A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, Ilan Pappe, 2024, 146 pages, Dewey 956.94, ISBN 9780861549719
The State of Israel keeps proving A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, Ilan Pappe, 2024, 146 pages, Dewey 956.94, ISBN 9780861549719
The State of Israel keeps proving it has no right to exist.
SUMMARY pp. 139-144
1. That Palestine was empty before the Zionists came is a lie.
Bible stories don't confer rights to commit genocide and theft of land.
2. A Jewish state was built on historical Palestine because it served British imperial interests during and after WWI. So doing, the Brits violated their promise to the Palestinians of self-determination and independence. Britain is complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
3. Zionism is settler-colonial, to build a new Europe elsewhere, removing the natives to do so.
4. No one in the West ever helped Palestinians' anticolonial struggle.
Pro-Israel lobbying portrays Palestinians' anticolonial struggle as senseless terrorism.
5. "Peace" efforts were a sham by the U.S., letting Israel continue colonizing.
6. The only solution is one state, in which everyone has equal rights.
7. Stop talking about "peace," as if both sides were equally at fault: we're talking about decolonization, liberation, reconciliation.
[c. 1800 BC God gives Canaan to Abraham and his descendants in perpetuity, so long as they keep His commandments. (Read the Books of the prophets, and this book, to see how /that/ part went.) Genesis 17:8. 17&version=NIV ]
[c. 29 AD Jewish leaders in Jerusalem demand that Jesus be killed. Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19.]
70 AD Romans destroyed Jewish temple in Jerusalem. p. 19.
1516 Ottoman Empire controls Palestine. p. 3.
16th Century to present Zionism began as an evangelical Christian project in Europe: the Jews' return to "Zion" would herald the Second Coming of Christ. European and U.S. evangelicals (including some holders of high office, see 1839 and 1891) were the first to see Jews as members of a nation or a race, rather than as practitioners of a religion. These evangelicals also wanted Jews out of the USA and out of Europe. And, they wanted the Ottoman Empire to instead be part of European empires. These Christian fundamentalists are still the most important pro-Israel lobby in the USA. pp. 5-6, 141.
1831 Muhammad Ali of Egypt conquered Syria.
1839.01 Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, proposed resettling Jews in the Holy Land.
1876 Ottoman Constitution, a victory for the Young Ottomans (distinct from the later Young Turks), declared Turkish the only official language. p. 4.
1881 Particularly vicious pogroms in southwestern Russian Empire. p. 8.
1882 Some young European Jews buy land in Palestine, mostly from absentee landlords, using donations from Rothschilds and others. They begin taking Palestine from the Palestinians. pp. 8-10.
1891.03 William Eugene Blackstone presented the Blackstone Memorial to President William Henry Harrison, urging the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. p. 6.
1900 500,000 people lived in Palestine, within the Nablus, Acre, and Jerusalem districts of the Ottoman Empire (roughly what in 2024 is Israel and the occupied territories). About 70% were Muslims, and spoke Arabic. p. 3.
1905 Aliens Act to keep Jews out of Britain. p. 14.
1908 Young Turks (distinct from the earlier Young Ottomans) took power. p. 4.
1911 Orthodox Christians launched a newspaper, /Falastin/, championing an Arab Palestine and raising the alarm about Zionist ambitions. p. 17.
1914-1918 WWI. p. 5.
1917 Zionists persuade British government that a friendly Jewish state in Israel would help Britain keep control of the Suez Canal. p. 13.
1917.11.02 Balfour Declaration promises to make a Jewish state in Palestine. pp. 13-14.
1918 Ottoman rule was over. Zionists were by then 5-6% of Palestine's population, organized for takeover. p. 10.
1918-1948 British rule Palestine. Zionist settlers demand that the British let them evict Palestinians. p. 9.
1919 Palestine Arab Congress united Christians and Muslims against takeover by the Jewish minority, called for renunciation of Balfour Declaration. pp. 17-18.
1920 British reclassified Palestinians, who had had usufruct rights to the land for generations, as tenants, so whoever bought the land their village or farm was on, could evict them at will. Much of the land was owned by wealthy absentee landlords, who had never before had the right to evict the people who came with the land. Some of the villages had existed for thousands of years. pp. 25, 28.
1921-1929 Zionists bought 87,500 acres of land (= 137 sq. mi. = 354 sq. km. = 35,400 ha) and evicted the Palestinians from villages and farms. With British complicity. This began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that continues today. Zionism became settler colonialism, dependent on eliminating Palestinians. pp. 25-30.
1922 Jews were 11% of the population. p. 16.
1922-1926 British let Jews build their own educational system, industries and even military capacities, and all other state services. Brits enabled Jews to maintain their one university and build a second. British treated Palestinians as colonial subjects, imposing an educational system and patchy healthcare, no higher education. Brits denied Palestinians any self-government. British tolerated and cooperated with the Zionist paramilitary force, the Haganah. Brits prevented Palastinians from arming or organizing themselves. Arab workers were excluded from the Zionist trade union. pp. 21-23.
1924 Saudis take over western Arabia, including Mecca and Medina. pp. 47-48.
1928 Muslim Brotherhood founded in Egypt. p. 109.
1932 Iraq gained independence. p. 15.
1936-1939 Arab revolt against ethnic cleansing. Brutally put down by British, indiscriminately killing thousands of Palestinians, and nearly all leaders--so the Palestinians would have no one to counter Zionist lobbying of the British and U.S. governments. pp. 36-42, 141.
1939.05 Over 450,000 Jews are in Palestine. p. 39.
1939-1945 WWII, including extermination of 6 million Jews. Jewish survivors were universally unwelcome. Jewish Zionism became popular. pp. 7, 40-42.
1943 Lebanon gained independence. p. 15.
1945 Arab League founded. p. 47.
1946 Syria gained independence. p. 15.
1946.07 Zionists blew up British headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. p. 45.
1947 Britain had had enough of Palestine. p. 44
1947.02-1948.02 David Ben-Gurion's Zionist military prepares to conquer Palestine. p. 59.
1947 Zionists promise the king of Jordan some Palestinian land, in exchange for his recognition of the State of Israel. Jordan had the most effective army in the Middle East, commanded by British officers. Removing Jordan's opposition made the Jewish conquest of Palestine easier. pp. 50, 56-57.
1947-1948 Zionist leaders correctly calculated that the international community would not help Palestine recover what Israel takes by force. p. 51.
1947.11.29 After the Zionist lobby in the U.S. strong-armed President Truman (1948 being an election year), the U.S. bribed and threatened United Nations member states to approve partition of Palestine to create a Jewish state. Stalin agreed, to weaken UK influence and to offload Soviet Jews. The catastrophe, Nakba, for Palestinians began, and is still going in 2025. The (better) 56% of Palestine awarded to Jews was about half Arab. (The 43% supposedly allotted to Arabs was overwhelmingly Arab.) pp. 52-61, 141.
1947-present Zionist paramilitary attacks Arab villages to force Arabs to leave. The Jews had 10 times the paramilitary soldiers as the Palestinians--nearly all of the latter had been killed or imprisoned in the late 1930s. The Jews had far more and better weapons. Jews use Palestinian outrage at theft of their country as an excuse for ethnic cleansing. pp. 57-60.
1948.03-1948.05 Ben-Gurion's military begins forcing Palestinians out of their villages, then reducing those villages to rubble, planted with explosives so no one could return. All Palestinian men were killed or arrested. And in West Jerusalem and its 39 neighboring villages, the women and children too were killed. All Palestinian cities were destroyed by 1948.05. pp. 61-64.
1948.05.14 State of Israel founded. pp. 2, 64.
1948.05-1948.08 Arab League fails to prevent Israeli takeover of most of Palestine, and mass expulsion of Palestinians. Thanks in part to Jordan's treachery, having made a deal with Israel, reneged on promises to Arab neighbors to aid the war effort. pp. 64-66.
1948.12 By now, half of Palestine's Arab population has been expelled, more than 500 villages destroyed, and most towns and cities demolished. p. 66. As many as 1,000,000 people have been expelled. p. 85.
1948-present Israel created the Gaza Strip, 2% of Palestine, as the world's biggest refugee camp. A place to dump displaced Palestinians. pp. 66-67, 136-137.
1948-1954 Israelis coerce 650,000 Arab Jews to relocate to Israel. The Israeli secret police, Mossad, planted bombs in Iraqi synagogues, and persuaded the Iraqi government to pass anti-Jew laws and seize their property and capital. Israelis recruited young Jews to terrorist-attack Egyptian libraries and cinemas, to sow hatred of Jews, so Jews would leave. These Asian and African Jews are nevertheless treated as a permanent underclass in Israel, where the elite are European Jews. pp. 78-81.
1948-1967 Palestinians constituted 17% of the people in the Jewish state (not including the many Palestinian refugee camps). Palestinians were under Jewish military rule. p. 72-73.
1956 Egyptian president Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal. p. 82.
1956.10.29 Israelis massacre the Palestinian residents of the village of Kafr Qasim. p. 74.
1956.10 Israel, France, and Britain go to war against Egypt, fail to topple Nasser. [President Eisenhower demands that it stop.] p. 73.
1958-1961 Egypt unites politically with Syria as the United Arab Republic. To discourage further Israeli attacks such as the one on Egypt in 1956. p. 83.
1963 AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was incorporated. It built an extensive political machine that made sure the huge majority of U.S. politicians would support Israel unconditionally. p. 94, 141.
1963-1964 Shaham plan finalized for military rule of West Bank and Gaza Strip, for when Israel absorbs these Palestinian areas. pp. 85-86.
1964. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founded as an umbrella organization of Palestinian resistance groups. p. 96.
1967.06.05-1967.06.10 Israel won 6-day war. First, preemptively destroyed the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Then occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights. Then ethnically cleansed 100 Golan Heights villages. Then removed 300,000 Palestinians, mainly from refugee camps near Jericho. The remaining millions of occupied Palestinians were denied citizenship, were policed and controlled, denied civil and human rights. Then Jews established settlements in the occupied territories: illegal by international law, approved by the Israeli government. pp. 1, 86-.
1970. PLO establishes its base in southern Lebanon. p. 97.
1972 Israeli prime minister Golda Meir said, "There is no such thing as the Palestinian people." Too many Israelis still echo that sentiment today. p. 18.
1972 Palestinian militants kill 11 Israelis at the Olympic Games in Munich. Israelis go on a 20-year killing spree, targeting Palestinian leaders. p. 97.
1973.10. Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria failed to win back the Golan Heights. The U.S. aided Israel. p. 95.
1975-1991 A United Nations resolution states, Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination. Rescinded by U.S. in 1991. p. 96.
1976 Judaization of Galilee. Half the Palestinians in Israel lived in Galilee, where they were half the population. Jews confiscated Palestinian land, built military bases and Jewish settlements. Jews killed Palestinians when Palestinians went on a labor strike in protest, in 1975.03. pp. 92-93.
1978 Palestinian militants kill 37 Israelis on a bus. Israel invades and occupies south Lebanon. p. 97-99.
1981. Ariel Sharon imposes an Israeli civil administration on the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, as a first step to absorbing the territories into Israel. A Palestinian could not move about, have a job, go to university, or attend a hospital without an Israeli-government permit. Permits would be examined at checkpoints. Soldiers bullied, abused, and persecuted Palestinians as a matter of course. Palestinians who refused to be informers were denied permits. Palestinian leaders were arrested by the army and attacked by Jewish settlers. pp. 99-100, 114.
1981. Palestinian Islamic Jihad founded, inspired by Iran's Islamic Revolution. p. 111.
1982.06.04 Palestinian militants unaffiliated with the PLO tried to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London. Sharon used this as a pretext to launch the First Lebanon War. Israelis occupied Lebanon. Thousands of Palestinians were massacred in Lebanese refugee camps, 1982.09. Israelis bombed Beirut. The PLO surrendered, and agreed to move its headquarters to Tunis, leaving Lebanon 1982.09. This enfeebled the PLO. Now a new Shia group, Hezbollah, resisted the continued Israeli occupation of south Lebanon. After 18 years of guerrilla war, Hezbollah forced the Israeli army out of Lebanon in 2000. p. 101-102.
1987.12-1993 First Intifada (uprising): mainly a nonviolent protest, Palestinians briefly self-governed neighborhoods and villages. Israeli army killed over 1,000 people, destroyed homes, closed schools, imprisoned people without trial. p. 103.
1987.12 Muslim Brotherhood sets up Hamas, its armed wing. pp. 110-111.
1991. By now, Israel has removed millions of Palestinians from their homes. p. 105.
1996. Israelis encircle Gaza Strip with barbed-wire fence. Jewish settlers continue dispossessing Palestinians. p. 114.
2000. After 18 years of guerrilla war, Hezbollah forced the Israeli army out of Lebanon. p. 101-102.
2000. Second Intifada (uprising). Hamas suicide bombings. Israel reoccupied West Bank and Gaza. Israeli air force bombed cities. Massacred people in refugee camps. Israel maintained such viciousness until after Yasser Arafat's death, 2004.11. pp. 119-121.
2000-present. Israel intensified Judaization of West Bank and Jerusalem. Further disenfranchised Palestinian citizens of Israel. Funded by U.S. Jews and Christians. p. 122, 130-131.
2004.06-2005.09 Israeli government removes all 8,000 Jews from Gaza strip, disavows any responsibility to Palestinians there. Gaza could be a prison, and Israel could attack it, without risking any Jews. (The Jewish settlers fought back viciously, unwilling to quit their homes. They had to be dragged out kicking and screaming.) Most residents of the Gaza strip are descendants of refugees of the 1948 ethnic cleansing. There was no Gaza Strip before 1948. pp. 66-67, 126-127, 136-137.
2006. Hamas won elections to govern Gaza. Israel, the US, USSR, and Europe refused to recognize the government. So Hamas decided to rule by force, meaning winning a war against its rival Palestinian faction Fatah. pp. 127-128.
2006-present. Israel besieges all of Gaza, often depriving its residents of water and electricity. And destroys tens of thousands of people, and places, with bombs, sold to Israel by our governments. p. 128, 138, 140.
2006. Israel invades Lebanon, bombs Beirut to rubble. p. 128.
2022.11 to present The Israeli government includes two political parties that seek to destroy the third-holiest site in Islam in order to rebuild the Jewish temple the Romans destroyed in 70 AD. pp. 19-20, 137.
2023 President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen repeats the lie that Palestine was empty until the Zionists came. p. 28.
2023.10.07 to present Hamas stormed into Israel in Operation Al-aqsa Flood. 1,200 Israelis died; 240 taken hostage. Israel's retribution, Swords of Iron, has killed over 30,000 Palestinians (including about 10,000 children) as of 2024. Israel tries to censor any attempts to tell the truth, weaponizing the allegation of antisemitism to do so, defining any criticism of the Israeli state as antisemitic. pp. 1, 133-135.
2024. Israel has 8 million Jews (including 700,000 in the West Bank) and one of the world's most powerful militaries. Israel sees itself as a Western outpost in a hostile Arab world, that must oppress Palestinians to survive. pp. 142-144. (hide spoiler)]
Capital and Ideology graphic novel, Claire Alet and Benjamin Adam, 2022 in French, 2024 English translation by Margaret Morrison, 176 pages, ISBN 9781Capital and Ideology graphic novel, Claire Alet and Benjamin Adam, 2022 in French, 2024 English translation by Margaret Morrison, 176 pages, ISBN 9781419777059, Dewey 305
Comic-book format, loosely based on Thomas Piketty's treatise of the same title. Alet and Adam give us the stories of members of eight generations of an upper-class French family, 1789 through 2022. Their stories illustrate Piketty's points about the various organizations of society and the ideologies used to justify the inequalities.
There's far more in the Piketty book than this comic book attempts to convey: /review/show...
Still, this is a gentle and insightful introduction to inequality: where it comes from (ultimately from slavery), where it's going (depends what people demand).
Alet and Adam give us a Piketty lecture in the last few pages, as their current-generation protagonist listens to his broadcast. Piketty gives us suggestions for making the world a less-awful place. Spoiler alert: tax the rich. ...more
The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally, Jason Fung, 2018, 265 pages, ISBN 9781771642651, Dewey 616.462 F963d
Type 2 diabetes The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally, Jason Fung, 2018, 265 pages, ISBN 9781771642651, Dewey 616.462 F963d
Type 2 diabetes is fully reversible and preventable. Only diet and lifestyle changes--not medication--will reverse the disease. pp. xiv-xv. You can't use drugs to cure a dietary disease. p. xix.
Eliminate all sweet foods and all starchy foods from your diet. Moderate your protein intake. p. xx.
Fasting is the surest and simplest way to force your body to burn sugar. p. xxi.
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars, Richard K. Bernstein (1934-), 4th ed. 2011, 535 pages, ISBN 97Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars, Richard K. Bernstein (1934-), 4th ed. 2011, 535 pages, ISBN 9780316182690, Dewey 616.462 . See also the book's website, Some excerpts from the book here:
Insightful and thorough.
"The standard approach was always to tell me to lose weight, to exercise, and to take medication. Dr. Bernstein said the same three things, but his approach to each was radical, especially on the diet. I've lost a lot of weight." p. 19.
"Much of what I cover in this book is in direct opposition to the recommendations of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and other national diabetes associations. If I had followed those guidelines, they would have killed me long ago." pp. xi, 113, 222, 467. [Medical associations are funded by firms with a stake in keeping us sick.] The book's website links to many useful medical articles; here's one by Gary Taubes, "The Soft Science of Dietary Fat," debunking the low-fat orthodoxy: p. 132.
"My mouth waters whenever I pass a bakery shop and sniff the aroma of fresh bread, but I am also grateful simply to be alive and sniffing." pp. 174-175. "I haven't eaten fruit since 1970, and I'm much healthier for it. Nutrients found in fruits are also found in the vegetables you can safely eat." pp. 141, 155.
Whether you have diabetes or not, eat low-carb to avoid the high blood glucose, high triglycerides, high LDL (low-density lipoprotein = bad cholesterol), low HDL (high-density lipoprotein = good cholesterol), and high lipoprotein(a), that lead eventually to blindness, amputations, kidney failure, heart attacks, strokes, and brain bleeds. pp. 113, 466. See also /Protein Power/, Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, 1996, for the value of low-carb eating for everyone. p. 113.
TYPE 1? TYPE 2?
Types 1 and 2 diabetes aren't as distinct as is commonly assumed: most type-2 diabetics have some of the loss of insulin-producing ability that characterizes type 1. High blood glucose destroys pancreatic beta cells.
NORMAL BLOOD GLUCOSE
Testing hundreds of nondiabetic adults, the author finds that blood glucose is usually (83 ± 3) mg/dl; normal hemoglobin A1c is 4.2 to 4.6%. Others have found normal blood-glucose levels to be in the 70s. pp. 116, 121-124.
Various formulas for estimating mean blood glucose (mg/dl) from hemoglobin A1c percentage (applicable for the 100-to-200-mg/dl blood-glucose range) p. 123: For example, hemoglobin A1c of 5% corresponds to blood glucose of about 100 mg/dl. But that's the mean. It's the highs that cause the damage. (High blood glucose damages hemoglobin to mutant form A1c. The percentage of your blood hemoglobin that has been damaged to form A1c reflects your blood glucose over the past 2-3 months.) [None of these formulas can be more than approximate, over some limited range.]
Your blood glucose should be the same after eating as before eating. After-eating spikes in blood glucose cause blood-vessel damage. The American Diabetes Association is wrong to pretend that only fasting blood glucose counts. p. 178.
LOW-CARB
Even dietary fat will be more likely to be stored as body fat if it is accompanied by potatoes, bread, corn, and so on. (Carbs spike insulin, which shoves fat into fat cells and keeps it there.) Fat eaten in a low-carb diet is burned off. p. 134.
You can easily survive on zero carbs. There are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids that we must eat, but there are no essential carbs. p. 139.
Limit carbs to no more than 6 grams at breakfast, 12 grams at lunch, 12 grams at supper, all /slow-acting/ carbs, such as fibrous whole vegetables, salad with oil and wine vinegar, or full-fat plain yogurt. ("Complex" versus "simple" carbs is a meaningless distinction: whole grains become glucose instantly.) p. 178.
Balsamic vinegar is 13% sugar by weight. Red wine vinegar is a better choice.
String beans, snow peas, and bell peppers are mostly cellulose, so are OK.
Powdered artificial sweeteners, except /some/ brands of stevia, are mostly sugars and should be avoided. p. 149.
VEGETABLES
Acceptable vegetables include asparagus, avocado, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and sauerkraut, cauliflower, eggplant, onions (in small amounts), peppers (any color except yellow), mushrooms, spinach, string beans, summer squash, and zucchini.
Bean sprouts, spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower have B vitamins that we don't get when we avoid vitamin-fortified bread. p. 173.
As a rule of thumb, 2/3 cup of whole cooked vegetables, 1/2 cup of diced or sliced cooked vegetable, 1/4 cup mashed cooked vegetable, or 1 cup of mixed salad acts upon blood glucose as if it contains about 6 grams of carbohydrate.
Cooking converts some of vegetables' cellulose to sugar. Measure how your favorite vegetables affect your blood glucose. p. 146.
Of the following vegetables, each acts upon blood glucose as if it contains about 6 grams of carbohydrate in 2/3 cup (all cooked except as noted): artichoke hearts asparagus avocado (1/2 a small) bamboo shoots beet greens bell peppers (green and red only, no yellow) (cooked or raw) bok choy (Chinese cabbage) broccoli brussels sprouts cabbage celery celery root (celeriac) collard greens daikon radish dandelion greens eggplant endive escarole hearts of palm kohlrabi mushrooms mustard greens okra patty pan squash pumpkin radicchio rhubarb sauerkraut scallions snow peas spaghetti squash spinach string beans summer squash turnip greens turnips water chestnuts watercress zucchini zucchini flowers � Onions are high in carbohydrate and should only be used in small amounts for flavoring—small amounts of chives or shallots can pack a lot of flavor. � One-half small avocado contains about 6 grams of carbohydrate. � One cup mixed green salad without carrots and with a single slice of tomato or onion has about the same impact on blood glucose as 6 grams of carbohydrate. � One-quarter cup mashed pumpkin contains about 6 grams of carbohydrate (with much stevia and spice (cinnamon). (For other vegetables from this list, such as turnips, assume that ¼ cup of the mashed product contains 6 grams of carbohydrate.)
NUTS
"I have only one patient who can count out a preplanned number of nuts, eat them, and stop." Most of us are better off avoiding them. pp. 168-169.
The average nonpregnant, sedentary adult with an ideal body weight of 150 pounds requires about 11.5 ounces per day of high-quality protein food (that is, 69 grams of pure protein--one gram per kg of body weight). Athletes and growing children need much more. p. 203. One ounce of protein food (such as meat) typically has 6 grams of protein. A serving the size of a deck of playing cards is about 3 ounces of food, so 18 grams of protein. pp. 180-181.
DON'T STARVE
If you starve yourself and lose 10 pounds without adequate dietary protein and exercise, you may lose 5 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of muscle. If you gain back that 10 pounds from eating carbohydrate and not exercising, it may all be fat. p. 201.
CHEESE
Calcium-providing foods such as cheese may facilitate weight loss by inhibiting the slowdown in metabolism that may occur when you lose weight. p. 204. Calcium supplements, by contrast, may increase arterial calcification. p. 204.
VITAMINS and MINERALS
Too-high iron can cause insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. p. 58.
Vitamin C is important, but above 400 mg/day becomes an oxidant rather than an antioxidant and can cause neuropathies. Above 500 mg/day can raise blood sugar. Use no more than 250 mg/day, timed-release only. pp. 69, 173.
Vitamin B-12 and folic acid supplements, as a treatment for elevated homocysteine, actually increased mortality. p. 61.
Vitamin D deficiency can cause insulin resistance. p. 64.
SMALL MEALS
Small meals give lower blood-sugar swings. p. 114.
DATA SHEET
To record blood glucose, meals, etc: GlucograF IV data sheet, pdf here:
TEST FOOD
Diastix test sticks, made to test for glucose in urine, are useful for testing prepared or restaurant foods for sugar or flour. Put a small amount of the food in your mouth, chew if solid; mix with saliva, spit it onto the test strip. Enzymes in saliva release the glucose or starch. This shows glucose only--Diastix don't react to fructose nor to lactose. pp. 76, 147-148.
FOOD LABELS
Food labels are permitted a margin of error of plus or minus 20 percent. p. 109. And plus or minus .5 gram. p. 168.
Dietary protein stimulates production of the satiety hormone PYY, inhibiting overeating. p. 472.
Exercise can reduce desire to overeat, and cause you to crave protein rather than carbohydrate. p. 225.
The author recommends self-hypnosis, as taught by Herbert Spiegel, MD, and David Spiegel, MD, in /Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis/. In the meditative state, concentrate on three messages: 1. For my body, overeating is a poison. 2. I need my body to live. 3. I owe my body this respect and protection. Or similar. Bernstein recommends one session with a /medical/ hypnotist, to learn if you're hypnotisable, and how to do it.
There are also certain meds that can inhibit carbohydrate cravings. pp. 206-222. (hide spoiler)]
NERVE HEALING
Insulin-mimetic antioxidants R-alpha lipoic acid (R-ALA) and evening primrose oil (EPO) heal neuropathy of the feet. p. 399.
WARNING:
Cancer cells can thrive on antioxidants. If you have a family or personal history of any form of cancer, it would be wise to steer clear of R-ALA and other antioxidants. p. 252.
Gentian violet solution is a safe, effective antiseptic for feet. p. 497.
HOSPITAL STAYS
Hospitals normally make no effort to control a patient's blood sugar; they commonly use intravenous glucose when it's contraindicated. Dr. Bernstein gives us a template for a letter to be sent to the admitting physician, copy to the hospital administrator, demanding appropriate care and threatening legal action in its absence. pp. 482-483.
Gaza Faces History, Enzo Traverso, French-to-English translation by Willard Wood (originally published in Italian), 2024 (the author's preface is dateGaza Faces History, Enzo Traverso, French-to-English translation by Willard Wood (originally published in Italian), 2024 (the author's preface is dated 2024.07.10), 105 pages, ISBN 9781635425543, Dewey 956.94055
GENOCIDE
The enormously powerful and sophisticated Israeli war machine is methodically eliminating a set of urban centers inhabited by close to 2.5 million Palestinian people. The destruction is unilateral, continuous, and inexorable. p. 11
Israel has killed 40,000-60,000 Palestinians, including 30,000-50,000 civilians, all deliberately targeted, 2023.10.07-2024.07.10(?); Hamas killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, including 800 civilians, in random attacks. p. 17.
Israel planned all of it: the destruction of roads, buildings, schools, hospitals, universities, museums, monuments, cemeteries; destruction of water supplies, electricity, natural gas, gasoline, Internet; denial of access to food and medical supplies; evacuation of more than 1.8 million of the 2.3 million Gazans toward the southern portion of the Strip, where Israel bombs and displaces them again; disease, epidemics, and now famine. pp. 17-18.
Unable to eradicate Hamas, Israel has set about eradicating the Palestinian intelligentsia: academics, doctors, technicians, journalists, artists, intellectuals, and poets. p. 18.
U.S.
Israel is massacring Gazans. p. 18. With an arsenal supplied mainly by the U.S. pp. 29-30.
U.S. president[s] Biden [and Trump both have] led cheers for Israel. pp. 12-14.
APARTHEID
Israel has relegated Palestinians to an apartheid system comparable to what once existed in South Africa. p. 46.
Israel is a democratic state for its citizens, but a military dictatorship for Palestinians. p. 83.
MEDIA
Mainstream media parrot Israeli lies (such as fictitious atrocities Israel claimed Islamists committed, reported as fact in the U.S.). pp. 39-42, 69. And censor images of the corpses of Palestinian children, humanitarian aid workers, and civilians, killed by Israeli snipers and drones, p. 79, and reports of Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian girls. p. 70.
For the awful truth, we have Al Jazeera: pp. 39-42.
ANTIARABISM
The fiction of anti-Jewism has been weaponized, aiming to criminalize any criticism of Israel. Mainstream media, and both political parties [even Bernie Sanders], are fully on board. p. 45. [Jews and Arabs are both Semites.]
Equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism kills three birds with one stone: anti-colonialism, anti-racism, and Jewish nonconformism pp. 46-47.
MONEY TALKS
Universities have banned protests of Israel's genocide of Gazans, at the behest of large donors. p. 49.
ZIONISM
Zionists made an agreement with Hitler in 1933, to send Jews to Palestine. p. 47.
"A Jewish national state would be a dangerous and stupid joke." --Hannah Arendt, 1946. pp. 86-87.
ISRAEL
Today Israel presents a ghastly image: a place where sneering eighteen-year-olds with M16 carbines taunt helpless old men ("security measures"); where bulldozers regularly flatten whole apartment blocks ("collective punishment"); where helicopters fire rockets into residential streets ("targeted assassination"); where subsidized settlers frolic in grass-fringed swimming pools, oblivious to Arab children a few meters away who fester and rot in the worst slums on the planet; and where retired generals and cabinet ministers speak openly of cleansing the land of its Arab cancer. --Tony Judt, 2004. pp. 77-78.
Israel is devoid of any shred of moral legitimacy. p. 91.
Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from around the World, Natasha Hakimi Zapata, 2025, 416 pages, ISBN 9781620978443, Dewey 306
Nine countrAnother World Is Possible: Lessons for America from around the World, Natasha Hakimi Zapata, 2025, 416 pages, ISBN 9781620978443, Dewey 306
Nine countries doing something better than the U.S.:
UK MEDICAL CARE
The UK National Health Service is free at point of use--even for foreigners visiting the UK. p. 3.
In 1945, the UK's first Labour-majority government began building a welfare state to fight the five evils--want, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness--that William Beveridge reported in 1942. p. 15. Benefits were never means-tested. p. 16. Treatment of disease and injury was a right, not a commodity. p. 17.
UK's National Health Service has been under threat from a succession of profiteer-serving administrations. Advocates have so far preserved most of it.
112 million Americans can't afford the medical care they need. p. 9. 41% of Americans are burdened with medical or dental debt. p. 36.
NORWAY FAMILY-FRIENDLY
Norway pays maternity and paternity leave.
SINGAPORE PUBLIC HOUSING
Singapore provides public housing.
FINLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Finnish teachers must hold master's degrees. p. 99.
Tuition is free through graduate school. p. 101
PORTUGAL DRUG POLICY
Portugal treats drug abuse as a public-health issue, not a law- enforcement issue. They get better results, for lower costs.
ESTONIA INTERNET
Estonia provides Internet service for all.
URUGUAY CLEAN ENERGY
Uruguay gets much of its energy from wind, some from solar. And some from burning wood--more environmentally-damaging even than burning coal, which the author seems not to know.
COSTA RICA BIODIVERSITY LAW
26% of Costa Rica is under environmental protections. p. 262.
NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSAL PENSION
New Zealand gives everyone over age 65 a pension, funded only by general taxation.
See also Michael Moore's brilliant 2015 film, /Where to Invade Next?/, similar to Hakimi Zapata's book: Moore "invades" many countries to take their ideas. The cases of Finland education and Portugal drug policy are the same in the book as in the movie:
Thomas Ray
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