A Graveyard For Children

(Blogspot has censored my pages there, so this is the best link available this week.)

A state whose existence requires the mass murder of children every few years is not a state that should continue to exist. --Caitlin Johnstone, Getting Called A Nazi For Opposing A Genocide

A Graveyard For Children

words and peace demo photos by C. A. Matthews

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” a UNICEF spokesperson says. “It’s a living hell for everyone else.”

Admittedly, it’s a difficult concept to wrap your head around. Most of us are taught that children in general are the best and the brightest of humanity. They are our hopes for a better tomorrow, a cherished part of life on Earth. 

Most of us would do anything to protect children and keep them out of harm’s way. Ask parents what is the worst thing that could ever happen to them in their lives, and the vast majority will state, “Outliving my child.”

The death of one child can affect more than the child’s parents. The loss of a sibling, close cousin, or school friend is often listed as one of the most devastating events of a person’s life. Even the hope of a child who dies before they can take their first breath can devastate a family, and perhaps break a marriage apart. I’ve seen this, and their example will never leave me.

At first I thought they were a “normal” family—dad, mom, young school-age daughter—when I met them, but then I began to notice the occasional “lapses” in the mother’s attention She would be talking to you and then something in the conversation would hit her, and she’d stop. Her gaze would look off into a far distance no one else could see. 

I learned that this family had lost another child, younger than their living child, several years earlier. The baby had either been stillborn or died soon after birth, so perhaps they had never even had a chance to bring the baby home from the hospital. But the death was still felt, still mourned, and still haunted their every waking moment.

The father worked his new job hard, but in the few instances I saw him together with his wife and daughter, I could tell that the empty spot their lost child would have filled had left a void that neither he or his wife could cross or heal. Their young daughter was active and friendly, but often when interacting with her parents I noticed a quietness and sadness that seemed beyond her years. Even if she couldn’t remember her lost sibling, she intuited that something important was missing from all their lives.

Now take this tragic experience of utter loss and devastation and multiply it times...I don’t know, let’s multiply it times a billion. This is what losing 5,000+ children feels like to an entire nation. This is what the war crime of genocide feels like to the Palestinian people.

What sort of person would inflict such a sadistic injury upon their neighbors, upon the indigenous people whose land they had stolen 75 years earlier in a supposed attempt to find a peaceful home for themselves? 

There’s no way these Israeli sadists could be good parents themselves. They must secretly hate children or despise their very existence to want to inflict such harm upon little ones. To even think of murdering a child or an innocent adult as a form of “weapon” to use against another demonstrates these sick bastards’ twisted psychopathology.

There’s no other way I can explain this heinous sociopathic behavior. The thought of ethnically cleansing little ones and innocent civilians because you want their land (and possibly the oil and gas reserves beneath their homes) is just beyond the pale. It brings to mind the atrocious behaviors white Americans have perpetrated against African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans through out our nation’s history. Sick, sick, sick!

A loving parent would never do anything intentionally to harm the precious life of their child—or anyone’s precious child—if this parent truly cherishes children. But here we have the Israeli government cutting off water and electricity to Gaza, cutting off food supplies and medicines, and then intentionally bombing hospitals, including a hospital with a children’s ward, a hospital with tiny babies in incubators who need oxygen and heat to survive.

Do the Israeli people not share the same deep instinct to protect children from harm that other people have? Can’t they tell the difference between terrorists and toddlers? What sort of monsters would murder babies in their cradles? Can any other government really trust a government who doesn’t follow the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights?

Are the Israelis who follow Netanyahu the type of individuals who drown unwanted puppies and kittens? Did they tear the wings and legs off of insects when they were younger? Bully the smaller kids on the playground when they were growing up? There must be something in their psychological make-up and history to explain their current murderous behaviors. Nothing they say or do gives us any indication that their desire to commit genocide against the Palestinian people will let up anytime soon.

And then we have the genocide enablers, or more likely genocide collaborators, such as the United States.

Who could be worse than genocidal maniacs Netanyahu and company? Of course it’s anyone who would knowingly fix their star on his genocidal actions and try to ride his coattails. If “Genocide Joe” Biden could wash his hands of Israel and step back and stop all funding of their ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, then the US could be let off the hook. But no...Joe’s gotta be a part of it, up to and including supplying armaments and boots on the ground.

I have to wonder, what’s it like being an American soldier patrolling in the bombed-out ruins of Gaza? I can only assume it’s hellish and heartbreaking. Well, maybe if you have a conscience and care about children and innocent civilians, being bombed into a pulp, it would be heartbreaking. If you’re an American who enjoys drowning unwanted puppies and kittens and tearing the wings and legs off of insects, then you might feel right at home in this nightmare situation.

It’s one thing to call other countries mass murderers and genociders, but to accuse your fellow countrymen of committing war crimes? It’s truly sickening. I don’t know how we will ever be able to beg forgiveness for the US military’s genocidal behavior toward the Palestinians. It’s all too  obvious we’ve learned much from the Nazis we imported after World War II in Operation Paperclip. It’s all too obvious we admire the Neo-Nazis of the Azov Battalion that we continue to fund in Ukraine.

I’m just glad my father and grandfathers aren’t alive to see any of this happening. They’d probably pitch their purple hearts into the gutter in disgust knowing we’ve become genocide collaborators. My mother’s father served alongside General George S. Patton in Europe. They liberated POWs and opened the gates of the Death Camps… Why would they cheer on the US military of today conspiring to do the same things Hitler’s minions did at Auschwitz?

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,”  according to a United Nations spokesperson. The leaders who put them there, their murderers Netanyahu and Biden, need to be held accountable for their war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Nothing less will satisfy the tears of their loved ones or meet the need for justice on this woe-begotten planet.

Important Announcement:

There is a massacre taking place before our eyes in Gaza

WATCH NOW

Dr. Jill Stein has always condemned violence against civilians on all sides. Yet there is no denying it: Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal. Palestinians are being denied food, water, electricity and medicine, as they are subjected to relentless bombings that even target hospitals. These crimes must stop now.

Jill is calling for an investigation of the Netanyahu regime’s war crimes, as well as the role of Biden and US leadership in aiding and abetting them.

The endless war machine enriches military contractors, lobbyists, and politicians, while it fuels bloodshed and devastation around the world. Please join us in supporting leadership that promotes peace and human rights at home and around the world by leaving a comment, and sharing this video with others who support peace.

Thank you,

Jill Stein for President 2024

P.S. Want to share with your friends? Share Jill’s video on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).

Seen on X/Twitter:

Who is this truth teller? This is a must watch for everyone. 💯 https://t.co/QPh9EPbB0V

— Indie 🍀🕊🦺🎸🎥 (@Indieafterbern) November 11, 2023

https://twitter.com/Indieafterbern/status/1723333522394427730

With the lsraeli-caused power cut in al-Shifa Hospital, medical staffs gather premature babies together in a desperate attempt to keep them alive after three have already passed away. pic.twitter.com/f46EOcELYS

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) November 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/Timesofgaza/status/1723693992410280067

Articles and Other Interesting Links

6 Newborns Die After Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital Runs Out of Fuel Due to Blockade https://truthout.org/articles/6-newborns-die-after-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-runs-out-of-fuel-due-to-blockade/

At least six newborn babies who had to be taken off their incubators at al-Shifa have died as of Monday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with at least 30 others still at risk as doctors are forced to perform manual respiration on the babies to keep them alive. Doctors have said that the babies are likely to die as long as the electricity is out. The blockade has also forced dozens of patients on dialysis to be taken off the treatment, health officials say, meaning that they will likely die within days.

#MurderedByIsrael https://murderedbyisrael.com/

'I cannot say how long they can last': Gaza newborns face desperate plight as incubators turned off due to power cut https://news.sky.com/story/israel-gaza-war-latest-hamas-al-shifa-hospital-sky-news-live-updates-12978800?postid=6761510#liveblog-body

Chris Hedges: The Horror, The Horror
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/11/chris-hedges-the-horror-the-horror/

The active complicity by the United States is unfathomable. Nothing justifies this. Nothing. And Joe Biden will go down in history as an accomplice to genocide. May the ghosts of the thousands of children he has participated in murdering haunt him for the rest of his life. (...)

We are not hated for our values. We are hated because we have no values. We are hated because rules only apply to others. Not to us. We are hated because we have arrogated to ourselves the right to carry out indiscriminate slaughter. We are hated because we are heartless and cruel. We are hated because we are hypocrites, talking about protecting civilians, the rule of law and humanitarianism while extinguishing the lives of hundreds of people in Gaza a day, including 160 children.

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 36: Al-Shifa Hospital at Epicenter of Gaza Fighting as Fleeing Civilians Are Killed by Israeli Strikes  https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/12/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-36-al-shifa-hospital-at-epicenter-of-gaza-fighting-as-fleeing-civilians-are-killed-by-israeli-strikes/

Casualties (As of November 12. Some are estimating the current death toll is nearer to 20,000):

    11,078 killed, including 4,506 children, and 27,490 wounded in Gaza
    183 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200

'Can You Hear the Screams?' Physician Says Western Leaders Complicit in Israeli Attacks on Gaza Hospitals https://www.commondreams.org/news/physician-gaza-hospitals

IDF Soldiers Torturing and Abusing Palestinians in the West Bank
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/12/graphic-videos-show-idf-soldiers-torturing-palestinians-in-the-west-bank/

“We Have Come to an End”: Palestine Red Crescent Says Gaza’s Hospitals Are Out of Solutions https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/9/nebal_farsakh_ifrc_israel_gaza

Death toll in Gaza likely ‘higher than is being reported’: US official https://thehill.com/policy/international/4301551-gaza-deaths-likely-higher-than-cited-us-official/ 

Palestine was inhabited in the Bronze Age by Canaanites, genetic ancestors of *both* Palestinians & Middle East Jews. Palestinians have been indigenous since 2000 BC.  See: "Palestinians & their genetic relatedness with other Mediterranean populations" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11802415_HLA_Genes_in_Palestinians_The_Origin_of_Palestinians_and_ Their_Genetic_Relatedness_With_Other_Mediterranean_Populations

JOHN PILGER: We Are Spartacus
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/09/john-pilger-we-are-spartacus/

Biden Could End All This With One Phone Call

Conflating Jewish and Pro-Israel Is Wrong and Misleading https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/09/conflating-jewish-and-pro-israel-is-wrong-and-misleading/

Getting Called A Nazi For Opposing A Genocide https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/getting-called-a-nazi-for-opposing/

What Would It Look Like If You Were Standing On The Wrong Side Of History?

Israel-Gaza War Is Deadliest Month for Journalists Covering Conflict in Over 3 Decades https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/05/israel-gaza-war-is-deadliest-month-for-journalists-covering-conflict-in-over-3-decades/

Letter to the Children of Gaza https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/08/chris-hedges-letter-to-the-children-of-gaza/

Protesters Block Traffic in Front of Congress Member’s Home, Demanding Ceasefire https://truthout.org/articles/protesters-block-traffic-in-front-of-congress-members-home-demanding-ceasefire/

“Ceasefire” Shouldn’t Be a Controversial Word
https://truthout.org/articles/ceasefire-shouldnt-be-a-controversial-word/

Holocaust Survivor Says No More! (video) youtu.be/vGTI2CBn3WA?si=zeLzAa8gHrBtLtMv

The Jobs Have Gone, But Fallout From Industrial Pollution Still Haunts Detroit  https://truthout.org/articles/the-jobs-have-gone-but-fallout-from-industrial-pollution-still-haunts-detroit/

We Analyzed Over 3.5 Million Written Teacher Comments About Students and Found Racial Bias https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/06/we-analyzed-over-3-5-million-written-teacher-comments-about-students-and-found-racial-bias/

Biden is the Greater and Less Effective Evil https://blackagendareport.org/news/874/33/Biden-is-the-Greater-and-Less-Effective-Evil

Longest Wrongful Conviction Sentence in US Ends in Exoneration
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/07/longest-wrongful-conviction-sentence-in-us-ends-in-exoneration/

US, European Officials Broach the Idea of Peace Talks With Ukraine https://news.antiwar.com/2023/11/05/us-european-officials-broach-the-idea-of-peace-talks-with-ukraine/