"The online discipline and punishment of celebrities who make statements critical of Israel’s war crimes is a central feature of wrenching back [the Israel Lobby's] control of the narrative of what’s happening in Palestine. In the space of a few hours, Mark Ruffalo made an assertion that Israel was committing 'genocide' in Gaza. It gained headlines and pushback.
Ruffalo wilted under orchestrated fury, as many have before him. He recanted and his recantation reaped even bigger headlines. But not only did he recant. Ruffalo also castigated Palestinians and supporters of Palestinian liberation for using factually-based and legally apt terms, like 'apartheid' and 'genocide,' to describe Israel’s assault on Gaza. In this way, Ruffalo went from a critic to a high-profile agent of the very force [he] had a just denounced.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/28/roaming-charges-15/
-->Jeffrey St. Clair's criticism of the left is right on target in his article "Roaming Charges: Back to the Future in Gaza." He concludes that "There’s an insecurity in the heart of American liberalism, a lack of faith in its own professed beliefs." Most of the US media avoided this story, except for Fox News and NBC.
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Mondoweiss:
"As you are surely aware, advocates for Israel are using an apparent surge in antisemitic attacks to try to delegitimize pro-Palestine advocacy.
Part of that effort is a move to characterize the charge that Israel is practicing apartheid as antisemitic. Four pro-Israel congresspeople sent a letter to President Biden yesterday taking aim at fellow Democrats who are critical of Israel. The four — Josh Gottheimer, Elaine Luria, Dean Phillips, and Kathy Manning, all of whom are Jewish — say Israel protects Jews, so criticisms of Israel over “apartheid” or “terrorism” are “antisemitic at their core."
[In an excerpt from their letter]: 'We also reject comments from Members of Congress accusing Israel of being an 'apartheid state' and committing 'act[s] of terrorism.' These statements are antisemitic at their core and contribute to a climate that is hostile to many Jews. We must never forget that less than eighty years ago, within the lifetime of our parents and grandparents, six million people were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust because they were Jews.”
https://mondoweiss.net/2021/05/now-its-antisemitic-to-say-that-israel-practices-apartheid/
-->How long can the Holocaust be used to justify another genocide? As long as the US sees geopolitical advantage in supplying the planes and bombs for Israel's assaults on Palestinians, the war crimes will continue. The empire has no conscience. And the empire's media has little interest in bringing that fact to life.
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The Guardian UK:
"The Argentinian government has sent hundreds of DNA testing kits to its consulates around the world in a groundbreaking effort to put names to unidentified victims murdered in the 'Dirty War' waged by the brutal military dictatorship four decades ago.
Last month, the Argentinian authorities, in collaboration with the National Commission for the Right to Identity, the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo movement and investigators from the Argentinian Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), launched its international Right to Identity campaign, committed to putting a name to every woman, man and child killed by the military junta in Argentina in the 1970s and early 80s.
After the 1976 coup, Argentina’s military set about systematically crushing any potential opposition, and eventually 'disappeared' and murdered 30,000 people, almost all of them civilian, unarmed non-combatants. The abuses ... have inflicted a deep trauma on the Argentinian psyche. Pregnant prisoners were kept alive until they gave birth and were then murdered. At least 500 babies were taken from their parents while in captivity and given to childless military couples to raise as their own."
-->The NYT didn't cover this story, and the Guardian left out any mention of the US and British involvement in the bloodletting. In fact the US was aware of the coup two months before it happened, and Henry Kissinger met several times with its military leaders, urging them to murder as many people as possible before the outcry over human rights abuses grew in the US. All those skeletons of empire; what to do with all those bodies?
