Zionism destroys cognitive faculties

Gaza (Heidi Levine) Mar 27 2015

The intellectual, cultural, scientific, & political contributions of Jews have long been disproportionate to their numbers–not because they are inherently more gifted but because as a persecuted people they considered education a liberating force (as it was for Blacks in Reconstruction after the Civil War & for women always). Jews also were mostly an urbanized people & had access to education.

Not just because of the Jewish history of pogroms & the WWII holocaust but because of their monumental contributions, it is disheartening that Zionism has corrupted so many & rendered them idiotic. A political anatomy would be useful to see why such a repugnant, supremacist ideology could take hold in those who should be providing insight into oppression & leadership against it. You can bet your bottom dollar class & colonialism play a big part in that corruption.

To see what that degeneration has led to intellectually, these are just a few droppings gleaned from Zionist sites on FB: One writer trying to answer charges of genocide said Israel cannot be accused of genocide because it drops leaflets, makes phone calls, & gives warning shots before bombing residences & then provides medical care to the victims. She explained away the high civilian deaths in Gaza by saying “in virtually every war the West fought” civilian deaths always outnumber that of soldiers. That’s the least incoherent part of her rant; most of her argumentation is so mangled & dishonest you can’t make head nor tail of it.

Another article titled “Islam’s Kiddie Sex Slaves & Suicide Soldiers For Allah: Bought At Auction!” claimed slavery was part of Islam & jihad (the non sequiturs are entirely the writers) & went on railing against US Blacks: “In reality, generations of White Americans have paid penance for a history which had nothing to do with them. Not only that, but Black America has more than caught up, so much so that two Blacks, the POTUS and his AG, are ruling over America with the biggest racial stick in U.S. history. Blood suckers. Iron fists too. For crying out loud.” The racism is beneath contempt.

Jeffrey Herf writing in The Times of Israel must consider his readers completely stupid. In discussing Palestinian objections to Zionist settlements he said they haven’t had the “conversation about race” & that Jew-hatred makes them object to having Jews as neighbors in the West Bank. Not content to leave bad enough alone, Herf went on: “Would Jews be allowed to run in elections in a Palestinian state if they chose to remain there? Or would they be forced to flee to save their lives if such a state came into existence?” So you see? It’s Palestinians who are being unreasonable & oppressive when Zionist settlers take their lands & build tenements. Palestinians aren’t up to date on that multicultural thing. Who has the stomach to argue with such insanity?

The saddest & most damning comment of all was the briefest. On an article showing photos of the rubble in Gaza, someone commented “Karma!”

The irrationality of all this is disturbing but this is what Palestinians are up against, along with endless excoriations of Hamas, the all-purpose whipping post of Zionists. You can’t really debate this manure or the people who hustle it. Power is what is needed & that means building the hell out of the economic & cultural boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729) & demanding not a drop of aid of any kind to Israeli apartheid.

Photo is Ramba Kafanah as she breastfeeds her newborn baby standing in her bombed out home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza (last October), just a couple miles across the border from Sderot, Israel, where Israelis pulled up easy chairs for a front row seat on genocide.

(Award-winning photo by Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex)

Protests continue in Mexico over Ayotzinapa 43

Mexico City ( Ronaldo Schemidt:AFP:Getty Images) Mar 27 2015

Although the Mexican regime of President Peña Nieto has been trying to close the case of the 43 Ayotzinapa disappeared student teachers, protesters continue regular demonstrations all over Mexico demanding the students be returned alive. This young woman is at a protest yesterday in Mexico City marking six months since the students were abducted by soldiers in the 27th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army. The soldiers took them from a hospital where they sought treatment for their injuries in the bus attack.

Parents & family members of the students are presently on an educational & solidarity tour throughout the US making the case of abduction by the army at the behest of the regime. They think for good reason their sons are being kept in a clandestine prison & they want them returned safely.

The attached schedule shows where the families will be speaking & holding rallies at Mexican consulates in the US & a place where people can donate to building the tour.

http://www.caravana43.com/

(Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images)

Farmworkers strike in Mexico

Baja MX strike (Don Bartletti:LA Times) Mar 26 2015

More than 50,000 farmworkers across Mexico’s Baja California peninsula (about 200 miles south of San Diego) have been on strike for over a week against low pay, harsh working conditions including unpaid overtime, & labor abuses including sexual abuse. Millions of dollars of produce, mostly tomatoes & strawberries slated for export to US supermarkets, are rotting in the fields.

Strikers are demanding health benefits, overtime pay, days off, water, work breaks, an end to arbitrary firings & abuse by field bosses & for wages to be raised from US $8 to $10 a day to about $20. They’d have to raise the wages to at least $100 a day to get out of the realm of the outrageous.

According to reports, the area lacks access to water, sanitation, power, healthcare, schools, adequate housing. Many farmworkers are from indigenous communities & speak limited Spanish so agribusiness companies must have thought they were ideal victims for exploitation. The situation must be bad since not long ago agribusiness firms were accused of holding farmworkers in slave conditions. And Mexico’s Human Rights Commission is not only investigating allegations of abuse but had to rescue 200 workers from a farm where they were abused & required medical care.

The agribusiness industry saw this strike coming because about a month ago they began promising reforms & compliance with labor law. Farmworkers recognized the promises as a stunt & went out on strike. They’re blocking major highways & stopping 18-wheelers carrying produce north, bringing them into conflict with police & military who are probably in the state to facilitate drug trafficking to the US. More than 200 strikers have been arrested “after protests devolved into riots, rock-throwing, & vandalism” according to the Los Angeles Times. Hasn’t the LA Times ever seen a strike before? What do they think happens when you send in the army to prevent strikers from obstructing scabs trying to break a strike?

Today the big talkers of the agribusiness coalition offered a 6 percent wage increase which farmworkers called a slap in the face. That’s about 55 cents max per day. One should keep in mind that strawberries in a US supermarket just across the border cost at least $4 or $5 a pint. One hopes in response to such an outrageous insult the strikers do a lot more “rioting, rock-throwing, & vandalism” until those vile produce companies are brought to their knees.

In this photo strikers in Vicente Guerrero, Baja anxiously awaited news from the negotiations today because when you make $10 a day, you’re hurting without several days of pay. Strikes take quite a toll. That’s when the companies offered them the chump change of 55 cents.

The graffiti on the wall reads, “We want a life.” To get that they may need a revolution.

Our fullest solidarity with their strike. And our deepest respect for their willingness to take on the neoliberal vultures.

(Photo by Don Bartletti/LA Times)

Where goest fashion?

China fashion week (Chen Jianli:Xinhua Press:Corbis) Mar 26 2015

China fashion week is always a festival of creativity where they’ve introduced such things as the rhinestone gas mask which comes in handy for China’s pollution problem. They’re apparently trying to make up for the Mao jacket & the fashion-conscious appreciate that even though it’s irredeemable.

The thing about this creation is it’s unisex character. One wonders why they make such a stink about the niqab when this is considered haute couture. The Mickey Mouse ears remain a mystery. Better not to ask.

(Photo by Chen Jianli/Xinhua)

Israel compared to Islamic State by human rights groups

Gaza burial of child (Heidi Levine) Mar 25 2015

It’s often impossible to wrap your mind around Israeli barbarism against Palestinians & the perfidy of those who defend it. As Israeli bombers hammered Gaza for 51 days last summer, taking out schools, hospitals, entire residential areas, the rabid Zionist Eely Weasel (known by his stage name as Elie Wiesel) took out full-page ads denouncing Palestinians for using their children as human shields; the US Pentagon was supplying millions more in military equipment to Israel; & UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was running around like a chicken with his head cut off to cover for Israeli human rights & war crimes.

Those who ridicule internet activism don’t understand the role activists & supporters of Palestine played on social media by circulating to millions the images of ethnic cleansing coming out of Gaza, in particular the horrific crimes against children. Were it not for that massive exposure, Israel would still be crooning “The Exodus Song” instead of making strident protests against BDS. We should not underestimate how much that social media campaign & the international protests of over a million people changed things.

One of the most significant changes is that several organizations including several Palestinian human rights groups, Save the Children, War Child, B’Tselem (an Israeli human rights group), & UNICEF were pressing to include the Israeli military on a list of grave violators of children’s human rights alongside the Islamic State (ISIL), Boko Haram, & the Taliban. Who could have imagined such a development just six years ago after Israel’s 23-day bombardment of Gaza which they named Operation Cast Lead or the eight-day bombardment in 2012 called Operation Pillar of Defense?

Putting aside the fallacies of such a list & the major omissions which should certainly include the US, NATO, Indian, & other armies, this move to identify Israel with the Islamic State is an astonishing political development that must have the Israeli government reeling–along with its Zionist apologists like Weasel. It should give pause to UN officials who are being disgraced & exposed before the world for running interference for Israeli ethnic cleansing instead of applying sanctions. It may in part explain the phony psychodrama being played out between Obama & Netanpsycho–as an attempt to take distance in rhetoric if not in military aid from egregious Israeli war crimes.

It would be such a catastrophic political setback for Israel that their officials bullied UNICEF officials into backing down. For now Israel will not be ranked as a psychotic state but the damage is done. According to a UN source, the human & children’s rights groups involved “are in uproar” over UN officials backing down & continue to press for Israel to be ranked with ISIL. The affinities between Israel & ISIL are apparent to all so we should be frank: it’s not that Eely Weasel & other Zionists don’t see that but that their racism & supremacy is so rancid they don’t give a damn & can’t acknowledge the humanity of Palestinians.

This is Netream Netzleam holding the body of her one-year-old baby girl named Razel who was killed by Israeli bombers last July. The photojournalist Heidi Levine took it at Razel’s funeral. The media caption to the photo said “medics said she died from injuries sustained in an Israeli air strike.” They can drop the equivocations now & just say outright that Razel is another Palestinian child targeted by Israel’s psycho military.

Build the economic & cultural boycott of Israel & demand no aid of any kind to Israel.

(Photo by Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex)

Israeli ethnic cleansing in Gaza

Rawya abu Jom'a (Heidi Levine:SIPA:Rex) Mar 25 2015

This is 17-year-old Rawya abu Jom’a at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City during Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing last summer. She suffered severe shrapnel injury when Israel bombed her family’s apartment. Three of her cousins & her sister were killed in the strike.

The photo is also by conflict photojournalist Heidi Levine who was just awarded for her photos of Gaza by the International Women’s Media Foundation. Another photo in the album was the funeral of three young boys killed near their home & was captioned “allegedly by an Israeli drone strike.” Are they sure it wasn’t by an evil fairy from outer space!? What despicable equivocation when it comes to Israeli war crimes!

This photo should also be submitted to the UN to document Israeli war crimes in Gaza. If nothing else, it will shame them for collusion. Or is shame not in their repertoire of emotions?

Build the hell out of the economic & cultural boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729).

(Photo by Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex)

Documentation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza

Gaza Shejaia neighborhood (Heidi Levine:SIPA:Rex) Mar 25 2015

Heidi Levine, an American photojournalist who became a settler to Israel in 1983, was just given an award by the International Women’s Media Foundation for her work in Gaza during Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing last summer. She has been a combat photographer for a long time in both the West Bank & Israel & has also worked on assignments in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Kosovo, & Afghanistan. This photo from Gaza City shows she was often in the midst of Israeli bombing. These men with the white flag are in the Shejaia residential neighborhood which Israeli bombing reduced to mountains of cement rubble & made thousands homeless.

This photo needs to be submitted to the UN as documentation of several Israeli war crimes in Gaza because under umpteen international laws “The right of belligerents is not unlimited.” Some of the most obvious violations seen here include attacking those who are unarmed or who have surrendered; bombing “to cause superfluous injury”; bombing towns, residences, or buildings which are not militarily defended; & bombing without warning authorities. Otherwise, it looks very much like genocide.

The UN of course won’t do squat with the evidence since they collude with Israel but that’s no reason not to “hold their feet to the fire.” Since the UN can’t be relied on for justice, there’s only one recourse & that is to build the economic & cultural boycott of Israel.

(Photo by Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex)

Southern Poverty Law Center associated with Zionism

The writer Toni Morrison has just sent out a fund appeal for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an authoritative civil rights law firm whose strategy is to crush hate groups with lawsuits. They also monitor racist incidents in the US, have school classroom programs, & issue a list of hate groups.

Hammering the courts with lawsuits is also a strategy used by anti-abortion groups in the US. Some have criticized SPLC for undermining the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights by going after groups who express reactionary views & labeling them as hate groups. But there’s another problem with SPLC which highlights the dilemma of liberal Zionism. In their Fall 2007 SPLC Intelligence Report they identified anti-Zionism with antisemitism & have ignored requests to clarify their views & repudiate such an odious imputation. What gives SPLC the authority to define who is a hate group if they cannot distinguish objections to the political ideology & practices of Zionism from social hatred of Jews? Does that mean they will eventually place BDS groups on their hate list?

Of much greater concern is SPLC’s relationship to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli attorney, & Shurat HaDin, the law center she founded in 2003 which models its strategy on the SPLC strategy of bankrupting who they define as hate groups. Shurat HaDin does not just model SPLC but according to Darshan-Leitner in an interview, she was schooled personally by the SPLC in Alabama.

Shurat HaDin models more than strategy by portraying itself as a civil rights group but in fact, according to a leaked Wikileaks cable, it has tight associations with Mossad & Israel’s National Security Council. Shurat HaDin’s function is to engage in “lawfare” bringing suits on behalf of victims of alleged terrorism against Palestinian groups, political leaders, & who they consider their financial patrons.
This strategy is going to become an important impediment for BDS groups & Palestinian solidarity, which is what it’s intended to do since there is little chance most of the law suits will reap much in actual damages. The intention is to discredit Palestinians as terrorists for defending themselves against ethnic cleansing, to tie up the resources of Palestinian groups, & to vilify Palestinian supporters as advocates of terrorism & as antisemites. They have already (in Australia) begun going after BDS groups & it’s only a matter of time before they start trying to tie up the resources & vilify other BDS groups.

Rather than give money to the SPLC which does not repudiate their role in creating this monster, it’s far better to build the hell out of the economic & cultural boycott of Israel & continue to demand “no aid of any kind to Israeli apartheid & ethnic cleansing!”