Paul Haeder, Author

…some news . . . and so we can only dream!!

A real-life conversation with Jewish children

At an Israeli school, kids are asked the following question:

“What do you feel when you come across an Arab child? Anger. I feel like I want to kill him. “Arabs will be slaves or die.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Israel’s defense industry growth

According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), between 2018 and 2022, the overwhelming majority – 99 percent – of Israel’s arms imports came from the US and Germany.

During this period, Israel imported $2.7 billion worth of weapons, with the lion’s share – a substantial 79 percent – originating from the US ($2.1 billion) and 20 percent from Germany ($546 million).

It goes without saying that the US is by far Israel’s biggest benefactor, having provided $246 billion in military and economic aid since the close of World War II. In 2016, Washington’s commitment to Tel Aviv was further solidified under the administration of former President Barack Obama with a 10-year memorandum (2019-2028), pledging an astounding $38 billion in military aid to Israel, equating to over $3 billion annually.

Human rights appear to be the last thing on the American mind. As Israeli behaviors worsen, the US is doubling down on its unwavering support for the Israeli war machine and its settler-colonial project, which has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of Palestinian lives over the past seven decades.

Nearly one in four of Israel’s 1.6 million schoolchildren are educated in a public school system wholly separate from the majority. The children in this parallel school system are Israeli citizens of Palestinian Arab origin. Their schools are a world apart in quality from the public schools serving Israel’s majority Jewish population. Often overcrowded and understaffed, poorly built, badly maintained, or simply unavailable, schools for Palestinian Arab children offer fewer facilities and educational opportunities than are offered other Israeli children. This report is about Israel’s discrimination against its Palestinian Arab children in guaranteeing the right to education.

The Israeli government operates two separate school systems, one for Jewish children and one for Palestinian Arab children. Discrimination against Palestinian Arab children colors every aspect of the two systems. Education Ministry authorities have acknowledged that the ministry spends less per student in the Arab system than in the Jewish school system. The majority’s schools also receive additional state and state-sponsored private funding for school construction and special programs through other government agencies. The gap is enormous–on every criterion measured by Israeli authorities.

The disparities between the two systems examined in this report are identified in part through a review of official statistics. These findings are tested and complemented by the findings of Human Rights Watch’s on-site visits to twenty-six schools in the two systems and our interviews with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and national education authorities.

This is what rabid Zionism looks like, in this MeanMetaFUBook GoogleGulag world looks like.

Fukcerberg?

Sick.

Meta and Google have pulled out of the Web Summit, one of the tech sector’s biggest annual events, after the organizer criticized Israel’s actions following the Hamas attacks, the companies say.

Meta and Google have pulled out of the Web Summit, one of the tech sector’s biggest annual events, after the organizer criticized Israel’s actions following the Hamas attacks, the companies say.

A spokesman for Meta confirms to AFP that it would not take part in this year’s event, with Google telling the Irish Independent that it too would not be making the trip to Lisbon.

Irish entrepreneur Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of the Web Summit, wrote on social media platform X last week that he was “shocked at the rhetoric and actions of so many Western leaders & governments.”

“War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies and should be called out for what they are,” Cosgrave wrote on October 13.

The boycott by Meta and Google follows other exits by companies and tech figures, including Intel, Siemens and US comedian Amy Poehler and X-files actor Gillian Anderson.

The Web Summit is due to host some 2,300 startups and more than 70,000 people on November 13-16 in Lisbon.

A spokesman for Meta confirms to AFP that it would not take part in this year’s event, with Google telling the Irish Independent that it too would not be making the trip to Lisbon.

Irish entrepreneur Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of the Web Summit, wrote on social media platform X last week that he was “shocked at the rhetoric and actions of so many Western leaders & governments.”

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate cover the global explosion of outrage in response to Israel’s rising atrocities against the Gaza Strip and the threat it poses to American imperium.

LINK

When Israel began its illegal ‘total siege’ of Gaza, the political leadership of the Western world converged to line up behind it. It was the natural continuation of decades of support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians, termed apartheid by both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Particularly noticeable was the bipartisan support for flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions, or war crimes. Whether it was the Republicans and Democrats in the US, or the Conservatives and Labour in Britain, everyone was reading from the same hymn sheet.

But in the British context, another thing was also immediately noticeable. There was one party, theoretically in charge of 6% of UK territory, which was speaking forcefully in favour of Palestinian human rights, a lone strident voice in the political mainstream.

This was Sinn Féin, the Irish republican and democratic socialist movement, which in May 2022 became the largest party at the Northern Ireland Assembly, the first time a nationalist party achieved this result since Ireland was partitioned in 1921. Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin should lead the executive in the territory, although the Unionist opposition have so far obstructed this happening.

Predictably, following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel opted for a brutal, disproportionate reaction against Gaza’s already-besiged civilian population instead of carrying out a targeted retaliation against the armed resistance. 

Several wholesale massacres have now taken place, leveling entire Palestinian neighborhoods, hospitals, and religious sites within the besieged Gaza Strip. As these crimes against humanity escalate, it is no longer just the western world providing cover for Israel’s unhinged and illegal behaviors, but also the collaboration of Arab regimes who stealthily funded the Occupation’s military-industrial complex.

The genocide in Gaza may have curbed the US and Israeli normalization project for now. And perhaps Israel’s arms sales to Arab governments have been hampered temporarily because Tel Aviv needs these weapons. 

For those raptly watching for the entry of the region’s Axis of Resistance into this battle, the goal will not simply be the defeat of Israel but also the unraveling of all Arab normalization with the Occupation state. In the final analysis, Arab states will be held accountable for the funding of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Last week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul was asked about her message to members of the state’s Palestinian community “who fear for their own civilian loved ones” in Gaza. She responded by calling for “law-abiding Palestinians to reject Hamas”, without mentioning violence against Palestinians.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called a peaceful protest for Gaza on Saturday a “pro-Hamas rally” in a now-deleted social media post.

Afterwards, in a statement to Al Jazeera, Jenkins said she removed the post after listening to concerns from the Arab and Muslim community. She cited graffiti that said “death 2 Israel” that was sprayed in downtown San Francisco on the same day as the march.