“States clearly operate in ways that terrify,” Elden said. “The terrorism of non-state actors is a very small proportion of terrorism taken as a whole, with states having killed far more than those who oppose them.” A large body of research supports this claim.... Daniel Mendiola in The Guardian

 ".... Watching this play out, I am reminded of a passage from the geographer Stuart Elden’s award-winning 2009 book, Terror and Territory. In discussing how to study the “war on terror”, Elden observed that it did not make sense to study terrorism as something unique to non-state actors.

“States clearly operate in ways that terrify,” Elden said. “The terrorism of non-state actors is a very small proportion of terrorism taken as a whole, with states having killed far more than those who oppose them.”

A large body of research supports this claim.

Researchers with Brown University’s Costs of War project, for example, have found that US-led interventions in the “war on terror” from 2001 to 2023 killed over 400,000 civilians in direct war violence. They also show evidence that when considering indirect deaths – for example, people in war zones dying from treatable medical conditions after clean water or medical infrastructure was destroyed – death toll estimates rise to at least 3.5m. Moreover, even beyond direct war zones, a recent study in the Lancet found that sanctions during the same period were also extremely deadly, causing as many as 500,000 excess deaths per year from 2010 to 2021.

We have already spent decades terrorizing civilian populations around the world in the name of fighting terror

In short, we have already spent decades terrorizing civilian populations around the world in the name of fighting terror. This is well known, and yet... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/24/war-on-terror-venezuela-donald-trump

 AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]   

  

https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/ 

Costs of War

Promoting research and public awareness of the human, economic, social, and environmental costs of U.S. militarism

Chris Hedges Confronts the N.J. State Assembly on Dangerous Antisemitism Bill: The bill would accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of the state of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism.

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/copy-confronts-the-nj-state-assembly?publication_id=778851&post_id=169193100&isFreemail=true&r=34riug&triedRedirect=true

Chris Hedges

Jul 24, 2025

 

VIDEO- ZIONISTS ATTACK FREE SPEECH 

https://youtu.be/ky5811p43-I

Text of Speech:

I am the former Pulitzer-prize winning Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times. I spent seven year covering the Middle East, including in Gaza and the West Bank. I am an Arabic speaker. During my time in the Middle East, I was based in Jerusalem and Cairo. I am also the author of 16 books and have taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and Rutgers University. I live in Princeton.

I strongly oppose A3558, which expands antisemitism’s definition to include most anti-Zionst expression for the purpose of civil rights law. This is a dangerous assault on free speech by seeking to criminalize legitimate criticism of Israeli policies.

The Trump administration’s campaign to ostensibly root out antisemitism on college campuses is clearly a trope to shut down free speech and deport non-citizens, even if they are here legally. This bill falsely collapses ethnicity with a political state. And let’s be clear, the brunt repression on college campuses was directed against students and faculty who opposed the genocide in Gaza, 3,000 of whom were arrested and hundreds of whom were censored, suspended, or expelled. Many of these students are Jewish. What about their rights? What about their constitutional protections?

I have had numerous relationships with Israeli journalists and political leaders. I knew, for example, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who negotiated the Oslo peace agreement. Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultranationalist who opposed the peace accord, stated bluntly that the occupation was not beneficial to Israel. Israeli colleagues frequently criticize Israeli policies in the Israeli press in language that would be defined as antisemitic by A3558.

For example, the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who served in the Israeli army and writes for the newspaper Haaretz, has called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel to stop the slaughter in Gaza, saying “Do to Israel what you did to South Africa.” 

Omer Bartov, who served as an Israeli company commander in the 1973 war, is Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. He stated in an article on July 15 in The New York Times that his “inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

These kinds of statements, and many more I can quote from Israeli colleagues and friends, would see them under this bill criminalized as antisemites.

As someone who speaks and writes frequently about the conflict, I fear that any criticism I make of the Israeli government, although grounded in my long experience in the region, will make me a target if this measure is adopted.

It is imperative, especially with the press under attack from the Trump administration, that we do not erode our constitutionally protected speech and political expression.

---

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https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/copy-confronts-the-nj-state-assembly?publication_id=778851&post_id=169193100&isFreemail=true&r=34riug&triedRedirect=true

Hanan Ashrawi on Oslo, Academia, and Women in Politics

"How can I go Home"... Ashrawi on why she, a Palestinian with a Ph.D in Medieval and Comparative Literature, was drawn into politics.

Ma'an News Report: Ashrawi Interview

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Head of the PLO Department of Culture and Information, Hanan Ashrawi, visited Brown University on Sept. 26 and spoke to Palestinian-American professor Beshara Doumani about the Oslo Accords, academia, and women in politics.

A long-time activist, lawmaker and scholar, Ashrawi was the first woman to be elected to the executive committee of the PLO.

Ashrawi visited Brown as part of a series of events organized by the Middle East Studies Initiative and spoke with Doumani, professor of the Department of History and director of the Brown Middle East Studies program.
Hanan Ashrawi on Oslo, Academia, and Women in Politics (Part 1)  Hanan Ashrawi on Oslo, Academia, and Women in Politics (Part 2)  Brown University