I have wondered how Hamas could even consider carrying out the October 7 attack, knowing as they did, as did I, how viciously Israel would retaliate. I thought: The Gazans will cease to support Hamas, will hate Hamas for having subjected them to Israeli viciousness.
How very wrong I was! According to Al Jazeera, support for Hamas has never been greater in Gaza.
I put to you: Better than even Al Jazeera documentaries, better than any book that has ever analysed the Palestine issue, Gazans’ support for Hamas reveal how unbearable the Israeli concentration camp was.
What we are seeing, the ongoing genocide, strenuously supported by the USA, tells us just how violent Israeli racism has been.
Much has been said and written about the ongoing genocide. Many of us have described our sense of impotent rage and despair.
Caitline Johnstone has done so particularly poignantly, I think, in an article titled I will not look away.Rather than waste your time on more of my rants, I urge you to read her article.
And if you, like her, feel honour-bound to not “look away”, to subject yourself to a tiny glimpse into the horror, I recommend a piece from Al Jazeera’s Listening Post, What we are seeing from Gaza. Al Jazeera has invested more in Palestine, lives even, than any other mainstream media outlet.
No, Mr Biden and his lot do not believe that “all men [and women] are created equal”. I have no doubt he says he does, but nobody should ever take the word of a man (or woman) in his position. Mr Biden may, however, believe that all men [and women] are created equal, but that some are more equal than others, while others are definitely less so.
Of course we always knew that the USA had a race issue, but the Democratic Party has lately been loudly shouting that “Black Lives Matter”, and we actually thought they meant it, but now Palestinians are being killed in the USA, and supporters of Palestinians are being hassled, expelled, fired and generally persecuted by some – I insist – some fellow US Americans and – again I insist – and Congress, which has declared anti-Zionism antisemitic. (Mr Biden isn’t alone: His Republican counterparts agree fully: “some are more equal than others, while others are definitely less so.”)
No, Mr Biden and his lot, including his Republican counterparts, no longer value one of the most important pillars of the Democracy they keep bragging about: freedom of expression. Mainstream US media – a grovelling troupe of cowardly verbal mercenaries – has effectively been gagged. Again and again, it merely regurgitates State Department talking points.
No, Mr Biden and his lot do not believe in “rule of law”. They are actively supporting the extermination of as many Gazans as possible. Actively. With bombs! With yet another Security Council veto! With warships all over the place. With military aircraft all over the place. In case you had forgotten, exterminating populations is – apart from each and every killing’s being a mortal sin according to most religions – the very most heinous crime in the book of most criminal codes.
Why, you ask? Why get rid of the Gazans? What’s in it for him, you ask? Why indeed. Well you see, Mr Biden is just a puppet of the monstrous machinery that is US hegemony, which now desperately needs to nurture the loyalty of Israel. All the other countries of the Middle East are turning away from the USA, not because of Gaza, by the way, though Gaza certainly does not improve USA’s standing. Israel is the last outcrop of US-support in that part of the world. To put it differently: The USA is slipping, losing its grip. Even Israel is on good terms with Russia (as was demonstrated by Naftali Bennett’s role in the peace agreement reached between Zelensky and Putin in March 2022 – an agreement that NATO, represented by Boris Johnson, put a stop to). So Mr Biden must outbid the Russians. Biden must go all the way for Israel’s “self-defence”.
No, Israel is not engaged in self-defence. Israel really does need to get rid of as many Gazans as possible, not least children – who will grow up hating Israel – and not least women – who hate Israel and will bear more children who will hate Israel. All Gazans are traumatised, many must be nearly insane with grief and pain. Gazans are truly dangerous for Israel.
No, Hamas is not the problem. Israel is the problem! Israel that has sabotaged a two-state solution all the way and is still adamantly opposed to a two-state solution (though you will never hear or see the grovelling troupe of cowardly verbal mercenaries – US mainstream media – list the details of that sabotage), Israel that for decades has beaten, tortured, imprisoned and randomly killed Palestinians all over the West Bank, Israel that has imprisoned all of Gaza. Why, you ask? Why make life on the West Bank and Gaza a nightmare for Palestinians? Why of course: to make Palestinians flee. Israel is determined to take over the West Bank and Gaza, though that grovelling troupe of cowardly verbal mercenaries will never admit it.
No, Gaza is just the epicentre of decades of unfathomable Israeli violence against a people that Bin Laden insisted were more Semitic than the Israelis themselves. (So according to him, the real antisemites are the Israelis.) But the grovelling troupe of you-know-what that makes up the US mainstream media has unfortunately failed to inform the public: The public in the USA and its satellites has deliberately been prevented from making informed decisions about what to demand from their elected representatives.
***
So what will happen? Here is my favourite scenario: Even with US help, Israel won’t succeed in killing all Gazans. Even disease and starvation won’t finish off the Gazans. The maimed, nearly insane with grief and pain and hate survivors will have to be air-lifted out of Palestine, while their dwellings are being rebuilt. The international community will demand that the perpetrators of the genocide pay a price: Israelis must rebuild Gaza for the Gazans. The spirit of the Kibbutzes will resurface as Israeli men and women also plant orchards and vines between the new buildings, and make sure that each and every one of the dead they find in the rubble has a grave which they will water with their tears, muttering “I’m so so sorry … so terribly sorry …”
In Israeli schools, each child will be encouraged to adopt a dead Gazan sister or brother. Parents will try to reach out to surviving family members. Maybe photos can be sent, memories of the dead shared. Who knows? Many Israelis earnestly long for peace. I think that lasting peace without understanding, without humility and sympathy is not possible.
Meanwhile, the airlifted, maimed, nearly insane with grief and pain and hate survivors will be cared for in the very best US hospitals and clinics. All the US citizens who had the courage to oppose the genocide will welcome them joyously, bring them flowers, ask for their autographs and tell their children, “they survived hell on earth. They are heroes!”
***
Alas, I am not a Christian and I’m not an optimist. I want justice to be done. I want the evildoers to be punished. Period.
Alas, in real life, justice is seldom done.
The Israeli settlers will, however, have to leave the West Bank. All of them! Those of them who have also committed crimes against Palestinians will have to be tried and sentenced as harshly as they would have been had they been Palestinians committing the same crimes against Jews. Of course. Reasonable by any standard.
The ongoing US-abetted, US-aided crimes are so heinous that even science fiction baulks at describing them. And all we can do, we who live in “Democratic” countries is promise to spit on the future graves of the perpetrators.
The US, Israel and Hamas all have God on their side. Now as far as Hamas is concerned, God is all they have, so I earnestly hope he does not forsake them.
As for the Israeli God and the blond US God, they will probably collaborate in making a total hash of what remains of this planet.
A lof of what has happened these past two years has not surprised me. What has, however, astounded and shocked me has been 1) the silencing in the press of all criticism of the US and NATO’s handling of the war in Ukraine and 2) the US and UK crackdown on criticism of Israel post October 7.
An important factor in the near total suppression of dissent regarding US foreign policy, not only in the USA but also in US satellite states – has finally been made clear to me thanks to a book:
The Think Tank Racket by Glenn Diesen, Clarity Press, 2023.
According to Wikipedia as at 01.12.2023:
A think tank is a research institute that performs research and advocacy on topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_tank
That sounds promising enough: Politicians are, after all, initially just people like you and me who have been asked to represent us. They are not experts on “social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture”, etc. They rely on experts who can tell them all about it. Think tanks supposedly serve just that purpose: to inform politicians. Yes, and also to inform the media.
Now, as you will of course immediately point out: All these researchers will have to be paid. Who pays them?
Just so. And please notice the two warning words in Wikipedia’s definition: “and advocacy“
Unsurprisingly, they are paid by those who can afford to pay them and who stand to gain by doing so.
While most of us know a lot about all sorts of things, the matter of “national security” in a big and dangerous world full of threats – cyber threats, WMDs, long distance missiles, AI threats – is not for novices and could easily fill a telephone directory. So yes, I do understand the need for experts. Not only to advise politicians, but also to advise the press.
But there is, again, the issue of funding. The relationship between 1) those who provide the funding, 2) the experts and 3) the government – i.e. the decision makers. Diesen has taken a closer look at some of the think tanks, their funders, to the extent they are known, and the vested interests of some of the “experts”. I would be understating matters by saying that much of what comes to light in his book is extremely disturbing.
I shall not divulge his dramatic revelations though I will quote him a couple of times.
The first quote:
From the start, let’s be clear, the term “think tank” essentially amounts to a more polite way of saying “lobby group.” They exist to serve—and promote—the agendas of their funders. However, particularly in the United States, the field has become increasingly shady and disingenuous, with lobbyists being given faux academic titles like “Senior Non-Resident Fellow” and “Junior Adjunct Fellow” to distinguish them from honest registered lobbyists.
We have all heard the expression “military-industrial complex”, apparently coined by Eisenhower who, in his farewell address warned:
[W]e must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
There are those who claim that US warmongering not only benefits the likes of Lockhead Martin, Raytheon and Boing, but is driven by them. Since I do not have the skills to asses the weight of US defence contractors in the national economy, I leave you with a link so you can judge for yourself.
Surely the defence contractors would not advocate involving their own country in a war for pecuniary reasons? True enough, none of the very numerous wars engaged in by the USA since WWII – not one – was fought on US soil. (Not WWII either.) Admittedly many of “our boys” lost their lives in Vietnam and some, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, died in Iraq, just as quite a few disadvantaged US women famously lose their lives every year “while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, ….” (maternal mortality) largely due to inadequate health care. It is tempting to deduce that from the point of view of US policy makers, these disadvantaged young men and women are dispensable.
Jenny Erpenbeck wrote in Gehen, ging, gegangen: “there’s no better way to make history disappear than to unleash money. Money on the loose is fiercer than a fighting dog.” [My translation]. And the evidence presented in Glenn Diesen’s book seems to indicate that profit might well be a driving force for continuous US warmongering. I give you none of his examples because I think you should read the book.
One of the think tanks discussed by Diesen is the Atlantic Council, basically a NATO propaganda wing.
Here is my second quotation from Diesen, about the Atlantic Council:
[I]n the decade 2006–2016, its annual revenue grew from $2 million to $21 million, a more than a ten-fold increase.”
Not bad for a team of “experts”, I’d say. Most scientific researchers here in OSLO can not even afford a simple 2-room flat. From my perspective, in Norway, the Atlantic Council is definitely a target of study, since NATO-criticism has been totally silenced here on Torvald Stoltenberg’s watch. In view of the war crimes recently committed in LIBYA by NATO, including not least Norway, the silence suggests suppression.
Here is what we find on the Atlantic Council “About” page.
Can you read the text? This is it:
Driven by our mission of “shaping the global future together,” the Atlantic Council is a nonpartisan organization that galvanizes US leadership and engagement in the world, in partnership with allies and partners, to shape solutions to global challenges.
“Global future”? NATO countries make up roughly 11.87 % of the global population! But this “nonpartisan” instrument nevertheless intends to shape the global future, having “galvanized” US leadership? Good luck with that. And as for the “engagement“, a common collocation of the word is “military”, i.e. miiitary engagement, so that word, at least, is apt.
A report referred to by Diesen was produced by the think tank RAND in April 2019. The report, Overextending and unbalancing Russia can be downloaded in its entirety, but you will find a summary of it here. The preface tells us that the report is “sponsored by the Army Quadrennial Defense Review Office, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff G-8, Headquarters, Department of the Army”.
Please note that the preface does not exclude other sponsors.
The goal in this report is to weaken (“overextend and unbalance”) “Russia’s economy and armed forces and the regime’s political standing at home and abroad” notwithstanding the fact that
unlike the Soviet Union, Russia is not overextended geographically. Other than in Syria, its foreign commitments in Ukraine and the Caucasus are relatively compact, contiguous to Russia, and in locales where at least some of the local population is friendly and geography provides Russia with military advantages.
The report mentions a number of Russian vulnerabilities, and sees its economy as relatively weak compared to that of the USA. More importantly: not once in the report do I find any suggestion that Russia poses a military threat to a NATO country.
I cannot quite put my finger on just what it is that gets up the US nose until I come to Chapter 5, Ideological and Informational Measures: “Russia has orchestrated a series of efforts … to undermine Western political institutions and increase Russia’s standing and influence …” Ah!
At any rate, you can see for yourself what measures to weaken Russia were assessed by RAND in 2019 and how they were rated. You will see that among the measures that were highly rated were several “Air and Space Cost-Imposing Measures” e.g. “Invest more in long-range strike aircraft and missiles” – all presumably lucrative for the defence contractors.
What I found most interesting, however, were the following paragraphs:
Expanding U.S. assistance to Ukraine, including lethal military assistance, would likely increase the costs to Russia, in both blood and treasure, of holding the Donbass region. More Russian aid to the separatists and an additional Russian troop presence would likely be required, leading to larger expenditures, equipment losses, and Russian casualties.
Alternatively, Russia might counter-escalate, committing more troops and pushing them deeper into Ukraine. Russia might even pre-empt U.S. action, escalating before any additional U.S. aid arrives. Such escalation might extend Russia; Eastern Ukraine is already a drain. Taking more of Ukraine might only increase the burden, albeit at the expense of the Ukrainian people. However, such a move might also come at a significant cost to Ukraine and to U.S. prestige and credibility. This could produce disproportionately large Ukrainian casualties, territorial losses, and refugee flows. It might even lead Ukraine into a disadvantageous peace.
Some analysts maintain that Russia lacks the resources to escalate the conflict. Ivan Medynskyi of the Kyiv-based Institute for WorldPolicy argued, “War is expensive. Falling oil prices, economic decline, sanctions, and a campaign in Syria (all of which are likely to continue in 2016) leave little room for another large-scale military maneuver by Russia.” According to this view, Russia simply cannot afford to maintain a proxy war in Ukraine, although, given Russia’s size and the importance it places on Ukraine, this might be an overly optimistic assumption.
There is also some risk of weapons supplied to the Ukrainians winding up in the wrong hands. A RAND study conducted for the President of Ukraine found reasons for concern about the potential misuse of Western military aid.
bold highlights are mine
RAND seems to have been more prescient than most other policy advisers pushing for war “to the last Ukrainian” and “what it takes” etc. Those of us who have been accused of being Putin acolytes – i.e. all who have warned about the consequences of the “proxywar” – find support in, of all things, a RAND document from 2019. Would you believe it?
Meanwhile the disgraceful Wikipedia article vilifying Glenn Diesen is an example of just how “lethal” the stand-off between the USA and everybody who does not vocally support “our” foreign policy has become. Glenn Diesen is a political science professor at a Norwegian university. As a Norwegian, I resent the innuendo that university professors here are employed by virtue of anything but outstanding academic qualifications. I may disagree with our professors and frequently do, but academic debate has until recently been allowed, even welcomed. Controversial views are no exception! The information Glenn Diesen brings to the table is based on research – an example of which is the book I so warmly recommend, a result of assiduous and time-consuming work. It is, moreover, written in an easy, often ironical, conversational tone.
Most of the year I’ll be complaining about the weather. It’s never right, as it were. Too mild in winter, too wet or too dry in summer. “Climate change,” I’ll sigh, pointedly nodding towards the window.
So now, I should rejoice and tell anybody who is willing to listen to me, that here where I live, the weather is for once just right, just the way it should be in late November: The temperature drops and drops, precipitation stops, the winds stall, fogs slither in and out, to and from goodness knows where, and all of nature seems to be holding its breath pending the arrival of loads of snow. Said arrival will without doubt be briefly prefaced by a marked rise of the mercury in the thermometer. Let us enjoy these days of climatic normality for all they are worth. We may or may not know such normality ever again.
In Gaza, the temperature is now 15 degrees. At 7 AM tomorrow the temperature will be 11 degrees. I’ve never been to Gaza, so I cannot tell you whether or not the cool 11 degrees are normal for this time of year. But I’m sure of one thing: Climate change will not enter into the equations to be solved by the displaced survivors of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, wherever they catch a couple of hours’ sleep now and then.
Here in Europe we have suffered due to the sanctions war against Russia (which deprived continental Europe of NLG) from lack of energy to heat our dwellings in winter. In Norway, we had always had more than enough hydro-electric power until our energy was commodified and put on the stock market (and sold to poor continental Europe) at which point we could no longer afford to buy our own electricity. We had to adapt to a drop of indoor temperatures from 23º C. I have managed to adapt to 20.5 º by wearing thermal underwear and woollen sweaters. I can cope with 18º by being in constant activity, cleaning house, etc. But at 16º… Let me tell you that at 16 degrees, I wish I were dead.
Of course, some of us can adapt. Some of us are made of tougher stuff. But 11 degrees without a roof over your head! When I am frozen stiff, I take a hot bath. I can still afford to take a hot bath a couple of times a week. But for the barely surviving people of Gaza, I assume there is no such thing as a bath, let alone a hot bath or a big warm towel and clean underwear.
I dare not even think of what it must be like to have to pee for a woman in Gaza, not to mention to menstruate! Good God what humiliations they must endure! And bowel movements for men and women; where do they go? There must be an unbelievable stench everywhere.
And the dead! Oh Lord, the dead! Not only the thousands and thousands who are known; also those who are simply “missing”, decomposing under the ruins of the bombed buildings.
I have never been to Gaza, never been to the West Bank, far less to Israel. Having written what I have written I will probably never be allowed anywhere near occupied Palestine. (Not that I shall ever humiliate myself or the Palestinians by asking for Israeli permission!)
But I must ask Israelis: You maintain that we, those of us who criticise you, do not understand your “plight”. But have you even tried to imagine what life has been like for the population you maintain is trying to eradicate you?
I used to love The Guardian. You could find discussions about just about anything there, views right left and centre, philosophical musings, analyses of books, films and even a magnificent series in which Andras Schiff presented each and every one of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. It was a site that continued where school education left off, a newspaper that kept us informed and on our toes. You would, not least, also find plenty of articles analysing USA’s miscellaneous wars and implanted dictators.
Alas, The Guardian I knew is no more. But the Guardian is not alone in abdicating as a joyfully dissenting source of analysis. Everywhere I turn to look – Le Monde, the New York Times, El Pais – all once proud publishers of the Wikileaks documents that exposed US crimes against humanity in Iraq – are now servile minions. Since dissent is no longer recognised, as such, but is redefined as “conspiracy theory”, I shall refrain from suggesting whose minions those formerly great newspapers have become.
To my knowledge, not one of them has mentioned even the abstract of the Schulenburg report, item 3 of which reads:
Contrary to Western interpretations, Ukraine and Russia agreed at the time [March 2022] that the planned NATO expansion was the reason for the war. They therefore focused their peace negotiations on Ukraine’s neutrality and its renunciation of NATO membership. In return, Ukraine would have retained its territorial integrity except for Crimea.
The report quotes the Washington Post, from April 5 2022:
For some in NATO, it’s better for Ukrainians to keep fighting and dying than to achieve a peace that comes too soon or at too high a price for Kiev and the rest of Europe. Zelensky, [they] said, should “keep fighting until Russia is completely defeated.”
Looking back, the hubris of the USA and the European NATO states has been mind-boggling. Not only has the war NOT saved Ukraine; it has NOT weakened Russia, which was, of course, the purpose of extending NATO to Ukrainian soil.
That the mainstream press is too pusillanimous now to disclose that there actually was a peace settlement ready to be signed by both parties at the very outset of the war, would have shocked me two years ago. No more. If you follow Glenn Greenwald’s tireless razor-sharp analysis of how civil liberties in the USA have been eroded year by year by decade, you will know not only that Dog does what Master commands: (As a dog owner, I can tell you a lot about how to make your dog happily obey you.) Glenn Greenwald also tells you how and why legions of intelligent, highly educated journalists are bamboozled into systematically peddling untruths.
What Glenn Greenwald does not tell you is how that same Dog versus Master relationship applies also here in Europe. Take, for instance, the UK, where the Guardian, presumably at somebody’s orders, recently removed – physically erased, stamped out – Bin Laden’s historic 2002 “Letter to America”, which in the wake of the ongoing genocide, has attracted enormous interest.
It is true that the letter seems disagreeably dogmatic and religiously authoritarian. I had to resort to self-discipline to even get past the first paragraphs. But once you do get through them, you are served a whole litany of accusations against our way of life that are thought-provoking. I put to you that “thought” is healthy, i.e. not “bad”, noxious or harmful…. (I find I need to stress the point under the assumption that the Guardian now appears to disapprove of “thought”.)
Although Bin Laden’s Letter to America (or here) is anything but an enjoyable read, much of his criticism of the USA is distressingly on the mark. It should have been published on the first page of every Western newspaper as soon as it was addressed to the US population in 2002. Had US voters been able to read that letter back then, they might have demanded a change to their country’s destructive foreign policy, hence also to the growing (and well-deserved) hatred against the West.
Allow me to quote an old nursery rhyme:
Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went, Everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go.
“Why does the lamb love Mary so? Mary so, Mary so? Why does the lamb love Mary so?” The eager children cry.
“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know, Lamb, you know, lamb, you know, Mary loves the lamb, you know,” The teacher did reply.
It’s actually a US American nursery rhyme. I sometimes find myself humming to myself.
Everywhere the US went, the US went, the US went Everywhere the US went, doom was sure to go.
In any case, it is safe to say that I no longer seek wisdom from any of the above-mentioned formerly outstanding newspapers, although I am sure they still provide interesting reviews about films and books. Somehow, in view of what sort of future is in store for us, I no longer care for their reviews.
I do, still, however care very much about the mess superpowers are making of the world. At the moment, the USA is still the hegemon, albeit a hegemon in its death-throes, hence all the more desperate and very dangerous. You may not agree with me that US hegemony is in its “death throes”. If so, I can only hope that you are mistaken and that I am not, because nothing good ever seems to come of US interventions.
It is quite possible, even probable, that if and when the USA is incapacitated, I shall be more critical of China and Russia. Obviously, they, too, want to exploit foreign lands for natural resources and cheep labour, but so far they are making a point of promising far better returns for the countries in which they “invest” than the collective west ever did.
I think the moral of this story is multi-polar: If there are three or more Masters, Dog can at all times obey the one who gives the most juicy reward.
Joe Biden and Israel have turned international law into toilet paper. Hamas knew, of course, that Israel would bomb the Shifa hospital, which is why they were NOT hiding there. Anyway, there is nothing more to be added.
Nothing. No further monstrosity can outdo what has been done. The ink in my pen has run dry. The voice in my throat rendered a mere croak.
I urge you, therefore, to turn to those who still have a voice.
We are not hated for our values. We are hated because we have no values. We are hated because rules only apply to others. Not to us. We are hated because we have arrogated to ourselves the right to carry out indiscriminate slaughter.
We are hated because we are heartless and cruel. We are hated because we are hypocrites, talking about protecting civilians, the rule of law and humanitarianism while extinguishing the lives of hundreds of people in Gaza a day, including 160 children.
Patrick Lawrence writes about Israel’s ongoing information war and what all these information wars are doing to us:
It is a fine thing that fewer and fewer people are taken in by the psyops and propaganda blitzes of the national security state, the corporate media, and ruthless — indeed Hitleresque, I shall say it — regimes such as Israel’s.
But to live in a world in which one believes nothing of what is said is its own kind of misery. It is effectively a surrender of all public discourse and public space altogether to the malign, the indecent, the inhumane, the degraded and degrading. The truth, and along with it logical thinking and plain decency, become “alternative.”
Indeed! Take a look at the footage Patrick Lawrence includes in his article of the colossal demonstration in London last week and his linked article examining Hamas’ attack on October 7.
About four months ago I stumbled across an add that ran approximately so: “Please take this dog. She needs family. I can’t keep her.” It had evidently been written by a foreigner.
Now, I had no intention of getting a dog. The problem was that the picture of the dog in question looked very much like the dog I used to have and sorely miss. It haunted me.
Two and a half months later, a new add turned up about the same dog. “Please take dog. Urgent.” So I drove a couple of hours down to a godforsaken village. As I approached the area where the owner and I had agreed to meet, I saw the dog from far away: Shivering in her cage in the back of a carpenter’s van, she had hardly any hair and was so emaciated that she was practically transparent.
“She stopped eating about three weeks ago,” said the owner, an immigrant who explained that he had been evicted and … and… “and winter coming.”
Winter was certainly coming and the dog was nearly naked, terrified and starving. So I took the poor creature and hurried home to feed it.
***
Now that she has been wolfing down giant helpings of healthy nourishment three times a day for three week, she looks more like an oversized white rat than a dog, not at all like the pictures taken of her some four months ago. But she has the sweetest temper.
Except that she hates and is terrified of all other humans and dogs. At the sight of them, she trembles and howls and growls and barks furiously and would rather be run over by a car than be within ten feet of them. Believe me, for a dog owner such terror is no paltry matter. The world is full of humans and dogs. And cars.
***
Every day I drive her down to a beautiful park by the fjord where dog owners walk their charges. I spend an hour there in the hope that she will eventually learn to like somebody other than me.
As we arrived today, a young man with a tall, majestic husky was leaving. He had the dog on a short lead. Their path was perpendicular to ours. I stopped at a safe distance while my dog strained backwards at the leash. The young man glanced briefly at us and I apologised: “She’s terrified of all dogs.” He gave us a closer look. “I see that.”
And then he smiled the most radiant smile and, rather than leaving as he intended, approached with his dog – slowly, calmly, speaking soothingly all the while. We were transfixed, my dog and I, by his quiet voice and beautiful smile. His dog was as serene and beautiful as its owner. When they had reached us, the man asked what my dog’s name was. I told him. He crouched and called her softly. To my astonishment she actually went to him, then approached the husky who stood absolutely still, while she sniffed at each of its long legs, then stretched up towards its face. Watching him bend down to meet her upturned face, I found the word “noble” leapt to mind.
Overwhelmed at the sight of my dog’s miraculously trusting not only another human but also a large dog, I recounted the sad tale of the terrified starving and freezing dog in the cage. Again the radiant smile: “My parents,” he exclaimed with a markedly foreign accent “used to say that whoever looks after a suffering dog will find a place in Paradise”.
Having never before been told I might end up in Paradise, I found I was strangely pleased to hear that. And the warm smile … He could have been Jesus, I mused after we had parted – only he didn’t have blond hair. He was darkish: Middle East, perhaps?
Middle East! Eureka: I was wearing my warm Palestinian scarf. That was why his face had lit up when he gave us that first closer look. “Well, my friend,” I thought, “I hope you, too, find a place in Paradise, but please enjoy many rewarding years first.”
Meanwhile, back in the real world, I wish I could sign, I wish all of us could sign:
I have a dog. I’ve almost always had a dog. Big dog, small dog – no matter – I’m rather good at training dogs. Dogs, you see, are basically quite like humans. You tell a dog to “sit”, and the dog will sit. You tell the dog not to sniff the neighbour’s shoes – “the neighbour kicks”, you say – and it will not sniff the neighbour’s shoes. You tell the dog to bite the neighbour, and it’ll bite the neighbour.
The News tells us humans that Putin wants to conquer all of Europe, and we docilely repeat to each other that Putin wants to conquer all of Europe. “Egad!” we say, “have you heard? Putin wants to….” The News tells us that Hamas is fighting a holy Jihad against Jews and Christians, and we, of course, docile as we are, treat Hamas accordingly: as monsters.
In much of our Western world, being “good”, “upright”, “just” means considering everybody else morally inferior. Our norms, our values, our holy cows are of course the norms, the values and the holy cows that all of humankind must adhere to and venerate. Their norms, values and holy cows are inferior and must be annihilated, by force if necessary. Rule of law, you know. Just like dogs. (“My rules, you fool!”) Headline: “Big husky kills toy poodle”. From the big dog’s point of view, the toy poodle was superfluous. The world can do without. (The philosophical range of a big dog is no greater than that of a small dog.)
You also find vociferous small dogs baring their teeth, yapping their heads off at big dogs. Why do they do it, I wonder? As a warning, I guess: “I may be small, but believe me, I can bite!” And because they have a big human at their side: “You touch a hair on my head, and my human will report you to the police and have you killed, so there!” Indeed, if I pick up that little nuisance of a toy-sized dog next door that barks hysterically every five minutes – pick it up by the scruff of its neck and shake it till its teeth rattle, I’ll be reported to the police.
And some dogs bite, just as some humans. Big dogs, small dogs. Their philosophical range isn’t much greater than that of your average human: They believe what they’re told to believe. Each dog is convinced that its master is the best of all masters. So do most humans. If the master tells the dog that the neighbour kicks, the dog will believe the neighbour kicks. The statement “my master’s enemies, are my enemies.” applies to dogs and humans alike, though most humans don’t seem to realise that they have masters. “We just listen to the News,” humans say, “we just consider the facts“.
Morally, however, most dogs are far superior to the people at the top of the human food chain. Being at the top of the human food chain essentially means being willing to employ every underhanded trick in the book, crossing every red line – you know, those famous red lines that humans, as opposed to dogs, seem unable to remember – to stay there. Humans at the top of the food chain are geared only to stay at the top of the food chain, whereas the rest of us normally want to go about our business in peace. We don’t want to kick our neighbours, but we try to defend ourselves if our neighbours kick us.
Humans at the top of the food chain unleash considerable resources to distort narratives that expose the venality of their actions. The News has repeatedly told us that Hamas are monsters. Yes, Hamas committed horrendous crimes against humanity on October 8, but if you beat a creature long enough, hard enough, viciously enough, that creature – be it lion, kitten, dog, human or mother nature itself – will rise like a tsunami to kill you.
The News did not alert us to how the Palestinians have been treated worse than dogs for decades and decades and decades. The News did not tell us that Hamas wanted peace for the Palestinian people, peace and dignity.
28. Hamas believes in, and adheres to, managing its Palestinian relations on the basis of pluralism, democracy, national partnership, acceptance of the other and the adoption of dialogue. The aim is to bolster the unity of ranks and joint action for the purpose of accomplishing national goals and fulfilling the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
29. The PLO is a national framework for the Palestinian people inside and outside of Palestine. It should therefore be preserved, developed and rebuilt on democratic foundations so as to secure the participation of all the constituents and forces of the Palestinian people, in a manner that safeguards Palestinian rights.
30. Hamas stresses the necessity of building Palestinian national institutions on sound democratic principles, foremost among them are free and fair elections. Such process should be on the basis of national partnership and in accordance with a clear programme and a clear strategy that adhere to the rights, including the right of resistance, and which fulfil the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
31. Hamas affirms that the role of the Palestinian Authority should be to serve the Palestinian people and safeguard their security, their rights and their national project.
My emphasis,
Say what you will, but this is not the Hamas “the News” told us about. This is not the “facts” we have been repeating with deference ever since we graduated from nursery school. “The News” obeyed its masters and failed the rest of us. The damage done by “the News” that obeyed its masters can never be undone.
I watched the news today. Usually, I just read the news, but there was something I wanted to see, so I watched. Yes, I saw the news item I wanted to see. Afterwards, however, that news item was followed by news from Gaza.
It is bad enough reading about people being killed. But seeing people being killed is an entirely different matter. Meanwhile a toneless voice was saying that people are being operated without anaesthesia, and – the voice droned on as dead or dying kids were being carted this way and that – even without analgesics. I did not hear the rest of what he said, because I had switched off the damned television.
I just sat there, cold with horror. And then, as the blood started coursing through my veins again, I felt hot tears coursing down my cheeks, and only then did I realise what it was that was coalescing inside me: Hatred. Hatred against the people who are doing this, hatred against the people who are continuing to do this, again and again and again in cold – lizzard-cold – blood.
So many dead, so much suffering, such unbelievable evil.
I have calmed down now, but I wonder: If I, who am basically a pacifist, feel hatred against Zionism, how will other people feel who are not pacifists? Does President Biden really think that aiding and abetting this terrible crime against humanity in lizard-cold blood will help Israel in the long run? Surely he doesn’t think it will stop terrorism? I mean, he’s not stupid, is he? Or is he?
Let me tell you Mr Biden: Norwegian folk-tales are populated by many strange and scary creatures, among them trolls. I am sure you have heard of trolls. Well, the trolls, you see, have a curious asset you may or may not have heard of: If you cut off the head of a troll, he will grow a new one, and not only one, three! And for each of the three heads you cut off, he will grow three more. That’s the sort of thing you are dealing with, Mr Biden.
Hatred is not a smart think to nurture, Mr Biden. And you are nurturing hatred, Mr Biden, in a very big way.
