The People that Weren't

Newt Gingrich recently stated that the Palestinians are an “invented people.” In this, he was echoing the past Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who once stated that there are no such people as the Palestinians.

Indeed, the denial of the existence of the Palestinians has been a major facet of Zionist policy and strategy. By denying the existence of the Palestinians, the Zionists seek to 1. Release themselves from accountability for the crimes which they have committed against the Palestinians and 2. Prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, whose land the Zionists always wanted to steal in order to form their Zionist state. The Zionist theft of Palestine is, in fact, the biggest mass-theft of land in the last 100 years.

This theft and arbitrary confiscation of Palestinian land has NO LEGAL BASIS whatsoever. But when backed into a corner, the Zionists and their useful Christian Right idiots will always point to the definite authority that says otherwise: The bible. That’s all they have, and all they think that they will ever need; a promise made by a tribal Hebrew god, invented by Hebrew tribes, to the Hebrew tribes. Talk about a conflict of interest. It’s like me writing a self-signed contract giving myself ownership of my neighbor’s land, and when my neighbor asks what right I have to their land, I present my self-signed contract. It’s the same with the Jews and their “promised land.” But at least in my case, there is a contract. In the case of the Hebrews, it’s pretty much a verbal contract, with no signatures. This biblical claim has no legal or any kind of realistic value. Any sect can make claims on the basis that it was promised to them by some god. It's not hard to do. And unless a certified and genuine copy of a contract, signed by god and a representative of the Hebrew Jewish tribes is found, then the Jews have no case.

Never mind that the entire region known as Palestine is named after the Philistines, the people whose land the Hebrews were promised (supposedly), and who were already living there when the Hebrews arrived. So the whole thing about the Palestinians being an “invented people” and a “non-existent people,” is a neo-colonial myth, perpetuated in order to legitimize a blatantly violent and illegal theft of land.

But there ARE an invented people residing in Palestine. These people call themselves "chosen," and claim their lineage from the biblical Hebrews, which in fact they are not. These people are the so-called “Jews” of the state called Israel. Below is a short story of their true beginnings.

From 652-1016AD, There existed a medieval kingdom named Khazaria. It was inhabited by a Turkic nomadic people who migrated from Asia and settled in the area of Southern Russia, in the area which today comprises the nations of the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Georgia. 

These people were warlike plunderers and controlled other tribes which lived around them. In return for protection, and a guarantee that they not be attacked, these tribes paid a tribute to the Khazars, or what can be called protection money. But as time went on, the Khazars found themselves caught literally in the middle between two civilizations, Christianity to the North and Islam to the South. Weighing their options, the Khazar leadership decided to adopt an official religion. They received missions from the representatives of both Christian and Islamic sects, but decided that both were a liability. If the Khazars convert to Christianity, the Muslims will try to invade them. If they convert to Islam, the Christians will try to invade them. So, in a move of historic proportions, the Khazars decided to adopt Judaism as their official religion. This way neither the Christians nor Muslims could harass them, as they were seen as neutral. Not every Khazar was a Jew though. Christian and Muslim Khazar converts lived in the Khazar realm. But because the royal family adopted Judaism, the majority of their subjects followed suit.

It is from the Khazars that the vast majority of modern Jews are descended from. It is from the Khazars that they get a lot of their customs, religious beliefs and behaviors, not the biblical Hebrews as is believed.  It is from the old Khazar language, with some Hebrew and Slavic mixed in over time, which gave birth to the Yiddish language. It is also why there are so many Jews in Eastern Europe. The Pale of Settlement, which was the region of the Russian Empire within which Jews were permitted to live and not leave, came into existence. It was formed after the Khazar kingdom fell apart and many of its Jewish converts migrated west and started dispersing throughout Russia.

From there, the converted Jews spread into the Ukraine, Poland and other Eastern European countries. In fact, some of these Jewish Khazar communities still exist today.

In 1948, these converted Khazar Asiatic Jews colonized and stole from the Palestinians their land and created an artificial nation, maintained by the myth that this is the Jews ancestral home. This claim is false. The modern Jews ancestral home is the Russian steppes, the Caucasus region, and Eastern Europe.

But tell a Jew today about this and they will deny it, and they will label anyone who dares to suggest that they are not the descendants of Hebrews as an anti-Semite, a Jew hater and a bigot. They will call you another Adolf Hitler.

But the Khazar origin of the modern Jews is a fact. Of course the Jews today will deny it, for obvious reasons. If this was known to the world, the Zionists claim to Palestine will be null and void and will be seen as fraudulent, and therefore the state of Israel will have no legitimacy. The Zionists will not allow this to happen. They will seek to demonize and destroy all those who dare to raise this inconvenient historical fact.

As a matter of fact, there are no real ethnic Hebrews left in Palestine, let alone the world. Whatever Hebrews there were in Palestine intermarried, converted to other faiths and became virtually indistinguishable from other people living in Palestine over the centuries. The original Jews, who have lived in Palestine for ages, are different from the fake European Jews of Khazar ancestry. Their customs are not the same and they do not follow the same teachings. I bet that most people in the world never met a real Jew, only Khazar European converts. Just being a Jew, which is a religious label anyways, does NOT magically bestow a Hebrew lineage on anyone. The modern Jews who came from Europe are not descended from Hebrews. They are Jews by religion only and have no racial connection to the ancient Hebrews.

So, Mr. Gingrich, it is the modern Jews that are an invented people and who racially and historically do not belong in Palestine and have no claim to it. The Palestinians have been there in one form or another since time immemorial. They are real and they are there to stay.

EUseless!

So the Great Big European dream is over.

Massive trade imbalances and borrowing have finally brought the EU racket to a close. How did things get this bad and ruin a dozen countries in the process? Same that ruined the US economy: GREED.

The EU was a misconceived idea from the start. It was based on a false premise that when the economies of Europe unite, it will lead not only to economic unity but prosperity for all as well. But it was a futile experiment dreamed up by bankers for more profits.

From the beginning the EU idea ignored certain realities that led to the collapse of the EU in all but name. First, it was based on exploitation and greed. Wealthy western countries used the weaker and poorer member nations as a dumping ground for their products and services, resulting in the destruction of national industries of those countries in the process. Those who were foolish enough to adopt the Euro saw their economies tank and some are bankrupt.

The idea that all these countries, with their different experiences, mentalities, systems, economies, resources and mutual historical enmities, which have not yet been forgotten much less forgiven, could come together as equals under a one-size-fits-all EU formula for prosperity was a grave miscalculation.

A bunch of these countries spent 50 years or more behind a different system, one that was ideologically and operationally opposed to the current neo-liberal free-market model which has been foisted upon them.  To think that centuries of wars, hatred and suspicion can just be glossed over with money is a bad assumption.

Now, defective US-inspired economic models have wreaked havoc across the EU and decimated economies. Politicians in the EU parliament attend fancy conferences and summits, get healthy per-diems and salaries in return for selling their nations out to the highest bidder.

Brussels has become a career-furthering cesspool of ambitious politicians and businessmen seeking to add to their wealth and prestige, instead of a place where sane policies are made and problems are solved. The EU government and bureaucracy have now degenerated into a carbon copy of the Washington culture. 

Money, wealth and cronyism now rule as the primary motivators of the EU governing elite. They have cast their lot with the banksters who are fleecing the world and turning it into a plantation. Look at what has been going on in the wake of the Greek and Italian economic crises: Both nations are now led by ex-ECB/Goldman Sachs bankers. These people have been appointed by Brussels not by national elections. And they will most likely stay in their posts one way or another, doing the bidding of private bankster elites, the people be damned!

The EU would have been a nice idea if it was truly based on European solidarity as the primary reason.  It would have been a great idea if the EU members would have come up with a separate and sane alternative economic model, as opposed to the predatory speculative capitalism and profit-above-all else nuttery of the US. It would be a model where the wealthier nations help the poorer ones develop their economies to where they could then compete, instead of destroying these countries industries and then flooding their markets with cheaper subsidized goods while the national producers suffer.

A true EU would not tolerate the isolation and bullying of nations such as Serbia or Belarus but would work with them, instead of sanctioning and threatening their governments and people. A true EU would pay no mind to disgusting and divisive US plots to keep the rest of Europe and Russia in a state of mutual suspicion and fear.

It would have been a great idea if the EU would also formulate its own independent foreign and military policy, leave the NATO auxiliary army and stand as a rational alternative to US militarism and aggression throughout the world.

But the truth is that Europe is beholden to the US and to its economic, foreign policy and military policies and interests. Major economic decisions are deferred to the US and the EU still tags along as a mercenary force on any and all US misadventures, such as in the recent imperial escapade in Libya. No official ever says anything against this. No official ever dares to suggest that this is not right, that it undermines Europe’s security, and that it must change.

It makes one wonder what amount of trade, revenue, opportunities and advancements Europe lost out on in the last 15-20 years because it subordinated itself to US whims. It would most likely be a staggering number.

That this is the sad case shows that there is something foul going on in the background. Taking into account the staunch opposition by some EU members, notably Germany and France, against the Iraq invasion in 2003, shows that these individual countries understand what is wrong and right. And yet later they decided to go with the flow and defer life and death decisions to the Washington war criminals.

It is safe to say that these countries are being blackmailed and threatened by the US or someone else. What have they been told? What are they so scared of?

The EU is a sham. It is based on false premises, ignorance of reality and disrespect for each nation’s sovereignty and self-determination. In fact, the current EU structure seeks to deprive member nations of these invaluable assets. Now, it is taking it a step further by demanding stricter and tighter monetary policy, which will most likely force any EU member that has not yet adopted the Euro and still have a functioning economy, to suffer for the bad policies, thievery and greed of others. And if any nation refuses, they will be bankrupted by the EU overlords and their economies will be shattered.  This is starting to happen right now.

Any nations which aspire to EU membership should count their blessings that they are not yet members. Furthermore, these crises must serve as inoculation for any nation which seeks to join. The economic mess and disorder which pervades the EU currently should be a turn-off for any country, since they can plainly see what they can expect once in the EU club. Any leader/government which ignores these colossal failures of the EU and still intends to join is an idiot and a traitor. Such a leader must be done away with ASAP. They must also know that if they join the EU right now, their national economies and peoples will be plundered wholesale in order to pay back a bunch of private banksters for their investment losses.

This EU economic chaos should also be a warning for those nations that are already members but who have not yet adopted the Euro. It would be wise for these nations to resist the adoption of this rotten currency as well as to start making secret contingency plans for withdrawal from the EU. Any politician, in any EU member country which has not yet adopted the Euro who advocates for the adoption of this currency, must be gotten rid of ASAP, unless the national economies of those countries also go the way of Greece and Italy.

The poorer countries of Europe which are already members of the EU or strive to become members, must know that the EU is not the ticket to prosperity and modernity. By betting their entire future on EU membership is a recipe for disaster and economic enslavement. No nation has ever become wealthy and powerful by depending on other nations for their long-term livelihood. Look at any wealthy nation and you will see a history of ingenuity, self-reliance and hard work. This is what will make these nations great, not membership in some crooked bankers club bent on exploitation and thievery.

There are those who say that the EU is good because it is an alternative to the US and that it undermines US economic power, etc., etc. But in reality, it is just a European subsidiary of Global Bankster Inc.

Also, if the EU was a true and better alternative to the US neo-liberal system, then the EU would not be in the bad economic state that it is in now. It would have adopted a different economic model, establish its own markets and financial centers which would openly rival US-dominated ones, withdraw from US economic and military blocs and formulate its own policies, free from US influence.

That this is not the case shows that the EU is not an independent entity which serves, or could serve, as an alternative system. The EU is just an extension of the same rotten US neo-liberal free-wheeling-market system where anything goes. Tim Geithner is busy making loans and guaranteeing EU paper, courtesy of the US taxpayers and the Federal Reserve. This says it all.

Now the EU technocrats are demanding that individual member nations give up sovereignty and the right to choose their own policies and leadership in order to keep the EU leviathan alive past its shelf life.

This whole EU experiment begs the question of who does this union really serve? Who really control it? Why are nations being subordinated to unelected officials in Brussels? Why are the people being sidelined and silenced?

Something very sinister is going on. Those nations who are not yet in the EU, beware!

Controllers, Managers and Front-men

The ‘election’ season’ is upon the United States and the various caucuses and primaries are under way. Obama, as well as the other assorted Republican Party fruit loops are all scrambling to out talk, out promise and out spend one another, and of course to swear their eternal fealty to the gangsters which rule zionistan.

Frankly, the election process in the U.S. has become such a dog and pony show, such a ridiculous farce that it is both sad and surprising to see all these people wasting their time on all these public gatherings to ‘support their candidates.’ The presidential election season has become just a big circle jerk, where the cretins are fooled and manipulated into spilling their collective nut of approval all over the candidates and the TV screens.

What these unfortunates who are wasting their valuable time and money on these lying prick candidates don’t seem to yet grasp is they are not the ones who end up choosing the president. All these caucuses, primaries, town meetings, apple pie and coffee klatches, conventions and the elections are just a farcical façade to make it look like the people actually have a voice in who becomes president when they really do not.

The process of electing the president of the United States is a carefully orchestrated, well choreographed and brilliantly executed song-and-dance; a fraud par excel lance! The people are included just to give the whole farce a veneer of popular support. The people are what can be called a necessary nuisance.

 But behind the scenes, there is a close alliance between the true controllers of the American political process who decide the presidency and the clever managers who ensure that the interests of the controllers prevail. The controllers are the real powers that run this country. They are the member-owners of the Federal Reserve, the big corporations, and the upper 1%. They are the ones who call the shots since they control most of the wealth of the United States. Each and every candidate is fully scrutinized by the controllers to ensure their loyalty to the American global free-market and military system. Any candidate that is less than 100% enthusiastic in pursuing the policies of the controllers, and shows too much intelligence and independence is filtered out and discarded into the memory hole during the election season cycle by the managers who act on orders of the controllers. Once the few remaining candidates have been carefully scrutinized and deemed 100% loyal, they are then allowed to run for top office, and the two top contenders for the Presidency are groomed by the managers (DLC and RNC) according to the personal whims of the controllers.

 Once the controllers pick their favorite candidates (via the super delegates), the election is on. Then the controllers just wait and chuckle for a few months as they watch the naïve population fall over themselves thinking that their preferences and votes actually matter, and then on queue, the controllers’ faithful lapdogs in the electoral college will elect the candidate that most pleases them. It is not a free election, but a process of elimination used by the elites to pick the most loyal front man who will best follow their orders.

Once the whole farce is over, the U.S. will end up with another corporate and military industrial complex friendly front man (or woman) who will do the bidding of the true masters of the nation whose money and personal approval has gotten them into the White House. There will be no end to the Iraq war, no universal healthcare and no ‘change’ as touted by Barack Obama or the demented republican coterie of crazies.

This whole electoral system is a ridiculous fraud. It is so rigged with arcane regulations and loopholes that it absolutely precludes the election of any candidate that truly wants to bring back some sanity to the way this country is governed and deals with the world.

Right now, the electoral system is hopeless and it will take a revolution to change it. If people keep on buying into this fraudulent electoral system and keep on feeding this corrupt beast with their time and money, nothing will change for the better and in the end the American people will be worse off. These candidates do not represent the average American family’s best interests. They represent the best interests of the wealthy elite that control most of the wealth of this nation. These candidates depend on corporate and special interest donations for their campaigns, so he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Many people who bothered to vote in the last election, and realized that they have been conned by Obummer, now know that they really can’t expect any better from any of these parties and many will not bother voting anymore. That is totally understandable when looking at the complete ineptitude and cowardice of the Democrats when it came to undoing the horrible blunders of the Bush Regime.

It is no secret, and in fact plain to all intelligent individuals, that the current political system in the United States is a sham. Every four years the populace is offered up candidates to elect, which have been thoroughly screened and scrutinized by private interests beforehand, to ensure their loyalty to the corporate leviathans and the American ‘free-market’ and military-industrial systems.

The candidates that end up being selected by the party-corporate alliance are the most crass, dishonest, manipulative and arrogant specimens that this system has to offer. They are not chosen by the people to represent the peoples’ interests. If this political system was really free and democratic then the choices for President would be significantly different.

As long as the people in the United States and their leadership insist that America is ‘special’ and ‘better’ and that it should exercise control over other nations through coercion and violence then the fundamental changes that NEED to occur to put the US back on the right path will not happen and this country will stumble from one disaster to the next.

These dishonest and corporate-bought front men cannot and will not change anything for the better. They will distract and manipulate the voters with wedge issues and fear. They expect the average voter to vote according to their own personal ideological whims and ignorance, not according to what’s best for everyone.

Making up fictitious enemies and threats to keep the populace scared and ignorant and easy to control will not work for long. Bad and dishonest economic policies will sooner or later come out of the dark hallways and boardrooms of Wall Street and Washington D.C. and wreak havoc, as is happening now with the mortgage fallout and the massive debts that have accumulated as a result of massive fraud and greed.

The elections are mostly all hype and pomp that is amplified to the max by the corporate controlled media. A lot of people know that this system is rigged and have lost faith in it.

It’s a system for, and by, the Controllers, the Managers and the obedient front men, not the people. This is what passes for ‘Democracy’ in America.

What is also a sad phenomenon, is that all the people who were against Bush and the Iraq war and the neo-cons evil foreign policy are strangely quiet when these same things are being pursued by Obummer. When confronted with this glaring similarity in policy, they even try to make excuses for Obummer’s war-mongering ways. It’s because he is bombing people to protect human rights, they say. Don’t these cretins see the contradiction in all this? These Obama supporters and their acquiescence and silence regarding Obama’s belligerent and murderous policies are just as wrong as the Bush supporters’ enthusiastic cheering of his illegal wars and deranged policies. There is no difference when it comes to the aims of both powers except that one bombs, kills and invades other countries to steal their resources in the name of fighting terrorism and the other bombs, kills and invades other countries to steal their resources in the name of protecting human rights. Either way, it is a damn evil racket.

When I watch what has been running for the republican presidential nomination, I cannot help but feel physically sick. With the sole exception of Ron Paul, the rest of the republican candidates are a truly revolting sight. Their dishonesty, ignorance, their myopic and condescending view of everything and everyone beyond their own interests, their plastic and fake and inbred looks and faces are a truly revolting sight to see. Their slavish paeans and deferments to zionistan and its gangster rulers is truly disturbing, as if they were being fed pro-zionist propaganda and hollow talking points directly by some Zionist shill backstage via a transmitter into a small receiver in their ear!

Their pathetic adherence to the sickening, discredited and condescending ideologies of “American exceptionalism”, triumphalism and cosmic uniqueness is truly sad. It is as if these people live in another dimension and cross over to our realm only during debate time. Where are these freaks and cretins from? Who spawned these unfortunate, inbred bumpkins? If there ever was any evidence that God makes mistakes and is not perfect, these mutants like Perry, Romney, Gingrich and Bachman should be exhibit A.

Certainly Obummer is no better. He has gladly and eagerly taken on the mantle of war criminal in chief and Wall St. lackey and has caused even more havoc in the world and with the US economy. He ran on hope and change and promised that he will do away with the Washington corruption and cronyism. Right after he was elected, he appointed big bank cronies and Wall St. operatives as his advisors. He promised to engage Iran but immediately appointed a staunchly pro-zionist Jew, Dennis Ross, for the job. It’s no wonder that the Iranians did not buy Obummer’s “good intentions.” Now with OWS protests tarnishing his image and exposing the corruption which he helped foster, he is turning into another impulsive jerk that is ready to cover up his crimes and lies with fear mongering propaganda and threats against other nations, most recently Libya, Syria and Iran.

Obummer is a failed con-man, and whatever creature follows him will be no better. But one thing is certain: Things will only get worse.

Blaming the Victims, Pardoning the Murderers

Taking into account Israel's policies, actions and rhetoric for over the last 40 years, I have come to the conclusion that the Israeli civilian and military leadership, as well as the vast majority of Israeli civilians, are some of the dumbest people on earth.
To carry on with a brutal occupation for almost half a century and meeting resistance day after day, Israel still thinks that it is doing the right thing and that it can win. There is no greater self-delusion. With each bomb that falls on Palestine, with each sniper bullet that hits a Palestinian child, with each house demolition and with each summary execution of civilians in the occupied territories, Israel is endangering its survival and becoming more of a pariah in the eyes of the world. No amount of Israeli PR propaganda, lies and distortions and US acquiescence and coddling will ever bring Israel the victory and reality that it wants; which is the expulsion of the Palestinians from the occupied territories and the complete annexation of their land.

From the moment Zionists arrived from Europe, they have been ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land.

First, they tried to buy out Palestinian land to form a state. After the Palestinians said 'no sale' the threats and massacres started, culminating in the Nakba of 1948 when Jewish terrorist gangs literally pushed Palestinians into the sea, forcing them to leave or be killed. 400 Arab villages and towns were razed to the ground. Muslim cemeteries were flattened. People lost their lives, futures and hope. Many still are refugees scattered throughout the Middle East. Indirectly, the Palestinians are what I call Adolf Hitler's last victims. Their holocaust continues to this day.
Israel has committed ethnic cleansing on a wide scale. Those who support this are just as culpable as the Zionists themselves.
Zionism has ruined and destabilized Palestine!

Israel has employed certain myths about its history and relations with the Palestinians in order to justify its illegal and brutal occupation. Three of the most notable myths floating around are:

1. Jews and Arabs have been fighting each other for thousands of years
2. Palestine was empty before the Jews arrived.
3. The Arabs started the conflict. Jews just wanted to live in peace.

All of these notions are pure nonsense!

First, the Jews were never exiled from the holy land by the Romans. What happened is that some Jews left because of political or economic reasons. Plus, historically the Jews made up a very small percentage of the overall population of Palestine. Whatever kingdom the Jews once established was very small- it was nowhere near the size of Palestine, and was very short-lived. It would be wise to look into historical archeology of Palestine instead of biblical archeology, which has been used by Israeli historians to justify Israeli occupation and policies towards Palestinians.

Now,

Myth#1: Jews and Arabs have been fighting each other for thousands of years

FACT: Jews and Arabs have been living with each other peacefully in Palestine until Zionism arrived in Palestine in the 20th century and poisoned the relations between Jews and Muslims. So there was no millennial struggle as the Zionists and their supporters say. This is a myth made up by Zionists to perpetuate division and hatred.

Myth#2: Palestine was empty before the Jews arrived.

FACT: People have been living in Palestine for thousands of years. Palestine has been host to some of the oldest civilizations on earth.
But a colonial power which seeks to take away land, along with everything else, from its native inhabitants always seeks to create a false history that 'there was no one here when we arrived.' The white South African regime also employed the same myth in order to justify their apartheid. Israel is just a cheap carbon copy of the same.

Myth#3: The Arabs started the conflict. Jews just wanted to live in peace.

FACT: The so-called 'invasion' of Israel proper by Arab armies in 1948 was a reaction to the Israeli mass ethnic cleansing of Palestine which started just months before. The Zionists were not content with the land that the UN partition gave them, even though they were just a few percent of the population but got over 50% of the land, which was the best and fertile land in Palestine.
But this was not enough for the Zionists. They wanted more land, so they simply took it by force. This Zionist land-grab and ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians in 1948 forced the nearby Arab states to send a combined military force to fight back the Zionists from the land they were illegally trying to annex, and which was set aside for the Palestinian inhabitants. It was not the Arab forces aim to 'destroy the new state of Israel' as is the accepted, and false, Israeli narrative. The Arab armies had no intention of annexing the part of Palestine which was set aside for the Jews or pushing the Jews 'into the sea.' With help from the West, the Arab armies were defeated, and the Zionists annexed 20% more land.
Actually, every armed flare-up between Israel and its Arab neighbors has always been initiated by Israel under one false pretense or another (to steal more land) and conveniently blamed on the Arabs. But when the fighting was finished, Israel always ended up annexing more Arab land. Israel would not do this if its aim was just legitimate self-defense.

Also, if there were no people in Palestine when the Jews arrived, just exactly who were the Jews fighting there for thousands of years? These are the kinds of contradictions that give away Zionism as a fraudulent enterprise.

Some new lies have also been floating around recently:

1. Israel does not want to hurt civilians in Gaza. Israel is only going after militants.

FACT: Israel has turned Gaza into the largest open-air prison on earth. The population density is so high that it is impossible to hit a 'militant' without also killing a bunch of civilians along with them. Israel is well-aware of this fact.

2. Israel had to act to stop rocket fire.

FACT: If all that Israel wanted to do is stop the rocket fire, it could have done so by allowing aid convoys to go through and stop shutting the crossings into Gaza. This is what broke the ceasefire and provoked Hamas into launching rockets into Israel. Hamas did not violate the ceasefire, Israel did.
Also, even though much has been made out of the Israeli 'disengagement' from Gaza in 2005, the fact is that the area is still under Israeli occupation. Israel controls road access to Gaza, controls its airspace and coastline. Gaza is isolated by Israel from the outside world. This has lead to misery and frustration among the Palestinians.
Also, do not forget that there is absolutely no parity when it comes to the military capabilities of the Palestinians and Israel. The Palestinian Qassam rockets that are being used as the excuse to massacre Gaza are crude home-made rockets with no guidance systems. The vast majority end up landing in fields and rarely hit buildings or kill people. On the other hand, Israel has the most modern and technologically advanced fighter aircraft and laser guided missiles that can hit a target anywhere anytime with lethal precision. Israel also has tanks, artillery and other weapons which give them superiority over any Palestinian forces. But listening to Israeli peddled propaganda, it sounds like the Palestinians are as well-armed as Israelis and on the verge of launching an all out invasion of Israel itself.

All this violence would not be happening if the US and the world respected and accepted the choice that the Palestinian people made in 2006 when they elected Hamas to lead them. It would have given Hamas a powerful incentive to hang up its arms and turn to non-violent means of resistance. But the US and the West rejected the Palestinians electoral choices because they were not what the US and Israel wanted. Hamas is not corrupt like Fatah and cannot be led around on a leash by the Israelis. Furthermore, Hamas would insist on direct negotiations and an end to the occupation. It would not allow the US and Israel to stall and manipulate the 'peace process' in order to keep the occupation going.

But every time that Israel has tried to bring down Hamas, it has failed. As a result, Hamas becomes more powerful and gains greater sympathy for resisting Israeli occupation. The result of the latest Israeli bombings will be the same.
It seems that Israel does not want peace, because peace with the Arabs would open up Israel to the Arab world and the Arab world to Israel. For Zionists, this threatens the racist ethnocentric Jewish makeup of Israel. For Israel to survive as such, it needs an enemy close by that it can use to scare itself in order to justify its own exclusive Jewish majority in Palestine.

All those Jews who are against occupation and risk their lives and livelihoods for the cause of true peace with the Palestinians have my admiration and support. The Neuterei Karta Rabbis have also been on the forefront of resistance to occupation and continued Zionist aggression against the Middle East.
The Zionists try to paint all Jews as pro-Israel, which is false. This is also dangerous because it makes all Jews targets for anti-Semites and any one who may want to 'punish' Israel for their actions. This is actually something that I feel the Zionists need: the targeting of Jews, which in turn justifies Zionist paranoia and violence against Palestinians and others. That is why Israel and its lobbies do their best to paint all Jews as staunch supporters of Israel.
The greatest purveyor of anti-Semitism and violence against Jews today is the government of Israel itself. This observation is not mine alone, as other individuals, including Jews, have also said the same thing.

The Palestinians have a right to resist foreign occupation. This resistance does not need anyone's official stamp of approval. As sad as this violence is, there will be no end to rocket attacks and suicide bombings on the part of the Palestinian resistance until Israel ends its occupation and withdraws to the pre-1967 borders, along with the entire religious fanatic squatter rabble from Israel who have illegally settled on occupied Palestinian land. The world, and especially the United States, must not be allowed to forget that it is the Israeli occupation that feeds Palestinian anger (and the consequences thereof), not Islamic beliefs or some irrational murderous rage in the Arab psyche, as the Zionists and Western bigots contend.

Israel, the world is waiting.......

Get Out and Stay out!

July 17 marked the 11^th year anniversary of the end of my active military service. Every time I think of the bullshit, the condescension and the incompetence that I had to deal with while a member of the US army it makes me glad that I left that mess behind. Every time I read and see the news and learn of another roadside bomb killing more soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan and see more and more of then being deployed, I feel a tremendous sense of relief and happiness that I am not one of them and never again will be.

But still, I was lucky. I got to serve in the US army during the last few peaceful and quiet years and got out more than a year before the shit hit the fan on 9/11. I knew from that day on that those whom I knew while in the army who decided to ‘reenlist’ for 2-3 or more years were in deep crap. But I remember warning them about this and they agreed with me, albeit reluctantly, that they can no longer complain when something bad happens since they reenlisted. I told them I saw it as this: The first time you sign up for the military you most likely don’t know any better. But after being in for a while and seeing how shitty it is, and STILL deciding to reenlist, you have no one else to blame than yourself for any and all future consequences from the moment your signature is on that reenlistment contract. I did not choose to make that same mistake because while they were out ‘clubbin’ on weekends my ass was in my room, reading books on history, politics and current events, and after I put it all together it did not take a political science major to realize that the foreign policy of this country is rotten and that sooner or later something really bad was going to happen, and I wanted to be as far away from the military as possible when it did.

So during my ‘reenlistment interviews,’ while sitting there listening to some crazy sergeant feed me the Same old Shit I’ve heard years ago that hasn’t come true, I coincidentally thought of a big skyscraper coming down—I am not bullshitting you, I really did! So my answer to their offer was always ‘no.’ After 4 years of picking grass from between cracks in the sidewalk, soaking up motor oil with dry sweep at the damn motor pool, of pointless and redundant vehicle inspections, of fixing broken showerheads, of going to banal and uninteresting field exercises, of putting up with butt hole squad leaders who barely got their GED, of cheap propaganda, forced esprit-de-corps, and most important, missing out on the economic boom times of the late 1990s because I was stuck in the army doing friggin’ KP, I’ve had enough!

Whatever I managed to accomplish while in the military was due to my own self-discipline and willpower, characteristics which I had before I joined the military and which the army certainly did not instill in me. I basically made the same mistake which pretty much everyone who joins the military makes: they assume that ‘nothing’s going happen’ and think that they can just go to college without hindrance. Wrong! This is the false assumption that people make when they join the military and this assumption is exploited by the recruiting lowlifes to snare as many naïve unfortunates as they possibly can.

Listen. The military is not the boy scouts, not prep school, not college, not a summer camp or a social club! It’s the military. The main purpose of the military is to fight and die in wars. Don’t believe the sugar-coated version of army life the recruiter gives you. After all, when I got to basic training one of the first and oft repeated phrases I heard from the Drill Sergeants themselves was ‘Your recruiter lied to you.’ Military duty takes precedence over EVERYTHING else, including your family life. I’ve seen people frustrated and brought to the edge of divorce (and further, including suicide) because they made the army their number 1 priority. This is not a healthy lifestyle by any means. When you go to school while in the army, and miss a week of classes because you are in the field, tough. The military is under no obligation to let you go because ultimately military duty takes priority over everything else. I learned this lesson myself the hard way.

Another very good point  that someone recently brought up to me is that being a member of the military you are at the forefront of national defense of any kind and does not only obligate you to fight wars. It also obligates you to be a guinea pig for testing of various vaccines and concoctions so that in case of mass infection all citizens can be immunized and saved. After all, the way the US government sees it, it’s better that a couple of hundred soldiers suffer so that tens of millions can be saved. If you get sick and suffer bad side effects from the crap they inject you with you’re on your own. The army is not liable for your condition because somewhere in that mess of paperwork they threw in front of you when you enlisted they made you sign a statement where you volunteered to be used as a guinea pig, whether you knew it or not. Don’t think so? Look at the Gulf War I vets. More than 200,000 of them are now dead and thousands more are suffering weird maladies which the US government refuses to acknowledge and treat.

Much has been made of the atrocious conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital and the substandard treatment that soldiers got. Guess what? This is ancient news to me! Do you think that this started with George W. Bush and the Iraq debacle? Hell no! It has gotten much, much worse on Bush’s watch because of the Iraq war. Back in 1996 when I joined, I’ve seen how injured soldiers are treated. Basically they are fucked with and are forced to break their medical profiles and told to do such enlightening activities as sweeping the motor pool and other nonsense that they have a hard time during because of their injuries. My roommate who was with me in AIT injured his knee and had to use crutches the whole time except when he was sitting or sleeping. When he got to permanent party the squad leaders started getting pissed off and ordered him to go do PT and walk around without his crutches. They pounded on the door of our room one day and told him to get his ass downstairs and he was constantly seeing the 1^st SGT about the mistreatment. He got out on a medical that following summer since they couldn’t find anymore ways to mess with him.

Another example of shoddy care is when I got sick on a number of occasions. With a temperature of over a 100 I was given some damn ibuprofen (the military’s cure-all wonder drug!) and just told to report for normal duty. I felt like crap but there was nothing I could do. I always had a suspicion that these army doctors deliberately misdiagnosed me so that I would be available for duty instead of giving me a few days bed rest so I could get well. This is something that happened at Walter Reed, where soldiers with injuries and disabilities were re screened and their injuries were watered down so that they could be deployed back to the Iraqi hellhole. If you wake up one morning and feel sick then you can’t just take a sick day because there is no such thing in the military. They quickly tell you that if you are not dead, dying or bleeding to death your ass better show up for formation. If you do not make formation because of illness you get written up. Even if you call ahead they still don’t like it. That whole place is like a friggin’ kindergarten-prison. You have to ask permission for everything. You have your hand held the whole time. Grown men and women get treated like 5-year olds. That’s one of the main reasons why I got out. Civilian life is pretty much the same but at least you can cuss out someone for being an idiotic asshole and not have to worry about getting messed with for the rest of your days. For those who don’t know this, you actually lose some constitutional rights when you join the military, the most important one being the right to privacy. They can wake you up at 5am for a drug test. They can go into your room and ransack it looking for drugs, just like in prison. They treat you like shit. You become ‘government property,’ that’s what the dog tags are for. Tattoos are not allowed after you go into the military because if you get one you will be charged with ‘destruction of government property.’ How about that? You still want to join? Well, then let me discourage you further.

A lovely little standard operating procedure that the army has in regard to chemical weapon detection was all I could stand. After I learned about it I was even more determined to get the hell out. It goes like this: IF you are in a war zone and in an environment where chemical weapons might have been used and the standard chemical detection devices cannot determine if there indeed is a presence of chemicals in the air, they pick the lowest-ranking private and order them to take their pro-mask off. If the individual doesn’t get a reaction, or die, all is safe. What camaraderie!

Another lovely chunk of pure US government reasoning concerns the ever-famous gays in the military policy. A few months before I got out, we had a meeting with our PLT SGT about the army’s new policy towards homosexuals. It was explained to us as so: If you have gay magazines, march in gay parades or talk about homosexual acts the military does NOT consider you gay. To be considered gay and court-martialed you must either get caught in a homosexual act, get married to another person of the same sex or openly admit to your chain of command that you are gay. These are the three exceptions. But if you get caught with so much as a racist magazine or book then you are considered a racist, no excuses.

Speaking of racism, there is plenty of it in the army, although a lot of it is covered up by rank. There is certainly black on white racism as I have personally experienced. The military is a place of contradictions and hypocrisy. They like initiative but only in the context of military duty. When you take initiative by educating yourself on your off time they consider it a nuisance. Then there are the never ending changes to rules and regulations to keep up with and the mass disorganization all over. It takes hours to get one small thing done and ‘politics’ always gets in the way. It’s like this in the civilian world too but you’d think that the military would be better, not so though.

 And don’t believe the hype of government officials and the pro-war PR spin that deployment extensions are ‘no big deal’ and that the troops don’t mind. BULLSHIT! They do fucking mind! I know so because I was a soldier once. The truth is that having your deployment extended sucks. It’s a big morale buster and soldiers, at least the sane ones, hate it. It is one of the worst things that can happen to you. When I hear of these deployment extensions in Iraq, I know how these soldiers feel. They are pissed off as hell. I question the sanity of the ones who don’t mind or are glad to do it. Maybe they are just too brainwashed or too scared to go against the grain. Better to just turn the Iraqis lives upside down instead of yours by refusing to fight an idiotic, illegal and failed war, I guess.

The truth is that the military has become a tool of domination and exploitation. The stuff about fighting for freedom and democracy is bull crap. The military is being exploited for strategic and economic domination of other countries in order to expand the American empire and make a small elite group of rich old farts and weapon peddlers even wealthier. The people who join the military are nothing but gullible little pawns which do the dirty work for a few powerful and well-connected people that demand more wealth and more power for themselves. The cost is usually the lives of those who fight and those unfortunate populations to be subjected to the wrath of the Empire.

What do you get for your ‘sacrifice’ after you get injured for life? You get thrown in the gutter with the rest of the cripples and have to wait months for an appointment. Then they lose your paperwork and forget about you. This is the way it is and will get worse. Don’t count on that piece of scum in the white house. He will not help you! As a matter of fact, if that idiot says that he will ‘fix’ anything, you can bet its going to get even more fucked up. Better that things stay as they are. Don’t count on the democrats. These lying pricks are as much part of the problem as the Republicans. They said that they will stop the war but are now backpedaling so they can get their election-year handouts from the damn lobbies. Opposing the Iraq war has become nothing more than an election-year tactic to get votes, but these opportunistic bastards are not going to do a damn thing to stop it once they are elected. Both of these parties have failed this country. As long as they are in power fundamental changes that NEED to be made will not even be considered.

The invasion of Iraq is illegal and it is wrong. It is a violation of international law and the UN charter. Those who fought and are fighting it are not heroes, they are occupiers and aggressors. This war is a waste of lives, money and time and has already failed. In a just world the lunatics that started this catastrophic injustice would be prosecuted and then put to death or locked up for life. But since the US still retains great military and economic power the majority of nations are either too scared to confront the US or have been bribed to look the other way. Whichever is the case, the US is allowed to get away with murder and as a result the world becomes a more dangerous place to live since bad behavior and disregard for law and order goes unpunished.

Don’t waste your time and your life. Don’t join the military. Don’t be another little pawn in this sick-ass game. Stay out, go to school or learn a trade and lead a normal life. You don’t need to find out how to point a gun at people and pull the trigger. You don’t need to become a cripple, an amputee or messed up in the head for the rest of your life. You don’t need to be torn away from your family and friends and your life to go be an occupier and held in contempt by an entire country. You don’t need to be a casualty on the 10 o’clock nightly news. Life itself can be difficult at times, don’t put yourself in a position where that difficulty is multiplied ten-fold, it’s not worth it. Remember,  there were misguided idiots on the civilian and military side during the Vietnam War who supported that mess and called all those who had a conscience ‘traitors’ and ‘cowards.’ Don’t mind these fools. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. And just like back then, those who stood against the war will in the end be seen as right and just while those who cheered it on will end up looking like naïve morons. Just wait, it will happen!

My words are angry, but I don’t hate the military. I just hate the rotten policies they are told to support and fight for, and the rotten treatment they are given and therefore I will not have any part of it. And in case you are wondering this essay was not written by some ate-up private who got kicked out because he was a problem soldier. Regardless of the bullshit and the challenges I encountered in the army I grinned and bore them successfully and got out with an honorable discharge and good conduct ribbon. I wasn’t an exemplary super soldier but I wasn’t a fuck-up either, but I’d say I was above average compared to many others. I never suffered an article 15 or any pay cuts. I don’t have an axe to grind against any one particular person. I simply went into the military expecting order, discipline, and competence and was expecting to fight for what is right but I was mislead and disappointed.

There are some who become conscientious objectors and some who just run and hide because they no longer want to be pawns in this damn ‘war on terror’ farce, and these are the right things to do. These are the real heroes.

The way I see it, by getting out of the army I cheated death. By staying out you can too.