Monthly Archives: November 2023

Why the 10/7 Hamas Attack happened in a ‘vacuum’ of Global Governance : Open Letter to Mr Antonio Guterres

Sub: Filling up the ‘vacuum’ of global governance to stop global injustice with Palestine crises as Focal Point

Dear Mr Guterres,

On 24 October 2023, in your remarks to the Security Council on the Middle East, you referred to how the 10/7 military raid on the belligerent occupier state Israel by Hamas, the Palestinian resistance forces ‘did not happen in a vacuum’. I quote you below with the comprehensive historic context of your statement:

‘The situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour. The war in Gaza is raging and risks spiraling throughout the region. Divisions are splintering societies. Tensions threaten to boil over. At a crucial moment like this, it is vital to be clear on principles — starting with the fundamental principle of respecting and protecting civilians.

I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions. I respectfully note the presence among us of members of their families.

Excellencies,

It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.(Emphasis added) The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.

But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Excellencies,

Even war has rules. We must demand that all parties uphold and respect their obligations under international humanitarian law; take constant care in the conduct of military operations to spare civilians; and respect and protect hospitals and respect the inviolability of UN facilities which today are sheltering more than 600,000 Palestinians. The relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the level of civilian casualties, and the wholesale destruction of neighborhoods continue to mount and are deeply alarming.’
– Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General on 24 October ’23 in his remarks to Security Council on Middle-East

I must applaud your courage and commitment to restore peace and harmony in the “Middle-East’ region (appropriately West Asia) and the world at large to speak the truth in face of enormous hostilities from the settler-colonialist ‘belligerent occupier’ Zionist regime in Israel.

Yet, I firmly believe that the incident actually happened in a vacuum that has existed from the very inception of a fatally-flawed, failed and now proven defunct United Nations that needs to be dissolved and replaced with a fair, transparent, democratic and effective world body. Gaia Nation, a civil society initiative to fill up this ‘vacuum’, needs your support and blessings. We can together dispel the darkness – of racial supremacy, hubris, greed, apathy and selfishness in the garb of national interest that this ‘vacuum’ sucks in – with the light of truth and justice.

Before we come to Gaia Nation and how it fills up the ‘vacuum’ in global governance, let us recount how your careful and cautious remarks evoked hostile and hounding reaction from agents of a belligerent occupier.

Israel’s responses to the ‘truth bomb’

Within hours of your statement on Tuesday 24 October, ’23, almost a month back from now, Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen cancelled his meeting with you later that day after you dropped this ‘truth bomb’, accusing you of “tolerating and justifying” terrorism.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mr. Cohen said he will not meet with you. “After the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!”, he remarked.

Later talking to reporters at the UN Security Council stakeout, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan lashed out at you, saying ‘you have lost all morality and impartiality’. “Because when you say those terrible words that these heinous attacks did not happen in a vacuum, you are tolerating terrorism and by tolerating terrorism, you are justifying terrorism.”, Mr. Erdan said. He then falsely accused Hamas of beheading babies (which as we know now was devious misinformation planted by Israel), burnt families (most of them died in cars and houses bombed by the Israeli Apache helicopters which went indiscriminately berserk), raped women and abducted kids, babies and Holocaust survivors, but castigated you ‘for blaming Israel and the victim’.

Mr. Erdan further said: “This is a pure-blood libel. This is a pure-blood libel. And I think that the Secretary-General must resign because from now on every day that he’s here in this building unless he apologises immediately today, we called him to apologise, there is no justification to the existence of this building.” He referred to how the UN building was established to prevent atrocities (his belligerence reminiscent of the bombing of King David Hotel in Jerusalem by Israeli terrorist gang Irgun that later morphed into the Israel Occupation Forces and the presently ruling Likud party). “How can the Secretary-General, with his words, justify in any way the terrible atrocities that happened to our civilians, innocent civilians?”, he wondered.

Mr. Cohen, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel addressing reporters at the Security Council, said: “There is not two sides” and “there is only one side to support”.

M/s Cohen and Erdan carry a legacy that goes back to the Jewish Lehi (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) and Irgun (National Military Organisation) movements initiated violent uprisings against the British Mandate in the 1940s. On 6 November 1944, Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet Zuri (members of Lehi) assassinated Lord Moyne in Cairo. Moyne was the British Minister of State for the Middle East and the assassination is said by some to have turned British Prime Minister Winston Churchill against the Zionist cause.

When M/sCohen and Erdan talk of the ‘only one side to support’ they rekindle memories of bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in a terrorist attack on July 22, 1946, by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization the Irgun during the Jewish insurgency. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured. The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan. When planned, the attack had the approval of the Haganah, the principal Jewish paramilitary group in Palestine. The main motive of the bombing was to destroy documents incriminating the Jewish Agency in attacks against the British, which were obtained during Operation Agatha, a series of raids by mandate authorities. It was the deadliest attack directed at the British during the Mandate era (1920–1948).

That ‘only one side’ assassinated Folke Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator in Palestine, on Friday 17 September 1948. Members of Lehi, the Zionist terrorist organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang. Just before the first Israeli elections in January 1949, a general amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government. In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an “award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel”, the Lehi ribbon. The killing was approved by the three-man ‘center’ of Lehi: Yitzhak Yezernitsky (the future Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir) was one among them.

A Swedish nobleman and diplomat, Bernadotte negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps in World War II, including 450 Danish Jews from the Theresienstadt camp. After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. I wish more people with influence, had the courage, as you have demonstrated, to counter the disinformation that the Zionist-controlled global media is spreading that places the blame of spurning the peace proposals, squarely on the occupied and oppressed people of Palestine.

It is noteworthy here that the fodder for the ‘belligerent occupation’ of Palestine over the past 56 years, as you mention, (actually 75 years since the first Nakba, the Palestinian Holocaust, happened in 1948, few months before the UN Human Rights Declaration on 10 December 1948) comes from another settler-colonialist belligerent occupier state of United States of America. Despite tremendous resistance from its own citizens, especially large numbers of younger people, America has been the chief abettor in the gruesome genocide and the grotesque crimes against humanity committed by Israel since the 10/7 incident. What is even more alarming is that America has been trying to surreptitiously fill in the vacuum as a sole global superpower and imperialist. It is no freaky coincidence that it played an instrumental role in the the fatally flawed design of United Nations where aggressor states have Veto powers with Permanent Seats in Security Council its apex body.

Is Tagore’s foreboding of ‘Crisis in Civilization’ coming true?

Today, as a momentous episode of history is unfolding in front of our eyes, we are witnessing how America and Israel on the side of injustice prospered tremendously and have gained so much materially. They have conquered many enemies from the indigenous people who they butchered and graved their land in America from 1600-1675 and grabbed their land; Hitler’s Nazis, and after the Second World War that never ended, they have been on a conquering spree of the whole worlds. They controlled the global media and the global banking system to enslave almost every country worldwide through fear or through enticements. Yet, all the conquest is in vain as they dig their own graveyard in Gaza and perish from the root.

As David Kucinich, who has served the US Congress for 16 years and has given over 500 speeches warning about the consequences of US wars against Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria writes in an essay yesterday titled ‘Thou shalt not kill’ on 27 October 2023:

“Through illegal war after illegal war, the US has demoralized and demonized itself against the rest of the world. It is the US and Israel against the Arab, Muslim, Chinese, Russian, Iranian, Turks, et al. The probability of nuclear war is higher than it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 16-28, 1962, when President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev found an off ramp averting annihilation. Today, the price of nuclear vengeance and retribution would be the deaths of at least five billion people, and the end of life on planet Earth.”
– David Kucinich, ‘Thou shalt not kill’ 27 October ’23

Philosopher-poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore delivered a talk titled ‘Crisis in Civilisation’ on 14 April 1941, three months before his death on August 1941. This was his last public address at the end of which he shares the following shloka.

‘𝑨𝒔 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅, 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒅 𝒄𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒗𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒆𝒕 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏 𝑴𝒂𝒏. 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆. 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒘𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒐𝒏, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒔. 𝑨 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕, 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒏 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆.’

Today we witness the perils which attend on the insolence of might; one day shall be borne out the full truth of what the sages have proclaimed:

अधर्मेनैधते तावत् ततो भद्राणि पश्यति |

ततः सपत्नीन जयति समुलस्तु विनश्यति ||

– मनुस्मृति 4. 174

This shloka 4.174 from Manu Smriti means: For a time one prospers through unrighteousness, for a while they experience good things, and for a time they conquer their enemies; but, after all, they perish root and branch.

The Book of Proverbs, for the uninitiated, are part of the biblical wisdom literature that raise questions of values, moral behavior, the meaning of human life, and right conduct. Its theological foundation is that submission to the will of God is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is praised for her role in creation; God acquired her before all else, and through her he gave order to chaos; and since humans have life and prosperity by conforming to the order of creation, seeking wisdom is the essence and goal of life. The Book of Proverbs is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible and a book of the Christian Old Testament. Proverbs 16:19 from this book echoes what the shloka from Manu Smriti tells us:

How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!
And to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

The highway of the upright is to depart from evil:
He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.

Pride goeth before destruction,
And an haughty spirit before a fall.

Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly,
Than to divide the spoil with the proud.
– Book of Proverbs 16:19

Can we act before it is ‘too late’?

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The ‘tide in the affairs of men’ does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.”
– Martin Luther King

In response to the exceptional challenges that humanity faces today, we need to move at much greater speed than usual to respond to untold tragedy and trauma unfolding before our eyes in Gaza as a focal point for global injustice worldwide in a myriad ways.

Gaia Nation is a civil society initiative for new world body to fill in a vacuum that has systemically remained due to a fatally flawed, failed and now proven defunct United Nations. With Palestine as a focal point for glaring injustice and grotesque ethnic cleansing by the occupier, oppressor Zionist apartheid terrorist state of Israel, this should be our most urgent priority to announce an interim Peace & Harmony Council with following people, as copied on the email and others for whom I shall need your help with their email address. With a Zero Draft of Joint Declaration, I shall also strongly appeal to you with an SOS to organise a 90-minutes virtual Press Meet in a suitable slot in the 3-day event:

1. Prof Ilan Pappe
2. Dr Gabor Mate
3. Francesca Albanese
4. Wadah Khanfar
5. Scott Ritter
6. Antonio Guterres
7. Cyril Ramaphosa
8. Raycep T Erdogan
9. Ione Belarra
10. Prem Shankar Jha
11. Jeroninio Almeida
12. Lex Fridman
Chandra Vikash (Convenor)
Special Rapporteurs : David A Hearst/ Deepak Parvatiyar / Dr Deepanshu Mohan / Vidyadhar Date
Special Observer and Session Coach: Jay Kaushal
Special Invitee: Dr S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India

Plan of Action

Organise a civil society pressure group in India as an immediate response to the Global Emergency to engage with the External Affairs Minister of India and concerned people behind the scenes, for India to host Gaia Nation and for the Government of India to actively participate in this civil society-led initiative.

Formation of Gaia Nation Constituent Assembly

a. Call for nominations for 11-member Gaia Nation Peace & Harmony Council to be announced by Sunday 26 November 2023 in response to the Global Emergency with Palestine humanitarian crises as the focal point.
b. The Peace & Harmony Council will draft the Gaia Nation Charter by or before 15 December 2023. Zero Draft for the same has been shared on the link here
c. Gaia Nation PHC forms the Gaia Nation Constituent Assembly comprising 5 Province Representatives each from 80 Provinces + 100 lateral nominations from around the world based on relevant specialisation.
d. GN PHC calls nominations for the Constituent Assembly by or before 15 December 2023 and completes the process of drafting Gaia Nation Constitution by 15 January 2024
e. Transition from UN to Gaia Nation of all necessary and relevant departments and agencies is completed by 15 March 2024.
f. Gaia Nation is fully functional by or before 5 June 2024.

Charter of Gaia Nation (Zero Draft)

Preamble

We, the indigenous peoples of Gaia, Mother Earth:

Considering that we are all part of Gaia, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny;

Gratefully acknowledging that Gaia is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well;

Recognizing that all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination in the name of ‘development’ have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Earth, putting life as we know it today at great risk at the brink of extinction of large number of species, including human beings, through climate and ecological collapse, war and food crises;

Convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Earth;

Affirming that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Gaia and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so;

Conscious of the urgency of taking decisive, collective action to transform structures and systems to protect and nurture life on Earth and for peace, prosperity and joy for all in harmony with nature;

Resolve to unite as Gaia Nation for peace, justice, prosperity and joy for all in harmony with nature and with a holistic design to create One World for Many Worlds that respects our diversity of cultures and customs and for human dignity and rights over natural resources of local communities while fulfilling our unity as Gaia Nation;

Proclaim this Charter for Gaia Nation to the end that every individual and institution, including all existing nation governments takes responsibility to promote through teaching, education, and consciousness raising, respect for the rights recognized in this Charter and ensure through prompt and progressive measures and mechanisms, local, regional and global, their universal and effective recognition and observance among all peoples in the world of the Gaia Nation.

Article 1. Gaia, Mother Earth

(1) Gaia, Mother Earth is a living being.

(2) Gaia is a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.

(3) Each being is defined by its relationships as an integral part of Gaia.

(4) The inherent rights of Gaia are inalienable in that they arise from the same source as existence.

(5) Gaia and all beings are entitled to all the inherent rights recognized in this Charter for Gaia Nation without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic and inorganic beings, species, origin, use to human beings, or any other status.

(6) Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.

(7) The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and health of Gaia.

Article 2. Inherent Rights of Gaia

(1) Gaia and all beings of which she is composed have the following inherent rights:

(a) the right to life and to exist;

(b) the right to be respected;

(d) the right to maintain its identity and integrity as a distinct, self-regulating and interrelated being;

(e) the right to water as a source of life;

(f) the right to clean air;

(g) the right to integral health;

(h) the right to be free from contamination, pollution and toxic or radioactive waste;

(i) the right to not have its genetic structure modified or disrupted in a manner that threatens its integrity or vital and healthy functioning;

(j) the right to full and prompt restoration for violation of the rights recognized in this Charter caused by human activities;

(2) Each being has the right to a place and to play its role in Earth for her harmonious functioning.

(3) Every being has the right to wellbeing and to live free from torture or cruel treatment by human beings.

Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Gaia

(1) Every human being is responsible for respecting and living in harmony with and as Gaia.

(2) Human beings, and all public and private institutions, including nation governments, must:

(a) act in accordance with the rights and obligations recognized in this Charter;

(b) recognize and promote the full implementation and enforcement of the rights and obligations recognized in this Charter;

(c) promote and participate in learning, analysis, interpretation and communication about how to live in harmony with Gaia in accordance with this Charter;

(d) ensure that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Gaia, now and in the future;

(e) establish and apply effective norms and laws for the defence, protection and conservation of the rights of Gaia;

(f) respect, protect, conserve and where necessary, restore the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Gaia;

(g) guarantee that the damages caused by human violations of the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration are rectified and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and health of Gaia;

(h) empower human beings and institutions to defend the rights of Gaia and of all beings;

(i) establish precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent human activities from causing species extinction, the destruction of ecosystems or the disruption of ecological cycles;

(j) guarantee peace and eliminate nuclear, chemical, biological and all other weapons causing harm to our body, mind and spirit;

(k) promote and support practices of respect for Gaia and all beings, in accordance with their own cultures, traditions and customs;

(l) promote socio-economic systems that are in harmony with Gaia and in accordance with the rights recognized in Charter.

Article 4. Definitions

(1) The term “being” includes ecosystems, natural communities, species and all other natural entities which exist as part of Gaia.

(2) Nothing in this Charter restricts the recognition of other inherent rights of all beings or specified beings.

The Spirit of Oneness*

The mental, physical, chemical, and other innumerable facts concerning all branches of knowledge are endless but are all united in myself. It is an untold mystery of unity in me, that has the simplicity of the infinite and yet, it reduces the immense mass of multitude to a single point. Tat tvam asi**. I am that.

This One in me knows the universe of the many. But, in whatever it knows, it knows the One in different aspects. It knows this world only because this world is One to it, in spite of the seeming contradiction of the endless facts contained in the single fact of the One World. Its knowledge of a tree is the knowledge of a unity, which appears in every aspect of a tree from its seed to its roots to stem, branches and leaves, flowers and fruits.

This One in me is creative. Its creations gives expression to an ideal of unity in its endless show of variety. Such are its pictures, poems, music, in which it finds joy only because they reveal the perfect forms of an inherent unity.

This One in me not only seeks unity in knowledge for its understanding and creates images of unity for its delight; it also seeks union in love for its fulfilment. It seeks itself in others. This is a fact, which would be absurd had there been no great medium of truth to give it reality. In love we find a joy which is ultimate because it is the ultimate truth. Therefore it is said in the Upanishads that the advaitam is anantam,—”the One is Infinite”; that the advaitam is anandam,— “the One is Love” .

To give a perfect expression to the One, the Infinite, through the harmony of the many; to the One, the Love, through the sacrifice of self, is the object alike of our individual life and our society.

*Adapted from Introduction to ‘Creative Unity’ by poet-philosopher ‘Gurudev’ Rabindranath Tagore published in 1922
**Literally meaning “thou art that”. This famous expression of the relationship between the individual and the Absolute is frequently repeated in the sixth chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad, one of the classic texts of Vedanta philosophy of Non-duality. This Upanishad listed in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads belongs to the Tandya school of the Samaveda, one of the four Vedic texts. As part of the poetic and chants-focused Samaveda, the broad unifying theme of the Chhandogya Upanishad is the importance of speech, language, song and chants to man’s quest for knowledge and salvation, to metaphysical premises and questions, as well as to rituals.

References:
Palestine humanitarian crises, its resolution: SOS call to civil society, EAM India
Link: https://www.counterview.in/2023/11/palestine-humanitarian-crises-its.html

Joint Declaration on IMMEDIATE Ceasefire in Palestine and Restoration of Truth and Justice with Gaia Nation (Zero Draft)

Link: https://chandravikash.wordpress.com/2023/11/08/joint-declaration-on-immediate-ceasefire-in-palestine-and-restoration-of-truth-and-justice-with-gaia-nation-zero-draft/

Charter for Gaia Nation (Zero Draft for discourse, consensus and ratification)
Link: https://chandravikash.wordpress.com/2023/02/05/charter-for-gaia-nation-zero-draft-for-discourse-consensus-and-ratification/

Best Regards,
Chandra Vikash
Convenor
GAIA Earth Sansad
gaiasansad@gmail.com

New Delhi
22 Nov ’23

A Third View of The Islamic Paradox

A Third View of the Islamic Paradox

For a true religion, the whole world is their homeland. This is how the religions of the world have been, before the advent of Abrahamic or Semitic religions nearly 3000 years back. Should this not apply equally well to Islam as well. So the question is that if we all agree that Zionist state is falsehood and abuse of basic tenets of Judaism, what about Islamic states? This question has become important and also topical, in light of Arab-Islamic Summit, the joint meeting of Muslim countries – across sectarian lines and geopolitical alignments – hosted by Saudi Arabia on Saturday 11 Nov 2023. Its final communique, as reported by Al-Jazeera, ‘rejected justifying Israel’s actions against Palestinians as self-defense’ and called out ‘Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, war crimes and barbaric and inhumane massacres by the occupation government.’

Leaders pose for a family photo for a family photo during the Extraordinary Joint Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League at King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on November 11, 2023. [Mustafa Kamacı – Anadolu Agency]

‘Originally, only the 22 members of the Arab League were expected to participate, but the meeting was later expanded to include the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a wider association of 57 mostly Muslim-majority states to which the Arab League countries belong.’

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra is not too happy about the Summit outcomes. He said that ‘without consensus among the summit attendees, its outcomes are useless’.

“People do understand that the Israelis don’t really care about what is happening at this summit between the OIC and Arab League leaders. When you look at the communique you get a sense that the Arab and Muslim leaders do not have a mechanism to push a ceasefire and humanitarian corridor,” Ahelbarra said.

“This summit was just for the sake of a semblance of unity … in the Arab and Muslim world. It’s a watered-down statement. Not all Arab leaders decided to attend this summit because of the huge differences and divisions among the key players of the summit. That’s why they put this vaguely worded statement for public consumption,” he added.

The sectarian divide among the Muslim world and the elusive yearning of the Ummah, as it weaves and wafts through the labyrinthine maze of geopolitical interests and alignments, where realpolitik brutely pushes and shoves religious unity to the backseat. Religious ethos even by its own followers is further sub-divided on sectarian lines and behind them lurks the murky shadows of the universal vices that consume all human beings who are either ‘irreligious’ or ‘not truly secular’ – greed, lust, apathy and selfishness.

Dividing the world into monotheist theocratic states, where every religion seeks to have a homeland or more than one exclusive monotheistic theocratic states and then further sub-dividing on sectarian lines, or oppressing the weaker sects in a dystopian limbo, is a fatally flawed concept as any such state is created by destroying existing polytheistic societies where people of diverse faith and belief systems live harmoniously in different regions worldwide.

Around the world, both India and Palestine have shared this ethos before the British ‘divide and rule’ policy split them into three parts – 1948 creation of Zionist state of Israel that split Palestine into three parts and a year before 1947 creation of Islamic state of Pakistan that split India or Hindustan into three parts in a similar fashion. In case of India, West and East Pakistan were placed on two sides but as a single nation-state where as for Palestine, West Bank and Gaza were placed on two sides creating the Zionist state of Israel in the middle.

Such divisions on religious lines becomes a grave crises has been used by irreligious elements driven by greed, lust, apathy and selfishness (GLAS) to foment conflicts, genocides and destructive wars, like we are witnessing in Palestine, we need deeper dialog on how religious ethos of love, compassion, kindness, fairness and justice can be used to unite humanity and to channelise its collective energies for the well-being and betterment for all. This is reflected in this shloka from Vrihadaranyak Upanishad.

सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग् भवेत्।।
ॐ शांतिः शांतिः शांतिः॥ – बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् 1.4.14

This means that we pray for peace in the universe, peace in our hearts, and peace among them. May everyone be happy; Be free from all weaknesses; Let everyone see the good; Don’t let anyone share in the suffering.

In face of the deranged and dehumanising genocide of the people of Palestine over past one month and the historical backdrop of 75 years of Israeli occupation, the world today needs Muslim unity to stop Israel from genocide of the people of Palestine, all the more as both United Nations and India, with its traditional responsibility as Vishvaguru Bharat have failed in their responsibilities, by siding with the evil Zionist regime.

But how can Muslim unity further transform into global unity against the Zionist evil regime’s injustice and the pervasive injustice worldwide where mercenary irreligious criminal gangs hide ?

Given the military strength of Israel, de facto the 51st state of the United States of America, we need world unity to win this war decisively and without escalating into the MADness of Mutually Assured Destruction.

This is possible only when instead of restricting itself to just the Muslim world of Islamic state and Muslims in other multi-religious countries, as the case has been so far, the Islamic Paradox is that can Muslim Unity rise and transcend its religious boundaries to embrace global unity that respects and honors every other religion and through deeper dialog finds the common and the higher ground of all religions – an ethos of truth and justice, love, compassion, kindness, fairness, equity and harmony with nature. This is the way we can restraint the irreligious elements from unleashing their universal vices – of greed, lust, apathy and selfishness, which ironically all true religions denounce and yet, it inadvertently manifests as ‘religious’ conflict.

India as a role model and a microcosm for ethno-federal vision of One Earth, One Family, One Future

India, with nearly a sixth of world population, has been seen so far as a global role model for ethno-federal democracy even as there is a further tremendous scope for improvement. As veteran journalist Prem Shankar Jha writes in The Wire here:

‘At the moment, a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine seems impossible. But should a miracle occur, there is one example of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural federation that could be a model: the ethno-federal democracy of India.

“But should a miracle occur and a liberal government come to power in Israel, there is one example of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural federation that it could well use as a model for Israel and Palestine. This is the ethno-federal democracy of India.

India’s citizens belong to more than 2,000 ethnic groups, each with its own history, language and culture, who speak 22 major languages, and innumerable dialects. Its constitution has harmonised this through a multi-tier democratic system with elected village councils making up the bottom tier, through 28 elected state governments, with a single national government at its apex.

Its constitution, which is by far the longest in the world, reserves defence, foreign affairs, international trade and finance, and the framing of criminal and civil law, to the Central government and leaves land, agriculture, health, education, culture and the administration of law, to the state governments.

India is home to eight major religions of the world– Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Sikhism, and their many branches. Its constitution protects not only their customs but also their religious laws. Within this framework, all of its citizens enjoy complete equality and the same civic rights and protections.

India’s success in forging a peaceful nation out of such enormous diversity without resorting to war has been so complete that it barely draws the world’s attention any longer. But the construction of its complex democracy has been an ongoing process, that began 12 years before India became independent, in 1935 and is still a work in progress, 88 years later.

The 1935 constitution gave India a federal structure that was based upon the British political structures that already existed at the time when they built their empire. The 1948 constitution, followed by the linguistic reorganisation of state borders in 1957, created the federal, ethnicity-based ‘Union of States’ that India is today.

Israel and Palestine could, if they desired, merge to create a similar ethno-federal nation, with Jerusalem as its capital, and Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as its federating units, each with its own state capital and, if desired, its own official religion. Jerusalem, however, would be open to all the faiths of the country, and the world.’

The miracle of a liberal regime that will agree to a One State solution may not occur as my friend Oded Gilad, global peace activist and member of the Council of the World Federalist Movement based in Israel writes:

“As an Israeli citizen who is promoting the vision of a democratic world federation, I often encounter the following challenging question:

“Your country holds millions of Palestinians under military rule, oppression and discrimination; shouldn’t you struggle to bring about real democracy at your local level first, and only then talk about the global level?”

My honest reply is that to the best of my understanding, the lack of democracy and rule of law at the global level is, in fact, the most fundamental underlying cause of this conflict, and that therefore it must be addressed with the highest priority if we are serious about ending it.

To understand why, it is useful to consider the rationale of the Zionist movement, whose turn to Palestine ignited the conflict. With all due respect to the ancient longing of religious Jews to return to the biblical “promised land”, the main reason that so many (mostly secular) Jews turned to Zionism and immigrated to Palestine since the late 19th century, was the fact that as a minority in Europe they were too often prone to persecution and oppression. This experience led many of them believe the nationalist creed that only a nation-state of their own could guarantee their survival. Had there been – in the past or today – a world federation holding both the power and the democratic legitimacy to defend all humans in the world, it is unlikely that Zionism and many other national movements would have become so popular and powerful.

A world federation to defend all human beings

It is true that in a democratic world federation Israeli Jews would return to be just a small minority and would lack the legal sovereignty that they enjoy today. But that would not be a problem for them as rather than having to defend themselves they will be protected by the far stronger government that represents all humans. In such a world, all other religious, national or ethnic groupings would similarly turn into small minorities. When considering the nearly 8 billion of potential world citizens, we can see that even the largest groupings that we know – such as “Christians”, “Muslims”, “Chinese” or “Indian” – would be only large minorities: ~31%, ~24%, ~16%, ~15% respectively. And since these groupings are highly heterogeneous and divided internally, all people will belong to far smaller minorities, and that would be just fine.

Unlike nation-states, which by design are obsessed with maintaining a national majority in the country, in a global federation “the people” would be composed entirely of minorities. This inherent diversity of the population means that the only social contract that such a polity could be based on would be one that enshrines and protects the basic rights and freedoms of all people and their groups, through effective constitutional and institutional checks and balances and with a democratically elected world parliament at the center.

In such a federation, Jews and Palestinians alike will not be restricted from settling in any part of the Earth.

No land would belong exclusively to any group, and people would be free to live wherever they choose, as is customary within democratic federations.

The vision of a global welfare state

For those who fear that such global freedom of movement would open up the gates for a gigantic wave of global immigration from poor to rich countries, I would say that their fears are ill-founded. Just as national borders are indeed successful today at preventing such immigration, the divisions they create between national legal systems are even more successful at preventing national tax authorities from getting their hands on the wealth of the world’s super-rich. In a world federation, in contrast, whose tax authority would span every corner of the planet, there will be a gigantic wave of redistribution not only of political but also of financial power from the global super-rich to the global super-poor. In such a global “mixed economy” or “welfare state” the global poor will suddenly be able to make a decent living in local jobs, providing necessary services and infrastructures to their own communities. Having that option, it is clear that the vast majority will remain in their homelands with their loved ones, rather than tear themselves from their families, friends and cultures, as so many are forced to do today.

The question of priority

Coming back to the narrower question of Israel and Palestine, some people insist and rephrase their question as follows: “though a world federation is a noble vision to aspire to in the long run, they say, in the meantime the Palestinians are suffering enormously from atrocious injustices, and cannot wait for global democracy to emerge. The colonialist project of Zionism continues to deprive them of their basic human rights, in flagrant violation of international law, and it is our moral duty to help and protect them first.”

To explain the flaws in that argument, it is useful to start with a simple analogy: imagine an armed group that bursts into a conference hall and takes all the attendants as hostages. In our domestic national systems, we know it would take much less than 50 minutes before the place would be surrounded with police cars and special forces coming to liberate the captives. Yet in our anarchic international system, Palestinians can live under occupation for well over 50 years and no police force are rushing to help them.

There is no global authority to protect people

The lesson of this analogy is that while our natural reaction to Israel’s occupation is to condemn Israel and Zionism, the more basic problem is with the international system, that has no real mechanisms for protecting victims and restoring justice. For this reason anyone who really cares for humans in general, and the Palestinians in particular, cannot ignore this aspect of the problem, or postpone it until after the conflict has been resolved. This systemic problem can be addressed and must be addressed as a precondition, or at least alongside any effort to find a local or particular solution. Yet today it is mostly ignored.

Whether one thinks that the conflict should end by dividing the land into two nation-states, or by turning it into one democratic state, one must recognize the necessity of an external authority equipped with sufficient force – and democratic legitimacy – to intervene when necessary to enforce such a solution, and protect it. In the current international order such authority does not exist and it will surely not just “emerge” if we continue to postpone the discussion about it.’

The Final Solution if we combine both these viewpoints from credible people is more likely in the form of Gaia Nation as a democratic, fair, transparent and effective alternative to the United Nations here and here.

Sanatan Dharma, in Arabic as Dee-e-Qayyum or the Eternal Religion, has traditionally been this common and higher ground. By this or any other name for which we can create a global consensus, this is our only and last hope, the Final Solution for humanity as a whole, to pull back from the jaws of annihilation as we keep hurtling towards extinction.

Joint Declaration on IMMEDIATE Ceasefire in Palestine and Restoration of Truth and Justice with Gaia Nation (Zero Draft)

2 Replies

Wed 8 Nov 2023

We, the people of Gaia Nation from around the world representing the global human society call upon following Head of States to take responsibility and resign for this heinous mass murder in Palestine and face justice:

1. Once war is thrust upon us as is the case of the genocidal attack on innocent civilians in Palestine by the Zionist terrorist settler-colonialist state of Israel, it is our duty to respond appropriately. Anytime, nuclear powers Russia, France or Iran should nuke Israel’s military bases and shut them off to prevent genocidal attack on innocent civilians. This is a continuation of the Second World War where Israel under Zionist terrorists has replaced the German Nazis. In an irony with a tragic twist in the tale, Hitler who committed suicide in his bunker, a day after Mussolini was brutally assassinated, is reborn as Netanyahu, to complete his Final Solution.

The other key change on the war stage is that old settler-colonialist terrorist state of America which emerged as the global superpower in the 1940s and along with Britain vanquished the Nazis has now switched sides to support the Zionists. But bogged down by its own internal dissensions, America and its NATO allies will leave Israel fending for itself all alone, just as it did to Ukraine and before that to Afghanistan. Ironically, Zionism, both in Israel and its variant in Ukraine will turn out to be the consummation of Hitler’s Final Solution that will vanquish the Zionists and bring them to justice.

History repeats itself first as Nazism, a tragedy and then as Zionism, a farce (precisely what is happening with Zelensky in Ukraine and Netanyahu in Israel). For peace and harmony to prevail as we all care for, war must follow its own rhythms to restore truth and justice.

2. Heads of States and the United Nations must roll. The killing of children and innocent civilians in Palestine must stop IMMEDIATELY. Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Rishi Sunak, Olaf Scholz, Justin Trudeau, Narendra Modiand all other HoS which voted against or abstained in the humanitarian ceasefire vote on the UN General Assembly resolution on 27 October 2023. They are all guilty of supporting or abetting genocide of more than 10,000 innocent civilians with more than 4000 children, including 88 UN staff, bombing of hospitals, ambulances, schools, shelters and cultural centres.

3. Among the world leaders, Antonio Guterres, Emanuele Macron, Ione Belarra Urteaga, Luis Arce, Cyril Ramaphosa and Vladimir Putin’s conduct has has been commendable and praiseworthy for speaking out for truth and justice, despite all the hostility and disinformation on their legitimate and morally upright actions. They along with Heads of State of all the 121 countries which voted for humanitarian ceasefire in Palestine are cordially invited to join the Gaia Nation. Please find details in the attached article.

We shall convene a Global Peace & Harmony Summit (GPHS) at the earliest opportunity as an Emergency Response to the grave humanitarian crises in Palestine and elsewhere around the world.

Gaia Nation Charter

References:

1. Palestine humanitarian crises, its resolution: SOS call to civil society, EAM India https://www.counterview.in/2023/11/palestine-humanitarian-crises-its.html

2. Truth is the only Game Changer : Netanyahu’s Fall and Arab Victory before 2023 ends https://chandravikash.wordpress.com/2023/11/01/truth-is-the-only-game-changer-netanyahus-fall-and-arab-victory-before-2023-ends/

3. ‘Why Israel Matters to Americans’ – This tells us how the fates of Israel and America are so intricately connected. And why both these terrorist apartheid rogue settler-coloniser projects are likely to fall together to pave way for restoration of truth and justice and for peace and harmony. https://youtu.be/klXaDgmM8Fs?si=BKj4vxLDW5xtAmFd

4. Rise Up Gondwana! – Tectonic Shifts in the Global South : Global problems created by the ‘Global North’ can only be solved at a higher level of thinking than which created them. As Covid blows the lid on how it is stuck with heavily invested ‘path dependency’ -deranged and delusional – and ‘sunk costs’ that have wiped out its ‘net worth’ and sanity, can the vindicated and unencumbered Global South, rise to the occasion? https://chandravikash.wordpress.com/2022/04/26/rise-up-gondwana-tectonic-shifts-in-the-global-south/

—
Best Regards,
Chandra Vikash
Convenor
GAIA Nation / Earth Sansad

The Crying Need for A World Body for Truth and Justice: Palestine Crises and its Resolution as its Focal Point : Meeting Summary Sun 5 Nov 2023

1 Reply

*For whom the bell tolls*

सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामया।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चित् दुःखभाग् भवेत्।।

(हिन्दी के लिए स्क्रॉल करें। साझा करें।)

As the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted yesterday on 5th of November 2023 in his yet another hapless cry for justice for the past several years:

“Polarization and dehumanization are being fueled by a tsunami of disinformation. We must stand up to the forces of antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and all forms of hate.”
– Antonio Guterres on X (formerly Twitter) on 6 Nov 2023

We need to rise up in response to the UN Secretary-General’s persistent appeal to end the grave humanitarian crises in Palestine with nearly one month of incessant bombardment of civilian areas, hospitals, ambulances, schools and shelters in their monstrous greed of Palestine land, oil and gas fields and for geopolitical gains.

In this larger context, I must thank Prof Ilan Pappe and Jerry Almeida for the soulful conversation we had yesterday. I share the key points here and urge Prof Pappe and Jerry to add any important points that I might have missed.

1. The meeting started with a key question to Israeli historian and author of Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Prof Ilan Pappe at the heart of the Israel-Palestine crisis. I first heard him and what drew my interest to invite him is this 19 October ’23 talk at UC Berkeley, 12 days after 10/7.

My question: ‘People of diverse religions live harmoniously in whichever part of the world they settle down. Why is the quest for Jewish Homeland for Jews /Judaism, in a specific geographical area in Palestine, more pronounced than for other religions? (Especially as there is no historical archaeological evidence of Abraham in the Palestine region except for Biblical Prophecies)

A second related question was to understand the context of Judenrein (systemic cleansing of Jews from European neighborhoods). When Zionist militia groups considered Adolf Hitler as the lesser enemy than the British and even sought help from the Nazis for the Jewish Homeland in Palestine (that started around1909), what really led to the Final Solution. What really infuriated Adolf Hitler for this extreme dehumanising genocide (that on a close observation Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to outdo to the Arabs in Palestine)? I have shared a historical backdrop in this blogpost here since beginning og 20th century up till now. This also counters the disinformation that questions the historicity of Palestine.

Prof Pappe agrees with the premise of the question and shares deeper insights. He said that Jews were not just a religious group but goaded by the Biblical Prophecies, both Evangelical Christians and the Jews strongly believed in their return to the Homeland. At the same time, Christian hatred towards Jews plays a role in Judenrein as they blame Judas, a Jew for killing Jesus Christ by poisoning him.

Jerry Almeida is very categorical in his stand on this point that educated people should not believe in such delusions. His focus is on ending the humanitarian crises in Palestine. He shares about his experience as being born in a Christian family, and how at the age of 14, he reads a book and he becomes a disbeliever and atheist. (Due to some video disturbances, i couldn’t catch the latter part of what Jerry said and I request him to add his points.

In the second part of the conversation, I raised the pivotal point of this Emergency Meeting – 1. Ending the Israeli terrorist attack and genocide of Palestine; 2. Formation of Gaia Nation world body (as outlined in the Description in the Google Meet invitation) and 3. India’s shocking abstention on 27 October on the important UN General Assembly resolution for humanitarian ceasefire of Israeli terrorist attack on Palestine that would also start the process to restore truth and justice. I have proposed action steps in this blogpost here.

Prof Pappe fully supports this agenda and agrees on the need for a new world body. He said that our initiative with Gaia Nation as, not only charting a new course but acting on concrete steps.

Our focus on today’s session after an initial introduction of new participants will be on formulating a Joint Declaration and Action Steps in this direction to End the Israel terrorist attack and genocide of Palestine; for formation of Gaia Nation to restore truth and justice and for peace and harmony that follows.

I shall request Prof Pappe to share references of concerned people we discussed – his friend in Kuala Lumpur, Husam Zomlot, Palestinian Ambassador to UK, Scott Ritter, David Hearst, Influencers on the Zionist and Arab side and others concerned globally.

I shall request Jerry, Bhaktimitra, Dr BR Patil and others to call and invite : Amb. MK Bhadrakumar, veteran journalist Prem Shankar Jha, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Prof Deepanshu Mohan, Jairam Ramesh and MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. They are all addressed in this email.

Best regards,
Chandra Vikash
Convenor
GAIA Earth Sansad

जैसा कि संयुक्त राष्ट्र महासचिव एंटोनियो गुटेरेस ने कल 5 नवंबर 2023 को पिछले कई वर्षों से न्याय के लिए अपनी एक और असहाय पुकार में ट्वीट किया था: “गलत सूचना की सुनामी द्वारा ध्रुवीकरण और अमानवीयकरण को बढ़ावा दिया जा रहा है। हमें इन ताकतों के खिलाफ खड़ा होना चाहिए यहूदी विरोधी भावना, मुस्लिम विरोधी कट्टरता और सभी प्रकार की नफरत।”

हमें फ़िलिस्तीन की भूमि, तेल के राक्षसी लालच में नागरिक क्षेत्रों, अस्पतालों, एम्बुलेंसों, स्कूलों और आश्रयों पर लगभग एक महीने की लगातार बमबारी के साथ फ़िलिस्तीन में गंभीर मानवीय संकट को समाप्त करने के लिए संयुक्त राष्ट्र महासचिव की लगातार अपील के जवाब में उठना होगा। और गैस क्षेत्र और भूराजनीतिक लाभ के लिए।

इस व्यापक संदर्भ में, मुझे कल हुई भावपूर्ण बातचीत के लिए प्रोफेसर इलान पप्पे और जेरी अल्मेडा को धन्यवाद देना चाहिए। मैं यहां मुख्य बिंदु साझा करता हूं और प्रोफेसर पप्पे और जेरी से कोई भी महत्वपूर्ण बिंदु जोड़ने का आग्रह करता हूं जो मुझसे छूट गया हो।

1. बैठक की शुरुआत इजरायली इतिहासकार और एथनिक क्लींजिंग ऑफ फिलिस्तीन के लेखक प्रोफेसर इलान पप्पे से इजरायल-फिलिस्तीन संकट के केंद्र में एक महत्वपूर्ण सवाल के साथ हुई। मैंने पहली बार उन्हें सुना और जिस बात ने उन्हें आमंत्रित करने में मेरी दिलचस्पी जगाई, वह है 10/7 के 12 दिन बाद यूसी बर्कले में 19 अक्टूबर 23 को हुई यह बातचीत। लिंक: https://www.youtube.com/live/1OcjOP8iUCU?si=EwVGpGOr_kLQsJff

मेरा प्रश्न: ‘विभिन्न धर्मों के लोग दुनिया के जिस भी हिस्से में बसते हैं, वे सौहार्दपूर्ण ढंग से रहते हैं। फ़िलिस्तीन के एक विशिष्ट भौगोलिक क्षेत्र में यहूदियों/यहूदी धर्म के लिए यहूदी मातृभूमि की तलाश अन्य धर्मों की तुलना में अधिक स्पष्ट क्यों है? (विशेष रूप से बाइबिल की भविष्यवाणियों को छोड़कर फिलिस्तीन क्षेत्र में अब्राहम का कोई ऐतिहासिक पुरातात्विक साक्ष्य नहीं है)

दूसरा संबंधित प्रश्न जुडेनरेइन (यूरोपीय पड़ोस से यहूदियों की प्रणालीगत सफाई) के संदर्भ को समझना था। जब ज़ायोनी मिलिशिया समूहों ने एडॉल्फ हिटलर को ब्रिटिशों की तुलना में कम दुश्मन माना और यहां तक कि फिलिस्तीन में यहूदी होमलैंड के लिए नाजियों से मदद मांगी (जो कि 1909 के आसपास शुरू हुई), तो वास्तव में अंतिम समाधान कैसे हुआ। इस अत्यधिक अमानवीय नरसंहार के लिए एडॉल्फ हिटलर वास्तव में किस बात से क्रोधित था (कि करीब से देखने पर बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू फिलिस्तीन में अरबों से आगे निकलने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं)? मैंने यहां इस ब्लॉगपोस्ट में 20वीं सदी की शुरुआत से लेकर अब तक एक ऐतिहासिक पृष्ठभूमि साझा की है. यह उस दुष्प्रचार का भी प्रतिकार करता है जो फिलिस्तीन की ऐतिहासिकता पर सवाल उठाता है।

प्रोफेसर पप्पे प्रश्न के आधार से सहमत हैं और गहरी अंतर्दृष्टि साझा करते हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि यहूदी सिर्फ एक धार्मिक समूह नहीं थे, बल्कि बाइबिल की भविष्यवाणियों से प्रेरित होकर, इवेंजेलिकल ईसाई और यहूदी दोनों ही मातृभूमि में अपनी वापसी में दृढ़ता से विश्वास करते थे। साथ ही, यहूदियों के प्रति ईसाइयों की घृणा जुडेनरेइन में एक भूमिका निभाती है क्योंकि वे यहूदा नाम के एक यहूदी को ईसा मसीह को जहर देकर मारने का दोषी मानते हैं।

इस मुद्दे पर जेरी अल्मेडा का रुख बहुत स्पष्ट है कि पढ़े-लिखे लोगों को इस तरह के भ्रमों पर विश्वास नहीं करना चाहिए। उनका ध्यान फ़िलिस्तीन में मानवीय संकट ख़त्म करने पर है। वह एक ईसाई परिवार में पैदा होने के अपने अनुभव के बारे में बताता है और बताता है कि कैसे 14 साल की उम्र में वह एक किताब पढ़ता है और अविश्वासी और नास्तिक बन जाता है। (कुछ वीडियो व्यवधानों के कारण, मैं जैरी द्वारा कही गई बात का दूसरा भाग नहीं देख सका और मैंने उनसे अपने अंक जोड़ने का अनुरोध किया है।

बातचीत के दूसरे भाग में, मैंने इस आपातकालीन बैठक के मुख्य बिंदु को उठाया – 1. इजरायली आतंकवादी हमले और फिलिस्तीन के नरसंहार को समाप्त करना; 2. गैया नेशन विश्व निकाय का गठन (जैसा कि Google मीट आमंत्रण में विवरण में बताया गया है) और 3. फिलिस्तीन पर इजरायली आतंकवादी हमले के मानवीय युद्धविराम के लिए संयुक्त राष्ट्र महासभा के महत्वपूर्ण प्रस्ताव पर 27 अक्टूबर को भारत का चौंकाने वाला बहिष्कार, जो कि शुरुआत भी करेगा। सत्य और न्याय को बहाल करने की प्रक्रिया। मैंने यहां इस ब्लॉगपोस्ट में कार्रवाई के कदम प्रस्तावित किए हैं:

प्रोफेसर पप्पे इस एजेंडे का पूरा समर्थन करते हैं और एक नए विश्व निकाय की आवश्यकता पर सहमत हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि गैया नेशन के साथ हमारी पहल न केवल एक नई राह तैयार कर रही है बल्कि ठोस कदमों पर काम कर रही है।

नए प्रतिभागियों के आरंभिक परिचय के बाद आज के सत्र में हमारा ध्यान इसराइल आतंकवादी हमले और फिलिस्तीन के नरसंहार को समाप्त करने के लिए इस दिशा में एक संयुक्त घोषणा और कार्रवाई कदम उठाने पर होगा; सत्य और न्याय को बहाल करने और उसके बाद शांति और सद्भाव के लिए गैया राष्ट्र के गठन के लिए।

मैं प्रोफेसर पप्पे से उन संबंधित लोगों के संदर्भ साझा करने का अनुरोध करूंगा जिनके बारे में हमने चर्चा की – कुआलालंपुर में उनके मित्र, हुसाम ज़ोमलॉट, यूके में फिलिस्तीनी राजदूत, स्कॉट रिटर, डेविड हर्स्ट, ज़ायोनी और अरब पक्ष के प्रभावशाली लोग और विश्व स्तर पर चिंतित अन्य।

मैं जैरी, भक्तिमित्र, डॉ. बीआर पाटिल और अन्य लोगों को कॉल करने और आमंत्रित करने का अनुरोध करूंगा: राजदूत। एमके भद्रकुमार, अनुभवी पत्रकार प्रेम शंकर झा, प्रताप भानु मेहता, प्रोफेसर दीपांशु मोहन, जयराम रमेश और विदेश मंत्रालय के प्रवक्ता अरिंदम बागची। इस ईमेल में उन सभी को संबोधित किया गया है।

साभार,
चंद्र विकास
संयोजक
गौ विश्व संसद

KYT ‘Know Your Terrorists’ before you support bombing of innocent civilians

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The Irgun or “The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel”, or Etzel turns into Likud, the ruling party of Israel today

Irgun was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine and then Israel between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.

The Irgun policy was based on what was then called Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. According to Howard Sachar, “The policy of the new organization was based squarely on Jabotinsky’s teachings: every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state”.

Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.

The organization committed acts of terrorism against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and against Arabs. In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments; in media such as The New York Times newspaper; as well as by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the 1946 Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency.

Albert Einstein, in a letter to The New York Times in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to “Nazi and Fascist parties” and described it as a “terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization”. Irgun’s tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, including terrorism.

Irgun members were absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces at the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel’s right-wing Herut (or “Freedom”) party, which led to today’s Likud party. Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977.

Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu born 21 October 1949) the prime minister of Israel since December 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is the chairman of the Likud party. Netanyahu is the longest-tenured prime minister in the country’s history, having served for a total of over 16 years.

Stern Gang / Lehi or “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”)

Stern Gang was a Zionist paramilitary militant organization founded by Avraham (“Yair”) Stern in Mandatory Palestine, a geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by use of violence, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state.

Stern Gang was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel, upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.

Lehi split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during World War II. It initially sought an alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Believing that Nazi Germany was a lesser enemy of the Jews than Britain, Lehi twice attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis, proposing a Jewish state based on “nationalist and totalitarian principles, and linked to the German Reich by an alliance”. After Stern’s death in 1942, the new leadership of Lehi began to move towards support for Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union and the ideology of National Bolshevism, which was considered an amalgam of both right and left.

Regarding themselves as “revolutionary Socialists”, the new Lehi developed a highly original ideology combining an “almost mystical” belief in Greater Israel with support for the Arab liberation struggle. This sophisticated ideology failed to gain public support and Lehi fared poorly in the first Israeli elections.

In April of 1948, Lehi and the Irgun were jointly responsible for the massacre in Deir Yassin of at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children. Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, and made many other attacks on the British in Palestine. On 29 May 1948, the government of Israel, having inducted its activist members into the Israel Defense Forces, formally disbanded Lehi, though some of its members carried out one more terrorist act, the assassination of Folke Bernadotte some months later, an act condemned by Bernadotte’s replacement as mediator, Ralph Bunche.

After the assassination, the new Israeli government declared Lehi a terrorist organization, arresting some 200 members and convicting some of the leaders. Just before the first Israeli elections in January 1949, a general amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government. In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an “award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel”, the Lehi ribbon. Former Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister of Israel in 1983.

Avraham Stern wanted to open Palestine to all Jewish refugees from Europe and considered this to be the most important issue of the day. Britain would not allow this. Therefore, he concluded, the Yishuv (Jews of Palestine) should fight the British rather than support them in the war. When the Irgun made a truce with the British, Stern left the Irgun to form his own group, which he called Irgun Tsvai Leumi B’Yisrael (“National Military Organization in Israel”), later Lohamei Herut Israel (“Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”). In September 1940, the organization was officially named “Lehi”, the Hebrew acronym of the latter name.

Stern and his followers believed that dying for the “foreign occupier” who was obstructing the creation of the Jewish State was useless. They differentiated between “enemies of the Jewish people” (the British) and “Jew haters” (the Nazis), believing that the former needed to be defeated and the latter manipulated.

In 1940, the idea of the Final Solution was still “unthinkable”, and Stern believed that Hitler wanted to make Germany judenrein, from which Jewish people are excluded through emigration, as opposed to extermination. In December 1940, Lehi contacted Germany with a proposal to aid German conquest in the Middle East in return for recognition of a Jewish state open to unlimited immigration.

Political racism

According to Yaacov Shavit, professor at the Department of Jewish History, Tel Aviv University, articles in Lehi publications contained references to a Jewish “master race”, contrasting the Jews with Arabs who were seen as a “nation of slaves”. Sasha Polakow-Suransky writes that “Lehi was also unabashedly racist towards Arabs. Their publications described Jews as a master race and Arabs as a slave race.” Lehi advocated mass expulsion of all Arabs from Palestine and Transjordan, or even their physical annihilation.

In contrast, a number of Lehi veterans, including co-leader Nathan Yellin-Mor, went on to establish the Semitic Action movement which sought the creation of a regional federation encompassing Israel and its Arab neighbours on the basis of an anti-colonialist alliance with other indigenous inhabitants of the Middle East.

When the Irgun split in 1940, Yitzhak Shamir joined the Stern Gang. He was imprisoned by British authorities in 1941. A few months after Stern was killed by the British in 1942, Shamir and Eliyahu Giladi hid under a stack of mattresses in a warehouse of the detention camp at Mazra’a, and at night escaped through the barbed wire fences of the camp. Shamir became the leader of the Stern Gang, and, together with Giladi, Anshell Shpillman and Yehoshua Cohen, reorganized the movement into cells and trained its members. In his memoirs, Shamir admitted in 1994 what had long been suspected: that the killing of Giladi in 1943 was ordered by Shamir himself, allegedly due to Giladi advocating the assassination of David Ben-Gurion, and arguing for other violence deemed too extremist by fellow Stern members.

In 1943, he became one of the three leaders of the group, serving with Nathan Yellin-Mor and Israel Eldad. Shamir sought to emulate the anti-British struggle of the Irish Republicans and took the nickname “Michael” after Irish Republican leader Michael Collins.

Yitzhak Shamir plotted the 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne, British Minister for Middle East Affairs, and personally selected Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri to carry it out. Moyne had been targeted due to his perceived role as an architect of British restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine, and in particular, the Patria disaster, which was blamed on him. In July 1946, Shamir was arrested. He had been walking in public in disguise and a British police sergeant, T.G. Martin, recognized him by his bushy eyebrows. Arrested, he was exiled to Africa, and interned in Eritrea by British Mandatory authorities. Lehi members subsequently tracked down and killed Martin in September 1946. On January 14, 1947, Shamir and four Irgun members escaped the Sembel Prison (a British Detention Camp) through a tunnel they had dug, 200 feet in length, and Mayer Malka of Khartoum subsequently arranged for them to be hidden in an oil truck for three days as it was driven over the border to French Somaliland. They were re-arrested by the French authorities, but Shamir with Malka’s assistance was eventually allowed passage to France and granted political asylum. Lehi sent him a forged passport, with which he entered Israel after the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most of Lehi’s members joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces. Lehi formally disbanded on May 29, 1948. However, the Lehi group in Jerusalem continued to function independently, outside government control.

During a UN-imposed truce, Shamir, Eldad, and Yellin-Mor authorized the assassination of the United Nations representative in the Middle East, Count Folke Bernadotte, who was killed in September 1948, when Lehi gunmen ambushed his motorcade in Jerusalem.

Lehi had feared that Israel would agree to Bernadotte’s peace proposals, which they considered disastrous, unaware that the provisional Israeli government had already rejected a proposal by Bernadotte the day before. The Israeli provisional government drafted an ordinance for the prevention of terrorism and then invoked it to declare Lehi a terrorist organisation, consequently rounding up 200 of its members for “administrative detention” (prison). They were granted amnesty some months later and given a state pardon.

In the first years of Israel’s independence, Shamir managed several commercial enterprises. In 1955, he joined the Mossad, serving until 1965. During his Mossad career, he directed Operation Damocles, the assassinations of German rocket scientists working on the Egyptian missile program.

He ran a unit that placed agents in hostile countries, created the Mossad’s division for planning and served on its General Staff.
Shamir resigned from the Mossad in protest over the treatment of Mossad Director-General Isser Harel, who had been compelled to resign after Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered an end to Operation Damocles.

In 1969, Shamir joined the Herut party headed by Menachem Begin and was first elected to the Knesset in 1973 as a member of the Likud. He became Speaker of the Knesset in 1977, and Foreign Minister in 1980 which he remained until 1986, concurrently serving as prime minister from October 1983 to September 1984 after Begin’s resignation.

Shamir had a reputation as a Likud hard-liner. In 1977 he presided at the Knesset visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He abstained in the Knesset votes to approve the Camp David Accords and the Peace Treaty with Egypt. In 1981 and 1982, as Foreign Minister, he guided negotiations with Egypt to normalize relations after the treaty. Following the 1982 Lebanon War he directed negotiations which led to the May 17, 1983 Agreement with Lebanon, which did not materialize.

Shamir won reelection as party leader in the 1984 Herut leadership election, defeating a challenge from Ariel Sharon.

His failure to stabilize Israel’s inflationary economy and to suggest a solution to the quagmire of Lebanon led to an indecisive election in 1984, after which a national unity government was formed between his Likud party and the Alignment led by Shimon Peres. As part of the agreement, Peres held the post of Prime Minister until September 1986, when Shamir took over.

As he prepared to reclaim the office of prime minister, Shamir’s hard-line image appeared to moderate. However, Shamir remained reluctant to change the status quo in Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbours and blocked Peres’s initiative to promote a regional peace conference as agreed in 1987 with King Hussein of Jordan in what has become known as the London Agreement. Re-elected in 1988, Shamir and Peres formed a new coalition government until “the dirty trick” of 1990, when the Alignment left the government, leaving Shamir with a narrow right-wing coalition. During this period the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip launched the first Intifada, which was suppressed with force by the Israeli government.

Shamir urged the US government to stop granting refugee visas to Soviet Jews, persuading it that they were not refugees because they already had a homeland in Israel and were only moving to the United States for economic reasons. He also termed the emigration of Soviet Jews to the United States rather than to Israel “defection”, and called the issuing of US refugee visas to Soviet Jews when Israel was already willing to take them in “an insult to Israel”. In 1989, a wave of Jewish emigration began from the Soviet Union after the Soviets allowed their Jewish population to emigrate freely. In October of that year, the US agreed to his requests and stopped issuing refugee visas to Soviet emigrants. Subsequently, Israel became the main destination of Soviet Jewish emigrants. Over one million Soviet immigrants would subsequently arrive in Israel, many of whom would have likely gone to the United States had Shamir not pressed the US government to change its policy.

In September 1989, a journalist for the Jerusalem Post asked Shamir, “Doesn’t it amaze you that in Poland, where hardly a Jew is left, there should still be a powerful anti-Semitic presence?” Shamir replied “They suck it in with their mother’s milk! This is something that is deeply imbued in their tradition, their mentality.”[40] The comment caused public and diplomatic controversy within Poland as being libelous. Adam Michnik later addressed the comment by stating “the stubborn categorization of Poland as an anti-Semitic nation was used in Europe and America as an alibi for the betrayal of Poland at Yalta. The nation so categorized was seen as unworthy of sympathy, or of help, or of compassion.”

During the Gulf War, Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel, many of which struck population centers. Iraq hoped to provoke Israeli retaliation and thus alienate Arab members of the United States-assembled coalition against Iraq. Shamir deployed Israeli Air Force jets to patrol the northern airspace with Iraq. However, after the United States and the Netherlands deployed Patriot antimissile batteries to protect Israel, and US and British special forces began hunting for Scuds, Shamir responded to American calls for restraint, recalled the jets, and agreed not to retaliate.

During his term, Shamir reestablished diplomatic relations between Israel and several dozen African, Asian and other countries. In May 1991, as the Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam was collapsing, Shamir ordered the airlifting of 14,000 Ethiopian Jews, known as Operation Solomon. He continued his efforts, begun in the late 1960s, to bring Soviet Jewish refugees to Israel.

Shamir restored diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Israel in October 1991, and following its dissolution, established relations between Israel and his native Belarus in May 1992. Shamir was dedicated to bringing Jews from all over the world to Israel, and called on American Jews to emigrate to Israel in spite of a higher standard of living in the US, saying that he expected even American Jewish youth to realize that “man does not live by bread alone” but to “learn and understand Jewish history, the Bible… and reach the only conclusion: to come on aliya to Israel.”

Relations with the US were strained in the period after the war over the Madrid peace talks, which Shamir opposed. As a result, US President George H. W. Bush was reluctant to approve loan guarantees to help absorb immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Finally, Shamir gave in and in October 1991 participated in the Madrid talks. His narrow, right-wing government collapsed, and new elections were necessarily called.

In a February 1992 leadership election, Shamir retained his leadership of Likud, defeating challenges from David Levy and Ariel Sharon.

One of Yitzhak Shamir’s last acts as Prime Minister was to approve the 16 February 1992 assassination of the leader of Hizbullah, Sheikh Abbas al-Musaw.

Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated with Netanyahu’s cooperation: Mervan Michaeli

Speaking ahead of anniversary of ex-PM’s killing , Mervan Michaeli, opposition leader and former Minister singled out Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben Gvir for roles in incitement.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Yisrael Hayom newspaper ahead of Saturday night’s memorial ceremony marking 27 years since the 1995 assassination, Michaeli also singled out Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit’s MK Itamar Ben Gvir.

“Yitzhak Rabin was murdered in a political assassination. He was murdered in a political assassination with the cooperation of Benjamin Netanyahu and [Itamar] Ben Gvir,” Michaeli said.

Netanyahu has been repeatedly accused by the left over the years of encouraging incitement that led to Rabin’s killing, or at the very least of contributing to the incendiary political climate that led to the murder. He has rejected such claims as “attempts to distort the historical truth.”

Ben Gvir, the rising star of the current election campaign, whose Religious Zionism party is seen heading for some 14 seats in the 120-member Knesset, first captured national attention when he was filmed as a teen boasting about stealing an emblem from Rabin’s car a short time before the assassination.

Rabin was murdered on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir, an extremist Jew, who was opposed to the Oslo Accords and the handing over of control of parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians as a part of a landmark peace agreement.

In the weeks before the assassination, Netanyahu, then head of the opposition, and other senior Likud members attended a right-wing political rally in Jerusalem where protesters branded Rabin a “traitor,” “murderer,” and “Nazi” for signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians earlier that year.

Netanyahu also marched in a Ra’anana protest as demonstrators behind him carried a mock coffin, reminiscent in India of the parading of the dead bodies in the Godhra train incident which catapulted Narendra Modi to the centrestage of Indian politics. He incidentally shares a ‘personal relation’ with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Over past several years, from Pegasus to EVM software, there has been a ‘close rapport’ between the two regimes.

On 27 October, 2023, reneging on India’s long standing support for Palestine and its leadership of the Global South reinforced in the recently concluded G20 Summit in September 2023, Modi’s regime abstained on UN General Assembly resolution voting calling for ‘humanitarian ceasefire in Palestine’. Surprisingly, even close US and Israel allies and NATO member France, Belgium and Spain voted for the resolution supporting the ceasefire. In her Explanation of Vote (EoV), Yojana Patel, the Indian Dy. Ambassador in the United Nations stated that India abstained because the resolution did not mention the Hamas attack on 7th October 2023. This was later defended by the External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar who cited India’s ‘firm position’ on terrorism.

What do you call a person who sees ‘double standards’ only where it suits him?

“It is still a world of “double standards” and those countries which are occupying positions of influence are resisting the pressure to change and those with historical influence have weaponised a lot of those capabilities.”
India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar on 23 September 2023, speaking at a Ministerial Session titled ‘South Rising: Partnerships, Institutions and Ideas’

Jaishankar was speaking in New York at this event hosted by the Observer Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, United Nations India and the Reliance Foundation.

Jaishankar sees no ‘double standards’ when from the bombing by Israeli Irgun terrorists of King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946, through the assassinations of UN Mediator Count Bernadotte in 1948 by Stern Gang whose founder Yitzhak Shamir later becomes Israel Prime Minister to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, whose death anniversary is today on 4th November to the bombing of ambulances that killed 15 people in Gaza yesterday where the death toll in the ongoing genocide has crossed 10,000 innocent people killed, large number of children among them.

Jaishankar sees no ‘double standards’ in being party to the totalitarian monster that is devouring its own children, as Hannah Arendt warned about in the shadows of Nazism which is now in its new avatar as Zionism. She also said that totalitarianism is dissipative and self-destructive.

For the answer to my earlier question on ‘double standards’, follow the tweet in the link here.

Truth is the only Game Changer : Netanyahu’s Fall and Arab Victory before 2023 ends

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“I was wrong. Things I said following the press conference should not have been said and I apologize for that. I give full backing to all the heads of the security arms. I am strengthening the Chief of Staff and the commanders and soldiers of the IDF who are at the front and fighting for the house. together we will win.”

– Benjamin Netanyahu on 29 October 2023 as he apologises and deletes his tweet blaming his security chiefs for not informing him about the impending Hamas attack
On X

Former Defense Minister of Israel Avigdor Liberman calls out Benjamin Netanyahu’s bluff that he had not been warned by security chiefs about an impending Hamas attack. In 2016, Lieberman had drafted an 11-page document warning of Hamas plans to burst through the border, overrun communities in southern Israel, and take hostages. Few days back, when Benny Gantz, former Defense Minister who joined the war cabinet after 10/7, reprimanded Netanyahu on this, the Butcher of Gaza, apologised and deleted his tweet.

Victory for Truth and Justice

Thinking a few months ahead on the geopolitical chessboard, in the Zionists vs Arab conflict in West Asia (not Mid-East. Time, we stopped looking at the region in the colonial shadows of Britain), it is certain that much before 2023 ends, Benjamin Netanyahu will be vanquished, Israel will be run over by the Arabs from all the sides from the river to the sea. Simply bcoz, Arabs are on the side of justice and they have ‘hamassed’ overwhelming global support with their act of bravery against a monstrous, treacherous and hostile oppressor which has been making their lives hell for past 75 years.

It was this exceptional circumstances of their dehumanising oppression and suffering, that drew the ‘Hamas attack didn’t happen in a vacuum‘ comment by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, amidst his well-guarded statement at the UN Security Council. They turned the old tale of David and Goliath, on its head, as they swap places from the earlier version. This time around it is the Zionist regime in Israel that is the Goliath, and Hamas emerged as the new David, who kills Goliath with his slingshot. As the folklore goes, even as the world believed that the Zionists, the new Goliath, were ‘too big to be defeated’, the new David saw that ‘they were too big to be missed’.

The only exception in the global support for justice for the Palestinians is the hate-mongering right-wing RSS in India, in many ways a misguided fourth Abrahamic religion, which has a dogged habit of being on the wrong side of history, time and again. First, in the 1930s, it looked up to Hitler and Mussolini for purifying their races, then with the British, later America and now with the Zionists. It shouldn’t be surprising if by December 2023, when Arabs emerge as victorious, RSS will be singing paeans for the Arabs. And next perhaps, the Chinese. The only people that the RSS despises and consistently looks down upon, ironically, are the Hindus.

The Murky Saga of Israel’s Serial Killing of Mediators and Peace Leaders

Beyond any reasonable doubt, Benjamin Netanyahu, who planned the murder of former Israel Prime Minister and statesman Yitzhak Rabin, according to former Minister Mervan Michaeli, killed peace and with it the moral support for Israel on 4th of November 1995. With his own support even from within Israel on thin ice, it is a matter of weeks, if not days, before he is forced out. One recent survey found that a staggering 80 percent of Israelis held him personally responsible for failing to prevent the Hamas attack; another found trust in the government at a 20-year low.

Yitzhak Rahin who signed the historic Oslo Accords in 1994 and was Noble Peace Prize awardee that year, was only one of the several victims of Zionist murder plots. United Nations mediator in Palestine (Israel seceded later) Count Folke Bernadotte was assassinated on 17 September 1948 (one of conspirators Yitzhak Shamir later became Israeli PM).

Two former members of the Stern Gang, a militant Jewish group that was led by Shamir have admitted they took part in the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden while he was serving as U.N. mediator in Palestine, according to Dan Margalit of Israel’s state-run Educational Television. It was the first time that members of the underground group, Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Israel Freedom Fighters) of the Stern Gang, openly admitted to the killing, Margalit said.

Yehoshua Zeitler and Meshulam Markover told Margalit in interviews, one of which was broadcast by Educational Television on Friday, that they directed and led the operation to kill Bernadotte on Sept. 17, 1948, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Bernadotte’s assassination, along with that of an aide who was killed at the same time, sent shock waves around the world, especially in view of Bernadotte’s humanitarian work in Europe as leader of the Swedish Red Cross during and immediately after World War II.

Zeitler, according to interviews with Margalit, said he decided to kill Bernadotte after the 53-year-old Swede made far-reaching proposals on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states as a result of the shifting battle lines during Israel’s fight for independence.

On July 22 1946 an armed Jewish group opposed to British rule in Palestine attacked the King David hotel in Jerusalem where the British had their headquarters.

Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in the terrorist attack, by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization the Irgun during the Jewish insurgency. Ninety-One people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and forty-six were injured.

Shoshana Levy Kampos was a young Jewish woman who worked for the British as a secretary. She tells Witness about her miraculous escape from inside the hotel.

As veteran journalist on geopolitical affairs, Prem Shankar Jha writes in The Wire, Netanyahu has never made a secret of his determination create a ‘homeland for the Jews’ from which every single trace of Palestine has been erased. As chairman of Israel’s conservative major party, the Likud, he denounced the Oslo peace process in 1993, calling Israel’s recognition of the PLO and Yasser Arafat’s Al Fatah a ‘mortal threat to Israel’.

“By doing this he (Netanyahu) touched a nerve, particularly in the more recent immigrants from middle-eastern and African countries, and the former Soviet Union, that he has never hesitated to squeeze, to keep his hold on power.

That inflamed ‘nerve’ caused a Jewish fanatic to assassinate Premier Yitzak Rabin in November 1995 as punishment for agreeing to join in the Oslo Process. Having found it, Netanyahu has never let it heal. This has enabled him to remain the prime minister of Israel for more than 12 of the 14 years since he first came to power in 2009. His relentless extremism has paid him dividends because a huge inflow of Jews from Africa, the Middle-East and Russia, in the ‘90s, and a simultaneous emigration of descendants, numbering 30,000 to 45,000 a year, of the original European settlers who were the true victims of the Holocaust, has changed the character of the Israeli population in the past half century and pulled Israeli politics further and further to the Right.”
– With the US’s Help, Netanyahu Is Paving the World’s Road to Hell by Prem Shankar Jha in The Wire on 31 Oct 2023

Given how Zionists are sucked up into Nazism, has ‘Christian’ America trapped Israel, with a hostile and deranged Netanyahu amidst Arab fury and rage over #GazaGenocide?

Jews against Zionism – #NotInMyName

In Mea Shearim, a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, the Jews living here see themselves as Palestinian Jews and have been fighting against Israel and Zionism for years. The Jews here are anti-Zionist and anti-Israel Jews. Zionist Israel has been oppressing the Jews in this neighborhood for years and turned it into a ghetto. Zionists constantly raid, arrest and beat Jews. The only crime of these Jews is that they support the Palestinian state.

On 1st of November 2023, during a police raid to take down Palestinian flags in Mea Shearim, the Israeli policemen were recorded attacking residents and knocking residents down on the road, hitting, and punching them in the face. Police violence against ultra-Orthodox Jews continues constantly, Zionists constantly attack Jews, this must stop. The only crime of these Jews is that they stand with the Palestinian people and are against Zionism.

With slogans of ‘Stop the massacre’, Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests draw large crowds wordwide, including large number of Jews in several places.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters poured onto the streets of Brooklyn, New York’s largest borough, on Saturday to voice their opposition to Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, which entered its fourth week on Sunday.

Home to between 1.6 and two million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, New York has, for the past three weeks, been rocked by demonstrations, rallies, and vigils in support of both Palestinians and Israelis.

In other demonstrations, some 35,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the streets of Madrid, calling “Freedom for Palestine.” Tens of thousands of Moroccans marched Sunday through Casablanca in a show of solidarity with Palestinians, AFP reported. There were also large demonstrations in Greece and Pakistan.

What should India do?

The challenge for India, in particular, is huge. Unless we bring the bigoted national media, RSS and BJP, and its blind supporters to senses, and cut off its support from the Modi regime, India will find itself in deep trouble, as the Zionists are defeated. Just like Japan bore the brunt with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for supporting Hitler, India is likely to face the consequences of Modi’s blind support for Netanyahu, with whom he shares personal relations, once the Butcher of Gaza is removed. India has already been signaled out as being the disinformation hub of the world spreading lies and hoaxes against Palestine.

And with its shocking betrayal of the Global South, which it claimed to lead and of the Palestinian cause, with its abstention in the resolution on humanitarian ceasefire, Modi regime has put India, and especially the large Indian diaspora in Arab countries, in grave danger, with its Netanyahu like hubris and arrogance. Even NATO member states like France and Belgium voted for the ceasefire that would prevent killing of innocent civilians, large numbers of children and women against them. The death sentence handed out to eight Indian citizens in Qatar, on charges of spying for Israel, has already set the alarm bells ringing.

As Deepanshu Mohan , associate professor of Economics and director, Centre for New Economics Studies, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, writes in The Wire on India’s amoral and apathetic exceptionalism in its abstention on the humanitarian ceasefire in Palestine:

“If India’s position was to really non-align, a projected ‘Vishwaguru’ that spent crores of PR money during the G20 summit in hailing India as a ‘mother of democracy’ and a ‘voice of peace’ could have utilised each of these situations to play peacemaker and work closely with both countries towards peace. We see no such effort or intent on part of the Modi government. Tokenistic statements or symbolic gestures have little meaning when the state of conflict continues to expand with not only regional but also global ramifications.

From the Indian perspective, this questions our own collective conscience and understanding of justice ― what it means for those who are powerless, and apathetically ignored due to the exceptionalism and presumed moral superiority of a force that builds its moral foreign policy structure around projected values (vishwaguru, mother of democracy, voice of Global South, peace, justice, democracy, and freedom) aligned to its own narrow self-interest.”
– India’s Abstention in UN Gaza Truce Vote Reflects Amoral, Apathetic Exceptionalism by Deepanshu Mohan in The Wire, 31 Oct 2023

Compounded with the multi-pronged crises that India is already faced with – from rising hunger and malnutrition, biting inflation, spiraling unemployment, conflicts in Manipur, on borders with Pakistan and China, in Maldives, death sentences to Indian citizens in Qatar on charges of spying for Israel, depleting water tables, toxic pollution levels to name just a few, it is hardly prepared to bear the ire of the Arabs and the world at large. Arabs, as they first run over Israel, can cripple India by cutting off its oil supplies, especially as they get ready for the victory march before 2023 ends.

I am hopeful, however, that with our concerted efforts in the coming weeks, India will rethink its position and live up to its long and glorious tradition of standing on the side of truth and justice, which alone can guarantee lasting peace and harmony in times to come, and eternally, on every occasion when treachery, deception and injustice raise their ugly heads.

Duty unto Victory!

SOS Call to Civil Society and EAM India- Palestine Humanitarian Crises and its Resolution as the Focal Point

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“Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

The real battle is between the extinctionists and the humanists. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. – Elon Musk on Oct 31, 2023

I call upon all of you in the civil society in India and worldwide to initiate a dialog first with India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and then with Mr Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General.

With Dr, Jaishankar, we need a dialogue on the shocking abstention by India on the UNGA resolution on ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in Palestine recently. With his claims of India’s leadership of the Global South and our long standing support for One State solution in Palestine where people of diverse faiths and ethnicities live harmoniously, we need to find out about his thinking behind the decision in the larger public interest both for people of Palestine and in India. I recently sent a message to him and have been trying to meet him through various channels.

(Responding to his call for greater public participation in global issues in a subsequent public address in Chennai, since his speech on ‘India and the World’ on 2nd November 2022 at IIM Calcutta I have written emails to his office on several occasions, but so far his Ministry has been unresponsive. What struck me in his IIM Calcutta speech was his reference to ‘weaponization of everything’ in an era ‘when the very nature of our existence is globalised’. I spoke with the former Indian ambassador to the UN, TS Tirumurti some time back in this regard but even that hasn’t helped. I also contacted another former Indian ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin. Few days back I met a former Union Minister KJ Alphons on India’s shocking abstention. He said that he knows the reasons but cannot reveal in public).

Before, I share my proposal for global governance with my initiative of Gaia Nation as a ‘parallel structure’ to the United Nations, I briefly share where I come from, my assumptions, motivation and beliefs. In my view, the UN cannot be reformed due to its fatal flaw of Veto powers to aggressor countries who hold permanent seats in its apex body UN Security Council. I believe that if League of Nations was dissolved because it failed to stop the Second World War, we need to urgently question the UN’s effectiveness in the past 78 years of its existence to live up to its Charter. It begins with:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…

Where I come from

Having carefully followed the geopolitical dynamics since 1999, when I discovered how the dominant dehumanising globalisation narrative touches upon every aspect of our lives, our well-being, our yearning for truth and justice, and threatens our very survival as human society with its hydra-headed tentacles in the guise of ‘Development’.

In my chosen field of Mobility-as-a-Service that would end road accidents, traffic jams, unsafe and hazardous air pollution and reharmonized human habitats, I could clearly see how its trajectory swerved violently towards Homeland Security with the 9/11 incident in New York that further bolstered wasteful private car ownership.

Yet, I continued to pursue my vision and goals for the next two decades at huge personal costs. working with several companies from Mastek, TCS, Reva Electric to Logica till 2009 when I turned to political activism. I have presented my concepts, made several attempts to start ventures and pilot projects in India, UK, US and Singapore over this period. I presented papers on my solution framework at Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress in Japan in 2004 and in Sweden in 2009. Most recently, I restarted my earlier company TEN Systems & Services as MaaS Movement Company (www.maasmvmt.com ) where we received enthusiastic support from partners and investors. However, once again, despite the humongous crises of road transport system, we ran into government hurdles with the ‘weaponization of the automobile industry’.

My central thesis, borrowing a phrase from Wolfgang Sachs, who wrote a series of essays on Development : A Guide to Ruins in the New Internationalist in 1992 that underline the One World that seeks to obliterate the Many Worlds of our innate diversity, is that we need a One World that sees our innate diversity of the Many Worlds as our integral parts that make the whole. Further, this diversity is synergistic, it strengthens our immunity as a human society just as the innate biodiversity of Mother Earth strengthens the immunity of the human body.

Proposed Framework of Gaia Nation

Gaia Nation is proposed as a One World Government with the proposed framework as follows:

a. 80 Provinces with ~100 million people each for the world human population of ~8.1 billion ( alternative estimate is ~7 billion). A province is formed by clustering of contiguous smaller countries and clustering of existing contiguous provinces and districts of bigger countries.
b. Each Province has 50 Districts with each district having a population of ~2 million. Every district has one city (with a population not exceeding 0.5 million and several villages with each village having a population of less than 10,000). Further guidelines for granularity at community and family levels for local consultation.
c. Each District is led by a District Head through consensus and in the last resort after due process of voting.
d. 50 District Heads from every Province select 5 District representatives for the Gaia Nation General Assembly.
e. Gaia Nation General Assembly with 80 Provinces has 400 Province representatives and another 100 members who are selected through nomination based on their area of specialisation for effective global governance.
f. The apex body for Gaia Nation for urgent and important global action such as to stop wars, genocide, mitigate climate crises, phase out fossil fuels is 11-member Peace & Harmony (PH) Council.
g. In close collaboration with the present UN set up, based on a close scrutiny of their need and relevance in a global body, we retain those departments and agencies.
h. The process of transition from UN to Gaia Nation must happen on a Mission Mode at the earliest possible and not later than 31 March 2024.

Plan of Action

Organise a civil society pressure group in India as an immediate response to the Global Emergency to engage with the External Affairs Minister of India and concerned people behind the scenes, for India to host Gaia Nation and for the Government of India to actively participate in this civil society-led initiative.
Formation of Gaia Nation Constituent Assembly
a. Call for nominations for 11-member Gaia Nation Peace & Harmony Council. Public announcement through a press conference on 4 November 2023. Process to be completed in 3 weeks by 25 November 2023 in response to the Global Emergency with Palestine humanitarian crises as the focal point.
b. The Peace & Harmony Council will draft the Gaia Nation Charter by or before 15 December 2023. Zero Draft for the same has been shared on the link here :
c. Gaia Nation PHC forms the Gaia Nation Constituent Assembly comprising 5 Province Representatives each from 80 Provinces + 100 lateral nominations from around the world based on relevant specialisation.
d. GN PHC calls nominations for the Constituent Assembly by or before 15 December 2023 and completes the process of drafting Gaia Nation Constitution by 15 January 2024
e. Transition from UN to Gaia Nation of all necessary and relevant department and agencies is completed by 15 March 2024.
f. Gaia Nation is fully functional by or before 5 June 2024.

An untold love story in times of war and hatemongering in India

If you notice the present geographical position of the landmass of countries worldwide, it is amazing how they have moved on Earth’s time scale.

It is a beautiful love story of how the Indian landmass, for instance, breaks away from Gondwana and at 4 times the usual speed subsides into Eurasia to create the mighty Himalayas. It however carries the seeds and sacred memories of the biodiversity of Gondwana. It becomes a bridge between what is now called as Global North and Global South.

This beautiful love story of the North and South and culturally of East and West has been turned bitter and acrid by the hate mongers across warring lines.

We, in India have a special and extraordinary responsibility. There is a powerful section in India, which wants to emulate the hate-filled dehumanising Zionist settler-apartheid-occupier-colonialist regime of Israel that treats the Arabs as ‘human animals’ in the words of its current defense minister Yoav Gallant recently. The solution for the Palestine crises however is to turn Israel into India with a One-State solution of a ethno-federal-democracy where people of multiple faith and ethnicities live in harmony. As Prem Shankar Jha writes in his column ‘Ethnic Cleansing Is Not The Way To Peace. There Is An Alternative’ y’day in The Wire, as I share below.

This however is only possible through a new world body not just for Palestine but even for America, for India and for the world at large. This new found unity and zeal of One World, One Family Gaia Nation will also pave the way for humanity’s organised and concerted efforts to phase out fossil fuels and repair and restore our ecology which is badly damaged and is pushed to the brink of human extinction.

“..there is one example of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural federation that it could well use as a model for Israel and Palestine. This is the ethno-federal democracy of India.

Creating a single, federated nation will make it unnecessary to engineer any shift of population or exchange of territory within it. That will end the principal cause of the conflict that has bedevilled Palestine till today. Israelis and Palestinian Arabs will be able to live and work freely in any part of the country, and to buy and sell property freely if they wish to move elsewhere. This nation would need two official languages, but could, for a transitional period at least, use English as the link language between its governments and their subsidiary agencies. The greatest boon that it will confer upon both peoples is peace – the freedom to continue living where they live today with all the rights of a free people, and without fear.

As Gideon Levy, the famed columnist of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told the National Press Club at Washington in 2015, the two essential requirements of such a transition are mutual respect and a desire for peace. These have been noticeably absent among the Jews of Israel and the Arabs of West Bank because of the US’s unstinting support of every military or diplomatic initiative that Israel has taken regardless of its rights and wrongs. This blind support is what Netanyahu has capitalised upon to cage and progressively dehumanise Palestinian Arabs in the eyes of the world. If Hamas’s violent incursion on October 7 and Israel’s genocidal response in Gaza bring home the futility of perennial confrontation, then the thousands who have lost their lives, and the thousands more who will do so in the next few weeks, will not have died in vain.”

That is the story so far. Hopefully with our persistent efforts, love and compassion, peace and harmony will prevail once again in Palestine, the focal point of the global humanitarian crises and around the world. Amen! Om Shanti!

Best Regards,
Chandra Vikash
Convenor
GAIA Earth Sansad
m: +91 8851556732
w: chandravikash.wordpress.com
e: gaiasansad@gmail.com

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