Honest reporting and genuine research relies upon listening to others, hearing repugnant points of view, bearing them.
Stepping onto the dark side does not lead to a more gentle peaceful world for anyone or any one.
Slavery is not freedom. Occupation is not a blessing.
It’s the thing you think you know, the thing that reassures you but keeps you ignorant.
“Gaza needs what Greece is getting” was written on the anniversary of the 2014 War on Gaza. How did Gaza become the world’s largest open air prison?
Refugee genesis and exodus.
Occupation is not freedom: not for the occupied and not for the occupier. Prison is not paradise.
From H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956), born in Baltimore, died in Baltimore, wrote for the Baltimore Sun:
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.”
Mariam, now 86 years old and respectfully known as Umm Akram (mother of Akram), has spent the last 68 years in crowded, makeshift refugee camps in Lebanon.
Umm Akram wants to meet you and tell her story in person. So does Amena Ashkar, the granddaughter and great granddaughter of other Nakba survivors, who has known no other home than refugee camps.
Umm Akram and Amena have a different message from other Palestinians. As exiles, they have a different perspective from Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the part of Palestine that became Israel.
Recent Opinions in Jewish Week and Washington Post
A good friend brought this opinion by Seymour D. Reich to my attention today.
A word to the wise…just might…
Multi-million dollar daily cash infusions are the price of eternal vigilance. “Keep moving. There’s nothing to see here. Keep moving…”
Bernie Sanders did not say many words (measured rhetoric) on a theme of the “disproportionate force” but each word has sprung multiple leaks.
Media in the US and in Israel form the corpus politic. Tangential reporting relies on short attention spans in the audience, a single word must never gain purchase. Hasbara is serious business.
“For decades, most American Jews who cared about Israel’s welfare and security adhered to the maxim that we don’t voice criticism of Israel in public.”
Bernstein is a frequent contributor to the WP and has performed his perfunctory best at pressing the “hate site” label onto Philip Weiss, half of the Mondoweiss founders. Philip keeps getting into Mr. Bernstein’s craw and it’s hard to remain level-headed when your craw is aching. I understand.
See also “antisemitism” and “anti-defamation” to learn less of the truth about Palestine and the Palestinian people, as refugees under occupation, as a people in exile for 68 years now.
I admit this: I am a comment reader, an observer of scary stuff that goes on in the worlds of Israel and her BFF. It festers as ever: Israel as promised land (“Because He promised. I swear He did”) Honey, milk, physical and spiritual perfection. A place where birthright yields more independence and recognition than birthplace.
The whole construct relies upon holding fast to denial: the perfected society has skeletons in its closet (carpentered in 1948). PTSD is not unknown among IDF soldiers and veterans. They are breaking their silence.
Witness storied operations inspired by the sling of David, but remain unaware of the murderous occupation maintained for cleansing ethnicity.
Let’s say that your guess is as good as mine.
Similarly, a Twitter page for those wishing to band together and fight Arabic fascism.
Nothing facile about this logic. It’s from the gentle Zvi Lando.
Steady readers of billziegler1947 have now seen the name Jeff Halper appear frequently.
It is my privilege to continue bringing ICAHD and the Matrix of Control into the conversation.
If this blog serves only to introduce you to Dr. Halper it has succeeded. While I am on an imagined roll, please consider finding a 1 hour 40 minutes open time slot in your viewing schedule for his talk in Winnipeg Manitoba from July 8, 2015. (Transforming Palestine into a Binational Independent State).
Excerpt:
“He is coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and a leading figure in the Israeli peace movement. Nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Halper has published several books and many articles while working tirelessly for peace, justice and public awareness, often using non-violent direct action.Transforming Israel-Palestine into a Binational Democratic State.”
Now for new business: the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition. is sponsoring Dr. Halper on his current book tour. Click the link at the bottom of this post for updated details.
Dr. Halper has good memories of the metropolis I write in. It’s a fortune of geography and history that we both graduated from educational institutions with international reputations: Jeff at Hebrew Union College and I at the University of Cincinnati Department of Geography. Both schools on the same street, and we graduated in the same year 1969.
billziegler1947 