Stephen Lendman

It's longstanding Israeli policy. Palestinians aren't wanted. Israel considers them subhuman. It wants them eliminated. It wants Jewish exclusivity. It wants maximum Jews and minimum Arabs. Israel's entire history is blood-drenched. Depravity defines it. It's longstanding genocidal war on Palestine reflects it. In 1985, then Israeli president Chaim Herzog said:

"We are certainly not willing to make partners of the Palestinians in any way in a land that was holy to our people for thousands of years. There can be no partner with the Jews of this land."

Former Israeli military leader Moshe Dayan urged treating Palestinians like dogs.

They're denied fundamental human and civil rights. Israel spurns peace and stability. Militarized occupation harshness persists. Rule of law principles don't matter. War without mercy is waged preemptively whenever Israel wishes. Victims are blamed for its crimes.

Imagine living in limbo under a foreign occupier. Imagine being denied self-determination. Imagine having no control over your daily life. Imagine living in constant fear. Imagine being economically strangled. Imagine being collectively punished. Imagine being denied free expression and movement. Imagine Gaza's suffocating blockade. Imagine isolated West Bank population centers. Imagine closed borders, curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, electric fences, and separation walls. Imagine daily Kristallnacht in Palestine. Imagine hellish state terror. Imagine normal life denied. Imagine torture as official Israeli policy. Imagine mass arrests and imprisonments. Imagine thousands of Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israel's gulag. Imagine their brutal treatment. Imagine it for wanting to live free on their own land in their own country. Imagine land and resource theft, targeted assassinations, and diaspora Palestinians prevented from returning to land rightfully theirs. Imagine Israeli security forces given authority to kill, brutalize, and otherwise collectively punish Palestinians with impunity. Imagine them taking full advantage. Imagine them being promoted, decorated or otherwise honored for cold-blooded murder and brutality. Imagine justice denied. Imagine Western leaders supporting Israeli genocide.

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The Saker

Yesterday, I watched with interest a talkshow called "The Right to Know" which featured an hour long interview with Sergei Lavrov (those who understand Russian can watch it here). It was an interesting exchange between Lavrov and five Russian reporters. It was not important enough to warrant translating it all into English, but I want to share with you something which I had noticed in the past but which was powerfully expressed during this conversation.

Predictably, the topics included the civil war in the Ukraine, the status of the investigation about the shooting down of MH17, sanctions against Russia, the expansion of NATO, the negotiations in Minsk and Russia's engagement with the BRICS countries.

All all these topics, the Q&A had a similar format. One of the reporters asked Lavrov to comment on what appeared to be a dead-end situation and Lavrov confirmed saying "we tried our best, but to our great regret, that had no effect". What was so interesting is that while the reporters were expressing bafflement that things had gone so far, Lavrov's reaction was "yes, you are right, this is truly hopeless". The overall effect was one of a PTA meeting discussing some hopelessly stupid and incapable student. Except the "student" in this case was the entire West.

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