Entertainment Israeli-style: watching Gaza burn.

According to Al Jazeera today, the U.N. has issued a report on the Gaza genocide, the one carried out by the IDF acting under instructions from the Israeli Government. The U.N. lists the following clearly marked U.N. facilities which were attacked and destroyed:

- 37 schools.

- 6 medical centres.

- 2 warehouses.

- a fuel and aid depot.

The U.N. Report went on to accuse the Israeli army of “varying degrees of negligence or recklessness with regard to United Nations premises and to the safety of UN staff and other civilians within those premises, with consequent deaths, injuries and extensive physical damage and loss of property.”

The Israeli government, through their spokesperson Mark Rugrat, issued the following response:

1. The 37 schools were actually Hamas terrorist training centres. Hamas trains school children to kill us with stones then, later, with homemade rockets and so the bombing was a legitimate preventative measure!

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Friends, my new masthead photograph show what is left of the Parthenon in Athens after the tribulations caused by nature and man.

The Parthenon or the Temple of Athena is, as you would know, a large building built in the 5th century BC on the site of the Acropolis which, overlooking Athens, contained many fine buildings made from marble. In its original form it must have been a glorious sight, one that symbolized a civilization that could be argued to be the most noble and advanced one in the history of the world (sorry, Obama).

Of course following the demise of the Greek Empire, the Acropolis has had to contend with many different invaders to say nothing about earthquakes. But surely the arrival of Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin was an event that caused a huge amount of damage. For example, from 1801 to 1812 he removed 274 feet of marble frieze plus various pediments from the Parthenon as well as assorted statues from the Acropolis and carted them off to London where they still remain like fish out of water.

The photo I’ve included shows a section of the marble pediment which once embellished both ends of the Parthenon.

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The American Jewish Lobby Is All Powerful!

Friends, just a day or so ago, the IDF dropped some bombs on a tunnel in Gaza and killed two Palestinians. To do this it used American planes and munitions which the U.S. supplies to Israel as part of a 30 billion dollar donation which it makes to the imperialist rogue nation each year!

Now, as far as I know, digging a tunnel is not an illegal activity. If I wanted to, I could go out right now and begin to dig a tunnel and I would break no laws.  But then I don’t live next to Israel, thank heavens!

Of course the Israelis would argue that the Palestinians smuggle weapons along these tunnels. Shock! Horror! Well I would argue that the tunnels have been used for many years given the blockade of Gaza. And I would further argue that the recent genocide carried out by the IDF created a situation where 1,300 Palestinians were killed and 13 Israelis (four of them killed by their own forces).

This would suggest to any reasonable, rational person that the smuggling tunnels provide no real threat to Israel’s security at all (it would be different if you could smuggle an aircraft carrier or an F-16 along the tunnels). In fact, given that Israel has the world’s forth strongest army, it is preposterous, ridiculous claim!

Now, in America, a group of sane Americans, ones who don’t support America’s support of Israeli genocide, put up some signs advocating that the U.S. no long arm Israel and financially support its barbaric military aggression.

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Friends, we humans are all part of a big extended family. There are nearly seven billion of us. Each one of us carries a responsibility to all the others. Or should.

The image above shows one of our family members who is doing it tough. Very tough! In the hierarchy of things, this starving human is down the bottom of the pile. There are millions like him. While he starves, people at the top of the pile live in luxury. What they throw out in the garbage each day would easily feed this child.

How is it that we have created a world where so many people struggle to survive while a small group have it all? Surely this is not right? Why don’t those who have so much feel some sense of responsibility for those who are less well off? How can they enjoy their obscene wealth while they know that children all over the world are starving or dying of preventable diseases. The answer is: easily.

We have been taught that the world is a competitive place and you’d better get in and grab what you can while you can. We’ve been taught that greed is good, that more is good, that flaunting wealth is good, that driving prestigious cars is good, that living in mansions in exclusive suburbs is good, that owning huge yachts is good, that sending your children to a private school is good. Of course most people don’t get to have these things but that doesn’t stop them spending their whole lives trying to.

Surely, we must change the way the world is run so that this suffering child and others like him are taken care of. That he suffers is an indictment of our capitalist world, of its selfishness, of its elitism, of its lack of morality, of values.

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They Have Triumphed!

Friends, Fidel Castro has written an article that castigates America for wanting to treat Cuba as if it were a slave colony, a reference to the days when slavery in the U.S. was popular (see Reuters for more details).

Fidel wrote that: Today they (the U.S.) are willing to forgive us if we will resign ourselves to returning to the fold as slaves that, after knowing freedom, will accept again the whip and the yoke.

He also observed that: We are not arsonists as some imagine, but nor are we idiots easily fooled by those who believe the only things important in the world are the laws of the market and the capitalist system of production. There still exist those (Americans) who have the illusion that people can be manipulated like puppets.

Despite the fact that some limited discussions are taking place between Cuba and America, the strangling U.S. embargo on Cuba is still in place and Cuba is still on America’s list as a supporter of terrorism (an American definition of terrorism is: any action, military or economic,  by any nation or group which opposes American interests).

This situation of the world’s military superpower dictating to and bullying smaller, sovereign nations is certainly not unusual.

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Friends, I have been pondering just what best symbolizes man’s greatest achievement during the last ten thousand years. I have come to the conclusion that it is the shopping mall!

Why do I think this, you ask? Well, I considered a large number of human achievements: technological, artistic, medical, etc, but none of them seemed to come near the impact that the shopping mall has on our lives.

Consider if you will the image shown above. There are three stories of beautifully appointed shops, hundreds of them. Humans can spend hours wandering up and down in them while clutching at their credit cards and wallets, their eyes agog. Some malls are so big you can get lost. That’s why mobile phones are so popular. You can always ring the police and ask them to come and rescue you!

Inside these grand, air-conditioned, brightly-lit Temple of Commerce there are huge department stores, medium sized  specialty shops, lots of boutiques, food halls, temporary stalls, hairdressers, banks, cinemas, skating rinks, you name it, if it makes a dollar it’ll be there.

Each shop is bedecked with  flamboyant signs signifying bargains, specials, discounts, no payments for a year or two, buy one and get one free, anything that will tempt the shoppers to come in through the doors where salespeople, their nostrils quivering, will go through their practiced spiel until you finally give in and leave the store carrying goods in a large bag which turns you into a walking billboard and advertises that you are a person of substance!

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