‘You Can’t Create a Revolution within a Counter-Revolutionary Party’ – Dr. Jill Stein

Every four years, politicians and lobbyists urge citizens of the United States to participate in the “most important elections” in the history of the country. Whereas 2024 is no different in that regard, there is in fact a now-or-never sense of urgency looming over the current race to the White House.

On the other side of the world, far removed from the average American’s direct line of sight, Palestine and Lebanon remain in a state of bloody unrest at the hands of the Israeli government.

What’s unique about this ordeal is that social media users and independent media outlets based in the region have been broadcasting the war crimes taking place there on a day-to-day basis, leaving no doubts about the callousness of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership.

For that reason, Netanyahu’s assaults on the surrounding civilian population are crucial to the upcoming elections since the violence in question has always been funded by US taxpayer dollars.

Privy to this pressing threat of war and its broader implications, Dr. Jill Stein has once again stepped up as the presidential candidate for the Green Party in an attempt to put an end to the vicious crusade the Democrats and Republicans are set to persist in.

Her unabated denunciation of the Joe Biden–Kamala Harris administration illustrates that not all Jewish people are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jewish — accordingly, Palestinian liberation is at the center of her campaign for People, Planet and Peace.

On Saturday, October 26, the veteran humanitarian passed through Southern California for the Alex Odeh Memorial Banquet.

Following her speech at the event, Dr Stein spoke to the Palestine Chronicle about her unyielding fight for civil liberties not just in the United States but across the globe.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐉𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥?

From the very start, you had Jewish Voice For Peace out there with the students at the campus protests. At Columbia University, there was a huge community Seder for Passover at the Gaza solidarity encampment. It’s wonderful to see that the opponents of genocide and advocates for Palestinian human rights are basically advocates for humanity, and they’ve made it clear that this is not a religious conflict. Jews and Muslims and Christians and atheists and humanists are all together in this shared cause for humanity, so the notion that it’s antisemitic to oppose genocide, in my view, is the most antisemitic thing one could possibly say.

The issue has never been a conflict of religions; the issue is a matter of Zionism, which is a political ideology basically dedicated to moving people off their land and claiming it. From the get-go, it’s been about ethnic cleansing and massacres that were being conducted against the Palestinian people before the State of Israel was even founded. The world has come to a consensus about how to solve that problem, including the rulings of the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Security Council, etc. People are really quite unified in understanding what needs to be done — we need compliance with international law and human rights, and we need to end not only the genocide but also the occupation as well as the apartheid nature of the Israeli Zionist state.

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐳𝐢 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐭, 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲?

Not at all. Hamas is just the latest form of resistance. Occupation is not some innocent incidental; it is about abuse and displacement. It is a murderous and vicious way of life, so occupation will generate pushback, like the institution of slavery did. That’s just reality — people may not like that, but if you don’t like that, then you have to fix the underlying cause of it. The Palestinian Liberation Organization were considered the “terrorists” before Hamas, but this is all essentially a resistance to occupation and ethnic cleansing.

Christians, Jews and Muslims lived together peacefully in historic Palestine for millennia. The problem did not arise until Zionists came from Europe and basically began to displace Palestinians. According to the historic archives of the Zionist state, the propaganda surrounding Israel was not true. Israeli historians led the way in surfacing this material and the fact that Zionism was a system of displacement and ethnic cleansing by design. That is the problem. Whether it’s Hamas or some other group, there will be resistance to occupation and ethnic cleansing, so let’s get rid of that resistance by getting rid of the fundamental violation of human rights generating that self-defense.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐭𝐮𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐬. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧?

Oh, well that’s been debunked a long time ago. There’s absolutely no evidence that has held up (proving) that the October 7 attacks involved the systematic abuse of women or rape — that didn’t hold up any more than beheaded babies or women having their breasts cut off or the fetuses sliced open from the abdomen of pregnant women. That basically did not hold up, whatsoever.

You know, the abuse of women is totally out of control now, where women are being slaughtered along with children by the thousands in Gaza. That’s where women are actually really being abused and destroyed, so I don’t think this is about trying to single out the violence of October 7. Really, (the region) is so overwhelmed by this unending violence that has happened since October 7 and before October 7. I think trying to narrowly focus on October 7 is just misguided, and people who do that have their eyes closed to the much larger situation. You should not miss the forest for the trees here.

We can absolutely solve this problem of violence, so let’s get focused on that — how we stop the violence and how we prevent the recurrent episodes of violence here by basically putting an end to the systematic abuse of human rights and the massacres of women and children and innocent civilians, and displacement and ethnic cleansing as a way of life. That’s what has to happen. We need compliance with international law and human rights, and when we do that, the other problems will go away.

𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥’𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐲𝐞. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞?

The fortunate thing is that the American people oppose this in huge numbers. That this genocide is being conducted by our colonial misleaders against the will and intentions of the American people is a violation of basic democratic principles.

Three sets of American laws are being violated by delivering aid to Israel. It is illegal to send aid to any country that is violating human rights, interfering with the delivery of humanitarian aid and not complying with the nuclear weapons treaties — Israel is in violation of the Treaty On The Non-Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons. On all three counts, providing military aid to Israel is illegal.

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟕 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬, 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐚𝐡𝐮 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞?

He’s trying to stay out of jail. He wants the war to keep going so that the corruption case against him will not come into action. I think he has personal motives here, which may be the most important thing to him, but he has also always kind of pursued a greater Israel through expansion. He’s been begging for a war with Iran for decades.

The man does not have an honest bone in his body. His assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, took place after Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire. In a similar way, they knocked off Ismail Haniyeh, the very moderate negotiator for Hamas. Bibi Netanyahu is very much opposed to anything that would advance the peace process.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬?

There hasn’t been much discussion or reporting about the draft, but it was actually reenacted a couple of years ago. Now, people are being automatically registered for it. They won’t be called up until the president decides that we’re at war and we need bodies. How horrific would that be if we start paying not only in money and weapons but also in blood? Biden has expressed support for whatever Israel does — the baton for commander-in-chief has basically been passed to Bibi Netanyahu, who’s been given free rein to do what he wants, so it’s very much of concern.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞. 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐭?

How much worse can it get than the genocide that’s being conducted right now? I mean, you could nuke Palestine. Will Trump do that? Who knows? To me, it’s just such propaganda to say that one is better or worse than the other. The current administration is committing genocide right now, and Harris is a part of that. Then, you have Donald Trump saying that he’ll finish the job, but who knows what that means because he’s also trying to sell himself as a peace president right now. You’d be a fool to believe either of them. We should not be in the business of measuring genocides against each other.

So yeah, Donald Trump did interfere with the peaceful transition of power after the last election, but the Democrats try to throw political competition off the ballot. That’s not okay either. We don’t have to wait for Donald Trump for fascism to arrive in this country when the heads of peaceful protesters are being bashed in on college campuses simply because they are expressing the will of the people and the rulings of the International Court of Justice. Making a case for Donald Trump being better or worse is absolutely nonsense. We have two greater evil candidates; there is no lesser evil.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 𝐑𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐚 𝐓𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐛 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐥𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐦𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞. 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐨𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦?

I think they’re definitely part of the solution, but they would accomplish a lot more if they weren’t encumbered by the Democratic Party, which is going to pull the rug out from under them. We have to build power at every turn, because where did Bernie Sanders go with his campaign? He headed the budget committee, but everything he did there was basically dumbed down and tossed out. You can’t create a revolution within a counter-revolutionary party. There are just too many mechanisms within — you are accountable to big money and to a leadership that will not provide you appointments, committee membership or the money that they distribute. You’re essentially powerless if you’re trying to fight for the right thing from inside the Democratic Party, which simply isn’t based on those principles.

We don’t have time to keep shilly-shallying around and watching Bernie Sanders get savaged twice. I think it should have been enough for anybody to see that was the best they could possibly do, and even the best didn’t amount to a hill of beans. If you try to run a campaign with integrity as a Democrat or Republican, every trace of it disappears once it is over. We have a grassroots party that is not controlled by money. The Green Party doesn’t accept big money or use any of the loopholes for legalized corruption — there are a whole lot of those loopholes, but we don’t use them. We are what we say we are and we’ll do what we say we’ll do, which the other parties don’t. We’re trying to encourage people to break off this abusive political relationship that they’re in right now.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫. 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲’𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩?

Absolutely. I mean, who else is going to do it? The parties responsible have to do it, which is the State of Israel and the US. There are also others who’ve chipped in and sold weapons to Israel. France just pledged 100 million euros in support of Lebanon, so that’s a start. We need both humanitarian aid as well as reconstruction, and they have to happen emergently. It’s a tragedy that this magnificent and historic place has been purposefully destroyed.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬’ 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥?

Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said it very well: Israel is the unsinkable battleship for the US in the Middle East. Why does the US need a battleship? To control Middle Eastern oil. That is really an application of the United States’ basic foreign-policy framework, which has been described as “full-spectrum dominance.” We must dominate all resources as well as all potential areas of conflict and competition — that is our country’s foreign policy in a nutshell.

It’s absolutely disastrous and it still applies. On that account, we are headed toward nuclear war on three fronts right now, and we’re not going to get out of here alive if that’s allowed to persist.

𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐰𝐨-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?

Right now, we have one apartheid state; I think we need one democracy. As for a two-state solution, the logical question would be to ask how that would look different from what we have now. Palestine now has representation and strong support in the United Nations, but can that work when it hasn’t for so many decades? Ultimately, it’s hard to believe this is going to get solved without one democratic state that brings justice, equality and dignity to all its citizens.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐬 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐢 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫. 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐒 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝?

We’re spending half of our congressional budget on the endless war machine and the Pentagon. If you add up the costs of taking care of our wounded soldiers for the Veterans Administration, nuclear weapons as part of the Department Of Energy, the FBI, customs and border protection, it’s more like 60–65% of the budget. It is just like robbing us blind, so we need to cut that budget at least in half and put those dollars into healthcare for everyone through a Medicare for All system. We bailed out the crooks on Wall Street, so we can bail out victims of that same economy by putting an end to student and medical debt. We need at least 15 million units of quality, environmentally sound housing — so-called “social housing.” And of course, we need a Green New Deal to combat the climate crisis.

Right now, power is held by politicians who are unaccountable to the people. They are bought and paid for by AIPAC, war profiteers and Wall Street, so it behooves the American people to stand up for what it is that we want and need. The genocide itself is a microcosm of our imperial foreign policy, which has left no money to treat the emergencies that Americans are dealing with. 50% of Americans right now are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and meet their monthly rent or mortgage. 50% are within one or two paychecks of being evicted, and the number of people who are subject to eviction and homelessness are absolutely skyrocketing now.

That’s just one issue. We also need rent control. We need a tenant bill of rights. There are many things that can be done, some of which need resources while others don’t, but our government is instead serving the real estate industry and private equity that is buying our homes, taking them off the market and driving the prices up. The system that is serving the war profiteers right now is also serving Big Pharma and health insurance companies.

One out of every three eligible voters did not vote in the 2020 presidential race. Who are those voters? They are younger, lower income and of color — the people who are the most marginalized are not voting because the zombies being rammed down their throats do not serve their interests. There’s a lot of voting power out there if we can get the word out. As a grassroots campaign, we encourage people to volunteer because it’s all about phone banking, flyers, door knocking and tabling to just get the word out and let people know that we can stop the genocide in Gaza and the endless war machine. We can stop the squandering of a trillion dollars a year that should be cut in half so we have the funds here at home for public higher education and to ensure that there’s a $25-an-hour minimum wage. The war abroad is also a war at home, against democracy and against working people.

𝐌𝐒𝐍𝐁𝐂, 𝐂𝐁𝐒 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐢𝐝. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲?

I think they’re doing us a favor. Every time they smear us, more and more people wake up. To tell you the truth, I don’t read the articles because I don’t really care what they think. They’ve been saying the same stuff about me for a long time because they’re very scared, and I consider it quite an achievement that they’re now taking out these really dumb ads against me. If you read the social-media commentary about the attacks against us, people are pretty furious for the most part … except when it’s a dedicated Democrat audience, like MSNBC. These smears really push people in the opposite direction. For example, the YouTube comments under our interview with The Breakfast Club are just off the charts. It’s thousands and thousands of people saying, “I wasn’t going to vote, but now I’m going to register Green and vote for Jill Stein and Butch Ware.”

We are at the tipping point. The uprising is going really strong, more than I’ve ever seen. Now, it’s just a question of when we get to the breakthrough point. It feels like we’re closer now than ever before.

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– Karan Singh is an Indian American journalist based in Los Angeles. He contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.