May 15 2024 On This 76th Anniversary of Nakba Day, Choose Love Over Hate and Solidarity Over Division

     With last year’s United Nations declaration of Nakba Day, the historic trauma of the Palestinians and Israel’s kleptocratic imperial conquest and dominion and wars of ethnic cleansing and genocide belong not only to both sides of a divided people, but to all humankind.

     Herein we bear witness and I hope heed its warning, for fascisms of blood, faith, and soil are universal to humans as failures of solidarity and interdependence driven by fear, especially when generalized and overwhelming fear and existential threats are shaped by authority in service to power and the carceral state of force and control through division and falsification.

     No matter where you begin with hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness, you always end up at the gates of Auschwitz.

     Why recreate a hell you have escaped from?

      Israel has learned the wrong lessons from the Nazis. Seizure of power as autonomy and self-determination, yes; but why not change the systems of unequal power, instead of trading places as tyrants rather than prisoners?

     Why has the state of Israel reconstructed not the dream of Sepharad in which all are equal regardless of faith, race, or national identity, but the nightmare of its destroyer the Spanish Empire and its ideology of limpieza enforced by Conquest and Inquisition?

      With the Inquisition and the Holocaust as the twin poles of its historical identity, and as imposed conditions of struggle, Israel has achieved a space of relative safety at the cost of becoming a wholly militarized society united by blood and faith. But security is an illusion, because state terror and fear beyond hope create their own counterforce as resistance and revolution.

      Fear is not the only means of exchange, nor power the only thing which has meaning.

      Palestine and Israel are one people divided by history. Of memory, history, and the struggle between the masks that others make for us as authorized identities in service to power by those who would enslave us and those we make for ourselves, of falsification versus truths written in our flesh, this I say; only the redemptive power of love can free us from the Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force.   

     There are no Israelis, no Palestinians; only people like ourselves and the choices we make about how to be human together.

      On this Nakba Day, let us mourn the collapse of moral vision and the brotherhood of all humankind which unleashed it as the Defining Moment of both Palestinian and Israeli identity, dream a better future than we have the past, and act as a United Humankind to make it real.

     Let us choose love over hate and solidarity over division.

      As written by Hamas last year, before the October 7 events engineered by Israel through IDF infiltration and subversion agent networks within Hamas disrupted the Israel-Palestinian peace and unification movement and provided Netanyahu and his criminal settler regime a casus belli for the genocide of the Palestinians now ongoing and the imperial conquest and dominion of the whole region in a generalized conflict with Iran; “The 75th anniversary of the al-Nakba (the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people) anniversary, which comes in the aftermath of the Israeli occupation forces’ most recent aggression against the besieged Gaza strip, brings back painful memories.

     Seventy-five years have passed since the Israeli occupation of Palestine, during which the occupation forces perpetrated the most horrific crimes and massacres against the Palestinian people, who have been holding on to their land and rights.

     On this anniversary, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas salutes the Palestinian heroic martyrs, who fell in their quest for freedom, wishes the injured speedy recovery, and hails the detainees in Israeli occupation jails. The movement states the following:

     First: The Joint Operations Chamber has consolidated the unity of the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation against the Israeli occupation.

     Second: The Israeli occupation will never have any legitimacy or sovereignty over historic Palestine and the occupation’s endeavours to obliterate the historic features and identity of Palestine are bound to fail.

     Third: We will remain loyal to the Palestinians languishing in Israeli occupation jails and we will continue to work towards releasing them by all available means.

     Fourth: The main reason behind the great suffering of the millions of Palestinian refugees is the Israeli occupation. The Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their land, from which they were forcibly evicted, is inalienable.

     Fifth: The 75-year-long Israeli occupation of Palestine is a stain on those who remained silent and have not lifted a finger to expose the occupation’s crimes and put an end to its aggression against our people, land, and holy places.

     Sixth: We call on the international community, Arab and Muslim Ummah, and the free peoples of the world to side with the just Palestinian cause and take swift action to end all forms of aggression against the Palestinian people until they regain their rights.”

     As written by Armani Syed in Time, in an article entitled Why the U.N. Is Commemorating Palestinian Displacement This Year; “For the first time ever, the U.N. will commemorate the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, in which at least 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly expelled from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948.

     On May 15, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will deliver a keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, as part of a high-level special meeting to mark Nakba Day. In a statement outlining the event, the U.N. said the occasion aims to “highlight that the noble goals of justice and peace require recognizing the reality and history of the Palestinian people’s plight and ensuring the fulfillment of their inalienable rights.”

    As the 75th anniversary of the Nakba approached, the 193-member General Assembly voted in November on whether to host a commemoration event; the plan was approved by a vote of 90-30 with 47 abstentions. The U.S., a longtime military and financial supporter of Israel, voted against the event and confirmed that no American diplomats would be present.

     For many others, the U.N.’s decision is an acknowledgement of the central role played by the intergovernmental organization in the partition of the Mandate for Palestine.

     “It’s acknowledging the responsibility of the U.N. of not being able to resolve this catastrophe for the Palestinian people for 75 years,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, according to the Associated Press.

     Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, described the commemoration as “abominable” and called it a “blatant attempt to distort history.”

    From the early 1900s, a growing number of Zionist settlers escaping antisemitism in Europe arrived in the Mandate for Palestine. During the 1920s and 1930s, Palestinians resisted displacement that had been enabled by the British colonial presence. British forces eventually tasked the U.N. with finding a solution.

     In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly, formed of 57 member states at the time, passed a resolution to divide the Mandate for Palestine into a Jewish state and a Palestinian one. The plan allocated more than half the country to the Jewish state at a time when Jews formed around one-third of the population. The plan would also have left around 500,000 Palestinians living in a future Jewish state with a drastic choice: remain a minority in a Jewish state or leave.

     Palestinians rejected the proposal and when the British mandate expired in 1948, Israel declared its independence.

     Fighting broke out and 5 Arab countries—Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria—deployed forces to stem the flow of Palestinian refugees. The aftermath of the fighting saw Israel conquer additional land that the U.N. plan had earmarked for a Palestinian state, while Egypt and Jordan each retained control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, respectively.

     Over time, the Israel took control of more land that was formerly designated by the U.N. as part of a future Palestinian state. After the June 1967 War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

     In recent decades, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded under successive governments, with the settler population surpassing half a million people earlier this year. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, and much of the international community see them as an obstacle to peace and a future Palestinian state.

     This year, Nakba Day is being observed on the heels of a round of violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups. Israeli airstrikes which intended to target key figures from Islamic Jihad, the second-largest Palestinian armed group in Gaza, claimed at least 33 Palestinian lives. Meanwhile, Palestinian militant groups fired as many as 800 rockets toward Israel, leading to the death of two people in Israel.

     “The catastrophe to the Palestinian people is still ongoing,” Mansour said, adding that Palestinians are still being “forcibly removed” from their homes.”

Arabic

15 مايو 2024 يوم النكبة

      مع إعلان الأمم المتحدة يوم النكبة ، فإن الصدمة التاريخية للفلسطينيين وغزو إسرائيل للتطهير العرقي لا تخص كلا الجانبين من الشعب المنقسم فحسب ، بل للبشرية جمعاء.

      هنا نشهد وآمل أن ألتفت إلى تحذيره ، لأن فاشية الدم والإيمان والتربة عالمية للبشر كفشل في التضامن والاعتماد المتبادل مدفوعًا بالخوف ، خاصةً عندما يتشكل الخوف المعمم والشامل والتهديدات الوجودية من خلال السلطة في خدمة القوة والحالة الجسدية للقوة والسيطرة من خلال الانقسام والتزوير.

      بغض النظر عن المكان الذي تبدأ فيه التسلسلات الهرمية من الانتماء النخبوي والآخر الإقصائي ، ينتهي بك الأمر دائمًا عند أبواب أوشفيتز.

      لماذا تعيد خلق الجحيم الذي هربت منه؟

       لقد تعلمت إسرائيل الدروس الخاطئة من النازيين. نعم ، الاستيلاء على السلطة باعتباره استقلالية وتقرير مصير ؛ ولكن لماذا لا نغير أنظمة القوة غير المتكافئة ، بدلاً من تداول الأماكن على أنها طاغية لا أسرى؟

      لماذا لم تعيد دولة إسرائيل بناء حلم سيفاراد الذي يتساوى فيه الجميع بغض النظر عن العقيدة أو العرق أو الهوية الوطنية ، ولكن كابوس مدمرها الإمبراطورية الإسبانية وأيديولوجية ليمبيزا التي فرضها الفتح ومحاكم التفتيش؟

       مع محاكم التفتيش والهولوكوست كقطبين مزدوجين لهويتها التاريخية ، وكشروط كفاح مفروضة ، حققت إسرائيل مساحة من الأمان النسبي على حساب أن تصبح مجتمعًا عسكريًا بالكامل متحدًا بالدم والإيمان. لكن الأمن وهم ، لأن إرهاب الدولة والخوف الذي يفوق الأمل يخلقان قوتهما المضادة كمقاومة وثورة.

       ليس الخوف هو الوسيلة الوحيدة للتبادل ، ولا القوة الشيء الوحيد الذي له معنى.

       في يوم النكبة هذا ، دعونا نحزن على انهيار الرؤية الأخلاقية والأخوة بين البشرية جمعاء ، الأمر الذي أطلق العنان لها باعتبارها اللحظة المحددة للهوية الفلسطينية والإسرائيلية ، ونحلم بمستقبل أفضل مما كان لدينا في الماضي ، ونتصرف كإنسان موحد. لجعلها حقيقية.

Hebrew

15 במאי 2024 יום הנכבה

      עם הכרזת יום הנכבה של האו”ם, הטראומה ההיסטורית של הפלסטינים וכיבוש הטיהור האתני של ישראל שייכים לא רק לשני הצדדים של עם מפולג, אלא לכל המין האנושי.

      כאן אנו מעידים ואני מקווה להקשיב לאזהרתה, שכן פשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה הם אוניברסליים לבני אדם ככישלונות של סולידריות ותלות הדדית המונעים על ידי פחד, במיוחד כאשר פחד מוכלל ומכריע ואיומים קיומיים מעוצבים על ידי סמכות בשירות למען כוח ומצב קרסראלי של כוח ושליטה באמצעות חלוקה וזיוף.

      לא משנה היכן אתה מתחיל עם היררכיות של השתייכות עילית ואחרות מדריגה, אתה תמיד מגיע בשערי אושוויץ.

      למה לשחזר גיהנום שממנו נמלטת?

       ישראל למדה את הלקחים הלא נכונים מהנאצים. תפיסת השלטון כאוטונומיה והגדרה עצמית, כן; אבל למה לא לשנות את מערכות הכוח הלא שוויוניות, במקום לסחור במקומות כרודן ולא שבוי?

      מדוע מדינת ישראל לא שיחזרה את החלום של ספרד שבו כולם שווים ללא הבדל אמונה, גזע או זהות לאומית, אלא את הסיוט של ההורסת שלה את האימפריה הספרדית ואת האידיאולוגיה של לימפיזה שנאכפת על ידי הכיבוש והאינקוויזיציה?

       עם האינקוויזיציה והשואה כצמד הקטבים התאומים לזהותה ההיסטורית, וכתנאי מאבק מוטלים, ישראל השיגה מרחב של ביטחון יחסי במחיר של הפיכתה לחברה צבאית לחלוטין המאוחדת בדם ואמונה. אבל ביטחון הוא אשליה, כי טרור המדינה ופחד מעבר לתקווה יוצרים כוח נגדי משלהם כהתנגדות ומהפכה.

       פחד אינו האמצעי היחיד להחלפה, ולא כוח הדבר היחיד שיש לו משמעות.

       ביום הנכבה הזה, הבה נתאבל על קריסת החזון המוסרי ואחוות האנושות כולה ששחררו אותו כרגע המכונן של הזהות הפלסטינית והישראלית כאחד, ונחלום עתיד טוב יותר ממה שהיה לנו בעבר, ונפעל כמין אנושי מאוחד. כדי שזה יהיה אמיתי.

The continuous Nakba’: Palestinians decry perpetual suffering

Farha film trailer/Netflix

Nakba Day: What happened in Palestine in 1948? | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/15/nakba-mapping-palestinian-villages-destroyed-by-israel-in-1948

Seventy+ Years of Suffocation | Amnesty International

https://nakba.amnesty.org/en/

Why the U.N. Is Commemorating the Palestinian Nakba | Time

https://time.com/6279800/united-nations-nakba-palestinians/

Why the Director of Netflix’s Farha Depicted the Murder of a Palestinian Family

https://time.com/6238964/darin-sallam-farha-netflix-interview/

The Palestinian Nakba: What Happened in 1948 and Why It Still Matters | Middle East Institute

https://www.mei.edu/events/palestinian-nakba-what-happened-1948-and-why-it-still-matters

Ten Facts You Need To Know About The Palestinian Nakba | BDS Movement

https://bdsmovement.net/news/ten-facts-you-need-know-about-palestinian-nakba

Jeremy Corbyn: Unite to end the Nakba | Progressive International

https://progressive.international/wire/2023-05-15-jeremy-corbyn-unite-to-end-the-nakba/en

Remembering the Nakba: Israeli group puts 1948 Palestine back on the map

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/nakba-israel-palestine-zochrot-history

The Nakba’s Coming Stages: Patterns, Process, and Predictability

May 13 2024 Anniversary of the Move Commune Bombing by Philadelphia Police

     Among the most outrageous and horrific incidents of police terror and racially motivated crimes against humanity in American history is the bombing of the Move commune of Philadelphia on this day thirty-nine years ago.

      Our endemic and pervasive racism as a nation and a society combines horrifically with authoritarianism and a militarized police state of force and control according to the counterinsurgency model, force multipliers which serve to dehumanize our nonwhite population, devalue the idea of citizenship, and enforce their subjugation and re enslavement as bond prison labor.

     While racism and submission to authority are complex and as social and psychological issues beyond the scope of structural change alone, racist police violence has a simple cure; disarm and demilitarize the police. Without weapons they are rendered harmless.

      We must return to our public safety and security services their primary role as guarantors of our universal human rights and providers of public well being. 

      The bombing of the Move Commune gives the lie to our idea of policing as a public safety service; we must dismantle the carceral state to free ourselves from the legacies of slavery and historical inequalities and injustices, abandon the use of social force, and begin to forge a free society of equals.

     As written by Ed Pilkington in The Guardian in an article entitled A siege. A bomb. 48 dogs. And the black commune that would not surrender; “For 40 years, Janine Phillips Africa had a technique for coping with being cooped up in a prison cell for a crime she says she did not commit. She would avoid birthdays, Christmas, New Year and any other events that emphasized time passing while she was not free.

      “The years are not my focus,” she wrote in a letter to the Guardian. “I keep my mind on my health and the things I need to do day by day.”

     On Saturday she could finally begin accepting the passage of time. She and her cellmate and sister in the black liberation struggle, Janet Holloway Africa, were released from SCI Cambridge Springs in Pennsylvania, after a long struggle for parole.

     The release of Janine, 63, and Janet, 68, marks a key moment in the history of the Move 9, the group of African American black power and environmental campaigners who were imprisoned after a police siege of their home in August 1978. The pair were the last of four women in the group either to be paroled or to die behind bars.

     The saga of Move was one of the most dramatic and surreal of the 1970s black liberation struggle. Along with their peers, the women lived in a communal house in Philadelphia under group founder John Africa, AKA Vincent Leaphart. All members took the last name Africa to show they considered themselves a family.

     A cross between the Black Panthers and west coast hippies, Move campaigned not only for equal treatment for African Americans but also for respect for animals and nature, caring for 48 stray dogs in the house.

     Such unconventional attitudes brought them into conflict with neighbours and the Philadelphia police, a notoriously brutal force even by American standards. After a siege lasting several months, on 8 August 1978 officers went in to clear the group from the property. In the melee, officer James Ramp was shot and killed with a single bullet.

     Despite the single shooter, and despite the fact that the group always protested that they were unarmed and that Ramp was killed by fire from fellow officers, the five men and four women were each sentenced to 30 years to life.

     Janine Africa’s release was bittersweet. While she was in prison, she corresponded over two years with the Guardian. In her letters she talked about the double tragedy of her life.

     Two years before the 1978 siege, police turned up at the Move house in Powelton Village and began harassing the group. A scuffle ensued and Janine was knocked over as she held her three-week-old baby, Life, in her arms.

     The baby appeared to have been trampled, his skull shattered. He died later that day.

     Then on 13 May 1985, by which time Janine Africa had been in prison for seven years, she was told the terrible news that the remaining members of the Move “family” had been assaulted a second time. On this occasion police didn’t just go in guns blazing – they dropped an incendiary bomb from a helicopter.

     It caused a fire that destroyed the Move house and 60 other homes in a largely African American neighborhood. Eleven Move members burned to death. They included founder John Africa and five children, one of whom was Janine’s other son, Little Phil, aged 12.

     The Guardian asked Janine how she came to terms with having seen two children killed by police brutality.

     “There are times when I think about Life and my son Phil,” she wrote, “but I don’t keep those thoughts in my mind long because they hurt. The murder of my children, my family, will always affect me, but not in a bad way. When I think about what this system has done to me and my family, it makes me even more committed to my belief.”

     The parole of the two women follows the release last June of Debbie Sims Africa, who was arrested in the 1978 siege when she was eight months pregnant and who went on to give birth to her son, Michael Davis Jr, in a prison cell. A fourth woman, Merle Austin Africa, died in prison in March 1998.

     Of the men, three remain in prison: Eddie Goodman Africa, who has recently gone before a parole panel, and Chuck Sims Africa and Delbert Orr Africa. Michael Davis Africa Sr, the father of the boy born in a cell and husband of Debbie, was released in October. Phil Africa died in prison in January 2015.

     The attorney for the two released women, Brad Thomson of People’s Law Office, said their parole was a victory not only for them and their loved ones but also for the Move organization and the “movement to free all political prisoners”.

     As written by former Mayor W Wilson Goode in The Guardian; “When I was mayor, Philadelphia bombed civilians. It’s time for the city to apologise

Thiry-five years ago, we did something inexcusable. A formal apology is crucial for the healing process, and overdue.

     The date 13 May will be forever etched in my mind.

     Thirty-five years ago, members of Move, a black liberation and back-to-nature group, barricaded themselves in a row house in west Philadelphia. The situation escalated into an armed standoff with the Philadelphia police. On 13 May 1985, the police dropped an explosive device from a helicopter on to the house. The decision to drop explosives on a house filled with people was indefensible. The bombs ignited a fire which killed 11 people, including five children, and razed 61 homes to the ground.

     The event will remain on my conscience for the rest of my life. I was the mayor of Philadelphia at the time. Although I was not personally involved in all the decisions that resulted in 11 deaths, I was chief executive of the city. I would not intentionally harm anyone, but it happened on my watch. I am ultimately responsible for those I appointed. I accept that responsibility and I apologize for their reckless actions that brought about this horrific outcome, even though I knew nothing about their specific plan of action.

     This is the fourth time I’ve publicly apologized. My first official apology on behalf of the city came on 14 May 1985 in a televised address to the citizens of Philadelphia, to the Move family and to their neighbors. Today I would like to apologize again and extend that apology to all who experienced, and in many cases continue to experience, pain and distress from the government actions that day. They include the Move family, their neighbors, the police officers, firefighters and other public servants as well as all the citizens of Philadelphia.

     There can never be an excuse for dropping an explosive from a helicopter on to a house with men, women and children inside

But there’s something more I want to suggest on this important anniversary. After 35 years it would be helpful for the healing of all involved, especially the victims of this terrible event, if there was a formal apology made by the City of Philadelphia. That way we can begin to build a bridge that spans from the tragic events of the past into our future. Many in the city still feel the pain of that day. I know I will always feel the pain.

     There can never be an excuse for dropping an explosive from a helicopter on to a house with men, women and children inside and then letting the fire burn. I will never accept one. Some want me to blame the Move family or their neighbors; that is absolutely wrong thinking and I will never do so. We will never know exactly what happened on 13 May 1985 on Osage Avenue, but I do know there are some things beyond excusing.

     I know I can’t change the past by apologizing, but I can express my deep and sincere regrets and call upon other former and current elected officials to do so. I believe this action can be a small step toward healing. I apologize and encourage others do the same. We will be a better city for it.

     The Rev Dr W Wilson Goode, Sr served as mayor of Philadelphia from 1984-1992”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/25/move-9-black-radicals-women-freed-philadelphia

              the Move Commune bombing, a reading list

Burning Down the House: MOVE and the Tragedy of Philadelphia, by John Anderson, Hilary Hevenor

Let It Burn: MOVE, the Philadelphia Police Department, and the Confrontation that Changed a City, by Michael Boyette, Randi Boyette

MOVE: An American Religion, by Richard Kent Evans

Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia versus MOVE,

by Robin Wagner-Pacifici

Philadelphia Fire: A Novel, by John Edgar Wideman

May 12 2024 On Life Disruptive Events As Gateways of Illumination: and Happy Mother’s Day

     The tide crashes in, overwhelming what has been and become familiar, chaotic and ferocious, and we are devastated in that moment as our castles in the sand vanish like illusions that never were, and only emptiness remains.

     The tide recedes, revealing wonders; for what is left behind is always extraordinary even if it is commonplace, for it is ours, and unique, belonging to whoever finds and cherishes it.

     So with our memories over vast chasms of time; each has its own moment and in this endless impermanence of being some events become defining moments and leap across the boundaries of time and space, of our world and ourselves, to reorganize and awaken us like the unpredictable illumination of a lightning strike.

     Awake and seize the terror and rapture of our totalizing disruption and sudden realization of nothingness, not in fear and despair at our loss of what we have known and been, but in joy and absolute freedom in who we may become.

 Notes on the Composition, Written in 2020:

     As to form, my intention is to present the afore displayed poem on the left column in the dialectical journal format of a traditional Jesuit report, side by side with the interpretive and narrative material which follows on the right, an old habit of mine when writing with a pen. In a responsive digital format, its easier to read on a mobile device as a single text block, as it is here.

     Once again I find myself contemplating Gaston Bachelard’s description of sounds as shells of speech, as I have throughout my life when the realm of the senses and that of meaning and value seen incongruent and discontiguous, like a shadow moving as a living thing independently from the object which casts it, an echo which changes the meaning of its source and returns our words to us in strange languages, a reflection which distorts, falsifies, and reshapes our images in a recursive wilderness of funhouse mirrors.

     Identity is like the seashells found along a beach; each one a history expressed in their form of how its bearer and predecessors solved problems of adaptation and growth over vast epochs of time. Such structures protect us, but also limit us, and like the wise beings who create the shells we admire, we must learn when to cast them aside and create ourselves anew.

     Death of our loved ones is the ultimate disruptive event; today I celebrated Mother’s Day having lost mine at the start of this year of 2020, with my partner Theresa and her dad Gene for whom I cooked dinner, she also having lost her mother and he his wife of 66 years only two years past. Yet with our shared grief there was also the strength of our bond as a family, humor, wit, and the anchorages of common memories.

     On Mother’s Day we celebrate the redemptive and transformative power of love, and our interconnectedness with others through successive generations and our families and communities both natural to us and chosen by us.

     May we all find the people through whom we can recreate ourselves as the person we want to become, and for whom we can empower and help actualize the same liberation.

2024 Update

      Its just the two of us now, Dolly and I, her father lost to the Pandemic in 2021, though his dog Mala stays at our side like a shadow, and our cats Amok, Rimbaud, Bunny, and Bobo also remain. Much of our joy lives now in the shadows in similar ways, and to reflect and dream is to fall through a well of infinite pasts and futures like a kaleidoscope of mimesis and reification.

     Last night we watched the magnificent aurora borealis together, from the fathomless darkness of the massif on which the old monastery of Mount St. Michaels broods over Spokane, a few minutes drive from our home on a nearby hill, and on the opposite side of the monastery from which we watched the lights of the city fifty years ago during Expo 74. Stunning displays in the red spectrum of the far upper atmosphere dominated the aurora borealis show, like a window opening in the celestial forever, letting angels through, or devils.

     And which is which is impossible to tell.

     Like most men, my ideas of women and of identities of sex and gender are defined by the chiaroscuro of two primary figures in my history, my mother and my life partner; but that is a story for another time.

     In this moment, what is most important is that all women, including those we love, are now under multiple threats to bodily autonomy, agency, citizenship, and the ownership of identity by systems of oppression and theocratic patriarchal sexual terror.

      What is to be done, as Lenin asked? All women face enormous forces of historical, social, and often institutional oppression as well as the limits of our form as imposed conditions of struggle, and we can act in solidarity and allyship both with women in general and with those in our lives as partners, sisters, daughters, ancestors and descendants, and mothers.

     Of all the many strategies focused on gendered liberation struggle, the first and among the most important is simply listening to women’s voices and making space for them to be heard.   

     As I wrote in my post of May 14 2023, This Mother’s Day, the Citizenship and Autonomy of Women Are In Question: the Case of E. Jean Carroll and CNN’s Town Hall; On this Mother’s Day, when the citizenship and autonomy of women are in question and the fate of our nation yet hangs in the balance, I think of my mother who carried me on her shoulders when we seized the Hall of Justice in San Francisco in 1968, of her life of liberation struggle and the championing of others, and against systems and forces of unequal power and the idea of biology as destiny, as imposed conditions of struggle both as the limits of our form- fourteen miscarriages and nearly forty years of recurring cancer since her first surgery- and institutional Patriarchy as she changed fields at university because all the posted science jobs said “no women need apply” right out in print for all the world to see.

      I think now of what remains to be achieved in seizures of power from those who would enslave us in the shadow of CNN’s Town Hall and the vindication of E. Jean Carroll of which the Republicans made a joke.

      Behind the Republican Party’s mask of macho glorification of violence and our right to kill each other en masse with military firearms, of centralization of power to the state in the militarization of police as enforcers of theocratic Gideonite sexual terror and virtue as defined by authority, of capitalist war on nature as limitless need for control of our wildness which is driving our species to extinction, of systems of unequal power and the need for force and control itself, lies a simple motive; fear.

     Fear of Otherness, of loss of power and elite hegemonies of wealth, privilege, and the use of social force, and of the inchoate and chaotic forces of desire which are life itself and topple all structures of social control as unanswerable tides of being and truths written in our flesh.

     Fear is the forge of power, especially in the context of identitarian politics, tyrannical regimes, fascisms of blood, faith, and soil, and fear shaped by authority in service to power through division and narratives of victimization. Politics is the Art of Fear, as my father once taught me, and the power of authority rests on the Calculus of Fear, how much fear is used in its primary mission of social control, and how it is used; too little fear and order collapses, too much and it creates its own counterforce as resistance and revolution.

      I have thought of resistance and revolution much in days of study of the Party of Treason’s reaction to the vindication in court of the heroic truthteller E. Jean Carroll as performed in CNN’s Town Hall, wherein the Third Primary Duty of a Citizen, Mock Authority, has been deployed by authority itself as a strategy of reaction and counter-revolution.

    This is pathetic, Absurd which I capitalize in reference to Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty from which Republican propaganda is derived, politics as spectacle which induces horror and revulsion, and a typical performance by Our Clown of Terror, Traitor Trump, but I cannot overstate its peril. The purpose of such propaganda is to unify group identity and mobilize its forces; and we see how well it works in the January 6 Insurrection.

     The American Fourth Reich and its captured glove the Republican Party demonstrates in the CNN Town Hall the flag it rallies round, Patriarchy and sexual terror, the silencing, commodification, and dehumanization of women and the theft of women’s citizenship as vote suppression and repression of dissent and public witness, and the disempowerment and theft of autonomy of women in legal and political actions to keep control of women’s bodies and reproductive rights in male hands. In this key mission, the Grabber is a figure of predation who grants permission and immunity to his followers as loaned power, and it is the power of sexual terror Republicans want most of all.

     Thanks for showing us all what’s under your masks, Republicans; Treason, Racism, Untruth, Misogyny, Predator.  

         As I wrote in my post of March 30 2020, Embracing Fear as Liberation from Authority and Control: Anarchy as a Path of Psychological and Social Freedom;    Even more terrible than blaming the victim is when no one believes the victim; it is an erasure and silencing which is the particular horror of women, as the dread that no one is coming to help is that of the LGBT and other marginalized communities.

   The degree to which we are trusted and believed, our authority, and the reach of our voices in witness are excellent and reliable measures of our power and our position in social hierarchies. As a measure of societies themselves, this will tell you about the relative democracy or tyranny of a culture.

    What Matthew Jacobs calls The Ubiquity of Disbelief in his insightful criticism in Huffpost of The Invisible Man starring Elizabeth Moss, entitled Why Does No One In Horror Movies Believe The Female Protagonist?, and examines  disbelief and the horror of disconnectedness as a disease of mistrust and failure of solidarity, points directly to the cathartic function of art, its ability to hold up a mirror to our darkness.

      For the mechanism and pathology of fear is what drives patriarchy, unequal power, and inauthentic relationships, abstracts us from ourselves and one another as simulacra and creates aberrations of violence and sexual terror.

     From fear are monsters born; yet it is our fear we must embrace to free ourselves of the tyranny of others and the spectre of authoritarian force and control.

    We must not let fear define us; it is the degree to which we can embrace, learn from, and free ourselves from our fear which measures our freedom and enacts our liberation from the control of others.

    For when we cannot be driven into submission by authority through fear and learned helplessness the use of force becomes meaningless as does its scale; thus do we reclaim our power and agency to define ourselves, and ownership of the performances of our identities.      

The Invisible Man film with Kate Moss

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2623455001/?

The Invisible Man: on the woman no one believes

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-invisible-man-horror-trope-female-protagonist_n_5e599057c5b6450a30be731a?newsltushpmgentertainment

Stormy Daniels’s testimony paints a dark picture of Trump’s view of sex and power

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey

October 19 2023 Anniversary of the Founding of the #metoo Movement

June 7 2023 Anniversary of the Trial of Patriarchy in America and the Death of the #metoo Blacklist Movement

May 10 2024 Anniversary of the Third Intifada of 2021, Now Ongoing In the Tenth Theatre of World War Three Which Contains and Supersedes the Gaza War

       Both visitors to the Holy Land seeking signs of the Invisible manifest in its Disneyland of conflicted faiths and those trapped within its nightmare of walls, checkpoints, razor wire, pervasive surveillance, universalized violence, identitarian politics, and the tyranny and terror of one of our world’s most horrific regimes of force and control are here become the ghosts of the Holocaust; Israel echoes with the silent screams of stolen voices and the devouring shadows of a history weaponized in service to power as narratives of victimization and security as power, a strategy designed to first break our solidarity with division and fascisms of blood, faith, and soil as falsification and then dehumanize and subjugate us as masters and slaves and as genocide and ethnic cleansing.

     Israel as a dream of refuge and of universal brotherhood and love has been betrayed and subverted by Israel as a xenophobic theocracy, military empire, and slave camp; here Auschwitz has been institutionalized on a national scale, its former prisoners now its guards.

     Why would anyone choose to recreate a hell they had escaped from, even as its masters rather than its slaves?

     I understand all too well the seduction of power as security in a world of hostile and chaotic forces, and how overwhelming and generalized fear can be shaped by authority to centralize power by offering us loaned power over Others as figures of existential threats; to be the arbiter of virtue through force and control. But security is an illusion, the state as embodied violence obeys Newton’s Third Law of Motion and creates its own Resistance, and our common pain unites us in ways which transcend the Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force, which only love can free us from.

     Love as solidarity in action can redeem the flaws of our humanity and the brokenness of the world, Tikkun Olam in Hebrew, and liberate us to live as guarantors of each other’s humanity.

      As I wrote on the first anniversary of the Third Intifada on this night two years ago; This must be the most written about, studied, debated, experimented with and fought over issue in global politics since the Second World War of which it is a result, this nation wherein one people are divided by history as Israelis and Palestinians, and a measure of our humanity, as the classic example of the double minority; what do you do with one city and one nation claimed by two historical communities, as a basis of identity as faith and nationality and the consequences and praxis of identity politics as violence?

     Here a nation and a people are riven by dissociative identity disorder, conflicted and locked in titanic struggle as with the fragmentation of identity, memory, and consciousness of multiple personalities, madness on a national and civilizational scale born of the legacies of history and life disruptive events, epigenetic trauma, grief, terror, guilt, and despair.

     In the duality of Israel and Palestine are made plain the origins of evil as violence and tyranny in the recursive and interdependent Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force, as overwhelming and generalized fear and existential threats are weaponized in service to power by authority, which forms carceral states of force and control as unequal power and embodied violence, through elite hierarchies and divisions of belonging and otherness and fascisms of blood, faith, and soil.

     Here fascism as a systemic evil operates as possession and theft of the soul. What can we do about it?  As Lenin asked in his essay of 1902; “What is to be done?” How free ourselves of the systemic forces of our subjugation to authority, elites, and those who would enslave us?

    We must first recognize and be cautious of those who claim to speak for us and act in our name, for this is a primary strategy of fascism. To free ourselves of the lies and illusions, falsification and rewritten histories, conspiracy theories and alternate realities through which we become dehumanized, we must be truthtellers engaged in the pursuit of truth as a sacred calling, and perform the Four Primary Duties of a Citizen; Question Authority, Expose Authority, Mock Authority, and Challenge Authority.

    We must second seize our self-ownership and autonomy in refusal to submit to authority, for the great secret of power is that it is empty and hollow, and is delegitimized through refusal to trust and believe authority, and of force that it is brittle and finds its limit at the point of disobedience. Simple acts, but also inherent powers of human being which cannot be taken from us; for who refuses to submit is free, and becomes Unconquerable.

     Always there remains the struggle between the masks that others make for us, and those we make for ourselves. This is the first revolution in which we all must fight; the struggle for self-ownership and for freedom of identity.

     There is no just authority.

      Tonight I sit at home among the vast darkness of my hills, a night which follows days of rain and filled with the songs of frogs and birds, a serenity disturbed only by the chiaroscuro of my memories of this night one year ago, in the defense of al Aqsa. Like flashes of lightning, the hand of the past can bring the Chaos and reach out to seize and shake us, destabilizing us and our constructions of normality with unpredictable and sudden disruptive events unmoored from their anchorages in time.

      But Chaos is also a measure of the adaptive range of a system, which brings both the terror of our nothingness and the joy of total freedom in our reimagination and transformative rebirth of ourselves and our limitless possibilities of becoming human.

      Guillermo del Toro, in his magnificent epic of migration and racial equality Carnival Row, has a scene in which two young successors to leadership of traditionally rival factions find themselves in love and in need of allies in a subplot which reimages Romeo and Juliet; the rebellious hellion Jonah Breakspear asks his Machiavellian lover Sophie Longerbane, “Who is chaos good for?” To which she replies, “Chaos is good for us. Chaos is the great hope of the powerless.”

     One may think of Bringing the Chaos in terms of the redemptive power of love, of solidarity, of our duty of care for others, of seizures of power as the restoration of balance, of Resistance and revolutionary struggle as placing our lives in the balance with those of the powerless and the dispossessed, the silenced and the erased, and as tikkun olam or healing the brokenness of the world.

     In Jerusalem and al Quds, we are betrayed by the normality of submission to authority and the divisions of unequal power, dehumanized by those who commit atrocities in our name, and made complicit in crimes against humanity through narratives of victimization which as Voltaire teaches us permit anything.

     Gott mitt uns; it is an ancient terror. And this we must resist.

     Old myths, and old grievances, woven into the fabric of our psyche and our civilization. And like all history, memory, and authorized identity, mimetic forces from whose legacies we must emerge.

     In this moment I turn once again to the brilliant diagnosis of the illness of power as captured identity as written by Alon Ben-Meirin in Huffpost, though his prescription of a two state system is debatable and for myself must be superseded in time with a secular state with one law for all and no official divisions of tribe, language, or faith, in an article entitled In The Grip Of Powerful Illusions; “The deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process appears to be illogical and unsettling as a majority of Israelis and Palestinians realize that coexistence, whether under conditions of enmity or friendship, is a fact that neither side can change short of a catastrophe.

     The deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process appears to be illogical and unsettling as a majority of Israelis and Palestinians realize that coexistence, whether under conditions of enmity or friendship, is a fact that neither side can change short of a catastrophe. Both sides understand that the general parameters of a sustainable peace agreement must rest on a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with some land swaps. However, both sides choose to revel in illusions and live in defiance of time and circumstances. They seem to prefer continuing violent clashes and bloodshed over peaceful coexistence, while blaming each other for the unending destructive path that tragically both have chosen to travel.

     There are fundamental imperatives, coupled with long-term mutual security measures, which represent what was on the negotiating table in 2000 at Camp David and in 2010/2011 and 2013/2014 under the Obama administration’s auspices in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Each round, with various degrees of progress, aimed at finalizing an agreement and yet ultimately failed to do so. The question is: why?

     Biased and selective perceptions, reinforced by historical experiences, religion, and incompatible ideologies, have locked both sides into immobile positions. The factors that maintain and enhance these patterns include emotions such as fear, distrust, and insecurity. The psychological outcome is mutual denial of the narrative of the other and mutual delegitimization.

     Put together, the operative result is stagnation and polarization. What is therefore needed is a consensus-oriented dialogue at the leadership level by both officials and non-officials, and people-to-people interactions, to resolve the issue of perception – a tall order given the current environment that buttresses rather than ameliorates prejudiced perceptions.

     There are certain psychological concepts which are relevant to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the concept of illusion is an essential one. In The Future of an Illusion, Freud offers the following definition: “…we call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfillment is a prominent factor in its motivation, and in doing so we disregard its relations to reality, just as the illusion itself sets no store by verification.”

     What is characteristic of illusions is that: 1) they are derived from deep human wishes, and 2) the belief is held (or would be held) in the absence of any compelling evidence, or good rational grounds, on its behalf.

     It is impossible to deny that both Israelis and Palestinians are in the grip of very powerful illusions which only serve to prolong the conflict and prevent any mutual understanding. In particular, the belief shared by many Israelis that they have a biblical right to the land (including Judea and Samaria) and that God gave it to the Jews in perpetuity is undoubtedly an illusion of yesterday.

     This belief is not affirmed because there is real evidence that God deemed it to be (although two Jewish kingdoms did exist–the first in the tenth century BCE and the second beginning in 539 BCE–on the same land), but because it satisfies a deep-seated psychological need for a God-given Jewish homeland.

     The belief that by expanding the settlements Israel will augment its national security and maintain its hold on the entire land is an illusion of tomorrow, which generally ignores the presence of Muslims in the same land for more than 1,300 years.

     It is important to note how these illusions sustain and reinforce one another, and constitute a psychological barrier which is much more impervious to critical reflection. Israel’s illusions have served to create the logic for occupation.

     The Palestinians, for their part, are not without their own illusions. They also believe that God has reserved the land for them, and appeal to the fact that they had inhabited the land for centuries. From their perspective, the presence of the al-Aqsa Mosque, which was built in 705 AD in Jerusalem, attests to their historical and religious affinity to the Holy City.

     They also cling to the idea that they will someday return to the land of their forbearers, as they have and continue to insist on the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, even though this has become a virtual impossibility.

     The Palestinians hold fast to their illusions of yesterday and tomorrow just as blindly and desperately as the Israelis, which leads to resistance to and fear of change. As such, unless both sides change course and accept each other’s affinity to the same land, specifically because it is religiously-based, the situation is bound to lead to a catastrophe.

      This has contributed to making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict both chronic and intractable, as the various illusions are continuously and consciously nurtured by daily hostile and often violent encounters between the two sides.

     In seeking to bridge concepts that could link between the domains of psychology and politics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it could be proposed that a collective mutual resistance to change (both conscious and deliberate, and inner unconscious) protects a vulnerable identity.

     Compared, for example, to the stable and mature political identities of the American, British, and French nations, the political identities of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples are, in a way, in their adolescence.

     Identities in this setting are more vulnerable, and the protagonists are naturally more defensive and resistant to change. By its very nature, the players must find it difficult (if not impossible) to articulate this publicly, as to do so is to admit to this vulnerability.

     The concept of psychological resistance to change may well affect the political setting in general and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular; it is closely connected to perceptions at many levels and provides protection for vulnerable identity formation.

     It is this mindset, strengthened by historical experiences, which transcends the more than seven decades since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began. Individuals and groups, Israelis and Palestinians alike, have and continue to interpret the nature of the discord between them as “you versus me” in a prejudiced and selective way.

     In turn, this has stifled any new information and enabled the continuing resistance to change, which could shed new light on the nature and substance of the conflict and help advance the peace process.

     The concept of unconscious resistance to change in this setting links well to the view of perceptions driving the polarization in the conflict. Historical experience, which formulates perceptions, serves among other things to enhance the sense of identity of “who we really are,” a formative collective assumption that sits at the bedrock of both key players and drives functional and dysfunctional behavior.

     In principle, such a mindset prevents either side from entertaining new ideas that might lead to compromises for a peaceful solution. The paradox here is that majorities on both sides do want and seek peace, knowing full well that this would require significant concessions, but are unable to reconcile the required concessions with imbedded perceptions that have precluded these compromises as a result of resistance to and fear of change.

     Therefore, any framework for peace must include provisions that would dramatically increase the odds in favor of a solution. First, both sides need to commit to reaching an agreement based on a two-state solution out of the conviction that change, which translates to coexistence, is inevitable. Therefore, they ought to adjust to each other’s requirements, which of necessity requires them to make significant concessions.

     Second, to facilitate that, they must undertake reconciliatory people-to-people social, economic, cultural, and security interactions to mitigate their resistance to change, which must begin, at a minimum, one year before the negotiations commence to create the psychological and political atmosphere to cultivate the trust necessary for substantive and successful peace negotiations.

     The resumption of peace talks will go nowhere unless Israelis and Palestinians change their prejudiced perception and resistance to and fear of change, and finally come to the realization that their fate is intertwined and neither can live in peace and security without the other.

     I feel compelled to conclude my last article for the year with a dire warning that both Israelis and Palestinians alike will do well to ponder upon as they approach the end of the seventh decade of their tragic conflict.

     Every Israeli extremist and Palestinian militant, those who want it all must stop and think where Israel and the Palestinians will be in ten years if the current situation persists?

     Your illusions of today will not become a reality of tomorrow, and what tomorrow will bring is nothing but more pain, tears, and agony.

     Your conflict is evolving ever faster into a religious war. A Muslim-Jewish Armageddon is in the making that will set the whole region on unfathomable fire.

     If you are true believers, dare not defy God’s will, for he has thrust you together to put you to the test–you must either live in peace and harmony, or you will be condemned to oblivion and despair.

     You possess the power to choose your own destiny. Will it be self-destruction or will it be the fulfilment of a glorious dream?

     Rise up and pass a legacy of hope to every Israeli and Palestinian child, for they have the God-given right to grow up and prosper and none should die for your illusions in vain.”

     As I wrote in my post of November 9 2023, A Mirror of Our Darkness: Kristallnact; Israel is commemorating this tragedy which opened a door to an even greater tragedy in the Holocaust by doing exactly the same thing to the Palestinians, one people divided by history and faith weaponized in service to power. And this too will open doors to greater state terror and tyranny, unless both peoples can unite against authorities who commit atrocities in their name as a strategy of subjugation and liberate each other from those who would enslave them.

     If you think of nations as children who are survivors of abuse, much becomes clear; for once they have seized power they are far more likely to become abusers themselves. This is how fear works, why it is the true basis of exchange, why politics is the Art of Fear, and why states are embodied violence. Both Israelis and Palestinians have been savaged by existential threats long before they began savaging, brutalizing, and dehumanizing each other.

     That predatory regimes on both sides have used division and identity politics to centralize power and legitimize authoritarian dominion is a predictable phase of liberation struggle, especially of anti-colonial revolution.

      The trick of becoming human, friends, is to embrace ones own darkness in struggle as well as one’s enemies, and emerge from the legacies of our history which shadow us like an invisible crocodile tail.

      There is a line spoken by the villain in the series The Magicians, a survivor of childhood abuse and tyrant known as The Beast for his horrific crimes, once the powerless and terrified boy Martin Chatwin and now a monstrous god; “You know, when I was a boy, a man who was meant to care for me bent me over his desk and had me over and over every time I was alone with him. It helps me understand a truth. You’re powerful or you’re weak. “

      Here is the original lie of the tyrant and the fascist in the apologetics, self-justification, and psychopathy of power; the lie that only power has meaning and is real, that there is no good or evil. How we use power is of equal importance as who holds it. Fear and force are a primary means of human exchange, but not the only means; love, membership, and belonging are as important.

      It’s a line which captures perfectly the inherent contradictions of the  Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force as an origin of evil; for the use of social force is subversive of its own values. Yet the imposed conditions of revolutionary struggle often require violence, and until the gods of law and order have been cast down from their thrones I must agree with the famous dictum of Sartre in his 1948 play Dirty Hands, quoted by Frantz Fanon in his 1960 speech Why We Use Violence, and made immortal by Malcolm X; “by any means necessary.”

     As written by Walter Rodney in The Groundings with my Brothers; “We were told that violence in itself is evil, and that, whatever the cause, it is unjustified morally. By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master? By what standards can we equate the violence of blacks who have been oppressed, suppressed, depressed and repressed for four centuries with the violence of white fascists. Violence aimed at the recovery of human dignity and at equality cannot be judged by the same yardstick as violence aimed at maintenance of discrimination and oppression.”

     And here is the passage he references from Leon Trotsky in Their Morals and Ours: The Class Foundations of Moral Practice; “A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains – let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!”

     Yet in reflection I think of those great figures who have been both heroes of liberation and villains of tyranny; my teenage role model Napoleon, Washington who is central to our family history and coined the motto on our coat of arms in the passcode during the Battle of Trenton, Victory or Death, when the whole Revolution was wagered on a forlorn hope, of the tragic drama of fallen heroes like Robert Mugabe, the monstrous tyrants Stalin and Mao, the list is a near endless litany of woes and failures of vision wherein Brave New Worlds became hells and carceral states. In evidence I offer the American and Napoleonic Revolutions become Empires, the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist Party, India where the glory of liberation come hand in hand with the tragedy of Partition and is now under the boot of Hindu Nationalism, nearly all anticolonial revolutions which with the first period of liberty as new nations became dreadful tyrannies, and above all the state of Israel, a dream of refuge forged in the terror of the Holocaust whose victims learned the wrong lessons from the Nazis and assumed their role in the Occupation of Palestine. The dangers of Idealism are very real; but so are the dangers of submission to authority and the complicity of silence in the face of evil.

     I am a hunter of fascists, and mine is a hunter’s morality. For me there is a simple test for the use of force; who holds power?

     A great many wise people have written beautifully of the horrors of fascisms of blood, faith, and soil and of hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness, as does Paul Oestreicher in the article which follows; herein I wish only to signpost that the forces which lie both within us and without as social conditions and epigenetic trauma, of atavisms of barbarism and systems of oppression, are universal to human beings as imposed conditions of struggle and operate continually even when obscured from view, beyond the horror and abjection of points of fracture of the human soul like those of Kristallnacht and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

     I write to you as one who has lived by the battle cry of Never Again! for over forty years now, and it is of deep and vital importance to apply this principle of action not only in Resistance to fascism as an intrusive enemy of all that is human in us, but also to ourselves and our own use of violence and social force toward others.

    In the end, all that matters is what we do with our fear, and how we use our power.

     No matter where you begin with divisions and hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness, you always end up at the gates of Auschwitz.

    As Nietzsche teaches us in Beyond Good and Evil; “Those who hunt monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

     In the dark mirror of Gaza, with its monstrous reflections of Kristallnacht and of Auschwitz, do you like what you see, O Israel?

     As I wrote in my post of May 10 2021, The Defense of al Aqsa: Liberty versus Tyranny in Jerusalem;  We may have witnessed the advent of a Third Intifada this night, in the Defense of al Aqsa and the street fighting in Gaza which followed, ignited by the perfidy and imperial conquest of a xenophobic and fascist state of Israel which regards no one but their own tribe and faith as truly human, and which has perpetrated an unprovoked and deadly attack as an act of state terror and a crime against humanity on the peaceful worshippers at one of the most sacred mosques in the Islamic world, a demonstration of power and dominion which follows weeks of provocations, assaults, and acts of propagandistic dehumanization against the people of Palestine.

      Like the Second or al Aqsa Intifada which lasted four years from 28 September 2000 to 8 February 2005, unresolved issues of an Occupation now in its fifty fourth year since the June 7 1967 Conquest of Old Jerusalem by Israel, which the State of Israel celebrated according to the Hebrew calendar as Jerusalem Day today by attacking al Aqsa, and a Catastrophe ongoing now for seventy three years since Nakba Day May 15 1948, have coalesced around the symbolic value of al Aqsa, which has a contested dual identity as the Temple Mount in Judaism.

     Chances of de-escalation and averting a war depend now not on local factors but on the response of the international community, for history has here become a trap which collapses to ensnare us in its jaws, and outside forces must liberate us from the failures of our system’s internal contradictions.

     Will America disavow and renounce its colony of Israel, Queen of her imperial policy in the Middle East and control of the strategic resource of oil? Can international unity and the pressure of Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanction free us from the tyranny and terror of an Apartheid regime as it did in South Africa?

     Or is war the only reckoning humankind can offer, or will accept?

     As written by Ishaan Tharoor in The Washington Post; “On Monday night, militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military exchanged rocket fire and airstrikes amid a deadly escalation of violence. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, armed groups based in blockaded Gaza, launched a barrage of rockets that landed near Jerusalem and in parts of southern Israel, injuring at least one person. Israeli airstrikes in retaliation killed at least 20 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, including nine children.

     Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “terrorist groups” in Gaza had “crossed a red line” with their rocket attacks. But the latest explosion of hostilities has a long tail, following numerous aggressive actions by both Israeli security forces and far-right Jewish supremacist groups in Jerusalem. Two weeks ago, bands of Jewish extremists, including some settlers from the West Bank, marched through Palestinian-populated areas of the holy city, chanting “Death to Arabs,” attacking bystanders and damaging Palestinian property and homes. Israeli attempts to evict a number of Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah — a microcosm of what Palestinians view as part of a long history of dispossession and erasure at the hands of the Israeli state — had stirred Palestinian solidarity protests in various parts of the occupied territories and Israel proper.

     It also raised tensions ahead of the commemoration of Jerusalem Day on Monday, an official Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of the city during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. A planned annual march by far-right ultranationalist Israelis was called off after authorities rerouted its path at the last minute.    Large numbers still made their way to the Western Wall and sang an extremist vengeance song against Palestinians.

     “The Hamas rocket attacks, which included the first strikes against Jerusalem in several years, came after running clashes among Israeli police, Palestinian protesters and far-right Jewish Israelis around the Old City,” my colleagues reported. “Among the hundreds injured were seven who were hospitalized in serious condition, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Video footage circulated on social media of Israeli police officers brutally beating a detained Palestinian man.”

      How can America support the state of Israel in tyranny and terror, conquest and plunder? It’s a question asked in tones of outrage, sorrow, and bafflement since the advent of the Nakba on May 15 1948, the Day of Catastrophe which began the Occupation of Palestine and the systematic enslavement and genocide of its people in the wake of the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem. How is this legitimized?

      A friend has recently reframed this question for me; “I loved and embraced the Jewish tradition, joining a synagogue and working alongside its Rabbi. When I witness the treatment of Palestinians by the Jewish government of Israel, I am overwhelmed by feelings of confusion and anger. Unable to reconcile this immorality, I question the very foundation of my faith. Where is the good and moral uprising of international Jewish voices condemning the government’s path? I’ve lost faith in being Jewish.”

     What is clear to me is that this crisis of faith is also an existential crisis of identity, a situation of utmost gravity and danger which also holds the potential for reimagination and transformative rebirth, a personal echo of a parallel civilizational crisis from which humankind and the global community of nations must find a way to emerge and free ourselves of the legacies of our history. Here is my reply:

     The state of Israel is not identical with the Jewish faith, though the fascist-imperialist faction which Netanyahu represents would like everyone to think so. 

    A nation based on the assignment of its citizens to a tribal identity, the sectarian weaponization of faith in service to power and an authorized national identity, a military society with universal compulsory service and a pervasive fetishization of myths of martial valor and its symbols including guns, and a reconstructed Hebrew language of national unity has used identity politics to subjugate its citizens to the centralized power of tyranny; Israel is a fascist state of blood, faith, and soil no less than that of the Nazis.

     Add to this toxic mix a kleptocratic regime which has propagandized narratives of historical victimization to legitimize massive theft and imperial conquest of other people’s nations and one thing is clear; Israel has learned the wrong lessons from the Nazis.

     You may know from my many references to the incident in my writing that I am an antifascist, sworn to the Oath of the Resistance by Jean Genet in 1982 in Beirut, during our fight against the Israeli invasion and siege. In the 39 years after, I have been a hunter of Nazis and a revolutionary of democracy engaged in struggle for the liberation of humankind against tyranny and authoritarian regimes of force and control.

      A Palestinian homeland, and justice for its people, has been among my goals since that summer so long ago. Like the goal of liberation of Ireland from British colonial rule, it remains to be achieved. In question is the idea of freedom and citizenship as the sovereignty and independence of peoples from foreign colonialism and authoritarian tyranny, and the primacy of a nonsectarian state free from divisions and hierarchies of faith, for who stands between each of us and the Infinite serves neither.

     I also support the idea of an Israeli homeland, and see no reason these two states, Palestine and Israeli, should be mutually exclusive or antagonistic. Some Israelis who would disagree with me on the question of Palestine and militarism in imperial conquest and regional dominion have been allies in the cause of hunting Nazis and fascists generally throughout the world, but are blind to their own complicity in this evil due to seeing themselves as victims rather than perpetrators of crimes against humanity. This is about fear, and the destructive cycle of abuse and violence.

     When faith is appropriated by authority for legitimation in identity politics, identity itself becomes confused and ambiguous. To become free, we must seize ownership of ourselves as self-created and autonomous beings.

     This is why the primary duties of a citizen are to question authority, expose authority, mock authority, and challenge authority.

     Always there remains the struggle between the masks others make for us and those we make for ourselves; this is the first revolution in which we all must fight.

     I think of the problem of human evil and its cycle of fear, power, and force in the case of states which become the tyrannies they fought to liberate themselves from, and this is true of anticolonial revolutionary states generally because of the historical legacies of victimization, in this way; victims often become abusers because their identity is organized around power as the only means of escape in a world wherein no one can be trusted.

     When trust has been abrogated and proven empty and without meaning, when the capacity to bond with and feel the pain of others in empathy has been broken and one is without pity or remorse, when fear is overwhelming and generalized and has been shaped by authority to the service of power, victims learn that only power has meaning and is real. We must not allow our abusers to become our teachers.

     While every such issue has its own unique origins and history, the problem itself is universal, and relates to what one fears, and how that fear is shaped by authority as identity. From our perspective as Americans interpreting events in the classic problem of the double minority typified by Israel and Palestine, how we perceive issues has much to do with how they are framed by our informing and motivating sources.

      In the end we are defined by what we do with our fear, and how we use our power.

      The first question to ask of any story, and the most important, is simple; whose story is this?

      We are lost in a Wilderness of Mirrors, of lies and illusions, falsifications of ourselves, distorted images and reflections, echoes and authorized identities which disfigure, disempower, and steal our souls.

      How shall we answer those who would enslave us? Our authenticity and autonomy is realized through seizure of power, and the reimagination and transformation of ourselves and humankind as a free society of equals.

      We Americans tend to see things in terms of white hats and black hats, as in the Western films which serve as origin myths and archetypes of our national character. Once victim status has been conferred, such groups and persons become white hats and good guys, incapable of evil and diametrically opposed to whomever must then be black hats. It’s a terrible way of choosing national policy.

     Sadly, we humans can be good and evil at once, the flaws of our humanity echo and reflect the brokenness of the world. It is a truth proven once again tonight in al Quds or Jerusalem depending on to whom one is speaking and in what language, as Gaza burns from the onslaught of an Israeli Defense Forces run amok much the same as the night almost four decades ago in Beirut when they tried to burn Genet and I alive in our café, as a dozen human beings from whom everything but hope has been stolen swear vows to each other to hold a position covering the escape of the women and children trapped by the Israeli attack until all are safe, in a final defense not of al Aqsa Mosque, magnificent and beautiful and filled with significance, monument to the human impulse to reach beyond ourselves and to the limitless possibilities of becoming human, a stage fit for the glorious deaths of heroes, but of the disembodied screams of strangers among the nameless warrens of a derelict antiquity.

     Against the chasms of emptiness and nihilistic barbarism of a world of darkness and fire, of fear and force, I have only words to offer, and I write to you what I have said to my comrades who have chosen to stand with me; I’ve lost count of Last Stands, but I’ve risked everything against impossible odds and survived more times than I can remember, and all that matters is that we abandon neither ourselves nor one another, that we refuse to submit, for this is the moment of our freedom, and it can never be taken from us.

      From this night, Palestine is free, for we can be killed, but we cannot be conquered.

 On the Origins of Evil and Our Monstrosity: a portrait of Hitler and Netanyahu in the character of Martin Chatwin in The Magicians

 Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, by Slavoj Žižek

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2638701-violence

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/11/shireen-abu-akleh-friends-and-family-call-for-justice-on-anniversary-of-killing?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/09/discord-in-israel-threatens-benjamin-netanyahus-hold-on-power?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/27/netanyahu-national-guard-deal-with-ben-gvir-raises-fears-of-violence?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/10/militants-in-gaza-fire-60-rockets-following-israeli-airstrikes-palestine?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/09/israel-bombs-gaza-strip-killing-three-islamic-jihad-leaders?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/in-the-grip-of-powerful-i_b_8818032

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/03/israel-strikes-gaza-as-unrest-continues-after-death-of-hunger-striker-khader-adnan?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/10/jerusalem-seethes-as-the-rockets-begin-on-day-of-rising-tension

https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/what-is-happening-in-sheikh-jarrah-of-east-jerusalem-past-and-present

https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/al-aqsa-violence-why-palestinians-jews-have-often-clashed-at-this-holy-site-in-jerusalem/655579/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/10/world-reacts-after-israeli-forces-wound-hundreds-in-al-aqsa-raid

Arabic

10 مايو 2024 ذكرى الانتفاضة الثالثة لعام 2021، الجارية الآن في المسرح العاشر للحرب العالمية الثالثة التي تحتوي وتحل محل حرب غزة

        يسعى كل من زوار الأرض المقدسة إلى ظهور علامات غير مرئية في ديزني لاند التي تضم أديانًا متضاربة وأولئك المحاصرين داخل كابوس الجدران ونقاط التفتيش والأسلاك الشائكة والمراقبة المنتشرة والعنف العالمي وسياسات الهوية والطغيان والإرهاب في أحد بلداننا. إن أفظع أنظمة القوة والسيطرة في العالم أصبحت هنا أشباح الهولوكوست؛ تردد صدى إسرائيل مع الصرخات الصامتة للأصوات المسروقة والظلال المفترسة لتاريخ تم تسليحه في خدمة السلطة كسرديات عن الإيذاء والأمن كقوة، وهي استراتيجية مصممة أولاً لكسر تضامننا مع الانقسام وفاشية الدم والعقيدة والتربة كما التزوير ومن ثم تجريدنا من إنسانيتنا وإخضاعنا كأسياد وعبيد وإبادة جماعية وتطهير عرقي.

      لقد تعرضت إسرائيل، باعتبارها حلم اللجوء والأخوة والمحبة العالمية، للخيانة والتخريب من قبل إسرائيل باعتبارها دولة دينية كارهة للأجانب، وإمبراطورية عسكرية، ومعسكرًا للعبيد؛ وهنا تم إضفاء الطابع المؤسسي على أوشفيتز على نطاق وطني، وأصبح سجناؤه السابقون الآن حراسه.

      لماذا يختار أي شخص إعادة خلق الجحيم الذي هرب منه، حتى لو كان أسياده وليس عبيده؟

      إنني أفهم جيدًا إغراء القوة كأمن في عالم مليء بالقوى المعادية والفوضوية، وكيف يمكن تشكيل الخوف الساحق والمعمم من خلال السلطة لمركزية السلطة من خلال منحنا سلطة معارة على الآخرين كرموز للتهديدات الوجودية؛ ليكون حكم الفضيلة من خلال القوة والسيطرة. لكن الأمن وهم، والدولة كعنف متجسد تطيع قانون نيوتن الثالث للحركة وتخلق مقاومتها الخاصة، وألمنا المشترك يوحدنا بطرق تتجاوز حلقة فاغنر من الخوف والقوة والقوة، والتي لا يمكن أن يحررنا إلا الحب. من.

      الحب كتضامن في العمل يمكن أن يخلص عيوب إنسانيتنا وانكسارات العالم، تيكون أولام بالعبرية، ويحررنا لنعيش كضامنين لإنسانية بعضنا البعض.

       وكما كتبت في الذكرى الأولى للانتفاضة الثالثة في مثل هذه الليلة قبل عامين؛ يجب أن تكون هذه هي القضية الأكثر كتابةً ودراسةً ومناقشةً وتجريبًا وخوضًا حولها في السياسة العالمية منذ الحرب العالمية الثانية التي كانت نتيجة لها، هذه الأمة التي يقسم فيها التاريخ شعبًا واحدًا إلى إسرائيليين وفلسطينيين، ومقياسًا إنسانيتنا، كمثال كلاسيكي للأقلية المزدوجة؛ ماذا تفعل بمدينة واحدة وأمة واحدة يطالب بها مجتمعان تاريخيان، كأساس للهوية كإيمان وجنسية وعواقب وممارسة سياسات الهوية كعنف؟

      هنا أمة وشعب يمزقهما اضطراب الهوية الانفصامية، متضاربان ومنغلقان في صراع هائل كما هو الحال مع تجزئة الهوية والذاكرة والوعي لشخصيات متعددة، والجنون على المستوى الوطني والحضاري المولود من تراث التاريخ ومعطل الحياة الأحداث، والصدمة اللاجينية، والحزن، والرعب، والشعور بالذنب، واليأس.

      في ازدواجية إسرائيل وفلسطين، تتضح أصول الشر كالعنف والطغيان في حلقة فاغنري المتكررة والمترابطة من الخوف والقوة والقوة، حيث يتم استخدام الخوف الساحق والمعمم والتهديدات الوجودية كسلاح في خدمة السلطة عن طريق السلطة. والتي تشكل حالات القوة والسيطرة الجسيمية كقوة غير متكافئة وعنف متجسد، من خلال التسلسلات الهرمية النخبوية وتقسيمات الانتماء والغيرية وفاشية الدم والإيمان والتربة.

      هنا الفاشية كشر نظامي تعمل كحيازة وسرقة للروح. مالذي يمكننا فعله حيال هذا؟ وكما سأل لينين في مقالته عام 1902؛ “ما الذي يجب عمله؟” كيف نحرر أنفسنا من القوى النظامية لخضوعنا للسلطة والنخب وأولئك الذين يريدون استعبادنا؟

     يجب علينا أولاً أن ندرك ونحذر من أولئك الذين يدعون أنهم يتحدثون باسمنا ويتصرفون باسمنا، فهذه هي الإستراتيجية الأساسية للفاشية. لتحرير أنفسنا من الأكاذيب والأوهام، والتزييف وإعادة كتابة التاريخ، ونظريات المؤامرة والحقائق البديلة التي من خلالها نصبح مجردين من إنسانيتنا، يجب أن نكون رواة للحقيقة ونشارك في السعي وراء الحقيقة باعتبارها دعوة مقدسة، ونؤدي الواجبات الأساسية الأربعة للمواطن؛ سلطة السؤال، وسلطة الكشف، وسلطة المحاكاة، وسلطة التحدي.

     يجب علينا ثانيًا أن نستغل ملكيتنا الذاتية واستقلالنا في رفض الخضوع للسلطة، لأن السر الأعظم للسلطة هو أنها فارغة وجوفاء، ويتم فقدان شرعيتها من خلال رفض الثقة في السلطة والتصديق بها، والقوة هي هشة وهشة. ويجد حدوده عند نقطة العصيان. أفعال بسيطة، ولكنها أيضًا قوى متأصلة في الإنسان لا يمكن أن تؤخذ منا؛ لأن من يرفض الخضوع فهو حر، ولا يُقهر.

      دائمًا يبقى الصراع بين الأقنعة التي يصنعها الآخرون لنا، وتلك التي نصنعها لأنفسنا. هذه هي الثورة الأولى التي نحن جميعا فيها

جب أن يقاتل؛ النضال من أجل الملكية الذاتية وحرية الهوية.

      لا توجد سلطة عادلة.

       الليلة أجلس في منزلي وسط الظلام الدامس لتلالي، ليلة تتبع أيامًا من المطر ومليئة بأغاني الضفادع والطيور، هدوء لا يزعجه إلا ضوء الضوء في ذكرياتي عن هذه الليلة قبل عام، في الدفاع. الأقصى. مثل ومضات البرق، يمكن ليد الماضي أن تجلب الفوضى وتمتد لتسيطر علينا وتهزنا، وزعزعة استقرارنا واستقرارنا وبنياتنا الطبيعية من خلال أحداث مدمرة مفاجئة وغير متوقعة غير مربوطة بمرتكزاتها في الوقت المناسب.

       لكن الفوضى هي أيضًا مقياس للمدى التكيفي للنظام، الذي يجلب كلاً من الرعب من عدمنا ومتعة الحرية الكاملة في إعادة تصورنا وإعادة ميلادنا التحويلي لأنفسنا وإمكانياتنا اللامحدودة في أن نصبح بشرًا.

       لدى غييرمو ديل تورو، في ملحمته الرائعة عن الهجرة والمساواة العرقية كرنفال رو، مشهد يجد فيه شابان خلفاء لقيادة الفصائل المتنافسة تقليديًا نفسيهما في حالة حب وبحاجة إلى حلفاء في حبكة فرعية تعيد تصوير روميو وجولييت؛ يسأل الجحيم المتمرد جونا بريكسبير عشيقته المكيافيلية صوفي لونجيربان: “لمن تصلح الفوضى؟” فأجابت: “الفوضى جيدة لنا. الفوضى هي الأمل العظيم للضعفاء.”

      قد يفكر المرء في جلب الفوضى من حيث القوة الخلاصية للحب، والتضامن، وواجبنا في رعاية الآخرين، والاستيلاء على السلطة كاستعادة للتوازن، والمقاومة والنضال الثوري كوضع حياتنا في التوازن مع أولئك الذين لا حول لهم ولا قوة والمحرومين، والمُسكتين والممحيين، وtikkun olam أو شفاء انكسار العالم.

      في القدس والقدس، نتعرض للخيانة بسبب طبيعة الخضوع للسلطة والانقسامات غير المتكافئة للسلطة، ويتم تجريدنا من إنسانيتنا من قبل أولئك الذين يرتكبون الفظائع باسمنا، ويصبحون متواطئين في جرائم ضد الإنسانية من خلال روايات الإيذاء التي يسمح بها كما يعلمنا فولتير. أي شئ.

      حصلت على قفاز غيرنا. إنه إرهاب قديم. وهذا يجب أن نقاومه.

      الأساطير القديمة، والمظالم القديمة، منسوجة في نسيج نفسيتنا وحضارتنا. ومثل كل التاريخ والذاكرة والهوية المعتمدة، تحاكي القوى التي يجب أن نخرج من تراثها.

      في هذه اللحظة، أعود مرة أخرى إلى التشخيص الرائع لمرض السلطة باعتبارها هوية مستولى عليها، كما كتب ألون بن ميرين في هافبوست، على الرغم من أن وصفه لنظام الدولتين مثير للنقاش، وبالنسبة لي يجب استبداله بمرور الوقت بنظام علماني. دولة بقانون واحد للجميع وبدون تقسيمات رسمية للقبيلة أو اللغة أو العقيدة، في مقال بعنوان “في قبضة الأوهام القوية”؛ “يبدو أن الطريق المسدود الذي وصلت إليه عملية السلام الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية غير منطقي ومثير للقلق، حيث أن غالبية الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين يدركون أن التعايش، سواء في ظل ظروف العداء أو الصداقة، هو حقيقة لا يمكن لأي من الطرفين تغييرها إلا بحدوث كارثة.

      يبدو أن الطريق المسدود الذي وصلت إليه عملية السلام الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية غير منطقي ومثير للقلق، حيث أن أغلبية من الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين يدركون أن التعايش، سواء في ظل ظروف من العداء أو الصداقة، يشكل حقيقة لا يستطيع أي من الطرفين أن يغيرها إلا بالكارثة. ويدرك الجانبان أن المعايير العامة لاتفاق سلام مستدام يجب أن ترتكز على حل الدولتين على أساس حدود 1967 مع بعض تبادل الأراضي. لكن كلا الطرفين اختار الاستمتاع بالأوهام والعيش في تحدي الزمن والظروف. ويبدو أنهما يفضلان استمرار الاشتباكات العنيفة وإراقة الدماء على التعايش السلمي، في حين يلقي كل منهما اللوم على الآخر في المسار المدمر الذي لا ينتهي والذي اختار كل منهما أن يسلكه بشكل مأساوي.

      هناك ضرورات أساسية، مقرونة بتدابير أمنية متبادلة طويلة الأمد، تمثل ما كان على طاولة المفاوضات في عام 2000 في كامب ديفيد وفي 2010/2011 و2013/2014 تحت رعاية إدارة أوباما في القدس ورام الله. وكانت كل جولة، بدرجات متفاوتة من التقدم، تهدف إلى وضع اللمسات النهائية على الاتفاق، لكنها فشلت في نهاية المطاف في القيام بذلك. السؤال هو: لماذا؟

      وكانت التصورات المتحيزة والانتقائية، والتي عززتها التجارب التاريخية، والدين، والإيديولوجيات غير المتوافقة، سبباً في حبس كلا الجانبين في مواقف جامدة. وتشمل العوامل التي تحافظ على هذه الأنماط وتعززها المشاعر مثل الخوف وعدم الثقة وانعدام الأمن. والنتيجة النفسية هي الإنكار المتبادل لسردية الآخر ونزع الشرعية المتبادلة.

      والنتيجة العملية مجتمعة هي الركود والاستقطاب. ولذلك فإن ما نحتاج إليه هو حوار موجه نحو الإجماع على مستوى القيادة بين المسؤولين وغير المسؤولين، والتفاعلات بين الناس، لحل مسألة التصور – وهي مهمة صعبة نظراً للبيئة الحالية التي تدعم التحيز بدلاً من تحسينه. التصورات.

      هناك بعض المفاهيم النفسية ذات الصلة بفهم العلاقة الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية

فلكت؛ مفهوم الوهم هو مفهوم أساسي. في كتابه مستقبل الوهم، يقدم فرويد التعريف التالي: “… نحن نسمي الاعتقاد وهمًا عندما يكون تحقيق الرغبة عاملاً بارزًا في دوافعه، وبذلك نتجاهل علاقاته بالواقع، تمامًا كما الوهم في حد ذاته لا يشكل أي أهمية للتحقق.”

      ما يميز الأوهام هو: 1) أنها مستمدة من رغبات إنسانية عميقة، و2) الاعتقاد قائم (أو سيتم الاعتقاد به) في غياب أي دليل مقنع، أو أسس عقلانية جيدة، لصالحه.

      من المستحيل إنكار أن كلا من الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين يقعون في قبضة أوهام قوية للغاية لا تؤدي إلا إلى إطالة أمد الصراع ومنع أي تفاهم متبادل. وعلى وجه الخصوص، فإن الاعتقاد الذي يتقاسمه العديد من الإسرائيليين بأن لديهم حق كتابي في الأرض (بما في ذلك يهودا والسامرة)، وأن الله أعطاها لليهود إلى الأبد، هو بلا شك وهم من وهم الأمس.

      لم يتم تأكيد هذا الاعتقاد لأن هناك دليل حقيقي على أن الله اعتبره كذلك (على الرغم من وجود مملكتين يهوديتين – الأولى في القرن العاشر قبل الميلاد والثانية في بداية عام 539 قبل الميلاد – على نفس الأرض)، ولكن لأنه يرضي حاجة نفسية عميقة الجذور لوطن يهودي وهبه الله.

      والاعتقاد بأن إسرائيل من خلال توسيع المستوطنات سوف تعزز أمنها القومي وتحافظ على قبضتها على الأرض بالكامل هو وهم الغد، وهو وهم يتجاهل عموماً وجود المسلمين في نفس الأرض لأكثر من 1300 عام.

      من المهم أن نلاحظ كيف تدعم هذه الأوهام وتعزز بعضها البعض، وتشكل حاجزًا نفسيًا أكثر مناعة للتفكير النقدي. لقد ساهمت أوهام إسرائيل في خلق منطق الاحتلال.

      الفلسطينيون، من جانبهم، لا يخلو من أوهامهم. كما يعتقدون أن الله قد حفظ لهم الأرض، ويحتجون بحقيقة أنهم سكنوا الأرض لعدة قرون. ومن وجهة نظرهم فإن وجود المسجد الأقصى الذي بني عام 705م في القدس يشهد على ارتباطهم التاريخي والديني بالمدينة المقدسة.

      كما أنهم يتمسكون بفكرة أنهم سيعودون يوماً ما إلى أرض أسلافهم، كما فعلوا وما زالوا يصرون على حق العودة للاجئين الفلسطينيين، على الرغم من أن ذلك أصبح مستحيلاً فعلياً.

      يتمسك الفلسطينيون بأوهام الأمس والغد بشكل أعمى ويائس مثل الإسرائيليين، الأمر الذي يؤدي إلى مقاومة التغيير والخوف منه. وعلى هذا النحو، ما لم يغير الجانبان مسارهما ويقبلا انتماء كل منهما إلى نفس الأرض، خاصة لأنها قائمة على أساس ديني، فمن المحتم أن يؤدي الوضع إلى كارثة.

       وقد ساهم ذلك في جعل الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني مزمناً وعصياً على الحل، حيث تتغذى الأوهام المختلفة بشكل مستمر وواعي من خلال المواجهات العدائية اليومية والعنيفة في كثير من الأحيان بين الجانبين.

      في السعي إلى سد المفاهيم التي يمكن أن تربط بين مجالات علم النفس والسياسة في الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني، يمكن اقتراح أن المقاومة الجماعية المتبادلة للتغيير (سواء الواعي أو المتعمد، أو اللاوعي الداخلي) تحمي الهوية الضعيفة.

      فمقارنة، على سبيل المثال، بالهويات السياسية المستقرة والناضجة للدول الأمريكية والبريطانية والفرنسية، فإن الهويات السياسية لكل من الشعبين الإسرائيلي والفلسطيني، بطريقة ما، في مرحلة المراهقة.

      تكون الهويات في هذا السياق أكثر عرضة للخطر، والأبطال بطبيعة الحال أكثر دفاعية ومقاومة للتغيير. بحكم طبيعتها، يجب على اللاعبين أن يجدوا صعوبة (إن لم يكن من المستحيل) في التعبير عن ذلك علنًا، لأن القيام بذلك يعني الاعتراف بهذه الثغرة الأمنية.

      إن مفهوم المقاومة النفسية للتغيير قد يؤثر على الوضع السياسي بشكل عام وعلى الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني بشكل خاص. فهو يرتبط ارتباطًا وثيقًا بالتصورات على العديد من المستويات ويوفر الحماية لتكوين الهوية الضعيفة.

      وهذه العقلية، التي تعززها التجارب التاريخية، هي التي تتجاوز أكثر من سبعة عقود منذ بدأ الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني. وما زال الأفراد والجماعات، الإسرائيليون والفلسطينيون على حد سواء، يفسرون طبيعة الخلاف بينهم على أنه “أنت ضدي” بطريقة متحيزة وانتقائية.

      وهذا بدوره أدى إلى خنق أي معلومات جديدة ومكن من استمرار مقاومة التغيير، الأمر الذي يمكن أن يلقي ضوءا جديدا على طبيعة وجوهر الصراع ويساعد في دفع عملية السلام.

      يرتبط مفهوم المقاومة اللاواعية للتغيير في هذا الإطار جيدًا بوجهة نظر التصورات التي تحرك الاستقطاب في الصراع. إن الخبرة التاريخية، التي تصوغ التصورات، تعمل من بين أمور أخرى على تعزيز الإحساس بالهوية “من نحن حقًا”، وهو افتراض جماعي تكويني يقع في حجر الأساس لكل من اللاعبين الرئيسيين ويحرك السلوك الوظيفي والمختل.

ومن حيث المبدأ، فإن مثل هذه العقلية تمنع أياً من الطرفين من طرح أفكار جديدة قد تؤدي إلى تنازلات من أجل التوصل إلى حل سلمي. والمفارقة هنا هي أن الأغلبية على كلا الجانبين تريد السلام وتسعى إليه، وهي تعلم جيداً أن ذلك يتطلب تنازلات كبيرة، لكنها غير قادرة على التوفيق بين التنازلات المطلوبة والتصورات المتأصلة التي حالت دون هذه التنازلات نتيجة المقاومة والخوف من ذلك. يتغير.

      ولذلك، فإن أي إطار للسلام يجب أن يتضمن بنوداً من شأنها أن تزيد بشكل كبير من احتمالات التوصل إلى حل. أولاً، يتعين على الجانبين الالتزام بالتوصل إلى اتفاق على أساس حل الدولتين انطلاقاً من الاقتناع بأن التغيير، الذي يترجم إلى التعايش، أمر لا مفر منه. ولذلك، يتعين عليهم أن يتكيفوا مع متطلبات بعضهم البعض، الأمر الذي يتطلب منهم بالضرورة تقديم تنازلات كبيرة.

      ثانياً، لتسهيل ذلك، يجب عليهم إجراء تفاعلات تصالحية اجتماعية واقتصادية وثقافية وأمنية بين الناس للتخفيف من مقاومتهم للتغيير، والتي يجب أن تبدأ، على الأقل، قبل عام واحد من بدء المفاوضات لخلق الحالة النفسية والاجتماعية. مناخ سياسي لبناء الثقة اللازمة لمفاوضات سلام موضوعية وناجحة.

      إن استئناف محادثات السلام لن يؤدي إلى أي نتيجة ما لم يغير الإسرائيليون والفلسطينيون تصوراتهم المتحيزة ومقاومتهم للتغيير وخوفهم منه، ثم يدركون أخيراً أن مصيرهم متشابك ولا يستطيع أي منهما أن يعيش في سلام وأمن دون الآخر.

      أشعر بأنني مضطر إلى اختتام مقالتي الأخيرة لهذا العام بتحذير شديد من أنه من الأفضل للإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين على حد سواء أن يفكروا فيه مع اقترابهم من نهاية العقد السابع من صراعهم المأساوي.

      يجب على كل متطرف إسرائيلي ومتشدد فلسطيني، أولئك الذين يريدون كل ذلك، أن يتوقفوا ويفكروا أين ستكون إسرائيل والفلسطينيون بعد عشر سنوات إذا استمر الوضع الحالي؟

      أوهامك اليوم لن تصبح حقيقة غدًا، وما سيأتي به الغد ليس سوى المزيد من الألم والدموع والعذاب.

      صراعكم يتطور بشكل أسرع من أي وقت مضى إلى حرب دينية. إن هرمجدون بين المسلمين واليهود يجري الإعداد له الآن، وهو ما من شأنه أن يشعل المنطقة بأكملها على نار لا يمكن تصورها.

      إذا كنتم مؤمنين حقيقيين، فلا تجرؤوا على تحدي مشيئة الله، لأنه جمعكم معًا ليضعكم في الاختبار – يجب عليكم إما أن تعيشوا في سلام ووئام، أو سيحكم عليكم بالنسيان واليأس.

      لديك القدرة على اختيار مصيرك. هل سيكون تدميرًا ذاتيًا أم سيكون تحقيقًا لحلم مجيد؟

      انهضوا ومرروا إرثًا من الأمل لكل طفل إسرائيلي وفلسطيني، لأن لديهم الحق الذي منحه الله لهم في أن يكبروا ويزدهروا ولا ينبغي لأحد أن يموت من أجل أوهامكم عبثًا”.

      كما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 9 نوفمبر 2023، مرآة ظلامنا: كريستالناكت؛ إن إسرائيل تحيي ذكرى هذه المأساة التي فتحت الباب أمام مأساة أكبر في المحرقة من خلال فعل الشيء نفسه بالضبط مع الفلسطينيين، شعب واحد منقسم بسبب التاريخ والدين الذي تم استخدامه كسلاح في خدمة السلطة. وهذا أيضاً سيفتح الأبواب أمام المزيد من إرهاب الدولة وطغيانها، ما لم يتمكن الشعبان من الاتحاد ضد السلطات التي ترتكب الفظائع باسمهما كإستراتيجية لإخضاع وتحرير بعضهما البعض من أولئك الذين يستعبدونهما.

      إذا كنت تفكر في الأمم باعتبارها أطفالًا ناجين من سوء المعاملة، يصبح الكثير واضحًا؛ لأنه بمجرد استيلائهم على السلطة، فمن المرجح أن يصبحوا هم أنفسهم مسيئين. هذه هي الطريقة التي يعمل بها الخوف، ولماذا هو الأساس الحقيقي للتبادل، ولماذا السياسة هي فن الخوف، ولماذا تتجسد الدول في العنف. لقد تعرض كل من الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين للتهديدات الوجودية بوحشية قبل وقت طويل من بدء ممارسة الوحشية والوحشية وتجريد بعضهم البعض من إنسانيتهم.

      إن استخدام الأنظمة المفترسة على كلا الجانبين لسياسات الانقسام والهوية لمركزية السلطة وإضفاء الشرعية على الهيمنة الاستبدادية هي مرحلة يمكن التنبؤ بها من النضال من أجل التحرير، وخاصة الثورة المناهضة للاستعمار.

       إن الحيلة في أن نصبح بشرًا، وأصدقاء، هي أن نحتضن ظلامنا في النضال وكذلك أعداءنا، ونخرج من تراث تاريخنا الذي يظللنا مثل ذيل تمساح غير مرئي.

       هناك سطر يتحدث به الشرير في مسلسل The Magicians، وهو أحد الناجين من إساءة معاملة الأطفال والطاغية المعروف باسم The Beast لجرائمه المروعة، وكان في السابق الصبي الضعيف والمرعوب مارتن شاتوين والآن إله وحشي؛ “كما تعلم، عندما كنت صبيًا، كان الرجل الذي كان من المفترض أن يعتني بي، يثنيني على مكتبه ويحتضنني مرارًا وتكرارًا في كل مرة كنت وحدي معه. إنه يساعدني على فهم الحقيقة. أنت قوي أو أنت ضعيف. “

       وهنا تكمن الكذبة الأصلية للطاغية والفاشي في الدفاعيات وتبرير الذات وسيكوباتية السلطة؛ الكذبة القائلة بأن القوة وحدها هي التي لها معنى وهي حقيقية، وأنه لا يوجد خير أو شر. إن كيفية استخدامنا للسلطة لا تقل أهمية عن من يملكها. الخوف والقوة هما الوسيلة الأساسية للتبادل البشري، ولكن

ليست الوسيلة الوحيدة؛ الحب والعضوية والانتماء لا تقل أهمية.

       إنه خط يجسد بشكل مثالي التناقضات المتأصلة في حلقة فاغنر من الخوف والقوة والقوة كأصل للشر؛ لأن استخدام القوة الاجتماعية هو أمر تخريبي لقيمه الخاصة. ومع ذلك، فإن الظروف المفروضة للنضال الثوري غالبا ما تتطلب العنف، وإلى أن يتم إسقاط آلهة القانون والنظام من عروشهم، يجب أن أتفق مع القول المأثور الشهير لسارتر في مسرحيته “الأيدي القذرة” عام 1948، والتي اقتبسها فرانتز فانون في خطابه عام 1960. لماذا نستخدم العنف، والذي جعله خالدًا مالكولم إكس؛ “بأي وسيلة ضرورية.”

      كما كتب والتر رودني في The Groundings with my Brothers؛ “لقد قيل لنا أن العنف في حد ذاته شر، وأنه، مهما كان سببه، فهو غير مبرر أخلاقيا. بأي معيار أخلاقي يمكن اعتبار العنف الذي يستخدمه العبد لكسر أغلاله مثل عنف سيد العبد؟ بأي معايير يمكننا أن نساوي عنف السود الذين تعرضوا للاضطهاد والقمع والاكتئاب لمدة أربعة قرون مع عنف الفاشيين البيض. ولا يمكن الحكم على العنف الذي يهدف إلى استعادة الكرامة الإنسانية والمساواة بنفس مقياس العنف الذي يهدف إلى الحفاظ على التمييز والقمع.

      وهذا هو المقطع الذي يشير إليه من ليون تروتسكي في كتابه “أخلاقهم وأخلاقنا: الأسس الطبقية للممارسة الأخلاقية”؛ “مالك العبيد الذي من خلال المكر والعنف يقيد عبدًا مقيدًا بالسلاسل، والعبد الذي يكسر القيود من خلال المكر أو العنف – لا تدع الخصيان المحتقرين يخبروننا أنهم متساوون أمام محكمة الأخلاق!”

      ومع ذلك، أفكر في تلك الشخصيات العظيمة التي كانت أبطال التحرير وأشرار الطغيان؛ قدوتي المراهقة نابليون، واشنطن، الذي يعد محوريًا في تاريخ عائلتنا وصاغ الشعار على شعار النبالة الخاص بنا في رمز المرور خلال معركة ترينتون، النصر أو الموت، عندما كانت الثورة بأكملها تراهن على أمل بائس، من المأساوية دراما الأبطال الذين سقطوا مثل روبرت موغابي، والطغاة المتوحشين ستالين وماو، والقائمة عبارة عن سلسلة لا نهاية لها تقريبًا من الويلات وإخفاقات الرؤية حيث تحولت عوالم جديدة شجاعة إلى جحيم وحالات جنونية. في الدليل الذي أقدمه، أصبحت الثورات الأمريكية والنابليونية إمبراطوريات، والاتحاد السوفييتي، والحزب الشيوعي الصيني، والهند حيث يأتي مجد التحرير جنبًا إلى جنب مع مأساة التقسيم، وهي الآن تحت حذاء القومية الهندوسية، وجميع الثورات المناهضة للاستعمار تقريبًا. والتي أصبحت، مع الفترة الأولى من الحرية كأمم جديدة، أنظمة استبدادية مروعة، وقبل كل شيء دولة إسرائيل، حلم اللجوء الذي نشأ في إرهاب المحرقة التي تعلم ضحاياها الدروس الخاطئة من النازيين وتولوا دورهم في احتلال إسرائيل. فلسطين. إن مخاطر المثالية حقيقية للغاية؛ ولكن كذلك مخاطر الخضوع للسلطة والتواطؤ في الصمت في وجه الشر.

      أنا صياد الفاشيين، وأخلاقي هي أخلاق الصياد. بالنسبة لي هناك اختبار بسيط لاستخدام القوة؛ من يملك السلطة؟

      لقد كتب عدد كبير من الحكماء بشكل جميل عن أهوال فاشية الدم والإيمان والتربة والتسلسلات الهرمية للانتماء النخبوي والاختلاف الإقصائي، كما يفعل بول أوستريشر في المقالة التالية؛ أود هنا فقط أن أشير إلى أن القوى التي تكمن في داخلنا وخارجها، مثل الظروف الاجتماعية والصدمات اللاجينية، والحركات الرجعية للهمجية وأنظمة القمع، هي قوى عالمية بالنسبة للبشر كشروط مفروضة للنضال وتعمل باستمرار حتى عندما تكون محجوبة عن الأنظار. أبعد من الرعب والإذلال الناتج عن نقاط الانكسار في الروح الإنسانية مثل تلك التي حدثت في ليلة الكريستال والتطهير العرقي في غزة.

      أكتب إليك كشخص عاش صرخة معركة “لن يحدث مرة أخرى أبدًا”! منذ أكثر من أربعين عامًا، ومن الأهمية العميقة والحيوية تطبيق مبدأ العمل هذا ليس فقط في مقاومة الفاشية كعدو متطفل على كل ما هو إنساني فينا، ولكن أيضًا على أنفسنا واستخدامنا للعنف والوسائل الاجتماعية. القوة تجاه الآخرين.

     في النهاية، كل ما يهم هو ما نفعله بمخاوفنا، وكيف نستخدم قوتنا.

      بغض النظر عن المكان الذي تبدأ فيه بالانقسامات والتسلسلات الهرمية للانتماء النخبوي والاختلاف الاستبعادي، فإنك دائمًا ينتهي بك الأمر عند أبواب أوشفيتز.

     كما يعلمنا نيتشه في كتابه ما وراء الخير والشر؛ “أولئك الذين يصطادون الوحوش يجب أن ينتبهوا لئلا يصبح وحشًا. وإذا حدقت طويلا في الهاوية، فإن الهاوية ستحدق فيك أيضا.”

      في مرآة غزة المظلمة، بانعكاساتها الوحشية على ليلة الكريستال وأوشفيتز، هل يعجبك ما تراه يا إسرائيل؟

      وكما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 10 مايو 2021، الدفاع عن الأقصى: الحرية مقابل الاستبداد في القدس؛ ربما شهدنا قدوم الانتفاضة الثالثة هذه الليلة، دفاعًا عن الأقصى ومعارك الشوارع في غزة التي أعقبت ذلك، والتي أشعلها الغدر والغزو الإمبراطوري لدولة إسرائيل الفاشية والكارهة للأجانب والتي لا تنظر إلا إلى أحد.

قبيلتهم ودينهم كإنسان حقيقي، والذي ارتكب هجومًا مميتًا غير مبرر كعمل من أعمال إرهاب الدولة وجريمة ضد الإنسانية على المصلين المسالمين في أحد أكثر المساجد قدسية في العالم الإسلامي، وهو استعراض للقوة والقوة. الهيمنة التي تأتي بعد أسابيع من الاستفزازات والاعتداءات وأعمال الدعاية التجريدية من الإنسانية ضد شعب فلسطين.

       مثل انتفاضة الأقصى الثانية التي استمرت أربع سنوات من 28 سبتمبر 2000 إلى 8 فبراير 2005، فإن القضايا التي لم يتم حلها للاحتلال هي الآن في عامها الرابع والخمسين منذ احتلال إسرائيل للقدس القديمة في 7 يونيو 1967، والذي احتفلت به دولة إسرائيل وفقًا لـ إلى التقويم العبري باعتباره يوم القدس اليوم من خلال مهاجمة الأقصى، والكارثة المستمرة الآن منذ ثلاثة وسبعين عامًا منذ يوم النكبة في 15 مايو 1948، تضافرت حول القيمة الرمزية للأقصى، الذي له هوية مزدوجة متنازع عليها مثل جبل الهيكل في القدس. اليهودية.

      إن فرص التهدئة وتجنب الحرب لا تعتمد الآن على العوامل المحلية، بل على استجابة المجتمع الدولي، لأن التاريخ هنا أصبح فخًا ينهار ليوقعنا في شركه، ويجب على القوى الخارجية أن تحررنا من إخفاقات الغرب. التناقضات الداخلية لنظامنا.

      فهل ستتنصل أمريكا وتتخلى عن مستعمرتها إسرائيل، ملكة سياستها الإمبراطورية في الشرق الأوسط وسيطرتها على المورد الاستراتيجي للنفط؟ هل يمكن للوحدة الدولية وضغوط المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات وفرض العقوبات أن تحررنا من طغيان وإرهاب نظام الفصل العنصري كما حدث في جنوب أفريقيا؟

      أم أن الحرب هي الحساب الوحيد الذي يمكن للبشرية تقديمه أو قبوله؟

      كما كتب إيشان ثارور في صحيفة واشنطن بوست؛ ليلة الإثنين، تبادل المسلحون في قطاع غزة والجيش الإسرائيلي إطلاق الصواريخ والغارات الجوية وسط تصعيد مميت للعنف. أطلقت حماس والجهاد الإسلامي، الجماعتان المسلحتان المتمركزتان في غزة المحاصرة، وابلًا من الصواريخ التي سقطت بالقرب من القدس وفي أجزاء من جنوب إسرائيل، مما أدى إلى إصابة شخص واحد على الأقل. وأدت الغارات الجوية الإسرائيلية ردا على ذلك إلى مقتل ما لا يقل عن 20 شخصا في غزة، وفقا لوزارة الصحة في غزة، من بينهم تسعة أطفال.

      وقال رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو إن “الجماعات الإرهابية” في غزة “تجاوزت الخط الأحمر” بهجماتها الصاروخية. لكن الانفجار الأخير للأعمال العدائية له ذيل طويل، في أعقاب العديد من الأعمال العدوانية التي قامت بها قوات الأمن الإسرائيلية والجماعات اليهودية اليمينية المتطرفة في القدس. قبل أسبوعين، قامت مجموعات من المتطرفين اليهود، بما في ذلك بعض المستوطنين من الضفة الغربية، بمسيرة عبر المناطق المأهولة بالسكان الفلسطينيين في المدينة المقدسة، وهم يهتفون “الموت للعرب”، وهاجموا المارة وألحقوا أضرارًا بالممتلكات والمنازل الفلسطينية. أثارت المحاولات الإسرائيلية لطرد عدد من العائلات الفلسطينية في حي الشيخ جراح بالقدس الشرقية – وهو نموذج مصغر لما يعتبره الفلسطينيون جزءًا من تاريخ طويل من السلب والمحو على يد الدولة الإسرائيلية – احتجاجات التضامن الفلسطيني في أجزاء مختلفة للأراضي المحتلة وإسرائيل.

      كما أثارت التوترات قبيل إحياء يوم القدس يوم الاثنين، وهو يوم عطلة إسرائيلية رسمي يحتفل بالاستيلاء على المدينة خلال الحرب العربية الإسرائيلية عام 1967. تم إلغاء مسيرة سنوية كان من المقرر أن يقوم بها إسرائيليون من اليمين المتطرف بعد أن غيرت السلطات مسارها في اللحظة الأخيرة. ولا تزال أعداد كبيرة تشق طريقها إلى حائط المبكى وتغني أغنية انتقامية متطرفة ضد الفلسطينيين.

      أفاد زملائي أن “هجمات حماس الصاروخية، والتي تضمنت الضربات الأولى ضد القدس منذ عدة سنوات، جاءت بعد اشتباكات بين الشرطة الإسرائيلية والمتظاهرين الفلسطينيين والإسرائيليين اليهود اليمينيين المتطرفين حول المدينة القديمة”. ومن بين مئات الجرحى سبعة نقلوا إلى المستشفى في حالة خطيرة، بحسب الهلال الأحمر الفلسطيني. وتم تداول مقطع فيديو على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي يظهر ضباط شرطة إسرائيليين يضربون بوحشية رجلاً فلسطينيًا معتقلًا.

       فكيف يمكن لأمريكا أن تدعم دولة إسرائيل في الطغيان والإرهاب والغزو والنهب؟ إنه سؤال يُطرح بلهجة الغضب والأسى والحيرة منذ حلول النكبة في 15 مايو/أيار 1948، يوم النكبة التي بدأ فيها احتلال فلسطين والاستعباد الممنهج والإبادة الجماعية لشعبها في أعقاب الغزو الإسرائيلي. القدس. كيف يتم إضفاء الشرعية على هذا؟

       لقد أعاد أحد الأصدقاء صياغة هذا السؤال لي مؤخرًا؛ “لقد أحببت التقليد اليهودي واعتنقته، وانضممت إلى كنيس يهودي وعملت جنبًا إلى جنب مع حاخامه. عندما أشاهد معاملة الحكومة اليهودية في إسرائيل للفلسطينيين، تغمرني مشاعر الارتباك والغضب. ولأنني غير قادر على التوفيق بين هذا الفجور، فإنني أشكك في أساس إيماني. أين الانتفاضة الطيبة والأخلاقية للأصوات اليهودية العالمية المنددة بمسار الحكومة؟ لقد فقدت الثقة في كوني يهودية”.

      ما هو واضح بالنسبة لي هو أن أزمة الإيمان هذه هي أيضًا أزمة هوية وجودية

ن الوضع في غاية الخطورة والخطر والذي يحمل أيضًا إمكانية إعادة التصور والولادة التحويلية، وهو صدى شخصي لأزمة حضارية موازية يجب على البشرية والمجتمع العالمي للأمم أن يجدوا منها طريقة للخروج وتحرير أنفسنا من تراث الحضارة الإنسانية. تاريخنا. وهنا ردي:

      دولة إسرائيل ليست متطابقة مع الديانة اليهودية، على الرغم من أن الفصيل الإمبريالي الفاشي الذي يمثله نتنياهو يرغب في أن يعتقد الجميع ذلك.

     أمة تقوم على تخصيص مواطنيها لهوية قبلية، والتسليح الطائفي للعقيدة في خدمة السلطة والهوية الوطنية المصرح بها، ومجتمع عسكري مع خدمة إلزامية عالمية، وصنم منتشر لأساطير الشجاعة العسكرية ورموزها بما في ذلك البنادق. واستخدمت لغة الوحدة الوطنية العبرية المعاد بناؤها سياسات الهوية لإخضاع مواطنيها لسلطة الاستبداد المركزية؛ إسرائيل دولة فاشية من الدم والإيمان والأرض لا تقل عن دولة النازيين.

      أضف إلى هذا المزيج السام النظام الكليبتوقراطي الذي روج لسرديات الإيذاء التاريخي لإضفاء الشرعية على السرقة الجماعية والغزو الإمبراطوري لشعوب أخرى، وهناك شيء واحد واضح؛ لقد تعلمت إسرائيل الدروس الخاطئة من النازيين.

      ربما تعلمون من إشاراتي العديدة إلى الحادثة في كتاباتي أنني مناهض للفاشية، وقد أقسمت قسم المقاومة على يد جان جينيه عام 1982 في بيروت، أثناء معركتنا ضد الغزو والحصار الإسرائيلي. وفي الأعوام التسع والثلاثين التي تلت ذلك، كنت صائدًا للنازيين وثوريًا للديمقراطية منخرطًا في النضال من أجل تحرير البشرية ضد الطغيان والأنظمة الاستبدادية التي تعتمد على القوة والسيطرة.

       لقد كان الوطن الفلسطيني، والعدالة لشعبه، من بين أهدافي منذ ذلك الصيف منذ فترة طويلة. ومثله كمثل هدف تحرير أيرلندا من الحكم الاستعماري البريطاني، فلا يزال يتعين تحقيقه. موضع التساؤل هو فكرة الحرية والمواطنة باعتبارها سيادة واستقلال الشعوب عن الاستعمار الأجنبي والطغيان الاستبدادي، وأولوية دولة غير طائفية خالية من الانقسامات والتسلسلات الهرمية للإيمان، لأن من يقف بين كل واحد منا وبين اللانهائي لا يخدم أيًا منهما. .

      كما أنني أؤيد فكرة إقامة وطن إسرائيلي، ولا أرى أي سبب يجعل هاتين الدولتين، فلسطين وإسرائيل، متنافيتين أو متعارضتين. بعض الإسرائيليين الذين يختلفون معي حول قضية فلسطين والنزعة العسكرية في الغزو الإمبراطوري والسيطرة الإقليمية كانوا حلفاء في قضية مطاردة النازيين والفاشيين عمومًا في جميع أنحاء العالم، لكنهم غافلون عن تواطؤهم في هذا الشر بسبب رؤيتهم لأنفسهم. كضحايا وليس كمرتكبي جرائم ضد الإنسانية. يتعلق الأمر بالخوف والدورة المدمرة للإساءة والعنف.

      عندما تستولي السلطة على الإيمان لإضفاء الشرعية على سياسات الهوية، تصبح الهوية نفسها مشوشة وغامضة. لكي نصبح أحرارًا، يجب علينا أن نمتلك ملكية أنفسنا ككائنات مخلوقة ذاتيًا ومستقلة.

      ولهذا السبب فإن الواجبات الأساسية للمواطن هي مساءلة السلطة، وكشف السلطة، والسخرية من السلطة، وتحدي السلطة.

      دائمًا يبقى الصراع بين الأقنعة التي يصنعها الآخرون لنا وتلك التي نصنعها لأنفسنا؛ هذه هي الثورة الأولى التي يجب علينا جميعا أن نقاتل فيها.

      أفكر في مشكلة الشر البشري ودورة الخوف والقوة والقوة في حالة الدول التي أصبحت أنظمة استبدادية قاتلت من أجل تحرير نفسها منها، وهذا ينطبق على الدول الثورية المناهضة للاستعمار بشكل عام بسبب الموروثات التاريخية من الإيذاء. ، في هذا الطريق؛ غالبًا ما يصبح الضحايا مسيئين لأن هويتهم منظمة حول السلطة باعتبارها الوسيلة الوحيدة للهروب في عالم لا يمكن الوثوق فيه بأحد.

      عندما يتم إلغاء الثقة وإثبات أنها فارغة وبلا معنى، عندما تنكسر القدرة على الارتباط بالآخرين والشعور بألمهم في التعاطف، ويصبح المرء بلا شفقة أو ندم، عندما يكون الخوف طاغيًا ومعممًا وتشكله السلطة على التعامل مع الآخرين. وفي خدمة السلطة، يتعلم الضحايا أن القوة وحدها هي التي لها معنى وهي حقيقية. يجب ألا نسمح للمسيئين أن يصبحوا معلمينا.

      وفي حين أن كل قضية من هذا القبيل لها أصولها وتاريخها الفريد، فإن المشكلة في حد ذاتها عالمية، وتتعلق بما يخشاه المرء، وكيف يتشكل هذا الخوف من خلال السلطة كهوية. من وجهة نظرنا كأميركيين يفسرون الأحداث في المشكلة الكلاسيكية المتمثلة في الأقلية المزدوجة التي تمثلها إسرائيل وفلسطين، فإن كيفية إدراكنا للقضايا لها علاقة كبيرة بكيفية تأطيرها من خلال مصادرنا الإعلامية والمحفزة.

       في النهاية، يتم تعريفنا بما نفعله بخوفنا، وكيف نستخدم قوتنا.

       السؤال الأول الذي يجب طرحه في أي قصة، والأهم، هو سؤال بسيط؛ من هذه القصة؟

       نحن ضائعون في برية المرايا، من الأكاذيب والأوهام، وتزييف أنفسنا، والصور والانعكاسات المشوهة، والأصداء والهويات المرخصة التي تشوه وتشوه.

مكين، وسرقة أرواحنا.

       فكيف نجيب أولئك الذين يستعبدوننا؟ يتم تحقيق أصالتنا واستقلالنا من خلال الاستيلاء على السلطة، وإعادة تصور وتحويل أنفسنا والبشرية كمجتمع حر متساوين.

       نحن الأمريكيون نميل إلى رؤية الأشياء من منظور القبعات البيضاء والقبعات السوداء، كما هو الحال في الأفلام الغربية التي تعتبر بمثابة أساطير أصلية ونماذج أولية لشخصيتنا الوطنية. بمجرد منح مكانة الضحية، تصبح هذه المجموعات والأشخاص من القبعات البيضاء والأخيار، غير قادرين على الشر ومعارضين تمامًا لأي شخص يجب أن يكون من القبعات السوداء. إنها طريقة فظيعة لاختيار السياسة الوطنية.

      للأسف، نحن البشر يمكن أن نكون خيرًا وأشرارًا في الوقت نفسه، فعيوب إنسانيتنا تتردد وتعكس انكسار العالم. إنها حقيقة تم إثباتها مرة أخرى الليلة في القدس أو القدس اعتمادًا على من يتحدث وبأي لغة، بينما تحترق غزة من هجوم قوات الدفاع الإسرائيلية المسعورة تمامًا كما حدث في الليلة التي مضت قبل أربعة عقود تقريبًا في بيروت. عندما حاولوا حرقي أنا وجينيه أحياء في المقهى الخاص بنا، كعشرات البشر الذين سُرق منهم كل شيء ما عدا الأمل، أقسموا لبعضهم البعض أن يتخذوا موقعًا يغطي هروب النساء والأطفال المحاصرين بالهجوم الإسرائيلي حتى النهاية. نحن آمنون، في دفاع أخير ليس عن المسجد الأقصى، رائع وجميل ومليء بالأهمية، نصب تذكاري للدافع البشري للوصول إلى ما هو أبعد من أنفسنا والإمكانيات اللامحدودة لأن نصبح بشرًا، مرحلة مناسبة للموت المجيد للأبطال، ولكن من صرخات الغرباء بلا جسد بين المحاربين المجهولين في العصور القديمة المهجورة.

      في مواجهة هوة الفراغ والهمجية العدمية في عالم من الظلام والنار، من الخوف والقوة، ليس لدي سوى الكلمات لأقدمها، وأنا أكتب إليكم ما قلته لرفاقي الذين اختاروا الوقوف معي؛ لقد فقدت عدد مرات الوقوف الأخيرة، لكنني خاطرت بكل شيء ضد احتمالات مستحيلة ونجوت مرات أكثر مما أستطيع أن أتذكر، وكل ما يهم هو أننا لا نتخلى عن أنفسنا ولا عن بعضنا البعض، وأن نرفض الاستسلام، لأن هذا هو لحظة حريتنا، ولا يمكن أن تؤخذ منا أبدا.

       من هذه الليلة تتحرر فلسطين، يمكن أن نقتل ولكن لا يمكن أن نفتح.

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10 במאי 2024 יום השנה לאינתיפאדה השלישית של 2021, מתקיים כעת בתיאטרון העשירי של מלחמת העולם השלישית המכיל ומחליף את מלחמת עזה

        הן המבקרים בארץ הקודש המחפשים סימנים של הבלתי נראה המתגלים בדיסנילנד של אמונות מסוכסכות והן אלה שנלכדו בתוך הסיוט של חומות, מחסומים, תיל תער, מעקבים נרחבים, אלימות אוניברסלית, פוליטיקה זהותית, והעריצות והטרור של אחד מאיתנו. משטרי הכוח והשליטה הנוראיים ביותר בעולם הפכו כאן לרוחות הרפאים של השואה; ישראל מהדהדת עם הצרחות השקטות של הקולות הגנובים והצללים הטורפים של היסטוריה שנושקה בשירות לשלטון כנרטיבים של קורבנות וביטחון ככוח, אסטרטגיה שנועדה לשבור תחילה את הסולידריות שלנו עם פילוג ופשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה. זיוף ולאחר מכן דה-הומניזציה והכניעתנו כאדונים ועבדים וכרצח עם וטיהור אתני.

      ישראל כחלום מקלט ושל אחווה ואהבה אוניברסליים נבגדה וחתרנה על ידי ישראל כתיאוקרטיה שנאת זרים, אימפריה צבאית ומחנה עבדים; כאן אושוויץ התמסד בקנה מידה לאומי, אסיריה לשעבר עכשיו השומרים שלה.

      מדוע שמישהו יבחר לשחזר גיהנום ממנו נמלט, אפילו כאדוניו ולא כעבדיו?

      אני מבין היטב את הפיתוי של כוח כביטחון בעולם של כוחות עוינים וכאוטיים, וכיצד ניתן לעצב פחד מוחץ ומוכלל על ידי סמכות לרכז כוח על ידי הצעת לנו כוח מושאל על אחרים כדמויות של איומים קיומיים; להיות פוסק המידות באמצעות כוח ושליטה. אבל ביטחון הוא אשליה, המדינה כאלימות מגולמת מצייתת לחוק התנועה השלישי של ניוטון ויוצרת התנגדות משלה, והכאב המשותף שלנו מאחד אותנו בדרכים שמתעלות מעל הטבעת הווגנרית של פחד, כוח וכוח, שרק אהבה יכולה לשחרר אותנו מ.

      אהבה כסולידריות בעשייה יכולה לגאול את פגמי אנושיותנו ואת שברו של העולם, תיקון עולם בעברית, ולשחרר אותנו לחיות כערבים לאנושיותו של זה.

       כפי שכתבתי ביום השנה הראשון לאינתיפאדה השלישית בלילה הזה לפני שנתיים; זה חייב להיות הנושא הנכתב ביותר, הנלמד, התווכח, התנסה בו ונלחם בנושא בפוליטיקה הגלובלית מאז מלחמת העולם השנייה שהוא תוצאה ממנה, העם הזה שבו עם אחד מחולק לפי ההיסטוריה כישראלים ופלסטינים, ומדד של האנושות שלנו, כדוגמה הקלאסית של המיעוט הכפול; מה עושים עם עיר אחת ואומה אחת שתיבעות על ידי שתי קהילות היסטוריות, כבסיס לזהות כאמונה ולאום וההשלכות והפרקסיס של פוליטיקת זהויות כאלימות?

      כאן אומה ועם נקרעים על ידי הפרעת זהות דיסוציאטיבית, מסוכסכים ונעולים במאבק טיטאני כמו עם פיצול הזהות, הזיכרון והתודעה של מספר אישים, טירוף בקנה מידה לאומי וציוויליזציוני שנולד ממורשת ההיסטוריה והחיים משבשים אירועים, טראומה אפיגנטית, אבל, אימה, אשמה וייאוש.

      בדואליות של ישראל ופלסטין מתבררים מקורות הרוע כאלימות ועריצות בטבעת הווגנרית הרקורסיבית והתלויה הדדית של פחד, כוח וכוח, כאשר פחד סוחף ומוכלל ואיומים קיומיים מופעלים בנשק בשירות לשלטון על ידי הסמכות. היוצר מצבי כוח ושליטה קרסראליים ככוח לא שוויוני ואלימות מגולמת, באמצעות היררכיות עילית וחלוקות של שייכות ואחרות ופשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה.

      כאן פועל הפשיזם כרע מערכתי כהחזקה וגניבה של הנשמה. מה אנחנו יכולים לעשות לגבי זה? כפי ששאל לנין במאמרו משנת 1902; “מה יש לעשות?” איך להשתחרר מהכוחות המערכתיים של ההכנעה שלנו לסמכות, לאליטות ולאלה שישעבדו אותנו?

     ראשית עלינו להכיר ולהיזהר מאלה המתיימרים לדבר בשמנו ולפעול בשמנו, שכן זוהי אסטרטגיה ראשית של הפשיזם. כדי לשחרר את עצמנו מהשקרים והאשליות, הזיוף וההיסטוריה המשוכתבת, תיאוריות הקונספירציה והמציאות החלופית שבאמצעותן אנו הופכים לדה-הומניזציה, עלינו להיות דוברי אמת העוסקים במרדף אחר האמת כקריאה קדושה, ולבצע את ארבע החובות העיקריות של אזרח; רשות שאלה, רשות חשיפה, רשות מדומה ורשות אתגר.

     שנית עלינו לתפוס את הבעלות העצמית והאוטונומיה שלנו בסירוב להיכנע לסמכות, שכן הסוד הגדול של הכוח הוא שהוא ריק וחלול, והוא עובר דה-לגיטימציה דרך סירוב לסמוך ולהאמין בסמכות, ושל כוח שהוא שביר ו מוצא את הגבול שלו בנקודה של אי ציות. מעשים פשוטים, אבל גם כוחות טבועים של האדם שלא ניתן לקחת מאיתנו; שכן מי שמסרב להיכנע הוא חופשי, והופך לבלתי ניתן לכיבוש.

      תמיד נשאר המאבק בין המסכות שאחרים עושים לנו, לבין אלה שאנחנו עושים לעצמנו. זו המהפכה הראשונה שבה כולנו

חייב להילחם; המאבק לבעלות עצמית ולחופש הזהות.

      אין סמכות צודקת.

       הלילה אני יושב בבית בין החושך העצום של גבעותיי, לילה שעוקב אחרי ימים של גשם ומלא בשירי צפרדעים וציפורים, שלווה המופרעת רק בגלל הכירוסקורו של זיכרונותיי מהלילה הזה לפני שנה, בהגנה. של אל אקצא. כמו הבזקים של ברק, יד העבר יכולה להביא את הכאוס ולהושיט יד לתפוס ולטלטל אותנו, ולערער אותנו ואת מבני הנורמליות שלנו עם אירועים בלתי צפויים ופתאומיים משבשים שנפרמו מעגןיהם בזמן.

       אבל הכאוס הוא גם מדד לטווח ההסתגלותי של מערכת, שמביאה הן את אימת האין שלנו והן את השמחה על החופש המוחלט בדמיון המחודש שלנו והלידה מחדש המשנה של עצמנו ושל האפשרויות הבלתי מוגבלות שלנו להפוך לאנושות.

       לגיירמו דל טורו, באפוס המפואר שלו של הגירה ושוויון גזעי קרנבל רואו, יש סצנה שבה שני ממשיכים צעירים להנהגה של פלגים יריבים מסורתיים מוצאים עצמם מאוהבים וזקוקים לבעלי ברית בעלילת משנה המדמה מחדש את רומיאו ויוליה; הגיהנום המורד, ג’ונה ברייקספיר, שואל את אהובתו המקיאוולית, סופי לונגרבין, “למי כאוס טוב?” על כך היא משיבה, “כאוס טוב לנו. כאוס הוא התקווה הגדולה של חסרי הכוח”.

      אפשר לחשוב על הבאת הכאוס במונחים של כוח הגאולה של אהבה, של סולידריות, של חובת הדאגה שלנו לזולת, של תפיסות כוח כהחזרת האיזון, של התנגדות ומאבק מהפכני כמו העמדת חיינו באיזון עם אלה של חסרי הכוח והמנושלים, המושתקים והנמחקים, וכתיקון עולם או ריפוי שברו של העולם.

      בירושלים ובאל קודס, אנו נבגדים על ידי הנורמליות של כניעה לסמכות וחלוקת הכוח הלא שוויוני, דה-הומניזציה על ידי אלה שמבצעים זוועות בשמנו, ונעשים שותפים לפשעים נגד האנושות באמצעות נרטיבים של קורבנות, כפי שוולטר מלמד אותנו מאפשרים. כל דבר.

      Gott mitt uns; זה טרור עתיק יומין. ולכך עלינו להתנגד.

      מיתוסים ישנים, ותלונות ישנות, שזורים במרקם הנפש שלנו והציוויליזציה שלנו. וכמו כל היסטוריה, זיכרון וזהות מורשית, כוחות מימטיים שממורשתם עלינו לצאת.

      ברגע זה אני פונה שוב לאבחנה המבריקה של מחלת הכוח כזהות שנתפסה כפי שכתב אלון בן-מאירין בהאפפוסט, אם כי המרשם שלו למערכת שתי מדינות שנוי במחלוקת ובשבילי יש להחליפו בזמן עם חילוני. מדינה עם חוק אחד לכולם וללא חטיבות רשמיות של שבט, שפה או אמונה, במאמר שכותרתו In The Grip Of Powerful Illusions; “המבוי הסתום בתהליך השלום הישראלי-פלסטיני נראה לא הגיוני ומטריד, שכן רוב הישראלים והפלסטינים מבינים שדו-קיום, בין אם בתנאי איבה או ידידות, הוא עובדה שאף צד לא יכול להשתנות מלבד קטסטרופה.

      המבוי הסתום בתהליך השלום הישראלי-פלסטיני נראה לא הגיוני ומטריד, שכן רוב הישראלים והפלסטינים מבינים שדו-קיום, בין אם בתנאי איבה ובין אם בתנאי ידידות, הוא עובדה שאף אחד מהצדדים אינו יכול להשתנות מלבד קטסטרופה. שני הצדדים מבינים שהפרמטרים הכלליים של הסכם שלום בר קיימא חייבים להישען על פתרון שתי מדינות המבוסס על גבולות 1967 עם כמה חילופי קרקעות. עם זאת, שני הצדדים בוחרים להתענג על אשליות ולחיות בהתרסה לזמן ולנסיבות. נראה שהם מעדיפים המשך התנגשויות אלימות ושפיכות דמים על פני דו-קיום שליו, תוך שהם מאשימים זה את זה בדרך ההרסנית הבלתי נגמרת, שבאופן טרגי שניהם בחרו לעבור.

      ישנם ציווי יסוד, יחד עם אמצעי ביטחון הדדיים ארוכי טווח, המייצגים את מה שהיה על שולחן המשא ומתן בשנת 2000 בקמפ דיוויד ובשנים 2010/2011 ו-2013/2014 בחסות ממשל אובמה בירושלים וברמאללה. כל סבב, עם דרגות שונות של התקדמות, נועד להשלים הסכם ועם זאת בסופו של דבר לא הצליח לעשות זאת. השאלה היא: למה?

      תפיסות מוטות וסלקטיביות, שמחוזקות על ידי חוויות היסטוריות, דת ואידיאולוגיות לא תואמות, נעלו את שני הצדדים בעמדות חסרות תנועה. הגורמים המשמרים ומעצימים דפוסים אלה כוללים רגשות כמו פחד, חוסר אמון וחוסר ביטחון. התוצאה הפסיכולוגית היא הכחשה הדדית של הנרטיב של האחר ודה-לגיטימציה הדדית.

      ביחד, התוצאה האופרטיבית היא סטגנציה וקיטוב. לכן, מה שנדרש הוא דיאלוג מכוון קונצנזוס ברמת המנהיגות של פקידים ולא פקידים כאחד, ואינטראקציות בין אנשים, כדי לפתור את סוגיית התפיסה – סדר גבוה בהתחשב בסביבה הנוכחית שמתבססת ולא משפרת דעות קדומות. תפיסות.

      ישנם מושגים פסיכולוגיים מסוימים הרלוונטיים להבנת השיתוף הישראלי-פלסטיני

 מושג האשליה הוא מושג חיוני. ב”עתידה של אשליה”, פרויד מציע את ההגדרה הבאה: “…אנו קוראים לאמונה אשליה כאשר הגשמת משאלות היא גורם בולט במוטיבציה שלה, ובכך אנו מתעלמים מיחסיה למציאות, בדיוק כפי שה האשליה עצמה אינה מגדירה אימות”.

      מה שמאפיין אשליות הוא ש: 1) הן נגזרות משאלות אנושיות עמוקות, ו-2) האמונה מוחזקת (או תוחזק) בהעדר כל ראיה משכנעת, או נימוקים רציונליים טובים, מטעמה.

      אי אפשר להכחיש שהן הישראלים והן הפלסטינים נמצאים באחיזת אשליות חזקות מאוד שרק משמשות להארכת הסכסוך ולמנוע כל הבנה הדדית. בפרט, האמונה המשותפת לישראלים רבים שיש להם זכות מקראית על הארץ (כולל יהודה ושומרון) ושאלוהים נתן אותה ליהודים לנצח היא ללא ספק אשליה של אתמול.

      אמונה זו אינה מאושרת משום שיש ראיות אמיתיות לכך שאלוהים ראה אותה (למרות ששתי ממלכות יהודיות אכן קיימות – הראשונה במאה העשירית לפנה”ס והשנייה החלה בשנת 539 לפנה”ס – על אותה אדמה), אלא משום שהיא מספק צורך פסיכולוגי עמוק במולדת יהודית שניתנת לאלוהים.

      האמונה שבאמצעות הרחבת ההתנחלויות ישראל תגביר את ביטחונה הלאומי ותשמור על אחיזתה בכל הארץ היא אשליה של המחר, שמתעלמת בדרך כלל מנוכחותם של מוסלמים באותה אדמה במשך יותר מ-1,300 שנה.

      חשוב לציין כיצד אשליות אלו מקיימות ומחזקות אחת את השנייה, ומהוות מחסום פסיכולוגי שהוא הרבה יותר אטום לרפלקציה ביקורתית. אשליותיה של ישראל שימשו ליצירת ההיגיון לכיבוש.

      הפלסטינים, מצדם, אינם חפים מאשליות משלהם. הם גם מאמינים שאלוהים שמר להם את הארץ, ופונים לעובדה שהם ישבו את הארץ במשך מאות שנים. מנקודת המבט שלהם, נוכחותו של מסגד אל-אקצא, שנבנה בשנת 705 לספירה בירושלים, מעידה על זיקתם ההיסטורית והדתית לעיר הקודש.

      הם גם נאחזים ברעיון שהם יחזרו מתישהו לאדמת אבותיהם, כפי שיש להם וממשיכים להתעקש על זכות השיבה של הפליטים הפלסטינים, למרות שזה הפך לבלתי אפשרי כמעט.

      הפלסטינים נאחזים באשליותיהם מאתמול ומחר באותה עיוורון ונואש כמו הישראלים, מה שמוביל להתנגדות ופחד משינויים. ככזה, אלא אם שני הצדדים ישנו מסלול ויקבלו את הזיקה של זה לאותה ארץ, במיוחד בגלל שהיא מבוססת דתית, המצב צפוי להוביל לאסון.

       זה תרם להפיכת הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני לכרוני ובלתי פתיר כאחד, שכן האשליות השונות ניזונות באופן רציף ומודע ממפגשים עוינים ולעתים קרובות אלימים בין שני הצדדים.

      בניסיון לגשר בין מושגים שיכולים לקשר בין תחומי הפסיכולוגיה והפוליטיקה בסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני, ניתן להציע שהתנגדות הדדית קולקטיבית לשינוי (הן מודעת ומכוונת, והן בלתי מודעת פנימית) מגינה על זהות פגיעה.

      בהשוואה, למשל, לזהות הפוליטית היציבה והבוגרת של האומות האמריקאיות, הבריטיות והצרפתיות, הזהות הפוליטית של העם הישראלי והפלסטיני כאחד נמצאת, במידה מסוימת, בגיל ההתבגרות.

      זהויות בסביבה זו פגיעות יותר, והגיבורים באופן טבעי מתגוננים יותר ועמידים בפני שינויים. מעצם טבעו, על השחקנים להתקשות (אם לא בלתי אפשרי) לבטא זאת בפומבי, שכן לעשות זאת הוא להודות בפגיעות זו.

      הרעיון של התנגדות פסיכולוגית לשינוי עשוי בהחלט להשפיע על המסגרת הפוליטית בכלל ועל הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני בפרט; הוא קשור קשר הדוק לתפיסות ברמות רבות ומספק הגנה על גיבוש זהות פגיעה.

      הלך הרוח הזה, המחוזק על ידי חוויות היסטוריות, הוא שמתעלה על יותר משבעת העשורים מאז החל הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני. ליחידים ולקבוצות, ישראלים ופלסטינים כאחד, יש וממשיכים לפרש את אופי המחלוקת ביניהם כ”אתה נגדי” בצורה דעות קדומות וסלקטיביות.

      בתורו, זה חנק כל מידע חדש ואפשר את ההתנגדות המתמשכת לשינוי, מה שיכול לשפוך אור חדש על מהות הסכסוך ומהותו ולעזור לקדם את תהליך השלום.

      הרעיון של התנגדות לא מודעת לשינוי במסגרת זו מתקשר היטב לתפיסה של תפיסות המניעות את הקיטוב בקונפליקט. התנסות היסטורית, המגבשת תפיסות, משמשת בין היתר להגברת תחושת הזהות של “מי שאנחנו באמת”, הנחה קולקטיבית מעצבת היושבת בסלע של שחקני מפתח כאחד ומניעה התנהגות תפקודית ולא מתפקדת.

באופן עקרוני, חשיבה כזו מונעת משני הצדדים לבדר רעיונות חדשים שעלולים להוביל לפשרות לפתרון של שלום. הפרדוקס כאן הוא שהרוב משני הצדדים אמנם רוצים ומחפשים שלום, ביודעים היטב שהדבר ידרוש ויתורים משמעותיים, אך אינם מסוגלים ליישב את הוויתורים הנדרשים עם תפיסות טבועות שמנעו את הפשרות הללו כתוצאה מהתנגדות וחשש מפני שינוי.

      לכן, כל מסגרת לשלום חייבת לכלול הוראות שיגדילו באופן דרמטי את הסיכויים לטובת פתרון. ראשית, שני הצדדים צריכים להתחייב להגיע להסכם המבוסס על פתרון שתי מדינות מתוך אמונה ששינוי, שמתורגם לדו-קיום, הוא בלתי נמנע. לכן, עליהם להתאים את עצמם זה לדרישותיו של זה, מה שמחייב אותם בהכרח לעשות ויתורים משמעותיים.

      שנית, כדי להקל על כך, עליהם לבצע אינטראקציות חברתיות, כלכליות, תרבותיות וביטחוניות פייסות בין אנשים, כדי למתן את התנגדותם לשינוי, אשר חייבת להתחיל, לפחות, שנה אחת לפני תחילת המשא ומתן ליצירת הפסיכולוגיות וה אווירה פוליטית כדי לטפח את האמון הדרוש למשא ומתן לשלום מהותי ומוצלח.

      חידוש שיחות השלום לא יוביל לשום מקום אלא אם ישראלים ופלסטינים ישנו את תפיסתם הדעות הקדומות ואת התנגדותם לשינוי ופחדם משינוי, ולבסוף יגיעו להכרה שגורלם שזור זה בזה ואינם יכולים לחיות בשלום ובביטחון ללא השני.

      אני מרגיש נאלץ לסיים את המאמר האחרון שלי לשנה באזהרה חמורה שישראלים ופלסטינים כאחד יעשו אם להרהר בה כאשר הם מתקרבים לסוף העשור השביעי לסכסוך הטראגי שלהם.

      כל מיליטנט ישראלי קיצוני ופלסטיני, מי שרוצה הכל חייב לעצור ולחשוב היכן יהיו ישראל והפלסטינים בעוד עשר שנים אם המצב הנוכחי יימשך?

      אשליותיך של היום לא יהפכו למציאות של מחר, ומה שהמחר יביא אינו אלא עוד כאב, דמעות ויסורים.

      הסכסוך שלך מתפתח מהר יותר למלחמת דת. מתקיים ארמגדון מוסלמי-יהודי שיעלה את כל האזור באש בלתי נתפסת.

      אם אתם מאמינים אמיתיים, אל תעזו להתריס נגד רצונו של אלוהים, כי הוא דחף אתכם יחד כדי להעמיד אתכם במבחן – עליכם לחיות בשלום ובהרמוניה, או שתיגזרו על שכחה וייאוש.

      יש לך את הכוח לבחור את הגורל שלך. האם זה יהיה הרס עצמי או שזה יהיה הגשמת חלום מפואר?

      קום והעביר מורשת של תקווה לכל ילד ישראלי ופלסטיני, כי יש להם את הזכות הנתונה מאלוהים לגדול ולשגשג ואף אחד לא צריך למות על האשליות שלך לשווא”.

      כפי שכתבתי בפוסט שלי מ-9 בנובמבר 2023, מראה של החושך שלנו: בדולח; ישראל מנציחה את הטרגדיה הזו שפתחה דלת לטרגדיה גדולה עוד יותר בשואה בכך שהיא עושה בדיוק את אותו הדבר לפלסטינים, עם אחד המחולק על ידי ההיסטוריה והאמונה המזוהה עם נשק בשירות לשלטון. וגם זה יפתח דלתות לטרור ועריצות מדינות, אלא אם כן שני העמים יוכלו להתאחד נגד רשויות המבצעות זוועות בשמם כאסטרטגיה של הכנעה ולשחרר זה את זה מאלה שישעבדו אותם.

      אם אתה חושב על עמים כילדים שהם ניצולי התעללות, הרבה מתברר; שכן ברגע שהם תפסו את השלטון יש סיכוי גבוה יותר שהם יהפכו למתעללים בעצמם. כך פועל הפחד, מדוע הוא הבסיס האמיתי לחילופי דברים, מדוע פוליטיקה היא אמנות הפחד, ומדוע מדינות מגולמות באלימות. הן הישראלים והן הפלסטינים נפגעו מהאיומים הקיומיים הרבה לפני שהחלו לחבל, להתאכזר ולעשות דה-הומניזציה אחד את השני.

      העובדה שהמשטרים הדורסניים משני הצדדים השתמשו בפוליטיקת פילוג וזהות כדי לרכז כוח ולהעניק לגיטימציה לשליטה אוטוריטרית היא שלב צפוי של מאבק השחרור, במיוחד של מהפכה אנטי-קולוניאלית.

       הטריק של להיות אנושי, חברים, הוא לאמץ את החושך של עצמך במאבק, כמו גם את אויביו, ולצאת מהמורשת של ההיסטוריה שלנו שמצלה עלינו כמו זנב תנין בלתי נראה.

       יש קו שאמר הנבל בסדרה הקוסמים, ניצול של התעללות בילדות ועריץ הידוע בשם החיה על פשעיו הנוראיים, פעם הילד חסר הכוח והמבועת מרטין צ’טווין וכיום אל מפלצתי; “אתה יודע, כשהייתי ילד, גבר שנועד לטפל בי כופף אותי מעל השולחן שלו וקיבל אותי שוב ושוב בכל פעם שהייתי איתו לבד. זה עוזר לי להבין אמת. אתה חזק או שאתה חלש. “

       הנה השקר המקורי של העריץ והפשיסט באפולוגטיקה, בהצדקה העצמית ובפסיכופתיה של הכוח; השקר שרק לכוח יש משמעות והוא אמיתי, שאין טוב או רע. אופן השימוש בכוח הוא בעל חשיבות שווה למי שמחזיק בו. פחד וכוח הם אמצעי עיקרי לחילופי בני אדם, אבל

לא האמצעי היחיד; אהבה, חברות ושייכות חשובים לא פחות.

       זהו קו אשר לוכד בצורה מושלמת את הסתירות הטבועות בטבעת הוואגנרית של פחד, כוח וכוח כמקור של הרוע; שכן השימוש בכוח חברתי הוא חתרני לערכיו שלו. עם זאת, התנאים המוטלים של מאבק מהפכני מצריכים לעתים קרובות אלימות, ועד שאלי החוק והסדר יופלו מכסאותיהם אני חייב להסכים עם הכתבה המפורסמת של סארטר במחזהו “ידיים מלוכלכות” מ-1948, שצוטט על ידי פרנץ פאנון בנאומו מ-1960. למה אנחנו משתמשים באלימות, והפכו לאלמוות על ידי מלקולם אקס; “בכל דרך אפשרית.”

      כפי שכתב וולטר רודני ב-The Groundings with my Brothers; “אמרו לנו שאלימות כשלעצמה היא רוע, ושלא משנה מה הסיבה, היא לא מוצדקת מבחינה מוסרית. לפי איזה סטנדרט של מוסר יכולה האלימות שבה משתמש עבד כדי לשבור את שלשלאותיו להיחשב זהה לאלימות של אדון עבדים? לפי אילו אמות מידה נוכל להשוות את האלימות של שחורים שדוכאו, מדוכאים, מדוכאים ומדוכאים במשך ארבע מאות שנים עם אלימותם של פאשיסטים לבנים. לא ניתן לשפוט אלימות שמטרתה החזרת כבוד האדם ושוויון לפי אותו קנה מידה כמו אלימות שמטרתה לשמור על אפליה ודיכוי”.

      והנה הקטע שאליו הוא מתייחס מפי ליאון טרוצקי ב-Their Morals and Ours: The Class Foundations of Moral Practice; “בעל עבדים שבאמצעות ערמומיות ואלימות כובל עבד בשלשלאות, ועבד שבאמצעות ערמומיות או אלימות שובר את השלשלאות – שלא יאמרו לנו הסריסים הבזויים שהם שווים בפני בית דין מוסר!”

      אולם בהשתקפות אני חושב על אותן דמויות גדולות שהיו גם גיבורי השחרור וגם נבלי העריצות; המודל לחיקוי בגיל ההתבגרות שלי נפוליאון, וושינגטון, שהוא מרכזי בהיסטוריה המשפחתית שלנו וטבע את המוטו על הסמל שלנו בקוד הסיסמה במהלך קרב טרנטון, ניצחון או מוות, כאשר המהפכה כולה התנהלה על תקווה עזובה, של הטרגי דרמה של גיבורים שנפלו כמו רוברט מוגאבה, העריצים המפלצתיים סטלין ומאו, הרשימה היא אוסף כמעט אינסופי של צרות וכישלונות חזון שבהם עולמות חדשים אמיצים הפכו לגיהנום ולמדינות קרסרליות. לראיה אני מציע למהפכות האמריקניות והנפוליאון להפוך לאימפריות, ברית המועצות, המפלגה הקומוניסטית הסינית, הודו, שם תהילת השחרור באה יד ביד עם הטרגדיה של החלוקה וכעת היא תחת מגף הלאומיות ההינדית, כמעט כל המהפכות האנטי-קולוניאליות. שעם תקופת החירות הראשונה כאומות חדשות הפכו לעריצות איומה, ובעיקר למדינת ישראל, לחלום מקלט שנרקם באימת השואה שקורבנותיו למדו את הלקחים הלא נכונים מהנאצים ונטלו על עצמם את תפקידם בכיבוש פלשתינה. הסכנות של האידיאליזם הן אמיתיות מאוד; אבל כך גם הסכנות שבכניעה לסמכות ובשותפות השתיקה מול הרוע.

      אני צייד של פשיסטים, ושלי הוא מוסר של צייד. מבחינתי יש מבחן פשוט לשימוש בכוח; מי מחזיק בכוח

      הרבה מאוד אנשים חכמים כתבו יפה על זוועות הפשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה ועל היררכיות של השתייכות עילית ואחרות מוציאה מהכלל, כפי שעושה פול אוסטרייכר במאמר שלאחר מכן; כאן ברצוני רק להצביע על כך שהכוחות הטמונים בתוכנו ובחוץ כתנאים חברתיים וטראומה אפיגנטית, של אטאביסטים של ברבריות ומערכות דיכוי, הם אוניברסליים לבני אדם כתנאי מאבק כפויים ופועלים ללא הרף גם כשהם מעורפלים מהעין. , מעבר לאימה ולמחסור של נקודות השבר של נפש האדם כמו אלו של ליל הבדולח והטיהור האתני של עזה.

      אני כותב לך כמי שחיה לפי קריאת הקרב של לעולם לא שוב! כבר למעלה מארבעים שנה, ויש חשיבות עמוקה וחיונית ליישם את עקרון הפעולה הזה לא רק בהתנגדות לפשיזם כאויב חודרני של כל מה שאנושי בנו, אלא גם לעצמנו ולשימוש שלנו באלימות ובחברתי. כוח כלפי אחרים.

     בסופו של דבר, כל מה שחשוב הוא מה אנחנו עושים עם הפחד שלנו, ואיך אנחנו משתמשים בכוח שלנו.

      לא משנה היכן אתה מתחיל עם פילוגים והיררכיות של השתייכות עילית ואחרות מדריגה, אתה תמיד מגיע בשערי אושוויץ.

     כפי שמלמד אותנו ניטשה במעבר לטוב ולרע; “מי שצד מפלצות עשוי לדאוג שלא יהפוך בכך למפלצת. ואם אתה מסתכל זמן רב לתוך תהום, התהום מביטה גם בך.”

      במראה האפלה של עזה, עם ההשתקפויות המפלצתיות של ליל הבדולח ושל אושוויץ, אתה אוהב את מה שאתה רואה, הו ישראל?

      כפי שכתבתי בפוסט שלי מ-10 במאי 2021, ההגנה על אל אקצא: חירות מול עריצות בירושלים; ייתכן שהיינו עדים להופעת האינתיפאדה השלישית הלילה, בהגנת אל-אקצא ובקרבות הרחוב בעזה שבאו בעקבותיה, שהוצתו בעקבות הבגידה והכיבוש האימפריאלי של מדינת ישראל שנאת זרים ופשיסטית שאינה מתייחסת לאיש מלבד

השבט והאמונה שלהם כאנושיים באמת, ואשר ביצעו מתקפה בלתי מעוררת וקטלנית כמעשה טרור ממלכתי ופשע נגד האנושות על המתפללים השלווים באחד המסגדים הקדושים ביותר בעולם האסלאמי, הפגנת כוח ו שלטון שבא בעקבות שבועות של פרובוקציות, תקיפות ופעולות של דה-הומניזציה תעמולתית נגד העם הפלסטיני.

       כמו אינתיפאדת אל-אקצא השנייה או אל-אקצא שנמשכה ארבע שנים מה-28 בספטמבר 2000 עד ה-8 בפברואר 2005, נושאים לא פתורים של כיבוש שנמצא כעת בחמישים וארבעה שנים מאז כיבוש ירושלים העתיקה ב-7 ביוני 1967 על ידי ישראל, שמדינת ישראל חגגה על פי ללוח העברי כיום ירושלים היום על ידי תקיפת אל אקצא, ואסון הנמשך כבר שבעים ושלוש שנים מאז יום הנכבה ה-15 במאי 1948, התלכדו סביב הערך הסמלי של אל אקצא, בעל זהות כפולה שנויה במחלוקת כהר הבית ב. יַהֲדוּת.

      סיכויי הסלמה ומניעת מלחמה תלויים כעת לא בגורמים מקומיים אלא בתגובת הקהילה הבינלאומית, שכן ההיסטוריה הפכה כאן למלכודת שמתמוטטת כדי ללכוד אותנו במלתעותיה, וכוחות חיצוניים חייבים לשחרר אותנו מהכישלונות של הסתירות הפנימיות של המערכת שלנו.

      האם אמריקה תתנער ותתנער ממושבה ישראל, מלכת המדיניות האימפריאלית שלה במזרח התיכון והשליטה במשאב האסטרטגי של הנפט? האם האחדות הבינלאומית והלחץ של חרם, ביטול וסנקציה יכולים לשחרר אותנו מהעריצות והטרור של משטר אפרטהייד כפי שעשה בדרום אפריקה?

      או שמא מלחמה היא ההתחשבנות היחידה שהמין האנושי יכול להציע או לקבל?

      כפי שנכתב על ידי ישאן ת’ארור בוושינגטון פוסט; “ביום שני בלילה, חמושים ברצועת עזה והצבא הישראלי החליפו ירי רקטות ותקיפות אוויריות על רקע הסלמה קטלנית של האלימות. חמאס והג’יהאד האיסלאמי, ארגונים חמושים שבסיסם בעזה המצוררת, שיגרו מטח רקטות שנחתו ליד ירושלים ובחלקים מדרום ישראל, ופצעו לפחות אדם אחד. תקיפות אוויריות ישראליות בתגמול הרגו לפחות 20 בני אדם בעזה, לפי משרד הבריאות של עזה, כולל תשעה ילדים.

      ראש ממשלת ישראל בנימין נתניהו אמר כי “קבוצות הטרור” בעזה “חצו קו אדום” עם התקפות הרקטות שלהם. אבל לפיצוץ הלחימה האחרון יש זנב ארוך, בעקבות פעולות תוקפניות רבות הן של כוחות הביטחון הישראליים והן של ארגוני עליונות יהודים מהימין הקיצוני בירושלים. לפני שבועיים צעדו להקות של קיצונים יהודים, כולל כמה מתנחלים מהגדה המערבית, דרך אזורים מאוכלסים בפלסטינים בעיר הקדושה, קראו “מוות לערבים”, תקפו עוברי אורח ופגעו ברכוש ובבתים פלסטינים. ניסיונות ישראלים לפנות מספר משפחות פלסטיניות בשכונת שייח ג’ראח במזרח ירושלים – מיקרוקוסמוס של מה שהפלסטינים רואים כחלק מהיסטוריה ארוכה של נישול ומחיקה בידי מדינת ישראל – עוררו מחאות סולידריות פלסטיניות בחלקים שונים. של השטחים הכבושים וישראל עצמה.

      היא גם העלתה את המתיחות לקראת ציון יום ירושלים ביום שני, חג ישראלי רשמי שחוגג את כיבוש העיר במהלך מלחמת ערב-ישראל ב-1967. צעדה שנתית מתוכננת של ישראלים אולטרה-לאומיים מהימין הקיצוני בוטלה לאחר שהרשויות ניתבו את דרכה ברגע האחרון. מספרים גדולים עדיין עשו את דרכם לכותל ושרו שיר נקמה קיצוני נגד הפלסטינים.

      “התקפות הרקטות של חמאס, שכללו את התקיפות הראשונות נגד ירושלים מזה מספר שנים, הגיעו לאחר עימותים בין משטרת ישראל, מפגינים פלסטינים וישראלים יהודים מהימין הקיצוני ברחבי העיר העתיקה”, דיווחו עמיתיי. “בין מאות הפצועים היו שבעה שאושפזו במצב קשה, כך לפי הסהר האדום הפלסטיני. קטעי וידאו שהופצו ברשתות החברתיות של שוטרים ישראלים מכים באכזריות גבר פלסטיני עצור”.

       איך אמריקה יכולה לתמוך במדינת ישראל בעריצות ובטרור, בכיבוש ובגזל? זו שאלה שנשאלת בטונים של זעם, צער ותמיהה מאז הופעת הנכבה ב-15 במאי 1948, יום הקטסטרופה שהחל את כיבוש פלסטין והשעבוד השיטתי ורצח העם של אנשיה בעקבות הכיבוש הישראלי. של ירושלים. איך זה מקבל לגיטימציה?

       חבר ניסח לי לאחרונה מחדש את השאלה הזו; “אהבתי ואימצתי את המסורת היהודית, הצטרפתי לבית כנסת ועבדתי לצד רבו. כשאני עד ליחס של ממשלת ישראל היהודית לפלסטינים, אני מוצף ברגשות של בלבול וכעס. אני לא מצליח ליישב את חוסר המוסריות הזה, אני מטיל ספק בעצם היסוד של אמונתי. היכן ההתקוממות הטובה והמוסרית של הקולות היהודיים הבינלאומיים המגנה את דרכה של הממשלה? איבדתי את האמון בלהיות יהודי”.

      מה שברור לי הוא שמשבר האמונה הזה הוא גם משבר קיומי של זהות

מצב של כובד ראש וסכנה אשר טומן בחובו גם פוטנציאל לדמיון מחודש ולידה מחדש טרנספורמטיבית, הד אישי למשבר ציוויליזציוני מקביל ממנו על המין האנושי וקהילת האומות העולמית למצוא דרך לצאת ולשחרר את עצמנו מהמורשת של ההיסטוריה שלנו. הנה תשובתי:

      מדינת ישראל אינה זהה לאמונה היהודית, אם כי הפלג הפשיסטי-אימפריאליסטי שנתניהו מייצג היה רוצה שכולם יחשבו כך.

     אומה המבוססת על הקצאת אזרחיה לזהות שבטית, נשק עדתי של אמונה בשירות לשלטון וזהות לאומית מורשית, חברה צבאית עם שירות חובה אוניברסלי ופטישיזציה נרחבת של מיתוסים של חיל לחימה וסמליה כולל רובים , ושפה עברית משוחזרת של אחדות לאומית השתמשה בפוליטיקת זהויות כדי להכפיף את אזרחיה לכוח הריכוזי של העריצות; ישראל היא מדינה פשיסטית של דם, אמונה ואדמה לא פחות מזו של הנאצים.

      הוסיפו לתמהיל הרעיל הזה משטר קלפטוקרטי שהפיץ נרטיבים של קורבנות היסטורית כדי לתת לגיטימציה לגניבה מסיבית וכיבוש אימפריאלי של מדינות אחרות ודבר אחד ברור; ישראל למדה את הלקחים הלא נכונים מהנאצים.

      אתה אולי יודע מההתייחסויות הרבות שלי לתקרית בכתיבתי שאני אנטי-פשיסט, שנשבע לשבועת ההתנגדות על ידי ז’אן ז’נה ב-1982 בביירות, במהלך מאבקנו נגד הפלישה והמצור הישראלים. ב-39 השנים שאחרי, הייתי צייד נאצים ומהפכן של דמוקרטיה העסוק במאבק לשחרור המין האנושי נגד עריצות ומשטרים אוטוריטריים של כוח ושליטה.

       מולדת פלסטינית, וצדק לאנשיה, היו בין המטרות שלי מאז אותו קיץ לפני כל כך הרבה זמן. כמו המטרה של שחרור אירלנד מהשלטון הקולוניאלי הבריטי, עוד נותרה להשיגה. מדובר ברעיון החירות והאזרחות כריבונות ועצמאות של עמים מקולוניאליזם זר ועריצות אוטוריטרית, והקדימות של מדינה לא-כתתית נקייה מפילוגים והיררכיות של אמונה, שכן מי שעומד בין כל אחד מאיתנו לבין האינסופי אינו משרת אף אחד מהם. .

      אני גם תומך ברעיון של מולדת ישראלית, ולא רואה סיבה ששתי המדינות הללו, פלסטין וישראלית, יהיו סותרות זו את זו או אנטגוניסטיות. כמה ישראלים שלא יסכימו איתי בשאלת פלסטין ומיליטריזם בכיבוש אימפריאלי ובשליטה אזורית היו בעלי ברית במטרת ציד הנאצים והפשיסטים בדרך כלל ברחבי העולם, אבל הם עיוורים לשותפותם שלהם ברוע זה בגלל שהם רואים את עצמם כקורבנות ולא כמבצעי פשעים נגד האנושות. מדובר בפחד, ובמעגל ההרסני של התעללות ואלימות.

      כאשר האמונה מנוכסת על ידי סמכות ללגיטימציה בפוליטיקת זהויות, הזהות עצמה הופכת מבולבלת ומעורפלת. כדי להיות חופשיים, עלינו לתפוס בעלות על עצמנו כיצורים שנוצרו בעצמנו ואוטונומיים.

      זו הסיבה שהתפקידים העיקריים של האזרח הם להטיל ספק בסמכות, לחשוף סמכות, ללעוג לסמכות ולערער על סמכות.

      תמיד נשאר המאבק בין המסכות שאחרים עושים לנו לבין אלה שאנחנו עושים לעצמנו; זו המהפכה הראשונה שבה כולנו צריכים להילחם.

      אני חושב על בעיית הרוע האנושי ומעגל הפחד, הכוח והכוח שלו במקרה של מדינות שהופכות לעריצות מהן נלחמו כדי להשתחרר מהן, וזה נכון לגבי מדינות מהפכניות אנטי-קולוניאליות בדרך כלל בגלל המורשת ההיסטורית של הקורבנות , בדרך זו; קורבנות הופכים לעתים קרובות למתעללים מכיוון שזהותם מאורגנת סביב כוח כאמצעי המילוט היחיד בעולם שבו לא ניתן לסמוך על איש.

      כאשר האמון בוטל והוכח כריק וללא משמעות, כאשר היכולת להתחבר ולהרגיש את כאבם של אחרים באמפתיה נשברה ואדם ללא רחמים או חרטה, כאשר הפחד הוא מכריע ומוכלל ועוצב על ידי סמכות בשירות הכוח, הקורבנות לומדים שרק לכוח יש משמעות והוא אמיתי. אסור לנו לאפשר למתעללים שלנו להפוך למורים שלנו.

      בעוד שלכל נושא כזה יש מקורות והיסטוריה ייחודיים משלו, הבעיה עצמה היא אוניברסלית, וקשורה למה שחוששים, ואיך הפחד הזה מעוצב על ידי סמכות זהות. מנקודת המבט שלנו כאמריקאים המפרשים אירועים בבעיה הקלאסית של המיעוט הכפול האופיינית על ידי ישראל ופלסטין, האופן שבו אנו תופסים נושאים קשורים רבות לאופן שבו הם ממוסגרים על ידי מקורות המידע והמניעים שלנו.

       בסופו של דבר אנחנו מוגדרים לפי מה אנחנו עושים עם הפחד שלנו, ואיך אנחנו משתמשים בכוח שלנו.

       השאלה הראשונה שיש לשאול על כל סיפור, והחשובה ביותר, היא פשוטה; של מי הסיפור הזה

       אנחנו אבודים במדבר של מראות, של שקרים ואשליות, זיופים של עצמנו, דימויים והשתקפויות מעוותים, הדים וזהויות מורשות שמעוותות, משבשות.

להעצים ולגנוב את נשמתנו.

       איך נענה למי שישעבד אותנו? האותנטיות והאוטונומיה שלנו מתממשות באמצעות תפיסת כוח, ודמיון מחדש והפיכתנו של עצמנו ושל המין האנושי כחברה חופשית של שווים.

       אנו האמריקאים נוטים לראות דברים במונחים של כובעים לבנים וכובעים שחורים, כמו בסרטי המערבון המשמשים כמיתוסים וארכיטיפים של המקור הלאומי שלנו. ברגע שהוענק מעמד של קורבן, קבוצות ואנשים כאלה הופכים לכובעים לבנים ולחבר’ה טובים, חסרי יכולת לרוע ומנוגדים בתכלית למי שחייבים להיות כובעים שחורים. זו דרך איומה לבחור במדיניות לאומית.

      למרבה הצער, אנו בני האדם יכולים להיות טובים ורעים בבת אחת, פגמי האנושות שלנו מהדהדים ומשקפים את השבר של העולם. זו אמת שהוכחה שוב הלילה באל קודס או בירושלים תלוי למי מדברים ובאיזה שפה, בעוד עזה בוערת מהסתערות של צבא הגנה ישראלי משתוללת בדומה ללילה לפני כמעט ארבעה עשורים בביירות. כשניסו לשרוף את ג’נט ואני בחיים בבית הקפה שלנו, כתריסר בני אדם שנגנב מהם הכל מלבד התקווה נשבעים נדרים זה לזה להחזיק בתפקיד שיכסה את בריחת הנשים והילדים שנלכדו בתקיפה הישראלית עד שכל בטוחים, בהגנה סופית לא על מסגד אל אקצא, מפואר ויפה ומלא במשמעות, אנדרטה לדחף האנושי להגיע אל מעבר לעצמנו ולאפשרויות הבלתי מוגבלות להפוך לאנושיות, במה המתאימה למותם המפואר של גיבורים, אבל של צרחות חסרות גוף של זרים בין המלחמות חסרות השם של עתיקות נטושה.

      אל מול תהום הריקנות והברבריות הניהיליסטית של עולם של חושך ואש, של פחד וכוח, יש לי רק מילים להציע, ואני כותב לך את מה שאמרתי לחבריי שבחרו לעמוד איתי; איבדתי את ספירת היציעים האחרונים, אבל סיכנתי הכל כנגד סיכויים בלתי אפשריים ושרדתי יותר פעמים ממה שאני יכול לזכור, וכל מה שחשוב הוא שאנחנו לא נוטשים לא את עצמנו ולא אחד את השני, שאנחנו מסרבים להיכנע, כי זה רגע החופש שלנו, ולעולם לא ניתן לקחת אותו מאיתנו.

       מהלילה הזה, פלסטין חופשית, כי אנחנו יכולים להיהרג, אבל אי אפשר לכבוש אותנו.

May 9 2024 A Legacy of Freedom Shared By Us All: Jewish American Heritage Month

    We celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month this May, the triumph of survival and refusal to surrender one’s history and identity against impossible odds and unimaginable horrors, the acts of grace and courage in clawing something of our humanity back from the darkness and the terror of our nothingness, and the countless innovations, primary insights, revolutions of sciences and intellect, praxis of values, and of the reimagination and transformation of our civilization and ourselves in every area of human achievement which this unique people have given humankind and America throughout their long history here, since the first organized Jewish migration to what is now New York in 1654 fleeing the Portuguese conquest of Brazil, and earlier as Texas was founded in 1579 as a colony of exiled Jews by Spain, under the Jewish Governor Luis de Carvajal, founder of Monterrey in what is now Mexico, who ruled it briefly as the dream of a new Sepharad wherein peoples of all races and faiths may live under the same law, until his success attracted the jealousy and avarice of the Inquisition, who burned his entire family at the stake in 1596.

     America as a promise of sanctuary has always been conditional and shadowed by hierarchies of belonging and exclusionary otherness, and we have yet to emerge from the legacies of our history.

     From the first America has been founded on freedom of religion and imagined as a place of refuge and beyond the reach of tyrannies and empires, in which all of us are equal before the law and free to pursue our relationship with the Infinite without fear or compulsion by the state. Among the greatest principles of liberty we inherit is that he who stands between each of us and the Infinite serves neither.

     This primary right of freedom of religion is universal and nonexclusionary, and for this we owe a debt to our Jewish American community no less than that of the Pilgrims and others who escaped to our shores from authoritarian force and control, and together created a free society of equals.

     I hope we can prove equal to their example.

      Because the personal and the political are interdependent, and we are made of the stories we tell about ourselves, to ourselves and to others, I offer here a story from my family history as told to me by my mother of how Jewish people saved us, when no one else would, and without whom none of us would have ever lived.

     Upon the docks of America arrived a nine year old girl, alone and without a penny or a word of English. A stranger, with no one waiting to meet her, no family, no friends, nothing. My maternal great grandmother Apollonia this was, with flaming red hair like my mother’s, whose family had arranged her escape from Austria as their home burned, the sole survivor of both her family and her entire city as it no longer exists and has been erased from all history so far as we now know.

      She wandered the port asking for help, in five languages of descending likelihood of recognition; French, Austrian, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian, and finally, in despair and fear that the reaction would be far worse than being abandoned to starve and freeze to death, Yiddish.

      This immediately gathered a crowd, to her astonishment not one bearing torches and axes.

      So a stranger was taken in and raised by Jewish people, of whom I know nothing, and thus our family’s survival is owed to the entire Jewish community and people.

         This happened in 1873, year of the glorious Vienna World’s Fair but also the stock market crash in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War which began a twenty year Depression in Europe and the Jewish persecutions as they were blamed for it; also conflicts between the Russian and Ottoman Empires in their borderlands.

      She it was who owned her own rifles and horses by the age of sixteen when she began her career as a hunting guide, and died in the saddle at the age of 95, rifle in her hand, having shot the bear that attacked her horses and killed her. The Indians buried her like the Huns buried Attila, on her horse and with her rifle, like a warrior princess.

      I was born within days of her death, and as with all ancestors I bear her onward, literally as DNA and the stories which possess us as the ghosts of other lives; truths written in our flesh.

      Historical context and the fact that my ancestor in the direct maternal line knew Yiddish, and lived as a member of that community at minimum until sixteen, makes it possible that we are Jewish by descent and under Jewish law, though my mother never claimed so and moreover was a radical atheist who raised us with no religious traditions at all. In so doing the family faith she liberated herself from was Catholicism, an artifact of her Austrian paternal line who were exiles of the 1919 fall of the Hapsburg Empire after 600 years.

     If this is truly a part of our historical identity, it has been lost on the seas of time, or stolen from us, as is true of so many Americans who came here to escape or forget their past. But it also frees us to create new possibilities of becoming human, forged both from those who are different and those alike, and from this perspective the stories of the Jewish people offer us all examples we can use in the creation of ourselves and our uniqueness.

      As a teenager immersed in Holocaust literature while working through the trauma of a near death experience in Brazil the summer before high school, my execution by a police death squad while rescuing abandoned street children they were bounty hunting having been prevented by the Matadors, and conversations with my mother as she wrote her study of psychosomatic muteness from the Soviet medical records and childhood therapy journal of Jerzy Kosinski which he fictionalized as The Painted Bird, I once asked her directly, Are we Jews?

      To this she replied; “Everyone is a Jew. Everyone is someone’s Jew, someone’s scapegoat, someone’s Other. The great task of becoming human is to overcome fear of otherness, while embracing our uniqueness.”

     To frame this in its literary and historical context, herein I offer you an updated version of the reading list I used for high school American literature classes throughout my teaching career:

                   Jewish American History and Literature

     Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s History of the Jews, The Chosen, The Promise, My Name is Asher Lev, The Gift of Asher Lev, Davita’s Harp, Chaim Potok

     Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Carmon & Knizhnik

     The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, The Hope, The Glory, Marjorie Morningstar, Herman Wouk

     The Origins of Totalitarianism, On Revolution, The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, The Life of the Mind, Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, Love and Saint Augustine, Thinking Without a Banister: Essays in Understanding, 1953-1975, The Promise of Politics, Crises of the Republic: Lying in Politics Civil Disobedience On Violence and Thoughts on Politics and Revolution, The Recovery of the Public World, Responsibility and Judgment, The Jew as Pariah: Jewish Identity and Politics in the Modern Age, Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview and Other Conversations, Hannah Arendt

The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth, Ken Krimstein

Hannah Arendt, Julia Kristeva

       Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,   How the World Works, Masters of Mankind: Essays and Lectures, 1969-2013, Class Warfare: Interviews with David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky

      Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman

     The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah, The Classic Tales: 4,000 Years of Jewish Lore, Jewish Spirit: Stories & Art, Ellen Frankel

     The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions, For the Love of God: The Bible as an Open Book, The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems 2002-2019, Dancing at the Devil’s Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics, and the Erotic, Alicia Suskin Ostriker

       Sages and Dreamers, A Passover Haggadah, Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends, Wise Men and Their Tales: Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Masters, All RIvers Run To The Sea: Memoir, Night Trilogy (Night, Dawn, Day), The Trial of God: as it was held on February 25, 1649, in Shamgorod, A Beggar in Jerusalem, Elie Wiesel

Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, Ariel Burger

      The Red Tent – 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel, Day After Night, Anita Diamant

     The Rabbi of Lud, Boswell, George Mills, The Dick Gibson Show, Stanley Elkin

      The Shawl/Rosa, Envy, or Yiddish in America / The Pagan Rabbi, Collected Stories, The Messiah of Stockholm, The Puttermesser Papers, Antiquities, Heir to the Glimmering World, Foreign Bodies, Art & Ardor, Metaphor & Memory, Quarrel & Quandary: Essays, The Din in the Head, Critics Monsters Fanatics and Other Literary Essays, Portrait Of The Artist As A Bad Character: And Other Essays On Writing Cynthia Ozick

     Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The March, World’s Fair, E.L. Doctorow

E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations) Harold Bloom

    Essays, Collected Stories, Grace Paley

    Gimpel the Fool and other stories, Shadows on the Hudson, In My Father’s Court, Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side (with Bruce Davidson),  The Spinoza of Market Street, A Friend of Kafka and other stories, A Crown of Feathers and other stories, The Family Moskat, Isaac Bashevis Singer

   Anarchy and other writings, Living My Life, Emma Goldman

      The Adventures of Augie March, Seize the Day, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Humboldt’s Gift, Collected Stories, There Is Simply Too Much to Think about: Collected Nonfiction, Saul Bellow

Conversations with Saul Bellow, Saul Bellow (Editor), Gloria L. Cronin, Ben Siegel

The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune 1915-1964, The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005, Zachary Leader

   The Complete Stories, The Natural, The Assistant, The Fixer, Dubin’s Lives, Bernard Malamud

   The Ghost Writer, The Counterlife, Operation Shylock, The Plot Against America, American Pastoral, I Married A Communist, Philip Roth

   Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story, I Was Here, The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish                

    Collected Poems, Alan Ginsberg

The Poem That Changed America: “Howl” Fifty Years Later, Jason Shinder ed    

     Man Walks into a Room, The History of Love, Great House, Forest Dark, Nicole Krauss

     A Guide for the Perplexed: a novel, Septimania: a novel, Jonathan Levi

     36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, Properties of Light: A Novel of Love Betrayal and Quantum Physics, The Dark Sister, Strange Attractors: Stories, Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity, Rebecca Goldstein

     Kaddish, Leon Wieseltier

     Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Tree of Codes, Here I Am, Eating Animals, The Future Dictionary of America (Editor), New American Haggadah, Jonathan Safran Foer

     Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, Under the Sign of Saturn, On Photography, Where The Stress Falls, Sontag on Film, Susan Sontag

     The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, The Final Solution, Summerland, Gentlemen of the Road, Telegraph Avenue, Moonglow, Manhood for Amateurs, Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands, Michael Chabon              

     Poems 1962-2020, American Originality: Essays on Poetry, Louise Glück

The Poetry of Louise Glück: A Thematic Introduction, Daniel Morris                         

                             World Literature: Jewish People

                              History

     Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s History of the Jews

     The Story of the Jews Volume One: Finding the Words 1000 BC-1492 AD, Volume Two: Belonging: 1492-1900, Simon Schama

    Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag Montefiore

     Personal Witness: Israel, Abba Iban

     Israel, Gilbert

     The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, Every Day Remembrance Day: A Chronicle of Jewish Martyrdom, The Murderers Among Us, Krystyna: The Tragedy of the Polish Resistance, Simon Wiesenthal

    Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman  

     Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City, Andrew Lawler

     Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, Barnavi ed

     Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations, A History of Judaism, Martin Goodman

      Flags Over the Warsaw Ghetto: The Untold Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Moshe Arens

     Auschwitz, Laurence Rees

    Treblinka, Jean-François Steiner, Simone de Beauvoir (Preface), Terrence Des Pres (Introduction)

     Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari

     Homage to Chagall, Amiell ed

     An Empire of Their Own: how the Jews Invented Hollywood, Neal Gabler

     I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Sylvie Simmons

      The People and the Books: 18 Classics of Jewish Literature, The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century, Come and Hear: What I Saw in My Seven-And-A-Half-Year Journey Through the Talmud, Adam Kirsch

                             Literature

     The Schoken Bible: The Five Books of Moses

     The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides

     Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays, The Ineffable Name of God: Man, Abraham Joshua Heschel

     Siddur Leshabbat Veyom Tov: Prayer Book for Sabbath & Festivals with Torah Readings, Philip Birnbaum

     On The Bible, Tales of the Hasidim, Vols 1-2 (Bonny V. Fetterman Editor, Chaim Potok Foreword), I and Thou, Between Man and Man, Martin Buber

Martin Buber, Diamond

The Text as Thou: Martin Buber’s Dialogical Hermeneutics and Narrative Theology, Steven Kepnes

Learning Through Dialogue: The Relevance of Martin Buber’s Classroom, Kenneth Paul Kramer

     Zohar: The Book of Splendor: Basic Readings from the Kabbalah, On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah, Kabbalah, Origins of the Kabbalah, The Messianic Idea in Judaism: And Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality, Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship, From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth, The Fullness of Time: Poems by Gershom Scholem, A Life in Letters, 1914-1982,  Gershom Scholem

     The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire, Understanding Brecht, Walter Benjamin

     The Five Books of Miriam, Ellen Frankel

     Congregation, Rosenberg ed

     The Essential Kabbalah, Daniel Matt

     Sages and Dreamers, A Passover Haggadah, Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends, Wise Men and Their Tales: Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Masters, All RIvers Run To The Sea: Memoir, Night Trilogy ( Night, Dawn, Day), The Trial of God: as it was held on February 25, 1649, in Shamgorod, A Beggar in Jerusalem, Elie Wiesel

Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, Ariel Burger

     Survival in Auschwitz, Auschwitz Report, The Reawakening, The Drowned and the Saved, Moments of Reprieve, If Not Now When?, Periodic Table, The Mirror Maker: Stories and Essays, The Monkey’s Wrench, Collected Poems, Primo Levi

Primo Levi’s Resistance: Rebels and Collaborators in Occupied Italy, Sergio Luzzatto

     Holiday Tales of Scholom Aleichem

The World of Scholom Aleichem, Samuel

     Collected Stories of Isaac Babel

     Days of Awe, S.Y. Agnon

     Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan, Paul Celan, John Felstiner trans.

     Theological-Political Treatise, Ethics, Baruch Spinoza

A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age, Steven Nadler

Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity, Rebecca Goldstein

     The Communist Manifesto (with Friedrich Engels), Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx 

The Relevance of the Communist Manifesto, Slavoj Žižek

A Companion to Marx’s Capital, David Harvey

     The Freud Reader Peter Gay (Editor), Totem and Taboo, Civilization and Its Discontents, The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud

Freud: A Life for Our Time, Peter Gay

     Man’s Search for Meaning, The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy, Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning, Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything, Recollections: An Autobiography, Viktor E. Frankl

     Of Grammatology, Writing and Difference, Dissemination, Margins of Philosophy, Specters of Marx, Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles, The Truth in Painting, Jacques Derrida

     The Trial, The Castle, The Complete Stories, The Zürau Aphorisms, Franz Kafka

Conversations with Kafka, Gustav Janouch

Franz Kafka: a biography, Max Brod

Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari

The Nightmare of Reason: Kafka, Pawel

     The Street of Crocodiles, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, Bruno Schulz

     Elsewhere Perhaps, Fima, Amos Oz

     The Chosen, Davita’s Harp, The Promise, My Name is Asher Lev, The Gift of Asher Lev, Chaim Potok

     Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch, Dalia Ravikovitch

     City of Many Days, The Vocabulary of Peace: Life, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East, Shulamith Hareven

     Mr Mani, Yehoshua

     Apples From The Desert, Savyon Liebrecht

     The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai, Alter ed

The Writing of Yehuda Amichai: A Thematic Approach, Glenda Abramson

      An Impossible Life, David Black

     Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, Voices Within The Ark, Lilith’s Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural, Miriam’s Tambourine, Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales, Gabriel’s Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales, Invisible Kingdoms: Jewish Tales of Angels, Spirits, and Demons, A Palace of Pearls: The Stories of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis, Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets, Howard Schwartz

     The Complete Stories, Near to the Wild Heart, The Apple in the Dark, The Passion According to G.H., The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector

Reading with Clarice Lispector, Hélène Cixous

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, Benjamin Moser

     Gimpel the Fool and other stories, Shadows on the Hudson, In My Father’s Court, Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side (with Bruce Davidson),  The Spinoza of Market Street, A Friend of Kafka and other stories, A Crown of Feathers and other stories, The Family Moskat, Isaac Bashevis Singer

     The Complete Stories, Near to the Wild Heart, The Apple in the Dark, The Passion According to G.H., The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector

Reading with Clarice Lispector, Hélène Cixous

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, Benjamin Moser

     Where the Bird Sings Best, Albina and the Dog-Men, The Son of Black Thursday, Alejandro Jodorowsky

Anarchy and Alchemy: the Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky

     The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, Sarit Yishai-Levi

     Jerusalem: A Family Portrait, Boaz Yakin, Nick Bertozzi (Illustrations)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/04/29/a-proclamation-on-jewish-american-heritage-month-2022/

Hebrew

9 במאי 2024 מורשת של חופש משותפת לכולנו: חודש המורשת היהודית האמריקאית

     אנו חוגגים את חודש המורשת היהודית-אמריקאית במאי הקרוב, את ניצחון ההישרדות והסירוב למסור את ההיסטוריה והזהות של האדם כנגד סיכויים בלתי אפשריים וזוועות בלתי נתפסות, מעשי החסד והאומץ בהחזרת משהו מהאנושיות שלנו מהחושך ואימת האין שלנו. , ואינספור החידושים, התובנות העיקריות, המהפכות של המדעים והאינטלקט, פרקטיקה של ערכים ושל הדמיון והטרנספורמציה של הציוויליזציה שלנו ושל עצמנו בכל תחום של הישגים אנושיים שהעם הייחודי הזה העניק למין האנושי ולאמריקה לאורך ההיסטוריה הארוכה שלהם כאן , מאז ההגירה היהודית המאורגנת הראשונה למה שהוא כיום ניו יורק בשנת 1654 בריחה מהכיבוש הפורטוגזי של ברזיל, וקודם לכן טקסס נוסדה בשנת 1579 כמושבת יהודים גולים על ידי ספרד, תחת המושל היהודי לואיס דה קרבחאל, מייסד מונטריי. במה שהיא כיום מקסיקו, ששלט בה לזמן קצר כחלום של ספרד חדש שבו עמים מכל הגזעים והדתות יכולים לחיות תחת אותו חוק, עד שהצלחתו משכה את הקנאה והקמצנות של האינקוויזיציה, ששרפו את כל משפחתו מניות בשנת 1596.

      אמריקה כהבטחה למקלט תמיד הייתה מותנית ומוצלת על ידי היררכיות של שייכות והדרה, ועדיין לא יצאנו מהמורשת של ההיסטוריה שלנו.

      מלכתחילה אמריקה הוקמה על חופש הדת ודומיינת כמקום מפלט ומעבר להישג ידם של עריצות ואימפריות, שבה כולנו שווים בפני החוק וחופשיים לרדוף אחר מערכת היחסים שלנו עם האינסופי ללא פחד או אילוץ לפי המדינה. בין עקרונות החירות הגדולים ביותר שאנו יורשים הוא שמי שעומד בין כל אחד מאיתנו לבין האינסופי אינו משרת אף אחד מהם.

      הזכות העיקרית הזו לחופש הדת היא אוניברסלית וללא הדרה, ועל כך אנו חבים חוב לקהילה היהודית האמריקאית שלנו לא פחות מזה של עולי הרגל ואחרים שנמלטו לחופינו מכוח ושליטה אוטוריטריים, ויחד יצרו חברה חופשית. של שווים.

      אני מקווה שנוכל להוכיח שווים לדוגמה שלהם.

       מכיוון שהאישי והפוליטי תלויים זה בזה, ואנחנו עשויים מהסיפורים שאנו מספרים על עצמנו, לעצמנו ולאחרים, אני מציע כאן סיפור מההיסטוריה המשפחתית שלי כפי שסיפרה לי אמי כיצד העם היהודי הצילו אותנו, כשאף אחד אחר לא היה עושה זאת, ובלעדיו אף אחד מאיתנו לא היה חי.

      אל רציפי אמריקה הגיעה ילדה בת תשע, לבד וללא אגורה או מילה באנגלית. זר, בלי אף אחד שמחכה לפגוש אותה, בלי משפחה, בלי חברים, בלי כלום. סבתא רבא שלי, אפולוניה, מצד אמי, זו הייתה, עם שיער אדום בוער כמו של אמי, שמשפחתה סידרה לה את הבריחה מאוסטריה כשביתם נשרף, הניצולה היחידה עד כמה שאנחנו יודעים עכשיו.

       היא שוטטה בנמל וביקשה עזרה, בחמש שפות של ירידה בסבירות להכרה; צרפתית, אוסטרית, הונגרית, סרבו-קרואטית, ולבסוף, בייאוש וחשש שהתגובה תהיה גרועה בהרבה מהפקרת לרעב ולהקפיא, יידיש.

       אז אדם זר נקלט וגדל על ידי אנשים יהודים, שאני לא יודע עליהם דבר, ולכן ההישרדות של המשפחה שלנו היא חב לכל הקהילה והעם היהודי.

          זה קרה בשנת 1873, שנת התערוכה העולמית המפוארת של וינה אך גם התרסקות שוק המניות בעקבות מלחמת צרפת-פרוסיה שהחלה שפל של עשרים שנה באירופה והרדיפות היהודיות כפי שהואשמו בה; גם סכסוכים בין האימפריה הרוסית והעות’מאנית בארצות הגבול שלהם.

       היא הייתה בעלת רובים וסוסים משלה עד גיל שש עשרה כשהחלה את דרכה כמדריכת ציד, ומתה על האוכף בגיל 95, רובה בידה, לאחר שירתה בדוב שתקף את סוסיה. הרג אותה. האינדיאנים קברו אותה כמו שההונים קברו את אטילה, על סוסה ועם הרובה שלה, כמו נסיכה לוחמת.

       נולדתי תוך ימים של מותה, וכמו עם כל האבות הקדמונים אני נושא אותה הלאה, ממש כדנ”א והסיפורים שמחזיקים בנו כרוחות רפאים של חיים אחרים; אמיתות שנכתבו על בשרנו.

       ההקשר ההיסטורי והעובדה שאבי הקדמון שלי בשושלת האם ידע יידיש מאפשרים שאנחנו יהודים במוצאנו, אם כי אמי מעולם לא טענה זאת ויותר מכך הייתה אתאיסטית רדיקלית שגידלה אותנו ללא מסורות דתיות כלל. בכך, האמונה המשפחתית שממנה השתחררה הייתה הקתוליות, חפץ משושלת האבה האוסטרית שהיו גולים של נפילת האימפריה ההבסבורגית ב-1919 לאחר 600 שנה.

      אם זה באמת חלק מהזהות ההיסטורית שלנו, הוא אבד על ימי הזמן, או נגנב מאיתנו, כפי שנכון לכל כך הרבה אמריקאים שהגיעו לכאן כדי לברוח או לשכוח את עברם. אבל זה גם משחרר אותנו ליצור אפשרויות חדשות להיות אנושיות, שנוצרו הן מאלו השונים והן מהדומים, והן מהפי הזה.

בכל מקרה, סיפורי העם היהודי מציעים לכולנו דוגמאות שאנו יכולים להשתמש בהן ביצירת עצמנו וייחודיותנו.

       כנער שקוע בספרות השואה בזמן שעבר את הטראומה של חווית כמעט מוות בברזיל בקיץ שלפני התיכון, הוצאתי להורג על ידי חוליית מוות משטרתית תוך כדי הצלת ילדי רחוב נטושים שהם צדו ראשים נמנעה על ידי המטאדורים, ושיחות עם אמי כשכתבה את המחקר שלה על אילמות פסיכוסומטית מתוך הרשומות הרפואיות הסובייטיות וכתב העת לטיפול בילדות של יז’י קוסינסקי, שאותו העלה בדיוני בתור הציפור המצוירת, שאלתי אותה פעם ישירות, האם אנחנו יהודים?

       על כך השיבה; “כולם יהודים. כל אחד הוא יהודי של מישהו, שעיר לעזאזל של מישהו, הזולת של מישהו. המשימה הגדולה של להיות אנושי היא להתגבר על הפחד מאחרות, תוך אימוץ הייחודיות שלנו”.

Yiddish

9 מאי 2023 א לעגאַט פון פרייהייט מיט אונדז אַלע: ייִדיש אמעריקאנער העריטאַגע חודש

     מיר פייַערן דעם ייִדישן אַמעריקאַנער העריטאַגע חודש דעם מייַ, דער טריומף פון ניצל און אָפּזאָג צו אַרויסגעבן זיין געשיכטע און אידענטיטעט קעגן אוממעגלעך שאַנסן און אַנימאַדזשאַנאַבאַל כאָרערז, די אקטן פון חן און מוט צו צוריקקריגן עפּעס פון אונדזער מענטשהייט פון דער פינצטערניש און די טעראָר פון אונדזער גאָרנישט. און די קאַונטלאַס ינאָווויישאַנז, ערשטיק ינסייץ, רעוואַלושאַנז פון וויסנשאפטן און סייכל, פּראַקסיס פון וואַלועס, און פון די ריימאַדזשאַניישאַן און טראַנספאָרמאַציע פון אונדזער ציוויליזאַציע און זיך אין יעדער געגנט פון מענטשלעך דערגרייה וואָס דאָס יינציק מענטשן האָבן געגעבן מענטשהייַט און אַמעריקע איבער זייער לאַנג געשיכטע דאָ זינט די ערשטע ארגאניזירטע אידישע מיגראציע צו דעם היינטיקן ניו יארק אין 1654 אנטלאפן פון פארטוגעזיש פארכאנג פון בראזיל, און פריער ווי טעקסאס איז געגרינדעט געווארן אין 1579 אלס א קאלאניע פון גלות אידן דורך שפאניע, אונטער דעם אידישן גאווערנאר לואיס דע קארוואדזשאל, גרינדער פון מאנטערי. אין וואָס איז איצט מעקסיקא, וואס רולד עס בעקיצער ווי דער חלום פון אַ נייַ ספאַראַד אין וואָס פעלקער פון אַלע ראַסעס און אמונה קענען לעבן אונטער די זעלבע געזעץ, ביז זיין הצלחה געצויגן די קנאה און קנאה פון די ינקוויסיטיאָן, וואָס פארברענט זיין גאנצע משפּחה אין די פלעקל אין 1596.

      אַמעריקע ווי אַ צוזאָג פון מיזבייעך איז שטענדיק געווען קאַנדישאַנאַל און שאַדאָוד דורך כייעראַרקיז פון בילאָנגינג און יקסקלוזשאַן אנדערע, און מיר האָבן נאָך צו אַרויסקומען פון די לעגאַסיז פון אונדזער געשיכטע.

      פון דער ערשטער אַמעריקע איז געגרינדעט אויף פרייהייט פון רעליגיע און ימאַדזשאַנד ווי אַ אָרט פון אָפּדאַך און ווייַטער פון די דערגרייכן פון טיראַניז און עמפּייערז, אין וואָס אַלע פון אונדז זענען גלייַך איידער די געזעץ און פריי צו נאָכגיין אונדזער שייכות מיט די ינפאַנאַט אָן מורא אָדער קאַמפּאַלשאַן דורך די שטאַט. צווישן די גרעסטע פּרינסאַפּאַלז פון פרייַהייַט מיר ירשענען איז אַז דער וואס שטייט צווישן יעדער פון אונדז און די ינפאַנאַט דינען ניט קיין.

      דאס ערשטע רעכט פון רעליגיעז פרייהייט איז אוניווערסאל און נישט אויסשליסליך, און דערפאר זענען מיר שולדיק א חוב צו אונזער אידישער אמעריקאנער געמיינדע נישט ווייניגער ווי די פון די פילגרימען און אנדערע וואס זענען אנטלאפן צו אונזערע ברעגן פון אויטאריטאריע קראפט און קאנטראל, און צוזאמען האבן באשאפן א פרייע געזעלשאפט. פון גלייַך.

      איך האָפֿן מיר קענען באַווייַזן גלייַך צו זייער בייַשפּיל.

       ווייַל די פערזענלעכע און די פּאָליטיש זענען ינטעראָפענגיק, און מיר זענען געמאכט פון די מעשיות וואָס מיר דערציילן וועגן זיך, צו זיך און צו אנדערע, איך פאָרשלאָגן דאָ אַ געשיכטע פון מיין משפּחה געשיכטע ווי דערציילט מיר דורך מיין מוטער, ווי די אידישע מענטשן האָבן אונדז געראטעוועט, ווען קיינער אַנדערש וואָלט נישט, און אָן וועמען קיינער פון אונדז וואָלט קיינמאָל געלעבט.

      אויף די דאָק פון אַמעריקע איז אָנגעקומען אַ נײַן יאָר אַלט מיידל, אַליין און אָן אַ פּעני אָדער אַ וואָרט ענגליש. א פרעמדע , מי ט קײ ן װארט ן זי ך צ ו טרעפע ן , קײ ן פאמיליע , קײ ן פרײנט , גארנישט . מייַן מוטערלעך באָבע אַפּאָללאָניאַ דאָס איז געווען, מיט פלאַמינג רויט האָר ווי מיין מוטער, וועמענס משפּחה האט עריינדזשד איר אַנטלויפן פון עסטרייַך ווי זייער היים פארברענט, די איינציקע לעבנ געבליבענער אַזוי ווייַט ווי מיר איצט וויסן.

       זי איז ארומגעפארן אין פארט און געבעטן הילף, אין פינף שפראכן פון אראפנידערן ליקעליקייט פון דערקענונג; פראנצויזיש, עסטרייך, אונגאַריש, סערביש-קראָאַטיש, און ענדלעך, אין פאַרצווייפלונג און מורא, אַז דער רעאַקציע וועט זיין פיל ערגער ווי זיין פארלאזן צו הונגערן און פאַרפרוירן, ייִדיש.

       אַזוי אַ פרעמדער איז אַרײַנגענומען געוואָרן און דערצויגן געוואָרן דורך אידישע מענטשן, פון וועלכן איך ווייס גאָרנישט, און אַזוי איז אונדזער משפּחה’ס ניצל צו שולדיג צו דער גאַנצער אידישער קהילה און פאָלק.

          דאָס איז געשען אין 1873, יאָר פון דער הערלעכער ווינער וועלט-יריד אָבער אויך דער לאַגער-מאַרק קראַך נאָך דער פראַנקאָ-פּרוסישן מלחמה וואָס האָט אָנגעהויבן אַ צוואַנציק יאָר דעפּרעסיע אין אייראָפּע און די אידישע רדיפות ווי זיי זענען באַשולדיקט געוואָרן דערפאַר; אויך קאנפליקטן צווישן די רוסישע און אטאמאנישע אימפעריע אין זייערע גרענעצן.

       זי איז געווען, וואָס האָט פאַרמאָגט אירע אייגענע ביקסן און פערד ביז זעכצן יאָר, ווען זי האָט אָנגעהויבן איר קאַריערע ווי אַ גייעג פירער, און איז געשטאָרבן אין זאָטל אין עלטער פון 95 יאָר, מיט אַ ביקס אין דער האַנט, בעת זי האָט געשאָסן דעם בער וואָס האָט אַטאַקירט אירע פערד און האָט זי דערהרגעט. די אינדיאנער האבן זי באגראבן װי די האנער האבן באגראבן אטילה, אויף איר פערד און מיט איר ביקס, װי א קריגערישע פרינצעסין.

       איך בין געבוירן געוואָרן אין טעג נאָך איר טויט, און ווי מיט אַלע אָוועס איך טראָגן איר פאָרויס, ממש ווי דנאַ און די מעשיות וואָס פאַרמאָגן אונדז ווי די גאָוס פון אנדערע לעבן; אמת געשריבן אין אונדזער פלייש.

       דער היסטאָרישער קאָנטעקסט און דער פאַקט אַז מיין אָוועס אין דער מוטערלעך שורה קען ייִדיש מאכט עס מעגלעך אַז מיר זענען אידן פון אָפּשטאַמלינג, כאָטש מיין מוטער האט קיינמאָל געטענהט אַזוי און דערצו איז געווען אַ ראַדיקאַל אַטעיסט וואָס האָט אונדז אויפשטיין מיט קיין רעליגיעז טראדיציעס. דערמיט איז די פאַמיליע אמונה פון וואָס זי האָט זיך באפרייט איז געווען קאַטהאָליסיסם, אַן אַרטאַפאַקט פון איר אַוסטריאַן פאָטערלעך ליניע וואָס זענען געווען גלות פון די 1919 פאַלן פון דער האַפּסבורגער אימפעריע נאָך 600 יאָר.

      אויב דאָס איז טאַקע אַ טייל פון אונדזער היסטארישן אידענטיטעט, עס איז פאַרפאַלן אויף די ים פון צייַט, אָדער סטאָלען פון אונדז, ווי איז אמת פון אַזוי פילע אמעריקאנער וואָס זענען געקומען אַהער צו אַנטלויפן אָדער פאַרגעסן זייער פאַרגאַנגענהייט. אבער עס אויך פריי אונדז צו שאַפֿן נייַע פּאַסאַבילאַטיז פון ווערן מענטש, פאָרדזשד סיי פון די וואָס זענען אַנדערש און די ענלעך, און פון דעם פּע.

פֿון דעסטוועגן, פאָרשלאָגן אונדז די דערציילונגען פֿון דעם ייִדישן פֿאָלק אַלע ביישפילן וואָס מיר קענען נוצן אין דער שאַפונג פון זיך און אונדזער אייגנארטיקייט.

       ווי אַ טיניידזשער געטובלט אין חורבן ליטעראַטור בשעת ארבעטן דורך די טראַוומע פון אַ לעבן טויט דערפאַרונג אין Brazil זומער איידער הויך שולע, מיין דורכפירונג דורך אַ פּאָליצייַ טויט סקוואַד בשעת רעסקיוינג פארלאזן גאַס קינדער וואָס זיי זענען געווען פּריווענטיד דורך די מאַטאַדאָר, און שמועסן. מיט מיין מוטער ווען זי האָט געשריבן איר לערנען וועגן פּסיכאָסאָמאַטיק שטום פון די סאָוויעט מעדיציניש רעקאָרדס און קינדשאַפט טעראַפּיע זשורנאַל פון דזשערזי קאָסינסקי וואָס ער פיקשאַנאַלייזד ווי די פּאַינטעד פויגל, איך אַמאָל געפרעגט איר גלייַך, זענען מיר אידן?

       אויף דעם האט זי געענטפערט; „יעדער איז אַ ייִד. אַלעמען איז עמעצער ס ייִד, עמעצער ס קאַפּיטל, עמעצער ס אַנדערער. די גרויס אַרבעט פון ווערן מענטש איז צו באַקומען מורא פון אַנדערשקייט, בשעת אַרומנעמען אונדזער אייגנארטיקייט.

May 5 2024 Cinco de Mayo: On This Celebration of Anticolonial Liberation,  Questioning the Erasure of Mexicans From American history

      We celebrate today the liberation of Mexico from the Austrian Empire, a glorious victory of anticolonialism which continues to inspire a nation today. Where then are the Mexicans in American History?

      How did Texas become a quasi white ethnostate whose wealth and power are created by the de facto slave labor of Mexican workers, workers who must remain illegal and hence exploitable and invisible in service to white elites resulting in our humanitarian crisis at the border. For if all the huddled masses yearning to be free were welcomed as fellow citizens and builders of the nation, not just the white ones, we would have to pay them a fair and equal wage and the wealth, power, and privilege of hegemonic elites would crumble into nothingness.

      This is the real reason for the demonization of migrants by the Republican Party; they must have a vast pool of nearly free labor with almost no rules about what can be done to workers, and so wage a class war to enforce their capture of our society.

     For what purpose have we a border? We have drawn a line in the sand to exploit disparity and create illegal migrant labor; an invisible resource of those with no legal existence to whom we can do anything without reprisal, and whose cheap labor fuels vast industries of agriculture, hospitality, caretaking, and manufacture.

     Migrant labor is slave labor.

     And these imposed conditions of struggle emerge from the history of slavery and the role of Texas as a Confederate bastion, as migrant labor replaces slave labor.

     The historical legacy of slavery links racism against Black Americans and Mexican-Americans emanating from Texas, the heart of darkness.

     Founded by theft from Mexico and the lawless banditry of slave owners who refused to emancipate their slaves, Texas remained a rogue state in fact long after joining the United States, a persistent delusion of its mad quasi-emperor Sam Houston and the displaced Confederates who recolonized and tried to use it as a base from which to seize Mexico after the Civil War.

     Texas was not always a den of racism and violence; founded in 1579 as a colony of exiled Jews by Spain, the grandees who settled and ruled it dreamed of a new Sepharad wherein peoples of all races and faiths may live under the same law, arguably a nearer model of freedom and equality than ancient Greece and Rome for the new nations of Protestant Europe and a historical influence on American democracy.

       This first ideal of Texas as an inclusive and egalitarian society ended in 1595 when Louis de Carvajal, the founder and Governor of the Kingdom of New Leon- current Mexico and Texas- was arrested as a practicing Jew and died in prison; his sister Francesca and her four children Isabel, Catalina, Leonor, and Luis were tortured and burned at the stake as Jews by the Inquisition in 1596, her last child Mariana joining them at the stake in 1601. Of de Carvajal’s legacy, only the city he founded, Monterrey, remains.

      Whether this idea of Texas as a multiracial and multifaith refuge was realized before being infiltrated and seized by the tyrannies of the Spanish Empire and its Inquisition is beside the point; there is an alternate story and Golden Age to reclaim, the dream of Texas as a glorious Andalus.

      Let us make a better future than we have the past, and redeem the hope of our ideals.

      As I wrote in my post of March 16 2020, Walls of Hate, Tyranny, and Empire: America’s Global Borders; As we are inundated with the global awakening to fear of the coronavirus pandemic, it becomes clear that this is a natural triggering stressor which parallels a manufactured one, that of borders and refugee crises, in its behaviors and effects in our social and political environment as leverage for nationalist and fascist tyrannies of force and control in the subversion of democracy and the transformation of our world into a vast prison.

    Overwhelming and generalized fear is a necessary precondition of authoritarian regimes, and of violence and the use of social force generally, which together with submission to authority may be regarded as a First Cause of the disease of power in the sense that Thomas Aquinas argued causality and being, though in the absolute sense which he used all causes are recursive and enfold each other; ”If there is no First Cause, then the universe is like a great chain with many links; each link is held up by the link above it, but the whole chain is held up by nothing.”

     Authority and fear also alienate us from ourselves, dehumanize and commodify us as does capitalism as its outer form; for this is about the theft of our identity and power by those who would enslave us.

      The first consequence of the emergence of authority and the disempowerment of its subjects is the modern pathology of disconnectedness; and this is the link which binds authority and tyranny together, and its weak point. Here is where resistance and revolution must act to shatter the knot of interdependent and mutually reinforcing systems which rob us of our humanity and our freedom.

     We must build bridges not walls, togetherness not isolation, unity not division, and forge a borderless world and a free society of equals.

     Todd Miller describes America’s empire of borders in a Jacobin interview; “Since coming into office, the Trump administration has launched unrelenting racist attacks on immigrants and refugees. He seems determined to build his wall by any means necessary and has unleashed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to conduct raids, arrest people, throw them in concentration camps, and deport them.”

   “ But, contrary to widespread liberal illusions, Trump did not start this war on migrants, but only intensified it.

     In fact, as Todd Miller demonstrates in his new book, Empire of Borders, politicians in both major parties have collaborated over the last few decades to construct a massive border regime that polices migrants not only in the United States but throughout the world. In this interview with Jacobin contributor Ashley Smith, Miller discusses the origins and features of this new imperial strategy — and the international resistance against it.

AS

One of the points you make throughout your book is that this border regime did not begin with Trump but has been a feature of the United States from its founding. How has the US state internationalized its border regime over the last few decades, and how does it operate today?

TM

     The US state established its borders through colonization, dispossession, genocide, slavery, and exploitation. This is especially true of its border with Mexico in the nineteenth century.

     That violent process of conquest is too often legitimized by mainstream historians when they use innocuous-sounding phrases like “westward expansion,” dress up imperial bullying like the Gadsden Purchase as “agreements,” and craft self-congratulatory accounts of the Mexican-American War.

     But there is no way to make the white supremacy of “manifest destiny” palatable. The United States seized land, planted its flag, and killed anyone that resisted, especially indigenous peoples, all in the name of God and European civilization.

     It expanded its border regime through its imperial seizure of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines in the 1898 Spanish-American War. By the early twentieth century, the United States had established its territorial border, set up semicolonies, and policed seemingly independent states in its hemisphere with “gunboat diplomacy.”

     Even knowing this history, it took me a while to understand that the US border extended well beyond its mainland. I think the first time I grasped this was while covering the migration out of Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010. I quickly realized that this was not a migration story but a border story.

     Shortly after the earthquake, as hundreds of thousands of people were still in the rubble of their homes, a US jumbo jet flew overhead blasting out an announcement from the Haitian ambassador. He warned in Creole, “If you think you will reach the United States and all the doors will be wide open to you, that’s not at all the case. They will intercept you right in the water and send you back home where you came from.”

     Soon after, sixteen Coast Guard cutters came right up to the Haitian shore to stop the flight of any refugees. Then Washington contracted the private prison company GEO Group for “guard services” (presumably in a tent city in Guantánamo Bay) to in effect jail the victims.

     At once I saw that the US border was: 1) geographically removed from where I normally had thought it was; 2) elastic and able to extend at will very far from the US mainland; and 3) not passive, but aggressive. In a nutshell, the border was much bigger — much, much bigger — than I ever thought it was.

     For example, in 2012, when I was on an investigative trip to Puerto Rico, I learned that the tiny Mona Island — a mere thirty miles from the Dominican shore — was also literally part of the US border.

     So when a sinking boat carrying Haitians to another destination crashed onto the shores of that small island, they were absorbed by the US border: detained, arrested, incarcerated, and eventually deported by the US Department of Homeland Security back to Haiti.

     This is just one instance. Another is the Dominican Border Patrol, which the United States trained and equipped after its creation in 2007. And a third is Guatemala’s new Chorti border patrol, which the US Embassy, one commander told me, helped create to police its Honduran borderlands.

     This wasn’t limited just to the Western Hemisphere. On other trips I found out that US funds created a Kenyan border patrol and a massive surveillance system on the Jordanian-Syrian border. And this is just scratching the surface.

     To understand this, I think it’s important to go back to the 9/11 Commission Report’s paradigm-changing statement: “The American Homeland is the planet.” Since 2003, CBP has created twenty-three embassy attaches from Nairobi to Tokyo to Berlin to Brasilia and is at work in nearly one hundred countries through various border programs — creating, essentially, an empire of borders.

     While the United States has always had such international border operations, it dramatically expanded them after 9/11. When I asked one CBP official at its Washington headquarters to describe with one word how much they’ve grown since then, he answered: “exponentially.”

AS

     So that’s how the United States controls the global flow of people. How do its policies cause migration to begin with?

TM

     Washington’s climate, economic, and military policies bear an enormous responsibility for creating the conditions that drive people from their countries. The United States has long been history’s top emitter of greenhouse gases (since 1900 it has emitted nearly seven hundred times more than Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador combined), driving up temperatures, causing desertification, raising sea levels, exacerbating preexisting situations (often of intense poverty, especially in rural areas), effectively making it a force behind displacement.

     While borders have been hardened to deter, arrest, incarcerate, expel, and ultimately sort and classify the world’s most vulnerable people, destructive forces that cause migration can go where they please. One example of this is the “open border” policy in place for the US military.

     With its forces deployed in over eight hundred bases around the world, Washington has conducted countless military interventions and coups, leading people to flee to other countries for safety. For example, in 1954 the United States intervened in Guatemala to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz, resulting in a thirty-six-year armed conflict and brutal military repression.

     Another example is Washington-driven neoliberal economics. It has forced indebted countries to privatize state-owned companies, slash their welfare states, and open up their economies to US multinationals. While that made money for local and international capitalists, it wrecked the lives of small farmers and workers, many of whom left their countries for the United States and other advanced capitalist countries to find work as criminalized cheap labor.

     And if countries didn’t agree to neoliberalism, the United States often forced it upon them at gunpoint. If you look in Central America, Mexico, all around the world, this convergence of military and neoliberal policies has both done considerable damage and caused massive displacement of people.

     As the New York Times’s Thomas Friedman wrote so presciently and unselfconsciously in 1999, for the “hidden hand of the market” to work you need the “hidden fist” of the military to back it up and enforce it. And part of that hidden fist is the border regime that polices the migrants and refugees at its borders.

AS

     This border regime, as you argue in your book, has generated a booming new industry in border security. What does this look like, and how does it intensify the attack on migrants in the United States and throughout the world?

TM

     The US empire of borders has spawned a whole new dimension of carceral capitalism. It’s raking in enormous profits off the proliferation of walls, surveillance technology, checkpoints, and detention facilities.

     When I was traveling in Israel and Palestine in 2017 with an international group, a man from South Africa told me that what we were seeing was worse than apartheid era in his country. He made the point that in South Africa, while it was bad from 1948 to the early 1990s, there weren’t all the checkpoints, walls, armed agents and soldiers, and technologies that we were seeing in the occupied territories.

     During that trip we went to one of the biggest weapons and technology conferences in Israel. In the Tel Aviv convention center, Israeli companies pitched “proven” technologies, which they boasted had been tested on Palestinians under occupation, to governments from all over the world to police their own borders and oppressed populations.

     At another homeland security expo in Tel Aviv I saw the demonstration of the Orbiter III, which they called the “suicide drone.” The weapons dealer said that it could conduct surveillance on a target, and then, if they so decided, dive-bomb it and utterly destroy it.

     Even though Israel is the “homeland security/surveillance capital” of the world, as scholar Neve Gordon put it, the industry has metastasized throughout the world. I have been to similar border regime bazaars in San Antonio, in Paris, and in Mexico City.

     This whole industry has boomed as states across the globe have built more than seventy border walls (up from fifteen in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall), spent billions on surveillance technologies, and hired hundreds of thousands of armed agents to guard the jagged frontier of the Global North and Global South. Corporations are profiting off border policing, adding crass capitalist interest to crude state repression.

AS

     What are the domestic impacts of the border regime in the United States? How has it created a new caste division in the working class, deepened racial divisions, and built a state more prepared to repress its population?

TM

     Border regimes, by their very nature, are systems of exclusion. They are enforced not only by guards but bureaucracies that oversee elaborate rules intended to make noncitizens work hard for their papers as if they were gaining membership to an exclusive club.

     In this sense, the border is much more than the international boundary line. In the United States, the border zone, or jurisdiction, extends a hundred miles inland along the 2,000-mile Mexican border, 4,000-mile Canadian border, and both coasts. That’s a good swath of country where Homeland Security forces operates in what the American Civil Liberties Union has called a “constitution-free zone.”

     Over 200 million people, approximately two-thirds of the US population, live in this zone, where the Border Patrol can set up checkpoints, do roving patrols, work with local and state police, and racially profile and target people for arrest, detention, and deportation. Over the last twenty-five years,

the number of agents has ballooned from 4,000 to 21,000, and annual budgets have gone up from $1.5 billion in 1994 to $23 billion in 2018. Detention centers now exceed 250 and can be found throughout the country.

     This massive apparatus is only growing larger and becoming more invasive. For example, the Department of Homeland Security has been testing new small- and medium-sized drones with the ability to “fly unnoticed by human hearing and sight” along a “predetermined route observing and reporting unusual activity and identifying faces and vehicles involved in that activity comparing them to profile pictures and license plate data.”

     All of this amounts to a gargantuan, and profitable, exclusion apparatus, effectively creating a modern caste system that extends throughout the country and indeed the globe.

AS

     Amid the struggle to close down Trump’s concentration camps, activists are again debating what we should demand. Why should we call for an end to the border regime and open borders?

TM

I was just listening to a podcast featuring Vox founder Ezra Klein, who said that he would be open to an argument for open borders if it were shown that it would not destabilize the country. Of course, Klein isn’t the only one with that view, it’s a mainstream one in many ways.

     However, what I think is the exact opposite. Hardened borders exist and are proliferating to police a world precisely because the global situation is already precarious and unstable. As I mentioned before, Washington’s climate, economic, and military policies (and to take it further, those of border-building Western regimes such as the European Union and Australia) have wrecked whole sections of the world.

     When the United States responds to these people by militarizing the border, it only exacerbates the instability. It doesn’t solve the causes of migration but locks them in place; creates chaos at the border, especially for migrants; stimulates corporate investment in the border regime; compromises our civil rights and liberties; and encourages demagogues like Trump to whip up xenophobia and racism.

     I think of the Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar who, after removing a piece of the US-Mexico border wall near San Diego, said “I will not accept that this wall is in my face.” The whole purpose of Jarrar’s art is not only to dismantle a border apparatus, but also to transform into something more utilitarian.

     For example, he pounded a sledgehammer into the concrete wall that separated west from east Jerusalem, took out chunks of cement, and turned them into sculptures of soccer balls and cleats to give back to the kids whose soccer fields the wall had taken away. I often think of Jarrar’s question: why do we accept that these borders are in our face?

     It is akin to accepting a global caste system, a system of segregation long rejected by civil rights movements and internationally condemned by anti-apartheid movements. The one silver lining in the age of Trump is that his racist attacks on refugees and migrants has produced a new movement to challenge and dismantle the global border regime.’

    In the words of Lenin which founded a political party and a Revolution; “What is to be done?”

     As I wrote in my post of  December 18 2023, International Migrants Day: “There Is No Migration Crisis; There Is a Crisis of Solidarity”;

We celebrate today the human will to become, to explore, to discover new worlds and create new possibilities of becoming human, in the iconic figure of the migrant as the epitome and driving force of civilization.

     Often the migrant also enacts the archetype and allegory of the Stranger as well, with all of the ambiguities, dangers, and opportunities for the reimagination and transformation of human being, meaning, and value implicit in the themes of this primary universal psychodrama.

     A few days ago Our Clown of Terror, Traitor Trump, quoted the book he kept on his nightstand for years in place of a Bible, Mein Kampf, to cheering crowds during an election rally in reference to migrants; “They’re poisoning our blood.”

     No matter where you begin with ideas of otherness as a threat to identity, the origin of all fascism, you always end up at the gates of Auschwitz.

     Let us give to fascism the only reply it merits; Never Again!

     The wave of fascism sweeping the world these past few years originates in a primal fear of otherness as loss of the self; this is weaponized in service to power by those who would enslave us, becomes divisions and hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness, racism, patriarchy, nationalism, and all of this coheres into authorized identities and identity politics.

    The other is always our own mirror image, and we cannot escape each other. This is why fascism and tyranny are inherently unstable and always collapse in depravity and ruin; when we project what we dislike about ourselves onto others, as objects to abuse as if exorcising our demons, we dehumanize ourselves as well as them. And such denial fails as a strategy of transformation and adaptation to change, aggrandizing ossified institutions and systems until they become threats rather than solutions, and the whole edifice collapses from the mechanical failures of its contradictions as is happening now in America and throughout human civilization.

     This is why the embrace of our own darkness and monstrosity is crucial to liberation struggle; how else can we bring change to systems of oppression if we cannot confront it in ourselves? Especially we must hold close and interrogate feelings like disgust, revulsion, rage, and other atavisms of instinct which we drag behind ourselves like an invisible reptilian tail with the recognition that nothing we feel is either good or evil, but only how we use them in our actions.

      In the end, all that matters is what we do with our fear, and how we use our power.

     Against this Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force we must set a counterfire of solidarity and love, for only this can set us free. We must speak directly to that fear of otherness as loss of identity and of power if we are to turn the tide of history toward a free society of equals and not fascist tyrannies of blood, faith, and soil, toward democracy and a diverse and inclusive United Humankind and not carceral states of force and control, toward love and not hate.

    We are stronger together than alone, as Benjamin Franklin demonstrated with his bundle of arrows in reference to Ecclesiastes 4:12 and the Iroquois Great Peacemaker called in some contexts Deganawidah. A diverse and inclusive society makes us more powerful if in different ways, wealthier, more resilient and adaptive, offers unknown joys and opens new vistas and possibilities of becoming human.

    Change need not mean fear and loss; for it also offers limitless new wonders. We must be agents of change and bringers of Chaos, if we are to become a fulcrum and change the balance of power in the world.

     The idea of human rights has been abandoned by its former guarantor nations, with whole peoples in Gaza and Ukraine being erased in wars of ethnic cleansing as exhibits of atrocities and crimes against humanity, and because of this and many other systems failures civilization is collapsing; ephemeral and illusory things like wealth and power are meaningless in the shadow of our degradation and the terror of our nothingness in the face of death.

     A reader’s comment on my post of December 8, The Fall of America as a Guarantor of Democracy and Human Rights, contained the phrase “more hopeful of the good in most people”. 

     Here follows my reply; I too believed in things like human goodness once, but after forty years of wars, revolutions, resistance, and liberation struggle throughout the world I cannot. What I trust and hope for, if not believe in, is solidarity of action in struggle against systems of oppression and elite hegemonies of wealth, power, and privilege. Such is my faith; the equality of human needs and the necessity of our unity in seizures of power to create a free society of equals.

     As written by Jean Genet, who swore me to the oath of the Resistance and set me on my life’s path during the Siege of Beirut in 1982; “If we behave like those on the other side, then we are the other side. Instead of changing the world, all we’ll achieve is a reflection of the one we want to destroy.” 

     How shall we welcome the Stranger?

Living Undocumented series trailer/Netflix

From Executive Producer Selena Gomez

Empire of Borders: How the US is Exporting its Border Around the World, by Todd Miller

http://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/todd-miller-empire-of-borders-immigration-trump

America as a beacon of hope to the world, as written by Emma Lazarus;

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

               Jay’s Revised Modern Canon 

               Modern American Literature 2024 Edition       

              Hispanic-American History

     Century of the Wind, Eduardo Galeano

      Crucible of Struggle: A History of Mexican Americans from the Colonial Period to the Present Era, Zaragosa Vargas

     El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America, Carrie Gibson

     The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography, Miriam Pawel

     The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States, John Storm Roberts

     My Art, My Life: An Autobiography, Diego Rivera

     The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait, Carlos Fuentes intro

     Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story, Luis Alberto Urrea

     The Transnational Fantasies of Guillermo del Toro, Dolores Tierney, Deborah Shaw, & Ann Davies, Editors

                    Hispanic-American Literature

    Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya

     The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, The Sum of Our Days, Eva Luna, The Stories of Eva Luna, The Infinite Plan, Daughter of Fortune, Zorro, Island Beneath the Sea, Ines of My Soul, Maya’s Notebook, The Japanese Lover, The Sum of Our Days, Conversations With Isabel Allende, A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabele Allende

Isabel Allende: A Literary Companion, Mary Ellen Snodgrass

     Latin Moon in Manhattan, Our Lives Are the Rivers: A Novel,

Cervantes Street, Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me, Jaime Manrique

     How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Yo!, In the Time of the Butterflies, In the Name of Salome, The Woman I Kept to Myself, Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA, Something to Declare, Julia Alvarez

Julia Alvarez: A Critical Companion, Silvio Sirias

     The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz

    The Moths and other stories, Under the Feet of Jesus, Their Dogs Came with Them, Helena ViramontesT

     Hummingbird’s Daughter, Queen of America, Into the Beautiful North, The Water Museum, The House of Broken Angels, Tijuana Book of the Dead, Luis Alberto Urrea

     So Far From God, Peel My Love Like an Onion, The Guardians, Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma, Watercolor Women / Opaque Men: A Novel in Verse, Black Dove: Mamá, Mi’jo, and Me, I Ask the Impossible, Ana Castillo

     The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O’Brien, Oscar Hijuelos

     The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollaring Creek and other stories, Caramelo, My Wicked Wicked Ways: Poems, A House of My Own: Stories from My Life, Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, Harold Bloom

     House of the Impossible Beauties, Joseph Cassara

     Dreaming in Cuban, The Lady Matador’s Hotel, King of Cuba, Christina Garcia

Spanish

5 de mayo de 2024 Cinco de Mayo: sobre esta celebración de la liberación anticolonial, cuestionando la eliminación de los mexicanos de la historia estadounidense y amplificando la solidaridad histórica de los pueblos negros y mexicanos en la historia reescrita de Texas

       Celebramos hoy la liberación de México del Imperio Austriaco, una gloriosa victoria del anticolonialismo que continúa inspirando a una nación hoy. ¿Dónde están entonces los mexicanos en la historia estadounidense?

       ¿Cómo se convirtió Texas en un etnoestado cuasi blanco cuya riqueza y poder son creados por el trabajo esclavo de facto de los trabajadores mexicanos, trabajadores que deben seguir siendo ilegales y, por lo tanto, explotables e invisibles al servicio de las élites blancas, lo que resultó en nuestra crisis humanitaria en la frontera? Porque si todas las masas apiñadas que anhelan ser libres fueran bienvenidas como conciudadanos y constructores de la nación, no sólo las blancas, tendríamos que pagarles un salario justo e igualitario y la riqueza, el poder y los privilegios de las elites hegemónicas se verían afectados. desmoronarse en la nada.

       Ésta es la verdadera razón de la demonización de los inmigrantes por parte del Partido Republicano; deben tener una vasta reserva de mano de obra casi libre y casi sin reglas sobre lo que se les puede hacer a los trabajadores, y así librar una guerra de clases para imponer su captura de nuestra sociedad.

      ¿Para qué tenemos una frontera? Hemos trazado una línea en la arena para explotar la disparidad y crear mano de obra migrante ilegal; un recurso invisible de aquellos sin existencia legal a quienes podemos hacer cualquier cosa sin represalias, y cuya mano de obra barata alimenta vastas industrias de agricultura, hotelería, cuidado y manufactura.

      El trabajo migrante es trabajo esclavo.

      Y estas condiciones de lucha impuestas surgen de la historia de la esclavitud y del papel de Texas como bastión confederado, a medida que la mano de obra migrante reemplaza al trabajo esclavo.

      El legado histórico de la esclavitud vincula el racismo contra los afroamericanos y los mexicano-estadounidenses que emana de Texas, el corazón de las tinieblas.

      Fundado por el robo a México y el bandidaje ilegal de los dueños de esclavos que se negaron a emancipar a sus esclavos, Texas siguió siendo un estado rebelde mucho después de unirse a los Estados Unidos, una ilusión persistente de su loco cuasi-emperador Sam Houston y los confederados desplazados que recolonizaron y trató de utilizarlo como base desde la cual apoderarse de México después de la Guerra Civil.

      Texas no siempre fue una guarida de racismo y violencia; Fundada en 1579 como una colonia de judíos exiliados por España, los grandes que la establecieron y gobernaron soñaron con una nueva Sefarad en la que pueblos de todas las razas y religiones pudieran vivir bajo la misma ley, posiblemente un modelo de libertad e igualdad más cercano que la antigua Grecia y Roma para las nuevas naciones de la Europa protestante y una influencia histórica en la democracia estadounidense.

        Este primer ideal de Texas como sociedad inclusiva e igualitaria terminó en 1595 cuando Luis de Carvajal, fundador y Gobernador del Reino de Nuevo León -actuales México y Texas- fue arrestado como judío practicante y murió en prisión; su hermana Francesca y sus cuatro hijos Isabel, Catalina, Leonor y Luis fueron torturados y quemados en la hoguera como judíos por la Inquisición en 1596; su última hija, Mariana, se unió a ellos en la hoguera en 1601. Del legado de De Carvajal, sólo la ciudad fundó, Monterrey, permanece.

       No viene al caso si esta idea de Texas como un refugio multirracial y multirreligioso se hizo realidad antes de ser infiltrada y tomada por las tiranías del Imperio español y su Inquisición; hay una historia alternativa y una Edad de Oro que recuperar, el sueño de Texas como un Andalus glorioso.

       Hagamos un futuro mejor que el pasado y redimamos la esperanza de nuestros ideales.

       Como escribí en mi publicación del 16 de marzo de 2020, Muros de odio, tiranía e imperio: las fronteras globales de Estados Unidos; A medida que nos vemos inundados por el despertar global al miedo a la pandemia de coronavirus, queda claro que se trata de un factor estresante desencadenante natural que es paralelo a uno fabricado, el de las fronteras y las crisis de refugiados, en sus comportamientos y efectos en nuestro entorno social y político. palanca para las tiranías nacionalistas y fascistas de fuerza y control en la subversión de la democracia y la transformación de nuestro mundo en una gran prisión.

     El miedo abrumador y generalizado es una precondición necesaria de los regímenes autoritarios, y de la violencia y el uso de la fuerza social en general, que junto con la sumisión a la autoridad puede considerarse como una primera causa de la enfermedad del poder en el sentido en que Tomás de Aquino argumentó la causalidad y siendo, aunque en el sentido absoluto en que él usó, todas las causas son recursivas y se envuelven unas a otras; “Si no existe la Causa Primera, entonces el universo es como una gran cadena con muchos eslabones; cada eslabón está sostenido por el eslabón que está encima de él, pero toda la cadena no está sostenida por nada”.

      La autoridad y el miedo también nos alienan de nosotros mismos, nos deshumanizan y mercantilizan, al igual que el capitalismo como su forma exterior; porque se trata del robo de nuestra identidad y poder por parte de aquellos que nos esclavizarían.

       La primera consecuencia de El surgimiento de la autoridad y la pérdida de poder de sus súbditos es la patología moderna de la desconexión; y éste es el vínculo que une la autoridad y la tiranía, y su punto débil. Aquí es donde la resistencia y la revolución deben actuar para romper el nudo de sistemas interdependientes y que se refuerzan mutuamente y que nos roban nuestra humanidad y nuestra libertad.

      Debemos construir puentes, no muros, unión y no aislamiento, unidad y no división, y forjar un mundo sin fronteras y una sociedad libre de iguales.

     En palabras de Lenin que fundó un partido político y una Revolución; “¿Lo que se debe hacer?”

      Como escribí en mi publicación del 18 de diciembre de 2023, Día Internacional del Migrante: “No hay crisis migratoria; Hay una crisis de solidaridad”;

Celebramos hoy la voluntad humana de llegar a ser, de explorar, de descubrir nuevos mundos y de crear nuevas posibilidades de llegar a ser humanos, en la figura icónica del migrante como epítome y fuerza impulsora de la civilización.

      A menudo, el migrante también representa el arquetipo y la alegoría del Extraño, con todas las ambigüedades, peligros y oportunidades para la reimaginación y transformación del ser humano, el significado y el valor implícitos en los temas de este psicodrama universal primario.

      Hace unos días, Nuestro Payaso del Terror, el Traidor Trump, citó el libro que mantuvo en su mesita de noche durante años en lugar de una Biblia, Mein Kampf, ante multitudes que lo vitoreaban durante un mitin electoral en referencia a los migrantes; “Están envenenando nuestra sangre”.

      No importa dónde se empiece con las ideas de la alteridad como una amenaza a la identidad, el origen de todo fascismo, siempre se termina a las puertas de Auschwitz.

      Demos al fascismo la única respuesta que merece; ¡Nunca más!

      La ola de fascismo que recorre el mundo estos últimos años se origina en un miedo primario a la alteridad como pérdida del yo; esto es utilizado como arma al servicio del poder por aquellos que nos esclavizarían, se convierte en divisiones y jerarquías de pertenencia a élites y alteridad excluyente, racismo, patriarcado, nacionalismo, y todo esto se cohesiona en identidades autorizadas y políticas de identidad.

     El otro es siempre nuestro propio reflejo y no podemos escapar el uno del otro. Por eso el fascismo y la tiranía son inherentemente inestables y siempre colapsan en la depravación y la ruina; cuando proyectamos lo que no nos gusta de nosotros mismos sobre los demás, como objetos de los que abusar, como si exorcizaramos nuestros demonios, nos deshumanizamos a nosotros mismos y a ellos. Y esa negación fracasa como estrategia de transformación y adaptación al cambio, engrandeciendo instituciones y sistemas osificados hasta convertirlos en amenazas en lugar de soluciones, y todo el edificio se derrumba debido a las fallas mecánicas de sus contradicciones, como está sucediendo ahora en Estados Unidos y en toda la civilización humana.

      Por eso la aceptación de nuestra propia oscuridad y monstruosidad es crucial para la lucha por la liberación; ¿De qué otra manera podemos lograr cambios en los sistemas de opresión si no podemos enfrentarlos en nosotros mismos? Especialmente debemos mantenernos cerca e interrogar sentimientos como el disgusto, la repulsión, la ira y otros atavismos del instinto que arrastramos detrás de nosotros como una cola invisible de reptil con el reconocimiento de que nada de lo que sentimos es bueno o malo, sino sólo cómo los usamos en nuestras acciones.

       Al final, lo único que importa es qué hacemos con nuestro miedo y cómo usamos nuestro poder.

      Contra este Anillo Wagneriano de miedo, poder y fuerza debemos lanzar un contrafuego de solidaridad y amor, porque sólo esto puede hacernos libres. Debemos hablar directamente de ese miedo a la alteridad como pérdida de identidad y de poder si queremos cambiar el rumbo de la historia hacia una sociedad libre de iguales y no tiranías fascistas de sangre, fe y suelo, hacia la democracia y una sociedad diversa e inclusiva. Humanidad unida y no estados carcelarios de fuerza y control, hacia el amor y no el odio.

     Somos más fuertes juntos que solos, como demostró Benjamín Franklin con su haz de flechas en referencia a Eclesiastés 4:12 y el Gran Pacificador iroqués llamó en algunos contextos Deganawidah. Una sociedad diversa e inclusiva nos hace más poderosos aunque de diferentes maneras, más ricos, más resilientes y adaptables, ofrece alegrías desconocidas y abre nuevas perspectivas y posibilidades de convertirnos en humanos.

     El cambio no tiene por qué significar miedo y pérdida; porque también ofrece nuevas maravillas ilimitadas. Debemos ser agentes de cambio y portadores del Caos, si queremos convertirnos en un punto de apoyo y cambiar el equilibrio de poder en el mundo.

      La idea de los derechos humanos ha sido abandonada por sus antiguas naciones garantes, y pueblos enteros en Gaza y Ucrania han sido borrados en guerras de limpieza étnica como muestras de atrocidades y crímenes contra la humanidad, y debido a este y muchos otros fallos de los sistemas, la civilización está colapsando; cosas efímeras e ilusorias como la riqueza y el poder no tienen sentido a la sombra de nuestra degradación y el terror de nuestra nada frente a la muerte.

      El comentario de un lector en mi publicación del 8 de diciembre, La caída de Estados Unidos como garante de la democracia y los derechos humanos, contenía la frase “más esperanzados en el bien de la mayoría de las personas”.

      Aquí sigue mi respuesta; Yo también creí alguna vez en cosas como la bondad humana, pero después de cuarenta años de guerras, revoluciones, resistencia y lucha de liberación en todo el mundo, no puedo. En lo que confío y espero, si no en lo que creo, es en la solidaridad de acción en la lucha contra los sistemas de opresión y las hegemonías de riqueza, poder y privilegios de las élites. Así es mi fe; la igualdad de las necesidades humanas y la necesidad de nuestra unidad en las tomas de poder para crear un Libertad sociedad de iguales.

      Según lo escrito por Jean Genet, quien me hizo prestar el juramento de la Resistencia y me encaminó en el camino de mi vida durante el asedio de Beirut en 1982; “Si nos comportamos como los del otro lado, entonces somos el otro lado. En lugar de cambiar el mundo, lo único que lograremos será un reflejo del que queremos destruir”.

      ¿Cómo acogeremos al extranjero?     

       Estados Unidos como un faro de esperanza para el mundo, según lo escrito por Emma Lazarus;

“No como el gigante descarado de la fama griega,

Con miembros conquistadores a horcajadas de tierra en tierra;

Aquí, en nuestras puertas del atardecer bañadas por el mar, se alzarán

Una mujer poderosa con una antorcha, cuya llama

Es el relámpago aprisionado, y su nombre

Madre de los Exiliados. De su mano-faro

Resplandece la bienvenida mundial; sus ojos dulces mandan

El puerto con puente aéreo que enmarcan las ciudades gemelas.

“¡Conserven, tierras antiguas, su pompa histórica!” ella llora

Con labios silenciosos. “Dame tus cansados, tus pobres,

Tus masas apiñadas anhelan respirar libres,

Los miserables desechos de tu repleta costa.

Envíame a estos, los desamparados, tempestuosos,

¡Levanto mi lámpara junto a la puerta dorada!”   

May 4 2024 The Price of Peace: Anniversary of the Kent State Massacre in the Shadow of the Genocide of the Palestinians

     Today we remember the horrific repression and mass murder by police which numbers among the most brutal and senseless crimes of state terror in our nation’s history, but also the valiant resistance of students throughout America to a government which was and yet remains an unjust and violent perpetrator of crimes against humanity both at home and abroad.

    The national student strike which the massacre unleashed was a turning point for American involvement in Vietnam, and remains a model for mass action today. Its primary lesson is simple; to unite everyone, from all classes and stratum of society, in action against an existential threat said threat must be universal as well as clear and direct. Such a universal mass protest now unfolds in the shadow of the Israel Genocide of the Palestinians and the echoes and reflections of the Kent State Massacre.

     A parallel student movement for peace and divestiture now engulfs our nation and our world, a clarion call for solidarity with the oppressed in the genocide of the Palestinians and the deaths of thousands of children and civilians paid for by our taxes, as our government and Genocide Joe abandon our ideas of universal human rights and the historic role of America as their guarantor state, and like university peace movement to end the Vietnam War is met not with celebration of our rights of free speech and the co-ownership of the state by all of its citizens, not with a President who joins the protests as the champion of democracy and our universal human rights, but with police terror and repression of dissent.

     Our leaders have betrayed us, and in the abandonment of our human rights and of our rights as citizens Biden and the Democratic Party may have handed the next election to Trump and the Republican Party whose mission is the sabotage of democracy and its replacement by a theocratic tyranny of patriarchal and white supremacist terror. For if you sponsor and authorize genocide, I cannot vote for you, and I will fight you; and in this I am far from alone.

     We are caught by the horns of a dilemma in this crucial election year, with liberty or tyranny at stake not merely for our nation but for the whole of humankind and throughout the coming millennia. We must bring our dog to heel through Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanction of Israel until the genocide and the Occupation end, and with it the Netanyahu settler regime of ethnic cleansing and theocratic terror. If we cannot, and choose instead to ally and identify our nation once again with imperial conquest and dominion, state terror and tyranny, and the sacrifice of others lives in service to our own power, those of us who remember what it means to be an American and a human being must refuse to vote for Biden, land Trump wins the Presidency; this is the true motive for Israel’s orchestration of the October 7 tragedy, in dual purpose with creating a casus belli for the Final Solution of the Palestinians and the conquest of the Middle East.   

     I ask you now, all of us; don’t let complicity in genocide be the reason democracy falls in America.

    What lessons can we learn from the Kent State Massacre?

    In the words of eyewitness Mike Alewitz writing in Counterpunch; “We were peacefully protesting the US invasion of Cambodia when the Ohio National Guard launched a teargas attack and then opened fire at us.

     67 shots in 13 seconds left our campus strewn with dead and wounded. Four dead in Ohio – nine wounded, one paralyzed for life.

     Ten days later, 75 Mississippi state police, armed with carbines, shotguns and submachine guns, fired 460 rounds into a dormitory at protesting students at Jackson State. The barrage left two dead and an unknown number of wounded.

     And in between, rarely noted, was the largest black uprising in a southern city during the civil rights era.

     On May 11, 1970, the black community in Augusta, Georgia rebelled, after the burned and tortured body of an incarcerated 16-year old retarded black youth was dumped by his jailers at a local hospital.

     The rebellion left six African-American men dead – all shot in the back.

     The invasion of Cambodia and killings at Kent sparked an unprecedented national student strike. Over 400 campuses were shut down and occupied by the students. Millions of people joined street demonstrations demanding an end to the war.

     1970 marked a turning point in history as the majority of GIs came to recognize that Washington had knowingly sent them to die in a war that was unwinnable. Our movement became so powerful that, along with the determined resistance of the Vietnamese people, we forced the government to withdraw from Southeast Asia.

     Ending the war, on the heels of the civil rights movement, was a tremendous victory for working people. The momentum gave rise to the rebirth of the women’s movement, the gay movement and other social movements that transformed the country.

     Today we face an unprecedented medical, ecological, social and economic crisis. We cannot continue to pour trillions of dollars into an insatiable war machine while healthcare workers go begging for masks. While our schools and restaurants are closed. While millions are unemployed. While lines at food pantries stretch for miles.

     The finances and resources of society must be changed to go towards healing our planet and ourselves. The memory of the martyrs of Kent and Jackson cries out for us to continue the struggle for which they gave their lives – to demand money for jobs and education, not for war; to put an end to all US wars and occupations and sanctions.”

    As described by Steve Early in Jacobin; “In May 1970, 4 million students went on strike across the country, shutting down classes at hundreds of colleges, universities, and high schools and demanding an end to the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, their rebellion remains an inspiration, as radical student politics is back on the agenda.

     Over the course of this unprecedented campus uprising, about two thousand students were arrested. After thirty buildings used by the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) were bombed or set on fire, heavily armed National Guards were deployed on twenty-one campuses in sixteen states.

     On May 4, at Kent State University in Ohio, Guard members fresh from policing a Teamster wildcat strike shot and killed four students and wounded nine. Ten days later, Mississippi State Police opened fire on a women’s dormitory at Jackson State University, killing two more students”.  

     “The strike across campuses revealed the power of collective action. Born out of the shutdown, there was an explosion of activity by hundreds of thousands of students not previously engaged in anti-war activity, creating major political tremors across the country, including helping to curtail military intervention in Southeast Asia.”

     “Nixon claimed to have a “secret plan” to bring peace to Vietnam and withdraw the five hundred thousand US troops still deployed there.

     Once unveiled, Nixon’s plan turned out to be “Vietnamization” — shifting the combat burden to troops loyal to the US-backed government in Saigon, while conducting massive bombing of targets throughout Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. By April 30, 1970, the United States was sending ground troops into Cambodia as well.

     Students at elite private institutions long associated with anti-war agitation were among the first to react. Protest strikes were quickly declared at Columbia, Princeton, Brandeis, and Yale, where many students had already voted to boycott class in support of the Black Panther Party, then on trial in New Haven.

     Meanwhile, a Friday night riot outside student bars in downtown Kent, Ohio, was followed by the burning of a Kent State ROTC building over the weekend. Ohio governor James Rhodes ordered a thousand National Guard troops to occupy the campus and prevent rallies of any kind.

     The Guard came geared with bayonets, tear gas grenades, shotguns, and M1s, a military rifle with long range and high velocity. Chasing a hostile but unarmed crowd of students across campus on May 4, one unit of weekend warriors suddenly wheeled and fired, killing four students.”

     “The deaths of Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder had a powerful impact on hundreds of thousands of students at Kent State and beyond.”

     “The resulting calls for campus shutdowns came from every direction. Students at MIT tracked which schools were on strike for a National Strike Information Center operating at Brandeis nearby. Soon the list was ten feet long. Despite its initial association with militant protest, most strike activity was peaceful and legal. It consisted of student assemblies taking strike votes, and then further mass meetings, speeches and lectures, vigils and memorial services, plus endless informal “rapping” about politics and the war.

     The strike brought together a wide range of undergraduates, faculty members, and administrators — despite their past disagreements about on-campus protest activity. Thirty-four college and university presidents sent an open letter to Nixon calling for a speedy end to the war. The strike also united students from private and public colleges and local public high schools in working-class communities. On May 8, in Philadelphia, students from many different backgrounds and neighborhoods marched from five different directions to Independence Hall, where a crowd of one hundred thousand gathered outside. City high school attendance that day dropped to 10 percent, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.”

     “In a Boston Globe interview on the thirtieth anniversary of this upsurge, Isserman argued that it was “the product of unique circumstances that, not surprisingly, provoked outrage from a generation of students already accustomed to protest and demonstration. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a movement quite like this again.”

     “Yet over the past two decades, college and high-school students have walked out again, across the country, in highly visible and coordinated fashion. In March 2003, they poured out of 350 schools to protest the impending US invasion of Iraq. Fifteen years later, about 1 million students at 3,000 schools walked out to join a seventeen-minute vigil organized in response to the mass shooting at Parkland High School in Florida. And just last September, hundreds of thousands of students left school to join rallies and marches organized as part of a Global Climate Strike.

     Universities and high schools are now experiencing a shutdown of their campuses, albeit of a very different kind. But when these institutions open back up, conditions will require a new set of political demands. A return to normal will not be good enough. When school is back in session, the history of a strike occurring after the shadow of death fell on campuses fifty years ago, thanks to Richard Nixon, may become more relevant to challenging “national policy”.

Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Ohio – (live audio 1970)

Remembering The Kent State Massacre | Morning Joe | MSNBC

National Geographic: Kent State Massacre

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/kent-state-shooting-vietnam-war-protest-student-organizing

49 Years After the Kent State Shootings, New Photos Are Revealed

https://time.com/5583301/kent-state-photos

WHERE THE NINE WOUNDED ARE NOW, Kent State Magazine

https://www.kent.edu/magazine/where-nine-wounded-are-now

After the Kent State Massacre, ‘Ohio’ Spoke to the Country

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/kent-state-massacre-neil-young-csny-ohio-history-992126

The Killings at Kent State: How Murder Went Unpunished, by I.F. Stone

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/703405.The_Killings_at_Kent_State

Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties, Thomas M. Grace

             Echoes of Kent State: News of Repression of the University Divestiture and Gaza Peace Protests and Occupations

We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices | Columbia College Student Council and Columbia Engineering Student Council

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/04/columbia-university-student-protest-gaza?CMP=share_btn_url

Crackdowns intensify on pro-Palestine campus protests as hundreds arrested

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/college-campus-palestine-protests-police

Police enter Columbia in apparent bid to break up student occupation

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/30/pro-palestinian-protesters-take-over-columbia-university-building

Police arrest more Gaza protesters at University of Texas-Austin

New Orleans police accused of excessive force as Gaza protesters arrested

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/29/new-orleans-protest-police?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2PMdqzv1_UzetGBbI2XwMu8yCiwqaKvbXxj00wirTDGwgCMEFJqYEATFo_aem_AYJCvBDeWlFdrlsiCoqJjUxVBH9i1B6SiSPn8sb_2S1Nn-u_V673oEIcNRPb-tZWkLxWpoXYjiaKsr2n9ImxxPmy

Columbia University is colluding with the far-right in its attack on students | Moira Donegan

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/19/far-right-columbia-university-student-arrests?CMP=share_btn_url

Protesting against slaughter – as students in the US are doing – isn’t antisemitism | Robert Reich

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/23/israel-gaza-campus-protests?CMP=share_btn_url

Stunning police brutality will ignite a student anti-war movement in America | Joan Donovan

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/29/police-brutality-university-protest?CMP=share_btn_url

Let us remember the last time students occupied Columbia University | Omar Barghouti, Tanaquil Jones, and Barbara Ransby

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/03/columbia-pro-palestinian-protest-south-africa-divestment?CMP=share_btn_url

Student encampments have the potential to strengthen US democracy | Jan-Werner Müller

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/04/university-encampment-democracy?CMP=share_btn_url

I teach democracy at Princeton. Student protesters are getting an education like no other | Razia Iqbal

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/article/2024/may/04/university-protests-democracy-faculty-princeton?CMP=share_btn_url

Like a war zone’: Emory University grapples with fallout from police response to protest

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/27/emory-university-georgia-police-campus-protests?CMP=share_btn_url

UCLA students describe violent attack on Gaza protest encampment: ‘It was terrifying’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/ucla-campus-violence-protests

‘They’re sending a message’: harsh police tactics questioned amid US campus protest crackdowns | US campus protests

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/04/police-tactics-us-campus-protest-crackdowns

Arabic

4 مايو 2024 ثمن السلام: ذكرى مذبحة ولاية كينت في ظل الإبادة الجماعية للفلسطينيين

      إننا نتذكر اليوم القمع المروع والقتل الجماعي الذي ارتكبته الشرطة والذي يعد من بين أكثر جرائم إرهاب الدولة وحشية وحماقة في تاريخ أمتنا، ولكننا نتذكر أيضًا المقاومة الشجاعة للطلاب في جميع أنحاء أمريكا ضد الحكومة التي كانت ولا تزال مرتكبة ظالمة وعنيفة. الجرائم ضد الإنسانية في الداخل والخارج.

     كان الإضراب الطلابي الوطني الذي أطلقته المذبحة بمثابة نقطة تحول في التدخل الأمريكي في فيتنام، ويظل نموذجًا للعمل الجماهيري حتى اليوم. الدرس الأساسي بسيط. لتوحيد الجميع، من جميع طبقات وطبقات المجتمع، في العمل ضد التهديد الوجودي، يجب أن يكون التهديد عالميًا وواضحًا ومباشرًا. إن مثل هذا الاحتجاج الجماهيري العالمي يتكشف الآن في ظل الإبادة الجماعية الإسرائيلية للفلسطينيين وأصداء وانعكاسات مذبحة ولاية كينت.

      إن حركة طلابية موازية من أجل السلام وسحب الاستثمارات تجتاح الآن أمتنا وعالمنا، وهي دعوة واضحة للتضامن مع المضطهدين في الإبادة الجماعية للفلسطينيين ومقتل الآلاف من الأطفال والمدنيين الذين تدفع ثمنهم ضرائبنا، كما فعلت حكومتنا والإبادة الجماعية. يتخلى جو عن أفكارنا حول حقوق الإنسان العالمية والدور التاريخي لأمريكا كدولة ضامنة لها، ومثل حركة السلام الجامعية لإنهاء حرب فيتنام لا تقابل بالاحتفال بحقوقنا في حرية التعبير والملكية المشتركة للدولة من قبل الجميع. مواطنيها، ليس مع رئيس ينضم إلى الاحتجاجات باعتباره بطل الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان العالمية، ولكن مع إرهاب الشرطة وقمع المعارضة.

      لقد خاننا قادتنا، وبالتخلي عن حقوقنا الإنسانية وحقوقنا كمواطنين، ربما يكون بايدن والحزب الديمقراطي قد سلموا الانتخابات المقبلة إلى ترامب والحزب الجمهوري الذي تتمثل مهمته في تخريب الديمقراطية واستبدالها بحكومة ثيوقراطية. طغيان الإرهاب الأبوي والعنصري الأبيض. لأنه إذا كنت ترعى وتأذن بالإبادة الجماعية، فلا أستطيع التصويت لك، وسوف أقاتلك؛ وفي هذا لست وحدي.

      إننا نواجه معضلة في هذا العام الانتخابي الحاسم، حيث الحرية أو الاستبداد على المحك ليس فقط بالنسبة لأمتنا ولكن للبشرية جمعاء وعلى مدى آلاف السنين القادمة. يجب علينا أن نخضع كلبنا من خلال المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات وفرض العقوبات على إسرائيل حتى تنتهي الإبادة الجماعية والاحتلال، ومعها نظام نتنياهو الاستيطاني القائم على التطهير العرقي والإرهاب الثيوقراطي. إذا لم نتمكن من ذلك، واخترنا بدلاً من ذلك التحالف وتحديد هوية أمتنا مرة أخرى من خلال الغزو والسيطرة الإمبراطورية، وإرهاب الدولة والطغيان، وتضحيات الآخرين التي تعيش في خدمة قوتنا، فإن أولئك منا الذين يتذكرون ما يعنيه أن تكون دولة يجب على الأميركي والإنساني أن يرفضوا التصويت لبايدن، أرضاً يفوز ترامب بالرئاسة؛ هذا هو الدافع الحقيقي لتدبير إسرائيل لمأساة 7 أكتوبر، بهدف مزدوج مع خلق سبب للحرب من أجل الحل النهائي للفلسطينيين وغزو الشرق الأوسط.

      أسألكم الآن جميعاً؛ لا تدع التواطؤ في الإبادة الجماعية يكون السبب وراء سقوط الديمقراطية في أمريكا.  

Hebrew

4 במאי 2024 מחיר השלום: יום השנה לטבח במדינת קנט בצל רצח העם של הפלסטינים

      היום אנו זוכרים את הדיכוי הנורא והרצח ההמוני על ידי המשטרה, שהם בין הפשעים האכזריים וחסרי ההיגיון של טרור המדינה בתולדות האומה שלנו, אבל גם את ההתנגדות האמיצה של סטודנטים ברחבי אמריקה לממשלה שהיתה ועדיין נותרה עבריין לא צודק ואלים של פשעים נגד האנושות הן בבית והן מחוצה לה.

     שביתת הסטודנטים הלאומית שהטבח חולל הייתה נקודת מפנה למעורבות האמריקנית בווייטנאם, והיא נותרה מודל לפעולה המונית כיום. הלקח העיקרי שלה הוא פשוט; כדי לאחד את כולם, מכל המעמדות והשכבות של החברה, בפעולה נגד איום קיומי האיום האמור חייב להיות אוניברסלי וכן ברור וישיר. מחאה המונית אוניברסלית כזו מתרחשת כעת בצל רצח העם הישראלי של הפלסטינים וההדים וההרהורים של הטבח במדינת קנט.

      תנועת סטודנטים מקבילה לשלום והסרה בולעת כעת את האומה שלנו ואת העולם שלנו, קריאה מובהקת לסולידריות עם המדוכאים ברצח העם של הפלסטינים ובמותם של אלפי ילדים ואזרחים המשולמים על ידי המסים שלנו, כממשלתנו ורצח העם. ג’ו נוטש את הרעיונות שלנו בדבר זכויות אדם אוניברסליות ותפקידה ההיסטורי של אמריקה כמדינה הערבית שלהם, וכמו תנועת השלום האוניברסיטאית לסיום מלחמת וייטנאם אינה זוכה לחגיגה של זכויות הביטוי שלנו והבעלות המשותפת על המדינה על ידי כולם של אזרחיה, לא עם נשיא שמצטרף להפגנות בתור אלוף הדמוקרטיה וזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו, אלא עם טרור משטרתי ודיכוי התנגדות.

      המנהיגים שלנו בגדו בנו, ובנטישת זכויות האדם שלנו וזכויותינו כאזרחים, ייתכן שבידן והמפלגה הדמוקרטית העבירו את הבחירות הבאות לטראמפ ולמפלגה הרפובליקנית שמשימתן היא חבלה בדמוקרטיה והחלפתה בתאוקרטיה. עריצות של טרור פטריארכלי ולבן. כי אם אתה נותן חסות ותאשר רצח עם, אני לא יכול להצביע עבורך, ואני אלחם בך; ובזה אני רחוק מלהיות לבד.

      אנו נלכדים בקרנות של דילמה בשנת בחירות מכרעת זו, עם חירות או עריצות על כף המאזניים לא רק עבור האומה שלנו אלא עבור המין האנושי כולו ולאורך אלפי השנים הקרובות. עלינו להביא את הכלב שלנו לעקב באמצעות חרם, ביטול וסנקציה של ישראל עד לסיום רצח העם והכיבוש, ואיתו משטר המתנחלים נתניהו של טיהור אתני וטרור תיאוקרטי. אם איננו יכולים, ובמקום זאת בוחרים ליצור ברית ולזהות את האומה שלנו שוב עם כיבוש ושליטה אימפריאלית, טרור מדינה ועריצות, והקרבת חיים של אחרים בשירות לכוחנו, אלו מאיתנו שזוכרים מה זה אומר להיות אמריקאי ובן אנוש חייבים לסרב להצביע עבור ביידן, קרקע שטראמפ יזכה בנשיאות; זהו המניע האמיתי לתזמור של ישראל את הטרגדיה של 7 באוקטובר, במטרה כפולה עם יצירת קאזוס באלי לפתרון הסופי של הפלסטינים ולכיבוש המזרח התיכון.

      אני שואל אתכם עכשיו, כולנו; אל תתנו לשותפות ברצח עם להיות הסיבה שהדמוקרטיה נופלת באמריקה.                  

May 3 2024 A Sacred Calling to Pursue the Truth: On World Press Freedom Day

     On this thirty first World Press Freedom Day I call for the universal recognition of journalism as a sacred calling to pursue the truth which supercedes the rights of any state to authorize and enforce versions of it in service to power and identitarian politics, and for a United Humankind in solidarity as guarantors of each other’s universal rights, which include the Four Primary Duties of a Citizen; to Question Authority, Expose Authority, Mock Authority, and Challenge Authority, and to preserve the independence of the press and the transparency of all governments as institutions which must answer ultimately to their people.

     Freedom of the press and of information, the right to speak, write, teach, organize, research and publish in an environment of transparency of the state, along with rights of protest and strike, are instrumental to the agency of citizens and to the idea and meaningfulness of democracy.

     Any power or authority held by a government of any form is granted by its citizens or has been appropriated from them unjustly, and it is the highest principle of natural law as articulated in our Declaration of Independence that we may seize and reclaim it at any time it is held without our participation and co-ownership, or used against our general interests.

     True democracy as a free society of equals requires the four ideals of liberty, equality, truth, and justice, and one thing more; an engaged electorate of truth tellers who will hold our representatives and the institutions of our government responsible for enacting our values

     Like the role of a free press in the sacred calling to pursue the truth, the role of a citizen is to be a truth teller. Both serve Truth, and truth is necessary to the just balance of power between individuals which is the purpose of the state.

    As I wrote in my post of August 16 2020, Democracy, the Right of Free Speech Versus the Crime of Hate Speech, and the Principle of Open Debate;    To free ourselves of the ideas of other people; such is the essence of democracy. Conversely, the use of social force in marginalizing and silencing dissent is the definition of tyranny.

     Much talk of late has employed the term cancel culture to deflect and obscure the true issues involved with the disambiguation of free speech from hate speech and the role of open debate in a democracy; cancel culture is a figment used without sincerity to obfuscate loathsome acts of white supremacist and patriarchal sexual terror, incitement to violence and dehumanization.

     Conversely, antifascist action in defense of equality and our universal human rights such as platform denial and forms of peer ostracism and boycott are part of the free market of ideas and have no relation to silencing and erasure used by authoritarian tyrannies of force and control to subjugate a population and repress dissent, as exemplified by the Chinese Communist Party’s arrest of newspaperman Jimmy Lai in their campaign against democracy and truth in Hong Kong, the gruesome butchery of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia in their games of imperial dominion, the assassination of Palestinian witness of history Shireen Abu Aqleh by Israel in service to state terror and the Occupation, and countless others.

     The state is embodied violence.

      Against this we have only our loyalty to and solidarity with each other, our witness of history and the bond of our word, and our power of vision to reimagine and transform ourselves, our ways of being human with each other, and our future possibilities of becoming human. 

     But the values and issues which the phenomenon of repression of dissent raises are interesting, as they signpost the heart of what democracy means and our responsibility to others as well as our freedom from the ideas of others. Freedom from is as important as freedom to. 

     Democracy is reducible to a simple idea; the abandonment of social force and control in shaping others to our own image, in the authorization of identity, in our freedom of conscience, and from the establishment and policing of boundaries of the Forbidden.

     The autonomy of individuals takes precedence over all rights of authority and the state, which exists only to secure those rights which we cannot secure for ourselves. The state protects us from the tyranny of other people’s ideas of virtue; and others from our own.

     Any society or culture requires shared values and principles, agreements about things such as freedoms of and freedoms from, whether in systems of law and justice or as standards of courtesy. Democracy is unique in that it requires  rights of free access to information and the sharing of it, and freedoms from surveillance, censorship, and lies disguised as truths, but also requires for its functioning the tradition of open debate founded with our civilization in the Forum of Athens.

     Hate speech, which seeks to harm a class of persons, is the only exception to the right of free speech as parrhesia, the sacred calling to expose injustice, and the independence of journalism as a sacred calling to seek the truth, for hate speech dehumanizes others as a criminal theft of humanity, citizenship, and identity which violates our ideals of equality and liberty; hate speech is an act of tyranny and terror which is subversive to democracy as a free society of equals.

     To make an idea about a kind of people is a hate crime and an act of violence.

    I explored the implications of parrhesia and Foucault’s extension of this classical principle as truth telling in my post of May 27 2020, On Speaking Truth to Power as a Sacred Calling;  I found myself responding with candor to a conversation today in which a friend, a fearless champion of the marginalized and the wretched of the earth, the powerless and the dispossessed, the silenced and the erased, expressed fear of retribution in calling out the police as an institution of racist state force and control, thereby illustrating the mechanism of silencing on which unjust authority depends.

     Of course this was a preface for an act of Breaking the Silence; I did say they are my friend.   

     Here is the beginning of that conversation; “Today I’m going to do something stupid.

     On my Facebook and Twitter feeds I am going to express a viewpoint that I have long held to myself. A viewpoint I believed, if ever made public, would kneecap my dreams of a political career and public service.

    Today I realized my silence was just a vestige of my own internalized oppression and respectability politics, and f*** respectability. It has never, and will never, save us. So here goes: here’s why I am a #PoliceAbolitionist”

      What followed was a brilliant and multivoiced discussion of the role of police violence in white supremacist terror, as an army of occupation whose purpose is to enforce inequality and elite hierarchies of exclusionary otherness and to subvert the institutions and values of democracy, and of the use of social force in a free society of equals. This is among the most important issues we face today and questions some of the inherent contradictions of our form of government, of which George Washington said, “Government is about force; only force.”

     But this is only indirectly the subject on which I write today; far more primary and fundamental to the institution of a free press is the function of other people’s ideas of ourselves, of normality and respectability, in the silencing of dissent.

     To our subjugation by authorized identities, I reply with the Wicked Witch; I will fuck respectability with you, and their little dog normality too.     

     Authorized identities and boundaries of the Forbidden are about power, and we must call out the instruments of unequal power as we see them. Foucault called this truthtelling, and it is a crucial part of seizure of power and ownership of identity; always there remains the struggle between the masks others make for us and those we make for ourselves.

     Against state tyranny and terror, force and control, let us deploy parrhesia and the performance of our best selves as guerilla theatre. Go ahead; frighten the horses.

    Often have I referred to this key performative role in democracy as the Jester of King Lear, whose enactments of mockery and satire, the exposure and deflation of the mighty as revolutionary seizures of power which reclaim that which we the people have lent them when it is used unjustly, are necessary to maintain the balance of interests in a society in which government is co-owned equally by its citizens and has as its overriding purpose the securement of the freedom and autonomy of individuals and of their universal human rights.

     Without citizens who refuse to be silenced and controlled by authority, democracy becomes meaningless.

     So with my arts of rhetoric and poetry as truthtelling, and with my praxis of democracy in my daily journal here at Torch of Liberty; to incite, provoke, and disturb.

     For democracy requires a participatory electorate willing to speak truth to power. 

     To all those who defy and challenge unjust authority; I will stand with you, and I ask that all of us do the same.

     As written by Jonathan Watts in The Guardian, in an article entitled Across the world, journalists are under threat for sharing the truth: Last year was the most dangerous to be a reporter since 2015. Without the courage of correspondents risking everything to report from conflict areas, we could be at risk of ‘zones of silence’ spreading around the world; “Conflict in Gaza, war in Ukraine, a battle over the global environment – the world is becoming an increasingly hostile place, particularly for frontline journalists.

     Last year saw 99 killings of reporters, up 44% on 2022 and the highest toll since 2015.

     Without the courage of correspondents to continue working in conflict areas, press organisations warn the world will start to see “zones of silence”, where the risks are so great that important stories go unreported.

     Last year’s high toll was almost entirely due to Gaza, where a Guardian editorial noted “no war has killed so many journalists so quickly”.

     The vast majority are Palestinian reporters who, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, appear to have been targeted by Israeli forces. The Guardian was among more than 30 news organisations that signed an open letter expressing solidarity with journalists working in Gaza and calling for their protection and freedom to report.

     This is much more than a matter of principle; solidarity is a matter of survival. Over the years, Guardian reporters have been kidnapped in Iraq and Afghanistan, beaten in Pakistan, expelled from Russia, and arrested in Egypt, Zimbabwe and China.

     The search for the truth can come at a horrific cost.

     Two years ago, a regular Guardian contributor, Dom Phillips, was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon, with the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. On the first anniversary of the killings last year, the Guardian joined an international collaboration to amplify their work.

     A group of Dom’s journalist friends, including myself, are also working on a crowdfunded project to finish the book that he was working on at the time of his death: How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know. It will be published next year.

     Reporting on the war against nature might generate fewer headlines than Gaza or Ukraine, but it is also high risk with little legal protection. The number of environmental journalists being attacked or killed is rising and it continues to be one of the most dangerous fields of journalism after war reporting. Though the trend is accelerating, prosecutions remain dismally low, with very few cases leading to convictions.

     Instead, the law appears to be increasingly used against journalists. One of the most disturbing trends in recent years has been the arrests or police harassment of journalists covering environmental protests. This has stirred outrage in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Canada, Australia, Azerbaijan, the US and China, which is consistently the biggest jailer of reporters.

     But huge challenges remain for the media in general.

     Throughout this week we will be marking Friday’s World Press Freedom Day with a series of articles about different threats posed to all types of reporters, from those working in exile and still facing threats from their home states, to environmental journalists facing up to violence and censorship as well as female journalists being targeted because of their sex. We want to use our platform to highlight the work they are doing, often in incredibly dangerous circumstances.

     The risks may be growing, and the space to operate may be increasingly constrained, but we are more determined than ever to tell the stories of our age so that you, the readers, have the information to act as voters, citizens, consumers and participants in the web of life on Earth.”

    Where can we look for a model free press, even one beset by catch and kill journalism as election interference, propaganda and falsification from every angle, hate speech disguised as free speech, and the erosion of truth and meaningful public debate? When most of our world is enslaved by tyrannies who enforce state power with brutal repression, there are few where one can mock a ruler and be met with humor and on equal terms by the ruler himself.

    Here follows the speech of President Biden at the 2023 White House Correspondent’s Dinner; “Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Steve, for that introduction. And a special thanks to the 42% of you who actually applauded.

     I’m really excited to be here tonight with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have. That’s hard to say after what we just saw.

     This is the first time a president attended this dinner in six years. It’s understandable. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of Covid.

Just imagine if my predecessor came to this dinner this year. Now, that would really have been a real coup if that occurred. A little tough, huh?

     But I’m honored to be here at such an event with so much history.

As already referenced, the very first president to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was Calvin Coolidge in 1924. I had just been elected to the United States Senate. And I reme — I remember telling him, “Cal, just be yourself. Get up there and speak from the heart. You’re going to be great, kid. You’re going to do it well.”

     Of course, Jill is with me tonight. Jilly, how are you, kid? I think — I think she’s doing an incredible job as first lady. The first lady to continue working full-time, and she does as a professor.

     She doesn’t pay much attention to the polls, though she did say the other day: Instead of introducing myself as Jill Biden’s husband, maybe I should introduce myself as her roommate.

     I’ve attended this dinner many times, but this is my first time as president. And the organizers had — had it hard — made it pretty hard for me tonight. Although the good news is, if all goes well, I have a real shot at replacing James Corden.

     It was great having him over at the White House the other day, just as he announced he’s leaving the show. A great performer is going out on top after eight years in the job. Sounds just about right to me.

     And it’s tough to follow pros like James and Billy Eichner. Billy, where are you again? Do you — where is he?

     Well, Billy, you’re famous for interviewing — your interviewing skills. Billy, you should know what you’re doing, pal. You know it, you know it well. And you should — I think — you should host “Meet the Press.” Maybe they’ll start to watch it again.

     I’ve never had — never had to — I’ve never had to open — I’ll never be — I’ll never be invited to “Meet the Press” again. Anyway.

     I’ve never had to open before Trevor Noah. Trevor is great. When I was elected, he did a show and he called me “America’s new dad.” Let me tell you something, pal: I’m flattered anybody would call me a “new” anything. You’re my guy.

     And, folks, it’s been a tough few years for the country. That’s one reason why it’s great to be here again.

     Everyone at the White House is so excited. I told my grandkids and Pete Buttigieg they could stay up late and watch this show tonight.

     Tonight — tonight we come here and answer a very important question on everybody’s mind: Why in the hell are we still doing this?

     I know there are — I know there are questions about whether we should gather here tonight because of Covid. Well, we’re here to show the country that we’re getting through this pandemic. Plus, everyone had to prove they were fully vaccinated and boosted.

     So, if you’re at home watching this and you’re wondering how to do that, just contact your favorite Fox News reporter. They’re all here, vaccinated and boosted — all of them.

     And, look, Fox — Fox News, I’m — I’m really sorry your preferred candidate lost the last election. To make it up to you, I’m happy to give my chief of staff to you all so he can tell Sean Hannity what to say every day.

     In fact, Ron Klain is here at the CBS table, which hired Mick Mulvaney. Mick, on CBS? I was stunned. I figured he’d end up on “The Masked Singer” with Rudy.

Amazing hire, guys. Really quite amazing.

     Look, I know this is a tough town. I came to office with an ambitious agenda, and I expected it to face stiff opposition in the Senate. I just hoped it would be from Republicans.

     But I’m not worried about the midterms. I’m not worried about them. We may end up with more partisan gridlock, but I’m confident we can work it out during my remaining six years in the presidency.

     And, folks, I’m not really here to roast the GOP. That’s not my style. Besides, there’s nothing I can say about the GOP that Kevin McCarthy hasn’t already put on tape.

     And, you know, at the same — at the same time, a lot of people say the Republican Party is too extreme, too divisive, too controlled by one person. They say, “It’s not your father’s Republican Party.”

     Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear this wall down.” Today’s Republicans say, “Tear down Mickey Mouse’s house.” And pretty soon, they’ll be storming Cinderella’s castle, you can be sure of it.

     But Republicans seem to support one fella — some guy named Brandon. He’s having a really good year, and I’m kind of happy for him.

     Let me conclude with a serious word.

     We live in serious times. We’re coming through a devastating pandemic, and we have to stay vigilant. I know Kamala wanted to be here, for example, and thankfully she’s doing well. You should all know she sends her best.

     We’re in a time when what we so long have taken for granted is facing the gravest of threats. And I’m being deadly earnest.

     Overseas, the liberal world order that laid the foundation for global peace, stability and prosperity since World War II is genuinely, seriously under assault.

And at home, a poison is running through our democracy of all — all of this taking place with disinformation massively on the rise, where the truth is buried by lies and the lies live on as truth.

     What’s clear — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — that you, the free press, matter more than you ever did in the last century. No, I really mean it.

     I’ve always believed that good journalism holds up a mirror to ourselves, to reflect on the good, the bad and the true. Tonight, I want to congratulate the awardees and the scholarship winners who carry on that sacred tradition.

We’ve all seen the courage of the Ukrainian people because of the courage of American reporters in this room and your colleagues across the world, who are on the ground, taking their lives in their own hands.

     We just — we just saw a heartbreaking video: Nine have been killed reporting from Kyiv — struck by a kamikaze drone strike after a shopping mall attack; shot in the neck while decounci- [sic] — while — while documenting Ukrainians fleeing; killed when Russian missiles hit the television tower in a residential neighborhood. One journalist from Radio Liberty just killed days ago.

     So many of you telling the stories and taking the photos and recording the videos of what’s happening there, the unvarnished truth shown — showing the — the destruction and the devastation and, yes, the war crimes.

     Tonight, we also honor the legacy of two historic reporters, and that is Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne. I’m glad you saw that tonight. I didn’t know you were doing that. These are the first Black women to be White House reporters, who shattered convention to cover a segregated nation.

     We honor journalists killed, missing, imprisoned, detained and tortured; covering war, exposing corruption and holding leaders accountable.

     We honor members of the press, both national and local, covering a once-in-a-century pandemic where we lost a million Americans, a generation reckoning on race and the existential threat of climate change.

     The free press is not the enemy of the people — far from it. At your best, you’re guardians of the truth.

     President Kennedy once said, and I quote, “Without debate, without criticism, no administration, no country can succeed, and no republic can survive.”

     The First Amendment grants a free press extraordinary protection, but with it comes, as many of you know, a very heavy obligation: to seek the truth as best you can — not to inflame or entertain, but to illuminate and educate.

I know it’s tough. And I’m not being solicitous. The industry is changing significantly.

     There’s incredible pressure on you all to deliver heat instead of shed light, because the technology is changing so much, the system is changing. But it matters. No kidding. It matters. The truth matters.

     American democracy is not a reality show. It’s not a reality show. It’s reality itself. And the reality is that we are a great country.

     Our future is bright. It’s not guaranteed, because democracy is never guaranteed. It has to be earned. It has to be defended. It has to be protected.

     As you’ve heard me say many times: There’s not a damn thing this country can’t do when we stand united and do it together. And I know we can do anything we want to do that’s right.

     I’ve been around a long time, as has been pointed out many times tonight. But I give you my word as a Biden: I’ve never been more optimistic about America than I am today. I really mean it.

     At times of enormous change, it presents enormous opportunities. For despite all the crises, all the partisanship, all the shouting and the showmanship,

I really know this and you know it too: We are a great nation because we’re basically a good people.

     And here in America, good journalism, good satire about our leaders, about our society is quintessentially an American thing. It demonstrates the power of our example.

     And I, honest to God, believe it reveals our soul — the soul of our nation. And that’s what I’d like to toast tonight, if I may.

(The President offers a toast.)

     To the journalists and their families, to the people and their elected representatives, to the United States of America.

     And by the way, Madeleine Albright was right: We are the indispensable nation.

     Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to turn this over to Trevor now, strap myself into my seat.

     And, Trevor, the really good news is: Now you get to roast the President of the United States and, unlike in Moscow, you won’t go to jail.

     The podium is yours.”

      As written by Margaret Sullivan in The Guardian, in an article entitled When journalists are persecuted, we all suffer; “Jodie Ginsberg remembers an important lesson from her decade as a Reuters foreign correspondent and bureau chief: there simply is no substitute for being at the scene.

     “The first and most important source is what journalists see in front of them – their ability to give a firsthand, eyewitness account,” says Ginsberg, now the president of Committee to Protect Journalists, the non-profit advocacy organization based in New York City.

     A memorable case in point was how two Associated Press journalists last year were able to tell what was happening on the ground in Mariupol, Ukraine. As a Russian siege largely destroyed the city, children’s bodies filled mass graves and shells demolished a maternity hospital, but Russian officials tried to deny it and called the horror stories nothing but fiction.

     “The Russians said this was all a fake, but the AP journalists at the scene were able to say no, and tell the real story,” Ginsberg said. One of them, Yevgeny Maloletka, took an unforgettable photograph, seen on front pages around the world, of an injured pregnant woman being carried on a gurney from the bombed-out hospital by emergency workers; her baby was born dead and she died soon afterwards.

     But with journalists threatened with harassment, danger and even imprisonment around the world, that crucial ability to report on the ground – to get the invaluable eyewitness account – has been sorely diminished.

     The situation is dire; as democracy declines worldwide, there are more journalists in prison now than at any time since the CPJ began keeping track. The organization’s annual prison census showed 363 reporters in prison at the end of last year – an increase of 20% from the previous year, with the most journalists jailed in Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey and Belarus.

     This ugly trend means less on-the-ground reporting – not only by the imprisoned journalists but by many others who flee conflict zones or are forced to censor themselves in order to avoid the growing dangers.

     When the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in late March on false espionage charges in Russia – he remains imprisoned – many western journalists finally fled the country joining those who had left months earlier. The threats had simply become untenable.

     “Evan’s arrest sends a powerful message to other journalists – that you may face something similar,” Ginsberg told me. “That has a chilling effect on reporting, which is the aim of the repressive governments doing this kind of harassment and imprisonment. It is meant to silence journalists.”

      No longer is it just war correspondents who face extreme danger. These days, the dominance of authoritarian governments around the world make life hazardous for all kinds of journalists. Local and regional reporters around the world may bear the brunt most, partly because they don’t have the protection and legal resources of large news organizations.

      In addition to the countries named above, Ginsberg said that Mexico, Haiti, Russia and parts of Latin and South America are particularly difficult places for journalists to do their work now.

      Concerned people can help. They can show they care about journalism by subscribing to news organizations or donating to free-speech and press-rights organizations including CPJ, Pen America and Reporters Without Borders.

     And perhaps most important of all, they can keep jailed journalists in mind, and keep their plight in the public consciousness. That goes for Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who went missing in Syria in 2012 and is believed to be a captive of the Syrian government. It goes for Gershkovich, of course, and for the hundreds of lesser known reporters who are threatened or jailed around the world.

     It was encouraging to hear Joe Biden bring up Tice and Gershkovich at the White House correspondents’ dinner last weekend in Washington DC. He spoke of Evan’s “absolute courage”, and said US officials are working every day to bring him home.

     “Our message is this,” Biden added. “Journalism is not a crime.”

     Not only is journalism not a crime, it’s a necessity – one that’s becoming harder than ever to carry out with every passing month.

     That’s not only terrible for those directly involved. It also hurts everyone who cares about the truth.”

     As written last year by Oliver Holmes in The Guardian, in an article entitled Media freedom in dire state in record number of countries, report finds: World Press Freedom Index report warns disinformation and AI pose mounting threats to journalism; “Media freedom is in dire health in a record number of countries, according to the latest annual snapshot, which warns that disinformation, propaganda and artificial intelligence pose mounting threats to journalism.

     The World Press Freedom Index revealed a shocking slide, with an unprecedented 31 countries deemed to be in a “very serious situation”, the lowest ranking in the report, up from 21 just two years ago.

     Increased aggressiveness from autocratic governments – and some that are considered democratic – coupled with “massive disinformation or propaganda campaigns” has caused the situation to go from bad to worse, according to the list, released by the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

     “There is more red on the RSF map this year than ever before, as authoritarian leaders become increasingly bold in their attempts to silence the press,” the RSF secretary general, Christophe Deloire, told the Guardian. “The international community needs to wake up to reality, and act together, decisively and fast, to reverse this dangerous trend.”

     Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of the first World Press Freedom Day, which was created to remind governments of their duty to uphold freedom of expression. However, the environment for journalism today is considered “bad” in seven out of 10 countries, and satisfactory in only three out of 10, according to RSF. The UN says 85% of people live in countries where media freedom has declined in the past five years.

     The survey assesses the state of the media in 180 countries and territories, looking at the ability of journalists to publish news in the public interest without interference andwithout threats to their own safety.

     It shows rapid technological advances are allowing governments and political actors to distort reality, and fake content is easier to publish than ever before.

     “The difference is being blurred between true and false, real and artificial, facts and artifices, jeopardising the right to information,” the report said. “The unprecedented ability to tamper with content is being used to undermine those who embody quality journalism and weaken journalism itself.”

     Artificial intelligence was “wreaking further havoc on the media world”, the report said, with AI tools “digesting content and regurgitating it in the form of syntheses that flout the principles of rigour and reliability”.

     This is not just written AI content but visual, too. High-definition images that appear to show real people can be generated in seconds.

     At the same time, governments are increasingly fighting a propaganda war. Russia, which already plummeted in the rankings last year after the invasion of Ukraine, dropped another nine places, as state media slavishly parrots the Kremlin line while opposition outlets are driven into exile. Last month, Moscow arrested the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the first US journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war.

     Meanwhile, three countries: Tajikistan, India and Turkey, dropped from being in a “problematic situation” into the lowest category. India has been in particularly sharp decline, sinking 11 places to 161 after media takeovers by oligarchs close to Narendra Modi. The Indian press used to be seen as fairly progressive, but things changed radically after the Hindu nationalist prime minister took over. This year, the BBC was raided by the country’s financial crimes agency in a move widely condemned as an act of intimidation after a BBC documentary was critical of Modi.

     In Turkey, the administration of the hardline president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had stepped up its persecution of journalists in the run-up to elections scheduled for 14 May, RSF said. Turkey jails more journalists than any other democracy.

     Some of the 2023 index’s biggest falls were in Africa. Until recently a regional model, Senegal fell 31 places, mainly because of criminal charges brought against two journalists, Pape Alé Niang and Pape Ndiaye. Tunisia fell 27 places as a result of President Kais Saied’s growing authoritarianism.

      The Middle East is the world’s most dangerous region for journalists. But the Americas no longer have any country coloured green, meaning “good”, on the press freedom map. The US fell three places to 45th. The Asia Pacific region is dragged down by regimes hostile to reporters, such as Myanmar (173rd) and Afghanistan (152nd).

     “We are witnessing worrying trends, but the big question is if these trends are a hiccup or a sign of a world going backwards,” said Guilherme Canela, the global lead on freedom of speech at Unesco. “Physical attacks, digital attacks, the economic situation, and regulatory tightening: we are facing a perfect storm.”

     A separate Unesco report released on Wednesday said healthy freedom of expression helped many other fundamental rights to flourish.

     Nordic countries have long topped the RSF rankings, and Norway stayed in first place in the press freedom index for the seventh year running. But a non-Nordic country was ranked second: Ireland. The Netherlands returned to the top 10, rising 22 places, following the 2021 murder of the crime reporter Peter R de Vries. The UK was listed at 26.

     The western world’s media landscape remains mixed, according to RSF and other press freedom groups, with political and financial pressures. In the first quarter of this year, news media job cuts in the UK and North America ran at a rate of 1,000 jobs a month, a Press Gazette analysis found.

     Last week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists released a report warning against complacency in the EU, which has traditionally been considered among the world’s safest and freest places for journalists.

     The group expressed concern about rising populism and illiberal governments such as in Hungary and Poland trampling on the rule of law, including press freedom. The Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and the Slovakian journalist Ján Kuciak had been murdered in connection with their work.”

     As written by Kelly Walls in The Guardian, in an article entitled Trust, diversity and independence: three key elements for a thriving press:  Newspapers’ power is being eroded and disinformation is rife – but there is a way forward; “Our understanding of the world is driven by information. It feeds our ability to make informed decisions about our lives, our communities, the way we’re governed. This fundamental freedom, the power to be able to access reliable information, sits at the heart of a thriving democratic society.

     But increasingly that power is being eroded. Indeed, some never had it to begin with. Press freedom is being threatened, compromised and denied in an increasing number of countries around the world.

     In parallel, trust in news among the general public is declining. Financial pressures are multiplying. And for every technological advancement to counter disinformation, there is another that can more effectively spread it.

     As the Nobel laureate Maria Ressa put it recently: “This is not a content problem, it isn’t a freedom of speech problem, it is a distribution problem. It is the fact that by design, lies are distributed faster and further than facts.”

     Ahead of the 30th anniversary this week of World Press Freedom Day, it is becoming clearer than ever that three things have to happen to assure a future for media organisations.

    The first is financial independence. The Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) say that media can only be truly independent if there are no financial strings. They created Plūrālis for this reason, a blended funding model that combines philanthropic and commercial capital to make interventions when media are most vulnerable, acting as a shield against capture from governments or individuals who seek to compromise their editorial independence. “A new approach was needed and this was an experiment, but it really could be a model for the future,” their chief strategy officer, Patrice Schneider, said.

     But beyond philanthropic grants and investment, ultimately media organisations strive to be self-sustaining. To that end, more are turning to membership and reader revenue models. In a world where so much information is available for free, to persuade a reader to voluntarily pay for news is tough. It relies on an exchange of value and trust.

     In recent months, the Guardian Foundation team, in collaboration with our colleagues at the Guardian, have worked with the Kyiv Independent, Holod, Telex and +972, to exchange knowledge, skills and tactics. The hope is that if we can share with young, vibrant, independent startups what is working for others, they will flourish in parts of the world that desperately need them.

     Zakhar Protsiuk, chief operating officer of the Kyiv Independent, said the mentorship “gave us practical advice that we could act on quickly. One tip resulted in an increase of more than 150% in reader support that week.”

      They went on to achieve their goal of 10,000 members. At the recent International Journalism festival, editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko reflected on their broader journey over the last 18 months: “We just hope that other media can draw from our success and that this isn’t just something for us.” This is key: a community of independent media who are working together in solidarity, not competition.

     The second vital factor is plurality of voice and agency. News organisations must include diverse perspectives and reporting by journalists from a broad range of backgrounds. If certain communities are excluded or misrepresented in the news coverage they see, then trust is lost. To combat this effectively, the barriers to entry and progression in the industry must be broken, alongside the recognition that more inclusive and representative news organisations create better journalism and engage the audiences they seek to serve in a more successful way.

     The third crucial element is news literacy. If the long-term sustainability of news organisations relies, at least in part, on people willing to pay for it, then audiences who can seek out, value and trust those organisations must exist. A report by Impress, based on research by the universities of Leeds and Derby, found a link between lack of trust in journalism and low levels of news literacy among the UK population.

     Without educating audiences to critically evaluate sources and discern reliable information, trust cannot be built. Without trust, news has no value, meaning readers won’t pay for it, news organisations won’t be viable and public access to fact-based journalism will decrease. With that, our ability to make informed decisions and hold power to account is weakened.

     Thankfully, news and media literacy is gaining more support, being seen as a vital part of the journalism ecosystem and an underpinning of democracy.

     So as World Press Freedom Day approaches, while we must recognise the very real threats, let’s also take a moment to look forward with some hope for a society in which people can find and use their power to participate, influence and act.”

Across the world, journalists are under threat for sharing the truth | Jonathan Watts

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/30/across-the-world-journalists-are-under-threat-for-sharing-the-truth?CMP=share_btn_url

Attacks on press freedom around the world are intensifying, index reveals

https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/03/attacks-on-press-freedom-around-the-world-are-intensifying-index-reveals?CMP=share_btn_url

The tragic history of journalists killed in the U.S. for doing their job

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/the-tragic-history-of-journalists-killed-in-the-u-s-for-doing-their-job

‘I decided to not let anybody silence my voice’: the journalists in exile but still at risk

https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2024/may/03/i-decided-to-not-let-anybody-silence-my-voice-the-journalists-in-exile-but-still-at-risk?CMP=share_btn_url

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/full-speech-biden-gives-remarks-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/vi-AAWOGR7

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/03/world/women-journalists-press-freedom-online-violence-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/01/politics/transcript-joe-biden-white-house-correspondents-dinner/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/may/03/media-freedom-in-dire-state-in-record-number-of-countries-report-finds

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/03/evan-gershkovich-journalists-persecuted-world-press-freedom-day?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/01/trust-diversity-independence-press-newspapers

        Freedom of the Press and Journalism as a sacred calling in pursuit of truth, a reading list

Discourse and Truth: The Problematization of Parrhesia, by Michel Foucault

The Trial of Socrates, by I.F. Stone

Manufacturing Consent : The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12617.Manufacturing_Consent?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_21

The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, Jonathan Rauch

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54616040-the-constitution-of-knowledge?ref=rae_2

Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century, Lee C. Bollinger

Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News, Eric Berkowitz

Truth in Our Times: Inside the Fight for Press Freedom in the Age of Alternative Facts, David E. McCraw

The Idea of a Free Press: The Enlightenment and Its Unruly Legacy, David A. Copeland, Daniel Schorr (Foreword)

April 28 2024 Selling Poison: Anniversary of Trump’s Deadly Fake Covid Cure Loyalty Test

       Here the deadly loyalty test of a cult leader combines with science denialism as a form of conspiracy theory, and of theocratic terror and subversion of democracy as America’s horrific new religion, QAnon.

     Thus far Traitor Trump has escaped trial for his attempted mass murder of his followers, just as he has not yet been bought a Reckoning for leading an armed insurrection against America, nor for the campaign of arson, looting, and violence by Homeland Security and their deniable assets to disrupt the Black Lives Matter protests as a just cause of war to occupy democratic cities with federal troops, nor for his actions as a Russian spy to clear the way for the invasion of Ukraine by his puppetmaster, nor for the subversion of democracy and the sabotage of our institutions, nor for theocratic patriarchal sexual terror nor white supremacist terror.

     The treasonous and dishonorable crimes against America and all humankind of Our Clown of Terror, Traitor Trump, most destructive of all foreign agents who have ever attacked our nation even including 911 and Pearl Harbor, have tested but also exposed the flaws and systems failures of our society and our democracy, and revealed what remains to be done if we are to become a true free society of equals.

     America is now a Wilderness of Mirrors and our democracy performative, a theatre of lies and illusions owned by those who would enslave us, but we see now the man behind the curtain for the humbug that he is, and this is a genie which cannot be put back in its bottle.

     Thanks for showing us all what’s under your masks, Republicans; Treason, Racism, Untruth, Misogyny, Predator.

     And now that the true nature of the enemy stands exposed before history and the stage of the world, our liberation is only a matter of time.

     For we are many, we are watching, and we are the future.  

     As I wrote in my post of April 28 2022, Science Denialism: the Seduction of Magical Thinking; This week marks the anniversary of one of the most bizarre and nonsensical performances Trump ever delivered as our Clown In Chief; his advocacy of injecting bleach and getting a “light inside the body” as a cure for the Pandemic. And fully a year later, a bogus church selling bleach as a miracle cure, which the FDA says causes “severe vomiting, severe diarrhea, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration and acute liver failure after drinking these products”, was finally shut down and its leaders indicted on federal charges.

    A few days ago my partner Theresa attended a funeral for a cousin who committed suicide by drinking bleach, which destroyed her internal organs within days of agony, after years of crippling pain and total disability dying slowly and even more horrifically from lupus. This is the fate to which Trump condemned his followers as a loyalty test; with the example of Jim Jones before us, one would think we’d have all learned not to drink the Kool Aid.

     Authority serves only its own power, and there is no just authority.

     As an example of science denialism, the bleach episode typifies how authority weaponizes faith to subjugate followers, and the nature of science denialism as conspiracy theory, magical thinking, and an alternate reality of submission to an authority.

    As I wrote in my post of April 24 2020, Absurd Clown of Terror Touts Deadly Snakeoil Cures; Our absurd Clown of Terror, Traitor Trump, lets his mask slip and unleashes pandemonium when he touts deadly snake oil cures of injecting or swallowing bleach and “getting light into the body”, the most likely results of which are severe illness and moreover do nothing to cure or prevent viruses.

     Repeating the lunatic claims of cult leader and profiteer of death Mark Grenon, and his promoter, television personality Alan Keyes, Trump rambles witlessly before the world once again, displaying his freakish monstrosity as an idiot madman of delusions and perversions. For beneath the mask lies the demon whom he worships and to whom he would sacrifice America and us all; Moloch the Seducer, Fount of Lies.

     For an excellent interrogation of how tyranny operates through falsification, lies, illusions, rewritten histories, alternate realities, and conspiracy theories in our subjugation, enslavement, and the theft of the soul, see Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season one, episode 8; I, Robot…You, Jane. Crucial to the understanding of conspiracy theories is that Moloch, whose name means King, is claimed as the Big Bad of QAnon; the first principle of propaganda is deflection or to claim your enemies are doing whatever you actually are. The second is to assault the idea of truth itself by exaggerating claims to the point where belief becomes an act of perverted faith and a loyalty test.

    For a brilliant fictionalization of how conspiracy theories work as falsification in the context of QAnon’s previous iteration, the Nazi blood libel against the Jews, read Umberto Eco’s magisterial novel The Prague Cemetery.

    Mark Grenon has been described by Ed Pilkington writing in The Guardian; “ Grenon styles himself as “archbishop” of Genesis II – a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a “miracle cure” in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, “miracle mineral solution”, and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.

     Since the start of the pandemic, Genesis II has been marketing MMS as a cure to coronavirus. It advises users, including children, to mix three to six drops of bleach in water and drink it.

     In his weekly televised radio show, posted online on Sunday, Grenon read out the letter he wrote to Trump. He said it began: “Dear Mr President, I am praying you read this letter and intervene.”

     Grenon said that 30 of his supporters have also written in the past few days to Trump at the White House urging him to take action to protect Genesis II in its bleach-peddling activities which they claim can cure coronavirus.

     On Friday, hours after Trump talked about disinfectant on live TV, Grenon went further in a post on his Facebook page. He claimed that MMS had actually been sent to the White House. He wrote: “Trump has got the MMS and all the info!!!”

     “Another advocate of bleach as a miracle cure who has been seeking to interest Trump in the treatment is Alan Keyes. He is a former ambassador and adviser to Ronald Reagan who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for the US Senate and on three occasions for the US presidency.

     Keyes has featured Genesis II bleach products as a miracle cure on his online conservative TV show, Let’s Talk America.

     It is not known whether Keyes has discussed MMS with Trump. But the two men have overlapping interests.

     Not only have they both featured in Republican party and presidential politics, but they were both leading proponents of the Birther conspiracy theory that wrongfully suggested Barack Obama was born outside America.

     Keyes’s TV show is hosted on IAMtv, a rightwing web-based channel. IAMtv’s other leading anchor is Bob Sisson, who has also advertised Genesis II bleach products on air.”

     “Paradoxically, Trump’s outburst about the possible value of an “injection” of disinfectant into the lungs of Covid-19 sufferers came just days after a leading agency within the president’s own administration took action to shut down the peddling of bleach as a coronavirus cure around the US.

     Last week the US Food and Drug Administration obtained a federal court order barring Genesis II from selling what was described as “an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for Covid-19”. The FDA also ordered a disciple of Genesis II, Kerri Rivera, to remove claims that MMS cured coronavirus from her website.

     Last August the FDA issued an urgent warning urging Americans not to buy or drink MMS, which it said was a “dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects”. Drinking MMS can cause nausea, diarrhea and severe dehydration that can lead to death, the federal agency said.”

     As I wrote in my post of May 19 2020, Delusions and Lies of Our Clown of Terror: the Case of Hydroxychloroquine; How do the bogus and lunatic claims of a mentally disabled anti-Semite and a swindler end up among the mirror universe of delusions and lies touted as national policy by our Clown of Terror?

     By what special and secret routes is America now governed in the age of fascist tyranny and plutocratic looting, white supremacist terror, and Gideonite patriarchy under the leadership of Traitor Trump?

     For a true picture of the dangers of a mad idiot tyrant committed to the subversion of democracy by exploiting the structural instability of an unchecked Imperial Presidency, I offer the case of Hydroxychloroquine.

     In the words of Nick Robins-Early writing in Huffpost; “President Donald Trump’s obsession with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus may have started in part because of a self-described philosopher in China who is a fan of white nationalists, tweets anti-Semitic rhetoric and calls chloroquine “a Nazi drug that is here to teach a lesson to leftists about bias.”

     Weeks before Trump first promoted the drug, a Twitter conversation about hydroxychloroquine between “philosopher” Adrian Bye and two cryptocurrency investors set off a chain of events that would bring the unproven drug to the attention of Elon Musk, Fox News pundits and Trump.”

    And as I wrote on July 29 2020 Weaponized Religion, the Subversion of Democracy, Lunatic Anti-Science Propaganda, and the Legacy of American Imperialism; In the now enormous category of lies and disinformation campaigns against objective truth and scientific rationality, Trump’s recent endorsement of the lunatic claims of a Nigerian doctor now practicing medicine in Texas who is a member of a Pentecostal Church which promulgates religious and medical nonsense that has resulted in an epidemic of children murdered as witches by their parents and a violent pogrom against LGBT people in Nigeria stands near the pinnacle of our Clown of Terror’s crimes against humanity, one which would be hilarious if it were not so dangerous.

     As you may be aware, the years-long wave of children murdered by their parents as witches in Africa was perpetrated by American religious fanatics in a coordinated campaign of colonialist and imperialist destabilization. In Nigeria this has the full collaboration of the government, with the persecution and orchestrated violence against LGBT persons being a dual campaign of mass hysteria and state terror.

     It parallels the seizure of Guatemala and El Salvador by Pat Robertson and other Gideonite fundamentalists through his front man Rios Montt and the subsequent Mayan Genocide. The masses of refugees at our border are a direct result of the latter, part of American sponsored political subversion and economic warfare responsible for the collapse of Venezuela, Columbia, Mexico, and Central America.

     America has weaponized religion as an instrument of dominion, and it is this same fascist network of Pentecostal and Charismatic organizations which have achieved the capture of the Republican Party and the subversion of democracy here at home. Their brutal campaign against the equality, freedom of bodily autonomy, and reproductive rights of women is the wedge issue the Republicans use to goad the poor into voting against their own interest, but it is only the home front of a global programme of cultural, political, and economic warfare intended to seize and maintain an American hegemony of power and privilege.

    God With Us; it is an old motto from the Crusades, and it has a complex and nefarious history. It has been used by the Inquisition against the Jews and Muslims, in the medieval witch hunts to transfer and consolidate patriarchal power as described by Silvia Federici in Caliban and the Witch and Witch-Hunting and Women. Gott Mitt Uns was the battle cry of the magnificent King Gustav Adolf of Sweden in his epochal victory over the Catholic forces of Imperial Austria at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 which liberated Protestant Germany during the horrific Thirty Years War, the monument of which reads ”Freedom of Religion for All Mankind” and is the origin of the doctrine of separation of church and state in America; Gott Mitt Uns was also appropriated by Hitler, who sought to recall the glorious legacy of his namesake.

     There is no more dangerous person than one who believes God is on his side, for that belief can justify anything and conceal evil behind a mask of good.

     As Agence France-Presse writes in scmp; “A Houston doctor who praised hydroxychloroquine as a miracle coronavirus cure in a viral video retweeted by President Donald Trump blames gynaecological problems on sex with evil spirits and believes the US government is run by “reptilians”.

     Stella Immanuel’s viral speech has drawn attention to a little-known group calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” who appear to exist to promote the common antimalarial drug in the fight against Covid-19.”

     “Immanuel was born in 1965, received her medical degree at the University of Calabar in Nigeria.”

     “Nobody needs to get sick. This virus has a cure – it is called hydroxychloroquine,” Immanuel exclaimed Monday as she stood on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington at a so-called “White Coat Summit” of like-minded doctors.”

     “Early on in the pandemic, scientists were eager to find out whether hydroxychloroquine’s antiviral properties would make it effective in real-world patients with SARS-CoV-2.

     So far though, all the major clinical trials that have reported their findings on this question have found no benefit, and leading national health authorities have moved to restrict its use because of potential cardiac harm.”

     “The clip was shared by Trump and described as a “must watch” by his son Donald Trump Jnr, but has since been deleted by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for promoting misinformation.        

     “Trump also complained about his plummeting approval ratings as compared to those of Dr Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser on the White House coronavirus task force.”

     “And the curious case of Immanuel and colleagues – first reported in depth by The Daily Beast – underscores just how far the drug’s advocates are willing to go.

     The website for “America’s Frontline Doctors” was registered just 11 days ago, a web domain age checker revealed – and the site was taken down by Tuesday afternoon.

     “Tea Party Patriots”, a right-wing political group backed by wealthy Republicans, said on its website it was responsible for organising the Washington summit.

     Further research on Immanuel’s web page, now accessible only via an archived website viewer, as well as her YouTube account, reveal a long list of bizarre and unscientific beliefs.

     These include that “tormenting spirits” routinely have “astral sex” with women, which in turn causes “gynaecological problems, marital distress, miscarriages” and more.

     In a 2015 video, Immanuel, who leads a religious group called Fire Power Ministries, said: “There are people ruling this nation that are not even human,” describing them as “reptilian spirits” who are “half human, half ET.”

In the same video she rails against the use of “alien DNA” to treat sick people, which she said had resulted in human beings mixing with demons.

     Other targets of her anger include gay marriage, which she said would result in adults marrying children.”

     As written by David Gorski for Science Based Medicine on January 25, 2021; “Last week, SBM’s fearless founder Steve Novella wrote what I considered to be an important post about the danger of conspiratorial thinking to science-based medicine (SBM), noting that anything that threatens the institutions of science, such as conspiratorial thinking, is a huge threat to science. He correctly noted one example of pseudoscience that is based on conspiratorial thinking, namely the antivaccine movement. Indeed, I once noted that all antivaccine views—and, no, I’m not going to qualify that statement, as I do mean all antivaccine views—are ultimately based on, or, in the case of the vaccine-hesitant at least supported by, a grand conspiracy theory that six years ago I dubbed “the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement“.

     What is that conspiracy theory? Regular readers will recognize it immediately when I characterize it. In brief, the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement is that vaccines are dangerous (and, in many tellings, ineffective) but that “they” are hiding the evidence of that harm and ineffectiveness. Who are “they”? Obviously “they” include the CDC, the FDA, big pharma (of course!), the medical profession, the press, and pretty much everyone else outside of the select, small group of those who are enlightened and thus privy to this “hidden knowledge”. Although it seemed odd at the time to many, in retrospect it shouldn’t have been (and wasn’t) so strange how soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit antivaxxers made common cause with COVID-19 deniers. Of course, I’ve discussed the importance of conspiracy theories in medical quackery, especially the antivaccine movement and COVID-19 denial, several times before. This time, however, I’d like to broaden the discussion.

     Obviously, I agree with Steve regarding the danger of conspiratorial thinking to SBM. Where we differ (and some might even view it as quibbling, more of a different in emphasis rather than substance) is that, to me, Steve doesn’t go far enough. If there’s anything that the pandemic has taught me, with the help of Mark Hoofnagle, it’s that all science denial is rooted in conspiracy theory. Steve mentioned, for instance, flat earthers and QAnon. QAnon, of course, is basically the ur-conspiracy theory for the age of Donald Trump, a conspiracy theory so adaptable that it can be all things to all people, even as others have pointed out that Q is very much akin to the old Jewish Blood Libel conspiracy theory, rebranded and revamped for the Facebook century, with more than a dash of the Satanic panic of the latter decades of the last century. Remember, at its heart, the QAnon conspiracy theory claims that there is a secret cabal of Satan worshipers (who are also pedophiles) who secretly rule the world behind the scenes from positions of power in the government, banks, news media, entertainment industry, and church. (Oh, and they’re also cannibals, killing children for the adrenochrome in their blood.)

     In addition to the antivaccine movement, Steve also mentioned QAnon (of course!), alternative medicine supporters, and the flat earth movement. Now let me readjust the emphasis and introduce what I would like to refer to as the central conspiracy theory of science denial. It’s basically the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement, just much broader.

     The central conspiracy theory of science denial

I begin this section by restating the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement: Vaccines are harmful (and don’t work), but “they” are hiding the evidence of this. Now, let’s take the title of a book that was among the things that got me interested in investigating the claims and appeal of alternative medicine: Kevin Trudeau’s book, Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, originally published in 2005, which, unsurprisingly, was the year when I first started blogging in earnest on my first blog. The central premise of the book was, of course, that there are “all-natural” cures for basically all illnesses, be they serious or less so, including cancer, herpes, arthritis, AIDS, acid reflux disease, phobias, depression, obesity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, attention deficit disorder, muscular dystrophy, etc., but that these “cures” are being intentionally “hidden” and “suppressed.” And who’s “hiding” and “suppressing” these “cures”? It is, of course, the usual suspects: The FDA, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the CDC (in the case of vaccines and “natural cures” for vaccine-preventable diseases), the major food and drug companies, and, of course, the entire medical profession, all in an effort to protect the profits of these industries and the authority of governmental agencies and the medical profession.

     Now let’s look at a sampling of various forms of science denial and the conspiracy theories associated with each of them:

     Evolution denial (a.k.a.) creationism. Creationists deny the science of evolution. Among creationists, there are two major types: “Young earth” creationism (YEC) and “intelligent design” creationists. YEC completely deny evolution in favor of a strict literalist interpretation of the Bible in which all lifeforms were created by God roughly 6,000 years ago and all the science that says the earth is billions of years old is false. “Intelligent design” creationism (ID) concedes that evolution has occurred (to some degree or other) and that the earth might be 4 billion years old, but denies that evolution by natural selection (and other forms of selection) is the driving force that resulted in the current diversity of life that we now observe. Instead, ID posits that there was an “intelligent designer” who guided (and continues to guide) evolution. ID creationists like to obfuscate who this “designer” might be, but, however much they try to obfuscate, it’s clear that the “designer” is God and that ID is, at its heart, little different from YEC other than in sophistication. Personally, I like to liken ID creationists to antivaxxers who claim that they’re “not antivaccine” but rather “vaccine safety advocates” in that, like such antivaxxers are trying to hide that they are antivaccine, ID creationists try to hide that they are anti-evolution. In this model, as is the case for antivaxxers who proudly proclaim that they are antivax, I almost have more respect for young earth creationists, because they at least are being more honest that they are antievolution and that their resistance to evolution is based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. In any event, the central conspiracy theory of creationism, be it YEC or ID, is that a shadowy cabal of atheists, biologists (a.k.a. “Darwinists” in creationist parlance), and “secularists” are “hiding” or “suppressing” the evidence that “Darwinism” is a “sham”. Usually, the motivation of these “atheists” and “Darwinists” is to deny and suppress religion.

     Climate science denial. Currently, the scientific consensus regarding climate change is that the earth is warming (and has been since the industrial age started) due to human activity, specifically the CO2 and other “greenhouse gases” released into the atmosphere primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, leading to the “greenhouse” effect trapping heat in the atmosphere. More recent evidence suggests the possibility, even likelihood, of catastrophic increases in average global temperatures over the next several decades that will result in, among other things, the melting of glaciers and polar ice (with resulting elevations in sea level), more extensive droughts, more extreme weather, ocean disruption, and worse. Climate science thus concludes that the only way to avert potential catastrophe is to massively (and rapidly) decrease the burning of fossil fuels. Climate science denialists, as you might expect, deny the climate science that concludes that human activity is the primary driver of climate change and overall global warming. Their central conspiracy theory is that a cabal of “radical environmentalists,” governments, universities, and climate scientists are “hiding” and “suppressing” the “real” data showing that human activity is not causing global warming and/or “manipulating” the data to make it appear that human activity is causing increased CO2 levels and warming the planet.

     Alternative cancer cures. Believers in alternative cancer cures claim that there are, as Kevin Trudeau claimed, “natural cures” for cancer, although they do not limit themselves to just “natural cures.” (After all, Stanislaw Burzynski’s “antineoplastons” are hardly “natural” when you come right down to it, even though they were sold as “natural” endogenous cancer fighting compounds and originally isolated from human urine; on second thought, I guess that’s “natural” enough.) The central conspiracy theory here is—you guessed it—that the FDA, oncologists, scientists, and—of course!— big pharma are suppressing”/”denying”/”covering up” the evidence that these cancer cures exist and work, all to protect the profits of big pharma and the power of government regulatory agencies like the FDA. In fact, alternative medicine in general denies the efficacy of modern medicine and claims that there are “natural” cures being hidden from you or that various conditions we treat to prevent disease, such as hypercholesterolemia, are not really a risk to your health.

     COVID-19 denial. COVID-19 deniers claim that COVID-19 is in actuality not a serious illness, that the pandemic is overhyped, and/or that it was intentional. I’ve written about the conspiracy theories that flow from COVID-19 denial before on multiple occasions. Most prominent are conspiracy theories that claim that the pandemic was really a “plandemic” intentionally caused by a shadowy cabal of governments, the World Health Organization, scientists, and (of course) Bill Gates, all in order to impose authoritarian controls on the world. (One such conspiracy theory, the Oblivion Agenda, even claims that COVID-19 is a bioweapon introduced by an unholy alliance of the global elite and aliens to “depopulate” the world in order to allow the elites to let the aliens in and thereby profit. I kid you not.) The other version of this conspiracy theory is the “casedemic,” which claims that the pandemic is a result of PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, in which the cycle threshold is set too high and thus too sensitive, producing way more false positives than true positives. The motivation? Again, control and profit on the part of drug companies, testing companies, and the government. How to explain the >400,000 deaths in the US (and climbing rapidly)? COVID-19 deniers claim that the vast majority of these deaths were really due to something else and intentionally misattributed to COVID-19.

     Anti-GMO. Anti-GMO activists demonize genetically modified organisms based o the same techniques common to science denial: cherrypicked studies, misrepresentation of studies, confusing correlation with causation, pseudoscience, logical fallacies, fake experts, and more. Then, of course, there is the conspiracy theory behind it all, that companies that sell GMOs, especially Monsanto, are “suppressing” the “truth” about GMOs (namely that they are harmful to your health), all in order to profit and cement control over agriculture. Of course, it doesn’t help that Monsanto has engaged in questionable business practices; that history makes it very easy for anti-GMO conspiracy theorists to use Monsanto’s past actions to imply a “coverup” or that the science really does show that GMOs are harmful. (They aren’t.)

Germ theory denial. It’s been a depressingly short time since I’ve discussed germ theory denial, namely the claim that that microbes not the primary cause of infectious disease. As hard as it is to believe, germ theory denial exists in the age of the pandemic, with the usual claim being that it is the “terrain” (i.e., the health of the body) that determines whether one gets sick, not the microbe. While it is true that there is a germ of truth in that claim, germ theory deniers take it farther, to the point of arguing that you can somehow “turbocharge” your immune system “naturally” in order to make yourself, in essence, immune to any infectious disease. Naturally, physicians and big pharma don’t want you to know this.

     Antivaccine pseudoscience. Coming back to the antivaccine movement, again, the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement is that vaccines are harmful/don’t work but that “they” are hiding/covering up/manipulating the evidence that demonstrates vaccines’ harm and ineffectiveness. Again, it’s the usual cast of characters, the CDC, FDA, federal and state governments, the medical profession, and (again, of course!) big pharma who are behind the conspiracy. Indeed, there have been two major variants of the central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement that I’ve known since I started paying attention. The first was the Simpsonwood conspiracy theory and was promulgated by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in 2005; the second was the “CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory and was promulgated by Brian Hooker and Andrew Wakefield in 2014, later amplified by Andrew Wakefield and Del Bigtree in the antivaccine propaganda movie VAXXED. Both conspiracy theories claim that the CDC “manipulated” the data” in order to “hide” or “suppress” the evidence that vaccines cause autism. And don’t even get me started on the antivaccine Bill Gates conspiracy theories.

     Lest supporters of so-called “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), more recently rebranded as “integrative medicine” or “integrative health” think that they are immune and that many of their beliefs aren’t rooted in conspiracy theories, just take a look at some of the leading lights of the movement, such as Deepak Chopra or Mark Hyman, both of whom have engaged in conspiratorial thinking and embraced forms of pseudoscience rooted in conspiracy theories. For example, Deepak Chopra has long engaged in a form of evolution denial in which he denied that genes are deterministic that I used to write about regularly 14 years ago, the better to support his idea that the universe has “consciousness” and “purpose.” Mark Hyman, of course, co-authored an antivaccine book with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and that didn’t stop the Cleveland Clinic from hiring him to start a “functional medicine” clinic.

     One can also look at other forms of denial not related to science and see the same characteristic of having a conspiracy theory at the root. My favorite example is Holocaust denial, about which I used to write extensively back in the day. The conspiracy theory behind Holocaust denial is, of course, that the Jews (and often Communists, whom antisemites often view as more or less synonymous with Jews as having been created by “international Jewry”), who suppress/falsify/manipulate the evidence showing the Holocaust didn’t happen/killed many times fewer than 6 million Jews for their own nefarious purposes, namely control, power, and money. (Holocaust deniers even refer to the “Holocaust industry” in much the same way that quacks and antivaxxers refer to big pharma.) Unfortunately for Holocaust deniers, their motivation is very transparent. As Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt once described, “the real purpose of Holocaust revisionism is to make National Socialism an acceptable political alternative again”.

     Of course, then there are other forms of denial, such as the aforementioned flat earth movement, as discussed by Steve last week:

     As absurd as all this is, and as jaded as I have become about the limitlessness of human gullibility, I was surprised by the popularity of the Flat-Earth conspiracy. This is the notion that the entire scientific community, along with the aerospace and commercial airline industries, not to mention everyone with a telescope, is engaged in a multi-century conspiracy to convince the world that the Earth is roughly a sphere when in fact it is flat. This is an excellent example of how conspiracies need to become exponentially more absurd as you challenge their premises. If the Earth is flat, then it would collapse under its own gravity. So therefore – gravity must also be a conspiracy. That’s right, gravity.

     The Flat-Earth conspiracy is so grand, in fact, that it functions as an ultimate conspiracy. An ultimate conspiracy is one so large that it essentially breaks truth. If the world can be lying about something so fundamental as the shape of the planet, then you cannot believe anything. “They” can be lying about anything and everything, there is no truth, there are no facts, and you can then justify every other conspiracy because no matter how grand they are, they pale in comparison.

     But why do conspiracy theories and science denial fit together so well, hand-in-glove? Why do I argue that all science denial is conspiracy theory, when you strip away the camouflage and reveal its core? The reason is simple. Science denial, whatever the motivation for the denial, requires conspiracy theory, because of the very characteristic that Steve cites above.

     Why is the central conspiracy theory necessary for science denial?

Let’s look at some examples of science denial and ask: Why is a conspiracy necessary for each of them? It is not for nothing that evolution is considered the central theory of biology, so important is it to our understanding of life. Let’s say that you “question” evolutionary theory, that you don’t want to believe that evolution, by natural selection and other forms of selection, is the central driving force that produced the diversity of life. How, then, do you explain the fact that, a completely negligible minority aside, biologists overwhelmingly support the theory of evolution as the central organizing principle of their scientific discipline and generally don’t argue whether evolution by natural selection is critical, but rather how critical? Let’s look next at climate science. You doubt climate science and refuse to believe that humans are primarily responsible for the no-longer-gradual increase in global temperature over the last several decades? How do you explain the fact that, a completely negligible minority aside, climate scientists overwhelmingly support the hypothesis that human activity is the primary driver of global warming and generally argue not about whether human activity is driving global climate change but rather about how much and if it’s still possible to slow or stop the change in climate in time to avert catastrophe? Let’s circle back again to antivaccine pseudoscience. If you believe that vaccines cause autism, sudden infant death syndrome, infertility, alterations in your DNA, and even the death of teenaged girls (Gardasil, of course), how do you explain the fact that, a completely negligible minority aside, scientists and physicians overwhelmingly have concluded that vaccines are safe and effective and do not cause any of those problems?

     It takes a conspiracy theory, of course, to explain why experts so overwhelmingly reject your worldview, because, surely, it can’t be because you’re just plain wrong, right? Surely, the reason why nearly all the relevant experts in the relevant scientific field reject your viewpoint and beliefs and the evidence reported in the scientific literature in that field overwhelmingly rejects—or, at minimum, emphatically does not support—your beliefs is because there’s a vast conspiracy to suppress them and they are in on it. Again, surely it can’t be because you’re just plain wrong, can it?

     Of course not.

     Then, of course, besides an explanation for why science rejects your viewpoint, conspiracy theories make you the hero. Not only do you and your fellow conspiracy theorists possess “hidden knowledge” that the rest of the world does not have (or foolishly rejects), but you are the hero fighting against a vast and evil cabal seeking to suppress that hidden knowledge. I like to point to the example of someone like antivaccine activist Kent Heckenlively. As I’ve put it before, every story must have a victim, a hero, and a villain; a conspiracy theory lets someone like Mr. Heckenlively portray himself as the hero fighting the villain (big pharma, the government, etc.) for the “victims” (the “vaccine-injured” children). Indeed, Mr. Heckenlively even imagined himself Aragorn, son of Arathorn, in The Lord of the Rings, marching to the Black Gate of Mordor on a doomed mission that he didn’t expect to survive, all in order to distract the Dark Lord Sauron, so that Frodo and Sam could complete their mission. You see the same sort of fantasy in QAnon believers, who think themselves heroes “protecting the children”. It’s a powerful combination, an explanation for why your views are rejected by science and the ability to paint yourself as a hero seeking to bring to light hidden knowledge and bring down a great evil.

     It’s been argued that science denial has five characteristics:

Conspiracy theories

Fake experts

Cherry picking

Impossible expectations of what science can do or offer

Misrepresentation and logical fallacies

     More and more, I’m coming to the conclusion that the last four characteristics all flow from the first and that science denial is, at its heart, a conspiracy theory when you strip away all the other characteristics. I don’t claim to be the originator of this idea, either. I blame Mark Hoofnagle for influencing me. Of course, conspiracy theories are defined by their own characteristics, all of which apply to science denial as well.

     True believers vs. grifters

Of course, even if you accept that science denial is a form of conspiracy theory, one must accept that there are…complexities. After all, there are real conspiracies in the world. The difference between conspiracy theories and real conspiracies is that real conspiracies are not, like conspiracy theories, unfalsifiable and ever-evolving in order to remain so. Real conspiracies can be discovered and proven through standard investigational techniques used by law enforcement and journalists the world over—and have been. For example, there really was a conspiracy to bring down the World Trade Center and Pentagon by flying commercial jetliners into them in 2001; it just wasn’t the Mossad and the US government who were behind the conspiracy, as “9/11 Truth” conspiracy theorists would have you believe. The petroleum industry did conspire to cast doubt upon the climate science. Big Tobacco did conspire to deny, obfuscate, and suppress the scientific evidence linking smoking tobacco products to lung cancer and other disease. Again, some conspiracies are real. Again, the difference between a conspiracy theory and a real conspiracy is that conspiracy theories are virtually unfalsifiable and real conspiracies can be uncovered and demonstrated by standard investigative techniques.

     These examples also bring me naturally to grifters.

     Wherever you find science denial, almost inevitably you will also find grift. The antivaccine movement is a great example, with a veritable panoply of pure grifters ranging from Andrew Wakefield to Joseph Mercola to Del Bigtree to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to Dr. Paul Thomas to so many, many others that I really can’t name them all. The denial of oncology brings to mind all sorts of grifters selling alternative cancer cures, Stanislaw Burzynski being the most prominent one who comes to mind. Homeopaths, naturopaths, chiropractors, and other quacks who deny SBM very frequently have something to sell, usually supplements or some other “medical treatment” not based in science. Thus, feeding antiscience conspiracy theories is a strategy by which grifters hawk their wares.

     Similarly, those selling an ideology also take advantage of antiscience conspiracy theories, and vice-versa. In other words, many conspiracy theories are tactical – the origin of some conspiracy theories is not genuinely held erroneous beliefs, but rather they are the result of an intentional campaign of disinformation designed to produce a political or ideological end. For example, fundamentalist religious activists who view the science of evolution as a threat to their worldview and their faith, willingly stoke conspiracy theories of evolution denial. Conservative free market fundamentalists, who abhor anything that would justify a larger role for government or increased government regulation, are more than happy to spread the conspiracy theory behind climate science denial. True believers in “natural” remedies are more than happy to spread conspiracy theories about the government, big pharma, and physicians “suppressing” alternative medicine. Sometimes the converse is true, as well, with science-denying conspiracy theorists using ideology as a gateway through which those holding that ideology can be brought into the conspiracy theory. The most obvious example to which I like to point is how the antivaccine movement so skillfully co-opted conservative rhetoric of “health freedom”, “parental rights”, and hostility towards government mandates and regulations to attract conservatives to their opposition to vaccine mandates. Unfortunately it’s worked spectacularly well, leading in a political shift in the antivaccine movement to the right over the last several years and a disturbingly large number of Republican politicians pandering to antivaxxers or even being antivaccine themselves. Meanwhile, antivaxxers have been actively coordinating their activities and synchronizing their key messages in order to cast doubt on COVID-19 vaccines.

     Science denial is a conspiracy theory

     As Steve noted last week, science denial is not just a threat to SBM, but to all science and to, as he put it, “any notion of evidence, logic, facts, and reality”. The same is true of conspiracy theories. As I contemplated this post, I asked the proverbial “chicken or the egg” question: Which came first, conspiracy theories or science denial? Most likely it was conspiracy theories, which date back as far as recorded history can take us and very likely predate science. Whatever the answer, though, more and more I’m coming to the conclusion that science denial is a form of conspiracy theory and that we will not successfully mitigate science denial until we are able to understand and mitigate conspiracy theories because, even if you do not accept the proposition that all science denial is a form of conspiracy theory, it is without a doubt true that all science denial relies at least in part on conspiracy theories to support it. As we’ve seen in the COVID-19 pandemic, the conspiracy theory of science denial can have deadly consequences, consequences that, once the pandemic finally abates, will become apparent as the earth’s climate continues to warm due to human activity. Worse, as Steve also discussed, science denial has been turbocharged by social media in an unprecedented manner. Misinformation and conspiracy theories travel farther and permeate the consciousness of more people than has ever been possible for them to do before. Developing strategies to combat this tendency and bring people back to reality is arguably the existential problem of the 21st century.”

    As written by John Cook in The 5 characteristics of Scientific Denialism

posted on 17 March 2010; “A fascinating paper well worth reading is Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond? (Diethelm & McKee 2009) (H/T to Jeremy Kemp for the heads-up). While the focus is on public health issues, it nevertheless establishes some useful general principles on the phenomenon of scientific denialism. A vivid example is the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who argued against the scientific consensus that HIV caused AIDS. This led to policies preventing thousands of HIV positive mothers in South Africa from receiving anti-retrovirals. It’s estimated these policies led to the loss of more than 330,000 lives (Chigwedere 2008). Clearly the consequences of denying science can be dire, even fatal.

     The authors define denialism as “the employment of rhetorical arguments to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none, an approach that has the ultimate goal of rejecting a proposition on which a scientific consensus exists”. They go on to identify 5 characteristics common to most forms of denialism, first suggested by Mark and Chris Hoofnagle:

     Conspiracy theories

     When the overwhelming body of scientific opinion believes something is true, the denialist won’t admit scientists have independently studied the evidence to reach the same conclusion. Instead, they claim scientists are engaged in a complex and secretive conspiracy. The South African government of Thabo Mbeki was heavily influenced by conspiracy theorists claiming that HIV was not the cause of AIDS. When such fringe groups gain the ear of policy makers who cease to base their decisions on science-based evidence, the human impact can be disastrous.

     Fake experts

     These are individuals purporting to be experts but whose views are inconsistent with established knowledge. Fake experts have been used extensively by the tobacco industry who developed a strategy to recruit scientists who would counteract the growing evidence on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. This tactic is often complemented by denigration of established experts, seeking to discredit their work. Tobacco denialists have frequently attacked Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine at the University of California, for his exposure of tobacco industry tactics, labelling his research ‘junk science’.

     Cherry picking

     This involves selectively drawing on isolated papers that challenge the consensus to the neglect of the broader body of research. An example is a paper describing intestinal abnormalities in 12 children with autism, which suggested a possible link with immunization. This has been used extensively by campaigners against immunization, even though 10 of the paper’s 13 authors subsequently retracted the suggestion of an association.

     Impossible expectations of what research can deliver

     The tobacco company Philip Morris tried to promote a new standard for the conduct of epidemiological studies. These stricter guidelines would have invalidated in one sweep a large body of research on the health effects of cigarettes.

     Misrepresentation and logical fallacies

     Logical fallacies include the use of straw men, where the opposing argument is misrepresented, making it easier to refute. For example, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined in 1992 that environmental tobacco smoke was carcinogenic. This was attacked as nothing less than a ‘threat to the very core of democratic values and democratic public policy’.

Why is it important to define the tactics of denialism? Good faith discussion requires consideration of the full body of scientific evidence. This is difficult when confronted with rhetorical techniques which are designed to distort and distract. Identifying and publicly exposing these tactics are the first step in redirecting discussion back to a focus on the science.

     This is not to say all global warming skeptic arguments employ denialist tactics. And it’s certainly not advocating attacking peoples’ motives. On the contrary, in most cases, focus on motives rather than methods is counterproductive. Here are some of the methods using denialist tactics in the climate debate:

     Conspiracy theories

     Conspiracy theories have been growing in strength in recent months as personal attacks on climate scientists have intensified. In particular, there has been accusations of manipulation of temperature data with the result that “the surface temperature record is unreliable” has been the most popular argument over the last month. This is distracting people from the physical realities of global warming manifesting themselves all over the world. Arctic sea-ice loss is accelerating. Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are losing ice mass at an accelerating rate. Spring is coming earlier each year. Animal breeding and migration are changing in response. Distribution of plants are shifting to higher elevations. Global sea level is rising. When one steps back to take in the full body of evidence, it overwhelmingly points to global warming.

     Fake experts

     A number of surveys and petitions have been published online, presenting lengthy numbers of scientists who reject man-made global warming. Close inspection of these lists show very few qualifications in climate science. On the contrary, a survey of climate scientists who actively publish climate research found that over 97% agree that human activity is significantly changing global temperature.

     Cherry picking

     This usually involves a focus on a single paper to the neglect of the rest of peer-review research. A recent example is the Lindzen-Choi paper that finds low climate sensitivity (around 0.5°C for doubled CO2). This neglects all the research using independent techniques studying different time periods that find our climate has high sensitivity (around 3°C for doubled CO2). This includes research using a similar approach to Lindzen-Choi but with more global coverage.

     Impossible expectations

     The uncertainties of climate models are often used as an excuse to reject any understanding that can come from climate models. Or worse, the uncertainty of climate models are used to reject all evidence of man-made global warming. This neglects the fact that there are multiple lines of empirical evidence that humans are causing global warming .

     Logical fallacies

     Strawmen arguments abound in the climate debate. Often have I heard skeptics argue “CO2 is not the only driver of climate” which every climate scientist in the world would wholeheartedly agree with. A consideration of all the evidence tells us there are a number of factors that drive climate but currently, CO2 is the dominant forcing and also the fastest rising. Logical fallacies such as “climate has changed before therefore current climate change must be natural” are the equivalent of arguing that lightning has started bushfires in the past, therefore no modern bushfire is ever started by arsonists.

Update 16 April 2012: Many thanks to Mark Hoofnagle for pointing out that the 5 characteristics of science denial didn’t originate in Diethelm and McKee’s paper but in an article written by Mark and Chris Hoofnagle. This is an article very worth reading for anyone interested in climate change and public discourse about science. Credit has been updated accordingly.”

Discussion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season one, episode 8; I, Robot…You, Jane, by JustDaggers

on the historical Moloch

https://mythologyexplained.com/the-demon-moloch-in-the-bible

Caliban and the Witch, by Silvia Federici

The Prague Cemetery, by Umberto Eco

on the child witch hunts in Nigeria

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/09/tracymcveigh.theobserver

https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/how-nigerias-fear-child-witchcraft-ruins-young-lives

The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience, by Lee McIntyre

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42068882-the-scientific-attitude

Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do about It, by Gale M. Sinatra, Barbara K Hofer (Contributor)

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, by Steven Pinker

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56224080-rationality

The Enigma of Reason, by Hugo Mercier, Dan Sperber

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32336635-the-enigma-of-reason

on Trump’s deadly bleach loyalty test and science denialism

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/25/trump-covid-disinfectant-deborah-birx-book?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3095096/aliens-and-reptilians-odd-beliefs-dr-stella

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-fox-news_n_5ebaffdbc5b65b5fd63dac80

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/15/donald-trump-coronavirus-response-world-leaders

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/25/donald-trump-coronavirus-disinfectant-sarcastic-tipping-point

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-leader-group-peddling-bleach-cure-lobbied-trump-coronavirus

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-task-force-disinfectant-briefing_n_6083b866e4b0ee126f66b399?ncid

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bleach-cure-covid-mms-florida-grenon_n_60842357e4b02e74d21a108e?ncid

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/03/denialism-what-drives-people-to-reject-the-truth

https://skepticalscience.com/5-characteristics-of-scientific-denialism.html

https://elemental.medium.com/how-identity-not-ignorance-leads-to-science-denial-533686e718fa

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/07/climate-change-denial-scepticism-cynicism-politics

     Other than his idol and role model Hitler, who does Trump worship? Here is some background on the historical and literary figure of Moloch:

The Demon Moloch in the Bible – The Child Devourer

Table of Contents

Who is Moloch in the Bible?

Moloch (also known as Molek or Molech), was the name of an Ammonite god to whom human sacrifices were made. The Ammonites occupied the southern part of modern Jordan and were descended from Lot, who appears in the Old Testament as the nephew of the patriarch ABRAHAM. In the Second Book of Kings, Moloch is described as the “abomination of the children of Ammon.”

Many Israelites are believed to have consecrated their children to Moloch by throwing them into the flames. It is sometimes argued that, rather than being the name of a god, Moloch refers simply to the sacrificial ritual. The children were burnt in a place called Tophet, in the valley of Hinnom, which had been built for the explicit purpose of sacrificial rituals.

The king was sometimes regarded as the son of Moloch, and the phrase “to the Molech” may have meant “for the sake or life of the king” and referred to the sacrifice of a child conceived at a sacred marriage rite. Another research suggests that Moloch may have been the god Baal-Hammon who was worshipped at Tyre and Carthage.

Moloch in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

“First MOLOCH, horrid King

besmear’d with blood of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears,

Though, for the noise of Drums

and Timbrels loud,

Their children’s cries unheard

that passed through fire

to his grim idol.”

John Milton — Paradise Lost

Such are the words of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, where the abominable being is known as Moloch, or Molech appears as a fearsome warrior of the fallen angels. Milton describes Moloch as a pro-war devil—a being who as the fiercest fighter in the war on Heaven was keen to re-engage God and his angels after Satan’s first failed attempt.

He implores Satan to equip them all with the weapons forged in hell and dictates that they must destroy God, for if they fail or if they choose not to fight given that they’d already been thwarted, then the punishment that God had in store for them would be egregious.

With this, they have nothing left to lose and so, Moloch deemed it imperative to take the fight to God… though, this was likely because he enjoyed the thrill of war so much. In the end, though, he is ultimately overruled, likely on the account that Satan recognised Moloch was more brawn than brains.

The Description of the Statue of Moloch by Gustave Flaubert

Moloch Receiving a child sacrifice

In the Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert—a historical novel about Carthage from the mid-19th century, Moloch is referred to as a god of the Carthaginians who accepted the offerings of children as worship.

Flaubert describes a statue of Moloch as being made of iron and that he possessed a pair of outspread swings. His arms were so long that they reached the ground and he had three eyes positioned on his brow. He also maintained the traditional bull’s head as frequently seen in medieval art and his head was raised as if he meant to go about barking terrible orders.

He also explains later in the novel that another statue was brought into the city centre of Carthage and that it was used to calm down a storm that had brought pouring rain. Sacrifices were made before the statue; first grain and animals were placed inside the statue but when that did not silence the rain, children were offered next.

Flaubert writes,

“The victims, when scarcely at the edge of the opening, disappeared like a drop of water on a red-hot plate, and white smoke rose amid the great scarlet colour. Nevertheless, the appetite of the god was not appeased. He ever wished for more.”

But Moloch’s appearance in John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Gustave Flaubert’s Salammbo are perhaps more fanciful takes on a being who is mentioned only a handful of times in the Bible—primarily in the book of Leviticus—where he is associated with child sacrifice.

Moloch, A Demon or A God?

Statue of Moloch God

18th century depiction of the Moloch idol (Der Götze Moloch mit 7 Räumen oder Capellen; “The idol Moloch with seven chambers or chapels”), from Johann Lund’s Die Alten Jüdischen Heiligthümer (1711, 1738).

Some have determined Moloch as a demon—which is debatable when considering the likes of the Moloch from John Milton or the medieval portrayal of Moloch that saw him depicted as a bull-headed humanoid creature. The very image of this medieval portrayal does connote a typical demon-esque vibe, where we see him frequently stretched over a fire with his hands ominously raised before a sacrificial child.

But a more traditionally biblical approach treats Moloch as not so much a demon but more of a false God—perhaps one of the Canaanite gods. But this idea has since been debated with some scholars arguing that Moloch was never actually a deity, but instead a ritual known as ‘Mlk’, which essentially meant ‘sacrifice’ in the Punic language and the surrounding Canaanite areas.

Other scholars propose that the root word ‘mlk’ also meant ‘to rule’ and that this formed the basis of Moloch’s creation, though neither of these ideas is particularly substantiated. Amongst these ideas, it has also been proposed by various scholars that ‘mlk’ translated as ‘to present’ or ‘to gift’, though there is little evidence to support these ideas.

Moloch has also been connected to the Mesopotamian deity Mlk—better known as Malik, who was associated with the Underworld as an Underworld god.

The terms Molk or Mulk were also considered to be a type of sacrifice that was again closely related to the Canaanites, but again there is little in the way of substance to fully comprehend these terms or assign them to Moloch.

But as far as the bible goes, Moloch or Molech is most certainly identified as a deity.

Moloch (Molek) in the Bible

Moloch in the Book of Kings

Solomon shown being led astray by his many wives to worship an idol

Depiction by Giovanni Battista Venanzi of King Solomon being led astray into idolatry in his old age by his wives, 1668.

We see this quite clearly in chapter 11 of the First Book of Kings where Solomon is cautioned by God not to mingle with the women of the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Sidonians and the Hittites, for they all worshipped different gods and they would corrupt any man who spent enough time with them.

The passage reads,

‘They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.”’—1 Kings 11:2

Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

He followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So, Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. (1 Kings 11:2-6)

King Solomon worshipping the Idol Image of Moloch

King Solomon worshipping the Idol Image of Moloch. c. 1531

Artist:

Georg Pencz

German, c. 1500-1550

So here we see that despite hearing God’s warning, Solomon could not resist marrying many of these women and making many others his concubines. Amongst them, he also married women of the Ammonites, who the bible tells us worshipped Molek, —a detestable god, and that Solomon ended up worshipping him too.

We understand that by worshipping these other gods, including the god Molek, Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord and for those of you who’ve been following the Biblical Stories Explained series, you’ll know that the biblical God takes polytheism as a serious slight against him.

But in any case, we are able to pinpoint the region in which Molek was worshipped; that being the region of Ammon. However, some have disputed the use of Molek here in the bible as a scribal error, where the god Milcom is proposed instead—Milcom being recognised as the region’s national god.

In any case, the bible does continue that Solomon went on to build a temple in honour of Molek. We are told,

“On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.”— 1 Kings 11:7

But these temples do not remain standing forever, for, by the time Josiah comes on the scene in chapter 23 of the second Book of Kings, we see him destroy the buildings that Solomon had made for Molek. The bible tells us,

“The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.” —2 Kings 23:13-14

We also previously see Josiah proceed to destroy the Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnom which was used by the worshippers of Molek to sacrifice children. This appears to be confirmation from the bible that Molek was indeed a deity who required child sacrifice—something that the biblical God had always detested and condemned.

The use of fire is also mentioned here in the bible and this links in with the medieval portrayal of Molek who as mentioned is usually seen before a burning fire and a child. The bible tells us,

“Josiah desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek.” —2 Kings 23:10

In chapter 32 of the Book of Jeremiah, we learn of God’s disgust towards the people of Israel and Judah who have engaged with both Baal and Moloch. God not only expresses his frustrations with Israel, to the point that he wants to remove it from his sight entirely but also condemns them for worshipping other deities over him. He states,

“They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. They set up their vile images in the house that bears my Name and defiled it. They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molek, though I never commanded—nor did it enter my mind—that they should do such a detestable thing.”— Jeremiah 32:33-34

So here, we see that even God is surprised by the fact that the people of Judah had even bought into the ideas of the Ammonites and that instead of turning to him for prayer, worship, guidance, or strength, they had instead turned to the likes of Molek. They had sacrificed their children to him and paid homage to a god who demanded a heavy toll in the form of their offspring’s lives.

The bible yet again paints Molek as this devourer of children, though it is interesting that God does not blame this other deity, but instead blames those who chose to adhere to him.

Moloch in the Book of Leviticus

Moloch Receiving a child sacrifice

Offering to Molech (illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster). The illustration shows the typical depiction of Moloch in medieval and modern sources.

It is in Leviticus that we see the most frequent use of Moloch and the most frequent condemnation of him where he is yet again associated with child sacrifice. We are told in chapter 18 of Leviticus

“You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.” — Leviticus 18:21

Here, readers are cautioned against giving their children to Molech and that to do so would sully their relationship with God and serve as a great disrespect to him.

Whilst still in Leviticus, we see God explaining to Moses what will happen to any man who sacrifices his child to Molech and that the man in question will surely be put to death—via stoning. God declares that he will cut the man off from his people himself—thus showing us the magnitude of this transgression, that God himself will personally see to the man’s punishment.

He also explains that if this man is not stoned and if he is allowed to walk free, then God will take vengeance upon his entire family and reckon upon those that absolved him of his sins. We are told,

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Say to the people of Israel, any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.” —Leviticus 20:1-5

Going by what the bible tells us, Moloch can certainly be viewed as a pagan deity, a deity who demanded his followers to sacrifice their children to him. But according to medieval rabbinical traditions, Moloch could also have been connected to an ancient Phoenician and Carthaginian deity—a view which later evolved into viewing Molek as the ancient Semitic and or Mesopotamian gods Adrammelek and Anamelech.

In Conclusion

As previously mentioned, Molek in the bible may also have been a misinterpretation for the Ammonite God Milcom. Indeed, as we’ve discussed in today’s article, Moloch’s place as a specific deity or a particular practice as a sacrificial ritual is often contested.

One of the main reasons for this is because Moloch only appears a handful of times in the bible and whilst his description is consistent and the notion of child sacrifice is consistently associated with him, he does not appear to have any relevance outside of the bible.

He cannot be pinpointed to a specific group of people and whilst some may try to link him with various Mesopotamian gods or Canaanite deities, none appear to be certain.

April 27 2024 This Passover, Stand Against Genocide. This Passover, Stand With the Children: the Passover Peace and Divestiture Protests and Occupations

      Throughout America and the world courageous students protest and occupy their universities in refusal to be silenced or made complicit in genocide, either by institutional profiteering on crimes against humanity through investments or by state sponsorship of war, tyranny, and terror..

     Much of this rage is directed at Genocide Joe, who has betrayed us and abandoned our ideals of universal human rights as our tax dollars buy the deaths of children and their families in Israel’s Gaza War and imperial conquest of her neighbors.

     But American complicity in Israeli war crimes and state terror and tyranny did not begin with Biden’s sock puppet Netanyahu in games of imperial dominion with Iran and Russia; it began generations ago in the wake of the Holocaust at the founding of the nation which was intended to protect us all from fascism, and has now has come round to become all that it once feared, reproducing the conditions of Auschwitz and the concentration camps throughout Israel itself and wherever its power can reach.

    Tonight at the White House Correspondent’s Ball the tyrant himself and his apologists of genocide and dehumanization will laugh and roast each other with clever jibes, while in Gaza real human beings will roast in cities become vast crematoriums.

      In the words of the magnificent character of Lt Aldo Raine in Inglorious Basterds; “I can’t abide it. Can you abide it?”

                Hope and a Prayer

      This Passover, stand against genocide.

      This Passover, stand with the children.

      This Passover, turn not the Stranger from your door.

      This Passover, chose love and not fear.

Can You Abide It? Inglorious Basterds final scene

Bernie Calls Out Netanyahu On Genocide

     (In stark contrast with Genocide Joe, here is an American politician with heart, moral vision, and the courage to speak truth to power. Who will stand with us?)

Sanders hits back at Netanyahu: ‘It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/27/bernie-sanders-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-gaza-war?CMP=share_btn_url

A new generation at UC Berkeley pitches its tents

     (I was nine years old, holding my mother’s hand in the front line of the divestiture protest against the Occupation of Palestine when Reagan ordered the police to open fire on the students on Bloody Thursday May 15 1969 in People’s Park Berkeley, the most terrible incident of state terror in American history since Wounded Knee.

     Fifty five years, and we have learned nothing, changed nothing. There is but one rule in American politics; nobody messes with the grift.)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/27/university-california-berkeley-palestine-protest?CMP=share_btn_url

US faculty speak up and stand alongside student Gaza protesters

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/27/us-faculty-university-students-campus-protests-gaza?CMP

Open Letter to College and University Presidents on Student Protests | ACLU

Four students on why they’re protesting against war in Gaza: ‘Injustice should not be accepted’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/college-protests-israel-gaza?CMP

Columbia University calls for inquiry into leadership as student protests sweep 40 campuses

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/26/pro-palestinian-protests-college-campuses?CMP=share_btn_url

Chaotic and thrilling: Columbia’s radio station is live from the student protests

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/columbia-protests-student-reporters-radio-station-wkcr?CMP

Hebrew

7 באפריל 2024 בפסח הזה, עמוד נגד רצח עם. בפסח הזה, עמוד עם הילדים: מחאות ועיסוקים של שלום פסח והסרה

       ברחבי אמריקה והעולם סטודנטים אמיצים מוחים וכובשים את האוניברסיטאות שלהם בסירוב להשתיק או להיות שותפים לרצח עם, אם על ידי רווח ממוסד על פשעים נגד האנושות באמצעות השקעות או על ידי חסות מדינה למלחמה, עריצות וטרור.

      חלק גדול מהזעם הזה מופנה לרצח העם ג’ו, שבגד בנו ונטש את האידיאלים שלנו לגבי זכויות אדם אוניברסליות, כאשר כספי המס שלנו קונים את מותם של ילדים ומשפחותיהם במלחמת עזה של ישראל ובכיבוש האימפריאלי של שכנותיה.

      אבל שותפות אמריקאית בפשעי מלחמה ישראלים ובטרור המדינה ועריצות לא התחילה עם בובת הגרב של ביידן נתניהו במשחקי שליטה אימפריאלית עם איראן ורוסיה; זה התחיל לפני דורות בעקבות השואה עם הקמת האומה שנועדה להגן על כולנו מפני הפשיזם, וכעת הפך לכל מה שפחדה ממנו פעם, משחזר את תנאי אושוויץ ומחנות הריכוז לאורך כל הדרך. ישראל עצמה ולכל מקום שכוחה יכול להגיע.

     הערב בנשף הכתב של הבית הלבן, העריץ עצמו ומתנצליו על רצח עם ודה-הומניזציה יצחקו ויצלו זה את זה בג’יבס חכם, בעוד שבעזה בני אדם אמיתיים יצלו בערים יהפכו למשרפות עצומות.

       במילותיה של דמותו המפוארת של סגן אלדו ריין ב-Inglory Basterds; “אני לא יכול לעמוד בזה. אתה יכול לעמוד בזה?”

       בפסח הזה, עמוד נגד רצח עם.

       בפסח הזה, עמדו עם הילדים.

       בפסח הזה, אל תפנו את הזר מדלתכם.

       פסח זה, בחר באהבה ולא בפחד.

Arabic

27 أبريل 2024 في عيد الفصح هذا، قف ضد الإبادة الجماعية. في عيد الفصح هذا، قف مع الأطفال: سلام عيد الفصح واحتجاجات الاحتلال وسحب الاستثمارات

       في جميع أنحاء أمريكا والعالم يحتج الطلاب الشجعان ويحتلون جامعاتهم رفضًا لإسكاتهم أو جعلهم متواطئين في الإبادة الجماعية، إما عن طريق التربح المؤسسي من الجرائم ضد الإنسانية من خلال الاستثمارات أو عن طريق رعاية الدولة للحرب والطغيان والإرهاب.

      إن قسماً كبيراً من هذا الغضب موجه نحو منظمة الإبادة الجماعية جو، التي خانتنا وتخلت عن مُثُلنا بشأن حقوق الإنسان العالمية، بينما تشتري دولارات ضرائبنا وفاة الأطفال وأسرهم في حرب إسرائيل على غزة والغزو الإمبراطوري لجيرانها.

      لكن التواطؤ الأميركي في جرائم الحرب الإسرائيلية وإرهاب الدولة وطغيانها لم يبدأ مع نتنياهو، دمية بايدن، في ألعاب الهيمنة الإمبريالية مع إيران وروسيا؛ لقد بدأت منذ أجيال في أعقاب الهولوكوست عند تأسيس الأمة التي كان الهدف منها حمايتنا جميعًا من الفاشية، وقد أصبحت الآن كل ما كانت تخشاه ذات يوم، وتعيد إنتاج ظروف أوشفيتز ومعسكرات الاعتقال في جميع أنحاء العالم. إسرائيل نفسها وأينما يمكن أن تصل قوتها.

     الليلة في حفلة مراسلي البيت الأبيض، سوف يضحك الطاغية نفسه والمدافعون عنه عن الإبادة الجماعية والتجريد من الإنسانية ويشوون بعضهم البعض بسخرية ذكية، بينما في غزة، سيتم شواء البشر الحقيقيين في المدن ليصبحوا محارق جثث ضخمة.

       على حد تعبير الشخصية الرائعة للملازم ألدو رين في فيلم Inglorious Basterds؛ “لا أستطيع تحمل ذلك. هل يمكنك تحمل ذلك؟”

       في عيد الفصح هذا، قفوا ضد الإبادة الجماعية.

       في هذا الفصح، قفوا مع الأطفال.

       في هذا الفصح، لا تُخرج الغريب من بابك.

       هذا الفصح اختار المحبة وليس الخوف.

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