All the religions have extremists in them. The politicians and the mainstream media pick and choose which one to shame or applaud according to their political and financial interests
Religion is the biggest fraud perpetrated on the world in the history humankind..If ever there was a thing that could be twisted into pushing an agenda that seeks to dominate and control people, the idea of “God” is it..
I just hope that when day to day Americans looks back on this Trump movement or the radical Rabbis their government funded or even the right wing islamists their government trained, they have more empathy for how and why radicalization comes about.
We also have to remember that those of us born in the US usually do not have the hundreds and thousands of years of historical hatred as part of their DNA. My ex-husband was Iranian and he talked about Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great as if these wars happened in his or his parents' lifetime. While the US fought a war for our independence, and another war over slavery, most Americans don't hate the UK or the southern states that succeeded (although the fixation over the Confederacy is another issue and too many hate their neighbors). I don't have a solution, but hatred only begets more hatred.
Advocates of peace and nonviolence are often accused of being foolish and naive and not understanding how the world really works, but is there any belief more foolish than the belief that if you could just kill enough people, you'd finally have peace?
I completely agree that if a Muslim said the same thing, all hell would've broken loose (that depraved maniac Douglas Murray would've been barking incessenatly like a rabid dog on Talk TV). But as we all know, this Orwellian age that we live in allows the powers that be to equate criticizing the actions of a state to racism default (the "egregious smear" that anti-Zionism is "ipso-facto" anti-Semitic as Mehdi argued on I-squared).
But calls to "kill 'em all" such as those made by the nutjob quoted in this article aren't anything new. Such vitriol has been spewed by the Israeli establishment for decades, which demonstrates that the intent to eliminate every last remnant of Palestinian existence between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea has been a cornerstone of Zionism from the get go. Here's a little sampler platter of some of the most unappetizing of statements made by the leaders of this settler-colonial movement that morphed into the Apartheid state we know of today:
- “Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” (Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.)
- David Ben Gurion in 1948: “We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do return.” He assured his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come back to their homes. “The old will die and the young will forget.”
- “I don’t know something called International Principles. I vow that I’ll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child’s existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I’ve killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in 1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian women is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do.” (Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in an interview with General Ouze Merham, 1956)
- “How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.” (Prime Minister Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.)
- “The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war.” (Israeli Gen. Matityahu Peled, Ha’aretz, March 19, 1972.)
- “We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.” (Rafael Eitan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces — Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot, April 13,1983, New York Times, April 14, 1983.)
- “Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” (Ariel Sharon, addressing, as foreign minister, a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party (Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998))
I'm totally disgusted with the Israelis now - how can they condone this horrific continuous assault on the Gazan population? The conclusion is they want to wipe them out as Hitler wanted to wipe the Jews our in Europe- they are doing what was done to them - shameful & so bloody wrong!
Hi, Mehdi, so impressed with your work, keep it up.
Question; it appears the world is regressing, in terms of human rights, and general human rights… is this just an optical illusion created by the relatively new phenomenon of 24 hour news and social media feeds, or are things really getting worse?…
Congratulations, Mehdi, on your integrity and courage. Doing the right things is not easy under such a difficult circumstance. Love the name Zeteo, seeking the truth.
It is true that journalism is becoming a dangerous profession. It's unfortunate that independent journalists who relentlessly pursue the truth and hold those in power accountable are becoming a dying breed. They absolutely deserve to be placed on the “Endangered Species List”. Even reporting a single, irrefutable story can lead to their termination and ruin their professional career for good.
For the sake of democracy it’s our duty to support the few brave journalists and reporters.
Mehdi, I never do paid subscriptions to anything but felt compelled to subscribe to and support your work. For years your voice and analysis has been important and now, given the current state of affairs, it is more important than ever. Unfortunately for me, I left Aljazeera before you were there but I hope to meet you in the future and thank you in person. I look forward to being a continued supporter of Zeteo. All the best.
Israel keeps murdering parents and wonders why the children grow up wanting revenge
Wonderfully written article. Clear, concise and very scary… reading about the lack of moral fortitude all around.
All the religions have extremists in them. The politicians and the mainstream media pick and choose which one to shame or applaud according to their political and financial interests
Religion is the biggest fraud perpetrated on the world in the history humankind..If ever there was a thing that could be twisted into pushing an agenda that seeks to dominate and control people, the idea of “God” is it..
Hamas would not exists if not for zionists extremism.
I just hope that when day to day Americans looks back on this Trump movement or the radical Rabbis their government funded or even the right wing islamists their government trained, they have more empathy for how and why radicalization comes about.
We also have to remember that those of us born in the US usually do not have the hundreds and thousands of years of historical hatred as part of their DNA. My ex-husband was Iranian and he talked about Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great as if these wars happened in his or his parents' lifetime. While the US fought a war for our independence, and another war over slavery, most Americans don't hate the UK or the southern states that succeeded (although the fixation over the Confederacy is another issue and too many hate their neighbors). I don't have a solution, but hatred only begets more hatred.
And this is the reason of have subscribed. Thank you
Advocates of peace and nonviolence are often accused of being foolish and naive and not understanding how the world really works, but is there any belief more foolish than the belief that if you could just kill enough people, you'd finally have peace?
I completely agree that if a Muslim said the same thing, all hell would've broken loose (that depraved maniac Douglas Murray would've been barking incessenatly like a rabid dog on Talk TV). But as we all know, this Orwellian age that we live in allows the powers that be to equate criticizing the actions of a state to racism default (the "egregious smear" that anti-Zionism is "ipso-facto" anti-Semitic as Mehdi argued on I-squared).
But calls to "kill 'em all" such as those made by the nutjob quoted in this article aren't anything new. Such vitriol has been spewed by the Israeli establishment for decades, which demonstrates that the intent to eliminate every last remnant of Palestinian existence between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea has been a cornerstone of Zionism from the get go. Here's a little sampler platter of some of the most unappetizing of statements made by the leaders of this settler-colonial movement that morphed into the Apartheid state we know of today:
- “Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” (Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.)
- David Ben Gurion in 1948: “We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do return.” He assured his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come back to their homes. “The old will die and the young will forget.”
- “I don’t know something called International Principles. I vow that I’ll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child’s existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I’ve killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in 1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian women is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do.” (Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in an interview with General Ouze Merham, 1956)
- “How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.” (Prime Minister Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.)
- “The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war.” (Israeli Gen. Matityahu Peled, Ha’aretz, March 19, 1972.)
- “We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.” (Rafael Eitan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces — Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot, April 13,1983, New York Times, April 14, 1983.)
- “Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” (Ariel Sharon, addressing, as foreign minister, a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party (Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998))
Thank you for your coverage!
I'm totally disgusted with the Israelis now - how can they condone this horrific continuous assault on the Gazan population? The conclusion is they want to wipe them out as Hitler wanted to wipe the Jews our in Europe- they are doing what was done to them - shameful & so bloody wrong!
Hi, Mehdi, so impressed with your work, keep it up.
Question; it appears the world is regressing, in terms of human rights, and general human rights… is this just an optical illusion created by the relatively new phenomenon of 24 hour news and social media feeds, or are things really getting worse?…
Congratulations, Mehdi, on your integrity and courage. Doing the right things is not easy under such a difficult circumstance. Love the name Zeteo, seeking the truth.
It is true that journalism is becoming a dangerous profession. It's unfortunate that independent journalists who relentlessly pursue the truth and hold those in power accountable are becoming a dying breed. They absolutely deserve to be placed on the “Endangered Species List”. Even reporting a single, irrefutable story can lead to their termination and ruin their professional career for good.
For the sake of democracy it’s our duty to support the few brave journalists and reporters.
They matter now more than ever.
Mehdi, I never do paid subscriptions to anything but felt compelled to subscribe to and support your work. For years your voice and analysis has been important and now, given the current state of affairs, it is more important than ever. Unfortunately for me, I left Aljazeera before you were there but I hope to meet you in the future and thank you in person. I look forward to being a continued supporter of Zeteo. All the best.
Oppression breeds violence