Pelshval

Antropologiske betraktninger om pelshvaldrift

Category: Crimes against humanity (Page 1 of 5)

Master

07.08.2024 /

On August 5 Glenn Greenwald asked: Who is governing this country (“this country” being, of course, the one that rules us all in the so-called West)? Obviously, it isn’t Biden or for that matter Harris. Has it ever been Biden? Or Obama, come to think of it? Or Clinton? Not to mention “nukiller” Bush junior?

Not that I really care, being spared the pain of having to live in a country where I would never be able to afford decent health care, or education for my kids, etc., etc. etc. But the question certainly merits some attention since – well, obviously, when your kids are in a carriage pulled by a runaway horse, you want to know whom to shoot when the equipage hurtles off the cliff.

US presidents – it has long been obvious – are not free agents. Not that I propose to defend their actions: They should have known better than to stand for such an ignominious office. They were possibly ignorant or even stupid, when they did so – though I doubt that Clinton and Obama were stupid or even ignorant – or they may have been psychopaths. (By definition, a psychopath is somebody whose lust for power over someone or something drives him or her to break rules, even to kill.) Kill they certainly did, if not with their own hands – God forbid; they had menials to do their dirty work.

But I am not really interested in dissecting the moral decrepitude of dangerous men and women. I would, however, honestly like to know who, in the final count, rules over the USA and its host of servile little fiefdoms in Europe. I can think of a few candidates, mainly the trillionaires who finance the unconscionably expensive presidential campaigns. They will want their money’s worth, I expect, when the race is won. I suspect they place their bets in both camps, by the way, so as to have leverage on the winner, whoever he or she might be.

So who are they? Obviously the military-industrial complex is a front runner. Christian fundamentalists are also a passionate, ruthless and frequently well-heeled lot, and they often coincide with the Zionists.

Oops! There I dropped the dirty word. “Zionists”. At the moment, yes, it would appear that Zionists are running the circus, the race to the cliff. I have been given to understand that Christian Zionists actually welcome a final solution for mankind because then they will all go to heaven. Good luck with that.

I doubt that Israelis share their pious end-of-world wishes. I gather that most Israelis are as brainwashed and deluded as most US Americans and US Europeans, including US Norwegians. Yet, I suspect they don’t want a world war, don’t want war, period, any more than the rest of us. But they don’t count. They, like us, were not asked. Democracy, my foot!

How was Israel able to indoctrinate healthy boys and girls into treating Palestinian boys and girls as vermin to be exterminated? Did they learn from Nazi Germany?

Alas, I fear they have learnt not from Germany but from the USA: The entire population of that great country was bamboozled into supporting the killing and torturing of millions and millions – in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Central America, South America, Indonesia, Haiti, Somalia…Those were all feats of brilliant indoctrination! Now watch while Master grooms his subjects to cheer the destruction of – no, not China, yet – Iran! Yes, that was not really the plan, but they are in the way.

And Master’s great Orwellian doublethink machine rumbles on, patiently repeating, again and again, and again, even as we sleep: war is peace, ignorance is strength, rule of law is Master, war is peace, ignorance is strength, rule of law is Master…

Yesterday, a Russian woman told me angrily: “You all speak so warmly of Democracy – and I agree, Democracy is beautiful – but what you have is not Democracy! It’s humbug.”

Master has committed his crimes with impunity ever since his first genocide, of the Indians, by indoctrination! As we speak, “rule of law” is allowing Israel to assassinate people here, there and everywhere. Whoever governs the USA knows full well that support for Israel now is suicidal: BRICS is growing stronger by the day as countries hastily jump out of the run-away carriage. But Master cannot stop. Master is law, Master must rule.

Master is currently Zionist (and no longer merely male). He/she is driving our children, at breakneck speed, towards the precipice. One of his/her murder victims was Ismail Haniyeh. May Ismail Haniyeh’s spectre haunt Master till the end of time.

Zionism is very ugly. It is, when all is said and done, the most insidious form of abject racism!

I recently stumbled across a couple of quotes from one of the fathers of Israel, a passionate Zionist, Ben Gurion. Ben Gurion was probably a nasty piece of work, but at least he, unlike US presidents, seems to have understood, what a nasty piece of work he was. I have copied the following quotes from this site.

If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?

Source: David Ben-Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.

Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country. … Behind the terrorism [by the Arabs] is a movement, which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and self sacrifice.

Source: David Ben Gurion. Quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan’s “Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.

We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai.

Source: David Ben-Gurion May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, a Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population? ‘Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘ Drive them out! ‘

Source: Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.

The brave 12

07.07.2024 /

In the USA, 12 brave men and women have resigned their posts as United States government officials in protest over the part the USA is playing in the war against Palestine in general and the population of Gaza in particular. On 2 July, they issued and signed a JOINT STATEMENT explaining why they did so. To publish such a statement in defiance of a president who, to quote him, “is running the world” is a beautiful and — I repeat — brave act. The document is well worth reading. I particularly recommend what follows under the sub-headings “How did it go wrong?” and “What is to be done?”

In Europe there is hardly any mention of the Joint Statement signed by the 12.

Admittedly BBC, does refer to it quite briefly, but is more than tight-lipped: “Ex-officials say Gaza policy has put US at risk” (my emphasis). However, nearly half the brief article informs us of what (the politely hypocritical) “state department spokesperson” told the BBC (my emphasis) about the blessings of US freedom of expression.

On the other side of the planet, not only does Reuters (acquired by Thomson Corporation in Canada in 2008) devote at least three articles to the matter. They have listed the 12 “US officials who have quit over Biden’s support of Israel”, and more recently they have added a link to the Joint Statement itself and a subheading: “WHY IT IS IMPORTANT”.

Huffpost, too, has a long article about the joint statement and quotes much of it.

Even CNN has at least twice provided sympathetic coverage of what the 12 have done. Is the tide seriously turning in the USA?

Palestine

19.06.2024 /

Quoting Aljazeera 19 June: “Israel is ready for an “all-out war” in Lebanon and has plans approved for an offensive targeting Hezbollah, officials have said.”

How about “talking” to Hezbolla? How about “talking” to Hamas? How about actually listening? While Israel and the USA kill and maim and starve people right, left and centre in the name of “Democracy”, more and more people are getting very, very angry,

Some people are even saying “if this is Democracy, stuff Democracy.”

A fitting name

30.04.2024 /

Genocide Joe. I like the sound of it. Craig Murrey firmly believes that the USA and vassal states in Europe actually want to hasten the extermination of Palestinians in Palestine. His argument is sound, I think:

Discontinuing aid to UNRWA would require the following in each country:

Views would have to be coordinated through written submissions and interdepartmental meetings between the departments dealing with the Middle East, with the United Nations, with the United States, with Europe and then of course between the diplomatic and development wings of the ministry. That process would include seeking the views of [the country’s] ambassadors to Tel Aviv, Doha, Cairo, Riyadh, Istanbul and Washington and to the United Nations in Geneva and in New York.

[Yet, several countries] announced all on the same day the destruction of the life support system for Palestinians, then in absolute need.

Craig Murrey, Consortium News April 26 2024

Why on earth would they all simultaneously cut off aid to an organisation that is vital for human survival in that Hell on earth if not to achieve a “final solution” on the Palestine issue.

There’s a lot of money involved, of course, from the Israel Lobby. Everybody knows that, but I doubt that anybody knows just how much, since every attempt will surely be made to conceal the extent of such donations. Here is a site that claims it knows. However I have no doubt that The Intercept has pretty solid documentation about a relatively trifling amount, which nevertheless proved to be significant.

Yes, Genocide Joe! And that is the country that promises to “defend” Finno-Scandinavia with 47 military bases? Defence, my foot!

I’ll be back soon. Yes, by Joe, I’ll be back!

PS: On May 4, I see in Reuters that Sanaa University has issued a statement applauding the “humanitarian” position of the students in the United States and said they could continue their studies in Yemen. “The board of the university condemns what academics and students of U.S. and European universities are being subjected to, suppression of freedom of expression,” the board of the university said in a statement, which included an email address for any students wanting to take up their offer.

Complicity

28.01.2024 /

I have fantasies of Netanyahu and his co-thugs finding themselves in a modern version of Dante’s purgatory – Gaza, to be precise – alive, it is true, but injured: broken bones, burns, cuts and bruises, but no doctors, no pain killers, no food, no water, no clean clothes, no toilets, …

Netanyahu and his cut-throats have just bamboozled 11 nations into discontinuing support to UNRWA. There can be absolutely no earthly reason for doing so, other than to make an even more concerted effort to prevent Gazans from surviving the hell they are in. There are tens of thousands of people working for UNRWA. Using the crimes that may possibly have been committed by a few individuals as a pretext to hasten the demise of the Gazans seems sleazy, to say the least.

According to Al Jazeera:

The UN agency has long been under attack from Israel. …

Gunness, the former UNRWA spokesman, said there is a “coordinated political attack” on the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees. “The Israelis have said they cannot win the war on Gaza unless UNRWA is disbanded. So what clearer signal do you want?” he told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

The countries who have availed themselves of the sleazy pretext are: Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland, as well as, of course, the USA

Responsible Statecraft the outlet of the Quincy institute writes about the ICJ ruling:

This ruling may also boost those arguing that all states that are party to the Genocide Convention have a positive obligation to prevent genocide. The Houthis, for instance, have justified their attacks against ships heading to Israeli ports in the Red Sea, citing this positive obligation. What legal implications will the court’s ruling have as a result on the U.S. and UK’s military action against the Houthis?

The implications for Europe will also be considerable. The U.S. is rather accustomed to and comfortable with setting aside international law and ignoring international institutions. Europe is not.

International law and institutions play a much more central role in European security thinking. The decision will continue to split Europe. But the fact that some key EU states will reject the ICJ’s ruling will profoundly contradict and undermine Europe’s broader security paradigm.

Meanwhile back in the mainstream media today:

Reuters:
Nothing about Gaza. But “Three US service members killed, 34 wounded in Jordan drone attack linked to Iran”.

AFP:
“Israeli protesters blocked humanitarian aid trucks from entering the war-torn Gaza Strip on Sunday, forcing the lorries to turn around at a crossing with the Palestinian territory.”

UPI:
“Crews safe, fire extinguished on British oil tanker after Houthi rebel attack”
“Thousands mark Holocaust Remembrance Day amid marches in Germany, Italy”
“Israelis lay siege to Khan Younis“

That last one looks promising. But no, not a word about civilians.

AP, however, is picking up now. They are highlighting the importance of UNRWA’s humanitarian work. However AP still has a long way to go as it despairs over disruption to trade due to the Houthi attacks. They just don’t get the picture, do they.

However, one group shines a small but very bright light, from the USA, no less:

Jewish Voice for Peace – Rabbinical Council

The letter from American rabbis to President Biden, which urgently demands “a ceasefire now”, starts with the following words:
“Dear President Biden,
As American rabbis, we write to you with deep sorrow and fury.” [my highlight]

It’s an important letter, and a brave one. I take the liberty of quoting parts of it:

We support and uplift South Africa’s recent application to the International Court of Justice claiming Israel is in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. And now, Palestinian human rights organizations, together with Palestinians in the US and Gaza, are bringing a case against your administration for failure to prevent, and complicity in, the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide against them, their families, and the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza. We stand in support of their action as well.

…

On this day of remembrance in 2021, you noted that, “The Holocaust was no accident of history.” As you stated, “It occurred because too many governments cold-bloodedly adopted and implemented hate-fueled laws, policies, and practices to vilify and dehumanize entire groups of people, and too many individuals stood by silently. Silence is complicity.”

President Biden, what is happening right now in Gaza is no accident of history — and your complicity has been anything but silent. We call upon you to be true to your word and end U.S. complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.

On this day

24.12.2023 /

It’s Christmas Eve. “Palestinian Christians refuse to celebrate Christmas.” “Churches in Bethlehem have cancelled activities.” Several churches and hospitals have been bombed.

Faithful to my promise to not look away, I go to the news to see what is happening in Gaza: UPI, AP and Reuters tell us virtually nothing. And yet, there is a genocide going on!

But most people living in the USA and Europe simply don’t know it.

Unless you watch Al Jazeera, you might not even know it. You might think I’m exaggerating. After all, Biden doesn’t recognise it, and most governments loyal to the US don’t recognise it either. Shame on them!

But go to Al Jazeera (television). What we are seeing there, what we are hearing stymies all logical thinking. In addition to the “more than 20 thousand” killed, “at least 50 thousand” have been maimed for life and there are almost no medical supplies, the health workers who haven’t yet been killed are working under impossible conditions. The hospitals have been bombed … and just look at the place! Rubble. All rubble. At least 101 journalists have been killed.

Such evil takes your breath away.

Two million people are starving and without sufficient water. What water there is, is unsafe and lots of people are vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea.

And of course the West Bank (not Gaza) saw at least 208 people killed this year by settlers or soldiers before October 7. Since then… do we even have any numbers. Nobody is watching the West Bank now because of Gaza. Many of the victims on the West Bank were Christians, by the way.

And the USA is letting it happen. I ask myself: How much of the US support and military aid to Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing is due to lobbying and political pressure from Christian Zionists (i.e. evangelicals)?

What will the world be like after this abhorrent deed? Will more nations start killing off minorities now that the USA with its “rule of law” condones such actions?

Post scriptum

21.12.2023 /

I have wondered how Hamas could even consider carrying out the October 7 attack, knowing as they did, as did I, how viciously Israel would retaliate. I thought: The Gazans will cease to support Hamas, will hate Hamas for having subjected them to Israeli viciousness.

How very wrong I was! According to Al Jazeera, support for Hamas has never been greater in Gaza.

I put to you: Better than even Al Jazeera documentaries, better than any book that has ever analysed the Palestine issue, Gazans’ support for Hamas reveal how unbearable the Israeli concentration camp was.

What we are seeing, the ongoing genocide, strenuously supported by the USA, tells us just how violent Israeli racism has been.

Gaza

20.12.2023 /

Much has been said and written about the ongoing genocide. Many of us have described our sense of impotent rage and despair.

Caitline Johnstone has done so particularly poignantly, I think, in an article titled I will not look away. Rather than waste your time on more of my rants, I urge you to read her article.

And if you, like her, feel honour-bound to not “look away”, to subject yourself to a tiny glimpse into the horror, I recommend a piece from Al Jazeera’s Listening Post, What we are seeing from Gaza. Al Jazeera has invested more in Palestine, lives even, than any other mainstream media outlet.

Defending Democracy, by Thrandur Thorarinsson

No!

12.12.2023 /

No, Mr Biden and his lot do not believe that “all men [and women] are created equal”. I have no doubt he says he does, but nobody should ever take the word of a man (or woman) in his position. Mr Biden may, however, believe that all men [and women] are created equal, but that some are more equal than others, while others are definitely less so.

Of course we always knew that the USA had a race issue, but the Democratic Party has lately been loudly shouting that “Black Lives Matter”, and we actually thought they meant it, but now Palestinians are being killed in the USA, and supporters of Palestinians are being hassled, expelled, fired and generally persecuted by some – I insist – some fellow US Americans and – again I insist – and Congress, which has declared anti-Zionism antisemitic. (Mr Biden isn’t alone: His Republican counterparts agree fully: “some are more equal than others, while others are definitely less so.”)

No, Mr Biden and his lot, including his Republican counterparts, no longer value one of the most important pillars of the Democracy they keep bragging about: freedom of expression. Mainstream US media – a grovelling troupe of cowardly verbal mercenaries – has effectively been gagged. Again and again, it merely regurgitates State Department talking points.

No, Mr Biden and his lot do not believe in “rule of law”. They are actively supporting the extermination of as many Gazans as possible. Actively. With bombs! With yet another Security Council veto! With warships all over the place. With military aircraft all over the place. In case you had forgotten, exterminating populations is – apart from each and every killing’s being a mortal sin according to most religions – the very most heinous crime in the book of most criminal codes.

Why, you ask? Why get rid of the Gazans? What’s in it for him, you ask? Why indeed. Well you see, Mr Biden is just a puppet of the monstrous machinery that is US hegemony, which now desperately needs to nurture the loyalty of Israel. All the other countries of the Middle East are turning away from the USA, not because of Gaza, by the way, though Gaza certainly does not improve USA’s standing. Israel is the last outcrop of US-support in that part of the world. To put it differently: The USA is slipping, losing its grip. Even Israel is on good terms with Russia (as was demonstrated by Naftali Bennett’s role in the peace agreement reached between Zelensky and Putin in March 2022 – an agreement that NATO, represented by Boris Johnson, put a stop to). So Mr Biden must outbid the Russians. Biden must go all the way for Israel’s “self-defence”.

No, Israel is not engaged in self-defence. Israel really does need to get rid of as many Gazans as possible, not least children – who will grow up hating Israel – and not least women – who hate Israel and will bear more children who will hate Israel. All Gazans are traumatised, many must be nearly insane with grief and pain. Gazans are truly dangerous for Israel.

No, Hamas is not the problem. Israel is the problem! Israel that has sabotaged a two-state solution all the way and is still adamantly opposed to a two-state solution (though you will never hear or see the grovelling troupe of cowardly verbal mercenaries – US mainstream media – list the details of that sabotage), Israel that for decades has beaten, tortured, imprisoned and randomly killed Palestinians all over the West Bank, Israel that has imprisoned all of Gaza. Why, you ask? Why make life on the West Bank and Gaza a nightmare for Palestinians? Why of course: to make Palestinians flee. Israel is determined to take over the West Bank and Gaza, though that grovelling troupe of cowardly verbal mercenaries will never admit it.

No, Gaza is just the epicentre of decades of unfathomable Israeli violence against a people that Bin Laden insisted were more Semitic than the Israelis themselves. (So according to him, the real antisemites are the Israelis.) But the grovelling troupe of you-know-what that makes up the US mainstream media has unfortunately failed to inform the public:
The public in the USA and its satellites has deliberately been prevented from making informed decisions about what to demand from their elected representatives.

***

So what will happen? Here is my favourite scenario:
Even with US help, Israel won’t succeed in killing all Gazans. Even disease and starvation won’t finish off the Gazans. The maimed, nearly insane with grief and pain and hate survivors will have to be air-lifted out of Palestine, while their dwellings are being rebuilt. The international community will demand that the perpetrators of the genocide pay a price: Israelis must rebuild Gaza for the Gazans. The spirit of the Kibbutzes will resurface as Israeli men and women also plant orchards and vines between the new buildings, and make sure that each and every one of the dead they find in the rubble has a grave which they will water with their tears, muttering “I’m so so sorry … so terribly sorry …”

In Israeli schools, each child will be encouraged to adopt a dead Gazan sister or brother. Parents will try to reach out to surviving family members. Maybe photos can be sent, memories of the dead shared. Who knows? Many Israelis earnestly long for peace. I think that lasting peace without understanding, without humility and sympathy is not possible.

Meanwhile, the airlifted, maimed, nearly insane with grief and pain and hate survivors will be cared for in the very best US hospitals and clinics. All the US citizens who had the courage to oppose the genocide will welcome them joyously, bring them flowers, ask for their autographs and tell their children, “they survived hell on earth. They are heroes!”

***

Alas, I am not a Christian and I’m not an optimist. I want justice to be done. I want the evildoers to be punished. Period.

Alas, in real life, justice is seldom done.

The Israeli settlers will, however, have to leave the West Bank. All of them! Those of them who have also committed crimes against Palestinians will have to be tried and sentenced as harshly as they would have been had they been Palestinians committing the same crimes against Jews. Of course.
Reasonable by any standard.

The ongoing US-abetted, US-aided crimes are so heinous that even science fiction baulks at describing them. And all we can do, we who live in “Democratic” countries is promise to spit on the future graves of the perpetrators.

The US, Israel and Hamas all have God on their side. Now as far as Hamas is concerned, God is all they have, so I earnestly hope he does not forsake them.

As for the Israeli God and the blond US God, they will probably collaborate in making a total hash of what remains of this planet.

Frost

28.11.2023 /

Most of the year I’ll be complaining about the weather. It’s never right, as it were. Too mild in winter, too wet or too dry in summer. “Climate change,” I’ll sigh, pointedly nodding towards the window.

So now, I should rejoice and tell anybody who is willing to listen to me, that here where I live, the weather is for once just right, just the way it should be in late November: The temperature drops and drops, precipitation stops, the winds stall, fogs slither in and out, to and from goodness knows where, and all of nature seems to be holding its breath pending the arrival of loads of snow. Said arrival will without doubt be briefly prefaced by a marked rise of the mercury in the thermometer. Let us enjoy these days of climatic normality for all they are worth. We may or may not know such normality ever again.

In Gaza, the temperature is now 15 degrees. At 7 AM tomorrow the temperature will be 11 degrees. I’ve never been to Gaza, so I cannot tell you whether or not the cool 11 degrees are normal for this time of year. But I’m sure of one thing: Climate change will not enter into the equations to be solved by the displaced survivors of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, wherever they catch a couple of hours’ sleep now and then.

Here in Europe we have suffered due to the sanctions war against Russia (which deprived continental Europe of NLG) from lack of energy to heat our dwellings in winter. In Norway, we had always had more than enough hydro-electric power until our energy was commodified and put on the stock market (and sold to poor continental Europe) at which point we could no longer afford to buy our own electricity. We had to adapt to a drop of indoor temperatures from 23º C. I have managed to adapt to 20.5 º by wearing thermal underwear and woollen sweaters. I can cope with 18º by being in constant activity, cleaning house, etc. But at 16º… Let me tell you that at 16 degrees, I wish I were dead.

Of course, some of us can adapt. Some of us are made of tougher stuff. But 11 degrees without a roof over your head! When I am frozen stiff, I take a hot bath. I can still afford to take a hot bath a couple of times a week. But for the barely surviving people of Gaza, I assume there is no such thing as a bath, let alone a hot bath or a big warm towel and clean underwear.

I dare not even think of what it must be like to have to pee for a woman in Gaza, not to mention to menstruate! Good God what humiliations they must endure! And bowel movements for men and women; where do they go? There must be an unbelievable stench everywhere.

And the dead! Oh Lord, the dead! Not only the thousands and thousands who are known; also those who are simply “missing”, decomposing under the ruins of the bombed buildings.

I have never been to Gaza, never been to the West Bank, far less to Israel. Having written what I have written I will probably never be allowed anywhere near occupied Palestine. (Not that I shall ever humiliate myself or the Palestinians by asking for Israeli permission!)

But I must ask Israelis: You maintain that we, those of us who criticise you, do not understand your “plight”. But have you even tried to imagine what life has been like for the population you maintain is trying to eradicate you?

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