Reading or watching the news lately gives rise to winces and shudders of incredulity. Contradiction and incongruity reign, no matter what issue or event one is considering and trying to understand.

First and most obvious, how in hell did we get here with presidential candidates? On one side we have Donald Trump, a proven crook and shyster and now a convicted felon who, not only leads but controls his political party and has easily and decisively vanquished all of his primary election rivals. He was part of the “lesser of two evils” choice in both 2016 and 2020 and like a bad penny, has shown up again.

And on the other side we have a decrepit old man, Joe Biden, clearly fighting senility, barely ambulatory, practically inarticulate but, buoyed by his own vanity, representing the other party. And his much ballyhooed State of the Union Address was truly, in the words of columnist Patrick Lawrence, little more than an “old man shouting”. Nothing new – just the same old stuff. And, corrupted by years of militarism, AIPAC money, corporate fealty, and a total lack of knowledge of history he and his equally ignorant foreign policy strategists are taking us down the road to ruin.

And thanks to our unreasonable, unjust and undemocratic way of choosing a president, big time campaigns in “battleground states”, replete with rallies, TV ads, yard signs and supporters knocking on doors, will assault voters while all of the other states will be ignored. Yes, our senseless “Electoral College” method of electing a chief executive will persist and will likely result in yet another victory for a candidate embraced by but a minority of voters.

It’s very discouraging to think that these two candidates are once again presented by our major political parties and we again have to select the one we dislike the least. But our two party system is incapable of entertaining any viable third party candidates and we never can summon the will to change to how chief executives in other democracies are elected – with a popular vote. And such a method would requite candidates to campaign in all of the states, not just those tiresome few competitive states. 

Biden’s obvious physical and mental frailties do not inspire confidence in the notion that he can even survive another term as president. And the very real possibility of Kamala Harris, a first order nonentity, ascending to the presidency is truly frightening. Yet Biden has refused to consider an alternative which might make his own candidacy somewhat more palatable. There are any number of competent Democrats waiting in the wings whose presence on the ticket might help him win. But his refusal to drop Harris from the ticket, despite her dismal approval numbers and her abject failure to generate any kind of enthusiasm for her, will help doom Biden’s candidacy.

And related to this pitiful and shameful election season is the equally disturbing and absolutely false exhortation that Americans need to vote for Biden and the Democrats to “save our democracy”. Come on now, as David Dayan of The American Prospect makes clear, our so called “democracy” is hanging by a thread and has long been corrupted by its systematic failings imposed by our out of date constitution “interpreted” by a corrupt and politicized Supreme Court and both legislative and executive branches thoroughly corrupted by money, thanks to that same court’s decisions. Yes, “Buckley” and “Bellotti” in 1976/1978 and “Citizens United” in 2010, have essentially legalized bribery in our national and state governments. Do you ever wonder why nothing ever gets done? Truly it seems as if our Senators and Representatives are elected and travel to Washington simply to threaten government shutdowns and then flail around to prevent them. Or they embark on futile time and resource wasting impeachment efforts. Little else is done. And do you really think that your letter or call to your Senator or Representative makes any difference compared to a letter or call from a wealthy donor? The feckless members of Congress ignore issue after issue, policy after policy that their constituents overwhelmingly embrace. I wrote about our failing Congress way back in 2015 and, no surprise here, virtually all the unaddressed issues I listed are still waiting to be addressed.

This brings us to the second major reason for my descent into depression over the direction of our failing country – US support and funding for the “war” between Israel and Hamas. Just making this statement gives me cold chills and sends me into a spiral of depression and raging, angry helplessness. Hamas, the duly elected governing body of Gaza, the world’s “largest open air prison” and now largest open air graveyard, has no tanks, no air force, no bombs and no artillery. Yet somehow Hamas has been valiantly fighting against Israel’s 17 year blockade of Gaza and its previous sadistic bombing and killing sprees into Gaza in 2008, slaughtering 1400 Palestinians and the 2014 incursion which resulted in the deaths of more than 2100 Gaza residents, not to mention the horrific destruction of homes and infrastructure. Labeled “terrorists” by mainstream western media, I prefer to think of Hamas as freedom fighters, struggling to throw off the yoke of 76 years of occupation by a settler-colonial entity who has deprived the Palestinian people of agency, hope, human rights and a future.

And the ongoing onslaught on Gaza has dwarfed those previous major incursions. Courtesy of Jeffrey St Clair of Counterpunch, the scorecard after 161 days of carnage is: “…40,042 Palestinians killed by the IDF and 74,400 injured; 134 journalists killed, 2 million displaced; 112,000 destroyed homes; 256,100 damaged homes; 175 destroyed or damaged press offices; 438 destroyed or damaged schools; 2,131 destroyed or damaged industrial facilities; 634 destroyed or damaged mosques; 331 health care workers killed and 420 injured; 285 health care facilities destroyed or damaged, including 28 hospitals, 65 clinics and 192 ambulances; 200 heritage sites destroyed or damaged; 42 civilian defense workers killed and 155 injured; 3,320 Gazans forcibly detained.” Dare we wonder why our weak and feeble president does not deserve the  sobriquets “butcher Biden” or “genocide Joe”? And the above is really “old news”. The Lancet has just published an article that sets the real death total at approximately 186,000.

Also from Counterpunch is a reminder of the terrible monetary cost of the munitions the US is sending to Israel by the thousands. Did you know that “One 155 mm shell costs between $1,500 and $3,500; a 120 mm shell for Israel’s Merkava tanks costs around $7,500; and a smart bomb used by the IDF goes for $21,000. The price tag for the effort to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in terms of ammunition alone, could approach $2 billion.” And all this is done with the complicity and financial support of the US government and its president, with the virtually total support of our Congress, mostly bought off by campaign contributions from its wealthy Israel-supporting donors.

The EU has been largely silent, in spite of passionate condemnation of Israel’s genocide by a few of its Members of Parliament, most prominently former Ireland representative Clare Daly, with the US and the world watching a real, genuine genocide happening and doing nothing about it: supposedly pushing for humanitarian relief yet cutting UNRWA funding. Or soft suggestions for a “temporary” ceasefire yet sending more billions for bombs to Israel.

And even more disgusting and revolting than the wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians is the attitude of the fascist fanatics that inhabit the ranks of the IDF (Israeli “Defense” Forces actually are the IOF, Israeli Occupation Forces). With the world watching and doing nothing, these people have tortured, humiliated and killed huge numbers of unarmed and helpless Palestinians. 

And I am a bit tired of hearing again and again about Israel committing “possible war crimes”. Come on now, we need to stop spouting this nonsense and call them for what they are – real, genuine, bona fide war crimes. Stop the “possible” and “probable” qualifiers and call them for what they are. Israel has committed and needs to be held accountable for commission of the following crimes, many committed over its 76 year effort to ethnically cleanse Palestine and its more recent 57 year military occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and even more now during its sadistic orgy of wanton destruction and cruel killing in its invasion of Gaza since October 7.

These crimes include:

Genocide – evidence presented to the International Court of Justice and the report from the UN Human Rights Council make clear that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Every day that passes provides ever more evidence that a genocide is occurring.

Intentional Harm of Protected Persons – Israel has now killed over 35 thousand civilians, predominantly women and children, not counting the many thousands still under the rubble. These tens of thousands are not “collateral damage” but real people with dreams, lives and loves, now gone forever. 

Violation of Treaties Regarding Vulnerable Individuals – this provision of international law relates specifically to the war on children, expressly forbidden in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) ratified by Israel in 1991. It forbids both the killing of children or the traumatizing of them by acts of war.

Disproportionate Response – the bloodlust and revenge that have characterized the Israeli response to the Hamas invasion of October 7, resulting in the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, universities, museums and the death of a multitude of entire families, are illegal under international law.

Forced Displacement and Land Annexation – beginning with the Nakba in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes and ancestral lands, continuing apace with the Gaza invasion and in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with no right of return, all illegal under international law. The thousands of settlements occupied by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, are all illegal under international law.

Perfidy – Offering Palestinians safe passage to other areas of Gaza, then bombing both their passage and their destination, is illegal, as is targeting international relief agencies which are trying to protect those fleeing bombardment. The latest slaughter of relief workers which has garnered international condemnation because several were Europeans, should be considered in the context of the wholesale slaughter of over200 Palestinian relief workers in the last seven months. Perfidy has been committed by Israel as well, with assassins disguised as medical personnel entering a hospital () and IDF soldiers participating in the Nuseirat massacre, killing over 700 civilians to rescue four Israeli hostages, came disguised as Palestinian civilians and aid workers, even using an aid truck.

Desecration and Mutilation of Corpses – It has been reported that Israel has bulldozed multiple Gazan cemeteries, bulldozed and run over Palestinian bodies with tanks and left Palestinian bodies to be eaten by wild dogs. It has also interred hundreds of Palestinians in mass graves, some obviously executed with hands tied.

Destruction of Cultural Property – In its apparent effort to erase the Palestinian people, Israel has taken special pains to destroy every artifact of Gaza’s history and culture possible. Museums have been razed, schools and universities blown up. In addition it has made special efforts to murder as many agents of education and culture as possible such as teachers and professors.

Food, Medical Supplies and Humanitarian Aid – Israel’s stopping hundreds of truckloads of food and medical supplies is a matter of record. Even settlers are now involved in harassment and beating of drivers, impoundment of trucks and even wanton destruction of food supplies. Hundreds of Palestinian medical personnel, including doctors, plus hundreds of humanitarian aid workers have been targeted and killed.

Defaulting on Obligations as an Occupying Power – Israel has defaulted on the myriad obligations of an occupying power, including guaranteeing the well-being and safety of the occupied people and lands. And the tired refrain “Israel has a right to defend itself”, is a lie: occupying powers do not have the right to make war on the occupied. And the efforts of Palestinians, Hamas included, to resist the occupier, are legal under international law. As special rapporteur on Gaza for the UN, Francesca Albanese, and human rights lawyer Noura Erakat must frequently explain, Israel actually has no right to wage war on territory it occupies. 

And beyond these commissions of war crimes are myriad other categories of violations, among them crimes against humanity. These have included murder, intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, collective punishment, starvation, the use of human shields, sexual violence and rape, torture, pillage, forced transfer, breach of medical neutrality, and targeting journalists.

It might be useful to remind ourselves of the following crimes, some mentioned above, committed by Israel: 

IDF soldiers have been filmed looting Palestinian homes in Gaza before blowing them up or burning them. They have also been filmed obscenely handling lingerie of Palestinian women they have killed or displaced. Israeli citizens have been invited to observe and even film the torture or Palestinian detainees.  And interestingly, the word “holocaust”, coopted and proscribed to describe only the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany during the 1930’s and ’40’s has rightfully been applied to this wanton slaughter and destruction in Gaza by the Israeli military.

In addition, Israel has violated 28 resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. How on earth does this pariah nation still hold a place among the world’s family of nations?

It is crystal clear that Israel, since it founding in 1948 until now, during its cruel 76 year occupation, 17 year siege of Gaza and in this latest “war” with Hamas, has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and violated laws of conflict and international law.

When is the world going to stand up against this serial lawbreaking pariah nation and isolate it, sanction it and hold it accountable? When is its greatest protector and financier, the United States, going to live up to its vaunted goals of advancing human rights and justice in the world? And when is “comforter in chief” President Joe Biden going to demonstrate some of his vaunted empathy for the tens of thousands grieving Palestinian parents and children? He certainly displayed plenty to Netanyahu and Israel after October 7 along with lies and exaggerations. He obviously thinks that Palestinian lives are worth less that Israeli lives.

If Israel is to survive as a nation it must provide all rights to everyone in its borders “from the river to the sea” and cease being a racist exclusively Jewish state or vacate all illegal settlements, leave Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights for a state for the Palestinians. If it chooses to do neither, Israel and the Zionist experiment are deservedly doomed.