From Maung Zarni
Dear
Friends,
Yesterday
I shared a long semi-biographical read on an exiled friend and colleague from
Burma/Myanmar. There were some factual errors - identifications of
historical figures, titles and so on. Here is the corrected
version if interested. Part 2 and 3 of the three part-long read by me are
coming soon.
FORSEA’s Maung Zarni tells a story of a remarkable Myanmar exile, (born a Shan
prince), who sat on Chairman Mao’s laps in the Forbidden City, and proceeded to
became one of the predominantly Buddhist country’s most prominent exiles,
guided by his Christian faith. It is properly contextualized within both
Myanmar’s exilic politics of 50-years and the failed democratic transition
which the February coup in 2021 derailed.
The
rest are my select items on the unsettling developments in the United States,
which rhyme with Nazi Germany in the 1930's.
Yankee
Imperialists Have Stripped Themselves Naked, and What the World See is Not
Pretty.
Notable Voices, Incisive Views which I have listened (to), read, re-read
and watched today.
Maung Zarni, Jan 19, 2026
If
interested, please click the link below.
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https://maungzarni.substack.com/p/yankee-imperialists-have-stripped |
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Read
a German documentarian's comparative look at ICE and SA (Brown Shirts),
structurally, which Robert Reich shared in his Substack here:
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Read
the 13 Jan 2026 Statement by Lemkin Institute here:
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Full
text of Reuters news here:
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Is Zionism Racism?
Robert Rosenthal, The Progressive Jew
Jan 11, 2026
On November 10, 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379,
declaring that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”
In 1991, Israel demanded repeal of 3379 as a condition for attending the Madrid
Peace Conference, and George H.W. Bush’s administration leaned hard on
governments across the world to make it happen. The revocation was a product of
raw power, not a moral epiphany.
In 1975, the UN General Assembly got it right. Zionism is racism.
More Than “Self‑Determination”
Bari Weiss, the ubiquitous Zionist and Trump administration minder at CBS News,
told Margaret Hoover that Zionism is “the belief in the Jewish right to self‑determination
somewhere in our historic homeland between the Jordan River and the
Mediterranean Sea.”
Is it really that simple?
Britannica defines Zionism more broadly as “a Jewish nationalist movement with
the goal of the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine,
the ancient homeland of the Jews.”
Here’s a stripped‑down version: Zionists support a state in Palestine
controlled by Jews. Everything else flows from that.
A “Jewish State” With Unequal Rights
The 1948 Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel proclaims “the
establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz‑Israel, to be known as the State of
Israel.”
It then promises that this state “will ensure complete equality of social and
political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex;
it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and
culture.”
Those lofty words were undercut almost immediately. Israel ethnically cleansed
Palestine, imposed military rule on Palestinian citizens inside the Green Line
for nearly two decades, seized vast tracts of Palestinian land under “absentee”
laws, blocked refugees from ever returning, and structured immigration and
nationality law to massively privilege Jews while treating Palestinians as a
demographic problem to be contained, all in an effort to maximize the size and
Jewish purity of the “Jewish state.”
The contradiction is baked in: a “Jewish state” on a land that was
overwhelmingly non‑Jewish can’t deliver real equality without giving up the
project’s core.
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The
two most recent collections, from Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem
University in Occupied Palestine where he offered a list of 30
resources.
Yesterday four of us volunteers at this institute (palestinenature.org)
took a field trip to the protected area of Wadi Quff and also visited the
downtown Hebron area (also took glass for recycling). Hebron is the largest
Palestinian city (400-500,000 people) with 20% of it controlled and largely
ethnically cleansed from the indigenous people to benefit the colonial
settlers who also recent;ly took the fourth holiest site in Islam (Ibrahimi
Mosque) and administer it as part now part synagogue and restrict access to
it for Palestinians (when we visited the lines were of hundreds of
Palestinians) while letting racist settlers run it. Palestinian Hebron
itself is a ghetto and yesterday most of its ghetto gates were locked and
while we entered we had to wait to exit through an Israeli checkpoint with
mean soldiers (took an hour to get through). The soldier took a farmer's
stick from the car in front of us and threw it away. When they demanded ID
cards and searched our (university) car and found a couple of fossils we
had collected, he also threw them away. I would have argued with them but
we were already late and had an international delegation visiting at the
museum we needed to meet (now we get delegations almost daily). For more on
Hebron see
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/isolation-palestinians-israeli-controlled-area-hebron-city-continues
Last night and early morning hours as always I spend time reading and
writing research papers (and my new book). As always there are bad & good
news and actions but I am always reminded of the key message/motto of our
institute (palestinenature.org) which is respect:
respect for ourselves
(empowerment), respect for fellow human beings (regardless of their
background) and respect for nature (all fauna, flora, rivers, hills, oceans
etc ie. mother earth). We just hired two new staff members: Israa Alqadi, a
woman with a PhD and the other Elias Handal who will get his PhD in a few
months). We also are at capacity in terms of live-in volunteers. Our
oversight board and our staff and volunteers revamped our five year
strategy. Now found here: https://www.palestinenature.org/2026-2030-plan/
and have action plans in 2026 in place to lead to the success.
More honest good people doing good things (this is becoming an
important component of these weekly messages as many of you wrote to ask
for more positives):
1) Meir Baruchin - An Israeli teacher
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2292029227904078
2) George Galloway (UK) and Prof Sayed Marandi (Iran)
https://youtu.be/qoHHObgKYvY
3) Jewish American lawyer Stanley Cohen: on the fake "board of
peace":
https://x.com/Kahlissee/status/2012634368074768604
4 & 5) Scott Ritter and Judge Andrew Napolitano
https://www.youtube.com/live/XcrkoTloTn8
6) Amira Hass who writes in Haaretz (look for her articles)
7) Prof. Avi Shlaim (ex Zionist, ex Israeli) and his new book on te
genocide in Gaza https://irishpages.org/product/genocide-in-gaza/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBMBA50O9aZ/
8) Alon Mizrahi https://youtu.be/VpZcvfCkRFg
9) Bisan Owdeh reporting from Gaza
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100036257223783
10) Mohammad Albaradei reporting from Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/@mohammed_albaradei
11) Mahmoud Khalil: https://youtu.be/LD0MeX2Mkr8 &
https://youtu.be/KbyM3o3zh7o
12) Rich Forer:
https://richforer.substack.com/p/the-israel-we-imagine-the-humanity
13) Jackie Chan moved by a Palestinian child's answer
https://english.almayadeen.net/videos/jackie-chan-moved-by-a-palestinian-boy-s-words---the-childre
14) Francesca Albanese: 'I have no words anymore. States. Must.
Intervene.
This isn’t genius, it’s leadership. 1. Impose an arms embargo and cut
trade. 2. Break the blockade with your humanitarian navies. 3. Send a
protective presence to Palestine to ensure Israel dismantles its occupation
NOW.'
Dropsite News brings you real news not seen on corporate/mainstream media
https://www.dropsitenews.com/
Isaac Herzog, president of the genocidal Israeli regime stated " “It’s an
entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric
about civilians … and we will fight until we break their backbone.” He
supported all Israeli actions including systematic torure and rape. Here he
is with the Abe Foxman (another genocidal Zionist with DL more properly
Arab Defamation League) talking about how crucial it is for Zionist
hegemony to destroy Chavez and Venezuela, and they have "plans" for
it they
won't discuss on camera.'
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/2008255939250667662?s=20
Yet shamefully, christian "leaders" met with this racist genocidal
maniac
https://www.gov.il/he/pages/news-12-01-26-1
“No, I will not let the beast devour my existence, for I am
a bird of the
coming dawn, headed towards the sun of freedom.” Ibaa Ismail
The USA regime is poised to do more illegal attacks (this time on Iran,
likely next 24-48 hours) to distract from ongoing genocide in Palestine and
avoid the Epstein scandal. Soon Greenland, Panama, Columbia, and many
others. The Israelization of the USA (and many Western countries) is
ongoing. When Trump says that if we don't take Greenland, China or Russia
will take it, tihs reminds of a settler in Jerusalem who told the woman he
has taken over her home: "well if I don't steal it, someone else will
steal
it!!". Might makes right? But people are becoming more aware and the
global
uprising (intifada) is spreading from Minneapolis to New Zealand/Aotearoa.
The world is boiling and people will not let those billionaire gangsters
run this fragile planet to the ground to satisfy their lust
Here are 15 more people to honor and sample recent statements (will send
more names weekly)
1) Maung Zarni: Prescient observations
https://maungzarni.substack.com/p/iranians-trust-us-imperialists-and
https://maungzarni.substack.com/p/the-leeches-on-humanity-have-unmasked
2) Craig Mokhibar: Ushering in the age of impunity: Venezuela, Palestine,
and the end of international law -
https://mondoweiss.net/2026/01/ushering-in-the-age-of-impunity-venezuela-palestine-and-the-end-of-international-law/
3) Richard Drake: Venezuela and the Long Shadow of the Monroe Doctrine
https://jacobin.com/2026/01/venezuela-monroe-doctrine-trump-imperialism
4) The President of Columbia Interview on Al-Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/talk-to-al-jazeera/2026/1/10/colombias-petro-on-us-threats-and-whether-he-fears-maduros-fate
5) Bana Abu Zuluf: The Israelization of the world?
https://thecall.ps/p/the-israelification-of-the-world
6) John Francis Mahoney, previous Director of Aericans for Middle East
Understanding
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/john-mahoney-obituary
7) Phil Brewer MD: Tuesday will mark the 65th consecutive week of vigils at
Yale New haven Hospital/Yale Medical School. "The intersectionality of our
protest is becoming more obvious with every passing day."
8) The good folks at https://mondoweiss.net/ (get a lot of news and
analysis you will not find in corporate media
9) An Introduction to the Life and Philosophy of Frantz Fanon with Dr.
Lewis Gordon (UConn) https://youtu.be/qXhN4BPsHuQ
10) New York mayor Mamdani attacked for rejecting genocide and apartheid
sand is labeled by the racist state as "ani-Semitic"
https://theintercept.com/2026/01/02/israel-zohran-mamdani-antisemitic-antisemitism/
11) Max Blumernthal: 'Enough time has passed since October 7 for Israeli
media to state what we’ve been saying for over three months, which is that
Israel’s military and political leadership fabricated many of the grisliest
Hamas atrocities in order to generate support for the genocidal war it
planned in Gaza. Here, a Channel 13 panel including Mickey Rosenfeld, the
longtime Israeli police spokesman who spread many such lies after October
7, acknowledges that lurid stories of babies hung on clotheslines, a fetus
cut from a pregnant woman, a baby baked in an oven, and more were invented
“to increase the magnitude of hatred for Hamas.” As Rosenfeld put it, “The
war is not only military, not only political, it’s mainly media.” Channel
13 manages to elicit a statement of contrition from the IDF spokesman, who
apologizes for “describ[ing] a reality that didn’t happen.” Of course,
confessions like these are easy when the damage has already been done.'
12) Francesca Albanese on the "Disunited nations": the UN and the
Middle
East
https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/125537-000-A/disunited-nations/
13) Chris Hedges https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/america-the-rogue-state
14) Acting Venezuelan President says Zionists undertones involved in Madura
illegal kidnapping
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/venezuelas-rodriguez-accuses-us-operation-against-maduro-of-zionist-undertones
15) Lena in the USA who wrote this: Ceasefire? Last night, there was a
total bombardment of attacks on GaSa. We don’t yet know how many people
have been killed.
https://youtu.be/KgJbQJ13n2Y
https://youtu.be/F4gWBnMQioY
The US has made a mockery of the genocide, literally participating,
starving, supplying, and lying. Yet, resilience is unmatched.
https://youtu.be/avUHPXnWCuM
“America is a celebration of cruelty.” This is a short by Mizrahi, but then
I’ll attach below it the entire talk, which is excellent. Sometimes, when
your on the inside, you cannot see you’re in a cult or an abusive
relationship or sick daily. That’s what it’s like in the US. We are in a
colonist cult, enslaved into a fake dream. https://youtu.be/Hk661mJNLbc
https://youtu.be/tRKzwfa104w
https://youtu.be/OKnpt9iY0vc
If you are an engineer, scientist, or someone with a professional
background, where living in a fantasy world is virtually impossible, then
this short op-ed is for you. This is an Asian American who has realized we
have no government for the people. https://youtu.be/i8Fr2NiDXY8 And a short
by a fellow angry American kid. It’s these kids who are unafraid to speak
truth to power who will save us all.
https://youtu.be/J-2g8C9shpA
Argentinian Journalist breaks the silence on Israeli ecoside spreading to
Argenitina https://youtu.be/PA0ZIg4vbfo
And who ousted Maduro of Venezuela, US alone or acting on behest of Israel
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dk9FuY1niSc
Event 21 January 4 PM CET (5 PM) Palestine time on environmental justice
https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/events/show/e5434f1991fe
register here
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UKQetBk7TNy5Ez0f_rVcCA
Green Party USA condemns Trump attack on Venezuela
https://www.gp.org/green_party_condemns_trump_attack_on_venezuela
will the democratic party listen to its base or continue to be dominated by
Zionist and military industrial lobbyists bribes and blackmail
If you need proof of the lack of justice in the US, look at Canary Mission.
The fact the ACLU wouldn’t and/or couldn’t shut them down is proof the US
doesn’t uphold its own laws within its own borders!
https://youtu.be/DltdAqd_0Ho
Stay Humane, act, and keep hope and Palestine alive
Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org
facebook pages
Personal https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9
Institute https://www.facebook.com/PIBS.PMNH
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From the Palestine Institute of
Public Diplomacy, 20 Jan. 2026:
From dehumanization,
to media malpractice, false dichotomies and double
standards, here are just a few examples that are mirroring Palestinian
experiences: |
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So how
can one keep the focus and continue organize towards peoples’ liberation in
an impactful way? For those who want to deepen
their understanding or find ways to help, here are some resources. |
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Learn |
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Take Action |
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Share verified information, and
engage in conversations that upholds people’s agency, dignity and facts. As a resource that might be
helpful to you we have launched the Communicating
Palestine guide in Portuguese, and bringing it to you in
Spanish later in 2026, so that people across Latin America can fight against
these very common patterns and engage constructively on portraying reality
there, and we hope to continue counting on your support and engagement. With solidarity and
determination, Inès, Co-Director" |
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