Video of the week: ​​Israel's War on Children: Journalist Describes Destruction in Gaza, Escaping to Egypt with Family

 Video of the week: ​​Israel's War on Children: Journalist Describes Destruction in Gaza, Escaping to Egypt with Family

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TV: The Garbage Trash Media -- we're talking CBS NEWS and CRAPAPEDIA

 TV: The Garbage Trash Media -- we're talking CBS NEWS and CRAPAPEDIA

Third Estate Sunday Review

We have a right, as Americans, to expect that media in a democracy is truthful and honest.  Hopefully, Gaza coverage has made clear just how far we are from having an honest media.

 

CBS NEWS demonstrated just how shoddy journalism is today.  It happens 30 seconds into the segment above that was aired last week.

It was garbage.  And they got away with it.  We waited for someone to call them out.

What's the problem with the above, Dionne Warwick is not the woman with the second most  singles to make BILLBOARD's pop chart ("the second most charted vocalist of the rock era"). Some would say the first is Aretha.  If you're focusing solely on the 20th century, yes, the first is Aretha Franklin -- though not mentioned by CBS NEWS in the segment above, Aretha does have the most.  Dionne is not second to Aretha even if you focus only on the 20th century.  Let's do that for a moment, focus only on the 20th century.

Does it matter?

Well if ESPN had someone declaring Alex Rodriguez to hold the title for most homeruns, we think most baseball fans would object (Barry Bonds holds the title, Alex isn't even second).

Where do these lies come from?  CBS is a major network and its news division has a huge payroll. 

But apparently, they're all too busy playing games on their computers to do actual work.

 

Instead of doing actual work, they go to CRAPAPEDIA where they found this: 

She has charted 69 times on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, making her the second-most charted female vocalist during the rock era (1955–2010), after Aretha Franklin.[1]

 

That is a lie.  It was put out by a press relations company that Dionne had just signed with.  

 

CRAPAPEDIA is crap but if CBS NEWS knew how to do math, they could have looked at the discography CRAPAPEDIA provides -- all of Dionne's singles.  It would have taken them some work, but they could have counted and they would have counted fifty-six.  She sang lead or co-lead on 56 singles that charted on BILLBOARD's Hot 100 singles chart (the pop chart).   

CRAPAPEDIA is a secondary source. 

 

The smart thing to do would be to use the primary source:  BILLBOARD.  Click her for the list of Dionne Warwick's 56 singles that hit the BILLBOARD Hot 100.

We're getting really sick of liars.  Dionne is not a close second to Aretha.  Aretha landed 73 songs on BILLBOARDS Hot 100.  There are many artists between the two women.  But the one actually after Aretha?

Diana Ross.

 

Need it in text?  Here you are:

 

In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history, having had more hits than any female artist in the charts, a career total of 70 hit singles with The Supremes and as a solo artist. This year Diana Ross celebrates her 75th birthday and Diana Ross: Her Life, Love and Legacy will be simulcast to over 250 UK cinemas on 26 March.

Need it on video?  About three minutes and ten seconds into the video below, you'll see Diana be presented with her plaque from GUINNESS.

In 1994, Aretha would tie Diana with the release of "A Deeper Love" and then surpass Diana with "Willing To Forgive," "A Rose Is Still A Rose" and (her last Hot 100 chart entry) "Here We Go Again.

Again, you really should utilize the primary source.  Here for the Supremes -- there are 45 songs that made the hot 100 -- 30 are sung -- lead vocal -- by Diana.  The other 15 are after she left the group.  If you're not familiar with the Supremes, the easiest way is to look at the release date on BILLBOARD's chart.  Anything from 1970 and after on that chart was after Diana left the group.  So 30 as lead singer of the Supremes.  Solo career here -- and her solo total is 40.  70 total which puts her three behind Aretha.  Dionne, again, has only 56.  

Maybe if CBS NEWS actually grasped that they are supposed to get facts right, they'd have known that.

 

Here's some more reality for them?  Aretha's no longer number one.  Readers of CRAPAPEDIA will falsely be told Nicki Minaj is now the number one female artist with songs placed in BILLBOARD's Hot 100.  Per BILLBOARD, she's the lead on 147 songs.  That's huge but it doesn't make her number one.

She's a rapper.  Some argue that rappers are not vocalists (some don't -- we're among those who consider rappers vocalists). So why are we arguing with CRAPAPEDIA?  Taylor Swift.  She's now charted 232 songs in BILLBOARD's Hot 100.

If you want to reduce it to singers, and just focus on the 20th century,  Aretha's number one and Diana comes in right behind her.  

We could use other measures on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 charts to determine most popular female singer of the 20th century.  Want to go by numbers ones?  Diana has 18.  Aretha has 2.  Dionne has 2.  Want to go by top ten hits on the Hot 100?  Diana Ross sang on 30 top ten hits, Aretha on 17 and Dionne on 12.  

But we really believe the best measure of which of the three singers was the most popular and heard the most is the number of weeks they spent with songs in the Hot 100.  Check out math but these are the numbers we came up with (again using BILLBOARD since it is the primary source).  

Dionne charted on the Hot 100 for 376 weeks.  That puts her in third. Aretha for 574.  Diana?  789 weeks.  That means Diana dominated the charts.

There is no measure by which Dionne Warwick comes in second to Aretha.

What if we leave pop (Hot 100) and go over to R&B?  That chart matters too.  So let's look at that Aretha has 92 songs that charted on the R&B charts in the 20th century.  Diana has 79.  Dionne has 56.  If we include the 21st century, Aretha's number jumps to 97; however, Diana and Dionne's numbers stay the same.

 

Dionne Warwick is a great singer and we're glad that she was honored by The Kennedy Center (CBS will broadcast the ceremony on December 27th).  Like Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin who were earlier honored by The Kennedy Center, Dionne deserves it.  She's a great singer, a one-of-a-kind vocalist. 

 

The Kennedy Center notes "more than 60 charted songs" for Dionne.  56 on the Hot 100.  57 if you include "We Are The World" -- but if you do that, add one more to Diana who also sings on that song.  Maybe they're pulling from pop and her R&B and AC chart singles that didn't make the Hot 100?  Possibly.

 

When they honored Aretha, they didn't feel the need to count her hits or provide a number; however, when Diana Ross was honored, they stuck to the pop charts:

 

She has not one but two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has won a Tony and a Golden Globe, she has been nominated for a dozen Grammys, and she was named "Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine, and the Guinness Book of World Records declared her the most successful female musical artist of the 20th century-with 70 hit singles. It's no exaggeration. "Diana Ross long ago moved from mere success to the status of a classic," The Washington Post once stated and concluded that Ross and the supremes, together with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, were America's strongest and most successful line of the defense against the powerful music of the British Invasion.

 

Dionne's more than talented enough that people don't need to spread lies.  She's got tremendous talent and has had amazing success.  When you tell a lie to make her look better, you only make her and yourself look worse.

And can you imagine if they did about an athlete?  They would be held accountable.  CBS NEWS and CRAPAPEDIA need to be held accountable.

Shame, Shame: My Field’s Failure to Act on Palestine

 Shame, Shame: My Field’s Failure to Act on Palestine

by Aneil Rallin /Dissident Voice

As the leaders of this country, this settler-colonial imperialist United States of America, persist in dismissing international calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, I’ve been trying not to fall into utter despair, reminding myself daily despair isn’t an option. But it is[efn_note]Footnote content. difficult not to despair when during a televised genocide of Palestinians currently underway the morally repugnant US Congress puts on the spectacle of a congressional hearing about antisemitism on college campuses in these United States of America, inviting the heads of three elite private universities in these United States of America to testify, interrogating and castigating the heads of these elite private universities for their failures to denounce the students protesting on their university campuses what we are all watching unfold before our eyes, the genocide in Gaza, blaming the heads of these elite private universities for not doing enough for Jewish students on their college campuses, for creating unsafe conditions for Jewish students on their college campuses in these United States of America, rather than holding congressional hearings on the truly unsafe conditions, the unlivable conditions in Gaza, the annihilation of life and the living in Gaza by the genocidal apartheid settler-colonial state of Israel, fueled by my government, the government of these United States of America. As corporate media falls over itself to cover this spectacle faithfully, dutifully, social media images emerge of Israeli soldiers parading stripped, kidnapped Palestinian men, and news arrives that the state of Israel has killed, in a targeted assassination, the much loved Gaza activist professor and writer Refaat Alareer, who taught literature and writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and cofounded the organization We Are Not Numbers.

I did not know him, but I knew Refaat Alareer’s work. I knew Refaat Alareer was a potent activist teacher and writer, a motivating influence for countless students, a galvanizing force who inspired innumerable students to write, to write as witness to the horrific conditions they have been pressed into and forced to endure. As a fellow academic who taught rhetoric, writing, and literature, I also encouraged my students to write as vigilant observers of the landscapes we find ourselves in, to write as witness to the times we live in now. We know, my students would say, a smokescreen when we see it. We understand these congressional hearings, this summoning of these heads of three elite private universities in these United States of America, this invitation to testify before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce is smokescreen to detract from the real horrors taking place in Gaza, in occupied Palestine, as it becomes abundantly evident when the president of Harvard University later expresses remorse—remorse not for underscoring the horrors of the genocide Israel is currently carrying out in Gaza but remorse for not being clear during the congressional hearings that “calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”

We do not buy it. The perilous conditions are not at these elite private universities in these United States of America where students may be crying “intifada, intifada” and calling for a liberated Palestine “from the river to the sea” in which all inhabitants will be free but in Gaza, where Palestinians are being humiliated, starved, tortured, maimed, and killed by the Israeli state. Cornel West sees it for what it is and tweets: “in the midst of actual genocidal attacks against Palestinians by Israeli forces enabled by the US government, Congress focuses on possible genocidal speech acts of students against Jews. This flagrant silence and indifference against Palestinian suffering speaks volumes on the hypocrisy and double standards in American society.” Ajamu Baraka sees it for what it is and tweets: “There are Jewish students across the country participating & sometimes in the leadership of protests against this moral outrage in Gaza. But the Israeli fascists are spinning the narrative of Jewish students being intimidated.” Rania Khalek sees it for what it is and tweets: “People always wonder how the Holocaust happened. Why did people look away? How could they let that sort of industrialized genocidal slaughter take place? How could so many remain silent, even supportive? Now we know how it happened. Gaza is showing us the answer to all of those questions.”

Gaza is showing up professional academic organizations in my own field of rhetoric, composition, and language studies in these United States of America for what they really are and what they really stand for. Committed only in theory to discourses of social justice, these professional academic organizations that represent a field attentive to the workings of language and power have in fact enduring histories of disappearing, of looking away, of remaining silent, of failing to rise up and stand on the right side of history when the times demand it. I was present at the keynote address at the biennial Rhetoric Society of America convention in 2018. Invited to reflect back on the founding of the organization fifty years ago as well as to look ahead, keynote speaker Andrea A. Lunsford noted, what stood out looking back from the vantage point of now was how nothing in the founding documents or the founding mission of Rhetoric Society of America pays any attention to what was going on during that year and around that time, a monumental period by any reckoning. 1968, the year in which the Rhetoric Society of America was founded, was the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy, civil unrest here and elsewhere, the East Los Angeles student walkouts, student demonstrations in France, in Mexico, the Prague Spring, mass starvation in Biafra, the My Lai massacre, anti-Vietnam war protests, the fallout out from the black power salute at the Olympic games, the rise of queer activisms ignited by the Black Cat protests in Los Angeles a year before in 1967, the Stonewall Uprising in New York a year later in 1969. Evidently, Rhetoric Society of America founders (mostly white men) were not paying attention to what was right in front of them, or if they were, they didn’t, shockingly, think any of it was or should be of concern to rhetoric and to rhetoricians. These absences/silences are illustrative of the customary indisposition to contend with the detritus in the wake of heteropatriarchal, colonialist, imperialist, capitalist systems, and the war machineries of these United States of America. To its disgrace and to our shame, Rhetoric Society of America did not take a stand on the many monumental happenings unfolding before them.

To their disgrace and to our shame, leaders in our professional academic organizations in the field of rhetoric, composition, and language studies today (now no longer mostly white men) failed, shockingly, to take a stand swiftly on the monumental happening unfolding before us at this moment, even in light of the fact that this horrific situation, the current genocide underway in Gaza at the hands of the government of Israel abetted by the government of these United States of America, is televised. As university leaders in these United States of America rushed post 7 October 2023 to outdo each other in support of the colonial genocidal apartheid project destroying life and the living in Gaza without so much as acknowledging Palestinian lives and Palestinians’ suffering and the long ongoing brutal occupation, colleagues and I waited for our professional academic organizations in these United States of America to rise up, to speak up, to take action as these times demand it—to no avail.

We quickly came together to organize the open statement Rhetoric and Composition Scholars/Teachers/Administrators/Students for Palestine, issued on 13 November 2023, inviting colleagues to add their names. (Although issued a day later, Rhetoricians of Critical Conscience had by then already written a solidarity statement). I took it on myself to email on 27 November 2023 the Rhetoric and Composition Scholars/Teachers/Administrators/Students for Palestine statement, with the note below, to the 2023 Conference on College Composition and Communication Officers, Rhetoric Society of America Leadership and Board of Directors, Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition Executive Board Officers, Council of Writing Program Administrators Executive Board Members, and Modern Language Association Officers and Members of the Executive Council, calling on these professional academic organizations to stand in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians under occupation, speak up, take action.

We’ve been witnessing with horror the violence unleashed on the people in Palestine and watching national professional organizations in rhetoric and composition keep silent yet again on the violence and the question of Palestine, even as a number of other national professional organizations such as the American Studies Association, American Anthropological Association, Association of Asian American Studies, Caribbean Studies Association, Latinx Studies Association, Middle East Studies Association, and The National Women’s Studies Association have issued statements condemning the violence, joining the chorus for an immediate ceasefire and end to Israel’s war on Gaza and the people of Palestine, and calling for the liberation of Palestine from a long-standing occupation. Silence is complicity.

I write to share with you this open statement from Rhetoric and Composition Scholars/Teachers/Administrators/Students for Palestine and urge [name of professional organization] to stand on the right side of history. I call on you to issue a [name of professional organization] statement in solidarity with the struggles of Palestinians. On behalf of the signatories, I call on [name of professional organization] to stand in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians under occupation, speak up, take action.

We are still waiting, over two months into this televised genocide, for our professional academic organizations to stand incontrovertibly in solidarity with the struggles of Palestinians under siege. Even as Palestinian lives continue to be wrecked by the genocidal apartheid state of Israel, our professional academic organizations in these United States of America dedicated to writing and language studies research, theory, and teaching worldwide have not spoken up for Palestine, have neither named nor called out nor condemned the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli state nourished by the government of these United States of America. Modern Language Association responded to our call and declared in an email that “as a policy, the MLA’s Executive Council does not make statements about international political conflicts.” Rhetoric Society of America responded with an email to affirm that “RSA acknowledges receipt and the board will discuss” and followed up with another email to confirm that “the RSA Executive Committee conferred, and consulted with the full board. RSA will not be producing a statement at this time.” CFSHRC’s email response stated, “the Executive Board has drafted an email that we’ve sent to the Advisory Board for their consideration and then will be shared as/if appropriate.” It took until 19 December 2023 for CFSHRC president to share on behalf of The Coalition Advisory Board the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition Statement about Gaza and Israel that “urge[s] elected officials to use their authority as US politicians to call for a permanent ceasefire…encourage[s] feminist rhetoricians to do the same” and “reaffirms our commitment to rhetorical listening across differences and to ongoing dialogue unmarred by violence.” CCCC and CWPA so far have not bothered to respond. After the National Council of Teachers of English’s Committee on Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English released a Statement on Palestinian Genocide, leaders of NCTE (the larger organization that CCCC is part of) immediately sent an email to NCTE members (A Statement from NCTE Leadership, November 16, 2023), distancing NCTE from the Statement on Palestinian Genocide because it “openly supports one side of the conflict” (who knew there are two sides to support in a genocide and the subjects of genocidal assault must be held accountable for their own genocide) and clarifying that it “was not authorized by NCTE leadership” and “not published by NCTE or its leadership team.”

The reluctance of our professional academic organizations to stand unequivocally in solidarity with Palestinians long under occupation at this grave moment is a shameful failure. If these professional organizations in rhetoric, composition, and language studies in these United States of America cannot, even now, name, call out, and condemn the genocide against the Palestinian people that the state of Israel is presently carrying out, then we must insist on new principled professional academic organizations that will rush to stand with us and stand up for what is just and right, as and when the times mandate, that will be willing and unafraid to name, call out, and condemn genocide, as, when, and where it unfolds, at the same time as we demand an immediate permanent ceasefire and end to the genocide in Gaza, call for the prosecution of government officials in the state of Israel and in these United States of America, and push for a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea.

Aneil Rallin (they/them) is a Los Angeles scholar/writer who has taught rhetoric and composition for thirty-three years at nine universities in the US and Canada and is the author of Dreads and Open Mouths: Living/Teaching/Writing Queerly (Litwin Books). Read other articles by Aneil.

A Growing Butcher’s Bill: Israel’s War Spending

 A Growing Butcher’s Bill: Israel’s War Spending

by Binoy Kampmark /Dissident Voice

The picture from al jazeera

The Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron is worried.  He is keeping an eye on
the ballooning costs of his country’s war against Gaza and the Palestinians.  Initially, the Netanyahu government promised to increase its defence budget by NIS 20 billion (US$5.48 billion) per annum in the aftermath of the war.  But a document from the Finance Ministry presented to the Knesset Finance Committee on December 25 suggests that the number is NIS 10 billion greater.

The Finance Ministry is also projecting that the war against Hamas will cost the country’s budget somewhere in the order of NIS 50 billion (US$13.8 billion).  NIS 9.6 billion will go towards such expenses as evacuating residents close to the borders of the country’s north and south, buttressing emergency forces and rehabilitation purposes.

The increased military budget is predictable and in keeping with the proclivities of the Israeli state.  What is striking is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has regarded Israeli defence expenditure as generally inadequate when looked at as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).  Between 2012 and 2022, military expenditure as a percentage of GDP fell from 5.64% to 4.51%.   Doing so enables him to have two bites at the same rotten cherry: to claim he was blameless for that very decline in military expenditure, and to show that he intends to rectify a problem he was hardly blameless for.

Even in war time, Netanyahu is proving oleaginous in his policy making.  The mid-December supplementary budget for 2023, coming in at NIS 28.9 billion, was intended to cover the ongoing conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah.  But its approval was hardly universal.  Opponents of the budget noted the allocation of hundreds of millions of shekels towards “coalition funds” intended for non-war related projects relevant to parliamentarians and ministers.  Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, a coalition partner, would have nothing to do with it.  Intelligence minister Gila Gamliel was absent from the vote, while Yuli Edelstein of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party abstained.  Opposition leader Yair Lapid pointed the finger at the rising budget deficit.

On December 18, Yaron gave vent to some of his concerns.  “During this period, more than at any other time, and as investors, rating agencies, financial markets and the public as a whole are carefully examining policymaking in Israel, it is necessary to manage economic policy – fiscal and monetary – with great responsibility.”

Body counts interest Yaron less than budget figures and reputational damage in the markets, though killing Palestinians is proving an expensive business.  “The government will have to find the right balance between financing war expenses and the expected increase in the defence budget and the need to continue investing in other civilian budgets, which are already low, in particular in growth engines such as infrastructure and education.”

Yaron has every reason to assume that costs will continue to balloon.  For one thing, Netanyahu’s idea of peace in the current conflict reads like a blueprint for ongoing, lengthy massacre, accompanied by permanent mass incarceration: the destruction of Hamas itself, the demilitarisation of Gaza and a Palestinian society free of radical elements.  This is a nightmare to both humanitarians and the belt-tighteners in the Finance Ministry.

Notably, the plan says nothing about Palestinian statehood, which, in the scheme of Israel’s aims, has been euthanised.  Gaza, the designated monstrosity Israel nourished as a supposedly useful tool to keep Palestinian ambitions in check, is to be turned into a prison entity that seems awfully much like it was prior to the October 7 attacks by Hamas.  (The cruel, in such cases, lack imagination.)

A “temporary security zone on the perimeter of Gaza and an inspection mechanism on the border between Gaza and Egypt” will be established in accordance with “Israel’s security needs”.  The zone will also serve to prevent “smuggling of weapons into the territory”, which sounds much like the original blockade, lasting 14 years, that was meant to achieve the same purpose.

The Israeli PM is, however, promising that the destruction of Hamas will take place “in full compliance with international law”, begging the question what sort of international law he is consulting.  Given various official statements from Netanyahu’s cabinet and the Israeli Defence Forces, it must be either a law of jungle provenance or one applicable to animal kind.  That same standard of legal analysis has permitted the generously expansive massacre of over 20,000 Palestinians, a staggering number of them children, the ongoing flattening of Gaza, and the utter destruction of critical infrastructure.

Given that Israeli law, alongside military and administrative policy, does nothing other than encourage the radicalisation of Palestinians and the fertilising of the Jihadist soil, this is charmingly delusionary.  The current war will simply prove to be the same as previous ones, protean, adjustable, and shape changing.  Conflict will simply continue by other means, a continued growth of flowering hatreds, leaving Israel a butcher’s bill of shekels and casualties it is only now chewing over.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com. Read other articles by Binoy.

Iraq snapshot Wednesday, December 27, 2023.

 Iraq snapshot

The Common Ills

Wednesday, December 27, 2023.  The assault on Gaza continues, the continued assault bleeds out across the region.

Yesterday, we ended on Iraq, today we start there.  REUTERS reports, "Iraq's government condemned on Tuesday overnight U.S. air strikes on Iraqi military positions that it said killed one serviceman and wounded 18 other people, calling them a 'clear hostile act'."  The strikes took place Monday night and left at least three US service members injured.  Sarah Fortenisky (THE HILL) wrongly types that the attacks are "credited to a militia group backed by Iran."  Nope.  As we've noted repeatedly, several years ago the militias were folded into Iraqi army.  They are not "Iran-linked," they are members of the Iraqi military.  This did not happen yesterday, it happened December 19, 2016 (that's when the November 2016 law passed by Parliament was approved).  Seven years ago.  You'd think the US press would try to get the facts right.  Then again, as Ava and I just noted in "," CBS NEWS gets their 'facts' from WIKIPEDIA -- yes, that's what passes for research in the news division of a major network.

CBS NEWS will never correct their story because facts really don't matter in what passes for news which explains this nonsense from Ellie Cook (NEWSWEEK):

The Iraqi government has condemned U.S. airstrikes against Iranian-backed militants in the country as a "clear hostile act" after three U.S. personnel were injured in a drone strike.

The U.S. carried out precision strikes on three facilities in Iraq used by Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq, U.S. officials said on Monday.

No, liar, it's used used by the Iraqi military.  You're drawing a line between the militias and the Iraqi military  that no longer exists, that hasn't existed for seven years.  Do you feel good about being stupid or you proud that you lie daily?  I  have no idea but you're not instilling a sense of trust in the media among Americans when you regularly lie.

Yes, the Iraqi government is offended.  Their military was attacked.  You're only surprised by their offense if you've swallowed the lies of the US press.

Chenar Chalak (RUDAW) reports:

The Iraqi government said that its security forces are dedicated to safeguarding diplomatic missions in the country and that Baghdad has previously defined the attacks against them as “hostile acts,” but stressed that the US airstrikes are “unacceptable” and a “violation” of the country’s sovereignty.

“The Iraqi government condemns what transpired early this morning, Tuesday, December 26, 2023, during which Iraqi military sites were targeted by the American side justifying the act as a response… This constitutes a clear hostile act. It runs counter to the pursuit of enduring mutual interests in establishing security and stability, and it opposes the declared intention of the American side to enhance relations with Iraq.,” read a statement from the government, adding that the 18 people who were injured in the attacks also included civilians.

"Iraqi military sites."  Get it?  The Iraqi government is not drawing the line that idiot reporters in the US are.  The attack was on the Iraqi military.  For seven years now the militias have been folded -- officially and legally -- into the Iraqi military.

The spillover from the ongoing slaughter of Gaza is inflaming the region and is putting the globe at the risk of another world war.  THE NATIONAL notes, "American naval forces shot down attack drones and missiles launched by Yemen's Houthis at vessels in the Red Sea, US Central Command said on Tuesday."  Bethan McKernan (GUARDIAN) adds, "Israel is engaged in a 'multi-front war', its defence minister has said, hinting at military operations across the Middle East as the war in Gaza showed new signs of a dangerous regional escalation."  Last week at THE GUARDIAN, Christopher S. Chivvis noted, "A broader war could span Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel and Iran itself. It would come at an already precarious moment in global security when the US is struggling to supply more aid to Ukraine and manage rising tension in east Asia over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Regional and global effects would be unavoidable and could last decades, plunging the US back into large-scale Middle East conflicts it can ill-afford."  Few in the US seem to be aware of that and certainly the better part of media prefers remain uninformed.

At WAR ON THE ROCKS, founder Ryan Evans shares his analysis of what's taking place:

What took America about two-and-a-half years from the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Israel accomplished in weeks. In the wake of the attack, President Joe Biden flew to Israel, where he delivered a strident message of support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, while cautioning them to avoid the mistakes that the United States made after the 9/11 attacks. But that advice fell on deaf ears amidst the rage, shame, and political maneuvering in the wake of Hamas’ bloody rampage. Despite America’s considerable leverage, Biden has not yet been willing to do what it takes to restrain Israel. The result has been a horror show for Palestinians in Gaza, as well as for the hostages held in Gaza and their families.

Israel’s military operation in Gaza is both strategically and morally unrecoverable. The legacy of this maximalist assault will haunt Israel for years. Its costs have cascaded around the world and acutely affect Israel’s closest partner, the United States. U.S. policy ought to reflect these realities, first by threatening to withhold further material and political support to Israel unless it announces an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to flow, complies with the laws of war should combat resume, and commits to a positive political program on Palestinian governance of Gaza. 

Yesterday on DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman noted, "Meanwhile, human rights groups are demanding an investigation after video reportedly taken by an Israeli photojournalist appeared to show hundreds of Palestinians civilians, including children, held by Israeli soldiers in a Gaza stadium at gunpoint, stripped to their underwear, bound, and forced to sit on open ground."

Gaza remains under assault.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is now well over  20,000. NBC NEWS notes, "The vast majority of its 2.2 million people are displaced, and an estimated half face starvation amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis."  ABC NEWS notes, "In the Gaza Strip, at least 20,915 people have been killed and more than 54,900 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and the Government Media Office."  Actually, that figure has already been updated.  This morning THE GUARDIAN notes, "Israeli military action has killed 21,110 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its campaign against Hamas on 7 October, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory. The ministry reported that 55,243 people had been wounded. It said 195 people were killed and 325 injured in the last 24 hours."  In addition to the dead and the injured, there are the missing.  AP notes, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."  Max Butterworth (NBC NEWS) adds, "Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Sunday reveal three of the main hospitals in Gaza from above, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed buildings after weeks of intense bombing in the region by Israeli forces."

ABC NEWS notes, "Gaza is facing another telecommunications blackout, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. 'This presents a significant challenge for emergency medical teams in reaching the wounded and injured,' the organization warned."  REUTERS adds, "The Palestinian Red Crescent reported a complete loss of communication with its teams working in the Gaza Strip due to the disruption of telecommunications and internet services."  What's going on?  Among other things, what Rebecca ("liars try to distract us from the genocide") and Elaine ("Gaza") pointed out last night -- the Israeli government doesn't want reality getting out.  It's why the Israeli government is attempting to keep United Nations workers from getting into Gaza.

FACEBOOK is also trying to hide reality.  Doha Madani (NBC NEWS) reports:

Human Rights Watch has accused Meta of stifling pro-Palestinian content on its Instagram and Facebook platforms in what it described as a “pattern of undue removal and suppression,” in a 51-page report.

“Human Rights Watch found that the problem stems from flawed Meta policies and their inconsistent and erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals,” the group said today on Instagram.

Instead of reality, we gets distortion and distraction from many outlets.  Like THE DAILY MAIL which served up this nonsense:

Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been slammed for her Christmas post that called Israel a violent occupying force and likened Jesus to the Palestinians. 

Posting on Instagram on Christmas Eve, AOC shared a photo of a child lying on a pile of rubble surrounded by wooden nativity scene icons. 

Accompanying the photo, the New Yorker wrote: 'In the story of Christmas, Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents.'

She went on to compare Jesus being hunted by King Herod to the 'right-wing forces' currently 'violently occupying Bethlehem.'

Her post sparked a fierce backlash online with some accusing her of 'Jew hate.'

Really?  A backlash?  Because the Pope said the same thing that the U.S. House Representative did.  Did they miss this:

Pope Francis said in his Christmas messag eon Monday (December 25) that children dying in wars, including Gaza, are the "little Jesuses of today," and that Israeli strikes there were reaping an "appalling harvest" of innocent civilians.

From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in the occupied West Bank in the city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. City and church leaders canceled all Christmas festivities in the Holy Land this year to mourn the more than 20,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza. The landmark Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem created a nativity scene with the figure of baby Jesus in a keffiyeh, surrounded by rubble.

Later in the show, we’ll be joined by the church’s pastor, the Reverend Munther Isaac, but we begin by airing his Christmas sermon, which he delivered on Saturday.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Christ Under the Rubble.

We are angry. We are broken. This should have been a time of joy; instead, we are mourning. We are fearful.

More than 20,000 killed. Thousands are still under the rubble. Close to 9,000 children killed in the most brutal ways, day after day. One-point-nine million displaced. Hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed. Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. This is a genocide.

The world is watching. Churches are watching. The people of Gaza are sending live images of their own execution. Maybe the world cares. But it goes on.

We are asking here: Could this be our fate in Bethlehem? In Ramallah? In Jenin? Is this our destiny, too?

We are tormented by the silence of the world. Leaders of the so-called free lined up one after the other to give the green light for this genocide against a captive population. They gave the cover. Not only did they make sure to pay the bill in advance, they veiled the truth and context, providing the political cover. And yet another layer has been added: the theological cover, with the Western church stepping into the spotlight.

Our dear friends in South Africa taught us the concept of the “state theology,” defined as “the theological justification of the status quo with its racism, capitalism and totalitarianism.” It does so by misusing theological concepts and biblical texts for its own political purposes.

Here in Palestine, the Bible is weaponized against us — our very own sacred text. In our terminology in Palestine, we speak of the empire. Here we confront the theology of the empire, a disguise for superiority, supremacy, chosenness and entitlement. It is sometimes given a nice cover, using words like “mission” and “evangelism,” “fulfillment of prophecy,” and “spreading freedom and liberty.”

The theology of the empire becomes a powerful tool to mask oppression under the cloak of divine sanction. It speaks of land without people. It divides people into “us” and “them.” It dehumanizes and demonizes. The concept of land without people, again, even though they knew too well that the land had people — and not just any people, a very special people. Theology of the empire calls for emptying Gaza, just like it called for the ethnic cleansing in 1948, a “miracle,” or “a divine miracle,” as they called it. It calls for us Palestinians now to go to Egypt, maybe Jordan. Why not just the sea?

I think of the words of the disciples to Jesus when he was about to enter Samaria: “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” they said of the Samaritans. This is the theology of the empire. This is what they’re saying about us today.

This war has confirmed to us that the world does not see us as equal. Maybe it’s the color of our skins. Maybe it is because we are on the wrong side of a political equation. Even our kinship in Christ did not shield us. So they say if it takes killing 100 Palestinians to get a single “Hamas militant,” then so be it. We are not humans in their eyes. But in God’s eyes, no one can tell us that.

The hypocrisy and racism of the Western world is transparent and appalling. They always take the word of Palestinians with suspicion and qualification. No, we’re not treated equally. Yet, on the other side, despite a clear track record of misinformation, lies, their words are almost always deemed infallible.

To our European friends: I never ever want to hear you lecture us on human rights or international law again. And I mean this. We are not white, I guess. It does not apply to us, according to your own logic.

In this war, the many Christians in the Western world made sure the empire has the theology needed. It is thus self-defense, we were told. And I continue to ask: How is the killing of 9,000 children self-defense? How is the displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians self-defense?

In the shadow of the empire, they turned the colonizer into the victim, and the colonized into the aggressor. Have we forgotten — have we forgotten that the state they talk to, that that state was built on the ruins of the towns and villages of those very same Gazans? Have they forgot that?

We are outraged by the complicity of the church. Let it be clear, friends: Silence is complicity. And empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and end to occupation, and the shallow words of empathy without direct action, all under the banner of complicity.

So here is my message: Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world. Gaza was hell before October 7th, and the world was silent. Should we be surprised at their silence now?

If you are not appalled by what is happening in Gaza, if you are not shaken to your core, there is something wrong with your humanity. And if we, as Christians, are not outraged by the genocide, by the weaponization of the Bible to justify it, there is something wrong with our Christian witness, and we are compromising the credibility of our gospel message.

If you fail to call this a genocide, it is on you. It is a sin and a darkness you willingly embrace. Some have not even called for a ceasefire. I’m talking about churches. I feel sorry for you.

We will be OK. Despite the immense blow we have endured, we, the Palestinians, will recover. We will rise. We will stand up again from the midst of destruction, as we have always done as Palestinians, although this is by far maybe the biggest blow we have received in a long time. But we will be OK.

But for those who are complicit, I feel sorry for you. Will you ever recover from this? Your charity and your words of shock after the genocide won’t make a difference. And I know these words of shocks are coming. And I know people will give generously for charity. But your words won’t make a difference. Words of regret won’t suffice for you. And let me say it: We will not accept your apology after the genocide. What has been done has been done. I want you to look at the mirror and ask, “Where was I when Gaza was going through a genocide?” …

In these last two months, the psalms of lament have become a precious companion to us. We cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Gaza? Why do you hide your face from Gaza?”

In our pain, anguish and lament, we have searched for God and found him under the rubble in Gaza. Jesus himself became the victim of the very same violence of the empire when he was in our land. He was tortured, crucified. He bled out as others watched. He was killed and cried out in pain, “My God, where are you?”

In Gaza today, God is under the rubble.

And in this Christmas season, as we search for Jesus, he is not to be found on the side of Rome, but our side of the wall. He’s in a cave, with a simple family, an occupied family. He’s vulnerable, barely and miraculously surviving a massacre himself. He’s among the refugees, among a refugee family. This is where Jesus is to be found today.

If Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza. When we glorify pride and richness, Jesus is under the rubble. When we rely on power, might and weapons, Jesus is under the rubble. When we justify, rationalize and theologize the bombing of children, Jesus is under the rubble.

Jesus is under the rubble. This is his manger. He is at home with the marginalized, the suffering, the oppressed and the displaced. This is his manger.

And I have been looking and contemplating on this iconic image. God with us precisely in this way, this is the incarnation — messy, bloody, poverty. This is the incarnation.

And this child is our hope and inspiration. We look and see him in every child killed and pulled from under the rubble. While the world continues to reject the children of Gaza, Jesus says, “Just as you did to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” “You did it to me.” Jesus not only calls them his own, he is them. He is the children of Gaza.

We look at the holy family and see them in every family displaced and wandering, now homeless in despair. While the world discusses the fate of the people of Gaza as if they are unwanted boxes in a garage, God in the Christmas narrative shares their fate. He walks with them and calls them his own.

So this manger is about resilience. It’s about sumud. And the resilience of Jesus is in his meekness, is in his weakness, is in his vulnerability. The majesty of the incarnation lies in its solidarity with the marginalized. Resilience because this is very same child who rose up from the midst of pain, destruction, darkness and death to challenge empires, to speak truth to power and deliver an everlasting victory over death and darkness. This very same child accomplished this.

This is Christmas today in Palestine, and this is the Christmas message. Christmas is not about Santas. It’s not about trees and gifts and lights. My goodness, how we have twisted the meaning of Christmas. How we have commercialized Christmas. I was, by the way, in the U.S.A. last month, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, and I was amazed by the amount of Christmas decorations and lights and all the commercial goods. And I couldn’t help but think: They send us bombs, while celebrating Christmas in their lands. They sing about the prince of peace in their land, while playing the drum of war in our land.

Christmas in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is this manger. This is our message to the world today. It is a gospel message. It is a true and authentic Christmas message about the God who did not stay silent but said his word, and his word was Jesus. Born among the occupied and marginalized, he is in solidarity with us in our pain and brokenness.

This message is our message to the world today, and it is simply this: This genocide must stop now. Why don’t we repeat it? Stop this genocide now. Can you say it with me? Stop this genocide —

CONGREGATION: Stop this genocide now.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Let’s say it one more time. Stop this genocide —

CONGREGATION: Stop this genocide now.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: This is our call. This is our plea. This is our prayer. Hear, O God. Amen.

AMY GOODMAN: The Reverend Munther Isaac, the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, delivering his Christmas sermon on Saturday. He titled it “Christ in the Rubble.” Coming up, Reverend Isaac will join us from Bethlehem in occupied West Bank. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Song to the World,” a version of the popular Christmas song “Little Drummer Boy” sung by the Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank. The three Palestinian college students who were shot in Burlington, Vermont, last month are graduates of the Ramallah Friends School and met there in the first grade. The three students who were shot now go to Haverford, Trinity and Brown in the United States. In the video shared by the school, current students sing in Arabic with English subtitles. The school wrote, “Our hearts come together in prayer for the safety of the children in Gaza. May our shared prayers echo for peace and justice, weaving a tapestry of hope that goes beyond borders, embracing the shared humanity we all hold dear.”

Let's go ahead and include the discussion between Reverend Isaac and Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman as well.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman in New York, with Juan González in Chicago.

“Christ in the Rubble.” That was the name of the Christmas sermon we just heard from the Reverend Munther Isaac, the pastor of the landmark Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. Reverend Isaac’s church gained international attention for creating a nativity scene with the figure of baby Jesus in a keffiyeh, surrounded by rubble.

Over the Christmas weekend, Israel carried out raids across the West Bank, including in Bethlehem, in Jenin, Nablus, Jericho and Ramallah. The Reverend Munther Isaac joins us from Bethlehem, where Christmas festivities were canceled this year to mourn the more than 20,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza.

Reverend, welcome to Democracy Now! I wish I could wish you happy holidays, but they are far from happy this year. I’m wondering if you can talk about the message we just heard. It was clear it was not just for your congregation in Bethlehem, not just for the Occupied Territories and Israel, but you were really sending out a message to the world, and particularly talking about the United States. Why you feel where we are talking to you from, where you just recently were, is so important when it comes to the almost 21,000 Palestinians dead since October 7th, since the Hamas attack on Israel?

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Yeah. Good morning. Thank you for having me.

This was a service we held the day before Christmas for Gaza, and it was Jesus under the rubble, from Bethlehem to the world. And as I said in the introduction, we are broken, as Palestinians, by the magnitude, the horrific killing of our people in Gaza. But I also wanted to speak not just for the people of Gaza, for all Palestinians, who are appalled by the silence of the world and the dehumanization that has been taking place of the Palestinian people, especially those in Gaza, the dehumanization that allows such atrocities to take place with the world watching, and with Gazans themselves filming their own execution.

We are really tired and troubled from seeing, day after day after day, images of children and families being pulled from under the rubble. We can’t understand how the world is OK with this. And as a pastor who regularly speaks with churches around the world, I can’t understand how we can preach the gospel of love and justice, while ignoring and, in some cases, justifying what is happening in Gaza. It’s unfathomable to me and to many Palestinians.

And as such, I felt the need to deliver such a message with very direct and clear language. This is not the time for soft diplomacy, especially with the genocide still happening day after day after day. And I’m grateful for those who enabled us to broadcast this service to the world. And I am grateful that it is reaching. It’s not that we’re going to stop what’s happening in Gaza. I wish we could. We’re trying all we can through messaging and lobbying. But I hope that people will feel the weight of responsibility that they have. And I’m talking about not just Western government. Many churches, they have enabled what is happening right now in Gaza. And I felt we need to send this message.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Reverend Isaac, you mentioned that you were recently in the United States. You went to Washington, D.C., with a group of Christian leaders from Bethlehem. You spoke to congressional leaders. And you also delivered a message to the White House — a letter to the White House. What was your sense of how the political leaders in this country are regarding what’s going on there right now in the — with the Israeli attacks on Gaza?

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: We received a mixed reaction. But I left really depressed. And clearly, back then, we saw the intention and that as if everybody has given in to the idea this war is going to last for long.

I left with several impressions. A lot of it has to do with how unwilling to even have a good conversation some congressmen — I’m talking about their staff — are willing, you know, to do. I mean, you share from the heart of our suffering and pain, and then you just get the response, “Well, Congressman so-and-so or Senator so-and-so has made it clear that this war wants to continue.” And they speak with so much distance from the fact and also almost with lack of empathy whatsoever.

When we met in the State Department and the White House, to be honest, you know, they understand the details of what’s happening. When I told them that this war is definitely not bringing any results other than killing innocent people, you know, they seemed to agree. But they seemed to have, as I said, given in to the idea that this war must continue. And I was — you know, I challenged them: “How do you allow such a government in Israel, such leaders, to drive you into committing a genocide?” I can’t understand it, especially with some of the, quote-unquote, “ideals” many of these American politicians keep bragging about or calling for. Yet when it comes to the Palestinians, it seems no one is willing to extend these human rights and international principles to us.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you lay out the significance of Palestine for the Christian faith? It’s not only the birthplace of Christianity, but also the site of several key events described in the Old and New Testaments.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Yeah, Palestine is where it all started. And in addition to the sites themselves that church fathers have called the fifth gospel, meaning that the geography speaks about what happened here over the years, I think we have to realize that Palestine also hosts the oldest Christian tradition in the world. Christianity started here and never ceased to exist here. So, not only is this the land where it all started, this is the land that continued to witness nonstop and give the Christian message.

We always emphasize that Palestine without the witness of its people means nothing. And I hate to see Palestine one day turned into a museum of holy sites for these Western pilgrims who come and visit only interested in certain sites that relate to the Scriptures, without acknowledging the presence of people, without acknowledging the presence of a church that has long carried the Christian witness in Palestine for 2,000 years. But, sadly, we continue to be ignored.

And I think even Palestine, apart from being the destination for pilgrimage, is somehow — you know, people view the biblical land as somehow a mythical land, a land from another universe. You know, we just celebrated Christmas, and millions sang about Bethlehem and read about Bethlehem. I wonder if they know that Bethlehem is a real city, in Palestine, with people, with a long cry for justice. But it seems that, you know, for some reason, people don’t make that connection and are not as much concerned with the plight of Palestinian Christians and even Middle Eastern Christians.

AMY GOODMAN: Reverend Isaac, can you describe for us — half of our audience is television; they see the nativity scene. Half is radio; they cannot see it. Can you describe the nativity scene that was right next to you as you delivered your Christmas sermon? Describe it in detail and why you chose to do this this year, as Christmas celebrations were canceled in your city of Bethlehem.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: So, we created this nativity scene earlier this month, in the beginning of the Advent season, from rubble, bricks, that resemble a destroyed house. So it’s a pile of bricks that resemble a house that was bombed. And on top of it, surrounded by bricks, we had baby Jesus. And the characters in the — usually in the manger, the shepherds and the magis, are all outside, surrounding the rubble, watching in as if they’re looking for any sign of life, looking for Jesus. And we’re sending a message that Jesus is under the rubble.

We created it because this is what Christmas looks like in Palestine today. But we created it because, you know, there is a strong message we wanted to send from it, which is that in a time when the world continues to justify and rationalize the killing of our children, we see the image of Jesus in every child pulled from under the rubble.

These have been very difficult times for us as Palestinians. We ask difficult questions, including: Where is God in the midst of suffering? And I’ve been saying God is under the rubble. God is with those who suffer. God suffers with us. So, with Christmas coming, the connection to me was natural: Jesus as a baby who survived a massacre, Jesus as a baby who became a refugee with his family to Egypt, identifies with us in our suffering. He was born with the marginalized. So the connection was natural.

And we created this manger to send a message to the world: This is what Christmas means to us as Palestinians. It was a message to our people. I know that everyone saw it in the international media, and it resonated with — I mean, it created maybe a shock to many. But for the Palestinians, it sent a very strong message. And many, many Palestinians reached out to us, to our church and to myself, thanking us for explaining the true meaning of Christmas, for sending a message of comfort and hope in the midst of very, very difficult times.

And so I spoke even in my sermon that this manger somehow resembles our resilience as Palestinians. From the midst of destruction, we will rise. And I’m convinced of that. It sounds so dark right now. We’re traumatized. I mean, honestly, we’re traumatized as a people. And I can’t even think of the people of Gaza. But I know that we will rise.

And I’m pleased that this manger was able to bring a small sense of hope to our people, but that it also sent a powerful message to the world about the reality in Palestine. This is what Christmas is in Palestine: displaced families, destroyed homes and children under the rubble.

AMY GOODMAN: Reverend Munther Isaac, I want to thank you for being with us, Palestinian Christian theologian, pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. He titled his Christmas sermon “Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament.”

When we come back, we look at how a growing number of U.S. labor unions are calling for a Gaza ceasefire. Back in a minute.