Gaza at Night, last night (October 27, 2023)

The Second Coming

In what could only be described as biblically prophetic, much of what the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats describes in his famous poem, The Second Coming, is coming to pass now

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Face of an Angel

An orphaned Palestinian Child. Who’s going to care for him?

The United States, in union with its western allies, is complicit in an ongoing genocide. By its unequivocal support, military aid and funding of the State of Israel, the United States Government is a party to the countless, unspeakable war crimes and atrocities perpetrated against the civilian population of Gaza, Gaza City and greater Palestine.

This is NOT a War but A Massacre

The press and sadly, many who are opposed to the open, in-your-face-dare-you-to-stop-me genocide that Israel continues to perpetrate, continue to refer to this conflict as a “war”. It is not a war, full-stop! This characterization is an affront to basic intelligence and common sense. A “war” is defined as an armed conflict between two or more parties who possess similar capacities to inflict damage (kill) in more or less equal measure. This is the most asymmetric conflict in the past century and perhaps, in historic memory. It is a full-on massacre of civilians by a nuclear-armed power!

Hamas, is the military wing of the Palestinian state and is considered to be a political party. It occasionally launches a salvo of rockets in retaliation to Israeli air strikes. Israel possess nuclear weapons and has the best US-made fighter aircraft, such as the F-15. The Palestinians have sticks and stones by comparison. Hamas governs more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the group is best known for its armed resistance to Israel.

In a change for the better, Wikipedia has actually published an accurate account of the situation in Gaza and its root cause:

Following the [start of the] 2023 Israel–Hamas war on October 7, the United States started sending warships and warplanes into the region, prepared to give Israel whatever it needs. It [the Biden Administration] promised more military aid to Israel, which already receives $3.8 billion in US military aid. With casualties mounting in Gaza as Israeli jets relentlessly bombard populated areas, Joe Biden focused on Israeli victims of the Hamas attack and did not mention Palestinian casualties. He also did not address the root causes of the conflict, which according to CCR are Israel’s unlawful possession of the Palestinian lands for 56 years, its 16-year siege of Gaza “and the apartheid regime across all of historic Palestine.”

US Support for Israel and A History of Genocide

US Support for Israel borderlines on psychotic for almost all US politicians, most likely due to the corrupting effects of AIPAC money. Michael Tracey notes on Twitter (X) that the US Senate now passed a unanimous resolution, in his own words:

condemning pro-Palestine student protesters as “in solidarity with Hamas” and anti-semitic. The resolution calls to “fully and completely support Israel” in its war on Gaza

Up-front, it has to be noted that these students were not “in solidarity with Hamas”. They’re opposed to the violence and genocide being perpetrated by a nuclear-armed power against an unarmed civilian population. The people of Gaza City and the Gaza strip are trapped (they can’t leave without becoming targets for Israeli snipers), have no one to defend them, and are powerless to defend themselves. US history is defined by its genocidal, colonial past so, this resolution isn’t surprising coming from mostly ignorant, old, white men or propagandized neo-Zionist “Christian” fanatics like Nikki Haley, currently running for US President. What’s happening in Gaza and greater Palestine now is the most unchristian thing imaginable -and they’re all supporting it! No surprise there.

Orphans and Refugees

Their colonial-settler project in the Middle East has gone off the rails, so who’s going to manage the fallout from it? Who’s going to care for the orphaned children and the wave of Palestinian refugees created from this ongoing humanitarian disaster, a disaster of their own making, when that disaster could have been avoided altogether if actual adults were in charge?

Why don’t some of the warmongers in the Congress pass a resolution, giving tax breaks and concessions to those who adopt orphans or at least one person in the wave of refugees that will be created by their colonial-settler project now gone rouge in the Middle East?

Examples of colonial genocide from US History:

  1. President Andrew Jackson, defying the US Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia, rendering the “Indian Removal Act” unconstitutional, orders the US Army to execute the act, thus beginning the “Trail of Tears” and the genocide of the American Indians. Despite this clear court victory for the Cherokees, Jackson openly refused to enforce the court’s ruling, and the Southern states ignored it (note: Nikki Haley, born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, represents South Carolina).
  2. Philippine–American War. As colonial conquests go, this was one of the most brutal perpetrated on indigenous men in the defense of their homeland. What the Americans did to the fighting-age men of the islands, those who took up arms (which is their right under International Law) or not, outstripped even the Nazis in brutality. The lives of those brave men were not lost in vain however, since the Philippine Islands gained their independence from the United States on July 4, 1946.
  3. The Nuclear Incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The concluding act of WW-II was the nuclear incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in August, 1945. As an astrophysicist, I know the origins of Uranium and Plutonium, the essential components of a nuclear weapon. The energy released during a nuclear reaction or explosion originated in a supernova, an exploding star or from the merger of two neutron stars. This “binding energy” of the Uranium or Plutonium nucleus, the energy that binds it together, originated in an exploding star and is now released on a human population – making the use of nuclear weapons the most evil, heinous act imaginable! And thus, JR Oppenheimer uttered the famous words of the Bhagavad Gita when observing the 1945 Trinity nuclear test in Alamogordo: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”.
    1.   The direct targeting of civilians in any conflict is a war crime. Although not a genocide (since the term “genocide” suggests the targeting of a group based on their ethnicity), the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes that will never receive justice. Israel has openly admitted that they’re targeting civilians in Gaza – this is undisputed. Also undisputed are the following acts, perpetrated by the Israeli state on a daily basis aginst the civilian population of Gaza, all war crimes:
      1. The use of White Phosphours ammunition (provided by the United States),
      2. The targeting of doctors, ambulances and medical personnel,
      3. The bombing of places of worship, hospitals and refugee centers.
  4. Vietnam. The fictitious border, a political construct invented by the United States to partition the Republic of Vietnam into North and South, essentially to divide and conquer the people of that country, failed -miserably. Most notable (I grew up with this and was part of the movement in this country that put a stop to this war. I remember the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975) was the carpet bombing of “North” Vietnam by US B-52s during the Johnson Administration. In conjunction with the “My Lai” massacre, the long train of genocidal atrocities committed by the US in the name of freedom and democracy continued.
  5. Numerous CIA-orchestrated Coups in just about all of Central and Latin America continues to this day, with the failed coups in Venezuela in 2002 and, most recently, during the Trump administration. Notable in their brutality were:
    1. The 1954 coup in Guatemala by the Eisenhower administration’s CIA, ostensibly to “prevent a Soviet Beachhead in our hemisphere”, was really to ensure the success of the United Fruit Company in that country.
    2. The 1973 Nixon CIA-backed coup in Chile deposing Salvadore Allende, the democraticaly elected president, installing the monster and dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.
    3. US-trained death squads operating in El Salvador during the early 1980s (the Reagan years – El Mozote was one of the most brutal and atrocious massacres since the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam).
  6. The Genocide of 1.5 million Iraqis, including 500,000 Iraqi children, whose death the late US Secretary of State Madeline Albright deemed “worth it”, was perpetrated by Presidents Bush (senior) and the moron of his son “W”. Most brutal was the massacre of fleeing Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait (who Iraq rightly invaded since this former British Colony was siphoning off Iraqi oil) and Fallujah. These presidents rank up there with Andrew Jackson, albeit on a much greater scale, in their wanton disregard for the sovereignty and dignity of each state and the inviolability of each human person.

These 6 examples are but a small sampling of how the US spreads its Freedom and Democracy and what it looks like. Why do I mention these here? Their little colonial-settler project in the Middle East is in trouble. The mask is off and the true face of Israel is seen for what it is.

They’ve had over a century of practice at Empire Building since the 1898 Spanish-American war and the Philippine–American War a year later.

The US Government, under the Biden Administration, has sent multiple aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean in “a show of support for Israel” as it wages its war against the unarmed civilian population of Gaza. As I write this article, the Israeli state has cut all essential services and internet to Gaza, creating an actual blackout (no water or electricity for the population or for hospitals) and a news and information blackout. Now they’re free to kill and murder in the dark with no witnesses -with impunity. Although they’ve always had impunity, now they’re free to commit their genocide without anyone watching -and get away with it. This tactic, no doubt, was taught to them by the US Generals who have been going over there since October 7th.

Accomplices to a Genocide

In addition to “a show of support” for Israel, the USS Gerald R Ford battle group and others, according to the Pentagon, are there to “deter other state actors from ‘interfering’”. This can be interpreted as a warning to China, Iran, Russia, Syria or Lebanon, don’t dare come to the rescue of the unarmed, civilian population of Gaza. The United States, by adopting this posture, in addition to the billions of dollars in military aid and public support sent to Israel every year, makes them an accomplice to war crimes and the ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Israeli state. They are literally protecting the Israelis during this massacre, preventing anyone from coming to the rescue of the Palestinians. One call from the White House could put a stop to the carnage in about as long as it takes to dial the phone – but they don’t do it. Joe Biden is a war criminal, just like his predecessors, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, his father and the rest going all the way back to Ronald Reagan.

This is pure unadulterated evil, full stop! The collective United States Government (at least the Executive and Legislative branches), mostly self-described Christians, are in full lock-step support, both parties, without exception, to the actions of the Israeli state. This is the true, maniacal face of evil, in sharp contrast to the Angelic face of the orphaned Palestinian child above. The contrast couldn’t be sharper. Benjamin Netanyahu recently said it quite correctly “this is a battle between light and darkness“. He was quite correct but confused as to which side he’s on and which side constitutes light and darkness.

Related “Tweets” and Stories

Here, the current Zionist Prime Minister of Israel in his own words, spouting hate that could otherwise be attributed to the likes of Hitler:

The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong.



Doctors, poets, families, babies: victims of Israel’s war on Gaza

Besan H Helasa

Besan Helasa

The 19-year-old medicine student was killed at her home, alongside her mother, older sister Marah and brother Omar. “I have dreams that I have not yet achieved. I have a life I have not yet-fully lived. I have a family that I love and fear for,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter) days before her death. “Me and my people are subjugated, persecuted, killed, and tortured in an open-air prison.”

Al-Shaima Saidam

Al-Shaima Saidam and family

Saidam was killed with members of her family when missiles hit the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. In July she celebrated being Palestine’s top high schooler, after she earned a 99.6% average in Palestine’s general secondary education examination.

For the rest, please see the original Guardian story.

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