Ceasefire How? A Reading List

Palestinians react to news on a ceasefire deal with Israel, in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters] Source: Aljazeera

Since Israel is, like the U.S. as described by Russia and China "non-agreement capable," it remains to be seen how much fire actually ceases. Yesterday when the ceasefire was announced Zionists went on killing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

https://x.com/sahouraxo/status/1879690323779346438

It's early days for an agreement that goes into effect on Sunday, and I can't blame Gaza's survivors for celebrating the end of this particular phase of their torment. Or Hamas for celebrating this as a win. While I myself remain skeptical.

Read the full text of the agreement here.

How many aid trucks will actually be allowed in?

Which Palestinians will be rearrested immediately after being released from Israel's torture prison, as per past practice?

Will the Palestinian Authority go on killing on Israel's behalf in the West Bank?

Will the bombing of Palestine's supporters in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen cease too?

Perhaps a reading list is in order today as we sift through what is known and unknown about this glimmer of hope.

Aljazeera video: "Netanyahu, a 'war criminal', cannot be trusted with a ceasefire: Marwan Bishara"

Excerpt:

We need to focus on the humanitarian issue that is facing us in Gaza.. 

We need to look at the future in a way clean from the craziness of Israeli politics..

What's important is to end the occupation -- of Gaza, of the West Bank, of East Jerusalem, even of the Syrian Golan Heights.

Caitlin Johnstone: "Thoughts on the ceasefire deal"

Excerpt:

The deal as written is apparently virtually identical to the one Hamas agreed to last May, which Netanyahu then sabotaged with the complicity of the Biden administration.

As usual, Israel appears to be ramping up its aggressions to kill as many people as possible before the fighting comes to an end. These next few days will be an especially terrifying time to be living in Gaza.

 

Simplicius: "Ceasefire deal reportedly reached in Gaza, as both Biden and Trump take credit"

Excerpt:

After much more than a year of fighting, the “pound for pound greatest military force on the planet” was unable to defeat Hamas even after being given a blank cheque for total indiscriminate slaughter and genocide of the civilian population with zero repercussions, a leeway not afforded to any other military force in recent history.

The fact is, the IDF performed dismally and the reason the deal even came about was because the last several weeks saw a significant spike in IDF soldiers’ deaths.

A man waves a Palestinian flag in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]  Source: Aljazeera

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network: "The resistance lives, the prison doors open -- on the road to liberation and return"

Excerpt:

Of course, the genocide in Palestine did not begin in October 2023, and it will not end with the implementation of this agreement. Genocide is the nature of Zionism; it is the weapon of imperialism. Since 1948 – and indeed, since the Balfour declaration and British colonialism in Palestine – Palestinians have been resisting genocide. This is, however, a new stage of struggle against the ongoing Zionist genocide, organized, directed and backed by the imperialist powers – as illustrated by their colonial bombardment of Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank as the ceasefire agreement was being announced.

Fiorella Isabel: "Israel and Hamas reach a ceasefire and hostage deal after 15 months of genocide but there's a nefarious catch"

Excerpt:

This is happening now because [Israel] needed Syria out, a weakened Axis, and weakened non-aligned axis, for their required objectives. It’s also no coincidence that we’re seeing this all come with a change of face in the US, while the same long-planned foreign policy will continue. 

Few mention the fact that Israel’s been taking up more and more land in the occupied West Bank with the help of the Palestinian Authority. It’s only a matter of time before they fully control the entire thing, given the state of the region and the incoming logistics, unless there is a miraculous, united push to stop Israel and the US -- which looking at Syria, is unlikely.

I end by reflecting that Hamas' stated purpose of the Oct 7 military operation was to capture hostages that could be swapped for Palestinian prisoners. So this agreement is in the "win" column for them. Israel's stated purpose in responding after Oct 7 was to obliterate Hamas (which outgoing Secretary State Blinken said this week has more members than ever, so that's in the "loss column") and free the hostages. Many hostages did not live to see their freedom, largely because Israel's collective punishment of Gaza fell on them, too. So that's a draw.

As for the U.S. and Israel's international reputation, both are in tatters over genocide in Gaza. Major losses for them with far-reaching consequences, and that they will probably learn nothing from. 

Happy, Or Well-Informed?

Source: Mr. Fish

Australian blogger Caitlin Johnstone has an uncanny ability to put into words what I'm incoherently feeling or thinking. Sometimes my ruminations are at the sub-conscious level, but not this time. Her latest column, "How To Be Happy In A Genocidal Dystopia On A Dying World," addressed something I encounter all the time: feeling like the turd in the punch bowl at gatherings of the vast majority in the U.S. who prefer ignorance over knowledge.

You don’t need to choose between being happy and being well-informed, is how Caity put it.

This is precisely the claim of the affluent legions who studiously avoid current events, preferring not to see the imperial wars and economic exploitation that underpins their lifestyle. Slavery moved offstage, if you will. 

The peer pressure to conform in this group is immense while often remaining largely invisible.

A doctor once told me after one too many glasses of wine that he would have loved to join our weekly bridge protest of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, "but I'm afraid it would hurt my standing in the community."

When he saw people he knew out in public with signs like "Depleted Uranium Is A War Crime" it was hard to ignore. Solution for most encountering this cognitive dissonance: turn on NPR, or read corporate "news." Let yourself be lulled back into a state of blissful ignorance about what your tax dollars are really funding.

Many, many people have claimed they cannot face facts about wars and genocides because it bums their high. I have come around to believing that this isn't actually true. 

A clue is that they are fine consuming information about historical or fictional wrongs such as violence against innocent people. Gruesome murders that didn't actually happen but were created so that fictional detectives could solve them, providing a diverting intellectual exercise for readers or viewers. Murderous empires that exist only in fantasy. This habit appears to lead to more happiness, not less.

I think the real problem is different. My mother expressed it succinctly when I nagged her to share a Noam Chomsky book my son had lent her. Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance was a slim volume -- and my mother was a voracious reader -- so I couldn't figure out why months later she still had not passed the book along to me. Her explanation finally emerged: I was so consumed by guilt that I could hardly read more than a page at a time.

Born in dire poverty in 1932, my mother nonetheless felt responsible for her role in looking the other way while the U.S. empire ravaged the world. Probably this intensified after her marriage ended. Though both my parents loved harpooning sacred cows, it was my father who was far more willing and likely to call out the elephants in rooms (how's that for large mammal mixed metaphors?).

People don't want to know the truth about U.S. foreign policy because if they did they might have to do something about it. 

And, for whatever reason, they believe that the imperative to take some active responsibility is going to ruin their day.

I think another Caitlin Johnstone gem is relevant here: 

Being born into western civilization is like waking up in the middle of a massive lynch mob.[emphasis mine] 

Something terrible is happening, and everyone’s going along with it and telling you it’s fine and it’s normal, and even if you’re able to figure out that what they’re doing is wrong in all the chaos and confusion you find yourself powerless to stop them, because the whole thing has so much momentum already and there are far too many people blindly caught up in the frenzy of bloodlust for you to make everyone change course. Just continuing to live among them makes you complicit in their actions in many ways, but you have nowhere else to go besides this lynch mob town you were born into. 

But I came here to say this: getting active in resisting the evil empire is the best! It's often cold, discouraging, demoralizing, and challenging BUT you meet the nicest people doing this kind of work. One such person is my friend Yussra whose recent thoughts on the role of pets in the vacuous morality of Western liberals may well be a corollary to my topic here.

Photo: Mary Beth Sullivan

A final thought: at a rally last weekend organized by Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine in Maine, a soccer mom shared her recent awakening to the U.S.-Israel genocide in Gaza. She was experiencing the dawning realization that she was alone among her friends and neighbors in reaching this understanding. It was lonely, she said, but also invigorating, and she felt deep gratitude for the activists standing beside her in the snow -- willing not only to witness the ugly truth but to try and do something about it.