On the politics and rhetoric of starvation in Gaza
And Happy Bank Holiday memes
Happy Bank Holiday to those who are celebrating it (or call it Memorial day and are not celebrating it). I promise I am not judging you.
I have received a lot of posts and comments from watchers of my YouTube video about the DC anti-Semitic shooting attacks. Shockingly, one viewer said I am a genocide apologist. I know we live in a toxic media space and i’ve tried to avoid handling the Israeli Palestinian conflict except in an expert way rather than as a commentator out of fear of blowback… But I feel that is not possible in today’s times.
Rather than being a genocide apologist as the meanspirited viewer would have it, I am of course very troubled and concerned by Bibi’s weaponization of aid and the use of starvation as a war tactic… Just as the jihadi who shot and killed Sarah and Yaron has hurt his cause, I am sure that the IDF’s fight to deny humanitarian assistance entering Gaza is hurting its own cause. BOTH ARE DISORDERS who achieve the opposite of their stated aims.
You can read the DC killer’s manifesto here and you can assure yourself his action achieves exactly the opposite of his stated aims just as IDF’s claim that they are preventing Hamas from smuggling aid achieves the opposite of its aims.
It is this Disorderly counterproductive aspect that I tried to stress in my YouTube (you can check that out again here if you didn’t catch it when I sent it right after the killing) I don’t think this aspect is being covered enough and how counterproductive it is… Therefore, I strongly recommend that everyone listens to Arthur Snell speaking to my good friend Michael Stephens on Arthur’s pod.
Michael knows what he is talking about… he is fluent in Hebrew and Arabic and ran to be Tory MP from the left of the party. I think you’ll enjoy the below and find it edifying:
Next some fascinating memes that show that Europe and Japan are the major economies with energy dependence and import fossil fuels… this is a very important structural reason that the Green movements are so big in these places…
Now for some Bank Holiday silliness (if you are celebrating)
