By Daniel Paiz

Numbers are the way of the world these days. Data in terms of usage on an app or website, numbers that show spending habits, lives that are taken or ruined due to sickness, crime, or war. Everything can be analyzed and stories can be reported from those figures. What’s interesting is that, in some cases today, numbers seem to not matter because skewed or short-sighted viewpoints disparage what numbers show. It can be related to a vaccine, or how a conflict impacts people. If you read April 26th’s haiku, then you might know what’s next.

The Numbers…

34,000 plus.

That’s the number of Palestinians reported dead since October 7, 2023.

More than 77,000 injured Palestinians in that same time period.

And yet, Israel states it is justified in its actions,

believes it to be a victim, and is defending itself.

Strange, normally when protecting yourself from a body,

it’s because it’s reanimated in some capacity,

a zombie of some kind that just won’t quit.

But the death just won’t quit,

the addiction to killing just won’t end,

the delusion that there’s an ever-present boogeyman

ready to retaliate.

The reason why Israel is so scared of retaliation is because they fear

what they’ve done to Palestinians and to journalists (over 100 of them as well),

will be done to them.

No human should be treated in this capacity,

audacity to treat each other as such is appalling but sadly not surprising.

To humanize what one hates requires admitting one is wrong.

Power today does not allow space for mistakes,

for learning,

for growing through some kind of healing,

no.

Instead, that dread has led to destructive death.

Whoever those committing these crimes believes in,

it will be a true shock to them when they’re held accountable by their maker.

Stranger still, such protesting for recognition of all this is criminalized as well,

how dare the evil empire be held responsible for what they want to stay veiled.

750 bases in 80 countries,

remain unfazed why the US supports murderous malarky.