Paul Craig Roberts

Those who have followed the Republican campaign for the presidential nomination and current contest between Romney and Obama know that the United States has no political leadership in Washington.

Billions of dollars have been spent on political propaganda, but not a single important issue has been addressed. The closest the campaign has come to a political issue is which candidate can grovel the lowest at the feet of Israeli prime minister Netanyahu. Romney won that contest. But for the rest, well, it is like two elementary school children sticking their tongues out at one another.

The question of US political leadership has been on my mind for some time. I can remember when political leadership still existed and when bipartisan cooperation could be mustered on enough issues to keep the country and the government functioning.

But no more. It might have been Newt Gingrich who, as Speaker of the House, destroyed bipartisan cooperation by making war on the Democratic Party, warfare that Karl Rove has taken to a new height.

When a country loses leadership, how does a country get leadership back? This is an important question. Without leadership, there is only violence. Once the Romans lost their republic, there was no one to lead them and they were ruled by violence. Will this be our fate?

These thoughts were in my mind when I happened to hear Cynthia McKinney speak. Here was a leader, a person with sufficient fire, knowledge, and compassion for others. Cynthia McKinney served six terms in the House of Representatives as a Democrat from Georgia. In 2008 she was the Green Party’s candidate for president. As a US Representative, Cynthia McKinney defied the cowardly Nancy Pelosi and introduced articles of impeachment against President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

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Stephen Lendman

Photo: Palestinians run to avoid the effects of tear gas, thrown by Israeli soldiers during a protest against Israel excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, in the West Bank town of Hebron (AP/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

How do Palestinians manage every day? How do they deal with state-sponsored denial of their rights? How do they survive under suffocating conditions?

Where will they live once Israel steals all parts of Judea and Samaria it wants? It's grabbing it durum by dunum. What Palestinians lived on peacefully for centuries is fast disappearing.

On September 21, 30 organizations urged Quartet action to keep Palestinian villages from disappearing. They include:

ActionAid; Amnesty International; Broederlijk Delen; Care International; Caritas Jerusalem; Comet- ME; Danish Church Aid (DCA); Diakonia; Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI); World Council of Churches; EWASH; GVC (Gruppo di Volontariato Civile); HelpAge International; Human Rights Watch (HRW); Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC); Islamic Relief; Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation; MAP UK; medico international; Norwegian Church Aid (NCA); Norwegian People's Aid (NPA); Oxfam; Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH); Prèmiere Urgence-Aide Médicale Internationale; SEBA; The Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC); Terre des Hommes Italia (TdH); The Carter Center; The Overseas NGO; War Child; and World Vision Jerusalem-West Bank-Gaza.

In Hebron Hills alone, 13 Palestinian villages are targeted for demolition. Their residents face eviction. Its ongoing. Demolition and displacement rates hit a three-year high.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) said Israel destroyed 467 structures and 140 houses in 2012. Over 700 Palestinians were displaced. Since 1967, Israel destroyed around 27,000 Palestinian structures. Information comes from the Israeli Interior Ministry, Jerusalem Municipality, Civil Administration, UN bodies and agencies, Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups, ICAHD's field monitoring, and other sources.

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Stephen Lendman

America betrayed them and all Native Peoples. Throughout US history and earlier, genocide was policy.

Historian Ward Churchill explained four centuries of systematic slaughter. It went on from 1492 - 1892. It continues today against Native culture. Churchill estimated around 100 million Native People throughout the Americas "hacked apart with axes and swords, burned alive and trampled under horses, hunted as game and fed to dogs, shot, beaten, stabbed, scalped for bounty, hanged on meathooks and thrown over the sides of ships at sea, worked to death as slave laborers, intentionally starved and frozen to death during a multitude of forced marches and internments, and, in an unknown number of instances, deliberately infected with epidemic diseases."

Destruction of their culture continues in new forms. "The American holocaust was and remains unparalleled, in terms of its scope, ferocity, and continuance over time." Silence and denial suppress what happened and goes on today. Try finding coverage anywhere by America's major media. Virtually nothing is said, let alone explained. Survivors represent a tiny fraction of original numbers. They also symbolize a longstanding US tradition of butchery and viciousness. After centuries of systematic slaughter, Census Bureau data estimated around a quarter-million US survivors. Those living struggle to get by.

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