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 terrorists who bring Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, two real estate crooks who know nothing about diplomacy, two Israel First Chabad fanatics who want to see your entire civilization destroyed?

Minab-168.

The aircraft transporting the Iranian officials to Islamabad was not just a government plane; it was an act of remembrance, an indictment — it was named Minab-168. It’s a tribute to the young schoolgirls erased from this earth by the US/Israeli disregard for human life. Taking a life with such ease, and disregard — an ultimate flex of power.

What could you possibly negotiate with such a demonic, barbaric force?

The images from inside the plane are haunting. Photographs of the young victims, along with blood-stained school bags and personal belongings recovered from beneath the rubble of the destroyed classrooms.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, who heads the Iranian delegation, posted an image from aboard the aircraft on X, writing simply: “My companions on this flight.”

For our entire lives, we’ve been fed a farce: Western goodness versus Eastern evil. You have eyes and ears — you see it every day. You watch diplomats on both sides, what they say, how they act, and then you look at the side you were taught to fear, the supposed epitome of evil, and all you see is kindness, reason, restraint, empathy, modesty, diplomacy, respect. Tell me you finally see it. The difference is so stark, it’s unbearable.

By naming the aircraft and their mission in Islamabad — “Minab-168,” Iranian diplomats signaled to the world that it would not separate diplomacy from memory, nor negotiations from justice. In carrying bloodied school bags onto a plane bound for peace talks, Iran made clear that it does not approach negotiations in abstraction. It approaches them with the weight of 168 lives — children who will never return to their classrooms.

The shadow of the US double strike on Minab school, in the age of drones and surveillance, needs to loom over these entire peace talks. The United States needs to be forced to confront the human cost of its actions.

Children of Minab are not a footnote in this conflict. They are its conscience.

Israeli asset.

You can measure the state of affairs in the US — and just how much it is influenced, by proxy, by American Zionists — by how many of these voices dominate the government and mainstream media. The number of people occupying the airwaves and newsrooms primarily to advance Israeli interests is nauseating.

A few days ago, Marc Thiessen, a known Israeli asset moonlighting as an American author and columnist, published an article titled 'Iran thinks it has leverage. Here’s how Trump can prove it wrong,’ in The Washington Post. Free version here.

The gall of these people is becoming unbearable. The audacity of the Bezos rag publishing these Netanyahu assets, foaming at the mouth with bloodlust toward Iran, calling for the murder of Iranian diplomats who refuse to bow to them, is exactly what we need to fight with everything we’ve got.

The way these Zionists talk about the death of the people whose worldview they don’t like is truly barbaric and satanic. To be allowed to spread their degenerate, murderous culture through American media while calling to jail people for saying Free Palestine is mind-boggling.

You need to read that entire insult to humanity, but this part is astounding:

“Fourth, carry out a final barrage of leadership strikes, eliminating the Iranian officials who had been spared for the purpose of negotiations. Iran’s leaders must be made to understand that their lives literally depend on reaching a negotiated settlement to Trump’s liking. If they refuse to do so, they will be killed.”

Just to recap: Marc Thiessen's Washington Post op-ed argues that the foreign diplomats’ lives were only spared from the Israeli assassination machine, so that they can accept the Emperor Trump’s negotiated settlement to his LIKING.

Mario Nawfal gets this right:

“Show up for peace talks and a Washington Post columnist will recommend your assassination.

Marc Thiessen just published a piece saying if Iran does not accept Trump's terms, eliminate the negotiating team. The same people who were spared specifically to come talk.

You invited them. They came. Pakistan shut down its entire capital for this. And some guy in Washington with a keyboard and zero skin in the game is writing columns about killing diplomats while they are still at the table.

This is disgusting. There is no other word for it.

You want to know why nobody trusts American diplomacy? This. Right here. You push for talks, someone shows up, and your newspapers start printing assassination wish lists before the first session is even over.”

If Iran walks away from this table tomorrow, nobody should wonder why.

Conclusion:

The Iranians possess high morals and a rich civilization; treachery, betrayal, and assassination are not in their nature. Unlike the other side, whose only skills are lying, deception, treachery, betrayal, and crime. Everyone must decide which side they stand with.

Iranian delegation, I hope you walk away from the negotiating table. The cost for you and for the world will be high, but the time has come to end our complicity in American depravity — tolerating, accepting, accommodating, and justifying its arrogance and barbarity.

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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 people who suddenly invoke feminism when discussing Iran. Like we haven’t witnessed it, livestreamed, on our phones. Women’s rights are not universal principles. They are geopolitical talking points.

Liberating Iran.

This March, a week into the US and Israeli bombing of Iran, waking up every day to watch the Orientalist myth of “saving Muslim women from their oppressors” play out by dropping bombs on their schools and killing 168 of their children has been a hard pill to stomach.

I’m sick and tired of the language of women’s rights being repurposed every time the Western empire needs to justify wars and geopolitical violence against its adversaries around the world.

Bombs are humanitarian. Military strikes are feminist acts. And the Epstein class of pedophiles and sex traffickers controlling the US government now pose as guardians of oppressed women abroad to justify the imperial domination of the resource-rich Middle East.

We aren’t angry enough, people. They are taking us for fools.

Women, Life, Freedom.

Looks like they went down to the basement and dusted off the Women, Life, Freedom movement, right on schedule. Only when convenient. Only when it serves the Empire, and the Iranian diaspora Zionists.

Diaspora monarchists, Zionists, Washington neo-cons, Israel-first warmongers, and the Epstein class pedophiles grabbed the Women, Life, Freedom movement from the shelf, fronting as the champions of women’s rights, cheering the first two bombs dropped on an Iranian school, massacring 168 girls, and on a gymnasium, massacring 20 female teenage volleyball players.

There’s not a single mainstream media outlet that has published a story about a volleyball massacre. Drop Site News gave it some justice.

Saving Muslim women.

The Women, Life, Freedom movement emerged organically from the experiences of Iranian women confronting their own government and their own social constraints. It was a movement rooted in local agency. It has no business being hijacked by the pedophile class now feigning moral superiority.

Western governments have long justified intervention in the Middle East through a narrative that casts Muslim women as victims waiting to be rescued. The storyline is always the same: Muslim women are oppressed by their backwards culture, religion, and by men around them. Western powers must step in as liberators.

Liberators who preside over Western societies plagued by sexual violence, trafficking, exploitation, child abuse, and deep structural inequality. Liberated by the militaries that carry their own documented histories of abuse, including rape and sexual violence during occupations.

What did the US army do to women in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or to their female colleagues? What did the Israeli army do to women in Gaza, the West Bank, and the Israeli Detention Facilities?

The irony is obscene.

Marketing war as feminism.

Today, on International Women’s Day, the Israeli Defence Forces released a video of a female IDF soldier proclaiming, “As a woman, I’m not here to watch history from the side. I’m here to build it.”

A remarkable reach, and a signature of the most moral army in the world, which has vaporized close to 700,000 human beings in Gaza in the past two and a half years.

After everything we’ve seen come out of that society, what’s a little more purplewashing? Cloaking military action and the massacre of civilians in the language of gender equality, while concealing the suffering those actions produce.

The message is grotesque: our women participate in war equally, so our wars and our massacres are morally validated. Our female soldiers are commanders and pilots; we are a society with progressive values, unlike those backward barbarians we’re bombing into civilization.

The erasure of women’s agency.

The most damaging aspect of the saving Muslim women narrative is that it erases the agency of the very women it claims to defend. It portrays them as weak, oppressed, and in need of rescue, while simultaneously casting Arab men as inherently violent and oppressive.

Women are framed as helpless victims, we must bomb the country to save them; and men are dangerous enemies, we can kill them, they are terrorists. It is a brilliantly nefarious equation, long cultivated by the West and Israel to justify their imperial pursuits.

In reality, women across the Middle East have long histories of activism and political resistance. They have organised movements, led protests, fought authoritarianism, and challenged patriarchal structures within their own societies. Leila Khaled, anyone?

From Palestinian resistance movements to Iranian student activism, women in the region have repeatedly taken leading roles in struggles for justice. Western power structures have been able to sustain their lies about the Middle East for so long because of the Islamophobia deliberately planted in Western minds.

Yet Western narratives portray these women as passive victims waiting for outside salvation. If women are helpless, intervention becomes morally justified. If they are active political actors, the argument collapses.

Their struggle has never required scripts written in Washington or London to justify imperial supervision.

Accusation as strategy.

As I already mentioned, the idea of saving women relies on another stereotype about Middle Eastern men: that they are uniquely violent, backward, and oppressive. It serves several purposes at once. It justifies violence against those men, undermines their legitimate armed resistance to occupation by labeling it terrorism and extremism, and feeds the belief in Western moral superiority.

Western moral superiority, now plagued by the Epstein files. A ruling class entangled in pedophilia, sex trafficking, and exploitation wants to lecture the world about domestic violence, sexual assault, and gender inequality.

The myth that patriarchy belongs to other cultures is comforting to the West. It allows us to avoid confronting our own failures. Patriarchy is not a regional trait. It is a global system.

And the violence exported through imperial wars rarely stays contained abroad. It returns home through militarised policing, surveillance, and a political culture increasingly comfortable with dehumanisation.

The same societies that claim to protect women overseas shoot their own women in the face for protesting ICE violence, then lie about it to the public.

Whose Feminism?

International Women’s Day should be a moment to reflect on solidarity across borders. And solidarity requires honesty.

Unlike dishonest Iranian diaspora Zionists and monarchists who cheer the bombing of their own people “for freedom and democracy,” we need to stay on point: women around the world do not need bombs dropped in their name. They do not need their struggles instrumentalized for the geopolitical narratives of a biblically deranged Western ruling class.

If the language of women’s rights is to mean anything, it cannot be selectively deployed to justify war while ignoring violence produced by the very same policies.

Women around the world need the freedom to define their own struggles, their own movements, and their own futures. And that freedom begins with rejecting the idea that empire has anything to do with liberation. Empire does not liberate. It devastates.

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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 of the crime scene.

The resolution.

On Monday night, the UN Security Council adopted a US resolution detailing the mandate for the Gaza International Stabilization Force outlined in Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan.

Per Reuters, the text of the resolution says member states can take part in the Trump-chaired Board of Peace, envisioned as a transitional authority that would oversee “reconstruction and economic recovery of Gaza.” It also authorizes the international stabilization force, which would ensure a “process of demilitarizing Gaza, including by decommissioning weapons and destroying military infrastructure.”

This resolution was adopted 13-0-2; 13 countries voted in favor of it, 0 voted against it, and 2 abstained (Russia and China).

Demilitarizing Gaza.

These jokers really expect us to accept their morbid idea — that an occupied population without sovereignty, without a military, and without freedom of movement, one that has just been subjected to the most brutal genocidal campaign by the two most powerful psychopathic powers, is supposed to demilitarize?

Hamas, naturally, said — no way, Jose. In a statement, they reiterated that it will not disarm and argued that its fight against Israel is legitimate resistance, potentially pitting the resistance group against the international force authorized by this resolution.

A peace deal, anyone?

And what was Israel doing in the days leading to the United States passing the resolution that would come in and help them achieve military goals they themself couldn’t achieve for the past two years against the population in flip-flops, with homemade weapons?

On Sunday, per Al Jazeera, “Israel was engaged in a last-ditch bid to change the wording of a United Nations Security Council resolution on the next phase of United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan that was recently amended to mention a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood.”

Please mention the two-state solution one more time to me, I dare you.

On Sunday, Netanyahu repeated to his cabinet that his opposition to a Palestinian state had “not changed one bit”. This was one day before the United Nations Security Council would vote on the US-drafted resolution, which would mandate a transitional administration and an international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza.

Straight out of Shakespeare.

Iago, Lady Macbeth, and Richard III would be ashamed of what Netanyahu and his government pulled in the last 48 hours to prevent Palestinian statehood before the United Nations Security Council vote on Monday.

He engaged in a last-minute diplomatic push to alter the draft resolution, which the US had changed to include more defined language about Palestinian self-determination under pressure from Arab and Muslim countries expected to contribute troops to the International Stabilisation Force.

The draft now says that “conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” after reforms to the Palestinian Authority are “faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced”.

Do you finally realize the scope of this diplomatic farce?

All of you insincere Islamophobes who still parrot the — but Palestinians are refusing any peace deals and offers to have a state, are you finally there? Did you arrive at the Netanyahu pulling Shakespearian chess moves for decades to prevent any coexistence, like ever?

And this is where the United Nations comes in as his tool. Instead of holding him and the state of Israel accountable for the war crimes the entire world saw on their phones, livestreamed, they came out with this vote to legitimize this genocide, and the occupation of the Palestinian people.

Not much different from what the United Nations did in November 1947, when it proposed the partition of Palestine. This is simply a continuation of their original sin.

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The resistance factions came out, naturally, to call these efforts “a new attempt to impose another form of occupation on our land and people, and to legitimise foreign trusteeship”.

Palestinian voices and aspirations for sovereignty have been fully sidelined by the farce and the spectacle of Trump’s Gaza plan, which we knew would happen from its launch. The villains of the world, deciding the destiny of a nation they just bombarded to oblivion, allowing no Palestinians at the table, having a say in their own reality.

Al Jazeera also reports, as of late Sunday night, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions called on Algeria, a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to reject the plan for stabilisation forces to be deployed in Gaza.

“We direct a sincere and fraternal appeal to the Algerian Republic, government and people, to continue adhering to its principled positions supporting Palestine, and its steadfast rejection of any projects targeting Gaza’s identity and our people’s right to self-determination.”

Algeria denied their plea.

Instead, they raised their hand and voted yes on this shameful resolution.

A book could be written about the scale of betrayal the Arab world’s leaders continue to inflict on the Palestinian people. It’s unbearable to watch.

The people in Gaza just endured two years of the most brutal assault, genocide, starvation of its people, fighting the entire Western empire and their most sophisticated weaponry — stateless people without sovereignty and military, and Israel still could not defeat them. The most powerful army in the Middle East, backed and funded by the biggest superpower on earth, could not defeat these orphans from defending their land.

Instead, they needed a resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council, so that the international community could send in the international boots on the ground, to impose Israeli goals — the ones they failed to secure militarily.

The world is literally being asked to police the Palestinian people for Israel!

Russia.

Russia had a golden chance here. The world is finally waking up to the lies — about Israel, about Ukraine, about the brutality of the American Empire. They had a rare opportunity to veto this humiliating resolution and show the world exactly where the violence is coming from, and which side of the hemisphere keeps failing at even the bare minimum of diplomacy.

In the weeks leading up to this vote, Russia was circulating its own resolution to rival the US version, offering stronger language on Palestinian statehood and stressing that the occupied West Bank and Gaza must be joined as a contiguous state under the Palestinian Authority.

They did not insist on their resolution, and they did not use this opportunity to veto the US resolution; instead, both Russia and China cowardly abstained.

Best part? Israel and Turkiye are supposed to be the two countries mediating this resolution on the ground in Gaza. Israel has already said it will not accept Turkiye, a key Gaza ceasefire mediator, having any role on the ground.

This means Israel, a country that has just committed a genocide on these people, will be the ones mediating this “peace deal!”

This farce is hard to swallow even for those least informed; this is like putting Hitler in charge of peace for the Jews in 1945.

Shameful. Humiliating.

Russia’s failure to use this moment to advance its own resolution, or at the very least veto this shameful US draft that renders Palestinian self-determination impossible, raises the question: in practice, how are Russia and China any different from Washington and Tel Aviv?

Sam Husseini tweeted what was on my mind, reading this unfortunate turn of events:

China and Russia abstained. All other US puppet United Nations Security Council members voted yes.

Mark today in your calendars folks: The start of a new imperial crusade.

Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations human rights official and a specialist in international human rights law, posted a sobering tweet:

“The UN Security Council has just adopted the horrific US resolution with 13 yes votes and 2 abstentions. Not a single member of the Council had the courage, principle, or respect for international law to vote against this US-Israel colonial outrage.

This proposal has been rejected by Palestinian civil society and factions, and defenders of human rights and international law everywhere. 17 November 2025 is a day of shame for the United Nations, and for governments around the world on their knees before the US empire and its violent Israeli client. But the struggle for Palestinian freedom will continue undeterred, with or without them.”

Board of Peace.

Another important detail about this “peace resolution” for you to know. Drop Site News reminds that this vote installs Jared Kushner and Tony Blair’s concept for a foreign “Board of Peace” as Gaza’s governing authority, giving it control over the enclave’s resources and borders. The resolution authorizes the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to disarm the resistance in Gaza. It also creates a Palestinian executive committee for day-to-day administration and ties Israeli withdrawal to Hamas disarmament, with progress reports required every six months to the Security Council.

What to even say?

Hope you now understand that the United Nations’ purpose is not to uphold international law or bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. Its purpose is to legitimize colonization, genocide, and imperial pursuits. After all, the UN was created to formalize and recognize the state of Israel on top of the existing Palestinian population. We should never forget its origins.

If the United Nations were actually doing what its mandate claims, it would place neutral forces in Gaza, work with the Palestinian resistance to secure the State of Palestine, disarm Israel, and remove all its nuclear weapons.

Great tweet by Sultan Khan:

The UN just wrapped the US occupation plan in blue flags and called it “peace.” A foreign council to rule Gaza, foreign soldiers to disarm the occupied, and Israel leaves only when Palestinians kneel.
This isn’t peacekeeping.
It’s empire management.
It’s genocide with official paperwork.

I want to leave you with this excellent United Nations Villain’s Origin Story, in case this article didn’t make it clear enough. This analysis is by a brilliant geopolitical, historical buff, Queniform. Please read this:

The UN Was Born as an Instrument of Partition. Today, It Returns to Its First Task.

Today, the UN approved an “international stabilization force” for Gaza - a polite phrase for an occupation army.

Strip the diplomatic veneer and the meaning is blunt: the world is being asked to send its own soldiers to finish what Israel’s armed groups failed to do. An international battalion to impose Israeli goals. Foreign sons dying for a land grab.

This is not a rupture.

This is continuity.

This is the UN returning to its original assignment.

From the Beginning, the UN Was the Administrative Wing of the Zionist Project.

The mythology says the UN was born to maintain peace after World War II. The record says something else. In 1947, the UN Partition Plan carved Palestine with a pen stroke so violent it still echoes. Jews, who owned only 7% of the land, were suddenly “awarded” 56%.

Not through history, not through purchase, not through population, not through consent — but through a vote orchestrated by Western powers already invested in a settler state to secure their imperial corridor between the Mediterranean and the Gulf.

This was no act of impartial global governance.

It was the handover ceremony of British colonialism to its chosen successor.

Britain had failed to break Palestinian resistance — even after the 1936 revolt, even after collective punishments, executions, home demolitions, curfews, and martial law.

So the mandate was passed to a new structure: the United Nations.

The partition plan wasn’t peacekeeping. It was dispossession in legal dress.

2025: The UN Returns to Form.

Fast-forward.

Israel’s army has exhausted itself in Gaza.

The global public has seen the atrocities and refuses to legitimize them.

So a familiar mechanism is revived:

When colonial violence reaches its limit, the UN steps in to launder the next phase.

Under “international mandate,” the same outcome is pursued:

The fragmentation of Palestine.

The containment of its people.

The protection of Israeli expansion.

The neutralization of resistance.

It is the Mandate system without the British flag.

It is the Partition Plan without the word “partition.”

Israel failed to conquer Gaza.

So now the “international community” is being marshalled to do it for them — to impose the political arrangement Israel could not secure militarily.

The World Is Being Asked to Police Palestine for Israel.

Make no mistake:

Occupation does not become legitimate when the uniform changes color.

An international army that enters Gaza against the will of its people is not peacekeeping — it is subcontracted apartheid.

A globalized settler-colonial force.

And its task is clear: to stabilize the conditions for another century of dispossession.

The UN’s Mandate Has Never Changed.

From 1947 to today, the institution has been consistent:

It did not stop the Nakba — it administered it.

It did not reverse the land theft — it codified it.

It did not restrain the settler state — it offered diplomatic scaffolding to build one.

It did not protect Palestinians — it provided procedural cover for their erasure.

What we are witnessing today is not an aberration.

It is the system functioning as designed.

The tragedy is not that the UN failed.

The tragedy is that people still expect the UN to be something it never was.

Its core purpose - from partition to peacekeeping mandates to today’s occupation force — has been to translate Western strategic interests into international legitimacy.

And Palestine has always been the proving ground of that architecture.

Hopeless?

Don’t be. Subjugated, occupied people never achieved their freedom through diplomacy. The path to freedom will be forged by the people of the land, not by resolutions. Hamas will not disarm, and we need to sharpen our resistance to the Zionist grip on politics, culture, and the imperial machinery that sustains it. We can’t give up. Keep fighting!

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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 presidential election, but you know now it’s just a uniparty, working for the same billionaire donor, Epstein class. Making your life unbearable, unless you are a 1%-er, is a bipartisan effort.

Did you notice how fast, regardless of their party affiliation, the billionaire oligarchy came out, in the eleventh hour, to protect each other by endorsing Cuomo?

November 4th, 5:30 pm, Election Day.

For the past year, I have worked on Mamdani campaign as a creator and volunteer. I was a part of the Creators4Zohran collective, a canvasser, and today was the last day of our effort to get this man elected into office. The polling places are closing at 9 pm, and we are working until the last minute.

I got called around 5 pm to head out to the polling place next to my house, where a group of Cuomo voters came to intimidate young first-time voters and Zohran’s volunteers, also very young, there to answer questions about the campaign. I head out there, and the scene was quite interesting; Cuomo’s supporters had Israel flags and were yelling at everyone coming out, brave enough to admit they voted Mamdani.

My presence, along with a few peers, didn’t intimidate them, but it quieted them enough that they eventually left.

On my way home, I pondered what about this man angers them so much; and I recalled the piece by Alon Mizrahi — “They Don’t Hate Mamdani Because he’s a Muslim Radical. They Hate him Because he’s a Muslim Normal.” If you need to read one piece today, besides my own, hit this article by Alon — it walks you through the Mamdani phenomenon and explains why he unsettles the Western, Zionist-aligned establishment.

“I discovered Zohran Mamdani just a few weeks ago, on Twitter. I fell for him immediately. He has the clear marks of an excellent brown and Islamic (or at least Islamic-inspired) upbringing: calm, humility, a very sharpened sense of political criticism, but one rooted in a quest for harmony, rather than a revolution. He is, in short, everything white racists, white supremacists, and Zionists told us Muslims are definitely not.” — Alon Mizrahi

November 4th, 7:45 pm, Election Day.

I’m getting ready to go to Zohran’s victory party, before the results are in; I’m so sure of this victory. For the past year, I have been working a full time job, wrote for 4-5 hours per day, and two days I had off to rest, I didn’t have it, I worked on this campaign.

I feel this in my bones, something’s gotta give.

Zohran Mamdani, even without the win that’s surely coming later tonight, is a global powerhouse. How did this happen in such a short amount of time? Creator Matt Ransdell Jr., posted a great rundown of the phenomenon Mamdani:

“What is it about Mamdani that has two of the most powerful men on the planet, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, terrified that he’s gonna win so much so that they’re doing whatever they can at the wall at the buzzer just to prevent that from happening?

What is it about Zohran? Hear me when I say that Zohran Mamdani is good. I’m not talking about his talent. We can see that he’s talented. No, I am telling you Zohran is good — and I fear that a lot of people don’t know how to receive that, because this world has made them feel like they don’t deserve good things.

You might have a deeply rooted distrust of politicians, and that is fair, and you might have a deeply rooted distrust of the system, and that is fair too — but the system can’t change for the better until we elect good people to be in charge of changing it. That’s the opportunity we have here.

We have a good man asking you to vote for him, so that he can work for you. Zohran wants to work to better New York, for all of New York. Zohran is not in the pockets of billionaires and all the oligarchs because he’s in the public, with the people.

That would be good for the world, and I think we deserve something good. This is how it happens. This is how change happens. This is how movements happen.”

This is how change happens.

This is how movements happen.

November 4th, 8:50 pm, the Election Day.

I’m in Uber, headed toward Brooklyn Paramount, where Zohran will hold an election night watch party. I’m late, I stopped by the polling place again to help a few more kids volunteering from being intimidated by more nothing-better-to-do thugs trying to prevent the inevitable.

Polling places are open for another 10 minutes. I’m stuck in traffic. It’s 9:03 pm and Decision Desk projects Zohran Mamdani to win the New York City Mayor election.

I’m losing it in the car. I’m late. My trench buddies are calling me. My parents are calling me from Europe, they stayed up until 3 am to wait out the results. They are hopeful.

I arrive in Brooklyn, exit the Uber, run into the closest venue with the screen, and make it in time just as the AP Press officially called Zohran as our next major!

Mayor Mamdani

I start crying.

Everything I endured for the past 10-ish months came down on me, but mostly exhaustion and relief.

People can organize, and people can do it.

November 4th, 2:30 am, Election Day.

“To every New Yorker – whether you voted for me, for one of my opponents or felt too disappointed by politics to vote at all – thank you for the opportunity to prove myself worthy of your trust. I will wake each morning with a singular purpose: to make this city better for you than it was the day before.

Tonight we have spoken in a clear voice. Hope is alive. Hope is a decision that tens of thousands of New Yorkers made day after day, volunteer shift after volunteer shift, despite attack ad after attack ad. More than a million of us stood in our churches, in gymnasiums, in community centers, as we filled in the ledger of democracy.”

We did it.

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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 violations. “We think maybe the leadership isn’t involved in that,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Caught in lies, yet again.

When the Israeli genocidal regime and terrorist militia broke the ceasefire, after the explosion of their own making, this is what they said: “We struck Hamas targets across the enclave, including field commanders, gunmen, a tunnel and weapons depots, after militants launched an anti-tank missile and fired on its troops, killing the soldiers.”

They did none of that, as Hamas had no presence. They invented field commanders, gunmen, a tunnel, and a weapons depot. What did legacy media do? This time they did arrive to the party, but not to reprimand Israel for violating the ceasefire agreement, but to call it a test of the ceasefire.

The New York Times cooked up this gem —Flare-Up of Violence in Gaza Tests Cease-Fire; while CNN gifted us with — US-brokered ceasefire appears to survive first major test as Israel and Hamas affirm commitment to deal.

We know why this ceasefire came about now. Israel was getting heavily boycotted in film, sports, and culture, and the masses were getting unruly. We also knew there was nothing to be excited about when the ceasefire was announced; we have seen too many ceasefires, and we have been paying attention.

This ceasefire means nothing.

David Miller of Tracking Power perfectly explains why: “What is often less well understood – especially when dealing with the Zionists – is that diplomacy is merely the continuation of war by other means.”

As yesterday showed you, don’t let yourselves be lulled by this ceasefire. This is just an obvious buying of some time to release the pressure on Israel, and once things calm down, they’ll resume their assault on Gaza in full effect. Probably even more, now that they don’t have to pretend to care about their extreme colonist POWs.

What’s most brutal about these two regimes, the US and Israel, working in unison, isn’t just their war crimes, but how shamelessly they use the language of peace to advance their goals of war. This face ceasefire plan continues the pattern of the ‘Deal of the Century’ in 2020 and the Oslo Accords of 1993 — using the language of coexistence to prolong Palestinian occupation and land theft.

You don’t cease fire in a genocide.

Fire is ceased in a war between two armies. This latest, manipulatively called “ceasefire,” is only the end of bombardment on a bigger scale; massacres will continue. A ceasefire without a Palestinian voice on the table, and without accountability for those in Gaza who have survived this long against so much, is just the maintenance of the biggest war crimes of our lived experience.

Ceasefire is the word used, so we don’t use the proper words that need to come after a livestreamed genocide — accountability, trials, reparations. Palestinian people deserve accountability, reparations, and trials for war crimes committed against their entire nation.

Until there is a plan on the table that goes after everyone who has participated in this crime of our lifetime, diplomacy is meaningless. Media conglomerates justifying genocide, corporations that profited from the sniping of children, and everyone who cheered and propagandized for this mass murder need to be held accountable. Without accountability, a ceasefire is meaningless. As I said, it’s the language of peace used to maintain their war crimes.

I could write for three days about why this ceasefire achieves nothing for the Palestinian people. If you have been in this movement for years, like most of my readers are, you already know this ceasefire is meaningless. Instead of delving into more analysis, I want to hear the Palestinian people speaking. What do they think? How do they feel about yet again and again, another fake diplomacy brought upon them, without anyone inviting them to have a seat at the table, yet again, designed to keep their status quo indefinite?

Let’s amplify their voices.

I want to introduce you to a Palestinian artist, an illustrator I’ve been following for two years. His work has been piercing my heart ever since I discovered it. I even included one of his illustrations in one of my most-read features, written after that performative glorious ceasefire in January 2024 — the one that never truly ceased any fire, but instead paved the way for the most gruesome, livestreamed massacre the world has ever witnessed.

In the days leading up to this deceptive ceasefire — the days it was announced, and those that followed — Kamal Sharaf offered the most nuanced commentary on this political theater, without uttering a single word.

There’s something about Palestinian art that transcends every boundary of what we understand as art. It’s not just expression — it’s survival. It’s the only language left to a people forbidden to speak their truth. Every line, every color carries the weight of generations silenced, displaced, erased, and yet, somehow, still capable of creating beauty.

Their art is not made for galleries or applause. It’s a record of existence, a heartbeat drawn against annihilation. That’s why Palestinian art feels different. Because it is different. It’s born from pain the world refuses to see, and from a love of land so powerful, it survives even when its people are buried beneath rubble.

His art explained it all.

I have nothing to add to it. Deception, manipulation, propaganda, deceit, pain, dehumanization, injustice — it’s all there.

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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 existing Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley. Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel. Palestinians would be forced to accept Israeli security control over the entire region — and, of course, to demilitarize. The plan also effectively eliminated the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homes inside Israel and sought to dissolve the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid to Palestinian refugees.

So you see — this criminal gang has been at this for a long time, starting with the one behind the Oslo Accords, which served only as a Nobel Peace Prize grab, just as Trump now hopes to do. No one cares about the actual rights or lives of the Palestinian people. No one. It’s all political theater — then and now.

The Interview.

Francesca Borri from La Reppublica did a rare interview with Yahya Sinwar, published on October 5th, 2018, that I find fascinating. He discusses the “Deal of The Century.” There is no better material to read to fully understand the nuances of the Palestinian people and their resistance, than this interview. Especially after what we have witnessed for the past two years.

The face-off between Francesca’s Western mindset and his exhausting sarcasm and self-deprecation traits only possessed by those who have endured the toughest lives — plays out like a theater.

This is a must read. Not only because he laid his life for his people, but because it fills in so many blind spots you might have about why Palestinian resistance exists.

His answers are a fascinating read:

Francesca: I know next to nothing about you. You’re said to be quite private. A man of few words. You rarely speak with journalists. Actually, this is your first time with Western media. But you have been leading Hamas for more than a year. Why speak now?

Yahya: “Because now I see a real opportunity for change.”

F: An opportunity? Now?

Y: “Now. Yes.”

F: To be honest, what looks most likely here is rather a new war. I was in Gaza last June, and it was just as usual. Flying bullets, tear gas. Wounded everywhere. And then airstrikes, rockets. Other airstrikes. A golden opportunity to get shot. Since April, since the start of this latest wave of protests, you’ve had nearly 200 dead.

Y: “While on the other side, there was only one dead. And so, first of all, I would say that ‘war’ is quite a misleading word: it’s not that there is a war, and on other days we have peace. We are always under occupation. It’s a daily aggression. It’s just of varying intensity. But anyway: the truth is that a new war is in no one’s interest. For sure, it’s not in ours. Who would like to face a nuclear power with slingshots? But if we can’t win, for Netanyahu, a victory would be even worse than a defeat. Because it would be the fourth war. They should take over Gaza. And they are trying their best to get rid of the Palestinians of the West Bank, and keep a Jewish majority: I don’t think they want another two million Arabs. No. War achieves nothing.”

F: It sounds a bit odd, from someone who comes from the military wing of Hamas.

Y: “I am not the leader of a militia. I’m from Hamas. And that’s it. I am the Gaza leader of Hamas. Of something much more complex than a militia: a national liberation movement. And my main duty is to act in the interest of my people: to defend them, and their right to freedom and independence. You are a war correspondent. Do you like war?”

F: Not at all.

Y: “And so why should I? Whoever knows what war is, doesn’t like war.”

But you have been fighting for all your life.

Y: “And I am not saying I won’t fight anymore, indeed. I am saying that I don’t want war anymore. I want the end of the siege. You walk to the beach at sunset, and you see all these teenagers, on the shore, chatting, and wondering what the world looks like across the sea. What life looks like. It’s heartbreaking. And should break everybody. I want them free.”

F: Borders have been basically sealed off for 11 years. Gaza doesn’t even have water anymore. Only seawater. Salt water. How is living here?

Y: “What do you think? 55 percent of the population is under 15 years old. We are not speaking of “terrorists”: we are speaking of kids. They have no political affiliation. They have just fear. I want them free.”

F: 80 percent of the population depends on aid. And 50 percent is food insecure - 50 percent is hungry. According to the UN, shortly, Gaza will be unfit for life. But in these years, Hamas has found resources to dig its tunnels.

Y: “And luckily. Otherwise, we would all be dead. The way you see it, it’s the way the Zionist propaganda tells it. The siege didn’t follow the tunnels. It wasn’t a reaction to tunnels. It’s the other way round. There was a siege, and a humanitarian crisis, and to survive, we had no other option than to dig tunnels. There were times when even milk was banned.”

F: You know what I mean. Don’t you think you bear some responsibility?

Y: “Responsibility is on the besieger. Not on the besieged. My responsibility is to work with whoever can help us to end this deadly and unjust siege, and I am thinking especially of the international community. Because Gaza can’t go on like this. The situation here is unsustainable. And in this way, an explosion, an escalation is unavoidable.”

F: And so why didn’t you buy milk, rather than guns?

Y: “If we hadn’t bought guns, we wouldn’t be alive by now. We’ve bought it, don’t worry. We’ve bought milk, and much else: food, medicine. We are 2 million. Do you have any idea what does it mean to get food and medicine for 2 million people? Tunnels are used only minimally for resistance, and because otherwise you may not die of hunger, but you would die of airstrikes. And Hamas pays for resistance out of its own pocket, not with public funds. Out of its own pocket.”

F: So Hamas has been doing well in government.

Y: “What do you think? That being in power in Gaza is like being in power in Paris? We have been in power for years in many municipalities, exactly because of our reputation for efficiency and transparency. Then in 2006 we won the general elections: and we were blacklisted. There is no electricity, it’s true. And this affects everything else. But do you think that we have no engineers? That we are unable to build a turbine? Of course we are. But how? With sand? You can have the best surgeon in town: but you are expecting him to operate with fork and knife. Look at your skin: it’s already peeling away. Here if you arrive from outside, if you arrive from the world, you get sick straight away. What should grab your eye, is that we are still alive.”

F: And so now, Hamas is apparently thinking of a ceasefire. Negotiators are working around the clock. What do you mean by ceasefire?

Y: “I mean a ceasefire. Quietness. The end of the siege.”

F: Quietness for quietness.

Y: “No, wait. Quietness for quietness, and the end of the siege. A siege is not quietness.”

F: “And quietness... For how long?

Y: “That’s not the main issue, honestly. What really matters is rather what happens on the ground. Because if the ceasefire means that we don’t get bombed, but still we have no water, no electricity, nothing, still we are under siege, it makes no sense. Because the siege is a type of war: it’s just war through other means. And it’s also a crime, under international law. There’s no ceasefire under siege. But if we see Gaza returning to normalcy, on the contrary, if we see not only aid, but investments, development, because we are not beggars, we want to work, study, travel, like all of you — we want to live, and to stand on our own. If we start to see a difference, we can go on. And Hamas will do its best. But there is no security, no stability, neither here nor in the region, without justice. Without freedom and justice. I don’t want the peace of the graveyard.”

F: Ok, but... Maybe it’s just a trick to reorganize yourself. And in six months, to go back to war. Why should Israelis trust you?

Y: “First of all, I never went to war: war came to me. And my question, in all truth, is the opposite. Why should I trust them? They left Gaza in 2005: and they simply reshaped the occupation. They were inside: now they block borders. Who knows what’s really going on in their mind? And yet, that’s what trust is all about. And perhaps, that’s our mistake. We always think in terms of: the first step. Who’s gonna do the first step, you or me?”

F: Ok, but... Again. Should the ceasefire not work…

Y: '“But for once, can we imagine instead what happens, if it works? Because it might be a powerful motivation for doing our best to make it work, no? If for a moment we imagined Gaza as it actually was, not a long time ago — have you ever seen some photos of the 1950s? When in summer, we had tourists from everywhere?”

And Gaza had plenty of cafés, shops. Palm trees. I’ve seen those photos. Yes.

Y: “But today as well, have you seen how brilliant our youths are? Despite it all. How talented, how inventive, dynamic they are? With old fax machines, old computers, a group of twenty-somethings assembled a 3D printer: to produce the medical equipment that is barred from entry. That’s Gaza. We are not only destitution. Barefoot children. We can be like Singapore. Like Dubai. And let’s make time work for us. Heal our wounds. I have been in jail for 25 years. He lost a son [Sinwar points at one of his advisers, Ed.], killed in a raid. Your translator: he lost two brothers. The man who served us tea: his wife died from an infection, no big deal, a cut: but there were no antibiotics. And that’s how she died. For something any pharmacist could treat. Do you think it’s easy, for us? But let’s start with this ceasefire. Let’s give our kids the life we never had. And they will be better than us. With a different life, they will build a different future.”

F: You are giving up?

Y: “We’ve been struggling all our lives to get a normal life. A life free from occupation. From aggression. We are not surrendering. We are persisting.”

F: And during this ceasefire, Hamas would keep its weapons? Or you would accept, I don’t know, an international protection, like the blue helmets?

Y: “Like Srebrenica?”

F: I guess it’s a no.

Y: “You guessed right.”

F: Sorry if I persist at it, but should this ceasefire not work? Not to jinx it, but the past is not really encouraging. So far, hardliners have knocked down any deal attempt.

Y: “First of all, you seem to be quite confident; but there is no agreement yet. We are ready to sign it, Hamas and nearly all Palestinian groups, we are ready to sign it and comply with it; but for now, there is only the occupation. But having said that — if we will be attacked, that’s obvious, we will defend ourselves. As always. And we will have a new war. But then, in a year, you will be here again. And again I will be here to say — war achieves nothing.”

F: You have an iconic weapon: rockets. Quite makeshift rockets, actually, which are usually stopped by the Iron Dome. And to which Israel replies with its much more powerful missiles. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed. Have rockets been useful?

Y: “Let’s be clear: armed resistance is our right, under international law. But we don’t have only rockets. At all. We have been using a variety of means of resistance. Always. Such a question, honestly, is more for you than for me: for all of you journalists. We achieve the headlines only with blood. No blood, no news. But the problem is not our resistance: it is their occupation. With no occupation, we wouldn’t have rockets. We wouldn’t have stones, molotov cocktails. Nothing. We would all have a normal life.”

F: But do you think they have fulfilled their purpose?

Y: “Certainly not. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. But so, what about the occupation? What was its purpose? Raising killers? Have you watched the video where a soldier shoots at us as if we were bowling pins? And he laughs, and laughs. They were people like Freud, Einstein. Kafka. Experts of maths, of philosophy. Now they are experts of drones. Of extrajudicial executions.”

F: You now have a new iconic weapon: arson kites. They are driving Israel crazy. Because they elude the Iron Dome. And neither can they be shot down one by one.

Y: “Kites are not a weapon. At most, they set some stubble on fire. An extinguisher, and it’s over. They are not a weapon, they are a message. Because they are just twine and paper, and an oil-soaked rug, while each battery of the Iron Dome costs 100 million dollars. Those kites say: you are immensely more powerful. But you will never win. Really. Never.”

F: West Bank Palestinians face the same occupation, and yet they opted for quite a different strategy. Appealing to the UN. To the international community.

Y: “And that’s crucial. All is crucial. It’s all means of resistance. But, if I may say so, sorry, when it comes to Palestine, the international community is a part of the problem. When we won the elections, and we won a free and fair election, the reaction was a blockade. Immediately. We’ve proposed a government with Fatah, and not one time, a hundred times: nothing. The only reply has been the blockade. If it turned out the way it did, it is also your fault [of the international community]. And now, too. You warn Hamas: We’ll deal with you only if there is Fatah. Then you warn Fatah: We’ll deal with you only if there isn’t Hamas. The rift we have been so criticized for is also an effect of the blockade. Of your pressures. Those are, sometimes, nothing but threats.”

F: The blockade is because Hamas is viewed as an antisystemic movement. As an unconstitutional movement, so to speak. That doesn’t abide by the rules of the game.

Y: “Which game? The occupation?”

F: You know. Oslo. The two-state solution.

Y: “But Oslo is over. I think that’s the only point everyone agrees upon, here. It’s been simply an excuse to distract the world with endless negotiations, and in the meantime, build settlements everywhere, and physically erase any feasibility of a Palestinian state. 25 years have come and gone. And what did we get? Nothing. But most of all, why do you insist on always mentioning Oslo? Why do you never speak of what happened later? Like the National Unity Document, for instance. Based on the well-known 2006 Prisoners’ Document. And that outlines our current strategy, I mean, Hamas, Fatah, all of us, all together: a state along 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. And with the right of return for refugees, of course. 12 years have come and gone. And you keep on asking: Why don’t you accept the 1967 borders? I’ve got the feeling that the problem is not on our side.”

F: The international community spends a million dollars on the Palestinians.

Y: “Spends. Exactly. It simply spends. Wrongly. You honoured the Oslo Accords with a Nobel Peace Prize, and you vanished. Nobody monitored their implementation. The key question is: Was it the right strategy to help establish our own state, and all its institutions? And among other things, I have to remind you that the 4th Geneva Convention is clear: the cost of the occupation is on the shoulders of the occupier. It’s not your job to build roads. Schools. And above all, to rebuild again what they demolished. Instead of opposing the occupation, you make it easier.”

F: Anyway, the staunchest opponent of this ceasefire seems to be not Israel, which is now focused on Iran, but Fatah. Which fears it might be a Hamas success.

Y: “A success? This ceasefire is not for Hamas or Fatah: it is for Gaza. And then, look. For me, what matters is that you finally realize that Hamas is here. That it exists. That there is no future without Hamas, there is no possible deal whatsoever, because we are part and parcel of this society, even if we lose the next election. We are a piece of Palestine. More so than that, we are a piece of the history of the entire Arab world, which includes Islamists as well as seculars, nationalists. Leftists. All that said, let’s avoid the word success, please. It’s outrageous for all the terminally ill patients who are right now at the border, waiting for it to open. For all the fathers who won’t dare to look at their kids tonight, because they won’t have a meal. What success are we talking about?”

F: You went to jail when you were 27. And when you got out, you were 50. How was readjusting to life? To the world?

Y: “When I entered, it was 1988. There was still the Cold War. And here, the Intifada. To spread the latest news, we printed fliers. I came out, and I found the internet. But to be honest, I never came out. I have only changed prisons. And despite it all, the old one was much better than this one. I had water, electricity. I had so many books. Gaza is much tougher.”

F: What have you learned from prison?

Y: “A lot. Prison builds you. Especially if you are Palestinian, because you live amid checkpoints, walls, restrictions of all kinds, and only in prison you finally meet other Palestinians, and you have time for talking, for thinking. Thinking about yourself, too. About what you believe in, the price you are willing to pay. But it’s as if now I ask you: what have you learned from war? You would say: A lot. You would say: War builds you. But for sure, you would not like to have ever been in a war. I have learned a lot, yes. But I don’t wish prison on anybody. Not even to those who today, across that barbed wire, knock us down like bowling pins and laugh, and don’t realize that they might end up for 25 years in the Hague.”

F: In the International Criminal Court.

Y: “Of course. Because again: there’s no future without justice. And we’ll seek justice.”

F: But you know that some Palestinians, too, might end up in the Hague.

Y: “Under international law, we have the right to resist the occupation. But the Court is the Court, of course. And it will work on whatever it has to work on. And yet, its role is essential. And not only because to stop crimes, it’s essential to punish criminals. Its role is essential for the victims as well. Because only a trial allows a reconstruction of what happened, and in this way, its processing, somehow. When it comes to grief, no third party can replace the victims. No political deal whatsoever can overcome their loss. And move on. That’s up to the victims.”

F: You were released in the Gilad Shalit swap. And Hamas currently has two Israelis, plus the remains of two soldiers killed during the last war. In a ceasefire deal, I guess the prisoner swap for you would be an essential clause.

Y: “More than essential. A must. It isn’t a political issue: for me, it is a moral issue. Your readers probably believe that if you are in jail, you are a terrorist or somehow an outlaw. A car thief. No. We all get arrested, sooner or later. But literally. All of us. Take a look at Military Order 101. Without an army authorization, it’s a crime even to wave a flag, or be in more than ten people in the same room for a tea, chatting about politics. Imagine, for example, you are just chatting about Trump, but you can be sentenced to up to 10 years. Somehow, it’s a rite of passage. It’s our coming of age. Because if there is something we are united by, something that really makes us all equal, all Palestinians, it is prison. And for me, it is a moral obligation: I will try more than my best to free those who are still inside.”

F: In some way, you achieved more through kidnappings than through rockets.

Y: “Which kidnappings?”

F: Like Gilad Shalit’s.

Y: “Gilad Shalit wasn’t a hostage; he was a war prisoner. You see why we rarely speak with journalists? A soldier gets killed, and you publish a photo where he is on the beach, and your readers think that we shot him in Tel Aviv. No. That guy wasn’t killed while wearing Bermuda shorts and carrying a surfboard, but while wearing a uniform, carrying an M16, and firing on us.”

F: And with the ceasefire?

Y: “With the ceasefire, no one will fire on us, right? And so no one will be captured?”

F: You were talking of prison. Of coming of age. Hamas turned 30. How did you change?

Y: “How did you see all this, thirty years ago?”

F: Thirty years ago, I was 8 years old.

Y: “And that’s it: we changed as you changed. As everybody changed. It was 1988: and as I told you, we still had the Cold War. And the world was much more ideological than today. Much more in black and white. Friends and enemies. And our world, too, was a bit like that. Then, over time, you learn that you can find friends, and enemies, also where you wouldn’t expect.”

F: Hamas Charter is still quite black and white.

Y: “That’s our first document. And perhaps, what do you think, the last ones matter more? Why do you ask me about a Charter of 30 years ago, and not the one that followed it? And the one that shows all our evolution? Dozens and dozens of documents. It’s all there. Our relationship with civil society, and with other political groups, the regional context. The international context. And the occupation, of course. The answer to all your questions is there. And truthfully, we expected you to see that, get the signal, and start a dialogue with Hamas. Because again, we are not a transitory phenomenon. There is no future without Hamas. And yet you keep asking about something from 30 years ago. And about Oslo. And so, as for Oslo, I’ve got the feeling that the problem is not on our side.”

F: And whose is the problem?

Y: “Of all those who still view us as an armed group, and nothing more. You don’t have any idea of what Hamas really looks like. Just a glimpse: half of our employees are women. Would you ever guess that? You focus on resistance, on the means, rather than the goal, which is a state based on democracy, pluralism. Cooperation. A state that protects rights and freedom. And where differences are faced through words. Not through guns. Hamas is much more than its military operations. It’s in our DNA. We are first and foremost a social movement. Not just a political movement. We set up soup kitchens, schools, hospitals. To do your part, you don’t need to be the Minister of Welfare. If you are Hamas, you are a citizen before being a voter.”

F: Most of my readers, yet, think of Hamas, and don’t think of charities. They rather think of the Second Intifada. Of suicide attacks. And for Israelis, you are a terrorist.

Y: “And that’s what they are for me - in light of their crimes against us.”

F: But for your children, what kind of life do you hope for?

Y: “A life as Palestinians, of course. Head high. Always. Despite it all, I hope they will be strong and keep on struggling till the day they get freedom and independence. I want my kids to dream of becoming doctors, not to treat only the wounded, but cancer. Like all the kids in the world. I want them to be safe as Palestinians, so that they can be much more than just Palestinians.”

F: I forgot to ask you about the Deal of the Century. Of Donald Trump’s peace plan. Even though it’s not very clear what it’s all about. There’s nothing on paper.

Y: “It’s actually a very clear obliteration of any of our prospects of freedom and independence. There’s no sovereignty, no Jerusalem. No right of return. There is only one stance: our NO. And that’s not only Hamas’ position. That’s something we all agree about. No.”

F: And so, for now, you will go on with protests. With the demonstrations that you started in April. Every Friday. Along the fence. You’ve been seen there quite often.

Y: “And I’ll tell you two names only: Ibrahim Abu Thuraja and Fadi Abu Salah. They were both 29. And they were both in wheelchairs. Just two of the many amputees of the last wars. And that’s when you realize that here you don’t get killed because you are a danger, because what a danger you are, in a wheelchair, for an army that is across a barbed wire, hundreds of meters away from you? No. Here, you don’t get killed for what you do, but for what you are. You get killed because you are Palestinian. You don’t stand a chance.”

F: Should you sum up all this in one sentence? All that you said. In one sentence only. What’s the message you would like readers to remember the most?

Y: “It’s time for a change. It’s time to end this siege. End this occupation.”

F: And do you think you will be believed?

Y: “Look. You were here in June. Together with hundreds of other journalists. And your reportage was the toughest one, with us. And you are also translated into Hebrew. And yet you are here. Again. Because you deeply respect us, and we deeply respect you. Sometimes, somehow, the messenger is also the message. You will leave now and write it all. Will you be read? Will you be listened to? I don’t know. But we have done our part.”

F: “You seem to be quite confident.”

Y: “I’m just realistic. It’s time for a change.”

Before you go.

I want you to marinate on this interview. Before October 7th and everything you’ve witnessed since, before your friends or colleagues try to sway you with statements like “but they won the land in the fair war of ‘67”—know the history, understand the context, and know what preceded the last two years of a genocide you’ve witnessed, livestreamed on your phone:

Haifa Massacre 1937, Jerusalem Massacre 1937, Haifa Massacre 1938, Balad al-Sheikh Massacre 1939, Haifa Massacre 1939, Haifa Massacre 1947, Abbasiya Massacre 1947, Al-Khisas Massacre 1947, Bab al-Amud Massacre 1947, Jerusalem Massacre 1947, Sheikh Bureik Massacre 1947, Jaffa Massacre 1948, Deir Yassin Massacre 1948, Tantura Massacre 1948, Qibya Massacre 1953, Khan Yunis Massacre 1956, Jerusalem Massacre 1967, Sabra and Shatila Massacre 1982, Al-Aqsa Massacre 1990, Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre 1994, Jenin Refugee Camp April 2002, Gaza Massacre 2008-09, Gaza Massacre 2012, Gaza Massacre 2014, Gaza Massacre 2018-19, Gaza Massacre 2021, and Gaza Genocide 2023-24-25.

“But, it’s complicated.”

I have no better closer than Ta-Nehisi Coates, when he was told that the conflict in Palestine was “complicated”, he called that word “horseshit.”

He answered: “Complicated was how people had described slavery and then segregation. It’s complicated when you want to take something from somebody.”

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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 from two of the world’s biggest con men, don’t be.

This peace plan should insult anyone with eyes and attention. It has nothing to do with peace — it is a trick to preserve imperial power. There is absolutely no peace under occupation. The only thing that needs to happen here and now is the liberation of the Palestinian people.

We are constantly gaslit into thinking there is a war between Israel and Hamas, instead of calling it what it is, a wholesale, merciless, joyful slaughter of an entire people whose land you want to take.

Don’t you dare see this as a win for the Palestinian people.

Victims of aggression should never, under any circumstances, be asked to negotiate with their abuser. An occupying power that has subjugated, dehumanized, and slaughtered a people, with the imperial backers who fund and enable it — has no place deciding the future of those they have been massacring for two years.

The points:

1. Gaza will be a de-radicalized, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.

2. Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of its people.

3. If Israel and Hamas agree to the proposal, the war will immediately end, with the IDF halting all operations and gradually withdrawing from the Strip.

4. Within 48 hours of Israel publicly accepting the deal, all living and deceased hostages will be returned.

5. Once the hostages are returned, Israel will free several hundred Palestinian security prisoners serving life sentences and over 1,000 Gazans arrested since the start of the war, along with the bodies of several hundred Palestinians.

6. Once the hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence will be granted amnesty, while members who wish to leave the Strip will be granted safe passage to receiving countries.

7. Once this agreement is reached, aid will surge into the Strip at rates no lower than the benchmarks set in the January 2025 hostage deal, which included 600 trucks of aid per day, along with the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure and the entry of equipment for removing rubble.

8. Aid will be distributed — without interference from either side — by the United Nations and the Red Crescent, along with other international organizations not associated with either Israel or Hamas.

9. Gaza will be administered by a temporary, transitional government of Palestinian technocrats who will be responsible for providing day-to-day services for the people of the Strip.

10. An economic plan will be created to rebuild Gaza through the convening of experts with experience in constructing modern Middle East cities and through the consideration of existing plans aimed at attracting investments and creating jobs.

11. An economic zone will be established, with reduced tariffs and access rates to be negotiated by participating countries.

12. No one will be forced to leave Gaza, but those who choose to leave will be allowed to return. Moreover, Gazans will be encouraged to remain in the Strip and offered an opportunity to build a better future there.

13. Hamas will have no role in Gaza’s governance. There will be a commitment to destroy and stop building any offensive military infrastructure, including tunnels. Gaza’s new leaders will commit to peaceful coexistence with their neighbors.

14. A security guarantee will be provided by regional partners to ensure that Hamas and other Gaza factions comply with their obligations and that Gaza ceases to pose a threat to Israel or its own people.

15. The US will work with Arab and other international partners to develop a temporary international stabilization force that will immediately deploy in Gaza to oversee security in the Strip. The force will develop and train a Palestinian police force, which will serve as a long-term internal security body.

16. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza, and the IDF will gradually hand over territory it currently occupies, as the replacement security forces establish control and stability in the Strip.

17. If Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above points will proceed in terror-free areas, which the IDF will gradually hand over to the international stabilization force.

18. Israel agrees not to carry out future strikes in Qatar. The US and the international community acknowledge Doha’s important mediating role in the Gaza conflict.

19. A process will be established to de-radicalize the population. This will include an interfaith dialogue aimed at changing mindsets and narratives in Israel and Gaza.

20. When Gaza’s redevelopment has been advanced and the PA reform program has been implemented, the conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood.

21. The US will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful coexistence.

Timing.

If you are wondering about the peculiar timing of this “peace deal”, the timing is not accidental. Two losers, pretending to be winners in the White House yesterday, are fully aware, in the words of Alon Mizrahi, that — “Palestine is inches away from a historic victory over Zionism. This is why they are pushing now to make this stupid offer. Because they are sensing the defeat is going to be formal, very soon.”

The representatives of 77 countries walked out on Netanyahu’s speech at the UN.

Colombian president Gustavo Petro addressed pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside UN headquarters in New York during the UN General Assembly, calling for a global armed force with the priority to liberate Palestinians, and urged US soldiers “not to point their guns at people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.”

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said, addressing the United Nations General Assembly last week, that — “Indonesia is prepared to deploy 20,000 or even more of our sons and daughters to help secure peace in Gaza.”

A Spanish Naval ship is following the Global Sumud Flotilla, days away from the Gaza Strip.

A cultural resistance to Zionism has only just begun. Resistance in education, entertainment, media, sports. These two rolled up to the White House mic with their so-called peace plan, desperate to preempt and avoid any framework grounded in international law.

Tony Blair?

I can’t even comment on Tony Blair. It’s too comical. It’s like they’re fucking with us, punking us, to get a reaction. So I will leave mine out and use the words of Liam Cunningham, instead: “If Blair is unavailable as the new King of Gaza, I’d like to nominate Pol Pot or Radovan Karadžić.”

Ok, fine, one more, by Normal Island News: “I don’t think you understand, Tony Blair is the most qualified person to lead Gaza because he is the only candidate responsible for more deaths in the Middle East than Netanyahu.”

The Trump and Netanyahu press conference, announcing the “peace deal,” was truly the most laughable moment in international diplomacy. A comedy. This empire is truly on its last legs. Don’t be fooled by this public repackaging of failures as victory.

Trump’s opening sentence. A functioning adult actually said this:

“So, this is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization. Things that have been going on for hundreds of years and thousands of years. We’re going to at least we’re at a minimum very, very close, and I think we’re beyond very close.”

Netanyahu saying sorry to Qatar, practically saying sorry I missed:

“I said to, uh, the uh, sorry, the prime minister of Qatar, Israel was targeting terrorists, wasn’t targeting Qatar. And of course, we regretted the loss of the Qatari, uh, citizens, wasn’t our target. And I very much appreciate President Trump’s proposal to have a trilateral body, the United States, Israel, and Qatar, to work out respective grievances.”

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The two profoundly contemptuous points of this peace plan are “demilitarization and de-radicalization of Gaza.” De-radicalizing WHO, exactly? A poll conducted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that 82% of citizens of Israel want to expel Palestinians from Gaza, and 47% want to kill every single man, woman, and child in Gaza. A former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, said that Israel is waging a “war of extermination: the indiscriminate, unrestrained, cruel, and criminal killing of civilians”. So, again, WHO needs to be demilitarized and de-radicalized here?

Israel wins TikTok

This takeover was planned for a very long time. About when your government started to propagandize you into thinking your TikTok is under the “influence of the Chinese government.” Therefore, it was so much better to work towards putting it under the influence of another, foreign state — that’s actually hostile, violent, and indicted for a plausible genocide.

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos puts it in appropriate words, in her Israel wins TikTok piece:

“A year ago, powerful critics in Congress and the tech world were complaining that TikTok was promoting anti-Israel messaging and were suggesting it needed to be shut down. Turns out it didn’t need to be eliminated. TikTok is a message force multiplier after all, and only requires, apparently, the right people to own it.”

New owner, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is the second richest man in the world, and the biggest private donor to the IDF.

Jeff Yass is a current TikTok investor with funding ties to the IDF and AIPAC, anti-Muslim campaigns that advocate for US confrontation with Iran.

Lovely bunch.

Per WikiLeaks, Larry Ellison — who made his fortune developing Oracle, a database system he originally built for the CIA, already controls CBS, Paramount, MTV, Comedy Central, Showtime, Nickelodeon, as well as Channel 10 in Australia and Channel 5 in the UK.

Ellison is also expected to finalize control over Warner Bros. Discovery, including CNN, HBO, and the Discovery Channel, before the end of 2025.

Even before the forced sale was finalised, censorship of TikTok content critical of Israel reached extreme levels as the platform moved to align with its prospective new owners.

FOX, a Rupert Murdoch asset, is also seeking to join the Larry Ellison consortium, a move that could enable cross-promotion between Fox and TikTok, further tightening the Israeli-aligned information bubble.

Disapproval of what Israel is doing in Gaza has risen to 60% of the US population, nearly double the approval rate of 32%.

Israeli-aligned Jewish billionaires control OpenAI, Google, Meta/Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp, Palantir, CBS, HBO, and most of Conde Nast (Reddit, Vogue, The New Yorker, Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair) as well as numerous Hollywood studios, regional papers, and radio stations.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks points out how Europe remains largely absent, offering little real competition in the information space. Its one real success story? Telegram, which it managed to comprehensively alienate after France arrested its founder, supposedly for not handing over enough user data.

Will the EU and other US allies align with the Israelified TikTok algorithm, or attempt to create a politicised alternative of their own? — WikiLeaks asks the question, and I say, probably not.

Zionists are used to throwing money at problems, but they cannot seem to comprehend that we have simply seen too much. There is no amount of “information” that can justify or explain genocide. Their arrogance and conviction in their own otherworldliness prevent them from understanding the reality of what they are dealing with. A global uprising against their war crimes, manipulation, propaganda, and dehumanization of an entire people whose land they covet.

You have the power in numbers, the power of boycott, you decide what you will support with your money. Instead of feeling defeated by an Israelified peace deals, TikToks, media, and an entire world, get to work.

Boycotts ultimately ended the South African apartheid, and not military intervention. You decide what news you will consume, where you’ll subscribe, and what company you’ll support. Only last week, you saw what a boycott can do in the case of Jimmy Kimmel. You saw what the Italian people did on the streets of their major cities.

The ideology of Zionism that is subjugating, blackmailing, and harassing an entire planet has to be fought, religiously, until your last breath. Is quite literally a fight for what’s left of humanity.

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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 graphic like this, she says. It wasn’t this gory that you see blood popping out of his veins like this, she says.

I stand in horror at her horror, and all I can muster is — ARE YOU SERIOUS?

For reference, this is an amazingly kind, great human being. Probably one of the kindest souls I've ever encountered. My shock at her shock is palpable.

I pull out my phone again, the one that holds about 60,000 pictures and videos of severed limbs of Palestinian children, women, men, PEOPLE, and I show her. I roll through the videos of blown-apart limbs, children lying on the cold hospital floor screaming for parents who will never come, surgeries without anesthesia because Israel denied it to maximize death, frantic international doctors rushing to treat the endless stream of broken bodies.

She’s watching, but not in the same horror as she watched Charlie Kirk’s blood spray from his neck. She didn’t grasp at Palestinian children like she did watching Charlie’s death. She confirms it’s terrible, but doesn’t say it’s much worse than watching a white man taken out.

Why did I say white here? I don’t know, you tell me? What difference does he hold, that of those children, women, and men being brutally taken out for the past 700 + days?

Substack doesn’t let me post the most gruesome videos of limbs severed on the hospital floor, or limbs stuck in the rubble, so this is the best I could do here. But I showed her the most violent ones, and she informed me that — yes, this is horrible too, but that video of Charlie was too graphic and uncomfortable.

This is an empathetic person. This is a kind person. So why is it that people in the West seem coded not to feel the same anguish when darker skin bleeds, when bullets pierce darker bodies, as they do when it’s white skin violently bleeding? How do we explain this phenomenon — this failure to grieve for people who live over there somewhere, even as it is our bombs, our governments, our money that make their suffering possible?

Islamophobia is the most successful gaslight of all time, working so well on our psyche that we aren’t even aware what has been done to us.

The number of people who messaged me to comment on news about Charlie Kirk being killed, the ones that I haven't spoken to for 2 years, the ones that stayed away from my inbox like it’s a plague that will burn their eyes if they look at the content I have been posting for 2 years — it’s … I have no word to insert actually.

IT’S.

I feel so defeated, knowing you could exist and find the way to explain this to yourselves.

It’s hard to breathe knowing that the graphic murder of a white man will move you to speak out, whether you stand with him politically or against him — while the mounting piles of children, and let’s stop saying only children here, because women and men deserve equal treatment in the realm of humanity we must demand for everyone on this earth, somehow don’t move you. All this while you know full well that it’s your money paying for the bombs that maul them to death.

Seeing what the American politicians wrote on Twitter in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death was a perfect coordination of hypocrisy, a dance only this country could choreograph so well.

Barack Obama wrote on X, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”

Joe Biden wrote on X, “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.”

Kamala Harris wrote on X: “I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, "We ask everyone to pray for him and his family. This is detestable what's happened. Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are. It must stop.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on X before the announcement of Kirk's death, "There is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop."

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X. "The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X: "Political violence has no place in America. This shooting is horrifying, and I’m praying for Charlie Kirk and his family."

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote before the announcement of Kirk's death: "The scourge of gun violence and political violence must end. The shooting of Charlie Kirk is the latest incident of this chaos, and it must stop. We cannot go down this road."

George W. Bush issued a statement, saying: "Violence and vitriol must be purged from the public square. Members of other political parties are not our enemies; they are our fellow citizens."

Bill Clinton said in a social media post: "I hope we all go through some serious introspection and redouble our efforts to engage in debate passionately, yet peacefully."

Political violence must stop. We need to debate passionately, yet peacefully. Political violence has no place in our country. It should only be reserved for the poor countries we plunder and bomb to pieces. Violence should be reserved for negotiating teams in Iran, whom we bomb on the last day of peaceful negotiations, or Qatar, while we called upon them to negotiate a ceasefire solution with us. Political violence should absolutely never, ever be home again!

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“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. 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 post online, a few remembrance posts breaking down what happened for those who don’t know. After each one, they always draw a parallel with Gaza. I feel their pain. Just reading their words, it bleeds through the screen and stings me.

Bosnians are a peculiar people, some of the best I know. In many ways, they remind me of Palestinians. There’s a kindness in them, a warmth in their eyes. They carry a kind of knowledge about the world, like they’re privy to something the rest of us aren’t. It’s a club reserved only for those who’ve endured the most devastating forms of injustice.

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 among them. I often wonder how people like them can even 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 just to let you know that July is hard for them — this summer month, beautiful for most, filled with memories of warm nights and people we love. But for them, it’s an unsettling month, a reminder that not all the bones of their 8,372 dead have been found.

Amanpour.

Yesterday, Christiane Amanpour shared a video commemorating the 30 years since the Srebrenica genocide. It drove me mad. 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 Mladic, the perpetrator of the Srebrenica Genocide, during his engagement in pleasantries with Srebrenica residents before he ordered their slaughter.

This is what she wrote, alongside a video she shared:

“Today marks 30 years since the Srebrenica genocide — a dark moment in European and world history, with vital lessons for international justice and impunity. #Srebrenica30”

She also added, on Twitter, @amanpour:

“30 years since the Srebrenica genocide, I ask former U.S. Ambassador For War Crimes Issues David Scheffer if lessons have been learned: "Now... accountability is the norm. But impunity — there are huge exceptions to it in current society...we haven't achieved enough practically to say that the lessons have been firmly embedded in societies."

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.

“Well, at least she’s saying something.”

No. We don’t deal with at least something anymore. We’re far past the point of simply saying something. Someone in her position, with decades of experience reporting from war zones, needs to do more. She must name the perpetrators and call for their accountability.

Her coverage of the Gaza Holocaust happening now, livestreamed on our phones, daily, has been shameful. Her reporting now 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.

We all need to come to terms with the fact that these people in the West — the ones who speak without really saying anything, who never challenge the status quo that allows Israel to indefinitely uphold the occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people whose land they covet — are more dangerous than the Ben Gvirs, Smotriches, and Israel Katzes of the world. At least with them, you know exactly what they stand for, and it’s easy to identify their genocidal, criminal intent.

Never Again, hey?

It’s people like Amanpour, and countless other Western media figures, who are enabling the perpetrators of the worst crime of our lifetime, simply by lacking the courage and moral clarity to name what’s happening. The same kind of mass slaughter she once witnessed firsthand is unfolding again, right now. And who is more qualified than she to call this Gaza holocaust exactly what it is? Who is more qualified to name the perpetrators than a woman who once stared at the face of a man who committed the previous one?

We all need to do better by the people of Palestine. Otherwise, Never Again is just a platitude we say like “Hi, how are you?”, then get confused when people actually answer us back.

Wars.

There is one sentence Christiane Amanpour said in her video commemorating the Srebrenica genocide that banged me on the head, having lived through almost 2 years of the unspeakable war crimes unfolding live, on our phones:

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

Knowing what we know now, 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 truly been about 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.

Demographic threat.

The images you see of the blown-up limbs of the Palestinian children are not an accident, or collateral damage of the “war” in Gaza. As Naomi Klein once wrote in her brilliant piece — We need an exodus from Zionism: “From the start it has produced an ugly kind of freedom that saw Palestinian children not as human beings but as demographic threats – much as the pharaoh in the Book of Exodus feared the growing population of Israelites, and thus ordered the death of their sons.”

Children in Gaza are a demographic threat to Israel. They are a demographic threat to a state that strives to be an ethnically pure Jewish state, and in the words of one of my favorite Zionist Instagram propagandists: “We don’t know what our enemies’ children are going to be doing”, it’s clear that they are aware what they have done in Gaza.

These people are fully aware of the atrocities committed in their name, and for their “safety”, why else would they worry about what the children of the people they have slaughtered will do in the future?

Children are seen as a demographic threat to an ethnically pure state. Children are a target. Civilians are the target. Non-combatants are the target. And those resisting the slaughter of their people, people without a state, a military, or any real autonomy, are branded as terrorists so that the Western empire, hell-bent on seizing their land and resources, can gun them down without consequence.

Never again?

You 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 this as normal. To reject it, to resist it, and to do everything in our power to expose the lies and illusions manufactured by those in power. Upholding that conscience is not a momentary act—it’s a lifelong duty.

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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 will occur more frequently as more people awaken to the inauthenticity of the Zionist project called Israel—it’s simply hard to maintain a pro-genocide position in truth, logic, or morality when your whole existence is built on brutally violating the entire people whose land you want to take.

Colonialism and occupation were much easier to sustain before smartphones and social media. Today, hasbara is visibly slipping. Their talking points grow increasingly unhinged — like members of a recently dismantled cult, suddenly released, trying to explain to the rest of us how the world works after decades of isolation and indoctrination.

Israelis, too, are victims of the Zionist project. Imagine living in a bubble for so long, with your government spending a hundred years drilling certain beliefs into your system, only to step outside and realize the rest of the world doesn’t share your biblical derangement. No matter how hard you try to repeat those ingrained talking points, the world simply refuses to see the Palestinian people the way you were taught to.

Inhuman. Irrelevant. Unworthy.

Caitlin Johnstone explains it well:

“Most Israel apologia is just saying ridiculous nonsense in an assertive tone and demanding to be taken seriously. They’re butchering children by the thousands in a completely undisguised effort to purge all Palestinians from a Palestinian territory, and then spouting a bunch of transparently bogus talking points to try and spin this as fine and normal. But because mainstream institutions solemnly promote this obvious bullshit, we’re expected to treat it like it’s a completely valid position that needs to be respected.”

Madleen.

What happened on the Madleen Freedom Flotilla on Sunday was expected by the people on it, and all of us who followed their journey.

As predicted, the most moral army in the world was ready for battle on the high seas. After all, the word was Liam Cunningham was aboard Madleen—Davos Seaworth in the flesh—a seasoned warrior who honed his combat skills in the realms of Westeros; it was just too risky to leave it to chance. One must take the ship!

The most moral army and its commandos who came to peacefully seize the international ship in the international waters, heading to a foreign territory they neither occupy or impose the blockade on—sprinkled a white chemical substance on the board of the ship they came to peacefuly sieze, with drones and quadchopers in tow, ready for Hanibal Directive if Davos Seaworth tries something unseemly.

Ah, shucks! He wasn’t on board! Just the notorious internationally wanted terrorist Greta Thunberg, along with a few minor, unimportant players we could easily execute using our “Oopsies, my bad!” technique the world accepts — Every. Single. Time.

Damn, that Greta! It’s almost as if she was placed on that boat, as — I don’t know, a security measure?

There’s nothing the most moral, most trigger-happy army in the world wanted more than to sprinkle Madleen with bullets instead of white chemicals, like they did in 2010 when they executed ten people on Mavi Marmara. But it’s 2025, and they’re all tangled up in this newfangled nonsense called social media, international law, and public opinion.

How dare the Madleen Freedom Flotilla sail into international waters attempting to reach the people whose land we don’t occupy or impose a blockade on, planning to come and arm them with, erm — food?

And look at us and how the most moral we are — we only took Greta’s ship, sprayed them with chemical agent, kidnapped them, detained them; we didn’t kill her!

The bar is devastatingly low.

Caitlin kills it again, pun intended:

“One of the most common hasbara lines today is "I bet you're mad the IDF just arrested Greta and her friends instead of murdering them! You were hoping they'd get killed!" It reveals so much about how cynical these freaks are that they'd project such a desire onto normal people.

These psychos are scrambling all over the internet trying to argue that it is actually good and normal to kidnap people for trying to deliver food to a besieged and starving civilian population, and even arguing that Israel should be viewed as kind and compassionate for merely kidnapping them instead of murdering them.

I mean, how fucked up do you have to be inside to make that work in your mind? There has to be something seriously, deeply wrong with you.”

The sandwich.

The first offensive thing the most moral army did, in my opinion, is hand the people who just came from Sicily, hello, Sicily — that cotton candy pretending to be bread.

In all seriousness, this move will be remembered as the tick of the clock when Zionism died. That’s it, folks, pack it up. I don’t see how it’s possible to recover from the embarrassment of handing water and a sandwich to non-starving Westerners who don’t need to be fed — right after you sicced speedboats and quadcopters on them, sprayed them with chemicals, made them raise their hands in surrender for trying to smuggle weapons of mass distruction called baby formula to a land that isn’t yours, through international waters that don’t belong to you, on the way to feed a starving population you’re massacring daily.

The cynicism of jamming Madleen’s comms so they cannot call for help while simultaneously trying to convince the world you’re the moral, humane side, whose hand is forced into massacring children, fearing a phone camera, and a bag of flour like it’s the battle for your survival.

Your survival is sitting on the opposite side of feeding, loving, supporting, understanding, reflecting, accepting. How can you exist if all this grief and violence are required for your survival?

“Selife yacht.”

What we’ve come to understand about Israel and its most moral army is that they can’t stand being outdone. They hate it when prominent figures publicly call out their war crimes. They hate it when publicity is used to expose the human rights violations they commit.

The most moral army, which turned off their cameras while detaining international citizens who committed no crime, in international waters that don’t belong to them, en route to a territory they claim not to occupy—made sure to turn the cameras back on for the spectacle of handing out sandwiches to non-starving Westerners.

That’s exactly why this mission took place. Not only to challenge the siege and deliver aid to starving people under blockade, but to expose the full architecture of the occupation; its lies, its immorality, its criminality, and the farce of its public narrative.

The real show is not the flotilla - it’s the cruelty of a regime that fears food more than fire. — Krar Wahaj

The purpose.

I’ll use the words of Yasemin Acar, one of the humanitarians on board Madleen, who shouted this in the camera as she was about to be kidnapped and detained by the most moral army in the world:

“Please put pressure on the governments, tell them that we are here because they are aiding and abetting this genocide. They are upholding a legal blockade, they're using starvation as a weapon of war, this cannot go on, we cannot live in a future like this — you need to do everything in your power, use your bodies, use your voices, amplify the voice of Palestinians and do tell them that we are here because they're not doing their jobs.”

Greta.

In a world full of influencers who influence nothing, and Kim Kardashians who hoard social capital only to inflate themselves further, enter Greta Thunberg.

In a time when most people we know remain silent, unwilling to risk comfort, careers, or even a single word in defense of the people being exterminated on our phones daily, Greta gives us all hope that a different world is possible. A world rooted in conscience, courage, and the hope that society might still evolve beyond its current indifference.

That young girl stepped onto that boat solely to help keep them safe, risking her comfortable Western life, and her actual life — fully aware her enormous public profile and prominence would serve as a shield against the world’s most moral army gunning them all down like they did on the Mavi Marmara.

Alon Mizrahi captured the influence someone like Greta Thunberg carries — not just in exposing the Zionist project and Israel’s daily war crimes, but in challenging the moral decay of a world that watches genocide unfold in real time and says nothing:

“Zionists are so triggered by Greta because she's immune to their bullshit and blackmail. She has an actual moral vision and unshakeable conviction; they cannot handle someone with any power cutting confidently through their yapping, bitching, gaslighting and gloating.

They need old, flawed, perverted, pliable figures in positions of influence; they have no idea what to do with young, morally whole, and ideological. They know that a generation like this spells doom for their movement of enslavement, theft, moral decay, and excessive privilege.”

The Madleen Freedom Flotilla stands as a symbol of courage, determination, and people-powered resistance — a reminder that it’s up to us, not our governments, to organize, act, and do everything we can to stop this genocide and build a world where the rights of all people are respected.

A young girl with a following can pierce through a century of propaganda and shake the foundations of decades of gaslighting. Let her and this small sailboat be a reminder that you, too, can do more. Try harder. Speak louder. Let the silence break with you.

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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-imperial writers, just posted: “This is the written version of me punching walls and breaking furniture with rage”, accompanying his latest article.

The rage is exactly what it is. We are angry, tired, appalled. There are dead bodies everywhere—those actively opposing this are being disappeared by governments, while those of us bearing witness are being gaslit about the reality unfolding before our eyes.

My latest rage?

“Shalom, Mahmoud.”

It’s been five days, and I’m still floored by the White House doing this. It feels unreal, like a dream, a nightmare, a dystopia even stronger than what we’ve witnessed over the past 17 months:

These words alone are as enraging as ICE snatching a legal resident — Columbia graduate and green card holder with an American wife — for speaking. For organizing protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, demanding that Columbia University divest from companies funding Israel’s occupation, dehumanization, and slaughter of the Palestinian people. HIS people.

Times are so dire that it's crucial we call things by their rightful names and not get lost in the sandbox of political jargon designed to throw us off track.

The who and the why is important here.

Who?

Let’s start with “Trump bringing fascism back”. I’m going to stop you right there. Fascism was already here. Were you at the Columbia University encampment in April of last year when the NYPD, under the Biden Administration, marched onto the campus in lockstep like the Gestapo before throwing students on the floor like they were pieces of furniture, before arresting them on no charge?

I was.

Were you present on Earth when the Heritage Foundation started to draw Project Ester in October of 2024, before Trump was in office?

I was.

Where were you during 2023 and 2024 while Democrats committed unrestrained genocide with maximum weapons and zero conditions?

I was here.

Where you here?

Whether you are conscious of this or not, liberals worked very hard to convince you we just need one big Ogre, one Marvel Villain to direct all our rage at, so that they can normalize injustice under the illusion of virtue, which makes them the agents of oppression, and not your friend.

Read this tweet and read it well:

The Biden administration started what Trump is implementing right now, and if Kamala had won instead of Trump, she would be siccing ICE to snatch people in the middle of the night right now. This is teamwork, people. Things we see today were already put in place, and the figurehead in the Oval Office is just that. A figurehead. This fascism is bipartisan. Trump is just putting an uglier face to it.

Stephen Semler expands in his piece for Forever Wars:

“The Biden Administration gave political cover to the universities that employed a violent response to the protests. When President Biden addressed the campus protests on May 2, he portrayed the protests as violent and outside the bounds of protected speech. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent…But neither are we a lawless country,” Biden said. “Order must prevail.” A few weeks later, First Lady Jill Biden implied that the protests were largely violent during her appearance on The View.”

Why?

The important thing right now is to be precise, to know exactly the who, and the why. Why do we keep analyzing why this is happening within the realm of the US government, when we know the US government is doing this because the Zionist donors are demanding this from the US President? After all, they paid him 100 million dollars for it.

For days, I have been reading tweets, threads, articles, and opinion pieces on the authoritarian American government that’s going insane. Let’s imagine for a second that Zionism doesn’t exist and Jewish people migrated to Palestine after WW2, but chose to live under one state, together with Arabs, Muslims, Druze, and Christians — in peace, like centuries before. Imagine that reality.

Do you really think the White House would be hunting down students in the US, in that reality? It barely registers in the Western consciousness just how much the state of Israel and the Israel lobby influence our government, laws, bills, and policies.

Max Blumenthal explained it well, as always:

“The Trump Administration is being pressured by Zionist groups—it's relying on extreme fanatical radical Zionist groups to gather names and data, and then it's going after them in order to appease the Trump's donors who paid for his campaign, and who are going to pay for the Republican midterm campaigns.

Trump is sending out this bat signal whenever he does something, and he wants his Zionist billionaire sponsors to know that he's doing it—he's saying Shalom, we will find, apprehended, deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country never to return again.

Shalom Mahmud, it says on the White House's official Twitter account; Shalom Colombia—this is also from the White House Twitter account. Shalom Hamas, means hello and goodbye—you can choose to release all the hostages or there will be hell to pay later, and this was part of justifying Israel's starvation and siege of Gaza which is resumed, so Shalom—the kind of Hebrew greeting for peace associated with Judaism is being used as a term as a declaration of war, and repression of descent at home.

How are people going to, the people who don't support these measures, who don't like having their rights taken away, who don't like watching two million people be starved, who don't like seeing higher education be defunded because of the whining of a select group of extremely easily triggered students—how will they view Jews while Trump is doing this?”

We need to reach the altar here. We need to know who is pulling these strings, rather than constantly discussing US policies that are merely the result of heavy lobbying. Those who are lobbying and donating to the US politicians to criminalize our conscience under the guise of their safety need to be dragged into the light. The reason they can amass such power is that they enjoy the safety of anonymity. A trick to maintaining power is hiding that you have it. The brutality brought upon Palestine for the past year and a half, the bloodlust in coveting the land you want to take, forced these people to expose themselves.

They can’t help it.

This is our chance to finally expose what they have been doing for decades.

Bill Ackman is a billionaire donor who removed the president of Harvard from her position because she wasn’t cheerleading for Israel with the vigor he expected.

Shai Davidai is an assistant professor at Columbia who doxxed, harassed, reported on Mahmoud Khalil, and called for his deportation.

Know these people.

Know their names. We must be aware of those pulling the strings, instead of only debating the fearful ones carrying out their demands.

Take settlements, for example.

The funding of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is a complex and contentious issue, involving a mix of private donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government entities. Below is a general overview of the types of groups and sources that have been reported to fund or support settlements, based on publicly available information up to October 2023. Note that this is not an exhaustive list, and the specifics of funding can vary over time.

1. Private Donors and Philanthropists

Many Israeli settlements receive funding from private donors, both within Israel and internationally, particularly from Jewish communities in the United States and Europe. Examples of organizations that facilitate such donations include:

• The Jewish National Fund (JNF): While primarily focused on land development in Israel, some of its activities have been linked to settlement projects.

• One Israel Fund: A U.S.-based nonprofit that provides financial support for infrastructure, security, and social services in settlements.

• Christian Zionist Groups: Some evangelical Christian organizations in the U.S. and elsewhere support Israeli settlements as part of their theological beliefs.

2. Government Funding

• The Israeli government provides significant financial support to settlements through infrastructure development, housing subsidies, and security.

• Some government ministries, such as the Ministry of Construction and Housing, have been involved in funding settlement expansion.

• Indirect funding also occurs through tax breaks and incentives for Israelis who move to settlements.

3. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Several NGOs actively support settlements through fundraising, legal advocacy, and land acquisition. Examples include:

• Ateret Cohanim: Focuses on acquiring property in East Jerusalem and the West Bank for Jewish settlement.

• Elad (Ir David Foundation): Works to strengthen Jewish presence in East Jerusalem and surrounding areas.

• Regavim: Advocates for Israeli land rights and opposes unauthorized Palestinian construction, often supporting settlement expansion.

4. International Funding

• Some funding comes from international sources, including diaspora Jewish communities and pro-Israel advocacy groups.

• U.S.-based organizations like The Hebron Fund and Central Fund of Israel have been reported to provide financial support to settlements.

5. Corporate and Business Involvement

• Certain businesses and corporations operate in or provide services to settlements, indirectly supporting their economic viability.

• For example, Israeli banks and construction companies have been involved in settlement-related projects.

6. Crowdfunding and Online Campaigns

• In recent years, crowdfunding platforms have been used to raise money for specific settlement projects or to support settler families.

Controversies and Criticisms

• Many of these funding sources are controversial, as settlements are considered illegal under international law by most of the international community, including the United Nations.

• Some countries have taken steps to restrict or ban funding to settlements, and there have been calls for greater transparency and accountability regarding such funding.

Research and Advocacy Groups

• Organizations like Peace Now and Yesh Din in Israel, as well as international groups like Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem, have documented and criticized settlement funding and expansion.

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 is in the way of power” - Luise Cansington.

Are you awake yet? We are, that’s precisely why the governments, the politicians, and the academic institutions in the West are scrambling.

We should recognize this moment as a privilege.

The awakening it has sparked has been both sobering and necessary, offering a chance to build community and realize that the people—our community—work faster and more effectively than the government. It’s about us.

Democrates.

The most important aspect of this entire scenario is debunking myths, particularly the myth that the Democrats are a party of peace, human rights, and progressive policies.

They merely present a polished, pleasant facade while enabling war, aggression, the plundering of the Global South, and the redirection of your money to fund it all.

Obama.

Barack Obama deported more than 3 million illegal immigrants. He was dubbed “Deporter in Chief” by the Mexicans. He deported way more people than any president in history. He deported more people than Trump. Obama dropped the most bombs in a calendar year in American history, including the drone programs. He got elected in 2008 on a policy of shutting down Guantanamo Bay, saying it was an illegal institution. Guantanamo Bay is still open today.

The promptness of the ceasefire negotiations over the past few days perfectly demonstrates what Biden could have done if he had truly wanted to end this genocide.

“We did it, Joe!”

I don’t think we’ve healed enough to fully comprehend the extent of how evil the Biden-Harris administration was. Pure, casual, and almost gleeful in its malice toward anything or anyone that doesn’t serve their self-serving, psychopathic interests.

When you put a pleasant, smiling, “progressive” face on evil, it’s that much more dangerous. Liberalism as a tool of oppressors? Find me anything more deprived.

Trump.

Think what you want about him, but as Aaron Mate said — “Trump puts an ugly face on imperialism,” and Jimmy Dore expanded on — “He speaks in a crude way often, and he puts an ugly face on imperialism. So it makes it harder for them to invade small, brown countries and steal their natural resources. A lot easier if it's Barack Obama doing it, look at what he did to Libya, what they did to Syria, what they did to Afghanistan for 20 years, Yemen, the whole deal. But Trump makes it harder for them, right? And plus, he's a wild card.”

Or in the words of Caitlin Johnstone:

“The only thing I like about Trump is exactly what so many empire managers hate about him: he gives the game away. He says the quiet parts out loud. He’s the only president who’ll openly boast that US troops are in Syria to keep the oil or lament that they failed to take the oil from Venezuela, or just come right out and tell everyone he’s bought and owned by Zionist oligarchs.

Trump is the opposite of Obama, who was very skillful at putting a pretty face on the evil empire.”

The wild card.

Well, Trump is wild-carding right now.

What exactly is happening? It’s hard to tell, as the definition of wild-carding tells you. We don’t know. But it’s interesting, this chess game. And shows the full depravity of the whole Biden cabinet; Blinken on top.

It all started a few days ago when Trump posted a clip of economist Jeffrey Sachs on his Truth Social calling Netanyahu a “deep, dark son of a bitch”, accusing him of manipulating US foreign policy and orchestrating endless wars in the Middle East.

As a result, or is it a coincidence — Netanyahu canceled his trip to Trump’s inauguration next week.

It’s too early to know, if we ever will, what’s at play here, but zionists on Twitter are very worried, denouncing Trump left and right.

“If Donald Trump has forced a ceasefire in Gaza, exposing Joe Biden's refusal to do so, then there are no words to describe how monstrous the Democratic leadership really are.” — Owen Jones

As I said, Trump is wild-carding right now.

Ceasefire deal.

I don’t know if this is all true, I don’t think anyone does until it’s official, but it reads almost like a dream. Withdrawing FULLY from Gaza? Full withdrawal from Philadelphi corridor? Allowing Hamas political bureau to govern?

Details on the deal from Cradle Media. This is all very, very promising:

Why is Israel seemingly capitulating on several red lines they refused to budge on for the past 8 months? Could it be this:

We won’t know until we know, but given the reactions of Smotrich and Ben Gvir all day today, it might be. Itamar Ben Gvir slammed a developing ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas as a “terrible, surrender deal” in a video posted to Telegram on Tuesday morning, saying — “If he passes the deal, we will resign from the government.”

These people need this. They need this win. It’s essential. The very essence of morality and justice for the entire world rests in Gaza.

Motaz got a haircut for the occasion. Let this news be officially confirmed, so they—and all of us—can begin the process of rebuilding. And if this ceasefire deal goes through with all these points fulfilled, are we ready to have a conversation about just how much the resistance has achieved here—militarily and politically—fighting not only their occupier but the entire Western superpower?

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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 gaslighting, harassing, insulting, targeting, and smearing anyone appalled by the horrors Israel is inflicting on Gaza.

American zionist billionaire donors ousting the presidents of Ivy League schools for not being enough of a cheerleader for Israel. Zionist influencers lobbying Congress to ban student groups advocating for Palestine, citing claims of them 'being founded by Iran.' Zionist nonprofit organizations smearing and ruining the livelihoods of those criticizing the genocide in Gaza. Zionist legal associations silencing international doctors who treated the wounded in Gaza, preventing them from testifying about the horrors they witnessed.

Is there a name for it?

Not being able to voice your disagreement with the Palestinian people being slaughtered daily and wiped out of existence? In your own towns, countries, and places of birth?

Could we perhaps call it, I don’t know—the occupation?

And yet, the majority of Europe still fears that Islam is coming to get them, rather than worrying about this small but dangerous state; what we’ve painfully confirmed over the past two weeks, and 14 months—which will bomb, kill, and maim its way toward its goals, invade sovereign countries, take the land as it pleases, smear and threaten livelihoods of the people who oppose their medieval violence; then dare to cry antisemitism when people take offense to such medieval horrors?

The discrepancy currently unfolding between Israeli society and its supporters, and the rest of us opposing Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity—is that they didn’t expect the rest of the world to see the Palestinian people as people. Human beings.

And the definition of antisemitism, it seems to me, is anything less than adoration for the Jewish people.

How, then, is antisemitism not a sole proof of supremacy? If antisemitism requires one group of people not to be held to the same standard as everyone else, isn’t it simply a demand to be treated differently while claiming to want to be treated like everyone else?

What happened in Ireland?

On Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the closure of the Israeli embassy in Dublin, due to the “extreme anti-Israel policy of the Irish government.” He also said: “There is a difference between criticism - and antisemitism based on the delegitimization and dehumanization of Israel and double standards towards Israel.”

See, it’s “criticism” that gets me here, and it has been pounding on me for 14 months. This constant line they all repeat indefinitely, from politicians to media and influencers on social media—“It’s ok to criticise Israel, but it’s not ok to …”, this deliberate disingenuousness—pretending that the criticism we direct their way about slaughtering civilians is somehow not a criticism, but rather something else entirely—what exactly? As we all keep repeating, we cannot take more children being shredded to bits. Please, stop.

Or people living in Israel, when they say, “It’s ok to criticize the government, I also don’t agree with this far-right Netanyahu government”—well, what are you doing about it? The government you are supposedly not agreeing with is murdering civilians en masse 40 miles away from you; the whole, entire disagreement anyone has with that far-right government is they are using our tax money to erase the Palestinian population!

How long are we going to dance around these tricks?

Israeli Foreign Minister also cited Ireland's support for what he called "politicized" proceedings against Israeli leaders by the ICC as well as Irish support for an action at the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide over its campaign in Gaza.

The smugness here.

Is blinding.

Gideon Sa’ar also accused Ireland of “crossing every red line”.

A state that is currently committing a live-streamed genocide and wiped out a quarter of the entire population of the Gaza Strip, a very red, red line if you ask every single criminal court on earth—is accusing the Irish government of crossing every red line.

Committing a genocide—not a red line.

Calling out the genocide, and asking for a ceasefire—a red line.

Yesterday, Professor Jeffrey Sachs called the Israelis committing these war crimes “7th Century B.C. zealots” and I don’t have better words.

Israeli Zealot minister had more words:

"Last night Ireland's antisemitic Prime Minister Simon Harris said in an interview 'Ireland is not anti-Israel but Ireland is absolutely anti the starvation of children. Is Israel starving children?"

He said Israel was working to enable humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and prevent civilian casualties while he said Hamas was looting aid and using civilians as human shields.

Prevent civilian casualties?

Ireland’s response.

Simon Harris, the Prime Minister of Ireland said the country had been unequivocal in its support for Israel’s right to defend itself within international humanitarian law and accused Benjamin Netanyahu of using the decision to close its embassy as “the diplomacy of distraction”.

“You know what I think is reprehensible? Killing children, I think that’s reprehensible. You know what I think is reprehensible? Seeing the scale of civilian deaths that we’ve seen in Gaza. You know what I think is reprehensible? People being left to starve and humanitarian aid not flowing,” he told reporters in Dublin on Monday, adding he was extremely proud of Ireland continually speaking out on behalf of innocent Palestinians.

Ireland fought the world’s biggest Empire for over 750 years. These people are trained for this, Israel. Top form.

Fighting words.

Alongside Gideon’s pile of nonsense, Dana Erlich, the Israeli ambassador to Ireland also protested against what she described as Ireland’s “extreme vilification and policy against Israel”.

That right there.

Extreme vilification and policy against Israel.

If you were to place this classic Israeli rhetoric in a mathematical equation, whatever variation you try—you would come up with superiority. Supremacy. There is no logical justification for feeling vilified by others calling for an end to occupation policies, apartheid, settler-colonialism, and genocide—a 'campaign' necessary to uphold all three—but rather a strongly ingrained sense of supremacy over the people you subjugate to achieve your goals, or even just us who refuse to accept it.

This piece by Haidar Eid explains it all better than I could:

“Genocide—as so many anticolonial works have documented – is and has always been an intrinsic component of settler colonialism. They are inseparable. And that is the case for settler-colonial Zionism.

One cannot understand the ongoing livestreamed slaughter of the two million people of Gaza and the bragging about it by the majority of Israelis on social media without relating it to that colonial hegemonic ideology.

Since its creation, Israel has systematically pursued the “elimination” of the native. Gaza right now is paying the price for what Israel’s leading fascist historian Benny Morris has argued is the Israeli failure to “transfer” all Palestinians out of Palestine in 1948.”

Why the Irish hate the Jews.

Yes, that’s an actual, real, published title.

Yesterday, the whole internet got into a tizzy over an article, aptly titled, Zionist specialty—’Why The Irish Hate the Jews’. When Ta-Nehisi Coates published his book The Message where he documented the apartheid witnessed in West Bank, the article came out, titled—Why Ta-Nehisi Coates Hates Israel. Amnesty? ICC? ICJ? B’Tselem? South Africa? I’m sure there’s one hate Israel article for everyone on that list, if you google it.

I read most of it. But this one, Why the Irish Hate the Jews—is by far the most abhorrent, detestable, racist, inaccurate piece of writing I have ever read. This is the author.

It’s hard to bypass her bio and even get to the article—”Jew living in the Jewish homeland. Any Arab who doesn't renounce the "right of return" cannot be allowed to remain in any territory we control.”

Where to go from here? This is a grown woman, probably a mother or even a grandmother. The … “cannot be allowed to remain in any territory we control.”

Whose language is that? Victim? Friendly neighbor? Or occupier?

This is her article in full.

~ I’ll just highlight important details for you.

“Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen more than one person ask why it is that the Irish (barring, as always, exceptional people among them) are such Jew-haters. So I decided to explain what has always seemed to me to be a pretty obvious thing.

Christianity is inherently antisemitic. If you’re a Christian, and you aren’t an antisemite, you might be offended by me saying that. But it’s true. It doesn’t mean that Christians are inherently antisemitic; just that Christianity is. Many modern Christians, having been acculturated in a society that frowns on bigotry, have found ways to disregard the antisemitism inherent in their religion, and focus on the positive aspects.

This is a good thing.

It may even be that Muslims will achieve that sort of civilized behavior in another 8 centuries or so. But let’s not forget that the Christians of 8 centuries ago could give today’s Muslims a run for their money when it came to savagery. Herding Jews into their synagogues, and locking the doors and setting the building on fire was not an uncommon recreational activity in the medieval Christian world.

But let me get back to Christianity being inherently antisemitic, because just making an assertion doesn’t mean anything unless I explain it.

A long time ago, in a suburb far, far away…

By way of illustration, let me tell you a little story that happened to me about 40 years ago. I was in college, but I was home visiting my family. It was Shabbat, and I’d already become observant by that point, and my family was not, so they were all out somewhere. Maybe having lunch at a deli. They’d kindly left the burglar alarm off so that I could leave the house if I wanted or needed to.

When the doorbell rang, it was a kid around my age, or maybe a little younger. He wanted to sell me some sort of window cleaner. I explained to him that I was the only one home, and that it being Shabbat, and me being a Jew, I couldn’t handle money, so I couldn’t buy his window cleaner.

The kid was fascinated. You see, he’d never had a chance to talk with a Jew before. At least not that he knew of. And he had questions. One of which was, “Why would anyone reject the lord and savior? The messiah and redeemer of all mankind?”

To which I responded, “Well, we don’t think he was the messiah or any of those things.”

He was gobsmacked. Utterly shocked. Which shocked me, too. His shock was from the idea that there was anyone who doubted the Christian concept of who Jesus was. My shock was the realization that there are Christians who honestly had/have no idea that we don’t think he was the messiah.

It kept echoing around in my head. How could you not hate people so utterly perverse that they believed — recognized — that the guy was all those things, and rejected him anyway?! Hate? I should say hate and fear. Because what mightn’t such folks be prepared to do?

It gave me an insight about Christian antisemitism that has stuck with me. This boy didn’t seem hateful at all. And he listened to me explain that we don’t think the guy fulfilled prophecies, or any of the things Christianity claims. I could tell that he was going to go home, or to his church, and find his pastor and ask him what was up with that, because I’d just told him something that pulled the rug out from the whole edifice of what he’d been taught.

But it helped me understand the fury and fear and rage Christians have had towards us for most of their history. Entirely aside from the obvious fact that our continued existence throughout the centuries gave the lie to their belief that we were going to wither away.

But as I say, most Christians today have become civilized. Not always for great reasons. Possibly the most prevalent reason is the decline of belief in God at all in Western society. It’s resulted in people drifting away from Judaism, from Christianity, and even from Islam (though in that case, you do have to worry about your family killing you if they find out). And it’s certainly led to those who remain committed to their religion, by and large, ignoring the more… shall we say “unsavory” aspects of their religion.

I’ve met numerous Orthodox Jews who refuse to take the command to wipe out any descendants of Amalek as being operative today. Granted, we don’t know who might be descended from them, so it is in fact not operative today, de facto, but most Orthodox Jews, I believe, faced with a 100% proven Amalekite — proven in any way that would satisfy the person — would still refuse to kill them, because the very idea is so completely at odds with their cultural underpinnings, however un-assimilated they may consider themselves. And this is true of 100% of non-Orthodox Jews, as well.

But we were talking about Ireland…

But there is one place in the Christian world where religion has remained a very, very immediate and critical issue. Even a life or death issue, for quite a long time, extending into modern times. And that’s Ireland.

The sectarian warfare between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland has resulted in the societal retardation of their culture when it comes to religion. They still feel their ancient Christianity in their bones. And as a result, their views of Jews are closer to those of medieval Christians than those of modern ones.

It would be odd if they were not antisemitic, given all that.

I can’t make any predictions about what will happen with the Irish over time. The whole embracing of the Arab propaganda against Israel might stick them even further into the mire of barbaric hatred. Or there could be a backlash that has the opposite result. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

The supremacy, the racism, the historical fallacies, the comfort with which she speaks, secure and sure that nothing will happen to her—imagine the Irish publishing an article titled 'Why Israel Hate the Irish.' How many hells would break loose at the same time?

Calling Christians inherently antisemitic, Irish socially retarded, Muslims barbaric and uncivilized while dropping 2000-pound bunker buster bombs on small children, committing unimaginable war crimes, and violating countless international laws, still upholding colonial hegemonic ideology, and refusing to let go of the prosperity of apartheid and settler colonialism.

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.”—Antonio Gramsci.

Or it’s all probably just antisemitic.

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As I often remind both my readers and myself, the only way to navigate the chaos of our world is to relentlessly pursue the truth. That means challenging our assumptions, questioning the education we’ve received, and re-evaluating everything we've absorbed from state-sponsored legacy media.

“The deck is stacked so heavily against truth, peace, and justice. You will watch powerlessly as your government backs genocides, starts wars, and unleashes nightmare after nightmare upon the global south.

We live in a tyrannical dystopia that’s driving humanity to its doom, and we need to wake up from the propaganda indoctrination and egoic delusions which keep us complying with the status quo so that we can use the power of our numbers to overthrow our oppressors and create a healthy world.”—Caitlin Johnstone

We must commit to uncovering the truth—regardless of our preferred narratives, and examine historical events and their lasting impact on the present. History is cyclical, and understanding its facts is essential to building a healthier world today.

Liberty:

A few days ago, USS Liberty survivor Phil Tourney sat down with Candace Owens to discuss his lifelong struggle to reveal the truth about Israel’s attack on the American research ship during the Six-Day War in 1967. It’s widely believed the goal was to sink the Liberty and blame Arab states, provoking the U.S. into World War III.

This is so important to watch, guys. And to share with everyone you know who wants to chip away at the lies we have been fed all our lives.

Drafting Americans into foreign wars under false pretenses, claiming to protect and serve—only to kill or permanently cripple young men seeking education, better lives, or simply believing they are fighting for their country, is among the most deplorable outcomes of Western think tanks. It is heartbreaking to watch these men come to terms with what they’ve lost for their government’s imperial pursuits and hegemony. Yet, it’s an essential watch.

Per Minpress News:

“The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a U.S. Navy intelligence ship in international waters about 12.5 nautical miles from the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, north of El Arish, by Israeli fighter planes and torpedo boats.

It occurred during the Six-Day War, a conflict between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Israeli attack killed 34 U.S. servicemen and wounded at least 173. The attack was the second deadliest against a U.S. Naval vessel since the end of World War II and marked the single greatest loss of life by the U.S. Intelligence Community.”

Another essential watch:

After decades of trying to get the truth out, the new evidence was exposed in the documentary The Day Israel Attacked America, by award-winning British filmmaker Richard Belfield, in 2014. The documentary includes audio that proves the Israelis knew they were attacking a US ship. Survivors of the attack have long maintained that Israel intended to kill the entire crew and sink the USS Liberty as a means of scapegoating blame for the incident onto Egypt.

“I acquired a copy of the audiotape of the attack as it had unfolded, the real time conversations between Israeli Air Force pilots and their controllers back at base. It had never been broadcast before. I went to talk to Al Jazeera and after careful consideration, the network commissioned the film.” – Richard Belfield

Recommended read:

The Intercept conducted a thorough investigation into the Liberty and published classified documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden related to the attack and its aftermath.

Fifty Years Later, NSA Keeps Details of Israel’s USS Liberty Attack Secret

New Snowden documents provide precious few new details about an incident that remains shrouded — and controversial.

By Miriam Pensack, on June 6, 2017.

“The documents reveal previously unknown involvement by Government Communications Headquarters, the U.K. signals intelligence agency; internal NSA communications that seem to bolster a signals intelligence analyst’s account of the incident, which framed it as an accident; as well as a Hebrew transliteration system unique to the NSA that was in use at least as recently as 2006.”

The case of the USS Liberty is riddled with cover-ups, denials, and gag orders imposed on the survivors. It’s an extraordinary story set against the decades-long effort by the American press to portray Israel as our greatest friend and ally.

Pro-Israel media and individuals regularly dismiss inquiries into the Liberty, ignoring the pain expressed by the survivors and dismissively labeling it a mistake, a fog of war, or a bogus old claim.

“The Liberty Veterans Association, an organization comprised of survivors of the 1967 attack, has called for a robust and transparent investigation into the incident for decades, to no avail.

The incident and its aftermath took a significant psychological toll on survivors, many of whom were reported to suffer from PTSD. One survivor and member of the Liberty Veterans Association, James Ennes, was shot in the femur during the attack, and was then instructed never to discuss it. Ernie Gallo had a fellow crewmate die in his arms. It was decades before survivors began sharing their experiences, and they were sometimes criticized for being anti-Semitic or slanderous of Israel for doing so.”

“Our only sin is that we survived.” - US Navy Vet USS Liberty survivor.

It’s paramount to listen to these veterans, to hear Phil Tourney’s own words and his plea for an investigation into the horrific experience that brought so much sorrow into their lives.

It’s also crucial to seek the truth about the USS Liberty, especially given how many American government officials and media personalities with dual Israeli citizenship bristle at the attention given to this mass murder of American sailors. Their efforts to dismiss it as an insignificant mistake, rather than supporting an investigation, are telling. It’s important to recognize that their dual citizenship doesn’t necessarily imply dual loyalty, but rather one true loyalty—to Israel.

In USS Liberty veterans’ own words:

To learn more about the USS Liberty and the surviving veterans' fight to reveal the truth, to join their movement, or to donate to their cause, visit their website.

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There’s no greater paradox on earth than the week(end) of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday in America. It’s an unparalleled showcase of the nation’s essence, steeped in hypocrisy, morbidity, and violence. Nowhere else does the contradiction emerge more starkly than on a day meant for giving thanks and reflecting on gratitude, only to give way, as the weekend comes, to a chaotic celebration of consumerism and excess.

My birthday falls smack in the middle of the worst week in America. I could try to explain why I feel that way, but the tweet I read the other day expresses it better than I could: “Thanksgiving is the PERFECT American holiday: gluttony in honor of settler colonialism.”

This year’s Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and yesterday’s Cyber Monday trifecta sting particularly hard. We’re celebrating a weekend, a holiday rooted in deliberate misinformation and the genocide of Native Americans, while watching a live-streamed genocide of Palestinians unfold on our phones. We are eating ourselves stupid while watching a stampede of Palestinians, raising their empty pots, trying to get an inch of food from aid that has managed to pass through the Israeli policy of starving Gaza, or the gangs they employ to impede the aid trucks.

It’s hard to watch the Thanksgiving parade, and all the heinous attempts to rewrite history with gratitude lists or “land acknowledgments” over turkey—the “friendly feast” narrative, designed to whitewash colonization, violence, and mass murder into a peaceful, benign story. As if that weren’t enough, while the compassionate, clear-eyed world supports BDS, Thanksgiving is followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday—a consumerist frenzy in stark contrast to Native American spirituality, reverence for creation, environmental stewardship, and the fundamental human need for communion with nature and one another.

Yes, colonial damage is far greater than Thanksgiving.

But it endures as a symbol of colonialism—nauseatingly romanticized, yet rooted in the very foundations of settler colonialism. It’s not the primary act of colonialism, but it perpetuates a distorted view of history, obscuring the true scope of colonial violence.

The American settler-colonial model has served as a blueprint for other colonial powers. Its unprecedented success in establishing a settler society while marginalizing Indigenous populations is unmatched in scale. Now, Israel, in a cynical attempt to avoid scrutiny, argues that if America could do it, why can’t they?

We’ve now witnessed 14 months of the first live-streamed genocide unfolding before our eyes, as state-sponsored terror and murder reach unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, our Western governments and their propagandists lie, fund, support, and justify these atrocities. The history told by the West, from its very beginning, is a series of distorted, whitewashed, and romanticized lies.

We have to keep banging on these truths, people.

Whether it's the past or present, the only path forward is through unapologetic, radical truth—repeated relentlessly. We must expose lies, share them, and open as many eyes as possible. The education system is rigged in favor of the establishment, and history books reflect the bias of the victors. As Julian Assange warned, social media has the power to change these narratives, which we have proven with our relentless posting about Palestine:

“Working against corrupt, powerful organizations who are producing a distorted perspective through mainstream media vehicle—has been the internet. It has allowed one person with one truth to speak to every single person who wants to hear that truth.”

The live-streamed genocide in Gaza and the unspeakable horrors inflicted on a civilian population—funded and justified by the entire West—have laid bare the corruption, insincerity, and manipulation of our governments. The situation is so dire that we no longer resemble a functioning society, but a “transnational security elite that is busy carving up the world using our tax money”—another classic Julian.

We are the Wikileaks today.

Instead of living in a humane, civilized, and democratic society, we find ourselves forced to take on the responsibilities of our government, police, and media—much like the people of Amsterdam, who had to step in when the authorities failed to protect their own citizens.

Julian, again, explains this concept:

“To combat the elite we must not petition, we must take it over, we must form our own networks of strength and mutual value which can challenge those strengths and self-interested values of the warmongers.

When we understand that wars come about as a result of lies peddled to the British public the American public and the public all over Europe and other countries, then who are the war criminals? It is not just leaders, it is not just
soldiers, it is journalists.

Journalists are war criminals. While one might think that should lead us to a state of despair, that the reality around us is constructed by liars; it should also lead us to an optimistic understanding—because if wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by the truth.

So that is our task, and it is your task—go and get the truth, get into the ballpark, get the ball, and give it to us and we'll spread it all over the world.”

Let’s start with debunking Thanksgiving myths.

Children in schools have been taught a Thanksgiving myth: friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, share a meal with them, and then disappear. They handed off America to white people so they could create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity, and Christianity for the rest of the world to profit.

That’s the story—a tale of Native people quietly conceding to colonialism. It’s a bloodless narrative and an extension of Manifest Destiny, the belief that white Americans were divinely ordained to expand across North America. This ideology justified westward expansion and fueled policies like the Trail of Tears, forced relocations, violent conflicts, and the systematic destruction of Native cultures, all cloaked in the language of destiny and divine right.

Manifest Destiny / We Are The Chosen People?

In 200-300 years, when all of us eyewitnesses are gone, along with our children to whom we’ll pass down the stories of the first live-streamed genocide in history, will Israelis invent warm, fuzzy tales about sharing falafels with Indigenous Palestinians in Gaza, before the latter peacefully decided to leave, so Israelis could create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity, and Zionism, for the rest of the world to profit?

The history of the West continually repeats its crimes, again and again. And they’re allowed to do so, even in 2024, because we have become complacent. We fail to challenge the power structures enough; we’ve accepted their gaslighting, their consumerism that forces us into compliance. Instead of speaking radical truths whenever and wherever possible, we’ve allowed ourselves to be silenced.

The people of Palestine have woken us up from this propaganda-induced coma—a term by Caitlin Johnstone, a much-needed voice tirelessly working to lead us out of the matrix. She also chose these apt, albeit fighting, words:

“The deck is stacked so heavily against truth, peace, and justice. You will watch powerlessly as your government backs genocides, starts wars, and unleashes nightmare after nightmare upon the global south.

We live in a tyrannical dystopia that’s driving humanity to its doom, and we need to wake up from the propaganda indoctrination and egoic delusions which keep us complying with the status quo so that we can use the power of our numbers to overthrow our oppressors and create a healthy world.”

A radical truth at every turn must become everyone's mission.

The ‘First Thanksgiving’ didn’t unfold as history tells you. The Wampanoag tribe taught the English settlers (Pilgrims) how to grow crops, leading to a successful harvest. However, the Wampanoag weren’t invited to a “peaceful feast”, otherwise known as First Thanksgiving. In fact, 90 armed Wampanoag warriors arrived at the feast after hearing gunshots, coming not to celebrate but to protect their people. This occurred only months after the Pilgrims had robbed their graves and stolen food meant for Native families. The so-called ‘First Thanksgiving’ marked the beginning of violent conflicts, with the colonists later seizing land and imprisoning, enslaving, and executing Native people.

While the legacy of colonialism spans centuries, Thanksgiving perpetuates a narrative that oversimplifies and sanitizes the violence and dispossession endured by Indigenous peoples. Are you even aware of the scale of devastation the European settlers inflicted on Native American populations? It's one of the most depraved, evil, and violent crimes in history. And what stings the most—it worked. It was successful.

Look at the numbers:

While Americans celebrate and indulge in turkey feasts, Native Americans mourn this day. Since 1970, many Native Americans have participated in a "National Day of Mourning" on Thanksgiving Day, often held at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, to commemorate their ancestors and advocate for indigenous rights.

For many Native Americans, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of their oppression, the loss of their land, and the erasure of their culture.

Witnessing a live-streamed genocide for over a year, with daily massacres landing on your phone as soon as you open your eyes in the morning, and the reality that America's past violence mirrors what Israel is currently attempting, makes Thanksgiving and its associated history feel even more nauseating to participate in.

I saw Native Americans at every anti-genocide protest I attended. I’ve seen pictures of them standing in solidarity, in other cities across America. There is a unique bond between Native Americans and Indigenous Palestinians. They understand the pain of cultural erasure, having witnessed it firsthand, while the same attempt is now being made against Palestinians. The parallels are unavoidable, especially since the erasure of Native Americans succeeded, whereas, for 76 years, Palestinians miraculously have resisted being erased.

"We are not Red Indians."

In his last interview before he died in 2004, while in a state of near confinement and exhaustion, Yasser Arafat reflected upon his incapacity to move without the immediate threat of assassination, about the Palestinian right of return, about American elections, and his achievements. Among these achievements was the fact that "the Palestine case was the biggest problem in the world" and that Israel had "failed to wipe us out."

As a final mark of that success, he added the declarative, comparative, and final point of distinction: "We are not Red Indians."

November 11th marked the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death. The same day marked Veterans Day in the United States, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death. The irony of this coincidence initially left me flabbergasted, but then I saw it for what it was—a fitting tribute that the United States organized in Arafat’s honor. As well as countless homeless US veterans who died for the imperial pursuits of their government, otherwise known as spreading freedom and democracy.

Yasser Arafat and US veterans lie side by side as victims of the same perpetrator.

Do you not see the sameness?

On the same day, I eagerly waited for The Mother of All Talk Shows by George Galloway, knowing that, as a close friend of Yasser, he would pay tribute to him.

And what a tribute it was!

If you aren’t already following George Galloway’s show, I highly recommend it. His analysis of world affairs is unmatched by most political analysts. The vast geopolitical knowledge, sharp rhetoric, humanity, and articulate style he brings to his shows create a curriculum worth making time for.

The tribute he pulled out was spectacular:

“My good friend Yasser Arafat died 20 years ago. I was there, at his deathbed, in the Percy Military Hospital in Paris, and when I came out into the early morning light, I was confronted by battery of Television cameras, the largest such battery I have ever seen. There must have been 500 or a thousand television cameras outside that hospital, and I got to thinking how amazing an achievement that this physically small man from, in population terms, a small nation of Palestine had so captivated the attention of the world—that every television station in the whole world was there outside the hospital in which he had just passed away. 

And I took a few moments, 20 years ago tomorrow, contemplating the great achievement of my friend Yasser Arafat. 

He had made the Palestine question eternal and central to world events. And so it has remained. The Holy Land is not the Holy Land for nothing. It’s an important land. It’s Terra Santa, Holy Land. And Yasser Arafat always used to say to me — “We will not go into the museum”. Rather impolitely, he'd say — “We are not the Red Indians”, who were neither red nor Indian. “We are not the Red Indians, we will not go into the museum. We are a live people with a live cause, that we will carry with us until the end, until victory.” 

He used to say that to me hundreds of times, and it came true. Palestine is the number one issue on the international political agenda. Imagine, it is the moral center of the world.”

Twenty years later, Palestine is still the moral center of the world.

For 76 years and counting, the plight of the Palestinian people has remained at a standstill, and that’s purposeful, as maintaining the status quo is necessary for the existence of the state of Israel.

But what’s truly fascinating, and surely Israel’s Achilles' heel after decades of attempting to erase the Palestinian people—their culture, customs, and even their very existence as a nation—is this: a man, small in stature, yet with a distinct appearance and huge international appeal, became more known to the world than any Israeli figure combined. He made Palestine—stateless, yet undeniably famous—known to every corner of the earth.

Arafat always stressed the inherent evil of Zionism. In his view, the Zionists were the successors of the Nazis. Seeing all the atrocities they have committed for the past 423 days, knowing what we know today, was he wrong?

He led the Palestinian struggle for statehood for nearly 40 years using everything from armed resistance to international diplomacy, to capture global attention. He became a symbol of Palestinian resistance seeing armed struggle as the key to liberation.

Again, knowing what we know today, can you blame him?

His obsession with avoiding the fate of ending up in a museum like the Native Americans—then inappropriately called Red Indians—seemed justified. After witnessing a year of carnage and the relentless brutality of the Zionist regime determined to erase the Palestinian people and seize their land, his belief in armed struggle as the key to liberation appears to have been an evaluated assessment. He clearly understood the nature of his adversaries.

In his own words:

“Are our Arab people out of all peoples of the earth destined to surrender? Why do they surrender? A people who are supposed to pay the sacrifice. People who didn’t surrender to the Crusaders, not to the Tartars, why did they surrender to Zionism?”

Besides being obsessed with avoiding the fate of the Native Americans, Arafat often spoke of the need to create a mass movement, warning against abandoning resistance against occupation:

“Our people fought more than once. In 1939, they fought and were deceived by sweet words, so they abandoned their weapons. Our Palestinian people fought in 1948 and were deceived, so they abandoned their weapons. This time is the last time, and our people will not abandon the weapon.

For our movement, armed struggle means waging a mass revolutionary war. Therefore, the first stage of our work is to attract the masses. The first thing is to attract the masses of our people and make them live in a revolutionary atmosphere, that will put the people in their right place bearing the responsibility and consequences fully under the leadership of a revolutionary vanguard, the general command of the storm forces.”

He envisioned a state for people of all religions, with Jerusalem as its capital:

“Our goal is to liberate our homeland Palestine from the Israeli occupation, remove the Zionist colonial presence, and establish an Arab Palestinian state in which all religions coexist. We are facing an enemy with the mighty capabilities of global Zionism. Behind it are all the forces of imperialism and colonialism. Let them plan what they want. Our planning stems from this, from the gun. Nothing else.”

Twenty years later, Yasser Arafat's legacy remains contested.

He became the first representative of a non-member body to address the UN General Assembly 44 years ago on 13 November 1974:

"Today I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."

The Guardian published some interesting words ten years ago, on the 10th anniversary of his death:

“Arafat and his supporters strongly believed that without armed struggle, the Palestinian issue would have remained no more than yet another refugee problem alongside the many other displacements lingering on the periphery of the world’s conscience.

He saw himself as part of a global movement and as a member of an international revolutionary fraternity against injustice – part of the global struggle of oppressed peoples for freedom and liberation.

The kaffiyeh Arafat wore came to symbolize revolution, not just the Palestinian struggle.

The Guardian continues, in 2014:

“The political future of Palestine appears bleak. True authority has been depleted by long years of struggle, by death, detention, occupation, and the seemingly fruitless search for freedom and restitution.

The diaspora, in which the majority of Palestinians live, has never been so marginalized or voiceless, and the refugees, the heartland of Arafat’s revolution and the core of the struggle—have never faced such denial and deprivation.”

And look at the diaspora now!

The whole world has become the Palestinian diaspora.

Remember what Arafat said: “For our movement, armed struggle means waging a mass revolutionary war. Therefore, the first stage of our work is to attract the masses. The first thing is to attract the masses of our people and make them live in a revolutionary atmosphere.”

The Guardian, 2014:

“As the memory of his achievements and misdemeanors, real or imagined, fade, today’s dire circumstances evoke a popular Palestinian nostalgia for the era of genuine leadership. The next leaders for better or for worse, will not be in Arafat’s mould.”

Imagine what Yasser Arafat would say if he knew someone like Yahya Sinwar was coming along. And imagine how full his heart would be, seeing millions of people around the world rallying for Palestinian liberation. Picture his face, after all he and his people have endured, witnessing a sea of Palestinian flags flying across the globe.

We are a live people with a live cause, that we will carry with us until the end, until victory.”

We will not let the Palestinian people go into the museum, Yasser.

Rest easy.

Editor’s Note: The oil painting below is—“G is for Genocide,” by the Native American Lakota artist Danielle SeeWalker. The painting was reproduced and sold as a fundraiser for the UN Crisis Relief Fund in Gaza. Danielle was headed for an artist residency in Vail, Colorado, which offered the painter and muralist a studio and stipend. However, after she shared an image of “G is for Genocide,” Vail canceled the residency program for the artist following complaints about her artwork’s political message referencing Gaza. Visit Danielle’s Instagram and show her some support, as she has also filed a lawsuit against the city of Vail.

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Hello, friends! Glad to see you here in this space. I have been slightly away from this favorite online corner of mine, two months to be exact—and I felt a tremendous guilt over it. There is so much happening, daily; do we even remember a time when each week wasn’t an apocalyptic countdown, slowly eroding the foundation of our existential reality? Carnage, massacres, elections, Amsterdam pogroms, laws suppressing our constitutional rights, war criminals being charged by the antisemitic courts, anticipating World War Three?

Me neither.

Is leisure even a thing anymore? Must we all live perched on the edge of a potential world-shattering disaster? Our generation comfortably thought we'd live our lives unscathed, unlike our ancestors who endured world wars, pandemics, plagues, famine, and recessions. But here we are—two out of five behind us: recession and pandemic down, one world war to go.

A year ago, did you ever imagine this would be your life? And here we are, mostly scrolling through our phones, digitally participating in the worst of humanity. We’re forced to watch a live carnage of small children being shredded to pieces, while being subjected to our silent friends and acquaintances whisking their fucking matcha in their fucking beige offices, all throughout a godamn genocide.

It’s enough to lose your mind.

But I digress.

I wanted to hop on here to let you know a few things.

It’s hard to write these days; so many crucial things happen daily, and the process of researching, sourcing, writing, and editing takes so much time, energy, focus, and mental strength (I have to be watching and living it all, over and over again, while researching). By the time I manage to put a semi-coherent first draft on ‘paper,’ another new horrific event occurs. And another. I’m so backed up on all the material I’ve written about Palestine—so far, I’ve written 380,000 words that I never published.

That’s the equivalent of approximately 7-10 books.

My style of writing is longer, featured, opinion pieces. I dig deep to inform you about what I've researched and sourced as important, valuable information. That particular style takes about a week to prepare and several days to write. Palestinian liberation is all about being mega-informed.

Time to change things up a bit.

Last week, I got banned on Instagram. I couldn't post on my grid, write captions, or comment for 6 days. All I could do was post a few stories, then I was blocked for 20 hours, and then I could post a few stories again. Rinse, repeat.

People have woken up to reality. It's impossible to witness this level of medieval violence and not become intolerant toward the entity committing those crimes. The people who are committing, propagating, and supporting it are those who have been indoctrinated into believing what they’re doing is righteous. The rest of us weren’t born or raised in Israel; we weren’t indoctrinated. We see the reality for what it is, and while we’re becoming more vocal and detailed about what we're angry about, those in power are tightening their grip.

And with new laws being passed, as well as new Instagram rules coming our way January 1, 2025, I expect it will get much harder to say things.

Therefore, I'll be writing here much more than I expect will be allowed on Instagram. I'll publish shorter pieces more frequently in this space, where I can elaborate in greater detail and use words I suspect will soon be suppressed or banned on Instagram.

All articles will always be linked on Instagram and across my other socials, which currently allow far more freedom of speech than Meta does. If you aren’t already, follow me on Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky.

Guess what, today is my Birthday!

And if you want to give me a birthday present, please subscribe to Antagolist! Subscribers mean a great deal here on Substack. If you do, you’ll get all my articles in your inbox, before I share them anywhere else. You would also be backing my passion for storytelling and becoming an integral part of the Antagolist community.

My articles are never paywalled, but it would mean a lot if you could become a paid subscriber; that way I could invest much more time into producing credible, factual, and insightful pieces. We can’t rely on mainstream media, which, rather than holding those in power accountable, is complicit in their atrocities. It’s independent work like this that moves the needle for the Palestinian cause.

Please, also comment on the articles! I appreciate you coming to my Instagram inbox to tell me how much you liked my piece and discuss some parts, but it’s much more important for my reach to leave your comments here. I promise you, I read them all and will respond to each one. Also, hit the like button on your way out! Likes are also important for reach.

If you missed any of my previous articles on Gaza, and the sorry state of our governments, you can check them out here.

If you’d like to support my work and buy me a birthday coffee, you can do so here!

And for my birthday week, I'll be sharing articles all week long! So many important grounds to cover; I’ll be covering most of the subjects you often ask me about in the DMs, such as:

• American Elections, why did people vote Trump, what does it all mean and what’s coming?

• Is the Amsterdam pogrom a Watergate of our generation?

• When was islamophobia invented? (hint: in 1984, by a lesser-known individual called Benjamin Netanyahu).

• What the fuck is happening with Russia?

You’re exhausted, I know.

We’re living in a total, utter abyss. Your mental health is completely shot. You’re appalled with what your governments are doing in plain sight. It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that the power structures we grew up with are responsible for the absolute worst things happening in the world. It’s hard to watch the psychopaths in charge who you wouldn’t send to buy you a carton of milk—slowly, but surely moonwalking us to a nuclear war.

What do we do with all this? Where do we put it? Where is that space that can take all this weight? Seeing all this? Feeling helpless?

Guess what, you aren’t helpless.

You are a person who broke through millennia of propaganda. You stared into the face of uncomfortable truths, unlearned previous misguided perceptions, and recognized how your former delusions about this world contributed to many of its injustices. You realized that the circumstances of your birth are far better than those of people born in other parts of the world—and that your privileges may have come at the expense of others.

You did all this. You woke up from decades of propaganda-induced coma. You buckled up and put your privileges, jobs, money, security, and possibly even physical safety on the line to give voice to the people who are being exterminated from existence. In fact, you haven’t even thought about what speaking out will cost you.

You did it instinctively because it’s the right thing to do.

You do have power.

Why else would your governments be bending over backward to find legal ways to illegally and unconstitutionally silence you? Imagine how powerful your words must be if the entire Western Empire is trying to shut you down.

You are a species no longer deceived by blatant propaganda, no longer driven by manipulative delusions of fear, hatred, and self-interest, but by truth and sincerity.

Do you realize how small the percentage is, of the people who have done all this work?

Every sentence you've shared about Gaza and Lebanon has helped reveal the relentless lies and abuses of the tyrannical systems we live under. You’ve encouraged others to imagine the possibility of a different reality. As more people begin to see clearly, we move closer to harnessing our collective strength to bring about a just world.

Let’s talk Meta.

After a year of speaking out daily, what specific words finally got me banned on Instagram?

Ironically, none.

Carice Van Houten, the loveliest human and an actress from Game of Thrones shared a post by an artist Helio Figueiredo, who felt people fighting for the Palestinian cause might be losing heart, and said:

“I’m seeing a lot of people despairing, and it’s normal because we are facing an abyss, but just a quick reminder, you helped to prepare people. People are more resilient, more informed than they have ever been, in the face of the darkness that we’re facing in history, and you participated in that.

You helped create and foster a community in which people were able to see themselves, and no matter what comes, no one will be able to take that away from them. And this internal armour that you helped create is the main difference between the people who suffered this before, and the people who are going to suffer this now.

And don’t think after a yeah of utter darkness of sinking to the lowest levels of humanity on screen, I’m somehow dismissing the importance of the challenges that we face. And I’m also not trying to impinge on people’s ability to grieve, because its important, but every single shred of information of assurance that you have given here to other people is something that you should treasure, because it’s going to be important when it comes the time for us to resist what’s coming.”

Carice reposted Helio’s words and tagged a bunch of people who have been publicly speaking and sharing images, and videos about the horrors in Gaza. She simply said:

“You know who you are. ❤️”

And tagged, what my Palestinian friend dubbed—Meta’s most wanted list.

I have been doing a good share, in fact, I completely put my life on hold to do this, to lend my voice, my writing, and my research skills to inform people, to open eyes, and open hearts; but I still don’t know what I’ve done to end up on this list! It’s probably one of the biggest honors of my life, to end up here, with these people.

For the past year, many of you have messaged me about feeling lonely after losing friends, even family members, because of your stance on Palestine. I wanted to transfer this list to you. Please dip in, check the Meta’s most wanted list that got me restricted for a week (biggest honor, thank you God, thank you The Academy), and find your tribe! Click on names, known and unknown, message people, comment on their posts, start talking with them. I’ve become friends with many people on this list, simply by starting a conversation, or them reaching out to me.

Here they are, all ready and clickable:

@danielbmate @adnan.barq @eladnehorai @sashaheron @wissamgaza @wizard_bisan1 @polly_borland @hossam_shbat @mahmoud_shammala @ahmad_masoud__ @charlesmcbryde @anas.ibrahem1 @shaneellall @desireedawsonmusic @anohni @rogerwaters @drjasonhickel @jaiyajohn @dr.ghassan.as @manobouzamour @pieterembrechts @sarahofmagdalene @krolien @ramseynasr @medea.benjamin @jenanmatari @jenbristercomedy @matthiasconstantijn @alximrdch @alonlee @johanfretz @maurits_de_bruijn @js_zijlstra @absorberyt @mirandavidak @misanharriman @belalkh @motaz_azaiza @antloewenstein @movieguypea @andreagibson @ansyaw @warsanshiree @saulwilliams @lowkeyonline @macklemore @wearthepeace @julia.sakr @clementine_ford @celebrities4palestine @mar._unfiltered @liamcunningham1 @liamomaraiv @savesheikhjarrahnow @gauntlit @gabormatemd @sahilamaraissa @mariekeeyskoot @robert_martin_palestine_ @lucywoesthoff @dinand_woesthoff @ahmedeldin @israelismfilm @k.w.bogen @alhelou.y @nadiadiaspora @adammbakri @farah.nabulsi @schrijfkunst @greg.j.stoker @kbiri @omarelsabh @thomas.maddens @infinite_jaz @susansarandon @wingerdebra @benjaminfmoser @laaalegul @mo_hamz @mosab_abutoha @lanzybear @dennis_overeem @myzfrancois @naomiaklein @lakshmimusic @mynameisjro @nangoldinstudio @franifio @4frankbarat @mattliebjokes @mynameisjennifer @the.chris.hedges.report @plant.eenolijfboom @erinaxelman @erevravnl @agelender @iamjoelleon @rollaselbak @mynameisjro @nouraerakat @boutainaazzabi @laurajansen @officialannielennox @liekeschrijft @lovaeij @bardemantarctic @markruffalo @deborah_feldman @shariffnasr @nasrdin_dchar @levy.gideon @evaduijvestein @zein_rahma @awnifarhat @luciuxness @lastminute.wonder @marla.barr @mariambarghouti @spacebunnynews1 @dushyanthi_satchi @dariabukvic @eye.on.palestine @eyes__in__ @docentenvoorpalestina

Palestine is the ultimate litmus test. I first came across this sentence thirteen months ago, but I didn’t fully grasp its weight at the time. After living through the events of the past year, the question of Palestine has proven to be the definitive measure of our humanity. There is no clearer gauge of a person’s character than where they stand on this issue. Those on the wrong side of this humanitarian crisis—are they even human? The jury is in, and just look at that crowd of stand-up humans above!

All of you who have been doing this with me, daily for almost a year—sending, sharing, informing, analyzing; laughing at the small wins, crying at the level of devastation—thank you for being here, and doing this with me. You’ve truly kept me sane!

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It’s hard to write these days. It’s even harder to live. I’m not familiar with this feeling; writing has always been my way of making sense of the world—a sort of conversation with myself before letting you in on it. Spending time wrestling with a blank page, even when it takes days to craft a single decent paragraph, is like molding a vase on a spinning pottery wheel to me—it both frustrates and invigorates me.

Recently, I’ve found myself both overwhelmed and underwhelmed by reality, as I navigate the end of a frustrating, month-long creative block. It’s as if I can’t fully engage with the world—there’s too much happening, yet the reactions from people and their responses are so disengaged. I have been writing fiction for the past month; this is how bad it’s gotten. I hate fiction; I think it’s a waste of a good experience—and I would rather make stories up than deal with what our ruling class has decided will be normal.

I’m sure you noticed the lack of my opinions landing in your inbox every week. It's hard to write because it’s hard to be these days. It’s exceptionally tough because there’s no one way to be these days. Sometimes I truly envy the people who can see what’s happening in this world and occupy this weightless, unbothered space full of “just nice things”.

It’s hard to be these days because we’re swimming in a sea of grey right now, and grey isn’t tolerated well on social media. People seem to have trouble existing in a space where something or someone they strongly support might have flaws.

Nuance is highly offensive.

When I try to highlight the depravity, deception, and lies gaslit by the Democratic Party, to their own base—people flood my comment section or inbox with an automatic, built-in default But what about Trump? And when I point out the United States does more harm to this world than the conveniently named Axis of Evil, I’m bombarded with Islamophobic tropes that people just can’t seem to shake, like a bad addiction.

It fills me with hopelessness, to see how many people can't forsake the simplistic Marvel good-versus-evil paradigm and resist the urge to align with one side unequivocally. I wrote about this in April, check it out:

It disheartens me to see people clinging to the false belief that cultural or customary differences imply inferiority. It’s even more disheartening to witness my own friends thinking their Western birthplace grants them moral superiority.

And what could I give you, my reader, if I can’t give you hope?

Hence my creative blockade.

I open my phone and just feel hopeless.

What snapped me out of it and opened the floodgates (I wrote six pieces in four days) was a quote from Edward Said, posted by his daughter:

“Where cruelty and injustice are concerned, hopelessness is submission, which I believe is immoral.”

It was a call to action.

My hopelessness is simply not allowed. My submission is not allowed. My hopelessness, and yours; if you’re in the same boat as me—is immoral, at the time of a live genocide.

It wasn’t easy, shaking off my despair. How could it be; witnessing a war criminal in Congress lie his way into getting approved for a global war—to 58 instances of standing ovation? Daily massacres. Another 20 billion in arms sent to an occupying force holding a civilian population under siege, trapped, bombed to oblivion. How could it be, watching dismembered children with a single sniper shot in the head—in pursuit of “self-defense” and the “protection” of our Western values?

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This is where I regained my hope and renewed my pursuit of humanity in a deprived and unjust world. I realized that while I may not have the power to end unkindness, injustice, propaganda, and lies on a global scale, I do have the power to disrupt these within myself.

I realized that I must exist in a creative space where I continuously confront and highlight the falsehoods surrounding us, reminding myself and those who are willing to listen about the realities of what our governments are endorsing and funding. I must exist in the space where I rebuff legacy media in shaping our perceptions through their extensive control over information.

As these thoughts conceptualized in my mind, I read a brilliant piece by Caitlin Johnstone - We Need Both Outer Work And Inner Work To Truly Free Ourselves. It might be exactly what your soul needs if you, like me, spend most days swinging between we’re completely doomed and we CAN build a better world together.

This is just what we needed to hear:

“It’s brutal keeping track of the criminality of the empire lately. I personally don’t see how anyone could do it without an accompanying discipline like healing work, meditation, mindfulness, self inquiry, or other forms of inner work.

Whenever I talk about the importance of inner work with this stuff I’ll get people dismissing it as self-indulgent navel gazing nonsense and a distraction from the outer work of actually changing our material circumstances, but really nothing could be further from the truth. 

To have a consistent discipline of inner work is to take responsibility for your own psychological bullshit instead of spreading it around in ways that hurt the people near you and make the world a worse place.

It is absolutely true that the world and the cruel systems which guide it urgently need to change, and it is absolutely true that much of the suffering and mental illness we see in our society is due to the material, financial and psychological stress that people are placed under in this sick capitalist dystopia we find ourselves in. 

As well as it might play in some circles, it’s just not good enough to blame all our suffering on the system. Doing so just encourages people to keep masturbating their inner wounds on everyone around them instead of growing up and doing the hard, uncomfortable work of becoming a conscious human being.”

PLEASE read the following paragraph and keep reminding yourself of it, every time you stumble:

“As individuals, none of us have the ability to single-handedly uproot all the unkindness and falsehood in our world, but we can each as individuals uproot the unkindness and falsehood within ourselves. And by doing so we make the world a kinder and more truthful place by just that much, because we tended the little plot of land we were given—our own personal slice of the human plight—with care and responsibility.”

“What matters is your intention to uproot any untruth and disharmony within yourself, and a sincere curiosity about where such things might exist within you.”

In her recent speech, Kamala Harris gaslit the need for a path toward a two-state solution, while urging Americans to be aware of the nature of the conflict.

The nature of the conflict IS the struggle for freedom.

It's time for this war to end, Kamala said after the conversation at the White House.

However, the occupation can continue.

Netanyahu called the protesters outside his genocidal speech “Iran’s useful idiots”.

Then, by equivalence, USA congressmen are the useful idiots of Israel?

“Where cruelty and injustice are concerned, hopelessness is submission, which I believe is immoral.”

We simply cannot afford to succumb to hopelessness. That’s precisely why the ruling class conducts their atrocities in full view of the public—to make us feel disoriented and powerless, as if we can’t affect change within the system. Their strategy is to instill a sense of futility, driving us to retreat into the manageable aspects of our lives. But neither we nor the Palestinian people under siege can afford our hopelessness.

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Happy 4th of July—
Let’s celebrate America’s independence
from mad King George’s subjugation
by subjugating the Native American Indians.

United, free, and independent,
it’s our motto; it only applies to us.

The full circle is poetic,
from Mad King George
to senile puppet Biden,
but hey, there are fireworks tonight!

We are battling depression daily,
seeing genocides on our screens,
funded by our hard-won
united, free, and independent state;
thanks, Founding Fathers.

But is it really a depression, 
or trauma from capitalism;
our basic needs being constantly unmet
while funding foreign wars?

America is an extremist oligarchy 
whose citizens have zero influence 
on public policy—
Matt Cooke told me.

Why don’t you have the intellectual curiosity 
to find out what’s happening to this world, 
beyond what’s served to you?

They are coming for you, they say.

Who’s coming?
Those who warn you
are the ones coming,
and they are already here.

Are you proud
of your lack of social intelligence?

Why are we allowing politicians 
to profit from division while spreading panic?
How can you make it so easy for them 
to sell you the paranoia?

They are coming for you.

Gays are coming for you to ruin your family, 
trans are coming for you to assult you, 
non-binaries are coming for you to confuse your kids, 
Arabs are coming for you to kill you, 
Muslims are coming to convert you, 
immigrants are coming for your jobs.

How witless must you be 
to swallow this century-old 
grooming into paranoia?

The only one coming for you, 
your freedoms and quality of life— 
is your government.

America doesn’t want stability in the world, 
if that stability means improving a competitor’s position.

Fading past of imperial hubris 
still seeks growth, influence, and expansion.

Your government convinced you 
Zionist feelings are more important 
than anyone’s actual lives.

You are celebrating the Independence Day today, 
yet not supportive of the Palestinian plight for independence.

Why are you deliberately not informed?

The US House voted
to hide Gaza death toll statistics, 
yet you are still on the fence.

Your destiny and future are being decided 
by the 80-year-old people without a future.

We have been emotionally manipulated, 
time and again, to believe 
we are under immediate danger 
from the crazed other.

They would kill you and your family too, 
a bizarre argument that is supposed 
to make you atrocity-friendly—
Alon Mizrahi told me.

There are fireworks tonight.

The state of Israel was not created for salvation of Jews;
it was created for the salvation of western interests. 
Palestinians are just paying a perpetual price for it— 
James Baldwin told me.

The empire’s interests are not your interests.

Is the freedom in the room with us?

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I won’t beat around the bush with this article. I won’t work on my form here or mold my prose into a stunning piece. I’m exhausted. As you are, we all are. I want to check in with you and ensure that this current quandary we’re witnessing in the world is at least clearer for you. Me. All of us. 

Where can we find hope, given what we've witnessed over the past week? We find it by not misinterpreting the power dynamics. We find it by fully understanding what’s actually happening in the world. There's no longer any excuse for being a lethargic, passive observer of global politics and geopolitics; it all concerns you and impacts your life.

Being hopeful is hard today.

Only the cessation of the violence we've been witnessing on our screens can heal us. This is not a groundbreaking concept, and you are fully aware of it. However, I firmly believe that the path to sanity involves awareness, opposition, awakening, and consciousness—precisely in that order.

The last six days have been unbearable. The genocide on our screens. A “rescue mission” that saved 4 and killed 274. The United States who claims “we lead the rule-based order” while they are the least compliant country in the entire world. The disrespect they are showing to their citizens and the whole of the international community by lying and manipulating every single ceasefire deal. US lawmakers blocking funding for Gaza reconstruction. US Congress diverting the 35 million of funds collected for the Palestinian Authority to Israel. Claiming they support a two-state solution to then veto a Palestinian UN membership.

I want to jump-start your awareness.

The realization is ugly, but it’s the only way. You won’t feel better but you’ll feel clear, and being clear about the world and not letting yourself be propagandized into submission is the only thing we have left here.

I need you to reprogram your mind about The United States’ role and Israel’s role in this horror we have been witnessing.

“Why is the United States doing all this for Israel”, “Why is Israel ruling the United States government”, “Why is the United States lying for Israel”, and “Why is the United States not holding Israel accountable for anything” - have been the constant occupants in my inbox for months now. Most of the people I talk to are bothered daily by the influence Israel has over America and are struggling to comprehend why the most powerful country on earth would be a bitch to some tiny state in the Middle East.

This is where you’re failing. Israel is not ruling The US and making them do anything, America IS masterminding all that you are seeing on your screens. It’s the American zionists who are doing this. Israel does not rule the American Congress, American zionists ARE the American Congress. Israel is nothing more than a military post of the American zionists and the whole Western empire, there to destabilize the Middle East, and perpetuate a circle of violence that feeds the Military-Industrial Complex. Money that the United States invests in Israel is not a handout, it’s billions that circle back to the United States economy via the companies employed by the Military-Industrial complex. 

Last Saturday, all this was proven to all of us. You saw American assassins being smuggled into Gaza in the humanitarian aid trucks to slaughter 274 civilians, women, and children while rescuing 4 hostages and killing 3; then letting the famous “pier for aid” crumble into the water once its actual purpose has been served.

What happened on Saturday is much worse than any small child’s limbs ripped to pieces.

How can anything be worse than children being slaughtered?

It can, because that particular maneuver revealed the most real, raw, and brutal truth of this genocide: the West is not merely implicated but is masterminding it.

You heard Joe Biden some decades ago: “If there weren’t an Israel, we would have to invent an Israel. It’s the best XY billion investment we could make.” I noticed many of you trying to read between the lines, but why are you doing that? The American government is telling you directly what they are all about. To your face, bluntly. 

I will break it all to you in this article, with the help of some iconic people who have been fighting the good fight for a while now.

Israel is created to uphold the values of Western imperialism. Israel is just a military base, an outpost of Western imperialism’s ruler, The United States. Its purpose is to destabilize the resource-rich Middle East. How do you do it? With constant wars and colonial pursuits.

For all that to function seamlessly, Israel needs to pretend to be a state. A fully functional one. With good international relations. Have you ever wondered why a Middle Eastern state is competing in the Euro or sings at the Eurovision? 

I went on ChatGPT once and asked that question: Why is Israel a member of UEFA, given its location is not in Europe but in the Middle East? We went back and forth, and this is the final answer I got after pressing on how a non-European country can be in the Union of European Football Associations:

“The inclusion of Israel in UEFA has indeed been a topic of discussion and debate. Some critics argue that sporting and cultural events can be used to project a positive image or divert attention from political controversies, such as concerns about apartheid policies. The question of including a country in sporting events involves complex ethical considerations. It often sparks debates about whether engagement through sports can help promote positive change or whether inadvertently legitimizes oppressive actions. Different people and organizations hold varying views on this matter, reflecting the complexity of balancing sports, politics, and human rights.”

Are you getting there? 

No state needs to work this hard at appearing to be one and wants to be accepted as one, as the state whose existence is created to uphold Western domination.

We have been groomed into islamophobia for our entire lives, putting groundwork for this moment here, right now. Western powers don't want stability in the world if that stability means a competitor’s position improves. Competitor? Global South.

Caitlin Johnstone explains this:

“This isn’t about Jews, it’s about settler-colonialism and the geo-strategic objectives of the Western empire — both of which we’ve seen manifest in countless examples that have nothing to do with Jewish people. Zionism is just one belief system the empire managers will utilize to advance their agendas of planetary hegemony, just as they do with Christian fundamentalism, Islamophobia, humanitarianism, conservatism, progressivism, and any other worldview that can be exploited to their advantage.”

You have to understand this synergy between America and Israel, rather than lose your days trying to grasp why Israel is manipulating America. They aren’t manipulating America. Constantly questioning yourself with “Why would America go through all this trouble for a foreign nation, no matter how strong the allyship” - misplaces your perspective and emotions. America benefits from Israel as much as Israel benefits from America.

I realized a while ago that these two entities call each other allies, but in reality, they are the same entity, feeding off each other's interests like a perfectly coordinated love affair based on transactional passions. I had an Israeli guy boast about “US giving us billions” in my TikTok comment section, like a beautiful girl bragging about the amount of money her boyfriend throws at her, while the guy is boasting about the girl’s beauty; it’s the flawless, clockwork unison last seen in the pages of Tolstoy or Dickens. A sensual dance, a transactional yet passionate affair.

You still don’t see how all this mess benefits America?

The Israeli writer Alon Mizrahi, a Jew of Arab origins explains it concisely:

“A war in the Middle East provides American establishments with the perfect excuse for internal oppression and censorship.”

And:

“America has dedicated more resources and shown more resolve in dealing with a few weeks of students' peaceful protests than it did with decades of school shootings.

A break with Israel threatens the American system more than dead American kids.

This is the system telling us it is operating in the name of colonialism; it seeks to achieve nothing but the practice of violence for violence's sake, as part of the colonial mission.

Finally, because colonialism was allowed to remain dormant in the American psyche, its hierarchical essence means it must take precedence over everything else; whoever woken, it immediately becomes the meaning of America. This is why American fundamentalists see this as an attack on America.”

This guy is just too good at this:

“As Israel is unleashing its Rafah operation, as many of us suspected was inevitable, I can't stress enough to grasp and come to terms with just how vicious America's involvement in this is, led by the Democrats. 

I think that many people are still not getting that the US is employing a strategy of deception, including against its own citizens, to help this genocide sail smoothly. 

It is really hard to accept, but we have to: the American government is working to create a false narrative of occasional disagreements with Israel, and it is doing it to achieve two objectives: 

The first is saving face. The second is confusing and weakening global and especially Western opinion by creating false hope (“they are not going to allow this”, “surely now this will stop”). 

But it is all a lie. A strategically used lie, do you get it? 

They have been in on every part of it. They are assisting it in every way possible. They will never stop. 

They will never stop till all Palestinians are dead, or civil unrest brought the US to a standstill. But these are the only two options. It is all a massive, massive deception operation.”

“A potentially timely reminder: good and normal ideas do not require violence, censorship, and obsessive control. Only bad ideas, that go contrary to human nature and understanding, need to be enforced this way.”

American Empire?

It’s paramount to understand the American Empire and its role in the current Gaza siege. Instead of being a dignified part of the international community, a nation among nations, the United States dominates other nations by force or threats of force. America has 800 military units abroad and 130 Special Operations in various countries. It wants to dominate the globe.

Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Mongolian Empire, and British Empire all collapsed. The American Empire, the 68th Empire in the history of the species, existing in modern times—refuses to use any form of diplomacy, discussions, or considering anyone’s interest but its own. It rules by violence, lies, and manipulation.

Jeffrey Sachs, an economist, public policy analyst, and professor at Columbia University explained this in-depth on Judge Napolitano’s Judging Freedom show:

“There are no standards right now. We are in a thuggish time, we are at war because we do not entertain diplomacy at all, there is no talk of peace anywhere, there is only talk about military escalation. It is a disgrace of the Biden administration and the people in that administration who do not have any language of negotiation whatsoever, we are in the spiral and the American people are simply being left out from this story.”

Calling Russia, China, Iran - the axis of evil while the US sent arms to Taiwan, which is part of China; they have stationed troops on Kinmen Island - part of Taiwan which is part of China, and they have the nerve to say this.

We are on the warpath, what are we thinking?

Nothing but unrelenting hostility from the US toward China. And everyone cheering in Congress over this, this is bipartisan. What are we thinking? Do they want to destroy the world? We don’t honestly want to have discussions? No other countries have interests? Only the US gets to decide who does what to whom and when? Only the US can put out sanctions, and only the US can decide whom the ICC does or doesn’t indict? This is a kind of madness right now that is leading us closer to doom than we can recall in our modern times.”

Is there any hope?

Yes. In collective. Hope is in the collective. In all of us.

Alon Mizrahi puts it to bed, again, brilliantly:

“Palestine is giving young people meaning the capitalist, corporate world order viciously denied them.

At the most precise moment in history when it seemed a completely mechanical, vertical, and isolated form of existence was about to burry humanity for good, this genocide sparked a long-forgotten truth: that we (the people) are creatures of community; that we only find true joy and meaning in connecting with other people.

That we cannot be happy when others around us suffer. 

Palestine is an actual and concrete struggle but it is also, and crucially so, an instrument of philosophical liberation of universal importance.

As prophecized, the revolution is not televised, as establishment media is an essential part of the oppressing mechanism. But rather than let it fool you, see this violent denial for what it is: proof of the magnitude and potential of this movement. 

The Palestinian Revolution may yet prove to be more consequential than the French one.”

You can’t find any motivation in this world? You have to. I read a comment on Instagram the other day: “Throughout human history, there has been constant horror but in the midst of that people sought to make and share art. Michelangelo carved David amid plague and witch trials.”

Re-read all the people I sourced in this article.

You must persevere, maintain your sanity, and contribute your creativity to the world despite the ugliness you see. Above all, stay aware and conscious of what’s happening. Never again allow yourself to be propagandized by the Western media and the government that employs them.

Every day, I talk to people about the overwhelming sense of hopelessness we've all felt in light of recent events. We expected accountability and justice, but have seen none, leaving us tired, angry, and demoralized. However, the paragraph by Caitlin Johnstone offers a pathway forward. As I said at the beginning of this piece, awareness, opposition, awakening, and consciousness—precisely in that order:

“If too many people realize that their government is psychopathic and their news media and other indoctrination systems have been lying to them about it all their lives, the empire will lose the ability to propagandize them, because propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you. If too many people wake up from the propaganda matrix it won’t have any effect any longer, and without their propaganda our rulers cannot rule, because that’s the entire control system upon which their rule is premised.

The empire therefore needs to tread very carefully when public opinion starts to turn against it, and retreat whenever public trust in imperial institutions would be compromised too severely for the empire to continue on a given path. It simply cannot afford to wake the public up from the propaganda-induced coma it has spent generations lulling them into.

What this means is that the empire can be pressured into retreat simply by spreading enough awareness and sowing enough opposition to its depraved actions. If enough eyes open to the truth of what’s happening in Gaza, there’s no amount of geostrategic middle east agendas or Israel lobby funding that can outweigh the empire’s existential need to prevent a mass-scale awakening from the mainstream imperial worldview and a transition into widespread revolutionary consciousness. The empire would necessarily need to step back before things reached that point, because its very existence depends on it.”

The blueprint is here.

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