Common Grounds
Our Wednesday News Analysis | When children are present in a genocide
Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/when-children-are-present-in-a-genocide/
By SABREEN AKHTER
Published March 21, 2024
When children are present in a time of genocide, they will always be the most vulnerable, the most affected, and the most in need of our protection. They will need pediatricians, such as myself, to act en masse and say unequivocally: ceasefire now.
Injured children brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah for treatment following Israeli attacks in Gaza on March 19, 2024. (Photo: Ali Hamad/APA Images)
“The children are always ours,
every single one of them, all over the globe;
and I’m beginning to suspect that
whoever is incapable of recognizing this
may be incapable of morality.”
James Baldwin
When children are present in a place that is bombed, they die more frequently than adults. Their smaller bodies are not capable of absorbing the impact as well. Their heads are bigger and heavier and hit surfaces with greater force relative to their size. Their abdominal organs are not as well protected by their rib cages and are more exposed to blunt trauma. Their hearts and lungs are smaller, closer to the surface, less muscular and spacious, and less protected. The smaller the child, the greater their risk.
When you bomb a place with children in it,
your primary intention is to kill all the children first.
When children are present in a place that is starved of food and water, they die more rapidly than adults. Because of their increased metabolic needs and greater body surface area, a lack of clean water and nutrition affects them profoundly. Dehydration can set in in a matter of hours, malnutrition in a matter of days. Their eyes sink and their skins tent. They grow listless and their development stunts. Over time, their organs start to slow and falter, their kidneys become unable to filter urine, their hearts unable to keep pace. In infants, this happens even more rapidly, with simple electrolyte deficiencies from a lack of formula leading to seizures and, eventually, death. The smaller the child, the greater their risk. When you cut off water and food to a population with children, your primary intention is to starve all the children first...
Read more: When children are present in a genocide
___________________
ANTONY BLINKEN – THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR GENOCIDE IN GAZA
Source: Palestine Chronicle
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/antony-blinken-the-man-responsible-for-genocide-in-gaza/
By Robert Inlakesh
Published March 24, 2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)
Antony Blinken has defended Israel’s actions to the hilt and provided diplomatic cover for their every action in Gaza.
“I come before you not only as Secretary of State but as a Jew.”
While anti-war protesters in the United States have labeled their president as “Genocide Joe”, the title may more accurately describe US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who has served as Israel’s right-hand man in attacking the people of Gaza.
All while posing as an innocent bystander who is doing his best to pressure the Israeli government to change its tactics and reach a temporary ceasefire.
Hawkish on Military Intervention
Antony Blinken was born in 1962 to a wealthy and distinguished family, his father a co-founder of an investment bank named Warburg Pincus and who later served as US Ambassador to Hungary.
Blinken would later move with his mother to Paris and study at the École Jeannine Manuel private international school, before moving on to university where he would become a qualified lawyer.
Entering into politics and having served in positions within US Democratic Party governments dating the Clinton Administration, he built his record as a well connected foreign policy expert, known over the years for being hawkish on military intervention and a staunch supporter of Israel.
After serving in the State Department and in senior positions on the National Security Council from 1994 to 2001, he then went on to become a senior fellow at the Washington based Think Tank entitled the ‘Center for Strategic and International Studies’.
Read more: Antony Blinken – The Man Responsible For Genocide In Gaza
___________________
OPINION ...YOUNG US EVANGELICALS ARE REFUSING TO BE ‘USEFUL IDIOTS’ FOR ISRAEL
Source: Middle East Monitor
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240320-young-us-evangelicals-are-refusing-to-be-useful-idiots-for-israel/
By Omar Ahmed
Published March 20, 2024
Pro-Palestinian protesters fill the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan as they march onto Williamsburg Bridge to demand justice for the people in Gaza and call on the U.S. government to stop sending aid to Israel in New York, United States on December 04, 2023. [Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]
“The Zionist establishment has realised the value of Christian Zionism, despite the essential anti-Semitism of its ideology. To Jewish Zionists, the Christian Zionists are useful idiots. For end-timer Christian Zionists, the Jews are sacrificial lambs.”
— Author and lecturer Irving Wesley Hall
The unwavering support for Israel from the Christian Right, mainly evangelical Christians, has long been regarded as a bedrock of US-Israel relations. This support not only shapes foreign policy and influences diplomatic moves in the Middle East, but also serves as a key factor that any serious presidential candidate must take into consideration. US President Joe Biden — a Roman Catholic seeking re-election — is well aware of this, and has openly described himself as a Zionist.
This generational gap is indicative of a broader trend,
where the younger generation, both Jewish and evangelical,
is more inclined towards an anti-Zionist stance,
in contrast to the staunchly pro-Israel sentiment of older generations.
Under former president and current presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, one of the most controversial and destabilising decisions in the region was made in 2017 when his administration recognised Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and relocated the US Embassy to the holy city. Three years later, Trump would acknowledge that he did this “for the evangelicals“, noting that they were “more excited by [the move] than Jewish people.”
The Zionist occupation state of Israel holds special importance for US evangelical Christians, due to their interpretation of Biblical promises and prophecy, which they believe designate the region as the Jewish homeland. Their support is solidified further by the belief that Israel’s existence is connected to what their scripture says about the end times, necessitating the “ingathering of the exiles” (Jews in the diaspora) leading to the second coming of Prophet Jesus and the establishment of “God’s kingdom on earth” and, ultimately, the “Rapture” and Apocalypse. Evangelical Christians will be raised up and saved, they believe. The rest of, well, won’t...
Read more: OPINION ...Young US evangelicals are refusing to be ‘useful idiots’ for Israel
LATEST OPEN LETTERS
- 05-06A Call to Action: Uniting for a Lasting Peace in the Holy Land
- 28-05Concerned world citizen
- 13-02World Peace
- 05-12My scream to the world
- 16-11To Syria and Bashar al-Assad
- 16-11To Palestine
- 24-10Japan should withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), WHO's controlling parent body, to protect the basic human rights and lives of its citizens.
- 09-08Open Letter to António Guterres: Will the UN Protect Our Rights and End Our Suffering?
- 09-06Urgent Appeal
- 07-05Protect Our Great Earth And Nation!
Latest Blog Articles
- 20-11Our Wednesday News Analysis | Colin Sheridan: A letter to all my friends who tell me to feel happy
- 19-11Colin Sheridan: A letter to all my friends who tell me to feel happy
- 19-11‘We held out until our last breath’: Palestinians fleeing the north arrive in Gaza City’s first refugee camp
- 19-11Weaponizing Jewish fear, from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam
- 18-11The Evangelical Pope | Peace – the Way, the Truth, the Life
- 15-11Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!
- 13-11Our Wednesday News Analysis | How Palestine has become a domestic US political issue
- 12-11How Palestine has become a domestic US political issue
- 12-11What Another Trump Presidency Means To Evangelicals Around the World
- 12-11Opinion | My Palestinian Sisters and Brothers, We Need a New Version of the Palestinian Resistance
- 11-11The Evangelical Pope | A Symphony Among Jews, Christians, and Muslims