How Can We Make Reparations to Palestine?

by C. A. Matthews

There will come a day when the genocidaires of Israel and its mostly Western allies will be forced to make reparations to the Palestinian people. Justice demands that fair and proper restitution be made to the victims of Israeli war crimes. But what will these reparations look like? How will they be enacted? Who will oversee the implementation of these reparations?

I’ve pondered these questions and came up with an outline of what all should be covered in a reparations plan. I believe reparations should be made to the Palestinian people in the following categories:

1. Financial-Material Reparations

2. Cultural-Historical-Educational Reparations

3. Political-Judicial Reparations

4. Spiritual-Physical Reparations

Israel will have to make reparations to Lebanon, Syria, and Iran in addition to Gaza and the West Bank. In this article, I’m concentrating on reparations to be made to the Palestinian people, although this outline could be used as a pattern to help develop a reparations plan for other peoples Israel and its allies have committed war crimes against.

Financial-Material Reparations

Financial-material reparations are the most obvious ones that Israel and its allies will need to make. All buildings Israel has destroyed in its genocide of Gaza, as well as in its attempt to takeover the West Bank, must be repaired or replaced. This includes public edifices such as hospitals, schools, universities, churches, mosques, and community centers. It will also include restoring parks, beaches, tourist attractions, museums, theaters, and other public gathering places. Bridges, roads, port facilities, utilities, water treatment plants, power plants, and any other infrastructure damaged or destroyed will also need to be repaired or rebuilt and paid for by the war criminals.

Private homes, apartment buildings, business offices, shopping areas, and individual stores or kiosks must also be repaired or rebuilt in a timely manner. And because Israelis have deprived Palestinians of their livelihoods and homes, they would need to make good on the income Palestinians have lost during the commission of their war crimes. Israelis must continue to repay all Palestinians lost income during this period of rebuilding Gaza and the destroyed and stolen homes and villages of the West Bank.

I know what’s going through your head at this point: How will the state of Israel be able to afford the restoration of all the buildings and infrastructure it has destroyed? How will it afford to give financial support to the Palestinian families it has harmed? Who will be the workers to fulfill this plan?

I will discuss the worker situation later, but for now notice that I added “and allies” at the start when I mentioned who all have committed war crimes against the Palestinian people. Israel won’t be the only country that will be making good on these reparations. All of Israel’s allies that have provided funding, bombs, jets, tanks, munitions, mercenaries, military support and surveillance, etc., to attack Gaza will need to make restitution as well. No country that aided or abetted Israel’s war crimes gets to walk free under this reparations plan. All who are guilty will pay to restore the damages their activities and support of the state of Israel have caused. No exceptions...

 

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Brother, Can You Spare $7 Billion?

Brother, Can You Spare $7 Billion?

by Coast Watcher

Once they sent some missiles to Ukraine
Thanks to the folks on the Hill
Once they sent some missiles, now we're done
Brother, can you spare seven bill'?

Joe Biden’s continuing in office as POTUS is verging on elder abuse.

His performances during press conferences lack coherence. How can anyone not see his advancing senility? Neoliberal attempts to explain away his decrepit behavior as a "speech impediment" are failing in credence.

Knowing this man has control over nuclear weapons makes thinking people uncomfortable, especially since NATO seems determined to provoke Vladimir Putin by expanding up to Russia’s border. Putin has warned what will happen if NATO does so, yet we see Sweden and Finland proposing to join the outdated Cold War organization. Putin has also warned that shipments of military gear to Ukraine by Western powers will be considered legitimate targets of war, yet those shipments continue at an incredible rate.

This US proxy war in Ukraine is merely the latest example of how this senile president is still useful to the oligarchy. The US government is funneling literally billions of dollars into Ukraine—one of the most corrupt countries on Earth according to the Panama Papers—to prop up its failing war effort against Russia. Most of those billions pass through the coffers of the military-industrial complex to the complete satisfaction of their boards of directors and shareholders. 

And why? Supposedly so the West can utterly destroy the Russian economy and grab their resources and then move on to conquer the King of Global Capitalism, a.k.a. China. Nothing new there.

It’s not only Biden’s decline in cognitive function that’s concerning people. He's sending $33 billion to Ukraine so the folks there can “have something in their pockets.” Fortunately for the Ukrainians, they already enjoy universal healthcare while many US citizens have to make do with GoFundMe.  

You have to give it to the Democrat Party--there’s no pretense made that Biden is working for the good of ordinary Americans. $33 billion could end many injustices that Americans suffer with a stroke of the president's pen. He could easily end student loan debt, institute Medicare For All, send out stimulus checks or start UBI. It's estimated that it would take a mere $20 billion to end homelessness, for instance. Yet Biden gladly sends all that money into a proxy war. Ukraine gets plenty of money for weaponry while American infrastructure disintegrates all around us. 

It makes one wonder who really is at war and with whom. Could it be that struggling Americans are being bombarded by the mindless, selfish destructiveness of capitalism? Is our tax money simply disappearing into a war zone in the form of weapon drops so these arms can be bought and sold later at a discount by other interested parties?

Just think of all the profits to be made from selling drones and missiles after "cleaning up" all that money... Can't you just picture all those Congress members buying new mansions and yachts with those ill-gotten gains? Hey, they worked hard for it!

Meanwhile across the globe, there is no unity of sanctions against Russia. Hungary is refusing to enact any sanctions, partly because Hungarian President Orbán is getting payback against the EU for penalizing his country over its anti-LGBTQIA laws, and partly because Orbán isn’t stupid enough to deprive his people of cheap Russian fuel. India also refuses to go along with the drive to sanction Russia, its leadership resisting blandishments and threats from Western powers to do so.

Pakistan wasn’t so fortunate. A US-instigated coup against Imran Khan ousted that pro-neutral leader in favor of one more pliable to Western interests. The message is clear: Nothing personal, but if you're a leader of a country who doesn't go along with NATO's sanctions against Russia, you're going to be out of a job soon.

I can only conclude that Biden is still a useful fool for the one-percent. Any comprehension he might still possess on the nature of politics and capitalism as a whole are more the product of ingrained habit than specific thought. But as long as the American oligarchy thinks he can talk the talk—after a drooling fashion—the more likely he'll keep cutting those big checks for that plucky Ukrainian comedian/puppet-president.

BIO: Coast Watcher is tired of watching the working classes get shafted by the greed and evil manipulations of the billionaires invested heavily in the military industrial complex. Isn't it about time we kick all their politician-puppets to the curb and see how they like begging for small change?

More great insight into the why of spending so much on warfare:

The masters of war require an enemy. When an enemy cannot be found, as George Orwell understood in Nineteen Eighty-Four, an enemy is manufactured. That enemy can become an ally overnight – we allied ourselves with Iran in the Middle East to fight the Taliban and later the Caliphate – before instantly reinstated Iran as the incarnation of evil. The enemy is not about logic or geopolitical necessity. It is about stoking the fear and hatred that fuels perpetual war. 

In 1989, I covered the revolutions that toppled the communist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe.  President Mikhail Gorbachev, like his successor Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin in the early stages of his rule, hoped to integrate Russia into the western alliance. But the war industry places profits before national defense. It needed an antagonistic Russia to push the expansion of NATO beyond the borders of a unified Germany in violation of a promise made to Moscow. There were billions of dollars to be made from a Russian enemy, as there are billions more to be made from the proxy war in Ukraine. There would be no “peace dividend” at the end of the Cold War. The war industry was determined to continue to bleed the US dry and amass its obscene profits. They provoked and antagonized Russia until Russia filled its preordained role. --Chris Hedges, The Age of Self-Delusion

Related article links:

The Age of Self-Delusion  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-age-of-self-delusion?s=r

An Intellectual No-Fly Zone  https://popularresistance.org/an-intellectual-no-fly-zone-online-censorship-of-ukraine-dissent-is-becoming-the-new-norm/

Ex-General Pushing for NATO Troops in Ukraine Has Weapons Industry Ties https://popularresistance.org/surprise-ex-general-pushing-for-nato-troops-in-ukraine-has-weapons-industry-ties/ 

UN Chief Slams Fossil Fuel Industry for Using Ukraine War to Boost Profits https://truthout.org/articles/un-chief-slams-fossil-fuel-industry-for-using-ukraine-war-to-boost-profits/

On Ukraine, the World Majority Sides with Russia Over US https://popularresistance.org/on-ukraine-the-world-majority-sides-with-russia-over-us/

US/NATO Wants War With Russia  https://popularresistance.org/us-nato-wants-war-with-russia/

Ukraine: How the US Empire Uses Propaganda To Turn People Into Monsters https://rainershea.substack.com/p/ukraine-how-the-us-empire-uses-propaganda

PayPal Blocks Multiple Alternative  Media Figures Critical of US Empire Narratives  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/paypal-blocks-multiple-alternative?s=r 

Americans Believe Nothing Is Getting Better. Biden Feeds That Disillusionment https://www.rsn.org/001/americans-believe-nothing-is-getting-better-biden-feeds-that-disillusionment.html  

"Disinformation Governance Board" Chief is Huge Spreader of Disinformation https://youtu.be/0ac_q8Z9SQk  (video)

 Seen on Twitter:

Biden’s request of $33 billion in aid for Ukraine is more than twice the size of a previously approved package, underscoring how the U.S is preparing for a sustained conflict in Ukraine. ABSURD COST.
FUELS THE WAR & DRAWS IT OUT UNTIL FINAL NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION.

— Andronicus (@Andronicus50) April 28, 2022

There's always a magic money tree to pay for arms. None for feeding children or housing people, but always money available to pay international arms dealers. #peace #feckcapitalism

— AngryinMayo (@angryinmayo) April 28, 2022

"God created war so that Americans would learn geography."

Mark Twain

— Beastie Roy 🏳️🛵⚒ (@beastie_roy) April 30, 2022

Anyways welcome to the United States pic.twitter.com/JdXP6o5xm4

— 🅹🅾🅴🆈աrecκ ☭ (@joeywreck) April 29, 2022

What would 33 billion to 🇺🇦 mean for you and your family?

— PAUL HAROUTUNIAN (@PAULHTALK) April 30, 2022

It's crazy, that we could send another $33 billion to Ukraine but that we refuse to provide safe housing for the homeless when it would only cost $20 Billion.

— Radical Jesus (@RadicalJesus4) April 30, 2022

Ukraine has received more stimulus checks from the U.S. government than citizens of the United States.

— 🅹🅾🅴🆈աrecκ ☭ (@joeywreck) May 1, 2022

Hilarious that it's been controversial to say there's a US proxy war in a country where the US is sending weapons to be used by CIA-trained fighters backed by US intelligence against a longtime US rival in a conflict the US knowingly provoked. https://t.co/Go2AE8moHE

— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) May 2, 2022