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Letters from Gaza – ‘Alhamdulillah. We Are Not Okay’

Over the past 14 months, I have received hundreds of messages from family members throughout the Gaza Strip. The nature of the messages often conveyed a sense of urgency and panic but, at times, contentment in God’s will. 

 Some of those who wrote these notes have been killed in Israeli strikes, like my sister, Dr. Soma Baroud; others lost children, siblings, cousins, neighbors and friends. It may seem strange that none of those who communicated with me throughout the war have ever questioned their faith, and have often, if not always, begun their messages by checking on me, and my children. 

 The samples of the messages below have been edited for length and clarity.

 Ibrahim: 

 "How are you? We are all fine. We had to leave Shati (refugee camp). The Israelis arrived at the camp yesterday. Our whole neighborhood has been destroyed. Our home, too, was destroyed. Alhamdulillah - praise be to God." 

 Soma: 

Jimmy Carter – Our Honest President

The late Jimmy Carter was an exemplary man. His honesty, modesty and good works set the mark for what American presidents should be like. He was the quintessential Christian gentlemen and a fine naval officer. Unfortunately, this good man got embroiled in America’s colonial misadventures more often than the social welfare projects and peace plans that he sought to pursue. Chief among these thorny problems was, of course, the Mideast - no place for a decent, honest man - and, as well, the ugly imbroglio in Iran. Carter directed and took credit for his administration’s flagship foreign policy effort, the much-ballyhooed Camp David Accords, a series of agreements that were supposed to end Arab-Israeli hostility, bring peace to the Mideast, and address the festering problem of millions of homeless Palestinians who had been driven from their ancestral homes by the US-backed creation of the state of Israel. Long, torturous negotiations ensued in September 1978 at Camp David, Maryland that finally brought together Palestine Liberation chief Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin.

Kareem Badawi: The Palestinian victim of the New Orleans terrorist attack

Hey, hatemongers, there are no sleeping cells in America! It is all in your head. To begin with, investigators who briefed President Biden told him that ISIS inspired the suspect in the New Orleans attack had no outside help. In other words, the suspect was not "realized at his mosque in Texas." We also learned that he had posted videos indicating that he had a “desire to kill” the night before the attack and that al-Qaeda was the one who leaked the information that they sent over 1,000 people into the US to commit acts of terror. However, a former CIA officer named Sarah Adams, who is a self-proclaimed global threat advisor who is a self-proclaimed global threat advisor was interviewed on the Shawn Ryan podcast just two weeks ago, has warned that there are more than a thousand al-CIA-da sleepers in the United States right now who are planning major attacks on the homeland. She implies that Biden's open southern border is an entry point for these terrorists. Other hatemongers also claimed that the driver in the New Orleans attack came into the US through the Mexican border. Wrong again!

Carter, The Kochs and The Donald

I couldn’t stomach Jimmy Carter–until my view of him turned around 180 degrees just four years ago.  

 

Like most Democrats who supported Ted Kennedy’s run against him, I tagged Carter as just some grinning anti-New Deal Bible-thumping goober. And his post-Presidential “peacemaking” was often dangerously naïve, as I saw in Liberia where Carter had boosted the presidential candidacy of war-criminal Charles Taylor for president because Taylor, a murderous monster, proclaimed he’d been born again in Jesus.

I nick-named Carter, “The Dangerous Christian.”

But then, while staking out the current Governor, the vote-suppressing racist Brian Kemp, I did a little re-con outside Kemp’s office. I had my face to the wall, pretending to study the official portraits of the State's governors.  I was struck that only one, James Earl Carter, refused to have his photo taken with his own state flag fully visible because it included the Confederate flag's Stars and Bars. In Georgia, at that time, 1971, that took immeasurable courage.  That took integrity.  

Alav ha-Shalom, President Carter.

Why Congress Members Face a Lawsuit for Funding Israel’s War on Gaza

On the last day of 2024, the deputy general counsel for the House of Representatives formally accepted delivery of a civil summons for two congressmembers from Northern California. More than 600 constituents of Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson have signed on as plaintiffs in a class action accusing them of helping to arm the Israeli military in violation of “international and federal law that prohibits complicity in genocide.”

A Manifesto Against For-Profit Health Insurance Companies

It’s been three days since Luigi Mangione’s manifesto was discovered in his backpack explaining why he assassinated the CEO of United HealthCare.

In Mangione’s manifesto, he said that he was not the “most qualified person to lay out the full argument” against our for-profit healthcare industry. Apparently, to Mangione, one of those qualified people — is me. In his manifesto, he references how I’ve “illuminated the corruption and greed,” implying folks should go to my work to understand the complexity — and the power-hungry abuse — within our current system.

It’s not often that my work gets a killer five-star review from an actual killer. And thus, my phone has been ringing off the hook which is bad news because my phone doesn’t have a hook. Emails are pouring in. Text messages. Requests from many in the media. The messages all sound something like this: 

“Luigi mentioned you in his manifesto. That people should listen to you. Will you come on our show, or talk to our reporter and tell them that you condemn murder!?”

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