Palestine and Palisades Are Burning for the Same Reason

For prioritizing the advancement of capitalist and colonial interests over the lives and well-being of millions.

When I saw the flames engulf the city of Los Angeles last night, the first thing that came to mind, after recognizing all the familiar spots I used to hop around, was a Serbian movie that loses its impact when translated: Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (Lepa Sela Lepo Gore). It’s a film about the war in Bosnia—morbid, comical in its tragedy, and brilliant in its own way — and not just for its title. Pretty places burn so beautifully, don’t they? All those iconic California landmarks—it’s a tragedy, but, man, do they burn spectacularly.

I’m not trying to enrage or shock you.

Is the California inferno in the first week of 2025 truly shocking to you, after everything you’ve witnessed over the past 15 months? I’m speaking with morbidity, I can’t help it, because it’s a continuation of the same morbidity that’s been unfolding for over a year now. Pretty places burn beautifully—but what about the tents in Gaza? Does Gaza burn as beautifully? Small, beautiful children brought to hospitals, with their beautiful wide eyes and long eyelashes, burned to bits—they burn from the same ignitor as the stunning California coastline.

This is the theme here. Whodunit? The wind? Please.

Know thy enemy.

This is not a comparison. It’s the continuation. Pretty Villages burn beautifully while those who rule us line their pockets. And they don’t care if Palestine or Palisades burn.

Just look at Joe Biden’s statement yesterday on the Los Angeles wildfires:

“They got notifications yesterday that their homes probably burned to the ground, but the good news is, I’m a great-grandfather as of today.”

End press briefing, exit stage. That is all statement.

And if you’re one of those people thinking well I don’t give a fuck about a bunch of Hollywood celebrities and their houses burning down, think again — the whole of Altadena burned, and the people there aren’t rich or celebrities. Residents of Altadena didn’t have a single fire truck come to their aid last night. People lost houses and businesses they had built over 40 years.

Another President gemstone:

Only days away from the end of the worst presidency in history, Joe Biden approved another $8 billion in weapons to Israel as his parting gift, to ensure Israel can continue burning people alive in Gaza — while his own citizens in Los Angeles fight flames devouring their homes.

In a particularly morbid instance—sorry, it’s the theme today—the White House released an estimate: the State of California has suffered $800 billion in damages from wildfires so far.

On his way out, Joe Biden also approved $500 million in weapons to Ukraine, allowing Zelenskyy and Klitschko to continue killing citizens in a futile quest to maintain their mafia-structured power.

Sorry American citizens, your government couldn’t afford the water for fire hydrants, or firefighting planes — they have to give billions of tax dollars to Israel and Ukraine, to maintain their imperial pursuits.

As long as brutal, heartless capitalism persists, the planet cannot be saved. We cannot separate ourselves from the legacy of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism, nor from the responsibility for the ongoing environmental genocide.

Victims? Empire doesn’t discriminate.

The American people are just as much victims of the Western Empire as the nations whose resources are pillaged and cities bombed to uphold imperialist dominance.

And people around the world understand this and differentiate the American people from their government. It was heartening to see some tweets today from the people of Yemen:

Did you know the American government puts a price on its own citizen’s safety? Shocker, I know. A Californian reported yesterday online — “The first three LA fire evacuation maps I checked were all paywalled.”

Did you know that the insurance company State Farm dropped 70% of its customers in the Pacific Palisades last year? Most of the people that lost their homes and all their belongings, won’t get a dime back.

O Luigi, where art thou?

Another Californian reported on Twitter that the insurance companies that dropped homeowners’ fire coverage in California are simultaneously offering coverage to fossil fuel companies that are creating the climate-crisis conditions for ever larger and more destructive wildfires.

By James Ray (@goodvibepolitik):

“Palestine and Palisades are burning for the same reason: the prioritization of advancing capitalist and colonial interests over the lives and well-being of millions. We are witnessing the brutal effects of capitalism and settler colonialism in real time. This can’t continue.”

Then there’s the beautiful Gavin Newsom, god, he’s so pretty right? All things pretty burning today theme! The infamous Governor of California who, when asked about not having water in its fire hydrants, said, hey, not my job!

Ok fine, the longer version: “Local folks are going to have to figure that out,” he told Anderson Cooper as he put his hands up when questioned about the lack of water to fight the fires.”But, again, that's going to be determined by the local authorities. I mean, when you have a system where it's not dissimilar to what we've seen in other extraordinarily large-scale fires ... those hydrants are typically for two or three fires, maybe one fire, not something of this scale.”

And who should be in charge of that, Gavy?

Democracy?

Western media’s mouths are full of “big bad Communist China”, while the CPC takes full responsibility for its citizens. Meanwhile, Western politicians enjoy all the perks of their power positions while claiming no responsibility—and have the audacity to lash out at anyone who demands their accountability.

This hits hard, by @DavidLeftyMA:

Kurt Vonnegut said - “We’ll go down in history s the first society that wouldn’t save itself because it wasn’t cost effective” and damn if that isn’t exactly how this is all played out.

What better example of capitalism's absurdity than prioritizing extinguishing flames at shopping malls and McDonald's over saving people's homes?

What about using inmates to fight fires, paying them $2 per hour (a total of $27 for a full 24-hour shift), yet denying them the opportunity to continue in the role for full pay once they’ve served their sentence?

“The world doesn’t have to look like this, we are being held hostage by the fossil fuel industry and its chokehold on our politics and planet.”

— @willowonearth

Someone posted how climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you’re the one filming it — and I ask myself, what more needs to happen for us to stop politely asking the ruling class to end this destruction carried out solely to further enrich a few who are already obscenely wealthy?

Years of corruption and mismanagement led to Los Angeles running out of water in the middle of the Palisades wildfire. 2900 acres had been burned; 80,000 people had to evacuate, and so many lost their homes. The tragedy in LA proves that homelessness can happen to anyone at any time

“Remember, you are closer to being a climate refugee than a billionaire.”

The Resnicks.

Did you know that one Beverly Hills billionaire couple owns almost all the water in California?

If you are concerned about the California wildfires, and the genocide and ecocide in Gaza, you need to know about the Resnick family, a long dubbed the climate criminals who are ravaging California, while being big fans of the Israeli occupation regime.

This family’s connection to the wildfires you witnessed last night is crucial. Please inhale this info and all the research behind it.

In 1994, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the owners of The Wonderful Company, POM Wonderful, Fiji Water, Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, JUSTIN Wines, Landmark Wines, JNSQ Wines, and Teleflora floral wire service company secretly seized, (read — stole) control of California’s public water supply.

Today, their company uses 150 billion gallons every year while working-class people suffer under drought conditions.

Lynda and Stewart Resnick are also known for funding the Israeli occupation regime. The same billionaire family controlling vast amounts of California water is actively funneling money to Israeli occupational forces through charities and other means of support. Based on tax records from their foundation they have given $2.4 million to the Israeli military every year just between 2015-2022, through an outfit called the American Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Yasha Levine did a great research piece on Resnicks — California Pistachio Billionaires Helping Israel's Occupation Regime. I implore you to read the article.

I want to highlight these parts for you.

Besides stealing the water in California, Resnick’s pistachio monopoly has a very specific geopolitical dimension. It’s based on the U.S. meddling in the Middle East; specifically, on America’s overthrow of democracy in Iran and the backing of the Shah — meddling that spectacularly blowback in the form of Iran taking 52 American hostages from the U.S. Embassy in 1979.

The result of this blowback was more aggression against Iran: the imposition of crippling sanctions. It is these sanctions that for the first time in history began to cut Iran’s pistachio industry off from global trade and allowed the Resnicks to get into the pistachio business in California.

Except for a brief partial respite under Barak Obama’s presidency, economic sanctions against Iran have been renewed and intensified under every single president after Carter, making Iran one of the most sanctioned countries on the planet and allowing Resnicks to create an American pistachio industry from scratch — an industry that went from producing nothing to double what Iran does.

Despite all these sanctions, Iran has still been a major competitor to the Resnicks and the American pistachio industry that they pioneered. So constantly fighting Iran for international market share; whether in Europe, China, South Korea, Russia, or India — has been a prime objective of the Resnicks.

They have waged this fight by backing politicians and lobbies that take hardline positions on Iran — whether it’s through supporting sanctions, increasing foreign tariffs, or arguing for attacks and straight-up war.

It’s painfully obvious how connected all this is.

You know that war is coming to the agenda under Trump’s administration. It’s inevitable. And realize why so many people will die, again — for the pistachio monopoly, military industrial complex, testing of war technology, Israel’s land grab, maintaining imperial pursuits.

Wake up to the fact that your Western countries aren’t just fighting people in the Middle East—they’re fighting you too. You bear the cost of corporate greed just as much as the citizens of the countries targeted by their wrath.

By Collecteurs:

Keep thinking it’s all disconnected. Keep thinking “What happens over there has nothing to do with what happens over here.” Impunity is not immunity. We pay for the greed of the corporate and ruling class in more ways than one.

Or yeah, blame the wind.

The fate of all mankind is in the hands of fools.

Aren’t you glad we have a “Space Force” instead of Climate Force?

The world is not collapsing in front of our eyes — capitalism is. The world will be fine. We will not, if we do not pivot immediately. — @collecteurs

My dear friends, nobody is coming to save us.

No one is in charge, there are no sane adults in charge of this planet. No one is coming. Our safety is in our own hands.

Capitalism is where you build enough bombs to blow up the entire world but you can’t put out forest fires — @HairyRevolutionary

Our government sends billions of our tax dollars to Israel and Ukraine but can’t get water to California. Our government sends billions of our tax dollars to Israel and Ukraine but gives $750 to its citizens who lost everything they own in Hurricane Helene.

The future is not at all what the powerful promised us it would be. But do not let this lead you to despair — let it radicalize you. Build community, and spread class consciousness. There are way more of us than of them. There are way more of us than of them. There are way more of us than of them.

I want to finish with the brilliant Viet Thanh Nguyen:

“LA is wast. It’s a city and a county. It is a global place, a Pacific Rim space, A ‘Third World’ metropolis. It has all the contradictions of the world and all the world is condensed in it. The homes of rich, poor, middle class, Black, white, Asian, Latino have burned. Fire is coming for all of us.”