New York – What exactly is Israel’s strategy in Gaza? Behind all the clamor about antisemitism, films about the 1940’s Jewish Holocaust and western politicians chanting about Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ lie some ugly facts that are not spoken of in polite society.

I know antisemitism when I see it. While still a boy, I was sent to a rustic summer camp in New Hampshire. At dinner, many of the campers would chant ‘all you guys with long, long noses, come and join the fight for Moses!’

A close Jewish friend of my fathers bought a resort hotel on New Hampshire’s Rangeley – only to be informed that it refused to rent to Jews. That was the virulent antisemitism of the 1950’s.

At the same time my mother, a renowned journalist writing about the Mideast, and I were repeatedly threatened by pro-Israel thugs who threatened to throw acid in our faces if my mother kept writing about the nearly one million Palestinian refugees driven from the Galilee region in the 1940’s who – according to the US media – did not actually exist. They did. Many are now refugees in Gaza. My mother was forced to stop writing for US newspapers due to the cascade of threats.
As pro-Palestinian students demonstrate across the US and the rest of the world demanding the massacre in Gaza end, we see growing efforts by pro-Israel groups to silence the students, curb the internet, and unseat politicians who dared criticize Israel.

The massive pro-Palestinian demos we are seeing are in part a reaction by right wing pro-Israel groups to impose Israel’s party line on independent universities and gag all non-conforming professors. Such heavy-handed attempts at censorship have enraged students.

So too the endless barrage of disinformation about Palestine we see on America’s Israel-dominated TV. Britain and Canada also suffer from similar media censorship. Big financial donors to academia are using their tax-deductible donations to stifle criticism of Israeli tactics and strategy in Gaza. The US Congress is worse. The Israel lobby seats and unseats senators and congressmen depending on their Mideast votes. It’s no wonder Israel is the world’s largest recipient of US aid. The Israel lobby is feared and obeyed.

Many members of Congress receive money from Israel and its American lobby, plus media support and freebie trips. Last week the New York Times was caught issuing orders to its staff not to use any terms or phrases that put Israel in a bad light. In Britain, the Labour Party’s left-wing leadership was purged of critics of Israel, and a bland leader installed in place of its former fiery left wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Israel’s supporters must be careful not to twist too many arms. Doing so will surely engender real antisemitism and raise the famous question posed by Voltaire about who really rules us.

Right wing Israelis must lower their demands for an ever-larger Israel. They want Galilee, and chunks of southern Lebanon, including the Litani River. Plus driving most or even all Arabs out of the West Bank – designated a Palestinian state by the UN agreement that created the first Jewish state.

I was with Israel’s army when it invaded Lebanon in 1982 and, inadvertently helped create the Hezbollah movement. The notion of a second Jewish state in Ukraine is illusory. Israelis must begin figuring out how to live in the Arab World if they ever want to find peace. Getting out of Gaza would be a good beginning.

Brown University’s cost of the Afghan war project just concluded that America’s longest war cost an estimated $US 2.2 trillion dollars – that’s ‘trillion dollars.”

If we add in George W. Bush’s fake `war on terror,’ Brown’s scholars estimate that the cost rises to US $8 trillion!

Most of this huge amount was financed by loans, not through taxes. Meaning that every dollar spent must be paid for by borrowing. That means paying interest (raised by taxes) on the borrowed money – $95 billion dollars of taxpayer money that Biden just gave to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine in a desperate attempt to buy the November election.

Interestingly, the much-ballyhooed war in Afghanistan has all but vanished from the media. All the CNN generals who postured on TV about the Afghan War have fallen into silence. They were dead wrong about the war. The minute Donald Trump ended the Afghan War by cutting off the billions in US money that kept the corrupt US-backed Kabul regime alive, the war ended and the blizzard of propaganda against Taliban abated. The $2.2 trillion war abruptly became unimportant.

I was blacklisted by top newspapers and TV stations in the US, Mideast and Europe for having predicted that the Taliban resistance movement would win the conflict. I wrote that Taliban was the only legitimate mass political movement in Afghanistan. America co-opted other groups, like the heroin-dealing Tajik Northern Alliance and some anti-Taliban factions backed by Russia or Iran. The US ended up backing the Afghan heroin trade – which Taliban has completely shut down since it returned to power in Kabul.

The United States is the most over-propagandized nation on earth. Americans are barraged around the clock by government propaganda, commercial messages, internet agitprop and pro-war movies. Even the old Soviet Union was not so flooded by non-stop propaganda.

Today, we get 24/7 advertising for Ukraine, Taiwan and, of course, Israel. Women have been a particular target for the anti-Taliban propaganda – the same Taliban that were US allies in the 1980’s, as I saw. Taliban’s mountaineers are a wild and crazy bunch of warriors. Everything they believe in runs counter to the overly feminized United States.

The zeitgeist of the Afghan warriors Taliban’s credo is ‘tobacco, guns, and war.’

My columns about why war in Afghanistan was a huge mistake made me an object of hate. A former born-again evangelical prime minister of Canada actually sent his flunkies to get my 40-year old column dropped from the nation’s largest newspaper. He detested what I had to say but apparently lost no sleep over the scores of Canadian soldiers he sent to their death in Afghanistan or the millions wasted on the foolish Afghan War.

Politicians and generals who lose wars and trillions of dollars should admit their folly and resign. The media that promoted the colonial Afghan war should be rid of the propagandists infesting its ranks. Today, we see CNN, the New York Times, and Fox, the twin voices of America’s neocons, cheer-leading for the massacres in Gaza.

Instead, those newscasters who shilled for the Afghan War are now busily promoted President Biden’s wars. They and TV commentators seem to have no shame when it comes to their hugely bloody, expensive errors in Afghanistan. Nor do we find many commentators or critics who share the least guilt over carpet bombing Afghan villages by B-52 and B-1 heavy bombers.

How many Afghan civilians did we kill? The Pentagon refuses to release estimates. The Soviets are estimated to have killed two million Afghans. I believe the US has killed at least one million.

A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, suddenly we are taking about real money. Part of the dangerous inflation that today bedevils America was caused by reckless government spending on Afghanistan – as well as Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

New York – I was kicked out of New York’s prestigious Collegiate private school many moons ago for ‘revolutionary and disruptive activities.’

Thank goodness my wise parents sent me to the International School of Geneva, Switzerland where I thrived.

The underground French fascist group, ‘la Main Rouge’ repeatedly threatened to kill me for organizing student demonstrations against France’s colonial war in Algeria. But I survived.

Being a life-long rebel and hell-raiser, I am naturally sympathetic to today’s pro-Palestinian student protests that are now sweeping American and European campuses.

Students may be poor and too emotional, but they are often filled with repulsions at the sight of mass killing, political brutality, and murderous hatred such as we see today in the prison camp of Gaza. They have yet to learn the sordid truth about how money can buy indulgences from killing civilians and other war crimes.

Just ask Joe Biden, and British PM Rishi Sunak. They are continuing to arm and finance Israel’s mass killing and starvation in Gaza for the sake of huge cash donations as elections loom, and the support of ardently pro-Israel voters who are marching to the drum of Israel’s far right-wing government. The US and British media have been whitewashing the genocide in Gaza and twisting their reporting to justify mass killing of civilians. The New York Times has earned opprobrium by ordering its staff to slant the news it misreports. This once great newspaper has ruined its reputation. It reminds of the great Mark Twain’s famous bon mot, ‘If you don’t read the news you are uninformed. If you do, you are misinformed.’

Let’s be frank. President Joe Biden, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and their pal Egypt’s despot Abdel el-Sisi are directly responsible for the deaths of 14,000 Palestinian children, almost 35,000 Palestinian civilians seriously wounded, some 2 million Palestinians now homeless, growing starvation and disease across Gaza used by Israel as a refuse dump for unwanted Arabs. The Biden administration is providing over $14.1 billion in arms to Israel, including the deadly 2,000lb bombs used to crush entire civilian apartment buildings and hospitals, plus tank shells fired at residential targets. All in clear violation of US arms export laws written by Congress.

Why is Biden the key player in such mass destruction? Why is his UN delegation vetoing resolutions to stop Israeli laying waste to Gaza? It’s election time coming up. And because the Democrats get the lion’s share of their finances from pro-Israel sources.

Big money talks. Human rights walk. The US Congress, a sorry collection of used car salesmen, has been bought and sold. What a disgrace for the USA. The oil Arabs could also have bought Congress but they were too busy squabbling with one another.

So, while the high and mighty averted their gaze to massacres and famine in Gaza, it was left up to students around the globe to raise their voice in anger over the crimes there. My alma mater, Georgetown Foreign Service, raised a chorus of protests. So too Columbia University and UCLA, Sciences Po in Paris, in fact just about everywhere except Germany, whose people are still paying Israel for World War II.

Big money donors, who made billions off our rigged financial system, are trying to silence protests over Israel’s wanton cruelty. Israelis are right to be furious over the killing of an estimated 1,139 Israeli civilians and soldiers. But killing tens of thousands of innocent Arabs was wildly out of proportion and clearly criminal.

America, Britain and Canada have disgraced themselves – all for the sake of money. The Gaza massacre has revealed the US to be a deeply corrupt society. University students at least helped save America’s honor. They are doing the right thing. Alas, they do not yet have a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young band to turn their protests into electrifying music. Meanwhile, Palestinian children continue to starve or die of disease while Israel ruins its name and paid-for politicians spout lies.

Israel and Iran are staging a Japanese kabuki-style confrontation that borders on the absurd. So far, it’s been mostly harmless (not counting Gaza of course) but behind the posturing by both sides lies the deadly threat of a possibly nuclear confrontation.

Iran has shown itself to be a military paper tiger. Tehran launched 300 odd missiles and drones against Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of two senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard generals in Damascus – a clear act of war.

The missile/drone barrage was useless and ineffective. It must have cost Iran $1 billion. Most of the Iranian missiles were shot down by US and British warplanes positioned in Cyprus and offshore. Whatever the cost to Israel will be covered by the US Congress which feels full election fever. Israel knows it can get away with just about anything before US elections.

Iran developed an extensive missile and drone arsenal because it has been under a crushing US arms and technology embargo since its 1979 Revolution ousted the US-run puppet ruler, Reza Pahlevi. Washington has been waging full scale economic warfare against Iran since the revolution in a, so far, vain effort to reinstate the Pahlavi exiles back into power in Tehran.

The US/European economic war against Iran made it impossible to obtain modern aircraft or technology, notably spare parts. As a result, Tehran’s remaining aircraft are flying coffins. The US even refused to let Tehran buy safety equipment that would have saved many lives. So, Iran focused on building missiles and obtaining drones, probably from North Korea. Drones have proved near useless against Israel and in Ukraine. They are overrated by military experts and not cost effective. Little better, in fact, than throwing stones.

The massive retaliatory Iranian strike against Israel did amazingly little damage. Israel was ready with its advanced anti-missile systems, backed by US and British warplanes, the support of Jordan, a state totally under US influence, and American satrap Egypt, which collaborates with Israel in keeping Palestinians locked up. Their sin was holding a fair democratic election in Gaza which put the Hamas government in power. Hamas was and is primarily a social welfare organization originally encouraged and financed by Israel to split Yasser Arafat’s PLO. Israel also helped create Hezbollah and financed the murderous right-wing Lebanese Forces who massacred Palestinians at Shatila and Sabra refugee camps.

We are now waiting for further Israeli strikes against targets in Iran. Israel has long been provoking Iran and is clearly targeting Iran’s nuclear program. Iran might be able to hit Israel’s top secret nuclear center at Dimona. So far, both sides have avoided any strikes on nuclear plants. Striking nuclear plants is extremely dangerous and could cause a Chernobyl-like catastrophe.

Meanwhile, Israel keeps attacking Iran in hopes that the US will come and attack the Islamic state. Meanwhile Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner talks about turning wretched Gaza into a second Ft Lauderdale. He and his far-right real estate buddies must figure out how to get rid of the 2.3 million Palestinian crammed into the Gaza concentration camp. And what about the 5 million Palestinians living on the Israeli-occupied West Bank?

Both sides appear set to avoid a general war. Iran has almost no air or naval power. Its ground forces are ill-equipped and immobile, but determined. I covered the Iran-Iraq War and saw how courageous their troops were. But make no mistake, Iran’s military is only at World War I capability, as Pakistan’s late leader Gen. Zia ul-Haq told me. He had been an advisor to the Jordanian Army.

Iran and Israel may continue to shadow box and exchange volleys of angry fulminations. All this may change if Israel decides to again invade Lebanon or Syria. I’ve been down this road before.

The renowned writer Arthur Koestler warned many years ago that Israel risked becoming `a nasty little Sparta.’ Half a century later Israel, grown rich on US military and financial aid, has become a very nasty big Sparta.

Pat Buchanan, President Richard Nixon’s close aide, wrote ‘Capitol Hill (i.e. Congress) has become Israeli-occupied territory.’ He has been exiled to the political wilderness for this heresy.

The current Gaza Conflict tells us just how much Israel now dominates Congress and the Democratic Party which gets a likely 50% of its funding from pro-Israel donors. Moderate pro-Israel groups have been marginalized. Those in the media have been sidelined or fired. It’s the McCarthyism of the 21st century. As the great Mark Twain said, if you don’t read the US media you are uninformed. If you do follow America’s media, you are misinformed.

Britain, Canada and Australia fall into the same media prison. The old Soviet media, as I remember, was freer in its opinions and more robust in its criticism.

None of this is new; just worse. Over 20 years ago the Palestinian refugee prison of Gaza tried to build a small seaport and airport. Both were denied by Israel. As a result, even modest food aid for starving Palestinians has been blocked. The US, which has been supplying Israel with 2,000 lb bombs and targeting info has resorted to the PR stunt of air-dropping stale sandwiches to the famine-stricken Palestinian refugees.

No one in the tightly controlled US media or the Rothschild-dominated British Conservatives party would dare bring up the fact that the Warsaw Ghetto ravaged by the Nazis had 50,000 people as compared to Gaza’s 2.1 million trapped people. Egypt, almost as guilty as Israel and the US, keeps Palestinians locked in the open-air prison. The Mideast’s biggest police states are Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco. Add Algeria, Oman and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States (see my book ‘American Raj.’

We still know next to nothing about the 7 October attack on Israelis that trigged this conflict. I won’t call it a war since it pits only lightly armed civilians against the mighty, US supplied and directed Israeli armed forces. The lines of burned-out cars around where the initial Hamas attacks occurred look very much like the result of air attacks. We need to know more.

The infamous arms dealer Basil Zaharoff retorted to criticism in the British parliament, ‘who cares about that little jabber house.’ The same applies today to the US Congress. Even President Joe Biden dares not confront Israel’s Netanyahu. Biden and State Secretary Anthony Blinken tell can’t even tell Netanyahu to end his massacre. Israel always knows it can get away literally with murder before US elections. Israel’s far right coalition, whom the illustrious journalist Uri Avnery calls ‘Jewish Nazis,’ appears firmly in power. Netanyahu has so far avoided criminal proceedings by stoking the war in Gaza. Killing Arabs is still popular in Israel. Polls show almost 80% of Israelis support the savaging of Gaza. Most honorable Israelis and their foreign supporters are silent in the face of a massive propaganda campaign that runs on lurid reports about raped women and burned babies worthy on World War I British propaganda over Belgium.

While Palestinians are being slaughtered or starved, Israel is busy trying to goad Iran into a major war. This past week alone, Israel destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing two Iranian generals who were advising resistance forces. The US has been waging a medium-intensity war against Iran, which threatened America’s Mideast empire and which I call ‘the American Raj.’

Netanyahu is provoking war with Iran to divert attention from the Gaza massacre and his legal problems. Israel has long coveted southern Lebanon up to the Litani River and more Syrian land next to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. I was with the invading Israeli Army in 1982 when it attacked Lebanon and I have walked the strategic Golan Heights.

Israel is also hungry for large offshore oil deposits near the Gaza prison. It wants the Palestinians out and access to the oil and gas. America has become the champion of Israeli expansionism. The Israeli tail continues to wag the bumbling American dog. Instead of engineering a cease-fire, Washington has blocked all efforts at the UN to stop the mass murder in Gaza. The rest of the world will remember this.