“Never Again” offends me. Every time I hear it, I recoil. It’s a sham, a myth, a lie — the most cynical pretense of all.

Never Again is a platitude. We convinced ourselves that those two words signified a lesson learned, that the memory of past genocides would stop us at even the slightest hint of another, and that the phrase itself carried the power to prevent it. But in reality, Never Again means nothing. It's as hollow as "How are you?"—a ritual we recite without expecting an answer.

Never Again is a lie, a moral leash the West uses to police the rest of the world while continuing to commit the very atrocities it claims to condemn.

Never Again is a comfort mantra. It’s said for show, to make the person saying it feel as though their moral compass is properly calibrated. Never Again is an entire performance, a phrase repeated out of habit, not conviction. It’s no longer a vow, just noise.

July.

Today marks the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. Peculiar word to use, anniversary, like we’re celebrating a joyful event or a happy union worth commemorating. It’s dreadful, yet necessary, because it’s Never Again, hey?

July is a hard month for all my Bosnian friends. I see them posting online, sharing remembrance posts that explain what happened for those who don't know. After each one, they draw a parallel with Gaza. A few posts about Srebrenica, followed by posts about Gaza. Then more about Srebrenica, followed by more about Gaza. The little lines on their Instagram Stories are full today.

Their pain is never singular, never just their own. They use it to warn you about today. Even on this dreadful day, they don't make it about themselves but about Never Again. For anyone. Just reading their words, it bleeds through the screen and stings me. It's not normal to be this strong.

Bosnian people are some of the best people I know. In many ways, they remind me of Palestinians. There's a kindness in them that you don't often find elsewhere. A warmth in their eyes, as though the depth of their pain is matched by the softness it leaves behind. They carry a kind of knowledge about the world, as if they're privy to something the rest of us aren't. It's a club reserved only for those who have endured the most devastating forms of injustice.

Hate.

And yet Bosnians, like Palestinians, don't hate. They don't hate the world for letting them down. They don't even hate the perpetrators of their genocide, some of whom were never convicted and now live and walk among them, taunting them with what they got away with. I often wonder how people like the Bosnians can exist in a world that seems far too harsh for such illuminated souls.

They never ask for anything. They're grateful to anyone who acknowledges their pain. They don't rage. They come gently, simply to let you know that July is hard for them—a summer month that, for most of us, is filled with warm nights, sand in our bathing suits, and ice cream stains on our clothes. But for them, it's an unsettling month, a reminder that not all the remains of their 8,372 dead have been found.

They still search for their dead, and every year, on this day, they put those who they found to rest in peace. They will continue looking for the bones of their loved ones or neighbors, until the last remaining soul killed is found.

They don't just live with the pain of their memories or the ongoing reality of still searching for their dead. On this day, they also have to contend with Serbian nationalists denying what happened under nearly every story and every post about commemorating this genocide.

What has been done to combat this denial? In May 2024, United Nations member states voted to declare July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, an annual day of remembrance for victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Yet, denial is stronger than ever before.

Karadžić.

The History Channel also commemorated the Srebrenica genocide today by posting their investigation on Radovan Karadžić, a notorious war criminal serving life in prison at the Hague, accused of personal and command responsibility for war crimes committed against non-Serbs in Bosnia, under whose command Bosnian Serb forces initiated the Siege of Sarajevo and ordered the Srebrenica genocide in 1995.

He directed Bosnian Serb forces to "create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival of life" in the UN safe area and was accused by the ICTY of ordering that United Nations personnel be taken hostage in May–June 1995.

Serbian nationalists gathered under this post, too, to voice their disapproval of History and history. Never Again is not an exercise these people practice, as Serbian radical president Aleksandar Vučić has been teaching them for 15 years that denial and invented mythology, rather than reckoning with these crimes, is Serbian national identity. You know, this guy:

And these are the Serbian nationalists’ comments on a report about Radovan Karadžić, the butcher of Bosnia, on the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide:

Never again?

Last year, on the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Christiane Amanpour shared a video commemorating the genocide. I watched it again today. Amanpour is a British-Iranian journalist and arguably CNN’s most prominent figure, renowned for her decades of war coverage around the world.

She played a crucial role in bringing the atrocities of the Bosnian War to the world’s attention through her reporting. Known for her chit-chat with Ratko Mladić, the perpetrator of the Srebrenica Genocide, during his engagement in pleasantries with Srebrenica residents before he ordered their slaughter.

Christiane Amanpour was in Bosnia at the time of the genocide. She witnessed it in person, reported on it, and clearly and precisely named the perpetrators and their leader. Yet today, she minces her words about the same kind of atrocity unfolding in Gaza, only on a much larger scale.

Her coverage of the Gaza Holocaust happening for the past three and a half years, livestreamed on our phones, daily, has been shameful. Her reporting about the Palestinian people lacks the moral clarity she once had, and in doing so, she is aiding the ruling system and the very people who not only allowed Gaza to happen but are actively funding it.

As someone with decades of experience reporting from war zones, she never named the perpetrators in Gaza by their names and called for their accountability.

Never Again?

There is one sentence Christiane Amanpour said last year in her video commemorating the Srebrenica genocide that banged me on the head, having lived through almost 4 years of the unspeakable war crimes unfolding live on our phones:

“Even wars have rules, you can’t kill civilians and non-combatants.”

Knowing what we know now, almost four years in, and seeing Israeli forces bomb Palestinian civilians in the tents almost seven months after a supposed ceasefire was declared, can we still pretend that wars are about anything but killing civilians?

It’s time we grow up, become atrocity-literate, and acknowledge that wars have always been about targeting civilians under the pretense of security or self-defense. At their core, wars are about removing the people from the land you want to take and seizing the resources they live on. The military exists to carry out that economic and territorial mission. It has never been about anyone’s safety.

Civilians are not collateral damage; they are the target. Genocide is not an exception to war; it is a tactic. A deliberate tool of the imperial conquest.

Never again?

We are the conscience. “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,” said Aaron Bushnell before setting himself on fire in protest of the genocide in Gaza. It is our responsibility to never accept any genocide or massacre or any killing of a civilian population as normal. Not in the past, not in the present, and prevent it in the future by exposing those who committed it and those who are denying it to this day.

Upholding that conscience is not a momentary act; it’s a lifelong duty.

A recommended read on this subject:

Srebrenica: Most well-known manifestation of hate rooted in history

“Forgotten genocides are repeated.”

Share

Last night’s clean sweep for Zohran Mamdani-endorsed candidates in New York’s Democratic primary sent a clear message to not only the citizens and the establishment of the United States but the entire world: we do not want corporate money in politics; we don’t want fascism on our streets; we don’t want wars; and we don’t want our tax money funding Israel, a state committing genocide and ethnic cleansing of their neighbors and the people they occupy.

I love this breakdown by ABC Eyewitness News:

“New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani flexed his political muscle Tuesday, getting a clean sweep as his three endorsed congressional candidates advanced to November’s general election, ousting two incumbent Democratic congressmen.

The mayor said it was a question of electing “better Democrats” who would “put working people back at the heart of politics.” The approach consternated some in Democratic leadership, but the outcome showcased Mamdani’s rising influence.”

Flexed his political muscle.

You got that right. The people of New York have had enough of establishment Democrats offering absolutely nothing but — we aren’t Trump. Consistently not having a policy, not working for the benefit of your constituents, blasting MAGA and Trump in public while being the kinder, more “progressive” partner of the uniparty ruling this country.

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, Mamdani-backed state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez won over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

In the 10th District, another Mamdani-backed candidate, former city comptroller Brad Lander, beat incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman.

In the 13th District, the mayor’s candidate, community advocate Darializa Avila Chevalier, beat incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

For State Senate, Aber Kawas, a Palestinian organizer and democratic socialist fighting for affordable housing, immigrant rights, and no money for war, also won.

A sweep.

It’s one of the biggest upsets in a New York House primary. These victories mean three Mamdani allies will step into Congress in January.

And Zionists are shaking in their boots.

AIPAC is livid.

Do you remember this?

Pro-Israel and dark money groups spent a collective $8.4 million across the three races against Mamdani’s endorsed candidates and lost all three!

Democracy is the vehicle to end democracy?

Check out this tweet below, this reaction, and this coping from pro-genocidal, Islamophobic folks who know support for Israel is collapsing at lightning speed.

Check out Politico:

“Progressives who ran hard against the war in Gaza swept a trio of congressional primaries Tuesday in America’s most heavily Jewish city, turbocharging the Democratic Party’s yearslong shift away from Israel.

The results paint a picture of a Democratic Party rapidly shifting on an issue that was once considered a bipartisan prerequisite for success in the Big Apple and beyond.

Progressives’ victories show that harsh criticism of Israel is now not only politically survivable, but can be advantageous in New York City’s dominant party.

“In a Democratic primary, the people who are against the war in Gaza have a massive political advantage in 2026,” said Jon Paul Lupo, a longtime Democratic strategist in New York who served as an adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

In New York, progressives’ tour de force indicate the Israel criticism that powered Mayor Zohran Mamdani last year remains ascendent. Mamdani boosted Lander, Valdez and Avila Chevalier to victory on Tuesday.

“This signals a substantial shift in policy toward Israel,” said veteran New York-based Democratic strategist Basil Smikle.

“Unfortunately, democratic socialism and anti-Israel Democrats are going to have a stronger footing than ever before,” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic strategist and donor adviser who wasn’t involved in these campaigns.

“For pro-Israel groups, there really needs to be a rethink of the strategy, the people involved and how money gets spent. Otherwise it’s going to hurt Democrats nationally.”

And you still thing organizing doesn’t work? People cannot make a change? Voting cannot make a difference?

Well, think again!

Jennifer Welch of the I’ve Had It Podcast did a spot-on breakdown of the historic nature of last night’s sweep:

“What happened in New York last night was the citizens standing up against corporations, against fascism, against MAGA, against corporate Democrats, against establishment Democrats. And this is hopefully going to sweep the entire country.

And people go, "Oh my god, they're so radical.” They're really not.

Not wanting to kill kids, not wanting to fund a country that intentionally targets children is not radical in the least. It is radical, homicidal, and genocidal to kill kids. And then to call the people who oppose that anti-Semitic assholes; this is the biggest bunch of gaslighting, and fuckery on the planet. And good on Zohran for standing up and believing in something and calling these corporate packs out for being the monsters that they are.

And shame on every Democratic politician that takes money from the same fascists that are funding the dismantling of the United States of America and who willfully smile and fund the intentional targeting of kids.”

People have had enough.

Jennifer continues:

“The Democratic Party is now built by corporations. The Democratic Party abandoned Americans, and they're just a MAGA lite, a masterclass in gaslighting. You should be fighting for the American people and listening to what they're saying. They want fighters. You want to go fight for corporations and fight for these lobbyists. The same big tech, the same AIPAC, the same big oil, the same big pharma that fund MAGA also fund the Democratic Party.

And our base just isn't as dumb as the Republican base.

That's what you're dealing with. You're dealing with a high-information voter base. Zohran has proven in the biggest, most capitalistic experiment on the planet, New York City, that you can take on the Democratic establishment, you can take on billionaires, you can take on Trump, you can do all of it, and you can still win. You can endorse three Democratic socialist candidates, not taking any corporate money, and you can still win.

The assholes in this situation are the corporations. The corporations took over the Democratic Party. They are the parasites. What happened in New York City last night is liberation. the first steps of liberation of the Democratic Party back to being a party that delivers materially for the people.

People are sick to death of being lied to. And the Democratic establishment is finding out right now. Your voter base is not nearly as dumb as the corporations that fund you want them to be.”

Truly great analysis by Jennifer, give it a watch when you have a chance!

Congrats, New York! Revolution starts HERE.

Share

Seeing the images of Israel pounding the ancient city of Tyre in the past week, as well as ordering the evacuation of the entire city on Tuesday, got me reeling. I grew up in the Balkan War of the 90s—bombing historic sites, churches, mosques, harbors, and civilian infrastructures is uncomfortably familiar to me.

My hometown is built around an ancient Roman palace—1,800 years old, called Diocletian’s Palace. If you’ve watched Game of Thrones, you’ve seen the ancient walls of Split. Like historic sites in Tyre, Diocletian’s Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Diocletian's Palace is what the entire identity of the citizens of Split is built on. During the Balkan War, the Yugoslav Army and Navy launched a heavy artillery naval attack on the city. The Yugoslav Navy destroyer Split—ironically bearing the city's name—opened fire on Split, hitting the city center and the port, with Diocletian's Palace among its targets.

The Yugoslav Navy specifically targeted civilian infrastructure, the harbor, and historic parts of Split, all protected under UNESCO World Heritage status, causing widespread panic. Luckily, the naval shell landed just a few yards outside the Golden Gate of Diocletian's Palace. Hitting the palace offered no military advantage. It was personal. It was an attempt at erasure.

After the Battle of the Dalmatian Channels resulted in a major Croatian Navy victory that broke the Yugoslav naval blockade of Split, it forced the Yugoslav Army and Navy to retreat south.

Furious over this naval setback, their inability to take Split, and the ass-whooping they received from a Croatian Navy that had been barely pieced together from civilian vessels, captured equipment, and defecting personnel, Yugoslav forces turned their wrath on the undefended city of Dubrovnik, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Another Game of Thrones location—yes, the King's Landing.

The blockade and siege of Dubrovnik lasted eight months. The most infamous bombardment, known as the Black Friday Attack, consisted of artillery, naval, and air assaults directed at the UNESCO-protected Old Town.

From. All. Sides. Imaginable.

The city was pounded with such zeal, such fury, making it clear the objective was not military victory or a simplistic land grab, but an attack on culture, heritage, and identity.

More than 11,000 historic buildings were damaged. The Old Town was looted and burned. Monuments, palaces, and churches were engulfed in flames. The entire city of Dubrovnik was left without electricity or water for three months. 194 Croatian military personnel were killed. 88 civilians lost their lives.

The unprovoked, deliberate targeting of a globally celebrated demilitarized zone shocked the world. Dubrovnik had no active military bases, heavy artillery, or soldiers stationed inside the old walls. Its status as an open, undefended cultural sanctuary is why the international community was so deeply shocked by the bombardment.

Attacking such a high-profile cultural landmark without any strategic military objective was an attack on the Croatian people’s morale—a deliberate assault on culture, history, and identity. All while the Yugoslav Army, under Serbian leadership, claimed its actions were defensive.

Every war is built on the same principle: the aggressor claims to be protecting its own security while seeking to expand its territory, blaming the people whose land it covets for resisting and portraying them as a threat to its survival—with the help of a compliant media.

Lebanon

If endless, wholesale slaughter in Gaza wasn’t enough to crush your will for existence, this is what Israel bombed in Lebanon just this past week:

Ancient & Historic Sites

• Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Chakif), UNESCO Enhanced Protection:

  Directly hit by airstrikes and heavy artillery. Massive plumes of smoke engulfed the 12th-century Crusader structure, causing severe structural degradation to the surrounding ridge and defensive masonry.

• Tyre Ruins & Hippodrome, UNESCO World Heritage:

  Missiles detonated meters from the core UNESCO World Heritage area. The blast completely leveled two adjacent apartment buildings, sending heavy shockwaves through the ancient Roman hippodrome.

Cities, Towns, & Villages

• Beirut:

  A massive overnight bombardment flattened residential apartment complexes, tore down commercial shopfronts, and pulverized critical civil infrastructure across the southern suburbs and Choueifat.

• Tyre, UNESCO World Heritage:

  Broad air raids systematically crushed a major commercial sector and residential block within the central city. Direct hits also tore through sections of the nearby Al-Rashdieh camp, leaving families trapped under rubble.

• Baalbek:

  The ancient city, famed for some of the world’s best-preserved Roman temples, remains under extreme threat. While the core Roman Acropolis has miraculously avoided a direct hit, nearby strikes have leveled several historic, Ottoman-era protection sites just meters from the main UNESCO temples.

• Sidon:

  Aerial strikes collapsed multi-story apartment buildings and fractured essential water and electricity networks.

• Nabatieh:

  Targeted air strikes completely hollowed out downtown civic buildings and pulverized neighborhoods surrounding the Ali al-Taher hill.

Southern Villages & Border Regions

• Adloun:

  A single, unannounced airstrike completely flattened a sheep farm, killing an entire displaced Syrian family consisting of a father, his pregnant wife, and their six children.

• Ansar:

  Intense air raids struck a localized residential zone, killing three civilians.

• Ebba (Ebba-Nabatieh Road):

  A targeted drone strike blew apart a transit vehicle, severely wounding two Lebanese army soldiers.

• Burj al-Shemali:

  Relentless overnight bombardments leveled an entire neighborhood, killing five civilians (including two children and three women) and wounding 40 others.

• Yohmor & Zawtar El Gharbiyeh:

  Advancing Israeli ground forces deployed heavy armor and bulldozers, systematically demolishing and leveling homes along the Litani River.

• Arnoun al-Shqeef:

  Artillery barrages tore up agricultural land, fractured regional roads, and damaged civic buildings surrounding the Beaufort ridge.

• Kfar Chouba & Kfar Hamam:

  Precision drone strikes cratered the asphalt, permanently severing the main arterial road connecting the two towns.

• Al-Mansouri & Al-Hanniye:

  Coordinated artillery shelling blasted coastal farmland, killing livestock and setting orchards ablaze.

• Al-Zrariyeh:

  Precision missiles destroyed a vocational school building and adjacent civilian garages.

• Toura:

  Airstrikes tore through a civilian residential center, causing heavy infrastructure damage and multiple casualties.

• Haris, Beit Yahoun, Al Ghandouriya, Jibsheet (Jibchit), Tebnine, Byout al-Siyyad, Majdal Zoun, Hallousiyyeh, Tayr Felsay, Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain, Chaaitiyeh, Maarakeh, Aaitit, Al-Abbasiyyeh, Al-Nmairiyeh, Al-Sultaniyah, Touline, and Safad al-Batikh:

  Warplanes deployed heavy munitions across these southern villages. The bombardments collapsed multi-family homes, blasted cratered gaps into roadways, tore down power lines, and inflicted widespread collateral damage to adjacent property.

Eastern & Beqaa Valley Regions

• Labaya (Outskirts):

  Heavy warplane munitions struck the city fringes, tearing apart rural infrastructure and creating massive craters.

Sources: Inquirer Global Nation, UNESCO Official Statements, Tyre Ruins & Hippodrome, UNESCO Satellite Monitoring, Tyre, Middle East Institute Analysis, Wikipedia Cultural Heritage Damage Ledger, Associated Press / Rutland Herald, Alarabya English, Middle East Eye Live Updates, Saba News Agency, The Journal World Reports.

Israel is not defending itself in Lebanon. It is carrying out a campaign of cultural erasure aimed at Lebanon's history, heritage, and identity.

International legal fallout

Recent Israeli military strikes heavily endangering several globally recognized, UNESCO-protected ancient heritage sites in Lebanon prompted widespread international condemnation.

Anything else? Or will we constantly live under a permanent condemnation without any action ever being taken?

Let’s talk legal. UNESCO World Heritage sites, alongside the “Provisional Enhanced Protection” status from UNESCO, grant high-level immunity from military attacks under the 1954 Hague Convention.

Lebanese authorities and global archaeological groups have strongly condemned these bombardments. Because Tyre and Beaufort Castle were recently granted enhanced protection statuses, UNESCO warns that failing to respect these boundaries constitutes a serious breach of international law and can be prosecuted as a war crime.

UNESCO warns.

Lebanese authorities condemn.

Are those the same authorities that keep condemning Hezbollah while attending negotiations with their own aggressor in Washington?

You negotiate with Israel, who bombs your historic site, and you condemn Hezbollah for being the only force protecting those sites and its citizens? Who exactly is protecting these people? Non-existent Lebanese Army that stands down while Israel is pummeling its citizens and erasing their entire identity?

Israel’s excuse

How does Israel justify all these war crimes they have committed in the past week? The Times reports:

The precision strike on an apartment building in the Choueifat area, reported to have been targeting a Hezbollah-aligned missile unit commander, came after reported US requests for Israel to avoid hitting the Lebanese capital. The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had carried out “a precise strike in the Beirut area”.

One of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, Tyre is home to refugees from across southern Lebanon. The Israeli military issued a fresh evacuation order for Tyre early on Thursday, claiming it was “compelled to take forceful action” against Hezbollah.

A similar order has been issued for Nabatieh, just north of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah. On Thursday, the Israeli army said it had struck more than 135 alleged Hezbollah targets in the previous 24 hours in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, including ten rocket launch sites.

The Lebanese government said children were among the victims of Israeli strikes on Sidon.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military declared all areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River, which flows north of Tyre and south of Sidon about 25 miles north of the border, as “combat zones” and told residents to leave. The head of the Israeli army, Eyal Zamir, said: “We are intensifying our operations in order to strike ever more severe blows to the Hezbollah organisation.”

Again, and again, and again, and again.

Note: During the several hours of the Israel parade in New York City, attended by war criminal Bezalel Smotrich, supported by Chuck Schumer and Kathy Hochul, Israel killed 41 people in Lebanon. Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu ordered attacks on Beirut. No Western governments offered their condemnation or took any action against this blatant violation of an international law.

Spillover

Western media keeps describing Israel’s assault on Lebanon, which has claimed the lives of 3,637 people and injured 11,188 people since the beginning of March, as a “spillover.” This word is doing a lot of political work. It appears in every headline about Lebanon: spillover violence, spillover attacks, spillover conflict. It suggests something accidental, unintended—violence that, oops, spilled from one place into another.

Israel has been living by the sword since before they were officially recognized as a state. And the assault on Lebanon was never a spillover from Gaza or a result of Iran supporting the resistance to Israeli occupation and belligerence.

Lebanon was never a spillover or collateral. It was built into the architecture of the Israeli conquest from day one. The framing of "spillover" is a linguistic trick, much like calling people defending their land "terrorists" or labeling them "proxies" of the only country willing to help them.

This verbiage the corporate media is using is deceptively suggesting Israel didn’t mean to strike Lebanon. They were forced. It brainwashes the reader into believing Israel is merely reacting, containing, and preventing escalation. It gaslights us into thinking the violence is a regrettable extension of a war taking place somewhere else.

Please.

Target

Israel’s violence against Lebanon is not a spillover, accidental, or reactive; it is historical. And the history, funny thing, is researchable. Lebanon has always been a target, long before Gaza:

• 1948: Israeli forces expel Palestinians into Lebanon, creating a refugee population the country still hosts.

• 1978: Israel invades southern Lebanon.

• 1982: Israel invades again, this time occupying the capital, Beirut, the only Arab capital under full Israeli military control in modern history.

• 1996: Operation Grapes of Wrath, Qana massacre.

• 2006: 34-day war, over a thousand civilians killed, cluster bombs still littering the south.

• 2010s onward: Near-weekly violations of Lebanese airspace.

• 2023–2024: Systematic attacks across the South stretching deeper each month.

• 2025–2026: Persistent aerial campaign, 10,000 Israeli ceasefire violations during this window, destroyed approximately 10,000 buildings, and killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians.

Hezbollah

Israel’s military doctrine has always included Lebanon. Israeli officials have described Hezbollah as the greatest strategic threat in the region. Entire military budgets, missile defense systems, and war simulations have been built around the “northern front.” Israeli generals do not hide this, and their language is clear: “The northern front is inevitable; we cannot end this war without addressing Lebanon.”

Gaza

The Israeli assault on Gaza post-October 7th only provided the pretext for a war on Lebanon that was pre-planned. When Israel launched its attack on Gaza, Hezbollah responded with limited and measured strikes, not escalation, aimed at relieving pressure on Gaza and deterring a northern invasion. Israel used their control of the media narrative to frame these as unprovoked aggression.

But viewed chronologically, Israel’s attacks on Lebanon intensified even when Hezbollah held back. Israeli leadership saw the Gaza war as a strategic opportunity to test weapons, conduct cross-border assassinations, degrade Hezbollah positions, displace Lebanese civilians, and expand the zone of destruction.

Classic parallel warfare.

Instability as a tool

If Western outlets admit Lebanon is a deliberate front, not collateral, the entire Western narrative about Gaza collapses. Because then, Israel isn’t responding but expanding. It stops being “the defense” but an opportunity.

Western media needs the spillover myth to protect Israel, to gaslight readers that Israel is only reacting, defending, and preventing further instability. In reality, Israel is creating instability as a strategic tool.

Deterrence

Israel frames Hezbollah as the aggressor, but Hezbollah’s role is inseparable from Lebanon’s geopolitical position. Lebanon cannot be separated from the history of Palestinian displacement, regional anti-colonial movements, and Israeli attempts to redraw borders.

Lebanon is part of the war not because Hezbollah intervened, but because Hezbollah exists as the only force capable of deterring Israeli regional domination.

Economic warfare

Do you know why Israel is pounding Lebanon like there’s no tomorrow and hitting its iconic cultural sites?

Historically known as the “Paris of the Middle East,” Beirut is home to a highly educated, multilingual population, a thriving arts scene, and a growing technology and startup sector. Initiatives like the LEAP project aimed to transition the country into a regional AI and fintech competitor.

Critics of Israel, or let’s just say anyone with a functioning logical mind, argue that by repeatedly bombing commercial districts, infrastructure, and urban areas, the military operations trigger massive “brain drain,” forcing engineers, creatives, and entrepreneurs to flee the country indefinitely.

Continuous instability due to continuous warfare ensures that Lebanon never structurally recovers or competes with regional tech hubs, effectively keeping it economically crippled.

This has nothing to do with Hezbollah. Hezbollah exists only to prevent this from being fully realized.

De-development

Independent analysts often point to what is known as “de-development” or the deliberate creation of a failed state.

A prosperous, technologically advanced Lebanon with a booming economy would naturally develop a stronger, more centralized government and a well-funded national army. By keeping Lebanon in a constant state of economic crisis and physical destruction, it ensures the Lebanese state remains too weak to govern effectively or secure its own borders.

Cultural erasure

Legal scholars, historians, and local authorities increasingly connect these events to explain how targeting heritage goes far beyond physical collateral damage.

Urban planning research groups, such as the Beirut Urban Lab, emphasize that looking at this strictly as “accidental collateral damage” ignores the strategic utility of cultural destruction. In both the Balkans in the 1991 war and Lebanon today, the destruction achieves several functional, destructive objectives:

                  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                  │   TACTICS OF SYSTEMIC CULTURAL ERASURE       │
                  └──────────────────────┬───────────────────────┘
                                         │
         ┌───────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┐
         ▼                               ▼                               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│     PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE       │ │      INFRASTRUCTURE DENIAL      │ │    ERASING THE MULTI-ETHNIC     │
│ Target landmarks to dismantle   │ │ Flatten historical centers to   │ │ Erase architectural proof of   │
│ regional pride, morale, and     │ │ prevent populations from ever   │ │ diverse, shared historic       │
│ the community's link to past.   │ │ returning to rebuild society.   │ │ coexistence in the Levant.     │
└─────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────────┘

Legal Accountability

The most vital link between Split, Dubrovnik, and the destruction of Lebanon’s heritage lies in international accountability. Following the Balkan wars, the ICTY successfully prosecuted Yugoslav military commanders for the war crime of “destruction or willful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments, and works of art and science.”

Under the Second Protocol of the 1954 Hague Convention, the ongoing attacks on Lebanon’s enhanced-protection sites carry the exact same weight. Legally, if a state attacks a site marked with enhanced immunity without an extraordinary, proven case of absolute military necessity, it constitutes a severe violation and serves as explicit grounds for individual war crimes prosecutions at the international level.

Enforcement Loophole

When a treaty like the 1954 Hague Convention fails to stop bombs from falling on 2,000-year-old structures, it exposes a massive, painful gap between international law on paper and geopolitical power in reality.

The UN Security Council enforces, not UNESCO. UNESCO is an educational and cultural agency, not a military or governing body. It has zero power to enforce its own treaties. If a country violates a UNESCO “Enhanced Protection” zone, UNESCO can only issue statements of condemnation, strip titles, or document the damage for future court cases.

The only body under international law that can forcefully punish a country (via economic sanctions, military intervention, or peacekeepers) is the UN Security Council. Because the United States holds a permanent veto on the Council, it consistently blocks any binding, punitive resolutions against Israel, paralyzing the only mechanism that could legally enforce the Hague Convention.

Geopolitical priorities

In the calculus of global foreign policy, world powers prioritize military alliances and strategic objectives over the preservation of history. Geopolitical priorities over cultural heritage.

Western allies (such as the U.S., Germany, and the UK) view Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah as a vital geopolitical objective to counter Iranian influence in the region.

Because Israel asserts that its targets are underground Hezbollah tunnels or launchers near these ancient sites, Western governments accept the defense of “military necessity.” They treat the destruction of Roman or Ottoman heritage as an unfortunate, unavoidable byproduct of war rather than an intentional crime, giving Israel diplomatic cover to continue.

Mainstream media complicity

Coverage of Middle Eastern conflicts in mainstream Western media usually, and deliberately, lacks historical, cultural, or archaeological context. A strike on a 2,000-year-old Roman ruin in Tyre or an Ottoman-era quarter in Baalbek is reported by the mainstream media merely as a generic explosion in a specific geographical location, stripping the event of its civilizational and identity significance for the Lebanese people.

Media analysts point out a hypocrisy in how cultural destruction is covered depending on the geopolitical alignment of the perpetrator. For example, when ISIS destroyed ancient temples in Palmyra, Syria, or when Russian forces damaged cultural sites in Ukraine, international media dedicated extensive, front-page coverage to condemning the acts as “barbaric” assaults on human heritage.

When a Western-aligned military causes similar destruction, the coverage is restrained, passive, and focused on tactical military justifications.

Documentation efforts

Because mainstream media marginalizes these aspects of the war, the task of properly documenting and condemning cultural erasure has shifted to alternative channels.

Organizations like the Beirut Urban Lab, alongside international archaeological watchdogs, rely on satellite imagery and ground-verified open-source data to bypass mainstream media filters. They publish real-time maps and technical reports detailing exactly how many protected monuments have been struck, creating a permanent, untarnished digital record of the damage.

I write about it to add to those efforts: to keep a record, to document, to bear witness in real time, and to stand inside history as it unfolds. Given Israel's impunity, the only thing we can do is be a living, breathing account of what they have committed.

Share

This work is entirely reader-supported. By choosing a paid subscription, you allow me to continue a long-form research to bring these vital stories to light. Thank you for supporting independent journalism and helping Antagolist reclaim reality.

Became a paid subscriber

I wasn’t planning on giving Jack Schlossberg an entire article; I already covered his performance on the I’ve Had It Podcast last week on my Instagram, where nearly 952 people chimed in on his verbal gymnastics about Israel’s war crimes.

But clips of his views — revealing exactly how he plans to govern, if elected —keep resurfacing on social media, and this is another one I want to immortalize on Antagolist, in case he wins, God forbid. We’ll be seeing a lot more of him, I’m sure, and the receipts need to live somewhere.

This was during the ‘No Kings’ protest in New York, and where do I even begin with his rodent voice + boomer politics? Jack says, “We’ve got to get the money out of politics; I do not have a super PAC, or a corporate PAC,” while shilling for Israel before he’s even won the office. Those who don’t do it for the money but for the love of the apartheid game are even more nauseating.

How is this guy so bad at this?

“We will never have no kings as lon…

Read more

What a week, folks. It ended quite well, if you ask me—hopeful, even. The White House posting an image of Donald Trump looking rather defeated, with his Truth Social rambling in all caps: “IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE. THANK ”YOU!” really sets the tone for what this world is becoming. And you should feel very hopeful.

Strait of Iran, Trump says. And in three little words, here lies the incompetence and absolute delusion of the most powerful empire on earth. Defeat.

Let’s revisit what the United States and Israel accomplished in Iran over the past six weeks: a failed coup, failed regime change, and a failed attempt to collapse Iran through isolation and sanctions. They bombed Iranian infrastructure, killed Iran’s supreme leader and members of his family, killed schoolgirls and teenage volleyball players, lied about it, and failed to take responsibility.

They showed the world that they are untrustwort…

Read more

Iran’s delegation departed for Islamabad today for negotiations with the United States. This sounds hopeful, one might think, after all, no one wants WW3 to interfere with our summer plans, the World Cup, and gas prices. Yes, this was sarcasm. I’m at my wits’ end.

Negotiations are good. Talks and agreements matter when there’s a credible partner. Traveling to negotiate with terrorists who, on the first day of an unprovoked aggression against your nation, double-tapped your elementary school with a Tomahawk cruise missile, killing 168 schoolgirls, is not diplomacy; it’s futility.

Even the mafia has rules. The United States and Israel have none.

Why would you travel to negotiate with the terrorists who bombed 800 of your schools, over 30 universities, healthcare facilities, and other civilian infrastructures?

Why would you travel to negotiate with the terrorists who openly brag about assassinating your leaders?

Why would you travel to negotiate with the terrorist…

Read more

I wrote an International Women’s Day poem in 2024, and I’ve been posting it every year since. It’s always current, always fitting — nothing seems to change. The world has descended into a permanent state of imperial stupor, so it always applies. It goes like this:

This year, I feel like expanding it, given the sheer Western arrogance of this moment — Women, Life, Freedom in action. “Help is on the way, Iran,” claim US and Israeli politicians, activists, influencers, and Iranian diaspora hasbarists; liberation underway, one bomb at a time, war openly marketed as feminism, and the liberation of the Iranian people.

Over the past two years, we watched Palestinian and Lebanese women face levels of violence, displacement, and trauma unimaginable to the rest of us. Entire families wiped out. Mothers and daughters buried under rubble. Hospitals and maternity destroyed.

Yet these women rarely appear in the speeches of the same politicians or social media posts of the p…

Read more

Did anyone truly believe we’d get a whole week into the new year without state violence, lightly seasoned with yet another breach of international law? I did. I was riding the high of Heated Rivalry Christmas, followed by the historic Mamdani inauguration, and I foolishly believed there were still so many joys in this world — joys our government works relentlessly to suffocate.

And after two years of struggling to find my own sense of meaning, living in a country in perpetual decline, I was determined not to let 2026 be taken from me the same way.

No can do, said the crime syndicate, pretending to be your government.

Only three days into the new year, and it’s already Grand Theft Venezuela. We’re snatching presidents of sovereign foreign countries to steal their resources — or, more precisely, to stockpile oil before attacking another sovereign nation, Iran, in a matter of weeks.

As you already know, the US military attacked Venezuela over the weekend and abducted President Nicholas Maduro

Read more

Until Monday night, you could have optimistically believed that the UN was the most impotent organization in the world. I’ve endearingly called them content creators for the past two years. I truly saw no difference between them and an influencer trying to sell you the newest face cream, promising it will make you younger if you just keep applying it.

The UN is the most useless organization on earth; I’ve said it repeatedly. They show up to file reports, tally the dead, and archive what was already allowed to happen. Their entire job seems to be documenting the atrocities, never stopping them. Don’t even get me started on the veto power.

But, see that’s just the thing. They aren’t useless. The only catch is, they aren’t useful to you or me, or the Palestinian, Sudanese, or the Congolese people — they are useful to the Western establishment. They’re a crucial puzzle of the imperial project. They operate as partners of the Empire. And what they did on Monday effectively makes them part o…

Read more

November 4th, 11 am, Election Day.

Ladies and gents, my mayor. Your mayor. He belongs to all of us. Yes, I decided to call it already, on the morning of the election, with a whole day of voting ahead, and results to be announced. This reality is already manifested, and I refuse to accept any other version of it. Something has to give.

Elon Musk endorsed Andrew Cuomo for Mayor on Monday afternoon on Twitter. I refuse to call it X, even though I should; it sounds as idiotic as him. So far Andrew Cuomo has gotten the endorsement of Donald Trump, Eric Adams, and Elon Musk. A trifecta of criminals, war criminals, sexual assaulters, corrupt, paid for AIPAC shills — decided to support their billionaire buddy, political party be damned.

Do you now understand that there is no two-party system, and there is no actual democracy? You have the illusion of choice when it comes to a p…

Read more

I estimated the time of Israel breaking the ceasefire by Thursday, this week. But they surpassed my expectations; only 10 days in, and 97 Palestinian people have been killed. The same people who cheered their miraculous survival for the past two years, only to be deceptively wiped out.

No word in legacy media.

Israel’s genocidal rapists, also known as the occupation army, ran into an unexploded artillery from their previous carpet bombing of Gaza, blamed Hamas for the explosion, started bombing Gaza again, over 120 times, killed almost as many people, and once again cut the aid to the Gaza Strip.

No proper word in legacy media, no storm caused for breaking the ceasefire, or killing civilians during one. Imagine what would happen if Hamas actually broke the ceasefire, killing 97 people along the way?

When the press asked Donald Trump about an incident, he said, “The ceasefire he brokered was still in place”. Hamas leadership, he said, may not be involved in the…

Read more

In light of Donald Trump and the entire Western empire gaslighting the world with yet another “peace deal” in the Middle East — one that offers neither peace nor the long-sought freedom of the Palestinian people — I want to remind you of the numerous “peace deals” this same gang of criminals has pushed before, including the latest one in Egypt just days ago.

Simultaneously, one year ago today, Yahya Sinwar was killed in the most legendary fashion imaginable — fighting the occupation to his last stick. These two events collide perfectly, demanding to be on your consciousness radar today.

The lastest was the so-called peace plan pompously called — “Deal of the Century” cooked up by Trump and his partner in crime Benjamin Netanyahu (or perhaps it’s the other way around) in 2018, and officially released in 2020.

The plan was as insulting to anyone’s intelligence as the one they’ve cooked up today. It allowed Israel to annex up to 40% of the West Bank, including all exi…

Read more

When I first began drafting this article, the title TikToks and Peace Deals came to me instantly. But then I paused and asked myself — why am I merging these two events from the past 24 hours, instead of writing a separate analysis of each?

Because they are connected, friends. One feeds the other; both are steps toward the same plan, the same goal, the same scheme. They unfolded simultaneously, and that was no accident.

Yesterday, Trump and Netanyahu announced a 21-point peace plan for Gaza. That very same day, the sale of TikTok was finalized, officially announced as the latest acquisition by Larry Ellison, a staunch Zionist and the biggest private donor to the IDF.

The 21-Point Peace Plan

Before I delve into the points of this brilliant plan, generously offered by colonizers to the people they have been slaughtering daily for 723 days, shredding their children to pieces, a quick disclaimer: if you are excited about the prospect of a peace offering…

Read more

Yesterday at work, I went on lunch break with two colleagues. The usual casual chatter suddenly swerved: Did you hear Charlie Kirk got killed? My friends gasped: Oh my God, really? How? Where? I replied: There’s a video of it, you didn’t see? No, show me! — they demanded in unison.

I pulled out my phone, that infamous device carrying death, blood, and the breathless children whose limbs I’ve seen dangling from walls these past two years, and searched for a video of Charlie Kirk’s execution. I roll it, and both of my colleagues gasp in horror.

Oh my God, Miranda, that’s horrible! Oh my god, you didn’t warn me, it’s so graphic and horrific, I’m going to be sick — one of them comments.

Why? I ask her. Haven’t you seen blown-up children and their limbs severed for the past two years? What’s so horrific about this one, after seeing tiny bodies being blown to pieces or riddled with 335 bullets in a small 6-year-old body?

Yeah, I did," she answers, but it wasn’t grap…

Read more

“Never Again” offends me. Every time I hear it, I recoil. It’s a sham, a myth, a lie — the most cynical pretense of all.

Never again is a platitude. We convinced ourselves that those two words signified a lesson learned, that the memory of past genocides would freeze us in place at even the slightest hint of another. That the phrase alone would carry the weight to stop it. But in reality, Never Again means nothing. It's as hollow as the “How are you?”, a ritual we recite without expecting an answer.

“Never Again” is a lie, a moral leash the West uses to police the rest of the world, while continuing to commit the very atrocities it claims to condemn.

Never Again is a comfort mantra. It's said for show. To make the one saying it feel like their moral compass is properly tuned. Never Again is an entire performance, a phrase repeated out of habit, not conviction. It’s no longer a vow, just noise.

July.

Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. Pecul…

Read more

In the early hours of Sunday, the most moral army in the world seized a sailing boat in international waters, carrying symbolic humanitarian aid to a territory it claims neither to occupy nor hold under military blockade.

In the weeks leading up to a Freedom Flotilla attempting to break the blockade of Gaza, the mainstream media was full of Israeli apologists explaining to us brainless antisemites, as if we are incapable of seeing, reading, or simply hearing their unhinged politicians and journalists make public threats—how the humanitarian vessel heading to the Gaza Strip was “breaching a military blockade.”

Before the renowned international terrorists carrying baby formula, medicine and bags of flour boarded Madleen, the most moral army and its supporters were telling us there was “no blockade of Gaza,” — just a necessery precaution against “evil, barbaric jihadi regime”. On Sunday, however, Madleen was “attempting to breach a blockade.”

These fallacies…

Read more

That’s it, people. We’ve reached the point where polite dissection no longer works. The relentless stream of outrageous news has us all feeling drunk, high, anxious, delirious—or, more often than not, all of the above.

You’re used to well-researched, sourced articles grounded in journalistic rigor here on Antagolist. But lately, I’ve been coming out of left field, right field, any field, hitting you with poems or pure rage. And I’ve noticed an overwhelming number of you responding to my rage far more than to polite dissection—because my rage doesn’t just reflect yours. It feels it. It bears witness to it.

One such piece was Small Bodies, published last month, which was shared over 10,000 times across social media. Celebrities, actors, singers, and activists shared it—rage finds us all, big or small, and we find our own in someone else’s. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out below.

I’ve been told it’s a therapeutic read.

While I’m writing this, Alon Mizrahi, one of my favorite anti-i…

Read more

We are nearly a week into a ceasefire that doesn’t truly feel like one. Palestinian people continue to die at the hands of their oppressors, albeit in smaller numbers. Why does this ceasefire seem like nothing more than the second phase of this genocide?

For the past sixteen months, I have written extensively about Gaza, delving into every angle to grasp how such atrocities can be inflicted on these people in this day and age. I’ve wrestled with how something so violent and unjust—witnessed in real-time by millions on their phones—can persist, as if the act of writing could somehow summon a solution to a catastrophe we are powerless to stop.

The angle I haven’t yet addressed is the resistance. I began drafting this article in October of last year and have never spent this much time on any piece. This is my War and Peace, my Crime and Punishment—the level of time, energy, and mental effort I have invested in this work. It also refuses to be finished.

I needed the right moment to lay out the case for the resistance. This piece began to take shape following the death of Yahya Sinwar, but I felt it needed a sense of completion—something to close the circle, like the ceasefire that finally happened this Sunday.

I’m far from naive; a ceasefire offers a much-needed reprieve from the unimaginable suffering of the Palestinian people, but it’s difficult to be confident that it marks the end of their suffering. As Alon Mizrahi aptly observed—“This could become another Oslo Accord moment; a great trap - a mass grave - presented as a historic breakthrough.” Only time will tell.

But this moment does feel like the pivot I had been waiting for. Whatever happens next, we must acknowledge just how much the Palestinian resistance has achieved—both militarily and politically—fighting not only their most brutal, depraved occupier but also the collective Western superpowers.

The core of the Palestinian cause.

Why is the case for the resistance an important conversation we have to have at this moment in time?

Because the greatest atrocities of the past 40 years have been committed under the guise of a terrorist designation, used as linguistic manipulation to justify war crimes. It’s time to move beyond the good West-versus-evil East paradigm of a Marvel superhero movie and awaken to this reality.

People resisting occupation throughout history have been labeled as savages, radicals, and terrorists. If we want to build a better world based on justice, tolerance, and peace, it’s crucial to understand that the designation of terrorism is used as a political label, not a behavioral one.

Before a ceasefire took effect this Sunday, a Palestinian man living in the West posted an interesting message on his Instagram, playing exactly into a message I’m trying to convey with this article—“Palestinian resistance is the core of the Palestinian cause. Not victimhood.”

Please read it in its entirety:

“It was not 470 days of genocide, it was 470 days of Palestinians resisting their colonizer. And our colonizer reacted with genocide. So if someone were to ask you what happened over the past year and a half in Gaza, the answer should be—Palestinians resisted, and the oppressor responded with genocide. Genocide was a consequence of Palestinians resisting, not the actual event itself.

This is a very important concept for you to digest and drill into your head. Because the core, the foundation of the Palestinian cause is Palestinian resistance which includes armed resistance. The Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people, we would not exist to this day if were not for Palestinians resisting.

West only likes to discuss Palestinians and the Palestinian cause when we are the victims, never when we are heroes, because maintaining this public image of Palestinians only as victims prevents society, prevents the world from remembering what the actual issue is and what the solution to the issue is — the issue being the colonization of our land, and the solution being resisting the colonization.

This is the poison of the West, conditioning the world to think that the solution to problems is charity, peace, and love, and not justice and fighting for freedom.”

A linguistic manipulation.

Nothing made me more morally nauseated last year than watching the fall of the Assad regime in Syria last December, and the use of a terrorism designation by the Western empire as linguistic manipulation to rehabilitate Al Jolani, a designated terrorist affiliated with ISIS and Al-Qaeda—an organization the American government claims is responsible for 9/11—removing the $10 million bounty on his head, while giving him a CNN Western makeover.

A terrorist for hire, all of a sudden, not a terrorist anymore, as he aligns with the American interests in Syria.

Read more

An impending ceasefire deal, possibly just hours away in Gaza, reveals much about the state of the world, as the past 15 months have shown us. It has provided a rare opportunity to observe who leads us, what our government represents, and the dynamics between the forces portrayed as righteous and those the empire propagandizes against.

You witnessed the American and British governments manipulate the definition of "terrorist" to suit their interests—removing the label from those they claim were responsible for crashing the Twin Towers, while branding people defending their own land against a 76-year-long occupation as such.

Marvel.

A world is not a Marvel movie, as you have been fed all your life. The world doesn't neatly fit into the good-versus-evil paradigm. No nation or religion is inherently evil. Differences in culture or customs don't equate to inferiority, and birthplace in the West doesn't grant you moral superiority.

“Islamophobia is created by the Western world because peace i…

Read more

I’m not sure if a day will ever come when I won’t wake up to yet another Israeli nonsense highlighting how incapable they are of being part of an international community—one made up of sane, honest, and critical people willing to live side by side with others, respecting the global community, compatible with modern humanity, and able to coexist with mankind.

From those in Gaza maiming small children to pieces or deliberately targeting the beloved grandfathers who represent the best and kindest of what they’re trying to ungodly erase from this planet; to those on the outside of the battlefield.

Those living in the high-rises of Tel Aviv or other Western cities, working tirelessly to ensure battlefield operations continue and the status quo is upheld indefinitely: the illegal military occupation and apartheid of the Palestinian lands.

Those who live around the world yet feel a strong allegiance to Israel, rather than to the communities in which they reside, dedicating themselves to gasli…

Read more