Revision: combining three haiku, This Brave New World, C, CI, and CII, into the following haiku sequence:
The "New" Old Normal
we don’t ask for the moon
but for the occupation to end ...
fireball after fireball
the blood moon
tangled in half-burnt trees
bits of clothing
smoky ruins ...
each day a new battle
for water and food
This Brave New World, C
written in response to both the decades-long Israel-Palestine Conflict and Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration: it is "time for war"
we don’t ask for the moon
but for the occupation to end ...
fireball after fireball
FYI: Jewish Currents, Oct.23 : A Textbook Case of Genocide written by Raz Segal, an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and the endowed professor in the study of modern genocide.
...the US dropped more than 7,000 bombs on Afghanistan in both 2018 and 2019; at the time of publication [oct.23], Israel had dropped an estimated 6,000 bombs on Gaza in less than a week.
The subtitle of this penetrating analysis is: Israel has been "Explicit about what it’s carrying out in Gaza." Why isn’t the world listening?
Democracy Now, November 1: "Genocide": Top U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber Resigns, Denounces Israeli Assault on Gaza
A former top United Nations official in New York joins us for an in-depth interview about why he has resigned after publicly accusing the U.N. of failing to address what he calls a "text-book case of genocide" unfolding in Gaza. Craig Mokhiber is a longtime international human rights lawyer who served as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. His resignation letter has gone viral. In one of his first interviews since leaving his post, Mokhiber tells Democracy Now! the U.N. follows a "different set of rules" when addressing Israel's violations of international law, refusing to utilize its enforcement mechanisms and thus "effectively" acting as "a smokescreen behind which we have seen further and worsening dispossession of Palestinians." He says it is an "open secret inside the halls of the United Nations that the so-called two-state solution is effectively impossible," and calls for international actors to push for a "new paradigm" in the region based on "equality for all."
FYI: Associated Press, Oct.30: An Israeli ministry, in a "concept paper," proposes transferring Gaza civilians to Egypt's Sinai.
Added: This Brave New World, CI
the blood moon
tangled in half-burnt trees
bits of clothing
Added: This Brave New World, CII
smoky ruins ...
each day a new battle
for water and food
Added: This Brave New World, CII
Shapes of Truth
in smoky twilight
staring into the camera
a white-haried man
cries out, are you, are you
taking revenge through our kids?
these corpse photos ...
the spokesman with skin
like a newt
opens and closes his mouth:
what about this, what about that
Note: The last line refers to an argumentative tactic where a person or group responds to an accusation or difficult question by deflection. Instead of addressing the point made, they counter it with “but what about X?”.
-- excerpted from The Conversation: Whataboutism: what it is and why it’s such a popular tactic in arguments written by Benjamin Curtis, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics, Nottingham Trent University
FYI: CNN, November 1: ‘Children were carrying other injured children’: Witness describes aftermath of Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp
And Al Jazeera, Oct.31: Gaza has become a ‘graveyard’ for thousands of children: UN: An average of 420 Palestinian children have been killed or injured every day in the Gaza Strip since October 7
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell that toll includes over 3,400 children killed and more than 6,300 injured. “This means that more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day — a number which should shake each of us to our core,” she said
Catherine Russell, the executive director of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund/UNICEF, also said that at least 6,300 children have been injured due to the Israeli attacks.
This means that on average, 420 Palestinian children are killed or injured every day in the Gaza Strip, she explained.
“These numbers should shock and shake us to the core,” Russell said.
The body called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
