by The Editor, empirestrikesblack.com
Warning: contains spoilers!
I write this article feeling a touch heartbroken and not a little stupid.  Like so many gamers I waited patiently for The Last of Us Part II, a highly anticipated game that follows on from its PS3 predecessor, The Last of Us.  Ordinarily I would not take the time to write an article about a video game but this issue is very important for reasons that I will discuss.

Let’s quickly rewind to part I.  The first game I genuinely enjoyed.  It was cinematic and had …

by The Editor, empirestrikesblack.com
You say ‘never forget’
But what is there to forget when you don’t know what indeed happened?
You bow down at the altar of jingoism
Renewing your religion
Every year, a minute’s silence
Singing the hymn of American exceptionalism
Uttering hollow clichés claiming to ‘never forget’
As you drag the names of the dead through the mud
Refusing to do justice to their sacrifice
Alas you will never forget because you haven’t known the truth to be remembered
Dov Zakheim flew those planes
Chertoff released the ‘Israeli’ spies
Silverstein took the lease and buried the evidence
The ‘Israelis’ danced in …

by The Editor, empirestrikesblack.com
In the midst of the ongoing ‘Israeli’ government campaign against Jeremy Corbyn,(1) Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has entered the fray launching an inexplicable attack on the Labour leader. His tweet posted on the 9th of August 2018 lambastes Jeremy Corbyn for apparently failing to condemn Hamas rockets:
To those well-versed on the history of Palestine this statement rightfully seems absurd and somewhat topsy-turvy. How can an occupied, brutalised and imprisoned people be castigated for merely defending themselves? While ‘Israel’ occupies land that does not belong to it – …

by The Editor, empirestrikesblack.com
While speaking to a 500-strong group of Jewish lobbyists in London in 2007, UK Prime Minister David Cameron declared,(1) “I am a Zionist“. He went on to add, “I’m not just a good friend of Israel but I am, as you put it, good for Jews.”
These comments can easily be explained merely as fawning attempts to placate and appease the Jewish lobby – a necessary step for any who wish to assume high office. One has to ask the question though: why does ‘Anglican’ David Cameron conceal …

By the Editor.
The ‘New Atheists’, who claim to be at the cutting edge of critical, independent thought, have adopted the false dogma of 9/11 as their religion.
I want to start out this piece by making a couple of things clear about my beliefs.  I do not suggest for a millisecond that readers should care; there’s nothing more nauseating than a person who trumpets their personal beliefs at any given opportunity. (Sadly in the case of many atheists, this is often done in the pursuit of smugly asserting one’s perceived intellectual …

By the Editor.
Henrique Capriles Radonski – leader of the Venezuelan opposition – vows to downgrade ties with Iran and cut subsidised oil to Cuba and Nicaragua, should he get into power. What is more, his coalition has links to Israel, and both of his parents are Jewish, though he claims to be a ‘fervent Catholic’.
At a rally in June 2010, much to the disdain of the American Jewish Committee which dismissed the accusations as ‘baseless’,(1) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez publicly stated that Israel is funding the Venezuelan opposition:

An inspection of …

By the Editor.
Amid Internet and telephone network outages in Syria, US-trained opposition activists use US-supplied satellite phones to contact Google & Twitter’s ‘Speak2Tweet‘ service. Despite these efforts, the service seems so far to be a resounding failure.
Internet and telecommunications networks have been failing across Syria, leading some including Tony Cartalucci to speculate that NATO may be preparing a psychological warfare operation(1) to bolster the flagging unconventional war against Syria.
Recent developments add weight to this theory. There are now reports(2) that Google and Twitter have re-launched their ‘Speak2Tweet’(3) service …

by ­Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya for Russia Today.
The recent hostilities between the Gaza Strip and Israel have to be viewed in context of a broader geopolitical chessboard. The events in Gaza are tied to Syria and the US’s regional maneuvers against Iran and its regional alliance system.
­Syria has been compromised as a conduit for weapons to Gaza, because of its domestic instability. Israel has capitalized on this politically and militarily. Benjamin Netanyahu has not only tried to secure his own election victory in the Knesset through an attack on Gaza, but …

By the Editor.
Amid Israel’s ongoing pounding of Gaza today, social networking sites were ablaze with feverish chatter both congratulating and condemning Hamas for supposedly hitting Jerusalem with one of its rockets.
On top of this, pro-Israel media outlets have wasted no time in capitalising on the opportunity. Right-wing Israeli outlet Ynet News carries the headline,(1) ‘Hamas fires first rockets at Jerusalem‘.
The ultra-Zionist BBC follows suit:(2) ‘Gaza conflict: Militant rocket targets Jerusalem‘.
Neither of them matches The Times of Israel though, which boasts,(3) ‘‘Surprise’ rocket fire at Jerusalem shows Hamas flailing but …

By the Editor.
Today at approximately 12:30pm Israeli forces put down a Gaza protest at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Several youths were abducted by the occupying forces, and women were shoved to the ground by soldiers and border police.
The first video is filmed looking down on Damascus Gate from the outside, and shows a number of youths being attacked and taken away by Israeli forces.

(Video: 16 November, 2012. Martin Iqbal)
I filmed the following video moments later on Sultan Suleiman Street immediately north of the gate, and it shows a Palestinian …