In his waning weeks at the White House, Donald Trump has been busy helping Benjamin Netanyahu tick off the boxes on his wish list.
- Theft of Palestine
- Iran deal DOA for the incoming Biden administration
- Recognize illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land
- Label every legitimate criticism and means of peaceful protest “antisemitic”
- Coerce UAE into a “normalization” scheme
- Ditto Bahrain
- Ditto Sudan
- Ditto Morocco
Trump and his cronies have done grave damage to prospects for justice and peace with these illegal, indefensible acts. Reversing this agenda will take real political grit. But without a groundswell from the grassroots, there’s no indication the new U.S. administration has the political will to reverse years of retrograde policy that ignores and silences Palestinian rights and interests.
Eighty percent of mandatory Palestine – 80 percent – is now part of a chauvinistic Zionist state that makes discrimination of its non-Jewish population legal. And Palestinians have no reason to believe this discrimination would magically end if they surrendered and recognized the Zionist narrative.
If there’s hope for real change with the next U.S. administration, we’re going to need an honest conversation about the nature of Zionism and the extent to which it causes most of the problems in Palestine.
But conservatives, liberals and “progressives” alike are all too willing to give Israel a free pass, even when confronted with Israel’s long list of war crimes. As of this writing, the latest such crime is the horrifying Dec. 4 murder of a 15-year-old boy on his birthday.
As Phil Weiss wrote in Mondoweiss:
The murder of Ali Abu Alia — six years after the killing of 500 children in Gaza in 2014 and two years after the killings of hundreds of Gaza protesters during the march of return – should bring about an urgent reckoning in the U.S.
But there has been no such reckoning – maybe because the tragedy of Ali’s murder, just like the crimes that came before, are largely ignored by mainstream newspapers and broadcast news network. After all, accountability is much easier to avoid without the glare of the media spotlight.
That’s why the world needs Mondoweiss.
Mondoweiss calls out the media for their utter failure to report accurately or honestly about Palestine and Palestinians. We publish original reporting, news analysis, opinions and statements that feature Palestinian voices censored or silenced elsewhere and Jewish voices that challenge Israel’s Zionist agenda.
When politicians and pundits don’t have the stomach for difficult conversations; when prominent cheerleaders of Israeli violence masquerade as “journalists”; when Israel’s boosters support censorship, and legitimate speech and protest are radioactive, if not downright illegal, it’s naïve to assume things will somehow get better.
Mondoweiss is truth-telling journalism in the interest of justice. And we need your support today.
Mondoweiss needs you, because the world needs Mondoweiss.
