Israel #6

Foreign Affairs seems to offer one free article before subscription required.
I remember my Cdn military dad, once a UN peacekeeper (Suez) being sad to see Lebanon in war w Israel (1982): he remembered Lebanon as a beautiful place (a "Riviera"). Gaza, he pitied as a poor, dry and rocky place. Still, article below finds similarities from Lebanon for Israel's war on Gaza. To paraphrase Rahm Emanuel (and others), hopefully this time a crisis will not go to waste.

The Ghosts of Lebanon
To See What Lies Ahead in Gaza, Look Back to Israel’s 1982 Invasion
Sarah E. Parkinson* | November 14, 2023

...The similarities between Israel’s {1982} invasion of Lebanon and its operations in Gaza go beyond just the choice of tactics. Then, as now, the invasion began after a shocking Palestinian attack. Then, as now, Israel’s hawkish leaders opted for a maximalist response. Then, as now, much of the fighting took place in densely populated urban areas, with militants often interspersed among civilians. And then, as now, the IDF used disproportionate force.

This parallel is not heartening. If Lebanon is any guide, Israel’s war in Gaza will end poorly for both Palestinians and Israelis. Despite its military superiority, Israel never succeeded in eradicating the PLO. Instead, the IDF’s primary accomplishments were killing tens of thousands of civilians; fragmenting Palestinian groups into smaller cells that spent years conducting hit-and-run operations; inspiring the rise of a new Lebanese militant party, Hezbollah; and losing over 1,000 of its own citizens in an occupation that stretched until 2000. It is a pattern that is already playing out again...

...the military and humanitarian lessons of Lebanon strongly suggest that the current catastrophic conditions in Gaza will grow only more acute and that there will be long-term, disastrous consequences for all parties. Israel’s long-standing approach to urban warfare, its plans for occupation (Netanyahu has said that Israel will assume “overall security responsibility” for Gaza for an “indefinite period of time”), its alliances with nonstate militias, and its use of mass imprisonment all echo what happened in Lebanon. It is therefore hard to imagine the outcome will be substantively different.

...the military and humanitarian lessons of Lebanon strongly suggest that the current catastrophic conditions in Gaza will grow only more acute and that there will be long-term, disastrous consequences for all parties...

That extends, unfortunately, to the death toll...

Palestinian casualty numbers, of course, dwarf Israeli ones—another indication of just how disproportionate IDF tactics are...

Despite the likely consequences today, Israel has not been willing to consider a cease-fire, claiming that it would mean victory for Hamas...misleading. A cease-fire’s real winners would be civilians and nonviolent social movements...A cease-fire’s losers, by contrast, would be Hamas and Israeli hard-liners...

Given the current, high tensions, it is hard to say how or when this war might end...

If Biden does {push for end to Gaza war}, he would follow a precedent set by another U.S. president: Ronald Reagan...

There is evidence that the administration’s demands forced Israeli decision makers to change their behavior. {in Lebanon}...

Today, Biden must again use U.S. influence to push for an end to an Israeli war. A cease-fire is the only politically reasonable, security-enhancing, and morally defensible policy to advocate, especially if Washington has any hope of remaining a respected player in the Middle East. The alternative is to condemn the people of Gaza—most of whom oppose Hamas—to more bombs, bullets, and burns. It is to make them endure continued dehydration, starvation, and disease. It is to take an already impoverished, massively overcrowded enclave and set any chance it has at development back by decades. It is likely to create a new generation of militants who will risk their lives to fight Israel. “This has all happened before” is the strongest argument there is to stop something from happening again.

* SARAH E. PARKINSON is the Aronson Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Beyond the Lines: Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/ghosts-lebanon

Fact Check: Did Israel Build Bunker Under Shifa Hospital?
Newsweek | Nov 15, 2023

...True.

Multiple sources have corroborated that a bunker or basement was built at Israel's discretion {SIC "direction"?} in the 1980s.

It remains unclear whether Hamas operates the space beneath the hospital as a major military headquarters, even though the IDF has presented evidence of weapons stashed in the hospital...

https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-israel-build-bunker-under-shifa-hospital...

>2 margd: I believe it was 1983. Aerial photographs also have a squared off opening in the ground next to one of the hospital buildings that the IDF has also made out to be an underground tunnel or bunker which instead is a cistern to collect water. Considering the dearth of clean water in Gaza that makes a lot of sense for a hospital to have that.

The Israeli human shield defense of killing a lot of people to get to a couple or a few is a war crime. If cops had blown up the Parkland School to (safely for them) get to the shooter but killing a bunch of kids in the meanwhile people would rightly have been enraged. I don't know why they think that this logic passes muster but unfortunately it's good enough for a lot of our own politicians.

Still working through the Johnson, Jeffries, Schumer Rocky moment at the pro Israel gathering the other day. Really really weird. Add in John Hagee and it takes us into bizarro land. Don't people know who this nut is?

>3 lriley: Larry, I'm very sorry to tell you that before long, people will.

Two very important reports that very much go together.

'The fear is everywhere': Israel's fascist internal crackdown | The Marc Steiner Show
71,840 views Nov 14, 2023 The Real News Network Podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o10D7WBdNS0

Al Aqsa Flood and its consequences are shaking Israeli society from within. While Netanyahu's government continues a brutal campaign of collective punishment against Gaza, some Israelis are questioning why their government is more committed to massacring Palestinians than effectively securing the swift release of hostages. As dissent spreads, the government is turning to fascist methods to repress those who speak out, effectively eliminating freedom of speech and arresting those who defy them. Israeli photojournalist Oren Ziv joins The Marc Steiner Show for a special discussion co-hosted with Israeli filmmaker Lia Tarachansky.

TRANSCRIPT:
https://therealnews.com/the-fear-is-everywhere-israels-internal-crackdown

What really happened in Israel on Oct. 7? w/Max Blumenthal | The Chris Hedges Report
Premiered 109 minutes ago The Chris Hedges Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0gECjlpXF8

For all the sensationalism surrounding the events of Oct. 7, when Hamas broke through the Gaza fence and seized territory in the Gaza Envelope as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, there is still much that we do not know. The official Israeli death toll from the attack is estimated at 1,200 civilians (sic), revised from an initial estimate of 1,400. Among this figure are several hundred civilians, which Israel says were killed by Hamas militants. Other testimony from survivors of Oct. 7 suggests an alternative explanation—that in its fervor to defeat Hamas, Israeli commanders may have willingly targeted and sacrificed Israeli soldiers and civilians in the crossfire. Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone joins The Chris Hedges Report for an in-depth look.

TRANSCRIPT:
https://therealnews.com/did-israels-military-kill-its-own-civilians-on-oct-7

margd asked at one point about the roots of Iranian-Israeli enmity. This latest from Ker-Lindsay may begin to answer that.

HEZBOLLAH | Israel’s New Front?
Prof James Ker-Lindsay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9tMDZZ1rZs

Yes, he's writing in Al-Mayadeen (and, of course, subject to their editorial conventions), but to hear this analysis coming from an old-school MI6 Arabist like Crooke, with his degree of experience dealing directly with all sides, is vertigo-inducing.

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/-israel-s---nakba-doctrine
(cf. Nov. 10 https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/levelling-gaza-is-no--end-game--... )

Sen. Mark Warner-Va. saying Biden could lose support in key states over Israel/Palestine. He warns Israel that the war they're in is about hearts and minds and they should be careful. Netanyahu does not give a rats ass about Biden losing key states or United States perceptions on hearts and minds. I'm sure he loves Biden's support on this but he'd also rather have someone like Trump in the White House. If Likud members lived in the United States they'd be all about keeping immigrants out.....they're hard right wingers. They see pretty much everything in a hard right wing way. Warner and democrats are making a huge mistake if they think Netanyahu and his Likud party will ever have their backs.

>8 lriley: Many/most will disagree, but I like to think that Biden is willing to lose support if it means doing the right thing--support Israel's right to defend itself, do what he can to protect innocents, use this crisis to bring about two states living in peace with one another. In doing so, he's put his legacy in the hands of ...Netanyahu... and decisions made long ago. Also, lots to lose for Americans in the 2024 election, who may now be in the hands of ...Netanyahu...

>9 margd: support Israel's right to defend itself

I think that phrase has become a bit of a red herring. There's hardly anybody in the world who doesn't support Israel's right to defend itself. The question is rather whether what Israel is doing at the moment is part of legitimate self defence or whether it is a war crime. Most people tend towards the latter view.

>9 margd: What the Israel govt. has IMO is an internal state issue which it has brought upon itself with its own racist policies against part of its own population. A policy it refuses to adjust at all to bring about negotiating for peace with that part of the population. It's clear that those in Likud running the government do not want Palestinians of any kind living in the territory of Israel including the West Bank and Gaza which so many would rather call Judea and Samaria instead and open it up to more settler expansion. It's clearly an issue of displacing and exiling millions of Palestinians. This is more Likud claiming the right to defend itself IMO than the state of Israel necessarily.

Watching the botch job the other day of the IDF finding weapons hidden in bags behind the MRI machines in Al-Shifa hospital. Apparently the people behind that video atrocity didn't realize that the magnets in the MRI machines would cause those weapons to fire were they really hidden behind those machines when those machines were in operation. Of all the places in a hospital to hide weapons that's pretty much the last place you'd want to. Don't think Hamas go into battle wearing uniforms either. That would just make them easier targets. Anyway that video apparently has disappeared already into the ether.

>12 lriley: Never heard of that before, but apparently MRI machines CAN cause (loaded) weapons to fire!
( https://healthimaging.com/topics/medical-imaging/magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri/... ) Huh.

>13 margd: Yeah that guy died. He didn't tell anyone and concealed the weapon in his waistband. The machine yanked it out of his waistband and triggered it and he was shot. It reminded me of my trip to get an MRI this year. Did not want any metal going in with me.

This article from Salon is very good:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/decades-u-war-crimes-led-110001737.html

keeping in mind the billions upon billions that go into our military industrial complex year after year and the carte blanche given to arms manufacturers to send weapons all over the world (not just that they sell here). It's like a zillion $ industry from year to year. We're a war happy country and we proactively export our war happiness. IMO our belligerent ideas about religion and capitalism are part of this too.

WHO in occupied Palestinian territory @WHOoPt | Last edited 6:09 PM · Nov 18, 2023:
WHO leads very high-risk joint humanitarian mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

18 November 2023 - Earlier today, a joint UN humanitarian assessment team, led by WHO accessed Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and conduct a rapid situational analysis, assess medical priorities, and establish logistics options for further missions. The team included public health experts, logistics officers, and security staff from OCHA, UNDSS, UNMAS/UNOPS, UNRWA and WHO.

The mission was deconflicted with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to ensure safe passage along the agreed route. However, this was a high-risk operation in an active conflict zone, with heavy fighting ongoing in close proximity to the hospital.

Earlier in the day, the IDF had issued evacuation orders to the remaining 2,500 internally displaced people who had been seeking refuge on the hospital grounds. They, along with a number of mobile patients and hospital staff, had already vacated the facility by the time of the team's arrival.

Due to time limits associated with the security situation, the team was able to spend only one hour inside the hospital, which they described as a “death zone,” and the situation as “desperate.” Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and were told more than 80 people were buried there.

Lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid over the last six weeks have caused Al-Shifa Hospital—once the largest, most advanced, and best equipped referral hospital in Gaza—to essentially stop functioning as a medical facility. The team observed that due to the security situation, it has been impossible for the staff to carry out effective of waste management in the hospital. Corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, increasing the risk of infection. Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation. Al-Shifa Hospital can no longer admit patients, with the injured and sick now being directed to the seriously overwhelmed and barely functioning Indonesian Hospital.

There are 25 health workers and 291 patients remaining in Al-Shifa, with several patient deaths having occurred over the previous 2 to 3 days due to the shutting down of medical services. Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, two people in intensive care without ventilation, and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised. The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, including many with complex fractures and amputations, head injuries, burns, chest and abdominal trauma, and 29 patients with serious spinal injuries who are unable to move without medical assistance. Many trauma patients have severely infected wounds due to lack of infection control measures in the hospital and unavailability of antibiotics.

Given the current state of the hospital, which is no longer operational or admitting new patients, the team was requested to evacuate health workers and patients to other facilities. WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families. Over the next 24–72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza. However, these hospitals are already working beyond capacity, and new referrals from Al-Shifa Hospital will further strain overburdened health staff and resources.

WHO is deeply concerned about the safety and health needs of patients, health workers and internally displaced people sheltering at the few remaining partially functional hospitals in the north, which are facing risk of closure due lack of fuel, water, medical supplies, food, and the intense hostilities. Immediate efforts must be made to restore the functionality of Al-Shifa and all other hospitals to provide urgently needed health services in Gaza.

WHO reiterates its plea for collective efforts to bring an end to the hostilities and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire, the sustained flow of humanitarian assistance at scale, unhindered humanitarian access to all of those in need, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the cessation of attacks on health care and other vital infrastructure. The extreme suffering of the people of Gaza demands that we respond immediately and concretely with humanity and compassion.
Photo ( https://twitter.com/WHOoPt/status/1726014852076904450/photo/1 )
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Grant Smith Ellis @GrantSmithEllis | 4:21 AM · Nov 18, 2023

Just now;
Live on @AJEnglish Saturday, a doctor who left #AlShifaHospital said many people are still trapped.

At 9AM #Gaza time (2AM ET), the IDF demanded al-Shifa doctors leave by 10AM.

However, some have stayed behind as the UN cannot arrive to remove amputees until 11AM.
Grant Smith Ellis
@GrantSmithEllis
·
20h
Update;

In a follow-up statement, a doctor who was forced to evacuate #AlShifaHospital in #Gaza on Saturday morning confirmed that a 4th premature baby died today and was buried in a mass grave.

The doctor also reports #Israel did not allow the remaining NICU babies to leave.
Grant Smith Ellis
@GrantSmithEllis
·
20h
On Saturday after 10:45AM in #Gaza (3:45AM ET), Dr. Adnan Al Barsh, Director of Orthopedics at #AlShifaHospital, confirmed that medical personnel were forced to leave the facility by #Israel's army at gun-point earlier today.

150 people (including babies) are still trapped.
Grant Smith Ellis
@GrantSmithEllis
·
20h
One of the last reporters in #Gaza, @YoumnaElSayed17
, delivered a report on Saturday morning about the current evacuation of #AlShifaHospital.

Youmna confirms that doctors were forced to leave patients behind at gunpoint and that #Israel banned ambulances on the 2+ mile journey.
Grant Smith Ellis
@GrantSmithEllis
"I'm telling you, we were forced to leave at gunpoint."

Dr. Mohammed Zaqout, Director General of #Gaza's hospitals, denied IDF claims that medical staff and patients "requested" an evacuation from #AlShifaHospital.

The doctor begged @PalestineRCS and ICRC to intervene.

3:34 Al Jazeera ( https://twitter.com/GrantSmithEllis/status/1725806438399041904 )

DW News @dwnews | 11:45 PM · Nov 18, 2023

LIVE UPDATES: Israel, the US and Hamas are close to a deal that could see dozens of women and children held hostage by the Islamist militant group in Gaza freed in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, the Washington Post has reported.

https://trib.al/Fs7dmQL

Barak Ravid @BarakRavid | 3:38 PM · Nov 18, 2023
Political reporter for Axios covering foreign policy & the 2024 election. Washington correspondent for Walla. Author of Trump's Peace.

🚨BREAKING: Biden says the U.S. is prepared to impose sanctions {visa bans?} on Israeli settlers who are involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
🚨Why it matters: This is a big deal. It's the 1st time the U.S. is publicly considering individual sanctions against settlers {many are Americans?}

Text https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1725976743234683347/photo/1
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Biden writes two different letters on :Gaza war, reflecting his US audience
Messages to pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel Americans are not contradictory but it is an uncommon White House practice.
Al Jazeera | 18 Nov 2023

...While one letter showcased Biden’s support for Israel against Palestinian group Hamas’s “terrorism”, the other spoke about the US administration’s efforts to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip....

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/18/depending-on-his-us-audience-biden-wri...
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Ariel Koren @ariel_koko | 9:29 PM · Nov 18, 20
Thousands are occupying California Democratic Convention in Sacramento, both floors of the building completely shut down. CEASEFIRE NOW @POTUS
0:06 ( https://twitter.com/ariel_koko/status/1726065103580401689 )

Pope Francis to meet with families of Israeli hostages and Palestinians with relatives in Gaza (ACI Africa)

Pope Francis will meet with the families of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas at his next Wednesday general audience, and he will also meet separately with a group of Palestinians with relatives suffering in Gaza... “With these meetings, which are exclusively humanitarian in nature, Pope Francis wants to show his spiritual closeness to the suffering of each person”... Pope Francis has frequently prayed for peace in the Holy Land in his public audiences since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last month. He has also repeatedly called for the hostages being held by Hamas to be freed and for the protection and humanitarian support of civilians in Gaza. In his Angelus address on Nov. 12, he said: “I am close to all those who are suffering, Palestinians and Israelis. I embrace them in this dark moment. And I pray for them a lot.” “In Gaza, let the wounded be rescued immediately, let civilians be protected, let far more humanitarian aid be allowed to reach that stricken population. May the hostages be freed, including the elderly and children,” Pope Francis said. “Every human being, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, of any people or religion, every human being is sacred, is precious in the eyes of God, and has the right to live in peace”...

Samuel Ramani (Oxford U) @SamRamani2 | 8:13 AM · Nov 19, 2023:

BREAKING: China will host foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries to de-escalate the Gaza War

China has not invited Iranian diplomats to its Gaza War talks
But there are some interesting trends
The US has urged China to serve as a moderating influence over Tehran
Iran says it is willing to work with China on de-escalating the Gaza War and China bought more Iranian oil

China's approach to Iran in the Gaza War is quite similar to Russia's
But China doesn't have the depth of Russia's diplomatic relationships with Iran-aligned militia groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the PMU in Iraq and Houthis in Yemen

The Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia as well as the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) will be represented

China was initially cautious about engaging in diplomacy on the Gaza War but this is noteworthy for its Global Security Initiative
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FMs (Foreign Ministers) From Palestinian Authority, Muslim Nations To Visit China On Monday: Foreign Ministry
AFP - Agence France Presse | November 19, 2023

..."During the visit, China will have in-depth communication and coordination with the joint delegation of foreign ministers of Arab and Islamic countries to promote a de-escalation of the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, protecting civilians, and justly resolving the Palestinian issue," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in a statement.

...Following the outbreak of war last month, Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Wang Yi have called for an immediate ceasefire and a "cooling down" of the situation.

https://www.barrons.com/news/fms-from-palestinian-authority-muslim-nations-to-vi...
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Arab-Islamic ministerial committee to kick off Gaza war talks in China: Saudi FM
Al Arabiya English | 19 November, 2023

A ministerial committee tasked by the Arab-Islamic summit to formulate an action plan to stop the war on Gaza will kick off its work from China, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan announced.

Ministers from Arab and Muslim countries are expected to start their flurry of political activity from China on Monday (20 Nov 2023)...

“The first stop will be in China and will then move to a number of capitals to deliver the clear message that there must be a ceasefire immediately as well as aid and humanitarian needs must be immediately delivered to Gaza,” Prince Faisal said after meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on the sidelines of a conference in Bahrain. “We must work to end this crisis and end this war on Gaza as soon as possible” ...

...China will discuss with these foreign ministers ways to promote the cooling of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the protection of civilians and a just settlement of the Palestinian issue.

The officials visiting are from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation...assigned to conduct talks over the war in Gaza by the Arab-Islamic Summit that was hosted by Saudi Arabia on November 11...

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2023/11/19/Arab-Islamic-ministeri...

>20 margd: Signs of an instinct for self-preservation seem to be cropping up everywhere all of a sudden (except in the Israeli cabinet).
Perhaps the Chinese will save us from ourselves after all? I suppose that's better than the alternative.

>21 davidgn: China's 12 or 13 points for Ukraine peace sounded pretty reasonable as a whole. Fingers crossed that they can serve as honest broker in the Middle East, where they have less involvement... Same problem in both places, though, that one or both parties don't want to stop.

BDS movement @BDSmovement | 11:59 AM · Nov 19, 2023:
Official account of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC). We're the Palestinian leadership of the global Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement

Major General Giora Eiland, former head of the Israeli National Security Council, writes that Israel should encourage, not shy away from, the spread of epidemics and humanitarian disasters among the 2.3M Palestinians in occupied Gaza to reach victory faster. #GenocideEnabler

Quote
Tali @TalulaSha | 10:52 AM · Nov 19, 2023:
Anarchist in Palestine. Ask me about Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions of Israel.

Full translation of Giora Eiland's genocidal column in Yediot Ahronot.
I expect all relevant parties to start issuing arrest warrants and writing up prosecution files....

Text p1 English ( https://twitter.com/TalulaSha/status/1726267178201362438/photo/1 )
Text p2 English ( https://twitter.com/TalulaSha/status/1726267178201362438/photo/2
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Quds News Network @QudsNen | 9:04 AM · Nov 19, 2023:
From #Palestine 🇵🇸 to the world.

Israeli General Giora Eiland calls for tough measures, stating, "The international community warns of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and of severe epidemics.

We must not shy away from it. Severe epidemics in the south of the Strip will hasten victory."
Text (Hebrew?) ( https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1726239911013982326/photo/1 )

Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig | 5:28 PM · Nov 19, 2023:
Israeli. Author: The Wrong Kind of Jew. Son of Amazigh+Iraqi Jewish refugees. Founder: @TLVinstitute
Seen: @latimes NBC newsweek BBC & more

Every possible route Hamas terrorists could have taken the hostages into Gaza would have passed through at least 5 other hospitals before reaching Shifa Hospital.

They didn't take them there for "medical treatment"; they brought them specifically to Shifa because it's their headquarters.

Map ( https://twitter.com/HenMazzig/status/1726366860164165733/photo/1 )

>25 margd: Distinctly unconvincing with likely false premises. When and where were the hostages in question injured (by Israeli bombing?)
Pathetic attempt to put a fig leaf on war crimes.

ETA: Oh, this was supposedly on the 7th? I get the impression that as Gaza hospitals go, Al-Shifa would be the place with the closest thing to a decent trauma center. Not all hospitals are equal. So, there's that.

Josh Kraushaar @JoshKraushaar | 9:07 PM · Nov 19, 2023:
Editor in chief, @j_insider . @foxnewsradio political analyst. Political reporting & analysis, without fear or favor.

NBC poll:
Hamas: 1/81 fav/unfav
Palestine; 20/38 unfav
Israel: 47/24 fav/unfav
Social media isn’t reality. Also underscores how much of an outlier college campuses are these days.

Quote
Armand Domalewski @ArmandDoma · 8h
data, development...

Hamas has the lowest approval rating I’ve ever seen in American politics. 1%!
Table, fav/unfav countries, politicos ( https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma/status/1726370025098137671/photo/1 )

>27 margd: No fav/unfav on ceasefire? Could also poll Netanyahu.

>29 lriley: Yes.
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DW News @dwnews | 1:30 PM · Nov 20, 2023:
Houthi rebels in Yemen have escalated their attacks against Israel. According to a spokesperson of the Iran-backed militia, they hijacked the "Galaxy Leader" cargo ship in the southern Red Sea yesterday.
Galaxy Leader cargo ship {+ 25 crew}

https://www.dw.com/en/israel-gaza-yemens-houthis-turn-red-sea-into-crucial-front...

>27 margd: It doesn't exactly support me to hear that nobody supports Hamas, or that it's a vanishingly rare position. As a Palestinian-American student at Wayne State put it in an interview I saw (to paraphrase), "Carrying a Palestinian flag does not show support for Hamas. Hamas has their own flag. You don't see anybody carrying that."

The Netanyahu doctrine: how Israel’s longest-serving leader reshaped the country in his image (Guardian)

He first became prime minister in 1996, and has been pushing the country further right ever since. Most agree his political days are numbered – but the approach he established will prove very difficult to shift... the relative calm of the last decade-and-a-half was built upon a series of illusions: that the Palestinians and their aspirations for freedom could be hidden behind concrete barriers and ignored; that any remaining resistance could be managed through a combination of technology and overwhelming firepower; that the world, and especially Sunni Arab states, had grown so tired of the Palestinian issue that it could be removed from the global agenda, and consequently, that Israeli governments could do as they pleased and suffer few consequences. The attack on 7 October shattered all these presumptions... Successive Netanyahu governments did not make Israelis safer. Instead, they made them vulnerable to attacks such as the one Hamas carried out. Netanyahu did not chart a path for Israel out of its dependence on the United States. Instead, he left Israel as dependent on its US backer as it was during the only comparable disaster in Israel’s history, the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Netanyahu promised to streamline the state and make government more efficient. Instead, Israel’s bureaucracy has been hollowed out, its social services underfunded and unresponsive. And yet, while Netanyahu’s vision for Israel has been utterly discredited, there is no clear successor poised to break with it. The iron tracks that Netanyahu laid may prove too hard to shift. The current crisis may very well mark the end of Netanyahu’s public career. But Israel may also be trapped in conditions of his making long after he is gone...

>31 davidgn: Yeah, some people need to have it spelled out: pro-Palestine is not pro-Hamas. Some are trying to squelch pro-Palestinian's free speech by labeling them antisemitic or pro-Hamas?

>33 margd: You bet.

I think being both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel is where you'd want to get to. If you put a random Jewish Israeli next to a random Muslim Palestinian (or change about religions all you want or even make them secular) I wouldn't want to choose between them and say this one is better than that one. Differences in religion, background or culture shouldn't make one better than the other. Equality is a hard place to get to even on wealth, race, gender, gender orientation or class let alone religious beliefs.

jon oliver was mentioned above, and finally got around to watching it. Definitely targets on >33 margd:,>34 davidgn: and >35 lriley:. he says at the end: if we do not have empathy, we are lost. well worth watching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ9PKQbkJv8

Prof. John J. Mearsheimer: Will Russia and China Intervene in Gaza?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WbC-AR-QG0

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom
Streamed live 75 minutes ago #Israel #Gaza #ceasefire

The current consensus suggests that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are making significant strides against Hamas in Gaza, inching closer to achieving their objectives.

Critics point out that the IDF has yet to fully dismantle Hamas's intricate tunnel network, a key infrastructure that enables the militant group to move covertly and stage attacks. Furthermore, the IDF's miscalculation regarding the contents beneath the al Shira hospital suggests that the operational intelligence may not be as accurate as needed for a successful campaign.

Join me with Professor Mearsheimer as we discuss the facts and future of the ongoing war in Gaza.

On the tunnels---the IDF is in Gaza and we've been hearing about these tunnels since early October and it's the IDF's job to go into these tunnels and root Hamas out. It's a lot easier to bomb and kill civilians but this is the real job not the bombing and killing/maiming of innocents and it's a shit job. It's like the police going into a school building to get a shooter(s). You might lose a few doing it but it's what they're paid for as well as providing help to innocents. I don't blame soldiers for not wanting to do this part (because your life and loved ones are pretty much all you really have) but they're not really soldiers if they don't or won't.

Hey, Joe, are we singing along? Joe?
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1726343210400960967

ETA:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/11/20/israeli-children-singing-annihilate-gaza/

Couldn't even let Palestinians have their own protest chant...

US Jews attempt to trademark 'From the river to the sea' Palestinian chant
This slogan, emerging from the Palestinian nationalist movement in the 1960s, has been used to advocate for various political visions.
ZVIKA KLEIN, MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN | NOVEMBER 23, 2023

..."It could backfire, and eventually all kinds of people we don't want to wear hats and shirts with this slogan will buy the goods and use them, and it will spread around the world," said Lihi Katzenelson, a partner at Arnon, Tadmor-Levy Law Firm, who specializes in trademarks and intellectual property.

Joel Ackerman and Oron Rosenkrantz filed trademark applications for the phrase that refers to the geographic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The slogan became popular when the Palestinian nationalist movement first used it in the 1960s. It has since been used to express Palestinian aspirations of a Palestinian state that covers all of this territory and, therefore, wipes Israel off the map.

Ackerman, representing River to the Sea LLC, seeks to trademark the entire chant: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," Rosenkrantz of From The River To The Sea Shop LLC has applied only for "from the river to the sea."

Katzenelson explained that if the men receive the trademark, they can enforce their rights against third parties that try to use it. However, she clarified that the applications filed a week ago apply only to hats and shirts in these cases. Moreover, receiving the trademark could take between nine months and a year.

To receive a trademark in America, the owner must prove use – like in Israel, which could also prove a challenge. Finally, if the brand would go through, it would only apply in America, meaning that in other areas, such as Europe, where the slogan has become popularized, it would still be able to be used...

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-774723

_________________________________________

Looks like Joel Ackerman, representing River to the Sea LLC, successfully trademarked the entire chant: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free":
https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1727707064951099895/photo/1

oh for heavens sakes

>41 cindydavid4: I'm sorry. Just more than I can take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5SMzQzdnZw
Israeli History Teacher Arrested & Jailed for Facebook Posts Opposing Killing of Palestinians
Democracy Now!

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/22/meir_baruchin

>40 margd: contd.

Israel banned use of Palestinian flag in occupied territories after 1967 war?
https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1727899846474969554/photo/1
https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1727899633957925086/photo/2

Most people know Stieg Larsson for his series of crime novels starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but he was really a journalist turned crime writer and before he died of a heart attack in his 50's one of the main obsessions of his life or at least according to Jan Stocklassa who wrote The Man who played with fire: The man who played with fire: Stieg Larsson's lost files and the hunt for an assassin was finding out who assassinated (and why?) the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in February of 1986 and Larsson according to Stocklassa had two storage lockers crammed full of material on the assassination. If I remember Stocklassa was granted the opportunity to look through all this material and amongst other things he found that Larsson was trying to make some sense of was the collusion between the Thatcher and Reagan governments, Israel, Swedish right wingers (some living in Sweden, some in South Africa and some between) in the apartheid South African regime in trading oil for weapons working around what turned into in the United States into the Iran contra scandal.

So I found this from the New Republic kind of interesting reading today:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-arms-world-autocrats-weapons-110000184.html

Back to Stocklassa's book there was fear amongst some world leaders in 1986 that Palme a democratic socialist who had resisted alliances with all of Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.A. had found out much of what was going on....was making too much noise about it and was going to blow the lid off of it before very long. He was murdered on a Stockholm street after leaving a movie theater with his wife who was also shot and almost died.

Mavi Marmara Redux. This could explode in terrible ways.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/1000-boats-said-set-to-leave-turkey-for-gaza-water...
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/gaza-freedom-flotilla-to-sail-again/

oh just what the world needs right now. I dont remember anything about the Mavi Marmara at all, think I was too focused on Iraq at the times. This just does not bode well

>47 cindydavid4: This looks promising. Haven't specifically seen it, but Journeyman does good work. Might rent it this weekend.
https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Lost-at-Sea/dp/B07YNWRMTN

Write-up:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/features/remembering-mavi-marmara-we-really-believ...

Taken: Palestinian freedom, land, flag, protest chant, public joy...

Palestinian release celebrations forbidden (2:47)
CNN | 26 Nov 2023
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/24/palestinian-release-celebrations-for...

40% of Israel's foodstuffs come from farms near Gaza border?
Foreign labor has fled after Hamas killing, abduction of foreign workers as well as Israelis.
Some Israeli volunteers helping, but not enough. Not a longterm solution.

(3:50) https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/23/israel-farms-hamas-attack-robertson-...

The war in Gaza has been an intense lesson in western hypocrisy. It won’t be forgotten

People have seen too much that will stay with them too long. Trust in the ‘international community’ will never be the same...

Meanwhile, as an example, two articles from two very different news agencies:

World, protesters silent on Sudan massacres: 'no mob outside the White House' (Fox)

Death and destruction in Sudan don't seem to be on the agenda on campus, around country... A minimum of 5.6 million people have been driven from their homes, a further 25 million need aid and some 9,000 have been killed in Sudan since the latest conflict began earlier this year, according to the U.N. The situation gets worse daily, with increasing credible reports of ethnically based attacks and rape of women and children. Yet Sudan is literally the forgotten war...

Sudan aid workers risk ‘kidnap and rape’, experts warn (Al Jazeera)

Aid organisations make urgent call for humanitarian corridors to allow them to do their work safely...

And two more from Al Jazeera highlighting narratives which are generally overlooked in the western media.

Israeli settlers steal Palestinian farmers’ land in occupied West Bank

Farmers in the occupied West Bank face near-daily incursions and violence from Israeli settlers, to the point that they live in fear of having their homes and land stolen, they say...

Israa Jaabis returns home after release from Israeli prison

Watch the moment Palestinian woman Israa Jaabis returns home and embraces her son after eight years imprisoned in Israel. She was released on the second day of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas which saw 39 Palestinians come home...

>51 John5918: For the Fox story, who is it blaming for the lack of protests about the Sudan war? The US administration? It would prefer no protests. Palestinians in the US? Really?

And, in any case, what the protests are about is the US unconditional support for one of the sides that are commiting war crimes. The US doesn't support any actors in the Sudan war to nearly the level that it supports Israel

>53 jjwilson61:

Indeed, I do not necessarily support Fox News' take on anything, but the point for me is that the USA was interested enough in Sudan when the Chevron oil company was there in the 1980s, or when Osama bin Laden was there in the 1990s, or when Bush was trying to convince the world that he was not anti-Islam in the early 2000s, ie whenever it suited the USA's perceived self-interest, but neither the US government nor the media take any interest in conflicts and humanitarian disasters (which are often the same thing) when it sees no immediate self-interest.

Likewise the Al Jazeera piece. I watched several western news channels yesterday and there was wall to wall coverage of the touching scenes when detained Israelis were reunited with their families, but barely a mention of the detained Palestinians who were also reunited with their families, some after being held in appalling conditions for years, not just a few weeks.

Netanyahu is Deadly Wrong | Col. Larry Wilkerson
Dialogue works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtJK-Xatzyk
As always, one of our last honest men.
ETA: I hope he's right about the domestic political polling, but holy crap would we be fools to count on that.

Francesca Albanese: Western media is living in an "alternate reality" | The Listening Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1X4q4Ue5a8

In recent weeks, there has been an alarmingly small number of official voices calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
One exception has been Francesca Albanese - the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian territories. She joins us for an interview on terminology, context and the blindspots of mainstream media.

>54 John5918: "...neither the US government nor the media take any interest in conflicts and humanitarian disasters (which are often the same thing) when it sees no immediate self-interest..."

Also, from my limited experience, media is more likely to cover a story if the subject reaches out with a story, or if it's readily available.

e.g., IDF suppressed public celebration for return of Palestinians, as opposed to supplying info on plight of Hamas's victims.

e.g., Thailand worked with Iran for Hamas to release Thais, and did not advertise.
----------------------------------------------------
To their credit, some media dig for their stories:

DW News @dwnews | 7:19 PM · Nov 29, 2023:
The mother of a Thai worker who was killed in the October 7 terror attack in Israel says poor farming families like her do not have a choice but to send their children to work abroad.
1:36 ( https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1730018596917518522 )

Released Palestinians allege abuse in Israeli jails (BBC)

Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails say that guards carried out abuse and collective punishment in the weeks after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October. They have described being hit with sticks, having muzzled dogs set on them, and their clothes, food and blankets taken away. One female prisoner has said she was threatened with rape, and that guards twice tear-gassed inmates inside the cells. The BBC spoke to six people in total, all of whom said they were beaten before leaving jail. The Palestinian Prisoners Society says some guards are alleged to have urinated on handcuffed prisoners. And that six prisoners have died in Israeli custody in the past seven weeks. Israel says all its prisoners are detained according to the law...

Whatever your view of the Israel-Hamas war, rape is rape. To trivialise it is to diminish ourselves (Guardian)

This week, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, finally called for what he described as “numerous accounts of sexual violence during the abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas” to be “vigorously investigated”...

I was interested in a little BBC story that two of the Israeli hostages in Gaza are in fact Muslim Bedouin Arabs who happen to be citizens of Israel. I had been uncertain whether to think of Hamas as essentially an Islamist group or essentially an Arab nationalist group, but this willingness to act against Arab Muslims, along with their obvious disdain for the security of Gaza's citizens and the integrity of its civil society, suggests that they are neither, but are in fact just local warlords interested in power through terrorism.

>60 MyopicBookworm: I read that one Israeli Arab killed Oct 7 was a paramedic trying to reach the victims.

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

A blueprint reviewed by The {NY} Times laid out the attack in detail. Israeli officials dismissed it as aspirational and ignored specific warnings.

...Officials privately concede that, had the military taken these warnings seriously and redirected significant reinforcements to the south, where Hamas attacked, Israel could have blunted the attacks or possibly even prevented them...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intellig...

>62 margd:

Yes, BBC also reports that much of the three years of training and preparation was actually posted on social media, but was ignored by Israel, assessing they amounted to the "standard" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being "indicative of a looming large-scale attack".

>60 MyopicBookworm: There is the origin story of Hamas being at least to some degree organized and bankrolled by the Israeli govt. to create a Muslim opposition to the two state solution that the PLO and other global actors wanted but Israeli right wingers did not want. I'm no expert on that but it's a story that's come up again and again in recent weeks from all kinds of different sources.

If you look at Gaza as an open air prison of some 2 million residents about half of which are children under 18 years of age---with food insecurity, with very little potable water to go around, a super condensed population for the area with super high unemployment, where it's almost impossible for the residents within to get out for any reason and where there is no controlling authority within but Hamas and when you think about that last bit....Gaza is part of the territory known as Israel, why are there not at least some legitimate civilian ( like police, let alone military) Israeli authority within this part of Israel? if it's part of Israel. The answer is pretty much the right wing Likud party that controls Israel decided they could lock away this problem they didn't want to resolve, that it then could be ignored and that would be enough and basically those within could all die and they wouldn't have to care less. They weren't interested in sending in food, water or the basic human needs.....just call them all criminals and that would be the end of it. Norman Finkelstein calls the residents of Gaza concentration camp inmates and it's hard to disagree with that. To me Hamas is like what happens to a prison when there are no guards inside. The biggest, nastiest gang inside takes over and runs the show. This is not the fault of Gazans. This is a problem created by the Israeli govt. which refuses to see Palestinians as equals.

Civil War And More Slaughter: Israel's Dark Future | Knesset Member Dr. Ofer Cassif
Neutrality Studies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzX_sYAoNDM

Dec 1, 2023
Ofer Cassif is an Israeli Member of Parliament who has been fighting for peace and reconciliation with the Palestinians and their right to return to their homeland. He predicts that Israel is dooming itself not only by committing genocide against the Palestinians and shocking the entire non-western World, but by arming its own citizens to the teeth. Civil war is around the corner as society is growing ever more extremist and its democratic institutions are being dismantled. Unless there is rapid change, Isreal will self-destruct from the inside.

A humane voice I'm sorry I haven't heard before.

In its war against Hamas, Israel faces a tragic choice between two different routes to disaster

The Israelis’ goal of destroying the enemy risks slipping further out of reach the more they pursue it... there are no good options, only two different routes to disaster. In fighting Hamas, Israel faces just such a predicament – and yet there are too many, among both those who defend Israel and those who denounce it, who refuse to see that. Start with those who believe that the massacre by Hamas of more than 1,200 Israelis on 7 October gives Israel the moral licence to respond however it sees fit, subject to almost no limitations. In this view, the horror of the October attacks, the sadism and cruelty of the killing, torture and rape, crossed every moral red line and so Israel can do whatever it takes to defeat those to blame. Not as revenge, but as prevention – to ensure that Hamas cannot make good on its vow to stage another 7 October, and another and another, until Israel is eradicated. This view can bridle at any attempt at restraint... But even on its own logic, that position can quickly run into moral quicksand. Even if you believe that almost any death toll in Gaza would be a morally acceptable price to pay for the absolute defeat of Hamas, you would struggle to defend the current Israeli strategy – because few believe it will, in fact, result in the absolute defeat of Hamas... The laziest form of politics is practised by those who pretend complex problems are easy or can be solved cost-free...

Activist on trial for damaging UK sites of Israeli arms maker says he was justified

A co-founder of Palestine Action on trial with others for damaging an Israeli arms manufacturer’s UK sites has said they were justified because they were trying to stop people being bombed. Richard Barnard, 51, and seven other defendants are accused of charges relating to actions against Elbit Systems Limited, which he said Palestine Action aims to “shut down”. On Friday, the first day of the defence case, Barnard, giving evidence, said he was inspired to take action by his Catholic faith, stories he heard while working with refugees in Dover and the fact that a subsidiary of Elbit – Instro Precision – had an arms factory near where he lived in Kent. “The idea was – and the idea still is – to end the British complicity in the Israeli apartheid regime,” he told the jury. “I am trying to prevent war crimes … I am trying to stop bombings and trying to stop drones {in Palestine}”...

Both from the Guardian, followed by two from BBC:

Protester sets themself on fire outside Israel consulate in Atlanta, Georgia

A protester is in a critical condition after lighting themself on fire at the Israeli consulate in the US state of Georgia in what police called an "extreme act of political protest". Police said the demonstrator used petrol, and a Palestinian flag was found at the scene, outside the mission in Atlanta. The person's gender and age remain unclear. A security guard who attempted to intervene was also injured...

US sets clearer red lines for Israel as ceasefire ends

In the end it was a diplomatic achievement that the ceasefire lasted as long as it did. Now, after a seven-day pause, Israel and Hamas are facing their greatest military and political challenges. For Hamas, it is the fight to survive. As long as a Hamas gunman can pull a trigger or launch a rocket into Israel it will claim to be undefeated. For all its overwhelming military power, Israel's task is more complicated... In the first hours after the Israeli military went back on the offensive, the government recommitted itself to its war aims in a WhatsApp post: "Releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel." How it does that and what happens next are now the number one preoccupations of Mr Netanyahu, his political allies and enemies in Israel and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state who has made four trips to Israel and the region since the war started... Mr Blinken repeated his insistence "that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither". Then Mr Blinken made his starkest public statement yet about how Israel should fight the war. It is worth quoting at length, because it is a checklist of what the US expects from its closest ally. Mr Blinken said that it meant "taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire". "It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza. It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities." "And it means giving civilians who've been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement." At the beginning of the war Joe Biden, the US president, came here. While trying to wrap Israel in a warm and powerful embrace he also warned his allies not to be blinded by rage as they sought justice... Mr Blinken's remarks suggest Joe Biden believes that Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had a difficult relationship, did not listen...

US sends ‘bunker buster’ bombs to Israel for war on Gaza, {WSJ} report says
2 Dec 2023

Apart from ground-penetrating munitions, US has also given Israel several other types of bombs and artillery shells.

“These are major bombs that the US has used in the past in its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, but mainly in open areas … Now Israel is using these bombs in a very different environment in Gaza, on a densely populated civilian population,” {Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro} said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/2/us-gives-bunker-buster-bombs-to-israel-...

Young, bright, Palestinian: the three friends shot in Vermont (Guardian)

Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Hisham Awartani, all 20, are childhood friends and ‘incredibly tight’ – especially now... The three friends, all now 20 years old, were on their way to Thanksgiving dinner at Awartani’s grandmother’s house in Burlington, Vermont, when a white man fired at them with a handgun. One of the bullets struck Awartani’s spine, and he may not walk again. Jason J Eaton, 48, was arrested on Sunday afternoon and charged with attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Police are investigating whether to charge Eaton with a hate crime; Burlington police say the three men had been speaking Arabic, and two had been wearing keffiyehs. The shooting has fuelled anxiety about the rise in violence against Muslim and Arab people in the US, which has also seen an increase in antisemitic incidents...

Hope Israel doesn't halt humanitarian assistance (= witnesses).

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (WHO) @DrTedros | 11:26 PM · Dec 2, 2023:

The reports of ongoing hostilities and heavy bombardment in #Gaza are petrifying.
Yesterday our team visited Nassar Medical Hospital in the south. It was packed with 1,000 patients — 3 times over its capacity. Countless people were seeking shelter, filling every corner of the facility.
Patients were receiving care on the floor, screaming in pain.
These conditions are beyond inadequate - unimaginable for the provision of health care.
I cannot find words strong enough to express our concern over what we’re witnessing.
Ceasefire. NOW.

DW News @dwnews | 10:23 PM · Dec 2, 2023:

South Africa is home to Africa's largest Jewish community. The ongoing violence in the Middle East has left its mark, with Jewish citizens now more cautious when they leave their homes.

Photo: Torn hostage posters and Israel flags after a demonstration in Cape Town
https://www.dw.com/en/south-africas-anti-israel-stance-alarms-countrys-jews/a-67...

What the Scale of Displacement in Gaza Looks Like
Zach Levitt and Amy Schoenfeld Walker | Dec. 2, 2023

Up to 1.8 million Gazans — around 80 percent of the {2.2 million} population — have been forced to leave their homes since Israel began its bombardment in response to Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7. That number is expected to rise after Israel issued a new evacuation order on Saturday for areas in the south.

{See graph % UN shelters, govt shelters, other shelters, host families and outside shelters...}

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/02/world/middleeast/gaza-map-displac...
________________________________________

Harris Says U.S. Strongly Opposes ‘Forced Relocation of Palestinians From Gaza’
Michael D. Shear | Dec. 2, 2023

...“The vice president reiterated that under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank,” the statement from the White House said.

She also rejected an idea suggested recently by some Israeli officials that the borders of Gaza could shrink after the war is over to accommodate a security “buffer zone” between the interior of Gaza and Israel. The statement said the United States would not permit “the redrawing of the borders of Gaza.”

Ms. Harris delivered the stern comments after a daylong diplomatic blitz with the leaders of four Arab countries in Dubai... Mr. el-Sisi, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates. She also spoke in a lengthy call with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar.

...“When this conflict ends, Hamas cannot control Gaza and Israel must be secure,” she said. “Palestinians need a hopeful political horizon, economic opportunity and freedom. And the region more broadly must be integrated and prosperous. And we must work toward that.”

...She said other countries would have to help with “reconstruction, security and governance,” but spoke only in generalities about what Jordan, Egypt, the Emirates or Qatar might do to rebuild Gaza or help ensure security and stability.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/02/world/middleeast/kamala-harris-israel-gaza.ht...
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Swing-state Muslim leaders launch campaign to ‘abandon’ Biden in 2024
Myah Ward | 12/02/2023

The bubbling anger among Arab and Muslim Americans over the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict could threaten his chances of reelection...

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/02/swing-state-muslim-leaders-biden-001297...
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Trump promises to immediately restore and expand "Trump travel ban" {of Muslims}:
0:03 https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1731079706676478168

>70 margd: FWIW most South Africans see similarity between the apartheid regime they had to deal with and the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli state. There were many White South Africans that supported an end to apartheid as there are many Israeli Jews who support equality between Jews and Muslims/Christians. The problem is who had the power then in South Africa and who has it now in Israel. As well in the the Republic of Ireland and the nationalist community in Northern Ireland there's a lot of support for Palestinian rights. It's funny in a way wherever Britain has had a colonial regime a way they maintained power was to play one community off against another. One side would get greater power--White South Africans, loyalist Ulsterman, the Jews in Israel/Palestine and the other side would get nothing but second class citizenship if that....it worked that way even when the Brits were moving out as a kind of way for them to keep their finger in the pie.

>72 lriley:

Very true. It is easy to forget what a huge impact colonialism had on today's world, and how we are still reaping the fruits of that violent and dysfunctional system.

>73 John5918: Memory plays a part into further generations. Here in the United States sometimes we have difficulty or bias remembering our own past let alone somewhere else and whether or not it's hard to understand reactions elsewhere there's always reasons nonetheless. They'll pop up if you look hard enough. Living under the British thumb wherever was no joke. The United States it's not so much a colonialist thing in building our own Empire but we have done occupations numbers of time before WWII but particularly afterwards.....a lot in Asia. We've been picking sides all over the world to expand our influence and with our massive arsenal of weapons it's made a huge difference post WWII. This is where the late Mr. Kissinger--hero of all the middle of the roader establishment democrats and republicans and almost every right winger made his mark. People who think somehow someway we are better than others.....the best country ever....that we're chosen. When I see all these people praising Henry I cringe and right wing Israelis think they're chosen too. American influence seems to be waning these days but........we are a country that has our finger in just about every conflict on one side or the other. Thinking of ourselves as innocents and there's never going to be any blowback well wait for the day.

>74 lriley: the late Mr. Kissinger--hero of all the middle of the roader establishment democrats and republicans and almost every right winger made his mark

The Kissinger years: flawed legacy of the man behind US cold war policy (Guardian)

Henry Kissinger's Cambodia legacy of bombs and chaos (BBC)

>74 lriley: ICYMI, interesting read--at least 1st edition was:

The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power
by Max Boot

"...America's "small wars," "imperial war," or, as the Pentagon now terms them, "low-intensity conflicts," have played an essential but little-appreciated role in its growth as a world power. Beginning with Jefferson's expedition against the Barbary pirates, Max Boot tells the exciting stories of our sometimes minor but often bloody landings in Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia, and elsewhere. Along the way he sketches colorful portraits of little-known military heroes such as Stephen Decatur, "Fighting Fred" Funston, and Smedly Butler."

"This revised and updated edition of Boot's compellingly readable history of the forgotten wars that helped promote America's rise in the lst two centuries includes a wealth of new material, including a chapter on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a new afterword on the lessons of the post-9/11 world."

- Amazon

>76 margd: I'd also add our military grade weapons are not just in the hands of every unhappy 12 year old and/or early and mid teenager they're all over the world everywhere. We are by far the greatest exporter of death and destruction on the planet. It's not just manufacturers of AR-15's who are a problem.

DW News @dwnews | 1:37 AM · Dec 5, 2023:

Lloyd Austin, the US defense chief has warned that Israel could face a 'strategic defeat' if it fails to protect civilians in Gaza.

0:33 ( https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1731925661239882211 )

US imposes visa bans on Israeli settlers responsible for West Bank violence

In a rare punitive move against Israel, the US has announced it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in recent attacks on Palestinians in theWest Bank... “We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank,” Blinken said in a statement. “As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable”...

Israel’s use of disproportionate force is a long-established tactic – with a clear aim

The strategy goes well beyond defeating an opponent: it seeks to destroy key infrastructure and the economy, with many civilian casualties... How to make sense of the sheer intensity of Israel’s war in Gaza? One understanding is that it is the result of the enduring shock of the 7 October massacre combined with a far-right government that includes extreme elements. Yet this ignores another element: a specific Israeli approach to war known as the Dahiya doctrine. It’s also one reason why the “pause” was never going to last for very long...

Both from the Guardian

>79 John5918: Pretty much everything positive the Biden administration has done here (which is very little) is too little and too late John. I am super skeptical that Palestinians in Gaza aren't going to be ethnically cleansed before this episode is over. One I think just has to look at Gaza City and ask oneself how much it would cost to rebuild that city to be habitable again and who would pay for that to happen. Just a major city hospital would cost billions upon billions and we're talking about rebuilding an entire million population city around that? Most people who lived there a couple months ago effectively have no home to go back to now. The Israeli govt. have more or less done to that city what the Russian did to Mariupol. The Israeli govt. has been murdering innocents by the thousands so I hardly find it believable that they're going to turn around and rebuild this city for the people they've been bombing afterwards. So who is going to rebuild? When Biden or Blinken or Harris say that Israel has to allow those Palestinians to resume their lives within Gaza who're they fooling? It's just words to make themselves look better is what I'm seeing as well as hoping they don't lose too many voters. Meanwhile the Democratic Party here at home are looking for AIPAC funded sock puppets to primary congresspeople who haven't fallen in line with signing off on these further atrocities to October 7. One war crime does not justify another and as the Guardian has it in that article......these war crimes committed by the Israeli state are a lot more than just disproportionate.

And here are some news stories picked up by Al Jazeera.

‘Anti-Zionism is antisemitism,’ US House asserts in ‘dangerous’ resolution

Palestinian rights advocates are denouncing a congressional resolution that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, calling it a “dangerous” measure that aims to curb free speech and distract from the war in Gaza...

No Palestinian is safe anywhere in the world

I knew and taught the three Palestinian students shot in the US. This attack has left me more fearful for my students...

‘Gaza’s entrepreneurs are being killed by Israel’

Entrepreneurial leaders are being killed, leaving a gaping hole in the world of startups and businesses... The entrepreneurs of Gaza, a close-knit group who worked hand in hand to improve new graduates’ prospects, are reeling from the relentless killing of their colleagues by Israel as it bombards the blockaded Gaza Strip... The people in Yousef’s network had been the ones who found technological solutions to Gaza’s problems and, as their institutions grew, had created jobs for graduates with few work opportunities due to a 17-year siege imposed by Israel on Gaza...

Is Israel’s Gaza bombing also a war on the climate?

Many of the world’s leaders are gathered in Dubai for COP28, the annual United Nations summit on climate change. Some 2,400km (1,500 miles) to the West, meanwhile, Israel’s war on Gaza is raging. Sixty days into the war, Israel’s bombs have killed about 16,000 people, including more than 6,600 children. But increasingly, experts are also worried about its effect on the environment and on Gaza’s ability to combat climate change. From polluted water supplies to toxic smoke-filled air from burning buildings and bodies, every aspect of life in Gaza is now filled with some form of pollution. “On the ground, this war has destroyed every aspect of Gaza’s environment”...

That last one should perhaps be read in conjunction with post #121 in the Climate Crisis thread in LT's Sustainability group, noting that the military appears to be exempt from reporting on their carbon footprint, whereas it is in fact a majour source of global fossil fuel use and pollution, particularly in the USA. One wonders what the carbon footprint of the current Israeli military campagn will be.

>81 John5918: ‘dangerous’ resolution
No kidding.
For now, we're protected here by the First Amendment. Come Trump 2.0 and a Constitutional Convention (as our lovely new Speaker Mikey would love to encourage), that could go straight out the window.
I've already said where I think this is all heading. Nothing that's happened since has unconvinced me. I like to do my grieving up front.

António Guterres (UN) @antonioguterres | 12:52 PM · Dec 6, 2023:

I've just invoked Art.99 of the UN Charter - for the 1st time in my tenure as Secretary-General.

Facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe & appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared.

Text, letter
https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/status/1732457928496496793/photo/1
https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/status/1732457928496496793/photo/2
-----------------------------------

“The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
https://legal.un.org/repertory/art99.shtml

World Health Organization (WHO) WHO | 6:32 AM · Dec 7, 2023:

At the request of 15 Member States, a Special Session of the WHO Executive Board will be held to consider the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory.
🗓️ 10 December from 9:30 CET
The sessions will be webcast live.

More information ⬇️
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2023/12/10/default-calendar/executiv...

German state: Citizenship applicants must support Israel
Jon Shelton | 6 Dec 2023

The state of Saxony-Anhalt has said people who do not recognize Israel's right to exist cannot become naturalized citizens. The eastern state's interior minister said Germany's other 15 states should take similar steps...

Saxony-Anhalt state Interior Ministry said naturalization is to be denied to foreigners who engage in activities directed at Germany's liberal democratic order as outlined in the country's Basic Law. The denial of Israel's right to exist and antisemitism are included among such activities.

Local authorities have been instructed to deny an applicant's naturalization request if they refuse to sign the declaration. A refusal is also to be documented in the individual's application filing for future reference...

https://www.dw.com/en/german-state-citizenship-applicants-must-support-israel/a-...
Discussion at https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1732720236120465433

>85 margd: Right to exist as what?

>86 davidgn: Yeah, I couldn't find text of the German pledge. I wonder if sometimes the ambiguity is the strategy--religion? race? country? movement? And double talk, projection: if rape is the concern, take rape kits at Oct 7 crime scene, and check 23 and me for matches! If genocide is truly a concern, The Rape of Gaza would seem to be the incident of the moment.

>87 margd: the allegations that many Hamas fighters raped victims on Oct. 7 as the Israeli govt. maintains is serious enough and should be investigated and the Israeli govt. is making a lot of claims on that but they're not allowing outside/neutral investigators in to look at their claims or evidence. They're expecting the rest of the world to take their claims on face value and much of what Israeli leaders have claimed in the past just hasn't held up. It does get parroted by politicians here in the United States and also in Britain which might be their real intention. As well there are lots of Palestinian prisoners with claims of all kinds of abuse, torture and rape from their prison guards etc. Many of these prisoners are still children, some have been held for years without being charged and to throw a rock or a stone in the direction of a policeman or a soldier will get a child categorized as a terrorist......which would be insane almost everywhere else in the world.

We should say though if Hamas soldiers did as Israel claims those are war crimes and they and their organization should be held accountable. That said war crimes are no excuse for committing more or worse war crimes as the Israeli state has been doing.

Sachs currently live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN6Rykw2364
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Ukraine defeat, Gaza slaughter: Where is the outrage?

IDF appears to push back on ‘irresponsible’ US claim Hamas refusing to release raped hostages
5 December 2023

The Israel Defense Forces says public discussions about the state of captives held in Gaza has moved into reckless territory, urging those responsible to knock it off.

“The conversation around the issue is irresponsible, inaccurate and should be avoided,” the IDF says in a rare statement.

The pushback is apparently in response to comments from US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller Monday that Hamas terrorists likely held back on freeing female hostages because it did not want them to speak publicly about being subjected to rape and other sexual violence...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-appears-to-push-back-on-irrespo...

>90 margd: Looks like they got some memos crossed.

>91 davidgn: Propaganda got ahead of itself? No denying that Hamas are beasts, but the point of any sexual violence is terror, so they would want stories out?

>92 margd: Not sure I'd buy that in the context of global PR.
Meanwhile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I87oDPu-W4
I'd know that reporter's voice anywhere. Matt Lee, Associated Press. Still doing yeoman's work after all these years.

The point, though, is that now we're all talking about did-they-rape-or-not, rather than the ongoing clearly announced genocide-in-progress. That needs to reverse.

>93 davidgn: talking rape-or-no rather than genocide...needs to reverse

Exactly

The Onion (from a decade ago) is somehow timely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbgRk_hlM3U

>92 margd: No denying that Hamas are beasts

A report in The Guardian today states "Twenty people killed in airstrikes that hit two homes in Rafah, a town to which IDF told Palestinians to flee". So Israelis told Palestinians to go to a certain area for safety, then bombed them in that same area. Are the IDF "beasts"?

Dehumanising language is never helpful, even when people have behave appallingly and criminally. It's also a precursor to genocide - much easier for the Israeli government and military to get away with killing Palestinians if the world colludes by describing them as somehow less than human.

>96 John5918: Just from past behavior the IDF was going to multiply many times the atrocities that Palestinians managed on them. It also makes me think of Shock and Awe--something that the majority of Americans cheered on when it happened and it basically came down to bombing a defenseless Baghdad's civilian population. But even that wasn't an ongoing two months + destroy everything and kill as many civilians as possible. It's all disgusting though and the US of A can put its own imprimatur on its own self or that of one of its 'friends' and then it's all good....there will be no need to worry about justice later. We complain though if the Russians or the Chinese do something fucked up and use their UN immunity to justice card too. It's a game that powerful nations can play and never lose and it's made the UN pretty much toothless.

Isn't it amazing that so many politicians (and so many citizens too) here or in Britain when balancing the morals/ethics that go into the killing of thousands of people against the advantages they can gain getting re-elected choose the advantages of getting elected? Basically how fucked up can some politicians/people be? We shouldn't expect a whole lot from our elected and quite often from people we know. From my own experience sometimes people wonder why I don't really want to do shit with or talk to them. Sometimes I need space. Here in the United States though if the choice is 1) a govt. controlled health care system that would be available for everyone or b) a kill as many as possible war machine the majority of people including a healthy % of middle of the road democrats will choose b) every time.

>97 lriley: It's not just a pattern of behavior. It's a military doctrine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine
cf. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/10/israel-dahiya-doctrine-dispropor...

>96 John5918: Israeli and IDF leadership are beasts, as is Russia's. (Apologies to beasts, very few of whom kill the way we do.)

>99 margd:

Well, that's where I beg to differ. They are human beings. Misguided, criminal, cruel, selfish (and probably other adjectives) human beings who behave very badly, but nevertheless they are human beings and not beasts.

>100 John5918: +1, John.
Meanwhile:
Gaza is a weapons lab for the arms industry w/Antony Loewenstein | The Chris Hedges Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PEWDLunejA

Transcript:
https://therealnews.com/the-weapons-israel-tests-on-palestinians-will-be-used-ag...

And a comment on the Youtube video:

@ahmedandalous2878
1 hour ago
If you are unsure who to trust in these
confusing times:
Trust the courageous ones.
Truth requires courage.
Courage requires fortitude.
Truth requires integrity.
Cowards tell lies.
Cowards support liars.
Telling a lie is easy.
Believing a lie is easy.
Being compliant is easy.
Staying silent is easy.
Trusting without thinking is easy.
Thinking for yourself is hard.
Standing up for what is right is hard.
Being real & authentic is hard.
In times like these it takes all the courage
in the world to question the status quo
and to speak up and tell the Truth.
Trust the courageous.

Israel escalates Gaza strikes, UN says nowhere in enclave is safe
Bassam Masoud and Nidal Al-Mughrabi | December 8, 2023

...U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington on Thursday that it was imperative Israel took steps to protect Gaza's civilian population.

"And there does remain a gap between...the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground," he told a press conference...

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-criticizes-israel-gaza-civilian-tol...
___________________________________

Netanyahu warns Hezbollah after cross-border attack kills Israeli civilian
Aljazeera | 8 Dec 2023

Israeli PM says Hezbollah will turn Beirut, southern Lebanon into Gaza and Khan Younis if Iran-backed group’s attacks on Israel continue.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/8/netanyahu-threatens-hezbollah-after-cro...
____________________________________

If Americans Knew @ifamericansknew | 3:22 PM · Nov 24, 2023:
Thousands more Palestinians have been killed since this video was made - see
{bar graph 2000-2023 at}
Israel-Palestine Timeline: The Human Cost of the Conflict
https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/
____________________________________

If Americans Knew @ifamericansknew | 1:48 PM · Nov 24, 2023:
Q: Why don't the Gazans/Palestinians use nonviolent resistance?

A: They do. 1000s of unarmed men, women & children demonstrated in Gaza weekly for ~1.5 years. Israeli snipers shot one after another of them... and the world ignored it.

This is just one of many examples. The multitude of other nonviolent Palestinian protests have been similarly met with Israeli state violence and near silence by U.S. and other western media.

* More information about the Great Return March: On March 30th, 2018, an estimated 30,000 Palestinian civilians organized along the Gazan border fence for a massive unarmed protest against the Israeli occupation and to call attention to their right to return to their land.

This continued every week until December 27, 2019.

Israel responded to the Great Return March by stationing over 100 snipers along the border with “shoot to kill” orders.

Read more and get source information at https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/gazafactsheet.html
2:03 ( https://twitter.com/ifamericansknew/status/1728123425703538728 )

Col. Wilkerson today on Judge Nap:
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: When soldiers kill civilians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHViSu4LUiU

RIP, Refaat Alareer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0RaHuEjqi0
Remembering Refaat Alareer, Gaza Scholar & Activist Killed by Israeli Strike

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/8/remembering_refaat_alareer_killed_in_gaza
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/8/jehad_abusalim_on_refaat_alareer_death

>101 davidgn: I don't know if it's that hard David. Part of it is recognizing your own fallibility.....making some attempt on improving on that. One of the things about people who read and not just for entertainment (although sometimes entertainment is fine) is to see through others eyes. I'm cognizant that for a lot of writers they write because often their lives have some real shit in them and that's useful too---one might find parallels with your own then (as I've done sometimes) and/or thought there but for the grace could be me. But also no one is fundamentally really better than anyone else and one's religion or none, gender, ethnicity doesn't change that dynamic an iota though there are assholes all over everywhere that think it does and do believe their superior to others and this is in part the issue with what is going on in Israel/Palestine that one side in particular (but even so people on both sides of this) do think they're better and doesn't see the humanity on the other side. That this is inculcated into the younger generations is also a big part of the problem.

US defies appeals to back UN resolution for urgent Gaza ceasefire (Guardian)

The US has defied appeals from its Arab allies and the UN secretary general to back an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, telling the security council that to do so would merely plant the seeds of the next war. The US vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire late on Friday, despite a dramatic warning from António Guterres that civil order was breaking down and the risk of a mass exodus into Egypt growing, with as yet unclear consequences for the rest of the region. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1 with the UK abstaining...

US uses veto but pressure for ceasefire is building (BBC)

UN secretary general António Guterres spoke this afternoon about the "serious risk to the maintenance of international peace and security", citing the spillover of hostilities in "the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen". He triggered Article 99, prompting Friday's UN Security Council vote, because he believes this is a very urgent matter which must be brought to the attention of the council. The Israeli government detests the UN and they detest the secretary general. The Israelis rejected his description, claiming Mr Guterres is in fact the threat to world peace because he is pandering to Hamas by trying to end the fighting now, before their mission to destroy the group has been concluded. That ill-feeling will not have improved after the secretary general also mentioned that one of the risks is that the situation in Gaza could get so bad that there would be a mass displacement of Palestinians over the border into Egypt - which is also of huge concern to the Egyptian government. There was, Mr Guterres said, a high risk of the "total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza". And the Palestinians say that is exactly what Israel wants because it wants to get all Palestinians out of Gaza...

Palestinian recounts being stripped and driven away by Israeli army (BBC)

A 22-year-old Palestinian has told the BBC how he was detained with dozens of others by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in northern Gaza on Thursday. Footage verified by the BBC shows a group of men stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground and being guarded by Israeli soldiers. The man says he was forced to sit in the street for hours, handcuffed and blindfolded, before being driven away. An Israeli official said the soldiers were searching for Hamas members...

IDF instructions on Gaza refuge zones cruel ‘mirage’, say aid agencies (Guardian)

Instructions from Israeli forces telling Gaza civilians where to seek refuge and humanitarian relief have given contradictory recommendations, while aid agencies and Palestinians who have heeded them describe the offer of safety as a cruel “mirage” amid an intensifying military campaign. Those who have fled to a “humanitarian zone” declared by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at al-Mawasi, a Bedouin settlement on sand dunes in the south-west corner of the Gaza Strip, have depicted a desperate scene with no shelter and barely any food. The IDF, meanwhile, has not ruled out bombing the area...

>106 John5918: We're gonna get ours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly6lfhOxTe0
Chris Hedges "The Genocide in Gaza"

Premiered 4 hours ago
Best-selling author, foreign correspondent, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges addressed the Middle East crisis with a talk titled "The Genocide in Gaza" on December 6, 2023 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in North Troy NY.

www.mediasanctuary.org

Chris Hedges, the former Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times, spent seven years covering the conflict between Israel and

Palestine. He is the author of numerous books including the New York Times bestsellers War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-authored with the cartoonist Joe Sacco. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto. He has also taught students in the college degree program offered by Rutgers University in the New Jersey prison system for a decade, the subject of his book Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison.

This talk was co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany Chapter; Muslim Solidarity Committee and Project SALAM; Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace; Palestinian Rights Committee-Upper Hudson Peace Action; RPI Muslim Student Association; UAlbany Muslim Student Association; Women Against War.

The presentation was made possible by volunteer labor and thousands of small donations from patrons of The Sanctuary for Independent Media.

The Sanctuary for Independent Media is a telecommunications production facility dedicated to community media arts, located in an historic former church at 3361 6th Avenue in North Troy, NY. The Sanctuary hosts screening, production and performance facilities, training in media production and a meeting space for artists, activists and independent media makers of all kinds.

Former UK Ambassador Craig Murray -- who, in October, was driven to flee from Scotland to seek the protection of the United Nations in Switzerland against his own government. (cf. https:// www. craigmurray. org. uk /archives/2023/10/fighting-the-british-police-state-somebody-has-to/ )

https:// www. craigmurray. org. uk/archives/2023/12/stopping-genocide/

Every single state in the world has a positive duty to intervene to prevent the Genocide in Gaza now, not after a court has reached a determination of genocide. This is made crystal clear in para 431 of the International Court of Justice judgment in Bosnia vs Serbia:

This obviously does not mean that the obligation to prevent genocide only comes into being when perpetration of genocide commences ; that would be absurd, since the whole point of the obligation is to prevent, or attempt to prevent, the occurrence of the act. In fact, a State’s obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed. From that moment onwards, if the State has available to it means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide, or reasonably suspected of harbouring specific intent (dolus specialis), it is under a duty to make such use of these means as the circumstances permit.

This case was specifically on the application of the Genocide Convention. That the ICJ has ruled there is a positive duty on states to act to prevent genocide makes it even more astonishing to me that no state has invoked the Genocide Convention over the blatant genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza. Not least is it puzzling that this action has not been undertaken by Palestine itself, which is a party to the Convention and does have the ability to invoke it.

On Monday, I attended a surreal event at the United Nations in Geneva. It was part of the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention. It had been organised before the start of the current phase of the genocide of the Palestinians, and the subject was the suppression of incitement to genocide in the media and social media. It was formally a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, but other states were also entitled to attend and to speak.

Delegates came and went, but over the course of the day approximately 60 nation states were present in the hall. Not all spoke, but enough did to give a feeling for the diplomatic dynamics.

I think this is best summed up by recounting the tale of two striking-looking women who spoke. The first was the delegate of Palestine, with notable long black hair, who spoke movingly of the current genocide in Gaza and the terrible destruction wrought upon tens of thousands of entirely innocent people, chiefly women and children.

Palestine was followed by the delegate representing Denmark, with equally notable long hair only this time very blonde, who said the government of Denmark was taking important concrete measures to prevent the incitement of genocide, including legislation to combat anti-semitism in social media. Two nations speaking entirely past each other.

And that was how the discussion went. Arab, African and South American states stressed the urgent need to stop the current genocide; developed nations stressed the need for states to control social media and counter “disinformation” and anti-semitism. The experts invited to join the discussion very much focused on Palestine – indeed that is where I got the reference to the precise passage from the ICJ judgment above.

None of which still explains why none of the pro-Palestinian states has fulfilled their duty and reported Israel under the Genocide Convention, thus triggering a determination by the International Court of Justice. This is particularly strange as several states have referred Israel to the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Yet I have not found a single diplomat from any nation who disagrees with me when I say that this is a waste of time as the ICC is a western tool and will do nothing. I have not found a single diplomat who disagrees with me when I say that the ICJ is much better and a reference under the Genocide Convention is a far better route.

Yet still no political leader has taken it....

Um, weren't other examples civil wars? And, in the other, NATO came to assistance of Ukraine, and the UN entertained resolutions of support?

Israeli opposition leader accuses UN's Guterres of 'antisemitism'
DW | Dec 9, 2023

Israeli centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid said Saturday that "antisemitism" is the only "rational explanation" for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' decision to call for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.

Guterres used Article 99 of the UN Charter to force the Security Council to debate a resolution calling for a halt to the fighting. The United States, however, blocked the resolution.

"The UN Secretary General hasn't invoked Article 99 for decades," Lapid's series of social media posts began. "Not when half a million were killed in Syria, over 4 million killed in Congo, 450,000 where butchered in Darfur or when tens of thousands were killed and millions have fled Ukraine."

"Only when Israel defends itself after our children were murdered by brutal terrorists and our people were taken hostage, does the UN Secretary General suddenly decide to invoke Article 99 to help Hamas," Lapid wrote.

"How do we know its {sic} antisemitism? Because there is no other rational explanation."

https://www.dw.com/en/israel-hamas-war-idf-strikes-lebanon-after-failed-un-vote/...

Watching the clips of the heads of Harvard, Penn and MIT getting berated and scolded by congresspeople this week. Stefanik self righteously asking the same question of one of them again and again like someone backing a puppy into a corner to give it a real whipping after it messed on the floor. The more she cringed the more Stefanik seemed to get off on it and this right winger is drawing in democratic congresspeople supporting her on this. There we go. It was a pretty grotesque shitshow and I came away from that thinking these are the people we have as political leaders and heads of our very highest institutions of learning and to me everyone involved in that clusterfuck came off as an assclown. Real issues call for real conversations if they're going to be sorted out with some equitability. Nothing like that there. These macho performances on one side and the cringing on the other is just fucking performance art bullshit.

>110 margd: when Israel defends itself after our children were murdered by brutal terrorists and our people were taken hostage

The point is surely that Israel has gone far beyond "defending itself" and is itself in the process of brutally murdering civilians, including children.

>110 margd: >112 John5918: No, beyond that, the point is that Israel clearly and openly intends (as an initial, short-term goal) the extermination or expulsion -- whatever it can accomplish -- of the Gaza Palestinians and demands the moral and diplomatic cover of the West and of the UN to accomplish this. From the US, it additionally demands the munitions. All else is fig leaves.

In moral terms, it is the utter negation of everything we were ever supposed to stand for. I'll have none of it.

>108 davidgn: Chris Hedges' speech (sermon? Is Rev. Hedges the Jonathan Edwards of our twilight days?) brings it all home.

Beyond the thousands and thousands of murdered civilians Israel has pretty much destroyed the entire health care infrastructure within Gaza. Even when the Israeli military part of this operation ends it won't be a safe place to return to or to live.....not that it was all that safe before. I've thought all along that Israel wants to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza.....despite what the Biden administration contends that the Palestinians will be allowed to return and the Likud govt. has bought off most of our politicians. I expect there is going to be a massive refugee situation before it's over and the Middle Eastern and at least some European states are going to bear the brunt of it.

I mentioned Israel's short-term goals. Beyond that, Graham Fuller (ETA: edited for touchstone) has another blog post. (Actually published on the 6th, it appears)
I leave the forecasting in his able hands. He broadly echoes my own intuition, in any case.

https://grahamefuller.com/israeli-geopolitical-goals-in-palestine-final-ethnic-c...

Israeli Geopolitical goals in Palestine–Final Ethnic Cleansing?

Graham E. Fuller

4 December 2023
———————–

Winston Churchill reportedly once commented, ”Never let a good crisis go to waste.” This remark takes on unsettling relevance in viewing the present crisis and slaughter in Gaza.

Alastair Crooke, the former British diplomat and longtime deeply insightful observer of Middle East geopolitics wrote in a recent commentary that Israel’s strategy under Netanyahu’s ultra right wing religious and nationalist cabinet is to maintain whelming public support for the twin goals of the destruction of the “Hamas regime and its capabilities”and the release of all Israeli captives in Gaza.

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/netanyahu-and-his-cabinet-are-ta... corrected URL

Crooke is undoubtedly correct that this rationale dominates Israel’s strategic thinking. He also notes that Washington is all but incapable of dissuading Israeli from its harsh strategies.

In fact, if we take a darker view of the truly long-term aspirations of Israel’s geopolitical thinking going back to the early days of the Israeli state, an even more brutal long term goal comes to mind.

Churchill’s dictum suggests that the bloody Hamas attack upon an Israeli kibbutz on 7 October offered an extraordinary opening–a decisive opportunity now for the fulfillment of the most extreme Zionist vision in Israel–the total and definitive ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from all of Palestine in order to finally achieve a truly homogeneous Jewish Israeli state.

There are several reasons for suspecting this agenda may prevail.
First, There are scant indications that Netanyahu and his cabinet have any desire to listen to American preferences about the conduct of its war against Palestinians. American proposals, weak, timid and unrealistic, have proven incompatible with Israeli strategists. There are numerous off the record quotations of Netanyahu stating that he will “never permit a Palestinian state to come into being” and that he is the “only leader capable of manipulating the US as Israel wishes.”

Second, it is well known that Netanyahu faces potential jail time in Israel’s court system for what the New York Times calls “a litany of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges.” Only the fact that Netanyahu is the serving Prime Minister of the nation spares him right now from being brought to trial. The sooner the war comes to an end the greater the likelihood that Netanyahu will not only have to step down as Prime Minister and will then be forced into deep legal and criminal challenges. Therefore Netanyahu has every good reason for insisting that this war must continue on for many more months or even “a year” to achieve its alleged goal, the “total eradication of Hamas”–if only to save his own skin before the Israeli courts.

But serious analysis would indicate thatNetanyahu aspires to a far more ambitious and sweeping goal ,well beyond such petty court cases. Netanyahu seeks to become perhaps the greatest hero of Israel’s entire history in bringing about the final solution of the “Palestinian problem” by expelling the entire population from all of Israel forever. Such an ambition is far too horrific for Israel to articulate in public at this point but it is the inexorable logic behind most utterances of Israel’s right wing cabinet.

Here is where Churchill’s view of crisis resides: in the fog of agony and war lies the opportunity to once and for all solve the intractable problem of what to do with dispossessed Palestinians as residents of Palestine going back centuries....

The Crime of the Century is already foretold. Anyone who is bickering rather than retching is part of the problem.

>115 davidgn: it remains to be seen if Israel does bring about the total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Israel or even just from Gaza who will be their friends and enemies once that's accomplished. The United States whether it publicly supports that goal or not is pretty much handcuffed to Israel through our politicians as it is to the point where questioning or boycotting Israel can be cause for legal action even to individual members of the populace. So many of our elected representatives in both parties are beholden to the lobbyist money and/or support that Israeli entities provide their reelection hopes. They've proudly sold out their country for their own ambitions. For both major political parties staying on the same course with Israel can/will mean being in power or not. Apart from us and maybe some other European nations in the Global North Israel could soon become a pariah. There is no doubt that succeeding at that goal will cause a major humanitarian and refugee crisis that Middle Eastern and European nations will bear the brunt of. That it will drive up international terrorism goes without saying.......and American influence I suspect will suffer massively in the fairly near future for it (which probably is a silver lining). Some nations I think are going to start looking elsewhere to China, maybe some to Russia or even Brazil to follow more closely. I also suspect Middle Eastern oil nations will follow Mr. Churchill's advice too and drive up the price of that commodity. If they're absorbing a good % of those refugees due to our political incompetence and biases against Muslims why wouldn't they?

Been following this guy regarding the maritime situation. Excellent coverage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5UrUO_GVUA

Dec 10, 2023 #houthi #redsea #shipping
Yemen Blockades Israel?

What's Going on With Shipping?
Dec 10, 2023

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - discusses the announcement by the Yemeni Armed Forces of a blockade of ships destined to Israel sailing through the Gulf of Aden, Bab el-Mandeb and Red Sea.

#houthi #redsea #shipping #supplychain #blockade #Navy #babelmandeb #gulfofaden

A worthwhile discussion on Marc Steiner's show with a Palestinian-American who has paid the price of speaking up, and a Pakistani-American. Marc tries, at least, to raise the peril of this country being riven asunder and the right seizing power. Neither has much to say on that point, and neither will speak of affiliation with the Democratic Party except in the past tense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioKvvjSDPek
https://therealnews.com/israels-war-on-palestine-didnt-start-on-oct-7

‘People will die in the streets’: Gaza dreads onset of winter as disease rises (Guardian)

Winter is fast coming to Gaza. Rain storms and powerful winds have already swept through the coastal strip, scattering tents and soaking those with little shelter in a crisis in which about 1.8 million Palestinians have been displaced by Israel’s offensive. And with the advent of winter, an already catastrophic situation in which almost all of Gaza’s healthcare has collapsed is quickly worsening. Women are giving birth in tents in unsterile conditions. Smoke from the wood fires is exacerbating respiratory ailments. Those in need of medicine have been forced to go sometimes to up to 10 pharmacies in an often fruitless search...

I hope those who celebrate will take what joy and inspiration they can from this Hanukkah season. I wish times were better.

This Hanukkah especially, take inspiration from my family’s act of defiance
As some Israeli soldiers light Hanukkah candles on the ruins of Palestinian homes in Gaza, we must look to the rich Jewish tradition of opposing tyranny.
By Dana Mills December 8, 2023

https://www.972mag.com/israeli-soldiers-hanukkah-gaza/

Gazans say hunger is causing social breakdown, fuelling fears of exodus into Egypt
Bassam Masoud and Nidal Al-Mughrabi | December 11, 2023

..."I expect public order to completely break down soon and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday.

ISRAEL DENIES SEEKING TO EMPTY GAZA

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, the U.N. body responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, wrote on Saturday that pushing Gazans closer and closer to the border pointed to "attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt".

The border with Egypt is heavily fortified, but Hamas militants blew holes in the wall in 2008 to break a tight blockade. Gazans crossed to buy food and other goods but quickly returned, with none permanently displaced.

Egypt has long warned it would not allow Gazans into its territory this time, fearing they would not be able to return.

Jordan, which absorbed the bulk of Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948, accused Israel on Sunday of seeking "to empty Gaza of its people".

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called the accusation "outrageous and false," saying his country was defending itself "from the monsters who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre" and bringing them to justice...

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-presses-ahead-battle-against-ha...

UK factories help build the jets used by the Israeli military. They should be stopped (Guardian)

Politicians won’t listen – so a growing protest movement is working to end Britain’s contribution to the destruction. Last Thursday morning, a thousand people across Britain made their way to a series of arms factories – in Bournemouth, Brighton, Lancashire and Glasgow – and blockaded them so that nothing could go in or out. They were protesting under the banner of a new network called Workers for a Free Palestine, which has responded to a call from Palestinian trade unions to stop arming Israel – and by extension stop the bombardment and invasion of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces. These actions have two goals. First, to immediately halt the flow of military goods and components in the Israeli military’s supply chain. But second, to reveal Britain’s contribution to Israel’s assault on Gaza. Many Britons are still unaware of the fact that weapons that are used to murder Palestinians are manufactured in anonymous, nondescript sites in towns and cities across the country. The Israeli war machine is driven by two preconditions: political support and military assistance, including aid and imports. These are what enable Israel’s current attack on Gaza. Millions have already protested across the world, with massive popular support for a ceasefire, and beyond that, for an end to occupation and long overdue justice for Palestinians. They have called on their leaders to apply pressure on Israel to halt its attack. These actions have had an effect. In a recent speech to local government officials obtained by the Israeli newspaper Hayom, Benjamin Netanyahu remarked, “There are huge demonstrations in western capitals. We need to apply counter-pressure … There have been disagreements with the best of our friends.” But Netanyahu also noted that what he most needed from those allies was “munitions, munitions, munitions”. It is for this reason that actions like those initiated by Workers for a Free Palestine are so important. The sites that it targeted last week belong to companies that produce an advanced fighter jet known to be used by the Israeli military...

The United States is even more complicit in this genocide than the UK IMO. We send Israel more war material than anyone. Mr. Biden has gone down a rabbit hole and his poll numbers have gone down the rabbit hole with him. He's already almost guaranteed to lose Michigan a key battleground state just on the Arabic vote. Today's news seems to insinuate that Hillary Clinton is going to come in and save his ass somehow. She probably helps him raise more money with super wealthy and corporate bigshots but money doesn't always add up to votes the way you want it to. She's not going to divert him from this Israel/Palestine catastrophe because she's as for it as he is. The best news today is hearing that the Chinese sent a delegation to Palestine and asked afterwards their ambassador said 'enough is enough'. It's to that point where you start looking to other world leaders (even from those not all that friendly to the United States) for leadership.

Here are two older pieces by Professor Stephen Zunes, written in 2021 and 2016 respectively, which are worth revisiting in the context of today's dynamics.

Have ‘Human Shields’ Accusations Become an Excuse for War Crimes? (The Progressive Magazine)

Despite repeated claims by both Israel and the United States, there is absolutely no evidence that any of the more than 3,000 Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli military operations against Gaza since 2008 were a result of Hamas using human shields. Investigations of the most recent round of fighting are still ongoing. But detailed investigations following the 2008-2009 and 2014 conflicts by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and others have failed to find a single documented case of any civilian deaths caused by Hamas using human shields. Not one...

Is anti-Zionism inherently anti-Semitic? (National Catholic Reporter)

As the U.S. movement in support of Palestinian rights gains momentum, it has come under increasing attack by supporters of Israel's right-wing government and defenders of its occupation and colonization of occupied territory. For example, governors, state legislatures, and members of Congress of both major parties have referred to efforts to use such tactics as boycotts, divestment and sanctions in opposition of such policies as "anti-Semitic." In many cases, such accusations can simply be dismissed as a kind of disingenuous McCarthyism designed to discredit peace and human rights activists, much as charges of "communism" were leveled in previous decades against those who opposed the Vietnam War and U.S. intervention in Central America. At the same time, as with charges of racism or sexism, there are some cases where such concerns should not be summarily dismissed. Indeed, such oppression sometimes manifest itself in more nuanced ways that make it difficult for those of us in non-target groups to recognize... It certainly is not anti-Semitic to argue that whatever emancipatory elements that Zionism may have provided some Jews has been more than offset by the expulsion, occupation, repression and killings of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants. While Zionism can be seen as a national liberation movement for Jews, it undeniably also has characteristics of a colonial settler state. Like other European nationalist movements that emerged in the late 19th century, there were certainly racist assumptions at it foundation. In addition, there are those who can reasonably object to any nationalist movement based on a particular ethnic or religious identity at the expense of others...

This article is well-balanced, conceding that there may be context-specific cases when "Anti-Zionism could be reasonably considered anti-Semitic", but arguing that in itself it is not "inherently anti-Semitic".

The question always comes up on Israel's right to defend itself. But countries that border it like Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria are not the threats they're really talking about. The right to defend itself is primarily about the Palestinian population that has lived inside the current territory of Israel for centuries. They are a part of their own population....a part that they discriminate against and oppress particularly these days with the right wing Likud party committed to a path of genocide to bring about their hopes of a Zionist Jewish ethnostate. To me of course they have a right to defend their borders against outside actors but they don't have the right to oppress or try to expel a part of their population that they persecute and despise for religious reasons.

Here in the United States it's like our politicians think they can get away with misleading and lying about this situation which isn't new at all and continually over the years has dragged people back into renewing and revising on what they do know. Our politicians play these sound bite games which at least this time around has gotten a lot of pushback because there are more and more who are not falling for their shit anymore. When their lies don't work they double down anyway by trying to silence dissent.

Very little food, very little clean water, very little medical, hundreds of thousands---probably well over a million people without adequate shelter whilst the airstrikes keep coming and IDF soldiers are on the ground. 20some thousand dead already, lots of new amputees and burn victims a good % of whom are children with no follow up medical in sight, sickness and disease on the way......a month from now the number of dead is likely to skyrocket. 3?4?5? times what we have now. People can't go on forever without sustenance. As far as starvation there comes a point of no return and it can't be that far off for lots of Gazans. I don't think the politicians in Britain or the United States have any idea. They're only thinking about their own agendas. I don't think the Likud politicians give a shit.

Another day, another hospital raided, medical staff killed. Kamal Adwan Hospital today.
Top U.S. & World Headlines — December 12, 2023
Democracy Now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sohCQWnu_I

A poignant cartoon from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2023/dec/13/the-world-is-torn-...

UN General Assembly votes by large majority for immediate humanitarian ceasefire during emergency session (UN)

Member States adopted a resolution, demanding an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and well as “ensuring humanitarian access”. It passed with a large majority of 153 in favour and 10 against, with 23 abstentions. The resolution also reiterated the General Assembly's demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, “notably with regard to the protection of civilians”...

Text of the adopted resolution

Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations

The General Assembly,

Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

Recalling its resolutions regarding the question of Palestine,

Recalling also all relevant Security Council resolutions,

Taking note of the letter dated 6 December 2023 from the Secretary-General, under Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations, addressed to the President of the Security Council,

Taking note also of the letter dated 7 December 2023 from the CommissionerGeneral of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East addressed to the President of the General Assembly,

Expressing grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population, and emphasizing that the Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law,

1. Demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire;

2. Reiterates its demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians;

3. Demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access;

4. Decides to adjourn the tenth emergency special session temporarily and to authorize the President of the General Assembly at its most recent session to resume its meeting upon request from Member States.

I belive the USA voted against the resolution and UK abstained.

Probably the pick of Judge Nap's interviews today.
Col. Douglas Macgregor: How Israel is Isolating the US.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSw8Rj_VyPc

In the intricate web of global geopolitics, the relationships between nations often shape the course of international affairs. Among these complex alliances, the connection between the United States and Israel has been a focal point of scrutiny and analysis. In recent times, a growing discourse has emerged, pointing to a perceived isolation of the United States resulting from its association with Israel. This discussion delves into the multifaceted dynamics at play, exploring the ways in which Israel's actions, policies, and geopolitical strategies may contribute to the perceived isolation of the United States on the world stage.

The Israeli videos & photos are weak tea compared to the ones Hamas took of the Oct 7 massacre, but they damage reputation of Israel and its military, which I, for one, had previously assumed was disciplined and technically competent. As (Biden?) said, referring to indiscriminate bombing of civilians, Israel risks winning the battle and losing the war.

Amid outcry over Gaza tactics, videos of soldiers acting maliciously create new headache for Israel
MELANIE LIDMAN | December 13, 2023

...Such videos are not a new or unique phenomenon. Over the years, Israeli soldiers — and members of the U.S. and other militaries — have been caught on camera acting inappropriately or maliciously in conflict zones.

But critics say the new videos, largely shrugged off in Israel, reflect a national mood that is highly supportive of the war in Gaza, with little empathy for the plight of Gaza’s civilians.

...The videos seem to have been uploaded by soldiers themselves during their time in Gaza... {examples}

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-soldiers-gaza-viral-videos-idf-072894147...

>131 margd: Actually, at the rate things are going, they're not even clearly winning the battle -- except on women and children.

ETA:
Oh, yes: and against aquifers.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-war-pumping-seawater-gaza-tun...

In lieu of extensive tunnel warfare, this is the best they can do. It also threatens to destroy the remaining potable water sources in Gaza. But the Palestinians won't be needing those, will they?

cf.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/flooding-hamas-tunnels-could-harm-gazas-freshwater...

I guess that's one way to salt the earth.

>132 davidgn: Hamas-constructed tunnels tend to be deeper than those constructed across the Gaza-Egypt border.

Tunnels once connected Egypt and Gaza. Here's what they looked like 10 years ago
December 11, 20235:04 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition (6-Minute) & Transcript

A Palestinian American writer {pen name, Bint al-Sirhid, Open Gaza: Architectures Of Hope} gives a look at the underground tunnel system that once existed between Egypt and Gaza.

...before today's Hamas, tunnels were a feature of daily life for Gazans.

"...I've been through four tunnels in total. Each one was different. The first one I went through, I would say, was the most, quote-unquote, "developed and refined." It was large enough to walk upright. Some areas were reinforced. There was lighting. The air in there is much cooler than above ground. It was quite well-made, you know. I mean, there were tunnels that I heard about but didn't see that were called VIP tunnels - tunnels big enough to drive cars through."

"...(Egypt) did try to flood them with seawater, as Israel is doing now. That failed. They tried, you know, many measures. Israel also - when it was indirect occupation in Gaza, they also tried by raising homes along the border in Rafah. They tried a violent military campaign to eradicate the tunnels and failed. In the end, they removed the tunnels by removing the people themselves, which is obviously what Israel is trying to do now in Gaza."

"...These tunnels became what many called the lungs through which Gaza breathed. And many things were not allowed in. People were separated from their families. They started digging to each other. One story says that actually a dog smelled his owner on the other side of the border, and dug under the newly constructed border to reach him. Once Hamas came into power and the Israeli siege tightened even more, then the tunnels proliferated. And, you know, Hamas was the governing body or is the governing body at the time. And so they created a ministry in order to manage the tunnels."

"...tunnels have been everywhere...U.S.-Mexico border... DMZ between North and South Korea...Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam during the American war...Anybody who claims to have any accurate information about the current tunnel system will be not telling you the truth. I don't know where they are. Ordinary Gazans don't know where they are. So the tunnels that are being used now as combat tunnels are deeply, deeply secretive."

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/11/1218489546/tunnels-once-connected-egypt-and-gaza-...

>131 margd: If we're to believe that Hamas is just a terrorist group......not a standing and disciplined army. I mean there are expected standards for a national military like the IDF that can parade out in the open....has all the bells and whistles for land, sea and air operations. Part of the issue is the Netanyahu, Sharon and Begin govt.'s have been long preparing the population. There's a lot of resistance for sure but the whip hand has almost always been with the right wing and not the moderates. Then there's the settlers.....and young people going into the IDF are further inculcated into an ideology that sees on the one side the chosen people and on the other vermin and scum. Are there any Palestinian policemen in greater Israel? Are they allowed to join the IDF? Judges? If there are there's not many. Palestinians are a significant part of the population but they're excluded from almost everything. Why should we not expect then that a large % of Israelis will look down on Palestinians when their own religious and political leaders direct them that way and when they see Palestinians having almost no role to play in the society that this right wing govt. has been creating? I mean bullying comes very natural to people when it's encouraged and they teach them young. The Zionist project is what it is---to create a religious ethnostate and expel everyone who doesn't belong. The United States is complicit with this project as well the United Kingdom which helped set it up. Biden is talking out of his ass when he says he's trying to control Israel from killing more civilians meanwhile sending them more bombs.

If anyone has not seen the Norman Finkelstein appearances on Piers Morgan (the latter, today, opposite Adam Dershowitz), they will go down as documents of historical significance.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Sh-ERypMA

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHqs15gOv4k

>135 davidgn: Have watched Finkelstein a number of times. He knows the history and logically applies it to his arguments.

Death and Destruction in Gaza

JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER
DEC 11, 2023
I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history....

https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/death-and-destruction-in-gaza
ETA:
Screw it. Just posting the whole thing.

John’s Substack
Death and Destruction in Gaza

JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER
DEC 11, 2023
I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history.

What Israel is doing in Gaza to the Palestinian civilian population – with the support of the Biden administration – is a crime against humanity that serves no meaningful military purpose. As J-Street, an important organization in the Israel lobby, puts it, “The scope of the unfolding humanitarian disaster and civilian casualties is nearly unfathomable.”1

Let me elaborate.

First, Israel is purposely massacring huge number of civilians, roughly 70 percent of whom are children and women. The claim that Israel is going to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties is belied by statements from high level Israeli officials. For example, the IDF spokesman said on 10 October 2023 that "the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy." That same day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced: "I have lowered all the restraints – we will kill everyone we fight against; we will use every means."2

Moreover, it is clear from the results of the bombing campaign that Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians. Two detailed studies of the IDF’s bombing campaign – both published in Israeli outlets – explain in detail how Israel is murdering huge numbers of civilians. It is worth quoting the titles of the two pieces, which succinctly capture what each has to say:

“‘A Mass Assassination Factory’: Inside Israel’s Calculated Bombing of Gaza”3

“The Israeli Army Has Dropped the Restraint in Gaza, and the Data Shows Unprecedented Killing.”4

Similarly, the New York Times published an article in late November 2023 titled: “Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace.”5 Thus, it is hardly surprising that the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said that “We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since” his appointment in January 2017.6

Second, Israel is purposely starving the desperate Palestinian population by greatly limiting the amount of food, fuel, cooking gas, medicine, and water that can be brought into Gaza. Moreover, medical care is extremely hard to come by for a population that now includes approximately 50,000 wounded civilians. Not only has Israel greatly limited the supply of fuel into Gaza, which hospitals need to function, but it has targeted hospitals, ambulances, and first aid stations.

Defense Minister Gallant’s comment on 9 October captures Israeli policy: "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly."7 Israel has been forced to allow minimal supplies into Gaza, but the amounts are so small that a senior UN official reports that “half of Gaza’s population is starving.” He goes on to report that, “Nine out of 10 families in some areas are spending ‘a full day and night without any food at all’.”8

Third, Israeli leaders talk about Palestinians and what they would like to do in Gaza in shocking terms, especially when you consider that some of these leaders also talk incessantly about the horrors of the Holocaust. Indeed, their rhetoric has led Omar Bartov, a prominent Israeli-born scholar of the Holocaust, to conclude that Israel has “genocidal intent.”9 Other scholars in Holocaust and genocide studies have offered a similar warning.10

To be more specific, it is commonplace for Israeli leaders to refer to Palestinians as “human animals, ”human beasts,” and “horrible inhuman animals.”11 And as Israeli President Isaac Herzog makes clear, those leaders are referring to all Palestinians, not just Hamas: In his words, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.”12 Unsurprisingly, as the New York Times reports, it is part of normal Israeli discourse to call for Gaza to be “flattened,” “erased,” or “destroyed.”13 One retired IDF general, who proclaimed that “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist,” also makes the case that “severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer.”14 Going even further, a minister in the Israeli government suggested dropping a nuclear weapon on Gaza.15 These statements are not being made by isolated extremists, but by senior members of Israel’s government.

Of course, there is also much talk of ethnically cleansing Gaza (and the West Bank), in effect, producing another Nakba.16 To quote Israel’s Agriculture Minister, “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba.”17Perhaps the most shocking evidence of the depths to which Israeli society has sunk is a video of very young children singing a blood-curdling song celebrating Israel’s destruction of Gaza: “Within a year we will annihilate everyone, and then we will return to plow our fields.”18

Fourth, Israel is not just killing, wounding, and starving huge numbers of Palestinians, it is also systematically destroying their homes as well as critical infrastructure – to include mosques, schools, heritage sites, libraries, key government buildings, and hospitals.19 As of 1 December 2023, the IDF had damaged or destroyed almost 100,000 buildings, including entire neighborhoods that have been reduced to rubble.20 Consequently, a stunning 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes.21 Moreover, Israel is making a concerted effort to destroy Gaza’s cultural heritage; as NPR reports, “more than 100 Gaza heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks.”22

Fifth, Israel is not just terrorizing and killing Palestinians, it is also publicly humiliating many of their men who have been rounded up by the IDF in routine searches. Israeli soldiers strip them down to their underwear, blindfold them, and display them in a public way in their neighborhoods – sitting them down in large groups in the middle of the street, for example, or parading them through the streets – before taking them away in trucks to detention camps. In most cases, the detainees are then released as they are not Hamas fighters.23

Sixth, although the Israelis are doing the slaughtering, they could not do it without the Biden administration’s support. Not only was the United States the only country to vote against a recent UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but it has also been providing Israel with the weaponry necessary to wage this massacre.24 As one Israeli general (Yitzhak Brick) recently made clear: “All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, it’s all from the U.S. The minute they turn off the tap, you can’t keep fighting. You have no capability.… Everyone understands that we can’t fight this war without the United States. Period.”25 Remarkably, the Biden administration has sought to expedite sending Israel additional ammunition, by-passing the normal procedures of the Arms Export Control Act.26

Seventh, while most of the focus is now on Gaza, it is important not to lose sight of what is simultaneously going on in the West Bank. Israeli settlers, working closely with the IDF, continue to kill innocent Palestinians and steal their land. In an excellent article in the New York Review of Books describing these horrors, David Shulman relates a conversation he had with a settler, which clearly reflects the moral dimension of Israeli behavior toward the Palestinians. “What we are doing to these people is actually inhuman,” the settler freely admits, “But if you think about it clearly, it all follows inevitably from the fact that God promised this land to the Jews, and only to them.”27 Along with its assault on Gaza, the Israel government has markedly increased the number of arbitrary arrests in the West Bank. According to Amnesty International, there is considerable evidence that these prisoners have been tortured and subjected to degrading treatment.28

As I watch this catastrophe for the Palestinians unfold, I am left with one simple question for Israel’s leaders, their American defenders, and the Biden administration: have you no decency?

NOTES

1 https://jstreet.org/press-releases/moment-of-truth-for-israels-government/

2 Both quotes can be found in: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/th...

3 https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza...

4 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/th...

5 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html

6 https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2023-11-20/secretary-general...

7 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete...

8 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67670679

Also see: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/opinion/international-world/us-government-gaz...

9 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html

Also see: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/20/an-open-letter-on-the-misuse-of-holoca...

10 https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/statement-of-scholars-7-oct...

11 https://youtu.be/Fr24GcCDgyM

12 https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-president-says-no-innocent-154330724.html#:~:text....

13 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-rhetoric.htm...

14 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-11-23/ty-article-opinion/.premium/giora-eil...

https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/influential-israeli-national-security-leader-make...

15 https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-minister-says-nuking-gaza-an-option-pm-s...

16 https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-c...

17 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabin...

18 https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-israeli-children-sing-we...

19 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-public-library-dest...

20 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67565872#

21 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-gaza-attacks-north-south-us-veto-un-ceasefir...

22 https://www.npr.org/2023/12/03/1216200754/gaza-heritage-sites-destroyed-israel

23 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-groups-of-hamas-militants-surr...

24 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-vetoes-un-security-council-resolution-demanding...

25 https://www.jns.org/biden-is-the-primary-obstacle-to-israeli-victory/

26 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/world/middleeast/us-israel-tanks-ammunition.h...

27 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/12/21/a-bitter-season-in-the-west-bank-dav...

28 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/israel-opt-horrifying-cases-of-to...

>137 davidgn: it is commonplace for Israeli leaders to refer to Palestinians as “human animals, ”human beasts,” and “horrible inhuman animals.”

And the term "beasts" has been used even here on this LT thread. This type of dehumanising language is recognised as a precursor to genocide, and it seems we are now seeing genocide taking place in Gaza.

Support for Hamas grows among Palestinians in West Bank (BBC)

"This will not bring peace for Israel - this will bring more and more resistance"... Since the Hamas attacks, support for armed resistance has risen in many parts of the West Bank... "I see it in the voices of people, in the music they play in their cars, from Facebook or social media posts, from my debates with my students"... the attacks were "a turning point" for Palestinians, just as they were a shocking turning point for Israelis. "The people, especially the new generation, are backing Hamas now, more than at any other moment," he told me. "In the previous 30 years, there were no models, no idols for the new generation; now they see there is something different, a different story is being created"... "Palestinian youth had priorities and wish lists about owning a house, or getting a degree," explained West Bank political scientist Amjad Bushkar. "But after 7 October, I think these priorities have totally changed. There are rising voices for full liberation of the homeland through resistance - whether that resistance is peaceful or armed"... Hamas members in the West Bank have regularly been targeted by Palestinian security forces - not just Israeli ones - since the group took control of Gaza by force in 2007, a year after it won parliamentary elections. But now, Dr Bushkar said, something had changed. "Both Fatah and Hamas are well aware that they are complementary to each other, and I think we'll see real integration between the two movements." "The Palestinian Authority realised that targeting Hamas would not eradicate it because it's an ideological movement rooted within the Palestinian people; and Hamas is fully aware that it cannot establish an independent {Palestinian} state without the help of Fatah." Some senior figures in the Palestinian administration - though not President Abbas - are now openly talking about the benefits of a united political front... "There are so many trends within Hamas. And there are internal clashes. I think there will be more room for the political trend within Hamas, especially after this war, when the whole world will not be tolerant towards them"... An opinion poll carried out between 22 November and 2 December by a respected Palestinian think-tank, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the West Bank compared to three months ago. Supporters of Hamas were still in a minority, but 70% of the respondents said armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation. By contrast, support for President Abbas had dropped sharply following the Hamas attacks, the survey found, with more than 90% of Palestinians in the West Bank calling for his resignation. Since the Hamas attacks, said Amjad Bushkar, "the world and the international community have put the Palestinian cause on its list of priorities"... Israel may be determined to deny Hamas power in Gaza, but here in the West Bank its influence is already spreading.

AI generate targets 50X the rate of human analysts. Humans choose criteria, and humans (sometimes at battlefield level) use AI recommendations to choose targets, whether precision or indiscriminate bombing. Killer robots can't be far behind...

Israel is using an AI system to find targets in Gaza. Experts say it's just the start
Geoff Brumfiel | December 14, 2023

...(Robert Ashley, a former head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency) wouldn't comment on any particular AI tool used by the U.S. intelligence community, but he says often these systems will stitch together multiple layers of AI. Some excel at finding objects in images while others can sort through things like radio transmissions. Ashley says that like the Israeli system, the U.S. has human analysts and commanders making the final decisions about what to strike.

He believes other nations are working on similar systems. "You know the Russians are doing it, you know the Chinese are doing it," he says.

Ashley sees the proliferation of AI for this kind of work as inevitable, in part because it can be done with off-the-shelf commercial computer-vision algorithms. "Rather than using the algorithm to "find a particular widget, I'm looking for a tank or an anti-aircraft gun," he says. "It's dual-use technology."

... the Israeli military is currently striking as many as 250 targets a day, according to the Israeli military...the Gospel {Israel's AI} is much more efficient (than a group of intelligence officers..in the past). He says a group of 20 officers might produce 50-100 targets in 300 days. By comparison, (Tal Mimran, a lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who has worked for the Israeli government on targeting during previous military operations) says he thinks the Gospel and its associated AI systems can suggest around 200 targets "within 10-12 days" — a rate that's at least 50 times faster. )

...(Anthony King, professor of defense and security studies at the University of Exeter in England) believes such targeting algorithms are an intermediate step for autonomous systems that will eventually be deployed to the battlefield. These robotic systems will likely be able to identify and kill targets without much or any human intervention. King says it's likely to make combat in the future even faster and deadlier, but the nature of war will remain the same.

"Human combat teams augmented by really lethal weapons to fight these hideous kinds of medieval fights," he says. "That's where I see warfare going."

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1218643254/israel-is-using-an-ai-system-to-find-t...

>140 margd: able to identify and kill targets

And I wonder what percentage are false targets, aka innocent civilian men, women and children, aka victims of state-sponsored murder.

>141 John5918: At this point, you can forgive me for suspecting that at least in large part, they're just looking for any sort of process that they can point to (ideally one without a culpable human -- nothing like AI to deflect moral responsibility) to give them cover against allegations that they're bombing at random.

>141 John5918: No false targets: it's the "Gospel".

What a choice for AI's name...

Doesn't do Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll (40) much good, but her killing doesn't appear to have been motivated by hate. Sounds like a horrific home invasion.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2023/12/13/samantha-woll...

US Homeland Security staff accuse leadership of turning ‘blind eye’ to Gaza
Lalini Pedris | 13 Dec 2023

...More than a hundred staff members from the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have signed an open letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denouncing the department’s handling of the war in Gaza.

The letter, exclusively obtained by Al Jazeera, expresses frustration with the “palpable, glaring absence in the Department’s messaging” of “recognition, support, and mourning” for the more than 18,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7...“The grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the conditions in the West Bank are circumstances that the Department would generally respond to in various ways,” the letter, dated November 22, said. “Yet DHS leadership has seemingly turned a blind eye to the bombing of refugee camps, hospitals, ambulances, and civilians.”

The letter’s signatories include 139 staff members from DHS and the agencies it manages, like Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

...The letter is the latest indication of fractures within the administration of President Joe Biden, who has faced internal criticism for his government’s stance on the Gaza war.

Last month, more than 500 officials from 40 government agencies issued an anonymous letter pushing Biden to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Another letter, signed by 1,000 employees from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), expressed a similar appeal...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/13/letter-accuses-us-security-agency-of-t...

Watching Finkelstein debating Dershowitz last tonight moderated by Piers Morgan and Piers video clipped Tzipi Hotovely's (Israel's UK ambassador) remarks the other day that neither Hamas nor Fatah (or any Palestinian entity) would have any say in peace talks and Dershowitz couldn't believe it ('she's just wrong' he said) and Alan said he believed a two state solution is on the way and today Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak taking Hotovely to task on that interview too....Rishi also believing that after it's all over and Gaza is completely demolished that there will be talks and two states afterwards. I don't know if Dershowitz and Sunak are just gullible and really believe this two state thing is on the way---it seems Biden and Blinken think so too (or at least that's what they've been saying now and again) but nothing I've heard from Netanyahu or other current Israeli military, civic or governmental authorities including their ambassador to the UK leads me to believe that the Israelis have any intention of negotiating anything concrete to the Palestinians at all and if we can't even take steps to stop them (let alone just let up a little bit) from murdering civilians in the thousands why does anyone think Israel's govt. will welcome any Palestinian entity into any peace negotiations? I don't see them negotiating at all with anybody in fact. I think Ms. Hotovely is pretty much in line with her govt.'s intentions.

Sachs is back in New York today. Treats extensively the university presidents vs. Congress brouhaha, and is not far from my stance.
Nobody came off well, but given the false premises of the entire line of questioning (the context which is always omitted), it amounts to a tempest in a teapot and a dangerous distraction from the dire moral issues of the day.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: UN Security Council's Ceasefire Call: US Isolation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB9javHUadc

#JudgingFreedom welcomes back to the show, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs

The United Nations Security Council's near-unanimous vote last Friday, advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, marks a moment of distinction for the international community and, conversely, a point of reproach for the United States.

The overwhelming majority, casting 13 affirmative votes, 1 negative vote (from the US), and 1 abstention (from the UK), positioned itself firmly in alignment with principles of international law. In stark contrast, the United States, accompanied by its partner in imperial policies, the United Kingdom, found itself isolated in opposition to the collective stance supporting international legal frameworks. This solitary position underscores a divergence from the prevailing sentiment within the Security Council, emphasizing the divergence between the US stance and the broader international commitment to peace and justice.

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On the university question: cf. also coverage with Jewish Currents editor Peter Beinart and Brown U. genocide scholar Omer Bartov on Democracy Now! a few days ago -- the latter of whom basically advises us all to get our heads out of our asses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xtP7CVSJGY )

Latest from Crooke (in Al Mayadeen). He projects escalation on the northern front.

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/israeli-bait-and-switch-tactics...

I had trouble getting into the site, so I'll repost.
------

Israeli Bait-and-Switch Tactics -- Amidst the Resistance’s Careful Strategic Calculus
Alastair CrookeAlastair Crooke
Source: Al Mayadeen English
14 Dec 2023 00:19

Hamas's resilience plus the sustained international pressure as a result of the continuing Gaza massacre, ultimately may compel the Israelis to negotiate.

Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Saturday’s Israeli Channel 12 news that the situation on the border with Lebanon would change. He said that should Hezbollah refuse to withdraw its forces from south of the Litani River, the Israelis would have “to take other measures to dictate a new reality”.

The Israelis are making clear threats against Hezbollah in an attempt to spur the international community toward a quick ‘diplomatic arrangement’. The US has already mandated US and French envoys to offer Lebanon substantial financial inducements to agree to the proposed buffer zone inside Lebanon. They didn’t agree; the Lebanese side said ‘no’ in double-quick time.

So, Israelis have given a ‘48 hour ultimatum’ to Lebanon to convene the tripartite committee on the border, and begin negotiations based on UNSCR 1701 for an international agreement that Hezbollah withdraws north of the Litani and that the south be de-militarised.

Resolution 1701-- which was launched as a purported solution to the 2006 Lebanon war -- is anything but clear-cut. It has never been implemented according to the Israeli interpretation of its provisions (that a Hezballah-free zone south of the Litani be created). And the resolution remains hotly disputed: Hezballah never agreed, nor effectively did the Lebanese Armed Forces, nor the UN. But by August 2006, the Israeli government was anxious for any reasonable off-ramp from the war. It did not wait for ‘i’s’ to be dotted, or the ‘t’s’ to be crossed on the resolution.

The chances for a Hezballah voluntary withdrawal from south Lebanon, in any case, are a clear zero.

And Hanegby knows it. But Defence Minister Galant has stated publicly that he wants Israeli civilians displaced from northern Israel in the wake of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah following the 7 October events, to be able to return to their homes in northern Israel in January.

The residents’ leaders, however, have stated categorically that they won’t go -- no way will they live next door to a border fence with Hezballah plainly visible on the other side. Only with Hezballah ‘gone’ will they consider a return, they said.

Therefore, the likelihood is that the Israelis will be the one to take military action to try to change the status quo in respect to Hezbollah. Indeed, Galant has been pressing for military action against Hezbollah from the outset of the Gaza confrontation (as the latter offered an unprecedented window of opportunity to weaken or to destroy Hezbollah, Gallant claimed).

Western main-stream media suggests that the timing is linked to Team Biden’s pressure on the Israeli Cabinet to complete its military action in Gaza in January, but this analysis possibly accords too much importance to the White House ability to force Netanyahu to comply with its dictates. The Israeli Lobby has major influence in the US Congress, and the latter will support Israeli interests over those of the White House. It would be a courageous (foolhardy) Administration that takes on the Lobby -- frontally.

Netanyahu understands this better than most: He has often boasted that the US is ‘easily manipulated’, and that he is the one who knows best how to do it.

No -- the timing is more likely linked to concerns about how to sell the Israeli army's ‘achievements’ as a success to the Israeli public, who are beginning to doubt that Hamas is anywhere near to defeat -- and are beginning to doubt too, that bombing Palestinian civilians is putting pressure on Hamas to release more hostages; rather it is seen as risking more hostage lives.

The inept Israeli military's attempt to portray rounded-up Palestinian civilians, stripped to their underwear, as surrendering Hamas soldiers, only reinforces public suspicions that Hamas forces remain largely undamaged.

If no deal is reached during this period through December-January 2024 to return more Israeli hostages; if there is no mass surrender of Hamas forces; if no members of the organization's senior command are killed -- will Israeli public opinion accept that the destruction in Gaza (with its attendant damage to Israeli image) marks an achievement? Will it be considered a success?

Rather, Hamas's resilience plus the sustained international pressure as a result of the continuing Gaza massacre, ultimately may compel the Israelis to negotiate -- and eventually reach a (costly) deal with the Palestinian movement.

So, perhaps a switch to the northern front might take some pressure off Gaza -- as Akhbar Ahmad notes in the Huffington Post:

“Analysts believe the Israeli government could count on attacking Hizbullah to distract from their controversial Gaza operation, which has seemingly had little major success in weakening Israel’s enemies” … “This is definitely Israel testing the waters, and they are seeing, ‘How will the international community react?’” one analyst said; “It’s very clear that there is a plan, and the groundwork is being prepared for implementation”.

And with the Israelis in a two-front war, how could Washington possibly even think to restrict munitions supplies as a form of political leverage over the Israeli Cabinet? Recall that Israeli policy in Gaza and in the north will enjoy overwhelming public support -- according to recent Israeli polls. The US Congress will know that.

For the ‘Resistance axis’, a switch to Hezbollah is expected. Just as the Israeli reaction to 7 October was expected; Israeli failure to defeat Hamas in Gaza was expected; and likely, the subsequent switch to the Israelis taking military action to try to change the status quo with respect to Hezbollah is expected, too.

This careful Resistance calculus underlines that Hamas and its allies have a strategy whose steps up the escalatory ladder are co-ordinated and proceed by consensus, eschewing impulsive reactions to events that might plunge the region into an all-out war -- a destructive war that none of the ‘front principals’ wish to see.

From the Resistance perspective, this ‘switch’ might be a welcome development: It would mean the ‘wider war’ against the Israelis will be moving up a rung on the escalatory ladder, since it is the Israelis ‘taking measures to (try to) dictate a new reality’ on the northern border.

Max Blumenthal tonight at Community Church of Boston. Incendiary is an understatement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxNAkcjuL5I

ETA: One thing is for sure: somebody is lying.

The 10 Stages of Genocide

A short YouTube video which might give pause for thought.

Already a day old, from Amb. Murray. (emphasis mine)

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/12/murder/

Murder
December 13, 2023 in Uncategorized by craig

Al Jazeera are leading their news with the execution of Palestinian civilians, including women and toddlers, inside the school in Jabalia where they were sheltering. They were all shot at point blank range, with no signs of a bomb or missile strike.

On the BBC, the Daily Politics show – which consists of discussion between senior British MPs – does not discuss Palestine at all, because the British political class supports the genocide, so for them there is nothing to discuss.

Also in Jabalia, the Israelis today destroyed the last remaining bakery.

It is worth stating why this is plainly a genocide in Gaza:

1) Deliberate destruction of the infrastructure which supports the civilian population, including water treatment, electricity, sewerage systems, bakeries and fishing boats;

2) Deliberate destruction of almost all medical facilities;

3) Deliberate destruction of educational facilities, from universities to primary schools;

4) Deliberate destruction of the infrastructure of civil society, including Supreme Court, Parliament, Ministries and Council buildings and deliberate destruction of administrative records;

5) Deliberate blocking of food aid inducing mass starvation;

6) Massive and indiscriminate bombardment. In wars the general percentage of children among those killed varies from 6 to 8%. In Ukraine it is 6%. In Gaza it is 42%. This is indiscriminate destruction of an ethnic group;

7) Mass executions of civilians;

8) Acts of dehumanisation of the Palestinians, including parading prisoners naked for public and media show and humiliation, beating and sexually abusing them;

9) Forced mass movement of population;

10) Deliberate targeting of religious and cultural heritage buildings;

11) Deliberate targeting of intellectual leadership, including journalists, doctors, poets, university lecturers and senior administrators;

12) Numerous declarations of open genocidal intent from the President and Prime Minister down through almost the entire fabric of both civilian and military establishment.

This is the official definition of Genocide in international law, from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:

Article II
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Yesterday I attended a session called by Palestine at the United Nations in Geneva. Over 120 states attended. While the formal session consisted of statements of national position with few surprises, I was able to discuss with a large number of delegates in the corridors why the Genocide Convention has not been activated triggering a reference to the International Court of Justice.

The answer is now clear to me. It is not that people are worried that a claim of genocide will not be successful at the International Court of Justice. It is that everybody is quite sure it will succeed. There is no respectable argument that this is not a genocide in the terms outlined above.

The problem is that once the ICJ has determined that this is a genocide, it follows that not only are Netanyahu and hundreds of senior Israeli officials and military personally liable, but it is absolutely plain that “Genocide Joe” Biden, Sunak and members of their administrations are also criminally liable for complicity, having provided military support for the genocide.

The International Criminal Court cannot ignore a judgment of genocide from the International Court of Justice and will have no choice but to issue arrest warrants.

A genocide is the worst of crimes. Just how appalling this one is has been shown to the world like never before, through the power of social media.

But to the global 1% whose interests rule the world, no number of dead Palestinians makes any real difference to their interests. On the other hand, the ramifications for the international system of wealth concentration, if western political elites start to be held accountable for their crimes, are uncertain and therefore carry more risk. This is particularly the concern of ruling classes of both Western and Arab states.

It may sound astonishing, but to the world’s diplomats the enormity of a genocide appears less troubling than the enormity of doing something about it.

None of us will ever be safe again. Probably best to accept that at the outset.
(Or at least that's what my tea leaves say).

DW News @dwnews | 3:37 AM · Dec 15, 2023:
Israeli soldiers filmed themselves reciting Jewish prayers inside a mosque during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

At least 12 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin refugee camp since the military operation began on Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

1:31 ( https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1735579869474353640 )

FWIW as far as Hamas's resistance--anyone who reads battlefield accounts understands when you bomb the shit out of some place there are always survivors (if you nuked the place there probably wouldn't be anyone but otherwise).....and when you turn a place into rubble you're also making it easier for your opposition to defend and if they think they're going to die they'll defend harder. The classic is Stalingrad but even recently Mariupol. Israel didn't seem to want to send the IDF into the tunnels but even on the land surface it's going to be a nightmare to clear. So now is the part where they really start losing soldiers.....also the part perhaps where at least more of the Israeli public gets sick of the revenge idea as well. We'll see. Also I read somewhere where flooding the tunnels with seawater is going to ruin the land and any source of fresh water in Gaza for a long time to come. I didn't know that but it seems to make sense.

>154 lriley: read somewhere
Somewhere like >132 davidgn:? ;-)
And of course, you're entirely correct that they're just making it harder for themselves if their goal is simply to get rid of Hamas, as they claim.

Opinion | If Israel Used a Controversial Procedure Against Its Citizens, We Need to Talk About It Now
Did Israel implement the so-called Hannibal Directive – which allows the military to endanger a soldier to prevent them from being kidnapped – at the hostage-taking incident in Be'eri on October 7?

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/if-israel...

Oh, now we can talk about it? Any chance of an apology to Max Blumenthal?

Scahill yesterday.
Jeremy Scahill: Gaza "Scorched-Earth Campaign" Is a "Joint U.S.-Israeli Operation"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMRIqznX9IM

U.S. Intelligence Sharing With Israel Deserves the Same Scrutiny as Arms Transfers
Tyler McBrien | December 14, 2023

...Anyone concerned with the current speed and scale of U.S. arms transfers to Israel, whether from a human rights, international law, or U.S. culpability point of view, should also pay attention to other nonmaterial aspects of security assistance—intelligence sharing. As the civilian death toll in Gaza mounts, and the housing and infrastructure left standing dwindles, it’s important to scrutinize not just the weapons used to carry out the devastation but also the intelligence used to direct those weapons.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/u.s.-intelligence-sharing-with-israel-deser...
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How American citizens are leading rise of ‘settler violence’ on Palestinian lands
Chris McGreal | 15 Dec 2023

...American citizens have been at the forefront of the rise of settler violence in the occupied territories, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land, but as US passport holders they cannot be barred from their own country.

Many of the estimated 60,000 Americans living in the West Bank outside of occupied East Jerusalem moved to settlements for the lifestyle and have little to do with the Palestinians on whose land they live. But a core of ideologically driven US citizens were at the forefront of building religious settlements on land expropriated from Palestinians while others have led the rise of what has been described as “settler terrorism”.

...The UN estimates that about 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year including dozens of children. While Israel claims many of the dead were associated with armed Palestinian groups, the UN said the army frequently works with settlers attacking Arab civilians...

...Americans account for only about 15% of the total settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem but their influence outweighs their numbers...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/15/biden-extremist-jewish-settlers-tr...