NM's blog

Creative destruction? 'Capitalist development' on the blood and bones of Palestinians Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa said that plan sought to “erase Gaza's indigenous character, turn what remains of her people into a cheap labour force to manage their ‘industrial zones’ and create an exclusive coastline for ‘tourism’.” “The indigenous traditions and social fabric of this land will be obliterated utterly,” she   said  on X. Saudi Arabia has been doing it at home.  'The freedom fighter' Zelensky has not accept Kushner's invitation to a coming not out of principle, but because Putin too is invited. The UK has expressed the same reaction.

Excerpts from a long, very engaging and thought provoking interview.  The colonisation of Palestine is an intrinsic “moment” in the history of European imperialism (beginning with the British Empire, followed by the French Empire, and continued to this day by Israel’s close association with the “Western” powers, which provide it with funding, weapons and diplomatic protection). It enacts its extreme forms (settler colonialism, which replaces the indigenous people with settlers, directing their expulsion and then elimination) and extends the imperialist enterprise even beyond its supposed historical endpoint. It uses the consequences of the extermination of the Jews of Europe as an opportunity, a (demographic and intellectual) resource, and an ideological cover. I would propose a critical variation on this scenario which, I hope, does not disregard its general truth. It is certainly true that Zionism, since its founding fathers (Herzl, Weizmann), has been both a typically “European”...

A sharp critique of  Hamid Dabashi’s   After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization The first essential question arises:  What, exactly, is the West?  Is it a set of institutions? A ruling class? States? Ideologies? Or is it a civilizational essence? The book offers no clear answer. Instead, it moves through sweeping formulations that turn the West into a spectral totality — a ghostly abstraction that, precisely when it should point its finger at concrete structures, replaces them with metaphors. The result is a perilous slippage: the real machinery that produces, distributes, and normalizes violence disappears, replaced by a single icon —  “white civilisation.”  But who constructs this civilization? Who fights within it? What contradictions tear through its interior? Here lies the book’s central flaw: its analysis does not  explain  power; it  assigns  essence. Instead of asking  which institutions, with...

  Pat, who is 85, was detained in Manchester yesterday under section 13 of the Terrorism Act after standing with a sign that read “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine action.” She kept it on display as a matter of principle, which resulted in her arrest.

“Colombia illustrates not only the impossibility of socialism – ecological or otherwise – in one country, but also the futility of attempts at energy transition in one country. The uniqueness of the Colombian experiment is its greatest weakness: all other major energy producers in Latin America – Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Mexico – are throwing themselves into the global frenzy for fossil fuels and accelerating production as fast as possible, even if governed by parties and presidents nominally of the left. As long as this remains the case, as long as Colombia is an isolated anomaly, there will be no progress, and Colombia itself is likely to slide back into business-as-usual.” Colombia, politics of life, and Palestinian resistance Related   Between the politics of life and the geopolitics of death

“The US labor movement has never been neutral: its union officialdom has a more-than-century-long history of allying with Zionism .”

In such a militarised society, impunity is a national value

Children in the firing line

 

According to an ARD-DeutschlandTREND survey released on Thursday, a day before Merz's announcement, 66% of Germans want their government to put more pressure on Israel to change its behaviour. Most strikingly perhaps, only 31% of Germans feel they have a bigger responsibility for Israel due to their history - a core tenet of German foreign policy - while 62% do not.

A list by the Washington Post

From an interview with a former U.S special forces green beret

The writer and activist of the Israeli pacifist left  David Grossman on the war in Gaza: "Now, with immense pain and a broken heart, I must acknowledge what is happening before my eyes — a genocide."

"The image of the Gaza child consumed by hunger casts a harsh light on the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Netanyahu government. It has triggered global awareness. A first step toward ending Israel's impunity?" I think not. Israel has been / will be defeated politically, but sooner or later, there will be an end to the 'war', a new Israeli government and the 'Israeli state' will be salvaged by internal and external powers. Any Palestinain state will be a non-viable state depended on some Western powers, even without US approval, and on Israel and the Arab regimes. 

The dark art of spinning a war

Review of  Un Historien à Gaza: Un témoignage de première main  

A long [6400 words] but good summary and analysis by Adam Shatz . Here is a selection: – The United States has given its imprimatur to Israel’s regional hegemony. – When Trump made plain that he wanted Israel to stop bombing [Iran], Netanyahu had little choice but to acquiesce. – Israel also appears to be pursuing a long-range plan to weaken, if not to render defenceless, the other states in the region, so that none is in a position to challenge it. The instability and precariousness of such an order are evident to American and European politicians, but they prefer to remain discreet about them for fear of being accused of sympathy for Hamas or antisemitism. – For all Trump’s triumphalism, the ‘twelve-day war’, far from having ended Iran’s search for a nuclear weapon, may accelerate it. – Israel now has control of the airspace over Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria – almost boundless room for manoeuvre – and has always favoured unilateral military assertion over diplomacy. – Netanyahu ...

“And just as Israel’s allies in the region have already helped shoot down Iranian missiles, we can be certain that Western governments will come readily to Israel’s defence — both rhetorically and materially — ensuring it can continue its attacks.  “This is the overwhelming lesson Israel has drawn from the past 20 months amid its intensifying onslaught on Gaza: there is no limit to what the world will let it get away with. Now, as it bombs its sixth neighbouring state or occupied territory in less than two years, there should be no doubt that impunity is the lifeblood of Israel’s far-right government, and the fuel driving its spiralling aggression. Until it runs up against firm international resistance, it will not cease in its campaign to militarily re-engineer the entire region.” International resistance is not specified. Personally, I understand that Ben Reif means governments  resistance. Reif like any liberal and a few leftists has faith in 'international l...