Uprising of the Mud - Ahmed Matar

 Uprising of the Mud

************************

They placed me in a pot

And asked me to adapt

I'm not a water bud

I am created of heaven's mud

And as the pot minds the growth 

of what matters

It soon shatters

They asked me to choose

Between life and death

Between dancing on a tightrope

Or dancing below a tightened rope

I chose to live on

I said: let me be hanged

Smother the parrot with your rope

And grant me an ever-screaming silence

State Dept Spox Can't Find Evidence of Israeli War Crimes - but where is He Looking?

 

A Study of Ob*scene

The Independent's cartoon (bottom) 

 

Great cartoon - reminds me of something I have seen recently ... wait - it's this one (top image): - posted Feb 18th 2024- it's a collage with a poem (below - under the cartoons) ... 

@Independent

 https://twitter.com/WaelNawara/status/1759350155730440199

A Study of Ob*scene **** As men, women and children choke on their own blood, world leaders rush to the murder scene. . But to everyone's horror, they go past those being massacred, to the assist of the killers with a fresh bullet magazine.

Citizens United

 

Money and lobbies had always been a bad influence on democracy. But then came #CitizensUnited :(

New York Lies

 

Decolonizing ChatGPT is Far Easier than Dezionizing the Congress!

Congress Conflates the State of Israel with Patriarch Israel/Jacob!

I am always amazed to see congress members conflating the State of Israel with biblical Israel/Jacob. Watch this video!

“Washington DC isn't the center of the universe, Jerusalem is”. 

RepRickAllen asks @Columbia President:  

Do you know Genesis 12:3 “If you bless Israel, I will bless you. If you curse Israel, I will curse you”.   He then asks: “Do you want Columbia (University) to be CURSED by God, of the Bible?!”

To me, the State of Israel is an administrative, political, military and economic structure, among other things. The State of Israel is currently being tried for plausible genocide before the Interntional Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ . So, it can't be biblical. I decided to ask ChatGPT!

Initially, ChatGPT Conflates the 'Nation of Israel' with Israel/Jacob

ME: 
According to the Bible, who was meant by Israel in 'he who blesses Israel will be blessed'?

ChatGPT: 
The phrase “he who blesses Israel will be blessed” is derived from the promises God made to Abraham in the Bible. In Genesis 12:3, God says to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."1 This verse is often interpreted as God’s promise to bless those who bless Abraham’s descendants, the nation of Israel.

In the context of the Bible, “Israel” refers to the Jewish people or the descendants of Jacob, who was later named Israel. The nation of Israel, therefore, is seen as the collective descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The blessing implies that those who show favor and kindness to Israel, both the people and the nation, will themselves be blessed by God.

ME:
This is wrong - because the State of Israel is not a descendant of anyone - it is a State, a political structure, and conflating it with the Jewish people can be harmful and antisemitic.

ChatGPT Admits that the Conflation between Israel and the Jewish People is Wrong and Can be Potentially Harmful

ChatGPT:
Thank you for pointing that out. You’re correct that the modern State of Israel is a sovereign nation established in the 20th century and is not a descendant in the biological sense. The term “Israel” in the Bible originally referred to the individual Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and by extension, his descendants, known as the Israelites.

The interpretation of biblical references to Israel can vary widely, and it’s important to distinguish between the ancient biblical context and the modern political entity. The conflation of the two can indeed lead to misunderstandings and potentially harmful rhetoric. It’s essential to approach such topics with sensitivity and awareness of the historical and contemporary implications.

Decolonization of AI

Conclusion: When ChatGPT gives an answer which is based on Hasbara, CORRECT it. This is how it can learn.

This is one of the ways to decolonize AI. 

But apparently decolonization of ChatGPT is nowhere as difficult as getting the memo to the US Congress.

The End of the Line

 When Armageddon is the only Way Forward, Israel Needs to Stop or be Stopped

Israel's Paradox

I look at Israel's path and see it inevitable for the kind of impossible and contradictory goals it has being trying to achieve. 

It wants peace with its neighbors but covets and steals their land and resources.

It wants to appear as a democratic state to fit with the Western Club of its benefactors, yet it insists on maintaining racial supremacy of one sect of its citizens over all others. 

It wants a State with a Jewish majority, yet refuses a Two-State solution, which leaves it with a majority of Palestinians in its de facto One State reality between "the River and the Sea".

It claims it wants peace with the Palestinians, the indigenous rightful owners of the land, yet continues to place them under occupation, in open air prisons, surrounded by an apartheid wall and humiliating check points, under siege, erects new settlements, demolishes their homes and steals more of what remains of Palestinian land while slaughtering their children and ethnically cleansing their shrinking territory.

Apartheid is Like a Runaway Train Going Downhill

And as occupation, humiliation, dispossession and violence, creates its own resistance and counter violence, Israeli people continuously shift to more extremism. Extremist settlers commit more atrocities against Palestinians, creating more resistance and more violence. And with impunity provided by the US and the EU, the lack of an external legitimate force or legal apparatus that will stop this madness encourages more extremism and violence. It is like a runaway train that is going downhill. 

Nothing More or Worse to be Done?

To simultaneously achieve these contradictory goals and maintain these untenable conditions, the only way for Israel - up until this moment - to continue its path of land theft and apartheid has been to kill, arrest, demolish, fire, threaten and bomb. Arnon Soffer said it best in 2004: 

We have to kill, and kill, and kill. All day, everyday.

But despite the mass-killing, Palestinians have nowhere else to go, so they stay in their land and make a life for themselves. This in itself aggravates leader like Netanyahu who blamed it all on UNRWA for failing to ship the Palestinians to other destinations. 

Israel arrived at the Genocide Station but didn't stop. It can't stop. It's a runaway train.

This is just the 76th year of its bloody life, yet Israel has arrived at a place which no nation before has reached without signing its death certificate, the station of genocide. You would think, there's nothing more or worse that can be done on this path.

But you would be mistaken.

Armageddon

There is one more abyss that the runaway train seems to be heading to. To continue as an apartheid state, after being exposed to the whole world, and after failing to "destroy Hamas", Israel thinks that it has no option but to drag the US, and the EU to a regional war with Iran, which could possibly turn into an apocalyptic nuclear exchange at a global scale.

The problem with a prophecy like Armageddon, is that it is self-fulfilling. Extremists believe in it and as a result they take actions which will enact it.

When Israel hit the Iranian consulate in Damascus, it was trying to nudge Iran to join its war. Iran did just that. Probably because some extremists in Iran also believe in Armageddon. All the stories come from the same pot. And as Iran retaliated, Israel decided to also retaliate to the retaliation, although Iran has made clear that it will in turn retaliate to the retaliation on the retaliation.

And this is what a vicious circle of violence looks like.

Except that this time, the train is actually coming to the apocalyptic end of the track.

The question now is: 

When Armageddon is the only way forward, who will stop this runaway train before it hits the terminal?