Netanyahu addressing Congress, July 25, 2024.
Dear Counterpunch Writers and Subscribers:
For a long while now I have wanted to pen a column about the unfolding Israeli Genocide (one of many genocides whose intentions have always been the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their ancestral lands), aided and abetted by Genocide Joe, a compliant Congress, a xenophobic evangelical so-called Christian zealotry of every stripe, and generous AIPAC political contributions whose sole purpose is to bribe and buy power on Israel’s behalf.
Don’t believe me?
Just watch Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and witness the 53 standing ovations showered on a war criminal.
Whether Hitler in 1939, or Netanyahu and other dictators in 2024, the scourge of fascism is alive and well.
And for a very long while I’ve wanted so badly to express my outrage at the Gaza genocide and the world’s apathy, now in its 9th month, but I am in deep sorrow and perpetual grief, a grieving that has sapped me emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. I am more than bruised, and yet I try to put on a normal face for my wife, children, and friends. I’ve mentally outlined and composed dozens of columns but couldn’t rise to the occasion – constantly escaping to my very safe space, a 50’x55′ garden spot in the middle of towering trees, spending hours, often working myself to exhaustion. And like an addict, I find myself glued to news reports and online Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, and CounterPunch reports and columns.
And every time I share a plethora of vegetables (bushels of green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, squash, and bell peppers) with 23 neighbors and friends across town, I think of Gazans, starved by a monstrosity of Genocide Joe and Netanyahu deliberate policies of starvation atop a 24/7 aerial bombardment and destruction on a massive scale.
All this to say the following: Thank you, Jeffrey St. Clair, for your many columns on the genocidal US/Israeli assault on 2.3 million people penned up in a hermetically sealed enclave, picked off systematically and repeatedly by a people who keep reminding the world about their suffering. Yes, yesterday’s victims are today’s fascist killers.
As well, deep gratitude to the many writers who’ve articulated their moral indignation at the ongoing genocide, and especially to the many Jewish contributors – far too many to list by name – for your convictions and your indignation at the sordid slaughter, a 24/7 meat grinder wasting innocents by the thousands. Your outrage and revulsion dovetails with Talmudic teachings and should be held up as an example of Jewish morality pugnaciously forgotten by a morally bankrupt Israel, America, and their European vassals.
And, with few exceptions, to the Muslims and Arabs: Shame on you. Instead of counting your dinars, dollars and shekels, join the 21st century, release your men and especially your women, from the bondage of theocratic and regressive policies. Liberate them politically, socially, and theocratically. Stop using Israeli spy technology to subjugate, imprison, and exterminate the brave souls disgusted with your hypocrisy, and stop wasting your fortunes on destructive arms that keep you in power, impoverish you, and enrich those who burn your Holy Korans, insult, hate and demean you.
