The Writing's On The Wall

The Writing's On The Wall

by C.A. Matthews

Some days it feels like this nightmare will go on forever. It’s overwhelming. When you can’t even have a reasonable, adult conversation with others for risk of being labeled “antisemitic” simply because you support the rights of Palestinians to live and not be ethnically cleansed, it does feel like this is it... The End Times. 

The end of Western civilization perhaps.

Maybe the death of Western civilization isn’t such a bad thing after all. Who needs a society which continues to deny basic human rights to people based upon the “superiority” or “inferiority” of skin color, race, religion, politics, social status, or ethnicity? The writing is on the wall. We’re already seeing the signs of the end of this sick world approaching in various ways. It’s time to accept this truth so we all can live together in peace and harmony.

Already the “stenographers for the oligarchs” are starting to fold. Mainstream media outlets are beginning to soften their original hard line, pro-Zionist/anti-Palestinian stance. Why their sudden change of heart? It probably has a lot to do with so many independent journalists outing them for the propaganda mouthpieces for Israel and the military-industrial complex of the West that they are.

by Mark Taylor, DeMOCKracy Ink

Even CNN has changed its mind, revealing how it didn’t do its job properly when it came to reportage on the “Flour Massacre.” Seems the IDF were at fault all along. Israeli snipers shot at helpless starving Gazans as they gathered to get food aid off of the trucks, the opposite of how many a Western headline read. The food aid itself didn’t kill them. They didn't kill each other in the rush. The IDF did so. Deliberately.

Funny how the truth has a way of eventually leaking into the world of Western journalism. Apparently these stenographers for the oligarchs don’t like being embarrassed by Palestinian journalists who got things right the first time. They don’t enjoy being caught in the act of regurgitating Israeli lies one too many times by independent podcasters. It makes them look stupid. It makes them look like paid-off shills.

Well, they are shills for Israel and the military-industrial complex, aren’t they? But they don’t want to look that obvious. They don't want everyone who watches them to think, "These so-called journalists love bloodshed and violence. Great for their ratings, right?" So, they’ve kept up their front and pretended that they’ve never repeated the hasbara (translation: storytelling) of the Israelis on behalf of their corrupt Western governments. They'll pretend they've never once lied even when they’re forced to make corrections to their stories later. 

But it’s too late. Intelligent and insightful people question everything they hear and read. They look for and find alternative sources of news and double check the facts. Darn those smarty pants! They're making CNN’s and their compatriots’ propaganda spinning that much harder.

The writing is on the wall. Mainstream news outlets will either return to an approximation of “fair and balanced” journalism, or else they’ll be laughed off the planet. When push comes to shove, their CEOs will want to stay in business. They’ll probably accommodate the public’s need to know the truth, rather than continue passing on the false narrative spin of Western governments' propagandists.

Speaking of Western governments… The writing’s on the wall there as well.

“Genocide Joe” Biden and his administration are slowly but surely circling the drain. Trying to sell a geriatric with memory issues and a vicious streak of hatred against non-white peoples has been an extremely difficult sales job for Biden’s campaign workers. Promoting the lesser evil voting argument doesn’t hold up when making such statements as, “Trump would start even more genocides than Biden already has!” 

Nah, it doesn’t work. It exposes the fallacy of lesser evil voting even more than it already has been exposed. It's all just a nasty voter shaming technique. The duopoly and its candidates are just uniformly evil no matter how they care to label themselves, as either ”Donkeys” or “Elephants”. Both groups work for the military-industrial complex and do as they're told. They're both full of crap.

Stories about how President Ronald Reagan picked up the phone in 1982 and called Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and told him to stop bombing Lebanon, and twenty minutes later, Israel stopped the bombings, have been unearthed recently. Repeating Reagan's tough stance against Israeli bombing makes things look even bleaker for "Butcher Biden" and his genocide-enabling administration. 

White House briefings by smooth-talking spokespersons hinting at how “upset” or “angry” or “frustrated” Biden is with P.M. Netanyahu’s actions do nothing to change the facts of the matter.  A genocide is being committed by Israel using US provided bombs and arms. What do Biden's feelings really got to do with anything unless they've been telling him it's the right thing to do, funding a genocide, for the past six months?

Biden continues to send bombs to Israel who uses them to ethnically cleanse even more civilians in Gaza. If US presidents have the power to pick up the phone and call Israeli prime ministers and get them to shut down military operations, why hasn’t Joe Biden picked up the phone and demanded an end to the bombings? The answer is simple: He doesn’t want to stop supplying bombs to Israel. He doesn’t really care if Israel is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. Biden’s war machine donors’ wishes and profits are infinitely more important to him that breathing, happy Palestinian children ever could be.

The most recent polls show that the vast majority of Americans want the US to stop sending bombs to Israel. If Biden continues to ignore the public’s opinion on this matter, he has set himself up for a big fall come the November presidential election. With this stubbornly short-sighted attitude, one wonders if he really wants to keep his job. Maybe not.

The writing is on the wall: Biden is going down for the count. No doubt about it. And good riddance! 

With Biden knocking himself out of the race, the odds for an alternative party candidate such as the Green Party's Jill Stein winning have increased exponentially. In a crowded field of two wannabe presidents and two former presidents, Dr. Stein needs only 26% of the Electoral College vote to win. 

Of course, the crap-filled Donkeys and Elephants will pitch a fit and kick and scream “election fraud!” if Dr. Stein does win, but every time the duopoly pulls their dirty tricks, the more voters become wiser to how corrupt the American system of voting truly is. If they block the people's choice, the US will be revealed as the oligarchy it is and not the "democracy" it pretends to be.

The writing's on the wall for the wealthy, white, male settler-colonialist class who created and perpetuated this travesty called the United States of America. Let's hope they realize this soon and surrender peacefully to the people.

Perhaps the best news of all is that six months after starting their genocide of the Palestinian people the writing is on the wall for the ethnostate of Israel.

Things have gone too far, too fast. The moral stench of the murders of innocent children and babies in incubators in Gaza has convinced many countries to stop supporting Israel. Some like Spain are calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. Colombia is calling for all nations to break diplomatic ties with Israel. The South African genocide case made against Israel at the International Court of Justice has picked up more supporters. Many countries are calling for United Nations' sanctions against Israel and for the UN to treat Israel as a pariah state.

If there ever was any hope for a “two state solution” between Israel and Palestine, recent actions of the Israeli government, military, and its bloodthirsty civilian population have pretty much killed its chances. The writing’s on the wall. The only chance for peace in the region is to permanently shut down the white settler-colonial, apartheid, racist-Zionist government of Israel and build a democratic secular state that doesn’t make one ethnic group superior to the other. All people are to be treated equally. No exceptions.

Six months of daily images of children lying crushed in the rubble, dying slowly of starvation, and dying trying to scrounge up food while being shot at by IDF snipers is grueling and disheartening. But there is a glimmer of hope when we realize that the writing is on the wall. I predict that the end is coming soon for these heartless bastards in both Israel and the Western governments. My only wish is that I live long enough to see all of them punished for their crimes against humanity.

Peace and morality can be restored to the world. We the People can take our rightful place in the governance of ourselves. We can lock away the warmongering narcissists and their minions in the prisons they've built to torture those who resisted their tyranny. When we do, we will write the best and last thing on the wall: Good-bye to the war machine forever!

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

BREAKING: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces Spain’s readiness to recognize the state of Palestine and encourages other European countries to follow suit. pic.twitter.com/egt9FcgJj9

— sarah (@sahouraxo) April 10, 2024

Will Israel Drag the US Into Another Ruinous War? https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-hamas-hezbollah-iran/

Gaza is a test of the absolute bare minimum requirements for someone to be worth listening to about anything at all, because if you got this one wrong then there’s just something wrong with you as a human being.  —Getting Gaza Right Is The Absolute Bare Minimum Requirement https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/getting-gaza-right-is-the-absolute

"If something like this can happen in plain view of everyone, and the people in charge not only do nothing but actively facilitate it, then you have to start wondering if everything about your entire nation is deranged, and if everything you’ve been told about the world is a lie." —Gaza Asks Us A Question About What Kind Of Future We Want To Have https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/gaza-asks-us-a-question-about-what

Israeli Suffering Is Not Comparable To Palestinian Suffering https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israeli-suffering-is-not-comparable

Biden declares “ironclad” commitment to Israel as death toll mounts in Gaza https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/11/tnmf-a11.html

Iran Strikes Back https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/iran-strikes-back 

Biden Administration Won't Say Whether They Support Federal Shield Law For Journalists https://thedissenter.org/biden-white-house-wont-say-whether-backs-press-act/

Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan to destroy Gaza https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-killing-aid-workers-israel-plan-destroy-gaza

West votes against rest of world, supporting illegal sanctions in UN Human Rights Council https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/west-votes-rest-world-un-sanctions

CNN Finally Tells The Truth About The Flour Massacre After Previously Shilling For Israel  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/cnn-finally-tells-the-truth-about

Ralph Nader: The Mutually Reinforcing US and Israeli Empires https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/09/ralph-nader-the-mutually-reinforcing-us-and-israeli-empires/

Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities  https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/10/israel-has-formed-a-task-force-to-carry-out-covert-campaigns-at-us-universities/

It Can't Be Fun Defending Israel These Days... https://youtu.be/guxkmRPSTlI?si=iaM2puQPdz8fBo4B

Aid Flotilla Heading To Gaza To Break Siege https://popularresistance.org/aid-flotilla-heading-to-gaza-to-break-siege/

Establishment SUDDENLY Turns Against Israel! https://youtu.be/ExQM25IwFd4?si=wC0zhVp5hX6nVm0C

Tucker Carlson and Palestinian Priest on Israel’s Oppression of Christians https://youtu.be/n2_4uI-lcv4?si=dq1R8GxL-hkrUwr2

Empire Managers Keep Acting Like Iran Is About To Attack Israel Without Provocation https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/empire-managers-keep-acting-like

Meet Centuria, Ukraine’s Western-Trained Neo-Nazi Army https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/08/meet-centuria-ukraines-western-trained-neo-nazi-army/

Sales of Palestinian land are happening around the US  https://therealnews.com/illegal-real-estate-sales-of-palestinian-land-are-happening-around-the-us

Last Year, You Spent More Than a Month’s Rent on Pentagon Contractors https://otherwords.org/last-year-you-spent-more-than-a-months-rent-on-pentagon-contractors/

47 years later, Leonard Peltier is still not free https://therealnews.com/47-years-later-leonard-peltier-is-still-not-free

A great album now on Bandcamp:
Notes From A Holocaust by David Rovics
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/notes-from-a-holocaust 

Active Duty Airman Larry Hebert refuses to eat while Gaza starves.
 

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The Miracle

Editor's note: I had a dream about this whole hot mess the world finds itself in. I wanted to share my vision, but I struggled to put it into words until I decided to write it as a short short story. Other than the odd poem (not very often and very odd), I haven't posted anything like a short story at the The Revolution Continues before. This is a first. I've not written much fiction in recent times because, frankly, I don't feel like writing anything funny or with a happy ending. My last novella is set in a dystopian world where an anarchist commune that practices mutual aid is struggling to survive alongside a fascist state. My publisher insisted it at least have a "happy for now" ending. (You can buy a copy of it here. It would make my publisher very happy. Or you can drop me a donation via my Paypal.me page here. That would make me very happy!)

If you decide you'd like to read more short fiction posts, let me know. I'll see what I can do. If you'd rather I didn't post fiction here, leave a comment stating your preference. Thanks for your feedback.

 

A must-watch short video:

We can put an end to this genocide. We have the power.

The Miracle

by C.A. Matthews

“That’s my planet,” I confessed, trembling. I pointed to the big blue marble that is Earth through the spaceship observation port. The tallest of the grayish, bulb-headed, big-eyed, mouthless alien beings nodded in understanding. “You can tell it’s inhabited from the amount of pollution in the atmosphere detectable from this… height.”

I’d never believed in alien abduction before, but now that it was happening to me it didn’t seem all that bad. No anal probes. No poking or prodding of any kind really, unless you count the mental probing my hosts—I hated to label them “my captors”—had gently done to determine how best to communicate with me. I spoke out loud, but I realized fairly quickly that they were reading my mind and communicating me mentally, so using my vocal cords wasn’t necessary. Talking just made me feel less nervous in their presence, and they didn’t seem to mind.

The pollutants and toxins in your biosphere are slowly killing your kind and many other species. Do you understand? The tallest of the aliens sent its thoughts directly into my head. Its tone and intonation made me imagine it was coming from an older, wiser individual. It communicated slowly and kindly as if speaking to a lost child. Would you like them removed?

“The pollution, you mean, not the people, right?” I laughed and then gasped as what it meant hit me fully. “You’re saying that you all can actually clean up our polluted planet after all we’ve done to it?”

Yes, we have the means to return your planet’s biosphere to its state before the mass burning of fossil fuels began. We can purge the toxins from the atmosphere, the water cycle, and from the soil. Crops and forests will thrive. No longer will adverse climate effects harm food production or the wildlife. We can replace the engines that run your vehicles, machinery, and industrial plants that cause pollution and radiation with ones that do not. We can eliminate rogue viruses and bacteria that cause serious illness and provide your healers with instruction on how to cure through natural means, not through the use of synthetic chemicals. Allow us to demonstrate.

With a wave of its hand—or what I thought would pass as a hand on Earth—Tall Guy gave its compatriots the signal to start Operation Earth Clean-Up. I’m not sure if what I witnessed from the spaceship window happened instantaneously or was happening over a period of days, years, or centuries, but within what seemed only a few short minutes to me the face of the Earth looked much greener and bluer and...well, healthier.

“Wow…” I whispered. “Thank you! I am very impressed. No more bad air quality days? No more boil warnings for our tap water? I can actually swim in the lake now and not get covered with an outbreak of poisonous blue-green algae?”

We have purged the toxins that are hazardous to life on your planet, my host mentally informed me. Your kind can be cured of sicknesses now with simple medicines and techniques available to all.

“No more need for bad health insurance that never covers what you really need? Cancer cured? It all sounds too good to be true.” I shook my head in disbelief. “In my country, big corporations make lots of money from keeping people sick and addicted to drugs.”

Tall Guy blinked. If it had possessed a mouth, it might have frowned. The concept of capitalism was probably as foreign and strange to my hosts as their spaceship and advanced technology were to me. If they were reading my mind at that moment, they might have regretted lavishing such kind gifts upon our selfish species.

Is there anything else we can do for your kind before we return you? Tall Guy asked.

I couldn’t wait to return to Earth—the beautiful, unpolluted Garden of Eden where sickness would be no more. I sighed. There was something niggling me in the back of my mind. I had to know if my hosts could grant me this one last, grand wish.

“Can you rid our world of war? Can you remove all the weapons—that is, the tools of violence and destruction? Guns, cannons, nukes, tanks, submarines, bomber jets and the like that humans use to kill other humans?”

Tall Guy blinked again. I was pretty sure this time it was frowning inside even without a mouth. I probably had asked too big of a favor. After all, extracting pollution out of the biosphere could be just an elaborate chemical equation to them, but taking weapons away from warmongers? If the concepts of capitalism and greed were incomprehensibly horrible and cruel to my hosts, can you imagine what they would have thought of humanity’s insatiable need to slaughter their neighbors and steal each others’ land and resources?

A few minutes later, after much discussion as I called my hosts’ method of communicating as a group by touching their foreheads together, I got my answer.

We will try.

It took more than a hand wave from Tall Guy to bring peace about on Planet Earth. Several different groups of gray aliens started to work out different aspects of the challenge. I was allowed to walk about and watch each team tackle their part of the problem. I watched a view screen with fascination as one group disintegrated the biggest and most obvious weapons of war. They focused what must have been a laser upon an aircraft carrier and then poof! It was vaporized. Gone. Likewise to nuclear subs and battleships. The sailors aboard were all magically transported to the closest port.

I couldn’t help but clap my hands with glee as another group took out an entire fleet of bombers and nuclear silos. Zap! They disappeared.

But my hosts didn’t stop there. Another group worked on eliminating all the small arms and automatic weapons on the planet. I’m not sure how their scanners could pick up on the millions of firearms, some of which were hidden in cellars and barns by the thousands in my country, but they did it. Abracadabra! They vanished.

Wars aren’t only fought on the battlefields, but in the cities and towns where the oppressed are helpless to defend themselves. Several groups of my gray hosts worked on tearing down barbwire fences and concrete walls that had imprisoned so many within their own homelands or kept them from entering a place of safety. I don’t know how they did it, but my hosts flung open the prison doors that had incarcerated freedom fighters and innocents alike, setting them free.

In turn, the politicians and the corporate war lords who had profited greatly from eternal wars for oil and similar land grabs were escorted by invisible forces to trade places with the unjustly imprisoned. Ta-da! What a brilliant move!

The destruction of homes, family farms, and small businesses, the results of the wars and genocides, was instantly reversed. Homelessness and hunger were no more. All who had been separated by violence and divisions were once again reunited with their family members and friends.

I wept tears of joy.

It is accomplished, Tall Guy communicated to me. Why do you experience sadness?

“I’m not sad. I’m happy.” I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand and gazed upon one of the view screens where a neighborhood, once reduced to rubble by bombing, now stood whole and complete. “I am so happy with the results of your wonderful talents. How can we ever thank you?”

And then I caught a glimpse of something on the screen that caused my smile to fade. “What the hell… What is he doing?”

A man picked up a rock and threw it hard at another man just about to enter his rebuilt home. The second man fell to his knees, blood pouring from a deep gash on his forehead. The first man and his group ran toward the second man’s home, throwing more rocks at it as well as the people of the rebuilt neighborhood.

“I thought you had eliminated all war?” I whispered.

My hosts assembled and pressed their foreheads together in communion. After a long minute, Tall Guy approached, its appendages spread open in an imploring fashion.

We eliminated all the human-made tools of war and violence as you had asked us to, but we cannot take away the feelings of hatred and greed and fear from inside each human being. That is something humanity must do for itself. Do you understand?

I nodded and closed my eyes. “I understand. I appreciate all that you’ve done for us. I realize now that I can’t expect you to perform a miracle.”

A miracle? Explain.

“Something that seems impossible, but it can and does spontaneously occur on rare occasions.”

Tall Guy nodded. Its gaze appeared softer, more sympathetic. No, we cannot perform a miracle. We cannot change the minds of living beings set on hurting others.

“How long will it take until humankind rebuilds all the weapons it had?” I sniffed. “Years? Months? Days?”

Not long. Tall Guy’s tone registered upon my mind as resignation.

I turned toward the window. The skies above the Earth were growing darker and dirtier by the second. Humans were already rebuilding the polluting factories to create instruments of death, to destroy each other and Earth’s fragile ecosystem without mercy.

Can we help? Tall Guy communicated to me.

I slowly smiled at my gracious hosts. “We’d all better start praying for that miracle, or else I’ve wasted your time.”

This meme of Israeli girls writing their names on bombs to drop on Gaza is a couple months old. Recent estimates say 15,000+ children have been murdered in the Israeli genocide of Gaza.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

We can put an end to this genocide. We have the power. https://youtu.be/ysZVQpTJVH8?si=1tIiR3JBSPbTKdBg

The Majority of Americans Now Disapprove of Israel’s Genocide, Polling Finds  https://truthout.org/articles/the-majority-of-americans-now-disapprove-of-israels-genocide-polling-finds/

'This Is Unforgivable': Israeli Airstrike Kills 7 World Central Kitchen Workers https://www.commondreams.org/news/world-central-kitchen-israel

Latest Huge Transfer of 2,000-Pound Bombs from U.S. to Israel Not Newsworthy to the New York Times  https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/03/latest-huge-transfer-of-2000-pound-bombs-from-u-s-to-israel-not-newsworthy-to-the-new-york-times/

The 'Human Shields' Lie Has Been Conclusively, Irrefutably Debunked  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-human-shields-lie-has-been-conclusively

‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/05/doctor-at-israeli-detention-camp-for-gazans-blows-whistle-on-war-crimes/

Biden Has Had the Power to Stop Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza Since Day 1 https://truthout.org/articles/biden-has-had-the-power-to-stop-israels-war-crimes-in-gaza-since-day-1/

US military veteran refuses to pay fine after being found guilty over Hamas sign  https://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/national/24226377.us-military-veteran-refuses-pay-fine-found-guilty-hamas-sign/

Israel Keeps Getting More Murderous https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-keeps-getting-more-murderous

Six Months Of Hell On Earth https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/six-months-of-hell-on-earth

The Chris Hedges Report: Hamas: How Israel Created Its Own Nemesis https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/02/the-chris-hedges-report-hamas-how-israel-created-its-own-nemesis/

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes

Courageous Active Duty Air Force Airman On White House Hunger Strike For Gaza https://mark192.substack.com/p/a-true-patriotic-member-of-the-military

Will President Biden Pardon America's First Corporate Political Prisoner? https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/will-president-biden-pardon-americas

International Court Issues First-Ever Decision Enforcing the Right to a Healthy Environment https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/03/international-court-issues-first-ever-decision-enforcing-the-right-to-a-healthy-environment/

The Key Bridge disaster was caused by the oppression of workers https://therealnews.com/the-key-bridge-disaster-was-caused-by-the-oppression-of-workers

Looking Back At The Flint Water Crisis  https://www.thebrockovichreport.com/p/looking-back-at-the-flint-water-crisis

Epic Fail: The Forever Failure of America’s Failed Forever Wars https://tomdispatch.com/epic-fail/

Chris Hedges: The Death of Amr  https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/03/chris-hedges-the-death-of-amr/

Stop Reporting On Biden's Angry Feelings Toward Israel. It's Not News. It's Not Interesting. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stop-reporting-on-bidens-angry-feelings

Israel Lets Some Aid Into Gaza So The US Will Keep Giving It Weapons To Kill People In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-lets-some-aid-into-gaza-so

As Support For Gaza Goes Mainstream, Don't Let The Empire Co-Opt The Movement https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/as-support-for-gaza-goes-mainstream

How World Central Kitchen serves Israel’s genocidal agenda https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-world-central-kitchen-serves-israels-genocidal-agenda

“Netanyahu’s Colonial Project”. Appropriation of All Palestinian Lands. Israel’s Plan to Expand into A “Greater State” https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-quest-palestinian-free-palestine-continues/5853557

Big Oil Clouded the Science on Extreme Weather. Now It Faces a Reckoning https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/06/big-oil-clouded-the-science-on-extreme-weather-now-it-faces-a-reckoning/ 

The Real Reason The US Wants To Ban TikTok https://youtu.be/xEDGZlG_41k

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Go to https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com and subscribe at the link at the end of the article. You'll enjoy having each week's post automatically sent to your email box or reading it at the Substack site. Many thanks for your consideration.

When Is A Ceasefire Not A Ceasefire?

If you still have any doubt that we live in a profoundly sick dystopia as deranged as anything that’s ever been imagined in fiction, take note of the fact that the most powerful empire in history is currently trying to propagandize you into thinking an obvious genocide is fine. -- Caitlin Johnstone

When Is A Ceasefire Not A Ceasefire?

by C.A. Matthews

When is a ceasefire not a ceasefire? Recent headlines in the mainstream media confused me, so I did some research to find the answers.

US steps aside, allows 'non-binding' ceasefire https://youtu.be/wvuTyGROBZQ?si=gk82n6pl7hs6ZW9i

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the United Nations, emphasizes that the Security Council’s vote to approve a ceasefire in Gaza is “non-binding,” so that is why the US decided to abstain from voting no to a ceasefire resolution this time around. In her opinion, this ceasefire resolution is not really a “ceasefire,” and it can and will be ignored by the US and Israel.

Meanwhile, this is what the rest of the Security Council thinks about it:

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday characterized the United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as “non-binding,” a phrase also used by US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

 The US was rebuked by China, according to Akmal Dawi at VOA: “‘Security Council resolutions are binding,’ Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.”

 Beijing is correct on the law, and the Biden administration is being disingenuous. If President Biden did not want a ceasefire resolution to pass, he should have vetoed it. By abstaining and letting the world community vote on the matter, Biden has elicited a binding decision, and his officials should stop dancing around it.

 The law here is clear.

 Article 25 of the UN Charter, to which the US, China and Israel are all signatories, says, “The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter.”

Moreover, we could consider the actual language of the resolution, in which the UNSC:

“Demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain”

You’d have to twist yourself into a pretzel to avoid concluding that the Security Council sees the ceasefire as binding, given the use of the verb “demand.” The UNSC isn’t suggesting. It isn’t hoping. It isn’t imploring. It is demanding. --From Naked Hypocrisy: The US Cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, Now Call Gaza Ceasefire Demand ‘Non-Binding https://scheerpost.com/2024/03/28/naked-hypocrisy-the-us-cited-unsc-resolutions-to-invade-iraq-now-call-gaza-ceasefire-demand-non-binding/

Even more confusing, Ambassador Greenfield-Thomas complained that this particular UNSC ceasefire resolution doesn’t mention the “mass rapes by Hamas on October 7,” although these lurid allegations have all since been dismissed due to lack of evidence. In fact, there is now ample evidence that these false rape charges were concocted by the Israelis to discredit Hamas while simultaneously downplaying Israeli soldiers’ own sordid war crimes—many of which IDF troops proudly have uploaded to TikTok and other social media platforms.

Israeli “commission” on 7 October rape claims exposed as fraud https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-commission-7-october-rape-claims-exposed-fraud/45401

State Dept downplays reports of Israeli soldiers sexually abusing, slaughtering Palestinian women https://thegrayzone.com/2024/02/23/state-dept-israeli-soldiers-sexually-abusing-slaughtering-palestinian-women/

Apparently a “non-binding ceasefire” to the Biden administration means that the US will supply arms to Israel in defiance of the UN Security Council ceasefire resolution that just passed. Israel can continue to bomb, shoot, maim, torture, rape, and starve Palestinians with impunity, all because their good friend the United States of America will continue running interference for them in the United Nations and elsewhere.

Israel continues to bomb Gaza and block aid in defiance of UNSC ceasefire resolution https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/03/27/israel-continues-to-bomb-gaza-and-block-aid-in-defiance-of-unsc-ceasefire-resolution/

If no other countries are willing or able to take on the US and Israel, this UNSC ceasefire resolution won’t be able to make Israel cease firing bombs/weapons at the innocents in Gaza. It won’t stop war crimes from being committed by Israeli troops. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinian civilians will continue unabated.

So, when is a “ceasefire” not a ceasefire? A ceasefire is not an actual ceasefire when there is no way to back it up (with the use of force, if necessary) to make the parties involved in committing war crimes stop. The bad guys will continue to do what the ceasefire resolution explicitly tells them to stop doing, that is firing upon a civilian population. Worse yet, the bad guys will continue doing what they’re doing without any fear of being charged with, convicted of, or locked away for their war crimes.

When is a “genocide” not a genocide then? You should be able to follow the logic of this conundrum easily enough after the first example.

United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Francesca Albanese, submitted her “report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967” this past week. She gave brief remarks in person about the report as well.

The official name of her report? “The Anatomy of a Genocide”. (You can download the report in full as a PDF file here.)

Independent UN Expert Alleges Israeli Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza https://youtu.be/3XrwNGWF108?si=JenHXmT3HLdyA5iX

Here’s the scenario: We have a United Nations human rights special rapporteur calling what is currently happening to the Palestinian people in Gaza a “genocide”. The International Court of Justice at The Hague in January made a preliminary ruling that Israel is committing “plausible genocide” against the Palestinian people while it continues to weigh more evidence. Many human rights organizations and aid groups, such as Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, who have witnessed similar situations up close and personal previously have also called what is happening to the Gazans a “genocide”.

ICJ Hearings to Examine 57 Years of Israeli Occupation of Palestine https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-occupation

ICJ Rules in Favour of South Africa and Against Israel https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/icj-rules-in-favour-of-south-africa

International Court of Justice Rules That Israel Must Stop Killing Palestinians https://scheerpost.com/2024/01/24/international-court-of-justice-rules-that-israel-must-stop-killing-palestinians/

Even Israeli government officials and ministers have made public statements indicating that they are committing genocide: 22-Minute Speech Details Israeli Officials' Genocidal Statements at ICJ https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-genocidal-statements-2666930604

During Holy Week, a US State Department employee, Dr. Annelle Sheline, resigned her position in protest to the “genocide” occurring in Gaza. In her statement, she uses the word genocide to describe what is happening there.

I Could Not Stay Silent: Annelle Sheline Resigns from State Dept. over U.S. Gaza Policy https://youtu.be/nRI-MtoSD_E?si=Msrr5qLuEicKt5yF

With a United Nations human rights rapporteur and the assembled justices of the International Court of Justice calling the ethnic cleansing of 32,000+ Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli military a “genocide,” along with a US State Department employee with a conscience and many respected human rights agencies, how could anyone doubt that a genocide is indeed occurring in Gaza? All of the 13,000+ dead Palestinian children just didn’t run into those US-provided bombs dropped onto their homes on purpose, did they? This argument is a no-brainer, isn’t it?

Not to the brainless US government officials and mainstream media it isn’t!

A US State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, insulted Ms. Albanese, calling her “anti-semitic” because of her report findings. How diplomatic is that phrasing coming from an employee of the State Department!

Miller said they oppose mandate of this rapporteur, accused her of antisemitism and rejected allegations of genocide: https://twitter.com/AssalRad/status/1773039432867749927

Simply put, a genocide is not a genocide when the fact of legally designating it as such gets in the way of implementing US foreign policy. The Biden administration has enthusiastically aided Israel in the commission of genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza by providing it with arms and political interference at the United Nations, but it doesn’t like the negative connotations of the word “genocide.” So the US State Department simply won’t use that word to describe what is happening in Gaza.

Let’s be honest. If the current administration could get away with calling what’s happening to the human beings currently trapped, starving, and dying in Gaza a “picnic”, then that is what it would be called. A picnic. And the public would believe it! Which leads us to our next question:

When is “journalism” not journalism?

What the mainstream media is putting out for public consumption recently cannot be defined as journalism. What they’re doing doesn’t even fit the basic definition of journalism I learned way back in high school. It’s all rather pathetic, isn’t it?

Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges laments how American mainstream journalism has become one big propaganda machine for the US and Israeli governments:

PEN America is a sock puppet of the U.S. and Israel… [It has] accepted funding from the Israeli government — which routinely censors and jails Palestinian journalists and writers in Israel and the occupied West Bank and assassinates them and their families in Gaza — for the literary group’s annual World Voices festival in New York. From PEN America Self-Destructs https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/26/chris-hedges-pen-america-self-destructs/

I was taught that a journalist must answer the “who, what, where, when, why and how” of the situation in their reporting. This example shows how the “who” or the instigator of the famine in Gaza (the government of Israel) has been completely left out of the articles:

An entire Economist article on famine in Gaza doesn’t say the word “Israel” once. Not even when describing damage to farmland and water facilities or severely restricted aid deliveries. Saying *who* is destroying the farmland and restricting aid seems like basic info to include. https://twitter.com/AssalRad/status/1772862382462636150

The Western mainstream media is happy to manipulate the narrative in order to make their corporate owners (and our paid-off public officials’ biggest donors) happy. Jonathan Cook shows this to be the case in his article, We were lied into the Gaza genocide. Al Jazeera has shown us how: https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/we-were-lied-into-the-gaza-genocide

Basic information is ignored or cut out of reportage of events in Gaza altogether. One would think we’d witness some feeling from Western journalists for the tremendous loss of life of their fellow journalists in Gaza over the past six months (more killed than in the entirety of the Vietnam War), but there isn’t any. Many big name Western journalists are perfectly fine with not fully reporting the who, what, where, when, why and how of the situation. They’re making lots of money acting as “stenographers for the oligarchy.” Why let the truth or morals get in the way?

This sad fact leads us to this question: When is “censorship” not censorship?

If a so-called “journalist” working for a big news network has no problems with not reporting the entirety of what’s happening in Gaza, has no problems with repeating US or Israeli propaganda and talking points, then why would they care if the US government (or one of its private agents) shuts down social media platforms or bans freelance journalists from posting? It makes for less competition and fewer embarrassing situations when the "stenographers" are caught out in a lie. Who really needs free speech? (Answer: You don't.) Learn more at:

I was banned from Elon’s ‘free speech’ X app for offending power https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/19/banned-elons-free-speech-x-app/

Israel’s Shadow Over Free Speech: The Truth Behind the TikTok Ban Bill https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-shadow-free-speech-truth-behind-tiktok-ban-bill/287113/

Last but not least, when is a “terrorist” not a terrorist? Maybe it’s when the terrorists are actually agents of the governments of the United States of America and Israel. These two nations are busily trying to shut down social media platforms for their own benefit, lying to, manipulating, and terrorizing people both at home and abroad in order to advance their agendas. They’re literally getting away with a genocide in Gaza. Don’t these nefarious actions fit the very definition of what makes a nation a "terrorist state?"

by Mark Taylor, DeMOCKracy Ink

Worse yet, these terrorists, these censors of free speech, these manipulators of the media, these murderers of children, they think they’ll get away with it. They don’t see any need to curtail what they’re doing. Ever.

Perhaps it’s time We the People who still possess a conscience and morals rise up and lock these war criminals away once and for all. 

But how? It won't be easy, but remember: We outnumber them. We are the workers and the consumers that make this corrupt imperialist-capitalist regime tick. We can shut the system down if we organize and act. But first we must decide that today's the day to end the terrorism.

Keep speaking out. Keep marching. Keep protesting. Keep striking and supporting the BDS movement. Don’t make life comfortable for the terrorists who won’t call themselves what they really are and use the correct terms to describe the evil they're really doing. 

Words are powerful, and we have the best ones on our side. We can and we must speak truth to power.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Download the PDF of the Anatomy of a Genocide - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese (A/HRC/55/73)  https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/anatomy-genocide-report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-palestinian-territories-occupied-1967-francesca-albanese-ahrc5573-advance-unedited-version

Ireland backs bid to include blocking of aid in definition of genocide https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/27/gaza-ireland-joins-battle-to-include-the-blocking-of-vital-aid-in-definition-of-genocide

Imagine If Russia Or China Did The Things Israel Is Doing In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/imagine-if-russia-or-china-did-the

Stella Assange on the Assange Appeal Decision https://youtu.be/FMaLgiX-8a0?si=npBLwYVObXpJLDHH

VIPS MEMO: The French Road to Nuclear War https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/25/vips-memo-the-french-road-to-nuclear-war/

Israeli “commission” on 7 October rape claims exposed as fraud hhttps://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-commission-7-october-rape-claims-exposed-fraud/45401

Released Hostage Reveals Oct 7th TRUTH! (It's Not What You Think.) https://youtu.be/NnJM9q6EHwA?si=LGRA5Ww9qR2RX5Cp

The Empire Slowly Suffocates Assange Like It Slowly Suffocates All Its Enemies https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-empire-slowly-suffocates-assange

Should Biden be tried for genocide crimes? https://youtu.be/HhyIxP7DTyg?si=gjyuaVQpYe1WQeEe

Israel lodges proposal with UN for dismantling of Palestinian relief agency  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/31/israel-plan-un-dismantle-palestinian-relief-agency-unwra
 
US State Dept’s favorite celebrity chef builds Gaza aid dock with stolen rubble https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/27/us-state-depts-chef-gaza-aid-rubble/

Dead and Divine and Brother of All https://matthewhoh.substack.com/p/dead-and-divine-and-brother-of-all

CARTOON: ISIS-K? Wake Up To The Many US Connections To Moscow Terror Attack!  https://mark192.substack.com/p/cartoon-isis-k-wake-up-to-the-many

Israel Lies About Being A Victim So That It Can Victimize
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-lies-about-being-a-victim/

Violent Extremists Get Called "Moderates" By A Violent Extremist Empire https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/violent-extremists-get-called-moderates

Liberal Finger-Wagging At Netanyahu Is A Phony, Cynical Charade https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/liberal-finger-wagging-at-netanyahu

The Plan Is To Turn Palestine Into A Historical Footnote So It's Too Late To Save It https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-plan-is-to-turn-palestine-into

A Genocide Foretold  https://scheerpost.com/2024/03/31/chris-hedges-a-genocide-foretold/

The Nuclear Explosion That Makes US Aid to Israel Illegal
(Israel’s nuclear program has been in violation of international law for decades, rendering it ineligible for American assistance.)
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-nuclear-weapons/
 

A Human With A Conscience Award nominee Caitlin Johnstone has a new painting and video called "The Self-Immolation Of Aaron Bushnell" https://youtu.be/kAEc3qQloeQ?si=9N7UI1hSt4-0ftlT

On Easter Sunday, active-duty Air Force Senior Airman Larry Hebert began a hunger strike to highlight the plight of the starving children of Gaza.

Larry Hebert, age 26, from New Hampshire, and a member of Veterans For Peace, took authorized leave from his assignment at Naval Station Rota, Spain to participate in demonstrations demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to visit Congressional offices to press for stopping weapons shipments to Israel, which violate several U.S. laws.

Hebert said, “I was deeply touched when I saw that Aaron Bushnell took his own life at the Israeli Embassy for the people of Gaza and knew that I had to raise my voice in opposition to the U.S. government supplying Israel the bombs and rockets to commit genocide in Gaza. Active-duty members are afraid to speak out and I hope that my example and that of others, like Aaron, can change that.”

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