all i can say is yaa hussain!

As an african-american I marvel at the breathaking group think that seems to define the perspective of the American mainstream. They lack a context to understand what is going on. They are still under sway of the film Exodus, the narrative of the jews as victims, which they profoundly were in the aftermath of WWII.

If not that story they buy the one that this is a religious conflict between two groups. Most Americans seem to have no understanding of how poorly that narrative fits current events.

This is of course a conflict with geopolitical roots, manufactured, in its deep roots, in the US.

The larger forces that seem to be operative is a notion that the middle east must be free of governments hostile to US interests. It feeds off the moral panic that brands Arabs and muslims as terrorists. Israel's policy is an extention of US policy. Gaza is in many ways a replay of the policies that led to the disaster in Iraq. The abject failure of this policy is no constraint on its current repetitition in Gaza.

This latest attack is a continuation of attack that really began on Nov 4. It did not begin until after the election and it is timed apparently to be completed before the inauguaration of Obama, that the right wing in the US are not comfortable with.

The most powerful way to bring about change is not through the UN which can only act after the powerful players are in agreement.

The way to address this is some kind of coailition building within the US.

This blog is a spark of hope. The spark has to become a movement.