Saturday 6th of June 2026
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

genocide is evil.....

 

After Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur were banned from entering the UK earlier this week, reportedly because of their criticism of Israel, Piker commented that he “would never have imagined that a [Labour] government would ban me from entering the UK.” Indeed, millions of UK voters would likely agree.

 

How Secret Pro-Israel Money Flooded the Labour Party and Ended with a Ban of Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur

DROP SITE NEWS

 

But Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is not really a Labour government; it came to power on the back of a secret project to wrest control of the Labour Party back from an ascendant left wing. This secret project was resourced by illegally undeclared money from wealthy donors, funneled through a seemingly anodyne think tank called Labour Together. It involved covertly seeding promiscuous claims of antisemitism against political opponents, attempting to silence independent media that threatened to expose its project, and—ultimately—developing the dishonest leadership pitch that allowed Keir Starmer to trick a left-wing membership to elect him leader.

Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary responsible for the ban on Piker and Uygur, was one of a ‘brave band’ of eight MPs that guided the Labour Together project during the leadership of Starmer’s left-wing predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

The MP who has most loudly demanded Piker and Uygur’s banning is David Taylor. Elected in 2024 as part of the Labour’s landslide, Taylor was closely vetted and approved by a Labour Party bureaucracy reporting directly to Labour Together’s long-time former managing director. And the single largest donor to Taylor’s election campaign was Labour Together.

Piker and Uygur were not banned by the Labour Party—they were banned by the Labour Together party. The primary architect of the Labour Together project is Morgan McSweeney, who was, until recently, Starmer’s chief of staff and widely understood as the real force running the government. McSweeney resigned in February after it was revealed he had pushed Peter Mandelsohn as the UK’s ambassador to the U.S., despite knowing of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

I know McSweeney’s capacity for destroying free speech—and especially criticism of Israel—first-hand. I have been investigating the Labour Together Project since 2021, setting out my findings in my book, “The Fraud.” As a result, I was one of multiple journalists targeted by Labour Together. I was reported by Labour Together to the UK’s cybersecurity agency, in an apparent attempt to catalyze criminal investigations into me and my colleagues.

I was forced to fend off repeated allegations, briefed to the media by Labour Together, that I was under investigation by the UK’s security services on the basis of ludicrous suggestions that my colleagues and I at the small anti-corruption non-profit Shadow World Investigations were patsies of Russia. The allegations are totally false, and obviously so, not least because we have faced legal and extra-legal threats for reporting on the corruption of Russian oligarchs. In 2026, the Guardian confirmed that, despite Labour Together’s best efforts, the UK’s security services declined to open an investigation into me based on tawdry and fabricated conspiracy theories.

I am still trying to find out exactly how far these damaging smears travelled. According to a senior investigative reporter at The Times, copies of a highly defamatory and genuinely insane report about me, my family, and colleagues was “disseminated widely in Westminster and Fleet Street.” Did this stop or chill mainstream reporting of my book? I’m still trying to find out.. But in a media environment already hostile to left-wing journalists, I doubt it helped.

 

When we launched Drop Site, we made a promise: expose the crimes of the powerful and hold them accountable, no matter the consequences. We knew we’d be targeted for it. We also knew reader support would be the only thing keeping us alive.

While legacy outlets stay silent or run interference, we keep publishing the facts they don’t want told and amplifying the voices they want silenced. And we’re paying the price.

Israeli officials attack us by name. Governments ban our work. The most fanatical loyalists are now calling for Drop Site’s prosecution simply because we report the facts. This is what it looks like when powerful interests try to erode free speech and due process. Corporate-backed outlets get showered with cash. An independent American news organization exposing genocide, abuse of power, and corruption gets systematically targeted for destruction.

As the attacks intensify, your support is what makes us impossible to silence.

 

https://substack.com/inbox/post/200795621

 

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

 

opportunists....

 

Fighting the opportunists who profit from genocide

DR. RAMZY BAROUD

 

It all started with a call to my family in a displacement camp in northern Gaza. Since internet lines rarely stay connected, I managed to send a message to the widow of my cousin, who was killed along with all of his sons during the Gaza genocide. I asked her a simple question: What do the people of Gaza want?

My purpose was to gather raw testimonies from her neighbors to weave into a letter to a European official whose country is active in pursuing justice for Palestinians. I chose this approach to bypass cliched political discourse and avoid the pitfall of speaking on behalf of those enduring genocide and famine. Palestinians in Gaza are entirely capable of speaking for themselves.

The responses, however, reframed my entire approach. While I am deeply tied to my community in Gaza, I had anticipated a direct focus on macro-political language — on statehood, rights and global justice. Instead, I was met with the visceral reality of immediate physical survival.

“We want a life … we want a dignified life,” she said. “A dignified life with food, water and even the ability to breathe. One feels so suffocated. We need so many things … so, so many things. We need psychological support, financial support and moral support.”

Another neighbor said: “They (Israel) fight us with everything, absolutely everything; even when we are sleeping in our beds … the mosquitoes drain us. Insects and rats are all around us, fleas, and the heat is killing us. There are no fans and there is no electricity.”

This corporate approach to ‘peacebuilding’ is not unique; it is a symptom of a broader trend exploiting Palestine

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Yes, many spoke about “karameh” (dignity), “hurriye” (freedom) and “Haq Al-Awda” (the right of return), but these broad political and social rights were almost always tied directly to the everyday struggle for education, water and basic medical care — and against rats.

The rats. This is the recurring nightmare in the minds of Gaza’s parents, who find themselves unable to protect their children even from rodents. Nearly 2 million Palestinians remain displaced in horrific conditions, trapped in barely 40 percent of an already tiny, besieged enclave.

I spent the day trying to process the pain, grief and humble expectations of these proud people.

Yet, later that evening, a seemingly separate matter came to my attention. I learned of two characters — Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian from the 1948 areas, and Maoz Inon, an Israeli — who have been touring for months, promoting what they call their “The Future is Peace” tour. These two individuals have achieved global celebrity status, sitting down with the likes of US comedian Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” and meeting Pope Francis.

To the untrained eye, they are peddling a message of peace and forgiveness, routinely staging a display where they forgive each other at the end of their talks. All of this serves as the promotional springboard for a week-long “peace tour” inside Israel they are running in October. Tickets are being sold for $4,200 per person, air tickets excluded.

The sad truth is that this corporate approach to “peacebuilding” is not unique; it is a symptom of a broader trend exploiting Palestine. Even more tragically, many individual Palestinians have capitalized on the well-intentioned, but often misunderstood, concept of “centering Palestinian voices” to accumulate personal wealth, status and prestige, while their own brethren cannot find drinkable water and teeter on the brink of starvation.

The Arab maxim, famous in Palestine for generations, has long contended that “the revolution is a tree watered by the blood of the martyrs, and its fruits are plucked by the opportunists and the cowards.”

Should mass extermination not be a moral threshold that stops opportunists from feeding their pathological greed?

The balance between genuine solidarity and outright exploitation at times risks tipping in favor of the exploiters

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Desperate for solidarity, Palestinians in Gaza continue to hope that global efforts will eventually aid their raw struggle for freedom, dignity, clean water and relief from the rats. And millions worldwide are indeed well-meaning; they care about Gaza in ways that no social media post can ever capture.

The crisis is that the balance between genuine solidarity and outright exploitation at times risks tipping in favor of the exploiters. We are witnessing the rise of a lucrative cult of personality, built on high speaker fees and business-class airline tickets, circumnavigating the globe under the guise of advocacy. There are those who have experienced a literal rags to riches transformation since Oct. 7, becoming overnight celebrities and acting like heroic figures surrounded by adoring fans, simply for doing their basic jobs or taking a moral public position.

There are organizations with massive budgets, hosting events costing up to $200,000 over a single weekend, simply to regurgitate the same old stances without strategy, slogans without action plans and claims of stupendous “victories” while Gaza’s people die of thirst and hunger.

On the other hand, Palestinian officials and those who tout the official line continue to turn their back on the reality of Gaza while reaping the immense benefits of global solidarity: the prestige of diplomatic recognition, the red carpets rolled out for bureaucrats and the standing ovations at international conferences.

The circle of exploitation grows wider, while the actual messages filtering out from the displacement camps grow more tragic by the day. “I want my family back — the family Israel took from me.” “I want to bury my children who are still under the rubble.” “I want my father released from prison. We have no one else but him.” “The rats, the rats, brother. They are eating the flesh of our children.”

As I reflected on the horror of those parents who are helpless to protect their children, the word “rats” took on a heavier meaning.

The struggle for Palestinian freedom must remain anchored in the soil of Gaza. The global solidarity movement must not be permitted to mutate into a careerist industry for self-serving individuals masquerading as saviors. This creeping opportunism must be fought with the same urgency as the literal rats of Gaza.

  • Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. His latest book, ‘Before the Flood,’ was published by Seven Stories Press. His website is ramzybaroud.net. X: @RamzyBaroud

 

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2645891

 

READ FROM TOP.

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….