After Netanyahu was reelected yesterday, Modi tweeted: “My dear friend Bibi, Congratulations! You are a great friend of India, & I look forward to continuing to work with you to take our bilateral partnership to new heights. @netanyahu.” Trump also tweeted his congratulations but the less said about that deadbeat, the better. The important thing is that this bodes not well for Palestinians nor for Kashmiris.
Last week, the US, UK, & France (all part of the US-coalition in Syria) proclaimed they are committed to holding the Syrian regime accountable for indiscriminately killing innocent men, women & children with chemical weapons. In comments on Twitter to mark the second anniversaries of Syrian chemical weapon attacks on Khan Sheikhoun & Douma in April 2017, the US State Department repeated its commitment to hold the Assad regime accountable for atrocities against the Syrian people by the use of chemical weapons.
Those proclamations must sound so stirring & heartfelt to the Syrian civilians of Raqqa who the US-coalition (including the UK & France) pummeled with white phosphorous in 2017; to the civilians of Mosul, Iraq who were buried in the rubble of US warplanes in 2016-2017; to the civilians of Afghanistan, subject for over 17 years to carpet bombing but especially after the US dropped the Mother of All Bombs in April 2017; to the people of Yemen who the US has been bombing since before the Arab Spring uprising in 2011; to Palestinians whose genocide is bankrolled by the US Pentagon for the past 70 years; to Somalis & Libyans & others subject to US war crimes.
When the US hands out human rights awards or condemns other regimes for war crimes, how can anyone repeat that like it meant something? There are tens of thousands of refugees penned up in concentration camps or stranded on the US southern border who testify to the utter criminality of the US government making it unable to distinguish human rights from war crimes. The US-coalition operation in Syria is not a “regime change operation” as simpleminded Assadists claim; it is part of the counterrevolution against the Syrian Arab Spring uprising. At no time, have US bombers pursued Syrian forces or attempted to deter them from bombing civilians. Under the guise of fighting ISIS, the US-coalition has killed thousands of Syrian men, women, & children, including with white phosphorous, & is as culpable in Syria as the Assad regime, Russia, Iran, & Hezbollah.
This photo is from Khan Sheikhoun Syrian chemical weapons attack on April 4, 2017.
(Photo by Alaa Alyousef/AP)
Can there possibly be a lesser evil candidate in today’s Israeli elections when they all support apartheid & genocide? Although it didn’t stop many socialists from endorsing Hillary Clinton as the lesser evil when she promised to escalate genocide against Palestinians.
There’s no need for me to set up an exploratory committee to see if I should run for president in the 2020 election. Someone has to stand for the oppressed without compromise or populist big talk. Expedience & lesser evil crap are no part of my nature. Nothing is too much to demand for working people.
In the 2016 campaign, my original running mate forgot principles by running with me while campaigning for Bernie Sanders. She may have hoped to sabotage my campaign but I simply dumped her & continued the campaign because it isn’t about me; it is about uncompromising support for those struggling for justice. Because, despite considerable limitations, this is a serious campaign, I would like a running mate & welcome suggestions, with the right of course to vet for suitability.
Within a matter of days, I will be setting up a social media campaign page.
When Socialist Action, a Lilliputian US cult around Jeff Mackler, first formulated its support for the Assad regime, it acknowledged he was a dictator. But by stringing together out-of-context quotes from Lenin they came up with a banal justification for supporting Assad & betraying the Syrian Arab Spring which Mackler, poisoned by ‘war on terror’ ideology, designated as “Islamist.” When Russia joined Syria in bombing civilians, Mackler & his groupies defended it & when Assad gassed civilians, they denied it. Calling themselves Marxists, they became full members of the “US regime change operation” cult. Now Mackler has written an article calling Ilhan Omar “retrogressive” for calling Assad a dictator. It’s a slippery slope from sectarianism & cultism to sucking up to dictatorship. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s the natural trajectory.
Thousands protest Quebec’s proposed ‘religious neutrality’ law banning public sector workers like teachers from wearing religious attire in the workplace. The law is anything but neutral & directly targets Muslims & Sikhs. Catholic nuns & priests will not be barred from wearing religious habits in parochial schools. Islamophobia begins with these discriminations & ends in massacres & bombing of civilians.
The sarcasm that Kashmiris so constantly employ against occupation & that so many Muslims around the world use in their resistance to Islamophobic laws, confirms in spades that satire is the genre of the oppressed. In the hands of the oppressors, sarcasm is nothing more than ridicule, humiliation, & stinking elitism. But in the hands of those resisting war, persecution, occupation, genocide, it is brilliant, defiant, liberating.
“A Muslim man was not lynched but made to eat pork, be thankful and vote for the sanghi terrorists.”
–Muheeb Sharief on the upcoming general elections in India
Madonna’s public relations firm confirmed that she will perform at the Eurovision song contest in Israel next month. To break the BDS cultural boycott of Israel, she is reportedly getting paid $1.5 million for two songs. Not just ‘the material girl’ but the apartheid girl shilling for genocide.
“Thinking loud : It is true that the whole political class in india endorses occupation of Kashmir, however the saffron variety displays extreme, rabid, hatred against Kashmiri Muslims. Some Kashmiris argue that if BJP comes to power again, it will bring about the disintegration of india and therefore might hasten the freedom of Kashmir. This should not be misconstrued as support for fascism in india, Kashmiris are in no way able to impede or bring BJP to power in India. It is an assertion reflective of a people pushed to the wall with naked cruelty, indignity and extreme oppression. In my opinion coming of BJP to power again will be disastrous for the struggle of Kashmiris, regional peace and also for marginalised people in india. Though the cancer of hatred, ignorance and prejudice prevalent in india, which makes BJP possible, may take a longer time to cure, but for the sake of whole humanity, peace and our already difficult struggle may BJP lose, irreversibly.”
–Mir Laieeq on the upcoming general elections in India