Nasty Tory Trophy Pictures

Was the following all his own idea or was it the wheeze of that nice Mr Crosby, the man brought in to make the Tory party even nastier? 

“I just saw the British Prime Minister do something, so appallingly tasteless I could not believe it was happening. BBC News just showed a dawn raid by immigration officers on a well-kept home. So far, so tasteless.

Astonishingly, once the evil foreigners had been herded up and taken off to detention camps, where they risk being beaten up or raped, Teresa May and David Cameron arrived, and posed in the victims’ kitchen for trophy pictures.

I thought that what Blair has done since leaving Downing Street had debased the office of Prime Minister to an astonishing degree. But, posing for a stunt in the neat and clean kitchen of some poor immigrant, David Cameron had plumbed levels of tastelessness that again make me realise that the UK has become a country whose values I no longer recognise. The disgusting complicity of the BBC in filming this stunt is equally astonishing.

Are there really so few people left who have the slightest idea of what constitutes decent human behaviour?” Craig Murray 29/7/14

Like their ancestors before them, there is nothing the Tory Toff loves more than posing with a magnificent creature under their feet. They seem to think it shows them in a good light.

What would show them in a good light would be turning up at the homes of the Libor-fiddling, crash-creating fraud-mongering financiers and watching them get locked up. [Breath not being held - ed]

Finally, at what point will the beeb get off their ‘bendeds’ and re-assert some independence? Or is too late?

SOD THE NEEDY - FEED THE GREEDY - VOTE TORY

Met Police 'Not Fit For Purpose'

Secret coppers have a big part to play in organised crime. They have no part whatsoever to play in ‘investigating’ grieving families. The latest revelations about the extent of the undercover work has shocked virtually everybody but the diminishing handful of Met supporters. 

Take one example of truly awful behaviour by the Met. The murder of Jean Charles De Menezes.

He was assassinated by the Met in the days after the July bombing. Tensions were running high. 

That does not excuse what the Met then got up to.

“You have to consider this in the context of the lies that the Met assiduously spread about De Menezes – that he entered the tube without buying a ticket, that he vaulted the ticket gates, that he ran away from officers, that he was wearing a bulky jacket.

All of these were lies. In truth the poor man had entered the tube normally and legally, walked calmly and sat down with a free newspaper. He wore a short tight denim jacket. Then totally without any cause or justification from his actions whatsoever, his murderers shot him multiple times in the head. Just because his Brazilian complexion looked a bit Arab.

I can think of no category of lie worse than that told by a murderer against the reputation of their victim.” Craig Murray 26/7/14

And it got worse. The Met assigned an undercover cop to ingratiate himself into the grieving family. Why? They knew who had done it. It was them. Their only possible reasons for digging dirt, smearing the victim and leaking rubbish to the tabloids was a massive arse covering exercise. Decent coppers everywhere must be disgusted. 

Seventeen other victims had the same or similar treatment. Absolutely disgraceful - for which senior heads should roll.

Lots of heads - for knowing and or ordering; or as bad, colluding with the villains. 

ISRAEL AND GAZA

What have the following got in common? 

Operation Rainbow

Operation Summer Rains

Operation Autumn Clouds

Operation Hot Winter

They are all ‘Hello Sky, Hello Trees’ euphemisms for the slaughter of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children. These operations took place between 2004 and  2008. At least 719 Palestinians were killed at a cost to the Israelis of 13 soldiers and 6 civilians.

By 2008 it was clear the pleasant names were not working. Hamas continued to aim glorified fireworks at Israel. 

‘Operation Cast Lead’ came into being in 2008. It should more accurately have been called Operation Cast White Phosphorous. It outdid all the previous operations in one go. At least 1417 Palestinians were killed at a cost of 13 Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians. 

To add to the chaos and complexity, the Palestinians had a civil war in 2007 between the supporters of Fatah and the followers of Hamas. At least 1400 Palestinians died. Israel began a total blockade of Gaza. The blockade continues to this day and is the cause of much Palestinian anger, despair and frustration. 

By 2012 it was time for yet another go at pest control. Enter Operation Pillar of Defence/Operation Returning Echo where a further 177 Palestinians were killed along with 2 Israeli soldiers and 4 civilians. 

It is now 2014 and here we go again. This time the stated reason was the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers. The ongoing daily assaults, imprisonments and occasional killings of Palestinian teenagers and children prior to this event did not count. For as Rabbi Ya’acov said, “One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.”

As of today the current total killed in 2014 is 714 Palestinians - which includes many children. Not to mention the thousands of wounded and damaged. The death of 4 boys playing on a beach last week alerted the world to the fact that all the talk of Israel taking great care to avoid civilian casualties was bullshit. Deeply cynical bullshit.

The lack of action from Israel’s chief sponsor, financier and arms supplier, the USA,  has, as ever, been pathetic. The powerful Jewish lobby in the States exercises tremendous influence on party politicians - not forgetting the money. President ‘No We Can’t’ Obama has wilted like his predecessors.

The same lobby operates here in the UK producing the crazy notion of ‘equivalence.’ ‘Call Me Hypocritical’ Cameron has much to say about Putin’s Russia while continuing to flog them arms. He says very little about Israel - apart from messages of support - while continuing to flog them arms…. 

Much of the BBC coverage has been risible. Do the sums. See the dead and injured children. Then watch/hear the BBC treat Israeli propagandists with far too much respect and regard. Watch/hear the reverent coverage of an Israeli funeral. 

For a more accurate view watch Channel 4 News - they have Jon Snow on the ground in Gaza. They do not take what the Israeli mouth merchants say at face value. They challenge them to justify killing children. They ask hard questions of both sides. They show hospitals under attack. They talk to doctors desperate for medical resources to help them cope. They discuss the way the Israeli blockade keeps those essential medicines out of Gaza. They portray Gaza as it is - a hellhole under occupation and attack by a far superior force.

Where will it end? 

Perhaps the Israelis should bite the bullet and remove this running sore from their borders? 

The Israeli military and government may want to consider an appropriate title for their action. How about ‘Operation Final Solution?’ 

That rings a bell.

My MP and the DRIP Act

Mr Bingham is my MP. He made it clear at the 2010 election that he would put the electorate of the High Peak first. He had no ambitions other than to represent the people of his constituency to the best of his ability. He added that he was not interested in promotion. Unlike his predecessor, slippery Tom Levitt, he has opposed the government on several occasions. He has proved to have a degree of independence - much needed when the standing of politics and politicians is at an all-time low. 

However last week was a significant moment when he put the interests of the ‘secure-ocrats’ before those of his constituents.

The Government have had over three months to respond to the ruling from the European Court that wholesale blanket surveillance is illegal. For two months of that time the government have been in discussion with internet agencies such as Microsoft and Yahoo. This was a lot more time than was given to MPs. They had a day. A day to pass a bill which restored all the blanket surveillance rights they had never acknowledged before Snowden revealed what was going on. No time to discuss vital checks and balances. Fast law is bad law. Look at the failed ‘Dangerous Dogs Act’ in the UK and the terrible ‘Patriot Act’ in the States. 

The Americans have at least admitted ‘snooping on the haystack in the hope of finding a needle’. As the row about bugging Angela Merkel’s phone rumbles on, the Germans sent back a CIA agent for spying on them last week. Brazil is setting up an internal email/internet system outside the global giants after their major petrol company was found to have been bugged - along with many politicians. Here we have GCHQ saying ‘they do not comment on security matters.’ Why the hell not? We pay for their malpractice out of our taxes. Here we have political grandees who appear on the airwaves murmuring assurances about what jolly fine chaps these security services are. These same grandees frequently fail to mention they are often in the employ of security companies. Funny that. 

Here too the security industry can rely on a supine bunch of MPs to do as they are told in the name of ‘national security.’ This is the same service who were responsible for the dodgy dossier used to sway opinion in the run up to the disastrous Iraq War. 

Targeted surveillance is essential to track the misdeeds of those who wish us harm. Getting a warrant to allow such surveillance has been a necessary check on unlimited state power. This is right and proper. 

What is not right and proper are the antics of a group within GCHQ known as JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Group). Thanks to the latest from Snowden we found out last week - just before the one day wonder debate - what these charmers are doing in our name and at our expense. Among their wheezes are such gems as altering online opinion polls, altering emails and ‘denial of service’ and ‘call bombing’  - offences for which teenage hackers get called before the beak. They also manipulate and distort online political discussion. Oh, they also disseminate state propaganda. And for those still unconvinced they have the “Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity” (CHANGELING) Glen Greenwald

Four years is a long time in politics. This was in the Coaltion Agreement May 2010:“We will be strong in defence of freedom. The Government believes that the British state has become too authoritarian, and that over the past decade it has abused and eroded fundamental human freedoms and historic civil liberties. We need to restore the rights of individuals in the face of encroaching state power, in keeping with Britain’s tradition of freedom and fairness.” 

Oh yeah. 

"The fact that your private images, records of your private lives, records of your intimate moments have been taken from your private communications stream from the intended recipient and given to the government without any specific authorization without any specific need is itself a violation of your rights. Why is that in a government database?” Edward Snowden

In our name - paid for by us - supported by my MP, Mr Bingham. 

Disturbing - very, very disturbing.

Toxic Tories

Sod the needy - feed the greedy - Iain Duncan Smith + Chums

It is reported that Gove had to go because he was ‘too toxic’ for the voters. Really? 

From this pale, stale and male Cabinet there are surely many of Gove’s colleagues who match him for toxicity. 

The released report yesterday showed that nearly 60% of those affected by the pernicious Bedroom Tax are in arrears or unable to pay the tax. Universal Credit has been estimated by that famous socialist rag - the Economist - that it will not be fully introduced until 2614. Yes. That is right. 600 years before the scheme is rolled out to all those eligible at current rate of progress. There are many other examples of just what a giant balls up Iain Duncan Smith is making of ‘welfare.’ Yet he stays!

Lucky Expenses Fiddler Frances Maude has alienated most of the people he comes into contact with - particularly the civil service and public sector workers. Still in post.

Chris Grayling aka ‘book banner’ also has form in the expenses stakes and is spectacularly useless at the department of Justice. Still there. 

Gorgeous George who talks such twaddle about the economy and is a massive hypocrite - all that guff about being hard on tax avoidance -  while rewarding those who avoid paying tax! - is not only still in post, according to the scribes who feed on Westminster crumbs - he is now stronger than ever. Heaven help us.

Jeremy Hunt continues to prime the NHS for sell off to the private medicine behemoths he has so assiduously courted. Loathsome yet undisturbed.

Good riddance to Gove, Little Willy Hague, Andrew ‘truly dreadful’ Lansley and particularly friend of the landed gentry, bee-poisoner, badger slaughterer and all round idiot,  Patterson. 

All toxic just like their noxious chums above.

Sad to see you go: Dominic Grieve - a man of honour who was a supporter of the Human Rights Act and respected by all sides of the House. 

He had to go because he wasn’t toxic enough.

PR Dave has got all of his ducks lined up - as advised by the Australian Wormtongue Crosby. [He really is toxic] 

Now it is up to all of us to shoot them down.

Sod the Needy - Feed the Greedy - The Toxic Tories.

Tory reshuffle

SOD THE NEEDY - FEED THE GREEDY - LAGS OUT - TITS IN*

PR Dave has had a bright wheeze. With less than a year to go to the day of reckoning, he realised that his toff dominated Cabinet was predominantly white, wealthy and male. Hmmm. Time for some outside the box, clear blue sky thinking, run it up the flagpole bollocks. 

PR Dave currently runs a cabinet of all the talents. Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Andrew Lansley all worship at the feet of media maestro Murdoch. Mind you so did Dave until all this nasty hacking business came out. Grant Shapps is clearly internet-savvy - just don’t ask him about his alter ego ‘Michael Green’. Ken Clarke is in bed with the transatlantic trade deal currently slithering through to the detriment of democracies everywhere. Ken also is an expert on tobacco, being paid handsomely  for his talent (aka ‘address book’). Maude, Grayling and Gove are all authorities in milking the expenses system for all it is worth - as is LibDem Laws who must have some very influential friends in his party. Little Willy Hague had to turn down vast sums he was accumulating from the business world when he became a minister. Bless. 

Then there is Gorgeous George and his remarkable capacity for fiction. Not forgetting the remarkable I.D. S. 

“He has a monumental achievement under his belt.

He has substantially wrecked the social security system, introduced the idea that work, however hard and fast you do it, does not imply receiving payment and has made claiming back any money from the system into which you may have paid your entire, hardworking, striving life, for whatever terminal illness may have caused your need or however desperate your plight, so shameful that the question of whether we should even have a social safety-net at all can now be asked and substantial numbers of voters are likely to say, "No, we are happy to watch our fellow Britons starve and die on the streets".

Iain Duncan Smith, for all his stupidity and lies, must be one of the heroes of neoliberalism.

Along with Andrew Lansley and Jeremy Hunt, who have pushed through the privatisation of the NHS - something which we thought we were being promised would not happen by Cameron before the election, but when £5 million in donations to the Tory Party buys £5 billion worth of privatised NHS contracts, was that ever really likely? - neoliberalism is in the ascendant.

For anyone cheering this, just remember that privatisation does not lead to better services, nor does it mean that once profiteers are making a fast buck from public services, you will see a reduction in income tax or National Insurance payments.

All it means is that your tax money, instead of going to the state to pay for things which benefit the people at large, simply goes into the offshore tax-haven accounts of crony corporations, cosied up and embedded in the government.

In fact, here is a quick ready-reckoner.

Do you pay tax? Is it taken out of your pay-packet automatically, whether you like it or not? Then neoliberalism and the capture of the state was not intended to benefit you. In fact, you are just the poor schmuck paying for it, so the ultra-rich can enjoy their splendid lifestyles.” 

Election2015UK Guardian online

‘Worst PM ever’ PR Dave is a proven liar.

1. No top down reorganisation of the NHS.
2. Greenest Government ever……
3. Most open government ever …. tell that to Edward Snowden - who is appalled at the DRIP Bill being rushed through parliament this week - which despite PR Dave’s claims, introduces even further surveillance powers. Fancy that. 

This reshuffle is an exercise in PR - it has nothing to do with improving governance.. ..After 4 long years PR Dave has realised that his party is short of women at the highest level. Perhaps Bullingdon behaviour doesn't help.

 * Thanks to Domesticextremist for the Sun style headline

Cameron: worst PM ever?

SOD THE NEEDY! FEED THE GREEDY! VOTE TORY!

There are several strong contenders for the title ‘worst PM ever.’ Cameron is the 54th PM since the position was established by Robert Walpole back in 1721. Among the giants of British history are Churchill, Pitt the Younger, Lloyd George, Gladstone, Atlee and Thatcher. Of these, Atlee was the least charismatic. He lead a Cabinet full of strong characters which, despite the legacy of a far bigger deficit than that of the 2008 crash, transformed post-war Britain. 

At the other end of the spectrum we have characters like Lord North. A patrician who is renowned as the ‘man who lost America.’ He was also the first PM to lose a ‘no confidence’ vote. It was also suggested that he be put on trial for his conduct of the war of American Independence. Fortunately for Tony Blair, a precedent was not established. Other members of the aristocracy who failed to enthuse historians include Augustus Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton; Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Roseberry and the 1st Baron Grafton. 

Of the post-war era, Anthony Eden and Alec Douglas-Home are poorly regarded as is Gordon Brown. 19 Prime Ministers have been to Eton.

Then we come to Cameron who says all things to all men to the extent no-one has a clue what he really believes. It is by his actions that he will be judged. And these actions have been execrable.   

‘Cameron - the man who is always looking for a war - be that an actual war in Libya or Syria - for which no expense may be spared, to a war on his own people, the sick, the elderly, the young, the poor, the public sector, the unions. Whilst he wines and dines with dubious foreign supporters and the super-rich, he likes nothing more than turning his Bullingdon viciousness against those he purports to "protect."

He leads the most vindictive right-wing government the UK has seen in living memory, and long beyond. Yet he runs scared of debates in the HoC, in Scotland, the BBC, or other political parties, and the EU. Truly the most god-awful PM it has ever been the misfortune for the UK to be lumbered with.’ TheGreatRonRafferty Guardian Online.

At last weeks Prime Minister’s Questions, Cameron claimed that the NHS being ranked as the best in the world was down to the coalition government. Simple research by Private Eye established that the verdict of ‘best health service’ was based on results from 2010/11. This was well before the shameless introduction of unmanifesto’d ‘reforms’ aka ‘paving the way for sell-off’ and the ensuing chaos in the service. 

Joe Goebbels would approve of Cameron’s Tories' techniques of lying big and lying often. 

SOD THE NEEDY - FEED THE GREEDY - VOTE TORY!

Brazil Humiliated

Having watched Brazil cheat their way past Croatia with the help of a pressured ref and having seen them kick and foul their way onward, last night was rather special. As an atheist the instant karma was quite amazing. Fernandinho had been given license to commit GBH on Columbia’s brilliant young player so all the talk of Neymar being assaulted was just so much bollocks. Watching the fervour with which the Brazilian team belted out the anthem was unsettling - they seemed too hyped up. They were the better team for all of ten minutes. Germany recovered their poise and began to pass their way through a non-existent defence. As soon as Germany scored, Brazil went to pieces. The assassin Fernandinho was dreadful. The next twenty minutes were the most incredible as Brazil transformed themselves from a semi-final team in the World Cup to a junior school XI playing on the local park. 

GMonet had this to say at Guardian Online

“Brilliant. What a disgrace this Brazil side has been all tournament -  cynical, cheating, fouling, cowardly, technically poor, badly organised, reliant on home-town refs since game one... Joga bonito my arse. Tonight's humiliation was their just desserts.

Brazil fans may cry about how Neymar was fouled out of the tournament, but Brazil brought that particular kicking-match on themselves. For every kick Neymar got, James Rod got two. Besides, Neymar on his best day wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference to the result. Thiago Silva might have shored things up a little bit, but watching on he was probably glad to be suspended. As it was, ruthlessly efficient and razor-sharp, Germany showed them up as the chumps they are. Kroos, Muller, Lahm and Khedira in particular were imperious tonight. Schurrle too when he came on - that finish for 7 was lovely. It's their final to lose now.

For Brazil, PSG's decision to give 50 million pounds for that clown David Luiz appears the definition of 'more money than sense', more than ever now. He should have been sent off or dragged off in the first half. And Fred - has there ever been a worse Brazilian international number 9? Hopeless. Marcelo too, how many laughable penalty claims can one player claim before a ref books him? Chumps to a man.

Good riddance to them.”

Another comment made the point that at least Fred had more touches last night than in previous matches as he had to kick off each time Germany scored. 

The big question is whether all the indignation and anger at the unfairness and corruption involved in Brazil getting the tournament - at a very high price - will come roaring back. 

They spent billions to be humiliated. 

Sod The Needy! Feed The Greedy! Support FIFA

Nasty Tories

SOD THE NEEDY! FEED THE GREEDY! VOTE TORY.

Michaelsylvain had this to say about the current state of our political elite in a Guardian Online comment:

“Michael Gove is trying to install Carphone Warehouse-founding, former offshore tax-exile David Ross as head of Ofsted - ignoring all of that, he also runs an academy chain. Still, no conflict of interest there - here are some other delightful ongoing tory wheezes from the weekend”

Millions of taxpayers' cash spent on venture capital fund run by Tory donor

“Millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being spent on a venture capital fund overseen by one of the Conservative Party's biggest donors, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

The British Business Bank, which is run by the Department for Business, has committed £7.8m to the Dawn Capital II investment fund, Whitehall documents show. Dawn Capital II's parent company is Dawn Capital, whose chairman is Adrian Beecroft. Mr Beecroft has donated more than £700,000 to the Conservative Party, making him eligible for David Cameron's "Leader's Group" of top donors who are granted exclusive access to the Prime Minister.”

Or how about:

Exclusive: British taxpayers underwrote deals worth £140m by firm based in Cayman Islands

“UK Export Finance, a branch of the Department for Business, is risking public funds to provide insurance cover for deals involving the aircraft leasing firm AWAS Aviation Capital Ltd.

The company is backed by Terra Firma, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms which is controlled by Guy Hands.

The financier is a close friend of William Hague. The Foreign Secretary was best man at Mr Hands’ wedding and was paid up to £70,000 a year between 2002 and 2009 for sitting on the “political council” of Terra Firma.

I can't imagine why the Tories are so shy of telling us who attended their funding bash.”

Yasmin Alibhai Brown was also less than happy with the behaviour of the Tory elite. She wrote a powerful piece in the Independent today entitled. ‘There’s a nasty smell in the political air – and it’s coming from the Tories’

“I honestly don’t see that much difference between corrupt practices at Fifa and these shady arrangements between politicians and their rich mates.

There’s more. We never get to see the shy, veiled backers or get full disclosure on the sly schemes which allow donations to be made to the Tories without scrutiny. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism alleges that the United and Cecil Club in Berkshire funnels cash from unnamed supporters. Several other private clubs, it is believed, do the same. We know how much the trade unions give the Labour party but are not allowed to know how much the Tories get from their tribesmen. Toffs don’t have to be open, don’t explain. Plebs must do both.”

Putting it bluntly - this bunch of slime balls are very busy rewarding their donor chums with big contracts. It stinks of blatant corruption.

Anyone unconvinced should consider how the subsidies given to the very richest of our society have nearly doubled. The owners of grouse moors and other shooting estates have had their subsidy raised from £30 a hectare to £56 a hectare. This money is going to the richest of the rich. 

Meanwhile the poorest and most vulnerable are expected to see their incomes drop and their employment conditions worsened. 

The Tories: nasty, venal and self-serving.

SOD THE NEEDY! FEED THE GREEDY! VOTE TORY.

Tory Party Values

Sod The Needy - Help The Greedy - 

- Vote Tory

Judge people by the company they keep is not a bad maxim. It certainly applies to the nest of vipers, slime balls and downright nasties the Tory party cosy up to. The Guardian obtained details of a huge fundraising bash organised by the Tory Party. They had gone to great lengths to keep the guest list secret. No bloody wonder. 

Will Hutton writing in the Observer described the nature of the ‘guests.’

“The big money guests are people from the darker side of global capitalism, using the leverage available in the shadow banking system over the last two decades to make fortunes in property and private equity.

I could spot no great innovators or business builders. They are almost entirely populated by the new seekers of risk-free profit, congratulating themselves on their entrepreneurial acumen when in truth their skill has been to borrow aggressively as private or family-owned companies at a time of rising asset prices away from the prying eyes of public shareholders or regulators. And then to use the many unregulated and untaxed gaps in the new global economy to hide the financial results from the authorities.

Too many for my taste have toppled over the edge and are embroiled in battles with varying authorities in their former homelands for alleged fraud or tax evasion. Small wonder Central Office was so reluctant to confirm the guest lists.

Their wealth seems proof positive in their own eyes of their genius, as well as in the eyes of uncritical members of the Conservative cabinet who bait the tables at which they sit. Nor is it any surprise that in the main they should be enthusiastic libertarians impatient not only of the state but of loyalty to country. Some sponsor exclusive US-based libertarian business associations such as the Milken Institute or Concordia Summit. They perch temporarily in Britain because it has both a hyper-relaxed attitude to "wealth generation" and is a very agreeable place to live – you even get invited to Tory fundraising events. Paying taxes is optional, regulation is cursory, the chance of prosecution minimal and in any case eminently defensible by Rolls-Royce lawyers against an under-resourced Serious Fraud Office and Crown Prosecution Service.” Observer 6/7/14  (my emphasis)

This boils down to a simple powerful word: corruption. Cameron hosts regular dinners with something carefully called the ‘Leaders Club’ which is reported to have raised over £48million for the Tory party. ‘Guests’ pay at least £50,000 a year and follow a similar pattern to the creeps described above. 

Hard-working families - so beloved of Tory rhetoric - can only look on and wonder. How do these venal bastards get away with it?

Sod The Needy - Help The Greedy - Vote Tory.

Palestinian life is disposable but Israeli life is sacrosanct

Here is a different view of the latest grim news from the Middle East. 

“The bodies of three Israeli settlers who went missing on June 12th were found in a hastily dug shallow grave in Halhul, north of Hebron.

Since the teens went missing from Gush Etzion, a Jewish-only colony in the West Bank, Israel has besieged the 4 million Palestinians who already live under its thumb, storming through towns, ransacking homes and civil institutions, conducting night raids on families, stealing property, kidnapping, injuring, and killing.

Warplanes were dispatched to bomb Gaza, again and repeatedly, destroying more homes and institutions and carrying out extrajudicial executions.

Thus far, over 570 Palestinians have been kidnapped and imprisoned, most notably Samer Issawi, the Palestinian who went on a 266-day hunger strike in protest of a previous arbitrary detention.

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed, including at least three children, a pregnant woman, and a mentally ill man. Hundreds have been injured, thousands terrorized.

Universities and social welfare organizations were ransacked, shut down, their computers and equipment destroyed or stolen, and both private and public documents confiscated from civil institutions.

This wonton thuggery is official state policy conducted by its military and does not include the violence to persons and properties perpetuated by paramilitary Israeli settlers, whose persistent attacks against Palestinian civilians have also escalated in the past weeks.

And now that the settlers are confirmed dead, Israel has vowed to exact revenge. Naftali Bennet, Economy Minister said, "There is no mercy for the murderers of children. This is the time for action, not words."

Although no Palestinian faction has claimed responsibility for the abduction, and most, including Hamas, deny any involvement, Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant that Hamas is responsible. The United Nations requested that Israel provide evidence to support their contention, but no evidence has been forthcoming, casting doubt on Israel’s claims, particularly in light of its public ire over the recent unification of Palestinian factions and President Obama’s acceptance of the new Palestinian unity.

In the West, headlines over pictures of the three Israeli settler teens referred to Israel's reign of terror over Palestine as a "manhunt" and "military sweep." Portraits of innocent young Israeli lives emerged from news outlets and the voices of their parents are featured in the fullness of their anguish. The US, EU, UK, UN, Canada and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the kidnapping and called for their immediate and unconditional release. Upon discovery of the bodies, there has been an outpouring of condemnation and condolences.

President Obama said, "As a father, I cannot imagine the indescribable pain that the parents of these teenage boys are experiencing. The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless act of terror against innocent youth."

Although hundreds of Palestinian children are kidnapped, brutalized or killed by Israel, including several in the past two weeks, there is rarely, if ever, such a reaction from the world.

Just prior to the disappearance of the Israeli settler teens, the murder of two Palestinian teens was caught on a local surveillance camera. Ample evidence, including the recovered bullets and a CNN camera filming an Israeli sharpshooter pulling the trigger at the precise moment one of the boys was shot indicated that they were killed in cold blood by Israeli soldiers.

There were no condemnations or calls for justice for these teens by world leaders or international institutions, no solidarity with their grieving parents, nor mention of the more than 250 Palestinian children, kidnapped from their beds or on their way to school, who continue to languish in Israeli jails without charge or trial, physically and psychologically tortured. (my emphasis)

This is to say nothing of the barbaric siege of Gaza, or the decades of ongoing theft, evictions, assaults on education, confiscation of land, demolition of homes, color coded permit system, arbitrary imprisonment, restriction of movement, checkpoints, extrajudicial executions, torture, and denials at every turn squeezing Palestinians into isolated ghettos.

None of that seemingly matters.

It does not matter that no one knows who murdered the Israeli teens. It seems the entire country is calling for Palestinian blood, reminiscent of American southern lynching rallies that went after black men whenever a white person turned up dead.

Nor does it matter that these Israeli teens were settlers living in illegal Jewish-only colonies that were built on land stolen by the state mostly from Palestinian owners from the village of el-Khader. A huge portion of the settlers there are Americans, mostly from New York, like one of the murdered teens, who exercise Jewish privilege to hold dual citizenship; to have an extra country no matter where they're from, one in their own homeland and one in ours, at the same time that the indigenous Palestinians fester in refugee camps, occupied ghettos, or boundless exile.

Palestinian children are assaulted or murdered every day and barely do their lives register in western press. While Palestinian mothers are frequently blamed when Israel kills their children, accused of sending them to die or neglecting to keep them at home away from Israeli snipers, no one questions Rachel Frankel, the mother of one of the murdered settlers. She is not asked to comment on the fact that one of the missing settlers is a soldier who likely participated in the oppression of his Palestinian neighbors. No one asks why she would move her family from the United States to live in a segregated, supremacist colony established on land confiscated from the native non-Jewish owners. Certainly no one dares accuse her of therefore putting her children in harms way.

No mother should have endure the murder of her child. No mother or father. That does not only apply to Jewish parents. The lives of our children are no less precious and their loss are no less shattering and spiritually unhinging. But there is a terrible disparity in the value of life here in the eyes of the state and the world, where Palestinian life is cheap and disposable, but Jewish life is sacrosanct.

This exceptionalism and supremacy of Jewish life is a fundamental underpinning of the state of Israel. It pervades their every law and protocol, and is matched only by their apparent contempt and disregard for Palestinian life. Whether through laws that favor Jews for employment and educational opportunities, or laws that allow the exclusion of non-Jews from buying or renting among Jews, or endless military orders that limit the movement, water consumption, food access, education, marriage possibilities, and economic independence, or these periodic upending of Palestinian civil society, life for non-Jews ultimately conforms to the religious edict issued by Dov Lior, Chief Rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba, saying "a thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail."

Israeli violence of the past few weeks is generally accepted and expected. And the terror we know they will unleash on our people will be, as it always is, cloaked in the legitimacy of uniforms and technological death machines.

Israeli violence, no matter how vulgar, is inevitably couched as a heroic, ironic violence that western media frames as “response,” as if Palestinian resistance itself were not a response to Israeli oppression. When the ICRC was asked to issue a similar call for the immediate and unconditional release of the hundreds of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails (which is also in contravention of international humanitarian law), the ICRC refused, indicating there’s a difference between the isolated abduction of Israeli teens and the routine abduction, torture, isolation, and imprisonment of Palestinian children.

When our children throw rocks at heavily armed Israeli tanks and jeeps rolling through our streets, we are contemptible parents who should be bear responsibility for the murder of our children if they are shot by Israeli soldiers or settlers. When we refuse to capitulate completely, we are “not partners for peace,” and deserve to have more land confiscated from us for the exclusive use of Jews. When we take up arms and fight back, kidnap a soldier, we are terrorists of the extreme kind who have no one to blame but ourselves as Israel subjects the entire Palestinian population to punitive collective punishment. When we engage in peaceful protests, we are rioters who deserve the live fire they send our way. When we debate, write, and boycott, we are anti-Semites who should be silenced, deported, marginalized, or prosecuted.

What should we do, then? Palestine is quite literally being wiped off the map by a state that openly upholds Jewish supremacy and Jewish privilege. Our people continue to be robbed of home and heritage, pushed to the margins of humanity, blamed for our own miserable fate. We are a traumatized, principally unarmed, native society being destroyed and erased by one of the most powerful militaries in the world.

Rachel Frankel went to the UN to plead for their support, saying “it is wrong to take children, innocent boys or girls, and use them as instruments of any struggle. It is cruel…I wish to ask: Doesn’t every child have the right to come home safely from school?” Do those sentiments apply to Palestinian children, too? Here, and here, and here, and here, and here , and here are video examples of the abduction of Palestinian children from their homes at night and on their way to and from school.

But none of that matters either. Does it? It matters that three Israeli Jews were killed. It doesn’t matter who did it or what the circumstances were, the entire Palestinian population will be made to suffer, more than they already are.” 

Susan Abulhawa  Source: The Hindu