Sunday, July 27, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

“From George Washington’s admonition against a ‘Passionate Attachment’ to ‘Genocide Joe'”

The situation in Gaza

The student protesters are being demonized, as Palestinians have been. Those pretending to defend the US flag should consider actual facts.

Published 8 May 2024

4 minute read
This is an opinion piece. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.

Let’s start with a few simple facts. Contrary to what lots of pro-Israeli folks have claimed, no students at George Washington University took down the US flag. They took down the university flag from one flagpole adjacent to their encampment protesting Israel’s genocide. On the other pole, which had the US flag, they hoisted the Palestinian flag beneath or alongside it.

No students at George Washington University took down the US flag

The administration then cut all the lines so, for a period, no flags could be hoisted from the poles, and dropped a massive US flag from the building.

This compelled the student protesters to project “Genocide Joe” atop that flag:

Meanwhile, the statue in the park of George Washington was adorned with Palestinian flags, a keffiyeh atop his head, various stickers protesting Israel’s carnage and writing at the base: Genocidal Warmongering University, referring to the university’s effective support of Israel.

On Saturday, I saw someone shout “this is America!” as he pulled the Palestinian flags from the statue of Washington. The student organizers immediately shouted to everyone present not to escalate the situation, the man walked off with the flags. A couple of students immediately got to work putting up other Palestinian flags on the statue, affixing them more securely than before. A short time later, other students returned with the flags that had been removed.

It was a small incident, but it showed the discipline and organization of the student protesters.

The claim that the US flag is under attack is certainly not grounded in fact on the GWU campus, even as “flag defenders” are hyped and reportedly are having hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to them.

It was a small incident, but it showed the discipline and organization of the student protesters.

GWU administration has reportedly attempted to get the local police to clear the students out of the park, but the police have thus far refused, so it would seem the university is more repressive than the police.

The US flag is arguably being defamed however. Early on in the encampment, a student showed up with a “US flag” blurring into the Israeli one. At first I thought this might have been to protest the “special relationship” between the US and Israel. But no, it was a pro-Israeli counter protester backing it.

At first I thought this might have been to protest the “special relationship” between the US and Israel. But no, it was a pro-Israeli counter protester backing it.

This is all remarkably ironic in a number of ways.

Perhaps the most far-reaching is that it was none other than George Washington, who warned in his farewell address:

“A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. … Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”

This is in marked contrast to Biden’s statement to J Street: “If there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one to make sure our interests were preserved.”

This notion with respect to Israel is the subject of the book The Passionate Attachment: America’s Involvement With Israel, 1947 to the Present by George W. Ball and his son Douglas B. Ball. George Ball is best known as the most high-level critic in the US government of the Vietnam War. He was deputy secretary of state during the Johnson administration.

Andrew I. Killgore summarized the book in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

If “flag defenders” were at all serious, they would object to the “passionate attachment” to the imperial enterprise of Israel which is key to transforming the US from a normal country to an Empire. What does “This is America” mean?

What does “This is America” mean?

See George Ball talking about the book on C-SPAN’s “Booknotes” from 1993 with Brian Lamb:

 

Sam Husseini

 


This article was originally published on Sam Husseini’s Substack

About the author

Sam Husseini is a Jordanian-Palestinian journalist and political activist. Currently serving as the communications director of the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington DC, he has a background in promoting progressive experts in mainstream media. His career includes work with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

A US citizen since 1984 and a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, he has contributed to various publications including CounterPunch, The Nation, and The Washington Post. Known for his forthright style, he has been involved in notable incidents like questioning the Saudi ambassador at the National Press Club and being removed from a Russia–United States summit press conference.

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Israeli minister: “All of Gaza will be Jewish”

The genocide in Gaza

Published 25 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
"Thank God, we are erasing this evil. All of Gaza will be Jewish," said Jewish Power representative Amichai Eliyahu recently on an Israeli radio program regarding the starving population in Gaza and the ongoing genocide. Right: The starving children in Gaza where the situation is becoming increasingly desperate.
2 minute read

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu has drawn strong criticism after statements about Israel not needing to worry about starvation in Gaza. The statement is one in a series from officials within Israel’s far-right government in line with the genocidal ambitions expressed already at the beginning of the Gaza war.

The far-right politician Amichai Eliyahu from the Jewish Power party (Otzma Yehudit) dismissed renewed UN warnings about artificial famine in the besieged enclave on Thursday. In an interview with Radio Kol Barama, he claimed that the Israeli government is “rushing to erase Gaza”.

Thank God, we are erasing this evil. All of Gaza will be Jewish, Eliyahu said according to Israeli news site Ynet.

— We shouldn’t be dealing with hunger in Gaza – let the world take care of them. No nation feeds its enemies. Have we completely lost our minds? Should we care about their evening meal?, he added.

Strong criticism from government leadership

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly distanced himself from the statements and pointed out that Eliyahu is not a member of the security cabinet, which decides on warfare.

“This government’s policy is clear and unified. His statements do not represent it”, Netanyahu said.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, also condemned Eliyahu’s comments and called them “wrong, foolish and completely unrepresentative of Israel’s government and people”. In a post on X, he emphasized that Israel is committed to creating a mechanism to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza “but not through Hamas”.

UN warns of mass starvation

According to local health authorities, more than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, including at least 113 who died of starvation. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that Israel’s “blockade” has brought Gaza to the brink of “mass starvation”.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, has urged Israel to allow access for the 6,000 aid transports currently stalled in Egypt and Jordan.

Israeli officials have in turn accused Hamas and other armed groups of hoarding supplies and attacking civilians at distribution sites.

21 children dead from starvation in Gaza in 72 hours

The genocide in Gaza

Published 22 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
1 minute read

21 children have died from malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in just the past 72 hours. This was reported by Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, to the British public broadcaster BBC.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, an additional 15 adults have died from starvation and malnutrition in the past day. This brings the total number of such deaths to 101, of which 80 are children, according to the ministry.

Dr. Abu Salmiya warns that the situation is critical. Around 900,000 children in Gaza are suffering from hunger, and 70,000 of them are in a state of malnutrition. Diabetics and kidney patients are at particularly high risk, according to the doctor.

Acute humanitarian crisis

The organization Save the Children confirms the devastating situation on the ground.

Everyone in Gaza is hungry now, says Rachel Cummings, humanitarian director at Save the Children, to Al Jazeera.

Gaza’s health ministry is under Hamas control, but has in previous conflicts proven to provide death tolls that correspond well with independent assessors’ figures.

Facts about starvation and genocide

Starvation as a method involves deliberately causing or exacerbating famine to destabilize, oppress, or eliminate a group of people. This can occur by blocking access to food, stopping humanitarian aid, or attacking food infrastructure, which directly threatens the survival of civilian populations.

International law, particularly humanitarian law and international law, prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon in armed conflicts. UN Security Council Resolution 2417 recognizes starvation as a war crime when deliberately used as a method of warfare and calls on states and parties to conflict to guarantee the civilian population's right to food. Additionally, the use of starvation is classified as a war crime or crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court when the starvation is intentional and directed against a specific group.

Starvation can also be part of genocide when used with the intent to wholly or partially destroy a national, ethnic, religious, or other particular group. By depriving groups of their basic needs and thereby causing death and suffering, this tactic fulfills the criteria for genocide according to international conventions such as the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Over 100 killed in Gaza over the weekend

The situation in Gaza

Published 14 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Ruins after bombings in Gaza, archive image.
1 minute read

On Saturday alone, at least 70 people were killed in Gaza and 208 were injured, reports the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

At least 40 more people were killed in new attacks on Sunday, including six children who were killed at a drinking water distribution point, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense authority to AFP. Representatives from Al-Awda Hospital confirm that they received ten bodies following an Israeli attack on a water collection point in nearby Nuseirat. Hospital staff estimate that the actual death toll is 129 and that 33 of those killed were queuing for humanitarian aid.

The Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations in Gaza, has according to Defense Minister Israel Katz received orders to establish a concentration camp that they refer to as a “humanitarian city” in the southern part of Gaza, where they aim to eventually house Gaza’s entire population.

According to health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza, the death toll now exceeds 58,000 people.

US issues sanctions against UN investigator who criticized Israel

The situation in Gaza

Published 10 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Francesca Albanese is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories since 2022.
4 minute read

The Trump administration has decided to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, as part of the American campaign to silence critics of Israel’s actions in the ongoing war. This is reported by The Guardian.

In a text message to Al Jazeera, Albanese accuses the US of “mafia style intimidation techniques”.

The US State Department announced on Wednesday that the country is issuing sanctions against the independent official who is tasked with investigating human rights violations in the Palestinian territories. The decision comes after American pressure on the UN to remove Albanese from her position previously failed.

Francesca Albanese, who is a human rights lawyer, has been open with her criticism of what she describes as the “genocide” that Israel is carrying out against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the US, which provides Israel with military support, have firmly denied these allegations.

International legal scrutiny

Israel faces allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and war crimes at the International Criminal Court following the country’s devastating military assault on Gaza. Albanese’s position has also received support from leading genocide scholars and human rights organizations.

In a post on X late Wednesday evening, Albanese wrote that she stands “firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done,” without directly mentioning the American sanctions. In a text message to Al Jazeera, she was quoted dismissing the US actions as “mafia style intimidation techniques“.

In recent weeks, Albanese has sent out a series of letters urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombing of the Gaza Strip. The Italian citizen has also been a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court’s prosecution of Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes.

Harsh American criticism

Most recently, she issued a report that named several American corporations among the companies helping with what she described as Israel’s occupation and war against Gaza.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on the sanctions on social media:

– Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.

Albanese has been targeted for criticism by pro-Israeli officials and groups in the US and Middle East. Last week, the US UN mission issued a sharp statement demanding her removal for “years-long pattern of virulent antisemitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias”.

The statement claimed that Albanese’s allegations that Israel is committing genocide or apartheid are “false and offensive”.

Part of broader campaign

The sanctions represent the culmination of an extensive campaign over nearly six months by the Trump administration to silence criticism of Israel’s handling of the deadly war in Gaza, which is approaching two years. Earlier this year, the Trump administration began arresting and deporting faculty members and students at American universities who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities.

Human rights experts have sharply criticized the US sanctions against Albanese. Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the think tank Center for International Policy, described them as “rogue state behavior”, while Amnesty International said that UN Special Rapporteurs must be supported and not sanctioned.

Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International and former UN Special Rapporteur, stated:

– Governments around the world and all actors who believe in the rule-based order and international law must do everything in their power to mitigate and block the effect of the sanctions against Francesca Albanese and more generally to protect the work and independence of special rapporteurs.

Background to the conflict

Israel’s retaliation campaign after the events of October 7, 2023, has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were combatants or civilians. The figure is generally considered to be a significant underestimate.

Nearly 21 months into the conflict that has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, it is almost impossible for the critically injured to receive the care they need, say doctors and aid workers.

Albanese said in a recent post on X:

We must stop this genocide, whose short-term goal is completing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, while also profiteering from the killing machine devised to perform it.

No one is safe until everyone is safe.

Francesca Albanese is an Italian jurist and human rights expert who has served as the UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories since 2022. She has a background in international law and has worked on issues concerning human rights, humanitarian law and conflict resolution. Albanese is known for her critical reports and analyses of the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, where she highlights the consequences of the Israeli occupation for the civilian population. Her work aims to promote justice, accountability and respect for international law in the region.

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