Peace In Palestine/Baby Angel

 

photo by Amjad Doumani

Peace In Palestine

The “Ceasefire Carols” for peace in Palestine were well received in downtown Toledo at Promenade Park on Saturday night. We even picked up some new singers for next week’s performance. Nice!

Hear us in this clip: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1Clx7ZgAie/?igshid=NmUwNWViZjkxNw%3D%3D

The welcoming turnout gives me hope that the vast majority of human beings do desire peace, do not desire the deaths of more innocents, and do want to bring an end to the Israeli bombing of Gaza permanently. It gives me a warm feeling that perhaps not all people on Planet Earth are heartless bastards. There are people who care, who have a moral center, and who aren’t easily persuaded to think genocide is a “necessary thing.”

I realize there are still quite a few heartless types out there, but their voices are being drown out by Ceasefire Carolers worldwide and celestial choirs of angels who herald the birth of the Christ child. The baby Jesus, according to the Gospel account in Matthew 2:16-18, almost didn’t make it to his first birthday because of King Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents. There seems to be a parallel between that story and current events, don’t you think?

Sleep in heavenly peace, little ones, who will never experience a holiday here on this plane of existence. May we never forget you.

You know that the world is broken when a country is given the freedom to annihilate another people as the world watches in real time. This should shake each and every one of us to the core. --Michel Moushabeck, If Jesus Was Born Today, Would He Be Under Rubble?

Baby Angel

by C.A. Matthews

 

Most folks who put up a Christmas tree in their homes have a decorative ornament or two that holds a special meaning for them. It could be a handmade ornament given to them by their child or grandchild. It could be an ornament given to them as a present by a very special person in their life. It could be an ornament that honors a milestone in a family’s life—a “first Christmas for baby” ornament or a “first Christmas together as a couple” ornament are two such that come to mind.

Or it could be simply an ornament that was purchased because it was beautifully crafted and looks absolutely perfect on the Christmas tree. Art and beauty lend a message that this is a season full of love and wonder. Whatever the meaning behind a special ornament, it usually is given a position of honor on the tree so that all can gaze upon it and contemplate the special meaning it symbolizes.

We’ve collected so many special ornaments over the decades that it’s sometimes difficult figuring out where to place them on our medium-sized Christmas tree. As time goes by, I’ve even forgotten why I found a particular ornament special to begin with. Imagine that!

What was I thinking? I ask myself every December as I take some of them out of the storage box. These “lost meaning” decorations usually get put on toward the bottom or on the backside of the tree. Sort of filler ornaments, you could say. But sometimes, an older ornament takes on a new meaning, a new kind of specialness than it had before. It deserves a more prominent place on the tree.

Baby Angel is one example.

Baby Angel was given to me by my late father when I was pregnant with my first daughter. Now, that fact alone makes it a special ornament in and of itself. But in recent years, we’ve acquired many more flashy angel ornaments. Baby Angel was hung toward the back of the tree more often than not. Just one angel among many.

This year when I took Baby Angel out of storage I immediately put her in a place of honor in the front part of the tree. Baby Angel reminded me instantly of all the tiny infants slain by Israeli carpet bombing and by Israeli soldiers who forced their doctors away from their incubators in Gazan hospitals, leaving them to die all alone in the cold and dark.

Not exactly a “warm holiday season” thing to contemplate over a mug of hot cocoa, is it?

But it’s reality. Get use to it. The surviving family members of these murdered infants will have to learn to live with it, even if they’re murdered, in turn, by US-provided bombs. Bombs dropped on their refugee camp in the south of Gaza that crushes them under rubble or dismembers them in an explosion. Or they'll die slowly through starvation and disease because Israel has turned off their water, and food and medicine can’t be delivered under the hail of Israeli bombs and their control of the only exit points in Gaza.

I don’t think Baby Angel will ever not remind me of these massacred innocents from now on.

Over 70% of the civilian deaths in Gaza have been women and children. Not soldiers or terrorists but mothers with their children. Children who will never get to celebrate another birthday or holiday. Children who will never get to go to school again or play football with their buddies. Children who pose no threat to anyone except to those who commit a genocide against an entire group of indigenous people so they can steal their land and resources.

Baby Angel will hang on our Christmas tree in a place of honor to commemorate all the babies who became victims of the genocide in Gaza…. In a season that celebrates a baby who survived Herod’s slaughter of the innocents and whose family became refugees who fled to Egypt. It seems appropriate.

Holy infants so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace. In this world, there is none.

From a "Ceasefire Carol":

Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Safety for fathers, mothers, and child
Holy infants alive with smiles
Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!

Related Articles and Interesting Links to Contemplate Over Cocoa:

If Jesus Was Born Today, Would He Be Under Rubble? https://truthout.org/articles/if-jesus-was-born-today-would-he-be-under-rubble/

All The Propaganda Is Splattering Against A Solid Wall Of Reality https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/all-the-propaganda-is-splattering

The IDF is just shooting at anything that moves https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/the-idf-is-just-shooting-at-anything

Biden Staffers Hold Historic Vigil Outside White House Calling for Ceasefire https://truthout.org/articles/biden-staffers-hold-historic-vigil-outside-white-house-calling-for-ceasefire/

The United States Is Losing Allies On Gaza https://popularresistance.org/the-united-states-is-losing-allies-on-gaza/

Senate Passes Massive $886 Billion National Defense Authorization Act https://news.antiwar.com/2023/12/13/senate-passes-massive-886-billion-national-defense-authorization-act/

Increasing Civilian Suffering In Gaza Is Part of the Official Plan of the Netanyahu Government https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/increasing-civilian-suffering-in

Israel admits to “immense” amount of “friendly fire” on 7 October
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-admits-immense-amount-friendly-fire-7-october

Nearly Half of All Israeli Munitions Dropped on Gaza are Imprecise ‘Dumb’ Bombs  https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/15/nearly-half-of-all-israeli-munitions-dropped-on-gaza-are-imprecise-dumb-bombs/

Israel Apologists Are Psychopaths https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-apologists-are-psychopaths

If children are being slaughtered by the thousands in a horrific massacre and someone tries to make the conversation about what words and phrases you’re not allowed to use when opposing that massacre, the correct thing to do is to tell that person to shut the fuck up.

Time for a Transnational Uprising Against a Reckless Escalation of the Arms Race? https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/09/time-for-a-transnational-uprising-against-a-reckless-escalation-of-the-arms-race/

20 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know About the War on Gaza
https://worldbeyondwar.org/20-things-youre-not-supposed-to-know-about-the-war-on-gaza/

US Palestinians Feel Helpless as Our Tax Dollars Fund Our Families’ Destruction https://truthout.org/articles/us-palestinians-feel-helpless-as-our-tax-dollars-fund-our-families-destruction/

Israel Used US-Supplied White Phosphorous in Attack on Southern Lebanon https://news.antiwar.com/2023/12/11/israel-used-us-made-white-phosphorous-in-attack-on-southern-lebanon/

Israel Is Wiping Out Gaza’s Journalists: A Tribute https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/15/israel-is-wiping-out-gazas-journalists-a-tribute/

Words Are Never Quite Enough https://riwaq.substack.com/p/words-are-never-quite-enough

Jewish Demonstrators Block Bridges in 8 U.S. Cities to Demand Ceasefire in Gaza https://truthout.org/articles/jewish-demonstrators-block-bridges-in-8-u-s-cities-demanding-ceasefire-in-gaza/

The Forcible Transfer of 85% of Palestinians in Gaza Is a Crime Against Humanity https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/12/the-forcible-transfer-of-85-of-palestinians-in-gaza-is-a-crime-against-humanity/

US Veto of Ceasefire Resolution Reflects Its Colonial View on Whose Lives Matter https://truthout.org/articles/us-veto-of-ceasefire-resolution-reflects-its-colonial-view-on-whose-lives-matter/

What US Got Most Crucially Wrong in UN Veto
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/10/what-us-got-most-crucially-wrong-in-un-veto/

‘Israel-Hamas War’ Label Obscures Israel’s War on Palestinians
https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/12/israel-hamas-war-label-obscures-israels-war-on-palestinians/

Ukrainian Trial Demonstrates 2014 Maidan Massacre Was a False Flag  https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/13/ukrainian-trial-demonstrates-2014-maidan-massacre-was-a-false-flag/

Unilateral Sanity Could Save the World https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/14/unilateral-sanity-could-save-the-world/

Chris Hedges: The Death of Israel  https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/17/chris-hedges-the-death-of-israel/

Israel has no intention of minimizing civilian casualties. It has already killed 18,800 Palestinians, 0.82 percent of the Gazan population — the equivalent of around 2.7 million Americans. Another 51,000 have been wounded. Half of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the U.N. All Palestinian institutions and services that sustain life — hospitals (only 11 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are still “partially functioning”), water treatment plants, power grids, sewersystems, housing, schools, government buildings, cultural centers, telecommunications systems, mosques, churches, U.N. food distribution points — have been destroyed. Israel has assassinated at least 80 Palestinian journalists alongside dozens of their family members and over 130 U.N. aid workers along with members of their families. Civilian casualties are the point. This is not a war against Hamas. It is a war against the Palestinians. The objective is to kill or remove 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza. 

IDF Kills 3 Shirtless Israeli Hostages Waving White Flag; Calling for Help in Hebrew https://www.commondreams.org/news/idf-kills-3-shirtless-israeli-hostages-waving-white-flag-calling-for-help-in-hebrew

The IDF Are So Good At Killing Israelis They Should Consider Joining Hamas https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-idf-are-so-good-at-killing-israelis

It’s so hard to say who’s in the right in this conflict. On one side you’ve got facts and evidence and a nonstop deluge of raw video footage documenting massacres of civilians day after day after day, but on the other side you’ve got people calling you an anti-semite if you disagree with them. It’s very complicated.

Latin America and the Caribbean Stand With Palestine: Israel Viewed as a US Proxy https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/17/latin-america-and-the-caribbean-stand-with-palestine-israel-viewed-as-a-us-proxy/