Palestine's Resistance shows adaptability

     The everlasting war between Palestine and Israel reached a high point during the summer, then it simmered back down for several months. It's hit a small spike the last couple of weeks, with several deaths in Jerusalem and the West Bank, where violence has been considerably lower than in Gaza in the last decade.

     I've noticed a trend over this year in the way Palestinians are fighting their cruel occupiers. Whenever Israel finds a way to negate the way they fight, they simply adapt and maneuver. They find a new way to fight back, ways that are creative and totally unrelated to the way they previously thought, so the Israelis have a harder time predicating how to combat the resistance. They think outside the box. 

     The first way the Palestinians fought this year was with rockets. They did this because this was one of the few long range weapons they have. Unlike the Israelis, they do not have artillery and jet fighters to kill their enemies from miles away. They have whatever small arms they can smuggle into Gaza or whatever they can make at home. These rockets were not particularly effective, as they are impossible to aim at the distances the Palestinians had to fire them at, but, at least they were a weapon. 

    The Israelis found a way to counter these rockets and bring down causalities from them almost 99%. Basically they hardly killed anyone with rockets during the 2014 summer war. The Israeli Iron Dome shot down the rockets before they could hit their targets. 

     But the Palestinians adapted. They switched from shooting rockets to doing raids from tunnels. They would dig under Gaza, through the border, and up into Israel, where they would launch sneak attacks against Israeli military targets. Contrary to Israeli propaganda, Hamas did not use a single tunnel to launch attacks against Israeli civilians, they only targeted military units. This is contrasted with Israel, whose killings were 75%-90% civilians. Hamas killed 66 Israeli soldiers during the war, and a big chunk of those deaths were from tunnel raids. The other deaths came from classic guerrilla warfare operations in Gaza as Israeli ground troops rolled in.  

     These tunnels caught the Israelis by surprise. They didn't anticipate that Hamas had built as many tunnels as they did. They couldn't negate them with their superior airpower. Jet fighters can do nothing against tunnels that are as deep as the Hamas tunnels were. So, they had to send in ground troops and bulldozers into Gaza to destroy the tunnels. This is how Israel negated the tunnel method of fighting. Although this cost them some ground troops, Israel succeeded in destroying the Hamas tunnels.  

     By the fall of 2014, after the war had ended, the Palestinians had to come up with a new way to fight. They are not allowed to possess firearms in the West Bank, apparently, Palestinians are not humans, therefore, they are not supposed to enjoy the universal human right of self defense. Jews, however, are allowed to own any firearm that they want. So, Palestinians find an ingenious way to fight with what they've got: cars.
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11211675/Israel-on-brink-of-third-intifada-after-new-car-attack.html

      It's an interesting tactic, something that you could never predict judging by their past tactic, which was tunnels. The two bear no resemblance. And unlike guns, Israel cannot ban Palestinians from driving cars, otherwise, they'd be just like Saudi Arabia in that regard, who bans women from driving. It's politically and economically not viable, which makes it a good tactic.
     Same thing with this last tactic that Palestinians are using at the same time as the cars: knives. Yep, regular pocket and kitchen knives. Nothing super high tech here. But Israel can't do anything about it before an attack happens. You can't ban knives.
     It will be interesting to see if this resistance fizzes out and dies down like many other times, or if it will actually culminate into another Intifada. It's simply too early to tell. Anyone who tells you it's a third Intifada doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. But there is one guarantee: Palestinian resistance will never die. You cannot kill an idea, and you cannot take away peoples' basic human rights and them just sit there and not do anything about it.  
 

     

     

  

Disproving the media's blatant lies about Israel and Palestine

      With Israel continuing its slaughter of Palestinian civilians, (with the occasional Hamas fighter here and there), the war between the pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters in the media and on social media is also getting extremely nasty. Any hope for a rational, logical discussion on this issue is soon thrown out the window in any confrontation because one side calls for the death of the entire other side, or calls each other terrorists, or completely rewrites history to blot out deeds done by the side they support, etc, etc, and all the other usual political bullshit. People no longer wish for the truth, but for the information that makes their side look right and the other side wrong. Who cares about reality when you have a political agenda at hand?!
      What will happen in this post is that I will lay out the bullshit claims, one by one, and clearly explain why each claim is wrong, using logic and facts.

       1. Israel was forced to launch this invasion in self-defense.
       Reality: Israel started this current flare up in hostilities by breaking the 2012 ceasefire in three ways: One: Restricting the fishing waters of Gaza to three nautical miles when they had agreed to put it at six nautical miles. http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/israel-violates-ceasefire-attacks-gaza-fishermen-who-is-holding-israel-accountable.html
       (This is all the while international standards put it at 12 miles and in the Oslo Accords, Israel agreed to put it at 20 nautical miles, so that's another Accord Israel broke). Two: By lying, saying Hamas murdered three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, while providing no proof that Hamas did so. When asked for proof, Israel said the information was a "matter of national security," and therefore, could not be released. This is while Israeli authorities knew the teenagers were already dead, but they didn't say so, prevented the media from reporting so, so they could whip up public hatred of Hamas. http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/israel-hamas-palestiniansconflictunitedstatesinternationallaw.html
     Also, this is while Hamas has denied killing the teenagers, and a Egyptian group has claimed responsibility. http://www.vocativ.com/world/israel-world/egyptian-group-claims-killed-3-israeli-teens/?utm_campaign=June1&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=outbrain
     Notice how mainstream media sources are reporting none of these three actions committed by Israel, nor have they reported about the Egyptian group claiming responsibility for the murders. Why? Because that would show Israel is responsible for instigating this latest round of violence, and that Hamas is innocent of killing the three teenagers.
      I get hate messages all the time simply for writing what I wrote above. Apparently, I am a "anti-Semite, a Jew hater, (even though some of my family is Jewish), and radical Islamist terrorist, (even though I'm not Muslim)," simply for reporting what has been documented by American, Israeli, Palestinian, U.N., and other international organizations. A great case of shoot the messenger, not the message. They are trying to frame the discussion to be that any criticism of any Israeli action is not actual criticism of that action, but because that critic hates Jews. Suddenly, in the world of pro-Israelis, Israel can literally do no wrong, because any criticism of it is automatically and without question anti-Semitism.

      2. Hamas uses human shields, and therefore, they are to blame for each and every Palestinian civilian death.
     Reality: There is no evidence that Hamas uses human shields. This was not said by a radical Islamist organization, but a liberal, mainstream U.S. media outlet, the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/world/middleeast/israel-says-hamas-is-using-civilians-as-shields-in-gaza.html?_r=0 But according to the pro-Israelis, the New York Times did not report this because this is what their reporters found out, they published it because they are radical Jew haters.
     All I'm saying, is that if Hamas uses human shields, which they must do pretty often because Israel is killing an average of 40 Palestinian civilians a day, then show me the evidence. Where's the evidence? Back up your claim. Show me the facts. Because the only fact I have is that "There is no evidence that Hamas and other militants force civilians to stay in areas that are under attack — the legal definition of a human shield under international law." (from NYT article).
      On the contrary, the only side that I've seen documented using human shields...is Israel. That's right, the very side that is constantly lying saying that Hamas is using human shields, is actually the side that is fucking using human shields. http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/survivors-massacre-palestinians.html
     Quote from Palestinian survivor Ayman Abu Toaimah “As Israeli invading troops advanced to the village they besieged it and used residents as human shields. When the Israeli army arrested people and then released some of them, they were told they are free to go back to the village, but as they were fleeing they came under fire and some of them shot dead. These people were used as human shields.”
      How fucking fucked up is that?! Doesn't that make your blood FUCKING BOIL?! This isn't the only time Israeli forces have done this, this is only the most recent time they have done so, hence, why I choose that particular source. There are countless other instances of Israel doing so, you only have to type "Israel using human shields" in a Google search, and you will get all the examples you could possibly want.

     3. Fighting in civilians areas is the same as using human shields.
     Reality: Guerrilla groups, like Hamas, by nature, HAVE to fight in civilian areas. They have no other choice because they do not have the funds nor the infrastructure to have a conventional country's military like the U.S. and Israel do. By saying that fighting in civilian areas is using human shields and/or terrorism, you are taking away the poor peoples' of the world right to self-defense, because that is the only way that they can fight. If Hamas had the money and the territory to have military bases totally separate from civilian areas, then they would do it. But they don't. 1.7 million people are squished in a 26x6 piece of coastline. There is no room for that.
     Throughout history, guerrilla groups have fought in civilian areas, because if they were to meet their state enemy on the open battlefield, then they would be annihilated in two seconds because they don't have jet fighters, artillery, tanks, APCS, the likes. So they are doing the logical, rational thing. The Republican rebels during the Spanish Civil War, the French under Nazi occupation, the Syrian rebels in the Syrian Civil War, the Finnish during the Russian invasion during WW2, the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, and the American Patriots during the American Revolutionary War all fought using civilian disguises because that was the only way they could fight their enemies. They operated in the shadows of towns, in the underground of cities, in the fields of farmland, etc, etc, because that was the only way they could fight.
      Were they terrorists for doing so? Of course not, you wouldn't call George Washington a terrorist, but at the time, the British certainly did. Were they using human shields? Of course not, you would never say George Washington did that, but at the time, a British officer said something that pro-Israelis say all the time about Hamas: "The Americans are the most absolute cowards on the face of the Earth," "The Americans do not fight us like a regular army, only like savages behind trees and stone walls, out of the woods and fields," "The Americans never engage us properly," "We are enraged at the suffering from an unseen enemy," (Invisible Armies by Max Boot, page 66).

     4. Hamas doesn't get to enjoy the right to self-defense.  
     Reality: Every people, regardless of race or creed, has the right to self-defense. There's no negotiations on this right. I've already explained in a previous post why it is logical and rational to use force to defend yourself when you are physically being attacked, and that if you believe that a certain group doesn't have the right to self-defense, then you are condemning that entire group to death, solely for belonging to that group: http://noholdsonfreedom.blogspot.com/2014/07/every-person-has-right-to-life-and-self.html But the U.S. government does not believe that the Palestinians have the right to self defense, in fact, they call the idea "offensive": http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/07/229550.htm      
     Critics of this idea will say "Oh, because Hamas is a terrorist organization, they don't get the right to self-defense." There are two things wrong with that statement. One: If you believe that, then you must believe it for every other terrorist organization. You have to apply the rule fairly to everyone, otherwise, there is the double standard in your logic. Using this logic, then the American military and the IDF do not enjoy the right to self-defense, because they are, by all standards, terrorists. Well, of course pro-Americans and pro-Israelis do not want their own logic applied to themselves the same way they apply it to the Palestinians! Oh no! They certainly couldn't have that! The problem is, anyone can call anyone a terrorist. So that's no criteria for having the right to self-defense.
     Two: Just because someone is a terrorist doesn't mean that suddenly they're not human, and therefore, do not enjoy all the human rights that each and every person is born with. I know everyone likes to dehumanize their enemy, but of course, that is an application of a double standard. The truth is, a person can be a terrorist in the morning, and then in the afternoon, run a soup kitchen for the homeless, and then in the evening, go back to his loving family and be a good father, and then at night, go back on another terrorist raid. Enemies are people, and people have human rights, simple as that. If we used the dehumanized logic, then all someone would have to do is to call a certain group a terrorist organization, and then proceed to slaughter them all. If anyone tried to stop them, the person could say "Oh they're terrorists, so it's okay for me to kill them all." This dehumanization tactic was used in the Holocaust, in Rwanda, in Syria today, etc, etc, and is not something that I want my country to use.

      5. Israel only targets Hamas soldiers and Hamas targets Israeli civilians.
     Reality: Let's look at actions, not statements, because anyone can say they do anything. Judge a person by their actions, and not their words. That way, we can tell who is lying in this case.
     Israel has killed around 1,200 Palestinians at the time of this writing. 80% of those are civilians http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10967279/UN-80-per-cent-of-Palestinians-killed-in-Israeli-offensive-are-civilians.html
    So, that is:
    Israel has killed 960 civilians and 240 fighters.
    Hamas has killed 3 civilians and 53 Israeli soldiers.
    Those are the numbers, plain and simple. You be the judge as who is to targeting combatants and who is targeting civilians. 

      6. Israel isn't occupying Gaza anymore.
      Reality: If a team of thugs step one inch from your property, guns pointed at your house, and prevent you and your family from leaving, no, they're not on your property, but they're still occupying your house. http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/8807/is-gaza-still-occupied-and-why-does-it-matter. The same goes for the Israeli occupation of Gaza. Israel controls all movement around the Strip. Israel prevents building materials for homes and hospitals. Israel prevents potato chips and chocolate from entering the Strip on security conditions, can't have the terrorist children having a snack! Israel prevents fuel, medicine, and food from entering the Strip. Israel shoots anyone who gets "too near" to their "security fence."
      Sounds like occupation to me.  

     7. Hamas's tunnels are only used for terrorism against Jewish civilians.
     Reality: First of all, we've already debunked the first part of this statement in #5. Hamas targets Israeli soldiers, not Israeli civilians. Look at this video: Hamas dug a tunnel specifically to attack an Israeli army outpost. Not a Jewish neighborhood, not a synagogue. AN ARMY OUTPOST:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NAhozItSq0
     Second of all, the tunnels have a lot of other practical, rational, logical uses due to the Israeli blockade. They bring in goods banned by Israel. They provide jobs for Palestinians in Gaza, which they desperately need, as the unemployment is around 50% http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/07/26/335332220/the-long-history-of-the-gaza-tunnels. They allow for Palestinians to actually enter and leave Gaza, since it is next to impossible for them to complete all the requirements needed to leave. And yes, Hamas uses them for sneak attacks. ON ISRAELI SOLDIERS. A guerrilla group has to be adaptive. Hamas changes its tactics. There's nothing wrong with that. It is rational and logical to use tunnels for sneak attacks because Israel hasn't adapted to counter them yet. They're a good way to fight.

     There you have it. All bullshit arguments, laid out one by one, and each one logically picked apart. I have these opinions, not because I hate Jews, not because I'm an Islamic terrorists, but because my opinion is the result I have reached through the analysis of all of the facts.
     
     

Every person has the right to life and self-defense

     It's really sad that I have to write this post in the 21st century. You think that mankind would evolve and figure out that just because a person belongs to a certain ethnic group/ religious group, that doesn't mean that they, automatically and without question, deserve to die. But no, that would be asking WAY too much for humanity.
     The logic is really quite simple. If a person doesn't have the right to self-defense, then that invites anyone to just go up and kill them, and they can't fight back at all. They just have to sit there and take it, and die in the process. Even the Nazis had the right to self-defense. If the American soldiers are attacking them, I'm not going to cry and call the Nazis terrorists when they start fighting back, (they're terrorists for other reasons). Because fighting back is a natural and logical response, it is psychologically engraved in animals and in us as well. Just because a person is your enemy, does not mean they are not human, and therefore, should not enjoy human rights.  
     These are the reasons why every person, regardless of race or religion, (or any other group identity for that matter), have the right to life.
     1. A person is not responsible for the actions done by other people of his/her same religion or ethnicity. Every day, dozens of white people murder innocents in America and Europe, steal from people, kill people in car crashes, commit vandalism, rape people, etc, etc. Just pick up any local newspaper and you'll see examples. Now, imagine how absurd it would be if all the minorities in America and Europe demanded that all white people apologize every single time a white person did any of those things. That's right, you'd be thinking "Hey, I didn't do this crime xyz, why should I apologize for it?"
      You can substitute white people for any other ethnicity and the scenario would be the same. People dehumanize groups they hate, thinking they are all one monotonous group. But of course, they never apply the same logic to the groups they are apart of. A person is only responsible for the actions done by himself/herself, AND THAT'S FUCKING IT. In the Central African Republic, for example, when a group of radical Christians kill Muslim civilians on purpose, it is not "getting back at them" if Muslims go and kill random Christians in a retaliatory attack. Why? Because those aren't the Christians who killed the civilians. DUH!! All the Muslims have done is the exact same thing back to the Christians. They've both committed terrorism now.
     2. If a human being has committed no crime, then they shouldn't be put to death. Again, common sense, which is never common these days. Simply existing is not a crime.
     3. Thinking that because some members of xyz commit a crime, therefore, all members of xyz should die is a double standard, because people never think that about their own race. See this example to illustrate it:
      Racist Jew: A Muslim killed a Jewish civilian today, so all Muslims should die!
      Me (showing the fallacy): A Jew killed a Muslim civilian today, so all Jews should die!
      Racist Jew: What?! You can't take the crimes of one person and apply it to all Jews! I didn't do anything wrong! I shouldn't die!
      See what I mean? They never apply the same logic to the groups they hate and their own group. If they did, then they would think that literally everyone on the Earth should die, because all religions and races have had their share of people who have murdered innocent people throughout history.
      4. All religions and races are equal. Again, so sad that I have still have to write this. For every Asian terrorists I can find a South American terrorist to match, and vice versa. Substitute for any other religion or ethnic group and the statement is still the same. Besides, I'm sure there are more terrorists in one religion than another, for example, more Muslims than Jews, because there are 1.5 billion Muslims and only 15 million Jews. So even if percentage wise they're same, numerically, there will be more Muslim terrorists than Jewish terrorist. Does that mean Islam supports terrorism and Judaism doesn't? Of course not. Since when it is a rule than if your religion has more terrorists than my religion, then that means your religion supports terrorism and mine doesn't?
      Let's just say, for argument's sake, there are 40 million Islamic terrorists, and 34 million Christian terrorists in the world. What moral high ground can Christians have on Muslims? "Ha, you have 40 million terrorists and I only have 34 million! So that means you support terrorism and I don't!" Yeah, it makes no sense.
      5. Self-defense is logical. If you're a Palestinian, just walking through Gaza, minding your own business, and then, your house gets bombed by Israeli warplanes when there are no missiles or militants nearby, killing your family. What is your natural, logical reaction? You go join the group that is fighting Israel. Does that make you a terrorist? No, but unfortunately the only group fighting Israel is a terrorist organization, so technically, yes, you are now in a terrorist organization, and Israel has the right to kill you. But you haven't launched any rockets at civilians. You want to fight Israeli soldiers that killed your family.
     See how real life is more complicated than children stories of "good guys vs evil guys"?

     6. People have the right to self-defense in the best way that they can. If America is attacked, they attack with jet fighters, artillery, marines, etc. If you are attacked in your home by criminals, you attack with a gun. Is your actions automatically terrorism because you aren't a official state military using big expensive equipment? Of course not. But some people act like that's how it is. For example, they think the Free Syrian Army is a terrorist organization because it uses guerrilla warfare, with AK-47's and car bombs, against the Assad dictatorship. But they don't think Assad is, even though he is using jet fighters and artillery against civilians. Why don't they think Assad is a terrorist? Because he is a government, using machines to fight, so therefore, he couldn't possibly be a terrorist. 
      You store your gun in your home, because, that's the legal and rational thing to do, because it is on your property. But if you were a Palestinian in Gaza, Israel would drone strike your house, saying that you're using human shields because you're hiding arms in a civilian building. See how easy it is to twist things to make a normal action look like a terrorist action?  If your best weapon are homemade rockets, then that's what you have to use. If Hamas had jet fighters and cruise ships and artillery, believe me, they'd much rather use those then homemade rockets than cannot be aimed very well. But saying that all methods of warfare except expensive state of the art warfare that only rich countries can afford is "terrorism" is taking away the poor men of the world's fight to self-defense. You'd be condemning millions of people to death just because they can't afford laser guided missiles that your government can conveniently afford.
      In conclusion, this is a quick summary of my post, using again, an example:

• Israel has the right to fight against Palestinian militants, because they are both combatants who are at war with one another. 
• Israel DOES NOT have the right to kill Palestinian civilians, just because they are living in Gaza, or are Arab, or are Muslim etc. There is no excuse. Terrorism is terrorism, no what who the perpetrator.
• Palestine has the right to fight against Israeli military forces, because they are both combatants who are war with one another.    
• Palestine DOES NOT have the right to kill Israeli civilians, just because they are living in Israel, or are Jewish, etc. There is no excuse. Terrorism is terrorism, no what who the perpetrator.

Both America and Russia play double standards

      Even fiercer than the physical fighting between Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists is the propaganda war between the United States and Russia. News media is so bloated with fucking stupid statements from both sides that is near impossible to verify anything going on in the conflict. If you aren't sure of anything going on in the conflict, then you can't form an opinion on it. It has taken me weeks and weeks to sift through all of the bullshit on the Internet to actually figure out what is going on there. Despite the fact that my major in college was Global Affairs, I still had a hard time figuring this one out. The difficulty is 90% propaganda, and only 10% the actual conflict. Meaning, if news media WOULD JUST STOP POSTING COMPLETELY FALSE STUPID SHIT, it would a hell of a lot easier to form an opinion on this conflict. I could write a whole 'nother post just on the negative influences shitty reporting has on viewers, but I digress; that is a topic for another time.

       Pro-Russians go on and on about how the U.S. is lying about several concepts in Ukraine, about how they have double standards about intervention, etc, etc. No one has articulately countered these statements, which is very easy to do. My response is:
     "You're absolutely right. The United States is spitting out a lot of propaganda about the conflict in Ukraine. They absolutely engage in double standards practically every day. The point is: two wrongs don't make a right. Just because the U.S. does these things, does not mean that Russia gets to do those same things and you pro-Russians shouldn't call them out on it. You yourselves are practicing a double standard because when the U.S. does a certain action, you scream bloody murder 'Imperialism! Fascism!' But when Russia does the exact same fucking thing, there is deafening silence. You don't say anything. That shows that you're not actually against that certain action, you're just against it when it politically suits you."
     The same thing can be said about pro-Ukrainians who are just blindly anti-Russian without even knowing specific reasons why, other than "Well, they're communists!" Pro-Ukrainians go on and on about how Russia is lying about several concepts in Ukraine, about how they have double standards about intervention, etc, etc. No one has articulately countered these statements, which is very easy to do. My response is:
     "You're absolutely right. Russia is spitting out a lot of propaganda about the conflict in Ukraine. They absolutely engage in double standards practically every day. The point is: two wrongs don't make a right. Just because the Russia does these things, does not mean that the U.S. or Ukraine gets to do those same things and you pro-Ukrainians shouldn't call them out on it. You yourselves are practicing a double standard because when Russia does a certain action, you scream bloody murder 'Imperialism! Fascism!' But when the U.S. or Ukraine does the exact same fucking thing, there is deafening silence. You don't say anything. That shows that you're not actually against that certain action, you're just against it when it politically suits you."
     Bam. No comeback is possible. I am simply observing statements from both sides of the conflict.  What people fail to realize is that evil people who are wrong most of the time can say something completely correct other times. Just because a person is evil does mean they are evil all the time. There have been men who have been disgusting terrorists who kill women and children, and then turn around the next day and run a food pantry for poor people.

     Okay, so now that we've cleared through the choking aura of propaganda, let's go through a few universal truths in the conflict to establish ground zero on understanding it.

1. People have the right to defend themselves against government attacks. They have the right to overthrow their government if the government will not stop oppressing them and violating their human rights. Seem radical? Seem anarchist? Actually, it is in line with traditional American values, logic and reason, and human psychology. The Founding Fathers believed in this truth, because they believed they were justified in overthrowing the British rule of the American colonies because of their repression. Logic says that if person A, (the government), attacks person B, (the citizens), without provocation, to only gain an advantage over him, or to steal something from him, etc, then person B has the right to use force to defend himself against person A. He is not a radical or terrorist for doing so. Psychologically speaking, if you do not believe in this, then you are giving person A the green light, and everyone else like him, to mug and kill as many person Bs as they want, and person B can't do anything about it, otherwise, he's a terrorist. This is against human psychology, because we have a primal instinct to defend ourselves if being attacked by an aggressor. 

          So what does this have to do with Ukraine? Because the first universal truth is that the  Ukrainian people had the right to overthrow the government of Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych committed a number of crimes that would make overthrowing him legitimate. Some of them include massive corruption throughout all levels of his "administration," stealing taxpayers' money for himself, taking away critics' freedom of speech, disbanding the Constitution, and killing protesters simply for exercising their freedom of speech and assembly.
         The Russian narrative would say that no, the Ukrainian people did not have the right to overthrow him. They say that the Ukrainians would have to deal with Yanukovych's corruption and theft and murder. Do you see why their narrative is bullshit: "You deal with your leader, even though his oppresses and murders you. Why? Because he's our ally, and that's all that matters."

     2.  Countries do not have a right to invade other countries based on the pretext on protecting a minority from the invading country. First of all, there is no evidence that Russian minorities in Crimea were ever being persecuted by anyone. That demolishes that piece of Russian propaganda. If Russia truly believed this concept, then they would have to accept it universally, i.e. it doesn't matter who the actors are, the rule stays the same: If your minority is being persecuted in another country, you have a right to invade that country. That's how real laws work: it doesn't matter if a white person, black person, Asian, etc, commits theft. Theft is a crime no matter who does it.
     But we know Russia, specifically Putin, would never, ever, accept this rule universally. He only accepts it when it benefits Russia. Say Turkey says "Hey, Russia is persecuting our Muslim brothers and sisters in Chechnya, (which by all accounts, except Russian, Russia is. Fucking look up all of the shit these brave people have to go through every God damn day before you call them terrorists). So we will invade Russia to protect them." Can you picture Putin saying "Yep, Turkey has that right. Go ahead, I won't do anything." FUCK NO HE WOULDN'T.

       3.  Ukraine has the right to use force to take back its territory from pro-Russian separatists. Russia cries that the Ukraine are "fascists who are using violence against un-armed protesters." I'm sorry, I don't care who you are or what weapons/lack of weapons you have. If you forcefully take over government buildings, you have become a combatant against the government. The minute you use force against something, you have authorized that something to use force against you in response. You cannot attack and then call foul when that something you attacked attacks you back. Can you imagine someone using that in any other situation? Like on the playground at school: Billy starts beating the shit out of Andrew for no reason, saying the entire time "Oh, you can't fight back Andrew, otherwise, you're a bully!"
     I MEAN C'MON PEOPLE, WAKE THE FUCK UP AND FUCKING THINK! USE LOGIC! You have to be pretty God damn stupid, or stupidly pro-Russia to think that only pro-Russian people have the right to take over government buildings, shoot down helicopters, and ambush Ukrainian troops, and the Ukrainian people SHOULD JUST SIT THERE AND TAKE IT.
     Imagine if a similar situation happened to Russia. Let's say the Chechen people started another revolt, took over Russian government buildings in Chechnya, shot down Russian helicopters, and ambushed Russian soldiers. Do you think Putin would say "Yep, the Chechens have the right to do that. I'm not going to do anything."

      4.   Countries do not have the right to make up a bunch of lies against a country, and then invade it, based on those lies. This goes in line with what I said earlier. The U.S. cannot make up a bunch of "intelligence" saying that Iraq has nuclear weapons, lie and say Saddam Hussein is working with al-Qaida, etc, and then invade the country on those false premises, and then set up a puppet government, stealing their natural resources, using it to flame a war it benefits from, etc, etc.
      And just because the U.S. did that does NOT give Russia the right to make up "intelligence" that says Russian Crimeans are being persecuted, exaggerate the political views of the new Kiev government to benefit Russia, and then invade Crimea and send mercenaries into eastern Ukraine on those false premises.
     Two wrongs don't make a right. Both are wrong, fascist acts of state terrorism.

     5.    The Kiev government is not automatically "illegitimate" just because it came to power in a coup. If you go by that rule, then that means George Washington's government was illegitimate because it came to power through force. That means any government that has ever come into being through a revolution, coup, rebellion, etc, is automatically and without question, illegitimate. The Kiev government will become legitimate if it has free and fair elections, which it is going to do in 2 days, despite all the pro-Russian separatists are trying to derail them.
      Of course, Putin doesn't believe in this rule universally. If a government comes to power that happens to be pro-Russian, or that Putin believes he can benefit from it, then of course he will say that government is legitimate and that the people had the right to overthrow the previous government, etc. But if a government comes to power that happens to not be pro-Russian, or that Putin believes he can't benefit from it, then of course he will say that government is illegitimate and that the people did NOT have the right to overthrow the previous government.

 
      In conclusion, this shows that world leaders rarely, if ever, stand for any of the positions, ideals, rights, concepts, etc, that they say they stand for. They only stand for those positions, ideals, rights, concepts, etc, ONLY if it benefits them. If it doesn't, then you see an incredible 180 degree spin on their view on it. This is not the right way to govern. People must stand for ideals, no matter who is involved. For example, I believe that every person, regardless of their race or their creed, has the right to defend themselves from an aggressive attacker in self-defense. World leaders only support that right to certain people when it benefits them; when it doesn't, they suddenly don't believe in that right for a certain people.
     Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Ronald Reagen, Nicolas Sarkozy, Vladimir Putin, both George Bushs, Gordon Brown, Francois Hollande, Xi Jinping, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, David Cameron, Hu Jintao, and many more, they're all FUCKING LIARS.         

     
         

Protesting the Nigerian Government Will Get You Nowhere

     Boko Haram, a radical terrorist organization, kidnapped more than 250 teenage school girls in Nigeria several weeks ago. The corrupt, tyrannical, and incompetent Nigerian government has absolutely no idea where the girls are, (at least they say they don't. Who can trust anything they say? They're corrupt fascists. But I digress). Many Nigerians are in open protest against the government, demanding they do more to find the school girls.
     All I can think is...wow, they're all fucking idiots.
     That's right, I'm, who usually is all for any action against corrupt oligarchical governments, condemning these protests as a complete and utter waste of time, and an action that makes every protester look like a liberal brainwashed whiner.
     Why is it a waste of time? Because anyone who knows anything about non-violent protests know that they only work when there is a chance that the government will acquiesce to the protesters' demands and/or understand their point of view. Let's see what human rights organizations say about the Nigerian government:

• Human Rights Watch, (HRW): "Nigerian authorities also arrested hundreds of people during raids across the north. Many of those detained were held incommunicado without charge or trial, in some cases in inhuman conditions. Some were physically abused; others disappeared or died in detention." 
• HRW: "The failure of Nigeria’s government to address the widespread poverty, corruption, police abuse, and longstanding impunity for a range of crimes has created a fertile ground for violent militancy."
• HRW: "Abuses by government security forces and the ruling elite’s mismanagement and embezzlement of the country’s vast oil wealth also continued largely unabated. Free speech and the independent media remained robust. Nigeria’s judiciary continued to exercise a degree of independence, but many of the corruption cases against senior political figures remained stalled in the courts." http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/nigeria 
• United Nations, (UN): "the Nigerian military carries out extra-judicial killings, torture and illegally detains suspects." http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/14/human-rights-nigeriasecuritybokoharam.html
•  Amnesty International: "The police regularly commit human rights violations, including unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances. The justice system is under-resourced and riddled with delays. Prisons are overcrowded; the majority of inmates are pre-trial detainees, some held for many years. Hundreds of people remain on death row, many sentenced after unfair trials. Conflict in the Niger Delta threatens the safety and lives of residents. Human rights defenders and journalists face intimidation and harassment. Violence against women is widespread and the government fails to protect the rights of children. Forced evictions take place across the country." http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/africa/nigeria 

     I found all that in about 2 seconds. 
     Now does it seem like the Nigerian government does not give a FLYING FUCK about what ANY of its citizens think or say?! Yes, protesting may make you look all cute and sophisticated and having the moral high ground and all that other stupid liberal bullshit, but when the police can just raid your house and kill you in cold blood and get away with it, what does it do? It's just a complete and utter waste of time.
     Protesting against the Nigerian government will not do a single thing in finding the kidnapped girls, because it is not the Nigerian government that is holding them. Boko Haram is holding them, which, by the way, is at war with the Nigerian government. It's like if the Taliban killed some civilians, so then some Afghan civilians protest against the Afghani government. What the fuck is that going to do?!
     If Nigerian citizens actually wanted to do something to help find the girls, they could any one of the following:

• First off, fucking get rid of the liberal brainwashing that the government is supposed to protect you. Man up, take responsibility of your own life and safety, and learn the skills necessary to defend yourself. Stop being an adult baby and crying out for protection like a helpless infant. Buy guns, buy ammo, train, form neighbor watches/defense groups, actually TALK with your family and neighbors about what they're going to do in an emergency, etc. 
• Get rid of the people covering for Boko Haram. A terrorist group that is vastly outgunned by it's enemy relies on a network of spies, lookouts, people who are willing to cover for them when they need to, etc, those type of people. This advantage offsets the disadvantage Boko Haram has against the Nigerian military in relation to firepower, air power, etc. People allow these terrorist supporters to live and operate among them, because they don't want their relatives and friends getting into trouble. The Nigerian people must stand on principle, and even if they must turn against friends and family in denunciation of terrorism, then that is what they must do if they want to purge their communities of terrorist influence. 
• Fight against the Nigerian government. This will be a two front war for the Nigerian people. Fighting Boko Haram on one side and the Nigerian government on the other is not an easy task. But it is obvious that the Nigerian government is neither a legitimate government nor a one that respects their citizens' human rights. Logic tells us what the Nigerian people must do if they want a government that is legitimate and will respect their human rights: Perform armed struggle against the Nigerian government until it falls, and then elect a new government in a short amount of time. The warfare should contrast greatly with Boko Haram's tactics, to show that this is the right way to wage a revolution. Instead of attacking civilians and kidnapping teenage girls, the Nigerian people should only attack against Nigerian military and government personnel. 

 

     In conclusion, in regards to what us, the American people can do to help, there is not much. This is the Nigerian peoples' fight, not ours. We cannot swoop down like saviors and save the savage Africans from each other, (sarcasm). No, the world doesn't work that way. But what we can do is this:

• Denounce U.S. military aid to Nigeria. The U.S. has given more than $600 million to the Nigerian military every year since 2010. That's right, your hard earned tax money goes to state sponsored terrorists. That is not a lot compared to the U.S.'s budget, but to the Nigerian military, that is a jackpot of money that can buy all sorts of vehicles and weapons they can use to repress their own citizens. Plus, when we strengthen the Nigerian military, we also strengthen Boko Haram. Why is that? Because when a Nigerian soldiers kills and rapes a woman, holding a U.S. rifle, her brother gets infuriated, (as he has the right to), and runs to join the biggest threat to the Nigerian military which is guess what: Boko Haram. 
• Explain that one can revolt against the Nigerian government and still not be a terrorist. There is a legitimate, (morally and legally speaking), way to fight against an authority that breaks human rights. All people have the right to use force against an authority that repeatedly breaks their human rights. This is confirmed in human psychology as well as the American Founding Fathers. Show the Nigerian people that we recognize and support their right to fight for a real democracy.          
• Do not support American intervention in this conflict. Boko Haram, horrible as they may be, is no threat to us. This is the Nigerian peoples' fight, not ours. Even thought we could militarily beat Boko Haram no problem, an American intervention would only make things worse. 

An excerpt from my book "Battalions of Shadow Fall."

(An excerpt from Chapter 2. Jinan and her political advisor Qudamah are traveling to the West Bank from Gaza, in order to start back up Jinan’s late father’s paramilitary organization.)       

          SAME DAY, SOUTH-WEST OF HEBRON, NEAR ABU AL-ASJA

          Qudamah and Jinan had a long day of driving the same day that Brian received his big news. They could not drive directly from Gaza to the West Bank, because Israel had instituted a siege around the entire strip of land. The one exit was through the Rafah Crossing on the Egyptian border. So they drove to Egypt, and then went into the Sinai Peninsula. From there they did basically a big U-turn. They went back into Israel from the Sinai, and then from there they entered the West Bank. Crossing into Israel from the Sinai was not a problem because the border was so long that they easily were able to pass into it without going through a checkpoint.

            However getting into the West Bank was a different story. The Israelis had built their infamous Apartheid Wall around all of the West Bank, sealing it inside of Israeli control. Qudamah and Jinan had deliberated about which of two options to pick as to how to enter the territory.

            Option one would be to go to an Israeli checkpoint along the wall, kill the guards quickly and quietly, and then drive on through the checkpoint. This was the faster of the two options, but the Israeli deaths would attract a swarm of Israeli soldiers to the area, and that could be potentially dangerous for the two resistance fighters as they had a mini arsenal of weapons in their car.

            Option two would be to drive a section of the wall where there weren’t any soldiers around, i.e., away from a checkpoint and away from Palestinian villages. They could blow up a part of the wall, and then drive through the hole they would’ve made. This would take longer as it would take Jinan some time to set up all the explosives and the charge. But it would take hours for the Israelis to notice a hole in the wall that was far away, since the wall was hundreds of miles long. By then, the two would be long gone from the area.

            In the end, the two decided that killing Israeli soldiers, although Jinan would never back down from a fight, would be too risky. So they went with Option two. 10 minutes later, they were in the West Bank, on their way towards the village of Abu al-Asja.

            The two did not talk much. All the driving and the afternoon sun were making Jinan tired. Qudamah had driven in the earlier part of the day while Jinan slept. Then they had switched drivers after they blew the hole in the apartheid wall.

            Now Jinan was driving and Qudamah was busy receiving emails over his cellphone and filing all the important documents needed to run a paramilitary organization on his laptop. Jinan didn’t want to disturb him so she didn’t even turn the radio on.

            She was busy thinking about what happened yesterday, after Qudamah and she got to Qudamah’s house.

           

            FLASHBAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK^[1]

            “Hey kids” Qudamah said as he opened the front door to his house, “We’re back.”

            “Daddy!” 2 little girls came running towards him and hugged his legs.

            “Haha okay let me get through the front door” He said with a smile as he awkwardly stepped a few steps so that Jinan could get inside also. As soon as his girls let go of his legs they ran over to Jinan.

            “Aunt Jinan!” they exclaimed in the same happy high pitched voices.^[2]

            “Hi girls” Jinan as she bent down on her knees and kissed them both on one cheek, “Did you have a good day today?”

            “Yes” the older one named Rana said.

            “Jinan! Do you want to see a picture I drew today?” squealed the younger one named Shireen.

            “Haha sure sweetheart” Jinan said.

            Shireen ran back into the kitchen, where Tasnim, Qudamah’s wife, emerged from. She was a middle aged woman with curly dark brown hair that went down to her neck. She was wiping a big stirring spoon clean with a towel, so that meant she was cooking. Almost certainly dinner. She had a glare in her eyes that Qudamah had been unfortunately gotten used to the last couple of weeks. 

            “Hello honey” Qudamah said as he pecked a kiss on her lips, “Is there anything I can do?”

            “No” she replied, “Dinner is actually almost ready. You two came at a good time.”

            Meanwhile Jinan and the two little girls were sitting on the couch near the front door. Shireen was showing Jinan her picture.

            “Shireen’s been showing everyone that picture all day” Rana said to Jinan.

            “Mhmmm and I remember your dad telling me that you did the same thing when you were her age” Jinan said.

            She unfastened her hijab and pulled it off. Her wavy black hair, which came down to her waist, came tumbling down. She shook it around a little to get it out of her face, much to Shireen’s amusement.

            Qudamah, without even thinking about it, looked in Jinan’s direction when she did this. Tasnim saw this right away and gave Qudamah a quick slap on the wrist with her big metal spoon that she was using for stirring.

            “Ow!” Qudamah hissed, making sure to keep it below Shireen’s and Rana’s talking to Jinan.

            “I saw that” Tasnim said as she went back into the kitchen.

            Qudamah rubbed his wrist as he walked back in with her. Jinan noticed all of this but gave no indication that she did. She continued to talk and play with Shireen and Rana.

            “What the hell was that for?” Qudamah asked sternly as Tasnim continued preparing dinner.

            “You know exactly what it was for. This isn’t the first time you’ve looked at her like that.”

            Qudamah’s ears and face reddened.

            “What? So I looked at her. Big deal.”

            “It is a big deal to me” Tasnim replied as she chopped up some celery and put it a pot full of boiling water that was on the stove.

            “Tasnim, you’d better get over the fact that Jinan and I work in the same organization, so we’re going to be together most of the days” Qudamah said sternly.

            “Am I? Or am I supposed to get over the fact that you and Jinan had a fling several years ago, and judging by the way you looked at her, I don’t think it’s completely done.”

            Qudamah gritted his teeth but didn’t say anything. The only noises were the water boiling, Jinan blowing a raspberry on Shireen’s stomach, and Shireen giggling with joy.

            “That was before we got married” Qudamah said finally.

            “I know. But do you see where I am coming from?” Tasnim said, dropping her confrontational attitude, “I’m middle aged, chubby. Then I see my husband running around with this beautiful younger woman, who he had a fling with.”

            “I do see where you are coming from” Qudamah said as he walked away towards the stairs, “But you being jealous all the time is not going to help matters.”

            FLASHFORWARD TO THE PRESENT

            “I’m sorry” Jinan said.

            “What?” Qudamah asked, barely looking away from his computer screen.

            “I said I’m sorry.”

            “For what?”

            “For causing…..tensions between you and Tasnim.”

            “Jinan” Qudamah started, looking up from the screen, “That is absolutely not your fault at all. You are not responsible for Tasnim’s behavior.”

            “I know, but I should’ve asked to have stayed at another person’s house, or at least kept my hijab on even when I was indoors.”

            “That is behind us. You asked me if you could stay because you were just returning from abroad after you had run away for 8 years, and you didn’t know who else you could’ve trusted.”

            Jinan smiled back at him.

            “There’s a roadblock up at Kurza by the way” Qudamah said as he pointed down the road, “So you’d better turn right up ahead.”

            “Thanks” Jinan replied as she did so.

            “You can turn the radio on now” he continued, “I’m done doing my work, at least for now.”

            Jinan did so and flipped through the stations, trying to get to a news station. She didn’t like most of the hip-hop and pop shit they played on the radios most of the time. They drove in a curve around a hill that was past the intersection that she had just turned onto.

            “JINAN STOP!” Qudamah suddenly yelled.

            Jinan looked up. There was a whole crowd of people randomly in the street. She slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt. She had not seen them earlier because they were turning around a hill.

            Now that they were stopped they could figure out what was going on. All of the people were either Israeli soldier or settlers; the soldiers were armed with TAR-21s and some of the settler had AR-15s or M-16s.^[3] They were all crowded around something, but neither Qudamah nor Jinan could tell what or who it was.

            “Jinan just back up and get out of here, this is not good at all” Qudamah said tensely.

            Jinan started to do so, but then she saw what the settlers were gathered around.

            “They’re beating up two Palestinians, look!” she said.

            Through the mass of people, Qudamah could make out a man and a woman lying on the street with their hands covering the back of their heads, jolting every time a settler kicked them.

            “Ah shit man” Qudamah sighed.

            Jinan turned around in her seat and opened a secret compartment behind her seat. She pulled out her cherished AK-74M^[4]. It had an ACOG scope on top on its rails and a grenade launcher on the bottom. On one side of the stock there was an Iraqi flag painted on it, and on the other the Palestinian flag was painted on it. 

            “Jinan….” Qudamah said gravely as his face turned white.

            “Don’t even think about stopping me” Jinan said sternly as she pulled the bolt back and then letting it go forward, putting a bullet into the chamber “Those people need our help.”

            “Yeah but there’s like 2 dozen armed Israelis!”

            “Like I give a fuck” Jinan replied as she hid the rifle under the robes of her chador.

            She got another magazine and put it in her pocket. Then, she got out of the car and started to walk towards the settlers.

            “Jinan!” hissed Qudamah, but she did not acknowledge him as she continued to walk towards them.

            None of the settlers noticed her because they were all too focused on the couple they were beating up. The ones that weren’t actively stepping on them or kicking them were yelling curses and racial slurs at them. Jinan didn’t speak a word of Hebrew so she didn’t know what they were saying. None of them noticed her until it was too late.

            Jinan got within 2 yards of the group and then opened fire on them. The results were devastating. The bullets mowed down the group of radical settlers like blades of grass. Blood and guts were spewed everywhere as the bullets tore through the bodies. The Palestinian couple stayed on the ground, getting drenched with blood.

            Chaos and panic followed. The settlers scattered, scrambling to find cover from Jinan’s onslaught of bullets. The Israeli soldiers that were nearby were on high alert now. They figured out where the shooting was coming from and shot back at Jinan.

            She was forced to duck for cover behind an Army jeep. She left 7 bodies lying on the street. It was hard to see who was dead and who was mortally wounded. The Palestinian couple staggered from the bloody mess, completely dazed.

            “Find cover!” Jinan yelled as she gave them some covering fire to give them some time.

            The couple crawled over to their car and shut the door, bullets ricocheting off of the metal.

            There were 6 people shooting at Jinan, and they were spread out in 3 different locations. There were 2 settlers not 15 yards in front of her, shooting from behind another Army jeep. Then there was a soldier to her left about 50 yards away, shooting from behind a roadblock. Lastly there were 3 soldiers up on a hill about 150 yards in front of her.

            “Damn, gotta take care of this fast, otherwise they’re gonna call for reinforcements” Jinan thought as she gritted her teeth.

            She looked over the hood of the Army jeep. As the soldier on her left stood up to shoot at her, she shot at him first, hitting him 3 times in the chest and left shoulder. He fell down behind the roadblock. With her attention on that soldier, the two remaining settlers rushed around the other side of the jeep. Jinan realized this too late. She turned around in horror as the settlers closed in on her, raising their weapons.

            Out of nowhere a car rammed the two settlers from behind, sending them flying past Jinan and into the roadblock. Jinan looked at the driver.

            It was Qudamah.

            But Jinan had no time to thank him. She spun around and shot the two settlers who lay bloodied and dazed on the ground, before they could recover and shoot her back.

            The bolt on her AK stayed back, meaning she was out of ammo. She pulled the empty magazine out, and switched it out with the other one she had.

            All was quiet now. Jinan peeped her head over the jeep again to figure out where the other 3 Israeli soldiers were. But she scanned the whole hill and didn’t see them at all. Jinan warily stood up, and walked over to the Palestinians’ couple’s car, where the couple was hiding in.

            “Are you two okay?” she asked.

            “Yyyeeesss” the man stammered.

            The woman could only nod her head.

            “Good. You’d better get out of here fast. Stay in your village for the next couple of days until things simmer down” Jinan said.

            “Okay” replied the bewildered man as he started his car.

            The car sped off down the road. Jinan walked towards the pile of settler’s bodies, where 2 of them were still alive, barely moving.

            “Jinan let’s go!” said Qudamah in a hushed voice.

            He was scared that the Israeli soldiers were still nearby, about to strike again while Jinan wasn’t paying attention. But Jinan stood over the two men that were still barely alive, and shot them both once in the head. Qudamah winced.

             Then, she ran over to Qudamah’s car. He moved from the driver’s seat into the passenger’s seat. Jinan got in the driver’s seat, tossed her AK in the secret compartment, and sped off just as fast as the Palestinian couple did.

            “Oh shit oh shit oh shit” Qudamah said as he placed the cover over the compartment.

            Jinan said nothing as she continued to drive.

            “You really did it now Jinan, the Israelis will swarm this place like motherfuckers until they find us” Qudamah said, the panic evident in his voice.

            “Those terrorists forced my hand” Jinan replied sternly, “What was I supposed to do, just turn around leave that poor couple to die? Cuz you know that’s what was going to happen if I didn’t intervene, it happens all the time here.”

            “I know I know I’m sorry, you did the right thing, but I just wish it didn’t have to happen on our first day here” Qudamah said, checking his map on his computer, “You know, before we got our organization even off the ground.”

            “I know” Jinan replied.

            She drove fast for a while longer, and then slowed down to a normal speed so they wouldn’t stand out amongst the other cars on the road. She was silent as Qudamah listened to his Israeli police scanner, figuring out what the best route to take based on where their opponents were sending their officers. He, unlike Jinan, spoke Hebrew pretty well so he could understand the majority of what they were saying. Jinan understood none of it but could tell by the tone of their voices that she had hit a hornet’s nest by saving that couple.

            “Thank you” She finally said, “For saving me back there.”

            “Huh?”

            Jinan pointed towards the small dent on the car’s hood from where Qudamah hit the settlers.

            “Oh….you are welcome. They forced my hand as well, I had to do something.”

            Jinan looked at him and said “Do not worry Qudamah. We will get past the Israelis and to our destination. I know you can guide us to safety.”

            Qudamah smiled back as he listened to the scanner again, taking notes on his computer about the Israeli police positions.

            AL-KHUSNA, WEST BANK

            Jinan and Qudamah were not the only ones busy at work. All of the other Palestinian factions also had to get a lot of work done before their next meeting the following week. Sa’dun Daher, the DFLP leader who was also at the meeting in Gaza, faced the daunting task of trying to re-activate his faction, which had disbanded in 2005. He was at his house in al-Khusna, a suburb of Bethlehem. The long and difficult list of all of the things he had to do in order to have a battle ready faction was causing him a bit of stress. He knew what his first step would have to be: simply calling up old members and influential people in the community to see if they wanted to work for him. Before he did anything else, he needed manpower. So, he sat down on his living room couch, got his untraceable cellphone, and went through his personal telephone book. Of out all of the conversations he had that afternoon, one of them stuck in his mind, illustrating just how hard it was going to be.

            “Look Ismail, stop beating around the bush. If you don’t wanna join back up again, then just say so. You being indirect is just wasting my time; I got dozens of other people to call today” Sa’dun said harshly.

            “Well I’m sorry you think talking to me is a waste of time” Ismail shot back.

            “Ah! I didn’t mean it that way” Sa’dun exclaimed, “I enjoy talking with you, but now, this is different. This is business, and time is money.”

            “Fine. I don’t wanna join the organization again” Ismail said, “Because I have a wife and kids now. I have to think about them, and their future. If we bring war to Palestine again, things are going to go right back to the way they were during the Intifada. And that FUCKING sucked.”

            “Is this the future you want for them? Living under occupation? Not having any rights?”

            Ismail was silent.

            “I’m not gonna try and convince you to join up again” Sa’dun said with a sigh, “If you don’t have the will to fight in your heart anymore, then I cannot put it there. It has to be sincere from you, and you alone.”

            “I’m sorry Sa’dun, but that part of my life is over now” Ismail said, “I fought my fight, now I am done.”

            Sa’dun ended the call, and looked about his living room in frustration. It was serenely quite in the mid-afternoon. The sun’s rays shined through the partly curtained windows, lighting up the floating dust in the room. Sa’dun had a rather small but quite nice one story house. He and his wife Zinat, their two children already grown up and moved out of the house, did not need a lot of space so they were perfectly content with their house.

            The curtains were a dark purple, and the carpet of the living room was a greyish-tan. Sa’dun was sitting on a large couch facing their small T.V., and there was a smaller couch right next to it, making an L shape. Ornate candlesticks and curiosities dotted the small tables next to the couches that had reading lamps on them. The foyer, which was just a small vinyl floored area in front of the front door to leave one’s shoes, was to the right of the living room, if you were facing the T.V. like Sa’dun was. The kitchen was past the foyer, and the only bedroom connected the kitchen and living room. Zinat was in the kitchen, just starting to make dinner.

            “All of this could go away if we start fighting again” Sa’dun thought to himself, “Is that really what I want?”       

          THE MORNING OF AUGUST THE 16^TH FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA

          Brian picked up the newspaper the next day while eating his breakfast, to see the headline of:

PALESTINIAN TERRORIST ATTACK LEAVES 7 ISRAELIS DEAD, 3 WOUNDED

       “Hmmm this is interesting” Brian thought as he sipped his coffee, “Palestinians rarely kill this many people in one attack, not like they used to back in the 80’s and 90’s.”

            He continued to read the story that was right under the headline.

-Reporting from Jerusalem

        A group of 4 Palestinian terrorists attacked a group of Israelis traveling in the West Bank near the settlement of Otniel, killing 7 and wounding 3 in the worst terrorist attack in the West Bank in years. An Israeli army spokesman said that 2 men and 2 women, dressed in civilian clothes, opened fire on Israeli civilian cars with assault rifles from their concealed positions next to a road near the settlement. When the IDF approached the scene, the terrorists bade a hasty retreat. The IDF soon lost track of the cars amongst traffic.

        “We have the entire southern part of the West Bank under lockdown right now” the army official said, “So that means the terrorists have not left the area and that it will only be a matter of time before we find them and kill them.”

        This comes just after the Israeli military bombed a terrorist house in Gaza 2 days ago, wounding two terrorists. Israeli analysts believe that yesterday’s attack was in response to the IDF strike.

          “I’ll have to find out if my office has any additional information on this; Peter did say to stay on top of events in Israel so I’d be up-to-date when I arrive there.”

          SAME DAY, TO THE EAST OF BETHELHEM, NEAR AL KHUSHNA

          In fact, the Israeli army official couldn’t have been more wrong about Jinan’s and Qudamah’s position. Thanks to Qudamah’s directions and Jinan’s excellent driving skills, the two managed to get north of the area that the IDF was locking down before they actually managed to lock it down. They were safe and sound, well, as safe as sound as you could be in the West Bank. They had spent the night at a fellow al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade member’s house, a man by the name of Ajib Safar. Ajib was in-between the ages of Qudamah and Jinan. His skin was a lot lighter than both of theirs also. He had brown hair that was cut in a buzz cut, and a full beard that was not too long.

            The next day Ajib drove them to a small military base in Al Khushna, one that the Palestinian Authority, (PA) had allowed them to use for their operations. Of course, if the PA knew that the Brigade actually intended to fight Israel, they would never had allowed it, since they were obsessed with their 2 decade fruitless “peace talks.” The Brigade had told the PA that they just wanted to help in security in the West Bank, and since the PA was short on manpower due to their extremely low popularity amongst Palestinians, they allowed them to.

            It was a little after 10 o’clock, and Qudamah and Jinan were taking inventory in the main warehouse in the very small complex. It had mostly small arms but it had a few armored cars in there as well. Ajib was outside, welcoming volunteers that had responded very quickly to Qudamah’s emails that he had sent out the previous day. Ajib told them to sit down in rows of chairs out on a field next to the warehouse. Qudamah and Jinan were due to speak with them after they were done taking inventory.

            “Are you pleased with our stock here?” Qudamah asked Jinan.

            “It is sufficient for a couple dozen fighters, which is a good start” Jinan replied, “If we continue to get funding from the PA and buy more weapons, more of the same and more different ones, then we should be adequately prepared to fight Israel when the new government comes into power.”

            “Leave that to me and we should be good” Qudamah said, “The international market is full of sellers of all the weapons we could ask for. And since we have the sympathy of much of the world, some governments might even just give us a bunch of equipment for free, or at least give them as a loan, since our organization does not have a lot of money.”

            “Gotta love the globalized 21^st century, right?” Jinan asked with a smile.     

            “Of course” Qudamah smiled back.

            Ajib came walking inside the warehouse.

            “Your exploits are on the cover of every single Israeli newspaper” he said, “Look.”

            He threw down a newspaper at Qudamah’s and Jinan’s feet. Jinan waited for Qudamah to translate it or at least say something about it. He chuckled.

            “Of course it calls us terrorists; we weren’t expecting anything different” he said, “But it also says that the couple we saved also took place in the attack. Apparently all 4 of us, two terrorist couples, ambushed them.”

            Jinan had to laugh. If she let herself get mad at Israeli lies and propaganda, then she would always be angry. There was no use in getting mad at something she couldn’t help.

            “And it says all the settlers were un-armed, just driving down the highway” Qudamah continued, “Oh, and it said that an Israeli soldier tried pleading with you to stop before you shot him.”

            “Right, was that before or after he was kicking a woman in the back of the head while she was huddling in fear?” Jinan sarcastically asked Qudamah, “Anyway, I’d better go out there and talk to our new recruits.”

            She motioned towards a few various guns that she had separated from the rest.

            “Can you gentlemen please carry those for me? I’m just gonna show them a few of what we have.”

            Ajib, eager to do practically whatever Jinan told him to do, happily went over to get a couple while Qudamah, rolling his eyes, grudgingly took the rest off of the concrete floor.    The 3 walked out of the warehouse.

            There were about 40 men waiting for them outside. The morning sun shined brightly over the field as the 3 made their way over to three chairs that were behind a table that was facing the rows of men sitting in the chairs. After setting the weapons down on the table, Qudamah and Ajib sat on either side of Jinan, who stayed standing up to talk to the men.

            “Okay, it’s 10 minutes past 10, which 10 o’clock is when I said I would start, so, as to not be as late as every other aspect of Arab society, I’d like to start now” Jinan joked.

            Most of the men laughed.

            “I’d like to thank each and every one of you for coming to this meeting on such short notice” she continued, “your promptness and eagerness shows your love for your Din, (religion), and your country.”

            She could tell just from facial expressions of some of the men that they were confused that a woman was addressing them and not Qudamah or Ajib. She could tell that a confrontation would erupt, just like in the meeting in Gaza. But she didn’t want to bring it up; she would wait for one of them to bring it up.

            “I am Jinan al-Najjar, and I’ll be leading this, orientation, if you will, to our brigade. As my political advisor Qudamah told you yesterday, either by phone or through email, however he contacted you, we are starting up the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, which has been inactive ever since Fatah pursued the “peace process,” even though it is hardly peaceful for us. As I’m sure you have heard by now, we are having national elections on December 20^th. We have much work to be done if we want our brigade up and running to serve the new elected government.”

            “However we are not going to organize this brigade like a standard military brigade. We are going to organize it like a guerrilla unit, because that is how we must fight if we get attacked by the Israelis, because there is no way we can match them in open conventional warfare. So that means we will be relying mostly on small arms and small explosive devices. I have some weapons here that I hope will become standardized according to what role you have in a unit.”

            “I know many of you have fought with the AK-47. It is a great rifle and has served us well. But it is outdated, and we must move on to a newer assault rifle, at least as new as we can get while still being able to buy a huge quantity of.”

            She picked up an AK-74M that was identical to her own, minus the custom painted flags of course.

            “This is an upgrade to the AK-47, the AK-74M. Made 17 years after the AK-47, this rifle is very maneuverable, light, can be bought for a very cheap price, and can compete with the assault rifles the Israelis use, which are mostly the TAR-21, M-4, M-16’, and Galil. The rails also allow us to put on optics that will make it perform better in combat. I know this will be something that many of you will have to adjust to, because you are used to shooting AK-47’s that don’t have any optics at all, just standard iron sights.”

            The group of men was silent after she paused. They were stunned that a woman would know so much about weaponry. Not that Jinan presented a lot of information, it’s just they didn’t think a woman would know anything about guns.

            “You can pass it around, it’s fine, it’s unloaded” Jinan said as she motioned to Ajib.

            Ajib took the rifle and handed it to the man who was sitting in the corner of the first row.

            “Now, being a guerrilla organization, our infantry are often pitted against vehicles, both on land and in the air, without vehicular support of their own” Jinan continued, “that means our anti-vehicle weapons are of the utmost importance. The rocket launcher of choice for us has historically been the RPG-7. However that launcher has some major drawbacks. It’s big and bulky to carry, and not that accurate over long distances. I have something that remedies both of those.”

            She pulled out a rocket launcher that was only a meter long.

            “This is a M72-LAW. As you can see it’s a lot smaller and lighter than the RPG. This advantage cannot be overstated because it is so crucial that our troops be able to move fast, in tight spaces, and carry a lot of ammo.”

            A man in the third row raised his hand.

            “Yes?” Jinan asked.

            “The United States, who developed that weapon, phased it out a while back, replacing it with the AT-4” The man said, “Why aren’t we gonna use that instead?”

            “What is your name, sir?” Jinan asked.

            “Ruwaid, ma’am” he said humbly.

            “That is a very good question Ruwaid. What you say is true. There are some missile launchers, such as the AT-4 and RPG-29, which can shoot farther than the LAW and are more powerful. However, they are much bigger than the LAW. I have found from personal combat experience that I value maneuverability and the ability to conceal easily over penetration and power.”

            As soon as she said personal combat experience most of the men started to murmur amongst one another.

            “You’ve actually fought before?” another man blurted out.

            “Yes” Jinan replied in an irritated voice, “I fought in the last Intifada and in the Iraqi insurgency for 3 years.”

            This made the murmuring only louder.

            “Now, if I may continue-“

            “You’re lying!” yelled a man in the back row.

            “I’m sorry, were you with me my entire life to see if I actually fought or not?” Jinan mockingly asked.

            “I wouldn’t have needed to. You’re a woman, you cannot fight.”

            Jinan’s nostrils flared just like in the meeting in Gaza.

            “Here we go again” Qudamah thought as he rolled his eyes.

            “If I cannot fight, then you should have no problem fighting me” Jinan challenged.

            “Hmph! I do not hit women.”

            “Yet you have no problem publically insulting them. Okay, whatever, shut up.”

            Many of the men laughed. They turned around to see what the man in the back row would do next.

            “Why are you letting her speak for your organization man?” he asked as he pointed to Qudamah, “It’s obvious that you are the leader of this brigade.”

            “Who, me?” Qudamah asked, “No, I am not the leader. As Jinan said earlier, I am her political advisor.”

            “Why are you covering for her?”

            “I’m not.”

            “Sir, if you do not shut up and stop wasting my time, I will have to ask you to leave these grounds” Jinan said, her patience fading fast.

            “Ha, like you could make me.”

            Jinan started to walk towards him.

            “Sir I would really advise that you leave before she gets to you” Qudamah warned as Jinan walked down the rows, “Seriously you do not know what you are getting yourself into to.”

            The man ignored him as Jinan came closer to him. Everyone was silent as all eyes were on the two. The man stood up and smirked.

            Jinan kicked him in the left calf, and in his reaction he let up his guard on his face. She then followed up with a punch to his right cheek, sending him sprawling to the ground. She picked up the empty chair that he had been sitting in, folded it, and started slamming it down on the back of his head. Everyone winced as the guy covered the back of his head with his hands as Jinan slammed the chair down a second and third time, the metal making a deafening BANG noise every time it slammed into him. 

            After the third time, the man, still lying on the ground, kicked out in a sweeping motion with his right foot. The kick caught both of Jinan’s feet, causing them to flip out from under her. In panic she let go of the chair, sending it flying up in the air while she went down. She landed in the dirt on her butt, gasping in pain.

            The man leaped onto her, and wrestled with her for a few seconds. He grabbed her wrists as she struggled to break free of his grasp. Now the spectators were alarmed at this; it was natural for them to help a woman if she was being attacked. Some of them got up out of their chairs or at least half got out, waiting to intervene if things got any worse for Jinan.

            “You’re gonna pay for that one, bitch” the man snarled.

            In a split second he let go of Jinan’s right wrist and punched her in the mouth. Before she could do anything else he had already grabbed her wrist again.

            “Don’t count on it, asswipe” she shot back.

            She pulled up her feet under him, and launched him over her, making him land behind her on his back. In the same motion she jumped to her feet, while the man was struggling to get on his. His face was exposed as he was using both of his hands to push himself upwards. But before he could do that, Jinan let out a cry and kicked him as hard she could in the face. She put so much power into it that she had to spin around on her other foot to avoid falling to the ground. The man spun to the ground. When he didn’t get up after a few seconds, Jinan realized that she had knocked him out cold.

            The other men were in complete silence in shock. They could not believe what they had just seen. All except for Qudamah, who had heard of Jinan doing similar things to men dozens of times before. He could only smile.

            Jinan spat out some blood in the dirt, turned towards the crowd, and asked “Now, does anyone ELSE have a problem with being led by a woman?”  

 

---

[1] Should be said with a deep opera voice.

[2] Jinan was not Qudamah’s sister but since the two had known each other for so long, Qudamah’s children called her Aunt.

[3] Israel has hundreds of illegal settlements in the West Bank, completely built and paid for by the government. Only Jews are allowed to live in these settlements; no other person from any other religion is allowed to even visit them. The government has built them in strategic areas in the West Bank to cut off Palestinian villages from their farmland, water sources, and each other. 

[4] An upgraded version of the AK-47.

I hope you guys enjoyed the read. I appreciate any feedback or comments. Since I cannot afford an editor or a publisher at this time, it might be at least a year until I finally publish this book. But I will definitely let everyone know when I do.