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Awaiting Gaza March, Holocaust Survivor Stages Hunger Strike
CAIRO — An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor was among a group of grandmothers who began a hunger strike in Cairo on Monday to protest against Egypt's refusal to allow a Gaza solidarity march to proceed.
Egyptian and foreign activists hold a vigil in Cairo on December 27 to mark the first anniversary of Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip. An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor was among a group of grandmothers who began a hunger strike in Cairo to protest against Egypt's refusal to allow a Gaza solidarity march to proceed.
(AFP/Khaled Desouki) American activist Hedy Epstein and other grandmothers participating in the Gaza Freedom March began a hunger strike at 1000 GMT.
"I've never done this before, I don't know how my body will react, but I'll do whatever it takes," Epstein told AFP, sitting on a chair surrounded by hundreds of protesters outside the United Nations building in Cairo.
Egyptian authorities had said it would not allow any of the 1,300 protesters who have come to Egypt from 42 countries to take part in the march to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, the only entry that bypasses Israel.
High-ranking officers and riot police were deployed on the Nile bank where the UN building is located and where hundreds of Gaza Freedom March participants asked the United Nations to mediate with the Egyptian government to let their convoy into Gaza.
"We met with the UN resident coordinator in Cairo James Rawley and we are waiting for a response," Philippine Senator Walden Bello told protesters.
"We will wait as long as it takes," he said.
Protesters who wore T-shirts with "The Audacity of War Crimes" and "We will not be silent" held a giant Palestinian flag, as others sang, danced and shouted "Freedom for Gaza" in various languages.
Separately, organisers of another aid convoy trying to reach the blockaded Gaza Strip -- Viva Palestina led by British MP George Galloway -- said it will head to Syria on Monday en route for Egypt after being stranded in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba for five days.
Turkey dispatched an official on Saturday to try to convince the Egyptians to allow Viva Palestina to go through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba -- the most direct route but Egypt insisted that the convoy can only enter through El-Arish, on its Mediterranean coast.
The Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina were planning to arrive one year after Israel's devastating war on Gaza that killed 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis also died.
Meanwhile, at least 300 French participants of the Gaza Freedom March spent the night camped out in front of their embassy in Cairo, bringing a major road in the capital to a halt, as riot police wielding plexiglass shields surrounded them.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki accused the French protesters of lying and trying to embarrass Egypt.
"They claimed they had aid to carry to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which is a lie," the MENA news agency quoted Zaki as saying.
"They want media exposure and to pressure and embarrass Egypt," he said.
On Sunday, police briefly detained 38 international participants in the Sinai town of El-Arish, organisers said.
"At noon (1000 GMT) on December 27, Egyptian security forces detained a group of 30 activists in their hotel in El-Arish as they prepared to leave for Gaza, placing them under house arrest. The delegates, all part of the Gaza Freedom March of 1,300 people, were Spanish, French, British, American and Japanese," a statement on the group's website said.
"Another group of eight people, including American, British, Spanish, Japanese and Greek citizens, were detained at the bus station of El-Arish in the afternoon of December 27," they said.
On Sunday, Egyptian police also stopped some 200 protesters from renting boats on the Nile to hold a procession to commemorate those who died in the Gaza war.
On December 31, participants are hoping to join Palestinians "in a non-violent march from northern Gaza to the Erez-Israeli border," the organisers said.
- Posted in
29 Comments so far
Show AllWell, its obvious that the 85-year old Holocaust survivor is an anti-Semite.
*Sarcasm*
Break the siege on Gaza! Free Palestine!
Doesn't the name/word "Mubarek" mean blessed in Arabic? If so, what a joke.
Those, sill alive, who suffered in nazi concentration camps have seen in Gaza a variation of the barbarism done to them.
What a courageous woman Hedy Epstein, the 85-year-old Holocaust survivor is! At her age, a hunger strike is especially dangerous. I hope that Egypt's masters, the U.S. and Israel, tell Egypt to stop all their police-state nonsense and open the Rafah border crossing at once.
Israel, of course, could open all the crossings into Gaza, but that would be like expecting the Nazis to have compassion on the victims at the Warsaw Ghetto. And besides, Israel is busy murdering Palestinians in cold blood, as just happened in the West Bank on Dec. 25, 2009.
May God bless Hedy Epstein for believing that "Never Again!" includes everyone, even Palestinians, and not Jews alone.
Brava, Ms Epstein. You are an inspiration to us all. Surely your name will be written in gold in the Book of Life.
The Egyptian regime is being an Arab Uncle Tom,
AD
Screaming doesn't help. Please use regular size type unless it is REALLY important.
Civis Americanus - IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT!!!!! Some things are worth screaming about. Really now, wouldn't you agree?
peace, cm
Cee Miracles
Actually, I wouldn't about this posting. Ranting about Israel isn't particularly helpful when the article is about Egypt.
Aside from which, one long scream is nothing but noise. Emphasis on an IMPORTANT point sure, but every sentence. No.
I would agree that the plight of the Palestinians and Gazans is important. And some occasional screaming would not go amiss. But look at your posting. Which of the two do you think is effective? I know which one I believe is.
Peace indeed. CA
I'm a great believer, C A, that sometimes people need to scream if they are so moved. The issues are worth screaming about.
All the time? No.
And I would disagree. This article is not just about Egypt. It is about an on-going situation ... since 1947 ... and Israel and the Palestinians are the subjects and objects of that situation.
What would happen, I wonder, if Mubarek were able to engage his own human heart? And he would declare that since the Palestinians in Gaza need food and medicine [which likely by now are spoiled ... again], he would let George Galloway and the ship carrying these very necessary items through to Gaza?
What would happen, I wonder, if Mubarek were able to engage his own human heart and allow those internationals who have traveled so far to march and stand in solidarity with the Gazans? Obviously, since some are under arrest now and surrounded by Egyptian military police, it would be easy to check for weapons and then clear them. These people, Gazans and marchers alike have prepared speeches and songs and other things like that.
To disallow this march of solidarity with the Gazans is because of some kind of growling from Israel and its intention always to rob the Palestinians of hope and humiliate and denigrate them, and perhaps also some growling from the U.S., and some considerable kind of fear on Mubarek's part.
Do you think Israel would immediately start bombing Egypt? I don't think so.
Do you think that relations would be strained some among Egypt, Israel and the U.S.?
Likely.
But the point is if no one is willing to do the decent and honorable thing, and take a courageous stand, then Israeli will continue on its stealing, massacreing way; Mubarek will continue to look like a toady and still be uneasy, but, yes, get more money, and Obama will continue to play golf on his Hawaii vacation.
What has changed? NOTHING!
Maybe Mubarek is a PP too. But he was instrumental before in smoothing things and bringing some effective diplomacy to a tight situation.
Israel can't let loose all its nuclear weapons, especially on its borders, can it?
In the meantime, if no one will act on the Gazans behalf, they will continue to suffer and perhaps their numbers will begin to dwindle as they die, and some time in the future history books, their numbers will be on some genocide list.
NEVER AGAIN! I grew up with that mantra. Well, it's been AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN, and primarily because of the bombings of my own country on other countries and the constant meddlings in other countries' business, but also to get business ... their resources. That's not acceptable to me.
And this ugly collusion with Israel, a country whose leadership has poisoned it by their dishonesties and lies, by treachery and cruelty, as my own country's leadership similarly has poisoned this U.S. of A., is not acceptable to me.
I know the Big Picture and the hierarchies and the names of those who pull the strings. It's always about power, control and money. But by this time it shouldn't be. And now once again we teeter on the brink of self-annihilation, a slow suicide, because those who are in leadership positions are not fit to be there.
And I'm saying so ... again ... from my own decency, my own heart and my very clear mind that is filled with considerable knowledge ... even if it's off topic.
peace to you, brother ... /cm
CM
I don't agree that America is quite as bad as painted or that the Palestians and other countries are totally blameless in this mess or that all Israeli are totally bad, other than that lets use your post as a starting point...
Considering that, can you explain why the other Arab and Muslim countries are never mentioned in this mess? Their rejection of the Palestinians has always bothered me. Whats your opinion? Why?
CA, I think many of the "leaders" of the other Arab and Muslim countries are corrupt or selfish or feel powerless to do anything. I think there's enough support in the "Arab street" (or among Muslims, in general) for the Palestinian people.
It probably also speaks to the clever maneuvering by Israel and its supporters. Countries that did not recognize Israel in the past are coming around to dealing with it or even doing business with it.
There was a certain kind of idealism among the leaders of some developing countries in the past. Nehru of India, for example was known for his idealism, and even criticized for it. Even his daughter Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi) treated Yasser Arafat as some kind of a legitimate leader of a nation. While people like Arun Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi) are quite active in their support for the Palestinian people, the Indian government itself seems to have quietly dropped its public support probably because it does not want to offend the USA and their business interests? True, India is not a Muslim country (though having the 2nd largest Muslim population, after Indonesia). But it's an example where governments seem to put their business interests first - especially while dealing with the USA. And they seem to understand the position of the US government, politicians and the media on this matter only too well.
If you take the "neighborhood" itself, the Saudis seem more interested in keeping control over their own population, Syria is being careful in trying to settle its own issues with Israel, Egypt (the "leadership") seems pretty much bought and paid for. Jordan is probably powerless to do anything - even to stop losing its water. Iraq after Saddam Hussein has its own problems. Turkey is officially "secular" and a member of NATO. The only countries that seem to speak out are Lebanon (one part of that govt.) and Iran. Distant countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia probably don't want to offend the USA too much on this matter. I think it's a general lack of true democracy, worldwide. Scary thought.
Although you asked Cee Miracles, this is how it appears to me - when I thought about your question.
Alcyon
My thanks. It makes no difference who is asked, anyone that has an answer or thought is always welcome.
Though I have degree's in History, I'm very weak in the middle East after WW1, heck...I'm weak in plenty of modern areas when I think of it.
Interesting points. Especially broken down like that. Perhaps when we get past the oil question in the next few years it will help in getting our nose out of the middle east? Saudi Arabia is most certainly our enemy, so why help them. We must find a mix of energy sources domestically to tide us over till we can find newer, more congenial sources of energy.
A great point about India's Muslim population. I know it, but I easily forget it.
This is one of those questions that is so convoluted and has so many different interests involved it seems insoluble. There can be no solution till Israel is no longer threatened by its neighbors and its neighbors work out some solution to give them that assurance.
All nations put their own interests first. Nationalism is alive and well. Globalism is a pipe dream and half the problems now are caused by buying into business's smoke and mirrors explanation (Global economy, Global citizen, No borders, etc) of why they should be allowed to reap and plunder.
"I think it's a general lack of true democracy, worldwide. Scary thought."
Heddy Epstein represents what I believe is all too often silent majority of my Jewish community.
I believe our Jewish community is divided exactly as are any group of victims of abuse. Many victims of abuse become abusers themselves, others react by fighting abuses of all peoples. In the first group I count my Jewish brothers who violently evicted the indigenous Palestinians from their homes to establish the state of Israel and then have been violently abusing and oppressing the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza ever since. I also count those who identify with that Israeli government among the abusers. For this group “Never Again!” only applied to us Jews. This first group is the right wing. In the second group, on the left, I count those of us who went down to fight for civil rights for blacks in the US South in the 50's and 60's, then fought to stop the Vietnam War, and have fought for social justice for all peoples ever since. Heddy is in this latter group for which “Never Again!” meant for all peoples, not just for us Jews. I believe that the majority of my fellow Jews are actually more sympathetic with the rights of the oppressed than with the militaristic, right-wing government of Israel, but often feel intimidated about speaking publicly against the policies of this government that claims to speak for world Jewry.
This right wing of my Jewish community has a persecution complex and being “oppressed” is a central part of their identity. They are naturally in denial of their continuing the cycle of abuse or supporting that abuse by the far right wing government of Israel. Any time anyone points out that they are abusers or supporters of an abuser government they will claim "anti-Semitism". This is part of the intimidation that has kept the rest of us more silent than we should be. The element of my Jewish community with this persecution complex is also the group that was most loudly proclaiming "never again" when I was growing up in the US in the 60's at a time when we were mostly among the most privileged and least oppressed people in the world. It seemed that they protested too loudly.
Many will believe that the attacks on Palestinians were justified because of some previous violence against some Israeli Jews. This is in part because the element that supports a violently oppressive right wing government in Israel has long dominated the US media and that media has twisted the story at every telling. Though life for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is all too much like life in a prison camp imposed by the exceptionally powerful Israeli military and no Israeli Jews live under these conditions we still hear the story as if the Jews there are the victims. While maybe 10 times as many Palestinians than Israeli Jews have been killed in violence between them, virtually every time we hear of violence in Israel / Palestine on US media it is framed as Israelis are always the victims. Every act of violence by the Israeli government is framed as a “counter-attack”, while every act of violence by a Palestinian is framed as “terrorism”. It doesn’t matter if that one act of violence by a Palestinian came after the Israeli military killed his family by bulldozing down his home with his wife and children still inside. Very little of the horrors of violence by the Israeli military makes it onto the US media that is mostly controlled by those allied with the right wing Israeli government.
I ask my fellow Jew. Do you stand on the right wing with the Israeli government or do you stand on the left for peace and justice with Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein?
to stewart; you've written an excellent addition to this article. ever since the murder of count folk bernadotte by the jewish terrorist group, i've had my doubts about zionist expansionism. the swedish count rescued some of europe's jews, but then the jewish terrorists, including ben gurion's personal valet, shot him through the heart 8 times. the count was in palestine in 1948 as a u.n. mediator, and his murderers just did not like the boundary lines the count recommended for the new state of israel. his killers went unpunished, but then bragged of their deed once the statute of limitations had run. streets in tel aviv are named after some of his killers. israel is still on the loose today, condemning arab homes all over jerusalem and expanding its presence on the west bank. that nation of 8 million keeps the middle east and the world in turmoil, robbing us of any feeling of peace. that it is nuclearly armed and so powerful in u.s. politics makes israel an unstoppable force on many fronts. and obama hasn't the courage to check them, as he is too afraid to acknowledge, even in general terms, the validity of the goldstone report. the middle east will be a maddeningly hopeless place for years to come, a cauldron brewing disaster for the entire world.
Thank you Jonny u.
Your story of the murder of the Swedish count by the Jewish terrorist group reminds me a bit of the story of Yigal Amir, the Jew who either killed Israeli leader Yitzak Rabin or was the fall guy in his murder. He was devoutly religious and was apparently manipulated into attempting to shoot Rabin after Rabin started to make peace with the Palestinians. This peace would have been a threat to those who maintain power in Israel through fear. Amir's mother told the story of the manipulation of her son, who was said to be the killer. Whether or not it was Yigal Amir's gun that shot the fatal shot or not, it was those that manipulated him that were ultimately responsible for the killing. I would bet they were tied in with Israel's Military Industrial Complex, that I believe is also in part the same Military Industrial Complex that dominates the US government.
You might change your ending question with "If you had the ability to stand..."...per your writing here and cee miricles commentary here, a very important factor to be considered is that the "silent majority" is just as torturously ignorant of ways to human betterment and the pursuit of happiness as the psychopaths are; thus they are accomplices. What makes this actually the most important factor to consider is that it brings more recognition of the human processes that are now used collectively in torturous ignorance to light, and thus amendable (yes, the ability does exist!) to the learning that can direct their force to betterment and happiness.
The Psychopaths have no motivation to change; their motivation to change will come when the majority with the sickness of ignorance manifesting as silence change into an unquestioning dominate force (this can be moral and positional force and not bombs). A good book for gaining a grasp of the results of trauma past and reinforcement of trauma past (with the vast majority of humans functioning in a state of chronic trauma) is from Judith Herman M.D. (Trauma and Recovery) where she examines the trauma of rape to women and combat to men...and where she first presented the idea of Chronic Traumatic Stress Disorders, the precursor to PTSD.
The point here is to focus on the change that is more available and motivated: that being the strengthening of the silent majority engaged in the torturous tango of sadomasochism with the psychopaths. This is a much more effectual path to take then joining Barack Obama on the "evil is" ignorance tour. Instead of using so much energy flow for condemning the psychopaths and their evil acts (evil actions not evil dehumanized people), that same energy and human processes can be used for healing, strengthening to courage, finding peace, and culturing a viable peace -- I guarantee the organic consecrating power of this path.
May you always recognize the path to peace within, may you always have the courage to share, or at least offer, the peace within to those "without" -- peace, stability, understanding.
What have we come to when primary collaborators, the United States and Israel, do everything they can to oppress, destroy ... exterminate ... the Palestinian people?
Egypt, gets money, for its part in doing the same.
What we are seeing is a collection of psychopathic individuals who were born, unfortunately, without the ability to feel compassion, love, remorse, guilt, shame, empathy. They are indifferent to the sufferings of others and the pain they cause in the interests of achieving their own personal visions for power and control, which generally includes money, ... lots of money.
Just as Sarah Palin's little baby was born with Down's syndrome because of a genetic anomoly, and it cannot be cured, psychopaths, called by some an intraspecies group of human beings, are born the way they are with a brain configuration different from the "normal" homo sapien sapiens' brain.
Sarah Palin's little boy, with love and care, can and will likely have a happy life and achieve as much as possible within the limits of his genetic anomaly. But particular physical characteristics will always indicate that he has Down's Syndrome.
Psychopaths unfortunately do not have those defining physical characteristics, and because they walk and talk and look like a fully normal human being, we are always fooled and confused. That "we" who are fooled includes professionals in the fields of psychiatry and psychology.
In his 2005 memoir, "A Man Without A Country: A Memoir of Life in George W Bush's America," the late author, Kurt Vonnegut said:
"George W Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.
"To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot. The classic medical text on PPs is THE MASK OF SANITY by Dr. Hervey Cleckley, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia, published in 1941. Read it!
...
"PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!"
K.V.
+++
Psychopaths recognize each other, and in particular times in history [and this is one of them] they form clusters of power which attract others with very fluid morality, who are the power-control-money groupies, who have no problem carrying out the evil actions these PPs unleash on the world.
In violation of what the majority of us consider essential human morality, particular populations are targeted and/or the suffering of particular populations, considered inferior and in the way, are ignored in the interests of "economic progress" or in the interests of creating Empire or other controlling ambitions.
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY [Red Pill Press] by the recently deceased Andrzej Lobaczewski is based on studies and research conducted by him and other social scientists when they were incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps. "Ponerology" is The Science and Study of Evil, and this book adjusts this science for the politics of the time ... any time, like NOW.
WITHOUT CONSCIENCE, The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us - Robert D. Hare, Ph.D., is a seminal book on the subject of PP's, followed up by Hare's [as co-author] latest and very relevant book, SNAKES IN SUITS.
... and many sites are on the internet.
++++++
For those of us who have had personal relationships with Psychopaths and ended up confused, off-balance, fighting to retain our own sense of self, even after we escaped, we know better than anyone why there is so much confusion in our nation for these last many years and especially now. We have become infected with pathological viewpoints, and by denial and adjusting our minds to see normalcy where there isn't, we ourselves ignore and just keep going.
"Oh, he/they must know what he's/they are doing." ... "This doesn't make any sense. No matter what we do, our voices aren't being heard." "People are losing everything, and our leaders don't seem to care." "The Constitution is being violated ... shredded. Why is there no redress to this?"
"The Gazan people are being slaughtered. Why doesn't our new president mention this? Why doesn't the MSM cover this? Why does our Congress vote on resolutions to support Israel and ignore what Israel is doing?"
++++++
Hedy Epstein, God Bless Her, understands. She's lived it.
++++++
"Good Germans" of the U.S. of A. We better know what we are up against because it's our turn, and it's happening. And figuring out what to do is the biggest challenge we've ever had because the old ways are not working, and we're up against a hierarchy of entrenched Psychopathic Personalities who don't give a rat's ass for what happens to us [anyone in their way], and who have propagandized most of us to a comatose or semi-comatose state.
Read. Educate yourselves and pass on this information. There's gotta be a way before it is too late.
/cm
Beautifully and accurately said, CM!
If we want to keep going as a species, we're going to have to start teaching children to look at and value intentional behavior rather than appearance or charm. And to *shun* those who fail to treat others well. The 5-10% whom we might call 'elective psychopaths' need to have that behavior extinguished before age 7.
Following the article about Israelis harvesting Palestinian organs for sale, a commenter quoted a Yiddish saying: "Choose your enemies wisely, for you will become like them". That saying sounds Biblical.
More and more, Israeli behavior has brought images of Nazis and the Warsaw Ghetto to my mind.
And I ask Stewart Wechsler that if Israel has a democratically elected government, then wouldn't it appear that a majority of Israelis support the government's behavior? Unless they're in the position we're in, of having not the government we want, but the one we get. That is, a so-called democracy.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
When I suggested that the majority of Jews may not support the right wing government of Israel, I was talking about American Jews and possibly Jews elsewhere. I don't know about Israeli Jews. That said, there is much more public dissent with the policies of the Israeli government in Israel than here in the US. There is also more dissent in the Israeli press than there is dissent with the Israeli government position in the American establishment media. I find some excellent coverage of the crimes of the Israeli government in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz. We almost never see this kind of thing in our American corporate media.
I don't know how democratic the Israeli government indeed is. It may be that the right wing has kept control there in a less than democratic manner.
Also I specify the "right wing government of Israel" to make it easier for Jews that may identify with Israel to see that they may not really want to support its government which is indeed right wing, at least with respect to the Palestinians.
When people think of Israel, I would want them to think not only of its government, but organizations there like Peace Now and those youth who are refusing service in the military there for moral reasons. We can support this part of Israel without supporting the policies of their government.
Hedy Epstein has the credentials to speak about this that most don't. No one can accuse her of being anti-semitic nor of ignoring the history that caused the Palestinian mess.
What in the world the Egyptians hope to gain by this is beyond me. The very media exposure, pressure and embarrassment of Egypt is exactly what this is causing.
What possible harm can a march cause? Or carrying aid packages, etc in? Makes no sense.
Civis Americanus: "What possible harm can a march cause? Or carrying aid packages, etc in? Makes no sense."
That's just the point, C A. What psychopaths do makes no sense to those of us who are not psychopaths. But psychopaths explain in quiet tones and lots of words, and normal people then glaze over and find something "normal" in what they say and then assume everything is going to be all right because they've tricked their own minds.
Most often psychopaths lie, unblinkingly, and they are very big on secrecy. They also turn things around as the Israeli government does in Gaza. It's called "Blame the Victim" game. Psychopathic abusers do it all the time.
Israeli is the victim from those tin-can rockets going off as Hamas tries to defend Gaza from the deadly bombing and on-ground military assaults. Fourteen hundred Palestinians were massacred; fifteen Israelis were killed, but not from those Hamas rockets that cannot even be accurately directed at targets. They were killed by "friendly" fire or from other reasons. The number of maimed and wounded Gazans likely exceed those who were killed, and so many of both wounded and killed were children.
As a colesseum-style counterpoint, Israelis took lawn chairs and they and their families, including children, sat on hills above Gaza to watch the Israeli assaults on the Gazans. The way Bibi and company made it sound, the Israeli people were cowering in their beds because of fear of those tin-can-looking Hamas rocket attacks.
And while the Gazans have no clean water to drink and water is being deliberately directed away from them, Israelis swim in their swimming pools and build more with the new settlements on Palestinian land that they continue to steal.
Many Israelis are infected with a virus called psychopathology passed on by their leaders. It's the same in the U.S.
Whenever TYRANNY becomes normalized, a nation's people are in big trouble.
+++++++++++
Individual psychopathic serial killers, who number less than 1 per cent of the psychopathic population, get a rush from power over the victim whose pain and suffering they could care less about or "enjoy" in a sick way because their power is affirmed.
Among the rest of the psychopathic population who rise to prominence and power, they frequently are serial killers too. But they pontificate and stand at lecterns, even pulpits, explaining what is good and what is bad, and this or such is necessary. Then they give the orders and let others do their killing for them. And the victims who are being hurt or killed? They don't give them a second thought. They go play basketball or golf.
It only makes sense, Civis Amerianus, if you know that who you are listening to or are dealing with have absolutely no conscience. They want what they want. They may agree to modify what they are doing, when a representative, such as a Secretary of State, comes to talk with them. But once the visit is over, they go back to doing what they were doing and then they usually go a few steps further than that. Their word means nothing.
Bibi Netanyahu is on a roll. He knows he can get away with anything. Hillary slinks away looking confused; particular members of the United States Congress cheer; and Barack Obama is doing exactly what he wants to do too, currently dropping drone bombs on Afghans and their children, Pakastanis and their children, and Yemenese people and their children, ostensibly to kill some "suspected" terrorists, sort of like all those "suspected" terrorists who ended up in Guantanamo when the money-hungry bounty hunters turned them over to the U.S. military.
And Egypt? ... Mubarek is just another lackey, and he gets a few billion in aid from the U.S. Israel gets 3 billion in aid from us every year plus all the perks of fighter planes and white phosphorous bombs and the like.
Doesn't make sense does it, given the economic situation for so many people in the U.S.?
Psychopaths and what they do rarely makes sense. That's the point. But they have the power, and the guns and bombs to back themselves up. That's what makes sense to them, and the humiliating, and putting down of other people ... their victims. That's their rush, as close to a feeling as they're ever going to get.
... and don't forget -- on the agenda is Iran and a few other countries.
sleep well,
cm
The Egyptian government is gaining billions of dollars in so-called foreign aid from US tax dollars for serving the interests of the same global corporatocracy that dominates the US government. This same global corporatocracy also gets the US government to serve the interests of the right wing government of Israel with billions of dollars in "foreign aid" and weaponry, as well as getting the US to fight the wars against this Israeli government's potential adversaries in Iraq and elsewhere.
But where is the gain in refusing them entrance?
Also see my posting to CM below where I asked her opinion on a question that has always bothered me....jump in on that too if you have a thought.
I'm with this 85 year old grandmother and Holocaust survivor, Gee, she is right on all the way!
She lives up to Winston Churchill's saying "The young sow wild oats, while the old grow sage,"
AD
I have met Hedy a number of times in my life. She is a wonderful woman who is has dedicated her life to peace. Thank you - Hedy
Egypt is being pressured by the Leaders of Israel, who wish the Palestinians were eliminated, forgetting the Jews are repeating Nazi tactics, and Egypt is being pressured by the US just to please the Israeli leaders. The Main reason Bush, and now Obama, is pushing to war with Iran.