I know these horrifying stories to be accurate. One of my greatest friends, from an old Lebanese family, lived with her husband and child through the civil war in ‘75, and after. Years later she said, “The Arab world is large, ancient, and hospitable. The Jews could have made a good home here. All they would need is to learn how to be good neighbors. We don’t hate them, but they have no interest in being our neighbors. They want it all.”
How do you convince the brain washed masses of Israelis that this is true?
Of course, I don’t think either of us is really stumped. After a lifetime of living with people of this persuasion, I know that they know this truth already.
They could have shared Palestine—gratefully—as any decent people might. They don’t care.
I worked on a kibbutz in 1968 and couldn’t believe what I saw and heard, and it’s so much worse now. If there is a solution, these people can’t be part of it. And that’s like trying to untie a knot without access to either end of the rope.
during one of the more recent neighborhood clearances in the west bank -where palestinian homes were stolen and given to illegal israeli settlers- i watched a video where the “israeli’s” stealing the house a palestinian family lived in for generations.
the couple stealing the house were americans from brooklyn. not escaping war or persecution, just greedy and privileged.
Yes, many are actually Americans. And many of them are fleeing charges of fraud and other crimes. So the settlement are a kind of safe haven for Jews who are facing potential criminal charges. They really don't care who illeagally settles in the settlements, and in fact, would prefer criminals for reasons of utility. It truly is disturbing and disgusting on many levels.
You simply wont. Is the sad truth. You can show them, image after image and they’ll tell you its fake, video after video and its fake. Historical dates, facts, names, locations etc etc etc
THEY REFUSE TO LEARN. They refuse to listen. They don’t want to care. They just want to kill.
I genuinely don’t know if its the right thing to even try anymore while that above is the unabashed truth. Not even for individual sanity reasons, or time or logistics.
'So it goes' indeed - the immortal words of another courageous writer-witness of massscre and mayhem, Kurt Vonnegut, in his Slaughterhouse Five. He would have recognized the Dresden he cleared corpses in, if he had seen Bill Foley's photographs from Beirut. (All too familiar scenes we lived through with their echo and scent still all around us today, along with Fisk's words...never knew what a good photographer Bill was.)
I read all of Robert Fisk's books. He was a great man, a courageous journalist, a man ahead of his time. He was a friend of the oppressed from Afghanistan to Algeria. May his soul rest in peace
Though he got beat up pretty badly in Afghanistan. Until they realized he wasn't the enemy, that is. He didn't take it badly though and was joking around soon afterward.
I’m at a loss these days to know what to do. Protests are all well and good but it seems hopeless. The utter cruelty that is continuing over decades, nothing changes. What a sickness this world is.
Thank you Vijay for this wonderful introduction to your sterling career. To have sharpened your pencil with one of the finest journalists of our time, Robert Fisk, must be inspirational. May you continue to be a thorn in the flesh of any and all that offend our sense of justice and humanity.
Haunted into journalism by the unseen faces of bowed bodies wading through the carnage; as they contemplate the horrors that stain the soul and the soles of their feet standing in the crossroad of life and death. Chasing the clues to define a moment of space occupied by violence and warping time’s future for the unknown light forms of purity in their innocence. The mystery of ego’s maniacal madness on full display; but never properly defined through investigative reason; still roams the lands to this day; carrying out it’s macabre death dance, upon the others who have no right to existence in their prodigal kingdoms of self ignorant mindsets.
And so your career continues... one disturbing photo too many; dealt in succession and dutifully played out, for all who continue bent over their presence in our waking state. You always masterfully tell us what our eyes perceive and hold no truth hidden. You tell it like it is now , has been in the past , and always will be; reminding us of the unwanted truth that Jesus foretold...
There will always be wars and rumors of war.
Thank you VJ for staring into the craziness of tyrant’s lives; and holding them accountable for those horrible behaviors they cover up and...never own up to....I appreciate you because of your constant unwavering commitment to excellence.✌🏼❤️🙏🕉
I will never forget those days, my friends from university and I went out, into the streets, asking for justice. That’s when I began educating myself in the Palestinian cause, a Palestinian flag has traveled with me to all the places I have lived, it hangs on my window, it’s a testimony of my support to the Palestinian people, hoy y siempre.
I've personally been to Sabra and Shatilla numerous times. The 1st time I was 15 and felt that I had stepped into another world; crooked buildings, alleys like a jigsaw puzzle of a maze, only put together all wrong. Some couldn't fit two people walking sideward and on rainy days would be flooded nearly knee-deep; potholes everywhere. Stairways missing steps and the ones there were broken in all kinds of ways, coupled with pitch-black darkness at night --it was a recipe for disaster. I was visiting my dear friend's grandparents and wondered how they managed to simply go up and down the broken stairs. Everything about it made me angry, as unjust things tended to do. It was at that young age that I truly had come to the realization of just how badly Palestinians get it from all sides. Israel that dogs and haunts them wherever they go, as if the ethnic cleansing, theft of land, home, life, dignity, dreams, happiness and more wasn't bad enough. Most of the world, back then in the late 90s, that had lapped up Israel's bullshit about being the peace-loving victim and Palestinians being rabid terrorists who despised peace and worshipped violence--I think most of the world knows different, now that Israel is openly committing Genocide, live for all who care to see. But then you had the Lebanese government, for example, using the Palestinian's right of return as an excuse to not give them proper documentation and the rights that come with it--like working legally. I only found out the next year about the massacre that took place there, and came across Robert Fisk's articles. I became one of his avid readers, and I mourn his passing away these days more than ever, days when brave journalists have become a dying breed, except maybe for Palestinian journalists who are actually dying by the dozen. Not that his days were exactly full of brave journalism, as embedded--or as I like to call it, in-bedded--journalism began while he was still alive and well. Anyhow, I no longer even look at The Independent, it has become worth less than the paperless paper it prints upon. I look forward to reading some of your writing, as I am yet sadly unfamiliar with your work. Thank you for jogging some old memories.
one of the worst human beings i have ever had the displeasure of meeting was a christian lebanese man. the religious hypocrisy and abuse that spewed from him every time he opened his mouth was astounding.
This is a tough read but absolutely necessary to bring awareness to Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people. God said they were a “stiff necked” people and he was sure right. Why couldn't they just be good neighbors?
I also hold Robert Fisk in the highest regard. Pity the Nation was the first of his books that I read. It was that book that introduced me to the truth about Israel and I have supported Palestinian rights ever since. I, also, have read all of his books and have a set of interviews on cd’s that he did many years ago. He was an amazing journalist. I remember him writing about his refusal to use the word terrorist (I think while he was still writing for the Times of London (?)). He felt it had become meaningless, only signifying who was making the claim, said nothing about the supposed “terrorist”. I also remember when the market in Baghdad was bombed shortly after US invasion and US was trying to claim it was fired by Iraqis and had fallen back on market (shades of Israel after first strike on Al Shifa hospital). They were going to investigate (just as the Israelis investigate). Fisk was at the market shortly after the bombing and found a fragment of the bomb with a serial number. It had been manufactured by Raytheon. Some journalist had joked that US should contact “Bobby” Fisk. I’m not an expert on journalism but Robert Fisk was by far and away the best journalist I’ve ever encountered. He was brutally honest. His descriptions of Sabra and Shatila were difficult to read but so important for the world to know. I never knew him to pull his punches. His meetings with Osama bin Ladin should have been picked up by every news agency in the world. As I recall bin Ladin had 3 demands: 1) no western bases in Saudi Arabia as it defiled the holy land 2) justice for Palestinians and an end to Israeli impunity and a third I can’t immediately bring to mind. But, of course, the US and the west didn’t want to hear reason. They didn’t want to talk of ending the conflict with Al Queda, they were tough guys and wanted a fight.
In recent years as I’ve contemplated our (I live in US) total disregard for the lives of others, especially those with black or brown skin, it struck me that the disregard isn’t limited to others but extends to Americans as well. We have our own version of the Hannibal directive. Children- CHILDREN- are mass murdered in elementary schools, innocent people at parades, in grocery stores, at universities, any crowded place and the response is always the same. Thoughts and prayers and shoulder shrugging. Nothing can be done to end the hundreds of mass murders occurring every year because we can’t interfere with the gun lobby and are heat packing base. Remaining in office is the only goal regardless of how many bodies lie under the victory. Of course they don’t care about the murder of others. They don’t care about the murder of Americans. They don’t value the lives of American children so why do I foolishly expect them to care about the children of others.
The press plays a large role in all of this. They have become simply the mouthpiece of whoever is paying them. I can remember my husband and I saying 20 years ago that Watergate would never have happened even then, much less now. I’m grateful to Substack and other independent journalists and media who continue to fight the good fight, often at great personal risk. Thank you for this wonderful article. I do often think of Robert Fisk and miss him. It’s wonderful to see so many fellow groupies here. I know no one personally who’s ever heard of him, another sign of corporate media’s decay.
I know these horrifying stories to be accurate. One of my greatest friends, from an old Lebanese family, lived with her husband and child through the civil war in ‘75, and after. Years later she said, “The Arab world is large, ancient, and hospitable. The Jews could have made a good home here. All they would need is to learn how to be good neighbors. We don’t hate them, but they have no interest in being our neighbors. They want it all.”
How do you convince the brain washed masses of Israelis that this is true?
You stumped me.
Of course, I don’t think either of us is really stumped. After a lifetime of living with people of this persuasion, I know that they know this truth already.
They could have shared Palestine—gratefully—as any decent people might. They don’t care.
I worked on a kibbutz in 1968 and couldn’t believe what I saw and heard, and it’s so much worse now. If there is a solution, these people can’t be part of it. And that’s like trying to untie a knot without access to either end of the rope.
during one of the more recent neighborhood clearances in the west bank -where palestinian homes were stolen and given to illegal israeli settlers- i watched a video where the “israeli’s” stealing the house a palestinian family lived in for generations.
the couple stealing the house were americans from brooklyn. not escaping war or persecution, just greedy and privileged.
Yes, many are actually Americans. And many of them are fleeing charges of fraud and other crimes. So the settlement are a kind of safe haven for Jews who are facing potential criminal charges. They really don't care who illeagally settles in the settlements, and in fact, would prefer criminals for reasons of utility. It truly is disturbing and disgusting on many levels.
You simply wont. Is the sad truth. You can show them, image after image and they’ll tell you its fake, video after video and its fake. Historical dates, facts, names, locations etc etc etc
THEY REFUSE TO LEARN. They refuse to listen. They don’t want to care. They just want to kill.
I genuinely don’t know if its the right thing to even try anymore while that above is the unabashed truth. Not even for individual sanity reasons, or time or logistics.
Just what?!
'So it goes' indeed - the immortal words of another courageous writer-witness of massscre and mayhem, Kurt Vonnegut, in his Slaughterhouse Five. He would have recognized the Dresden he cleared corpses in, if he had seen Bill Foley's photographs from Beirut. (All too familiar scenes we lived through with their echo and scent still all around us today, along with Fisk's words...never knew what a good photographer Bill was.)
Thank you for posting this.
Glad you got the Kurt reference. I use that phrase often.
I read all of Robert Fisk's books. He was a great man, a courageous journalist, a man ahead of his time. He was a friend of the oppressed from Afghanistan to Algeria. May his soul rest in peace
Though he got beat up pretty badly in Afghanistan. Until they realized he wasn't the enemy, that is. He didn't take it badly though and was joking around soon afterward.
Robert Fisk is sorely missed. We know The Independent would not be running his reports if he were still with us.
I’m at a loss these days to know what to do. Protests are all well and good but it seems hopeless. The utter cruelty that is continuing over decades, nothing changes. What a sickness this world is.
But it is very important to do something. To be involved. To stare the madness in the face.
I agree and I’ll never stop being active in the movement. At times it just feels hopeless but we keep on, will never turn our backs.
Thank you Vijay for this wonderful introduction to your sterling career. To have sharpened your pencil with one of the finest journalists of our time, Robert Fisk, must be inspirational. May you continue to be a thorn in the flesh of any and all that offend our sense of justice and humanity.
Haunted into journalism by the unseen faces of bowed bodies wading through the carnage; as they contemplate the horrors that stain the soul and the soles of their feet standing in the crossroad of life and death. Chasing the clues to define a moment of space occupied by violence and warping time’s future for the unknown light forms of purity in their innocence. The mystery of ego’s maniacal madness on full display; but never properly defined through investigative reason; still roams the lands to this day; carrying out it’s macabre death dance, upon the others who have no right to existence in their prodigal kingdoms of self ignorant mindsets.
And so your career continues... one disturbing photo too many; dealt in succession and dutifully played out, for all who continue bent over their presence in our waking state. You always masterfully tell us what our eyes perceive and hold no truth hidden. You tell it like it is now , has been in the past , and always will be; reminding us of the unwanted truth that Jesus foretold...
There will always be wars and rumors of war.
Thank you VJ for staring into the craziness of tyrant’s lives; and holding them accountable for those horrible behaviors they cover up and...never own up to....I appreciate you because of your constant unwavering commitment to excellence.✌🏼❤️🙏🕉
Sabra and Shatila have not been forgotten. On Jan 26 I republished an article marking the first anniversary, “Not Their First Genocide” https://palestineperspective.substack.com/p/not-their-first-genocide?r=e6cup
It was considered a genocide by the U N General Assembly.
I will never forget those days, my friends from university and I went out, into the streets, asking for justice. That’s when I began educating myself in the Palestinian cause, a Palestinian flag has traveled with me to all the places I have lived, it hangs on my window, it’s a testimony of my support to the Palestinian people, hoy y siempre.
I've personally been to Sabra and Shatilla numerous times. The 1st time I was 15 and felt that I had stepped into another world; crooked buildings, alleys like a jigsaw puzzle of a maze, only put together all wrong. Some couldn't fit two people walking sideward and on rainy days would be flooded nearly knee-deep; potholes everywhere. Stairways missing steps and the ones there were broken in all kinds of ways, coupled with pitch-black darkness at night --it was a recipe for disaster. I was visiting my dear friend's grandparents and wondered how they managed to simply go up and down the broken stairs. Everything about it made me angry, as unjust things tended to do. It was at that young age that I truly had come to the realization of just how badly Palestinians get it from all sides. Israel that dogs and haunts them wherever they go, as if the ethnic cleansing, theft of land, home, life, dignity, dreams, happiness and more wasn't bad enough. Most of the world, back then in the late 90s, that had lapped up Israel's bullshit about being the peace-loving victim and Palestinians being rabid terrorists who despised peace and worshipped violence--I think most of the world knows different, now that Israel is openly committing Genocide, live for all who care to see. But then you had the Lebanese government, for example, using the Palestinian's right of return as an excuse to not give them proper documentation and the rights that come with it--like working legally. I only found out the next year about the massacre that took place there, and came across Robert Fisk's articles. I became one of his avid readers, and I mourn his passing away these days more than ever, days when brave journalists have become a dying breed, except maybe for Palestinian journalists who are actually dying by the dozen. Not that his days were exactly full of brave journalism, as embedded--or as I like to call it, in-bedded--journalism began while he was still alive and well. Anyhow, I no longer even look at The Independent, it has become worth less than the paperless paper it prints upon. I look forward to reading some of your writing, as I am yet sadly unfamiliar with your work. Thank you for jogging some old memories.
History is on a repeat loop.
one of the worst human beings i have ever had the displeasure of meeting was a christian lebanese man. the religious hypocrisy and abuse that spewed from him every time he opened his mouth was astounding.
Great article, thank you. I miss Robert Fisk.
Btw Marvel has an "Israeli Superhero" called Sabra. Backstory: Is a Mossad agent. Son was killed by "Palestinians terrorists" 🙄
Add Marvel to the BDS list.
This is a tough read but absolutely necessary to bring awareness to Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people. God said they were a “stiff necked” people and he was sure right. Why couldn't they just be good neighbors?
She is holding her hijab against her mouth and nose. I believe that she is protecting herself from the smell.
I also hold Robert Fisk in the highest regard. Pity the Nation was the first of his books that I read. It was that book that introduced me to the truth about Israel and I have supported Palestinian rights ever since. I, also, have read all of his books and have a set of interviews on cd’s that he did many years ago. He was an amazing journalist. I remember him writing about his refusal to use the word terrorist (I think while he was still writing for the Times of London (?)). He felt it had become meaningless, only signifying who was making the claim, said nothing about the supposed “terrorist”. I also remember when the market in Baghdad was bombed shortly after US invasion and US was trying to claim it was fired by Iraqis and had fallen back on market (shades of Israel after first strike on Al Shifa hospital). They were going to investigate (just as the Israelis investigate). Fisk was at the market shortly after the bombing and found a fragment of the bomb with a serial number. It had been manufactured by Raytheon. Some journalist had joked that US should contact “Bobby” Fisk. I’m not an expert on journalism but Robert Fisk was by far and away the best journalist I’ve ever encountered. He was brutally honest. His descriptions of Sabra and Shatila were difficult to read but so important for the world to know. I never knew him to pull his punches. His meetings with Osama bin Ladin should have been picked up by every news agency in the world. As I recall bin Ladin had 3 demands: 1) no western bases in Saudi Arabia as it defiled the holy land 2) justice for Palestinians and an end to Israeli impunity and a third I can’t immediately bring to mind. But, of course, the US and the west didn’t want to hear reason. They didn’t want to talk of ending the conflict with Al Queda, they were tough guys and wanted a fight.
In recent years as I’ve contemplated our (I live in US) total disregard for the lives of others, especially those with black or brown skin, it struck me that the disregard isn’t limited to others but extends to Americans as well. We have our own version of the Hannibal directive. Children- CHILDREN- are mass murdered in elementary schools, innocent people at parades, in grocery stores, at universities, any crowded place and the response is always the same. Thoughts and prayers and shoulder shrugging. Nothing can be done to end the hundreds of mass murders occurring every year because we can’t interfere with the gun lobby and are heat packing base. Remaining in office is the only goal regardless of how many bodies lie under the victory. Of course they don’t care about the murder of others. They don’t care about the murder of Americans. They don’t value the lives of American children so why do I foolishly expect them to care about the children of others.
The press plays a large role in all of this. They have become simply the mouthpiece of whoever is paying them. I can remember my husband and I saying 20 years ago that Watergate would never have happened even then, much less now. I’m grateful to Substack and other independent journalists and media who continue to fight the good fight, often at great personal risk. Thank you for this wonderful article. I do often think of Robert Fisk and miss him. It’s wonderful to see so many fellow groupies here. I know no one personally who’s ever heard of him, another sign of corporate media’s decay.