Keeping Up With The Jen O'Syders

Keeping Up With The Jen O’Syders

by C.A. Matthews

From time to time, we at The Revolution Continues blog like to get out in the community and see how people are coping and dealing with life in this challenging century. This week we stopped by a local park, and I had a chat on a park bench with a mother of two school-aged sons while her kids played on the playground. Our guest calls herself “an All-American Soccer Mom.” Meet Jennifer O’Syder or “Jen” for short.

TRC: Thanks for chatting with us today, Jen.

Jen: You’re welcome. I must admit when you walked over to me that I was intrigued by your t-shirt’s slogan. What does “Not in our name” mean?

TRC: This shirt was given to me at a peace demonstration held by JVP*. It means we don’t want Israel to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people from their land. We are against the genocide in Gaza and the attacks against Palestinians and others living in the West Bank. We demand that the bombing stop, especially the bombing of hospitals, places of worship, refugee camps, and schools.

Jen: (Wrinkling her nose up and looking rather perplexed.) But...um… I thought those Ay-rabs Philistines were the “bad guys”.

TRC: Do you mean the Palestinians? The are a Semitic people native to the region that is now called Israel. They were forced out of their homes and off their land by Zionist terrorists such as the Stern Gang in 1948.

Jen: Terrorists? The Palestinians have been terrorists for that long?

TRC: No, they have been victimized by Zionist terrorists for more than 80 years now. Some of Zionist terrorist actions against the natives of Palestine started during the time of the Ottoman Empire occupation before World War I. But in 1948 it got much worse. Zionists, mostly from Europe, forced over 700,000 Palestinians off their farms and olive groves and out of their homes and villages. These Israeli terrorists literally stole the natives’ houses and marched the Palestinians, the old and the young, men, women and children, into the desert at gun point.

Jen: But I thought the Israelites have always lived in Israel. Our Bible study teacher told us so.

TRC: The “Israelites” were an ancient Middle Eastern people who claimed that their patriarch Abraham migrated from the east, from the Tigris and Euphrates River Valley region or from what we would call modern-day Iraq. Abraham settled his family in the ancient land of Canaan, and it wasn’t exactly empty—it was full of many native peoples living there. There seems to have been a lot warring with the Israelites claiming God had given them Canaan, and that they had the right to slaughter all its original inhabitants.

Jen: The Israelites were Iraqis? Like that Saddam Hussein guy? (She sticks out her tongue.) Ugh.

TRC: Not quite, but yes, the Israelites were related to the Iraquis and the peoples they intermarried with in what would later become known as Palestine during the Roman Empire times. The Israelites as a group fought and lost a war against their Roman occupiers in the year 70 A.D. and were dispersed. Most migrated to others places within the Roman world and began to intermarry with the people in those lands.

Jen: But if they’re not living in Israel today, then why do we still have Israelites?

TRC: Technically we don’t. The “Israelis” of today are basically Caucasian European peoples who practice the religion of Judaism or those whose family members did, as many younger Israelis claim to be atheists. They started to migrate in numbers to what became the British Mandate of Palestine starting in the 1920s under the banner of Zionism, or the political viewpoint that persons of Jewish ancestry had the right to take back the land of their distant ancestors. 

Jen: So a few Israelites, uh, Israelis, returned home? No problem.

TRC: It became a bigger problem after World War II when ever larger numbers of Jewish persons, who held to the tenets of Zionism, left war-torn Europe and settled in Palestine against the wishes of the British ruling the territory. The British tried their best to keep the peace between these colonizers and the native peoples, but the Zionist newcomers had a lot of weaponry and rich backers overseas. They blew up the King David Hotel in 1946 and killed at least 90 persons, including dozens of British diplomats. Then the Zionists launched a series of terrorist attacks against the Palestinians that built up to the 1948 Nakba, which translates to “catastrophe” or “holocaust,” forcing the Palestinians from their homes at the cost of many lives.

Jen: So, the Jews started their own holocaust against the Ay-rabs? Guess they’d be experts at that sort of thing, huh? (Snorting and chuckling.) But I thought they were all supposed to go and live in Israel anyways.

TRC: Uh, no, people who practice the religion of Judaism can and do live all over the world today. They aren’t confined to one country. Some even live in our town. For example, there’s a synagogue not too far from this park.

Jen: Yeah, I’ve driven past it, but it’s not a proper temple like the real Jews are supposed to worship in. Our preacher told us that the Jews are all supposed to go to Jerusalem to worship at the big temple there. Once they all get there and do that, then the End Times begin, and Jesus will come and take us, his chosen people, to heaven and send the rest of you to hell.

TRC: Okay… So, you’re saying that the fate of the world rests on one religious group moving to a particular city in the Middle East to perform a particular style of worship in order for your religious group to reach the afterlife?

Jen: No, not the afterlife—heaven. It’s really important that all those Jews who rejected Jesus be corralled together in one spot called Israel so he can zap them and send them to hell for having him crucified.

TRC: Hmm...Interesting. It was actually the Romans who had Jesus crucified. Does that mean all the citizens living in modern-day Rome will get “zapped” too?

Jen: (Shrugging.) Well, maybe. I don’t know. If they’re Jewish, they’ll all be in Israel anyway and can get zapped there. But what’s the big deal? We tell all the Jews in the world to go live in Israel. It’ll get them out our cities here where all they do is cheat people at banking and jewelry sales.

TRC: (Sighing) And open up more acting jobs and stand-up comedy gigs for non-Jewish persons?

Jen: Now you’re getting it!

TRC: But the Palestinian people also live in the modern state of Israel and deserve to have homes where their ancestors lived too, right? Some of them are Christian. The Israelis bombed the third oldest church in Christendom, St. Porphyrius, recently and destroyed it, killing and injuring many people. Don’t you as a practicing Christian find that upsetting?

Jen: Maybe if they were “real Christians” that didn’t worship Mary and their graven idols and paintings on the ceilings so much, I’d find it upsetting. But they’re fakes, so if they get bombed, then so be it. The Israelites—I mean Israelis have got to have more room to squish in all the Jews from around the world into one place so Jesus can come again to rule with grace and mercy.

TRC: How “merciful” is it to bomb hospitals, schools, and refugee camps where children and their families are located? Do little children who may or may not be “real Christians” deserve to die such horrible deaths?

Jen: Jesus did say something along the lines of “suffer the little children” so perhaps that’s what he meant. (Shrugging.) I don’t know. They’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time so they get to suffer. Besides, if they’re Ay-rabs they’re not going to amount to much in the long run really, are they? They’re not as smart as white people because they can’t make their letters right. Their writing looks like so many squiggles.

TRC: (Sighing.) Yeah, it’s not like they were smart enough to invent the Arabic numerals that we all use alongside the Roman alphabet, is it?

Jen: Huh? (A commotion draws her attention to the playground.) Hey! Jimmy! Get off that thing right now!

Jimmy: (Shouting back) But we’re swinging together! We can go faster and higher together!

Jen: Not with that wetback, you don’t! Billy—go get your brother off that swing pronto!

Billy: But Mom… They’re having fun. They ain’t doing anything wrong.

Jen: I don’t need to tell you that we don’t mess around with people with skin the color of mud. It might rub off on us. (Curling her hand into a fist.) Get your little brother off that swing right now before I make you regret the day you were born!

TRC: “Suffer the little children,” right Jen?

Jen: Hey, I don't mean to sound crass, but people die all the time. Some just get to die younger than others. If Israelis want to bomb a bunch of Ay-rabs kids into the dust and wipe them off the face of the earth, who am I to tell them they’re wrong? For Jews, they at least got the right idea about not mixing the races. If their ancestors hadn’t slept with all those filthy Canaanites, they probably wouldn’t have killed Jesus. Our preacher says there’s more than a grain of truth in that.

TRC: (Nodding.) I’m sure he or she does.

Jen: He, of course. Women shouldn’t be leading others in worship. They’re not good enough to in God’s eyes. Not smart enough to interpret scripture for themselves.

TRC: (Rising from the park bench.) I sort of figured you’d say that. It’s been interesting talking with you today, Jen O’Syder. Take care.

Jen: You’re welcome. Where you going now?

TRC: I’m going to go over to swing with that little boy who was enjoying his double swing with Jimmy. Maybe we can swing together high enough to reach a low Earth orbit. I feel like leaving the planet about now.

 

*JVP stands for “Jewish Voice for Peace,” an anti-war, pro-Palestinian group of Jewish persons and their allies. Learn more about them at: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

 *  *  *

November 20 was World Children's Day.

World Children’s Day, celebrated annually on November 20, is a global initiative promoting children’s rights, safety, education, health and happiness.

It comes this year amid Israel’s war on Gaza. About half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people are children.

Since October 7, Israeli attacks have killed at least 5,500 children, according to Palestinian officials. That is one Palestinian child killed every 10 minutes, or about one out of every 200 children in the Gaza Strip.

An additional 1,800 children are missing under the rubble, most of them presumed dead. A further 9,000 children have been injured, many with life-changing consequences. Many of these children have lived through the trauma of multiple wars.

This infographic online at Al Jazeera lists the names and ages of less than half of those children killed over the past six weeks.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links 

Fifteen Things You Should Never Have To Say To A Country https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/fifteen-things-you-should-never-have

 

Israel Propaganda Vs Palestine Propaganda https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-propaganda-vs-palestine-propaganda

 

WATCH: Israeli children sing, "We will annihilate everyone" in Gaza, against a background of destruction

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-israeli-children-sing-we-will-annihilate-everyone-gaza

Poll Shows American Support for Israel Is Cratering Amid Its Violent Siege https://truthout.org/articles/poll-shows-american-support-for-israel-is-cratering-amid-its-violent-siege/

Poll: Majority of Americans Support a Ceasefire in Gaza
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/11/15/poll-majority-of-americans-support-a-ceasefire-in-gaza/

***MUST READ: Don’t blame Israel, blame a “weak” Washington https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/dont-blame-israel-blame-a-weak-washington

Panic as Gaza’s al-Shifa evacuates, Israel army denies ordering it to do so https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/18/israel-gives-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-one-hour-to-evacuate

Israel-Hamas war live: ‘At least 50’ dead in Israeli strike on Gaza school https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/11/18/israel-hamas-war-live-conditions-worsen-as-another-baby-dies-at-al-shifa

Is History Repeating Itself in Israel-Palestine? https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/is-history-repeating-itself-in-israel

Probe Shows 126+ Civilians Killed by Israeli Airstrike Targeting 'Just One Guy' https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-bomb-refugee-camp

The US Has A Standing Policy Of Ignoring The Human Rights Violations Of Its Allies https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-has-a-standing-policy-of-ignoring    

Tone Policing Opposition To Genocide https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/tone-policing-opposition-to-genocide

PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Banality of Propaganda https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/14/patrick-lawrence-the-banality-of-propaganda/

Israelis Keep Hurting Their Own PR Interests By Talking https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israelis-keep-hurting-their-own-pr

NYT Runs Interference for IDF as It Bombs Jabalia Refugee Camp https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/17/nyt-runs-interference-for-idf-as-it-bombs-jabalia-refugee-camp/ 

They're Just Insulting Our Intelligence At This Point
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/theyre-just-insulting-our-intelligence

My tense exchange on a train with Sen. Chris Coons over Gaza
https://www.aaronmate.net/p/a-tense-exchange-on-a-train-with

Canada/US' quiet motive for backing Israel's genocide
https://truthb.substack.com/p/canadaus-quiet-motive-for-backing

Don’t be fooled. Biden is fully signed up to genocide in Gaza https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/dont-be-fooled-biden-is-fully-signed

Over 1,200 ‘Educators for Palestine’ Sign Open Letter Demanding Ceasefire https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/16/over-1200-educators-for-palestine-sign-open-letter-demanding-ceasefire/

GAZA ON THE BRINK - LIVE WITH LOWKEY AND AARON MATÉ https://chroniclesofhaiphong.substack.com/p/gaza-on-the-brink-live-with-lowkey

Criminalization of First Amendment-Protected Pro-Palestinian Speech Is Spreading https://truthout.org/articles/criminalization-of-first-amendment-protected-pro-palestinian-speech-is-spreading

With more than 10,000 Palestinians killed in the last month, Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of refugee camps, and an ever-widening ground invasion in Gaza, it’s critical that student activists and people at large can gather, protest and exercise their right to speak freely.

When political speech is criminalized, it renders the First Amendment meaningless. Collectively, we must demand that universities and colleges continue to honor student organizations’ right to freedom of expression, and we must demand the same from our elected officials and law enforcement. Now is not the time for silence.  

Official Israeli Investigation Determines IDF Helicopters Killed Civilians on October 7 https://twitter.com/AliAbunimah/status/1725958732113162579

Israel Doesn't Have A Gen-Z Problem, It Has A Morality Problem https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-doesnt-have-a-gen-z-problem

America Inc. with Lee Camp: Top 11 Companies Supporting Israel’s Crimes  https://youtu.be/Jvz5_yvfwLE?si=UR85uo7TtgWK0433

Israel Is Shutting Down Its Human Laboratory In Gaza https://popularresistance.org/israel-is-shutting-down-its-human-laboratory-in-gaza/

Meet The Activists Fighting Zionism With Direct Action

https://popularresistance.org/meet-the-activists-fighting-zionism-with-direct-action/

Palestinians File Emergency Motion to Block US Aid for Israel’s Genocide in Gaza https://truthout.org/articles/palestinians-file-emergency-motion-to-block-us-aid-for-israels-genocide-in-gaza/

A Graveyard For Children (Censored)

 

 

This week's blog has been censored by Blogspot. You can find it in full at Substack at https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com  Thank you for your understanding.

 

A state whose existence requires the mass murder of children every few years is not a state that should continue to exist. --Caitlin Johnstone, Getting Called A Nazi For Opposing A Genocide 

A Graveyard For Children

words and peace demo photos by C. A. Matthews

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” a UNICEF spokesperson says. “It’s a living hell for everyone else.”


Admittedly, it’s a difficult concept to wrap your head around. Most of us are taught that children in general are the best and the brightest of humanity. They are our hopes for a better tomorrow, a cherished part of life on Earth. 

Most of us would do anything to protect children and keep them out of harm’s way. Ask parents what is the worst thing that could ever happen to them in their lives, and the vast majority will state, “Outliving my child.”

The death of one child can affect more than the child’s parents. The loss of a sibling, close cousin, or school friend is often listed as one of the most devastating events of a person’s life. Even the hope of a child who dies before they can take their first breath can devastate a family, and perhaps break a marriage apart. I’ve seen this, and their example will never leave me.

At first I thought they were a “normal” family—dad, mom, young school-age daughter—when I met them, but then I began to notice the occasional “lapses” in the mother’s attention She would be talking to you and then something in the conversation would hit her, and she’d stop. Her gaze would look off into a far distance no one else could see. 

I learned that this family had lost another child, younger than their living child, several years earlier. The baby had either been stillborn or died soon after birth, so perhaps they had never even had a chance to bring the baby home from the hospital. But the death was still felt, still mourned, and still haunted their every waking moment.

The father worked his new job hard, but in the few instances I saw him together with his wife and daughter, I could tell that the empty spot their lost child would have filled had left a void that neither he or his wife could cross or heal. Their young daughter was active and friendly, but often when interacting with her parents I noticed a quietness and sadness that seemed beyond her years. Even if she couldn’t remember her lost sibling, she intuited that something important was missing from all their lives.

Now take this tragic experience of utter loss and devastation and multiply it times...I don’t know, let’s multiply it times a billion. This is what losing 5,000+ children feels like to an entire nation. This is what the war crime of genocide feels like to the Palestinian people.

What sort of person would inflict such a sadistic injury upon their neighbors, upon the indigenous people whose land they had stolen 75 years earlier in a supposed attempt to find a peaceful home for themselves? 

There’s no way these Israeli sadists could be good parents themselves. They must secretly hate children or despise their very existence to want to inflict such harm upon little ones. To even think of murdering a child or an innocent adult as a form of “weapon” to use against another demonstrates these sick bastards’ twisted psychopathology.

There’s no other way I can explain this heinous sociopathic behavior. The thought of ethnically cleansing little ones and innocent civilians because you want their land (and possibly the oil and gas reserves beneath their homes) is just beyond the pale. It brings to mind the atrocious behaviors white Americans have perpetrated against African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans through out our nation’s history. Sick, sick, sick!

A loving parent would never do anything intentionally to harm the precious life of their child—or anyone’s precious child—if this parent truly cherishes children. But here we have the Israeli government cutting off water and electricity to Gaza, cutting off food supplies and medicines, and then intentionally bombing hospitals, including a hospital with a children’s ward, a hospital with tiny babies in incubators who need oxygen and heat to survive.

Do the Israeli people not share the same deep instinct to protect children from harm that other people have? Can’t they tell the difference between terrorists and toddlers? What sort of monsters would murder babies in their cradles? Can any other government really trust a government who doesn’t follow the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights?

Are the Israelis who follow Netanyahu the type of individuals who drown unwanted puppies and kittens? Did they tear the wings and legs off of insects when they were younger? Bully the smaller kids on the playground when they were growing up? There must be something in their psychological make-up and history to explain their current murderous behaviors. Nothing they say or do gives us any indication that their desire to commit genocide against the Palestinian people will let up anytime soon.

And then we have the genocide enablers, or more likely genocide collaborators, such as the United States.

Who could be worse than genocidal maniacs Netanyahu and company? Of course it’s anyone who would knowingly fix their star on his genocidal actions and try to ride his coattails. If “Genocide Joe” Biden could wash his hands of Israel and step back and stop all funding of their ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, then the US could be let off the hook. But no...Joe’s gotta be a part of it, up to and including supplying armaments and boots on the ground.

I have to wonder, what’s it like being an American soldier patrolling in the bombed-out ruins of Gaza? I can only assume it’s hellish and heartbreaking. Well, maybe if you have a conscience and care about children and innocent civilians, being bombed into a pulp, it would be heartbreaking. If you’re an American who enjoys drowning unwanted puppies and kittens and tearing the wings and legs off of insects, then you might feel right at home in this nightmare situation.

It’s one thing to call other countries mass murderers and genociders, but to accuse your fellow countrymen of committing war crimes? It’s truly sickening. I don’t know how we will ever be able to beg forgiveness for the US military’s genocidal behavior toward the Palestinians. It’s all too  obvious we’ve learned much from the Nazis we imported after World War II in Operation Paperclip. It’s all too obvious we admire the Neo-Nazis of the Azov Battalion that we continue to fund in Ukraine.

I’m just glad my father and grandfathers aren’t alive to see any of this happening. They’d probably pitch their purple hearts into the gutter in disgust knowing we’ve become genocide collaborators. My mother’s father served alongside General George S. Patton in Europe. They liberated POWs and opened the gates of the Death Camps… Why would they cheer on the US military of today conspiring to do the same things Hitler’s minions did at Auschwitz?

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,”  according to a United Nations spokesperson. The leaders who put them there, their murderers Netanyahu and Biden, need to be held accountable for their war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Nothing less will satisfy the tears of their loved ones or meet the need for justice on this woe-begotten planet.

Important Announcement:

There is a massacre taking place before our eyes in Gaza.

WATCH NOW

 https://youtu.be/zrl1FhA1dew?si=9Mf6vx8h-DKBPb6x

Dr. Jill Stein has always condemned violence against civilians on all sides. Yet there is no denying it: Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal. Palestinians are being denied food, water, electricity and medicine, as they are subjected to relentless bombings that even target hospitals. These crimes must stop now.

Jill is calling for an investigation of the Netanyahu regime’s war crimes, as well as the role of Biden and US leadership in aiding and abetting them.

The endless war machine enriches military contractors, lobbyists, and politicians, while it fuels bloodshed and devastation around the world. Please join us in supporting leadership that promotes peace and human rights at home and around the world by leaving a comment, and sharing this video with others who support peace.

Thank you,

Jill Stein for President 2024

P.S. Want to share with your friends? Share Jill’s video on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).

Seen on X/Twitter:

Who is this truth teller? This is a must watch for everyone. https://t.co/QPh9EPbB0V

— Indie (@Indieafterbern) November 11, 2023

https://twitter.com/Indieafterbern/status/1723333522394427730

With the lsraeli-caused power cut in al-Shifa Hospital, medical staffs gather premature babies together in a desperate attempt to keep them alive after three have already passed away. pic.twitter.com/f46EOcELYS

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) November 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/Timesofgaza/status/1723693992410280067

Articles and Other Interesting Links

6 Newborns Die After Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital Runs Out of Fuel Due to Blockade https://truthout.org/articles/6-newborns-die-after-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-runs-out-of-fuel-due-to-blockade/

At least six newborn babies who had to be taken off their incubators at al-Shifa have died as of Monday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with at least 30 others still at risk as doctors are forced to perform manual respiration on the babies to keep them alive. Doctors have said that the babies are likely to die as long as the electricity is out. The blockade has also forced dozens of patients on dialysis to be taken off the treatment, health officials say, meaning that they will likely die within days.

#MurderedByIsrael
https://murderedbyisrael.com/

'I cannot say how long they can last': Gaza newborns face desperate plight as incubators turned off due to power cut https://news.sky.com/story/israel-gaza-war-latest-hamas-al-shifa-hospital-sky-news-live-updates-12978800?postid=6761510#liveblog-body

Chris Hedges: The Horror, The Horror
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/11/chris-hedges-the-horror-the-horror/

The active complicity by the United States is unfathomable. Nothing justifies this. Nothing. And Joe Biden will go down in history as an accomplice to genocide. May the ghosts of the thousands of children he has participated in murdering haunt him for the rest of his life. (...)

We are not hated for our values. We are hated because we have no values. We are hated because rules only apply to others. Not to us. We are hated because we have arrogated to ourselves the right to carry out indiscriminate slaughter. We are hated because we are heartless and cruel. We are hated because we are hypocrites, talking about protecting civilians, the rule of law and humanitarianism while extinguishing the lives of hundreds of people in Gaza a day, including 160 children.

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 36: Al-Shifa Hospital at Epicenter of Gaza Fighting as Fleeing Civilians Are Killed by Israeli Strikes  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/12/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-36-al-shifa-hospital-at-epicenter-of-gaza-fighting-as-fleeing-civilians-are-killed-by-israeli-strikes/

Casualties (As of November 12. Some are estimating the current death toll is nearer to 20,000):

    11,078 killed, including 4,506 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza
    183 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200

'Can You Hear the Screams?' Physician Says Western Leaders Complicit in Israeli Attacks on Gaza Hospitals https://www.commondreams.org/news/physician-gaza-hospitals

IDF Soldiers Torturing and Abusing Palestinians in the West Bank
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/12/graphic-videos-show-idf-soldiers-torturing-palestinians-in-the-west-bank/

“We Have Come to an End”: Palestine Red Crescent Says Gaza’s Hospitals Are Out of Solutions https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/9/nebal_farsakh_ifrc_israel_gaza

Death toll in Gaza likely ‘higher than is being reported’: US official https://thehill.com/policy/international/4301551-gaza-deaths-likely-higher-than-cited-us-official/ 

Palestine was inhabited in the Bronze Age by Canaanites, genetic ancestors of *both* Palestinians & Middle East Jews. Palestinians have been indigenous since 2000 BC.  See:
"Palestinians & their genetic relatedness with other Mediterranean populations" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11802415_HLA_Genes_in_Palestinians_The_Origin_of_Palestinians_and_ 

Their_Genetic_Relatedness_With_Other_Mediterranean_Populations

JOHN PILGER: We Are Spartacus
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/09/john-pilger-we-are-spartacus/

Biden Could End All This With One Phone Call
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/biden-could-end-all-this-with-one

Conflating Jewish and Pro-Israel Is Wrong and Misleading https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/09/conflating-jewish-and-pro-israel-is-wrong-and-misleading/

Dismantle Israel And The Entire US Empire
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/dismantle-israel-and-the-entire-us

Getting Called A Nazi For Opposing A Genocide
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/getting-called-a-nazi-for-opposing/

What Would It Look Like If You Were Standing On The Wrong Side Of History? https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/what-would-it-look-like-if-you-were

Israel-Gaza War Is Deadliest Month for Journalists Covering Conflict in Over 3 Decades https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/05/israel-gaza-war-is-deadliest-month-for-journalists-covering-conflict-in-over-3-decades/

Letter to the Children of Gaza https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/08/chris-hedges-letter-to-the-children-of-gaza/

Protesters Block Traffic in Front of Congress Member’s Home, Demanding Ceasefire https://truthout.org/articles/protesters-block-traffic-in-front-of-congress-members-home-demanding-ceasefire/

“Ceasefire” Shouldn’t Be a Controversial Word
https://truthout.org/articles/ceasefire-shouldnt-be-a-controversial-word/

Holocaust Survivor Says No More! (video) https://youtu.be/vGTI2CBn3WA?si=zeLzAa8gHrBtLtMv

The Jobs Have Gone, But Fallout From Industrial Pollution Still Haunts Detroit  https://truthout.org/articles/the-jobs-have-gone-but-fallout-from-industrial-pollution-still-haunts-detroit/

We Analyzed Over 3.5 Million Written Teacher Comments About Students and Found Racial Bias https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/06/we-analyzed-over-3-5-million-written-teacher-comments-about-students-and-found-racial-bias/

Biden is the Greater and Less Effective Evil https://blackagendareport.org/news/874/33/Biden-is-the-Greater-and-Less-Effective-Evil

Longest Wrongful Conviction Sentence in US Ends in Exoneration
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/07/longest-wrongful-conviction-sentence-in-us-ends-in-exoneration/

US, European Officials Broach the Idea of Peace Talks With Ukraine https://news.antiwar.com/2023/11/05/us-european-officials-broach-the-idea-of-peace-talks-with-ukraine/

The Root Of All Evils

The Root Of All Evils

by C. A. Matthews

 

For the love of Big Oil is the root of all evils. —1 Timothy 6:10 

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve [both] God and Big Oil. —Matthew 6:24

Before you interject, “Hey! That’s not quite what those Bible verses say,” read this short article from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Here’s a blurb:

The Unrealized Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves  28 August 2019

Oil and natural gas resources in the occupied Palestinian territory could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for development. 

Geologists and resources economists have confirmed that the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip, according to a recent UNCTAD study.

Let that information settle into your brain for a bit. You’re a smart person. (You’re reading this blog, aren’t you?) You’re intelligent enough to put two and two together and come up with five, right? What would you do to get your hands on 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas along with an estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil?

More importantly, what wouldn’t you do to get a hold of such a resource?

I know many of my readers are supportive of environmental concerns and would state without hesitation, “I’d do nothing about those oil and gas reserves off the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The burning of fossil fuels is heating up our planet and causing catastrophic climate change—a change we may never be able to recover from as stronger hurricanes, larger floods, and long-lasting droughts become more common. Big Oil has enough blood on its hands already.”

I sincerely appreciate that response. It’s a commendable answer, but let’s venture into the hypothetical realm for a minute, shall we? Let’s pretend we’re not decent, planet-loving individuals but politicians from certain nations. (We discussed what kinds of politicians we generally have in the West in last week’s blog and why we need to get rid of these sociopaths.) Okay, ready to use your imaginations? Let’s go.

We’re politicians of large Western economies and their allies. Our countries are into burning fossil fuels big time, and we’re not planning to stop burning them anytime soon, no matter how often the climate scientists warn us about their downsides. There’s just too much wealth generated by Big Oil concerns to stop oil and gas exploration. We believe strongly in the superiority of capitalism and the making of big profits for our shareholders.

As an added bonus, Big Oil pays us politicos quite well for our work supporting their drilling and fracking. They don’t pay us directly, of course, but they pay us through their lobbyists and political action committees (PACs) that support our campaigns. We’re not about to forget there’s untapped oil and gas reserves off the coast of Gaza and in the West Bank region of what is now known as “Israel” because our bosses in Big Oil will keep reminding us. We’re going to do whatever we can to get our hands on those natural resources, and we’re not going to let anyone or anything get in our way.

To put this argument into the oil man’s vernacular: Drill, baby, drill!

Our minds are made up. We’re going to drill for that oil and gas that’s just sitting there asking for us to take it. We’ll need some land on which to build our oil refineries and start our new pipelines headed north toward Western Europe to sell our oil and gas products, too.  We might even put in a canal near the drilling site to circumvent having to pay another country to ship these products worldwide.

You do know why we need to sell natural gas in particular to Europe, don’t you? In case you’ve forgotten, we blew up a perfectly good liquid natural gas pipeline a year or so back in the Baltic. (More on that story here.) Doing so took out the competition for our oil companies’ gas sales to Europe. Without competition, our oil exporting country sold heating oil to places like Germany for four to six times the previous price they’d paid our competitor.

Unfortunately, shipping all this heating oil to Europe started making our own country’s heating oil and gas prices go through the roof, making our constituents none too happy. It also made them question the billions of dollars in military aid we were giving to a proxy army in order to bankrupt our biggest oil and gas competitor. Oops!

We told our friends in the mainstream media to keep pushing the narrative that our funding of this proxy war was all about protecting “freedom and democracy,” even if the leader of this proxy war had a long track record of absconding with funds. Some of the armaments we sold to him for this proxy war went “missing,” because we didn't keep track of them too closely. These missing armaments eventually ended up in the hands of other not-so-nice people around the world that we’ve said in the past were terrorists. Double oops!

So, we decided that we really have to stop selling so much of our own oil and gas to Western Europe and get the E.U. their fix via this new pipeline we planned to build in the Middle East.

But wait a minute! There are 2.2 million people living on this land where we recently discovered the oil and gas reserves. It’s one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, no less. And these people aren’t interested in us taking their fossil fuel resources from them. They actually want to keep their homes, schools, hospitals, historical landmarks, and houses of worship. They want to keep everything for themselves. Such selfish animals!

I know, I know… What else is new? Indigenous people are always crying over losing their land rights and having their mineral and petroleum resources stolen from right under them. But we in the Western nations know how to shut up indigenous people forever, don’t we? It’s what we’ve always done—we just use our military strength to overpower them and wipe them off the face of the earth or scatter them to the four corners of the globe. After all, we do what it says in the white man’s bible: Might makes right.

And it’s right for us to have control of all that untapped oil and gas, isn’t it? Our main trading currency, the petrodollar, is tied to the price of fossil fuels. We can’t afford to lose control of the world’s markets of oil and gas. We must have it, or else our economies will falter and collapse, and we politicians would be out of work and off the Big Oil gravy train before we knew it.

So, think again: What would you, as a sociopathic politician who is paid well by Big Oil, do to get your hands on that oil and gas? Would you go to war over it? Would you fund a proxy army in a far away country to stop another country from making profits from their own fossil fuels, especially if you could do so without using your own military and risking your own soldiers’ lives? Would you blindly support a Western “ally” in the Middle East, one that you regularly give billions of dollars in aid and military equipment to, and give them carte blanche to wipe out those pesky natives so you can get your oil men on the ground and start the drilling for all that lovely “black gold”?

Would you lose any sleep over exterminating the indigenous people who are in the way? (There's only 2.2 million of them, with half of them age 17 or younger. No big loss there since children can't drive yet.) We’re talking about 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas along with an estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil. What does that amount of fossil fuel translate into dollars? You can't even imagine how much profit there is to be made!

And if your “partner” in this acquisition of petroleum resources first wants to wipe out those savages and bomb all their buildings into rubble so they can be razed? Well, that’s their business, not ours. It’s not like we’ve set a sterling example on how to deal kindly with the indigenous peoples of our own white-settler colonizing project over the past three centuries, now have we? Racists gotta live and make money, too.

I know some of you will balk and say something along the lines of, “But I would never sanction ethnic cleansing just to steal land and drill for oil!” But put yourself into the shoes of the sociopathic leaders of the Western nations and Israel and ask yourself the questions again. You know now what all is at stake, and how much you’ve already invested into this scheme. 

The Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank area are considered racially inferior by Israel, your partner in this oil deal. You have no problem with the Israeli take on these indigenous people. They feel they rightfully deserve to have control over that oil and gas. So, there's no problem taking it from the Palestinians, is there?

Ask yourself the questions again: What would you do to get your hands on 122 trillion cubic foot of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil? What wouldn’t you do to get a hold of such a prize?

Please don’t tell me there aren’t people in Washington DC and in Israel who aren’t more than willing to commit war crimes in order to get that oil and gas and make their Big Oil masters happy. We all know that’s exactly what they’re doing. Capitalists always get their way. 

Money makes the world go round, after all, a capitalist will tell you. What better way to generate it than by drilling for oil and gas?

Why else would the US government want to keep all Israeli aid and military spending talks secret—done without Congressional approval? If the US isn’t committing war crimes alongside the Israeli military already, it certainly sounds like they’re getting ready to do so. And our spineless, sociopathic politicians know the majority of the American public won’t knowingly stand for it and could rebel against them. So, the feds are going to keep their actions quiet and lie about what they're doing for as long as they can get away with it.

“For the love of Big Oil [money] is the root of all evils.”All evils—but especially the evil called genocide. 

Keep protesting and speaking out to expose Big Oil's evils. Stand with others to end the rule of Big Oil's puppets and the entire military-industrial complex. Shut down the genocidal war machine forever.

Related Articles and Interesting Links

The Unrealized Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves

The New Litmus Test https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-new-litmus-test.html

Israel Destroys Gaza to Control World’s Most Important Shipping Lane (video) https://rumble.com/v3t4nim-november-1-2023.html

Biden Wants Arms Deals With Israel to Be Done in Complete Secrecy https://truthout.org/articles/biden-wants-arms-deals-with-israel-to-be-done-in-complete-secrecy/

“This culture of silence is happening even as senior agency officials may acknowledge in private that Israel is committing war crimes, according to the report. “Over the past weeks, as I have heard from numerous officials across both the executive and legislative branches, it has become clear to me that many senior leaders not only fully understand how Israel is currently using U.S.-provided arms in Gaza, but are even, behind closed doors, willing to acknowledge that these actions include ‘war crimes,’” [Josh] Paul told HuffPost. “The fact that none are willing to do so publicly … points to a deep moral rot in our system.”

Israel’s Final Solution for the Palestinians https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/israels-final-solution-for-the-palestinians

Ask the American People Before You Impose a Genocide Tax for Prosperous Israel  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/02/biden-and-congress-ask-the-american-people-before-you-impose-a-genocide-tax-for-prosperous-israel/

Fossil Fuel Firms Bought Lawmakers  https://youtu.be/2qEIOvF5_H0?si=eY0UP2xOArVGEIV8

Israel Is Evicting Palestinians NOT In Gaza https://youtu.be/ESSQhpgOj7w?si=k9wKOYV3gcyv_XZJ

The Moral Complexities Of Bombing A Concentration Camp Full Of Children  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-moral-complexities-of-bombing

As The Lights Go Out In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/as-the-lights-go-out-in-gaza

Israel Has A Directive To Kill Hostages
https://youtu.be/_T5SLfZs5ww?si=Gc_kAMO8-072XQxl

White House in discussions with Israel on deploying US troops to Gaza https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/01/sjlf-n01.html

Israel in Search of Its Hiroshima: Massive Bomb Wipes Out 20 Apt. Buildings, Kills, Wounds 400 Civilians  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/01/israel-in-search-of-its-hiroshima-massive-bomb-wipes-out-20-apt-buildings-kills-wounds-400-civilians/

Israel Apologists Relentlessly Gaslight And Attack Our Sense Of Reality https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-apologists-relentlessly-gaslight

New Document Leak on Plan to Expel Gaza Population https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/31/new-document-leak-on-plan-to-expel-gaza-population/

This is not a war, it's the second Nakba https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/this-is-not-a-war-its-the-second

In Gaza, Biden is an equal partner in Israel’s mass murder
https://www.aaronmate.net/p/biden-is-an-equal-partner-in-israels  

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” a UNICEF spokesperson says. “It’s a living hell for everyone else.”

US Says It's Powerless To Stop The Genocide That It Is Directly Funding And Supplying https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/us-says-its-powerless-to-stop-the

Biden 'Countering Islamophobia' While Incinerating Gaza Is The Most Democrat Thing Ever https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/biden-countering-islamophobia-while

The fight for Palestinian Liberation is a Fight for the Whole Working Class https://unac.notowar.net/2023/10/23/the-fight-for-palestinian-liberation-is-a-fight-for-the-whole-working-class/

This Weekend’s DC Protest Was Largest Pro-Palestine Mobilization in US History https://truthout.org/articles/this-weekends-dc-protest-was-largest-pro-palestine-mobilization-in-us-history/

 

Palestine Solidarity Activists Block Boeing’s Doors to Stop Delivery of Bombs https://truthout.org/articles/palestine-solidarity-activists-block-boeings-doors-to-stop-delivery-of-bombs/

 

Gaza Peace Activists Chain Themselves To Ship Headed To Israel

https://popularresistance.org/gaza-peace-activists-chain-themselves-to-ship-headed-to-israel/

“Killers of the Flower Moon” Shows Wealth-Building Doesn’t End Racial Injustice https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/01/sjlf-n01.html

US Immigration Policy Is Designed to Divide the Working Class
https://truthout.org/articles/us-immigration-policy-is-designed-to-divide-the-working-class/

Only Israel, the United States, and Ukraine Refuse to Stand With Cuba https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/03/only-israel-the-united-states-and-ukraine-refuse-to-stand-with-cuba/

UN Human Rights Committee Calls for Moratorium on Life Without Parole in U.S. https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/03/un-human-rights-committee-calls-for-moratorium-on-life-without-parole-in-u-s/