Widen the Lens, Connect the Dots

We're a global community, and we need to find common cause

Personal/political, global/local, inner/outer.

They’re all inter-related, and we need to connect the dots so we can better understand how to move forward in a positive way.

At this moment we’re being bombarded with messaging designed to manipulate us, and we need to understand why and how, and what kind of terrain we’re navigating.

The most blatant message is about Israel, and how if we object to the genocide it is committing against Palestinians, we’re supposedly anti-semitic.

Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, unpacked this well in a post on X entitled 4 Ways the Media is Skewing the Language in Israel’s Favour. The first words she uses are: “The media have chosen not to use the right language and create a sort of a cocoon for Israel not to be held accountable.” It’s only 1 1/2 minutes long, so I hope you’ll give it a listen.

What strikes me is that these ways of skewing the media are being used by mainstream media internationally.

There is a global narrative being created and promoted that is highly misleading.

And that’s not the only thing that’s gone global.

Demonstrations against the ongoing genocide in Gaza are being violently policed in the USA, Italy, the Netherlands and other European countries. It begs us to question the backstory that governments are telling themselves and each other about the demonstrators. In his recent Substack post, Ken Klippenstein describes the way students demonstrating against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians on college campuses are being portrayed by the American intelligence establishment. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

The National Counterterrorism Center, created in the wake of 9/11 to combat al Qaeda, is now working overtime to find evidence of foreign funding of pro-Palestinian student protesters, I have learned.

The effort follows repeated calls by Congress for the federal government to investigate protesters’ purported links to Hamas, and coincides with a push by the FBI and homeland security bureaucracies to link the campus demonstrations to foreign actors. Tempting as it might be to laugh off the specter of foreign powers directing undergraduate protesters, evidence of this would provide the legal basis for the intelligence community to spy on Americans. Absent a foreign connection, the protests are constitutionally-protected speech.

The National Counterterrorism Center’s (NCTC), a part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is beefing up its intelligence collection and analysis of “extremist” groups associated with domestic terrorism, particularly a domestic category called “Anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists,” according to a source inside the community.

According to the Center, the NCTC “serves as the central and shared knowledge bank on known and suspected terrorists and international terrorist groups, as well as their goals, strategies, capabilities, and networks of contacts and support."

On May 10, the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking “whether the FBI had any related undercover employees, online covert employees, or confidential human sources” among what it called “pro-Hamas protests on college campuses.”  

By sending the letter, Congress is in effect pressuring the FBI to penetrate the protests with both on-the-ground and online informants (if it hasn’t already). An obvious threat to the freedom of speech and association enshrined in the Constitution, the letter tries to circumvent these concerns by arguing that it is illegal to “endorse” or “espouse” terrorist groups — despite there being no evidence the protesters have done that. 

“While we recognize that every American has the right to peacefully protest, individuals who endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization are patently dangerous, and potentially criminal,” the letter says, citing a law prohibiting providing material support to foreign terrorist groups. (The material support provision only allows for foreign organizations to be designated, so Americans must be tied to a foreign terror group to be prosecuted.) 

But speech isn’t material support, something which is typically only something the Justice Department prosecutes with stronger evidence, like making financial contributions to a terrorist group. Nor is it “violent extremism.”

Nevertheless, the federal government is hellbent on making that case. 

On May 14, the Chairs of the House Oversight and Education Committees sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen requesting “Suspicious Activity Reports” (SARs) on organizations participating in the protests, groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. The SARs would be based upon banking information.

“The Committees are investigating the sources of funding and financing for groups who are organizing, leading, and participating in pro-Hamas, antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American protests with illegal encampments on American college campuses,” the letter reads. “This investigation relates both to malign influence on college campuses and to the national security implications of such influence on faculty and student organizations.”

Is this the way protesters in other countries are being portrayed and handled?

When we look at the declining standards of living in western nations, there’s a pattern there as well: more privatization, more wealth concentration, food prices soaring, housing less affordable and more investment in military and policing.

Oddly, I find hope when I widen the lens, and broaden my gaze internationally at what is going on.

As I was thinking about how to describe this, I came across an article entitled Why So Many Asian Americans Stand With Palestine from Yes! Magazine (a great media source — I highly recommend it).

We who are protesting the genocide is committing against Gaza in the western world have so many allies and kindred spirits in the global majority, and we need to connect with, learn from and develop alliances with them.

Unlike many of us, these people have learned to see through the veneer created by the propaganda we’re bombarded with about the goodness of the west. They know that democracy and human rights are fairy tales designed to justify the acts of aggression towards their countries for the sake of resources, power and money.

And they’re getting organized to the point that the American dollar is losing its standing in the world.

This is a big deal.

Yes, it has economic ramifications, but my hope is that this will eventually be good news for everyday people in the western world. As we watch this slow motion train wreck of our economies, how can we pressure our governments to demilitarize and use the money saved to invest in caring economies? What can we do to make sure the super wealthy are taxed to the point where we can use some of that wealth to to create the just and green economy we so badly need?

And how can we align ourselves with countries that want the same?

We can become better informed and unlearn the propaganda we’re bombarded with, and find reliable alternative news sources. When another country’s leader is vilified, we can search for other perspectives. You’d probably be surprised at how differently things can look.

And how do we stop the ongoing destruction in Palestine, Congo, the Ukraine and other places? How do we get to peace?

Is there a connection between the kind of violence experienced in war zones and the police violence against protesters at demonstrations? If so, what other connections can we make between what’s being imposed on us in the western world and what happens in other countries?

Do the economic prospects of your country worry you? Here are some things I do to address my concerns. I buy bulk and stock up on dried goods. I make my own shampoo, tooth paste and laundry detergent (it’s practically free and you know what’s in them), and I garden, wildcraft, and find ways to live lightly.

With the internet and international travel, the world is so connected. I hope we can find ways of enhancing these connections to all of our mutual benefit.

Most people everywhere in the world want peace, a roof over their heads, food to eat, and an enjoyable life. And we want a healthy planet, and a liveable future for our kids and grandkids. It’s not much to ask.

How do we work together for this common cause that in many ways is completely within our reach? We have the technology, resources and skills needed. I hope people everywhere find ways of working together to reach this attainable goal.

We’re not so different when it comes to wanting these basic things, and when we recognize how much we have in common, and collaborate, there’s so much we can accomplish.