03 Wednesday Jul 2024
Posted in News and Notes, Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on Vietnam
Tags
This has nothing to do with GAE misadventures or Boomerisms. Thanks to Geopolitika and Bach Long, today for the first time, my ramblings have been translated into Vietnamese.
JULIAN ASSANGE, LẶP LẠI VÀ DÂN CHỦ
Xin chào, những người bạn mới. Chất lượng sẽ được cải thiện vào ngày mai.
28 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on COLUMN: Julian Assange, Repetition, And Democracy
For technical reasons, partly related to a semi-inoperable computer, this one is a little shorter than my average. Pardon. Or you’re welcome.
On June 24, 2024, Julian Assange was finally freed after twelve years of torture and confinement. His ordeal began when he and his Wikileaks media organization made public in 2010 various war crimes committed by the US Empire in Iraq in 2007, including against unarmed civilians. In 2012, he was forced into the Ecuadorian embassy in London. In 2019, he was removed to the dreary Belmarsh prison where he fought trumped-up US criminal charges. As of 2024, the US’s superseding indictment involves one of those insane government conspiracy theories, namely “conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.” The case against Assange is and has been, in legal terms, pure bullshit. If he is afforded First Amendment press protection pursuant to the 1971 Pentagon Papers case (New York Times v. US Empire), then the US has no case. If, as alleged by the US, he enjoys no such protection because he is not a US citizen, then because he was never within the jurisdiction of the US, the US has no case. Of course, as law no longer matters in the rapidly collapsing US, these points are moot. And in Assange’s particular case, a plea deal to cut the losses of all parties is, while not exactly the right thing, an acceptable thing to put an end to this ridiculous charade.
If one listens for a minute or three, one will invariably hear some US officer, agent, or apologist mumble something about “democracy,” “free and democratic,” “rules-base,” “rules-based democracy,” or some other nonsense. One will also note, in addition to the aforementioned legal impossibility, that Assange’s persecution spans the tenure of three US presidents representing both sides of the uniparty. It might be that all that talk about rules and democracy is a lie.
As President Vladimir noted not too long ago, no one knows what those rules are or who empowered the rule-makers. As for democracy, there are different definitions of the concept. Here, I’ll just state H.L. Mencken’s: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Why so many otherwise good and decent people continue to fall for the sham is a great unknown. But fall for it they do. This might lead me into another discussion that I lack the time and computing power for this week.
But democracy, like all trappings of the Enlightenment, is a hoax. In discussing something James Delingpole wrote about Nigel Farage, Vox Day recently opined, “Democracy, particularly in its limited representative form, is nothing more than a sham meant to prevent the volatile public from knowing who truly rules over them. The whole point of the political systems of the modern ‘democracies’ is not to express the will of the people, but rather, prevent it from being realized.”
This is why three US politicians, from both sides of the uniparty, pursue a wicked legal strategy not in the interests of the American people nor of much concern to them. It is also why the American people are gearing up for another fake election involving two of those three puppet politicians, one of whom has demonstrated an inability to deal with the true rulers of the US, and the other an inability to do much more than follow orders from them.
The real rulers keep getting their way and they keep doing the same evil things. Just a few days before Assange’s release, the US abetted more war crimes against unarmed civilians. In 2007, it was an Apache airstrike on a family van in Baghdad. Lately, beach-goers in Sevastopol have been hit with ATACMS cluster munitions.
Assange’s case proves that what truth and justice resided within the US has departed. Most of the history of the US and its clownworld empire disprove the merits of democracy. Evil genocidal maniacs commit war crimes. It’s not so much a matter of “the more things change…” but rather, a case of no one forcing changes until relatively recently. I wish Mr. Assange Godspeed, peace, and a restful recovery from his crucible. And instead of continuing to self-crucify, I wish the American people would watch how Russia deals with the crimes of the satanic rules-based democratic disorder. Maybe that last part is too much to ask for now.
Deo vindice.
21 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on COLUMN: “Scholasticide” While The World Watches
Tags
When they’re not wiping out entire families, and when they’re not murdering journalists, food aid workers, and doctors, and when they’re not cutting little girls in half with American-made munitions, possibly those marked “Finish Them!” and autographed by the sociopathic witch Nimarata, the Zionist occupiers of Palestine appear to delight in exterminating literacy and educational opportunities. The destruction of learning in Gaza is a sub-war in the greater genocide. And just like the attendant murder, maiming, displacement, torture, terrorism, impoverishment, and starvation, it is designed to have and is having a terrible effect on its victims.
Samir Mansour’s bookstore, the largest in Gaza, was a bibliophile’s dream. In addition to carrying hundreds of thousands of books, the shop also served as a community center, a haven for readers, students, and happy families. The Zionists bombed it to rubble in May 2021. Mansour reopened the outlet, bigger and better, in 2022. Last fall, the IGF (Israeli Genocide Force) destroyed it again. One may have heard that the Zionists are still defending themselves from a surprise attack that happened eight months ago. The incident was so much of a surprise that no one knew or warned about it three weeks in advance … except for Egyptian Intelligence and the Zionist’s 8200 ISNU Command. Many overlook the fact the incident was a byproduct of the Zionist’s violent occupation and dehumanization of Palestine for most of the past century. Of course, these minor details are part of history, a subject studied in books and schools, and, thus, something for the IGF to eradicate.
As for the ongoing destruction of schools and interruption of formal learning in Gaza, I’ve come across more than a few articles explaining the disaster, both in terms of numerical count and personal tragedy. I’ve also come across a term that perfectly describes what the Zionists are doing: ”Scholasticide.”
Award-winning Gaza journalist Maha Hussaini wrote a must-read column about the effects of the Zionist’s scholasticide at Middle East Eye. She describes the new-to-Palestinian parents phenomenon of homeschooling their children. So far as it goes in the US and much of the greater West, I am ordinarily a strong proponent of homeschooling. That is primarily due to the hard fact that most of the public schools in places like the US, and many private academies, are worse than useless. Mine is not the experience with good schools that actually educate and nurture children and which parents and students enjoy. Evidently, that was the condition of the schools in Gaza. Thus, the new and unexpected imposition of home education is, to say the least, trying on all parties involved. I’m also aware, based on the accounts of homeschoolers in the US, Canada, and Russia, that while homeschooling is rewarding, it can be, at least initially, a somewhat intimidating challenge. Imagine that challenge magnified by the daily dropping of American-made bombs, a lack of food and utilities, and the general horrific conditions of war. That is what Palestinian families now face each day. But, temporarily daunted or not, they are carrying on.
Ms. Hussaini also provided updated numbers and information on the scope of the anti-erudition calamity:
Before the war, there were 796 schools in the Gaza Strip, including 442 public schools, 70 private schools and 284 run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.
There were 12 universities and higher education institutions.
Gaza had one of the lowest illiteracy rates in the world, with the percentage decreasing from 13.7 percent in 1997 to 1.8 percent in 2022.
Around 700,000 children and young people were enrolled in schools and universities out of the strip’s 2.2 million population.
In its ongoing bombardment, Israel has damaged or completely destroyed all universities and more than 80 percent of all schools in Gaza.
They have killed and wounded thousands of students and hundreds of teachers, including at least 100 professors.
This total devastation of education is a war crime within a war crime, one that will inconvenience and afflict the population for years. I remain, however, cautiously optimistic that those years will be relatively short in number because of the extreme patience, intelligence, dedication, and determination exhibited by Gazans—a people who seemingly cannot be subdued.
Still, many of them are understandably filled with grief, fearing their “future is stolen by the war.” That quote is taken from the title of another article by one of those students, Mrs. Noor Alyacoubi, written for the Palestine Chronicle. In another must-read, she tells the stories of two Gaza university students who, like all of the others, have had their lives completely turned upside down. As Alyacoubi surmises, “Their stories reflect the broader tragedy of a generation whose education, ambitions, and futures have been stolen by war. Amid the chaos and uncertainty, their resilience and hope stand as a testament to the enduring human spirit.” Alyacoubi knows about the chaos and testament personally as she is studying English literature at Al-Azhar University. Or, rather, she was before the school was bombed by the IGF.
Mrs. Alyacoubi is also a young mother. In March, she relayed her experience trying to safeguard and raise her precious baby girl under violent occupation in a story at the We Are Not Numbers forum. “My baby is now 12 months old. Her name is Lya and she has spent 155 days of her life in fear, evacuation, and starvation. I know she is so young and she might be unaware of what is happening around her, but I am sure she feels everything.” In closing, she asks that we on the outside keep her family and her people in our prayers. If we possess any humanity at all, then we must do that if nothing else. We should also listen to some of the voices from the inside. Accordingly, I recommend readers pay attention to the many young people speaking to us through assorted personal reports, stories, and poems at We Are Not Numbers.
After all, understanding, resisting, and resolving these matters is a process up to all of us. As the bold and brilliant Al-Mayadeen network anchor Zeinab Al Saffar said the other day at SPIEF24, quoting professor Alexander Dugin and speaking to him on-stage, “Humanity is us, not them.” It’s time we did something other than just watch things like scholasticide and genocide. How about we resist them? And stop them?
Deo vindice.
14 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on COLUMN: The Petrodollar: The Devil In The Western Details
In the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, the reader learns a little about Thorongil, the traveling name of young Aragorn, the future King Elessar. Over some thirty years, Aragorn wandered through the lands of men in order to gauge their worthiness in the coming war against Sauron. Little is known about his journeys into distant lands where “the stars are strange;” however, in Gondor and Rohan, he found sufficient faith, fight, and spirit to resist and endure to warrant his camaraderie and allegiance. I suppose it is well he never visited the remains of the United States, where very few have faith, intelligence, identity, or even interest in surviving as anything more than thralls. To one degree or another, the US condition explains the greater West. Elsewhere, thankfully, things are very different. Elsewhere, people are moving on from the lecherous, ruinous ways of American hegemony.
That hegemony was largely the product of two things: the perceived might of American and NATO military power, and the US dollar as world reserve currency. The former has been shown to be overstretched, poorly wielded, and materially deficient. The latter, revealed as a malicious illusion of neocolonial wizardry, is fading away in real time. A few days ago, strange rumors surfaced, from strange sources, that as of June 9, 2024, the US petrodollar would officially become a thing of the past. As far as I can tell, these rumors may not be exactly correct, though they point, like good rhetoric, towards the undeniable truth.
The petrodollar was a terrible 1970s solution to the then-pending collapse of the dollar, de-linked from gold and wrecked via mass financialization of the American economy and monetary system. In a scheme perhaps unique in world history, the Saudis agreed to back the dollar with their oil reserves. This allowed the dollar to temporarily remain the most popular international trading currency. It allowed the US government to temporarily spend with abandon. And it allowed the private monied elite of the West to further enslave mankind and usuriously accumulate unto themselves unearned wealth. But the arrangement defied the laws of economic physics and was destined to eventually crash down. Rumors and exact dates aside, the crash is happening now.
As Alexander Macris noted in the introduction of his 2023 book Running on Empty, “When the US established the petrodollar system, it signed a deal with the Devil. When it ends, there will be Hell to pay.” While this statement may shock the consciousness of the conscionable, it is not that surprising to those familiar with the religious psyche of America’s ruling elites. But it is an accurate statement. As the American people begin to wrestle with declining living standards, among many other growing problems, and as the American elite begin to uncomfortably deal with the looming demands of their master, the rest of the world, the multipolar world, begins to experience a boon of prosperity, independence, and genuine order.
The American empire is still dangerous, as any large mortally wounded predator can be. In its dying rage, it is violently thrashing about seeking to steal, dominate, or destroy anything in reach. Lindsey Graham, wicked US SINator from South Carolina, and wanted terrorist number 3967 in Russia, lately let one cat out of the bag about the US seeking to loot trillions of dollars worth of minerals and elements from Project Ukraine (…and something, something democracy, and Putin’s aggression, etc.). I suppose the shame of the Upstate never read Saadi’s Pand Namah and the warning, “Beware! thou that art snared in the net of avarice…” (Or, supposing further, Romans 1:29.) Graham’s conniving blather represents a micro example of the kind of chaos Konstantin Malofeev warned about at a SPIEF 2024 panel discussion last week. Malofeev described the chaos as engineered, and to a degree, it certainly was, previously. The enemies of mankind had a plan. Or plans—too many of them to keep track of and make work, and now they are entangled and failing. Today, I think what is displayed is genuine mayhem completely out of control. Malofeev is completely correct, however, that the solution to the chaos is the sovereign, multipolar concept represented by the BRICS+ alliance. And he’s not just theoretically correct; the solution is playing out before our eyes.
As for ending (petro)dollar dominance, last year, Olga Samofalova explored a variety of options available to Saudi Arabia to break free from America’s deal with the devil, namely dealing in national currencies, withdrawing investments in the US, and joining BRICS+. Right now, Riyadh is exercising the first and third options and is, along with other countries, monitoring and considering the second. One of those other countries, of course, is Russia, which, as Gleb Prostakov wrote in February 2023, is leading the charge to break what’s left of US dominance of the global energy market (and the US’s attendant indirect dominance of global affairs).
One year later, the world is already a different place. The US dollar, while still powerful, is no longer the exclusive go-to currency for international settlements and trade. The US-led G7 has lost its primacy to BRICS+. Russia just pushed Japan aside to become the world’s fourth-largest economy as measured by PPP. Three of the top four world economies, China, India, and Russia, are BRICS+ members. There is a real struggle amidst all this change. As President Vladimir Putin said in his speech at the SPIEF plenary session, “We see a real race between countries to strengthen their sovereignty. And over three key levels—state, value-cultural and economic. At the same time, the countries that have recently been the leaders of global development are trying by all means, by hook or by crook, to preserve their elusive role of hegemony.”
As others have said again and again, the current global conflict is truly a battle between the Believers in Almighty God and the minions of satan. On God’s side are Christians, Muslims, and their goodly allies. Theirs is the side of the multipolar, sovereign world. In time, victory will be theirs. And, as they watch the other side pay the devil his due, may they learn a lesson on how to never conduct business going forward. In this war, there is no Ring of Power. Still, the war must be won, and it will be. Let the wanton leaders of America and the West pay hell. All others, thank and praise Heaven.
Deo vindice.
11 Tuesday Jun 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on Mr. Poe Goes To Greece
Tags
Courtesy of Geopolitika and an unknown (but greatly appreciated) translator. Διαβάστε στα ελληνικά. I think that’s 4 or 5 languages now, and the essay has quickly become one of my most popular writings to date – if not the most widely read.
Also, I just learned my review of Daria Dugina’s Radical Life is at her dad’s Fourth Political Theory site.
Thank you, my many and great international friends.
07 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on COLUMN: Families, Children, And Legitimate Higher Education
Tags
Alexander Dugin, college, education, Leonid Savin, RSUH, Russia
In the fading remains of the United States, there really are dark forces at work against the American people. A new study from Illinois uncovered mixed benefits and drawbacks associated with men becoming fathers. However, the popular US media spin was: “Having kids may shorten a man’s life, groundbreaking study reveals.” In other words, “Kids are messy, you can’t afford them, and they’ll just kill you anyway”. That might as well be America’s family planning mantra. Societies do not survive this way. Populations like America’s, that do not exceed two children per family, do not last.
Elsewhere, more decent and intelligent people understand the importance of forming, promoting, and protecting families. Some countries are encouraging men to become fathers and women mothers. Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin recently stated that families with three or more children should become the norm. He also reassured families that the Russian government would be there to assist them as they perpetuate the existence of Russia. “Families with children” is the mantra of Russia.
Part of assisting families and their children is maintaining excellent education at all levels. As for elementary and lower schools in Russia, I am not as familiar with the processes as I’d like. The consensus of those I’ve asked or read is that the learning afforded is good and better than the equivalent in America. At the college and university level, I trust things are also better in Russia. That’s because I trust the people in charge, from President Putin right down the line. I also know there is a necessary movement to separate Russian education from Western standards, a part of the larger bifurcation and liberation associated with Russia’s multipolar quest.
Another man I trust, Leonid Savin, wrote a heckuva good article on intellectual standards and the need for Russian sovereign refinement. He noted that 1990s Western interference “led both to the meaninglessness of deep meanings and their replacement with surrogate terms, which began to be used at the reflex level, and to a constant movement to Western theories and concepts, instead of developing our own.” This is exactly what happened to American schools over the past century and a half. Whatever lingered from the Soviet system, even if deficient in some areas, was better than and preferable to the foisted alternative. The movement to reflexive surrogacy would have quickly given way to the total abandonment of literacy, numeracy, and public morality. The fact this progression was stopped or is being stopped is a miracle in and of itself.
Savin goes on to discuss the pro-Russian transformation of college social sciences by keeping cherished traditions alive though updated to reflect the complexities of the evolving world. Call it “whole process” social science education, something in scholastic keeping, on Russian terms, with Professor Alexander Dugin’s Fourth Political Theory. Savin mentions Dugin’s work as the leader of the new Political Training and Scientific Center at Moscow’s Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH). The Center’s purpose is “the development and implementation of a new approach (a new socio-humanitarian paradigm) to the domestic teaching of humanitarian and social disciplines, aimed at the formation of the worldview of students based on the Russian civilizational identity and traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.”
In January, Dugin said at RSUH’s Transformation of Humanitarian Education seminar, “There has been a catastrophic degradation in Western historical science. …. This is evidenced by gender problems, postmodernism, and ultra-liberalism. We can study the West, but not as the ultimate universal truth. We need to focus on our own Russian development model.” Dugin’s program leadership earned the ire of the CIA Washington Post and some CIA pro-Western Telegram bots, so he must be off to a good start. (I suppose they were taken aback, like vampires offered Holy Water, by mention of spiritual and moral values.) I’m unsure when Dugin last visited an American university, but his first observation of catastrophe is an understatement. About the only courses of study in America that retain any semblance of excellence are those in mathematics and the hard science programs at certain elite engineering schools—and they are under heavy attack. However, he is correct that Western schools should be studied. They should be studied in two ways. First, they should be scanned for any useful remnants from the time when the West represented an actual Christian civilization. Second, they can be forensically studied like a cadaver in a postmortem examination in an attempt to find out what killed them.
As part of its Western and non-Western integration, RSUH’s website asserts: “International cooperation is an important part of the internationalization strategy at RSUH. It is aimed at strengthening the university’s competitive ability in Russia and abroad and its integration into the global education and research space.” This is, as stated, very important, yet the manner of execution might be even more important. My advice, should anyone want it, is to keep studying the cadavers while also selectively affiliating with the wider world. This could and probably will mean making adjustments to things like Russian participation in the Bologna Process and looking deeper into connections with BRICS+ countries and the Global South in general. Without my advice, they appear to be doing fine as-is, with RSUH being one of four Russian universities in a pilot program to monitor international cooperation.
Russia’s societal heritage is the envy of much of the world because it has survived and built upon its ancient traditions. Those traditions, having yielded beauty, strength, and prosperity, obviously work. So does Russian innovation, in technology, economics, and other facets of (post)modern existence. Russians must continue to cling affectionately to the positive, purposefully abandon the negative, and embrace any helpful new processes or ideas in keeping with Russian customs regarding what is good, true, and beautiful. And, of course, it all starts with the Russian people themselves, with strong families and many wonderful children.
Deo vindice.
05 Wednesday Jun 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on Edgar Allan Poe in Türkiye
Tags
My Poe essay is now available in English, Portuguese, and, now, Turkish.
Geçtiğimiz günlerde Daria Platonova Dugina’nın Eskatolojik İyimserlik adlı kitabını okumak benim için bir zevkti. Bu şaşırtıcı kitapta aklıma takılan pek çok nokta arasında, en sevdiğim edebi figürlerden biri olan Amerikalı yazar ve şair Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) ile ilgili bir soru vardı. Her ne sebeple olursa olsun, konunun daha derinlemesine araştırılmaya değer olduğunu düşündüm.
…
Many thanks … Çeviri için Adnan Demir’e çok teşekkürler!
31 Friday May 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on “COLUMN:” A Palestinian Library
Tags
This week, being a little pressed for time, I’m just listing out the Palestine-related books I’ve reviewed this year – with a few more.
The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope by Rev. Munther Isaac
Normalize or Resist?: Palestinian Christians Respond to Oppression by Rev. Isaac, et al.
Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm by Jamie Stern-Weiner, et al.
The Rape of Palestine: A Mandate Chronology (Vol. 1) by Blake Alcott
The Rape of Palestine: A Mandate Chronology (Vol. 2) by Blake Alcott
The Stone House by Yara Hawari
I have not read or looked at this picture book, but it comes highly recommended:
Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba by Teresa Aranguren, et al.
It has been some time since I’ve read it, and, alarmingly, no longer have my copy, but a good man from Georgia wrote a great book in 2007 on the subject of peace:
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Hon. Jimmy Carter
The first book I read about Palestine, likely the first book any one of you read, was: The Holy Bible. Consult it as needed – and it is needed.
Those nine books should keep one busy for a while. For my part, I’ve currently got a copy of collected E.A. Poe works (на русском). Also, Andrei Martyanov’s new book, America’s Final War, is out, as a PDF from Clarity. My next book review article, here and elsewhere, will most likely be a cursory look at five(!) works by Professor Alexander Dugin, along with at least one Dugin critique comparison book. That’s coming before too long. And we’ll also have some additional geopolitical fun and perhaps a few short stories. Fiction writing is kind of where my mind is at right now. Stay tuned.
A rather short “column,” eh? And if your bow tie was ruffled, then good.
Deo vindice.
27 Monday May 2024
Posted in News and Notes, Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on Obrigada, Brasil!
My essay on Edgar Allan Poe has landed at the fantastic Nova Resistência magazine!
Recentemente, tive o prazer de ler Otimismo Escatológico, de Daria Platonova Dugina. Nesse livro surpreendente, entre os muitos pontos que ficaram na minha cabeça estava uma pergunta sobre uma das minhas figuras literárias favoritas, o autor e poeta americano Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). Por alguma razão, achei que valia a pena investigar o assunto mais a fundo.
Muito obrigado, meus amigos Brasileiros! Tenho a honra de ser incluído! (E, graças a conhecer um pouco de Espanhol, e um pouco mais de Francês, posso dar um sentido grosseiro ao Português!) Excelente, e espero que todos tenham gostado dos pensamentos.
Also, happy Decoration Day, Americans.
24 Friday May 2024
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on COLUMN: The Other Side Of The Deluge: Three Palestinian Books Recommended
Perhaps no other current issue paints a clearer, brighter, or more divisive moral line than the hideous war of genocide being waged by the Zionists against the Palestinians. Across the US and parts of the West, a concurrent war is waged against college students and others for the outrageous crime of opposing the murder of an entire nation. Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, previously run out of Israel for his common decency, was harassed by the GAE upon his arrival in Detroit in May 2024. More reporters have been killed by the Zionists during this genocide than in any other conflict in recorded history. The Zionists have banned media outlets. While my circumstances are not nearly as extreme as those others face, I have been warned, more than once, to curtail or halt my support for Palestine and my criticism of the Zionists. The following triple book review is a part of my ardent reply to those warnings: No.
The first two books come from inside Occupied Palestine. One was fully authored by Lutheran Pastor Rev. Munther Isaac of Bethlehem; he is a contributor to the second. At the time of my drafting, at least nineteen million people have watched his interview with Tucker Carlson. If you, dear reader, are not one of them, then please do watch and listen to what might be Tucker’s most profound work ever. Rev. Isaac also maintains a YouTube channel worth paying attention to. Isaac is the Pastor of both the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and a Church in nearby Beit Sahour. He is also a faculty member at the Bethlehem Bible College. The Bible College operates the Bethlehem Institute of Peace.
Isaac, Rev. Munther, The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020.
The wall, of course, refers to the ugly concrete and steel barrier erected by the Zionists to partition, control, and oppress Palestinians in the West Bank. (There is a similar cage-like structure surrounding Gaza.) Isaac begins his book, along with an excellent general history, and a description of his people—very real, very wonderful, and not recently contrived as some lie about them being—with current economic and utility usage information, all of which plainly show the disparity between one side of the wall and the other. Per capita income, for instance, is thirteen times greater on the Zionist side.
Isaac discusses the “post-Holocaust theology” that grips much of the Western Church along with his own personal struggle with and questioning of his place in the Chosen Land of the Bible. He writes, on page 20, that the “Theology from behind the wall is viewing God and the Bible from the perspective of the marginalized and dehumanized.” Too many Christians, especially those in America are completely ignorant of the existence of their Palestinian Brethren. Isaac’s book is a form of education for such unaware people, and with it he hopes to raise awareness of Christians and others on the “wrong” side of the wall and the discrimination they face. It is a daunting challenge for him and all who would make clear the truth.
Isaac writes of the hostility Palestinian Christians receive, not only from the Zionists but also from fellow Christians abroad. He writes, sadly but stirringly, of Christian forums withdrawing speaking invitations (including his own preemptive dismissals) because the speakers are Palestinians. He covers some of the fantastic myths foisted by Judeo-Christians and Christian Zionists on native Christians, Muslims, and any non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine. Against these myths, he posits genuine Christian doctrine, some hard questions, and the truth that the New Testament fulfills and exceeds the Old. Isaac calls Christian Zionism an imperial philosophy, not only of Israel but also of the Anglo-Americans. He raises many uncomfortable (for some) truths, such as that Palestine belongs to God, not man, and that Christian Zionists have replaced Jesus with political Israel. Chapter seven deals with Christian-Islamic relations, which are considerably different than those fictions portrayed by the mainstream media and war criminal politicians. Chapter nine concerns a subject the Bible devotes an entire book to, Lament. Lament, Isaac writes, necessarily comes before hope. And, from page 226, he notes, “Hope is not simply waiting for divine intervention; it requires our committed action and work.” The Other Side of the Wall was written four years before the current genocide. Action and work are needed now more than ever.
Isaac, Rev. Munther, et al, Normalize or Resist?: Palestinian Christians Respond to Oppression, Bethlehem: Bethlehem Bible College, 2024.
Normalize or Resist? is essentially a transcription of a symposium conducted on April 28, 2023, by Rev. Isaac in conjunction with Andrew Bush, J. Nelson Kraybill, Salim Munayer, and Mitri Raheb. The authors included an Afterword to update the book reflecting the outbreak of the current atrocity.
Rev. Isaac’s contributions are his short introductory remarks, page 13, et seq., along with the Afterword, page 82, and a section on the complicity in the genocide by the Western Church, page 84. He sheds more light on a few misconceptions, some of them bordering on blasphemy, and he directly implicates the American Church for its failings. He rightly explains the current conflict did not start on October 7, 2023, being, rather, an extension of the Nakba of 1948. He paints a painful but accurate portrait of Gazan life today under the constant attacks of the Zionists, as supported by the US. He notes, as did Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, that Israel, after 75 years of occupation, still somehow portrays itself as the victim. He notes the cover for this wicked madness given to the Zionists by Western Christians.
Furthermore, like the ICJ and the ICC and anyone with an IQ above room temperature, he writes, on page 92, “I strongly believe that what is happening in Gaza is genocide effected through war crimes and ethnic cleansing.” In a call for repentance, he writes on page 93, “We’ll remember not those who were against us, but those who were silent.” God may take a similar view. Thus it is important to keep speaking out regardless of the feeble consequences, being ever mindful of Christ’s words in Luke 10:19: “Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall hurt you.” Many people are not daunted and are treading away, the authors of the final book included.
Stern-Weiner, Jamie, et al, Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm, London: OR Books, 2024.
Deluge is brand new, published in April 2024. I learned about it from Richard Sanders’s review at the Middle East Eye, a review I encourage all to read. The book is an astounding collection of essays that blast myths about Palestine, Hamas, and the Zionist occupation and genocide to bits. Christian Zionists may squirm, especially considering that several authors are Jews dedicated to the truth. In fact, many of them won’t be able to handle it, as evidenced by an Amazon review left by the curiously-named, “Amazon Customer,” a screed labeled, “DON”T [SIC] READ THIS BOOK.” “Customer” goes on to babble, in totality, “I’VE READ this book and it is garbage. Israel is not comitting genocide. this book should be banned and so many others like it for spreading blood libels.” While I doubt “Customer” has read this book (or any others), his reaction is telling. Such people would happily ban the truth. So much more our need to tread on the serpents.
A word of gentle correction at the outset: Deluge was drafted in pieces during the earlier stages of the current conflict. Hence, there are a few statements or assumptions, murky then, which have since been clarified. This includes a matter mentioned at intervals, in the Foreword and the Introduction, regarding Israeli civilian deaths on or about October 7, 2023. While 1,100 or so Israelis were killed, many of them, perhaps a majority, were combatants. As for the civilians killed, the evidence shows most were killed by the IDF and not Hamas. This point is important because various voices, from Naftali Bennett to Mike Johnson, are still repeating assorted lies about October 7th.
Deluge, a great credit to all its authors, is packed with truth, historical facts, and horrors to shock the conscience. Every part and paragraph deserves careful consideration. Part III, “Solidarities,” for instance, sheds an honest light on the various college protests and the draconian reactions against the heart and resolve of so many good young people. However, I will concentrate on a particular subject, the truth of which is utterly unknown to most Americans and Westerners, the truth about Hamas. Chapter seven, “Nothing Fails Like Success: Hamas and the Gaza Explosion,” was written by Dr. Khaled AL-Hroub, Professor in Residence of Middle Eastern Studies at Northwestern University, Qatar. He is a Hamas expert, having authored, among other books, Hamas: A Beginners Guide and Hamas: Political Thought and Practice. His chapter is a condensed exposition of a kind I had never read before and which will likely be completely alien to most Western readers.
AL-Hroub begins chapter seven with a brief history of Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Deluge Operation, a retaliatory military strike, not a terrorist attack, and the reactionary product of years of Zionist mistreatment and provocation. On page 143, he quotes UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “The attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.” His title is an homage to the fact that Hamas was born as a radical faction, one that rejected previous half (if that) measures like the ill-fated Oslo Accords. Perceived as more authentically representing the will and needs of the oppressed masses, Hamas probably even shocked itself by becoming a legitimate governing authority, one tasked with enforcing or abiding by many of the processes it rejected, a political catch-22. Dealing with its new circumstances as best it could, the group transitioned in many ways, including ending the use of terroristic tactics. It very much became a political entity, albeit one with an as-necessary paramilitary wing. (Perhaps like the Likud party and its handy GAE military?)
Hamas’s victories and concessions have generally come with prices, frequently imposed by meddling from the Zionists, the US, and other uneven-handed powers. Still, the organization continued to evolve. AL-Hroub notes the changes Hamas made in 2017 to its original 1988 charter. I have read both, finding the former acceptable under the circumstances, and the latter most reasonable. I encourage the reader to make an independent assessment. All the while, despite these changes, Zionist oppression continued apace, and Palestinian living conditions, especially those in Gaza, continued to deteriorate. On page 153, AL-Hroub explains Hamas’s reaction to an impossible situation: “One million children were fated to rot in Gaza prison camp, with death their only deliverance. And so, on October 7, Hamas rolled the dice.” As the genocidal war continues, all Palestinians understand that Gaza’s fate today will likely become theirs tomorrow.
The fact that much or all of the foregoing may come as a shock to many Americans and Westerners is a testament to the fact they should turn off the lie machines and begin reading about what is actually happening and what precipitated it all. I fully recommend The Other Side of the Wall, Normalize or Resist?, and Deluge, three excellent works to start (or continue) with. In addition to these three fine books, I also recommend, as part of building a Palestinian library of sorts, The Stone House by Dr. Yara Hawari and The Rape Of Palestine by Dr. Blake Alcott. As someone once said, “It’s time for action.” Let it start with reading the truth.
Lego ergo scio. Deo vindice.
PERRIN LOVETT 
