I haven’t been posting much on the site. Lost my motivation, for several reasons, not least of which is U.S. support for Israel’s nihilistic genocide in Gaza.

Israel is a virulently racist society that treats native inhabitants with second-class citizenship at best (within the 1948 UN boundaries), and as “human animals” (Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant) without any rights in the occupied territories. Israel subjects Palestinians to degrading treatment including torture. Don’t take my word for it, read any of the reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, or Israel’s own B’Tselem rights group.

Before you say “October 7”, then please read one of the articles in Israeli media, among others about what happened that day.

My organization, Columbia County for Palestine, is hosting a talk next Saturday, March 22, 2025 at the Hudson, NY public library on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns with Riham Barghouti and Rebecca Vilkomerson, at 3:30 pm. One focus is to “Break the Bonds”: to have New York State wind down the $340 million it holds in risky Israel bonds. As with apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, the aim is to increase non-violent pressure to reduce the violence and force democratic change.

Whether this is appropriate for this site, my explanation is this: I cannot celebrate US and western music but ignore the damage my country is doing around the world by supplying weapons, providing diplomatic cover, spreading lies, and silencing critics. The Biden and Trump administrations are both guilty of these charges; this is not a partisan issue.

“I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel” – Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message