New York – I was kicked out of New York’s prestigious Collegiate private school many moons ago for “revolutionary and disruptive activities.”
Thank goodness my wise parents sent me to the International School of Geneva, Switzerland where I thrived.
The underground French fascist group, “la Main Rouge” repeatedly threatened to kill me for organizing student demonstrations against France’s colonial war in Algeria. But I survived.
Being a life-long rebel and hell-raiser, I am naturally sympathetic to today’s pro-Palestinian student protests that are now sweeping American and European campuses.
Students may be poor and too emotional, but they are often filled with repulsions at the sight of mass killing, political brutality, and murderous hatred such as we see today in the prison camp of Gaza. They have yet to learn the sordid truth about how money can buy indulgences from killing civilians and other war crimes.
Just ask Joe Biden, and British PM Rishi Sunak. They are continuing to arm and finance Israel’s mass killing and starvation in Gaza for the sake of huge cash donations as elections loom, and the support of ardently pro-Israel voters who are marching to the drum of Israel’s far right-wing government. The US and British media have been whitewashing the genocide in Gaza and twisting their reporting to justify mass killing of civilians. The New York Times has earned opprobrium by ordering its staff to slant the news it misreports. This once great newspaper has ruined its reputation. It reminds of the great Mark Twain’s famous bon mot, “If you don’t read the news you are uninformed. If you do, you are misinformed.”
Let’s be frank. President Joe Biden, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and their pal Egypt’s despot Abdel el-Sisi are directly responsible for the deaths of 14,000 Palestinian children, almost 35,000 Palestinian civilians seriously wounded, some 2 million Palestinians now homeless, growing starvation and disease across Gaza used by Israel as a refuse dump for unwanted Arabs. The Biden administration is providing over $14.1 billion in arms to Israel, including the deadly 2,000lb bombs used to crush entire civilian apartment buildings and hospitals, plus tank shells fired at residential targets. All in clear violation of US arms export laws written by Congress.
Why is Biden the key player in such mass destruction? Why is his UN delegation vetoing resolutions to stop Israeli laying waste to Gaza? It’s election time coming up. And because the Democrats get the lion’s share of their finances from pro-Israel sources.
Big money talks. Human rights walk. The US Congress, a sorry collection of used car salesmen, has been bought and sold. What a disgrace for the USA. The oil Arabs could also have bought Congress but they were too busy squabbling with one another.
So, while the high and mighty averted their gaze to massacres and famine in Gaza, it was left up to students around the globe to raise their voice in anger over the crimes there. My alma mater, Georgetown Foreign Service, raised a chorus of protests. So too Columbia University and UCLA, Sciences Po in Paris, in fact just about everywhere except Germany, whose people are still paying Israel for World War II.
Big money donors, who made billions off our rigged financial system, are trying to silence protests over Israel’s wanton cruelty. Israelis are right to be furious over the killing of an estimated 1,139 Israeli civilians and soldiers. But killing tens of thousands of innocent Arabs was wildly out of proportion and clearly criminal.
America, Britain and Canada have disgraced themselves – all for the sake of money. The Gaza massacre has revealed the US to be a deeply corrupt society. University students at least helped save America’s honor. They are doing the right thing. Alas, they do not yet have a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young band to turn their protests into electrifying music. Meanwhile, Palestinian children continue to starve or die of disease while Israel ruins its name and paid-for politicians spout lies.
Reprinted with permission from EricMargolis.com.
