Separation of Church and Hate - 10.17.2025

John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate, a New York Times bestseller featured on The Daily Show, offers a timely moral mirror for Western nations that claim to act in the name of faith or democracy while enabling atrocities abroad. Fugelsang exposes how religion in the U.S. and Europe has been twisted into a tool of political power — justifying greed, nationalism, and even war. That distortion helps explain why so many leaders remain silent as Israel commits genocide in Gaza and terrorism in the West Bank, actions that defy every moral value they profess to uphold.

Fugelsang reminds us that Jesus’s teachings were revolutionary precisely because they rejected violence and welcomed the stranger. “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me,” Jesus said — a truth forgotten amid endless bombs and blockades. Separation of Church and Hate challenges both believers and policymakers to rediscover faith not as a weapon, but as a force for compassion, justice, and courage in confronting evil done in our name.

Behind the Ceasefire: Hunger, Rubble, and Betrayal in Gaza - 10.16.2025

Israel’s continued blockade of Gaza, even after a ceasefire, exposes the emptiness of its promises and the complicity of those who enable it. By delaying the reopening of the Rafah crossing, Israel is deliberately prolonging the suffering of more than two million Palestinians trapped in a wasteland of hunger, disease, and despair. Families like that of Umm al-Abed al-Fioumi return to find their homes reduced to rubble, their children without food, blankets, or shelter, as winter approaches.

Even as Israel starves civilians, it continues to kill — three more Palestinians gunned down despite the truce. Meanwhile, prominent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti has reportedly been beaten unconscious in Israeli custody, days after a far-right minister threatened him with an electric chair.

These are not the actions of a nation seeking peace, but of one wielding impunity. If the United States truly believes in human rights, it must demand an immediate reopening of Gaza’s borders, an end to the collective punishment of Palestinians, and accountability for Israel’s ongoing crimes.

Bret Stephens and the War on Truth - 10.16.2025

It’s little wonder the New York Times is losing subscribers when it publishes Bret Stephens’s propaganda masquerading as analysis. His latest piece, excusing Israel’s assault on Gaza as “necessary,” ignores the moral catastrophe unfolding before the world’s eyes. Starving civilians, bombing hospitals, and killing children are not signs of victory—they are evidence of a bankrupt policy driven by Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on truth and humanity.

Stephens has never offered a single moral defense for the deliberate starvation and slaughter of Palestinian civilians, including infants. Instead, he sanitizes Israeli brutality with talk of “legitimacy” and “self-defense,” while remaining silent on the blocked aid convoys and the journalists barred from Gaza.

If Stephens truly believes in truth and transparency, why not demand that foreign reporters—including himself—be allowed to witness Gaza’s devastation firsthand? Until then, he should shelve his sanctimonious rhetoric and perhaps study a more honest subject: Spirituality for Dummies.

When Empathy Fails: Kristof and the Erasure of Palestinian Suffering - 10.16.2025

Nicholas Kristof, one of my favorite reporters, is wrong. A historical review of Zionist occupation of Palestine reveals decades of brutal actions by militia and state forces, resulting in the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians since 1947, starting with the Nakba. Massive shipments of arms from Britain, the U.S., France, Germany, and Italy fueled these conflicts.

Since then, Palestinians have endured relentless home demolitions, military occupation, and the world’s largest open-air prison in Gaza, alongside brutal control in the West Bank, making everyday life a struggle for survival. Yet Kristof frames the situation as “right vs. right,” seemingly justifying mass starvation, indiscriminate bombing, and the use of EU- and U.S.-supplied weapons.

The silencing and career destruction of those accused of anti-Semitism for criticizing these actions further illustrate the moral imbalance. This is not a debate of competing rights; it is a clash of right against wrong, of justice against oppression.

Shamefully, Kristof seems to have lost his moral compass. Palestinians deserve truth, accountability, and an honest reckoning with history.

"We Survived the Night”: Remembering and Resisting Erasure - 10.14.2025

Julian Brave NoiseCat’s We Survived the Night is a haunting and profoundly moving work that reclaims Indigenous history and survival from the shadow of colonial genocide. A member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation, NoiseCat weaves together personal memoir, family tragedy, and investigative journalism to expose the enduring trauma of North America’s residential schools.

His father, Ed Archie NoiseCat, was found as a newborn in a garbage incinerator at the Catholic-run St. Joseph’s Mission in British Columbia—one of hundreds of such institutions designed to erase Indigenous identity. Through both his book and Oscar-nominated documentary Sugarcane, NoiseCat confronts this legacy of abuse and silence, and challenges the Catholic Church’s refusal to fully acknowledge its systemic crimes.

The phrase “We survived the night,” derived from a Secwepemctsín morning greeting, captures generations of resilience—those who endured disease, forced assimilation, and cultural erasure yet continued to survive. NoiseCat’s work reminds us that truth and remembrance are acts of resistance, and that Indigenous survival is not just history—it is the living heartbeat of this continent.

Ceasefire Without Justice Is No Peace for Palestinians - 10.13.2025

Israeli historian Ilan Pappé reminds us that despite the newly declared ceasefire in Gaza, Israel’s policy toward Palestinians remains one of elimination and domination. As Pappé notes, “nothing has changed in the dehumanization and the attitude of this Israeli government and its belief that it has the power to wipe out Palestine as a nation, as a people and as a country.”

While world leaders celebrate the temporary halt in bombing and the exchange of prisoners, Israel continues to expand settlements, suppress Palestinian celebrations, and block reconstruction. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing corruption charges and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, still clings to power through division and war. Pappé warns that such leadership, aided by U.S. and European complicity, poses a grave threat not only to Palestinians but to the very notion of justice and humanity.

The world must move beyond hollow peace summits and act decisively to protect Palestinians from ethnic cleansing and genocide — because ceasefire without accountability is no peace at all.

“We Lost Everything”: mourns Palestinian writer” - 10.13.2025

The recent Gaza ceasefire, hailed by Donald Trump as “the beginning of a golden age,” offers little comfort to Palestinians who have endured two years of devastation. Palestinian writer and human rights activist Ahmed Abu Artema, who lost his son and several relatives in Israeli attacks, put it plainly: “We cannot say we are happy, because we lost everything.”

Under the U.S.-backed 20-point plan, Hamas released the remaining 20 Israeli hostages, while Israel freed around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners—many held without charge. Yet, as Abu Artema reminds us, more than 9,000 Palestinians remain imprisoned, including hundreds of children. The world mourns Israeli hostages but ignores the thousands of Palestinians killed, detained, or deprived of basic human rights.

While Trump and Netanyahu celebrate “peace,” Gaza lies in ruins—its homes, hospitals, and infrastructure destroyed. True peace cannot come from political theater or military might. It must begin with justice, equality, and recognition of Palestinian humanity. Until the world confronts the ongoing occupation and systemic dehumanization, any ceasefire will remain only a pause in a continuing tragedy.