Sunday Afternoon

ah, well, i've spent the afternoon reading about gaza and hebron. hebron, too, who knew how bad things are there? 77% of businesses closed down, 40% of people have fled their homes, israeli settlers commit acts of violence against hebronites daily. the situation is so dangerous there for palestinians that most never leave their homes (except when they're literally running for their lives). it is impossible for them to live. education, economy, and all other aspects of infrastructure have collapsed under the self-described israeli policy of "dispossession".

this is my political reality, far removed from the politics of obama vs. hillary. people like my quasi-fascist friend, abdul* (who maintained howard dean's website when he ran for prez in 2004), believe that my political reality should be determined by domestic issues alone. "i don't give a frak about palestinians," aziz once commented. but i'm more concerned with preventing death and destruction in faraway lands than i am with which politician's economic plan will improve my net worth by more fractional percentage points. i can't help it.

and so it will continue this way for some time, probably forever, and i'll feel marginalised from american politics, despondent on afternoons like this one. what is my despondency, though, compared to those living in gaza or hebron? self-pity and helplessness are useless emotions, but when you read about life in the occupied territories, it's almost impossible to feel otherwise.

Stephen Lendman's incredible report on Hebron:
http://counterpunch.org/lendman01252008.html

What would happend if just once Newsweek or Time printed a report like this? Oh, a man can fantasise....


*not his real name. quasi-fascist in jest, but perhaps in reality. he is decidedly against freedom of speech in iraq, and he believes the u.s. operation of wholesale massacre in fallujah was justified in order to promote "our interests". again, he is a nice guy, but views such as these i label "quasi-fascist", "quasi-" only because it is of late unfashionable to call someone other than george bush a fascist.