We are ending a year and starting a year with the transfer of all unresolved problems. I truly do hope that everyone takes time to be happy and expectant about the potential of a New Year to support personal progress. And to that end I hope we will all continue to make time to better understand the unresolved political dilemmas at all levels of government - from on the block to international - which need our clarity of understanding. Resolving political issues and making personal progress are not mutually exclusive. They are far more intertwined than many seem to realize.
So I am posting these four videos to remind and encourage folks of the need to better understand and clarify opinions about the Israel-Palestine issues. Our U.S. government policies are way off base about them, so too is main stream media content. Very clearly both ignore the facts of history and instead choose to parrot and support what has become twisted truth propaganda, that has spiraled our nation into unending armed conflict in a region our nation has no business trying to manage for itself or at the behest of any other nation. Is not the current impeachment dilemma about the undue influence of other nations in our own nation's political processes? Yet one of the most long-term damaging of outside dictates from another nation remains unspoken - avoided like the elephant in the living room, the bull in the china-closet - making a caricatured clichés of our nation in the process.
I have chosen three videos of civilized outrage from 2011 which actual teach peaceful resistance - being outraged peaceful resistance, personified; plus one video of an interview from two years ago.
Do not bother imagining I am not in my own lane. This interest and the knowledge I have gained from my research IS my lane - and your lane too - precisely because of the "moral support" for immoral illegal crimes my nation provides, and the financial support it provides for the wrong reasons it states. It should not be providing support of criminal violations of international law - all at unjust cost to we, the people, and those who are harmed because of our nation's unholy support. It is everyone's lane in a convey lead by an illegally occupied people. And if you aren't driving too then it is past time to decide if you are on the bus or off the bus.
Note that the dates of the first three are 2011 and the fourth is 2016. It is unfortunate, due to lack of needed progress, that the content of all four remains very current.
Norman Finkelstein, as a consummate professor of history, has perfected
his method of clearly and honestly conveying the crux of every issue he touches on with his characteristic brevity, humility, and wit - though neither of the videos here provide much opportunity for wit.
"Rafeef Ziadah is a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names of their villages in Palestine and still hear the sound of Hadeel (cooing of doves) over Gaza."
Rafeef Ziadah - 'Shades of anger'
So I am posting these four videos to remind and encourage folks of the need to better understand and clarify opinions about the Israel-Palestine issues. Our U.S. government policies are way off base about them, so too is main stream media content. Very clearly both ignore the facts of history and instead choose to parrot and support what has become twisted truth propaganda, that has spiraled our nation into unending armed conflict in a region our nation has no business trying to manage for itself or at the behest of any other nation. Is not the current impeachment dilemma about the undue influence of other nations in our own nation's political processes? Yet one of the most long-term damaging of outside dictates from another nation remains unspoken - avoided like the elephant in the living room, the bull in the china-closet - making a caricatured clichés of our nation in the process.
I have chosen three videos of civilized outrage from 2011 which actual teach peaceful resistance - being outraged peaceful resistance, personified; plus one video of an interview from two years ago.
Do not bother imagining I am not in my own lane. This interest and the knowledge I have gained from my research IS my lane - and your lane too - precisely because of the "moral support" for immoral illegal crimes my nation provides, and the financial support it provides for the wrong reasons it states. It should not be providing support of criminal violations of international law - all at unjust cost to we, the people, and those who are harmed because of our nation's unholy support. It is everyone's lane in a convey lead by an illegally occupied people. And if you aren't driving too then it is past time to decide if you are on the bus or off the bus.
Note that the dates of the first three are 2011 and the fourth is 2016. It is unfortunate, due to lack of needed progress, that the content of all four remains very current.
The Content
Norman Finkelstein, as a consummate professor of history, has perfected
his method of clearly and honestly conveying the crux of every issue he touches on with his characteristic brevity, humility, and wit - though neither of the videos here provide much opportunity for wit.
Norman Finkelstein refusing to entertain nonsensical propaganda of a questioner.
"Rafeef Ziadah is a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names of their villages in Palestine and still hear the sound of Hadeel (cooing of doves) over Gaza."
Rafeef Ziadah - 'We teach life, sir'
Rafeef Ziadah - 'Shades of anger'
And last, from 2016, Norman Finkelstein being interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! The “Big Lie” About Gaza is That the Palestinians Have Been the Aggressors