Israel Destroys Olive Groves, US Calls It 'Self-Defense'
Olive farmers in southern Lebanon are risking their lives to harvest their crops, constantly under surveillance and threat from Israeli military actions. This 'collateral damage' from Israel's latest war with Hezbollah follows decades of similar destruction of Palestinian agricultural lands. It's a familiar playbook: target the livelihoods, destroy the culture, then claim security concerns. While
State Department officials wring their hands, the US Congress continues to greenlight billions in military aid (HR 815, 2024), funded in part by PACs like AIPAC. (OpenSecrets.org data consistently show millions in contributions to key legislators presiding over these aid packages). Apparently, 'self-defense' now includes uprooting centuries of agricultural heritage and bombing people doing their
literal jobs. How many warnings does it take before we acknowledge this isn't about security, but systematic dispossession?