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HELP BRING US TOGETHER

January 16, 2017

The Hague, The Netherlands

His Holiness Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City
The Holy See

Open letter from Abraham A. van Kempen to His Holiness Pope Francis

Dear Papa Roma, Your Holiness,

Much of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians is about dispossession and displacement, a struggle to give or take or keep ancestral land. On whose side is God – the God of Abraham, the God of the Jews, the God of the Christians, and the God of Islam, the God of all humanity? The Promised Land (Hebrew: הארץהמובטחת‎, translit.: Ha'Aretz HaMuvtahat; Arabic: أرضالميعاد ‎, translit.: Ard Al-Mi'ad) is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), was promised and subsequently given by God to Abraham and his descendants (Wikipedia: Promised Land).

Can you help create safe and imaginative spaces for grappling with the hard questions of our times? Can you help mediate to bring the many voices of all sides into constructive conversations with each other, especially conversations among unlike-minded and perhaps even unlikely people?

God knows they have tried. Yet, often fruitless, though incessant, negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Madrid, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna remain, optimistically stated, academic. If you were to invite those with divergent views to your table, each imposing upon you unique dietary demands, what would you serve them, figuratively speaking? Where would the conversations lead?

Clouds of darkness plagued humankind throughout the 20th century: endless wars, conflicts, mass murder, and 'ethnic cleansing’, causing indescribable suffering among millions of victims. The 20th century leaves us a legacy of lessons to be learned. Above all, the previous century warns us what not to do. Wars beget more wars because war feeds hatred and devalues human dignity and human rights.

To restate His Holiness, Saint Pope John Paul II: “Light outshines darkness. The light embodies the 'art of God', revealed in His blueprint for Humanity: a design of peace, love, truth, and justice. Humanity must transform its behavior to welcome God's Plan for Mankind.” (Audience in the Vatican with Pope John Paul II, 24 January 2001)

Your Holiness, Papa Roma, can you, will you help guide us through the dark tunnels of the 21st Century, to help change our ways, to help usher God’s Plan for Mankind, to walk the path in the footsteps of Abraham, toward light?

With every good wish to Your Holiness, I am,

Sincerely Yours,

Abraham A. van Kempen
Editor

I came across this prayer attributed to Pope Francis.

Let us pray. As we engage the season of Lent, we embrace the opportunity to:

Fast from hurtful words and say kind words.
Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
Fast from worries and have trust in God.
Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.

Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
Fast from bitterness and fill our hearts with joy.
Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
Fast from words and be silent so we can listen.

We pray that
our only desire
and our one-choice
is to choose
what better leads
to the deepening
Of God’s life in us.

We ask the lord to guide our decisions today and bless our Community with His peace, joy, and love.

Pope Francis

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen

ISRAEL PRESSURES U.S. TOWARD WAR WITH IRAN

Prof. Glenn Diesen with Seyed Mohammad Marandi

Watch the Video Here (26 minutes, 23 seconds)

Host Prof. Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
23 April 2025

Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor, analyst, and advisor for Iran's nuclear negotiation team.

Prof. Marandi contends that Iran is prepared for war.

The United States and Israel have differing opinions on attacking Iran.

THE INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM OF CHINA AND RUSSIA VERSUS U.S. NEOLIBERALISM

Prof. Michael Hudson, world-renowned economist, addresses how the Chinese and Russian economies have developed since the Cold War.

Watch the Video Here (31 minutes, 54 seconds)

Host Prof. Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
23 April 2025

We are witnessing the end of U.S.-led globalization and the waning of neoliberal economics, as China and Russia steadily adopt the industrial capitalism that fueled America’s greatness in the 19th century.

PAX AMERICANA IS OVER

Lord Robert Skidelsky explains that the current economic crisis signifies the conclusion of Pax Americana.

Watch the Video Here (24 minutes, 25 seconds)

Host Prof. Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
20 April 2025

Lord Robert Skidelsky explains that the current economic crisis signifies the conclusion of Pax Americana.

A member of the British House of Lords and Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University, Skidelsky also authorizes an acclaimed three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes. He started his political journey in the Labour Party, became a founding member of the Social Democratic Party, and acted as the Conservative Party’s spokesman for Treasury matters in the House of Lords until his dismissal due to his opposition to NATO’s 1999 bombing of Kosovo.

Since 2001, he has served as an independent member of the House of Lords.

IN GAZA, A SMALL PARISH MOURNS THEIR FRIEND, THE POPE

Palestinian Christians in Gaza remember Pope Francis and his daily calls to the Catholic Church in Gaza. “Gaza was among his last words,” one member of the parish told Mondoweiss. "His voice made us forget the sound of the planes and the bombs."

Palestinian Christians participate in the Christmas Mass at the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City, December 24, 2024. (Photo: Hadi Daoud /APA Images)

By Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss.net
22 April 2025

Christians around the world are mourning the death of Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21. In the Gaza Strip, however, the local Christian community is not only mourning the loss of a religious leader but also the loss of a friend and someone they called “a true father.”

Universally hailed as a champion of the oppressed and the marginalized, the late Pope demonstrated his commitment to this reputation during the past 18 months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. It has been widely reported that he made regular and near-daily calls to the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza and that he roundly condemned Israel’s actions, describing them as “terrorism” with “the characteristics of a genocide.”

George Anton, leader of the emergency committee at Holy Family Church, informs Mondoweiss that Pope Francis consistently reached out to them throughout the prolonged months of conflict. According to Anton, the pontiff’s calls were “a daily necessity” for the parishioners, as he was “ a true father to every person in the Gaza Strip, a father who cares and shows concern for his children.”

At the start of the genocide, Palestinian Christians in Gaza sought refuge at Gaza’s oldest church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, which dates back to the 5th century. But after it was bombed on October 20, 2023, killing 17 people, including Christian and Muslim families, the rest of Gaza’s Christian population sought refuge at the Holy Family Catholic Church for the rest of the war.

The aftermath of the bombing of the Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, killing 17 people, on October 20, 2023. (Credit Image: © Mohammad Abu Elsebah/DPA via ZUMA Press/APA Images)

“Once we learned that the Pope was on the phone, we felt joy and reassurance knowing he was with us,” Anton shares. “He consistently inquired about the elderly, children, and women, as well as our supplies, including food, drink, medicine, and hospitals. He would say, ‘I pray for you, and you pray for me.’ He would also ask about the situations faced by people in the streets, checking whether aid was arriving and effectively reaching us, covering everything.”

Christians in Gaza were in such close contact with Pope Francis that many didn’t believe the news of his death, thinking it was merely a rumor, even though they were aware of his poor health.

“On [Easter] Sunday, he showed himself to the world, congratulated Christians, and referenced the people of Gaza in his remarks. We were in disbelief that he had died,” Anton expresses.

Anton states, “Never before in the history of the Church has a Pope called a distant small parish every day for 16 months to assure them of his support in this war. If he could be with us, he would visit. He dispatched the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to see us twice during the war.”

‘Gaza was among his last words’

According to Laila Anton, a parishioner, the Pope's brief calls had a profound impact on many in the Church. “We would complete our prayers and anticipate the typical daily call, which frequently took place around 8:00 p.m.,” Anton recounts to Mondoweiss. “It provided us with the resilience to face the challenging circumstances we were enduring.”

Laila Anton expresses that Pope Francis’s voice represented strength in Gaza, alleviating their fears amidst ongoing bombings. “We felt at peace, and his voice allowed us to momentarily forget the noise of the planes and bombs,” she shares. “Gaza was among his final words.”

Pope Francis’s teachings were not limited to those inside the Church. According to Father Gabriele Romanelli, the priest in charge of the Holy Family Church in Gaza, the number of displaced Christians in the Church has reached 500.

“Pope Francis always asked us to protect children and vulnerable people needing help,” Father Romanelli tells Mondoweiss. “Thanks to the support of the Catholic Church, thousands of families in the Gaza Strip are receiving aid.”

“Pope Francis was responsible for more than a billion Catholics worldwide, yet he was keen to connect with this small parish,” Father Romanelli adds. “This is evidence of his love and concern for us.”

GUEST EDITORIAL | LESSONS TRUMP COULD LEARN FROM THE LAST SOVIET LEADER

Trying to salvage and empower an empire in decline, only to end up hastening its demise – we’ve seen that somewhere before

U.S. President Donald Trump

“Gorbachev and Trump share a trait.

Both aim to revive a proud superpower in crisis.

While Trump may avoid overseeing his country's official demise like Gorbachev,
history will recall him as a would-be ‘reformer,’
whose changes only accelerated the decline he sought to prevent.”

Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian based in Germany, conducts research at Koç University in Istanbul, focusing on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, as well as the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and political memory.

@tarikcyrilamartarikcyrilamar.substack.comtarikcyrilamar.com

Substack.com
HomeWorld News
10 April 2025

Annotated by Abraham A. van Kempen, Sr. Editor

The Great Trump Toddler Tariff Tantrum is quintessentially Trump – blunt as a bat, recklessly burn-it-down-first-and-figure-it-out-later, and attention-seeking like Kim Kardashian – making it easy to forget Donald Trump is human too.

The 47th U.S. president excels at being in the spotlight. However, as Karl Marx wrote nearly two centuries ago about France’s Napoleon III, another larger-than-life “global disrupter” leading his country to disaster, “men make their history, but they do not make it as they please […] but under circumstances existing already.”

If the co-founder of “scientific Communism” isn’t your thing, consider the warning from billionaire capitalist Ray Dalio, creator of the world’s largest hedge fund. He suggests that the current tariff dispute, influenced by Trump’s ideas on US re-industrialization, hides a “once-in-a-lifetime event:” a “classic breakdown of major monetary, political, and geopolitical orders.”

Collapse is only part of the story. We're witnessing a historic global transformation: the old world order of “liberal hegemony” or US “primacy” is crumbling and being replaced by emerging multipolarity. According to Dalio, American politics is also “fraying” at home, making conditions “ripe for radical policy changes and unpredictable disruption.”

Hasn’t Trump made good on that? Before his U-turn and temporary suspension of his “Liberation Day” tariff blitz, 2025 US import tariffs were set to reach their highest since 1909. The US stock market's rapid decline erased over $5 trillion, as if, to quote the Communist Manifesto, melting into the air. A post-U-turn rally recovered some losses. Nevertheless, it's clear: “Radical policy changes” and “unpredictable disruption” indeed.

Now, despite the Trump team's portrayal of the president’s pressure tactics and an analyst's remark about Trump’s ' capitulation to the markets” (except regarding China), the damage to Washington’s credibility is significant. It has once again revealed staggering irresponsibility, shortsightedness, and incompetence, making coexistence with the self-appointed ' indispensable nation ' painful for many, a lesson that won't be forgotten.

Read more
EU puts US counter-tariffs on hold.

Yet the bigger point is that Trump, with his giant ego, cultivated idiosyncrasies, and Oversized signatures, remains locked into his time and place even more firmly than he can cage migrants in El Salvador.

His time marks America's decline. Like a late-Roman emperor, Trump attempts to reverse history, some of his tariff policies, and the ancient empire’s aggression, exploitation, and ultimate fall.

However, like stubborn Roman emperors, Trump cannot succeed. It doesn't matter if he politically survives the brutal toll of his tariff offensive on the American home front: Before Trump’s U-turn, the Budget Lab at Yale University estimated this toll at an average of $3,800 per household annually. It may or may not end less catastrophically, but there’s no reason to assume it will be negligible.

This may cost Trump’s Republican Party the midterms in 18 months and his political career, including his unconstitutional dreams of a third term. Even if he could re-industrialize America with his misguided methods, it would take years, if not decades. It would not produce many jobs, especially well-paying ones, since job losses stem more from automation than offshoring.

Meanwhile, the self-hobbling U.S. must do the following: First, fight an escalating economic war against a cohesive, patriotic China that is not ceding ground and has the option to dump its vast American debt holdings. Second, wage disastrous wars in the Middle East to appease Israel and American Zionists, with Iran in Washington’s sights. Third, it controls its neighborhoods, including Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. Fourth, continue overspending on its bloated military forces, which struggle to defeat Yemen and are losing their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Trump announced a new annual military budget of nearly one trillion dollars, or, in his words, “the biggest one we’ve ever done for the military.”

Read more
EU would ‘cut its own throat’ by pivoting to China – U.S. Treasury Secretary.

Trump’s effort to recreate a mid-twentieth-century industrial base in the 21st-century U.S. is quixotic. It is reminiscent not of ancient Rome but of a more recently deceased powerful state, often referred to as an empire: the late Soviet Union, which Cold War Westerners joked had the most impressive early-twentieth-century industry on the planet.

That was an absurd exaggeration – no one built satellites or missiles in the early twentieth century. However, one weakness contributing to the Soviet Union's downfall was its outdated, insufficiently modernized economy focused on heavy industry.

Interestingly, other aspects of Trump’s second presidency evoked the Soviets, especially from 1985 to 2000, which was marked by the Soviet collapse and its painful consequences.

Trump harbors a perverse sense of imperial grievance. For decades, the U.S. has profited massively, economically and politically, from its central position in its empire, including what a French finance minister termed the “exorbitant privilege” of the dollar, allowing virtually unlimited credit.

Here is an American president who cannot stop whining about how others are “ripping off” his poor country. Absurdly, this president is also a billionaire business clan leader, making money globally.

Meanwhile, Trump’s belief in his demagoguery leads him to mistake any trade deficit for evidence of a bad deal. At the same time, his selective forgetfulness makes him overlook American trade surpluses in services.

A charismatic politician portrays the dominant core of an empire as victims exploited by the peripheries. This natural-born populist, known for occasional dancing, uses a nationalist appeal that combines economic half-truths with resentment over declining living standards.

Read more
U.S. seen as ‘problematic emerging market’ – former Treasury chief

That description suits Boris Yeltsin, who exploited late-Soviet frustrations to deal the final blow to the Soviet Union and misruled what remained during the dismal 1990s.

Consider how Trump caused a massive wipeout of stock wealth, which is not evenly distributed among Americans. Bloomberg refers to an “American investor class—that top 10% that owns almost all the stocks.”

Trump’s tariffs affect all Americans through rising prices, declining retirement funds, reduced labor income, and soon, lost jobs. The more complex your situation, the more you'll be harmed by Trump’s brutal economics. Tariffs tax the domestic population, “burden[ing] households at the bottom of the income ladder more than those at the top as a share of income.”

If you are poor, these tariffs will make you poorer; if you're close to poverty, they may push you into destitution. Many Americans will be severely impacted: A 2023 Congressional Research Service report states that 11.1 and 12.9 percent (about 37 to nearly 42 million) are in poverty, depending on the source. Fifteen million are in “deep poverty.”

Another 15 percent of Americans (about 50 million) are just above the poverty line, making over a quarter of the population either poor or almost poor. They will suffer significantly from Trump’s wrecking ball policies.

I'm sorry, ordinary Americans. Despite his populist bravado, this president is not your friend and will cost you a lot!

Trump’s “Liberation Day” significantly affected Bloomberg’s “investor class,” especially the ultra-wealthy. Following the tariff blitz, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg lost an estimated $42.6 billion in one day.

Read more
The U.S. has secret weapons – Trump.

That does not hurt them, and they may generate more wealth soon, through no effort of their own, as often. But even if they do, there is a lesson: America’s oligarchs, with their ostentatious financial power to corrupt politics, are not invulnerable but depend on one man at the top.

The taming of the 1990s Russian oligarchs was a necessary stage in recovering from the Soviet collapse. Yet, the analogy suggests that even the richest are not entirely safe around the end of an empire.

There is a final irony of the empire’s end: A fatal similarity exists between the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Donald Trump, as the 47th president of the US.

They differed in ideology, ethics, temperament, and style. Gorbachev was what Trump claims to be – a peacemaker. The last Soviet leader was naïve toward the West, damaging his country, but he played a crucial role in ending the first Cold War, which might have led to World War III.

Trump, by contrast, is failing to end the Western proxy war in Ukraine while co-perpetrating the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians as criminally as his predecessor, Joe Biden. Moreover, one reason for his abrupt change of course on tariffs may well be that Netanyahu and his allies have ordered him to prepare the U.S. for an attack on Iran on Israel’s behalf.

.
Gorbachev and Trump share a trait: both aim to revive a proud superpower in crisis. While Trump may avoid overseeing his country's official demise like Gorbachev, history will recall him as a would-be “reformer” whose changes only accelerated the decline he sought to prevent.

BUILDING THE BRIDGE! | A WAY TO GET TO KNOW THE OTHER AND ONE ANOTHER

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Photo Credit: Abraham A. van Kempen, our home away from home on the Dead Sea

By Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
Updated 19 January 2024

Those who commit to 'healing our broken humanity' build intercultural bridges to learn to know and understand one another and others. Readers who thumb through the Building the Bridge (BTB) pages are not mindless sheep following other mindless sheep. They THINK. They want to be at the forefront of making a difference. They're in search of the bigger picture to expand their horizons. They don't need BTB or anyone else to confirm their biases.

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Accurate knowledge promotes understanding, dispels prejudice, and awakens the desire to learn more. Words have an extraordinary power to bring people together, divide them, forge bonds of friendship, or provoke hostility. Modern technology offers unprecedented possibilities for good, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Yet its misuse can do untold harm, leading to misunderstanding, prejudice, and conflict.

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