If after the massacre in Gaza today you still think Zionism has emancipatory potential, you have rocks in your head. This massacre is the full flowering of Zionist ideology: the genocide of Palestinians.

While Palestinians grieve deaths of 52, British politicians chide them to be restrained

Gaza May 14 2018 (Reuters)
While Palestinians are reeling from a massacre by Israeli sharpshooters that killed 52, including children, & injured 2,400, the British prime minister exhorted Palestinians to show “calm & restraint” & the British foreign minister expressed concern that extremist elements in Gaza were exploiting the peaceful protesters. You couldn’t come up with a more detestable response unless you were part of the Trump, Netanyahu, or Modi regimes. Where are the denunciations of Israel for gunning down unarmed protesters? Where the excoriations of Trump for emboldening Israel to such violence? Are Palestinians not human beings? Have they no rights? Is there not a single world leader with the elementary human decency to call a spade a spade & denounce Israeli apartheid & genocide? The answer is, no there is not. We must call rallies & protests around the world, no matter how large or small, to stand with Palestinians against this monstrous act of genocide.

(Photo of Palestinian man today from Reuters)

Several friends are marking themselves safe from furious & massive storms raging across India. Our sincere wishes for your safety & for the resolution of those damn storms. This global warming stuff is leaving no one untouched.

52 Palestinians shot down in cold blood by Israeli snipers; over 2,400 injured

Pal protest vs opening of US embassy (Gaza TV News) May 14 2018

Gaza TV News reports a massacre by Israeli snipers against unarmed Palestinians protesting the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. Fifty-two Palestinians have been killed, shot down in cold blood, by Israeli occupation forces. Over 2,400 have been injured, many in critical condition.

There have been protests in some European cities, in Turkey & Jakarta. But we must call rallies & protests around the world to stand with Palestinians against what has become a bloodbath by Israel.

(Photo is from protest today by Gaza TV News)

Just came across this information in my Facebook memories: Voice of Victims, a human rights group in Kashmir, reported in 2014 that the Indian army maintains 471 torture centers in Kashmir, that every fifth Kashmiri is a victim of torture, & that there is one of these Guantanamo-like centers every five kilometers (3 miles).

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

Satire is the genre of the oppressed

Modi on jeep as human shield
Not everyone appreciates the power of irony & sarcasm but satire is the genre of the oppressed. The same genre in the hands of the elite is nothing more than cruelty. The oppressed use ironic juxtoposition for reversing & flouting power relationships. That’s demonstrated by the April 2017 incident of an Indian counterinsurgency officer who tied a Kashmiri civilian to the front of a jeep & paraded him around, allegedly to deter stone pelters. The humiliation of the young man was more to the point than deterring stone pelters & he reportedly remains devastated by being plastered all over international media in such a humiliating way. Within a few months of the incident, with all the sensitivity of a bull in a China shop, an online business venue run by a member of the BJP (Modi’s party of Hindutva nationalists), began selling tee-shirts with a drawing of the incident & a message that read “Indian Army: saving your ass whether you like it or not.” There was also a Bollywood movie released a few months ago titled “Baaghi 2” which glorified the incident. When challenged about the tee-shirt, the guy who sold them online said it was so Indians could wear their patriotism on their chests & as a warning to Kashmiris. Now how do you think those patriots would respond to this photoshop job, replacing the young Kashmiri with Modi, if it were plastered all over a tee-shirt & sold on line? Would they laugh as heartily? Or would they be enraged at the insult to their supreme leader? Irony speaks for itself.

(Photoshop was posted by Salute Kashmiris)

Tribute to motherhood, a sacred trust

Rohingya mother and children crossing into Bangladesh Oct 16 2017 (Jorge Silva:Reuters)  May 14 2018
Belated Mother’s Day. Commercial interests have made the day a Hallmark moment but there truly is something sacred about the responsibilities of mothering, even if some cannot live up to them (often due to their own poor mothering). No cruelty is more unforgiving in life than the mistreatment of children which leads to a lifetime of sorrow. Loving & protecting children is a mother’s first, primary, & eternal concern, not just for the welfare of individual children but for all society. There are attempts, often disguised as progressive but at heart misogynist, to demean the role of mothers. It is a sacred (that is not too pompous a word) responsibility & trust to care for, nurture, love, & protect children especially in these very dangerous times where children & women are among the chief victims of violence.

This photo is a Rohingya mother porting her children across the border river to seek asylum in Bangladesh last October 2017.

(Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Zionists claim those unarmed Palestinians shot down are Hamas terrorists

Abdallah Naser at protest vs. US embassy in Jerusalem (GRM on Twitter) May 14 2018

This is 8th grader Abdallah Naser protesting today against the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. When asked why he was protesting on the first day of school summer break, he said “I’ve finished school & now I am to teach Israeli soldiers.” And yet we are reading from Zionist bloggers that Palestinians shot dead by Israeli snipers are part of ‘Hamas terrorist cells’ trying to sneak across the apartheid barrier under the cover of burning tires. According to the rabid bloggers, driven by a genocidal hatred of Jews, these ‘Islamic jihadis” waving Palestinian flags & swastikas will attempt to annihilate the entire Jewish people of Israel by tearing their hearts out. At least now we know where Assadists get their rhetoric from. By the way, the swastika thing came from a doctored photo released by the Israeli army & yet the bloggers ate it up. So much for truth in reporting. But at least now we know Bartlett & Beeley got their training for Syria from Israel.

(Photo of little Abdallah from Great Return March on Twitter)

Trump’s spiritual adviser is as despicable & amoral as Trump

Rev. Robert Jeffress (Haartez) May 14 2018

Trump’s spiritual adviser is Robert Jeffress, a deranged evangelical Baptist minister from Dallas, Texas who has said all Jews will go to hell, Islam is “a heresy from the pit of hell” that promotes pedophilia, homosexuality is a perversion based on “detestable acts.” Trump chose him to lead a prayer service at the US embassy opening today in Jerusalem despite his public hatred for Jews. This is where you get into the irreconcilable crazy crap of Zionism. Evangelicals are among the most ardent supporters of Israel as the God-given homeland for Jews & annually parade by the thousands through Jerusalem to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound. This relationship with evangelicals is vigorously promoted by Israel. But in evangelical theology, Israel will be destroyed in the end days at the final battle of Armageddon between good & evil & Jews will go to hell because Christianity will triumph. Ecumenism is no part of evangelicalism though apparently Zionism can reconcile with even those who hate Jews.

Honestly, one would think even Netanyahu would have more dignity than to allow an antisemite like Jeffress to lead him in prayer. But then again, Zionism is a godless creed.

(Photo is Jeffress & Trump)

Massacre in Gaza

Great Return March May 14 2018 (GRM on Twitter)
It’s being reported by Palestinian sources that 41 Palestinians have been killed & 1,700 are being treated for injuries at the Great Return March today protesting the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. But that number continues to rise & is by no means final. There need to be rallies & protests around the world demanding Israel pull off their snipers & drones. Palestinians have a right to peacefully protest for the right of refugees to return home & against every incursion on their rights..

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)