Many years ago, I read somewhere that Christmas, as it is known today in America, the giving of many presents, was invented by northern Jewish merchants in the latter 1880s. Certainly, Christmas in America today has no resemblance to the man Jesus in the Gospels. Nor does America continuing to give Israel money, weapons and munitions, so it can continue leveling Gaza and murdering who knows now many more Gaza civilians. The Jesus in the Gospels surely would weep over that. Even as the merchants in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank are weeping over the death of their tourist industry, perhaps for a very long time.
That Christmas Eve cheer out of the way, I’m reminded of the title of one of Gloria Steinem’s books, “The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off,” and I’m also reminded of this hilarious Hurt Feelings Report, which I wish could be posted in online forums, where feelings get hurt plenty, but the forums do not have tech for uploading images.
Those Christmas stocking stuffers out of the way, let’s move to the deep end of the swimming pool with this from a battle-hardened war correspondent, who just doesn’t seem able to crawl into the light of day. I leave for you to open the link below and see that for yourself.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times.
The Cost of Bearing Witness
CHRIS HEDGES
There are scores of Palestinian writers and photographers, many of whom have been killed, who are determined to make us see the horror of this genocide. They will vanquish the lies of the killers.
But sometimes a grinch or two show up:
Sloan Bashinsky
Writes Sloan’s Newsletter
Heart, gut and soul-wrenching.
Hey Hamas and Israel, God has nothing to do with any of it. You have made a mockery out of your religions.
Jon Carver
Writes What's the Anti-Matter?
Judeo-Christian Supremacist Settler Capitalist Wealth Accumulators have been genociding non-stop for the past 600 years. Today they genocide under the Star of David while continuing their generational genocide of the Original Americans through federal law loopholes in the US and Central and South America and fossil fuel " sacrifice zones ". Having accumulated more wealth than any group in history, they still can't feed or house all the people since theirs is a Supremacist Ideology. This ideology is the living engine at the heart of US -Euro Imperialism and must be exposed, Abrahamic roots and all, and be shamed out of plausibility, especially in relation to Palestine today.
PITA Contrarian
May I propose that a mandatory inset photo of Netanyahu appear in the lower-right hand corner of all all video footage of the carnage in Gaza ... even better, inset video footage of Bibi smiling, shaking hands and kissing babies ... I also propose that his name appear in the credits as the producer.
Rick
"Evil has not changed down the millennia. Neither has goodness."
Humans have not changed over the millennia. What has changed are institutions and the means of mitigating the violence and oppression.
"Western Civilization has been writing its own obituary for decades."
That has been said for centuries and still has not come to pass. If anything, Western Civilization is stronger now than it has ever been. That is not strength through oppression or war. It is strength through the creation of the EU, a common market, and a tolerant and liberal civilization.
Evil still exists. That evil is the "zero-sum-game". That evil exists in every civilization and in the corridors of power.
As human and moving as this essay is, it changes nothing. It gives recognition of the human tragedy but that will not stop the killing. This is largely because it does not change the rules of the "zero-sum-game". Some view a "zero-sum-game" as short-term only. It is not, it can be very long term in its application. Hedges has described this through his interviews with HAMAS leadership. The goal of HAMAS is clear, the destruction of the Jewish state with all of its attendant violence and genocide.
Chris Hedges does no service to this tragedy in Gaza by ignoring or being dismissive of the cynical behavior of HAMAS. The 10/7/2023 assault on Israel was methodical and very long in the planning. It was aided and probably abetted by Iran (for its own cynical objectives). It is highly unlikely that Iranian Intelligence was unaware of HAMAS' intentions. The result of this campaign: 1) more civilian martyrs; 2) more oppression; 3) a continuation of the "zero-sum-game".
The "obituary of Western Civilization" is a common theme and desire for some these days. Some take comfort in this thought. So what replaces Western Civilization? A more just world? I don't think so. Under the excuse of Nazis and a threat to Russia, a war continues to wage in the Ukraine with 10s of thousands of dead Ukrainians and Russian conscripts. Hedges' position: What would you expect with the expansion of NATO. This thinking always places the blame on the West and ignores Russia's imperialist past. Former Warsaw Pact countries are not interested in Russian suzerainty.
One can proclaim ad infinitum, the Nakba and its injustice. Perhaps repeating this will build support for the Palestinian cause. There are seven million Jews in Israel. Many are descendants of Holocaust survivors. There are many Jews from Arab lands as well. How probable is it that these people will engage willingly in a second diaspora?
War is evil, but where in all of Chris Hedges' writings is there a solution?
Sloan Bashinsky
Well said. This is a religious war, it’s been going on a long time, it is rooted the scriptures of the Jews, Christianity and Islam, gong back to Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. As long as the State of Israel exists, there will be trouble in Palestine. If Israel were to cease to exist, the different Islamic factions would war with themselves, as they have done and do elsewhere. I say the Oct 7 attack was clever bait to get Israel to do what it is doing in Gaza, and Israel swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. Unable to defeat Israel head-on, Hamas figured out what it would take to provoke Israel to turn the entire world against it, except for America, whose Bible thumpers will not stand for a president or Congress abandoning Israel, which they want to remain and defend their so-called holy land, where Jewish leaders once had Jesus crucified. Taking sides with Hamas or with Israel is taking sides with Evil.
Sloan Bashinsky
(I wrote this below last night and decided to sleep on it and dreams prompted me to make the leap.)
As you pointed out, Rick, Islamic Hamas views the murdered Gaza civilians as martyrs, meaning, they went straight to Paradise, and were necessary sacrifices in Hamas’s scheme to provoke Israel to turn the entire world against it.
The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship, in which he compared cheap grace to the real thing. He said, silence in the face of Evil itself is Evil, God will not hold us guiltless. He and others tried to assassinate Hitler and were caught and executed.
A demon has taken up residence in the people running Hamas and Israel, and in their respective military. The demon has won. The only way forward is both sides recognize what has happened to them and they own it and they stop fighting and they leave each other alone indefinitely. The odds of that happening might be less than zero.
People who line up in support of either side open themselves to being infiltrated unawares by the demon.
Do I post that as a comment? If I do, will that convince the people here that I am insane? If I don’t post it, I betray the truth, I betray God by any name.
What a mess has been made by religious people, who have no clue where they stand with God.
RickWhat you are advocating is a non-zero-sum-game as opposed to the one being played out in universities, alternative media, many of the postings on this site and certainly within the core strategy of the Likud Party and HAMAS.
"He said, silence in the face of Evil itself is Evil"
There are reasons for the fear within the heart of the Israelis. This fear has led to the Likud Party dominance and the ever encroaching settlers on the West Bank. This fear has been stoked by the behavior of HAMAS. One cannot blithely dismiss the true genocide in Europe which occurred less that 100 years ago and its impact on a people.
The Palestinians have suffered. Their land was taken through fiat and they have gradually lost more and more sovereignty. They also have a failed leadership that has over promised and only delivered failure and death. They are not prosperous, they are not safe, and they have very little opportunity. Not all of this immiseration is Israel's fault.
This choosing sides in the game of "who is most evil" is also evil since it ignores or excuses evil. It tolerates and accepts this evil as a justified strategy for liberation. Dead people cannot be liberated.Both extremes are consumed by an ancient evil and both are at fault for this tragedy.Sloan BashinskyWe seem to be in agreement. I have suggested America offer Israel’s people sanctuary in America, which should have happened after World War II, if Israel will pack up and leave Palestine. I can’t imagine, though, either side going for it. It’s a horrible mess there, and I see no happy ending for so long as Israel, Islam, Judaism and Christianity exist in their present mindsets.
Rick
I would certainly support America offering sanctuary in the US. However, were I Jewish and an Israeli would I want it? Following the Jewish diaspora this ethnic group lived in many different nation states. No less a personage than Otto von Bismark saw merit in marriage between prominent Jewish families and German gentiles. However, they were subject to pogroms and near eradication in Europe. Would I trust the United States? More, perhaps than other countries, however, who is to say that Christian fascism in the US will always be supportive of the Jewish people?
Additionally, who is to say what a Palestinian state would do in the Middle East. HAMAS owes Iran for the aid. Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran as is Palestinian Jihad. Religion is simply being employed as it often has been as a rationalization for supporting objectives and all too frequently inhumanity. I doubt seriously that a Palestinian state would bring peace to the Middle East.
Sloan BashinskEvery point you raised is valid.I recall when Roos Perot begged the first President Bush on Larry King Live not to get involved in Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Perot said his company had tried to do business with Arabs and each time he thought they got a good deal, it turned out they had gotten out-witted, and he decided Arabs think differently form Americans he his company stopped doing business with them. He said Arabs are always getting into squabbles and going into tents and coming out arm in arm, until the next squabble. Arabs will sell Kuwait’s oil to America, regardless of which Arabs control Kuwait, and going to war over Kuwait was not one American casualty.
I thought Perot was spot on. A week or two later, I watched that President Bush say on national TV that he could not let the American way of life be threatened. Turned out, Bush’s ambassador had given Saddam Hussein the green light to take part of Kuwait, it wouldn’t matter to America. Turned out, Saudi Arabia letting the free Kuwait American-led coalition statoin in Saudi Arabia really pissed off an American ally, Osama bin Laden, whose offer to bring his army from Afghanistan to liberate Kuwait, the Saudis had rejected.
Islam has been at war among its own selves for quite a while, so if Israel ceased to exist, I doubt that would bring peace to Palestine. But Israel would not be there with its nuclear weapons, which I don’t for a heartbeat doubt it will use, if it feels it has no other option. Religious fanatics, who got really embarrassed by the Oct 7 attack, which punched every last one of their buttons, as Hamas had hoped, are liable to do anything, as we are seeing quite clearly in the Christian American right, which you call racists, but I think Nazis better suits them, given who is their leader, Donald Trump.
In Christianity’s scriptures, Jesus was born to Jews in Palestine, and Jews had him crucified in Palestine, and many American Christians want their so-called holy land protected against Islam at all costs, and since they aren’t interested in moving over there and doing it, they want Israel to do it. It’s a perfect storm in the darkest sense of humor, and given religious fanatics are running Hamas and Israel, and a demon is egging them on, whether they believe that or not, who knows what lies ahead? I sure as hell don’t know, and I get told things by angels known in the Bible, as does a really good friend of mine, and neither of us belong to a religion anymore.
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
