The catastrophic drownings of nearly 2,000 immigrants from African countries, Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, not even two weeks ago has not decreased the tsunami of immigrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean–so great are the pressures compelling them. According to media, almost 3,700 people were rescued by Italian rescue boats just on Sunday. Over 7,000 were pulled from wooden boats & plastic dinghies over the weekend by Italian naval & coast guard ships, merchant ships of various nationalities, some private vessels, & rescue ships run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Zionists are unable to explain (away) this picture of Israeli cops beating up on Ethiopians in Tel Aviv protesting racist discrimination & police brutality–which the media caption calls “alleged” even after they post this photo that would be evidence in criminal court.

It’s a great political disadvantage for Israel to have international exposure of its profound racism–built into the very nature of a Jewish-only state–whilst it is fighting a battle against the economic & cultural boycott (BDS) & growing Palestinian solidarity. But the unbearable tensions & contradictions of Zionism, unable to deliver on its promises, are erupting within Israel. That makes BDS all the more important.

Zionist publications are not without their sarcasms–at least of the unintentional kind. Ynetnews, an online Israeli publication, announced that while hairdressers from Jordan & Turkey boycotted the international hairstyling competition in Tel Aviv, a Palestinian woman from the West Bank walked away with the championship for “everyday hairdo styling.” They reported “remarkable cooperation has been recorded between Israelis & Palestinians in the field of hair design.”

She won a pair of expensive scissors & Israel thinks it dealt a blow to Intifada. But no one dares to show a photo of the do. This must be the Israeli version of the nail salon in downtown Kabul that justifies the US-NATO war.

So while Zionists in the US organized a busload to get their pictures taken in Baltimore with Black civil rights activists in a dog & pony show of solidarity, cops in Tel Aviv were assaulting Israelis who came to protest with the Ethiopian community against racist discrimination & police brutality.

Zionist ideology in its formation during the 19th century rejected the broader struggle against racism & colonialism & instead cashed in politically by calling for a Jewish-only state in Palestine. Racism & elitism are inherent to Zionism, not an aberration.

Will the Zionist groups that organized the dog & pony show in Baltimore denounce the racist violence in Tel Aviv? Or will they claim Ethiopians used their children as human shields?

(Photo by Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

This photo of Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro with Baltimore activists is making media rounds today, including an article in Haaretz. They’re celebrating the decision to charge six cops for the murder of Freddie Gray at a May 1st rally.

The Haaretz article reported that fourteen rabbis from the Baltimore & Washington, DC areas joined the protest for “police reform & justice for Freddie Gray” along with “dozens” from Jews United for Justice (JUFJ), a community organization. The Baltimore director of JUFJ issued a statement saying “Jews United for Justice & the Jewish community stand with our neighbors in Baltimore calling for justice for Freddie Gray.”

Historically, Jewish activists have played a central role in social struggle–from building the trade unions to civil rights & women’s rights & every other social struggle–along with the important role they have always played in educating about the character of Zionism & in Palestinian solidarity. But the rancid ideology of Zionism has soured things considerably & put many Jewish activists on a collision course with justice.

There isn’t much known about the politics of Jews United for Justice except that it appears to be fairly new & is funded by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. That is what you call a red alert. The Jewish Federation is a confederation, not just of Jewish community groups, but is the leading player in the Zionist movement promoting Israel in the US. It works closely with AIPAC & the State of Israel.

This is what you call a photo op, a propaganda piece, a planted article. When you vet Rabbi Shapiro (easy to do on his FB wall), you find he is a Zionist & supporter of AIPAC. It must have alarmed the hell out of the Zionist establishment when Ferguson activists & Palestinians in Gaza forged bonds of solidarity after Operation Ethnic Cleansing last year in Gaza & the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson. This kind of hail-fellow-well-met politics is nothing but media spectacle intended to persuade the Black community that Zionism is on their side. My ass, it is! Zionism, in its foundations, rejected the broader struggle against racism & colonialism. It has no affinity with civil rights.

It’s entirely conceivable the good rabbi is sincere in his defense of civil rights. So it would be good to know what he thinks about racist discrimination & police brutality against the Ethiopian community in Tel Aviv, where they are protesting police assaults & chanting “Not black, not white, we’re all human beings.” Will Israel be given a special dispensation for their racist assaults on Ethiopians as they are for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians? Or will the good rabbi (who lived in Israel & knows the score about apartheid) speak out against racist violence?

Build the hell out of the economic & cultural boycott of Israel to answer this fraudulent campaign to legitimize apartheid in Israel.

(Photo by David Goldman/AP)

Bernie Sanders is only 72 hours into his presidential campaign & already he’s drooling all over himself about Israel when queried at a town hall meeting. Progressives can tell themselves he’s good on so many questions that he has to be allowed a peccadillo or two. He actually stinks on most questions except rhetorically. In words he’s a real firebrand. Otherwise he’s kind of sorry-assed.

But saying Israeli ethnic cleansing in Gaza is an “overreaction” to Hamas aggression is not a peccadillo. The struggle of Palestinians is of historic moment. To misjudge apartheid & be dismissive of ethnic cleansing is to stand with terrorism & oppression & it puts our man on the wrong side of history. He’s an impediment, not a step forward.

Jill Stein is not a whole lot better on Israel & needs to be interrogated, not applauded just because she has some progressive views.

Demanding candidates straighten up & fly right on Palestine is not a fetishistic preoccupation. It’s a touchstone for where they stand on justice.

Did David Rockefeller actually survive six heart & two kidney transplants like World News Daily is reporting? I only ask because the photos make him look embalmed in formaldehyde more than surviving–& because the newspaper reporting it also claims the KGB, the spy agency of the former Soviet Union, created the punk scene.

The story is they bankrolled bands like the Sex Pistols as part of a covert operation to create cultural & political chaos, nihilism & cynicism toward authorities, promote drug use, & pervert “Western youth.” Who knew KGB agents were such party animals?

If it’s true, what a shame. All those rubles wasted when capitalism was doing well enough alone. No help needed.

Inquiring minds want to know.

(Photo is David Rockefeller. Dead or alive?)

What, no clamor for my views on KKKKaty’s new KKKKid!? Well I’ll give them anyway.

The birth of a child is always a blessed event & we wish the new Windsor no ill. Being born into a mutant inbred clan is burden enough for any child. But don’t expect festivities or anything else but a call to overthrow feudalism before she comes of child-bearing age.

The unseemly feudal display outside the hospital is enough to make a republican cry. A Town Crier in 2015? Crowds numbering over 50 outside the gates of Buckingham Palace? Monarchists camped out for days at the hospital wrapped in the Union Jack & one grown man with a baby pacifier (dummy in British) in his mouth? Betty actually flashing a toothy grin? (Or had she just finished counting her gold bullion?) Throngs of international media when thousands of babies are born every day?

Most appropriate of all are the bookies taking odds on the KKKKid’s name. Sentimental fools are hoping for “Diana.” Who cares what they name her when you have to call her by a feudal title?

What they’re doing in England is bad enough. But if you want to see unseemly, check out US television. The announcers coo over royalty like the US War of Independence never happened. Australia actually reintroduced royal titles; Canada still acts like a colony & politicians grovel when the moochocracy visits; Irish Republicans like Gerry Adams & Martin McGuinness make jackasses of themselves by scraping & bowing to Betty Windsor like she actually was a queen. Simple-minded groveling has been replaced by crawling on your belly like a reptile.

So we do wish the KKKKid well but not a whit more than every other child born. And we wish the speediest destruction of feudalism–a medieval monstrosity if there ever was one.

(Photo of the Town Crier outside the hospital by Geoff Pugh)