Chris Floyd

"Too much of nothing can make a man a liar."
~ Bob Dylan

"Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again."
~ Shakespeare, King Lear

It sure was a quiet weekend in the progressive blogosphere, where peace, justice and the alleviation of human suffering is an earnest, burning concern. At Eschaton, Atrios gave an amiable shrug and declared, "I got nothing to say." Digby and her co-pilot, David Atkins, did have a few things to say -- about Sarah Palin, General Pants-Down Petraeus, the grubby "Grand Bargaining" in the Beltway, and several examples of the stupidity and perfidy of right-wing Republicans. The posters at Daily Kos plied the same themes.

But even for those who didn't got nothing to say, it was all very much in a low-key, mopping-up, post-election mode. It seemed as if there were no major news events going on anywhere in the world that involved the violent, unjust infliction of human suffering, with the direct monetary, military and political support of United States government and its entire bipartisan political and media establishments. Nothing that might grab the attention -- even in passing -- of writers publicly and professionally dedicated to discussing and analyzing major news events involving American policy, politics and the media.

Anything like that going on this weekend? Anyone? Digby, Dave? No? Kos and the gang? Anything? Atrios?

Nope. They got nothing.

Not on Friday. Not on Saturday. Not by Sunday evening (as I write this).

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Stephen Lendman

Bullies choose easy adversaries to pummel. Equal fights are shunned. It's the same in schoolyards or battlefields. America and Israel operate this way. They avoid foes able to give as much as they take. Rogue governments never say they're sorry.

During Cast Lead in January 2009, Professor Jeremy Salt wrote "A Message to the brave Israeli Airmen." His comments apply to what's now ongoing.

What’s it like firing missiles at people you can’t see, he asked? Does it help being unable to see who you're killing? Is your conscience eased by inflicting disproportionate force on people unable to fight back and civilian infrastructure? Are you comfortable about slaughtering civilian men, women, children, and infants? Does this weigh on your conscience, or are you at ease? Do you sleep well or have nightmares about men, women and children you killed at home, in beds, kitchens, living rooms, schools, mosques, at work, or at play? Do farmers in their fields, mothers with children, teachers in classrooms, imams in mosques, children at play, the elderly, frail or disabled threaten your security? Do you ever question what you’ve done and why? Have you no shame, no sense of decency, no idea of the difference between right and wrong? Do you know the law? If so, why do you violate it? Doing so makes you complicit in crimes of war and against humanity? Do you know that? Do you blindly follow orders or have a mind of your own? Have you murdered civilians before? Will you do it again if ordered? Will you keep following orders blindly or do the right thing?

"Brave" Israeli airmen, soldiers, sailors, and other security force personnel are cowards. They've acted lawlessly for decades. Palestinian suffering is a way of life. Imagine living every day not sure if you'll live or die. Imagine young children growing up this way. Do Israeli children know what Palestinian ones endure? Are they told? Do they care? Do their parents?

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Khalid Amayreh

The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small ~ Sextus Empiricus

It is very difficult to humanly understand the ongoing pornographic murderous bloodshed in the Gaza Strip at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.

The indiscriminate and callous killings are really beyond the pale of what is humanly acceptable. Zionist Jews, whether we like it or not, are behaving in Nazi-like manner.

It may be politically incorrect to speak in such terms in some capitals such as Washington D.C. and London where the political establishments are thoroughly enslaved by Jewish money and Jewish power.

But the truth must be proclaimed even at the expense of angering some Jewish supremacists who think that non-Jews are sub-humans whose lives have no sanctity.

Take, for example, the Daleou family whose 11 members were completely annihilated in central Gaza Sunday afternoon, 18 November, when an American supplied Israeli F-16 warplane bombed their home with a laser-guided missile, killing the husband, the wife and their 9 children. Now, what sort of human beings or more correctly beasts, would commit such an obscenity? How will they see their faces in the mirror from now on?

Since the beginning of the current murderous aggression on Gaza in which Israel has used hundreds of warplanes, tanks and other state-of-the-art machines of death, as many as 65 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority of them innocent civilians, including more than 20 children. More than 600 others were maimed or injured, many with handicaps that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Israel claims it is killing Palestinian children in self- defense. But Israel is an occupying power that illegally occupies other people's land and continues to build illegal colonies on land that belongs to the Palestinians.

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