especially as imperial conquest and dominion as it is in the Occupation of Palestine in its entire seventy year history and in the horrific Gaza War now; for Israel has done this by taking mercy, compassion, our duty of care for others and the human element in decision making out of the loop in the Calculus of Fear that is war, and handed it over to artificial intelligences which are encumbered by none of these things, a glimpse of the world to come.
As written by Bethan McKernan Harry Davies in The Guardian, in an article entitled ‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets: Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants; “The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war.
In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict.
Their unusually candid testimony provides a rare glimpse into the first-hand experiences of Israeli intelligence officials who have been using machine-learning systems to help identify targets during the six-month war.
Israel’s use of powerful AI systems in its war on Hamas has entered uncharted territory for advanced warfare, raising a host of legal and moral questions, and transforming the relationship between military personnel and machines.
“This is unparalleled, in my memory,” said one intelligence officer who used Lavender, adding that they had more faith in a “statistical mechanism” than a grieving soldier. “Everyone there, including me, lost people on October 7. The machine did it coldly. And that made it easier.”
Another Lavender user questioned whether humans’ role in the selection process was meaningful. “I would invest 20 seconds for each target at this stage, and do dozens of them every day. I had zero added-value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval. It saved a lot of time.”
The testimony from the six intelligence officers, all who have been involved in using AI systems to identify Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets in the war, was given to the journalist Yuval Abraham for a report published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.
Their accounts were shared exclusively with the Guardian in advance of publication. All six said that Lavender had played a central role in the war, processing masses of data to rapidly identify potential “junior” operatives to target. Four of the sources said that, at one stage early in the war, Lavender listed as many as 37,000 Palestinian men who had been linked by the AI system to Hamas or PIJ.
Lavender was developed by the Israel Defense Forces’ elite intelligence division, Unit 8200, which is comparable to the US’s National Security Agency or GCHQ in the UK.
Several of the sources described how, for certain categories of targets, the IDF applied pre-authorised allowances for the estimated number of civilians who could be killed before a strike was authorised.
Two sources said that during the early weeks of the war they were permitted to kill 15 or 20 civilians during airstrikes on low-ranking militants. Attacks on such targets were typically carried out using unguided munitions known as “dumb bombs”, the sources said, destroying entire homes and killing all their occupants.
“You don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people – it’s very expensive for the country and there’s a shortage [of those bombs],” one intelligence officer said. Another said the principal question they were faced with was whether the “collateral damage” to civilians allowed for an attack.
“Because we usually carried out the attacks with dumb bombs, and that meant literally dropping the whole house on its occupants. But even if an attack is averted, you don’t care – you immediately move on to the next target. Because of the system, the targets never end. You have another 36,000 waiting.”
According to conflict experts, if Israel has been using dumb bombs to flatten the homes of thousands of Palestinians who were linked, with the assistance of AI, to militant groups in Gaza, that could help explain the shockingly high death toll in the war.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the past six months. UN data shows that in the first month of the war alone, 1,340 families suffered multiple losses, with 312 families losing more than 10 members.
Responding to the publication of the testimonies in +972 and Local Call, the IDF said in a statement that its operations were carried out in accordance with the rules of proportionality under international law. It said dumb bombs are “standard weaponry” that are used by IDF pilots in a manner that ensures “a high level of precision”.
The statement described Lavender as a database used “to cross-reference intelligence sources, in order to produce up-to-date layers of information on the military operatives of terrorist organisations. This is not a list of confirmed military operatives eligible to attack.
“The IDF does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist,” it added. “Information systems are merely tools for analysts in the target identification process.”
Lavender created a database of tens of thousands of individuals
In earlier military operations conducted by the IDF, producing human targets was often a more labour-intensive process. Multiple sources who described target development in previous wars to the Guardian, said the decision to “incriminate” an individual, or identify them as a legitimate target, would be discussed and then signed off by a legal adviser.
In the weeks and months after 7 October, this model for approving strikes on human targets was dramatically accelerated, according to the sources. As the IDF’s bombardment of Gaza intensified, they said, commanders demanded a continuous pipeline of targets.
“We were constantly being pressured: ‘Bring us more targets.’ They really shouted at us,” said one intelligence officer. “We were told: now we have to fuck up Hamas, no matter what the cost. Whatever you can, you bomb.”
To meet this demand, the IDF came to rely heavily on Lavender to generate a database of individuals judged to have the characteristics of a PIJ or Hamas militant.
Details about the specific kinds of data used to train Lavender’s algorithm, or how the programme reached its conclusions, are not included in the accounts published by +972 or Local Call. However, the sources said that during the first few weeks of the war, Unit 8200 refined Lavender’s algorithm and tweaked its search parameters.
After randomly sampling and cross-checking its predictions, the unit concluded Lavender had achieved a 90% accuracy rate, the sources said, leading the IDF to approve its sweeping use as a target recommendation tool.
Lavender created a database of tens of thousands of individuals who were marked as predominantly low-ranking members of Hamas’s military wing, they added. This was used alongside another AI-based decision support system, called the Gospel, which recommended buildings and structures as targets rather than individuals.
The accounts include first-hand testimony of how intelligence officers worked with Lavender and how the reach of its dragnet could be adjusted. “At its peak, the system managed to generate 37,000 people as potential human targets,” one of the sources said. “But the numbers changed all the time, because it depends on where you set the bar of what a Hamas operative is.”
They added: “There were times when a Hamas operative was defined more broadly, and then the machine started bringing us all kinds of civil defence personnel, police officers, on whom it would be a shame to waste bombs. They help the Hamas government, but they don’t really endanger soldiers.”
Before the war, US and Israeli estimated membership of Hamas’s military wing at approximately 25-30,000 people.
In the weeks after the Hamas-led 7 October assault on southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped about 240 people, the sources said there was a decision to treat Palestinian men linked to Hamas’s military wing as potential targets, regardless of their rank or importance.
The IDF’s targeting processes in the most intensive phase of the bombardment were also relaxed, they said. “There was a completely permissive policy regarding the casualties of [bombing] operations,” one source said. “A policy so permissive that in my opinion it had an element of revenge.”
Another source, who justified the use of Lavender to help identify low-ranking targets, said that “when it comes to a junior militant, you don’t want to invest manpower and time in it”. They said that in wartime there was insufficient time to carefully “incriminate every target”.
“So you’re willing to take the margin of error of using artificial intelligence, risking collateral damage and civilians dying, and risking attacking by mistake, and to live with it,” they added.
‘It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home’
The testimonies published by +972 and Local Call may explain how such a western military with such advanced capabilities, with weapons that can conduct highly surgical strikes, has conducted a war with such a vast human toll.
When it came to targeting low-ranking Hamas and PIJ suspects, they said, the preference was to attack when they were believed to be at home. “We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity,” one said. “It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”
Such a strategy risked higher numbers of civilian casualties, and the sources said the IDF imposed pre-authorised limits on the number of civilians it deemed acceptable to kill in a strike aimed at a single Hamas militant. The ratio was said to have changed over time, and varied according to the seniority of the target.
According to +972 and Local Call, the IDF judged it permissible to kill more than 100 civilians in attacks on a top-ranking Hamas officials. “We had a calculation for how many [civilians could be killed] for the brigade commander, how many [civilians] for a battalion commander, and so on,” one source said.
“There were regulations, but they were just very lenient,” another added. “We’ve killed people with collateral damage in the high double digits, if not low triple digits. These are things that haven’t happened before.” There appears to have been significant fluctuations in the figure that military commanders would tolerate at different stages of the war.
One source said that the limit on permitted civilian casualties “went up and down” over time, and at one point was as low as five. During the first week of the conflict, the source said, permission was given to kill 15 non-combatants to take out junior militants in Gaza. However, they said estimates of civilian casualties were imprecise, as it was not possible to know definitively how many people were in a building.
Another intelligence officer said that more recently in the conflict, the rate of permitted collateral damage was brought down again. But at one stage earlier in the war they were authorised to kill up to “20 uninvolved civilians” for a single operative, regardless of their rank, military importance, or age.
“It’s not just that you can kill any person who is a Hamas soldier, which is clearly permitted and legitimate in terms of international law,” they said. “But they directly tell you: ‘You are allowed to kill them along with many civilians.’ … In practice, the proportionality criterion did not exist.”
The IDF statement said its procedures “require conducting an individual assessment of the anticipated military advantage and collateral damage expected … The IDF does not carry out strikes when the expected collateral damage from the strike is excessive in relation to the military advantage.” It added: “The IDF outright rejects the claim regarding any policy to kill tens of thousands of people in their homes.”
Experts in international humanitarian law who spoke to the Guardian expressed alarm at accounts of the IDF accepting and pre-authorising collateral damage ratios as high as 20 civilians, particularly for lower-ranking militants. They said militaries must assess proportionality for each individual strike.
An international law expert at the US state department said they had “never remotely heard of a one to 15 ratio being deemed acceptable, especially for lower-level combatants. There’s a lot of leeway, but that strikes me as extreme”.
Sarah Harrison, a former lawyer at the US Department of Defense, now an analyst at Crisis Group, said: “While there may be certain occasions where 15 collateral civilian deaths could be proportionate, there are other times where it definitely wouldn’t be. You can’t just set a tolerable number for a category of targets and say that it’ll be lawfully proportionate in each case.”
Whatever the legal or moral justification for Israel’s bombing strategy, some of its intelligence officers appear now to be questioning the approach set by their commanders. “No one thought about what to do afterward, when the war is over, or how it will be possible to live in Gaza,” one said.
Another said that after the 7 October attacks by Hamas, the atmosphere in the IDF was “painful and vindictive”. “There was a dissonance: on the one hand, people here were frustrated that we were not attacking enough. On the other hand, you see at the end of the day that another thousand Gazans have died, most of them civilians.”
In Gaza, Israel has perfected the science of Total War by removing the human capacity for mercy and empathy from its cold equations in ways which their models Hitler and Franco could only have dreamed.
Gaza aid convoy strike: what happened and who were the victims?
‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets
Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants
3 באפריל 2024 הדים של גרניקה במלחמה הכוללת של ישראל: מקרה הפצצת עובד הסיוע
בעקבות אורגיית ההרס הישראלית לשבועיים של בית החולים אל שיפא עם רציחות אכזריות, אונס ועינויים של רופאים וחולים כאחד, מגיעות תאומי הזוועות של הפצצת ישראל על שיירת המזון המרכזית של המטבח העולמי ומותם של שבעה הומניטריים. עובדי סיוע והפצצת קונסוליה זרה.
זוהי תגובתה של ישראל לקמפיין המנצח שלנו בים סוף של מצור נגד מול המצור הישראלי של סיוע הומניטרי לעזה, שהיה כישלון מוחלט עבורם הן במונחים צבאיים והן במונחים פוליטיים למרות הפצצות המל”טים האמריקאיות על אתרי כוחות השחרור בתימן.
כאן רצח העם ג’ו ניסה ולא הצליח להרוג אותנו בהגנה על המצור והמדיניות של ישראל של שימוש ברעב ושלילת סיוע רפואי במסע הזה של רצח עם וניקוי אתני של פלסטין.
זה הופך את ביידן לנשיא האמריקני השני שניסה להרוג אותי באופן אישי, אם כי רייגן היה רק מושל קליפורניה כשהורה למשטרה לפתוח באש על הסטודנטים המוחים על כיבוש פלסטין וההשקעות של האוניברסיטה בישראל, יום חמישי הדמים 15 במאי 1969 בפארק העם בברקלי.
למרות שהתקיפות האוויריות האמריקניות על אתרי שיגור המל”טים שלנו לא עשו שום דבר כדי להרתיע אותנו והרסו מקומות נטושים ובלתי מאוישים (לא חשבת שאני אשתמש באותו טריק פעמיים, נכון?), אחת פוצצה סככה שבה כמה בחורים אחסנו את צבעי הריסוס שבהם השתמשו כדי לקשט את המשתנות המקומיות בתמונות של ביידן ונתניהו. אנחנו יודעים מי האויב.
ומכיוון שאויבי האנושות לא יכלו להשתיק אותנו ואחרים העומדים בסולידריות עם העם הפלסטיני כערבים לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו, אויבים שמדברים בשפה היחידה שהם מבינים, זו של טרור, אכזריות, דה-הומניזציה, מחיקה, דיכוי אכזרי של התנגדות, הם רצחו שיירה של עובדי סיוע הומניטריים שהביאו מזון לילדים מורעבים. זה היה בתכנון, והיה לו את האפקט המיועד שכן World Central Kitchen נסוג מעזה.
היכן למדה ישראל את השימוש בטרור כזה?
מהיטלר ופרנקו, שבדקו ותיקדו את מודל הכיבוש החדש שלהם בשם Total War ומאופיין בפשעים נגד אוכלוסיות אזרחיות בהשמדת גרניקה, וגם במלחמת האזרחים בספרד וכל הזוועות שבאו לאחר מכן.
הו ישראל, ככה מביאים את תיקון עולם, תיקון עולם?
אמריקה, האם כך אנו עומדים במאבק סולידריות ושחרור עם “ההמונים המצטופפים המשתוקקים להיות חופשיים”?
וזו לא רק זוועה אחת בין אינספור אחרות שבה הרעיון של זכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו מושפל ומתערער על ידי טרור ועריצות המדינה, במיוחד כפי שהכיבוש והשליטה האימפריאלית היא בכיבוש פלסטין בכל שבעים שנות ההיסטוריה שלה וב. מלחמת עזה הנוראה עכשיו; שהרי ישראל עשתה זאת על ידי נטילת רחמים, חמלה, חובת הזהירות שלנו לזולת והיסוד האנושי בקבלת החלטות מחוץ ללולאה בחשבון הפחד שהיא מלחמה, ומסרה אותו לבינה מלאכותית שאף אחד מהם אינו משועבד לו. הדברים האלה, הצצה לעולם הבא.
בעזה, ישראל שיכללה את מדע המלחמה הטוטאלית על ידי הסרת היכולת האנושית לרחמים ואמפתיה מהמשוואות הקרות שלה בדרכים שהמודלים שלהם היטלר ופרנקו יכלו רק לחלום.
Arabic
3 أبريل 2024 أصداء غرنيكا في حرب إسرائيل الشاملة: حالة تفجير عمال الإغاثة
وفي أعقاب العربدة الإسرائيلية التي استمرت لمدة أسبوعين لتدمير مستشفى الشفاء، بما رافقها من عمليات قتل وحشية واغتصاب وتعذيب للأطباء والمرضى على حد سواء، تأتي الفظائع المزدوجة المتمثلة في قصف إسرائيل لقافلة الغذاء التابعة للمطبخ المركزي العالمي ومقتل سبعة من العاملين الإنسانيين. عمال الإغاثة وتفجير قنصلية أجنبية.
هذا هو رد إسرائيل على حملتنا المنتصرة في البحر الأحمر لمكافحة الحصار مقابل الحصار الإسرائيلي للمساعدات الإنسانية لغزة، والذي كان بمثابة فشل ذريع بالنسبة لهم من الناحيتين العسكرية والسياسية على الرغم من قصف الطائرات الأمريكية بدون طيار لمواقع قوات التحرير في اليمن.
هنا حاول جو الإبادة الجماعية وفشل في قتلنا دفاعًا عن الحصار الإسرائيلي وسياسة استخدام المجاعة والحرمان من المساعدات الطبية في حملة الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي لفلسطين.
وهذا يجعل بايدن ثاني رئيس أمريكي يحاول قتلي شخصيا، مع أن ريغان كان حاكما لولاية كاليفورنيا فقط عندما أمر الشرطة بفتح النار على الطلاب المحتجين على احتلال فلسطين واستثمارات الجامعة في إسرائيل، الخميس الدامي 15 مايو 1969. في بيبولز بارك بيركلي.
على الرغم من أن الغارات الجوية الأمريكية على مواقع إطلاق الطائرات بدون طيار لم تفعل شيئًا على الإطلاق لتثبيط عزيمتنا ودمرت المواقع المهجورة وغير المأهولة (لم تعتقد أنني سأستخدم نفس الخدعة مرتين الآن؟) قاموا بتخزين رذاذ الطلاء الذي كانوا يستخدمونه لتزيين المبولات المحلية بصور بايدن ونتنياهو. نحن نعرف من هو العدو.
ولأن أعداء الإنسانية لم يتمكنوا من إسكاتنا والآخرين الذين يتضامنون مع شعب فلسطين كضامنين لحقوقنا الإنسانية العالمية، الأعداء الذين يتحدثون باللغة الوحيدة التي يفهمونها، لغة الإرهاب والقسوة والتجريد من الإنسانية والمحو والإبادة. من خلال القمع الوحشي للمعارضة، قتلوا قافلة من عمال الإغاثة الإنسانية الذين كانوا ينقلون الطعام إلى الأطفال الذين يعانون من الجوع. لقد كان ذلك مقصودًا، وكان له التأثير المقصود حيث انسحب المطبخ المركزي العالمي من غزة.
ومن أين تعلمت إسرائيل استخدام هذا الإرهاب؟
من هتلر وفرانكو، اللذين اختبروا وقنّنوا نموذجهم الجديد للغزو المسمى “الحرب الشاملة” والذي اتسم بالجرائم ضد السكان المدنيين في تدمير غرنيكا، وكل من الحرب الأهلية الإسبانية وجميع الفظائع التي جاءت بعد ذلك.
يا إسرائيل، هل هذه هي الطريقة التي تحضر بها تيكون أولام، إصلاح العالم؟
أمريكا، هل هذه هي الطريقة التي نقف بها في النضال التضامني والتحرري مع “الجماهير المحتشدة التي تتوق إلى الحرية”؟
هذه ليست مجرد فظائع واحدة من بين فظائع أخرى لا تعد ولا تحصى، حيث يتم تدهور فكرة حقوق الإنسان العالمية وتخريبها من خلال إرهاب الدولة وطغيانها، لا سيما في ظل الغزو والهيمنة الإمبراطوريين كما هو الحال في احتلال فلسطين طوال تاريخه الذي يمتد لسبعين عامًا وفي حرب غزة المروعة الآن؛ لأن إسرائيل فعلت ذلك من خلال إخراج الرحمة والرأفة وواجبنا في رعاية الآخرين والعنصر البشري في صنع القرار من حلقة حساب التفاضل والتكامل للخوف الذي هو الحرب، وسلمتها إلى الذكاء الاصطناعي الذي لا يعيقه أي شيء. هذه الأشياء، لمحة عن العالم الآتي.
وفي غزة، أتقنت إسرائيل علم الحرب الشاملة من خلال إزالة القدرة البشرية على الرحمة والتعاطف من معادلاتها الباردة على نحو لم يكن لنموذجيهما هتلر وفرانكو إلا أن يحلموا به.
Forty nine years ago this April, America launched Operation Condor, a global campaign to destabilize and repress socialist governments and movements, wage imperial conquest and dominion, impose and enforce capitalism as a hegemonic system, and authorize and institutionalize its apex predators and its elite hierarchies of wealth, power, and privilege.
This remains relevant to us today because it is the origin of many of the push forces driving waves of refugees to our border, and the horrific humanitarian crisis and test of our democracy created by American imperialism.
Migration is a word which conceals both the conditions which trigger it and our own complicity in creating them as consequences of our decades long policies of colonialism, anticommunist military adventurism, and economic, political, and cultural warfare; ecological devastation with its drought, plagues, floods, and famine, the sixth age of extinction and the death of the seas, poverty, slavery, and social and political destabilization, an age of tyranny and state terror, genocide and ethnic cleansing, weaponized faith and its patriarchal sexual terror, and multigenerational wars.
In terms of refugees fleeing to America for safety and survival as well as liberty and equality we are mainly speaking of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, though the hell zone of Columbia and Venezuela now accounts for many, and with the collapse of central authority in Mexico and its degeneration into a region of warlords, oligarchs, and feudal crime syndicates we have refugees from Mexico itself as well as the traditional seasonal laborers.
Globally we have refugees of imperial wars of dominion, genocides, and civilizational collapse weaponized by tyrants to shift Europe toward fascist regimes, mainly by America’s key regional ally Turkey in Erdogan’s conflict with Russia for dominion of Syria and Libya from which came the Third World War now ongoing in ten theatres of conflict, a strategy established by the American model of Operation Condor which created conditions for the capture of the Republican Party in 1980 and then America with the Stolen Election of 2016 by the Fourth Reich.
Migrant labor is slave labor; this is the great truth America has never confronted and must now answer for in the suffering masses at our border. Entire sectors of our economy run on it; agriculture in which labor becomes a strategic resource as we starve without it, but also child and elder care, hospitality, and some manufacture. America’s wealth and power is created for us by others to whom we export the real costs of production, others who must remain invisible and exploitable as unregulated illegal labor to wring every ounce of value from them for our elites. Thus we weaponize economic disparity in service to power and privilege, and create and maintain hierarchies of exclusionary otherness and white supremacy.
In this crucial election year of world-historical significance, which I believe will determine the fate of humankind for the next several centuries and offers us possible futures of either an Age of Tyranny or a United Humankind, the issue of immigration will be among the binary choices which will continue to inform, motivate, and shape human being, meaning, and value.
Interests of elite hegemonies of wealth and power converge here with those of racial privilege and white supremacy in historic toxicity, in parallel with the rise of the carceral state and militarized police as an instrument for the re-enslavement of Black citizens as prison labor and the repression of the Civil Rights Movement, and have done so from their origins. One such origin point is America’s appropriation, concealment, and instrumentalization of Nazi war criminals in the repression of dissent and the conquest of the world.
The Fourth Reich of which Trump is a figurehead did not emerge from nothing like Athena from the head of Zeus, but was an invention of American imperialism. As such its history and character as a global threat to democracy can be studied in the crisis of refugees and migration to which it has given birth, and in the legacies of our nation’s use of fascism as an instrument of dominion in the Americas and everywhere on earth, for as we were using it to conquer others, it was using us to seize the United States of America and the world.
As I wrote in my post of February 18 2020, Guatemala: Our Heart of Darkness; As we abduct and lockdown refugees in concentration camps and secret prisons, and drive others back into a Mexico whose government is supine before the power of its criminal organizations, we must reflect on the causes of this historic mass migration from Central America’s Dry Corridor of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua; why is this happening, and what can be done to fix the problems which are driving it?
Drought and famine caused by global warming and climate change are clear immediate causes and triggering stressors of the current migration, as articulated by José García Escobar and Melisa Rabanales in The Guardian; “Martina García grinds just enough maize kernels to make a handful of tortillas which she serves to her children and grandson for breakfast with a sprinkling of salt.
García, 40, must ration the family’s last few sacks of tiny corncobs after drought and prolonged heatwaves linked to the climate emergency devastated crops across Guatemala.
As a result, record numbers of subsistence farming families are going hungry: health officials registered more than 15,300 cases of acute malnutrition in children under five last year – up nearly 24% from 2018. It’s the highest number of acute malnutrition cases since 2015, when a severe drought destroyed harvests across Central America.
Rural communities in the Dry Corridor – a region which stretches through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua – are bearing the brunt, with impoverished indigenous families like García’s in Jocotán, among the hardest hit.
“I’m lucky if I can find pumpkin flowers,” said the emaciated García. “But we mostly just eat tortillas.”
After an irregular rainy season and an unpromising harvest, almost 80% of maize grown in Guatemala’s highland region was lost, according to Oxfam. All that remains for many families are tiny corncobs studded with discoloured grains that look like rotten teeth.
In October 2109, a baby in a nearby community died after not eating for many days. At least 33,000 children need urgent medical treatment due to acute malnutrition, according to Oxfam Guatemala.
Central America is one of the world’s most dangerous regions outside a warzone, where a toxic mix of violence, poverty and corruption has forced millions to flee north in search of security.
Now, drought, famine and the battle for dwindling natural resources are increasingly being recognized as major factors in the exodus.
And it seems to be getting worse: 2019 was the driest year in a decade with only 65 days of rain, according to Guatemala’s National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology. Guatemala’s subsistence farmers depend on rainfall – which is increasingly erratic – and most lack alternative sources of water.
Around one million Guatemalans – 15% of the population – are currently unable to meet their daily food requirements, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
Amid the growing threat of famine, almost 265,000 Guatemalans migrants searching for work, safety and food security were detained at the US southern border in 2019 – a 130% increase on the previous fiscal year.
Worsening hunger across the region is a factor in the rise in migrant caravans trying to reach the US overland, according to both analysts and migrants themselves.
The caravans have been met with repression and hostility by Mexican and American authorities who accuse the migrants and refugees of political subversion and criminality.
Hunger is not a new phenomenon in Guatemala: at least 60% of the population live in poverty, hundreds of thousands rely on food aid, and almost 50% of children suffer stunted physical and cognitive development due to chronic malnourishment.
But experts warn that the additional burden of extreme weather is overwhelming these communities, which have been long ignored and repressed by the government.
For García, the situation is desperate: food aid has yet to reach her canton, so once the maize runs out in March, she must find backbreaking work picking coffee – or else risk starvation. There’s no guarantee she’ll even find work, as a leaf-eating fungus known as roya – which thrives in warm conditions – has also devastated coffee crops.
García, who’s weak from chronic hunger, said: “I’ll get paid $4 a day. But if I pick less than 46kg, I won’t get paid.”
These conditions have worsened longstanding issues of endemic poverty and pervasive violence and criminality, legacies of historical colonialism and American imperialist and capitalist policies and interventions, which I have described in my post of September 4 2019; There is an interesting connection between the chaos we created in Central America which is driving a mass exodus of immigration to our borders and the conspiracy theory of Islamic replacement of Europeans which inspires our greatest terrorist threat today; many of the white supremacists who ruled Algeria as a colony of France, mainly former Nazi soldiers who joined the Foreign Legion after the end of World War Two, were after its fall in 1962 hired by the government of the United States to rule El Salvador and Guatemala as puppet regimes to protect our corporate profits.
With them came the same ideology and dream of a homeland and asylum for escaped Nazis, and a secure base of operations and launchpoint for the Fourth Reich, as with those who fled the fall of the colony of Algeria as a white ethnostate to France and blamed Charles de Gaulle for its abandonment, and whose descendants now form the core of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front.
Among the direct effects of the secret partnership between America and our former Nazi adversaries include:
The 1954 seizure of Guatemala by Eisenhower’s CI.A., which replaced a Marxist who had seized land owned by United Fruit and redistributed it to Indian peasants with a furniture salesman from Honduras, Castillo Armas. During the course of this coup America bombed Guatemala City, killed 9,000 communists, disbanded the unions, drove off the squatters, drew up a blacklist of some 70,000 leftists, built death squads and secret prisons, gave torture and brigandage free reign, created an enduring political front, the MLN, and started making a profit from our plantations.
The 1961 seizure of Guatemala by C.I.A. officer Willauer leading 200 men, a Harvard lawyer who had flown as Chennault’s first officer with the Flying Tigers in China. Guatemala was the staging area for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Throughout the 1960-63 period of a civil war which continued until 1996, America crushed a pro-Castro rebellion using six C.I.A. bombers, exiled Cuban shock troops, and Green Berets who used the opportunity to test counterinsurgency theories later used in Vietnam.
The 1974 accession of an officer of Armas named Alarcon to the Presidency of Guatemala, who institutionalized the MLN, declaring “I am a fascist, and I have tried to model my party on the Spanish Falange.” He was, of course, a C.I.A. agent. Nixon once brought him along on his annual pilgrimage to consult with what he called his spiritual advisor, the infamous Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.
The 1982 seizure of power and Presidency of Rios Montt, an evangelical Sunday school teacher and personal friend of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who suspended the constitution, replaced the courts with secret tribunals, escalated the scorched earth warfare, torture, and disappearances of his predecessors, and one thing more. During this the most terrible period of civil war throughout Central America, when Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras were in fact a single nation ruled by remnants of the Nazis we had transplanted from French Algeria as American puppet regimes, and with the full authority of Ronald Reagan, Rios Montt weaponized Protestantism against encroaching Catholic Liberation theology.
During the 18 months of the Mayan Genocide, in which his death squads killed 3,000 people each month and annihilated 600 villages, he also instituted a system of forced labor in concentration camps modeled on the Apartheid system of South Africa and ruled by terror using former British police and Protestant Orange Militia units hired from Belfast, a mercenary force who had splendidly legal Hong Kong passports courtesy of the Thatcher government.
During over 35 years of civil war in Guatemala including Rios Montt’s genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the native Indians, about half a million Indians were killed, over one million conscripted into military service and used against their own people, tens of thousands driven into Mexico as refugees, and most of the rest worked to death in the concentration camps. No American Army came to liberate them; they were not white, and no one cared so long as the profits flowed. Guatemala is America’s Belgian Congo; our heart of darkness.
I think of this every day as I eat my morning banana, for each one is the living form of a silent cry, the ghost of a tear, the memory of atrocity and horror, a thing like many others of fragile beauty and fleeting pleasure won by brutality and the theft of hope, pain and blood and death made manifest. For the dead and for wrongs past I can do nothing; it is the living who must be avenged and the future that must be redeemed.
The 1981 founding of ARENA in El Salvador and the 1982-3 Presidency of Roberto D’Aubuisson Arrieta, son of one of the original French Algerian OAS/Afrika Corps legionnaires and immigrants and leader of death squads since 1972, when he was trained at the US School of the Americas, often called a school for war criminals. During the peak of the civil war in 1983-84, about 8,000 people were killed every month in El Salvador.
The 1963-75 Honduran coup and military dictatorship of Arellano, for whose regime the term Banana Republic was coined, and of course the conduct of the Contra War beginning in 1980, which included the 1984 Honduran invasion of Nicaragua supported by 5,500 American troops.
Together Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras were ruled for over a generation by America through our puppet tyrants and the ARENA and MLN parties we created. But there is more; much more, of which I will mention only four more brief examples here.
The 1964-85 rule of Brazil by the Arena Party and its legacy of torture and state terror which was ended by the total bankruptcy of the nation due to policies of privatization, deregulation, and corruption as exported by the Chicago Boys to Latin America generally as imperialist economic warfare.
The 1976 military coup in Argentina and the civil war which followed, during which some 20,000 persons were disappeared. Of our earlier involvements; Peron had been a protégé of Franco and Mussolini, and Evita was assassinated not by us but by Vatican Intelligence with radiation poisoning due to Peron’s campaign against the Church. The Vatican also ran the Swiss escape route used by Otto Skorzeny and other SS officers at the fall of the Third Reich whom we later hired. The most brazen flattery I have ever heard directed toward Oliver North was to compare him to Skorzeny.
The 1973 assassination of Allende in Chile and support of the monstrous Pinochet regime which killed as many as one in every hundred of its citizens.
Regarding Mexico, we long ago seized Texas and California, drew a line in the sand to weaponize disparity and create a mass resource of illegal and therefore exploitable quasi slave labor, and now call aliens everyone on the wrong side of it who comes here to pick the fruit, wash the dishes, and clean the toilets that our own nephews and nieces, children and grandchildren, would laugh in your face at the suggestion they get their hands dirty doing themselves.
Fascism is a sin of pride whose effects reverberate still, propagating outward in ever-widening circles as a force of contagion like the ripples of a stone cast into a pond. And we are all complicit in it, who call ourselves Americans.
We must make a better future than we have the past.
Operation Condor and the Pinochet regime, a reading list
The Condor Years: How Pinochet And His Allies Brought Terrorism To Three Continents, John Dinges
2 de abril de 2024 Cómo el imperialismo estadounidense creó nuestra crisis humanitaria en la frontera: consecuencias de la Operación Cóndor
Este abril se cumplen cuarenta y nueve años de que Estados Unidos lanzó la Operación Cóndor, una campaña global para desestabilizar y reprimir gobiernos y movimientos socialistas, emprender la conquista y el dominio imperial, imponer y hacer cumplir el capitalismo como sistema hegemónico y autorizar e institucionalizar a sus principales depredadores y sus jerarquías de élite. de riqueza, poder y privilegios.
Esto sigue siendo relevante para nosotros hoy porque es el origen de muchas de las fuerzas de empuje que impulsan oleadas de refugiados hacia nuestra frontera, y de la horrible crisis humanitaria y prueba de nuestra democracia creada por el imperialismo estadounidense.
Migración es una palabra que oculta tanto las condiciones que la desencadenan como nuestra propia complicidad en crearlas como consecuencia de nuestras décadas de políticas de colonialismo, aventurerismo militar anticomunista y guerra económica, política y cultural; devastación ecológica con su sequía, plagas, inundaciones y hambrunas, la sexta era de extinción y muerte de los mares, pobreza, esclavitud y desestabilización social y política, una era de tiranía y terror estatal, genocidio y limpieza étnica, fe armada y su terror sexual patriarcal y guerras multigeneracionales.
En términos de refugiados que huyen a Estados Unidos en busca de seguridad y supervivencia, así como de libertad e igualdad, estamos hablando principalmente de Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras y Nicaragua, aunque la zona infernal de Colombia y Venezuela ahora representa a muchos, y con el colapso de la región central autoridad en México y su degeneración en una región de señores de la guerra, oligarcas y sindicatos del crimen feudal, tenemos refugiados del propio México, así como trabajadores estacionales tradicionales.
A nivel mundial tenemos refugiados de guerras imperiales de dominio, genocidios y colapso de civilizaciones, armados por tiranos para hacer que Europa se dirija hacia regímenes fascistas, principalmente por Turquía, el principal aliado regional de Estados Unidos, en el conflicto de Erdogan con Rusia por el dominio de Siria y Libia, del que surgió la Tercera Guerra Mundial. Ahora en curso en diez teatros de conflicto, una estrategia establecida por el modelo estadounidense de Operación Cóndor que creó las condiciones para la captura del Partido Republicano en 1980 y luego de Estados Unidos con las Elecciones Robadas de 2016 por el Cuarto Reich.
El trabajo migrante es trabajo esclavo; Esta es la gran verdad que Estados Unidos nunca ha enfrentado y por la que ahora debe responder ante las masas que sufren en nuestra frontera. Sectores enteros de nuestra economía funcionan con él; agricultura en la que la mano de obra se convierte en un recurso estratégico mientras nos morimos de hambre sin ella, pero también el cuidado de niños y ancianos, la hospitalidad y algunas manufacturas. La riqueza y el poder de Estados Unidos son creados para nosotros por otros a quienes exportamos los costos reales de producción, otros que deben permanecer invisibles y explotables como mano de obra ilegal no regulada para exprimirles hasta el último gramo de valor para nuestras elites. De esta manera utilizamos la disparidad económica como arma al servicio del poder y los privilegios, y creamos y mantenemos jerarquías de alteridad excluyente y supremacía blanca.
En este año electoral crucial de importancia histórica mundial, que creo determinará el destino de la humanidad durante los próximos siglos y nos ofrece posibles futuros de una Era de Tiranía o de una Humanidad Unida, la cuestión de la inmigración estará entre las cuestiones binarias elecciones que continuarán informando, motivando y dando forma al ser humano, su significado y su valor.
Los intereses de las hegemonías de riqueza y poder de las élites convergen aquí con los del privilegio racial y la supremacía blanca en una toxicidad histórica, en paralelo con el surgimiento del estado carcelario y la policía militarizada como instrumento para volver a esclavizar a los ciudadanos negros como trabajadores penitenciarios y la represión del Movimiento por los Derechos Civiles, y lo han hecho desde sus orígenes. Uno de esos puntos de origen es la apropiación, el ocultamiento y la instrumentalización por parte de Estados Unidos de los criminales de guerra nazis en la represión de la disidencia y la conquista del mundo.
El Cuarto Reich del que Trump es una figura decorativa no surgió de la nada como Atenea de la cabeza de Zeus, sino que fue una invención del imperialismo estadounidense. Como tal, su historia y su carácter como amenaza global a la democracia pueden estudiarse en la crisis de refugiados y migraciones que ha dado origen, y en los legados del uso del fascismo por parte de nuestra nación como instrumento de dominio en las Américas y en todas partes del mundo. la tierra, porque así como la usábamos para conquistar a otros, ella nos estaba usando a nosotros para apoderarnos de los Estados Unidos de América y del mundo.
Como escribí en mi publicación del 18 de febrero de 2020, Guatemala: Nuestro Corazón de Tinieblas; Mientras secuestramos y encerramos a refugiados en campos de concentración y prisiones secretas, y expulsamos a otros de regreso a un México cuyo gobierno está inactivo ante el poder de sus organizaciones criminales, debemos reflexionar sobre las causas de esta histórica migración masiva desde el Corredor Seco de Guatemala en Centroamérica. , El Salvador, Honduras y Nicaragua; ¿Por qué sucede esto y qué se puede hacer para solucionar el problema?
¿Problemas que lo están impulsando?
La sequía y la hambruna causadas por el calentamiento global y el cambio climático son causas inmediatas claras y factores estresantes desencadenantes de la migración actual, como lo expresaron José García Escobar y Melisa Rabanales en The Guardian; “Martina García muele suficientes granos de maíz para hacer un puñado de tortillas que sirve a sus hijos y a su nieto en el desayuno con un poco de sal.
García, de 40 años, debe racionar los últimos sacos de diminutas mazorcas de maíz de la familia después de que la sequía y las prolongadas olas de calor relacionadas con la emergencia climática devastaran los cultivos en toda Guatemala.
Como resultado, un número récord de familias de agricultores de subsistencia pasan hambre: los funcionarios de salud registraron más de 15.300 casos de desnutrición aguda en niños menores de cinco años el año pasado, casi un 24% más que en 2018. Es el número más alto de casos de desnutrición aguda desde 2015, cuando Una grave sequía destruyó las cosechas en toda Centroamérica.
Las comunidades rurales del Corredor Seco –una región que se extiende a lo largo de Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras y Nicaragua– son las más afectadas, y las familias indígenas empobrecidas como la de García en Jocotán se encuentran entre las más afectadas.
“Tengo suerte si puedo encontrar flores de calabaza”, dijo el demacrado García. “Pero la mayoría de las veces solo comemos tortillas”.
Según Oxfam, después de una temporada de lluvias irregular y una cosecha poco prometedora, casi el 80% del maíz cultivado en la región montañosa de Guatemala se perdió. Lo único que les queda a muchas familias son pequeñas mazorcas de maíz salpicadas de granos descoloridos que parecen dientes podridos.
En octubre de 2109, un bebé de una comunidad cercana murió después de no comer durante muchos días. Al menos 33.000 niños necesitan tratamiento médico urgente debido a la desnutrición aguda, según Oxfam Guatemala.
Centroamérica es una de las regiones más peligrosas del mundo fuera de una zona de guerra, donde una mezcla tóxica de violencia, pobreza y corrupción ha obligado a millones de personas a huir al norte en busca de seguridad.
Ahora, la sequía, la hambruna y la batalla por los menguantes recursos naturales se reconocen cada vez más como factores importantes del éxodo.
Y parece estar empeorando: 2019 fue el año más seco en una década con solo 65 días de lluvia, según el Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrología de Guatemala. Los agricultores de subsistencia de Guatemala dependen de las precipitaciones –que son cada vez más erráticas– y la mayoría carece de fuentes alternativas de agua.
Según el Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA), alrededor de un millón de guatemaltecos (el 15% de la población) actualmente no pueden satisfacer sus necesidades alimentarias diarias.
En medio de la creciente amenaza de hambruna, casi 265.000 migrantes guatemaltecos que buscaban trabajo, seguridad y seguridad alimentaria fueron detenidos en la frontera sur de Estados Unidos en 2019, un aumento del 130% con respecto al año fiscal anterior.
El empeoramiento del hambre en la región es un factor en el aumento de las caravanas de migrantes que intentan llegar a Estados Unidos por tierra, según analistas y los propios migrantes.
Las caravanas han sido recibidas con represión y hostilidad por parte de las autoridades mexicanas y estadounidenses, que acusan a los migrantes y refugiados de subversión política y criminalidad.
El hambre no es un fenómeno nuevo en Guatemala: al menos el 60% de la población vive en la pobreza, cientos de miles dependen de la ayuda alimentaria y casi el 50% de los niños sufren un retraso en su desarrollo físico y cognitivo debido a la desnutrición crónica.
Pero los expertos advierten que la carga adicional del clima extremo está abrumando a estas comunidades, que durante mucho tiempo han sido ignoradas y reprimidas por el gobierno.
Para García, la situación es desesperada: la ayuda alimentaria aún no ha llegado a su cantón, por lo que una vez que se acabe el maíz en marzo, deberá encontrar un trabajo agotador recogiendo café, o correr el riesgo de morir de hambre. No hay garantía de que encuentre trabajo, ya que un hongo que se alimenta de hojas conocido como roya, que prospera en condiciones cálidas, también ha devastado los cultivos de café.
García, que está débil por el hambre crónica, dijo: “Me pagarán 4 dólares al día. Pero si recojo menos de 46 kg, no me pagarán”.
Estas condiciones han empeorado problemas de larga data de pobreza endémica y violencia y criminalidad generalizadas, legados del colonialismo histórico y de las políticas e intervenciones imperialistas y capitalistas estadounidenses, que describí en mi publicación del 4 de septiembre de 2019; Existe una conexión interesante entre el caos que creamos en Centroamérica, que está provocando un éxodo masivo de inmigración a nuestras fronteras, y la teoría de la conspiración del reemplazo islámico de los europeos que inspira nuestra mayor amenaza terrorista hoy; Muchos de los supremacistas blancos que gobernaron Argelia como colonia de Francia, principalmente ex soldados nazis que se unieron a la Legión Extranjera después del final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, fueron contratados después de su caída en 1962 por el gobierno de los Estados Unidos para gobernar El Salvador y Guatemala como regímenes títeres para proteger nuestras ganancias corporativas.
Con ellos vino la misma ideología y el mismo sueño de una patria y asilo para los nazis fugitivos, y una base segura de operaciones y punto de lanzamiento para el Cuarto Reich, como ocurre con aquellos que huyeron de la caída de la colonia de Argelia como etnoestado blanco a Francia y culparon a Charles de Gaulle por su abandono, y cuyos descendientes ahora forman el núcleo del Frente Nacional de Jean-Marie Le Pen. .
Entre los efectos directos de la asociación secreta entre Estados Unidos y nuestros antiguos adversarios nazis se incluyen:
La toma de Guatemala en 1954 por la CIA de Eisenhower, que reemplazó a un marxista que se había apoderado de tierras propiedad de la United Fruit y las redistribuyó entre campesinos indios con un vendedor de muebles de Honduras, Castillo Armas. Durante el curso de este golpe, Estados Unidos bombardeó la ciudad de Guatemala, mató a 9.000 comunistas, disolvió los sindicatos, expulsó a los ocupantes ilegales, elaboró una lista negra de unos 70.000 izquierdistas, construyó escuadrones de la muerte y prisiones secretas, dio rienda suelta a la tortura y el bandolerismo, creó una sociedad duradera. frente político, el MLN, y empezamos a sacar provecho de nuestras plantaciones.
La toma de Guatemala en 1961 por la C.I.A. El oficial Willauer al frente de 200 hombres, un abogado de Harvard que había volado como primer oficial de Chennault con los Flying Tigers en China. Guatemala fue el escenario de la invasión de Bahía de Cochinos a Cuba. A lo largo del período 1960-63 de una guerra civil que continuó hasta 1996, Estados Unidos aplastó una rebelión pro Castro utilizando seis agentes de la CIA. bombarderos, tropas de choque cubanas exiliadas y boinas verdes que aprovecharon la oportunidad para probar teorías de contrainsurgencia utilizadas más tarde en Vietnam.
El ascenso en 1974 de un oficial de Armas llamado Alarcón a la Presidencia de Guatemala, quien institucionalizó el MLN, declarando “Soy un fascista y he tratado de modelar mi partido según la Falange Española”. Era, por supuesto, un agente de la CIA. agente. Nixon lo llevó una vez a su peregrinación anual para consultar con lo que llamó su consejero espiritual, el infame criminal de guerra nazi Josef Mengele.
La toma del poder y la presidencia en 1982 de Ríos Montt, un maestro evangélico de escuela dominical y amigo personal de Jerry Falwell y Pat Robertson, quien suspendió la constitución, reemplazó las cortes por tribunales secretos, intensificó la guerra de tierra arrasada, la tortura y las desapariciones de sus predecesores y una cosa más. Durante este, el período más terrible de la guerra civil en toda Centroamérica, cuando Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras eran de hecho una sola nación gobernada por restos de los nazis que habíamos trasplantado de la Argelia francesa como regímenes títeres estadounidenses, y con la plena autoridad de Ronald Reagan y Ríos Montt utilizaron al protestantismo como arma contra la invasión de la teología católica de la liberación.
Durante los 18 meses del genocidio maya, en el que sus escuadrones de la muerte mataron a 3.000 personas cada mes y aniquilaron 600 aldeas, también instituyó un sistema de trabajos forzados en campos de concentración inspirados en el sistema de apartheid de Sudáfrica y gobernados por el terror utilizando a antiguos británicos. unidades de policía y de la Milicia Naranja Protestante contratadas en Belfast, una fuerza mercenaria que tenía pasaportes de Hong Kong espléndidamente legales, cortesía del gobierno de Thatcher.
Durante más de 35 años de guerra civil en Guatemala, incluida la campaña genocida de limpieza étnica de Ríos Montt contra los indios nativos, alrededor de medio millón de indios fueron asesinados, más de un millón fueron reclutados para el servicio militar y utilizados contra su propio pueblo, y decenas de miles fueron expulsados a México. como refugiados, y la mayoría del resto trabajó hasta morir en los campos de concentración. Ningún ejército americano vino a liberarlos; no eran blancos y a nadie le importaba mientras las ganancias fluyeran. Guatemala es el Congo belga de Estados Unidos; nuestro corazón de oscuridad.
Pienso en esto todos los días mientras como mi plátano matutino, porque cada uno es la forma viva de un llanto silencioso, el fantasma de una lágrima, el recuerdo de la atrocidad y el horror, algo como muchos otros de frágil belleza y fugaz placer conquistado. por la brutalidad y el robo de la esperanza, el dolor, la sangre y la muerte se manifiestan. Por los muertos y por los agravios del pasado nada puedo hacer; son los vivos quienes deben ser vengados y el futuro el que debe ser redimido.
La fundación de ARENA en El Salvador en 1981 y la presidencia entre 1982 y 1983 de Roberto D’Aubuisson Arrieta, hijo de uno de los legionarios e inmigrantes originales del Cuerpo Africano/OEA argelino francés y líder de escuadrones de la muerte desde 1972, cuando fue entrenado en el Escuela de las Américas de Estados Unidos, a menudo llamada escuela para criminales de guerra. Durante el pico de la guerra civil en 1983-84, alrededor de 8.000 personas fueron asesinadas cada mes en El Salvador.
El golpe de estado hondureño de 1963-75 y la dictadura militar de Arellano, para cuyo régimen se acuñó el término República Bananera, y, por supuesto, la conducción de la Guerra de la Contra a partir de 1980, que incluyó la invasión hondureña de Nicaragua en 1984, apoyada por 5.500 tropas estadounidenses.
Juntos, Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras fueron gobernados durante más de una generación por Estados Unidos a través de nuestros tiranos títeres y los partidos ARENA y MLN que creamos. Pero hay más; mucho más, de los cuales mencionaré aquí sólo cuatro breves ejemplos más.
El gobierno de Brasil de 1964-85 por el Partido Arena y su legado de tortura y terror estatal que terminó con la bancarrota total de la nación debido a las políticas de privatización, desregulación y corrupción exportadas por los Chicago Boys a América Latina en general como Guerra económica imperialista.
El golpe militar de 1976 en Argentina y la guerra civil que le siguió, durante la cual desaparecieron unas 20.000 personas. De nuestras participaciones anteriores; Perón había sido un protegido de Franco y Mussolini, y Evita fue asesinada no por nosotros sino por la Inteligencia del Vaticano con envenenamiento por radiación debido a la campaña de Perón contra la Iglesia. El Vaticano también dirigió la ruta de escape suiza utilizada por Otto Skorzeny y otros oficiales de las SS durante la caída del Tercer Reich a quienes contratamos más tarde. El halago más descarado que he oído jamás dirigido a Oliver North fue compararlo con Skorzeny.
El asesinato de Allende en Chile en 1973 y el apoyo al monstruoso régimen de Pinochet que mató a uno de cada cien de sus ciudadanos.
En cuanto a México, hace mucho tiempo nos apoderamos de Texas y California, trazamos una línea en la arena para convertir la disparidad en un arma y crear un recurso masivo de mano de obra cuasi esclava ilegal y, por lo tanto, explotable, y ahora llamamos extranjeros a todos los que están en el lado equivocado y vienen aquí a elegir. la fruta, lavar los platos y limpiar los baños que nuestros propios sobrinos y sobrinas, hijos y nietos, se reirían en tu cara ante la sugerencia de que se ensucien las manos haciéndolo ellos mismos.
El fascismo es un pecado de orgullo cuyos efectos todavía reverberan, propagándose hacia afuera en círculos cada vez más amplios como una fuerza de contagio como las ondas de una piedra arrojada a un estanque. Y de ello somos cómplices todos los que nos llamamos americanos.
On this April Fool’s Day, let us enact reversals of order, play tricks which open the gates of our prisons to paths of transformational change, pursue the sacred calling of the truth teller, perform the four duties of a citizen; question authority, expose authority, mock authority, and challenge authority, and let us bring the Chaos.
Live with grandeur; so Jean Genet teaches us, and prescribes the embrace of our own darkness as a path of liberation in the discovery and performance of our true and best selves.
We all of us who in refusal to submit to Authority become Unconquered and bring the chaos as Living Autonomous Zones must question everything, ourselves most of all, if we are to dream new possibilities of becoming human.
A maker of mischief, I; who sabotages authority and systems of unequal power in any ways I can imagine and whenever possible as part of a sacred calling in pursuit of truth.
Once as a prank while teaching American History in high school I switched the textbook, a compendium of national memory, identity, and authorized truth, with the alternative American history trilogy by William S. Burroughs;
Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, and The Western Lands. I was hoping someone would call me on it, but no one ever did, so I went right on teaching the whole semester how insectoid aliens from Venus secretly rule earth through the Algebra of Need and our addiction to wealth and power. I think we had more fun in American History class that year than is usual.
If games of transgression, unauthorized identities, and transformation you would play, I invite you to play a game of chance with me. Write down six characters you would like to play, traditionally in chaos magic this would be three male and three female characters though clearly here as in life all rules are arbitrary and I encourage you to create your own and change them at random, and throw a six sided dice to choose who you will be today. No matter who you live as today, you will have five other possible selves in reserve, and tomorrow is another day and another throw of the dice. All identity is theatrical performance.
Celebrate with me April Fool’s Day as a liminal and transformative time of exploring unknowns beyond the boundaries of the Forbidden, the defiance of authority, the sabotage of elite hierarchies of wealth, power, and privilege, seizures of power from systems of oppression and carceral states of force and control, the violation of norms, and liberation from other people’s ideas of virtue.
By such acts we do give answer to the terror of our nothingness with the joy of total freedom.
Let us run amok and be ungovernable.
As I wrote in my post of November 25 2020, Using Chaos and Transgression as Revolutionary Acts to Transform Law and Order Into Liberty and Equality; I am against law and order because law serves power, order appropriates and divides us into hierarchies of elite belonging and categories of exclusionary otherness, whereas Chaos autonomizes and transgression empowers liberation struggle, delegitimation of authority, and seizures of power.
Order appropriates; Chaos autonomizes.
Let us restore the balance to systems of unequal power and unjust authority; for no inequality is fair, and there is no just authority.
Rejoice with me in this time of reversals of order through the performance of Acts of Transgression and Chaos. Let us dance our best and secret selves on the stage of the world, forge new truths, destroy and create ourselves anew in the ways we ourselves have chosen, and transform the systems and structures of oppression and tyranny, patriarchy and white supremacist terror, forces of exclusionary otherness and fascisms of blood, faith, and soil, into a diverse and inclusive free society of equals.
Dance with us in joy, revolution, and the frightening of the horses.
As I wrote in my post of April 1 2020, There Is No Return To Normal; There is no return to normal if and when the Doom of Man pandemic ends. Normal doesn’t live here anymore.
Once there was an illusion of mirrors, echoes, distorted surfaces without meaning, hollow and beautiful like a gossamer web of lies and irresistible as a gingerbread house.
It calls to us, this thing of no escape, this American Dream, with promises of wealth and the power to choose the condition of our own lives. Our songs are of meritocracy, upward mobility, and an inclusive society, but concealed within are harsh realities of unequal power and opportunity limited by authorized identities and divisions of caste or class, race, gender, faith, and nationality.
We are lured with belonging and membership, but offered only identitarian tribalization and exclusionary boundaries of otherness.
We are seduced with the guarantee of our right to the pursuit of happiness, but our society can produce only material diversions which commodify and dehumanize us.
We are offered security from intrusive forces at the price of our freedom and equality, and submission to authority and tyrannies of force and control. And security is an illusion, often one manufactured through fear by those who would enslave us as a pretext for the centralization of power to tyranny.
Throughout American history since our founding we have ever been a free society of equals, co-owners of our own government, each of us a king of his own life, but only on paper. The American Revolution has yet to be achieved; it is an ongoing process in which each of us must negotiate the alignment and boundaries between the ideal and the real.
In this struggle we are the prize; our agency or enslavement, our authenticity or the capture and limitation of the possibilities of our identity, our liberty both as individuals and as interdependent members of humankind.
And we must act now to save ourselves and our civilization, for we are running out of time. We are in a contest of survival against plutocratic corporate greed and our extinction as a species on one hand and against fascist tyranny and the fall of democracy and global civilization on the other.
Let us free ourselves from the illusions of our normality.
On this day of Easter in which the forces of light and darkness align in balance and signal the fertility of spring, I wish us all great happiness of our transformative rebirth, the awakening of creativity, and the reimagination of humankind.
Today we celebrate the renewal of the world as Easter, Ēostre in Old English, the ancient Germanic fertility rite of spring which honors the prolific Bunny Goddess, Ostara in Old High German, cognate of the Viking deity whose name in Old Norse, Austr, means dawn and who Shiva-like dances the ongoing creation of the world, and as a celebration of Resurrection from death was assimilated into the new faith of a sacrificial and redemptive man-god which exploded across the world two millennia ago, an appropriation and radical revision of Passover in Judaism by a Roman mystery cult. From this beginning it became more layered, assimilating local faiths and cultures wherever it propagated, as did our civilization as a whole. For myself, all of this is bound together with the figure of the Rabbitt in Alice in Wonderland as an Orphic Guide of the Soul.
On this Down the Rabbit Hole Day, we celebrate a Gordian Knot of history which makes ambiguous and relative our multilayered and interdependent mimetic cueing systems of transformative rebirth and the reimagination of humankind, whose origins in the spring fire festival and planting season rites were revisioned with the idea of Christ as death transcendence and symbolized by the colored eggs we now hide for children, a near cultural universal with a history over sixty thousand years old in Africa which was transmitted through the early church in Mesopotamia to the Orthodox faith, and with the Roman Ritual of 1610 became associated with the Resurrection.
The divine re-enters and sacralizes the world, reanimates and makes new the material universe, and the dead rise up in glory and awaken from their discarded husks and the limits of their forms; it is an ancient idea, born of the primal fear of death and nothingness in a universe without any value or meaning other than that which we ourselves create, which echoes the first religion of humankind, the global neolithic cult of the Cave Bear whose return from hibernation after winter provided a metaphor for the existence, survival beyond death, and rebirth of the soul.
Like much of our cultural identity in America today and of the historical civilization of Europe, it is a complex structure of interdependent and diverse sources, at its roots born of the tumultuous mixing of peoples from which we ourselves arise.
Such recursive and chaotic processes of change and transformative rebirth are ceaseless and ongoing, creating new forms of primordial truths written in our flesh. Though Easter in its original form is primarily an orgiastic rite of affirmation of our life force, in which nothing is Forbidden, beyond all boundaries and limits as ecstasy, transgression, and self-reinvention, the Rites of Spring have long been Bowdlerized as a children’s holiday rather than one of the fertility of the earth as planting begins, and creating children who are the objects of celebration, in balance with Halloween as a celebration of the coming of winter, veneration of our ancestors, death as liberation from the limits of our form, transformation, and the embrace of our monstrosity.
The dance of life and death always contains its opposite force as a defining negative space.
Here I think of the genius of Jenna Ortega’s mating and hunting dance in Wednesday, which embodies the inherent polar forces of our existence performed to a song which was originally a queer cruising anthem in which headhunting and hunting for sex are unified as performances of ourselves and our monstrosity as figures of the wildness of nature.
Humans create themselves over time; through other humans who are different from themselves as well as those alike.
Humans create ideas as tools with which to organize and shape ourselves, and our rites of spring are similar because they meet universal needs, Ostara and its reimagination as Easter among countless others. What needs are so enormous and universal to us that we create festivals as annual reset buttons to restore us to our true selves and free us from the legacies of our history?
We honor our diversity on this day of Easter, and look to the reimagination of ourselves, our civilization, and the futures to come.
What emerges from the Easter egg are the unknown possibilities of becoming human, and the myriad selves and futures we may unfold.
Happy Easter and good hunting; may you find the best future self and humanity it is possible to envision, and the freedom, means, and will of action to become and live your true image and self.
Here follows one of the most beautiful and luminous Easter poems in the English language, T. S. Eliot’s East Coker, second of the matchless Four Quartets:
“I.
In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur, and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.
In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon,
Where you lean against a bank while a van passes,
And the deep lane insists on the direction
Into the village, in the electric heat
Hypnotized. In a warm haze the sultry light
Is absorbed, not reflected, by grey stone.
The dahlias sleep in the empty silence.
Wait for the early owl.
In that open field
If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close,
On a summer midnight, you can hear the music
Of the weak pipe and the little drum
And see them dancing around the bonfire
The association of man and woman
In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie—
A dignified and commodiois sacrament.
Two and two, necessarye coniunction,
Holding eche other by the hand or the arm
Whiche betokeneth concorde. Round and round the fire
Leaping through the flames, or joined in circles,
Rustically solemn or in rustic laughter
Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes,
Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth
Mirth of those long since under earth
Nourishing the corn. Keeping time,
Keeping the rhythm in their dancing
As in their living in the living seasons
The time of the seasons and the constellations
The time of milking and the time of harvest
The time of the coupling of man and woman
And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling.
Eating and drinking. Dung and death.
Dawn points, and another day
Prepares for heat and silence. Out at sea the dawn wind
Wrinkles and slides. I am here
Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning.
II.
What is the late November doing
With the disturbance of the spring
And creatures of the summer heat,
And snowdrops writhing under feet
And hollyhocks that aim too high
Red into grey and tumble down
Late roses filled with early snow?
Thunder rolled by the rolling stars
Simulates triumphal cars
Deployed in constellated wars
Scorpion fights against the sun
Until the Sun and Moon go down
Comets weep and Leonids fly
Hunt the heavens and the plains
Whirled in a vortex that shall bring
The world to that destructive fire
Which burns before the ice-cap reigns
That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory
A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion,
Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle
With words and meanings. The poetry does not matter
It was not (to start again) what one had expected.
What was to be the value of the long looked forward to,
Long hope for calm, the autumnal serenity
And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us
Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders,
bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit?
The serenity only a deliberate hebitude,
The wisdom only the knowledge of dead secrets
Useless in the darkness into which they peered
Or from which they turned their eyes. There is, it seems to us,
At best, only a limited value
In the knowledge derived from experience.
The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies,
For the pattern is new in every moment
And every moment is a new and shocking
Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived
Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm.
In the middle, not only in the middle of the way
But all the way, in a dark wood, in a bramble,
On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure foothold,
And menaced by monsters, fancy lights,
Risking enchantment. Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,
Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,
Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.
The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.
The houses are all gone under the sea.
The dancers are all gone under the hill.
III.
O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark,
And dark the Sun and Moon, and the Almanach de Gotha
And the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Directory of Directors,
And cold the sense and lost the motive of action.
And we all go with them, into the silent funeral,
Nobody’s funeral, for there is no one to bury.
I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,
The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away—
Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;
Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing—
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.
You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again,
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.
IV.
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer’s art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind of our, and Adam’s curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.
The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.
The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.
The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.
V.
So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years—
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l’entre deux guerres
Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.”
Wednesday Dances
How if we must tell our stories, or be rewritten and falsified by others? I find it interesting that Jenna Ortega chose a queer cruising anthem for her signature dance, which confuses and conflates in ambiguous meanings the rituals of mating and hunting, as this Netflix series does as an extended metaphor and allegory of subversions of authorized identities of sex and gender and seizures of power as revolutionary struggle.
Torch of Liberty 