Pearls and Irritations

From the Committee to Protect Journalists: “The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. As of November 26, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 137 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”

No foreign journalists critical of Israel’s government or military are permitted access to Israel, arguably currently the most actively propagandised population on earth. No journalists from any nation are permitted access by Israel’s government to the lands seized, possessed or fully controlled by Israel.

Journalists as well as humanitarian aid workers have been killed in unprecedented numbers by the Israeli Defence Forces. The oldest newspaper in the country, Haaretz, is threatened with closure by the Israeli Government. From Haaretz, 25 November 2025:

“Like Putin, Erdoğan, and Orbán, Netanyahu is trying to silence a critical, independent newspaper. Haaretz will not balk and will not morph into a pamphlet that publishes messages approved by the government and its leader.”

There is hugely consistent, courageous protest among Jewish Israeli humanitarians at what their nation has come to, is doing on an hourly basis with the essential military and propaganda support of the United States.

That Jewish and combined Jewish-Arab Israeli protest is NOT reported in Western vested-interests media which continues to support racist religio-nationalistic extremism, plus flagrant dispossession, starvation, disruption of every aspect of Palestinian life. And genocide.

The events of 7 October were horrendous. Every violent, premature death in a world possessed by violence, Thanatos worship and war-readiness is horrendous. Every reduction of a complex human existence to a despised epithet is horrendous – and a crime against our common humanity.

The “successful” de-humanising of Palestinians and of “Arabs” more generally, did not begin on 8 October, nor in 1948, nor in 1967. The ability of our human race to vilify “tribes” they regard as so essentially “different” from their own they are unworthy of life remains a primary obstacle to civilising and saving our shared world.

This capacity has been amply demonstrated throughout recorded history, not least in the name of “Christianity”.

Is it worth noting that an earlier supremely radical Jew, Jesus from the town of Nazareth, who lived a short life a mere couple of thousand years ago, defied ALL FORMS OF TRIBAL DEHUMANISING? And of human trafficking. And of refusing hospitality to the “stranger”. And of putting “money making” before the protection of “life”.

He did this through his many recorded actions, his unequivocal words, his life and his death. This included publicly rebuking any suggestion that some lives are intrinsically “purer” and more “worthy” than others.

This Jesus is not the pallid, blue-eyed, sanitised “Jesus loves YOU [and only those “like” you]” of holy pictures. This is not, either, the (obscenely heretical) “Jesus” who “favours” the few with earthly wealth and eternal rewards while the “rest” can literally “go to hell”.

This is a slight, dark Jesus of distinctly “Middle Eastern appearance”, as recorded by historian Josephus, whose aim was to teach us that only clarity about our intricate, intimate, inevitable HUMAN belonging could and can save us. And that waking up to that most simple of truths brings life, not death.

From Israeli Professor Ori Goldberg (via X) @ori_goldberg

9:44 PM · Nov 26, 2024

1/ Is the “detachment of fronts”, the separation of Lebanon and Gaza, a ceasefire with Lebanon as the genocide in Gaza continues, an Israeli victory? To some extent, it is. Israel has forced Hizballah to accept this. I think that it is also proof of Israel’s failure. —>

2/ Why? First, because it refutes Israel’s grand conspiracy – all of this is an Iranian plan to destroy us. Hizballah notified Iran about the ceasefire. Hamas acted alone on October 7th, 2023. There was no Iranian orchestration. Leave the “ring of fire” to Johnny Cash. —>

3/ Should we sign an agreement with the Lebanese government we are also recognising that Hizballah is not an Iranian drone that has hijacked Lebanon. We are legitimising Hizballah. We are also bringing Iran into the circle. We have lost our singularity status. —

4/ We lose also because we will be refuting our own lie – that we can “destroy” our enemies without incurring excessive, debilitating costs to our own lives. I’m not even talking about the moral depravity of the genocide. I am talking about the physics of war. —>

5/ Israel has not even begun to officially pay the costs of this war yet and we are already imploding. Our glorious military – from air defence to infantry – is not up to the task. Don’t be fooled by talk of “occupation”. Our settler thugs are high on their own supply. —>

6/ Israel is not preparing to occupy Gaza. Israel is stuck in the middle of Gaza, clowns to the left and jokers to the right. Try as we might, we can’t rid ourselves of those pesky Gazans. Israel is enclosing itself in the middle of the Strip, barricading before the fall. —>

7/ The genocide has taken on a life of its own. Perhaps that is why Osama Hamdan, Hamas representative in Lebanon, thanked Hizballah for all their help this morning and said Hamas understands the Lebanese need to act independently. Gaza is not a war zone. —>

8/ The arrest warrants issued by the ICC are quite significant. While we categorically deny it, we know. This may all be reversed by the Trump administration. I doubt it. Trump doesn’t care and he doesn’t like Netanyahu. Impunity works till it doesn’t. We are slipping. —>

9/ That said, the fact that our genocide against the Palestinian people continues unimpeded is a crime perpetrated not just by us. It is the willful self-destruction of humanity by humanity itself. The line between humans and deniers of humanity has never been clearer.

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