HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: BECOMING OUR COMPASSIONATE SELF

This is an excellent and deeply important conversation, one which illuminates my journey and that of countless others. These glimpses into the workshop with Richard Schwartz and Lama John Makransky is absolutely not just for those who identify with Buddhism. This is for everyone, regardless of your faith and spiritual tradition. It is, in my perspective, for all of us who are human.

My own path of healing and transformation has been a long 40+ year journey. Many years were spent in supporting me to recognize and embrace different parts of myself — the parts that are alcoholic and addicted to substances and variety of nonsubstances, the parts of myself that are a traumatized and abused child, the parts that are a fierce inner critic and judgmental of myself and others, the poor boundaries and caretaking parts that use focusing on others as a way of avoiding my own deeper needs and emotions, the parts which are perfectionistic and controlling and needing to feel better than, the parts of me that are disassociated and isolated and alone, the parts within myself that are easily triggered and reactive; the parts that are full of fear and shame, the parts of me which are angry and anxious and depressed, the parts of myself that feel worthless and unlovable and disconnected, the parts within me which hold an ocean of grief, the parts that feel separate from and deeply frightened of intimacy and vulnerability and trusting anyone, the parts of me that have gotten sick and showed up with symptoms like fibromyalgia, and the parts of myself that are trying to manage an image and who I think you want me to be rather embodying my authentic Self. That's a lot of parts! And a lot of pain.

Over the years I have discovered that there are many different aspects of my inner self that I have taken on and which — while some may have once served an important purpose in helping me to survive a traumatic childhood — as an adult have caused me to be increasingly stuck in the suffering of the legacy burdens which had been blindly passed down to me by my ancestors and the culture at large. 

Today I understand that coming to recognize and give expression to these different parts in itself was not enough. There remained no consistent access to deep peace and joy and beauty and love. And I continued to be limited in my capacity to embody the 8 C's illuminated in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and the work of Richard Schwartz: compassion, curiosity, clarity, creativity, calm, confidence, courage, and connectedness. Unknown to me, much of the way that I continued to live my life was not Self-led.

What I understand today is that, even through many years of counseling and 12 Step meetings and engagement in multiple other resources of support, I had continued to experience an impaired connection with my Self — the essence of who I am. This Self which underlies all of my various parts cannot be hurt or diminished. It is always there. And it is the support, wisdom, and empowerment of rooting into the journey of opening to increasingly inhabit my Self that had for years been the critical missing piece of my journey.

Thanks to a deeply wise and compassionate therapist and other loving sources, it has now been many years since I began to earnestly engage in the work of ending this long estrangement with the greater wholeness of who I most truly am. Today I am more often than not able to recognize and experience with the deepest compassion the trauma wounds held in my different parts when they arise. And rather than identifying with any one part, I can hold myself. My hurting parts are held in the compassionate embrace of my Self. This is the process which has gifted me with unburdening and transforming the wounded parts of myself rather than identifying with and acting out of them.

It is also true that while I absolutely need the intimacy and love and support of those I am closest with, we humans are after all relational beings, I can now also hold myself with compassion and love. I understand, I really get it, that there are no bad parts. None. And it is this profound and ever growing embodiment of my compassionate Self which has increasingly freed me from the burdens of trauma embedded in my family and our culture back through time.

It is my belief that we all are born as sacred, beautiful beings and that Love is the essence of who we are. Yet, in our culture and beyond, it is so easy to lose ourselves and get caught up in what my therapist has referred to as "misidentification." We identify as an alcoholic, as a depressed or anxious person, or with any array of trauma triggers and symptoms — mistakenly believing this is who we are rather than simply wounded parts of ourselves that can be healed and transformed. 

Today, however, there are alternatives. There is an evolution occurring in how addiction, depression, and other symptoms of trauma are being seen and held, addressed and treated, healed and transformed. We can find the resources of wise and loving support which empowers us to experience the spiritual awakening of embodying our compassionate Self. We can become increasingly integrated, loving, whole, and Self-led. 

At least this has been my experience, and I believe the birth right of us all — to love ourselves and others through this process of shedding the legacy burdens we have carried and opening to the deep transformation of inhabiting the authentic being who we most truly are.

Bless us all on our journeys,

💗

Molly

Here is the video with highlights from

the workshop:

Becoming Our Compassionate Self

Integrating Parts of Ourselves Into the Process of Spiritual Awakening With Dick Schwartz and Lama John Makransky

This video contains selected highlights to give you a taste of this groundbreaking, historic event. To experience this workshop in full, it is available at the IFS store...just click here: https://ifs-institute.com/store/205

On March 30th 2019 - a bright crisp early Spring day in Cambridge, Massachusetts - a gathering was held at the Cambridge Friends Meeting House.

This day was an opportunity for an enthusiastic audience to witness a continuing conversation – a meeting of minds – between Dr. Richard Schwartz, founder of IFS or Internal Family Systems and Lama John Makransky, developer of ICT or Innate Compassion Training – which is derived from Tibetan Buddhism.

Offered as a daylong workshop, there were conceptual presentations, experiential guided practices, a video presentation and animated, inspiring conversation about spiritual practice and the many parallels and potential synergy between IFS and Tibetan Buddhism.

Please enjoy these selected highlights. If you want to experience the workshop in full, please click here: https://ifs-institute.com/store/205

Internal Family Systems Institute: https://www.youtube.com/@InternalFamilySystems

Additional Links: https://ifs-institute.com/about-us/richard-c-schwartz-phd

No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model

 

Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness

Is there just one “you”? We’ve been taught to believe we have a single identity, and to feel fear or shame when we can’t control the inner voices that don’t match the ideal of who we think we should be. Yet Dr. Richard Schwartz’s research now challenges this “mono-mind” theory. “All of us are born with many sub-minds―or parts,” says Dr. Schwartz. “These parts are not imaginary or symbolic. They are individuals who exist as an internal family within us―and the key to health and happiness is to honor, understand, and love every part.”

Dr. Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model has been transforming psychology for decades. With No Bad Parts, you’ll learn why IFS has been so effective in areas such as trauma recovery, addiction therapy, and depression treatment―and how this new understanding of consciousness has the potential to radically change our lives. Here you’ll explore:

• The IFS revolution―how honoring and communicating with our parts changes our approach to mental wellness
• Overturning the cultural, scientific, and spiritual assumptions that reinforce an outdated mono-mind model
• The ego, the inner critic, the saboteur―making these often-maligned parts into powerful allies
• Burdens―why our parts become distorted and stuck in childhood traumas and cultural beliefs
• How IFS demonstrates human goodness by revealing that there are no bad parts
• The Self―discover your wise, compassionate essence of goodness that is the source of healing and harmony
• Exercises for mapping your parts, accessing the Self, working with a challenging protector, identifying each part’s triggers, and more

IFS is a paradigm-changing model because it gives us a powerful approach for healing ourselves, our culture, and our planet. As Dr. Schwartz teaches, “Our parts can sometimes be disruptive or harmful, but once they’re unburdened, they return to their essential goodness. When we learn to love all our parts, we can learn to love all people―and that will contribute to healing the world.”

Please go here for the original + a guided meditation and more: https://ifs-institute.com/nobadparts

James Risen: The Media Still Doesn’t Grasp the Danger of Trump

This is an excellent and deeply important article. 

To know Trump, listen to what he says about others. Watch the attacks and understand that everything he accuses others of are projections about himself. He is the fascist, the criminal, the liar — not those he accuses these things of. This is how the projected self-loathing of a malignant narcissism works. There is tragically and dangerously no capacity for self-reflection, accountability, compassion or authentic kindness, caring, and love. The devastating wounds which haunt this human being cut him off from the truth, from love, from connection within himself or with anyone else. It is a torturous way to exist. To put such a profoundly wounded man like this in a position of great power imperils us all.

It cannot be overstated how dangerous this man is — and especially coupled with the pervasive harm and deep limitations of our corporate funded mainstream media, the 100% collusion and backing of the Republican Party in our corrupt two party system, and the millions of Americans who have been blindly and tragically pulled into the MAGA cult. These are frightening and painful times — and times in which it is vital to be informed, courageous, aware, and awake. — Molly

Former President Donald Trump sits in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 21, 2024, in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via APAP

He tells the world he intends to be an authoritarian. So why won’t journalists repeat it?

By James Risen

DONALD TRUMP REPRESENTS an existential threat to democracy in the United States. If he is elected president, he will try to become a dictator.

That warning must be repeated, over and over again, so Americans don’t forget it in November.

But that’s not the daily news that you will read or hear in the American press today. Instead, it’s mostly coverage of polls favorable to Trump and cute scene-setting stories about the carnival-like atmosphere at his crazed rallies, where his massive cult following is on display.

That daily coverage ignores the five-alarm fire burning up the 2024 election. The mainstream political press is effectively ignoring the coming national apocalypse. How can that be? How can they once again screw up covering Trump?

After all, Trump isn’t hiding his lust for dictatorial power. He admits it publicly. In December, when his Fox News lackey, Sean Hannity, gave him an opportunity to dispel fears that he wanted dictatorial power, Trump instead offered a rare truth. “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked. “Except for day one,” Trump replied.

Trump is planning a second term that is nothing more than a revenge tour: Deploy the Insurrection Act to crush dissent, turn the Justice Department into a personal weapon to imprison government officials who previously investigated or prosecuted him, persecute former aides who turned against him, pardon himself and his lieutenants, and loot the government to enrich himself and his flailing businesses.

In case anybody has missed his autocratic plans, Trump promoted a video this week about “the creation of a unified Reich” if he is elected.

Even this social media callout to Hitler generated a generally tepid response from the press, like one from an ABC reporter who only dared to say that it was “not normal” for presidential candidates to share “references to Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler.”

TRUMP IS A fascist. But the mainstream political press doesn’t want to say it. They want to act like 2024 is just another election year.

With their obsession with horse-race coverage, political reporters tend to judge what Trump says or does by whether his words and actions will help him politically. By doing so, the press is saying that Trump’s racism, corruption, criminality, and insane abuses of power matter only so far as his electability.

There are exceptions: major news organizations, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, have done some important stories about Trump’s dictatorial plans for a second term. But those investigative stories are drowned out by the chorus of horse-race stories — sometimes published on the same days and by the same news organizations behind more substantial coverage.

The media is sleepwalking.

I’ve often wondered how the press, both in Germany and around the world, failed to see Hitler for the monster that he was before he gained power. After Trump, I think I understand.

Hitler took advantage of the incremental nature of daily journalism. For years, his rise in Germany was not taken seriously in the United States, and that period of American inattention and isolationism enabled Hitler to become a much greater global threat. The American press played a significant and ugly role in downplaying the threat Hitler posed to the Western world.

American journalists initially viewed Hitler as little more than a German version of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who they saw as a blustering demagogue, yet also a leader who had helped save Italy from the economic chaos of the post-World War I era.

The New York Times credited Mussolini “with returning turbulent Italy to what it called normalcy,” according to a study of the press coverage of Hitler and Mussolini in Smithsonian Magazine in 2016.

When Hitler first burst into German political life, the American press sought to downplay his importance by treating him as a joke; the Smithsonian notes how Newsweek called him a “nonsensical” screecher of “wild words” and that his appearance suggested “Charlie Chaplin.”

Over time, American journalists’ views of Hitler began to shift, but mostly just to show greater respect for his skills as a charismatic public speaker and a successful demagogue. Ultimately, through more than a decade in German politics before he came to power, Hitler was normalized by American reporters. The press became numb to the outrageous things he said and wrote and did. He kept saying the same things for years; he laid out many of his plans and intentions in “Mein Kampf” in 1925, eight years before he came to power. By the time of the crucial 1932 German elections and Hitler’s subsequent rise to power in 1933, his rabid antisemitism and his lust for power were treated as old news.

The American press is making the same mistake today.

EVER SINCE TRUMP announced he was running for president in 2015, reporters have alternated between depicting him as a goof who couldn’t be taken seriously and showing respect for his skills as a demagogue.

Two impeachments, four criminal indictments, and one insurrection later, Trump is normal now, at least as far as the political press corps is concerned. The January 6 insurrection, in which Trump tried to illegally hold on to power, is old news. Just like Hitler’s 1923 Beer Hall Putsch was old news by the 1932 German elections.

After Trump’s chaotic four years in office, too many journalists think that everything about Trump’s insane record has already been reported and written. This leads to more coverage of his poll numbers than his criminality or the threat he poses to the United States.

Mainstream journalists are increasingly open about their refusal to cover the campaign in crisis terms. In a recent interview, New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn bristled at the notion that the Times needs to recognize the threat that Trump poses to the republic. He claimed that would just be doing the bidding of the Biden campaign and would turn the Times into a state propaganda organ like “Xinhua News Agency or Pravda.”

Kahn’s defensive crouch is symptomatic of the press today. After years of losing to social media companies in the fight for advertising and attention and fending off a constant barrage of attacks from right-wing critics who seek to discredit their journalism, major news organizations have become increasingly insular. A sudden surge in readership and viewership during the Trump administration has waned, while a drive to make newsrooms more diverse by hiring a wave of young progressive journalists has left older white editors embittered that the new generation has dared to challenge the status quo.

News organizations have always been hostile to outside scrutiny, but their hypocrisy about transparency and openness have reached new heights. Earlier this year the Times launched an ill-conceived leak investigation of its own staff to find out who talked to The Intercept for a story, while more recently the Washington Post has sought to downplay evidence that its new publisher, Will Lewis, was involved in a scheme to conceal evidence about phone hacking of British royals and celebrities while he was an executive at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in London. Semafor reported this week that an editor at the Post ordered the staff not to promote on its newsletters one of the Post’s own stories that included new allegations about Lewis from a lawsuit filed by Prince Harry in London.

Expect little accountability for these actions; the Post got rid of its ombudsman in 2013, and the Times got rid of its last public editor in 2017. Both the Times and the Washington Post have media reporters, but they rarely write about their own newsrooms and instead spend most of their time punching down on smaller news organizations.

Last year, CNN went through an internal crisis as well, after its new owners sought to force the newsroom to bend more toward Trump. That controversy ultimately led to the firing of CNN’s chief, but it is not clear whether the new ownership group still plans to push for more Trump-friendly coverage.

These efforts to build protective bubbles around their organizations at a time of unprecedented volatility in the news business seem to be at the heart of the refusal by the mainstream press to get out in front of the voters and take a stand on Trump.

In fact, many in the news business would secretly be thrilled by Trump’s return to the White House, particularly old, white pundits and commentators who claim to be liberal but quietly believe that “cancel culture” is a bigger threat than Trump. Many corporate executives in the news business would likewise be happy to see a return to Trump-era revenues.

But the basic reason the press isn’t sounding the alarm about the threat Trump poses to American democracy is much more banal. It’s about the structure of journalism. 

Just like Hitler before him, Trump is benefiting from the fact that journalism is an incremental, daily business. Every day, reporters have to find something new to write or broadcast. Trump keeps saying dangerous and crazy things, but that’s not new. He’s said it all before. His impeachments and the January 6 insurrection happened years ago. True, he has been indicted four times and now faces up to four criminal trials, but that’s already been reported. What’s new today?

For political reporters covering the campaign, that means usually treating Trump’s authoritarian promises as “B-matter.” That’s an old newspaper phrase that refers to the background information that reporters gather about a story’s subject. B-matter is usually exiled to the bottom of an article — if not cut entirely to save space or time.

But the horrifying truth is that when Trump’s dictatorial ambitions are left on the cutting room floor as B-matter, America is in trouble.

Please go here for the original article: https://theintercept.com/2024/05/25/media-trump-danger-democracy/

'I'll Take Up Arms If He Asks': Violent Supporters Rush to Trump After Guilty Verdict

A Trump-themed flag is flown by supporters across the street from Trump Tower before former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a press conference in New York City on May 31, 2024. (Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

"Trump retains an ironclad ability to mobilize more extreme supporters to action, both at the ballot box and through violence," warned one expert.

By JULIA CONLEY

As supporters of Donald Trump flood right-wing platforms with threats against the jurors and judge following guilty verdicts Thursday in his criminal case regarding hush money payments, fears are growing that the influence the Republican presumptive presidential nominee has over his supporters will soon lead to violence.

"Until and unless he accepts the process, the extremist reaction to his legal troubles will be militant," Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, toldReuters.

The former president gave no sign of accepting the legal process Friday as he held a press conference at Trump Tower, repeating claims that the case had been "rigged."

Shortly after a New York jury announced its verdict in the case regarding documents that were falsified to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniel just before the 2016 election to keep her from publicizing an alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump, right-wing websites like Gateway Pundit, Truth Social, and Patriots.Win saw an uptick in violent posts from users.

One commenter called for "someone in NY with nothing to lose" to "take care of" New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, while another on Gateway Pundit directed a threat at any and all opponents of Trump.

"Time to start capping some leftys," said the user. "This cannot be fixed by voting."

The reaction is a direct result, said Ware, of Trump's "insistence that he is being mistreated."

Trump responded to the verdict on Thursday by telling reporters he is "a very innocent man" and calling the trial—one of four criminal cases against him—"a disgrace." He is expected to appeal the verdict. On Friday morning, the Trump campaign announced a $35 million fundraising haul following the guilty verdict.

Some Trump supporters signaled they are waiting for instructions from the former president, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for president in the November general election and is set to be formally nominated days after his scheduled sentencing in July.

On Patiots.win, one commenter called for 1 million armed Trump supporters to "go to Washington and hang everyone," while another said the former president "should already know he has an army willing to fight and die for him if he says the words...I'll take up arms if he asks."

While Republican lawmakers have not explicitly endorsed a violent reaction to the verdict that found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts, many have joined Trump in making clear that they don't accept the trial's outcome.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has said she would not endorse Trump in the 2024 election, said Manhattan District Attorney charged Trump for politically motivated reasons and falsely claimed that he campaigned on prosecuting the former president.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the "charges never should have been brought in the first place," while House Speaker Mike Johnson accused the Biden administration of the "weaponization of our justice system."

Progressives agreed with Trump on one point Friday, after he pledged that the hush money case is "long from over" and said that "the real verdict is going to be November 5" when U.S. voters go to the polls in the general election.

While celebrating that a jury of "everyday people" held the former president accountable and proved that "despite his worst efforts, Trump is not above the law," People's Action executive director Sulma Arias said Democrats "must beat him at the ballot box" to keep him from further eroding U.S. democracy, climate action, and other progressive values.

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-supporters-2668430042

Trump Tells Donors He’ll Deport “Any Student” Who Protests Against Gaza Genocide

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Libertarian Party National Convention on May 25, 2024 in Washington, D.C. CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES

Both US-born and foreign students have 

constitutionally recognized rights to free speech.

By Chris Walker

During a donor event earlier this month, former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president this year, said that he would deport students who protest in solidarity with Palestine if he becomes president again.

Trump made the authoritarian remarks at a May 14 private campaign event with high-paying GOP donors. The Washington Post was the first to report on the former president’s comments.

Trump specifically targeted foreign students in the U.S. who are here on education visas, but suggested that any student at a college or university who participates in pro-Palestine protests could be subject to deportation under his watch.

“One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country,” Trump told his donors, adding that, “a lot of foreign students…[are] going to behave” upon hearing of that threat.

Both U.S.-born and foreign students have constitutionally recognized rights to free speech, assembly and due process in the U.S. Trump’s proposition would ignore past precedents on such matters.

Trump’s statement — specifically the phrase “any student” — indicates that he would not just seek to deport foreign students, but that he would also attempt to deport students who are U.S. citizens.

Throughout his campaign, the GOP nominee for president has commented relatively little on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians so far; in March, he suggested that Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza never would have started if he had remained in the White House for a second term rather than President Joe Biden, and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to escalate the genocide, telling him to “finish the problem.”

Trump’s comments to donors that he would flout the standards of free speech protections in the U.S. are just the latest authoritarian rhetoric he has dished out in the past months. Trump recently asked his supporters whether he should be a three-term president, presuming he wins the 2024 election, in direct violation of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. He has also floated the idea of becoming a dictator if he wins, dubiously vowing that he would only be a dictator for one day, in order to enact anti-immigrant and anti-environmental policies.

Even if he loses, Trump suggested (as he did four years ago) that he wouldn’t accept the loss as legitimate and that he wouldn’t condemn potential violence from his supporters being conducted in his name.

“Trump wants to give skeptical voters a reason to set aside their misgivings. That’s why he won’t directly call for violence,” Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard wrote earlier this month. “But make no mistake: He’s already telling his supporters to get ready to take matters into their own hands.”

Please go here for the original article: https://truthout.org/articles/trump-tells-donors-hell-deport-any-student-who-protests-against-gaza-genocide/

More Biden Officials Resign Over US Participation in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

I am hearted and grateful for those whose actions are aligned with their conscience and moral compass, integrity and courage, and compassion and consciousness of the need to value and protect life — all of which outweigh loyalty to anyone who is brazenly and criminally acting to destroy life and collude in committing mass murder.

That said, I am also deeply aware that these are incredibly sad, dangerous, and chilling times. In the upcoming presidential election, Biden is once again pitted against Trump — a pathological liar and malignant narcissist who is xenophobic, racist, misogynist, an authoritarian fascist wannabe dictator, and now also a convicted felon. The choice seems clear, right? 

There is one problem. And, in my perspective, the greatest threat to Biden — and more than his brutal deportation policies or his age, the neoliberalism which has dominated the whole of Biden's political career, and his record related to continuing to drill baby drill and persist in keeping us on a suicidal trajectory — is his unwavering support of the genocide in Gaza. Biden's alignment with the psychopath Netanyahu may just cost him the election. Which terrifies me. 

I absolutely know that Trump would be even worse, much worse than Biden. But, that said, how can Biden honestly and authentically criticize Trump's criminality when he himself day after day, month after month funds the annihilation of the whole of the Palestinian people? 

Our "choices" break my heart. 

Some will say that I shouldn't share articles such as this, that any bright shining light on Biden's actions related to Israel and Gaza may hand the election to Trump. I respond to that by highlighting that millions in our nation already know and are unwavering in our commitment to following the truth wherever it may lead. Our heads are not buried in the ground or in corporate media narratives and propaganda. Millions of us are informed. We know the truth. I also don't believe that those of us who speak the truth about our current president are responsible for what Biden is doing. Only Joe Biden is responsible for his actions, his ideologies, and whether or not he chooses to continue to fund genocide. If he loses this election, it is on him. — Molly

A demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag in front of the White House during a protest against the Israeli attacks on civilians in Rafah that have killed dozens of people, on May 28, 2024. ALLISON BAILEY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

A total of at least nine Biden administration 

officials have resigned publicly so far.

By

 

Chris Walker 

Two executive branch officials have resigned from their positions within the Biden administration due to the White House’s collaboration with Israel in its bombing and starvation campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.

The officials who resigned are Alexander Smith, a contractor with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and a senior adviser within that agency on gender, maternal health, child health and nutrition; and Stacy Gilbert, a State Department official within the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

The resignations come as Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians since October, with thousands more presumed to be buried under the rubble.

Smith, who has worked in his role for four years, was told that he either had to resign or be dismissed from his position after he had prepared a presentation on maternal health and child mortality for Palestinians that was abruptly canceled last week by higher-ups at USAID.

“I cannot do my job in an environment in which specific people cannot be acknowledged as fully human, or where gender and human rights principles apply to some, but not to others, depending on their race,” Smith said in his resignation letter.

Gilbert’s decision to resign was due to her agency’s false determination that Israel wasn’t purposely manufacturing a famine by blocking food and other desperately-needed aid from entering Gaza, as well as the administration’s downplaying of the atrocities committed by Israeli forces.

Gilbert, who has 20 years of experience in global crises and conflicts, explained her decision to quit the State Department to HuffPost, saying:

Because I try very hard to understand what international humanitarian law is about, it also gives me credibility in saying what is happening in Gaza is not according to international humanitarian law.

Nine officials have resigned from the Biden administration since Israel began its bloody siege of Gaza in October. More resignations are likely to come, said Josh Paul, the first official to have publicly resigned from the administration over the White House’s participation in the genocide.

“I’m aware that there are other resignations pending in the near future from officials with similar concerns in their own areas of work,” said Paul, who had served as the director of congressional and public affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

Paul added that at least two dozen officials have resigned in protest without making a public declaration of their resignations.

Among those who have resigned so far is Lily Greenberg Call, the former special assistant to the Interior Department’s chief of staff and the first Jewish person within the administration to quit because of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Said Call in her resignation announcement:

My whole life has been spent in Jewish community in the U.S. and Israel. People in my community lost loved ones during Hamas’s attack on October 7th; beloveds killed, displaced, and taken as hostages. I am terrified by rising antisemitism around the world. And yet I am certain that the answer to this is not to collectively punish millions of innocent Palestinians through displacement, famine, and ethnic cleansing.

Please go here for the original article: https://truthout.org/articles/more-biden-officials-resign-over-us-participation-in-israels-genocide-in-gaza/

Angela Davis: 'Palestine is a Moral Litmus Test for the World'

An excellent interview with Angela Davis.

— Molly

Citing the late poet June Jordan, political activist Angela Davis stresses the importance of Palestine for other social justice movements.

There has been a long history of solidarity between Palestinians and Black Americans, and these last few weeks have been no exception. While Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza, numerous Black activists in the United States have come together to demonstrate their solidarity with Palestinians. These two places are more than 6,000 miles away from each other, with very different histories. So what’s behind this common recognition of a shared struggle? On UpFront, renowned political activist Angela Davis speaks with Marc Lamont Hill on the history and meaning of Black American solidarity with the Palestinian cause. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIVxooM5kG8

An Excellent Interview: Dr. Gabor Maté on Israel/Palestine

This is a deeply important interview with Gabor Maté made shortly after the October 7th attack in Israel by Hamas. At that time, he was reticent with describing the response by Israel upon the Palestinian people as genocide, which has since changed. What I appreciate here and see as vital is a combination of deep compassion for all human beings, a lifetime of transformation and wisdom, multiple trustworthy resources of information, and being Jewish coupled with his own trauma history as a Holocaust survivor. Truly illuminating to listen to this much larger picture from one of our most valued and respected Elders. Deepest bow of gratitude and respect. 🙏 Molly

Dr. Gabor Maté on Israel/Palestine

October 28, 2023

Dr. Gabor Maté shares his reflections on Israel/Palestine including recent tragic events on and following October 7th, 2023. This conversation was recorded on October 28, 2023, and was facilitated by Hannah Maté.

Resources - Cited in Video:

Places to donate:

The Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund - www.pcrf.net

Dror Israel - www.drorisrael.org

Social media handles/links of voices/activism on the topic of Israel/Palestine:

Jewish Voice for Peace - @Jewishvoiceforpeace

Independent Jewish Voices - www. ijvcanada.og

If Not Now - @Ifnotnoworg

Democracy Now! - @democracynow

Gideon Levy - @levy_haaretz

Amira Hass - @Hass_Haaretz

Chris Hedges - @chrislynnhedges

Norman Finkelstein - @normfinkelstein

The Grayzone News - @thegrayzonenews

Ali Abunimah - @aliabunimah - and The Electronic Intifada https://electronicintifada.net/

Yousef Munayyer - @yousefmunayyer

Noura Erakat - @4noura

Aaron Maté - @aaronjmate

Daniel Maté - @danielbmate

Books recommended by Gabor in this video:

The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities by Simha Flapan

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi

Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHDBw-wx6w0