JOHNSTONE

Recent hours have seen too much Israeli depravity to write about, including an assassination strike in Qatar to sabotage peace talks, a second drone attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla, and a Guardian article featuring an IDF sniper who discussed killing civilians like a trophy hunter talking about game animals.

Reading by Tim Foley.

A drone appears to have struck a boat from the Global Sumud Flotilla while it was docked at a Tunisian port on its way to bring aid into Gaza, temporarily starting a fire. Nobody on board was harmed. The boat was reportedly crewed by the same activists who had attempted to sail to Gaza on the Madleen this past July, including Greta Thunberg.

And it is here worth noting that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently said that Global Sumud Flotilla activists must be designated as terrorists and treated accordingly, in order to "create a clear deterrent" against foreign parties attempting to bring aid into Gaza by sea.

It is no mystery who the prime suspect is in this attack.

Reading by Tim Foley.

In a sense all I'm ever really pointing at here is the importance of taking responsibility. Taking responsibility as westerners for the suffering and destruction inflicted upon the world by the western power structure that we live under.

Reading by Tim Foley.

In the UK a terrorist is someone with a cardboard sign saying "I support Palestine Action".

In the US a terrorist is a Venezuelan suspected of drug trafficking.

In Israel a terrorist is someone resisting occupation.

Reading by Tim Foley.

He hung up a sign that said Secretary of War,

snapped a picture for the socials,

shut the door,

took a swig of Jameson straight from the bottle,

then sat down and fondled the revolver in his desk drawer

like a little boy playing with his penis.

Visions of cruise missiles danced through his head,

aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines

and tiny middle eastern bodies blown to bits by glorious inventory.

Mushroom clouds flashed in his eyes

as he caressed the trigger with an index finger.

"They call me the Secretary of War," he said.

"They call me the Secretary of War."

He did not feel the robins in his chest

or hear the red-winged blackbirds trilling in his hair.

The electricity of the flesh was a stranger to him.

Exuberance was a deadbeat dad who never called.

Outside the Pentagon walls a cicada roared unnoticed

and the grass sang ancient hymns to the sun god.

People bustled in and bustled out,

their minds buzzing with Palantir porn,

their lips casting spells of Raytheon and ruin.

Under the rubble of a far away building

a child reached out a hand in the darkness.

Her cries were silenced by gulps of whiskey

in the office of the Secretary of War.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Make no mistake about where the moral authority stands here. This isn’t something we need to be on the defense about. It’s something we need to be on the attack about.

Reading by Tim Foley.

You always see Israel apologists saying "If Hamas lays down its arms there'll be no more war, if Israel lays down its arms there'll be no more Israel."

But really the exact opposite is true. If the Israelis lay down their arms, a genocide ends. If Hamas lays down their arms, Israel's planned ethnic cleansing of Gaza happens quickly and without resistance.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN human rights experts, Israeli human rights groups like B'Tselem, and the overwhelming majority of genocide scholars all agree it's a genocide. The debate is over. The hasbarists lost.

Reading by Tim Foley.

This is just what happens when bad people in your life reveal an ugly truth about themselves. If you learn that someone in your life is cool with their government supporting a genocide, you can just sort of let your feelings and natural inclinations lead the way on that.

Reading by Tim Foley.

To be racist is to admit that you are a dull, vapid person. It's an admission that you are so intellectually, emotionally and spiritually shallow that you can only enjoy and connect with other human beings in the most superficial of ways. There is no depth to you. There has been no growth in you. You are stunted. You have been wasting your time on this planet instead of maturing and expanding your connectedness with the gift of human life.

Reading by Tim Foley.