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Replaced video.
with Chris Hedges
RT America on May 22, 2021
On the show this week, Chris Hedges discusses why American liberals refuse to speak out about the crimes the Israeli apartheid state carries out against the Palestinians, with political analyst and author Mitchell Plitnick.
Mitchell Plitnick’s new book, with co-author Marc Lamont Hill, is: Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics.
“Israel is in breach of more than 30 U.N. Security Council resolutions. It is in breach of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that defines collective punishment of a civilian population as a war crime. It is in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention for settling over half a million Jewish Israelis on occupied Palestinian land and for the ethnic cleansing of at least 750,000 Palestinians when the Israeli state was founded and another 300,000 after Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were occupied following the 1967 war,” wrote Hedges in his recent commentary, “Israel, the Big Lie” for Scheerpost. “Its annexation of East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights violates international law, as does its building of a security barrier in the West Bank that annexes Palestinian land into Israel. It is in violation of U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 that states that Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.”
From the archives:
Apartheid Does Not Have the Right To Defend Itself, Or To Exist, by Jim Kavanagh
Abby Martin: Debunking Israel’s “Human Shield” Defense in Gaza Massacre
Abby Martin: Israeli War Crimes
There is No Getting Around It: This Is Apartheid, by Kenn Orphan
Chris Hedges: Israel Is Carrying Out Mass Murder
Enough is Enough: It is Time for Apartheid to End, by Kenn Orphan
Abby Martin: Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019)
Dismantling the Settler Colonial State of Israel, by Yanis Iqbal
Occupied Palestine: In The Shadow Of The Pandemic, by Yanis Iqbal
Chris Hedges: The Censorship and Blocking of “The Lobby – USA” Documentary, Part 2
Chris Hedges: The Censorship and Blocking of “The Lobby – USA” Documentary, Part 1
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The guy talks about the outrage when Trump began locking up kids on the border. He omits the lack of outrage when Obama was doing the same thing before Trump.
Perhaps it would be more appropriate to label liberals as SMCs.
The smug middle class.
I agreed with everything Hedges and Plitnick said about Israel and Palestine. I believe consciousness about Palestine is growing, and I certainly hope it is.
But I’m not so sure about the things Hedges was saying about “liberals.” To put it simply, I have no idea what the word “liberal” means to him, or to anyone else, nowadays. That word has been given so many different meanings by different people that I think it now has no meaning at all. I have stopped using the word. Perhaps Hedges continues using it to try to give some legitimacy to his book about the “liberal class.”
When I was younger, a lot of people who called themselves “liberal” seemed to like the ideology that John F Kennedy claimed to hold, and that he attached to the word “liberal.” But I think that his definition has faded from common memory, and the word no longer has any ideological meaning.
Of course, in the English language, words get their meaning from common usage. The word “liberal” is being used in many ways, but I see only one way that predominates:
Many people simply use “liberal” as a synonym for “member of the Democratic Party.” Which makes sense: The word “liberal” has become devoid of any ideology, and the Democratic Party no longer claims to stand for anything. (I’m not sure the Democratic Party ever did stand for anything, but it used to =claim= to stand for some things.)
At one point in this new video, Hedges seemed to nearly equate “liberal” with “progressive.” That surprised me. Among the people I hang out with online, “liberal” and “progressive” are two very very different things — as different as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
I am reminded of this aphorism by David Sirota:
“The difference between parties and movements is simple: Parties are loyal to their own power regardless of policy agenda. Movements are loyal to their own policy agenda regardless of which party champions it.”
And so I would give this example: In recent years the progressive movement has tried to take over the liberal party, but so far it has failed. Whether it will continue to try, I cannot venture a guess.
Well, I agree with you, Lefty. Hedges has also referred to the “Left” as someone being a member of the Democratic Party. It does get confusing.