War propaganda to justify ethnic cleansing becomes more irrational with every day. The media caption to this photo said “A fresh wave of violence killed dozens in Gaza.” “A fresh wave of violence” from whom? Killer bees? Those evil fairies again? Or Israeli bombs, mortars, flechette shells, DIME shrapnel? We’re told the UN & US proposed ceasefire “collapsed.” How does a ceasefire collapse? When Israel ignores it (again) & starts bombing market places & refugee centers? An Israeli soldier was killed trying to take out small Palestinian children & this was denounced furiously by Israel & the US as kidnapped by Hamas. Odd that, since the US has never raised a peep of objection when Israel tosses hundreds of Palestinian kids into its gulag & terrorizes, tortures, & threatens them. But “kidnapped” in a war; isn’t that what they call a POW when Hamas isn’t involved?

This despondent looking little Palestinian girl is trying to eat something sitting in the rubble of her home destroyed by Israeli bombs yesterday. The trauma of small children must be unbearable to endure & wrenching for parents to witness because there are no reassurances they all won’t die in the next airstrike. World media will simply report–with a treachery & psychosis pro forma in journalistic coverage of Gaza–that hundreds of Palestinians died when they parked their kids in front of Hamas rocket launchers or at the entrance to those imaginary tunnels–& Israel, regretting the carnage, had to bomb them into smithereens..

The international solidarity movement that refuses to accept racist propaganda to support ethnic cleansing has an immense mission: to continue mobilizing, speaking out, educating, explaining until we’re blue in the face because Palestinians under siege cannot. We have a commitment to justice & cannot give an inch to despondence when Israel & its supporters do not bend immediately to our demands. Keep this little girl in mind; keep justice in mind–& continue to tell the truth & demand an end to the slaughter.

Protests continue worldwide; the boycott of Israeli products must expand (barcode beginning 729, 871, & 500). Stop the massacre in Gaza!

(Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)

It has to be said bluntly, without hedging, that Zionism has a deeply psychotic tendency–not something peripheral to Zionism but part of it’s very nature. This murderous assault on Gaza shows hasbara falling apart at the seams, unable to render a coherent explanation of why they are bombing children & refugee centers. But worse, it exposes Zionist ideology as cultural dry rot debasing & corrupting the very soul of its adherents.

We see it not only in people like Netan-psycho-yahu, Regev, Dermer, & other Israeli leaders but in Israelis who sit in lawn chairs & cheer on ethnic cleansing; in the claim that Palestinians use their children as human shields; in the IDF soldier who boasted on Instagram of killing thirteen Palestinian children like he was shooting squirrels; in the roving goon squads in Israel going after peace protesters & Palestinians. We see it in media like The Jerusalem Post or the Washington Post, urging the complete destruction of Gaza, or The Times of Israel, explaining why genocide is appropriate for Gaza. Such hatred sucks the breath right out of you. Such hatred is the dry rot of Zionism heralding it’s demise.

Hasbara can’t explain the hundreds of photos of Palestinian children mangled, dismembered, laden with shrapnel, traumatized that have circulated hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter & social media. That’s when they bring out their most troubled, conscienceless apologists like Phillippe Assouline, a UCLA doctoral student who bills himself a lawyer, free lance journalist, & peace activist. (And I’m a monkey’s uncle.) ASSouline has been writing hasbara for a while now, including for The Times of Israel, a right-wing tabloid that tries to make up in sensationalism & venom what it lacks in journalism. In his insipid style (his hatred doesn’t compensate for lack of talent), he opposes BDS, defended the November 2012 Israeli bombing siege of Gaza, & now this stage of Operation Ethnic Cleansing, which is looking more & more like the “final solution.” But genocide of Palestinians does not make our man squeamish one iota.

ASSouline’s a smarmy fellow; bold-faced lying is his stock in trade & there is no indignity in that realm he won’t stoop to. In an August 1st article in The World Post entitled, “Pornography of Pain: Why the Heartbreaking Images Out of Gaza Are Hurting the Palestinians,” he swears he’s seen Hamas launch rockets from their schools & homes & use children as human shields. (And I’ve seen images of the Virgin Mary in a grapefruit tree out back.) So hasbara has tasked him with explaining all those mutilated children & we should not doubt for a moment, remunerate him handsomely for services rendered.

Well listen to our man speak about those photos of children–the same photos that most human beings in the world view aghast in horror: “Preying on human emotions as a proxy for journalism, even where sprinkled with facts, may be good for ratings–like fear and sex–but it has turned too much of the coverage out of Gaza into little more than snuff with a halo.” Don’t miss the image he creates of deceased & beloved Palestinian children: “snuff with a halo.” That’s his version of Netan-psycho’s “telegenically dead” Palestinian children. Take a moment to catch your breath. He goes on to say “This macabre sensationalism also distorts our perception.” Oh that it does all right! It strips that Exodus narrative right down to it’s bony ass to expose hate & racism as all that’s left to justify a Jewish-only state.

Hasbara might want to take ASSouline out of service. To equate the gruesome deaths of children with sexual snuff films is something only a pervert & a Zionist could conjure. This photo is Palestinians outside a hospital in Khan Younis, a center of much Israeli bombing, holding their noses against the smell of death as bodies recovered from cement rubble are delivered to the morgue. Sergey Ponomarev, the freelance photojournalist covering Gaza for the NY Times said: “That’s the way this city lives now–one funeral to another, hiding from bombs & collecting the dead.”

All out in solidarity with Gaza! Long live intifada! Take it international by rallying & boycotting all Israeli products (barcodes beginning 729 & 500).

(Photo by Sergey Ponomarev/NY Times)

This is a photo of Palestinians running from Israeli soldiers following a protest against the slaughter in Gaza outside the Ofer prison, an Israeli military prison & the site of frequent Palestinian protests. Ofer prison is near Ramallah in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers don’t just excessively use tear gas against Palestinians protesters; they use stink bombs, stun grenades, & live ammunition & in fact have already killed young activists in the West Bank protesting the slaughter in Gaza.

What’s interesting about this photo is it typifies photojournalism from the West Bank & makes it appear Palestinian intifada is a handful of young holligans with rocks. A far more compelling sight would be the reportedly 50,000 protesters near Ramallah a few days ago or the 30,000 Palestinians who marched yesterday in the West Bank city of Hebron. Both marches were confronted by Israeli jackboots using live ammunition. There have been some deaths & dozens of injuries inflicted. You have to hunt high & low to find photos of those massive protests which apparently didn’t pique the interest of editors but are mighty interesting to the rest of us because of the remarkable Palestinian defiance of the Israeli jackboot occupation in the West Bank.

Palestinians have been vilified in the most insidious & repugnant way as terrorists by Israeli propaganda because they defy the nonsense of the Exodus narrative claiming God promised Palestine to Jews so Palestinians have to pack up & get out or be violently dispossessed. There are even Zionists who claim they moved from Iowa or New Jersey or wherever the hell because they feel a mystical affinity with Palestine. Mystical affinity, my ass! Most of us feel mystical affinities getting deals at a flea market so mysticism must really go into high gear when you get land & all sorts of perks for free just by claiming you’re Jewish & moving to Israel. Jews in the Americas or Europe have no more affinity to Palestine than those of Celtic descent have to the Rhineland.

Stand with Palestinian justice this weekend by getting to the nearest rally demanding “Stop the genocide in Gaza!” Honor the economic boycott of Israeli products (barcode beginning 729).

(Photo by Majdi Mohammed/AP)

It seems such an invasion of privacy to intrude on this man’s grief at losing a son from an Israeli rocket in Gaza City. He just carried another son for emergency care from the same rocket strike. There are hundreds of photos of Palestinians sobbing at the gruesome deaths of their beloved children. Well of course. That should go without saying. And still the rancid media pours out claims Palestinians use their children as human shields, that Hamas places rocket launchers near children. That’s how Israel explains why they bombed the school refugee center & the playground & the hospital children’s ward & why they systematically target children in this genocidal rampage. And the media, representing the economic & political institutions with a stake in Israeli dominance, repeat this stinking mendacity as the gospel truth.

Let’s be frank: this isn’t something that should have to be rebutted. There’s a level of racism involved here that is not just colonial & contemptible but the ideological avatar of that era when European colonizers considered colonized peoples animal life & not human. Only racist Zionism could make such odious imputations against the Palestinian people when the entire body of photograpahic documentation exposes Israeli ethnic cleansing, not Palestinian cultural barbarism.

We are so sorry to intrude on this man’s grief. May his son RIP & may his injured son heal from the physical & psychic harm.

Express condolences & respect by continuing to protest demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza,” boycott all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729) & support the cultural boycott of Israel.

(Photo by Carolyn Cole/LA Times)

The headlines read “US fuming over Israeli criticism of Kerry.” Is Obama outraged at Israeli ethnic cleansing in Gaza? At Israel using illegal anti-personnel weapons like DIME shrapnel & flechette shells, including on small children? At bombing refugee centers & playgrounds full of kids? No! Obama’s outraged because Israeli media commentators are criticizing Kerry for his diplomatic maneuverings on behalf of the US. After all, the US is bankrolling this war & those commentators have a a lot of gall to bite the hand that feeds them.

That Kerry is a screw-up comes as no surprise; the guy’s so privileged he probably never had to wipe his own ass & likely doesn’t know shite from shinola. The US government has a lot invested in Israel, billions banking on Zionism’s colonial project, & they have no intention of letting Netan-psycho-yahu’s genocidal hatred of Palestinians & military excesses undo 66 years of systematic propagandizing to protect US economic & political interests in the Middle East.

The Exodus narrative, complete with Andy Williams crooning the soundtrack, is in a shambles. Only the most psychopathic Zionists & their supporters can look with equanimity & not horror on the bombing of children. When people around the world watch the horrors of Israeli ethnic cleansing & see reports of the hundreds of thousands out protesting, they will understand something in the Exodus narrative stinks to high heavens.

This is Kerry putting on his mad face (not easy for a guy shot up with Botox) but what concerns him is that Israeli reporters claim he’s too accommodating with Hamas. He’s gonna move that evil eye in our direction when he hears the thunderous chorus of Palestinian supporters around the world denounce him & the whole of the Israeli & US governments as war criminals.

Long live Palestinian intifada! Take it international with protesting, boycotting, and continuing to stand with Gaza.

(Photo of Kerry from the appropriately named Yahoo)

After three weeks of bombardment by Hamas rockets–for which there is still not a shred of evidence–traumatized Israelis head out to malls, restaurants, beaches to assess the damage. Those sitting on the hills of Sderot to get a front row seat to ethnic cleansing took time to change their clothes & thank the gods of Zionism for being on their side.

Meanwhile, Palestinians combed through tonnage of cement rubble to recover the bodies of beloved buried when Israel took out the whole neighborhood with bombs. They had only twelve hours before Israel started bombing again, goaded on by the psychos of Zion urging Netan-psycho-yahu to take all of Gaza out.

The vile piece of journalistic crap called The Jerusalem Post had a headline: “Into the fray: Why Gaza must go” where they chided leaders of Israel for “moralistic masochism” & temerity in the conduct of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. But world leaders express fear that this time Israel has gone too far. It isn’t slaughter that gives them pause (any more than it does in Afghanistan or Iraq) but the hundreds of thousands of people around the world from small towns to major cities who now know the truth & who continue to protest demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!”

Zionism is signing it’s own death warrant. The voices of Palestinian resistance are finally being heard: Free free Palestine! From the river to the sea Palestine will be free!

Long live intifada! Take it international by continuing to protest, boycotting all Israeli & settlement products, & supporting the cultural boycott of Israel.

(Photo of Tel Aviv beach on July 27th by Nir Kafri)