Israel #11

Vali Nasr @vali_nasr | 4:14 AM · Aug 3, 2024 {X}:
Professor Johns Hopkins-SAIS, Fr Sr Advisor, State Dept, books: Dispensable Nation, Shia Revival.

Important leak from the WH on the eve of potential #Iran retaliation. A signal to both Iran and Israel that U.S. doesn’t want conflict w Iran and doesn’t want to be lead into one by Israel. All boasting about the sleek assassination aside it increasingly looks like Bibi made a strategic blunder w this escalation
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Barak Ravid @BarakRavid | 1:27 PM · Aug 2, 2024 {X}:
Political reporter for Axios covering foreign policy & the 2024 election. CNN analyst. Washington correspondent for Walla. Author of Trump's Peace.

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇱President Biden privately demanded in a "tough" call Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stop escalating tensions in the region & move immediately toward a Gaza hostage & ceasefire deal, U.S. officials told me. My story on @axios*

Biden also warned Netanyahu that if he escalates again, he shouldn't count on the U.S. to bail him out, the U.S. official added
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Biden warns Netanyahu against escalation as risk of regional war grows
Barak Ravid | Aug 2, 2024
https://www.axios.com/2024/08/02/biden-netanyahu-call-israel-iran-hezbollah
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Still,

US sends more fighter jets and ships to Middle East ahead of possible Iranian retaliation
Luis Martinez and Matt Seyler | August 2, 2024

The Pentagon will send an additional fighter squadron and more warships to the Middle East to help defend Israel should Iran react militarily to this week's assassination of Hamas' top political leader in Tehran that Iran has blamed on Israel.

The United States will also maintain an aircraft carrier presence in the Middle East...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-sends-fighter-jets-ships-middle-east-ahead/st...

Interesting insight into difficulties of diplomacy...

Killing of Hamas Leader Fuels More Tension Between Biden and Netanyahu
Peter Baker | August 4, 2024
https://www.yahoo.com/news/killing-hamas-leader-fuels-more-144237474.html

>2 margd: I don't think there's any question that Netanyahu and Israel's right wingers would like to drag us into a regional war centering on Iran. The question is whether Mr. Biden allows that to happen and sending a Naval task force into the region isn't what I'd call a great sign. The kindest way to see this is Benjamin has played Joseph for a fool the last 10 months. Has taken advantage of his infirmity. If Joseph is in this with a clear mind it's much much worse than that. We really need to cut bait with Israel altogether and put them on the shit list. Israel is not a friend. Friends don't provoke regional wars for you to fight for them. They don't sully your reputation with the rest of the world looking at us now as genocide enablers. They don't stab you and others in the back constantly then play like they are the victim. These people running their government are shitbirds. Going to drop a bomb?---better to drop it on the Knesset.

Israel minister condemned for saying starvation of millions in Gaza might be ‘justified and moral’ (Guardian)

The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza. The comments from Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, in which he said “no one in the world will allow us to starve two million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages”, sparked international outrage. In his speech this week, he went on to say that Israel was “bringing in humanitarian aid because we have no choice. We are in a situation that requires international legitimacy to conduct this war.” The EU said the deliberate starvation of civilians was a “war crime” and that it expected the Israeli government to “unequivocally distance itself” from the words of the far-right minister...

>4 John5918: Those condemnations are like water off a ducks back. Smotrich doesn't care and neither would Ben Gvir or even Netanyahu. But the first two are settlers and even arrest warrants by outside courts mean practically nothing to them. They're not worried about traveling......only stealing more land in the West Bank and Gaza.

Meanwhile Blinken says that Sinwar has the power to make a ceasefire happen. Like it's all up to him. Blinken really is a POS. Netanyahu is really the guy who can make it happen. He just doesn't want to.....so our State Dept. hack puts all the onus on the other side. Just another way to show the United States is all in on its support for Israel's genocide.

Cori Bush Loses Missouri Primary After Massive AIPAC Bid to Defeat Her
Bush is the second “Squad” member ousted this election cycle.
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling / August 6, 2024

...The race was tight, but {St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell} held a small but steady margin over Bush as the votes were counted.

... The fundraising arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC—the United Democracy Project PAC—spent more than $7 million on Bell’s campaign to undermine the pro-Palestine Bush’s influence in D.C.

...her opponent had aggressively campaigned alongside Jewish advocacy groups in the St. Louis area. That could have helped him cinch the district’s 2.8 percent Jewish population—a demographic that Jewish Democratic Council of America chief of staff Sam Crystal told ABC News could “make the difference” in a close race.

...Ultimately, there were few policy differences between Bush and Bell. Instead, the election boiled down to foreign policy stances and political rhetoric ... a choice between a candidate who would vote alongside the Democratic establishment or one who would continue to challenge it...

https://newrepublic.com/post/184635/trump-campaign-desperate-avoid-kamala-debate...

>6 margd: I view the Bush loss as an important opportunity for supporters of the Palestinian people in Israel to reconsider their approach. If they want to get results, losing elections doesn't help, and as long as they cling to the less-popular of the two options offered by the mainstream world - which sees this, wrongly, as a clash between "Israel" and "Palestine" - losing elections is all that's going to happen here. That's not doing any good for the Palestinians, and it's not helping progressives to make a difference.

Maybe it's time to stop actively seeking to alienate potential allies, and instead try building coalitions? I know it's crazy, but it just might work....

Don’t Believe the Rampant Disinformation Over Israel’s Escalation in Lebanon (truthout)

>8 John5918: Very good article. Basically the Biden Administration in its hypocrisy jumping through hoops to show support for the genocidal and land grabbing proto fascist Israeli government. Also piggy backing off the previous Trump administration's granting stolen land to an occupying force. Essentially there is no diplomatic difference between the two when it comes to supporting a murderous regime.

Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school used as a shelter kills at least 80, Palestinian officials say
WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY | August 10, 2024

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-10-august-2024-f33867d7...

>10 margd: The IDF has been targeting schools lately always with the same story that they're Hamas operations command centers. The first article I read on yesterday's was over 90 and the next over 100. It's hard to say because as it's been described there were bodies and body parts strewn all over afterwards. People couldn't identify family members or friends that they knew were inside but were in so many pieces. It makes it almost impossible to count. The Israelis dispute the numbers but to the Israelis Palestinians aren't really people anyway. I think some Americans feel that way too.

>11 lriley: Despicable, just despicable.

Kamala Harris says 'too many' civilian deaths in Gaza (BBC)

Too many? So what would be the right amount? 1? 100? 1,000? 10,000? Or zero?

>13 John5918: That's been a line from Biden and the US State Dept. from the beginning. In daily briefings the likes of Miller, Kirby and Jean Pierre often throw out the same line. Actually it seems pretty much every briefing for the last 9 months or so.

The Israeli lobbyists have their hooks deep into both parties or we could also just say that so many of our politicians are addicted to the campaign cash they get or so much in fear that they'll be primaried like the two justice democrats Bowman and Bush were this year. Some weeks ago the republican congressman Massie told Tucker Carlson (who feigned shock) that maybe only a dozen republican congresspeople haven't been on a free trip to Israel yet and suggested for at least most of that dozen it's because they're only in their first term and haven't had a chance yet. Again he told Carlson he was the only Republican in the House and the Senate he knew of who didn't have an AIPAC handler. After that tell all AIPAC went to lengths spending a lot of money to primary him.

Biden was and is firmly in the Israelis corner. For Harris if she really tries to put a halt to arms sales she'll be bucking the vast majority of her own party and she might end up with a revolt. There is a lot we don't know about her anyway but if the great majority of her party has links to the Israeli lobbying umbrella and that's a known we can assume she has ties too. So she's walking a tightrope as far as the Israel/Palestine issue and my guess is she's not going to lay out her cards unless she feels forced to and erasing Trump's lead and gaining more and more momentum as she has.....strategically speaking I don't think she will. She'll leave people guessing her intentions.....maybe throw out some suggestion that things are going to change when she becomes POTUS.....and things are going to change whatever she does anyway as we're moving more and more towards a regional war and potential US military involvement. It's something that Netanyahu has wanted for a long long time. My guess is the United States will not put troops on the ground but air and naval there's a pretty decent chance. In the meanwhile Israel is going to continue to airstrike civilians in Gaza and claim Hamas fighters. They are going to continue to violently drive Palestinians off their land in the West Bank. These atrocities aren't going to end anytime soon and our State Dept. hacks and Biden dept. officials will continue to wash their hands in public.

Somewhere I read that (all?) higher ed buildings in Gaza were destroyed. Now K-12? Isn't that considered genocide -- destroying a culture and its future?

Israel has bombed eight schools in Gaza in just 10 days (0:36)
11 Aug 202411 Aug 2024

Israel’s strike on a school in Gaza City which killed more than 100 forcibly displaced Palestinians was the eighth time that Israel has attacked a school in August alone...

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/8/11/israel-has-bombed-eight-sch...

>15 margd: Well, yes. Yes, it is.

ETA: Or, y'know, that's blood libel.

https://x.com/MarkAmesExiled/status/1822340910085980593
Mark Ames
@MarkAmesExiled
So many david irvings coming out of the woodworks for the Gaza genocide. The main thing isn’t their existence, but how mainstream and well-paid our genocide-deniers are, because they’re useful to the Empire.
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John Podhoretz
@jpodhoretz
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Aug 10
The “school” hit in Gaza is a) not in session; b) was hit at 5 am; c) there is no schooling in Gaza; d) was a Hamas command center. Everything you’re hearing is a blood libel.
1:35 PM · Aug 10, 2024
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15.4K Views

The long read
As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel
This summer, one of my lectures was protested by far-right students. Their rhetoric brought to mind some of the darkest moments of 20th-century history – and overlapped with mainstream Israeli views to a shocking degree

By Omer Bartov

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer...

....As it happens, I have a personal connection to the Be’eri kibbutz. It is where my daughter-in-law grew up, and my trip to Israel in June was primarily to visit the twins – my grandchildren – she had brought into the world in January 2024. The kibbutz, though, had been abandoned. My son, daughter-in-law and their children had moved into a nearby vacant apartment with a family of survivors – close relatives, whose father is still being held hostage – making for an unimaginable combination of new life and inconsolable sorrow in one home.

As well as seeing family, I had also come to Israel to meet friends. I hoped to make sense of what had happened in the country since the war began. The aborted lecture in BGU was not on the top of my agenda. But once I arrived at the lecture hall on that mid-June day, I quickly understood that this explosive situation could also provide some clues to understanding the mentality of a younger generation of students and soldiers.

After we sat down and began to talk, it became clear to me that the students wanted to be heard, and that no one, perhaps even their own professors and university administrators, was interested in listening. My presence, and their vague knowledge of my criticism of the war, triggered in them a need to explain to me, but perhaps also to themselves, what they had been engaged in as soldiers and as citizens.

One young woman, recently returned from long military service in Gaza, leapt on the stage and spoke forcefully about the friends she had lost, the evil nature of Hamas, and the fact that she and her comrades were sacrificing themselves to ensure the country’s future safety. Deeply distraught, she began crying halfway through her speech and stepped down. A young man, collected and articulate, rejected my suggestion that criticism of Israeli policies was not necessarily motivated by antisemitism. He then launched on a brief survey of the history of Zionism as a response to antisemitism and as a political path that no gentiles had a right to deny. While they were upset by my views and agitated by their own recent experiences in Gaza, the opinions expressed by the students were in no way exceptional. They reflected much greater swaths of public opinion in Israel.

Knowing that I had previously warned of genocide, the students were especially keen to show me that they were humane, that they were not murderers. They had no doubt that the IDF was, in fact, the most moral army in the world. But they were also convinced that any damage done to the people and buildings in Gaza was totally justified, that it was all the fault of Hamas using them as human shields.

They showed me photos on their phones to prove that they had behaved admirably toward children, denied that there was any hunger in Gaza, insisted that the systematic destruction of schools, universities, hospitals, public buildings, residences and infrastructure was necessary and justifiable. They viewed any criticism of Israeli policies by other countries and the United Nations as simply antisemitic.

Unlike the majority of Israelis, these young people had seen the destruction of Gaza with their own eyes. It seemed to me that they had not only internalised a particular view that has become commonplace in Israel – namely, that the destruction of Gaza as such was a legitimate response to 7 October – but had also developed a way of thinking that I had observed many years ago when studying the conduct, worldview and self-perception of German army soldiers in the second world war. Having internalised certain views of the enemy – the Bolsheviks as Untermenschen; Hamas as human animals – and of the wider population as less than human and undeserving of rights, soldiers observing or perpetrating atrocities tend to ascribe them not to their own military, or to themselves, but to the enemy.

Thousands of children were killed? It’s the enemy’s fault. Our own children were killed? That is certainly the enemy’s fault. If Hamas carry out a massacre in a kibbutz, they are Nazis. If we drop 2,000-pound bombs on refugee shelters and kill hundreds of civilians, it’s Hamas’s fault for hiding close to these shelters. After what they did to us, we have no choice but to root them out. After what we did to them, we can only imagine what they would do to us if we don’t destroy them. We simply have no choice.

In mid-July 1941, just weeks after Germany launched what Hitler had proclaimed to be a “war of annihilation” against the Soviet Union, a German noncommissioned officer wrote home from the eastern front:

The German people owe a great debt to our Führer, for had these beasts, who are our enemies here, come to Germany, such murders would have taken place that the world has never seen before … What we have seen … borders on the unbelievable … And when one reads Der Stürmer a Nazi newspaper and looks at the pictures, that is only a weak illustration of what we see here and the crimes committed here by the Jews.

An army propaganda leaflet issued in June 1941 paints a similarly nightmarish picture of Red Army political officers, which many soldiers soon perceived as a reflection of reality:

Anyone who has ever looked at the face of a Red commissar knows what the Bolsheviks are like. Here there is no need for theoretical expressions. We would insult the animals if we described these mostly Jewish men as beasts. They are the embodiment of the satanic and insane hatred against the whole of noble humanity … (They) would have brought an end to all meaningful life, had this eruption not been dammed at the last moment.

Two days after the Hamas attack, defence minister Yoav Gallant declared, “We are fighting human animals, and we must act accordingly,” later adding that Israel would “break apart one neighbourhood after another in Gaza”. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett confirmed: “We are fighting Nazis.” Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu exhorted Israelis to “remember what Amalek has done to you”, alluding to the biblical call to exterminate Amalek’s “men and women, children and infants”. In a radio interview, he said about Hamas: “I don’t call them human animals because that would be insulting to animals.” Deputy Knesset speaker Nissim Vaturi wrote on X that Israel’s goal should be “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth”. On Israeli TV he stated, “There are no uninvolved people … we must go in there and kill, kill, kill. We must kill them before they kill us.” Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich stressed in a speech, “The work must be completed … Total destruction. ‘Blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’” Avi Dichter, agriculture minister and former head of the Shin Bet intelligence service, spoke about “rolling out the Gaza Nakba”. One Israeli 95-year-old military veteran, whose motivational speech to IDF troops preparing for the invasion of Gaza exhorted them to “wipe out their memory, their families, mothers and children”, was given a certificate of honour by Israeli president Herzog for “providing a wonderful example to generations of soldiers”. No wonder that there have been innumerable social media posts by IDF troops in Gaza calling to “kill the Arabs”, “burn their mothers” and “flatten” Gaza. There has been no known disciplinary action by their commanders.

This is the logic of endless violence, a logic that allows one to destroy entire populations and to feel totally justified in doing so. It is a logic of victimhood – we must kill them before they kill us, as they did before – and nothing empowers violence more than a righteous sense of victimhood. Look at what happened to us in 1918, German soldiers said in 1942, recalling the propagandistic “stab-in-the-back” myth, which attributed Germany’s catastrophic defeat in the first world war to Jewish and communist treason. Look at what happened to us in the Holocaust, when we trusted that others would come to our rescue, IDF troops say in 2024, thereby giving themselves licence for indiscriminate destruction based on a false analogy between Hamas and the Nazis. The young men and women I spoke with that day were filled with rage, not so much against me – they calmed down a bit when I mentioned my own military service – but because, I think, they felt betrayed by everyone around them. Betrayed by the media, which they perceived as too critical, by senior commanders who they thought were too lenient toward Palestinians, by politicians who had failed to prevent the 7 October fiasco, by the IDF’s inability to achieve “total victory”, by intellectuals and leftists unfairly criticising them, by the US government for not delivering sufficient munitions fast enough, and by all those hypocritical European politicians and antisemitic students protesting against their actions in Gaza. They seemed fearful and insecure and confused, and some were likely also suffering from PTSD.

I told them the story of how, in 1930, the German student union was democratically taken over by the Nazis. The students of that time felt betrayed by the loss of the first world war, the loss of opportunity because of the economic crisis, and the loss of land and prestige in the wake of the humiliating peace treaty of Versailles. They wanted to make Germany great again, and Hitler seemed able to fulfil that promise. Germany’s internal enemies were put away, its economy flourished, other nations feared it again, and then it went to war, conquered Europe and murdered millions of people. Finally, the country was utterly destroyed. I wondered aloud whether perhaps the few German students who survived those 15 years regretted their decision in 1930 to support nazism. But I do not think the young men and women at BGU understood the implications of what I had told them.

The students were frightening and frightened at the same time, and their fear made them all the more aggressive. This level of menace, as well as a degree of overlap in opinion, seemed to have generated fear and obsequiousness in their superiors, professors and administrators, who demonstrated great reluctance to discipline them in any way. At the same time, a host of media pundits and politicians have been cheering on these angels of destruction, calling them heroes just a moment before putting them in the ground and turning their backs on their grief-stricken families. The fallen soldiers died for a good cause, the families are told. But no one takes the time to articulate what that cause actually is beyond sheer survival through ever more violence.

And so, I also felt sorry for these students, who were so unaware of how they had been manipulated. But I left that meeting filled with trepidation and foreboding.

....

...(A)nother part of my apprehension had to do with the fact that my view of what was happening in Gaza had shifted. On 10 November 2023, I wrote in the New York Times: “As a historian of genocide, I believe that there is no proof that genocide is now taking place in Gaza, although it is very likely that war crimes, and even crimes against humanity, are happening. … We know from history that it is crucial to warn of the potential for genocide before it occurs, rather than belatedly condemn it after it has taken place. I think we still have that time.”

I no longer believe that. By the time I travelled to Israel, I had become convinced that at least since the attack by the IDF on Rafah on 6 May 2024, it was no longer possible to deny that Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions. It was not just that this attack against the last concentration of Gazans – most of them displaced already several times by the IDF, which now once again pushed them to a so-called safe zone – demonstrated a total disregard of any humanitarian standards. It also clearly indicated that the ultimate goal of this entire undertaking from the very beginning had been to make the entire Gaza Strip uninhabitable, and to debilitate its population to such a degree that it would either die out or seek all possible options to flee the territory. In other words, the rhetoric spouted by Israeli leaders since 7 October was now being translated into reality – namely, as the 1948 UN Genocide Convention puts it, that Israel was acting “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part”, the Palestinian population in Gaza, “as such, by killing, causing serious harm, or inflicting conditions of life meant to bring about the group’s destruction”.

These were issues that I could only discuss with a very small handful of activists, scholars, experts in international law and, not surprisingly, Palestinian citizens of Israel. Beyond this limited circle, such statements on the illegality of Israeli actions in Gaza are anathema in Israel. Even the vast majority of protesters against the government, those calling for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, will not countenance them.
...

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Israel Seeks Palestine's "ERASURE": UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese
Owen Jones

This is a devastating interview with Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by7g67r-4iE

On US peace negotiations between Israel and Gaza: “The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the PM of Israel urging him not to cut a deal right now because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign.”

0:20 Judy Woodruff (https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1825934511038939515)

- Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski | 12:34 PM · Aug 20, 2024

Leigh Phillips @Leigh_Phillips | 6:51 PM · Aug 18, 2024 {X}:
Journalist, geologist & science writer (incl. Nature, New Scientist, Guardian, Telegraph). Co-author People’s Republic of Walmart. Author of Austerity Ecology. {BC}

Staggering piece of reportage, data viz & photography from a team at Bloomberg on the ruin that is Gaza. 42 million tonnes of rubble.

As an historian specializing in *post-WW2 reconstruction* puts it: “Gaza is something never seen before in the history of urbanism.”

Map, How much debris covers the Gaza Strip (https://x.com/Leigh_Phillips/status/1825304637207113870/photo/1)
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Gaza Reduced to 42 Million Tonnes of Rubble. What Will It Take to Rebuild?
Fadwa Hodali, Fares Akram, Jason Kao, Jennah Haque, Jeremy C. F. Lin; Photography by Ahmad Salem Equality | August 15, 2024

As US-backed ceasefire talks restart in Doha, calls to reconstruct the Strip are becoming louder...

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-gaza-who-will-pay-to-rebuild/

>18 margd: contd.

Trump’s Latest Scheme to Beat Harris May Have Crossed Legal Lines
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling | August 20, 2024

Donald Trump is reportedly advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which would be a violation of the Logan Act* ...

https://newrepublic.com/post/185076/donald-trump-scheme-beat-kamala-harris-benja...

* The Logan Act is a United States federal law that criminalizes the negotiation of a dispute between the United States and a foreign government by an unauthorized American citizen. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government's position. (Wikipedia)

>20 margd: Sounds a bit like Kissinger as negotiator for the Johnson administration to end Vietnam War going behind Johnson's back to work with Nixon and his campaign people to derail the talks which led to many more American Servicemen killed and injured as well as multiple upon multiple times that of Vietnamese civilians.

>19 margd: Months of seeing such scenes of destroyed infrastructure. I don't know if most Americans have bothered to look. Maybe there are some that don't find such scenes disturbing. There will be bodies buried under all this....that have been buried sometimes for months. The estimate is that 10% of the bombs dropped are unexploded.....some of that unexploded ordinance has been repurposed by the Palestinian resistance. One thing for sure is that the Israeli govt. and its people are not going to pay for the cleanup or the rebuilding. They pretty much have wrecked their own economy doing all that damage. Another thing that is pretty clear is that it will take a long long time to rebuild.

Might mention that the peace deal that is being touted now is only the Israelis apparently having accepted a temporary ceasefire.....doesn't allow refugees to return north and allows the Israelis to militarily control the entire Strip via the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors or basically it's everything Netanyahu's govt. wants and a total poison pill for the Palestinians. It's like when we say we're negotiating we're only talking to the Israelis and finding out what they want. I would add that from the perspective of US politics though the idea is to give the Biden administration and the Israelis what they think of as the moral high ground. From the perspective of the Israelis they can go back on the attack on the least pretext pretty much whenever they want and if they were to get this deal they'd even get back their surviving hostages.

Senator / Reverend Warnock at DNC (1:00)
https://x.com/DrEricDing/status/1825745881011835010

Israel feared legal trouble over US advocacy efforts, leaked files suggest
Lee Fang and Jack Poulson | Sat 17 Aug 2024

Exclusive: officials concerned by foreign agent law proposed creation of American nonprofit to avoid scrutiny

A legal strategy memo dated July 2018 noted that compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) would damage the reputation of several American groups that receive funding and direction from Israel, and force them to meet onerous transparency requirements. A separate memo noted that donors would not want to fund groups registered under Fara.

Fara requires people working on behalf of a foreign government to register as foreign agents with the US justice department...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/17/israel-foreign-agent-law-l...

Bartov on with Owen Jones today.

Israeli Holocaust Scholar: Why Gaza Is Genocide - w/. Prof. Omer Bartov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDePmAFle4A

Amb. Chas. Freeman, as usual, keeping me sane.
AMB Charles Freeman : Will Zionists Destroy Israel?
https://www.youtube.com/live/NIuKxP7GTCk?si=-Kzt9iVV7cI7foxI&t=816

A good update on Ukraine in the first half as well.

Some missing pieces. I'm afraid they're deeply disturbing.
1.
The 1948 Irgun re-born? (08/05/2024) Alastair Crooke
https://www.eurasiareview.com/06082024-the-1948-irgun-re-born-oped/

... What then is this “truth” that the West ignores and silences reality, whilst amplifying its narrative frauds? It is that the Israel which they presume to understand is now something very different. And that it has an epistemology at odds with mechanistic rationalism.

An eschatological Right-wing cult now holds the majority in cabinet – and wields a vigilante militia ready to attack the military establishment, and the Israeli state. No one was arrested for the attack and take-over of the two bases. They do not dare.

Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, former Chief of Staff of the IDF, who also served as Israel’s Defence Minister, had this to say in a video interview on the forces taking over in Israel:

When you talk about Smotrich and Ben Gvir: They have a Rabbi. His name is Dov Lior. He is the Rabbi of the Jewish Underground, who intended to blow up the Dome of the Rock – and before that the buses in Jerusalem. Why? In order to hurry up the ‘Last War.’ Do you (not) hear them talking in terms of the Last War; or of Smotrich’s concept of ‘subjugation’? Read the article he published in Shiloh in 2017. First of all, this concept rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse.

My hair stands on end when I say that – as he said it. I learned and grew up in the house of Holocaust survivors and ‘never again.’ It is Mein Kampf in reverse: Jewish supremacy: and therefore (Smotrich) says: ‘My wife won’t go into a room with an Arab.’ It is anchored in ideology. And then actually what he aspires to – as soon as possible – is to go to a big war. A war of Gog and Magog. How do you start the flames? A massacre like the (1994) Cave of the Patriarchs? Baruch Goldstein is a student of this Rabbi. Ben Gvir has hung up Goldstein’s picture (in his house).

This is what goes into the decision-making process in the Israeli government.

Rabbi Dov Lior has been described by Netanyahu as the “élite unit that leads Israel,” because of his influence and control over the settler forces. The 1948 Irgun, drawing heavily on the Mizrahim, is being reborn?

Isn’t it time that the western ruling structures raised their eyes from their reverie, and read the runes that manifest all around them? Some serious players don’t think as you westerners do; they seek Gog and Magog (the prophecy that “the children of Israel” will be victorious in the battle of Armageddon). That is what you risk.

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2.
Revisionist Zionists Dare US To Pull Plug On Their Nakba Agenda – OpEd (08/20/2024) Alastair Crooke
https://www.eurasiareview.com/20082024-revisionist-zionists-dare-us-to-pull-plug...

Israelis have been deeply divided these last years, unable to coalesce around a government. After five general elections, they decided to dismiss the Lapid/Gantz team and to put a new coalition – formed around Netanyahu and small Jewish supremacist parties – into power.

However, soon after the formation of the new government, there occurred an severe outbreak of ‘buyers’ remorse’, with a substantial segment of Israelis seemingly ready to contemplate almost anything to oust their government.

Demonstrations have occurred regularly throughout Israel to prevent the country from becoming – in the words of one former Mossad director, “a racist and violent state that cannot survive”.

But it is probably already too late.

Most people outside Israel tend to lump together different, and often opposing views in Israel, solely through the reductive perspective of seeing all these diverse actors as being Jews and Zionists of slightly differing hues.

They couldn’t be more wrong. There is an existential divide; there are diverse forms of Zionism: The divisions go to the very meaning of what it means to be a Jew. Benjamin Netanyahu is a ‘revisionist Zionist’ i.e. a follower of Vladimir Jabotinsky (for whom his father Benzion Netanyahu served as private secretary): ‘Revisionist Zionism’ is the polar opposite to the cultural Zionism of the World Jewish Congress.
...
At first, Washington reacted with unreflective and immediate support for Israel, vetoing various UNSC ceasefire resolutions and fully provisioning Israel’s military needs for the destruction of the Palestinian enclave in Gaza. It was unthinkable in the U.S.’ Establishment eyes, to do anything other than support Israel. Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME) is enshrined as being one of the foundational structures supporting the brittle branch on which U.S. hegemony rests.

Ordinary Americans (and some in the Administration) however, were watching the horrors of genocide ‘live’ on their cell phones. The Democratic Party started to fracture badly. The ‘power-brokers’ in the backroom began to put pressure on the Israeli war cabinet to negotiate the release of the hostages and conclude a ceasefire in Gaza – hoping for a return to the status quo ante.

But Netanyahu’s government – in various tautological ways – said ‘no’, unashamedly playing on the 7 October trauma of its citizens, to assert the need to destroy Hamas.

Washington somewhat belatedly came to understand that 7 October was now the pretext for Jabotinsky’s followers to do what they had always wanted to do: To expel the Palestinians from Palestine.

The Israeli message was perfectly ‘received and understood’ by Washington’s ruling strata: The Revisionist Zionists (who represent about 2 million Israelis) intended cynically to impose their will on the Anglo-Saxons; to threaten them with igniting war with the world, in which the U.S. would ‘burn’: They would not hesitate to plunge the U.S. into a wide regional war, should the White House try to undercut the neo-Nakba project.

In spite of the absolute support Israel has across Washington, it seems that the ruling class decided that the ‘Revisionist stratagem’ ultimatum could not be tolerated. A crucial U.S. election was in train. U.S. soft power around the World was collapsing. Anyone around the globe watching events unfold understood that killing 40,000+ innocent people had nothing to do with eliminating Hamas.
...
Washington tries to Push Back, but finds itself Check-Mated
The only alternative for the U.S. would be to encourage a military coup in Tel Aviv. Already, some senior officers and non-commissioned Israeli officers have come together to suggest this. In March 2024, General Benny Gantz was invited to Washington (against the wishes of the PM). He did not, however, accept the invitation to overthrow the Prime Minister. He went to make sure that he could still save Israel, and that his allies in the U.S. would not turn against the Israeli military cadre.

This may seem odd. But the reality is that the IDF feels undermined, even betrayed. The agreement struck at the outset of the government between Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir (of Otzma Yehudit) – was the outlier to this anxiety.

The governmental accord provided for Ben-Gvir to head an autonomous armed force in the West Bank. He was given charge not only of the national police, but also the border police, which until then, had been the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence.

The accord also provided for the creation of a large-scale National Guard and a reinforced presence of reserve troops within the border police.

Ben-Gvir is a Kahanist, meaning a disciple of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who demands the expulsion of Palestinian Arab citizens from Israel and the Occupied Territories and the establishment of a theocracy, and he makes little secret of wanting to use the border police to expel the Palestinian populations, be they Muslim or Christian.

Ben Gvir’s official forces represent, as Benny Gantz noted, a ‘private army’. But that is the half of it – for he separately holds the allegiance of hundreds of thousand West Bank settler-vigilantes over whom the radical Rabbi, Dov Lior and his coterie of radical Jabotinsky Rabbi influencers, have control.

The regular army fears these vigilantes – as we saw at Sde Teiman military base – when Ben Gvir’s militia vigilantes stormed the base, to protect soldiers accused of raping Palestinian prisoners.

The anxiety of the Israeli military echelon at the reality of this ‘Jabotinsky army’ is evidenced by former PM Ehud Barak’s warning (08/14/2024) that:

“Under cover of the war, a governmental and constitutional putsch is now taking place in Israel without a shot being fired. If this putsch isn’t stopped, it will turn Israel into a de facto dictatorship within weeks. Netanyahu and his government are assassinating democracy … The only way to prevent a dictatorship at such a late stage is by shutting down the country through large-scale, nonviolent civil disobedience, 24/7, until this government falls … Israel has never faced such a serious and immediate internal threat to its existence and future as a free society”.

The IDF élite want a ceasefire/hostage deal, primarily to ‘stop Ben-Gvir’ – not because it resolves Israel’s Palestinian issue. It doesn’t.

But Netanyahu’s ultimatum is that if the Haniyeh assassination isn’t sufficient to plunge the U.S. into the Big War that will give him (Netanyahu) the Great Victory, he can always trigger a bigger provocation: Ben Gvir also controls the Temple Mount security – there is always the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa escalatory ladder available for climbing (through threatening the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque).

America is trapped. The power-brokers are unhappy, but impotent.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.
cf. the recent letter of Ronen Bar (head of Shin Bet)
https://x.com/academic_la/status/1826688451548532832
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim
@academic_la

Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet sent the most dire letter I have seen, warning against the emerging threat of settler terrorism. He believes it is supported by many in the system and is going to grow into a movement that will threaten the well-being of Israel. Here are the most important portions of the letter, as reported by Guy Peleg of Channel 12:

"I am writing you this letter in pain. In deep fear. As a Jew, as an Israeli, and as a security official, I learned about the increasing phenomenon of Jewish terrorism by the hilltop youth. The hilltop youth phenomenon has long created a significant amount of terrorism towards Palestinians.

With the deterioration of the security situation, and the inability of the police to enforce the law, and perhaps hidden encouragement from them, the phenomenon is changing and becoming more significant. From the work of individuals, it is now taken up by hundreds. There is no longer a fear of executive detention due to the good conditions they receive there.

Along with the money they receive when freed and the praise they receive from members of Knesset, alongside the delegitimization of security services. It has moved from secretive and narrow activity to open and large-scale organization. Sometimes, it is due to the use of weapons provided by the state. From avoiding the security forces to attacking them. From disconnecting from the establishment to receiving support from parts of the establishment.

The answer is not the Shin Bet. The Shin Bet is a band-aid designed to deal with a small group of extremists. It cannot deal with the root of the problem. What is needed is a coalition of navigators, including ministers, government departments, rabbis, and regional leaders. Without that, it might makes right.

The leaders of this movement attempted to bring the system to a total loss of control. We are on the verge fo a process that will change our reality. The damage to Israel and to most of the settlers is beyond description:

1. Global delegitimization even among our closest friends.
2. Significant IDF forces are needed, and they are already struggling to meet operational needs.
3. Revenge attacks that will launch another front in the already existing multi-front war.
4. The entry of new elements in the terror cycle that were out of it.
5. A slippery slope towards lawlessness.
6. Difficulty in creating regional alliances against the Shi'ite axis.
7. Above all, it is a stain on Judaism and all of us.

Continuing in this direction will lead to a great amount of bloodshed and change the face of Israel into something unrecognizable."

The bottom line is that too many elements in Israeli society support Jewish terrorism. Meanwhile, the outcomes it leads to could undermine the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. This is a crisis that must be addressed.

>27 davidgn: Growing up in upstate NY in the 60's, 70's and 80's we use to get WPIX channel 6--the Yankees and Phil Rizzuto, WOR channel 7--the Mets and Ralph Kiner---also the Rangers and Knicks but also those channels gave us the New York City news and back then there was this guy Meir Kahane a Brooklyn Jewish guy who founded the Jewish Defense League (which has buddied up these days with right wing extremists in England to form the English Defense League) who was constantly in the news. The JDL were behind a lot of violence...beating up people, some bombings, assassinations or attempts anyway and eventually he pretty much got kicked out of the United States and went to Israel. Eventually Kahane was assassinated himself but his influence lives on. Speaking of Baruch Goldstein---it's not just Dov Lior was an influence for him but Kahane too and there are a lot of Israelis who call themselves Kahanists and for whom Goldstein is a hero and Goldstein killed 29 people by assault weapon in that mosque that day.

What Mehdi Hasan's been up to since MSNBC no longer required his services: a little platform called Zeteo. They've got a doc out.
https://zeteo.com/p/israel-documentary-social-media

'Israel's Reel Extremism' | Mehdi Hasan | TMR (The Majority Report with Sam Seder)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw0FNrxHi9o

“Let them expose themselves,” experts on Israel/Palestine discuss ‘Israel’s Reel Extremism’ film (Zeteo, w/ Amira Hass, Simone Zimmerman, Najla Said)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9E692W6OAg

James O'Brien in this interview with a doctor who's done two stints already in Gaza since Oct. 7. Speaking of Israel not allowing outside journalists in and so controlling the narrative O'Brien remarks that outside doctors/nurses etc. have been the only real independent observers of what has been going on there and this doctor's story is like other doctor/nurses stories I've seen on various sites like Democracy Now, Novara etc. in horrifically telling us about the destruction of the entirety of Gaza's health care system and what it means.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZyJLqFnM6E

Just as a by the by the Irish through the United Nations already have peacekeeping troops in Lebanon and since at least 2021. Possibility of them getting caught in a crossfire or even the Beirut airport being taken out leaving them with finding some other way out if they decide to leave. A regional war could pull in more than just the United States siding with Israel......it could strain a lot of relationships.

As Polio Vaccines Arrive in Gaza, Distributing Them Is the Next Challenge
Hiba Yazbek | Aug. 26, 2024

UNICEF is pushing for a pause in the fighting to allow health workers to get two doses to every child, after Gaza recorded its first polio case in 25 years.

Polio vaccines arrived in Gaza ... more than 640,000 Palestinian children ... UNICEF ... World Health Organization, the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, known as UNRWA, and other groups.

The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed ... preparations to launch the vaccination campaign for children under 10 were underway ... warned that inoculations alone could not be effective, amid a lack of clean water and personal hygiene supplies, and issues with sewage and waste collection in overcrowded areas where displaced families were sheltering. It said medical teams would need to spread out across the territory, “which requires an urgent cease-fire.”...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/world/middleeast/gaza-polio-vaccine.html

Anyway the reason I brought up the Irish this morning is I saw a YouTube video on my front page where an Irish journalist was asking an Irish minister about Irish troops in Lebanon. Looking on Wikipedia just now----as of July 1 2024 49 countries have troops in Lebanon as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon or (UNIFIL). This military force amounts to 10,031 troops. The top 10 are Indonesia 1232, Italy 1043, India 901, Ghana 874, Nepal 874, Malaysia 833, Spain 677, France 677, China 418 and Ireland 346. South Korea, Poland and Finland have contributed 200+ and Serbia, Cambodia, Austria, Greece, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Germany 100+ and Turkey 100 and then there's a bunch of others.

Israel since Oct. 7 has shown little regard for the United Nations or its operations and agencies.

>33 lriley:

Not just since 7th October. Israel has been ignoring UN resolutions for decades.

>34 John5918: That's true. I was thinking particularly of the recent tribulations of UNWRA but it's been going that way a long time.

I think also I should have added that the entire point of UN peacekeeping forces being anywhere in the world is to act as a buffer to keep warring parties apart and that very often in the past that has ended in dead/wounded UN peacekeepers. Just a few Indonesian, Italian or Ghanian peacekeeper (since those are the three highest contributors here; sorry I bypassed India they're the third highest) casualties will not be taken well by their respective populations and their perceptions of the primary guilty parties of such. Perceptions around the world of Israel and the United States already seem at an all time low. That's to be expected when you ignore UN resolutions in general and decisions by the world courts.

Anyway the idea of some Israeli politicos to expand their war elsewhere is a terrible idea for pretty much everyone but I think particularly for themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZzPA2OfUKc

short clip from Al Jazeera via the Electronic Intifada about debunked lies that are still be told by American officials to the American public even to this day. One can rightly call it not only lies but propaganda.

>98 John5918: davidgn asks in another thread

What I don't understand (among many other things) about your position is what makes you view the dynamic here as "symbiotic." That implies positive or desired outcomes for both parties, does it not?

A reasonable question. A symbiotic relationship is an uncoordinated but stable mutually relationship of mutual benefit between two entities, each acting essentially in their own interests. This is exactly what we see between Hamas (specifically, the leadership of Hamas) and the Netanyahu government, as I described in the thread from which you asked that this conversation be redirected.

Obviously, the outcomes are far from positive for the people of Israel, be they "Israeli" (the fact that only some of the people living in the state of Israel are referred to as Israeli is yet more evidence that Israel is a thoroughly failed state) or Palestinian, but again, this does not matter at all to Hamas or to Netanyahu. If the well-being of the people of Israel, or even of the subset they claim as "theirs", mattered at all to either of those parties, they could easily end this madness in minutes. This is why it's important to me that we stop pretending that the official explanation makes any sense. The official explanation, as crafted by those who want the violence to continue, is fundamentally nationalistic in character, and exists only to ensure that people of good will continue to support an ongoing conflict despite the fact that neither of the two assigned sides has anything to gain by the continued violence and destruction. Asking yourself the usual question - cui bono? - is another way to understand my view of the situation.

So, while I'm eager to hear any further questions that you might have, I want to put a question to you: do you believe that nationalism is a legitimate basis for a state? To be precise, by nationalism I mean the ideological conviction that a state, or that states in general, should be composed primarily of people identified (by whom?) as belonging to one particular group, who are generally held to merit special privileges in that state. (there may be other definitions out there, feel free to propose another if it would help you answer the question)

For example, Zionism is a nationalistic claim, as is the demand for a "Palestinian state". In my view, both are equally illegitimate. I'd love to know your view on this.

That's two charities I support (WCK & WFP) attacked by IDF in Gaza...
This is getting personal.

Middle East updates: UN vehicle in Gaza hit by IDF gunfire
DW | 8/28/2024

The UN said a vehicle in a Gaza aid convoy was struck 10 times in all, with the occupants unharmed. The World Food Program said soon after that it was suspending the movement of all Gaza staff. ...

https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-updates-un-vehicle-in-gaza-hit-by-idf-gunfire/...

>38 margd: There are never any consequences when these things happen so one can assume a policy that kill anything that moves can apply to almost any situation. In a nation where it's a legitimate question to ask in its legislative body and then more than less approve that it's okay to rape prisoners---many of whom were captured/arrested for no apparent reason at all other than someone felt like it and the answer for them is yes, it is okay and that answer also seems to have widespread approval in Israeli society at large.

The conclusion for me is Israeli society is off the rails morally and no one is holding them to any kind of moral standards......certainly not the United States when we continue to send them bombs and tank shells......recently another $20 billion of military hardware. And the knowledge that no one is willing to hold them accountable gives the Israelis govt. and the IDF and the settler community the green light to act like they're not accountable to anyone or anything. It also speaks to those who enable their behavior. It's not like the United States govt. and its leaders are really at all any better. We're their arms dealer. From what I can see it doesn't matter at all exactly who they're going to kill with our weapons......we don't really even care. We've already seen thousands upon thousands of dead children and we keep on giving them the guns. So killing innocents is not a red line for our govt. What does that say about our govt.?

Israel launches large-scale West Bank raid as minister calls for Gaza-style operation
Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Tamar Michaelis, Christian Edwards and Helen Regan | August 29, 2024

Israel’s military carried out raids and airstrikes in multiple parts of the occupied West Bank early Wednesday, killing at least 11 Palestinians in an offensive Israel says is its most expansive in years.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had launched a large counter-terror operation overnight with the Israel Security Agency (ISA) in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank.

Early indications showed a significant, combined Israeli operation, involving drones and bulldozers, military and security forces, four battalions of the Israel Border Police, and an elite unit of undercover troops...

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the operation had been staged to “thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure,” claiming that Iran was working to establish an “eastern front” against Israel. “We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” he wrote on social media. “This is a war for all terms and purposes and we must win it.”

... The Palestinian Ministry of Health warned that the Israeli military’s operation has impacted hospitals with reports that Israeli forces have besieged several medical facilities in Jenin and obstructed the movement of ambulances.

In a statement, the ministry said Israeli forces blocked roads to Ibn Sina hospital with mounds of dirt, surrounded the government hospital in Jenin, and besieged the Red Crescent Society and the Patient’s Friends Society...

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/28/middleeast/israel-operation-west-bank-intl-hnk/in...
___________________________

Yathink??

Israeli operation in West Bank likely to complicate Gaza cease-fire talks
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/israeli-operation-in-west-bank-likely-to-complicat...

‘This is a war’: FM urges Gaza-style temporary evacuation of Palestinians in West Bank
Sam Sokol and ToI Staff | 28 August 2024

Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on Israel to consider temporarily relocating Palestinians as part of a major anti-terror raid in the northern West Bank the IDF launched in the wake of last week’s attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

“We need to deal with the terror threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed,” Israel’s senior diplomat tweeted, calling the operation “a war in every sense.”

Katz said that Israeli forces operating in Jenin, Tulkarem and other areas are working to dismantle an Iranian-backed terror network being built up in the West Bank.

“Iran is working to establish a terror front against Israel in the West Bank, according to the model it used in Lebanon and Gaza, by funding and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan,” he tweeted.

...Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter appeared to back up Katz, telling Army Radio that “if we ​​have to evacuate people in order to keep our soldiers safe, they will be evacuated. They are not being sent abroad — they are being evacuated and after that they will return home.”...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/this-is-a-war-fm-calls-for-gaza-style-evacuation-o...

>41 margd: Expect the temporary relocations to become permanent relocations. Settlers have been pushing Palestinians out of their homes and villages in the West Bank for decades. They will move right in and no one will stop and no one will move them out later. This has been the game going on for a long time. It is ethnic cleansing. I don't expect the Biden administration or Harris if she wins the presidency to restrain or stop them in any way. Trump won't either. Don't expect any arms embargoes either.

The silver lining is Israel's economy is on self destruct. That self destruct though is going to ratchet up the rage already going on inside that country.

>42 lriley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight

Jim Sciutto {CNN} @jimsciutto | 10:47 AM · Aug 31, 2024 {X}:

New: Palestinian health officials have stressed that a “real ceasefire” is needed for the UN-led polio vaccination to fully “succeed” in the enclave. UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, has set ambitious targets for the vaccination campaign which will kick off on Sunday, pledging to immunize 640,000 children in the enclave, equating to over 90% of children under the age of ten.

Democratic Platform Defies International Law in Middle East Policy (truthout)

The DNC foreign policy platform stresses human rights, yet ignores how the US denies them...

Has Israel taken enough action to prevent alleged incitement to genocide? (BBC)

As part of an interim judgement in January, the ICJ ruled that Israel must prevent public statements inciting genocide. Although the court does not have the power to enforce this, Israel agreed to submit a report detailing the action it had taken to investigate and prosecute possible instances of incitement. The court confirmed that the report was received in February, but has not made its contents public. Some legal experts believe Israel is not doing enough to investigate potential cases. “Israelis who incite genocide or use genocidal rhetoric are immune from prosecution,” says Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard...

>45 John5918: it's as if AIPAC wrote the section on the Israel/Palestine part of the DNC's platform. Also Harris's speech speaking of a need for more military power as if that was some kind of virtue. Widespread applause. Why so hawkish? Wanting to finish the border wall with Mexico as well. I wonder when that became okay. It certainly wasn't okay when Trump was POTUS. These anti-immigrant movements have been flexing their muscles around the globe....we need politicians who will push back against that shit. It's racist scapegoating. Outside of the venue as the delegates were leaving we have scenes of disdain towards pro-Palestine protesters. Not really a good picture to my eyes.

I would say the Harris campaign has had all the momentum lately but it's definitely trending to the right message wise.

6 hostages found dead yesterday including the son of the parents who made the DNC speech last week. The Israelis claim that they were murdered shortly before their rescue operation reached them. Very possible but the Israelis pretty much own all the narratives coming out of Gaza and they've been caught out lying/spinning loads of times. That said the resistance very well could have killed them if they felt they were going to be recaptured. 6 deaths are a lot but not compared to thousands and 6 if I remember were the number of World Kitchen workers who our politicos lamented more than any of the thousands of Palestinian women, children and civilians who have died in the various massacres we've seen. President to be Harris chimes in and calls Hamas an evil organization FWIW because of this event. I would call both of our political parties evil organizations FWIW. Looking to the past the ANC, the IRA any number of liberation groups have been called evil too. Basically such categorizing is just a bunch of shit. Here's the thing if there's going to be peace you're going to have to deal with Hamas across a negotiating table and you're going to have concede stuff that you really might not want to concede. There's nobody who is going to stand in for them. They are the ones with the weapons and they are the ones who can continue the conflict.

But the Israeli govt. has never shown any real interest in negotiating for peace or at least to this point and the United States continues to send them weapons so that they don't have to show any interest.....all that even if their economy is collapsing. We're not really doing the Israeli people (as fucked up on the whole as they are) any favors. We're actually hurting them to keep Netanyahu and his Likud party and all the right wingers in power. I remember once reading about the time the British Army surrounded the port city of Cork in the south of Ireland in the Black and Tan war in the 1920's---the war that led to the Republic of Ireland as it is today. The British Army surrounded the city because the IRB (the forerunner to the IRA) were holding two British soldiers captive and when they wouldn't return them the British Army proceeded to burn down most of that city. The IRB threw both of those prisoners into a furnace and continued on the war that eventually brought about the birth of the republic whose govt. sits in Dublin today. Liberation movements don't win anything without much blood almost always mostly their own but also some from their oppressors. Vietnam is another case in point. All over Africa, all over Asia, all over South America there have been similar resistance movements and similar stories. The birth of what we now know as the United States came after a revolution against an oppressive colonizer. I think a lot of us here in the United States have forgotten that.

The New York Times @nytimes | 1:37 AM · Sep 2, 2024 {X}:

Protesters flooded the streets of Israeli cities on Sunday, demanding that the government immediately accept a deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza. The demonstrations came after the military said six of the hostages had recently been killed. https://nyti.ms/47etC3R

0:54 (https://x.com/nytimes/status/1830480048161267888)
_______________________________

Editorial | The Israeli Public's Moment of Truth
Haaretz | Sep 1 2024

... It was Hamas terrorists who pulled the trigger, but it was Netanyahu who sealed their fate. The prime minister likes to think of himself as Mr. Security, but he will go down in history as Mr. Death and Mr. Abandonment, written in the hostages' blood. After long months of neglect and delay, after torpedoing one deal after another, the security cabinet voted Thursday night to put a spoke in the wheel of any hope of the hostages returning home alive by passing a resolution declaring Israel won't leave the Philadelphi corridor...

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – who once again proved himself to be the only man in a security cabinet where there are no men – warned that this decision meant burying the deal and sentencing the hostages who were still alive to death, but to no avail. Nor was anyone moved by Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi's arguments that the army could reoccupy the corridor if needed. It made no difference to Netanyahu, who isn't driven by security considerations, and certainly not by humanitarian ones.

Netanyahu is the main culprit in the decision to abandon the hostages to die, along with all the other nobodies in his government. But neither can the public claim to have clean hands. For months, the public has largely stayed home and left the hostages' families alone in their battle for their loved ones' lives.

This happened in part because of Netanyahu's divide and conquer politics, which he even used with the hostages and their families, without a drop of shame. The hostages were portrayed as removed from the public rather than part of it, as if there was or could be a choice between their lives and ours. Netanyahu created a false picture in which it was either the hostages or the country. And it worked. The frightened masses stayed home...

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-09-01/ty-article/the-israeli-publics-mo...

>48 margd: Meanwhile Adam Schiff the would be and probable next Democratic Senator from California says among other such remarks of his: 'the sons of bitches who murdered the hostages need to be hunted down and brought to justice'. On the surface I suppose that's fine but where was he when 6 year old Hind Rajab was sitting in her car surrounded by her dead relatives calling for help and surrounded by IDF soldiers and tanks. Mr. Schiff was nowhere....never commented or seemed to care and it points out how one sided in all this the vast majority of our politicians have been. They've chosen their side and for whatever reason(s) it's Israel the apartheid regime and occupying force and whatever happens to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank they don't really give a shit. The tears have only come when World Kitchen workers or Hostages die and that's it. Silence pretty much for the 40,000+ official Palestinian dead and it's pretty safe to say that the 40,000 is a hell of a lowball number. It's a lot more than that.

To remark on the Haaretz article. A main sticking point has always been Netanyahu's not interested in a permanent ceasefire. He doesn't want our bomb shipments to stop and he doesn't want the massacre to stop either. He wants Hamas to hand over the hostages and then to resume murdering Gazan civilians. And it should be clear by now they have very little idea where Hamas fighters are at any given time....they may have some idea who some or a few of them are. They keep having to return to the rubble of towns and cities they've already destroyed and supposedly cleared to fight again and again. There's no really apparent reason to believe they're anywhere further down the road to destroying Hamas or other resistance groups than they were since this current bombing campaign and invasion started despite blowing up practically everything and killing thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians. The resistance is still killing and wounding their soldiers, blowing up their tanks, troop carriers and bulldozers week to week in numerous operations that haven't abated at all either.

The IDF is not winning. It's just been killing and destroying mostly for no reason than that's all it knows how to do and they've turned these rubbled cities into death traps for their own soldiers and all the unexploded ordinance they've dropped is being used against them. Israel has a mighty military for its size but mostly because of all the stuff we give them. They can do a lot just by force (they for sure could retake the Philadelphi corridor) but they're as helpless/hopeless in winning a real victory as we were in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sane thing would have been to have made a deal months and months ago but their refusal to be reasonable at all has led to further catastrophe and there's no end foreseeable at this point in time. I don't believe it will happen as long as Netanyahu and his far right backers continue in power.

>49 lriley: After IDF recovered the hostage alive in the tunnel, you just know (and IDF had to know) the message went out from Hamas leadership to not let that happen again. Evil or dumb, Israeli leadership needs to go, for everybody's sake -- everybody except Netanyahu himself, settlers, etc...

>50 margd: I think now it is kind of implicit that Hamas won't let these rescue operations continue the way they have and when you think about the mission that rescued 4 hostages......hundreds were killed and injured accomplishing that including maybe even other hostages.

UK suspends 30 arms export licences to Israel after review (Guardian)

The UK has broken with the Biden administration on a significant part of their tightly coordinated policy towards Israel by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law... No definitive conclusion has been reached about whether UK arms export licences have contributed to the destruction in the territory. But the scale of the devastation and the number of civilian deaths caused great concern, the Foreign Office said. The suspension, which is likely to cause tensions with the US government, covers components for military aircraft, helicopters, drones and targeting equipment...

Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land (BBC)

The number of these outposts has risen rapidly in recent years, new BBC analysis shows. There are currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year - more than in any previous year. The outposts - which can be farms, clusters of houses, or even groups of caravans - often lack defined boundaries and are illegal under both Israeli and international law. But the BBC World Service has seen documents showing that organisations with close ties to the Israeli government have provided money and land used to establish new illegal outposts... Experts say outposts are able to seize large swathes of land more rapidly than settlements, and are increasingly linked to violence and harassment towards Palestinian communities...

>52 John5918: Reminds me of the Wild West... Palestinians don't have much if any legal protection, and wouldbe settlers want their land.

Two differences in (now) US and Canadian western lands was that the RCMP / British predecessors were in the north to enforce the law, such as it was. (During gold rush, US prospectors handed in weapons when they arrived in Yukon towns like Dawson.) Another difference, apparently, was that in the US settlers wanted the land, whereas, in Canada early on at least, the fur trade drove Europeans, who needed natives as business partners.

>53 margd: Regarding West Bank land grabbing Israelis quite often cite settlers pushing native Americans off their land in the 19th century in a 'you did it, why can't we' way. But this is a post holocaust United Nations late 20th---early 21st century world the rest of the globe is living in. Many of these would be Israeli settlers/cowboys coming in from east coast cities like Boston and New York City or out of L.A. They think they can push a Palestinian family off their land or out of their home--move right in and stake their claim and that they have divine right to do that because the Old Testament says the land is theirs. They don't even need to have DNA traceable to the region as a large % of people of the Jewish faith have their origins in Eastern Europe or from Spain/Portugal via Eastern Europe.....but even so they still make these claims that all the land of greater Israel is their land by birthright because God says so.

What is the Philadelphi corridor, and why is it so important to Israel?
Peter Beaumont | 3 Sep 2024

Netanyahu has made control of the strip between Gaza and Egypt a condition in ceasefire negotiations...

The Philadelphi corridor is a ribbon of land about nine miles (14km)s in length and 100 metres wide along Gaza’s border with Egypt, including the Rafah crossing... {Hamas smuggling weapons}

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/03/what-is-the-philadelphi-co...

>55 margd: Apart from the resistance in Gaza I don't think anyone really knows what Hamas, etc. have. From watching the Electronic Intifada the last several months---John Elmer will sometimes describe some of the weapons they use as Iranian, Chinese or even North Korean (he tracks resistance videos and he details a lot about their operations) but there has also been a homegrown Palestinian arms industry and he speaks about that too and this homegrown industry continuously feeds their insurgents with weapons and munitions and it seems they are very adept at repurposing captured Israeli arms, munitions and unexploded bombs. 10% it's thought of the bombs Israels has dropped out of the skies do not explode. A great deal of that gets returned to sender in blown up tanks, troop carriers and bulldozers, turned into boobytrap material and when an army is moving through rubbled cities it's easy to hide and when their tanks and troop carriers move through the same more often than not they have to go in a prescribed direction and when you know something has to use a route it makes that something much easier to ambush. By destroying the cities the way the IDF has they've made it a lot more dangerous for their own soldiers.

However much if much at all Hamas is smuggling through Egypt to Gaza the resistance doesn't seem to be running out of weapons. For Netanyahu and his friends I think it's not just about that though. Even if some peace came the Israeli govt. at least the govt. with Likud in charge want to control more than just weapons. It's about food and building material coming in too. At the least I think they want to control everything going in and coming out as they did even before Oct. 7. That's the least they want. They're not ready to let Gaza go even if afterwards it's still only Palestinians living there. To continue the starvation campaign after ceasefire/peace having bombed Gaza into the Stone Age and to leave it like that and with their tanks ready to roll right back in at the slightest pretext.

That seems to me what the Netanyahu plan would be if they were forced into some kind of agreement just to take the heat off.

For those who think that it's just Netanyahu and if somehow he's deposed things get a lot rosier here is former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett saying Netanyahu isn't doing nearly enough....that Benjamin is doing only about 5% of what he could do and if he were to get back in he would do 200% and Bennett is thinking about the Prime Minister job again:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-israeli-prime-minister-naftali-161700279.html

Scientists are closing in on the true, horrifying scale of death and disease in Gaza (Guardian)

A pause for polio vaccinations is welcome, but the disease’s presence is a window on the true cost of Israel’s war...

>58 John5918: The Lancet article cited by the Guardian is little more than a page long, and readable...

Rasha Khatiba et al. 2024. Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential (Correspondence). The Lancet, Volume 404, Issue 10449, p237-238, July 20, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01169-3
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fullt...

"...Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population's inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip.

In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip. A report from Feb 7, 2024, at the time when the direct death toll was 28 000, estimated that without a ceasefire there would be between 58 260 deaths (without an epidemic or escalation) and 85 750 deaths (if both occurred) by Aug 6, 2024...

>59 margd: and if Israel continues to control the Egyptian border crossing at Rafah they will also control the food, water, medical and energy needs and construction material needed to rebuild Gaza and from what we've seen until now they will be harsh and I would expect that the catastrophe will not go away as long as they are there. Israelis almost visceral hatred of Palestinians is pretty clear or at least it is to me. Of course there are exceptions but this hatred seems to have almost completely permeated throughout their society. FWIW it's not out of keeping with the contempt, cold disregard or outright hatred shown by colonizers to the colonized throughout history.....even North American history. It comes with this sense of superiority to an other and in that sense they almost need the Palestinians to show this off and it's a very unattractive thing. Those Israelis who have fallen into this trap are sick individuals and the govt. they have right now is a sick govt. It's incapable of acting without belligerence towards its neighbors as has been on show for almost a year now.

Stemming Israeli Settler Violence at Its Root (International Crisis Group)

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank are on the rise, with a spike since Israel’s present government took office and another since October 2023. Western countries should use their leverage with Israel – military aid and economic ties – to help curb this growing danger...

The Executive Summary is also available in Hebrew and Arabic.

From Democracy Now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMFrP3MTFnA

Still busy. But if anyone missed the "Two Nice Jewish Boys" podcast scandal, it's worth looking into. Supposedly the most popular English-language podcast in Israel.

'ERASE All Palestinians' - Popular Israeli Podcasters Claim Most Share Their Genocidal Fantasy (Owen Jones)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_uOJAKbGpg

'Two Nice Jewish Boys' Go Full Genocidal Maniacs (Majority Report with Sam Seder)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEpA4bDmHHU

“We’re Happy To Know Palestinians Are Suffering” - Say Israeli Podcasters (Jimmy Dore -- and surprisingly insightful, given the source -- thanks to Due Dissidence hosts Keaton Weiss and Russell Dobular.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZlN2oCPhdY

Zionist Podcast Says The Quiet Part Out Loud & SHOCKS All | The Kyle Kulinski Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnKwc6N0Vxw

>63 davidgn: when you design a segregated society and one part of the population is given all the benefit that part is going to begin to think it's superior in every way.....religion, culture, IQ, morality--the whole shebang. Everything good belongs to us and everything bad goes to them but that's what's deserved. It's not something new but it's pretty much what the state known as Israel in essence is. Jewish kids in Israel do not go to school with Palestinian kids whether Muslim or Christian and in a great many schools they are taught they are better....that the land is theirs even land occupied currently by Palestinians. They're also taught that Palestinians want to kill them just because.

The other day an Israeli sniper shot a young 26 year old American woman--a protester who had been hiding behind an obstacle. He shot her behind the ear....it was a deliberately taken precise shot of someone who was no danger to anyone and of course she died. He picked his target carefully, aimed and she was gone. The excuse given to justify this was that some of the protesters were throwing rocks and that thrown rocks can kill somebody. Which is a stupid excuse pretty much but they almost never get called out on it by western media so they keep on using it. Israelis use this as an excuse all the time when they shoot children and teenagers. The sniper who killed the woman though was looking down a hill and shot her from some distance. But anyway when you throw a rock (or even an object made to be thrown like a baseball) up a hill it's easily seen and doesn't go very far....even that doesn't seem to sink in for lots of people reading about this in western media. What it comes down to is the sniper just wanted to kill somebody and he knew he could get away with it (the people he's killing don't matter in the society he lives in)....knows he'll be protected later on with the thrown rocks bullshit. What he didn't know probably was that he was shooting an American citizen. That's why it's in the news. It wouldn't be in the news if it was a Palestinian he killed.

>64 lriley:

Ironically that was how Jewish people were treated in Europe for many centuries. It's sad that this experience hasn't led them to respect the human rights and human dignity of another marginalised group, the Palestinians, whom many within the Jewish community are now treating as less than human, just as they themselves were treated in the past.

#65---that's very true. It's a part of the history of a lot of places---throughout Africa, South America, some places in Asia and even Europe and North America and wherever colonization has taken root. Jewish people were driven out of Portugal and Spain and had a very hard time of it in Russia and Eastern Europe. And of course Germany outdid everything up to that point in the mid 20th century.

Here in the United States we grabbed land and continuously pushed Native American tribes westward breaking treaties made on all kinds of pretexts amounting to pretty much the same as we see in Israel/Palestine today and we could look at things like the Vietnam War and the Afghanistan and Iraq takeovers as colonial projects too and island territories too from Cuba, Puerto Rico to Hawaii were all about subjugating native populations.

We--as in the world are supposed to be getting smarter. In a post WWII United Nations setup the aim at least for a while was to let people run their own lands....to stop foreign occupations but it seems were getting further and further from these ideals and the United States is very much leading the world in the wrong direction.

So, looks like Lebanon invasion is finally a go. "Can't keep the carriers sitting around forever."

Alastair Crooke : Afraid of Free Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnm9Vzrpkrg

DW News @dwnews | 3:06 AM · Sep 10, 2024 {X}:

"Israel is definitely not trying to be surgical enough to make Gaza a place that would be liveable afterwards."
Two former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists explain why they refuse to continue serving in Gaza.

3:41 (https://x.com/dwnews/status/1833401521410826706)

Yoav Gallant pretty much parroting Netanyahu again. There really isn't any distance between the two. Not with any other Israeli politician either. He's now saying that a temporary ceasefire is possible but ending their murder campaign in Gaza is another story. He thinks a pause for a few weeks...get the hostages back and then go back to killing. That's what these two murdering sociopaths think is reasonable. Not that many of our politicos and media personalities here think the same.

School year commences in Canada (and US?)...

NCCM (National Council of Canadian Muslims) @nccm | 2:53 PM · Sep 9, 2024 {X}

In this video someone appearing to be Ron Banerjee, a well known Islamophobe, stands with JDL leader Meir Weinstein, screaming Islamophobic slurs.

We have heard hundreds of concerns from students at the @UofT (U of Toronto) in relation to not stepping up to ensure that groups linked to listed terrorist entities and non-students who participate in disgusting Islamophobia are not allowed on campus.

Meir Weinstein is the former leader of the JDL, which is linked to the listed terrorist entity the Kahanists, and stands here with well known Islamophobe Ron Banerjee.

Banerjee had to apologize to another Ontario Muslim for issuing defamatory and hateful remarks towards him.

What is the university doing to make sure students are kept safe on campus?

This gross display not only undermines the safety of students on campus during their first week back to school, but also the university’s responsibility to provide an inclusive environment which should be top priority.

0:13 (https://x.com/nccm/status/1833217108290727951)

Bernie Sanders @SenSanders | 5:40 PM · Sep 11, 2024:

This week: 19 people killed & scores injured in a strike in a “humanitarian zone” in Gaza.
An American shot in the head in the West Bank.
Now, another school bombed, killing 14 people, including 6 UN aid workers.
Enough is enough. No more money for Netanyahu's war machine.

BREAKING:
Canada suspends 30 permits for arms sales to Israel and also cancels a contract with the US government to send ammunition manufactured in Canada to the Israeli army.

- Globe Eye News @GlobeEyeNews | 9:52 AM · Sep 11, 2024

>72 margd: the UK and Canada prodding the United States to take a step back? They're all complicit and potentially legally complicit for war crimes---some worse than others with the United States leading on that count.

Officially there's over 40,000 dead Palestinians in Gaza. Some months ago The Lancet conservatively estimated 186,000 and saying it could be much higher. Ralph Nader pointed out to Amy Goodman the other day----project what happened at that point to the end of the year and we're talking 300,000. It's not just bombs and bullets. It's the destruction of the infrastructure---that has totally undermined the health care system and sanitation. What water is to be found is contaminated and people can't wash because they don't have the basics of hygiene. Appearances of smallpox, polio and other diseases. Uncounted thousands buried under rubble....mass graves of executed people found next to hospitals.....thousands of disappeared of course---amongst those two groups under rubble and executed but also taken to Nazi style concentration camp like prisons. It's unconscionable that we continue to send them war material.

If anyone has the time to check out AIPAC's site you will find somewhere around 80% of House and Senate republicans and two thirds of House and Senate Democrats grifting for campaign donations there. They make it very easy for people so inclined to donate. It pretty much tells anyone who wants to look how beholden they are and why this isn't going to stop until Israel decides it's going to stop. The bulk of our politicos are going to keep on supporting bombs and war machinery to that end because it's important to their own ambitions.

I read that 99% of Israel's weapons come from US and Germany, with Italy the next largest source...

On Dana Bash and Jake Tapper as propagandists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAMT5rquzZg

delete

From a recent Sept. 7 NY Post article citing polling numbers from the Council on American-Islamic relations---an American Muslim advocacy group:

Muslim voters Arizona---Stein 35% Harris 29%---article doesn't mention Trump's numbers.
Muslim voters Wisconsin---Stein 44% Harris 39%---articles doesn't mention Trump's numbers.
Muslim voters Nevada---Harris 29%, Trump 27%, Stein 13%
Muslim voters Michigan---Stein 40%, Trump 18%, Harris 12%.

Among registered Democratic Muslim voters nationwide---Harris 33%, Stein 32%
Among registered Independent Muslim voters nationwide---Harris 32%, Stein 30%
Among registered Republican Muslim voters nationwide---Trump 48%, Stein 18%, Harris 11%. Stein's even taking a chunk of Trumps Muslim voters.

If anyone is wondering why AOC is playing Democratic attack dog vs. Stein these days that pretty much answers that question. A real change in the Democratic Party policy towards the Israel/Palestine question likely would benefit Harris with American Muslim voters however religious or not that they are. We're not really hearing anything positive on that front and again to AOC when she tells us Biden and Harris are working 24/7 for a peaceful resolution I'm sorry but that's a flat out lie. The Muslim voters polled don't believe it and neither do college protesters and much of the public as well. Shaming and then bullshitting voters who desperately are asking for a change in policy instead is not a great tactic to win them over. AOC should know better. Terrible look from her here.

>77 lriley: A poll that shows Harris and Stein near parity with any population seems highly questionable to me. I mean, even the Green voters are looking at her and saying "nah, not this time".

As for why AOC would be making the case for Harris, perhaps it's because she's aware of the stakes? I mean, you want a terrible look, let's talk about the progressives for Trump. What sort of a fool buys Trump's line on this and still calls themself a progressive?

>78 kiparsky: It's a poll as conducted by a Muslim advocacy group for Muslim voters only which isn't a very large % of the voting public at all. Still it could be enough to tip Michigan and/or Wisconsin one way or another. If there are somewhere around 180 to 200,000 Muslim voters in Michigan......some of them stay home on the one hand while a large % of that group votes for Stein and Michigan could easily go to the Republicans. Like it or not Jill is poised to do better than ever in some states.

FWIW Trump and his candidacy seems to be way out of sorts. He had a somewhat flailing and unhinged performance at the recent debate. Democrats could lose Michigan and pick up unexpected states somewhere else if he can't get his ship back on tack.

As for AOC I think we both know it's precisely because she's aware that Michigan for one could fall. That scares the shit out of her and other dems. It's still I think not going to work with that particular voter dynamic. My opinion is the dems have lost much of the overall national Muslim vote that they had a very good hold of in the last election and a lot of those Muslim voters are not coming back in the future. And if you wonder why just take a look at Gaza City or Rafah or any of the other cities in Gaza. The destruction is equivalent to Dresden or Hiroshima in WWII. They are blasted pretty much out of existence and any talk of two state solutions or rebuilding into livable cities is nonsensical at this point in time. It's a lie to aver otherwise......and look also at what's going on in the West Bank recently. The bulk of most non-Muslim voters are not looking and/or maybe it is a problem but it's not enough to sway them because they don't have enough skin in the game. It's like back in the 60's and 70's you might not have liked the Vietnam War but if you didn't have a son over there it might not matter to you as much as the price a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas.

And that said for the small %'s of voters that Harris might win back by changing course she might turn off more in the rest of her coalition including all the new anti-Trump Bush happy voters like the Cheney's. Sometimes things are a balancing act and the Cheney's etal could be new friends now. So on what's happening in Gaza I'm expecting nothing but a bunch of platitudes, hand wringing and justifications for genocide at this point and on the question though of who would be worse for Palestinians the democrats or Trump? the damage is already pretty much done and there's not a whole lot further it can go. The answer is moot at best.

>79 lriley: If we don't get hold of global warming people in that part of the world will be crispy bacon, and sooner rather than later. I'm not overly hopeful for Harris on climate, but with Trump Middle Easterners will be burnt bacon, as will we all... Remember that "hope" poster of Obama's? That's where we are right now ... hoping for Gaza, climate, immigrants, women, gays...

>80 margd: There are a lot of issues out there. On global warming though I don't have the feeling that there is much political will either here or for the most part in the rest of the world to take the steps necessary to bring that under control. We see it in so many ways just in our country which isn't as bad off as some others. It's why there are these predictions of a mass migration from the global South into more northern regions but even here all the climate disasters, the continuing draining of water resources particularly out west, the continuing wrecking of the environment by fossil fuel companies. Not much is really standing in the way of any of that continuing. Looking at the Arctic, Antarctic and Greenland ice shelves that continue to deteriorate rather rapidly. The destruction in Gaza (in an area 10/15 miles wide and about 25 miles long) which some have compared to several atomic bombs worth of damage is not helping either.

My guess is we'll truly get serious about global warming when almost every person living is ready to recognize that it's too late and even then there will be pushback because there's too much profit to be made from raping the planet for resources. As long as capitalism is the go to economic system by which humans live wealth is going to be be the mitigating factor in everything we humans do.

>79 lriley: Yes, the reason AOC is campaigning for Harris among Muslim communities is because the single greatest risk in the election at this time is the one created by the Progressives For Trump. I think we can agree on that, sure.

There are a lot of issues out there

Yes. There are. Too bad y'all have spent the last year pretending there's only one, and fucking that one up beyond all hope of repair. Well done. You may have managed to throw the election to Trump, but at least you've had no effect whatsoever on the situation you really care about. Brilliant work.

>82 kiparsky: I also think it's too bad that you don't consider an ongoing genocide aided and abetted by the United States to be that important either. Post World War II I kind of thought the world was more than less agreed that genocides/holocausts were bad things. Apparently I was wrong about that. It depends on who's doing them. It doesn't seem to have made a great impression on you and it seems you're focused on one main thing too and that's that Trump is the ultimate evil and has to be stopped and I agree that he has been the worst but still you're overlooking an other evil that's right in front of your eyes. And though you've said otherwise I don't believe you give a shit about what's going on in Gaza.

In any case the Democratic Party has decided (not me) to drive Muslim voters away. You can hardly expect someone who has lost people (sometimes many people) close to them to vote for you when you've done so much harm to them. If the Dems lose Michigan in November that's not because of me and it's not because of Jill Stein. It's up to the Democratic Party to give people good reason besides fear to want to vote for them. It's also ridiculous to think that someone voting for Stein would vote for the Democrat otherwise. The greater likelihood is they'd not participate at all. No one owes anyone their vote.

>83 lriley: I'm wondering where it was that I said I don't think the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians to be unimportant. I did say that those who have failed to address that issue in any sort of meaningful way have screwed up badly and failed to make any difference at all to the situation while also raising the risk of a Trump victory, which is true. Is that what you read to mean "I'm okay with genocide"?

Now, if you were actually concerned about the situation in Israel, wouldn't it make sense to try to come up with a way to deal with it? Why don't y'all try thinking about that. What you're doing isn't working. It isn't going to work, because you all have absolutely no grasp of politics or strategy. Literally the only thing that your approach can accomplish is to drag out the slaughter indefinitely (which you've already accomplished, well done you) and possibly to put Donald Trump into office. What do you suppose that will mean for Gaza? Do you think that's a good outcome?

I know you're not going to answer that, because it's a hard question and you don't do those, but I hope you'll at least think about what you're doing and what effect you're having and try to get a bit of a grip. People are dying. Your ideological purity means shit to them, they don't care if you can brag to your progressive friends about how you went to demonstrations. None of this is about you. Your ego is not what matters here. Can you grasp that? Please try, it's important. Stop reacting and start thinking.

UN members back resolution directing Israel to leave occupied territories (Guardian)

In a symbolic step exposing Israel’s continued international isolation, the UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to direct Israel to leave the occupied Palestinian territories within a year. The non-binding vote follows a historic advisory ruling in July by the international court of justice (ICJ) urging Israel to cease “its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as soon as possible and stop all settlement activity there immediately”. Wednesday’s resolution was passed by 124 votes to 14 with 43 abstentions, prompting applause across the general assembly chamber in New York. The UK and Australia abstained while the US voted against... It arguably has additional force since it claims to be seeking to enforce an ICJ ruling. The resolution states: “Israel’s security concerns cannot override the principle of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force”...

>85 John5918: I mean, it's nice to see people trying to do something on this, but there is no two-state solution. Never was, never will be. Basic plane geometry, if nothing else. The idea that Israel can leave Israel is just goofy.

Let's talk about Israel the failed state, and let's start talking about sending in UN forces to restore democracy. We do that shit all the time when it's Black people, why not do it for some white people too? A few sanctions on Netanyahu, some blue helmets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, maybe you'll see something change. Certainly makes more sense than pretending there's ever going to be a Palestinian state.

>86 kiparsky: The idea that Israel can leave Israel is just goofy.


I don't believe anyone is asking Israel to leave Israel. This resolution asks Israel to leave the territories which it has illegally occupied.

Full text of the resolution is here

>87 John5918: Again, just as I don't see any legitimacy in a nationalist theocratic state of Israel, I don't see any legitimacy in a nationalist and theocratic state of Palestine - or, as we're being asked to support, a pair of nationalist and theocratic Palestinian states. Nationalism and theocracy are not justifiable in my view, no matter who is claiming the privilege of creating a despised underclass. So I'm not seeing any great justification for talking about "occupied territories", this language simply serves to justify Israel's ongoing slaughter, which I'm not willing to do.

This is not just an ideological position, it's also the practical reality. There's no way for the "occupied territories" to ever gain any actual independence. They're completely surrounded by a state which they have declared to be an enemy and have gone to war with repeatedly and with exquisite pointlessness and total disregard for the lives of their own people. A pair of sort-of-states with no access to trade with the outside world or even physically communicate with each other is an insult to the people who are being asked to live there. How we've got to the point where decent people are asking for this sort of treatment for the Palestinians is one of the many mysteries about this situation - it can be unraveled, but even once we understand it, it still doesn't make any actual sense.

So because I support the right of the Palestinian people to live in a free state as equals with their fellow citizens, and because I'm willing to accept the realities of what it means to be a state, I don't see any great hopes coming from the idea of trying to maintain a segregated and isolated Palestinian people living under the domination of a government that they have no say in electing and have attempted to go to war with on a regular basis. Because I believe that the Palestinian people deserve democracy, I do not accept the premise of "occupied territories". (note the ambiguity there - who is seen as the "occupier"?)

As I've said before, I do not believe that there is any way for the people living in the state of Israel, including the "occupied territories", to live in peace unless and until they recognize that they are a single people in a single state and recast that state as a free and democratic one. I know that's not an easy ask, but that doesn't seem like the most relevant question. Trying to do something impossible because the thing that might actually work isn't easy makes no sense to me.

To add to all of the above, if it were not enough, we also have to remember that there are multiple groups claiming to represent the "Palestinian people", none of which particularly accept the legitimacy of any of the others, even as they occasionally form temporary tactical alliances. History has a lot to say about this sort of situation, and it boils down to the conclusion that a "free Palestine", even if it could be achieved, would lead directly to a civil war. Play that out, and it leads directly back to the current situation, via a few more rounds of slaughter. Again, I'm not seeing this as a good thing.

I know none of this is accepted orthodoxy, but I think it's pretty clear that the accepted orthodoxies, while they disagree on their details, all have in common one salient fact: they have all failed to produce what the actual human beings in Israel (including those identifying as Palestinians) actually want, which is a chance to live in peace without being blown up by bastards claiming to act in their interests. And that seems like something worth having, doesn't it?

>88 kiparsky:

Yes, I hear what you are saying, and it's an immensely fraught and complex situation, but can we afford to just ignore the framework of international law? Israel was, rightly or wrongly, wisely or unwisely, created by the UN in 1948 as a sovereign state with clearly defined boundaries. It is illegal for sovereign states to forcibly occupy territory outside their boundaries, even where there are legitimate disputes about the territory. It was illegal for Argentina to forcibly occupy the Falklands/Malvinas, for Iraq to forcibly occupy Kuwait, and for Russia to forcibly occupy parts of Ukraine, to cite three particularly obvious examples, and it is illegal for Israel to occupy areas outside its own clearly defined boundaries. If the law is found to be an ass, to quote Dickens, then let there be a due process to modify the law, but let us not just ignore it on a case by case basis, thus undermining its integrity and utility.

>89 John5918: I agree. We should not ignore the law, and as toothless as it is, we should take some comfort in the fact that the court of world opinion is generally in favor of some mild rap on the knuckles for the indiscriminate violence that Israel's government and armed forces have inflicted. I'm not opposed to that at all, but neither am I very impressed by it.

As I suggested, I would like to see the broader framework of international law brought to bear: not just squabbling over which nationalists should be allowed to win this round in an endless series of meaningless "victories" that change nothing, but something that might have results. I suggested that it is not uncommon for failed states to be visited by young people in blue helmets with the goal of restoring order and good governance. This is not always successful (you will probably notice the understatement, so I'll refrain from calling it to your attention) but it seems a bit more active than having another go at wagging our fingers at the aggressor state and assuring them that if they keep this up, we'll come back and this time we'll really wag our fingers. In fact, we'll give them a finger-wagging they'll never forget!

Of course, the only way to even bring this idea into consideration is to look at the reality of the situation, not merely the terms of a decades-old framework that the British attempted to impose and which Israel has never actually accepted. Israel has always acted as though the entire region was its sovereign territory, and whatever we think of the law, the facts on the ground support that implicit contention. Okay, if that's the way they want it then let them have that, and whatever comes along with it. Which, in any other state, would be a forcible return to normal order, swift and fair trials of those responsible for the breakdown of order and the crimes committed during the disorder, and free and fair elections held under UN supervision.

Do I think this will happen in this way? No. Not a chance in hell, I'm sorry to say. But if the peace-loving world starts to reject the terms which allow the various aggressors to wrap themselves in the approval of their particular partisans, then at least it becomes more likely that something will change. We know what happens if we continue to let the aggressors set the terms: it's the same thing that has been happening for decades. After all, look at the results gained in the last year by the pro-Palestinian demonstrators by slavishly devoting themselves to the cause of nationalism and theocracy. So far they have managed to accomplish nothing apart from shifting American university administrations sharply to the right (and thereby nailing shut the coffin of their hopes that somehow university divestment would lead us forward into the bright sunlight of a free Palestinian state governed by the totally freedom-loving not-at-all-homophobic Hamas who would certainly bring democracy and peace to the long-suffering people of those couple of acres), alienating as many of their erstwhile potential allies as they could manage, and giving aid and comfort to the Trump campaign. All of which, I have to say, makes quite a record. A near-perfect string of failures and own goals, entirely unmarred by a single positive result.

I may well be wrong in my prescription, and I'd love to hear any better suggestions, but it's perfectly obvious that we cannot win peace by continuing to validate the aggression committed on both sides, which is what we do when we accept the terms offered by the aggressors. Let's stop doing that, at least.

>90 kiparsky:

Thanks. Broadly I agree with much of that, but just a few comments.

Blue-helmeted peacekeepers only work in some (but by no means all) instances (your understatement is noted and agreed with!) where there is a peace to keep and where there is a degree of political will on all sides to move forwards peacefully. You cannot impose peace by force, and if you try to do so, often the "peacekeepers" just become yet another violent actor amongst other existing ones. Any so-called "peace" which emerges due to force is usually only temporary as violent suppression does not address the root causes of conflicts and merely creates more violence. I would certainly like to see more nonviolent international accompaniers living and working alongside both Palestinians and Israelis.

This is not the only place in the world where "a decades-old framework that the British attempted to impose" has caused problems. Africa is a classic example of where the British along with other European powers carved the continent up into artificial countries which don't really work, and which has led to a great deal of violence and injustice. But in the main, African nations have reluctantly agreed to accept the status quo and try to work with it, rather than trying to create a completely new dispensation with all the new challenges that would entail.

I'm not sure why you imply that "pro-Palestinian demonstrators" are "slavishly devoting themselves to the cause of nationalism and theocracy". The majority of Palestinians probably just want to live a normal life, earn a living and bring up their families in peace, just as you and I (and many ordinary Israelis) want to do. While it's true that nationalism is becoming rampant in many countries (including your own), your mention of theocracy implies Islam (my apologies if I have misunderstood you), which ignores the fact that Christian Palestinians are seeking peace as much as Muslim Palestinians. And you risk conflating Palestinians in general with Hamas. As for international pro-Palestinian demonstrators who are not themselves Palestinian, many people throughout the world are horrified at the war crimes and crimes against humanity which have been committed by both sides, but at the moment stopping the genocide allegedly being perpetrated by Israel is obviously a major focus.

>91 John5918: I hear and take note of your concerns about peace-keeping forces. As I say, I'm very open to better ideas. My main concern here is to get rid of worse ones. If UN forces are not the right tool, so be it, let's talk about what might work better. But mainly, let's stop talking about what we know won't work at all.

On Africa, I'm a little bit less ignorant than I used to be, largely because of a helpful reading list you offered a while back, but I still know far too little to weigh in on what has been tried there and what we can learn from it. Are there cases there where dividing miniscule states into even tinier fragments on nationalist or theocratic grounds has led to improved conditions on the grounds for the civilian populace? I can't think of any, but I'd be happy to learn of any, since that would force me to reconsider my position and thus help me to be less wrong.

To clarify my comments on "pro-Palestinian demonstrators", I was of course referring specifically to the US demonstrations of the last year, largely taking place on campuses, which have backfired so spectacularly and so variously. These demonstrations have pretty consistently used Hamas sloganeering to call for a "free Palestine", which as far as I can see means the establishment of a tiny dependency within Israel to be designated as a "Palestinian state", and to be governed by Hamas. The last assumption is generally made explicit, but I think it's pretty obvious that if you were to establish a "free Palestine", the portion of that entity around Gaza would fall under the control of that organization. I think it's also safe to say that anyone who is organizing or taking part in these demonstrations can be expected to have some awareness of the situation that they're talking, about, and thus is also aware that they are calling for a mini-state to be run by Hamas. What does that call mean? Well, from what I know about Hamas, they're a totalitarian organization that treats the population they claim to represent with spectacular brutality, as reported recently by the NY Times, and that they have no interest in a pluralistic democracy, to put it mildly.

I agree, and I think I have said repeatedly, that the Palestinian people want to have a normal life. However, the "pro-Palestinian" demonstrators that I've seen are not calling for that, they are calling for a Palestinian state (ie, nationalism) run by an Islamist organization seeking an Islamist state (ie, theocracy). In this case, the theocracy in question would be an Islamic state, which as you rightly say would be much to the detriment of a significant fraction of Palestinians, but the so-called "pro-Palestinian" demonstrators show no interest in those details, or they would not be calling for a Hamas-led state, using Hamas' slogans and explicitly supporting Hamas.

Finally, on the question of "both sides", I can only say that the US "pro-Palestinian" activists have been extremely vocal about the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel, and curiously silent on those committed by Hamas, which calls into question their commitment to human rights. Their sloganeering does rely heavily on the word "genocide", but I find it very hard to take seriously anyone who claims to be opposed to genocide when they are supporting (explicitly or implicitly) a group whose rhetorical purpose is the elimination of a people. Realistically speaking, you and I might question whether Hamas has any real hope of achieving that goal, but it is their stated goal. In saying this, I have to be clear that I don't think the Palestinian people share this goal or indeed that they support Hamas (see, for example, the cited article from the Times) any more than I believe that the Israeli people support the Netanyahu government or the IDF's actions in Gaza.

>92 kiparsky:

Thanks for that clarification.

Off topic, but since you mention a reading list on Africa, I can highly recommend Zeinab Badawi's An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence.

Thanks for that! It looks like it's not yet available in the States, but I've added it to my watch list.

Also off-topic, I recently read Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, which is an American novelist's take on missionary colonialism in Africa. It might be an interesting read for you - I certainly don't think Kingsolver has much to teach you in this area, but her perspective on the destructive effects of colonialism on the colonizer as well as the colonized seems to resonate with themes you've raised here on various occasions.

>94 kiparsky:

Thanks. Yes, I know The Poisonwood Bible. An excellent book. I presume I have previously recommended King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild?

Hmm, who would a person want in their time of bodily peril --
a blue beret putting his/her body on the line or a lawyer -- or worse?

Depends on the situation, doesn't it? So why not cut the either/or crap. We need a lot of tools.

Barak Ravid @BarakRavid | 10:14 AM · Sep 20, 2024:
Israel attacks Hezbollah head of military operations Ibrahim Aqil and other commanders in Beirut. My story on @axios

Israel says it killed top Hezbollah military commander in Beirut strike
Barak Ravid | 20 Sept 2024
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/20/israel-strikes-hezbollah-military-commanders-be...

Holocaust survivor marks 80th birthday with protest outside Israeli prison (Guardian)

A Holocaust survivor has chosen to mark her 80th birthday on Friday by bringing her friends together for a solidarity vigil outside an Israeli prison where hundreds of Palestinian inmates arrested after the 7 October attack are being held. Prof Veronika Cohen, who was born in the Jewish ghetto of Budapest and was saved by what she has described as “a series of miracles”, turned her birthday into a protest in front of Neve Tirtza women’s prison in Ramla. The protest was aimed at exposing the degrading treatment faced by Palestinian prisoners, as well as bringing attention to Israel’s systematic use of administrative detention – which allows for indefinite detention without charge or trial – during the Gaza war. “At a time, particularly during this crucial moment, when you think there are no more hearts left to break, mine shattered upon learning about the deplorable conditions endured by Palestinian detainees,” said Cohen, a professor emeritus at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. “Furthermore, I made the decision to stand before this prison where Khalida Jarrar, a Palestinian politician, has been unjustly imprisoned for over 10 months, without any trial received or specific criminal charge pressed against her”...

>96 margd:

I think we can all agree that it depends on the situation and that we need a lot of tools, so I'm not sure where "the either/or crap" comes in.

As for your question, it might be interesting to ask some of the people who have been "protected" by blue-helmeted peacekeepers, such as MONUSCO (formerly MONUC) in DRC, or the people of Srebenica, or of Rwanda. UNMISS in South Sudan is generally considered pretty ineffectual, as is UNISFA in Abyei. The more successful peacekeeping operations, such as UNFICYP in Cyprus, UNIFIL in Lebanon or UNDOF in Syria are the result of already agreed ceasefires where both sides cooperate and where there is already a peace to keep. The US military intervention in Somalia, while not under the UN, was a disastrous example of what can go wrong when, with the best of intentions, an external military force is introduced into a conflict.

General Romeo Dallaire's account of the Rwanda genocide, Shake Hands with the Devil, is worth reading, and emphasises the importance of the political will of the international community in general and particularly those supporting one side or the other in a conflict, as well as the political will of the nations contributing troops. I would add from personal experience that each different UN mission has a very strict mandate and rules of engagement, again depending on the political will of the international community, the host government and the nations contributing troops, and these can seriously hamper their effectiveness.

So before a UN peacekeeping mission can operate effectively, one first needs the mediators, the peacemakers, the nonviolent resisters, unarmed accompaniers, the diplomats, the faith leaders, civil society, youth and women, investigative and campaigning journalists, NGOs, the international community and yes, lawyers, to bring the warring parties to a cessation of hostilities where unarmed or lightly armed peacekeepers who are not expected to have to fight any of the protagonists can observe, monitor and encourage compliance.

An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza killed at least 22; among them were 13 children, including a 3-month-old baby and six women, the Hamas-run Health Ministry says. Israel's military says it was targeting militants.

- DW News @dwnews | 9:06 AM · Sep 21, 2024 {X}
From dw.com {https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-updates-beirut-strike-death-toll-reaches-31/live-70289431}

DW News @dwnews | 6:02 AM · Sep 25, 2024 {X}:
Children in Lebanon are among the many victims of Israeli strikes. Hospitals are overwhelmed and displaced families seek refuge in makeshift shelters.
1:36 (https://x.com/dwnews/status/1838881631731368119)

Relative safety in SYRIA!

DW News @dwnews | 5:53 PM · Sep 25, 2024 {X}:
Thousands of Lebanese and Syrian families are fleeing the deadly Israeli strikes in Lebanon for relative safety in Syria, UN officials say. The bus and car lines stretched for several kilometers from the Syrian border. Some families made the journey on foot.
1:11 (https://x.com/dwnews/status/1839060774884438456)

By storming our Al Jazeera offices in Ramallah, Israel has stepped up its assault on press freedom (Guardian)

The decision to weld shut Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah, ban its operations in Israel and restrict international media reporting from Gaza is a dire warning for all independent journalists worldwide. No media organisation anywhere in the world would accept heavily armed and masked security men storming its offices...

The Jews Should Stand With Eric Adams
Liel Leibovitz* | September 26, 2024

Jewish New Yorkers have an obligation to stand up against a corrupt Democratic Party lawfare campaign that is targeting the mayor who stood up for us

...Adams may also be the canary in a very deep and very dark coal mine. For here is where the logic of this indictment is leading: Small-scale donations by disfavored political players—like Turks in Queens, or Zionist Jews who support AIPAC, the ADL, or Bnai Brith, let alone those who have a nephew studying in a yeshiva in the West Bank—will be criminalized, with every donation subject to suspicion of a violation of the fuzzy laws governing interactions with foreign governments, followed by federal prosecutors (remember when that term was a synonym for apolitical application of the law?) and SWAT teams. One might reasonably suspect that the sequel to the Adams horror show will be an investigation of a major Jewish organization for “bribing” legislators with fact-finding trips to Israel, and thereby acting as arms of the Israeli government—which will make anything connected to the “Jewish lobby” politically radioactive. At the same time, the giant sewer of corruption will continue to flood the Democratic Party with cash and pay for more violent migrants, less law enforcement officers, and other insane policies that have no impact on George Soros and his son, but have a very large and continuing impact on normal Americans.

So because I don’t want to see the weapons of lawfare turned against the Jews; ... and because I don’t want ... savages chanting “from the river to the sea” outside my children’s day school or my favorite kosher restaurant; because of all that and more, I stand with Mayor Eric L. Adams, a hero to Jews and New Yorkers...

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/new-york-jews-eric-adams-democr...

* Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.

Berlin appears to have stopped approving weapons exports to Israel, even while insisting that there is no ban in place.
1:05 (https://x.com/dwnews/status/1840281354325680274)

- DW News @dwnews | 2:44 AM · Sep 29, 2024

What Israel’s ground operation into Lebanon drives home about America (CNN)

Israel’s expected ground incursion into Lebanon will drive home a new strategic reality of a year of war — the once-mighty US is powerless to rein in its ally or to influence other major belligerents in a fast-worsening regional crisis...

Paul Maidowski @_ppmv | 7:03 AM · Oct 2, 2024 {X}:
Solar PV {photovoltaics}, climate policy, bamboo analysis/consulting. Language, systems. Fletcher/Fulbright. {Berlin}

All these more or less professional analyses of Middle East politics forget that the entire region will become increasingly unlivable this century. That’s “only” ecological and life itself, so no topic for all the very serious people. Good luck with that ecological blindness, 🤷‍♂️

Map (https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1841085983296487598/photo/1)

What atrocity would Israel have to commit for our leaders to break their silence? (Guardian)

To avenge 7 October, crimes of all kinds are condoned. But politicians should take note: the British public disagrees...

Worth noting that two institutions associated with preventing human rights violations by Israel have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, namely UNRWA and the International Court of Justice:

Nobel Peace Prize 2024: PRIO Director’s Updated List Announced (PRIO)

1. OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
2. Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms
3. UNRWA and Philippe Lazzarini
4. International Court of Justice
5. UNESCO and the Council of Europe...

Hezbollah leader agreed to temporary ceasefire days before assassination, says Lebanese foreign minister (CNN)

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just days before he was assassinated by Israel. The temporary ceasefire was called for by US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and other allies during last week’s UN General Assembly. “He {Nasrallah} agreed, he agreed,” Habib told Christiane Amanpour in an interview aired on Wednesday. “We agreed completely. Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire but consulting with Hezbollah. The {Lebanese House} Speaker Mr. Nabih Berri consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French what happened. And they told us that Mr. {Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin} Netanyahu also agreed on the statement that was issued by both presidents {Biden and Macron.}” White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was then set to go to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire, Habib continued... A Western source familiar with the negotiations also said Hezbollah had agreed to the temporary truce shortly before the US released the proposal last week...

It is time for the international community to say, "Enough!"

What we are witnessing in the Holy Land, with ramifications across the Middle East, has its roots in over a century of conflict. Each escalation serves as clear evidence that war only breeds further hatred, division, and tension, providing no real solutions. The rising death toll, attacks on hospitals and schools, rampant hate speech and discrimination are undeniable proof that suffering only begets more suffering.

As Pierbattista Cardinal Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, stated: "We can only call once again on those in authority ... to a commitment to justice and respect for every person’s right to freedom, dignity, and peace."

Enough of decision-makers turning a blind eye! Enough of the complicity!

Decades of blatant violations of International and Humanitarian Law, as well as UN resolutions, escalated on October 7th, with a sharp rise in war crimes and persistent disregard for human rights. These violations, primarily targeting the Palestinian people, have become routine and are now spreading across the Middle East.

The international community continues to apply temporary fixes, hoping to protect economic interests, particularly those tied to Israel, while delaying meaningful dialogue and decisive legal action. To support peace efforts, we must ban the sale and delivery of arms to both Israel and armed groups, cease military cooperation that fuels the conflict, ensure an immediate, continuous ceasefire, and restore humanitarian aid to those in desperate need.

Enough of the occupation!

We must safeguard the people of Palestine, who continue to endure systemic oppression through ongoing human rights violations linked to the occupation, including collective punishment, property confiscation, excessive use of force, unlawful killings, restrictions on freedom of movement, and relentless settlement expansion. These violations deprive them of essential services such as healthcare, disrupt access to water and electricity, and hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid, leading to famine and deepening inequality while undermining their fundamental human rights.

Pax Christi International calls on all parties to return to negotiations and establish a peace agreement that recognises and protects the dignity and rights of both Palestinians and Israelis, treating them as equals. Any revived peace process must be grounded in a firm commitment to international law and UN resolutions, particularly those affirming the rights of the Palestinian people and promoting stability across the region.

Pax Christi International prays for a just peace.

Humanity has had enough of this needless suffering! We owe it not only to future generations, but to all those in the Holy Land and the wider Middle East, whose lives are constantly at risk, living in fear, displaced, and forced to flee their homes amidst ongoing conflict.

Today, we pray for a just peace, in which we firmly believe. We also pray for decision-makers, faith leaders, and citizens to take a bold stand in favour of peace.

Pax Christi International

Link (English)

Link (French)

Link (Spanish)

Humanity in Middle East in “danger of spiralling into primitive barbarism”: Cardinal in South Africa Calls for Peace (ACI Africa)

Stephen Cardinal Brislin of South Africa’s Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town has expressed concern about the yearlong Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East, noting that the ongoing violent conflict that started on 7 October 2023 is threatening to plunge humanity into “primitive barbarism”. In a statement shared with ACI Africa on Monday, October 7, the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, Cardinal Brislin laments that efforts to restore peace in the region have been unsuccessful and the violence is having far-reaching global implications. “The situation is extraordinarily grave. Despite the efforts of many good and committed people who are striving for peace, humanity is in danger of spiralling into primitive barbarism forgetting the lessons learned from the spilling of blood of previous wars and the subsequent progress made in the defence of human rights,” he says. The South African Cardinal, who has been vocal in calling for prayers for peace in the Holy Land adds, “War is futile and will not bring about peace; it is a shame on all humanity”...

Israel’s Orwellian Strategy in Lebanon (The Progressive Magazine)

The upsurge in violence followed the controlled explosions detonated by Israel of pagers and walkie-talkies on September 17 and 18. In an attack that targeted Hezbollah members, Israel had concealed explosives inside the batteries of pagers brought into Lebanon. The attacks killed dozens of people—including children and health care workers—and wounded thousands, including at least 300 critically. In the United States, media pundits and members of Congress from both parties are praising Israel for a supposedly targeted campaign aimed at killing “terrorists.” However, it appears that only a minority of the overall casualties of the explosions in Lebanon were fighters. In addition to innocent bystanders, victims included members of Hezbollah’s political wing and employees of Hezbollah-run social services, including medics. When even Democratic members of Congress start defending assassinations of people simply due to their political affiliations (even if those are with a decidedly reactionary group like Hezbollah), it reveals a stunning contempt for the rule of law and a dangerous authoritarian mindset...

The New Face of Academic Freedom? (Americans for Middle East Understanding)

The 2023-2024 academic year was one of the most consequential for widespread student political mobilization and for the vicious threats to academic freedom that accompanied it. From university presidents, external donors, and local police departments to state and national elected officials – including President Biden – the battle being waged by institutions of academic and state power against students and faculty protesting the American-funded and supported genocide in Gaza being committed by Israel has been unprecedented...

After a Year of Middle East Turmoil, the Region Awaits More (International Crisis Group)

As the Gaza war grinds on, and Israel invades Lebanon, a heightened direct confrontation between Iran and Israel also looms. Crisis Group experts offer a 360-degree view of how these events have affected countries across the region and what a still wider conflict could bring...

Israeli forces fire on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon (UN News)

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon early Thursday morning, according to UNIFIL, the mission operating along the Security Council-mandated “Blue Line” of separation between the two countries which they patrol. “UNIFIL’s Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions have been repeatedly hit,” the UN mission said in a statement. “This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall... UN peacekeepers are present in south Lebanon to support a return to stability under a 2006 Security Council mandate. Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701, according to UNIFIL, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon... On Wednesday, IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras, UNIFIL said, adding that the IDF also deliberately fired on UNP 1-32A, where regular Tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began, damaging lighting and a relay station... IDF soldiers also fired on UN position 1-31 in Ras Naqoura, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering and damaging vehicles and a communications system...

>116 John5918: If / when IDF forces out peacekeepers, Israelis will do what they will in Lebanon. In mid-20th c. Israelis didn't attack UN peacekeeping officers but hosted a party to distract peacekeepers, while they forced out more Palestinians. My dad said that so soon after Holocaust, most peacekeepers arrived sympathetic to Israel, but switched sympathies by the time they left.

UN may eventually pull peacekeepers from Lebanon, but meanwhile, I suspect those on the ground, remembering Rwanda, will want to do what they can to protect innocents from attack. Decades ago, I recall Dad watching TV news and sighing over what had come of Lebanon -- it was so beautiful when he was there.

US urges Israel to stop shooting at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon (BBC)

US President Joe Biden has said he is "absolutely, positively" urging Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers during its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, following two incidents in 48 hours. On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops were responsible for the incident, in which two Sri Lankan soldiers for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) were injured... The leaders of France, Italy and Spain issued a joint statement condemning Israel's actions, saying they were unjustifiable and should immediately come to an end. Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemns" the IDF attack which injured two of its soldiers...

Israel attacks on UN in breach of international law, {Taoiseach} Harris says (BBC)

The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Simon Harris has described Israel’s attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon as a breach of international law. Speaking to BBC News in Washington DC, Harris said it was an "extraordinarily concerning development". The IDF has acknowledged that its troops "opened fire in the area" of the base in Naqoura on Thursday after instructing UN troops to "remain in protected spaces"... The taoiseach described attacks on three United Nations Interim Force positions in Lebanon (UNIFIL) as "really dangerous, despicable attacks on peacekeepers". He added that the IDF had positioned themselves at a UNIFIL outpost which was being manned by about 30 Irish peacekeepers, but had since moved following UN and US intervention. The taoiseach said that he was protesting "at the highest levels" in relation to the attack, and said that the United Nations, and all of the countries making up the peacekeeping mission should "speak with one voice" about what he called Israel's breach of international law. However, he said he was concerned that "Israel doesn't listen"...

Israel orders more evacuations in Lebanon, threatens medics who treat Hezbollah members (Guardian)

Israel has ordered more evacuations in southern Lebanon and threatened to target ambulances, as a third UN peacekeeper was wounded in Israel’s escalating conflict with Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah... The Israeli military also claimed on Saturday, without providing any evidence, that Hezbollah militants were using ambulances to transport themselves and weapons and called on medical teams to “avoid dealing with Hezbollah operatives and not to cooperate with them”. In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson threatened that it would target “any vehicle carrying armed men, regardless of its type”... The Guardian has previously reported that at least 50 paramedics have been killed since Israel launched its most recent attacks on Lebanon. All have belonged to healthcare services affiliated with either Hezbollah or Amal, another Shia political party – affiliations which rights experts say does not affect their protected status under international law... A UN report last week accused Israel of pursuing a concerted policy of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system in the war in the strip including “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities”, saying this constituted war crimes and extermination as a crime against humanity...

UN Resolution 1701, adopted by the UN Security Council in 2006 to resolve the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, has helped maintain relative calm along the Lebanon-Israel border for 17 years.

But recent escalations raise questions about its continued relevance.

1:00 (https://x.com/dwnews/status/1845220398914289802)

- DW News @dwnews | 5:50 PM · Oct 12, 2024

UN says Israeli tanks forced entry into base in south Lebanon (BBC)

The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon says Israeli tanks forced their way into one of its positions early on Sunday morning. In a statement, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks destroyed the main gate of a post in Ramyah, near the Israeli border, and "forcibly entered the position" to request it turn out its lights...

The New York Times @nytimes | 1:14 AM · Oct 14, 2024 {X}:

A Times investigation found that Israeli troops in Gaza have regularly forced captured Palestinians to carry out life-threatening tasks to avoid putting Israeli soldiers at risk on the battlefield.

Israeli soldiers during a military tour for journalists of a tunnel under a U.N. site in Gaza. The Times later found that a Palestinian had been forced to explore the tunnel. https://x.com/nytimes/status/1845694658023653603

How Israel’s Army Uses Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza
Israeli soldiers and Palestinian former detainees say troops have regularly forced captured Gazans to carry out life-threatening tasks, including inside Hamas tunnels.
{Paywall} https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-military-human-s...

Why the US is sending Israel a powerful Thaad anti-missile system (BBC)

The Pentagon has confirmed it is sending a high-altitude anti-missile system operated by US troops to Israel. Officials say the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery will bolster Israeli air defences after Iran’s missile attack on the country earlier this month... The move has become the focus of attention as it involves putting American boots on the ground in Israel. There are already a small number of US forces in the country - but this new deployment of about 100 troops is significant as it signals further US entanglement in the expanding regional war...

World Health Organization (WHO) WHO | 9:51 AM · Oct 17, 2024

86% of the people across the #Gaza Strip are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.
That includes nearly 133,000 people facing famine.
This number is expected to double in the coming months

GAZA STRIP: Risk of Famine persists amidst recent surge in hostilities
https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-112/en/
https://bit.ly/3Ue81U2

Photo, food line (https://x.com/WHO/status/1846911861062599163/photo/1)
WHO in occupied Palestinian territory and WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean

More than 150 NGOs Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon and Israel and End to Impunity amid a Spiralling Humanitarian Catastrophe and Escalating Regional Conflict

Full text of the 24th October 2024 statement can be found here in English and here in French.

Israeli MP behind bill to expel key UN agency accuses US of interfering with process
Dana Karni and Tim Lister | October 27, 2024

... If the bill passes in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, this week, it will prohibit any Israeli official from providing services or dealing with employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency and forbid UNRWA from operating in Israel.

Several countries, including the US, have expressed concern over the impact of the bill.

The Israeli government has claimed that some of the UN Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) staff are affiliated with Hamas. UNRWA has strongly denied the allegations, but several governments suspended funding for the agency earlier this year while the allegations were investigated.

The MP, Yulia Malinovsky, told CNN that US Ambassador Jacob Lew has contacted several opposition leaders, including Avigdor Lieberman, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, in an effort to get the legislation stopped.

... The US State Department ... said that the proposed legislation would make it impossible for UNRWA to operate and would leave a “vacuum that Israel would then be responsible for filling.” A spokesman said UNRWA provided vital services in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan ...

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/27/middleeast/unrwa-bill-israel-us-intl-latam/index....

If It Looks Like Ethnic Cleansing, It Probably Is
Haaretz Editorial | 29 Oct 2024

Haaretz
-------------------------------------

It is not ‘ethnic cleansing’, it is genocide
The term was invented by Serb genocidaires trying to cover up their crimes in the Bosnian war.
Nidžara Ahmetašević | 2 Jun 20242 Jun 2024

...“Ethnic cleansing” is a term coined by the genocide perpetrators during the wars that led to the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The term derives from military terminology referring to the “cleaning” (čišćenje) of an area after a military operation. Propagandists added “ethnic”, creating the term “etničko čišćenje”, and the media, politicians, even academia and international organisations helped spread it and keep it alive.

International criminal law recognises four types of core crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. The United Nations accepted the term “ethnic cleansing” in 1994, describing it as a method used to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes, leading to genocide. However, it is not a legally defined crime and, as such, cannot be prosecuted.

Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, defines “ethnic cleansing” as a “euphemism for genocidal practices” used to cover up events that should be prosecuted as genocide and to dehumanise its victims. In other words, the use of the term “ethnic cleansing”, if done intentionally, is part of genocide denial, which is the last stage of this crime .

...By using proper terminology and calling things what they are, we seek accountability and demand the prosecution of perpetrators. More importantly, we show respect for the victims and survivors.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/6/2/it-is-not-ethnic-cleansing-it-is-gen...

World must act to prevent ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Gaza, António Guterres warns (Guardian)

The UN secretary general, António Guterres has warned Israel could carry out the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza if the international community does not make a determined stand to prevent it... The UN secretary general, speaking on the sidelines of the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, suggested that the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza had been prevented until now by its people’s refusal to succumb to the intense pressure to flee their homes and by Arab resolve not to accept mass population transfers. “The intention might be for the Palestinians to leave Gaza, for others to occupy it,” Guterres told the Guardian. “But there has been – and I pay tribute to the courage and the resilience of the Palestinian people and to the determination of the Arab world – an effort to avoid the ethnic cleansing becoming a reality. “We will do everything possible to help them remain there and to avoid ethnic cleansing that might occur if there is not strong determination from the international community,” he added. Jordan’s foreign secretary, Ayman Safadi, last week told the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken that ethnic cleansing was already happening in Gaza. Israel’s military denies systematically trying to force Palestinians from the territory...

Proposed ambassador to Israel: former gov of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee. "There's no such thing as a Palestinian" (2008).

I hope all them "uncommitted" folks are pleased with the selection that they helped select.

Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod | 3:09 PM · Nov 14, 2024:
Senior Staff Writer/Podcast Producer, @MintPressNews. I mostly tweet about US/Mid East & Lat Am. politics, but complaining about corporate media is my passion.

BREAKING: Today, the United Nations voted 170-6 on "The Right of the Palestinian People to Self-Determination".

Those voting against:
🇺🇸United States
🇮🇱Israel
🇦🇷Argentina
🇵🇾Paraguay
🇫🇲Micronesia
🇳🇷Nauru

News about Pope Francis Urges Inquiry Into Gaza Genocide Allegations
Aaljazeera | 17 Nov 2024

... excerpts from an upcoming book ... “According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide ... We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies” ...

The book, by Hernan Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the pope, is entitled Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims towards a Better World. It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 yearlong jubilee, which is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/17/pope-francis-urges-inquiry-into-gaza-g...

Muslim ban in first go-round didn't give them pause??

Some Arab Americans who voted for Trump are concerned about his picks for key positions
JOEY CAPPELLETTI | November 17, 2024
https://apnews.com/article/arab-americans-trump-cabinet-israel-677003f64d0a255a0...

Arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas commander over alleged war crimes (BBC)

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defence minister, as well as the military commander of Hamas... The judges said there were “reasonable grounds” the three men bore "criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the allegations...

No 10 indicates Netanyahu faces arrest if he enters UK (BBC)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces arrest if he travels to the UK, after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, Downing Street has indicated. A No 10 spokesman refused to comment on the specific case but said the government would fulfil its "legal obligations"... The court's member countries, including the UK, have signed a treaty that obliges them to act on arrest warrants...

>73 lriley: Appearances of smallpox, polio and other diseases.

Really? How many cases?

I don't know if you're repeating a lie, or misremembering, but making transparently false claims really hurts credibility. Smallpox is gone; last native case in 1977. The only way for there to be appearances of smallpox would be biological warfare, and I'm sure I wouldn't hear about it this way.

>89 John5918: It is illegal for sovereign states to forcibly occupy territory outside their boundaries, even where there are legitimate disputes about the territory.

It's a nice rule, but I don't see how it works. Neighboring states have harbored terrorists attacking Israelis from over the board. Israel has forcibly occupied territory in part to protect itself from ongoing attack from those terrorists. I fail to believe that Israel has no recourse to missiles coming from neighboring countries.

Moreover, if Arab nations had succeeded in 1948 or 1967, there would be no Israel. And nobody would care now. Laws passed by people who are unwilling or unable to enforce them don't mean much. Maybe Israel taking that land did stop some future invasions, by making attacking Israel actually have a bit more of a cost. The invasions are illegal, but whoop-de-doo, nobody is going to do anything about that, either.

It also seems that a lot of the Europeans who are complaining about what Israel did in 1948 are a little hypocritical, as Germans who had been living it what was post-war Poland and Czechoslovakia for centuries were expelled 1945-1950, about the same period. As well as the borders that were moved at that point in time to hurt the defeated Germans and help the victorious Russians.

Israel was, rightly or wrongly, wisely or unwisely, created by the UN in 1948 as a sovereign state with clearly defined boundaries

Israel, as a sovereign state with those boundaries, never existed. Israel has no reason to accept those boundaries, and no reason to trust that if it gives those borders, that it will stop any future attacks. Hamas is clear enough that those lines are at best a temporary solution to them, that they want a united Palestine. And going back to that illegal thing, Israel knows that even if they smile and shake hands with representatives of the Palestinian people and accept those boundaries, if another invasion comes, nobody is going to put boots on the ground to defend those lines.

Honestly, it's been 75 years since that proposal. It failed. The borders and terms need to be worked out between the involved parties, not by offering some long failed proposal as inherent fact.

If the law is found to be an ass, to quote Dickens, then let there be a due process to modify the law, but let us not just ignore it on a case by case basis, thus undermining its integrity and utility.

What integrity and utility? It's only been enforced in very rare occasions. The UN put boots on the ground when Kuwait was invaded and removed Iraq (1991). They did no such thing in Israel (1948), Hungary (1956), Israel (1967), Syria (1967), Czechoslovakia (1968), Afghanistan (1979), Iran (1980), Georgia (2008) or Ukraine (2014).* Even in 2022, there's no military support of Ukraine, and a lot of the weapons come with stipulation about not actually using them inside Russia. If the law will not protect a country, demanding they act to their detriment to follow it is going to get ignored.

>86 kiparsky: I mean, it's nice to see people trying to do something on this, but there is no two-state solution. Never was, never will be. Basic plane geometry, if nothing else. The idea that Israel can leave Israel is just goofy.

I've thought that Palestine should join with the Arab nations that connect to their land. I know those nations have loudly objected to any such idea, but I don't know if it's purely anti-Israel (since any such deal would de facto legitimize whatever land wasn't transferred as Israel) or concerns about the PLO/Hamas causing internal troubles, or other reasons.

Jerusalem as an international city was pure fantasy. If someone was willing to do the work, it could have happened, but you can't just say "this is going to be an international city" and expect two groups who have no desire to share the city to work all of what it takes to make that happen. Israel is not going to give up Jerusalem. So that part of the two-state solution will never work.

I don't see how a unified Israel/Palestine could work. Frankly, I'm worried that the US can't survive as a democratic state as divided as it is. Unify Israel and Palestine by force, with neither side trusting each other, when one side gains power, it's going to do as much as it can to disempower the other side, to disenfranchise them as well as hurt them. Unless I have the numbers wrong, Hamas and co. will continue killing Jews and those who identify as Israeli, and Israeli police will crack down on Palestinians with a distinct disdain for civil rights and call it law-and-order.

* Yes, I didn't include any US activity on the list. The last time we annexed land or fought a war to annex land was in the Spanish-American War. I'm sure people can offer up a list of US misdeeds, though I will point out that all of the cases I listed involved military invasion and not merely espionage finagling.

>137 prosfilaes: I suspect the new more virulent strain of Mpox, a relative of smallpox, will find Gaza fertile ground. Bad news for all of us...

Visegrád 24 @visegrad24 | 9:17 AM · Nov 10, 2024:

BREAKING:
Israeli soldiers in Gaza just found thousands of hours of video footage of Hamas torturing their political opponents, people suspected of working with Israel and gays.

Never forget that Hamas is a terrorist organization.
.
.
.
{Difficult to watch. And people ask why Gazans didn't eject Hamas...}
0:48 (https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1855661184810176664)

Amb. Murray on the ground in Beirut. Very brave, but horrifying. He is a target. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lysGP9Py_M

Israeli government orders officials to boycott left-leaning paper Haaretz (Guardian)

Israel’s government is set to punish the country’s leading left-leaning newspaper, Haaretz, by ordering a boycott of the publication by government officials or anyone working for a government-funded body and halting all government advertising in its pages or website... Haaretz, which is Israel’s oldest newspaper and widely respected internationally for its reporting and analysis, has been a fierce critic of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his current coalition government, the most rightwing in the history of the country. The newspaper has published a series of investigations of wrongdoing or abuses by senior officials and the armed forces, and has long been in the crosshairs of the current government. It has also been a vocal supporter of the campaign for a ceasefire to free hostages seized by Hamas in October last year and still held in Gaza. In a statement on Sunday, Haaretz accused Netanyahu of seeking to “dismantle Israeli democracy” and said the resolution to boycott the newspaper was “opportunist” and had been passed by ministers without any legal review...

>141 davidgn: Interviewed again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6wpOVUyQoM

https://truthout.org/articles/us-response-to-icc-netanyahu-warrant-could-deal-de...
US Response to ICC Netanyahu Warrant Could Deal Death Blow to International Law
“The Hague Invasion Act” authorizes the military to forcibly extract US and allied nationals if arrested for war crimes.

By Marjorie Cohn , Truthout
Published November 26, 2024

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She sits on the national advisory boards of Veterans For Peace and Assange Defense, and is the U.S. representative to the continental advisory council of the Association of American Jurists. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.

Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza (Amnesty International)

Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said in a landmark new report published today.

The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. 

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.

“States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.”

Over the past two months the crisis has grown particularly acute in the North Gaza governorate, where a besieged population is facing starvation, displacement and annihilation amid relentless bombardment and suffocating restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.

“Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard. 

“Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent.”

The full report, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, can be found here

>145 John5918: Meanwhile, the chattering classes in the U.S. will continue to clutch their pearls about whether the President should have pardoned his son or not. I just can't.

This one should be cited by the future historians. Reproducing in full from https://chasfreeman.net/is-the-zionist-state-now-doing-itself-in/

Is the Zionist State Now Doing Itself In?
Chas Freeman 2024-10-04
Is the Zionist State Now Doing Itself In?
Remarks to the Community Church of Boston

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)

By Video, 4 October 2024 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcAn3mXCRAw )

There will always be an Israel. It is a theological ideal and mythic memory that has survived millennia in the minds of observant Jews. Some Christians link Jewish dominance of Palestine to the second coming of Christ and the End of Days. The multinational religious communities that profess Judaism will ensure Israel’s permanence as an idea. But both the Zionist State of Israel and the Jews who inhabit it are now in jeopardy. Palestine is where the humane values of Judaism have gone to die.

An abbreviated history seems appropriate.

The first Christians were Jews, but European Christendom never applied the brotherly love Jesus taught to the Jews in its midst. Instead, it classified them as socioreligious pariahs – an alien caste. Like the castes of India, Jews married only each other, had a distinctive religious identity, and were restricted to specialized socioeconomic roles. In the case of European Jews this meant occupations involving money lending and other sorts of financial engineering. European xenophobia, called “antisemitism” when directed at Jews, resulted not just in their persecution but in their occasional pillage and murder, for example by Crusaders preparing to conquer the Holy Land from its mostly Muslim inhabitants. It is fair to say that the Holocaust – the greatest atrocity of the 20th century among many – was less an innovation than the culmination of centuries of prejudice and persecution of Jews by other Europeans.

Against this background, it is easy to understand the appeal of Zionism – an effort to transform Jewish religious identity into a national identity and to set up a state in which Jews would be a ruling majority rather than a vulnerable minority. Zionism’s proponents argued that Jews, like other European ethnolinguistic groups, were entitled to self-determination. Ironically, Zionism thus embraced European Christendom’s antisemitic designation of Jews not as adherents of a religious faith but as a “people” distinct from other Europeans.

European antisemites thought it would be just dandy to get rid of the Jews in their midst. But where should they go? What better than to export them to one of European colonialism’s many overseas colonial dominions?

Most of the original Zionists were not themselves religious but they judged correctly that locating their proposed state in the mythic homeland of Judaism – Palestine – would grant it a religious legitimacy it would otherwise lack. As Ilan Pappé, the noted Israeli historian, has quipped: they did not believe in God but insisted that He had promised Palestine to them. And, with the racist condescension typical of European imperialism, they ignored the presence of an indigenous population in their proposed homeland, describing Palestine as “a land without people” for the “people without land” that they were in the process of inventing.

As the Ottoman Empire imploded during the First World War, Britain – in an act intended to undermine Jewish support for Germany – declared its support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” provided that “nothing shall be done … to prejudice the … rights of existing non-Jewish communities” there.1 But for the Jews colonizing Palestine the whole point was to establish Jewish supremacy there, not to affirm the rights of its non-Jewish inhabitants. A multifaceted Zionist campaign to dispossess the indigenous Palestinian Arab population was soon underway.

In the late 1930s, the increasingly brutal Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany led to a surge in Jewish emigration to Palestine. This set off the 1936 – 1939 “Great Palestinian Revolt” against both British rule and Zionist colonization. Britain reacted in 1939 by issuing a “White Paper” proclaiming a policy of establishing a Jewish homeland through regulated Jewish immigration to an unpartitioned, independent state of Palestine, which was to come into being within ten years.2 Palestinian leaders feared this policy would dispossess them and firmly rejected it. For their part, armed Zionist settlers violently resisted its implementation, charging that it would put them at the mercy of Palestine’s Arab Muslim and Christian majority.

Prior to World War II, most European Jews opposed Zionism or were indifferent to it. The Nazi Holocaust understandably convinced them that to protect themselves and their posterity from genocide they needed to set up an exclusively Jewish state in Palestine.

After the war, with more desirable safe havens – like the United States – denied to them, a mounting flood of European Jews sought resettlement in Palestine. Zionist paramilitaries simultaneously launched violent campaigns against the British authorities, Palestinian Arabs, and Jewish dissenters. Their aim was to achieve self-determination and establish an exclusively Jewish state by ridding Palestine of its indigenous inhabitants. Their targets included civilians as well as security personnel, government figures, and infrastructure. (In 1991, Yitzhak Shamir, a participant in this terrorist campaign who had become the prime minister of Israel, justified Jewish terrorism on the grounds that the Jews, stateless and persecuted, had no choice but to engage in it. By contrast, he asserted, the Palestinians, are “fighting for land that is not theirs. This is the land of the people of Israel.”) Zionism’s morally blind sense of entitlement and reliance on terrorism against its opponents have never varied.

In the face of this, in 1947, the British threw up their hands and tossed the problem of Palestine into the lap of the United Nations. The UN – then dominated by colonial powers – imperiously recommended the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with the city of Jerusalem under international control. At the time, the population of Palestine was two-thirds Arab and one-third European Jewish. The UN plan nonetheless awarded fifty-six percent of the country, including most of its best agricultural land, to Jewish colonists, while allocating only forty-two percent of it to its native Arabs.

Palestinian leaders, joined by every state in the region and newly independent India, opposed both partition and the UN plan for it as unfair. For newly independent states, the award of territory in Palestine to European Jewish settlers was a terminal affront as the age of racist Western colonialism sputtered to an end.

Under intense pressure, including death threats from Zionist activists, the UN General Assembly voted to approve the plan. Zionist leaders accepted it, while complaining that it would burden their proposed state in Palestine with a forty percent Arab minority. They began planning to seize more territory and Jerusalem if they could.

The British right to rule in Palestine was due to expire at midnight on May 14, 1948. In April of that year, newly augmented Zionist forces began an offensive to secure the cities and territories the UN partition plan had allotted to the proposed Jewish state, to encourage its indigenous inhabitants to leave, and to position themselves to seize even more land if the opportunity presented itself.

A few hours before the British began their scheduled withdrawal from Palestine, the World Zionist Organization proclaimed the State of Israel and mobilized its armed forces. The next day military contingents from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq entered Palestine. In the ensuing conflict, Zionist forces – many of them battle-hardened by warfare in Europe – took not only the territory assigned by the UN to a Jewish state but sixty percent of the territory designated for Palestine’s Arabs. The new Israeli armed forces and Jewish militias conducted over seventy documented massacres of Palestinians and terrorized over 720,000 of them into abandoning their homes and fleeing to neighboring countries. Israeli forces also seized West Jerusalem, voiding its proposed status as part of an international city and complicating Jerusalem’s continuation as a point of pilgrimage for the world’s Muslims and Christians, for whom it was also a holy city.

While Jews in the new state of Israel celebrated, those in the broader Arab world almost at once suffered the consequences of their European coreligionists’ violent expulsion of over half of Palestine’s Arab Muslim and Christian populations. Over the course of the next decade, the hate-filled reaction to this catastrophe – النَّكْبَة – in Arab countries led increasing numbers of Jewish Arabs to abandon their homes and flee to Israel. Israel’s surprise attacks on Egypt in 1956 and on Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in 1967 as well as its several invasions of Lebanon then cemented Arab enmity to the Zionist state, fomented Arab and Muslim antisemitism, and resulted in the departure of all but a few of the ancient Jewish communities in the Islamic world. Once in Israel, Arab Jews were indoctrinated in the evils of the European Holocaust and assimilated to a national culture based on fear of renewed slaughter of Jews by hateful antisemites – equated with the 99.08 percent of non-Jewish human beings.

In its 1967 “Six Day War,” Israel gained control of all of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, as well as Syria’s Golan Heights. This marked a fateful choice for Zionism. Having invented a “Jewish people” to populate what it had proclaimed was “a land without people,” Zionists now faced the inconvenient reality that the land they had seized was, in fact, already populated. Israel could use its victory and its control of Palestine to dictate a basis for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. Or it could persist in implementing policies designed to rid the West Bank and Gaza of its captive Arab populations. True to its Zionist origins, Israel chose to pursue the goal of eradicating all but a vestigial Arab Muslim and Christian presence in the Holy Land.

In the territories of pre-1967 Israel, a system of apartheid evolved, in which the twenty-percent Israeli Arab Muslim and Christian minority is discriminated against, segregated from Jewish Israelis, and denied many of the benefits available to Jewish citizens. In the West Bank, martial law evolved into a Kafkaesque system of checkpoints that oppressed and atomized its Palestinian inhabitants by separating them into 165 or so disconnected enclaves and progressively evicting them to make way for Jewish settlements and outposts in hundreds of places selected for their military value to the Israeli occupation and its annexationist agenda.

The cumulative result is the Israel of today, in which non-Jewish Arab Israelis are second-class citizens, Arabs in the occupied West Bank are disenfranchised and subject to Jewish settler and military terrorism, while the inhabitants of Gaza are being slaughtered and starved to death. As I speak, the extermination campaign in Gaza has been extended to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Occupation brutalizes the forces conducting it. Israel has been no exception. As time has gone on, the Israeli occupation forces and the conscripts that man them have become ever less constrained by morality or empathy for those they violently oppress.

In the beginning, Israel used pseudo-legal procedures to dispossess Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank but, as time went on, it came to rely ever more on terrorism by Jewish settlers, aided and abetted by the Israeli military. It is now openly applying the murderous techniques it pioneered in Gaza to the West Bank and Lebanon.

After the withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza in 2005, Israel transformed it into the world’s largest concentration camp. It controlled Gaza with periodic invasions and massacres of its inhabitants in a policy that it sardonically called “mowing the grass.” On October 7 last year, Palestinians in Gaza – a persecuted people without a state of their own – responded by applying the logic of Yitzhak Shamir’s justification of Zionist terrorism to the Israeli settlers and military reservists on Gaza’s periphery.

The Zionist state’s aim has been to create conditions so intolerable that Palestinians would voluntarily leave, transforming Palestine into the “land without people” it originally envisaged. In its effort to rid Palestine of its non-Jewish inhabitants, Israel has emerged as the world’s most brazen violator of the norms enshrined in international law and the post-war Geneva conventions. Ironically, the world enacted these conventions precisely to preclude a recurrence of the cruelties that the Nazis and Japanese militarists had inflicted on occupied populations during World War II – most notably the genocide of Europe’s Jews. With its behavior, Israel has turned the star of David on its flag into a global symbol not of resilience and redemption but of genocide and other crimes against humanity.

Israel’s policies toward its captive Palestinian populations now blatantly violate the norms the post-war conventions enshrine. To cite a few obvious examples:

• Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that an occupying power must not transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, yet the Zionist state’s settlement of occupied Palestinian lands is still its central mission and activity. Some 720,000 illegal Israeli settlers have dispossessed and now lord it over Palestinians in the West Bank.
• The same article provides that “collective penalties and all measures of intimidation or terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.” Yet these measures are the very means by which Israel has long terrorized the inhabitants of both Gaza and the West Bank.
• Article 76 of the same Convention prohibits an occupying power from murdering, torturing, mutilating, beating, or otherwise brutalizing the population under its control. Yet Israel relies on such sadistic practices – including sodomy and rape – to punish Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are detained without charge.
• The separate Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 defines genocide as destroying a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. It criminalizes this behavior, the conspiracy to commit it, public incitement of it, the attempt to commit it, or complicity in it. The government of Israel and its army are currently committing every one of these crimes. The foreign governments supplying Israel with arms and protecting it in the United Nations have yet to face formal charges at the Hague but are full accomplices in this genocide.
• The United Nations Charter demands that all states refrain from the threat or use of force against other states. Customary international law requires reprisals for violations of this prohibition to be proportional to the injury suffered. It restricts preemptive or anticipatory defensive actions to circumstances in which there is “a necessity of self-defense, instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment of deliberation.” Yet Israel repeatedly retaliates disproportionately to any and all affronts, attacks its neighbors preemptively without regard to whether there is evidence of an imminent threat from them, and assassinates both their own officials and Palestinians on their soil.

This is not, by any means, a complete list of Israel’s violations of international law and human decency. Israel offends these norms – to which the United States and Europe loudly proclaim allegiance – because it has Western backing to do so.

The Zionist state has gotten away with criminally scofflaw behavior because:

• Europeans guilty of antisemitism, including aiding and abetting the round up and slaughter of Europe’s Jews, have conferred compensatory immunity on the Jews of Israel.
• A powerful, unregistered lobby in the United States and United Kingdom, directed by the Israeli government and funded by native Jewish plutocrats, has made it politically fatal to criticize the behavior of the Zionist state.
• The Western bloc in the UN Security Council – the United States, United Kingdom, and France – has shamelessly protected Israel by vetoing every and all attempts to hold it accountable for its outrageously illegal behavior.
• Until recently, Israel – aided by biased, self-censoring Anglo-American media – was careful to keep its gross violations of Palestinian human rights below the radar screen. But the October 7 breakout of Palestinians from their incarceration in Gaza inevitably focused global attention on the outrageous Israeli treatment of them that had inspired their criminal atrocities against Israelis just outside Gaza. Israel’s subsequent effort to exterminate the Palestinians in Gaza has indelibly shattered the image of Israeli and other Jews as eternal victims. The world now sees Israelis not as survivors of genocide but as vengeful perpetrators of it, heirs to the Nazis who sought to exterminate them as they now seek to exterminate the Palestinians. In much of the world, the Star of David has come to evoke the same revulsion as the Nazi swastika does in the West.

Israel is not a casual scofflaw. Since its establishment, it has systematically sought to normalize behavior that contravenes international law. As a former head of the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) Legal Department argued:

“If you do something for long enough the world will accept it. The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries . . .. International law progresses through violations.”

A colleague of his pointed out that:

“The more often Western states apply principles that originated in Israel to their own non-traditional conflicts in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, then the greater the chance these principles have of becoming a valuable part of international law.”

This Israeli strategy of “lawfare” has succeeded in eroding international law and eliminating American compliance with it. Tolerance of illegality abroad fosters tolerance of it at home and vice versa. American enablement of Israel’s brutal oppression of its captive Arab population and its wanton warfare on its neighbors has corrupted American politics and constitutional democracy in the United States as much as it has deformed American foreign policy.

The result is the current U.S. advocacy of an autocratic, so-called “rules-based order” as an alternative to traditional consensus-derived international law. The United States and its close allies assert the right to proclaim the rules and decide to whom they should and should not apply. Might is once again to make right. The strong are to do what they can and the weak to suffer what they must. The world at large considers this approach, which the unconditional U.S. protection of Israel epitomizes for them, to be prima facie sociopathic.

For Israel and its neoconservative sycophants in the United States, the ends justify the means, and the ends transparently equate to the establishment of Jewish supremacy not just in Palestine but in West Asia. Since its founding in 1948, Israel has steadily expanded without agreeing borders with either the Palestinians or its Arab neighbors. The stripes on the Israeli flag symbolize bodies of water – a river and a sea or another river. The uniforms of some Israeli troops are adorned with a notorious map that depicts the State of Israel as extending from the Euphrates to the Nile. This reflects the belief of religious Zionists that God once promised this vast territory, consisting of part of Egypt, most of Iraq, all of Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria as well as northern Saudi Arabia to the Jews. This is a vision of depopulation through slaughter.

Israel now exists. Does Israel justly claim “a right to exist?” Not if that implies that no one else has the right to exist “between the river and the sea.” Does it deserve to exist? Not if its existence depends on sadistic violations of human decency and international law. Can the world tolerate the existence of a state that has institutionalized an ethnoreligious democracy that survives by dehumanizing and terrorizing a disenfranchised captive population, while aspiring to exterminate it? Can it fail forever to take action to stop Israel’s indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinians and Lebanese? What’s your answer to that?

These questions have become, I believe, the transcendent moral issues of our times. The world is watching and weighing the amorality of American enablement of Israeli genocide, persecution, and ethnic cleansing of its captive Arab populations. America’s reputation and global leadership are at an historic nadir. Ever more Americans of conscience object to Washington’s complicity in Israel’s gross violations of human rights and international law.

If there is no path to peace in the Holy Land, Israel’s state terrorism will inevitably stoke terrorism against it and the United States as well as the escalating opprobrium of Israel’s neighbors and the global majority. To preclude this, Israel now seeks a regional conflagration – an apocalypse from which its current government believes that, with American backing, it will emerge triumphant.

The blank check we have given to Israel is not a strategy. It is a tragedy in the making. And it is one for which the world will justly hold the United States responsible.

Let us not forget that U.S. taxpayers pay for the Zionist state’s misdeeds. Israel has been and still is by far the largest single recipient of U.S. foreign aid. In 1964, in return for financial support from wealthy Jewish American donors for his presidential campaign, then President Lyndon Johnson agreed to drop America’s post-Suez arms embargo on Israel. Since then, the United States has provided about $250 billion in military aid to Israel. Keeping Egypt at peace with Israel has cost the United States another $165 or so billion. Americans are responsible for Israel’s persecution of the Palestinians and wars on its neighbors in ways we are not in other countries whose evil behavior we do not subsidize but whose conduct we condemn.

In normal times, Washington funds about fifteen percent of the Israeli defense budget, while unofficially suspending the Leahy law, which prohibits arms transfers to countries using them to violate human rights and international law. The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have both found that that is exactly what Israel is doing. Washington has nonetheless continued to support Israel’s extermination campaign in Gaza, turned a blind eye to its pogroms in the West Bank, and backed its murderous attacks on Syria and now Lebanon with at least another $40 billion in emergency aid and over 50,000 tons of weaponry. The government of the United States is funding, arming, and excusing Israel’s inexcusable behavior toward both the Palestinians and its neighbors.

The world is now calling Americans to account. Will we continue to exempt Israel from accountability for its gross violations of our proclaimed values, our laws, and international norms? Will we persist in allowing it to manipulate our elections to facilitate its suicidal policies? Will we continue to enable its campaign of genocide in Palestine and now Lebanon? Will we follow it into the wider war in West Asia that its current government persists in trying to ignite?

I heard nothing at all about these questions at either of our major parties’ national conventions.

What is to be done? And if we don’t demand that it be done, who will?

1 The “Balfour Declaration,” 2 November 1917.

2 White Paper, May 1939, stating British policy in Mandatory Palestine.

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Edited for formatting, and now to add this interview with the author from yesterday:

Amb. Chas Freeman: From Ukraine to Syria, Are we heading Towards Huge Escalations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYHwzxli53Y

>146 davidgn:

Thank you. That was well worth reading.

So now an apartment building in The Hague (of all places) blows up today (of all days). 10 minute drive from the ICC, 14 to ICJ. 5 confirmed dead, dozens possibly in rubble. Car noted fleeing the scene. Worth monitoring.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/12/08/at-least-five-killed-after-explosi...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clykk717n1ko

Amb. Murray's most recent mini-doc showcasing the destruction in Tyre.
Per Peter Oborne: "A beautifully made, thoughtful and very moving film from Craig Murray and his team. The BBC ought to have made this and I wish they had."
https://x.com/OborneTweets/status/1865500740988325985

"Our 3rd mini-documentary from Lebanon shows why it is essential to be here. We document Israeli atrocities around Tyre and encounter the great courage, strength and humour of ordinary people.
Please support our work at http://craigmurray.org.uk"
https://x.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1865356416304705772

>148 davidgn: https://www.gelderlander.nl/binnenland/live-politie-geen-aanwijzingen-voor-drugs...
(autotranslated)

09:35
King Willem-Alexander is 'in shock' by the consequences of the explosions at the Tarwekamp in The Hague on Saturday morning. "I'm shaking on my legs ," he said after a visit to the district. According to the king, the consequences of the explosions were 'beyond all imagination'.

Gaza death trap: MSF report exposes Israel’s campaign of total destruction (Press Release)
Medecins Sans Frontieres | 19 December 2024

A new report from MSF highlights how repeated Israeli military attacks on civilians in Gaza, and the systematic denial of humanitarian assistance are destroying the conditions of life.

Our teams in the north of Gaza are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed.

The health care system lies in ruins and medical staff - including MSF's - have been detained or killed.

We call for an immediate ceasefire and for states to leverage their influence to alleviate the suffering of people and enable a massive scale-up of aid in Gaza.

... The MSF report notes that even if the Israeli military offensive on Gaza ended today, its long-term impacts would be unprecedented, given the scale of the destruction and the extraordinary challenges of providing health care across the Strip. A staggering number of war-wounded people are at risk of infection, amputation, and permanent disability, and many will require years of rehabilitative care. The cumulative physical toll and mental trauma caused by the extreme violence, loss of family members and homes, repeated forced displacement, and inhumane living conditions will scar generations.

https://www.msf.org/msf-report-exposes-israel%E2%80%99s-campaign-total-destructi...

Israel accused of act of genocide over restriction of Gaza water supply (Guardian)

Israel’s restriction of Gaza’s water supply to levels below minimum needs amounts to an act of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, a human rights report has alleged. Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated Israeli attacks on the water supply infrastructure in Gaza over the course of its 14-month war there. It has accused Israeli forces of deliberate actions intended to cut the availability of clean water so drastically that the population has been forced to resort to contaminated sources, leading to the outbreak of lethal diseases, especially among children. Israel’s actions have killed many thousands of Palestinians and constitute an act of genocide, HRW argues, citing declarations by ministers in the country’s ruling coalition that Gaza’s water supply would be cut off as evidence of intent...

Full HRW report: Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water

>150 davidgn: https://nltimes.nl/2024/12/18/motive-behind-arson-killed-six-hague-may-involve-s... Well, that's a relief. Seems domestic.

Swedish Dockworkers Union vote to refuse to handle weapons shipments to Israel.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0IwlZtuGg/?igsh=ZTdtanVyYXBkcHdi

'I can't put my life on hold' - Israel's war-weary reservists look for an end to fighting (BBC)

Israel’s war on multiple fronts has not just worn down its enemy. It's not just taken the lives of thousands of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. It’s also continuing to extract a price from its own people. There’s a growing sense of war weariness in Israel. The recent ceasefire deal with Lebanon will be a relief for many... As an IDF reservist Noam would normally expect to do a few weeks of military service a year. But this past year he’s spent 250 days in uniform. The war, he said, had ripped him away from the life he knew. His plans to become a doctor have also been set back by a year... “I can’t put my life on hold anymore,” he said. Unless there was a dramatic change in the direction of the war, he said he wouldn’t be returning to his unit. He’d had enough. The IDF already acknowledges that fewer reserves are now reporting for duty... Reserves and conscripts are the lifeblood of the IDF. Brigadier General Ariel Heimann – also a reservist and a former chief reserve officer - says Israel is too small a country to have a large, expensive, professional, regular army. Without reservists, he says, the IDF wouldn’t be able to fight or survive... Brig Gen Heimann admits the IDF’s reliance on reserves will become more challenging the longer the war goes on... in a sign of the strain the IDF wants to extend mandatory service for male conscripts from 32 to 36 months... The Bank of Israel said in May that the cost of the war for Israel could reach $70bn (£55bn) by the end of next year, an estimate made before the country's ground invasion of Lebanon. Small businesses are among the hardest hit...

Israel forcibly evacuates Gaza hospital and detains medical staff (BBC)

Israeli forces have detained and interrogated medical staff after forcibly evacuating the last major hospital in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says. The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was among those taken for questioning by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which accused him of "being a Hamas terrorist operative", without providing evidence. On Friday an estimated 50 people, including medical staff were killed in Israeli air strikes targeting the vicinity of the hospital, the health ministry said... The WHO said it was "appalled by yesterday's raid" on the hospital, which it said now meant the area's last major health facility was out of service... In recent days, the hospital's administrators have issued desperate pleas appealing to be protected, as they say the facility has become a regular target for Israeli shelling and explosives...

This comes shortly after "The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN staff were at Yemen's international airport in Sanaa on Thursday during Israeli air strikes which are reported to have killed at least six people" (link).