Indulging Hopes for Peace in the Middle East

Where Can We Find Reliable Reporting with the Right Balance of Realism Tinged with Some Measure of Guarded Optimism

Some would say that evil incarnate is being expressed in the circumstances of lethal turmoil in Palestine/Israel as well as in the impact of these circumstances on the whole world. The mind’s eye of humans everywhere continue to be bombarded with horrific images of forced starvation and high-tech burning of surviving refugees trapped in the most savagely-assaulted refugee camp ever.

All manner of verbal condemnations continue to be showered on this most graphic example of state terrorism epitomized. Except for the Houthis of Yemen, however, the global population continues to watch on from the sidelines. It seems we are not able to muster collectively physical intervention to stop the crimes against the Palestinian victims, but also against the decent instincts of most of humanity. The impotence of the global response sends a signal of what we can expect in the future. Who will be targeted next for genocidal treatment in the operations of the chosenites who, so far at least, have been demonstrated themselves to be immune from prosecution…. above the law.

Reports of the insanely dire conditions of Gaza and the West Bank assail us as we are simultaneously faced with mind-numbingly-complex barrages of news and information. The reports on the genocidal maelstrom include commentary on the intensity of the breakdown of civil government within Israel, an entity whose Prime Minister is by far and away the most notorious war criminal on the planet right now.

Reports include all kinds of factoids and opinions on what is going on with the apparent breakdown of relations between Donald Trump and Bibi the Barbarian who is rapidly butchering all aspects of Israel’s increasingly bloodied reputation. Most people can only guess at the nature of the relationship between these two men and on the interactions between the two merged Zionist polities they represent. Are Trump and Netanyahu playing at good cop/bad cop as some observers have speculated?

Some reports indicate that Hamas is continuing its direct negotiations with the Trump presidency. This development represents in itself a major geopolitical shift in nature of US-Israel relations. The direct interactions between the armed Gazan resistance group and the USA through the diplomatic work of Trump’s agent, Steve Witkoff, is building on the precedent created in the lead up to the May 12 release of the US-Israeli hostage, Edan Alexander.

Where does one look for comprehensive explanations of how events in Gaza and the Middle East are unfolding? Celia Farber, the veteran journalist behind the Substack blog, “The Truth Barrier,” led me to the reports of Mahmood OD. I have already published one of his fascinating commentaries. I was surprised by some of the severity of criticism I received for this editorial decision.

For instance Captain Roy Harkness, who uses his own name as the title of his Subtack blog, indicated I was naive and unjustified in introducing Mahmood OD with the question “Is a Breakthrough Coming in Gaza?” Referring to his notes on “the more charming illustrations of Jewish Power.” Capt. Harkness observed,

“This is the reality of Israel and the Israelis for the rest of humanity. This is what they've been doing now, for nearly 80 years, and it's not going to change, never mind stop. You can call me "Antisemitic" till the cows come home. It won't change reality. It won't change history.”

With his trademark polemical obscenities, Paulo Kirk responded to my OD post as follows:

Break-through? Breaking Palestine for over a 140 years? U$A and IsRayHell, come on, this is the Century of the Fucking Jew, and that so-called list of 130 billionaire Jews (it's bigger than THAT), there is no retreat from Great Fucking Israel. And fucking China and Russia? Not a fucking thing those big ass nations are doing to stop the genocide. Jews, man, BlackRock to Oracle to Pegasus to….

The Zionist movement, from its very inception in the 1880s, was built on the logic of settler-colonial elimination, aimed at displacing, fragmenting, and erasing Palestine’s Indigenous people. From the earliest waves of Zionist immigration, Palestinian communities faced land theft, forced removals, militarized repression, and exclusion from economic and political life. By the time Israel was officially established in 1948, the genocidal framework was already well in motion, with decades of systematic violence preceding formal statehood. Zionist leaders and military strategists had long envisioned a Palestine without Palestinians, and the Nakba was simply one of the most intense and visible phases of that ongoing process.

Naive or not, I continue to appreciate Mahmood OD’s propensity to look for some possibility of light at the end of the long dark tunnel. In this report OD tries to sort out what is really going on with the US-Hamas negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire. The term “Witkoff Outline” weaves through his reportage. As I see it OD does a good job in discussing the many-faceted factual context of what is? what could be? what the future might be?

Celia Farber’s most recent report on the Gaza nightmare focuses on the human aspect and the reporting controversies of a little Palestinian girl who managed to make her way to survival from a tent which became a burning inferno. She lost much of her family.

To Play Click Here

https://x.com/implausibleblog/status/1927082456026362167?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

To conclude, Celia Farber addresses the issue of the funding and nature of Zionist propaganda whose protagonists have the challenging goal of keeping in line much of public opinion who takes the side of Israel, even as the gruesome nature of the Zionist genocide goes from bad to worse. Farber highlights the role of Zionist billionaire Robert Shillman whose many board appointments include The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

Celia outlines the nature of Shillman’s relationship with various parts of the Israel Lobby in the West. As a Canadian I took special interest in what she had to report about Rebel News whose founder and director is Ezra Levant.

Levant makes no bones about his own Zionist preoccupations which significantly colour his work as a journalist. This work includes some worthy evidence-based journalism on many topics including select aspects of the Covid fiasco. Some of the reporting is on Canadian topics that would otherwise be left unreported by the Lame Stream Media in Canada.

Should Rebel News become one of the organizations subject to the BDS movement? BDS stands for Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions. The BDS movement is a tool that is meant to exert political pressure by means of withholding purchases and funding to the pro-Israel operations, including those conducted by individuals, companies and countries. No doubt such an initiative would be resented by some, including members of the large Christian Zionist movement— the Scofield Bible Christians— that tends to have a disproportionate hold on those on the conservative side of the political spectrum.