JOHNSTONE

If this was a real thing with real teeth and not an incredibly cynical eleventh-hour election ploy, it would have happened a full year ago. Reading by Tim Foley.

Nothing illustrates the malfeasance of the mass media like the vast disparity between how they’re covering the killing of four 19 year-old IDF soldiers by Hezbollah versus their complete lack of interest in a 19 year-old hospital patient who was burned alive by the IDF in Gaza. Reading by Tim Foley.

Israel's permanent national security doctrine is basically "We can have peace tomorrow if we just kill a few more people today." But it's always today. Tomorrow never comes. Reading by Tim Foley.

If there's one thing this past year has made clear, it's that opposing the foreign abuses of the western empire is the most important task you can undertake if you care about truth, justice, and human rights. Reading by Tim Foley.

This was never about freeing hostages. It was never about getting rid of Hamas. It was never about Israel's "right to defend itself". It was never about mass rapes, beheaded babies, or babies cooked in ovens. It was always about stealing land from the indigenous people of Palestine. Reading by Tim Foley.

Things are so, so bad in the middle east right now, and from the looks of things they’re about to get a whole lot worse. Reading by Tim Foley.

I'll condemn Hamas as soon as you can tell me what the Palestinians should do instead besides lay down and die. Produce a coherent plan for Palestinian liberation that (A) doesn't involve violence, (B) would be effective, (C) is just, and (D) isn't naive or moronic. Then talk to me. Reading by Tim Foley.

I used to be able to write individual articles about the individual bad things the US empire is involved in around the world. These days I’m increasingly finding it necessary to cram a bunch of them into a single daily write-up to touch on as many of them as I can, just to stay on top of things. Reading by Tim Foley.

That’s the trajectory the US empire has us on. An active genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the threat of another extermination campaign in Lebanon, and acceleration toward a direct war of unimaginable horror with Iran. Reading by Tim Foley.

On this day in particular, I would like to express my deepest sympathies for the victims of Israeli murderousness over the past year. Reading by Tim Foley.