The article <a href="https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-has-permanently-lost-the-argument" author="Caitlin Johnstone" source="Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix">Israel Has Permanently Lost The Argument</a> writes, <bq>I cannot adequately express <b>the immensity of my respect for the many, many, many Jewish voices I’ve seen taking a firm and forceful stand against the Gaza massacre.</b> I’m just over here getting yelled at by strangers online and I find it pretty intense; <b>you’re having much harder arguments with family, with friends, with people you’ve known your whole lives, about something that probably feels a lot more personal for you.</b> You’re out there protesting, taking action and moving the needle, typically with far more skill and incisiveness than anyone else in the world. Big, big, big-hearted love to all of you. You amaze me.</bq> To be clear, I think that the Israeli State has lost the argument, but it had lost it long ago. When Johnstone writes that <iq>[t]here’s no coming back from this,</iq> I think that's to be interpreted as: there's no going back to a world in which it's possible to portray Israel as a peaceful democracy surrounded by enemies against which it valiantly defends itself. The U.S. still gets away with most people not knowing how it treats its Native Americans; Canada also still enjoys a reputation as a "good guy", despite its horrific treatment of its First People. Australia also somehow stays clean, despite its near-eradication of its Aboriginals. <img src="{att_link}scaredtroll.jpg" href="{att_link}scaredtroll.jpg" align="right" scale="50%">But the world's baleful, but mercurial eye, is currently focused on Israel's misdoings. It has the misfortune of perpetrating its crimes in the wrong century. The atrocities in Palestine over the last 40 years---just they way they're made to live, as stateless people within the confines of another country that doesn't recognize them as people---can no longer be reasonably papered over. To be clear, Empire<fn> doesn't ever have to pay any moral price for its crimes. Russia attacked Ukraine, which tarnishes its reputation as a relatively level-headed<fn>, designated enemy. They have to own that. The U.S. and its NATO allies have stomped a mudhole in several countries this century---and pretty much nothing happened. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia---the list goes on---all of these have been nearly destroyed or severely hobbled---but it's Israel's massacre and Russia's invasion that get all of the attention. Israel, right now, is doing a terrible job of managing its image to cover up its human-rights abuses. The people of Israel have to own this and move past it. The people of the U.S. should do the same for their country's many transgressions. Israel has to grant full citizenship and rights to Palestinians. They cannot just take and take and take, rewarding the absolute worst members of their society with other people's land and houses. That's madness. It's insupportable. <hr> <ft>It's what I'm calling the U.S. these days, both because it's more accurate and because I've been watching the <i>Foundation</i> series.</ft> <ft>Relative to the madness of the U.S. and NATO, I mean. Russia's internal politics and oppression of its own population is another matter, but doesn't really pertain to a discussion of transgressions of international law. That's where Russia has been relatively restrained and surgical.</ft>