TWO-STATE PALESTINE? NOT GOOD ENOUGH (UPDATED 11 November 2023)

STARTED  8th October 2023

11 NOVEMBER 2023: ALL GENOCIDAL ZIONISTS AND THEIR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS HAVE PERPETRATED BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HUMAN SPIRIT AND UNPARDONABLE, EVIL CRIMES AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF PALESTINE, God should remove them from Jerusalem and the Holy Land, for ever, to an East of Eden where they will wander until Eternity.

N.B. Owing to the highly charged political situation, absolutely no opinion is expressed in this blogpost about the role of Hamas or the Turkish government and no opinions should be inferred. .

After difficult e-mail conversations with two of my former Statistics students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, currently apparently Zionist, now Distinguished Professors at the University of Tel Aviv (One an erstwhile expert representative of the State of Israel at meetings relating to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty). I now agree with various Edinburgh activists that the ONLY viable future for the since much repressed and genocided Palestine of 1947 is as a decolonialized state where Palestinians, including their current diaspora, live peacefully with non-Zionist Jewish peace-lovers, subject to the rules of international law and answering to democratically approved resolutions to the United Nations with not a veto in sight. The genocidal Zionists should be encouraged to take a hike, well away from any peace loving societies.

How we will get from A to B is anybody's business.

Meanwhile the abhorently deceitful crimes against humanity, vicious child murder (even by attacking hospitals hospitals) by the State of Israel continue. There could be 200000 dead under the rubble, or starving to death. already. The fake, sensitive and kindly attitude of the US Secretary of State demonise him for eternity.

        My E-mail conversations with two further former students, a former Vice-Dean at UAE University, and an enlightened political writer in Turkey, were much more supportive of the ordinary Palestinian people. They are my erstwhile, much to be admired, co-authors.

       The more reactionary of the two distinguished professors at Tel Aviv completed a Ph.D.in Statistics at UW Madison in 1984 under the supervision of George E.P. Box and on the topic  of experimental design for response surface models. Box worked at the U.S. Army's notorious Math Research Centre and encouraged many of his junior colleagues' to complete totally illegal 'Army Math' which could be usefully applied to military applications e.g controlling rockets when they were fired at nuclear silos. This student's subsequent expert involvement with the  Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, makes me wonder whether the contents of his PH.D. thesis were subsequently used for controlling rockets e.g, by the U.S. or Israeli Army. I am ashamed to have served on his Ph.D. Committee. He has subsequently worked on medical applications and clinical trials and I wonder where the many subjects or guinea pigs for his clinical trials came from. It would be good to think that none were long-suffering Palestinians.

        I played intramural soccer with the other professor from Tel Aviv in about 1981 while he was a Masters student in  Statistics. I am very sad that such a nice young friend seems, as a Distinguished Professor of Economics, to have become an ardent Zionist who is prepared to believe the lies and propaganda of the Israeli government.  

        The King, Prime Minister in wanting, and Prime Minister in waiting of Great Britain hold entirely different opinions to myself, and they will be held to historical account for them.

               

See also THE PALESTIAN RESOLUTION

                                      DECOLONIZE PALESTINE

                                      SCOTTISH JEWS AGAINST ZIONISM

Indigenous activists are now blocking the weapons shipment to Israel from leaving the Tacoma Port from the water.--- https://twitter.com/babadookspinoza/status/1721715478639317046

NicolasMaduro -World must ‘raise its voice against the Nazi genocide against the Palestinian people’-https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1721713902432440450 

...

THE PALESTIAN RESOLUTION

 

We, the undersigned:

(1) Grieve the lives claimed in the renewed cycle of violence, brutality, and destruction unleashed by the ongoing occupation of Palestine;

(2) Consider that the Zionist project is colonial in nature, built on stolen land, and sustained by the systematic exclusion, exploitation, and extermination of the Palestinian people;

(3) Recognize Zionism’s use as a weapon of Western imperialism and the Israeli state as an instrument to suppress sovereignty and unity in the Arab world — and advance violent reaction far beyond it;

(4) Consider that the Zionist regime has demonstrated its genocidal nature both in intent and in effect;

(5) Understand that the fascist violence against the Palestinian people today foreshadows the violence of Western imperialism towards all the world’s workers and oppressed peoples tomorrow because this is the historical tendency of capitalism in decay;

(6) Acknowledge that the Palestinian people face a national struggle, a class struggle, and a feminist struggle; affirm that the national struggle must be won for the other struggles to advance; and reject the weaponization of “colonial feminism” to obscure the primary contradictions of colonialism and imperialism and distract from the patriarchal and sexual violence inherent in them;

(7) Recognize that as a colonial project and imperial outpost, the Israeli state stands against the tendency of history to advance toward liberation, and that the liberation of the Palestinian people will therefore represent not only a severe blow to imperialism everywhere but also a progressive leap for all humanity;

(8) Reject the false equivalence of colonizer and colonized, recognize that the violence of the oppressed is a response to the original condition of their oppression, and uphold the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to resist, enshrined in UN Resolution 2625, as "the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means”;

(9) Denounce the disinformation being spread by the Israeli state and advanced by imperialist powers and their allies, which dehumanizes the Palestinian people, fuels the genocidal war against them, and whitewashes the crimes of their oppressors;

(10) Condemn the silence or equivocation of the non-governmental organizations and movements that weaponize human rights to transform our individual and collective entitlements to assistance, protection, dignity, and solidarity into an arsenal aimed at adversaries of the imperial order;

(11) Support the self-determination and sovereignty of front-line states and regional anti-systemic movements, whose democratic aspirations are constrained both by Israeli military aggression and US pressures to normalize relations with the Israeli state;

(12) Hear the urgent calls for solidarity from the Palestinian people, who demand, in the short-term:

• an immediate end to the genocide,
• the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the restoration of water, food, fuel and medical supplies to its people,
• a military embargo against the Israeli state,
• an investigation into the crimes against humanity perpetrated by representatives of the Israeli regime and their accomplices around the world,
• the removal of Palestinian political parties from the US Treasury’s OFAC terrorism sanctions program,

• the release of all political prisoners, and

• determined political action at all levels to advance these goals;

(13) Recognize that these immediate aims remain insufficient and commit to supporting the long-standing aspirations of the Palestinian people by:

• dismantling the mechanisms of corporate, institutional, and state complicity that sustain the Israeli apartheid state and its military machine, including through strikes and direct actions targeting the producers and suppliers of weapons, digital services, informational services, and related products;
• upholding the truth and combatting the spread of lies and disinformation advanced by the Zionist regime and its imperialist backers, including by exposing their crimes against humanity and advancing popular education on the long struggle for Palestine’s national liberation;
• advancing the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggle around the world, including by taking on Western militarism on all continents;

(14) Knowing that our collective struggles for liberation converge in Palestine, commit to responding to these calls for solidarity; consent for our actions to be measured against the seriousness of their aspirations; and vow to choke the arteries of complicity that sustain the Zionist oppression of the Palestinian people militarily, financially, technologically, and culturally.

Signatories:

National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa - NUMSA (South Africa) • Palestinian Youth Movement (International) • Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan - MKSS (India) • DiEM25 (Europe) • The Red Nation (International) • Potere al Popolo (Italy) • Women's International Democratic Federation - WIDF (International) • Black Alliance for Peace (United States) • DSA International Committee (United States) • Black Lives Matter UK (United Kingdom) • Communard Union (Venezuela) • Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (South Africa) • Telar: Territorios Latinoamericanos en Resistencia (International) • Movimento de Pequenos Agricultores - MPA (Brazil) • Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Teto - MTST (Brazil) • Ukamau (Chile) • Frente Popular Darío Santillán (Argentina) • Congreso de los Pueblos (Colombia) • Palestine Action US (United States) • Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (Pakistan) • Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (International) • Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania - MVIWATA (Tanzania) • Women’s Democratic Front (Pakistan) • Palestinian Feminist Collective (International) • Communist Party of Kenya (Kenya) • Kuwaiti Progressive Movement (Kuwait) • WAELE Africa (International) • Coalition for Revolution - CORE (Nigeria) • Madaar Sorkh (Iran) • Borotba (Ukraine) • Danesh va Mardom (Iran) • House of Latin America (Iran) • Solidarity Iran (Iran) • Izquierda Libertaria (Chile) • Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria del Petróleo - USO (Colombia) • Akcja Socjalistyczna (Poland) • El Maizal Commune (Venezuela) • Vencedores de Carorita Commune (Venezuela) • El Movimiento Democratico de Mujeres (Spain) • The International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism (International) • Instituto Simón Bolívar (Venezuela)  • Cage (United Kingdom).

CHRYSALIS (to Jim Liddle)

 

                                                 Chrysalis

                                             by Tom Leonard

                                     To Jim Liddle (1956-2023)

                                         In love and gratitude

                       With acknowledgements to Rev. Bill Taylor

On becoming a butterfly,

A caterpillar breaks free from its bonds,

Like a leaf turns into a tree,

And flies into golden ponds,

Like a child chrysalises into the adult

They wanna be.

You can evolve into the great artist,

Newtonian polymath,

Celtic footballer,

Or river dancer of your dreams;

Even when you fall flat on your backside,

And make a pig's ear of everything

Just shut you eyes and see.

Welcome is a lamb that becomes a lion,

Who defies the locusts of repression,

Who stands for the vulnerable, and the weak,

Who tries to climb the spiritual peaks.

You, too, can chrysalise into your fantasy;

Just imagine, and wait and see;

You have the insights of a Confucius of old;

Just break free.

Jim was an insecure youth,

But rose like a butterfly 

To become a man of Christian stature

In fair Embro's LGBT community.

Unfazed by the Pharisees, 

He spread Christ's message with integrity and dignity

Convenor of LGCM, Advocate of Scotland's Outright,

Member of famed Gay Centre on Broughton St,

He cared for the vulnerable and was loved by all, and me.

I become a member of St. Augustine's United Reform Church

 On 22 nd October 2023, Rev Fiona Bennett welcomed me into membership of St, Augustine's United Reform Church on George 1V Bridge Edinburgh. It made me feel resurrected at a time of sickness. When I returned home with Julie, I was deeply grieved to learn that my dear friend the Church of Scotland LGBT activist Jim Liddle had passed away. He was a hero to us all.

Jim Liddle, leading Christian LGBT Activist

by Tom Leonard

In 1974, Jim Liddle, then an 18 year old former Sunday School Teacher concerned about his gay orientation, was told by a group of Christian fundamentalists that he needed to be healed.

Jim approached the Church of Scotland instead, but found only an embarrassed silence when he tried to discuss his feelings. These experiences caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown shortly afterwards. Jim was later to become a leading Christian LGBT activist in Edinburgh and a dynamic and dedicated social worker.

Jim came out as openly gay in 1983 and sought solace in his strongly grounded Christian faith, along with the affirming love and support of family and friends. When he visited the gay bars, he discovered that

While the LGBT scene can be a place of connection, its superficial dynamics limit the scope for building a network of support for the individual. This needs to be nurtured outwith the scene.

Jim travelled around churches and youth clubs in Lothian holding workshops and meetings on behalf of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM). In 1995 he said, “Everywhere I go I find people in crisis because their sexuality has been swept under the carpet. We’re told that the Truth will set us free, but then we’re told to hide the truth about ourselves in a way that is not healthy.”

During the years (1989-1993) that Jim was convenor of the Edinburgh branch of LGCM he developed an outreach of ecumenical work with clergy and churches in looking at neglected sensitive LGBT pastoral issues throughout Edinburgh. This enabled many people to be made aware of churches where they would be made welcome and affirmed. In total, a network of 60 churches were identified.

The members of Outright Scotland (including Jim ) had been working quietly away throughout the 1990s, and the Equality Network charitable organization , an official wing of the LGBT consortium, undoubtedly also played a role concerning the repeal of Section 28.

Jim sometimes assumes an alternative persona while reading comical poetry or Prayers to the People to the congregation at Broughton St. Mary’s. Jim’s amusing performances frequently enhance the traditional COS Sunday Morning Service.

There is much more to be said about Jim. Seven pages of my history are devoted to him.

Decolonise Palestine

                                                       decolonise palestine.com

NATO's covert violence and subversive secret armies, and Operation GLADIO

 

The entire population of Planet Earth could be wiped out within the next few decades, in a fireball, by climate catastrophe, or by nuclear war. The horrific flood that devastated Derna in Libya during early September 2023, provides a frightening epitome of how productive communities will be suddenly obliterated (AJLabs, 2023) and no country should remain confident that its superior infrastructure might preclude a similarly appalling disaster.

NATO should be regarded as culpable for much of the damage to the infrastructure in the region surrounding Derna (Lantier, 2023) because of the aggressive ‘humanitarian’ war NATO launched against Libya in 2011 which, following the disgustingly foul murder of the moderately Muslim, enlightened but imperfect, African leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (Human Rights Watch, 2012), and plunged this leading African country into over eight years of destructive civil war.

The NATO forces have blood on their hands, just as NATO supported France and America do, on an ongoing basis, in West Africa. Who said Muammar Gaddafi had to go? See Roberts (2011). For more on NATO’s war against Libya and Africa see Glazebrook (2013). For a cogent political analysis, see UK Parliament (2016).

If NATO maintain similarly aggressive policies in Africa and the world into the future then our chances of long-term survival will be considerably reduced. If NATO supported countries stopped behaving so aggressively then this would likely lead to a decline in American and Western European economies to the point where they would need to become self-sufficient. NATO-supported countries may well be facing a stark choice: EITHER Aggression and suppression abroad OR economic decline at home.

NATO has a historical reputation for covert activities in many Western European countries during the post WW2 period and until at least 1990. Operation GLADIO was frequently linked to right wing terrorism, massacres, and ruthless internal subversion (Ganser, 2004, BBC Timewatch, 1992). GLADIO killing sprees in Belgium and Italy were carried out for the purpose of frightening the national political classes into adopting US policies.

It is possible that NATO and its secret armies are continuing to covertly support right wing governments and their socially and queer repressive policies to this very day. This may well have helped bring about the cruel and harsh attitudes of the disreputable government in Rome during 2023 (Barry 2023).

On 15 September 2023, the leader of the G77+China summit in Havana, President Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba said that developing countries were the main victims of a multidimensional crisis in the world today caused by abusive unequal trade and climate change (Al Jazeera, 2023). The Cuban president called upon the Global South to change the rules of the game of the international after centuries of dominance by wealthy Western nations wishing to put their own interests first. Cuba seems to be steering the Global South away from the U.S. backed exploitative world order (Shakil, 2023)

It sounds as if, at this point in time, the only powerful people talking common sense are listening to Marxists. The G77+ summit was also attended by the top Chinese communist official Xi Li who said that China will always make South-South co-operation a priority in its dealings with the outside world. The summit, attended by delegations from over 100 countries, lauded China’s outstanding world-wide contributions and concluded with a call for more participation and say of the Global South in the world government system (Xinhua, 2023).

AJLabs (2023) Mapping Libya’s catastrophic storm damage in Derna after Storm Daniel (Aljazeera)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/13/mapping-libya-flood-damage Accessed 13 September 2023

Alex Lantier (2023) NATO Imperialism and the Libya flood catastrophe (World Socialist Website) https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/14/zlnn-s14.html Accessed 15 September 2023

Human Rights Watch (2012) Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte

https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/10/16/death-dictator/bloody-vengeance-sirte

Accessed 15 September 2023

Hugh Roberts (2011) Who said Gaddafi had to go? (London Review)

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n22/hugh-roberts/who-said-gaddafi-had-to-go

Accessed 18 September 2023

Dan Glazebrook (2013) Slouching towards Sirte: NATO’s war on Libya and Africa by Maximilian Forte (Ceasefire Magazine, Book Review)

https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/review-slouching-sirte-natos-war-libya-africa-maximilian-forte/ Accessed 18 September 2023

UK Parliament (2016) Libya: examination of intervention and collapse, and the UK’s future policy options https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmfaff/119/11905.htm

Accessed 18 September 2023

Danielle Ganser (2004) NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe (Contemporary Security Studies) Milton Park: Routledge

BBC Timewatch (1992)Operation GLADIO (Youtube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXavNe81XdQ

Colleen Barry (2023) Donatella Versace slams Italian government’s anti-gay policies (ABC News) https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/donatella-versace-slams-italian-governments-anti-gay-policies-103501765

Al Jazeera (2023) Global South leaders demand end of ‘plundering international order’. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/16/global-south-leaders-demand-end-of-plundering-international Accessed 23 September 2023

F.M.Shakil (2023) Cuba is set to steer the global south away from the U.S. backed exploitative world order (Al Mayadeen). https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/cuba-is-set-to-steer-the-global-south-away-from-the-us-backe Accessed 24 September 2023

Xinhua (2023) G77+China Summit concludes with emphasis on empowering Global South (Xinhuanet) https://english.news.cn/20230917/e295f6c98b204c4f99bf57c504c8aa26/c.html Accessed 24 September 2023