Asked if the White House supports the Ukrainian people’s right to resist the occupation through any means necessary, spokesperson Jen Psaki says Yes. “We certainly support the rights of the Ukrainian people to fight back. I would note that we have seen many Ukrainians; many, many members of the Ukrainian military; and certainly President Zelenskyy in leadership fight bravely, courageously over the course of the last 12 days.” Now does that apply to Palestine? twitter voices ask.

Israel is now walking a tightrope above very unpredictable waters of public opinion in the west. The overwhelming wave of opposition to Russian aggression is justifying boycott, divestment and sanctions as well as resistance as responses to the Russian military occupation, measures for which Palestinians have vainly sought western approval. And meanwhile, Israel is playing footsie with Russia so as to maintain its freedom to conduct missile attacks in Syria against Iranian targets.

You see no universal Western outrage over the US support for the Saudi blockade on Yemen, which has killed an estimated 377,000, most of them children dead of famine. The Western press sometimes does report on Western atrocities, but with nothing approaching the rage it reserves for the crimes of our enemies. If there isn’t a constant drumbeat of stories about our atrocities as there is for Putin’s, and pundits aren’t constantly agonizing over our need to do something, the unspoken message is that our crimes simply aren’t that important or bad. Yes this is an argument for whataboutism– but you must be a moral imbecile to think there is something wrong with it because of that.  

From US government officials, to our biggest news broadcasters, and social media networks, Ukrainians were being applauded as heroes for going to whatever lengths to protect their land. The same exact things that Palestinians are labelled as terrorists for, imprisoned, and even killed.

Ghada Hania responds to CBS correspondent Charlie D’Agata who contrasted life in “civilized” Ukraine to places that have seen “conflict raging for decades” like Iraq, Afghanistan, or perhaps Palestine.

Orientalist media coverage of the war in Ukraine reflects the worldview inherent in Western governments’ policies.

The mainstream media is openly embracing armed resistance these days, just not for Palestinians.

Doaa Alremeili reports that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is having some unexpected impacts in Gaza.

“It comes down to: Are you with the Russians or are you with the United States and the West?” asks former Defense Secretary William Cohen. The White House and some Republicans are criticizing Israel’s mixed signals on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Activists in British Columbia who have worked for years to have illegal Israeli settlement wines pulled off the shelves of publicly owned liquor stores were shocked when the government pulled Russian liquor products just two days after the invasion of Ukraine.