All Children are Our Children

“And it may seem now like it’s someone else’s children, but there’s no such thing as someone else’s children.”
– Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Israel and the United States must never be forgiven for the GENOCIDE in Palestine. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and all of their accomplices, should be tried for War Crimes, and Genocide, and held to the same standards as the Nazis at Nuremberg.

As part of their genocidal assault on Gaza, Israel and the United States continue to target, and mass murder CHILDREN. And while the American public remains anesthetized with all of the trappings of what is arguably, the most shallow culture in history, we are confronted with the following two questions: How do we get most Americans to (1) care about the truth, and (2) fight for justice?

Image: Mondoweiss

Image: Crescent Heart

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), has reported that at least 100 Palestinian children have been KILLED, or injured, every day in Gaza since Israel’s strikes resumed on March 18th. As per the United Nations, “The resumption of the war is again robbing them of their childhood. The war has turned Gaza into a “no land” for children. This is a stain on our common humanity. Nothing justifies the killing of children wherever they are.”
Click here to learn more from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Click here to learn more from Al Jazeera.

UNICEF has also warned that the month-long blockade of essential food, medicine, and safe water by Israel, and the US, is greatly increasing preventable child deaths. According to the Electronic Intifada: “UNICEF warned this week that Israel’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid is having terrible consequences for One Million Children in the Gaza Strip, and without essential food, medicine, shelter, and safe water, malnutrition, diseases, and other preventable conditions will likely surge, leading to an increase in preventable child deaths. UNICEF said that complementary food for infants, which are crucial for growth when food stocks are low, has run out in central and southern Gaza…A week ago, on 16 April, an Israeli attack on al-Mawasi killed at least 10 Palestinians, including children, one of whom used a wheelchair. Catherine Russell, the executive director of the UN children’s fund UNICEF, stated that “images of children burning while sheltering in makeshift tents should shake us all to our core.”
Click here for the complete report from UNICEF.
Click here to learn how Israel imposes starvation “by design” in Gaza.
Click here to learn more from Mondoweiss on how Israel burned 8 children to death in Gaza “Safe Zone”.

“Israel is the main cause of anti-Semitism in the world today.” – Professor, Author, and Activist, Norman Finkelstein

Israel is also routinely killing children in the West Bank. As per journalist Tamara Nassar, “Israel is subjecting Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank to a campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing, a human rights group has said. Since the beginning of the year, Israel has killed 20 children in the West Bank. In the latest case, on Sunday, Israeli soldiers shot three Palestinian children, including two with American citizenship, in the town of Turmusaya. One of the three died as a result. The town’s mayor said the three boys were picking green almonds from a field near Route 60, a highway used by Israeli settlers that crosses the West Bank.”
Click here to learn more from the Electronic Intifada.

Image: Hadi Daoud

Image: Moiz Salhi

Did you know that for the most vulnerable children in Gaza, caregivers report that:
– 96% of children feel death is imminent
– 92% of children are not accepting of reality
– 87% display severe fear
– 79% suffer from nightmares
– 77% of children avoid talking about traumatic events
– 73% of children exhibit symptoms of aggression
– 49% of children wish to die because of the Genocide, and many more show signs of withdrawal and severe anxiety, alongside a pervasive sense of hopelessness. Also, prior to the US-Israeli Genocide, which has so far killed over 400,000 of our brothers and sisters, 95% of the Palestinian children living in that region already suffered from PTSD.
Click here to learn more from the Needs Assessment Study.
Click here to learn more about the lives of Gaza’s child amputees from Al Jazeera English.

Despite these horrors, and the countless violations of international law, the US led Israeli military continues to target defenseless civilians, including children (again, most of whom are now living in tents, with no food, water, or medicine). As per journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman, “Between 18 March, when Israel broke the so-called ceasefire and resumed its mass-scale slaughter in Gaza, and this week, nearly 1,900 Palestinians have been killed and around 5,000 have been injured. That figure includes approximately 600 children killed and approximately 1,600 children injured in just five weeks…Before dawn on Thursday, 17 April, Israeli airstrikes across Gaza targeted displaced families living in tents in three separate places – in al-Mawasi Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Deir al-Balah in the center and in Jabaliya in the north. Journalists and eyewitnesses reported that the tents were engulfed in flames and the victims, including many children, were burned alive, with bystanders desperately trying to put the fires out.”
Click here to learn more from Nora Barrows-Friedman.
Click here to learn more from the Electronic Intifada.

March on Washington

Image: The People’s Forum

“How, then, does one become an activist? The easy answer would be to say that we do not become activists; we simply forget that we are. We are all born with compassion, generosity, and love for others inside us. We are all moved by injustice and discrimination. We are all, inside, concerned human beings.” – Noam Chomsky

I was proud, and grateful, to hop on a bus to the nation’s capital to join our Palestinian and Muslim brothers, sisters, and allies, for the “Let Gaza Live” Emergency March on Washington. The bus ride itself was memorable, as everyone was gracious, informed, and passionate. We introduced ourselves, shared stories of outrage, and somehow laughed a lot too. I was particularly struck by the intelligence, and curiosity of the young people, as each one wowed me in their own way, and gave me hope. The bus organizers couldn’t have been friendlier, or more generous too, as free apples, bananas, snacks, and bottles of water were provided throughout our journey.

Lisbeth, and her beautifully awesome family!

I was hoping for a bigger turnout in Washington, D.C., but the event coincided with the nationwide Hands Off demonstrations, which was both a good thing, and a bad thing. On one hand, the Hands Off movement is a positive development, as it calls for an end to the billionaire takeover of the US government by the Trump administration, as well as an end to the slashing of federal funds for both Medicaid, and Social Security, and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other marginalized groups. Unfortunately, “Hands Off” also seems to be connected to the democratic party (war party), which ironically, appears to have its Hands all over Hands Off! How so? Firstly, the Hands Off movement makes no mention of one of the worst crimes in human history, which is the US-Israeli GENOCIDE in Gaza (and the DNC’s role of co-belligerence). Secondly the Hands Off movement actually has a “Hands Off NATO” slogan as well. If you are unfamiliar, NATO is one of the most violent organizations on the planet, and is chiefly responsible for the proxy war in Ukraine, which has now killed over 600,000 people. Did you know that one of the requirements for joining NATO is to buy weapons from the United States? According to Professor Jeffrey Sachs,“NATO is a military alliance led by the US. Since the US is not a defensive power, but an offensive one, so too is NATO…NATO should have been disbanded in 1990, and history would have been very different, far more peaceful, cooperative and productive, and with far fewer wars.” Really Hands Off movement? Hands Off NATO, and no mention of the US-Israeli Genocide? WTF? Clearly “Hands Off” has fallen into the wrong Hands.
Click here to learn more about the march from BreakThrough News.
Click here to learn more from Professor Jeffrey Sachs.

All Children are Our Children

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” – Neil Postman

Israel’s Genocide in Gaza has flipped our world upside down in more ways than I could have imagined. Everywhere I look, I am reminded of the unbelievable courage, and resilience of Palestinians. I was on a subway yesterday, and watched as a mother and child laughed out loud while playing hide and seek. I became a little emotional, as my mind raced to the Palestinian members of our “great human family”, and how at least HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of Mothers, Fathers, and CHILDREN in Palestine, will never get the chance to play such games with their loved ones, or tell their stories. I was reminded of our latest March too, and how the beautiful young people pushed back against the lies of the US government/corporate media, and the distractions of our empty culture (consumerism, materialism, celebrity worshipping, March Madness, etc.), to arrive in Washington, D.C., and declare their solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Palestine. I bring all of this up in order to share a life-changing concept that I learned from the great Howard Zinn, in his seminal book, A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present.

Here is an excerpt from his book that slowly changed everything for me:
“What struck me as I began to study history was how nationalist fervor–inculcated from childhood on by pledges of allegiance, national anthems, flags waving and rhetoric blowing–permeated the educational systems of all countries, including our own. I wonder now how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or napalm on Vietnam, or wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children.” – Howard Zinn

In other words, All Children are Our Children. In recent years, I have been telling my students, and frankly, anyone who will listen, the following elevator pitch: “What do you think Mark Twain meant when he said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice.”? You will likely forget my name, but don’t forget this idea. If you don’t have one, get a passport, and travel. The more you travel, the more humble you will become, and the more you will realize that we are all brothers and sisters, and that all children are our children. Once you know that, it changes everything.”

I later learned that James Baldwin had shared a similar sentiment years earlier that also hit the nail on the head:
“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” – James Baldwin

True Heroes

Image: Mondoweiss

Image: Francesca Albanese (post)

“Israel is a satanic state.” – Professor Norman Finkelstein

Israel, and the United States (under both Biden & Trump), continue to weaponize food, water, medicine, and shelter, as they attempt to complete the primary goal of their Genocide, which is to erase the Palestinian people. As per Pulitzer Prize winning author Chris Hedges, in another excellent interview with Professor Norman Finkelstein, “Israel has blocked all food and humanitarian aid into Gaza and cut off electricity so that the last water desalination plant no longer functions…Since Israel’s unilateral ending of the ceasefire on March 18th, which was never honored by Israel, Israel has been carrying out relentless bombing and shelling against civilians, killing over 1,400 (now 1,900), Palestinians and wounding over 3,600, according to the Palestine Health Ministry. An average of 100 children are being killed daily, according to the United Nations…Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz recently vowed that Israel will, quote, “intensify the war against Hamas and use all military and civilian pressure, including evacuation of the Gaza population”…We should also be clear that Hamas does not have armor, artillery, an air force, navy, mechanized units, all of the accoutrements of a modern army that, of course, Israel is deploying against them. They have small arms, nothing else.” Added Norman Finkelstein, “The estimates are Israel has dropped more than four atomic bombs. The idea of a resistance in that situation, if you read the descriptions, before any of the Israeli troops move a centimeter, they obliterate everything ahead of them, everything to the side of them, everything is obliterated. How, in those circumstances, can you realistically speak about a resistance?…My Mother, who was very sensitive to language…would always get indignant when anyone described what she endured during World War II as a war (she was a Nazi Holocaust survivor). She would always say…very emphatically, it was not a war. It was an extermination. We were like roaches. The exterminator shines the light on us here, we run there. Shines the light on us there, we run here. It was an extermination. And I think we have to be very careful as it’s unfolding in real time, not to use the language of a war, because once you start using that language, Israel wins 99% of the propaganda war…”
Click here for the entire interview with Norman Finkelstein and Chris Hedges.

Over the last 18 months, Israel and the United States have murdered over 400,000 Palestinians (70% of whom are women and children), and now, President Donald Trump, in his infinite ignorance, has publicly declared that Gaza is an “incredible piece of real estate”. Again, Israel, and the United States, must never be forgiven for the GENOCIDE in Gaza.

“Those who tried to sell Trump as “anti-war” will now need to explain not only his war in Palestine, his war in Yemen, his flirting with war in Iran, and his belligerent approach to China, but also his war on the working class, his war on innocent migrants, his war on students, his war on equality, his war on human rights, his war on international law & institutions, his war on the social safety net, and his war on education. Trump’s logo was never the peace sign. It is, and has always been the dollar sign and the gun, the marks of oligarchy & violent oppression. Yes, this is the path of fascism.” – Human Rights Attorney Craig Mokhiber

Artist: Carlos Latuff

I love the great Ralph Nader, but he missed one important point in his piece titled, The Dangerous Silence of Retired U.S. Presidents. If I had Mr. Nader’s ear, I would tell him that the biggest reason that Biden, Obama, Bush, and the Clintons are complicit with the Genocide in Gaza, and silent on Trump, is because they are War Criminals as well. They know that if Trump was ever investigated for his war crimes, and truly brought to justice, then they would have to face the guillotine too.
Excerpt from Ralph Nader’s article:
“If there was ever a strong contemporary case for declaring that silence is complicity, consider the hush of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and even George W. Bush as they grind their teeth over the Donald Trump/Elon Musk wrecking of America. Trump is destroying freedom of speech and due process, abolishing democratic restraints, and establishing a criminal fascistic dictatorship. Trump pounds Biden for the Trump administration’s blunders and failures an average of six times a day. These assaults go unrebutted by the Delaware recluse, nursing his political wounds. The Clintons? Bill sticks to his private telephone wailings. While Hillary, who gave us Trump in 2016 with her smug, stupid campaign, penned a self-anthem op-ed in the New York Times on March 28, 2025. She writes: “Mr. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (of group chat fame) are apparently more focused on performative fights over wokeness than preparing for real fights with America’s adversaries.” Trump is not belligerent enough for the war hawk Hillary Clinton who has been the pro-Iraq sociocider butcher of Libya and the ardent supporter behind provocative “force projection” of the Empire around the world…”
Click here for the complete article from Ralph Nader.

Six year old Ali Faraj and his beautiful sister. Most of Ali’s family was murdered by the IDF,
including his sister, who was “torn in half” by Israeli weapons.

Again, in addition to the civilian populations, Israel and the United States continue to specifically target, and mass murder Palestinian CHILDREN. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t seem to be bothered. Did you know that according to PEW Research, 73% of American Jews still support Israel? The US-Israeli Genocide is one of the worst crimes in human history, and like countless others, I am most often left speechless by the indifference, and ignorance, of most people I know.
Click here to learn more from the Middle East Eye.
Click here to learn more from Medea Benjamin and CODEPINK.

“Israel has turned into a nation, if not of murderers, then of war criminals, because Israel’s is not a nonrepresentative army. It’s a citizen army…Either you’re carrying out the execution the genocide, or your son is carrying out the genocide, or your daughter is carrying out the genocide, or your father is carrying out the genocide, or your brother is carrying out the genocide. And there’s no question, or quarrel, that were they the relatives in the shoes of those who are carrying out the genocide, they wouldn’t be carrying it out reluctantly. That is factually untrue. They are carrying it out joyfully, euphorically, enthusiastically. They’re posting the horrors committed by them, all over social media with the knowledge that they’re not going to be ostracized for posting what they’re doing. Their pop singers compose songs like, May Gaza burn. May Gaza burn.” – Professor Norman Finkelstein
Click here to learn more from Katie Halper.

Avoiding Burnout and Finding Peace

“Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation.” – Viktor Frankl (Holocaust survivor)

I realized not too long ago, that I needed to laugh more, and better appreciate all that is beautiful as well. I know that most of us are just spectators to the live-streamed Genocide in Gaza, but how can we laugh, or tell each other to have a great day, while the United States, and Israel, are targeting CHILDREN, and mass murdering hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters? I then recalled the science, and the roles that laughter, and tranquility play, in our overall health. I realized after watching a funny movie recently, that I hadn’t laughed in over a week, or for that matter, hardly at all over the last 18 months. I felt so refreshed from laughing, and was reminded of a quote from the lovely actress, and activist, Marlo Thomas, “When we’re children, we laugh seventy-five times a day, and when we’re adults, we only laugh seven times per day, so have as many good laughs as you can each day! Laughing feels good and is good medicine!”
Click here for one of the scenes from the classic film, “Tootsie”, that had me laughing out loud.

Barbara Kruger: Hirshhorn Museum

As per Dr. Dean and Anne Ornish’s excellent book, “Undo It”: “Smile and Laugh Freely. We all know just how good it feels to laugh, especially when you’re otherwise feeling stressed, fearful, or in pain. Just as stress can make our muscles tense and dampen our mood, laughter releases physical tension while boosting overall mood. Laughter can actually act as an antidepressant by causing our cells to release the neurotransmitter serotonin. Health experts now have proof that laughter is good medicine, especially for the heart. A good belly laugh can send 20 percent more blood flowing through your entire body. One study found that when people watched a funny movie, their blood flow increased. When you laugh, the lining of your blood vessel walls relaxes and expands. Laughing releases endorphins in the parts of the brain responsible for reducing pain and controlling emotions, providing an overall sense of relief and well-being. Laughter can also be powerfully contagious, which can quickly forge social bonds. A shared endorphin rush from a shared laugh fosters a shared connection, a feel-good sense of social togetherness.”
Click here for a blog post that I shared a few years ago on the importance of laughter and smiling freely.

After further scrutiny, I decided to give myself permission to try and enjoy each moment a little more, even during the darkest times, and without the guilt. In other words, the more peace that we can find, the stronger, and longer, we can speak out, right? As a result, once the march ended, I had just enough time to grab a bite, and visit the nearby Hirshhorn Museum, which had a couple of pieces from one of my two favorite visual artists on the planet, Banksy (the other artist is the remarkable Carlos Latuff).
Click here for my post, “Banksy, and the Art(its) of Compassion.”

Here are a few more images from my brief, and educational stop at the Smithsonian’s superb Hirshhorn Museum.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Hirshhorn Museum

Banksy: Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search

I also discovered the fun and impressive work of Barbara Kruger (above), and the identical twin brothers, Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, who work under the name of OSGEMOS (Portuguese for “the twins”).

Banksy & OSGEMOS: Hirshhorn Museum

OSGEMOS: Hirshhorn Museum

Artist: Carlos Latuff

Final Thoughts

The US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza has exposed everyone, and everything, and turned our world upside down. I have known that Israel was evil for many years, but I am now convinced that the United States is no less diabolical. Again, Israel’s US backed Genocide in Gaza is one of the worst crimes in human history, and the United States and Israel must never be forgiven.

“The moral component of history, the most necessary component, is simply a single question, asked over and over again: When it mattered, who sided with justice and who sided with power? What makes moments such as this one so dangerous, so clarifying, is that one way or another everyone is forced to answer.” – Omar Akkad

Professor Norman Finkelstein is one of the most trusted historians on the planet regarding Zionists, Palestinians, Israelis, the Nazi Holocaust, and the US-Israeli Genocide. Mr. Finkelstein has called Israel both a “satanic state”, and a “lunatic state”.

Artist: Carlos Latuff

As per Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and other public policy analysts, the “lunatic State” of Israel controls most of US foreign policy.
Let that sink in for a moment, and then consider the following:
The vast majority of Jewish Israelis are mentally ill (extreme racism is a psychotic disorder), and emboldened, thanks in part to US taxpayer dollars, and the US military (the largest and most destructive military in human history). Without the backing of the most powerful Western militaries over the last 100+ years (British, US), Israel would not have become the “satanic state” that it is today. According to Pew Research, only 4% of Jewish Israelis believe that Israel’s military operations in Gaza have gone too far.

There are three things that need to happen for Israelis to be able to live with the occupation, and the US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza:
1. Israelis must feel that they are the chosen people.
2. Israelis must see themselves as the victims.
3. The dehumanization of Palestinians. In other words, you can’t be okay with what Israel is doing, unless you see Palestinians as less than human.

It is also important to remember that Lifetime Criminal, Donald Trump, is dangerously dumb too (or as Chris Hedges called him nicely, “a limited thinker”). Trump is an ignorant, racist, greedy, sociopath, who filed for bankruptcy SIX times before being vomited up by the broken, and corrupt, US political system in 2016. I have lived in the NYC area for many decades, and unfortunately, the Trumps have been on my radar for a long time (his father, Fred Trump, was an infamous slum lord in NYC, who made MILLIONS of dollars by exploiting people of color through racist/discriminatory housing policies). Despite his many limitations, and staggering incompetence, Donald Trump, like his predecessor, is owned by Israel, and is in a position to cause more harm to humanity, and Mother Earth, than perhaps anyone else in human history. The depths of depravity of Donald Trump should frighten us all.

I wrote the passage above on Donald Trump a couple of months ago, and I just needed to amend the ending. Being frightened by Donald Trump and his cabal of lunatics isn’t enough. We need to stop him, and his psychopathic henchman, Pete Hegseth, before it is too late. Again, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, all surviving US presidents, and their accomplices, should be tried for War Crimes, and Genocide. Until we establish accountability with these destroyers of life, things will only get worse.
Click here to learn about a new US-based campaign, Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG), which aims to hold lawmakers accountable for making federal taxpayers complicit in Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza.
Click here to sign on to TAG’s National Movement.
Click here to learn how the Western media can be held legally accountable for its role in the Gaza Genocide.

Artist: Carlos Latuff

The United States is committing a Genocide in Palestine, while it provokes Russia, and continues to antagonize, propagandize, and demonize China. Since War Criminal Barack Obama declared in 2014 that the US needs to “pivot to Asia”, the US War Machine has been hellbent on a War with China. The US now has over 902 military bases worldwide, with over 300 encircling China. Can you imagine if the situation was reversed? As per the exceptional journalist Ben Norton, “It’s so ridiculous hearing the head of the US military (Pete Hegseth), claim that China is the aggressive one. China has not fought a war since 1979. That was the last war that China fought, 1979, whereas the US military has engaged in literally hundreds of military interventions just in the past few decades. According to official US government data from the Congressional Research Service, the US military launched 251 foreign interventions from 1991 until 2022, and 469 military interventions abroad from 1798 until 2022. The US military has intervened in the majority of all of the countries on earth. And yet we’re supposed to believe that China is supposedly the aggressive one, while the US military is surrounding China with missile systems that can hit the majority of China’s cities. I mean, it’s completely Orwellian. We’re living in a topsy-turvy world. We’re living in opposite land.”
Click here to learn more about how the US is foaming at the mouth in its efforts to start a nuclear war with China.
Click here to learn more from CODEPINK on why China is NOT our Enemy.

The bottom Line? The United States and Israel are by far, the largest agents of TERROR in the world, and the biggest threats to the survival of our species. The United States is a failing empire, with a military budget that exceeds the next ten countries combined, including Russia and China. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says that we are now closer than ever to nuclear armageddon, due in large part to the US-Israeli Genocide in Palestine, the US proxy war in Ukraine, and the US’s unrelenting efforts to provoke China into a nuclear confrontation (the refusal of the United States to take meaningful action to combat the climate crisis, and its misuse of AI technology also increases the risk of nuclear war). The United States of War could have stopped Israel at anytime over the last 18+ months, but instead, chose to double and triple down on GENOCIDE. And to make matters worse, the “satanic state” of Israel now controls most of US foreign policy. How else do you explain the war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, receiving 58 standing ovations for Genocide from the US Congress?
Click here to learn more from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
Click here to learn more about the War Criminal Netanyahu receiving 58 standing ovations from the US Congress.

My Dear Friends in America, the problem isn’t immigrants, or Hamas, or the LGBTQ community, or the Chinese, or the Boogeyman. The problem is in the mirror. Will you stand with Power, or on the side of Truth and Justice?

Until next time…

Free Palestine!

Artist: Carlos Latuff

*Main Image: Osama Kamal, a refugee from Khan Yunis, suffers from malnutrition due to the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and the spread of diseases and epidemics in the ongoing US-Israeli “war of extermination” against civilians.

“If you sing for children, you can’t really say there’s no hope.” – Pete Seeger