❶ MONDOWEISS
ON  BRET  STEPHENS’  HATE  SPEECH
Dorgham Abusalim
Oct. 14, 201
For Israel and her allies it seems that panic mode is on, and Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens, who somehow manages to pass himself for a psychologist in his latest column, is freaking out.
____His article “Palestine: The Psychotic Stage” bears the subtitle, “The truth about why Palestinians have been seized by their present blood lust.” In typical desperate fashion of the pro-occupation ilk, Stephens manipulates the tragic deaths of Israelis reported over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, he conveniently pretends that Palestinians are immortal. They don’t die. Hence, not one mention of a Palestinian death is worth his words — never mind that one of the world’s strongest armed forces is flexing its muscles against them. The issue is not so much with reporting on who died. Stephens’ dangerous propagation in this regard is that a Jewish death is a tragic one and worth reporting, while a Palestinian death is just not worth it because a Palestinian is a psychotic blood thirsty terrorist. Stephens writes:

Treatises have been written about the media’s mind-set when it comes to telling the story of Israel. We’ll leave that aside for now. The significant question is why so many Palestinians have been seized by their present blood lust—by a communal psychosis in which plunging knives into the necks of Jewish women, children, soldiers and civilians is seen as a religious and patriotic duty, a moral fulfillment. Despair at the state of the peace process, or the economy? Please. It’s time to stop furnishing Palestinians with the excuses they barely bother making for themselves.

More. . .
❷ THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
PALESTINE:  THE  PSYCHOTIC  STAGE
THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  WHY  PALESTINIANS  HAVE  BEEN  SEIZED  BY  THEIR  PRESENT  BLOOD  LUST.
Bret Stephens
Oct. 12, 2015
If you’ve been following the news from Israel, you might have the impression that “violence” is killing a lot of people. As in this headline: “Palestinian Killed as Violence Continues.” Or this first paragraph: “Violence and bloodshed radiating outward from flash points in Jerusalem and the West Bank appear to be shifting gears and expanding, with Gaza increasingly drawn in.”
____Read further, and you might also get a sense of who, according to Western media, is perpetrating “violence.” As in: “Two Palestinian Teenagers Shot by Israeli Police,” according to one headline. [. . . . .]
____The significant question is why so many Palestinians have been seized . . . Please. It’s time to stop furnishing Palestinians with the excuses they barely bother making for themselves. [. . . . .]
____Above all, it’s time to give hatred its due.
____Today in Israel, Palestinians are in the midst of a campaign to knife Jews to death, one at a time. This is psychotic. It is evil. To call it anything less is to serve as an apologist, and an accomplice.
More . . .
❸ OPENDEMOCRACY. FREE THINKING FOR THE WORLD
PALESTINIANS  MUST  NOT  FALL  INTO  THIS  TRAP,  AGAIN!
Sam Bahour
Oct. 14, 2015
To cover up its crimes, Israel needs to feed all the western stereotypes of Palestinians as violent and subhuman rather than hungry for freedom and equal rights.
____The lid on the powder keg of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, has been rattling for years now. Palestinians from all walks of life have lost their voices making the case that Israel’s right-wing government . . . is pursuing policies bound to lead to exactly what we are witnessing today, violence. [. . . . .]
____Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has built his entire political career on a platform of violence against Palestinians.. . . . Netanyahu prides himself on being the leader who stopped the peace process in its tracks. To make sure peace would never have a chance, he accelerated settlement building in the West Bank, attacked Gaza multiple times, demolished more Palestinian homes, arrested Palestinians, including minors, often without charges, and failed to bring to justice the Jewish settlers who recently burned alive a Palestinian family while they slept in their home.
____But why does Israel seemingly seek violence? The answer is elementary to anyone following this conflict: Israel has a single gamebook against the legitimate Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence, that of using their well-oiled military machine to squash any Palestinian who attempts to resist occupation. Israel since 1948 and 1967 has routinely used war and violence to seize more land, all the while pushing Palestinians to either turn violent or emigrate.
More. . .
❹ CBS/AP
U.S.  CONDEMNS  PALESTINIAN  ATTACKS  AGAINST  ISRAELI  CIVILIANS
Oct. 13, 2015
Video of the CBS coverage. No mention of settler terrorism. No mention of the International treaty that gives the Palestinians sole right to administer Al-Aqsa mosque. Palestinians are “terrorists.” The Israelis are afraid to go out, to ride buses. No mention of the complete control of Palestinian society by Israel.
More. . .
❺ +972 MAGAZINE
ISRAEL’S  SCAPEGOAT  PROBLEM
Talal Jabari
Israeli governments always found someone to blame for whatever violence came their way, and then they bombed them. This time around there’s nobody to blame. Except for that one thing.
Oct. 14, 2015
This current wave of “lone-wolf” attacks by Palestinians against Israelis poses a threat to the Israeli government unlike any other. Obviously I am not referring to the security risk they pose — after all, Israel has far more deaths and injuries from car accidents. Nor am I referring to the fear this onslaught of attacks may be causing Israelis. No, the real threat is that for the first time since the First Intifada, almost 30 years ago, the Israeli government has nobody to blame. [. . . . .]
____Clearly the Israelis haven’t found anyone to blame, but that’s only because they’re not looking in the right place. Here’s a short list of where they should be looking.
____Let’s start with the obvious. No Palestinian under 50 living in the West Bank, and to an extent the Gaza Strip, has known a day of freedom in his or her entire life. No freedom of movement, no freedom of worship, no sense of personal safety or stability.
More. . .

“I  HAVE  NO  HOME,”  BY  YOUSEF  EL  QEDRA (June 22, 2009)
I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms―
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.
I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.

From BEFORE  THERE  IS  NOWHERE  TO  STAND:  PALESTINE  ISREL  POETS  RESPOND  TO  THE  STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012.
Available from Barnes and Noble.
Yousef el Qedra is a young poet and playwright living in Gaza, Palestine. He has a B.A. degree in Arabic literature from al Azhar University, Gaza. His poems have been published in local, national and international magazines, newspapers, and internet websites. More. . .