JOHNSTONE

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.

I am at risk of getting banned from both Instagram and Facebook as both Meta-owned platforms keep censoring my criticisms of Israel’s US-backed atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon, placing strikes on my accounts in the process. Reading by Tim Foley. Article version: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/meta-is-aggressively-censoring-criticism

Iran is not my enemy. Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are not my enemies. My enemies are the western imperialists and their Israeli partners in crime who are inflicting a waking nightmare upon the middle east and working to start a massive new war of unfathomable horror. Reading by Tim Foley.

Our real enemies are not in Iran. Our real enemies are not in Lebanon. Our real enemies are not in Gaza or the West Bank. Our real enemies are not in Yemen, Syria, or Iraq. Our real enemies are in Washington and London and Tel Aviv. In Berlin and Paris and Canberra. In secretive government agencies in the state of Virginia, and in imperial propaganda institutions in New York and Hollywood. Our real enemies are not the Arabs and the Iranians, they’re the managers of empire who are ruining our world, destroying our biosphere, siphoning our wealth and our resources, threatening us with nuclear brinkmanship, and making sure we stay too poor, sick, busy and brainwashed to figure out what’s going on and take a stand against them. Reading by Tim Foley.

Hezbollah is killing Israeli soldiers who are invading their country while Israeli soldiers are deliberately killing women and children and medical staff and journalists. Guess which side the west calls terrorists. Reading by Tim Foley.

Reading by Tim Foley.